with whom he was on good terms notwithstanding the suspicion with which he had been brought up to regard him; as for himself, he said, he was "unconnected and at liberty."[1] Eden then proceeded to see Shelburne. "At a quarter past seven," writes Eden, "I called on Dr. Priestley, who introduced Lord Shelburne to me, and left us." In the conversation which ensued, Shelburne expressed his opinion, that if any arrangement was to be made with the Opposition, "Lord Chatham must be the dictator," and Lord Chatham, he said, thought any change insufficient which did not comprehend and annihilate every party in the Kingdom; that both the Duke of Grafton and Lord Rockingham must be included, though the Treasury would not be given, at least with Lord Chatham's consent, to the latter; that a new law arrangement would have to be made, and Lord Mansfield's influence be put an end to: Lord Gower and Lord George Germaine must certainly be removed. There was to be a meeting of the Opposition, Shelburne added, that same evening, and it was arranged that he and Eden should meet afterwards. The latter was meanwhile to convey his reply to the King.
The Opposition meeting was unable to arrive at any agreement as to terms, for Rockingham and his friends were determined to support the independence of America, while Shelburne, who represented Chatham, would not give way upon that point. If however the propositions of Shelburne were unpalatable to Rockingham, they were still more so in the Royal closet. "His language," the King wrote to North, "is so totally contrary to the only ground on which I could have expected the service of that perfidious man, that I need not enter on it. Lord Chatham as dictator, as planning a new Administration, I appeal to my letters of yesterday if I did not clearly speak out upon. If Lord Chatham agrees to support your Administration (or, if you like the expressions better, the "fundamentals of the present Administration"), with
- ↑ Memorials of C. J. Fox, i. 180. Walpole, Journals, i. 4. Massey, History of England, ii. 301.
