Lord North at the head of the Treasury, Lords Suffolk, Gower and Weymouth in great offices to their own inclination, Lord Sandwich in the Admiralty, Thurlow Chancellor, and Wedderburn as Chief Justice, I will not object to see that great man, when Lord Shelburne and Dunning, with Barré, are placed already in office; but I solemnly declare that nothing shall bring me to treat personally with Lord Chatham. If I saw Lord Chatham, he would insist on as total a change as Lord Shelburne yesterday threw out."[1]
On the 17th Eden and Shelburne again met. The latter had just made a speech in the House of Lords on the King's message respecting the treaty between France and the Colonies, the tone of which had encouraged Eden to hope that he would find him in a more pliant mood than two days before. This however was not the case; for Shelburne declared that without Lord Chatham any new arrangement would be inefficient and do more harm than good; and that with Lord Chatham an entirely new government and a change in the chief departments of the law was absolutely necessary. Disappointed in his hopes, Eden went away, after stating in the plainest language that the whole idea of Lord Chatham was "narrowness, nonsense, and harshness." They however arranged before separating, that Shelburne should go to Hayes and see Chatham, after which they were to meet again. The result of this interview was that Chatham declined to act upon any terms except those which he had already stated. Shelburne accordingly informed Eden that the time was not yet come for him to take office, and that personally "he found himself much happier in a retired station,"[2] while Fox, under the influence of Burke, began from this time to gravitate towards the Rockingham connection.
Whether Chatham, had he succeeded to power, would have been able to preserve the connection between England and her Colonies is a question on which the most opposite opinions have been given. There is a natural
