being present at that day, I shall hope to be honoured with your further commands. I am extremely sorry that circumstances purely accidental but unavoidable, have occasioned the interval since I last troubled your Lordship. The King does not at this time extend the mark of his favour to any one besides your Lordship, except Lord Temple. Allow me to repeat the sincere assurances of the respect and regard with which I have the honour to be,
"My dear Lord,
"Your most obedt and most faithful servt
"W. Pitt."
The title Shelburne chose was that of Lansdowne, which had been in the family of his first wife.[1] No offer of office was made to him. Lord Gower became Privy Seal; Lord Camden accepted the Presidency of the Council, vacated by Lord Gower, and within little more than a year Jenkinson was made a Peer, Chancellor of the Duchy, and President of the Board of Trade. "From this moment," Lord Lansdowne wrote to Mr. Baring, "I put him down as Minister under the King. It is a farce to talk of his not being of the Cabinet, calculated only to impose upon the Minister's young friends, whose age, capacity, and credulity makes them contented with the first thing which is told them."[2]
Meanwhile there was no apparent want of cordiality. On the 5th of January 1785 Lord Lansdowne records that he came to town, and on the 14th went to the levee. "The King was very gracious." He had "some conversation" with Lord Carmarthen, the new Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, "encouraging him to take a more active part in the House of Lords, and to make up his mind to the business of Parliament"; and "a great deal" with Mr. Pitt, "who stated the intentions of the Ministry
- ↑ He was created Viscount Calne and Calstone, Earl Wycombe and Marquis of Lansdowne in the Peerage of Great Britain. He had hitherto sat in the House of Lords as Baron Wycombe. The Earldom of Shelburne was an Irish Earldom. The Patent is dated December 6th, 1784.
- ↑ Lansdowne to Baring, August 5th, 1786.
