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* Loudou-RicliarclBenxley, 1836 .

(2.
POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS

OF

HIS OWN TIME.

Sir N. W. WRAXALL, Babt.
AUTHOR OF " MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
l^ubliiijw in (Bt^Hmt^ to fltui JKa^tjit^.
1836.

i ^

rt

POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS
OF MY OWN TIME.

1788.
January. — During the lapse of more than
seventy-three years, ever since the accession of
the house of Hanover, no minister of this coun
try, as I have already observed, had attained to
the same degree of power and popularity as Pitt
enjoyed at the beginning of 1788. Sir Robert
Walpole, who, under two successive princes, for
the space of at least twenty years had filled the
first place in the councils of the crown, neither.
deserved, nor acquired, the favour of the nation.
To the preservation of his employments he sacri
ficed the character of parliament, where the most
notorious corruption pervaded and directed every
deliberation. To the preservation of peace, he
sacrificed the glory and the interests of his
country. France, between 1733 and 1735, was
allowed, by his tame, selfish, pusillanimous po-
VOL. III. B

MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME.

1788.

licy, to conquer Naples for a prince of the house
of Bourbon, and to incorporate Lorrain with her
own dominions. However personally acceptable
he might be to his two foreign . royal masters, his
fall was unaccompanied with any testimonies of
national affection, respect, or regret. Mr. Pel
ham, it is true, possessed during the period of
his administration, embracing about nine years, a
great share of public regard ; but it was confer
red rather on his private virtues, than on his ta
lents, or ministerial services. The treaty of Aix-
la-Chapelle, concluded while he held the first
place at the treasury board, may be justly ac
counted one of the least glorious which we have
signed since the peace of Ryswick. Of Mr. Pel
ham we may indeed say, as Junius does of Lord
Granby, " bonum virum facile dixeris ; magnum,
libenter." The first Mr. Pitt unquestionably was
idolized, and justly, by his countrymen; while his
powerful mind, at one and the same time, coerced
the cabinet, subjected parliament, withered oppo^
sition, and directed, with no less ability than suc
cess, the energies of the nation against her foreign
enemies. But he neither possessed the real confi
dence of George the Second, nor of George the
Third; the former of whom employed him, as
the latter retained him for a short time in office,
not from choice, but in reluctant deference to the
universal wishes of their subjects. Nor can it be
forgotteft that this illustrious statesman seemed

THE FIRST MR. PITT. — FOX. .«{
to be designed by nature exclusively for a time
of war. His talents, like those of the Corsican
Emperor of the French, were adapted, not for
the calm, but for the tempest.
If Mr. Pitt had not been supplanted by Lord
Bute, we doubtless should have retained, at the
treaty of Fon tain ebleau, some of those valuable
possessions in the West Indies which were re
stored by us to France and Spain. But it may be
reasonably doubted whether the secretary's popu
larity would have long sustained itself after the
conclusion of peace. He was wholly unqualified
to preside over the finances; of which depart
ment, during his short and triumphant career, he
left the superintendance to the Duke of New
castle and Mr. Legge, while he dictated his plea
sure to the treasury, as well as to the admiralty.
His faculties, which were not calculated for the
meridian of Downing-street, became felt at the
extremities of Asia and of America ; at Beslisle,
at Manilla, at Martinique, in Cuba, and in Ca
nada. Conscious of his powers, no less than of his
deficiencies, he never emulated any higher osten
sible office than secretary of state. From that
position, his powerful mind domineered the cabi
net during about four years, under two kings.
Charles Fox, like the first Mr. Pitt, limited his
ambition to the same employment, but not from
a similar cause ; for Fox, in my opinion, might
have directed the finances of Great Britain with
B 2

4 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
as much ability as her foreign policy and councils.
His defect lay principally in the irregularities of
his private life. Lord North, for the space of
full twelve years, enjoyed the perfect confidence
of his sovereign. Not a cloud of any magnitude
arose in the closet ; though during the calamitous
interval between 1777 and 1782, when Lord
North would more than once have willingly with
drawn from a ruinous contest, Jenkinson might
receive marks of predilection or of confidence,
withheld from the minister. But Lord North, as
was once avowed by Dundas in the course of
debate, wanted the energy and severity requisite
to control his colleagues. He constituted the
charm of private society. His wit, brilliant and
playful, never became acrimonious. He was an
accomplished orator, an able financier, irreproach
able in his individual character, and fully ade
quate to conduct the national affairs in ordinary
times. His crime was the American war. In
that abyss he became ultimately ingulphed.
Pitt's situation at this time bore no analogy
to any of the four preceding ministers. It is
difficult to imagine what a magic there was in
his name ; I might say, his names (baptismal as
well as family denomination), which seemed to
present his father anew before the eyes of parlia
ment. Neither did Fox, nor does the present
Earl of Liverpool, enjoy this advantage; as,
though their respective fathers were men of great

PITT. 5
intellectual endowments, I scarcely remember
two more unpopular individuals than Lord Hol
land and Charles Jenkinson. The chancellor of
the exchequer still wanted several months of hav
ing accomplished his twenty-ninth year. Yet he
displayed none of the usual characteristic conco
mitants of youth. Neither women, nor play, nor
the allurements of the turf, nor the exhibitions of
the theatre, nor the sports of the field, nor plea
sure under any form, interfered with his official
duties. Wine, which his constitution demanded
as a stimulus, rarely led him into any excess ; and
the companions of his convivial hours were not
numerous. His elevated, ambitious mind, which
grasped at solid power, was superior to the trap
pings of vanity. Unlike Sir Robert Walpole
and Lord North, both of whom aspired to, and
obtained, the distinction of the garter, Pitt de
sired to remain a commoner without decoration.
At a subsequent period, when the king offered to
confer on him that splendid ornament, he de
clined it, and only besought of his majesty to
bestow it on the Earl of Chatham ; thus prefer
ring the chief of his family to himself.
His magnanimous contempt of money, exem
plified in giving the clerkship of the pells to
Colonel Barr^ (though it was a place in the ex
chequer, a department over which he personally
presided, and the patronage of which belonged
to him ;) this extraordinary act of renunciation.

6 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
scarcely exceeded by the brightest models in an
tiquity, extorted universal applause. Negligent
however as he was of his own interests, he mani
fested the utmost vigilance in protecting those of
the public. Under his administration, the go
vernment securities had risen to a height un
known since the commencement of the American
war ; and the institution of a sinking fund of one
million, had given a stability to credit, which ren
dered him most popular on the Royal Exchange.
In the management of parliament, he had hardly
found it necessary, as yet, to have recourse to
the arts of corruption. His late successful in
terference in the Dutch affairs, though, as he
modestly owned in the house of commons,
when discussing the subject, " it had turned out
so fortunate for Great Britain, rather from an
extraordinary combination of circumstances than
from any other cause," yet had raised him to an
unprecedented point of general confidence. In
making this recognition of Pitt's merits, I am
not impelled by any partiality. For Lord North,
and for Lord Sackville, I nourished great pre
dilection ; but towards Pitt I felt none, except
the obligation imposed on me to write truth. In
fact, I rendered him far more service than he ever
rendered me.
In one point of view, and in one only, this
great minister might be said to stand on lower
ground than some of his predecessors: I mean

PITT. — LORD BUTE. — NORTH. 7
royal favour. No man can suppose that he was
considered by George the Third with the affec
tionate preference that he exhibited for the Earl
of Bute. I have indeed always placed that noble
man in the list of favourites, rather than of public
functionaries. He ranks rather with Carr and Vil
liers, than with the Danbys, the Godolphins, or
the Harleys. Wilkes, when attacking Lord Bute,
ascended to the time of Edward the Third, in
order to find his parallel in the person of Roger
Mortimer. But never did the king regard Mr.
Pitt with the same warm feelings of kindness as
he displayed towards Lord North, who was natu
rally and constitutionally gay ; facetious, yet re
spectful ; and blessed with an unalterable suavity
of temper. Pitt's manners were stiff, retired,
without unction or grace. On some occasions
he dictated, while on others he refused to yield,
even in matters painfully affecting the sovereign.
It is well known that very sharp dialogues took
place in the closet between them, previous to
1793. After that period, when the Duke of York
commanded in the Netherlands, while Lord Chat
ham presided at the admiralty; altercations, ac
companied by mutual recrimination, more than
once arose, of the most personal description. I
could state particulars.
In permitting Mr. Hastings to be impeached,
and in supporting the prosecution, Pitt rudely
shocked the king's opinions, who always esteemed

8 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the governor-general as one of his most able,
meritorious, and ill-used subjects. Perhaps Pitt
is to be admired for the line of conduct that he
adopted; but it could not be acceptable at St.
James's. In truth, Pitt was not made to be
loved. Admiration and respect followed him
wherever he appeared, but not general attach
ment. He possessed, however, an invaluable ally
in Fox, from whose power he had rescued the
sovereign, by exertions which he only could have
successfully made, and of which service the king
retained the strongest sense. He was indeed
well aware that a rupture with his minister would
not only be attended by the loss of that popu
larity which since the close of the American war
he had acquired, but must probably necessitate
him to return to his former bondage under the
coalition. In the year 1801, when Pitt and his
colleagues resigned, it' was not Hastings, or Lord
Chatham, or the Duke of York, or temporal con
cerns of any description, that formed the matter
in dispute between them. A higher subject, one
which affected his coronation oath, superseded in
the king's estimation all sublunary political con
siderations. He had besides with great ability
provided a successor for Pitt, in the person of
Addington, to whom he gently and dexterously
transferred the administration, leaving Fox seated
where he was antecedently, on the opposition
bench.

SIR ELIJAH IMPEY. 9
4^/j February. — As the last discussions which
took place previous to the adjournment regarded
Sir Elijah Impey ; so one of the earliest subjects
of debate in the house of commons, when that
assembly met again, was his prosecution. Sir
Elijah himself being permitted to appear at the
bar, delivered a very able and impressive answer
to the charges presented against him. The trial
and execution of Nundcomar constituting the hea
viest allegation, he directed his principal efforts
to clear himself from the guilt commonly attach
ed to that act. It had been generally reported
and credited, that Lord Mansfield, who was then
justly considered as the greatest authority on all
matters of criminal law, declared " the execution
of Nundcomar to have been a legal murder." In
order to erase the impression made by an opinion
from which there could have been no appeal. Sir
Elijah informed the house, that having written a
letter on the subject to the nobleman in question,
he had received an answer from his lordship, posi
tively declaring that he had never used any such
expression. But the chief justice of the King's
Bench limited himself to the bare denial, without
subjoining the slightest approbation of the judi
cial proceedings instituted against the unfortunate
rajah. Sir Elijah likewise produced other high
testimonials to his official character and conduct,
while at the head of the courts of judicature in
Bengal ; including particularly, if I recollect right.

10 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the celebrated names of Blackstone and of Dun
ning. After having commented with great abi
lity on the trial itself, and read the conclusion of
the charge that he delivered on the occasion,
from the bench, to the jury ; which he cited as a
proof of his having given the prisoner every fair
chance for his life ; he observed that the sentence
pronounced was unanimous. " If therefore," con
cluded he, " / am guilty, the other judges who
presided in that court participate the criminality
with me. I was nevertheless suffered to remain
in India as chief justice, near six years after
wards ; and the other judges still remain at this
hour in Bengal, distributing justice, though their
hands have been dipped in blood. But is it cre
dible that four men of unspotted reputation
down to Nundcomar's conviction, should at once
become so depraved as to join in the commission
of murder ? However feeble therefore may be
my defence, I trust that when they come to this
bar, their arguments will have more force, and
wiU sustain whatever /, in my present reply, have
left weak or inadequate."
Ith February. — These facts and arguments,
which, it must be admitted, were not destitute of
legal or of moral weight, received still further
corroboration when Sir Elijah entered a second
time on his defence. I knew him personally, and
I always entertained strong prejudices in his dis
favour ; — prejudices, which neither the expres-

SIR ELIJAH IMPEY. 11
sion of his countenance, nor his manners, tended
to dispel. Yet truth compels me to declare, that
certain passages in his appeal to the house of com
mons reminded me of Lord Strafford's eloquent
address to his judges in 1641. " Is it intended,
Mr. Speaker," said he, " by accumulating articles
of accusation against me, charging me exclusively
with acts in which the other judges equally parti
cipated, to induce or compel me to fly my coun
try ? Do my accusers hope that I will not come
forward to refute them ? Can it answer the pur
poses of public justice, to bring against me such
a mass of falsehood and of misrepresentation ?¦ — I
have much at stake. I have moreover ten chil
dren, for whose provision it is equally my duty
and my wish to preserve my fortune. But I
will sacrifice that fortune to the preservation of
my character. No child of mine shall blush to
acknowledge me for his father!" The Speaker,
by order of the house, having demanded of him
how soon he would be ready to reply to the re
maining charges ; " My mind," replied he, " is so
unhinged by the imputation of having legally
murdered Nundcomar, and my health is so deeply
affected by such an accusation, that I find it im
possible to exert myself in my defence against
the other articles, till a decision has taken place
respecting the leading charge. It is of a deep
cast, and on it I have concentrated my attention.
With respect to the minor charges, I hold myself

12 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
ready to answer them whenever the house shall
call on me." Pitt having instantly moved to
comply with Sir Elijah's request, EUiot, desirous
to avoid a division which would unquestionably
be carried against him, reluctantly assented to the
proposition. Violent personal altercations nevertheless ac
companied every stage of the prosecution. Al
ready the truth of Lord Mansfield's profound
observation on the essential difference between
criminal and political justice began to be fully ex
emplified. Eloquence might induce a legislative
assembly, unrestrained in its proceedings by legal
forms, to accuse a governor-general of having
committed criminal acts in his political capacity,
because the crimes imputed were in themselves
vague and indefinite. But, in order to impeach a
chief justice of having been corrupt or oppressive
while sitting on the bench, it became necessary
not only to adduce evidence the most formal and
defined, but to follow the ordinary rules laid
down in courts of law. To these fetters, the
prosecutors very unwillingly submitted. Impey's
recent defence at the bar had produced a strong
sensation in his favour, and effected a temporary
revulsion in popular opinion. He enjoyed, more
over, an advantage denied to Hastings ; namely,
that he belonged to a learned profession, the indi
viduals composing which body assembled round
him as a sort of guard, ready to defend him

IMPEY. — FRANCIS. — PITT.— KENYON. 13
against his accusers. Francis having moved to
require the delivery of a paper which Sir Elijah
had read in his exculpation, and the solicitor-ge
neral opposing its forced production, as subversive
of every principle of justice ; Francis launched
out in a tone of indignant complaint. " A week
ago," exclaimed he, " scarcely an individual was
to be found who did not esteem Sir Elijah Im
pey highly criminal. On a sudden, the tide is
turned, and tenderness is to be manifested towards
him. We behold a phalanx drawn up on the
other side. Whole bands of learned counsel, even
judges themselves, flock down to support him, to
welcome him with cheers, and to encourage him,
not merely with the smiles, but with the halloo of
govemment." A cry of Order ! resounding from the minis
terial side of the house, Pitt immediately rose,
and observed that such language he never could
hear without feelings of abhorrence. " What !"
continued he, " when a person accused of charges
the most flagrant stands here for the first time on
his defence, is it to be asserted that no tenderness
should be shewn him?" Fox and Burke persist
ing, nevertheless, to compel the production of
the document in question, the master of the rolls
(Kenyon) interposed. He had entered the house
while Francis was on his legs, and as he advanced
up the floor, imperfectly heard the accusation
levelled against the judges. Irascible as Kenyon

14 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
was from constitution, and upright from charac
ter, he could not tamely submit to an imputation
which personaUy affected him. " If," exclaimed
he, " that honourable gentleman is really the im
maculate person which his friends describe him
to be, it iU befits him to charge bad intentions on
other men; and whUe he reprobates Sir Elijah
Impey's conduct, become himself the accuser of
a whole profession." Burke desiring to be in
formed from legal authority, how far papers not
proved authentic could furnish matter of proof ;
and what evidence would be admissible, or inad
missible, at the bar of the lords; the master of
the rolls answered, that the judges would be
ready to give their opinion on every point sub
mitted to them. " Where disputes arise," con
tinued he, " the law will be pronounced from the
woolsack ; and whatever is so pronounced, must
be regarded as law." Far from acquiescing in
this doctrine, Burke utterly denied its validity.
" I have," said he, " contended, and successfuUy
contended, against the unanimous opinion of the
judges. If I think their opinion wrong, I will
again contend against their determination. The
learned gentleman appears to me to hold their
decision in much too high veneration. He is, I
believe, eagerly lookmg to become one of that
body. I hope, however, that he Tyill continue
some time longer in his present probationary
state, performing legal quarantine for the advan
tage of his health and constitution." These allu-

SIR PHILIP FRANCIS. — MAJOR SCOTT. 15
sions related to the negotiation for Kenyon's ele
vation to the office of chief justice of the King's
Bench, Lord Mansfield's age and infirmities ren
dering necessary his resignation. The business
was not finally effectuated till about four months
afterwards, when Kenyon became a peer and
chief justice.
Francis having defended with much warmth
his own conduct as a member of the supreme
councU of Bengal, concluded by making some
querulous reflections on his actual situation. " I
deplore," said he, " the unfortunate event of my
having ever embarked for India, whej-e I sacrificed
every object to the performance of my duty ; and
on returning to this country, what has been my
reception? Instead of receiving acknowledg
ments, I am made the object of party rancour."
These lamentations, which, while they exhibited
his own disinterestedness, reproached the public
insensibility to it, did not however pass without
notice. Major Scott, who accurately knew the only
modes in which a large fortune could be accumu
lated in a short space of time on the banks of the
Ganges, coming forward ; " Before," observed he,
" I can join in applauding the honourable gentle
man's integrity, I require proof of the fact itself,
in the only way which can produce conviction.
Let him make a fair and candid declaration, as
Lord Macartney has done ! Let him state that
he quitted England, in debt, a few years ago ; that
he remained only six years in India ; that his ex-

16 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
pences at home and abroad during the time
amounted to a certain specified sum ; and that
his fortune is barely the difference between the
amount of his expences and the remainder of
his salary as a supreme councillor. Until he
gives this test of his integrity, I shall set little
value on the panegyrics of his friends." Francis
made no reply to Scott's proposition, nor mani
fested any inclination to submit to such a dis
closure. Fox persisting to require the production
from Sir Elijah Impey of the paper to which
allusion had been so often made, and Pitt as per
tinaciously resisting it, a division ensued, when
nearly three to one supported the minister. But
Impey, on being called to the bar, and asked by
the Speaker whether he had any objection to
deliver in a copy of the document, replied that
he would most readily present it on the ensuing
day. IStk February. — While the house of com
mons was thus engaged, the trial of Hastings at
length commenced in Westminster Hall. It
formed a very imposing and august spectacle.
In that immense fabric, which carried back the
mind of the spectator to the Plantagenet and
Norman princes, by whom it was constructed or
repaired at distant periods of our history, almost
all the rank and talents, as weU as much of the
beauty of the country, were assembled. The
queen, accompanied by her four eldest daughters,

HASTINGS. — WESTMINSTER HALL. 17
distinguished it with her presence. They were
seated in the Duke of Newcastle's box, who, as
auditor of the exchequer, possessed in virtue of
his oflBce a distinguished portion of the gallery.
Charles the First, as well as Henrietta Maria his
consort, were present, as we know, throughout
the whole trial of the Earl of Strafford, concealed
in a close gallery of Westminster Hall. But
George the Third did not think proper to imitate
the example of his predecessor. He never once
visited the court before which Hastings appeared,
from the commencement to the close of the ju
dicial proceedings, though they were protracted
during successive years. The Prince of Wales,
on the contrary, closely connected as he was with
all the chiefs of opposition, lent his countenance
to the prosecution by walking at the head of the
peers, to the number of more than one hundred and
fifty. The whole British peerage did not at that
time exceed two hundred and twenty; while they
now fall little short of three hundred. Notwith
standing all the precautions used for warming the
hall, a cold damp vapour, augmented by the
gloom of the season, pervaded the edifice. In
the midst of this vast assembly, the late governor-
general of India presented himself, accompanied
or followed by his counsel, Law, Plumer, and
Dallas. Erskine, who, ten years earlier, had
first attracted public attention by his defence
of Admiral Keppel, might have been retained
VOL. III. c

18 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788-
on the present occasion. Never, perhaps, had
a more ample subject presented itself for the
display of that impassioned, nervous, and glow
ing appeal to the human mind, which charac
terized Erskine's oratory ! But his personal ha
bits of private, as well as of political friendship
with Fox, and the other leaders of the prosecu
tion, induced him to decline the office of Has
tings's advocate.
Precluded from availing himself of such assist
ance, Hastings made the best selection then per
mitted by the state of the bar. Law, who has
since risen to the distinguished employment suc
cessively filled before him by the Earl of Mans
field and Lord Kenyon, possessed eminent abili
ties. But he wanted the refinement of Erskine,
who, though driven by necessity to seek support
from his exertions as a barrister, never forgot that
he was a gentleman, and a man of quality. Law,
on the contrary, when elevated to the peerage,
retained and exhibited all the coarse breeding
of his natural character and habits. Not less
irascible than Kenyon, he was far more intract
able. Kenyon, it is true, sometimes gave way
to his indignation, while seated on the bench, in
his judicial capacity; but, as a member of the
upper house, I never recoUect his having violated
the decorum usually observed in that assembly.
Lord Ellenborough, on more than one occasion,
burst forth into transports of anger, accompanied

LAW. — PLUMER.— DALLAS. 19
with language such as is seldom heard even in
the most obscure courts of Lincoln's Inn, or of the
Temple. I allude in particular to the expressions
that fell from him on the debate respecting the
compensation given by Pitt to the Duke of
Athol for his seignorial rights in the Isle of Man.
I think it took place in the summer of 1805, only
a few months before that minister's decease. Not
that I approve of the measure, which I have
always considered as one of the most censurable
ever adopted by Pitt. But the epithets affixed
to it by the chief justice of the King's Bench
appeared so unbecoming, as to induce Lord Mul-
grave to remind him that he was addressing peers,
not lawyers. Nor did the sentence which he
pronounced upon Lord Cochrane, for that noble
man's participation in the memorable and infa
mous " hoax" practised on the Stock Exchange,
excite less condemnation. Such, indeed, was its
severity, as effectually to prevent its being carried
into complete execution. Notwithstanding these
defects of character and deportment, he proved
himself highly qualified for the great post that he
fUled during near seventeen years of the present
reign. Plumer and DaUas, though neither of
them were men of brilliant talents, have de
servedly attained, and at this hour continue to
occupy, two of the greatest situations in the pro
fession of the law.
15^^ — 22nd February.— The attention of the
c 2

20 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
metropolis now became concentered on Westmin
ster Hall. Burke, who led the way in the pro
ceedings, rising on the third day of the trial,
commenced an oration unequalled, I believe,
either in antiquity, or in any modern period of
time. Those who most disapproved the im
peachment, yet were not less sensible on that
account to the magnificent structure of ideas, the
vast series of facts, the prodigious grasp of his
mind which could arrange, and his memory which
could retain, such a multitude of transactions. If
we further reflect, that Burke had never visited ,
the scene which he thus presented before the
minds of his audience in colours the most glow
ing, we shall find new cause for admiration of the
mighty faculties conferred on him by Nature.
The illustrious orator,
 " Quern mirabantur Athenae

Torrentem, et pleni moderantem fraena theatri,"
had personally seen Macedonia, had visited Pella,
and had conversed with Philip, against whom he
declaimed. Cicero had been quasstor in Sicily
before he undertook the attack of Verres, who
exercised the office of praetor in that island. But
Burke knew Bengal only by report, and had ne
ver beheld either Mahomet Reza Cawn, or Nund
comar, or Gunga Govind Sing, the agents, ene
mies, or ministers of the governor-general. The
historical and geographical accuracy which he
exhibited while narrating the principal events

BURKE'S IMPEACHMENT OF HASTINGS. 21
that took place in the dominions subjected to the
East India Company, from their original con
quest by Clive, down to the recent period when
Hastings returned to Europe, afforded fresh mat
ter of wonder. Four days did he continue to
supply this lucid stream of information. At the
conclusion of the third morning, it is true that
his bodily powers becoming unequal longer to
sustain so arduous an effort, he was compelled by
indisposition to postpone his further observations.
But, resuming with new vigour the task on the
following day, he finally accomplished it. His
termination, if it was not ludicrous, — for extremes
touch, — was appaUing; when he at last impeach
ed Hastings, not only as state criminals had for
merly been accused under the Stuarts and the
Tudors, " in the name of the commons of Eng
land in parliament assembled :" he arraigned the
governor-general "in the name of all the com
mons of Great Britain, of the people of India,
and finally, in the name of human nature itself."
I was present, as a member of the lower house,
during a considerable part of the time which
elapsed between the commencement and the con
clusion of Burke's speech ; or rather, of his four
harangues. It would be difficult to convey an
idea of the agitation, distress, and horror excited
among the female part of his audience, by his
statement of the atrocities, and in many instances,
ofthe deeds of blood, perpetrated, as he asserted.

22 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
by Hastings's connivance, or by his express com
mands. Curiosity naturally attracted, on each
successive day, a vast proportion of females, many
of whom were peeresses, or women of the highest
condition. No sooner, however, had the emo
tions produced by Burke's description in some
measure subsided, than Fox, addressing the chan
ceUor, attempted to lay down as a principle, that
the managers intended to substantiate each charge
separately ; to hear Hastings's defence, as well as
evidence ; and to reply : — by this mode of accu
sation, proceeding to a conclusion on every spe
cific article, previous to opening another head of
charge. Law strongly objecting, as counsel for
the prisoner, to such a form of proceeding, which
he declared to be subversive of all equity, or the
practice of judicial courts ; Fox undertook to
justify it by precedents. Nor did he blush to
cite the cases of Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, and
of the celebrated Lord Strafford, as precedents
in favour of his proposition. Two more tyranni
cal and oppressive examples of parliamentary, or
popular violence, under the forms of law, could
not have been selected from our annals since the
death of Elizabeth. The first, which took place
in 1624, set on foot by the vindictive animosity
of ViUiers, Duke of Buckingham, was marked in
its progress, not less than in its conclusion, by
every characteristic of iniquity and oppression.
So contrary to aU principles of justice did the

HASTINGS. — FORM OF PROCEEDING. 23
fine inflicted on the Earl of Middlesex appear
to Charles the First, that one of the earliest acts
of his reign was its remission. It is unnecessary
to say a word on the trial of Strafford, which
formed the prelude to civil war, and was followed
within eight years by the execution of the king
his master. Yet on such a basis, wholly inappli
cable to the asserted crimes or misdemeanors of
Hastings, did the managers pretend to found
their reasonings ; and to prosecute the governor-
general of India in Westminster Hall, for al
ledged offences committed in his official capacity,
many years antecedent, in the centre of Asia.
The peers appeared to have formed other ideas
of their own duty, dignity, and becoming mode
of procedure. Having withdrawn to their own
house, a debate of great interest arose two days
afterwards, which was begun by Lord Thurlow,
who stated the object of discussion with his cha
racteristic ability. Nor, though he reprobated
the impeachment, (as was well known,) indivi
dually, did he pronounce a less eloquent eulogium
on Burke's splendid exhibition of talent. But he
at the same time declared that the demand made
by Hastings's counsel was a right, not an indul
gence ; adding, that he could conceive no prin
ciple on which the defence could be conducted,
except one ; namely, " to oblige the managers to
complete the whole of their case, previous to a
word being uttered in exculpation ofthe prisoner."

24 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. l'^^^.
Lord Loughborough having endeavoured to de
monstrate that the ordinary rules of proceeding
in criminal law did not apply to parliamentary
impeachment, which could not be shackled by
the forms observed in the courts below; the chan
cellor rose a second time. " My lords," said he,
" with respect to the law and usage of parliament,
I utterly disclaim all knowledge of such law. It
has no existence. True it is, that in times of des
potism, or of popular fury, when, to impeach an
individual, was to crush him by the strong hand
of power, of tumult, or of violence, the law and
usage of parliament were quoted in order to jus
tify the most iniquitous or atrocious acts. But, in
these days of light, and of constitutional govern
ment, I trust that no man will be tried except by
the law of the land; a system admirably calculated
to protect innocence, and to punish crime."
Having subsequently shewn from a review of
all the state trials under the Stuart reigns, even
down to that of Sacheverel inclusive, that in
every instance were to be found the strongest
marks of tyranny, injustice, and oppression ; " In
the present impeachment," concluded Lord Thur
low, " I trust your lordships will not depart from
the recognized established laws of the land. The
commons may impeach : your lordships are to
try the cause. And the same rules of evidence,
the same legal forms which obtain in the courts
below, will, I am confident, be observed by this

HASTINGS. — FOX. 25
assembly." So enlightened a comment on Lord
Mansfield's principle respecting the difference be
tween criminal and political jnstice, proved irresist
ible. Though the first minister had joined in
the impeachment, yet only thirty-three peers
could be found to sustain Lord Loughborough,
while eighty-eight supported the chancellor.
When this decision was communicated by him
to the managers in Westminster Hall on the fol
lowing day. Fox, speaking as their organ, ar
raigned it in the warmest terms. Renouncing
the enlarged principles of constitutional freedom
by which he had always pretended to regulate
his public conduct, he undertook to claim, and
to defend, one of the most odious rights ever
exercised by the house of commons. I mean, the
privilege of bringing up new articles of impeach
ment at any time ; — not only while the prisoner
was engaged in making his defence, but even
when his defence should be concluded.
This pretended right, worthy only of the worst
periods of our history, did not however receive
from the chancellor the slightest mark of assent
or approbation. Fox entered next on the subject
of trials by impeachment, declaring them to form
a characteristic feature of our constitution. Then
diverging to the law and usage of parliament, he
maintained, " in opposition to opinions held else
where, that it formed one of the most important
and valuable branches of the law of the land : "

26 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
thus lending the support of his transcendent
talents, to sustain a doctrine the most oppres
sive to the subject. Such was Fox, who, through
out his whole life, alternately attacked or defend
ed the same measures, according to the position
in which he stood ; trusting to his own ability or
eloquence, to cover all departures from consist
ency ! These preliminaries being laid down, he
proceeded to open the charge against Hastings
for his treatment of Cheyt Sing, the Rajah of
Benares. His speech, which lasted several hours,
and which formed nearly a repetition of that
addressed by him to the house of commons on
the same subject, twenty months earlier, in June
1786, justly excited, as a composition, great ad
miration. 25th February— 1st March. — At length towards
the close of the month of February, commenced
the business of the session. A very delicate,
doubtful, and important subject of discussion had
unexpectedly arisen between the administration,
or rather, between the Board of East India Con
trol, and the Court of Directors. Pitt having
originally expelled Fox from power, by joining
the latter corporate body, when menaced with
extinction by the coalition ministers; it might na
turally have been expected that he would not
lightly quit so advantageous a political ground.
Yet, in the lapse of about four years, the two
heads of party seemed to have changed sides ;

GOVERNMENT AND THE E. I. COMPANY. 27
Fox now sustaining the East India Company,
while Pitt undertook to restrain their authority.
In order to explain how so improbable a trans
mutation could take place, it is necessary to state,
that during the period when war seemed to im
pend as a consequence of our interference in the
affairs of HoUand, the British government, ap
prehensive for the safety of our Eastern posses
sions, determined on sending out four regiments
to that quarter of the globe. The directors, im
pressed with the same fears, not only acquiesced
in the measure, but expressed their satisfaction at
its adoption. When the danger was however
surmounted, ministers still persisting in their
original intention with a view permanently to
strengthen the forces in India, a violent oppo
sition arose in Leadenhall-street. The court of
directors even proceeded so far as to refuse re
ceiving on board their ships the royal troops.
Under these circumstances, no possible mode of
speedily terminating the dispute presented itself,
except by a recourse to parliament. But there
were two ways in which government might obtain
from the legislature the necessary powers. One,
by a bill enacting, or conferring them ; the other,
by a declaratory bill, explaining and removing
doubts relative to the right vested in the commis
sioners by the act of 1784 ; which, it was now
maintained from the treasury bench, had fully
empowered the board of control to exercise an

28 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
unlimited command over the military and poli
tical concerns of India. The latter alternative
was adopted by Pitt, though it evidently opened
a wide field for controversy, as it placed Fox in
the very position which the chancellor of the ex
chequer had himself occupied, and on which his nii-
nisterial greatness had been constructed; namely,
the defence of the East India Company, against
violence on the part of the servants of the crown.
From the first moment that the minister moved
for leave to bring in his projected bill, down to
the time of its being carried to the house of peers,
during a period of near three weeks, the most
determined opposition was experienced from a
variety of quarters. It originated not merely
from Fox, nor was it limited to his adherents.^
Enemies started up among the supporters of ad
ministration, men of the most independent minds
and fortunes. Barr§, whose loss of sight, when
added to age and decay, seldom allowed him to
attend in his place, rose more than once to re
probate and expose the measure. Baring, then
one of the court of directors, displayed the same
resistance. Notwithstanding his deafness, which
infirmity had recently subjected him to the sar
castic edge of Sheridan's wit, few individuals in
that assembly could contend with him in financial
knowledge and commercial information. Like
Barr6, he belonged to the Marquis of Lansdown's
little band.

FULLARTON. — FLOOD. — POWIS. 29
FuUarton, whose duel with Lord Shelburne
rendered him known early in life ; who had sub
sequently distinguished himself on the theatre of
India, where he commanded a considerable body
of troops, during the war with Hyder Ally ; and
who, whenever he spoke, manifested no ordinary
talents; opposed the bill with his utmost force.
I had the happiness to enjoy a place in his friend
ship ; and though towards the close of his career,
when acting as one of the three royal commis
sioners in the island of Trinidada, the excess of
his zeal during the contest in which he there
engaged with General Picton formed subject of
regret ; yet I seize with pleasure the present
occasion to commemorate his numerous virtues,
his disinterestedness, and elevation of character.
Flood, whose rivality and animosity to Grattan
in the Irish house of commons produced so many
animated scenes within those walls ; a man of the
most forbidding physiognomy, but endowed with
great powers of intellect ; presenting himself on
this occasion, as he had done some years earlier,
in December 1783, when he opposed Fox's " East
India Bill," now inveighed against Pitt's measure,
as an insidious, rapacious, and unjustifiable act of
power. These formidable opponents were joined by
others not less respectable. " The bill that I ap
proved in 1783," said Powis, " possessed all the
characteristic features of its author's mind, bold.

30 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
open, and manly. It now becomes evident that
the measure which I then opposed was founded
in duplicity and fraud, undermining the charter
which it pretended to support." Sir Edward
Astley, member for the county of Norfolk, de
scended of an antient and opulent family, re
nowned for loyalty ; himself a plain, unlettered
country gentleman, of very moderate talents, but
of the most upright views ; was heard with much
attention. Scarcely did he rise in general more
than once or twice throughout a whole session, on
the subject of a turnpike bill, or some local busi
ness affecting his constituents. " I voted," ex
claimed he, " for the present chancellor of the
exchequer's India Bill, because I was given to
understand that it formed the reverse of the bill
which preceded it. But I now find that there is
very little difference between them. The one
seems to be nearly as bad as the other. I have not
withdrawn my confidence from him, but I wish
he would keep better company. In other words, I dis
trust his colleagues." This severe reflection, level
led principally, or rather exclusively, at Dundas,
could not be mistaken. Even Pulteney, a man
whose vast property and strong sense gave weight
to his opinions, declared himself adverse to the
measure. He had contributed, both by his vote
and by his pen, to overturn Fox's memorable bill.
His opposition, therefore, painfully affected minis
ters. Yet, unlike Sir Edward Astley, he qualified

PULTENEY. — SCOTT. — FRANCIS. 31
his line of action by compliments to Dundas on
his integrity, and assiduity at the board of con
trol. Nor did he omit to give his tribute of
praise to Pitt's ministerial character and conduct.
Four years later, his daughter was raised to the
British peerage as a baroness, and she subse
quently attained by creation to the rank of a
countess. Sir Edward Astley, whose ancestors
fought and bled in the royal cause under Charles
the First, died a commoner. Even Major Scott,
little as he might incline to support Hastings's
prosecutors, yet spoke repeatedly in terms of
strong condemnation against the pending bill.
Assailed from so many unexpected quarters,
the minister nevertheless could boast of some able
supporters. At their head stood Scott, who at the
present hour, far advanced as he is in life, fills with
undiminished powers of mind the high employ
ment of chancellor. Pitt only waited for Lord
Mansfield's resignation, to make him solicitor-
general. Francis, a man little inclined to indulge
in compliment towards his opponents, yet did jus
tice to Scott. During the debates that arose on
the present occasion, Francis observed, " We have
among us a learned person, who is universally
considered as the great luminary of the law;
whose opinions are oracles ; to whose information
and authority, all his own profession look up
with reverence. No member of the long robe
took a more active part in the debates than

32 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Hardinge. Not content with defending and jus
tifying the ministerial measure, he attacked Powis
in a manner so personal as to excite general
censure. Two, and only two directors of the East
India Company, spoke in commendation ofthe bill.
Among the county members, I recollect RoUe
alone who ventured to stand forward in defence
of Pitt; while Bastard, his colleague, spoke as well
as voted on the opposite side. Their fate, in
deed, proved different; — RoUe entering the house
of peers, eight years afterwards; while Bastard
continued to represent the county of Devon
down to the period of his decease, only a short
time ago.
3rfi? March. — A petition against the bill hav
ing been presented by the East India Company,
Erskine was heard as their counsel at the bar.
Devoted to Fox, ardent in his temper, and inca
pable of being awed or intimidated by the presence
of any assembly ; Erskine, who, during the short
time that he represented Portsmouth in the last
parliament, had signalized himself by the defence
of Fox's " East India Bill," resumed in his legal
capacity the consideration of the same subject.
Spurning the limits within which advocates are
usually confined when pleading before the house
of commons, he ventured not only to eulogize in
the warmest terms the rejected measure of his
friend, but to treat the bill of 1784 as a vile im
posture practised on a credulous nation. The

LORD ERSKINE. .'33
murmurs of various members, indignant at such
an infraction of decorum, at length compelled the
Speaker to interpose his authority, in order to
repress Erskine's prurience. Affecting to apolo
gize, while he at the same time took occasion to
renew the offence ; " If," observed he, " Mr.
Speaker, I have been guilty of any irregularity,
it arises solely from a diminution of that respect
which I was accustomed to feel towards this
assembly before it was shorn of its dignity ; but
which no longer animates me since the assump
tion of the extraordinary powers arrogated and
exercised by the present board of control." Sen
timents so insulting would probably have attract
ed an expression of ministerial indignation on
their author's head, if it had not been repressed
by the peculiar circumstances of the case. Pitt
beheld himself in a situation far more perilous
than any that had occurred since his elevation to
the head of the treasury. The Westminster scru
tiny, oppressive as it was, had been undertaken
immediately after the overthrow of the "coali
tion" ministry, during the intoxication incident
to his early popularity. His Irish propositions
were rejected by the parliament of that country,
not here in Westminster ; and from the prosecu
tion of the Duke of Richmond's plan oi fortifying
the dock-yards, he had finaUy desisted, when warn
ed by the casting vote in the house of commons.
But, in the present instance, if outnumbered by
VOL. III. D

34 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the opposers of the bill, no honourable retreat re
mained for him ; nor was it easy to conceive how,
if defeated, he could even with dignity continue
in office. As he had risen to power by one India
BiU, he might fall by another.
¦ 5th March. — Influenced by these reflections,
•which imperiously ' suggested themselves to his
¦mind, Pitt found his best auxiliary, not in the
talents of his supporters, nor even in his own
eloquence, but in his character. Never perhaps
was the value of integrity, moderation, and cor
rect deportment, more forcibly exemplified than
in the instance before us! Fox might, and I
believe did possess, the first of those qualities in
as eminent a degree ; but he wanted the two lat
ter recommendations to royal and to national fa
vour. At the end of four years it had become
demonstrated that the two East India BUls, (that
of Fox, and that of Pitt,) differed more from
each other in name than in reality. Yet the dis
covery, though it shook, did not overturn the
minister ; because the East India Company, the
two houses of parliament, and the country at
large, however undeceived they might be, were
by no means disposed to transfer the reins of go:-
vernment to Fox and his adherents. Pitt,, not
withstanding the exertions which he made to con
vince, and to retain his friends, beheld himself
abandoned by many individuals who usually sup
ported him. However much he strove to conceal

PITT. — SHERIDAN. — FOX. 35
his emotions on a point so humUiating to his
haughty mind, he nevertheless felt it deeply ; —
for no minister ever more justly appreciated the
importance of character. Conscious of the dan
gerous nature ofthe ground which he had to main
tain, he tried to prove that the powers now assum
ed by the board of control were virtually, if not
specifically vested in the commissioners, by the
act of 1784. But, able and persuasive as Pitt
was, his oratory failed of its usual effect. Sheri
dan, directing his keen jests against the head of
the India Board, observed that Dundas had for
merly compared the commissioners constituted by
Fox's Bill to, seven doctors and eight apothecaries
prescribing for one poor patient. " Yet," continued
he, " their prescriptions were at least less nauseous
than the dose now mixing by the learned Doctor
of Control, who, in the spirit of a political quack,
exhorts his patient to swaUow it ; assuring him
that there is no occasion for his confining himself
at home, but that he may safely go about his bu
siness as usual. This new sovereign remedy will
no doubt be soon advertized, under the title of
Scotch Pills for every, sort of Oriental disorder."
Irritating as were such observations. Fox's in
sulting comments on the humbled situation of
the minister sunk still deeper into his mind.
" Whence arises," exclaimed Fox, " so deter
mined an opposition to the present measure?
Have the chancellor of the exchequer's friends
d2

36 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
deserted him? No! For, even now, they de
clare that they have confidence in his integri
ty. What, then, is the cause of this change?
Why, in the good sense of the house, because the
present bill has removed the film from before
their eyes, while it begins to explain to the whole
kingdom its destructive tendency." After allud
ing in terms of contemptuous ridicule to the
indifference about power which Dundas affected
to feel, Fox inveighed with great animation
against a declaratory bill. " The crown and the
East India Company," observed he, " are at va
riance on a disputed principle. Why not try the
fact in a court of law ? ' No,' says the minister :
' in a court of law I can exercise no influence ; in
the house of commons I can.' What must such
an act be denominated except oppression ! But,
I trust, there is virtue enough yet remaining in
this assembly to resist its further progress." The,
hour was very late when Fox sate down ; and as
the impression which he had made could not
admit of a doubt, every eye became directed to
the treasury bench, in expectation that Pitt
would endeavour to efface it. Instead, however,
of rising, he aUedged personal indisposition as the
reason of his silence ; promising nevertheless to
answer his antagonist's arguments in the future
stages of the bill. I scarcely recollect a division
taking place under more discouraging circum
stances for administration since Pitt's elevation to

FOX. — PITT. — DUNDAS. 37
power. Nor did the result prove that Fox had
miscalculated his force. Though three hundred
and twelve persons voted, the minister carried the
question only by a majority oi fifty -seven. Such
a triumph partook of defeat, and clearly mani
fested how little he could trust to the support
which he had been accustomed to receive within
those walls, unless he modified the measure under
discussion. A defection of less than thirty mem
bers, if they joined Fox, would have left Pitt
in a minority; and that defection was by no
means impossible.
Ith March. — Yielding unquestionably to the
considerations dictated by his present position,
Pitt resolved therefore, instead of advancing in
a path where his popularity, if not his power,
might be lost, to retrace his steps. Doubtless
too he felt that he was engaged in Dundas's
cause even more than in his own ; since the real
authority of the India Board resided, not in the
first lord of the treasury, nor still less in Lord
Sydney, the nominal president, but in Dundas.
Neither could Pitt be insensible, that however
eminent were the talents of that ambitious, aspir
ing, and able advocate ; however closely cement
ed might be their personal friendship, and how
ever necessary to administration were his exer
tions and eloquence in parliament ; yet his moral
reputation fell below his political ability. Con
trary to his usual practice, Pitt therefore opened

38 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. HSS.
the discussion, on the evening when it was moved
" to bring up the report of the bill." Assuming
a tone and a language foreign to his disposition,
he endeavoured to regain the eminence which he
had occupied before the introduction of the pre
sent obnoxious measure. Having first conciliated
his hearers, he next addressed himself to their
understanding ; and while he vindicated the bill
which he had brought forward, professed never
theless his anxious desire to propose, as well as to
adopt, every clause, and every mode of preven
tion, against the apprehended danger to the con
stitution. " If," exclaimed he, " checks upon
patronage are tendered, let them come from
whatever side of this assembly they may, or
from whatever individual however hostile, ac
companied by whatever language, I will gladly
receive them. I shall even regard the man who
proposes them as my best friend, because he will
have proved that he is a friend to the British
constitution." The conclusion of his speech, most
personal to Fox, " whom," he said, " that house
had dethroned, four years before, from his high
seat of despotism," was filled with reiterated
declarations that he never would consent to or
permit the introduction of patronage under any
form. To Pulteney he particularly addressed
himself, in terms calculated to obviate that mem
ber's objections to the measure; and finally, as
the best proof of his desire to submit it to cen-

PITT. — SHERIDAN. 39
sure or emendation, he moved " to recommit the
bill." Never did Pitt, at any period of his eventful
life, exhibit a stronger proof of his consummate
judgment than in adopting this hne of action. It
disarmed, and finally defeated opposition ; but
it could not silence their sarcasms, or their cla
mours. Sheridan, whose eloquence, abiUties, and
powers of fancy Pitt recognized ; denying him at
the same time reason and truth ; — Sheridan, in
dignant at the compliments paid to his talents,
at the expence of his morals, retorted on the
minister with inconceivable ingenuity and seve
rity. After drawing a masterly picture of Pitt's
political life, and stigmatizing the prominent
features of his administration ; " His friends,
nevertheless," continued Sheridan, "boast of his
conscience, and always assert that he has been
debauched into every act of folly, or of iniquity,
that he has committed. They say in his defence,
that his conscience has been surprized in the pre
sent instance ; and that the bill now before us has
originated, not in wicked intention, but in bad
advice. I readily admit that he has people about
him who are capable of intentionally misleading
him. It constitutes his original crime, that he
has connected himself with men from whom no
good counsel ever can come ; and it is earnestly
to be wished, either that his conscience would
keep a better look-out, or that he would in

40 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
future keep better company." These pointed
attacks upon Dundas were followed by reflec
tions not less personal on Pitt himself, as well
as on the bill under discussion. " The chanceUor
of the exchequer," observed Sheridan, " originally
stole in upon the house this obnoxious measure,
without explanation of any kind. He procured
it to be read a first, and a second time : but being
detected in the fact, his arm arrested, and himself
exposed ; finding that not only his supporters,
but men on all sides have taken alarm ; then he
comes forward, humbly entreating that it may
be checked and guarded in every shape. The
bill, with its terrors, its arrogance, and its evils,
came first ; while the checks come behind as a
rider. Prerogative foremost : the constitution in
the rear."
Burke, engaged as he was in the prosecution of
Hastings, attended nevertheless in his place, and
joined in the cry against ministers on that me
morable night ; conscious that the division would
decide, not only the fate of the bill, but perhaps
the duration of administration. Having first
directed his animadversions against Dundas, he
next turned round upon Pitt. " I congratulate
the house," exclaimed he, « that confidence is at
length exploded. The minister has himself avow
ed his distrust of his coUeagues, and demanded
suspicion from us. WeU may the learned gentle-

BURKE. — PITT. — FOX. 41
man who presides over the destinies of the East,
be cloathed in sackcloth and ashes ! I entreat it
may be remembered that the caution comes not
from this side of the house, but from the chan
cellor of the exchequer. He who, forty-eight
hours ago, recommended, — nay, bullied us into
confidence ! But, even when engaged in so hu
miliating an act, he performs it with an air of
pride. He scatters his ashes abroad with dignity,
and wears his sackcloth as if it were a robe of
purple." This fine portrait, sketched with such
ability, bore the closest resemblance to its origi
nal. Burke concluded by accusing the minister
with the grossest hypocrisy, combined in the pre
sent instance with fraud. But all these imputa
tions were swallowed up in the philippic pro
nounced by Fox. It formed one splendid display
of reason, animated by a sentiment allied to tri
umph. For, though the division that took place
ultimately extinguished the hopes of opposition,
it could not deprive them of a species of victory.
The minister had been humbled, and compelled
to adopt the language of a suppliant in order
to retain a small majority : while Fox, whose im
prudence and ambition originally precipitated him
from power, beheld his bill rescued in a certain
degree from the load of obloquy under which it
had so long been overwhelmed. There was in
deed something like exultation in his address to

42 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the house, which might be said to resemble the
animated apostrophe of a man who unexpectedly
emerges out of darkness into light.
" I introduced," said he, " my bill, as the only
mode of saving the East India Company and
their territories from ruin. It produced alarm,
and was rejected in another assembly. What means
were set on foot to effect that purpose, though well
informed on the subject, I shall not now relate. But
the best panegyric ever delivered on my bill has
just fallen from the lips of the chancellor of the
exchequer himself, conveyed in those finished
periods, and in that felicitous order, for which he
is so eminently distinguished." Having next
contrasted the provisions of his own bill with the
present declaratory measure before the house, he
endeavoured to shew that under every point of
view the former was most analogous to the prin
ciples of the constitution. " I have been ac
cused," said Fox, " with endeavouring to pluck
the crown from his majesty's head. Such lan
guage would be more justly applied to the am
bition of those who are seated opposite me.
When have I conducted myself like a disloyal
subject ? When did I ever endeavour to dimi
nish the just prerogatives of the crown ? I know
too well their value. Those who have poisoned, the
royal ear, by suggesting that only one side of the
house of commons is loyal to the sovereign, are the
real enemies of the constitution. The minister has

BASTARD. — PULTENEY. — PITT. 43
by his recent conduct forfeited all claim to the
confidence of parliament. Let him at once avow
his error, withdraw the present bill, and intro
duce another, adequate to the purposes of saving
India!" This advice had already been tendered to Pitt,
in the progress of the debate, from two re
spectable quarters. I mean, by Bastard and by
Pulteney. But as they both accompanied their
exhortation with testimonies of the warmest sa
tisfaction at the altered language which he had
now thought proper to adopt; conveying withal
an indirect assurance that his present concessions
might probably secure their vote, or at least their
support ; he did not think it necessary to stoop
to so humiliating an expedient. Neither did he
attempt to answer Fox ; only declaring that the
whole speech just pronounced was, as far as it
personally regarded himself, " a foul aspersion on
his character." The division at length took place ;
when it appeared, that while administration main
tained its preceding numbers, the opposition fell
off in their supporters ; 187 persons voting with
government, precisely as on the former ^evening ;
but Fox, who then counted 125, could now com
mand only 115. The majority of the minister
had therefore augmented from 57 to 67 mem
bers. 10th — lUh March. — Confirmed in office by
this proof of parliamentary adherence, and warn-

44 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
ed by his recent danger, Pitt now hastened to
accomplish his engagement by bringing in a va
riety of clauses, all calculated to circumscribe the
powers which the bill conferred on the board
of control. No concessions or limitations could
however impose silence on Flood, who main
tained that every argument which had been
urged against Fox's bill applied with equal force
to the present measure. " I appeal," exclaimed
he, " to any candid man, whether such a differ
ence exists between them as to cause a great
ministerial revolution in the country, to convulse
the state to its foundation, and to make the sove
reign start from his throne. Such were the ef
fects of a former bill. Yet how did it essentially
differ from the one now before us?" Fox, as if
satisfied with the severe discipline which he had
administered so recently to the minister, took
little part in the debate of that evening. But
Pitt's restrictions, spontaneously imposed on his
own power, and on that of his coUeagues at the
India Board, had allayed the effervescence excited
in the house, and brought back to his standard
various individuals who had absented themselves.
On the division, his numbers rose to 210, while
the opposition could not reach beyond 122. His
bill might consequently be regarded as secure.
Yet its adversaries inveighed against it with
redoubled asperity, down to the last moment
that it remained under discussion. A short sus-

GREY. — LORD NORTH. — BARRfe. 45
pension of public business followed this violent
struggle; while, in ^N'^estminster Hall, obstacles
and delays arose which impeded the progress of
Hastings's trial. To Burke and Fox, succeeded
Grey ; whose eloquence, youth, and figure, at
tracted a numerous audience, composed indeed
frequently more of the wives and daughters of
Hastings's judges, than of the judges themselves.
Many of the peeresses occupied their seats, ses
sion after session, with exemplary patience, curio
sity, and perseverance. Throughout the whole
month of JMarch, on account of the pressure of
parliamentary affairs, scarcely ten days were aUot
ted to the impeachment ; nor was it before the
middle of April that the second charge, which
regarded the Princesses of Oude, was opened, not
by Sheridan, but by Adam and Pelham.
April. — It is long since I have mentioned
even the name of Lord North. His augmenting
infirmities, particularly his loss of sight, incapa
citated him, without great inconvenience, from
attending as a member of parliament. He had
not indeed been once seen within the walls of the
house of commons during the debates that arose
on the declaratory India Bill, when his presence
and his talents might have been usefully employ
ed for his party. Barr6, it is true, who suffered
under a similar privation, had taken an active
part in those discussions ; but, though far more
advanced in his career than Lord North, his

46 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
robust and athletic frame promised him many
years of life. Colonel North supplied his father's
vacant seat on the opposition bench. Another
luminary of the period of the American war,
Rigby, disappeared likewise at this time. I be
lieve, he expired at Bath. Declining health, loss
of office, — but, perhaps, more than both, pecuniary
embarrassments, arising out of the extensive de
mands made on him by government, for payment
of the balances of national money remaining in
his hands ; — these combined causes had operated
to withdraw him almost altogether from parlia
ment, though he still continued member for Ta
vistock. He possessed talents for addressing a
popular assembly, which were sustained by con
fidence that nothing could abash. In that qua
lity, he did not yield even to Dundas. Under
Lord North's administration, Rigby had occupied
a great space in the public mind ; but since that
time he seemed to have almost become poUtically
extinct, and after his decease was speedily for
gotten. Rigby's death was preceded only a few weeks
by that of the Dowager Viscountess Townsend,
one of the most distinguished females of the
court and reign of George the Second. She at
tained nearly her eighty-seventh year, but her
intellectual faculties had suffered little or no
decay. In the empire of mind, she might be
said to have occupied the place left vacant by

LADY TOWNSEND. — LADY WALLACE. 47
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and by Lady
Hervey. At Lady Townsend's house in White
hall, George Selwyn, and a number of other men
eminent for wit or talent, were usually to be
found, who constituted her evening society. Her
father, whose name was Harrison, rose in life
by the personal favour of William the Third,
leaving to his daughter a fine property, which
she bequeathed to Lord John Townsend, her
grandson ; one of the most gaUant, accomplished,
highly-informed individuals of his time ; the in
separable friend and companion of Fox, through
out all the vicissitudes of his political life. Lady
Townsend, besides retaining her mental powers
undiminished, lived to see her eldest grandson
created an EngUsh earl, and her son raised still
higher, to the dignity of a British marquis : a
circumstance probably without parallel in the
peerage of this country. Those titles, as well as
the numerous baronies of Plantagenet creation,
that unite in the actual representative of the
name of Townsend ; descended from the illustri
ous families of Vere, of Devereux, of Compton,
and many others ; may all be regarded at present
as in a state of eclipse. So is the name of Courte-
nay. Both will probably emerge again under
some future sovereign.
Among the persons who in April 1788 made
a strong appeal to the public, as candidates for
dramatic fame, I must not omit Lady Wallace.

48 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
She was one of the three daughters of Sir Wil-
Uam MaxweU of Monteith, and a sister of the
Duchess of Gordon. Inferior to the duchess in
beauty, she possessed nevertheless great personal
charms, which were augmented by the eccentric
attractions of her deportment and conversation.
No woman of condition in my time has ventured
to emancipate herself so completely from all the
restraints imposed by custom on her sex. I have
seen her habited as a man, attending the debates
in the house of commons, and seated in the gal
lery appropriated to strangers. Nor is this extra
ordinary act by any means the greatest deviation
from female decorum which I have known her to
commit for the gratification of curiosity or amuse
ment. She was married to Sir Thomas Wallace
of Craigie, a Scotch baronet ; but she thought
proper to prosecute him for adultery, before the
court of session ; and though the accusation was
dismissed. Lady Wallace always continued to
live in a state of total separation from her hus
band. Emulous of attaining the fame of Mrs.
Behn and of Mrs. Centlivre, she composed and
brought forward at this time a comedy, entitled
" Tbe Ton." It was performed three times at
Covent-garden theatre ; each time, to crowded
audiences. I was present at two of the three
representations. All the principal characters,
male and female, were individuals of fashion,
easily recognized by those who knew the town.>

LADY WALLACE.-— LORD HOWE. 49
The piece wanted neither plot, nor wit, nor
movement, nor easy dialogue, nor theatrical effect,
though it was in many passages very indelicate ;
yet not so grossly violating decency as Congreve
has done in " Love for Love,'' and in " The Way
of the World ;" confessedly two of the finest
comedies in the English language, if considered
merely as dramatic compositions. But our refined
manners and habits will not tolerate the scenes at
which the Belindas and the Stellas of the reign of
George the First assisted without repugnance,
and almost without a blush. All the efforts of
Lady Wallace's friends, however numerous and
powerful, with the Duchess of Gordon at their
head, could not protect the play, nor secure it
from theatrical damnation. She never presented
another piece to the manager ; but her whole life
was in itself a perpetual comedy. After the
commencement of the French revolution, about
the year 1794, she embarked for Hamburgh, pro
fessedly with the intention of there meeting and
conferring with the ex-patriated French general,
Dumourier. Lady Wallace terminated her ex
traordinary career at Munich, censured for the
irregularities of her deportment, and little lament
ed by her own family.
Scarcely had Pitt surmounted the impediments
to the " East India Declaratory Bill," when ad
ministration was assailed from another quarter.
Lord Howe, who presided at the admiralty board,
VOL. UI. E

50 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
having, at the time when a rupture with France
was apprehended to be imminent, made a promo
tion of naval officers, thought fit to pass over
more than forty captains, while he selected six
teen for elevation to the rank of admirals. Lord
Rawdon, (since created Marquis of Hastings,) a
nobleman of generous and elevated feelings, alive
to every impulse of wounded honour, conceiving
these individuals to have been unjustly super
seded, brought the subject before the upper house.
But the ministerial influence in that assembly
could stand the severest assaults of opposition,
and the first lord of the admiralty defended his
conduct with reasons of great solidity. Finally,
Lord Rawdon's motion for an address to the
king, praying that " he would take into his con
sideration the services of those captains who had
been passed over in the late promotion," was
negatived without a division. This event hap
pened as early as the 20th of February, Not
deterred, however, by the ill success of Lord
Rawdon's attempts, Mr. Bastard brought forward
the same subject in the house of commons, on
the following day. He was a man of ample for
tune, of an independent mind, of grave and
correct deportment, animated by upright inten
tions, and possessing a sound, thougli not a supe
rior understanding. His position, as one of the
two members for the county in which was
situate Plymouth, with its dock-yards, gave him

BASTARD. — PITT. 51
no ordinary advantage, when discussing a naval
question. Among the captains who had been passed over
in the recent promotion, were two, Balfour and
Thompson, who, having received the thanks of
the house on the event of the memorable 12th of
April 1782, seemed to challenge more respect
than their companions. Bastard enlarged on the
peculiar hardship of excluding two distinguished
officers from the reward of their long services ;
men who had participated in the defeat of De
Grasse. He ventured even to assert that unless
some reparation should be made to their injured
characters, the service itself would receive an irre
parable wound. " Henceforward," exclaimed he,
" encrease of fortune, not of fame, will form the
object of naval commanders. Servility and mean
ness must conduct to eminence. He who would
rise in the profession, must effect it by running
on the errands of the head of the admiralty
board ; by performing the part of his follower, his
flatterer, perhaps of his pimp." He concluded by
moving to address his majesty, that " he would
confer on Captains Balfour and Thompson some
mark of his royal favour." Pitt opposed this
proposition by reasons which were unanswerable.
Having shewn that it would form an unprece
dented interference with the prerogative of the
crown, he contended that " even if such a princi
ple could be admitted, yet the house of commons
E 2

52 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
was incompetent to take upon themselves the
selection." He treated with ridicule the idea of
making the two captains named by Bastard, sub
jects of an address to the sovereign for favour,
merely because they had been thanked in the
lump with all the officers and all the seamen
who gained the glorious victory in question. Nor
did the chancellor of the exchequer omit to notice
with becoming disapprobation, the very gross
manner in which had been described the offices
necessary to be assumed by candidates for promo
tion. Such insinuations would indeed have been
most unjustly applied to Lord Howe, who was a
man of very correct manners ; but it did not
appear equally certain that some of the quaUfica-
tions enumerated, might not have formed recom
mendations to one of his predecessors in the same
office, the Earl of Sandwich. Bastard finding that
none of the opposition leaders came to his aid,
that Lord Hood took part against him, and that
the house seemed disinclined to adopt his propo
sition, withdrew it ; stating at the same time his
determination to renew it under another form.
18^/? April. — This menace he accomplished,
about two months afterwards, when he moved
for " the house to resolve itself into a committee,
to enquire into the conduct of the admiralty re
specting the late naval promotion." The argu
ments with which he maintained his proposition,
were nearly the same as he had used on the pre-

SIR G. HOWARD. — PITT. — FOX. 53
ceding occasion; but the result proved widely
different. Many professional men, some of whom
were warmly attached to administration, impelled
by personal feelings, declared in favour of the
motion. Sir George Howard, an officer devoted
to the crown, and who had been placed at the
head of the army, protested that he thought an
enquiry could not be refused without the sacri
fice of honour and of justice. Other individuals
of independent character followed his example.
Pitt resisted with great eloquence and ability
the tide which set strong against him ; combating
it by precedents, as well as by arguments ; allow
ing nevertheless, that if the point was agitated
within those walls, the present mode formed the
only constitutional ground on which the discus
sion could take place. Fox, concurring in this
sentiment, admitted the royal prerogative to be
sacred as it regarded the distribution of military
honours and rewards. " So firmly am I of that
opinion," added he, " that if an address to the
crown had been proposed, 1 could not support it ;
but the motion being for a committee, I shall give
my vote in its favour. Because it is the consti
tutional province of this house to watch over the
executive departments, wherever abuse is sus
pected to exist ; and finally to institute enquiry,
with a view either to censure, or to punishment."
He next proceeded to maintain, that in the recent
promotion, the first lord of the admiralty had

54 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
acted with partiality and oppression ; or, to use
the mUdest term which could apply to the act,
with caprice. A division took place at a late
hour of the morning ; ministers only carrying the
question by sixteen votes. Bastard was sustained
by 134 ; whUe 150, of which number I was one,
followed Pitt. It was, in fact, a defeat to admi
nistration ; and the mover, encouraged by such a
proof of parliamentary approbation, gave imme
diate notice that he would speedily bring the
matter anew under discussion.
29th April. — The third and last debate which
arose out of this naval promotion, followed after
an interval of about ten days. Neither Pitt nor
Fox, neither Dundas nor Sheridan, bore any part
in it. Bastard, who had exhausted the subject
as a topic of declamation, after a short speech,
moved, that it is " injurious to the service, and un
just, to set aside in the promotion to flags, meri
torious officers of approved service." The treasury
bench committed its defence principally to Lord
Hood. That veteran commander, whose figure,
countenance, and manners exhibited the charac
teristic marks of hard service, had fought his own
way up to honours and dignities. It was there
fore highly improbable that he would become the
apologist of a measure, which violated justice in
the persons of men with whom he had trod the
quarter-deck during forty years. Yet Lord Hood
strenuously vindicated the conduct of the noble-

LORD HOOD — LORD HOWE.— MACBRIDE. 55
man presiding at the admiralty. From documents
which he produced, it appeared that in almost
every past promotion, a greater proportion of
captains had been passed by, than included : but,
no complaint was to be found of national injury
sustained in consequence of such a practice. " The
noble viscount," pursued he, " ranks conspicuous,
in the opinion of the navy, as a brave and skilful
seaman. He has hitherto maintained a character
of unsullied honour and unimpeached integrity.
Can it be supposed that such a man, placed at the
head of the naval administration, would abuse his
power, and plunge into voluntary disgrace ? "
Various naval officers rose during the debate ;
every individual of whom, with the single excep
tion of Lord Hood, supported Bastard's motion.
Macbride, who in a former session had opposed
the Duke of Richmond's plan of fortifications,
inveighed against the system adopted by Lord
Howe. " I stand," exclaimed he, " fortieth on
the actual list of post captains, at this time.
Before the promotion reaches me, I may be worn
out; and consequently I shall be set aside, if
only those who can do actual duty are hence
forward to expect a flag. Two officers now pre
sent, (Lord Hood and Sir Edmund Affleck,) have
been deservedly elevated, one to an Irish peerage,
the other to the rank of a baronet. Monuments
in Westminster Abbey have been voted for two
others, who fell gloriously in the action of the

^6 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
12th of AprU 1782 : whUe Captains Balfour and
Thompson, who equally signalized themselves on
that occasion, are kicked out of the service." Lord
Mulgrave stood precisely in a similar predicament
with Macbride, his commission, as a post captain,
bearing date on one and the same day. During
the frst discussion respecting the promotions made
by Lord Howe, Lord Mulgrave, though seated
on the treasury bench, ventured to rise, and to
support indirectly Bastard's motion. But, being
gently reprehended by Pitt, for thus emancipat
ing himself from his ministerial fetters, in com
pliance with professional feelings ; he remained
silent throughout the course of the two succeed
ing debates. He had nearly served out his time,
and he received his reward, the British peerage,
little more than two years afterwards. Aware
how unpopular was the ground, as well as the
nobleman to be defended, ministers did not ven
ture to meet the motion with a direct negative.
They therefore moved the previous question, which
was carried by a majority oi fifty-one ; the respect
ive numbers being 220 against 169.
Notwithstanding this numerical victory of ad
ministration, the triumph of public opinion re
mained with the opposite party. The two naval
captains excluded by Lord Howe, received ample
compensation for the loss of rank, if the parlia
mentary recognition of their merits could allay
their wounded feelings. Nor did that nobleman

LORD HOWE. 57
long survive in his official capacity the selection
which he had made, whatever were the motives by
which it was dictated. He languished near three
months in employment, and then resigned. He
was indeed kicked up stairs, being advanced from
the dignity of a viscount, to the rank of an earl,
with remainder of a barony to his three daugh
ters, he having no son. This augmentation of
honours, which he probably anticipated as certain
whenever he should retire from the admiralty,
though it might alleviate, could not compensate
the loss of power, coupled with the circumstances
by which it was occasioned, or at least accelerated.
He returned no more to that post ; but the naval
action of the 1st of June, 1794, when he defeat
ed the fleet of republican France in the Bay of
Biscay, shed a lustre over his declining years.
That the king did not regret his resignation, no
man doubted. Lord Howe's conduct during the
American war, while commanding beyond the
Atlantic, as well as in parliament, subsequent to
his return, was known to have made a deep im
pression on his majesty's mind. Nor could he
efface that sentiment by the charms of his ad
dress, or of his conversation. Taciturn, phleg
matic, and destitute of all gaiety, his German
descent from George the First might be traced
not only on his features, but in his whole de
portment. Those persons, indeed, who remarked the hos-

58 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
tUe part taken by Sir George Howard, during
the second debate relative to the promotions at
the admiralty ; and who knew the almost un
limited deference of the commander-in-chief for
his sovereign's supposed wishes ; inferred that so
good a courtier did not steer such a course, with
out secretly knowing that it would be approved
at St. James's. Pitt unquestionably fulfiUed every
ministerial obligation imposed on him, towards
one of his colleagues in office, throughout the dis
cussions that took place, however he might lament
the cause that rendered necessary his exertions.
So might Lord Hood, whose services, eminent as
they confessedly were, yet would not perhaps
have raised him to the dignity of the British
peerage, if Fox, instead of Pitt, had presided in
the councils of the crown from 1784 to 1801.
Assuredly, his brother, Alexander ; who had ren
dered himself so obnoxious by his evidence on
Keppel's court martial, after the action of the 27th
of July 1778 ; would not have been created a
viscount, unless Pitt had been minister. The two
Hoods were sons of the clergyman of the village
of South Petherton in Somersetshire, where was
situate the estate of Burton Pynsent, bequeathed
by Sir William Pynsent to the first Mr. Pitt, as a
tribute of grateful admiration for his public ser
vices. They rose under his auspices, and devolv
ed on his son. Pitt could not well regret Lord
Howe's departure from office. He had, indeed,

PIT1\ 59
every reason to rejoice at it ; as he supplied the
vacant place by introducing his own brother, the
Earl of Chatham, into that high employment.
Lord Hood, named at the same time a member of
the board of admiralty, was given him as a Mentor.
5th May. — The severe conflicts which Pitt had
with so much difficulty surmounted, during the
passage of the "East India Declaratory BiU," and
throughout the discussions respecting Lord Howe,
were speedily obliterated by a day of triumph.
Early in May he laid before parliament a state of
the finances ; or in technical language, he opened
the budget. Never did any minister make a more
gratifying exposition, conveyed in language equal
ly clear, concise, and yet ample in point of infor
mation ! Without parade or ostentation, he ob
served that a very considerable augmentation had
occurred in the expences of the actual year, be
yond the estimate made in 1786 ; which encrease
had been judged indispensable to our national
honour, as well as prosperity. Having then de
tailed the different items or heads of this extra
ordinary expenditure; having shewn tliat they
amounted in the aggregate to near one miUion
three hundred thousand pounds ; of which sum,
one hundred and eighty thousand had been voted
towards payment of the Prince of Wales's debts ;
" Notwithstanding these heavy demands," added
Pitt, "there now remains a clear surplus of seven
teen thousand pounds ; without new taxes, with-

60 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
out loan, and without interrupting for an instant
the application of the million set apart for the dis
charge of the national debt. Seven millions have
been expended within the last four years, on the
improvement of the navy. Thirty ships of the
line, and thirty -five frigates, have been construct
ed or repaired, more than during the first four
years which followed the peace of 1763. Mean
while, in addition to all these propitious events,
we have extinguished two miUions and a half of
our national debt."
Gratifying as was the minister's disclosure of
the state of the finances, the contrast which they
formed with those of France prodigiously aug
mented its effect. " I have," said he, " seen
within these few hours past, the acknowledged
condition of the French revenue, as exhibited by
their own government. According to that ac
count, the avowed annual deficiency, after all the
retrenchments which they have effected, does not
fall short of two millions three hundred thousand
pounds sterling. Our rival therefore, who en
gaged in a war for the emancipation of our late
colonies; which object she accomplished, and from
which she projected to draw immense advantages ;
has failed in her ambitious calculations." So ex-
hUarating a picture of our national resources re
flected too much lustre on the administration to
pass without comment. Sheridan rising as soon as
the chancellor of the exchequer finished, observed.

SHERIDAN. 61
that " invidious as the task might be, it neverthe
less became necessary to dissipate the delusion
under which the country laboured, and to detect
the fallacies by which it was still attempted to
perpetuate that deception." He then proceeded,
with great financial ability, to dissect every pro
position contained in the speech just pronounced;
exhibiting proof of the solidity and depth of those
faculties, the brilliancy of which he had so fre
quently displayed in that assembly.
Passing in review consecutively, Pitt's asser
tions and calculations, he endeavoured to demon
strate their falsity, or at least their uncertainty
and exaggeration. If he did not persuade his
audience of the truth of all his own assertions, he
unquestionably impressed on their minds a strong
conviction of his extraordinary endowments : for,
contrary to his accustomed habits, wit formed no
part of his appeal. The whole was fact and arith
metical demonstration. Such was the versatility
of his parts, adapted to parliament as well as to
the theatre ; formed equaUy to delight at Drury-
lane, in the house of commons, or in Westmin
ster Hall ! Sheridan wanted only two qualfica-
tions in order to have outshone all his contem
poraries. I mean, application and moral character.
He possessed, even more than Burke, a super
abundance of genius. But the defects of his
conduct finally plunged him in embarrassments
of every kind, enfeebled his intellect, produced

62 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
premature old age, accompanied with diseases,
and terminating in death. Raised to the rank of a
privy counsellor before his decease, endowed with
transcendent talents, after sitting almost his whole
life in parliament, caressed by princes, by women,
by all mankind ; his concluding days were passed
in taverns, and in spunging-houses, surrounded
by bailiffs, a stranger to domestic tranquillity or
enjoyments. Neither Bacon, nor the second Vil
liers, Duke of Buckingham, nor Pope's Duke of
Wharton, hold out more striking proofs of the
inefficiency of genius to excite respect, or even to
procure comfort, if not accompanied with pru
dence and with morals, than was exhibited in
the person of Sheridan.
Fox continued the attack thus begun on the
budget. " I make no scruple," observed he, " to
assert, whatever odium may accompany the de
claration, that our revenues and resources have
been represented in language as much too san
guine, as our annual expenditure has been esti
mated on too low a scale. This exaggeration
produced the very delusion by which France has
been reduced to her actual state of embarrass
ment. But, such is the happy constitution of
Great Britain, that we cannot long be held in
error. We may be deceived in pence; in mil
lions, deception cannot operate." On the follow
ing day. Sir Grey Cooper, foUowed by Hussey,
member for SaUsbury, (both men deeply conver-

FOX. — HUSSEY.— P[TT. — PULTENEY. 63
sant in matters of finance,) undertook to point
out the fallacy of Pitt's propositions. The former,
than whom few individuals within those waUs
better understood the subject, at considerable
length discussed the budget, and declared it to be
an illusion. Hussey put various questions to the
minister, designed to probe the obscure or vul
nerable parts of his exposure. Pitt, thus assailed,
justified his calculations. Yet, with a manly mind
he admitted, that though he saw no reason for
expecting it, nevertheless the revenue might de
ceive his expectation in the coming year. "Should
the fact so prove," added he, " this house must
meet the difficulty in a becoming manner, and
raise the deficiency by a loan, or by new taxes."
Pulteney, more favourably disposed towards ad
ministration, complimented the chancellor of the
exchequer on his financial plans, bestowing on
them the most flattering epithets. All the reso
lutions proposed by Pitt for the adoption of the
house were finally passed without any division.
The proceedings in the prosecution of Impey,
which had been retarded by the examinations of
witnesses, at length appeared to approach their
termination. Towards the last days of April, Sir
Gilbert EUiot began to open the charge relative
to the trial and execution of Nundcomar. His
monotonous and measured enunciation, unillu-
minated by a ray of vivacity, or a spark of wit,
derived nevertheless an interest from the sound

64 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
sense which pervaded his whole discourse, from
the serious nature of the accusation preferred,
and, above all, from his accurate information on
the subject. He admitted that Sir Elijah's de
fence had produced on his audience, as well as on
the public, a very favourable impression. But
he took occasion, at the same time, to comment
with great severity on the sort of defence to
which the person accused had thought proper to
resort. In fact. Sir Elijah, with the guarded cau
tion of a man bred to the law, made only a verbal
defence, declining to commit it to paper. The
chancellor, (Lord Thurlow,) when alluding to the
circumstance, during a debate in the house of
peers, had not hesitated to pronounce Impey a wise
man for having adopted such a mode of reply.
Nor did he scruple to declare Hastings a weak
man, for having delivered in at the bar a written
defence. Elliot adverting next to Sir Elijah's
justification, that " he had done nothing more
than the other judges who tried Nundcomar;
and that if he was guilty, they participated in his
culpability ;" observed, " In every instance where
more than one person is accused of committing a
criminal act, it is customary to prosecute the ring
leader. The end of justice is thus sufficiently
answered, the principle of human penalties being
to make an example of great offenders, thereby
deterring others from the perpetration of similar
enormities."

SIR GILBERT ELLIOT. — ALEXANDER ELLIOT. 65
Sir Gilbert next approached a part of his argu
ment on which he felt it necessary to observe
the utmost circumspection. I mean, the share
taken by his own brother in Nundcomar's trial.
This brother, Alexander Elliot, had been sent
out, when very young, to Calcutta, in the civil
service of the East India Company ; where he
not only gave promise, but exhibited proofs, of
distinguished talents. They had justly endeared
him to Hastings ; and on the trial of the unfortu
nate rajah, Elliot acted in court as interpreter.
He was subsequently sent home to England by
the governor-general, on a secret mission, at which
time he brought to London the copy of that legal
proceeding. Returning to India, he continued to
enjoy, and to deserve, Hastings's friendship. But
his career was arrested, he having perished in the
flower of youth, from the consequences of passing
the Cuttack river, after a course of mercurial me
dicines, while he was on his way from Bengal to
Madras. His premature end excited universal
regret; and the governor-general, as a last tribute
to his memory, ordered a monument to be erected
on the spot where he expired. In his parody on
Horace's " Ode to Pompeius Grosphus," Hastings
has commemorated his friend, when alluding to
the " Abstulit clarum cita mors Achillen "
of the Roman poet, though I do not exactly re
collect the English lines. Sir GUbert attempted
VOL. III. F

66 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
to prove that his brother, of whom he spoke with
the warmest feelings of fraternal affection, neither
participated in, nor had ever manifested any ap
probation of. Sir Elijah Impey's conduct during
Nundcomar's trial. But Sir Richard Sutton, who
undertook Impey's defence, produced and read in
his place a letter addressed by Alexander ElUot
to the chief justice of Bengal. It was dated from
the mouth of the Ganges, on board the ship which
conveyed him to Europe ; and contained the most
unequivocal expressions in favour of the court, as
well as of the judge, who tried and condemned
Nundcomar. This evidence was not, however,
brought forward on that night, being reserved by
Sutton for the evening when a division finally
took place on the question relative to Impey's
guilt or innocence,
tth May. — Sir Gilbert Elliot, on the second
debate, which followed after an interval of about
ten days, endeavoured to prove that the whole
judicial proceedings instituted against Nundco
mar, were in themselves subversive of, as well as
contrary to, the established forms of criminal jus
tice.' He denied that the King of England pos
sessed, or could delegate, any jurisdiction whatever
over the natives of India. His reasonings on that
most important point appeared to me to carry
with them great weight, if they were not indeed
unanswerable. Even though the right of trying

IMPEY,— SIR GILBERT ELLIOT. 67
the accused rajah by the authority of British
laws should be recognized, yet he maintained that
Impey's whole conduct, while sitting on the bench,
carried with it an internal evidence of his inten
tion or determination to dispatch Nundcomar.
Sir Elijah well knew that the rajah had not only
come forward as the informer against Mr. Has
tings, whom he accused of gross peculation ; but
was likewise engaged as a principal witness in a
pending prosecution, for the express purpose of
proving the allegation, at the very time that he
was apprehended, indicted, and brought to trial.
Impey's avowed political attachment to the gover
nor-general, — a fact which was not contradicted,
— rendered it too probable that he had made him
self the voluntary instrument of Hastings's resent
ment. Lastly, Elliot positively denied that the
crime of forgery had ever been regarded through
out Hindostan as a capital offence punishable with
death. Nundcomar's counsel, he observed, at the
very commencement of the trial, had made objec
tions to the competency of the tribunal before
which he was arraigned; — objections, which the
chief justice answered with marks of unbecoming
warmth and passion. Even in the examination
of the witnesses, and throughout every part of
Impey's conduct, he asserted that the indelible
traces of partiality were obvious and incontestable ;
fixing on the chief justice a strong suspicion of
F 2

68 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
his having become the governor-general's instru
ment, for the purpose of offering up Nundcomar
as a victim.
Having reached this stage of the charge, Sir
Gilbert threw himself on the liberality of the
house, to permit of his postponing for a few
hours the remaining circumstances of the case.
Two points in particular, both which took place
subsequent to the trial, merited, he said, their pe
culiar attention : namely. Sir Elijah's having over
ruled an arrest of judgment, which had been mov
ed ; and his refusal to grant a respite. Sir Richard
Sutton opposing the proposition of any further
delay, as equally injurious to the feelings ofthe
individual accused, and disgraceful to their own
proceedings, Burke started up in great agitation.
After pronouncing a fine encomium on his friend's
speech, he demanded whether some attention was
not due to a member who requested a short pause
from the exertion and fatigue that he had under
gone ? — " We have been called upon," continued
he, " to consider the feelings of the person ac
cused. But the person himself does not manifest
in his deportment that he is much actuated by
feelings becoming his present situation. I have
recently seen him in Westminster Hall, where he
appeared rather like an accuser, than a party ac
cused. Contumacious, arrogant, confident, and
assuming, — " Here loud and general cries of Or
der! interrupted his further progress. Burke still

IMPEY. — BURKE. — PITT. 69
attempted, nevertheless, to justify, and even to
repeat his animadversions on Impey's behaviour,
as altogether unbecoming a man charged with
such weighty crimes. Finding, however, that
the house would not permit him to throw out
reflections of that nature against an absent indi
vidual, he assumed a milder tone. With pathetic
remonstrances he endeavoured to shew, that even
Impey's friends would neither consult his honour,
nor his advantage, by pressing for a hasty de
cision. He was himself, he said, from exhausture,
utterly unfit to take part in a debate of such
magnitude. Pitt now interposed. Having passed
a comment rather severe on the length of Sir Gil
bert's two speeches, and having expressed his re
luctance to postpone the business to another day;
he yet admitted that if the mover of the charge
found himself unable to proceed, the assembly
must of necessity adjourn. It was universally
agreed at the same time, that a final decision
should take place on the evening fixed for the
next agitation of, the question.
9th May. — Not having been present on that
occasion, I cannot relate, as an ear-witness, any
of the circumstances which then occurred. Some
friends of Impey had strongly importuned me to
attend in my place whenever the last discussion
should arise. But, as I thought very differently
from them on the subject of his judicial conduct
in Bengal, I left London, in order to avoid giv-

70 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
ing any vote. In the composition of these me
moirs, I lay claim only to one merit, truth, which
necessarily includes impartiality. Whatever er
rors may become embodied in the work, I have
not any where intentionally disguised or given a
false colouring to facts. I highly disapproved and
condemned every part of Impey's conduct, from
the commencement to the catastrophe of Nund
comar's trial. That it was " a legal murder," I
will not by any means assert : but the proceed
ings were more worthy of Jefferies, or of Scroggs,
than of Hale, or of Forster. A determination,
not only to condemn, but to execute the sen
tence, seems to have animated the chief justice.
Otherwise, why did he not respite the prisoner ?
Yet, as three other judges participated with him
throughout the whole proceeding, I doubt whe
ther Impey could legally be an object of exclusive
impeachment. When I thus pass moral sentence on Sir Elijah,
I most reluctantly extend it to Mr. Hastings,
under whose concealed directions, or understood
wishes, it is impossible not to suppose that he
acted. Here again I sacrifice to truth : for these
memoirs sufficiently attest how highly I estimate
the governor-general's public services. They
were, in my opinion, eminent : but Nundcomar's
execution cast a shade over his administration,
I do not indeed hesitate to declare, that under aU
the circumstances of the two cases, the execution

IMPEY. — SIR GILBERT ELLIOT. 71
of Mary, Queen of Scots, which has been con
sidered as so great a blemish in the reign and
character of Elizabeth, excites far less condemna
tion, and is susceptible of a much more solid
defence, than are the proceedings that accompa
nied the trial, and precipitated the end, of the
Hindoo rajah. If I had been compelled to vote on
the question, however I might have regretted
such a necessity, yet, beyond a doubt, I should
have been found on that night among the mi
nority. I am of opinion that two-thirds of the
members who were absent, would, on a similar
supposition, have acted in the same manner.
Though I did not assist in my place on the 9th
of May, nevertheless the interesting nature of
the subject, and my personal acquaintance with
every individual who took part in the discussion,
lead me to detail its principal features. It was
universally admitted that Elliot summed up with
great ability. He endeavoured to prove, from a
number of concurring facts, the systematic crimi
nality of Impey in not respiting the prisoner,
even though he might have been capitally con
victed by iniquitously applying to the case our
statutes of English law. " I would vainly seek,"
continued EUiot, " such an accumulation of guilt
in the legal annals of our own country. It is
only from the sanguinary records of Spanish
America that I can extract a precedent. When
Pizarro was determined to put to death the Peru-

72 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
vian Inca AtabaUpa, he constituted a court with
aU the formalities of law, before which tribunal
he arraigned the devoted prince. Pizarro then
accused him of having usurped his own kingdom,
and of levying war on the Spaniards, his rightful
sovereigns. On these atrocious charges was the
Inca condemned and executed." — " What is
there," observed EUiot, " in Sir Elijah Impey's
character that should prevent his impeachment ?
Neither the dignity, the profound learning, nor
the comprehensive genius of Lord Bacon, the
founder of modern science, could shelter him
from the punishment merited by his corruption
as a judge." Towards the conclusion of his
speech, after appealing to the reason of his au
dience, he addressed himself to their emotions.
Having related the affecting particulars of Nund
comar's end, from the testimony of an eye
witness, " The ghost of that murdered rajah,"
exclaimed Sir Gilbert, " demands justice ! It is
on all our heads ! The cry of blood rings in our
ears, and bursts our walls for vengeance ! To
your justice therefore I commit the culprit. Deal
with him as he deserves." There is something in
these appalling expressions which involuntarily
reminds us of Clarence's dream ; of the " shadow
like an angel, with bright hair dabbled in blood,"
who shrieks aloud,
" Seize on him. Furies, take him to your torments I "
Sir Richard Sutton, to whom the defence of

IMPEY.— SIR RICHARD SUTTON, — FOX. 73
Impey was principally entrusted, rising imme
diately, addressed the house. He was a man of
coarse and almost rugged exterior; but whose
powers of mind, matured by experience, and for
tified by perfect information of the case under
discussion, enabled him to place in the most fa
vourable point of view every fact which could
conduce to the extrication of the chief justice.
After professing his inability to follow Sir Gil
bert through a speech, or rather, through three
speeches, comprizing in the aggregate ffteen hours ;
Sutton, in language of perspicuity and energy,
brought forward a number of documents calcu
lated to erase the impression of Impey's guilt.
He was followed by Macdonald and Arden, the
soUcitor and attorney-general, both of whom jus
tified Sir Elijah's conduct on the bench through
out the trial ; but both acknowledged that if they
had sate as judges on the occasion, they should
have respited the prisoner. Such an admission
was in itself a moral condemnation. AU the
entrenchments thrown up by legal ingenuity, in
order to protect the chief justice, were however
stormed with resistless eloquence by Fox, who
accused him of having committed a deliberate
murder. The application to Nundcomar's case, of
English acts of parliament, passed under Eliza
beth, or early in George the Second's reign, long
before we acquired any territorial possessions in
India, Fox treated with mingled ridicule and

74 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
indignation, " Would any man except Sir Elijah
Impey," demanded he, " on the doubtful opera
tion of such statutes, have taken upon himself
the responsibihty of putting an individual to
death? Must he not have said to himself, be
fore he passed sentence on the unhappy prisoner,
' If I had been in England, I could riot have per
petrated this act of blood. There, the king's pre
rogative of mercy would have been sacred ; but
here, this wretch is in my power, and I wiU mur
der him,' "
Pursuing Impey with the same force of severe
reason. Fox endeavoured to render palpable his
complicity with the governor-general, for the
purpose of offering up Nundcomar. " It is, to
my conviction," observed Fox, " absurd to main
tain, that no malice existed in the chief justice's
mind throughout the trial. His subservience to
Mr. Hastings is to be presumed from all the
circumstances of the case. Being so presumed,
a corrupt motive forms a necessary inference : for
no two individuals would agree in so wicked an
act as that of taking away a fellow-creature's life,
without a corrupt motive of some kind." Fox's
conclusion was most impressive. " If," said he,
" I was called on to pronounce as a man of honour,
I should declare that Sir Elijah Impey has been
guilty of a deliberate murder. I would say the
same, if I were to depose as a juryman, on my
oath. I lament that our powers, as a branch of

IMPEY. — FOX, — PITT, 75
the legislature, are so contracted, that we can only
vote him guilty of a high crime and misde
meanor ; because, in my opmion, imprisonment for
life, and half his fortune, could form no adequate
compensation for his guilt." He added, " It is well
known that I am not a sanguinary man. But I
should not regret if murder were, in the present
instance, to incur the punishment deserved by
murder." The chancellor of the exchequer did not rise till
a late hour. On his line of conduct, Impey's
friends well knew, would probably turn the final
event. Pitt spoke with force and decision ; de
claring his firm belief that " in no view could any
corrupt motive be brought home to Sir Elijah ; and
that therefore he should give his negative to the
question of impeachment ; as, unless a corrupt
motive could be proved, no man ought to support
Elliot's proposition." The accusation of a conspi
racy between Impey and Hastings, for the pur
pose of destroying Nundcomar, he treated as des
titute of any shadow of solid proof. Reviewing
in succession all the objections urged against the
competency of the tribunal before which the
rajah was arraigned ; the consequent illegality of
the proceedings, and the refusal of the chief jus
tice to grant a respite ; Pitt endeavoured to de
monstrate their futility. So indignant was Fox
at finding the minister thus extend his shield over
Impey, that he did not scruple to say in reply.

76 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
" I consider the man who can bring himself seri
ously to defend such a conduct, as an accomplice
in the guilt of the murder." But Pitt calmly an
swered, that " if the innocence of Nundcomar had
ever been shewn, he would then have admitted
there existed some foundation for the declamatory
invective just pronounced." I have nevertheless
always considered Pitt's speech on this occasion
as having done more honour to his abilities, than to
his principles. That the corrupt motive by which
the chief justice had been actuated, was not juridi
cally proved, must indeed be conceded : but all
the circumstances of the transaction impress with
a strong conviction of his guilt. Nor will im
partial posterity probably approve the conduct of
a minister who could join in the impeachment of
Hastings for political crimes, while he became the
advocate and the protector of a judge who, when
sitting on a case of life and death, acted like
Impey. Two individuals distinguished themselves on
that evening ; one, by the eloquent but vehement
nature of his vspeech ; the other, by its Spartan
force and brevity. The former. Colonel FuUar
ton, whom I have already had occasion to men
tion, inveighed in animated terms against Impey,
as a criminal of the most atrocious description ;
whose ermine was steeped in human blood, who
trampled on all laws to gratify his insatiate love
of money, who amassed an immense fortune by

IMPEY. — FULLARTON. — SIR J. JOHNSTONE. 77
bribes and contracts, and who had converted the
court of judicature itself into an " officina scelerum
et malorum." Nor did he fail to verify many of
these allegations, by more than declamation.
Some of the facts which he enumerated, however
irrelevant they might be to the immediate subject
under discussion, yet deeply impressed his audi
ence. On the cruelty and injustice of subjecting
a Hindoo to the operation of English laws, which
never could be construed to extend over that
country, FuUarton observed, " If it were legal to
hang Nundcomar on the statute passed in 1728
against forgery ; it would be equally consonant to
justice, to hang the Nabob of Bengal, or the Great
Mogul, and all his court, on the statute of James
the First against bigamy." Sir James Johnstone,
who always brought Robert Bruce before my
eyes ; but who concealed under a rough form, and
unpolished manners, great integrity, directed by
strong sense ; exclaimed, after listening more than
two hours to Fullarton's severe philippic, " Every
argument confirms my opinion that the question
ought to be supported. We have beheaded a
king : we have hanged a peer : we have shot an
admiral: we are now trying a governor-general;
and I can see no reason why we should not put
on his trial, a judge and a chief justice."
Burke concluded this long and most interesting
discussion. Having laboured, not without effect,
to prove, from a variety of concurring testimonies.

78 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the confederacy that existed between Mr, Has
tings and Sir Elijah Impey, for Nundcomar's de
struction ; " Those persons," continued he, " who
sanction by their vote such an act of enormity,
will practically say to future judges, 'Copy the
conduct of the chief justice of Bengal, Desert
your duty and your impartiality. Become politi
cal instruments in the hands of government. Op
pose power to right, and instead of protecting
innocence, embrace the cause of guilt !' " His ani
madversions on Pitt were most severe, " It was
asserted of old," said Burke, " that if the gods ad
dressed themselves to men, they would use the
language of the Greeks. With equal truth may
I declare, that if despotism itself were to speak, it
would use the language, and enforce the argu
ments, of the chancellor of the exchequer." After
a debate of more than twelve hours, a division
at length took place. I believe that the attend
ance never exceeded 'two hundred members, at
any period of the night. Only one hundred and
twenty-eight voted on the question, who did not
constitute a fourth part of the aggregate numbers
of the house of commons, as then formed. Fifty-
five were for the impeachment ; seventy-three
negatived it : thus leaving a majority in favour of
Sir Elijah, amounting to eighteen. It might be
deemed an escape ; but it could not be denomi
nated a triumph. Dundas did not vote on the
question ; — a circumstance which gave rise to

THE HON. J. C. VILLIERS. 79
much speculation, as he very rarely took a differ
ent line in parliament from the minister. That
the real independent majority of the members
present were of opinion to impeach Impey, no
man can doubt, who considers how many indivi
duals im-p\icit\y followed Pitt. I will estimate them
at eleven, but I might take them at a higher num
ber, and I shall enumerate them.
The Hon. John Charles Villiers, whom he made
chief justice in eyre north of Trent not. more
than a year and a half afterwards, may be placed
at their head. This office, a sinecure, and for life,
he owed entirely to the minister's friendship ; and
he continues to hold it at the present hour. Lord
Camelford (probably at Pitt's request) brought
Mr. Villiers into parliament, for Old Sarum.
Early in 1787 he had been made comptroller of
the king's household, by the same powerful influ
ence. He possessed no parliamentary ability ; but
his figure was tall and elegant ; his features noble,
and set off by a profusion of light hair. The
" RoUiad" notices him as
"Villiers, comely -with the flaxen hair ;"
subjoining, " The character of Villiers seems to be
drawn after the Nireus oi Homer ; who, as the
commentators remark, is celebrated in the cata
logue of warriors, for the handsomest man in the
Grecian army, and is never mentioned again
through the whole twenty-four books of the
Iliad." Edward James Eliot, and his younger

80 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
brother, John EUot, now Earl of St. Germain's,
who then jointly represented the Cornish borough
of Liskeard, might be regarded as almost insepa
rable from the chancellor of the exchequer. He
had raised their father to the British peerage, im
mediately after his own accession to power, in
January 1784 ; and the eldest of the two brothers
stood in the closest ties of connexion with him
by marriage.
Mr. William Grenville, from consanguinity, as
well as from principle, naturaUy kept his eye
fixed on Pitt. So did the Marquis of Graham,
on whom he lavishly conferred offices and honours,
down to the period of his own decease. Lord
Hood, and his brother Sir Alexander, I have al
ready counted, not long since, among the devot
ed adherents of the minister. Rose and Steele,
the two secretaries of the treasury, follow
ed of course the head of the board. No indivi
dual in the house was probably more strongly
attached to Pitt than the Earl of Mornington,
whom he had made a lord of the treasury in 1786.
He represented Windsor at this time. Lastly,
Addington, now Lord Sidmouth, owed his whole
advancement in life to the protection of the chan
cellor of the exchequer, who, not long afterwards,
placed him in the Speaker's chair. I do not in
clude in this list either Mr. Bankes, or Lord
Apsley, now Earl Bathurst, though both voted
against Impey's impeachment ; because. the for-

SIR ELIJAH IMPEY. 81
mer, notwithstanding his friendship for Pitt, al
ways displayed a most independent mind, neither
to be warped by interest, ambition, or attachment.
Lord Apsley, who was placed at the board of
admiralty by Pitt, in December 1783, of which
he stUl remained a member, I might be fuUy jus
tified in ranging among the ministerial followers.
Hardinge, who during the debates that preceded
Hastings's prosecution, in April and May 1786,
exclaimed so vehemently against allowing the
governor-general's public services to form a set-off
against his demerits ; — Hardinge, who then dis
played so tender a political conscience, yet voted
for acquitting Impey. Kenyon likewise gave his
vote to Sir Elijah ; but he did not speak on the
question. It is evident that Impey owed his
security to his profession. If he had not been a
lawyer, he would probably have been impeached.
We must recoUect that Pitt was bred to the bar :
Fox felt no predilection for the long robe.
Several of the minister's most intimate friends
absented themselves nevertheless on that night.
Lord Bayham, now Marquis Camden, whose
father had been raised to the dignity of an earl,
only two years earlier, by Pitt, — and who was
himself a lord of the admiralty, — did not attend the
debate. Another member of the same board, a
nobleman with whom I have lived in some de
gree of intimacy ; a man most conscientious and
correct in aU the actions of his life ; — I mean,
VOL. in. G

82 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Lord Arden ; — declined voting on the point.
So did Lord Mulgrave, notwithstanding the lu
crative office of which he was in possession, and
the peerage to which he looked forward with
anxious expectation. John James Hamilton, who
so soon afterwards became by Pitt's special favour
Marquis of Abercorn, strenuously as he support
ed the governor-general, yet did not form one of
Impey's small majority. Even Mr. Robert Smith,
on whom his friend the chancellor of the exche
quer induced his majesty, nine years later, to con
fer a British peerage, absented himself on that
evening. To the members who followed the
head of the administration, we must add four
who were devotedly attached to Hastings. Major
Scott was his agent ; Mr. Sumner and Mr. Suli-
van, his two sureties at the bar of the house of
lords. Finally, Barwell, who, while a member
of the supreme council, had invariably taken part
with the governor-general in all his disputes with
Clavering, Monson, and Francis. Barwell had
besides, during his residence at Calcutta, formed an
intimate connexion with Impey. A prosecution
having been instituted by the East India Company
against the former for specific acts of peculation,
which suit was tried before the latter, Barwell was
cast in the action. Yet, while sitting on the
bench, the chief justice, though engaged in the
exercise of his solemn judicial functions, did not
hesitate to declare that he had accepted the office

EXPENCES OF HASTINGSS PROSECUTION. 83
of trustee for Mr. Barwell, and of guardian to
his children. This fact, which Colonel FuUarton
asserted in the course of his speech, and which re
mained uncontradicted, sufficiently accounted for
the vote given by Barwell, If, after deducting
the personal friends of Pitt and of Hastings, we
calculate Impey's majority, we shall find it re
duced almost to a nullity. His person and for
tune were, however, secured by it. His official
character, in my opinion, suffered shipwreck.
12th — 18th May.— Since the commencement of
Hastings's impeachment, no account had hitherto
been deUvered to parliament, specifying the mode
in which the sums of money were expended
which had been advanced by the exchequer to the
managers of the prosecution, although these issues
already amounted to several thousand pounds.
A motion being unexpectedly made from the mi
nisterial side of the house, demanding that " the
account should be laid on the table," Pitt express
ed not only his assent to the proposition itself;
but added, that the lords of the treasury had ad
dressed a letter on the subject to the managers,
making the necessary enquiries. " As, however,"
continued he, "the answer received gives little
hope of deriving from them the information re
quired, I am happy that means have been adopted
for compelling its production." Fox, with great
temper, replied, that the managers were undoubt
edly responsible to parliament for the propriety of
G 2

84 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the services ordered ; though not for the disburse
ment of the money, which lay with the solicitors
employed on the prosecution ; over whom it was
the duty of the lords of the treasury to exercise
due vigilance. But Burke, who, as chairman, had
written the answer alluded to by Pitt, after ob
serving that he should make no objection to the
motion, subjoined, that "the suggestion made by
the chancellor of the exchequer, as applying to
the letter which he had written by order of the
committee of managers, was not true." Pitt, thus
contradicted on a point of fact, rose a second
time ; and after remarking the decency and pro
priety of Fox's reply, " The other gentleman,"
said he, " perhaps from being accustomed to use
an extraordinary license of speech elsewhere, for
gets the place in which he now is, and seems desi
rous of introducing the practice within these walls.
No impropriety committed by him, and which dis
graces himself, shall however prevent me from
doing my duty, as well as saying whatever may
be dictated by a sense of that duty." He then
formally repeated his preceding assertion. Irri
tated by this reprimand, Burke inveighed with
much asperity against the minister. Finding
nevertheless the sense of the house decidedly ad
verse to him, he on the same night presented the
accounts. They contained no particulars of the
expenditure ; briefly stating that a sum exceed
ing 8,000/. had been already issued by the trea-

SLAVE-TRADE. — WILBERFORCE. — PITT. 85
sury. About 3,800/. of it was laid out in erecting,
or in furnishing, the court ; while more than
4,000/. passed into the hands of the gentlemen of
the long robe, retained for aiding the impeach
ment. Another occurrence of a most interesting na
ture, took place on the same evening. Wilber
force (a name which will always be pronounced
with veneration) was at that time one of the
representatives for the county of York. Impelled
by the active benevolence of his character, he had,
after mature reflection, digested a plan for the re
gulation, if not for the suppression, of the negro
trade. As early as the commencement of the
session, he had even given notice of his in
tention to bring the subject before the house ;
which he would personally have carried into
effect, if he had not been prevented by illness.
Pitt, with whom he had contracted an early
friendship, which years had cemented, under
took therefore to supply his place. Having
briefly. stated that the African trade had long en
gaged the public attention, Pitt observed that two
opinions respecting it seemed to divide the na
tion ; aU agreeing in the necessity of taking some
steps, but not coinciding as to their precise extent:
the complete abolition being demanded by a vast
majority, while. others conceived that it might
still be permitted to exist under certain limita
tions. But, on account of the advanced period

86 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
of the session, he thought it judicious to defer all
further proceedings tiU the ensuing year ; when,
if his friend should not be sufficiently recovered
to undertake the task, he pledged himself to sub
mit a proposition for their consideration. He
concluded by a motion to that effect. Throughout
his whole speech, Pitt took care, however, not
even to glance at his own opinions upon the
question, reserving all explanation respecting it
for future deliberations.
Fox instantly stood up, and in language of
force, yet not intemperate, declared his surprize,
as well as his sorrow, at finding that it was in
tended to postpone to another session the con
sideration of so important a subject. Pitt never
theless persisting to declare that he would make
no disclosure of his individual intentions, until
the whole matter should be agitated on a future
day, Burke reiterated Fox's arguments in more
vehement terms. Martin, — who, like Aristides,
never enquired whether a measure was merely
useful, but whether it was just and humane, —
briefly expressed his hopes that " no political
benefit, no commercial expediency or advantage,
would ever be allowed to preponderate, in oppo
sition to the eternal dictates of moral rectitude."
Sir William Dolben, one of the representatives for
the University of Oxford, declared his instruc
tions from that respectable body to be most ad
verse to a continuation of the commerce in slaves.

PELHAM. — PITT. — LORD PENRHYN. 87
With much emotion, he pointed out the misery
endured by the human victims crowded into ves
sels, on board which they were transported to the
West India colonies, as calling loudly for immediate
interposition. " Between the present session," add
ed he, " and the commencement of the next, ten
thousand lives may be sacrificed to our criminal
delay." Mr. Pelham, then member for the coun
ty of Sussex, rising in his turn, avowed not only
his detestation of the traffic in question, but his
intention, if supported by the house, to bring for
ward, before the approaching prorogation, a mea
sure for its general regulation. In answer to so
many appeals, Pitt replied, that though he should
most thankfully receive every species of informa
tion which might be offered him, yet, as he could
not consider the question itself to be ripe for dis
cussion, he should persist in his original motion.
Two, and only two, individuals, ventured to
speak in extenuation, if not in justification, of
the African trade. They jointly represented the
town of Liverpool, and loudly called for an im
mediate investigation, as the sole mode of ex
posing the calumnies circulated respecting the
merchants, as well as the planters, engaged in
that unpopular branch of commerce. The first.
Lord Penrhyn, had been raised to the dignity
of the Irish peerage by Fox, in the autumn of
the year 1783 ; when the king, though he posi
tively refused to augment the British house of

88 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
lords, consented to add eight or nine to the peers
of the sister kingdom. I may here remark, that
in thus acting, his majesty, or his secret advisers,
displayed much foresight ; for on the first divi
sion to which the memorable " East India Bill"
gave rise in the upper house, shortly afterwards,
the adjournment was carried against administra
tion by a majority of only eight votes. If, there
fore. Fox could have induced George the Third
to give him a similar mark of royal favour, or
weakness, with the proof of both exhibited by
Anne in 1711, — when, on the Lord Treasurer
Harley 's suggestion, she created twelve peers at
one time, — the coalition might have rendered
ineffectual all his efforts at emancipation. In
deed, the king appears to have foreseen that his
only chance of escape from bondage lay, not in
the lower house, where Fox's presence, eloquence,
and influence overbore all opposition, but among
the peers.
To return to Lord Penrhyn. He was a man
of moderate talents, childless, but possessing very
extensive patrimonial estates in North Wales, be
sides considerable property in the West Indies.
His colleague. Bam ber Gascoyne, (son of the lord
of the admiralty of the same name, whom I have
had occasion to mention more than once, towards
the close of Lord North's administration,) treated
the abolition of the slave-trade as a visionary and
impracticable project; but admitted that some

LORD PENRHYN.— BURKE. — SHERIDAN. 89
regulations might be beneficially adopted. Lord
Penrhyn flatly contradicted Sir William Dolben's
assertions respecting the severities inflicted, and
the mortality produced, among the Africans, on
their passage across the Atlantic Ocean : observ
ing, that " the argument proved too much, as the
whole profit made by the commanders of the ves
sels employed in that branch of commerce arose
from the number of negroes whom they could
bring to the market in good health." Pitt's reso
lution, for " postponing the further consideration
of the subject till the ensuing session," was finally
carried without any division.
20th May. — I have already related, that in con
sequence ofthe motion made for that purpose, Burke
had laid on the table ofthe house, though not with
out marks of indignant reluctance, a statement of
the expenses already incurred by the prosecution of
Hastings. But it was couched in terms so gene
ral and laconic, as to give no satisfactory informa
tion. A second motion therefore followed from
the same quarter, for an account, " specifying to
whom, and for what purpose, the respective sums
had been issued." Sheridan, after observing that
the obvious intention of the mover was to dis
gust the public with the trial, as a source of enor
mous expence, diverged, with his usual felicity,
into the path of humour. " Unquestionably,"
continued he, " the house may, if they think fit,
resolve that no counsel shall be henceforward

90 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
aUowed the managers. In such case, it will be
necessary to move that the attorney and solicitor-
general, with the master of the rolls, be added to
our present committee. Or, the house may come
to a resolution, compelling the managers them
selves to defray the expences of counsel. If so, I
hope they wiU have the goodness to join to the
committee Sir Sampson Gideon, and some others
of the wealthiest individuals composing this as
sembly." Sir Sampson, who then represented the
city of Coventry, if he was one of the richest,
was likewise one of the most benevolent men
who has appeared in our time. His hand was
never shut to distress, or closed against human
sufferings. He might have furnished the pro
totype of Cumberland's " Jew." Pitt, not long
afterwards, raised him to an Irish peerage, She
ridan concluded by expressing a hope, that when
the account should be produced, the mover would
follow up his present motion with another; re
commending that " the counsel employed should
in future be better paid." The managers never
theless being obliged to withdraw, previous to a
division personally affecting themselves, the ques
tion was carried by sixty against nineteen votes.
21st May. — Among the most magnificent public
structures which have been raised under the reign of
George the Third, in London or Westminster, may
justly be reckoned Somerset House. I am, indeed,
old enough perfectly to remember the antient

SOMERSET HOUSE. — SIR W. CHAMBERS. 91
palace of that name, constructed about the middle
of the sixteenth century, by the imprudent and
unfortunate Lord Protector, uncle of Edward the
Sixth. It was a beautiful and princely edifice,
neither strictly Gothic nor Grecian in its archi
tecture; the successive residence of two queens
dowager, during the period between the Restora
tion and the Revolution ; namely, Henrietta Maria
of France, and Catherine of Portugal : lastly, the
pretended scene of 'Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's
murder in 1678 ; one of the most obscure and
problematical events recorded in our history.
Passionately attached as I am to the monuments
of departed times, I beheld its demolition, which
took place about the year 1776, with sentiments
of no ordinary regret. The construction of the
new edifice was entrusted to Sir WiUiam Cham
bers ; an architect who, though he may not rival
the fame of Inigo Jones, or of Sir Christopher
Wren, yet would have passed down to posterity
with distinction, if in an evil hour he had not
published his " Dissertation on Oriental Garden
ing." This performance exposed him not only
to ridicule, but to poetic ridicule, illuminated by
genius, and pointed with inconceivable elegance
of satire, I allude to " The Heroic Epistle,"
which appeared about the spring of the year
1773. The author (universally considered to be
Mason) thus apostrophizes Sir William, at the
commencement of the poem :

92 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
" Knight ofthe Polar Star! by fortune plac'd.
To shine the cynosure of British taste ;
Whose orb collects in one refulgent view.
The scatter'd glories of Chinese virtu !"
Chambers found, however, in the royal patronage
ample compensation for these " paper buUets of
the brain." He was made surveyor-general to
the board of works, as well as architect to the
king ; some branches of whose education he had
superintended, under the reign of George the
Second. He likewise derived no inconsiderable
pecuniary advantage from the per centage allowed
him on the large sums expended in the erection
of Somerset House.
Eleven years had already elapsed since its
commencement, during which time above three
hundred thousand pounds had been issued to him
from the treasury. His own estimates originally
fell very short of that sum, and yet it was calcu
lated that one hundred thousand pounds more
would still be wanted for its completion. So
vast an expenditure of the public money excited
animadversion, and the subject was repeatedly
mentioned with much condemnation in the house
of commons, I well recollect, during the course of
the session under our review, the loud complaints
made respecting it by Hussey, one of the repre
sentatives for the city of Salisbury. He was a
man of coarse, simple, and homely manners, but
of recognized integrity ; versed in arithmetical cal-

HUSSEY. — LADY MILLER. 93
culations, however deficient in classic attain
ments : never speaking except on pecuniary
topics, and exceedingly tenacious of the national
purse. Somerset House, whenever mentioned,
always excited his indignation; and on one occa
sion he exclaimed, " Would to heaven that build
ing were burnt to the ground !" Observing
Dundas opposite to him, seated on the treasury
bench ; and who, as treasurer of the navy, was
preparmg to occupy the apartments officially
assigned to him in the quadrangle ; Hussey added,
smiUng, " I do not however wish it at present,
as the right honourable gentleman would be en
veloped in the conflagration." The individual
who at this time brought the subject under par
liamentary consideration was Sir John Miller, an
Irish baronet. His wife, who, in the early part
of the present reign, pubhshed her " Travels
through Italy," attained after her return from the
Continent a degree of celebrity, by establishing a
sort of blue stocking society, or delta Crusca Aca
demy. The scene lay at her seat of Bath Easton
Villa, near the city of Bath. Here she gave morn
ing entertainments, to which the company of
both sexes repaired for the purpose of depositing
their poetical compositions within an urn, placed
in the pleasure-grounds. The productions were
afterwards read aloud, and honorary prizes ad
judged or distributed by the lady of the mansion
to the successful candidate. Sir John, after his

94 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
wife's decease, brought himself into the house for
a Cornish borough, though by no means endowed
with parliamentary talents or eloquence.
Having detailed all the leading facts of the
case, and demonstrated the enormous profits which
Sir William Chambers had already made, as well
as those that must prospectively accrue from his
architectural contracts. Miller moved for " a com
mittee of enquiry into the expenditure of the
sums voted for constructing Somerset House."
The motion was seconded by Mr. Drake, who,
jointly with his father, represented the borough
of Agmondesham, in the county of Bucks ; Avhich
town and its inhabitants might be considered as
a part of their large patrimonial estates. I believe
Mr. Drake, sen. sat in eight or nine parliaments
uninterruptedly, always for that place. His son
manifested great eccentricity of character and de
portment ; but his uprightness of intention, sus
tained by a very independent mind, qualified
these singularities of manner. Pitt, who no
doubt knew the royal wishes on the point, rising
immediately, entered into a laboured defence of
Chambers. He admitted, indeed, that the account
of the sums expended by the architect ought to
be without delay submitted to parliament ; leav
ing, nevertheless, the appointment of a committee
of enquiry for ulterior consideration. Pulteney
fearlessly expressed his astonishment and concern
at the resistance to MiUer's motion made bv the

SIR J. MILLER. — DRAKE.— SIR W. DOLBEN. 95
chancellor of the exchequer. Such was likewise
apparently the sense of the house ; but the ques
tion not being connected with party, none of the
opposition members attended in their places.
Miller had in fact addressed his discourse to
empty benches. Pitt, though he professed the
utmost deference for Pulteney's opinion, yet ad
hered to his own determination. Under these
circumstances, the mover himself expressed his
readiness to withdraw the motion: when Mr.
Drake starting up, protested that he never would
consent to such a proposition. " I am," ex
claimed he with much emotion, " adamantine on
the subject," A division therefore took place,
when ministers were supported by seventy-six
votes. Only twenty-one sustained Sir John
Miller. Yet the triumph of administration was
merely a victory of numbers, and by no means
a proof of opinion.
24ith May. — The session began now to draw
towards its close, and a prorogation would proba
bly have taken place before the middle of June,
if Sir William Dolben, certain as he was of
support from every side of the house, had not
brought forward a measure for alleviating the
condition and sufferings of the African slaves,
while on their passage to the West India colo
nies. Sir William joined to the mildest manners
a cultivated mind, and a most benevolent nature.
The bill itself, intended solely for regulation, kept

96 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
wholly clear of abolition. Pitt, while he reserved
his opinion on the general question, yet admitted
that, as during the intervening months between
the present and the ensuing session, the hardships
endured by the slaves during the voyage might be
aggravated, a sufficient parliamentary ground had
been stated for enacting a temporary law. On that
principle only, which might be esteemed more a
moral and humane impulse or conviction than the
basis of a political measure, he said it should receive
his support. Scarcely any opposition was exhi
bited on the occasion ; but, a few days afterwards.
Lord Penrhyn peremptorily denied the cruel
practices asserted to prevail on board the slave-
ships ; all which stories he declared to be founded
in calumny, ignorance, and defamation.
28/A May. — Impediments to the bill arose, how
ever, from a variety of other quarters. Not only
Liverpool, but London, petitioned to be heard
against it by counsel. Sir William Dolben, in a
manner equally temperate and convincing, stated
its object ; limited exclusively to ameliorating the
treatment, and regulating the number, of the un
happy captives, during their voyage across the
Atlantic. , The cruelties perpetrated, he offered
to prove by witnesses without number, of every
description. Lord Penrhyn, nevertheless, still
denying all the facts advanced ; appealing to the
prudence and the policy of the house, against
their compassion ; at the same time reclaiming

LORD PENRHYN. — PITT. — FOX. 97
loudly the faith of parliament pledged to his
constituents, for carrying on the African trade ;
concluded by declaring that the merchants of
Liverpool were determined on contesting to the
last its principle. Pitt observed, that no man
could dispute the principle of a bill intended solely
to protect from injury and outrage unfortunate
individuals consigned to slavery.
Fox himself, while he endeavoured to defend
Lord Penrhyn, did not sustain with less energy
the proposed regulations ; his enlarged and gene
rous mind spurning, when engaged in the cause
of humanity, all the little feelings of party.
" With regard to the principle of the present mea
sure," observed he, " I know too well the texture
of my noble friend's mental formation, not to be
certain that he never intended to oppose its prin
ciple, in the accurate sense of that term. It is
the truth of the facts alledged as the foundation
of the bill, that he means to contest. But how
can any candid mind denominate calumnies, facts
which are stated by a member of this house, who
expressly declares that he does not wish his asser
tions to be credited, unless they shall be confirmed
in every particular by witnesses at your bar ? I,
for one, do assume the facts. The bill now in
troduced may prove unfit to be adopted, StUl it
ought not to be postponed to another session ;
and if upon examination it can be made appli
cable to its object, we are bound as men to adopt
VOL. III. H

98 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
it." This powerful support from such a quarter
proved at the moment irresistible. Lord Penrhyn,
though unconvinced, yet attempting no reply,
scarcely any further impediment to the progress
of the bill was experienced during the course of
that evening.
Impey, who had been rescued, rather than ac
quitted, on the charge relative to Nundcomar,
yet had still to encounter five other accusations,
including a variety of heinous crimes or offences,
asserted to have been committed in his judicial
capacity, during his residence in Bengal. The
second of these charges, commonly denominated
" The Patna Cause," had excited the condem
nation of parliament, when intelligence of it first
reached England in the year 1779. An act of
the legislature had even been passed, for the
indemnification of the unfortunate individuals
who had suffered under the sentence pronounced
against them by Impey. Sir Gilbert Elliot now
moved to go into its consideration, but was stop
ped in limine by the attorney -gen eral, on the
ground of the cause itself having been appealed
to the privy council, before which tribunal it
must speedily be tried and decided. This in
genious and timely legal device, by which Sir
Elijah was again snatched from imminent danger
of impeachment, excited Burke's utmost indig
nation. In language the most intemperate, yet
classic and elegant; for even in rage he could caU

IMPEY. — BURKE. — PITT. 99
to his aid the writings of antiquity ; he accused
the East India Company of gross collusion, fraud,
and viUainy, in order to protect a man against
whom they had originally appeared as prosecu
tors. Pitt supporting the attorney-general's ar
gument, and making some severe personal reflec
tions on the conduct of Burke towards Impey ;
" I do not desire the right honourable gentleman,"
exclaimed he, " to assume the office of being my
historian. I have suffered many harsh observa
tions from his predecessors on that bench. But I
have suffered more from his foul and offensive
breath, than from the aspersions of every minister
who has gone before him." The chancellor of
the exchequer, though not usually forbearing,
yet half apologized for any harsh or unguarded
expression which might have escaped him during
the warmth of debate ; adding, " I have not heard
as many ministers as he has done : consequently I
cannot remember the severe remarks which they
may have applied to him. He has, however, suf
ficiently demonstrated his own oblivion of the
severe observations that he has applied to other
ministers," The consideration of "The Patna
Cause," postponed for three months, was never
again resumed.
June. — At the commencement of June, a great
promotion took place in the higher departments
of the law. Lord Mansfield, who had long stopped
the way, drew off. After presiding more than thirty
H 2

100 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
years in the court of king's bench ; enfeebled
by bodily infirmities, though retaining all the
vigour of his intellect ; he retired at length from
public life. His retreat would have been sooner
accomphshed, if he could have secured the suc
cession to his office for Buller, one of the judges
in that court. But Pitt refused to hear of any
conditions. The chancellor likewise adhered
firmly to Kenyon, whose deep knowledge of the
laws, sustained by integrity of character, well
qualified him for supplying the vacant seat. He
was raised at the same time to the peerage,
Arden became master of the rolls. In his person
was exemplified the power of ministerial friend
ship to supply every defect, and to conduct the
object of its predilection to the greatest dignities,
as well as honours and employments. The last
act of Pitt's first administration, in the spring of
1801, was to remove Arden from the rolls, to the
chief justiceship of the court of common pleas.
Nor did his attachment stop there, Arden being
immediately afterwards created Lord Alvanley.
His good fortune in thus reaching the house of
peers is the more remarkable, as he died just
before Pitt's second entrance on office in 1804.
I have designated by the name oi friendship
the minister's regard for Arden, because though
he was not endowed with those great legal abili
ties which usually conduct to the eminences of
the law, yet he manifested no want of talent, at

PROMOTIONS BY PITT. 101
least in parliament. But to what cause except
favouritism can we ascribe Pitt's predilection
towards other individuals whom it might be in
vidious to name ; some of whom he successively
placed, first at the board of admiralty, and after
wards at that of the treasury ? It would be diffi
cult for Pitt's warmest admirers to assign any
public motive or foundation for these selections.
When he made a country apothecary of Seven
oaks, in Kent, comptroller-general of the customs,
the cause was obvious, if not venial. He had
obtained the hand of the minister's niece in mar
riage. For the marquisate conferred on Lord
Abercorn, and the rank of an earVs daughter
given at that nobleman's request to Miss Cecil
Hamilton ; as well as for Lord Carrington s intro
duction into the British house of peers ; there
may have been solid and weighty, though not
apparent or ostensible reasons. Nor do I mean to
deny, that among the long list of individuals
whom he raised and employed, between 1784 and
1805, the far greater part were men of merit and
capacity. But Pitt, disinterested, elevated, and
superior to injustice, as he proved himself in ge
neral, was not exempt in particular instances from
great prejudice, and as great partiality.
To return to the legal promotions at this period ;
Macdonald succeeded to the vacant place of attor
ney-general. He has not however, like Arden,
ever entered the house of peers. After presiding,

102 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
nearly twenty years in the court of exchequer,
as chief baron, Macdonald condescended in 1813
to accept a baronetage. By the transfer of Ken
yon, Arden, and Macdonald, Scott became soli
citor-general. His rise resulted from a combi
nation of talent, labour, and character. Neither
noble birth, nor favour, nor alliances, produced it.
Pitt's friendship he indeed acquired and enjoyed,
because he earned it by great exertions. Such
were the qualities by which Lord Eldon finally
attained the peerage, as weU as the great seal; and
such are the qualifications by which, at this hour,
in January 1820, he holds his high employment.
During the months of March, April, and May,
Hastings's trial had advanced by slow gradations,
impeded at every step by the examination of wit
nesses and recapitulation of evidence. But, to
wards the beginning of June, as the prorogation
of parliament approached, Sheridan felt that the
time was arrived for his entrance on the theatre
of Westminster Hall, and he had already tho
roughly rehearsed his part. Never perhaps was
public expectation raised so high as on his appear
ance ; and never, I believe, in the history of mo
dern ages, was it so completely gratified ! On the
3rd, Sth, and 6th of June, — for on the 4th, being
the royal birth-day, the trial did not proceed, — he
spoke during many successive hours. The audi
ence comprized almost every individual illustrious
or respectable, which the capital could furnish, of

HASTINGS. — SHERIDAN. 103
both sexes; forming a most august, imposing,
and interesting spectacle. Probably, two-thirds
of the English peers and peeresses, accompanied
by their daughters, were present on the occasion.
Even the season of the year, when the hall of
Rufus (across the gloom of which the eye could
scarcely penetrate in winter) was illuminated by
the beams of a vivid sun, augmented, while it dis
played, the grandeur of the scene. Every part of
that vast edifice was crowded to excess,
Sheridan, accustomed to study theatrical effect
at Drury-lane, did not neglect to observe its princi
ples, or to practise its rules, on this great national
stage, surrounded by aU the rank, beauty, and
talent of the metropolis. In fact, the majesty of
the tribunal was half swallowed up and forgotten
in the contemplation of the surrounding assem
blage ; among which females formed, if not the
largest, at least the most attractive portion. To
them, indeed, the orator did not neglect indirectly
to address much of his discourse : more fortunate
in that point of view than the great orators of
antiquity, whose audience was exclusively com
posed of men. He enjoyed likewise another ad
vantage above the accusers of Strafford, Danby,
and Oxford; whose aUedged crimes (domestic
treason, or misdemeanors committed within the
realm,) limited the prosecutor to matters of fact,
and admitted Uttle scope for the imagination.
But, in the present case, a wide field of descrip-

104 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
tion expanded itself along the banks of the
Ganges and the Jumna ; whUe the subject, which
depictured the woes of Asiatic princesses, was in
itself well calculated to make a deep impression
on the other sex. Many of Sheridan's pictures
were likewise so highly coloured, and so magically
wrought up, as to produce an almost electric
shock. Perhaps, a less diffuse oration, more sub
dued in tone, more compressed in its matter,
might have far better answered the ends of jus
tice. But, who that knew Sheridan, his mode of
life, his habits, his character, and even his man
ner of subsistence,, could believe that he was
solely impelled by the abstract love of justice?
He embraced the occasion, as it aUowed him to
display his prodigious oratorical powers, while he
sustained his party, and gratified his ardent love
of fame. His success placed him on an eminence
which no public man in either house of parlia
ment has attained in my time. The most ardent
admirers of Burke, of Fox, and of Pitt, allowed
that they had been outdone, as orators, by She
ridan. Qth June, — At the close of the last of these three
memorable days, when the house of commons
met, subsequent to the adjournment of the peers
from the trial ; Mr. Burges, who had moved for
the account specifying the mode in which the
public money issued for Hastings's trial had been
expended by the managers, rose a second time.

HASTINGS. — BURGES. — BURKE. 105
He then briefly observed, that no vote or decla
ration of that assembly had ever authorized the
managers of Mr. Hastings's prosecution to em
ploy counsel. Having next expressed his disbe
lief that there existed any precedent for it in our
parliamentary history during the progress of past
impeachments ; he demanded whether peculiar
circumstances of difficulty had arisen on the pre
sent occasion, that rendered necessary their em
ployment. Whatever legal doubts might occur,
he said, there were to be found among the ma
nagers themselves, individuals learned in the law
of England, competent to solve every question.
In fact, three of them — namely, Adam, Anstru-
ther, and Michael Angelo Taylor — had all been
bred and called to the bar. With respect to the
expence of the trial, he remarked, that though it
had been estimated only at about eight thousand
pounds, it already amounted to fifteen thousand,
and would exceed eighteen thousand before the
end of the session. Burges concluded by mov
ing, that "the solicitors for the prosecution do
present from time to time an account of the
expences incurred, at the bar of the house,"
Some moments having elapsed without any
individual rising to second Burges's motion,
Burke presented himself to the Speaker's eye,
under great and visible agitation. " I do not
mean," said he, " either to second, or to resist, the
present proposition ; but simply to congratulate

106 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
the mover on his having selected this glorious
day, after the splendid exhibition which we have
recently witnessed, when thousands hung with
rapture on my honourable friend's accents, for
examining the items of a solicitor's bill." Then
diverging to the oration just pronounced in West
minster Hall, he lavished on it the highest enco
miums : encomiums unquestionably well deserv
ed. Yet when Burke, after enumerating "the
variety of information, the beauty of diction, the
force of expression, the astonishing diversity of
composition, and the numberless graces which
met in Sheridan's speech ;" — when he added,
" the pure sentiments of morality with which it
abounded," many persons found it difficult to
resist thinking of Joseph Surface, in his own
" School for Scandal," Certainly, the life and
practice of the orator himself did not furnish
the best commentary on that text, " Instead of
resolving ourselves," continued Burke, " into a
committee of miserable accounts, let us, like the
Romans after Scipio's victories, go and thank the
gods for this day's triumph in Westminster Hall !
As to myself, I have been too highly strained,
and my mind is not sufficiently relaxed, after the
sublime repast of which I have just partaken, to
sink my thoughts to the level of such an en
quiry," This beautiful description of his feelings
recalls the attempt of our first father to pourtray
his overwhelming emotions, when Milton makes
him say.

HASTINGS. — BURKE. — FOX. — PITT. 107
" My earthly by his heav'nly overpower' d.
Which it had long stood under ; strain'd to the height
In that celestial colloquy sublime.
As with an object that excels the sense,
Dazzled and spent, sunk down."
Burke, nevertheless, quickly resuming his ordi
nary mode of expressing himself when irritated,
added, " I disdain to notice the present subject.
Call the solicitors to the bar, and examine them,
MeanwhUe I shall order such services as I think
proper, till the house may command me to de
sist,"
Fox, with much more command of temper, ad
mitted that the employment of counsel on such a
prosecution was, he believed, new ; but subjoined
his own opinion, that their assistance was indis
pensably necessary to its success. The chancellor
of the exchequer, conscious how delicate was his
position — between the care of the public purse,
over which it was his official duty to watch, and
the danger of exposing himself to the accusation
of impeding the trial, — steered a middle course.
" With respect to the number of counsel em
ployed," observed Pitt, " I have doubted whether
two civilians are wanted. Nevertheless, if the
managers declare them to be requisite, I think
they should be retained. Respecting the general
expence attending the impeachment; that point,
serious as it is, must be governed by due atten
tion to the nature of the case." Burges's motion

108 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
still remained without any person to second it;
till at length Mr. Drake, whom I have so lately
mentioned, — and who, when impelled by his feel
ings, or by his principles, set at defiance all per
sonal considerations, — after concurring fully in the
eulogiums bestowed on Sheridan's eloquence, yet
ventured to add, that he must stand up the friend
of economy. Sir William Dolben, having first
deprecated Burke's resentment, proceeded a step
further, and seconded the motion. A division
must therefore have inevitably ensued, if Dundas
had not prevented it by a manoeuvre. In order
to extricate the minister his friend from a situa
tion of some embarrassment, he moved the next
order of the day; which being acquiesced in by
all sides, an adjournment immediately took place.
The managers consequently remained without
pecuniary control of any kind.
One of the most splendid instances of parlia
mentary, or, more properly to speak, of national
sympathy and munificence, to be found in the
history of mankind, was exhibited at this time in
the house of commons. That numerous body of
men known by the denomination of " loyalists,"
who in consequence of the American war had not
only been driven from their paternal seats, but
had beheld their whole property confiscated, ne
cessarily looked to Great Britain for some remu
neration. Though Sir George Rodney's victory
over De Grasse, in April 1782, had restored our

AMERICA. -THE LOYALISTS. 109
naval supremacy in the West Indies, yet the cir
cumstances of depression under which Lord Shel
burne signed the general peace with France and
America, about nine months afterwards, incapaci
tated him from exacting any conditions in favour
of these expatriated individuals. Neither mag
nanimity, nor pity, nor generosity, could operate
on the minds of their Trans- Atlantic country
men ; accessible only to considerations of the most
interested or vindictive description. It is not on
the banks of the Delawar, or of the Hudson, that
even in the nineteenth century we can hitherto
look for many of the virtues that elevate and
adorn our nature. The arts of gain, and the
science of naval warfare, combined with a grasp
ing policy ; — such seem to be, down to the pre
sent time, the characteristic features of the Wash
ington cabinet. We may hope, and even safely
assume, that the moral current will run purer as
it flows on ; but not till another race of states
men have succeeded to the Jeffersons, the Madi
sons, and the Munros, — the servile instruments
of Bonaparte's vengeance, or of their enmity to
England. — To return to the "loyalists," techni
cally so termed ; parliament having referred their
claims to commissioners for examination, Pitt
now proposed a plan for compensating the suf
ferers. The aggregate amount of their losses
considerably exceeded two millions sterling, ex
clusive of nearly five hundred thousand pounds

110 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
already issued for their temporary relief. His
intention, he said, was to liquidate from the pub
lic purse above twelve hundred thousand pounds
of this demand ; the claimants being divided into
classes, and receiving either the whole, or a pro
portion of their claim, according to its magni
tude. Principles of the most liberal, well-ma-
turedv_^and enlightened equity, regulated the
sums respectively distributed to the different in
dividuals. The conduct observed upon this occasion by
the chiefs of opposition, reflected on them the
highest honour ; especially if we recollect the
acrimonious terms in which they were accus
tomed, during the course of the American war, to
inveigh against the loyalists. Burke rising early
in the debate, declared that he never had given a
vote with more satisfaction. "For, though the
objects of the present national bounty," added he,
"have not a claim on us founded in absolute
right, yet we are bound in equity and justice to
consider their demands. It will form a new and
a noble instance of public generosity. In vain
would we seek for a parallel in our own history,
after the restoration of -Charles the Second, when
only the insignificant sum of eighty thousand
pounds was voted by this house for distribution
among the suffering royalists," — "I rejoice that
America has not enjoyed the distinction which
must have resulted to her, as a people, and as a

THE LOYALISTS. — MR. HARFORD. — HUSSEY. Ill
government, from compensating the unhappy
loyalists. It would nevertheless have been a wise
manner of setting up for themselves in the world."
Fox even exceeded Burke in his testimonies of
approbation to the measure. Throughout the
whole discussion, no difference of sentiment oc
curred between the opposite sides of the house,
except a generous emulation to outdo each other
in extending relief.
Fox's expostulations and suggestions even in
duced Pitt to yield on more than one point, and
to augment the sum proposed to be given by
parUament. At the head of the list stood Mr.
Harford, natural son of Lord Baltimore ; an ec
centric nobleman well known in the beginning of
the present reign, by the criminal prosecution
which Miss Woodcock carried on against him.
Mr. Harford had lost a princely fortune, or rather
revenue, bequeathed to him by his father, situate
in the province of Maryland. The minister, con
vinced by Fox's reasoning and calculations, which
other members sustained, finally consented to add
twenty thousand pounds to the seventy thousand
originally destined for Mr. Harford. I do not
recollect any dissentient voice, except one, name^
ly, Hussey ; a man most conscientious, and most
frugal of the public resources. Even he only ex
pressed a doubt whether the claim of the " loyal
ists" was founded in right, or was matter of mere
grace and favour ; for which hesitation Burke did

112 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
not scruple to censure him. Such a donative, so
conferred, by a nation which had scarcely recover
ed the loss of her colonies, forms a glorious monu
ment in the British annals, and stands alone in
the records of modem times.
10th — 17th June. — With the compensation
voted to the " loyalists" might be said to termi
nate the pubUc business of the session. Nor
would the prorogation of parliament have been
delayed, if the unexpected introduction of Sir
William Dolben's bill for regulating the African
trade had not protracted its deliberations. Re
gardless of all considerations drawn from policy,
or from narrow views of commercial profit ; un
moved even by the remonstrances and opposition
of some among his own coUeagues in the cabinet ;
Pitt steadily extended his support to that humane
and beneficent measure. To so elevated a line of
ministerial conduct, posterity will not assuredly
refuse their admiration. Every effort at procras
tination was exerted by the enemies of the bill^
who compensated for the paucity of their num
bers by their pertinacity ; the advanced season of
the year offering them great facUities for prolong
ing or impeding the debates. In defiance of evi
dence the most incontrovertible, they persisted to
deny the truth of the cruelties practised on the
captives during their transportation, and the mor
tality consequent on such treatment. The facts
nevertheless having been proved at the bar to the

SLAVE REGULATION BILL. 113
conviction of every unprejudiced person, the
chancellor of the exchequer moved that " the
operation of the bill should be retrospective, and
that it should commence from the tenth of the
existing month." We must admit that such an
ex post facto law or principle, if applied to ordi
nary cases, would be not only contrary to good
policy, but even subversive of justice. Neither
could it be forgotten, that a circular letter had
been officially addressed by order of the treasury,
some weeks earlier, to the principal merchants
concerned in the African trade, assuring them of
the determination of government not to agitate
the question of abolition during the actual session.
Lord Penrhyn strongly contended, that the pre
sent act would therefore be an infraction of mi
nisterial faith ; and when combined with the new
regulations proposed by Sir William Dolben, for
limiting the number of slaves permitted to be
put on board the vessels engaged in the trade,
would operate vii'tually as an abolition.
A statesman of a lofty mind, of stern decision, as
weUas of unbending principles of moral action, —
and only such a statesman, — would have ventured
after this reclamation, to take on himself person
ally the responsibility of so strong a measure.
Every motive, drawn from considerations of a self
ish or interested nature, impelled him to postpone
any regulation of the slave-trade, to another year.
He well knew that the chancellor, whose intracta-
VOL. III. 1

114 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
bility rendered him always difficult to guide, en
tertained insurmountable objections to the present
bill. These objections Lord Thurlow was beUev
ed to have infused into the king ; who, from other
causes relating individually to himself, anxiously
anticipated the close of the session. Nor was the
chancellor the only member of administration
adverse to the proposition. Even among the per
sons seated near Pitt on the treasury bench, con
nected with him by friendship, and acting offi
cially under him, I know that there were enemies.
One of them was Rose, Dundas remained silent,
and took no part. Burke and Fox, after express
ing their warmest approbation of the principle,
left Pitt to carry it into execution. They had in
fact withdrawn from the house, considering the
session as at an end. None of these impediments
Gould, however, shake his resolution. Rising to
wards the close of the debate, he not only declar
ed himself unequivocaUy favourable to Dolben's
measure, but expressed his firm conviction that
the regulations specified would in no degree effect
the abolition of the trade. " If, however," con-'
tinued he, " such should be their operation ; ¦ — if
this nefarious traffic cannot be prosecuted under
the restrictions proposed ; I now retract my decla~
ration made on a former day, against going to the -
general question. Late as is the season of the
year, I am confident that the house will support
me in my efforts to rescue those unfortunate

SLAVE TRADE. — PITT. . 115
Africans now about to be purchased by British
traders, from the jaws of destruction, and from
the iron hand of oppression."
This energetic declaration, which sufficiently
proved how great a change of opinion relative to
the African trade had been operated on his mind
within a few weeks, terminated the discussion.
On the division, orA.y five members voted against
Dolben's motion, while fifty-six sustained it ; and
the bill having passed, was carried up on the fol
lowing day to the house of peers. We may con
fidently assert, that no minister who presided in
the councUs of England during the course of the
eighteenth century, except Pitt, would have thus
sacrificed a commercial, and consequently, a poli
tical, as well as a financial object, to a moral princi
ple. Every minor consideration gave way to the
impulse of humanity in his bosom. Looking be
yond the exchequer, he legislated as Plato would
have done for his ideal republic. Like Umbricius,
he seemed to say,
 " tanti tibi non sit opaci
Omnis arena Tagi, quodque in mare volvitur aurum,
Ut somno careas."
That neither Mr. Pelham, nor Lord North, nor
the Earl of Shelburne, would so have acted in
similar circumstances, I imagine, will be easily
conceded, even by their admirers. If any indivi
dual in our own time possessed sufficient eleva
tion of character, and disregard of consequences, I 2

116 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
to have emulated the same praise, that person was
Fox. In correct moral deportment he could not
enter into competition with Pitt : but his natural
benevolence, enlargement of mind, fearlessness of
disposition, and love of glory, would have im
pelled him to adopt any measure, however bold
or hazardous, which promised to augment the
sum of human happiness, and to rescue his fellow-
creatures from misery.
While I do justice to Pitt's line of action, and
eulogize it as in my opinion it deserves, I cannot
omit to mention another individual who highly
distinguished himself on that evening. I mean,
Beaufoy ; a person already noticed more than once
in the course of these memoirs. He spoke at
great length in favour of Dolben's proposition ;
and though his eloquence might be criticized as
rhetorical, florid, and diffuse, yet it teemed with
information, while it displayed uncommon powers
of description. I am persuaded that the appall
ing facts which he enumerated, relative to the
treatment of the slaves ; and in particular, re
specting the mortality that took place among
them, during the voyage across the Atlantic to
the West Indies ; tended strongly to produce the
decided part taken by the chancellor of the ex
chequer. Beaufoy, arguing from disclosures re
luctantly admitted by witnesses at the bar, or
rather extorted from them in the progress of
their examination, carried the calculation of deaths
to an awful point of magnitude.

SLAVE-TRADE.— BEAUFOY. 117
Among the arguments used by the supporters
of the African trade to justify its continuance,
they urged the utter inutility of our relinquishing
it, as we could not prevent other nations from
carrying it on ; in particular, France. But Beaufoy
strongly contested this assertion. " Let the ulti
mate decision prove what it may here in Eng
land," observed he, " its existence among the
French cannot long be perpetuated. Already,
not only the philosophers and men of letters in
that country are earnest for its extinction : two
of her most enlightened ministers, Turgot and
Necker, have recorded their detestation of its
cruelty and guilt." Lord Penrhyn smiling con
temptuously, " I perceive," rejoined Beaufoy,
" that the noble lord treats with levity my men
tion of literary men. Their influence must never
theless be great among a people where opinion
maintains sovereign sway. But does he not know
that Turgot and Necker, and they only among
the ministers of Louis the Sixteenth, have exhort
ed their countrymen to reclaim their antient con
stitution ? Is he ignorant that at this very hour the
voice of Freedom has already penetrated the recesses
of Versailles?" Scarcely thirteen months elapsed
after these words were pronounced, before the
French revolution was consummated by the cap
ture of the Bastile.
1 Sth — 30;A June. I have already stated that
Dolben's bill, in consequence of Pitt's decided
support, having passed with a retrospective clause

118 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
by a proportion of more than eleven to one, had
been carried up to the other house. On its arrival
there, it appeared however to be in imminent dan
ger of rejection. Few instances have occurred in
our parliamentary history, of a more formidable
opposition than it encountered. Nor did the obsta
cles to its progress originate, as in ordinary cases,
with the regular opponents of government. On
the contrary, it experienced from them a favour
able reception, while its most violent enemies were
either members of the cabinet, or great officers of
state, closely connected with administration. At
their head stood the chancellor, who not only de
claimed against the measure itself as unwise, but
treated the retrospective clause as contrary to the
pledged faith of ministers, and a violation of their
own engagements. Lord Sydney, one of the se
cretaries of state, whose connexion by marriage
with the chancellor of the exchequer formed his
best security for continuing in office a single day,
joined Lord Thurlow. The Duke of Chandos,
though holding the employment of lord steward,
yet spoke and voted against the clause. Even
Lord Hawkesbury declared it most unjust, to
subject any ship to a legal penalty, before the
existence of the law which enacted the penalty.
Against so numerous and able a phalanx, the
Duke of Richmond was left to contend almost
alone. The remaining members of administration
stood aloof. Lord Howe, who soon afterwards
quitted the admiralty, took no part. The Marquis

DUKE OF RICHMOND. — LORD BATHURST. 119
of Carmarthen observed a total silence ; and Lord
Camden, I believe, never once attended in his
place. Such was the state and aspect of the house
of peers, when the bill made its appearance among
them. It required all the noble pertinacity of
Pitt's character, supported by motives drawn from
some of the highest and purest sources of human
action, to withstand, and finally to surmount, so
great a combination of talents and of influence.
The Duke of Richmond, to whom Pitt com
mitted the task of defending the measure ; and
who performed it with zeal, if not with ability ;
admitted that if its retrospective operation was per
mitted to remain, it would become indispensable
to insert a clause indemnifying the persons con
cerned in the trade for any losses they might
sustain in consequence. On a subsequent day he
tendered a clause to that effect. But Lord Ba
thurst, (who, though sinking under age and bodily
infirmities, yet, as having formerly held the great
seal during more than seven years, inspired re
spect when a legal question was agitated,) main
tained that no compensation which the legislature
could propose or adopt would meet the case.
Two members of the upper house, who had been
elevated to the peerage by their illustrious actions,
and the former of whom had witnessed the actual
treatment of the Africans throughout the West
Indies ; — I mean. Lord Rodney, and Lord Heath-
field; — denied the facts, on the assumption of
which as certain the bill principally rested.

120 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Among its most strenuous, though not disin
terested opposers, might be reckoned the Duke
of Chandos. In right of his duchess, whose first
husband, Mr. EUetson, had been governor of
Jamaica, he possessed a very considerable pro
perty in that island. Lord Hawkesbury moved,
that instead of a retrospective operation, the bill
should only begin to take effect from the 10th of
June in the ensuing year, 1789- Throughout
a speech which displayed much embarrassment.
Lord Sydney endeavoured to reconcile his defer
ence for Pitt with his opposition to the measure.
While in language of admiration and respect for
the motives by which the chancellor of the. ex
chequer was actuated, he did justice to that
minister's elevation of mind, as well as purity of
intention, he lamented that a subject of such
deep importance should have been brought for
ward at so advanced a period of the session. Yet,
he added, however much he might regret the
circumstance, and peculiarly its retrospective effect,
nevertheless, as the bill had been brought in, it
should receive from him no further opposition.
But all these measures of delicacy were spurned
by Thurlow. Notwithstanding Pitt's personal
appearance on the steps of the throne, the chan
cellor, quitting the woolsack several times in the
course of the debate, neither spared his invectives,
nor abstained from the most contemptuous ex
pressions. The bill, he said, as it was drawn up.

THURLOW. — DUKE OF RICHMOND. 121
could only be denominated nonsense; and the
amendments proposed, if inserted, would render
it more incapable of being carried into execution.
With gloomy indignation, he levelled the severest
sarcasms against the spirit of morbid or injudi
cious humanity which had originated such a
measure at such a time. " I do not hesitate,"
continued he, " to declare, that if the^ue days' jit
of philanthropy which has just awoke, after sleep
ing for more than twenty years, had remained in
repose during another summer, it would, in my
opinion, have displayed more wisdom, than thus to
take up a business piece-meal, after publicly pro
claiming that it should not be agitated at all till
the ensuing session of parliament." Nor did he
fail to allude in language of strong condemnation
to the circular letter sent by order of the treasury
to the merchants engaged in the African trade.
Vainly the Duke of Richmond replied, that the
letter in question referred solely to the abolition,
not to the regulation, of the commerce ; and there
fore that no infraction of ministerial faith had
been, or would be committed. " The noble
duke," answered Lord Thurlow, " or any other
individual, may put whatever construction they
think proper on the letter : I am content to un
derstand it according to the acceptation in which
the persons take it to whom it is addressed."
We must admit that throughout the whole pro
ceeding Thurlow argued as a statesman ; Pitt

122 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788,
acted as a moralist. PoUcy alone guided the
chancellor ; principle and humanity impelled the
minister. Posterity will judge between them.
My admiration now follows Pitt ; but I will can
didly own that at the time when the events hap
pened which are here related, I strongly inclined
to embrace an opposite opinion,
SOth June. — New alterations took place down to
the end of June ; when the Duke of Richmond
brought forward the clause by which all persons
who in consequence of the operation of the bill
might sustain pecuniary loss were entitled to
claim compensation. Commissioners, named under
the great seal, were appointed to take cognizance
and to decide finally on the justice of the de
mands made by the claimants. But here again
the chancellor interposed with numerous objec
tions, A jury, not commissioners, he maintained,
ought to assess the quota of compensation to be
allowed the merchants. This opinion he sup
ported with strong reasons, and no member of the
cabinet, except the Duke of Richmond, took any
part in the debate. After demonstrating how
inadequate, arbitrary, and liable to error or de
ception, were the provisions of the proposed
clause of indemnification, Thurlow added, " The
warmest friend of the present measure cannot feel
more anxiety than I do, that it may not disgrace
this house in the opinion of the country." Lord
Bathurst concurred in all the chancellor's positions.

PITT. — LORD THURLOW. 123
A division at length took place, when Pitt
triumphed by a majority of only two votes ; twelve
peers concurring with Lord Thurlow, while four
teen divided against him. So violent a contest
on public grounds, between two members of the
same administration, in one of the houses of par
liament, yet not followed by the resignation of
either, might be considered as a sort of political
paradox. I believe it has no parallel since the
accession of the house of Hanover, Its singu
larity is augmented when we reflect that one of
the ministers who held in his hand the great seal,
was by his office the constitutional keeper of the
king's conscience ; while the other presided both
at the treasury and at the exchequer. Their dif
ference of opinion produced however no ostensible
breach, though neither of them was distinguished
by placability of disposition. Mutual convenience
smothered their animosity, without extinguishing
the recollection : but time matured these princi
ples of disunion into a flame, which finally drove
the chancellor out of the cabinet,
4.th July.— The " Slave Regulation BiU" was
destined to undergo fresh attacks on its return to
the house of commons ; the amendments which
had been made by the peers compelling Dolben
to bring in a new bill. As the very advanced
season of the year rendered it almost impossible
to procure attendance for the discussion of a
measure which, whatever altercation it might

124 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
have produced between Lord Thurlow and Pitt,
was not a party question, the enemies of the
whole transaction renewed their efforts to over
turn it. They were joined by a new auxiliary in
the person of Gamon, member for Winchester,
whom the Duke of Chandos brought into parUa
ment ; the duchess being his sister. Delay, in
dependent either of argument or of eloquence,
it was obvious, would of itself frustrate all the
minister's plans. He remained nevertheless firm,
determined as he was to surmount by persever
ance every attempt of its opponents. No line of
conduct less decided would have proved effectual.
Having demonstrated that the amendments and
alterations introduced by the peers were obvi
ously favourable to the petitioners against the
biU, Pitt induced the lower house to refuse hear
ing counsel. He concluded by moving to give
bounties calculated for preserving the lives of the
slaves during the voyage from the coast of Africa
to the West Indies. All these suggestions meet
ing with nearly unanimous consent, the bill was a
second time sent up to the lords, where it experi
enced no further impediment on the part of the
chancellor. The prorogation of parliament, which
had been so long delayed, would therefore have
taken place immediately, if it had not been disco
vered that an informality in framing the bill pro
duced the necessity of renewing it a third time.
Sth — 11th July. — But Pitt was not to be driven
from his purpose by any obstacles. The greatest

SLAVE REGULATION BILL. 125
difficulty consisted in procuring the number of
members requisite for placing and keeping the
Speaker in the chair, at a time when the session
might be regarded as virtually at an end. Many
individuals who commonly supported adminis
tration were altogether inimical to the measure;
and the lord chancellor had, even on the treasury
bench, more than one adherent. The enemies of
Dolben's proposition might easily frustrate its
success, by merely counting the house ; an imme
diate adjournment being indispensable if there
were not forty members present, as soon as the
circumstance became the subject of a motion. Even
treasury letters could not enforce attendance. Lord
North, under similar embarrassments, would un
questionably have suspended the business till the
following session. Not so Pitt. Sir William
Dolben having moved to read his bill a second
time, new petitions from Liverpool, of the same
tenor with those antecedently presented, were
brought up ; while Mr. Gamon moved to post
pone the second reading for three months. On a
division, thirty-five members supported the minis
ter, one of whom was Sheridan. Only two votes
were found to oppose the measure. The four
teUers completed the number to forty -one ; being
one more than was absolutely necessary to legalize
the proceeding.
Before the house adjourned, the bill went
through the committee, was reported, engrossed,
read a third time, passed, and finally carried up

126 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
by Dolben in person to the bar of the peers.
Lord Thurlow received it with indignant silence.
AU these steps took place on the 8th of July.
No debate or conversation whatever arose respect
ing it in the house of lords. On the morning of
the 11th, the bill was returned to the commons,
and instantly sent back, in order that it might re
ceive the royal assent, which was given to it a few
hours afterwards. Then, and not tiU then, Pitt
aUowed the king to prorogue the parUament. I
have descended to these minute detaUs, because no
feature of Pitt's poUtical life places in a more con
spicuous point of view the force of his moral prin
ciples of action, and his inflexible determination to
pursue the path which they dictated to him. The
Slave Regulation Act, which was ultimately car
ried by thirty-five votes in a sort of rump par
liament, laid the foundation of the Slave Abolition
Act, in the course of the following year.
July. — The court of peers which sate in West
minster HaU on the trial of Hastings did not
wait for the prorogation in order to suspend their
proceedings. As early as the middle of June,
they adjourned to the ensuing session, after hav
ing been assembled in their judicial capaaty only
thirty-five times during a space of more than
four months. Burke, Fox, and Sheridan fur
nished the principal aUment of the prosecution.
The last-named individual, more master of himself
than Burke, never borne away or conAiilsed by

SHERIDAN, — FOX. 127
passion; an actor, even when he seemed to be
most deeply agitated ; — Sheridan, whUe he shun
ned these extremes, as carefully avoided the repe
titions in which Fox frequently indulged. The
long intervals which elapsed between the grand
exhibitions of oratory were filled up by the in
ferior managers ; at whose head, facile princeps,
must be placed Grey.
If the month of June had exhibited important
changes in the higher offices of the law, July wit
nessed a similar alteration at the admiralty. The
divisions of the 18th and the 29th of April, in
the house of commons, eventually produced Lord
Howe's resignation; and Pitt, availing himself
of his complete ascendancy at St. James's, in
stantly substituted his brother. Lord Chatham,
in the vacant office. He was then about thirty-
two years of age. In that high, efficient, and
arduous employment, notwithstanding his recog
nized inaptitude for executing its duties, the
same paramount ministerial influence retained
him considerably more than six years. It is true
that during the far greater part of the period, the
nation continued to enjoy peace. But, towards
the conclusion of 1794, the augmenting calamities
of a foreign war, which demanded corresponding
energies in every department at home, rendered it
necessary to supply Lord Chatham's place with a
person of greater application, if not superior talent.
After the termination of the second unfortu-

128 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
nate campaign in the Low Countries, where the
Duke of York commanded the British forces, his
total want of military skUl had excited such univer
sal clamour, that Pitt, however reluctant, at length
determined to lay the matter before the king.
He did so ; and suggested, as the only means of
allaying the national discontent, to entrust with
the supreme command a general of more experi
ence, as well as more responsible, than a second
son of the crown. But his majesty rephed, " Mr.
Pitt, you mistake the matter. It is not my son,
but your brother, who has produced the clamour
of which you complain. It is the delay, mis
management, and want of all energy or exertion
at the admiralty, much more than the errors or
misfortunes of our arms on the Continent, which
have involved my councils in disgrace." Shortly
after this conversation, which was long and full
of asperity. Lord Spencer replaced the Earl of
Chatham as first lord of the admiralty. Pitt took
care however to provide for his brother's comfort,
as weU as to retain his vote in the cabinet, by
conferring on him the dignified sinecure of lord
privy seal.
If ever any individual drew a prize in the great
lottery of human life, that man was the present
Earl of Chatham. Having been brought up to
the military profession, he went out to America
previous to the commencement pf our contest
with the colonies ; but was recalled to this country

LORD CHATHAM. 129
by his father, who disapproved the war carried on
for their subjugation. In 1779 he commanded
the grenadier company in the newly-raised Rut
land regiment, crossed the Atlantic a second time,
passed some months at St. Lucie and Barbadoes,
and returned to Europe by Gibraltar. He told
me that he rode post the whole way from thence
to Madrid, on his road to England. At scarcely
three-and-twenty, he had succeeded to an earl
dom, to a pension of four thousand pounds a year
settled on the title, and to the estate of Burton
Pynsent. Lord Chatham inherited likewise his
illustrious father's form and figure ; but not his
mind. That present of nature fell to the second
son. There was a third, named James, whom I
never personally knew ; and who died at the age
of nineteen, in the West Indies, a lieutenant in
the navy. The present earl so strongly resembles
his father in face and person, that if he were to
enter the house of peers, dressed after the mode of
George the Second's reign, and his head enveloped
in a full-bottomed tie wig, (as we see Mr. Pitt
designated in his portraits,) the spectators might
fancy that the great statesman was returned once
more upon earth. Rising above the ordinary
height, thin, and elegant in his formation, Lord
Chatham's air and address announce a person of
rank ; but his manners seem to prohibit all fami
liarity, and almost to forbid approach. Yet, in
private society, when I have happened to be
VOL. III. K

130 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
seated next to him at table, he unbent, and be
came pleasing, as well as communicative in con
versation. Constitutionally and habitually taci
turn, cold, reserved, lofty, repulsive, his silence
served as a mantle to protect him from close in
spection. It did more ; for it inspired respect,
as though it concealed great talents under
that veU. Many persons, indeed, have given
him credit for judgment and capacity ; but his
whole Ufe proves the contrary. Two vices or
defects, each of which might render inefficient
the brightest intellectual endowments, even if
they existed, have accompanied him from youth
to age. I mean, insuperable indolence, and total
want of economy.
However incredible, it is nevertheless true, that
whUe presiding at the admiralty board, even in
time of war, he seldom was visible till noon, I
might indeed say, that he rarely rose from his bed
much before that hour. Naval officers conse
quently found it difficult, or impossible to obtain
an audience. After he quitted his employment,
it became common to call him in derision, the late
first lord of the admiralty. Even when com
manding the British army before Flushing in
1809, his tent could not be entered nor was the
general to be seen before a late hour. Of the
talents attributed to him by flattery, he has ex
hibited no proof. I believe, he never opened
his lips in the house of peers, since he first took

LORD CHATHAM. 131
his seat in that assembly; but between 1784 and
1788, when his brother had him in training for
high employment, he used most assiduously to
attend the debates in the house of commons ;
placing himself always in the members' gallery,
over the treasury bench. It would have been
fortunate for himself, as well as for his country,
if he had never been employed in a military com
mand. He possessed, indeed, neither activity,
experience, ardour, nor any of the qualities that
usually produce success. It is difficult to con
ceive upon what rational principle his majesty
selected him to command the expedition against
Walcheren in 1809: — for he unquestionably
owed the appointment solely to the king, though
the subservient cabinet of that day improperly
acquiesced in the choice,
I saw him embark at Ramsgate, for Flanders,
with the Earl of Rosslyn, and the Marquis of
Huntley, All men of reflection anticipated the
result of an enterprize conducted by such a lead
er. Bemadotte, who now sits on the throne of
Gustavus Adolphus, of Christina, and of Charles
the Twelfth, was enabled, by the delays and inde
cision of the English commander, to render Bona
parte an incalculable service, in saving Antwerp.
A general of rapid and decisive movements would
have dashed up the Schelde, before the enemy
could be prepared to receive or to oppose him.
Lord Chatham's trophies were Umited to the
K 2

132 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
capture of Flushing. If, however, he gathered
no laurels there, I have been assured that he made
a considerable sum of prize-money at Middelburg.
Dalrymple's convention of Cintra, signed in the
preceding year, had covered him, perhaps unjust
ly, with obloquy. Similar was the effect of the
Walcheren expedition on the Earl of Chatham.
He will no more indeed be employed again in
the field, than would Sir George Prevost, if he
were alive.
Lord Chatham's incapacity of restraining his
expences within any moderate limits, tended, even
more than his want of energy or activity, to bring
him down from the eminence on which birth and
fortune placed him.
12th July. — No individual about the court, or
in either house of parliament, felt probably more
delight at his emancipation from the metropolis,
and from public business, than the king. He
had long anticipated, not without some impa
tience, the prorogation ; which, contrary to gene
ral usage, in consequence of the delay occasioned
by the " Slave Regulation Bill," took place on a
Friday. A principle of humanity in the present
instance prolonged the session. It was a differ
ent motive to which Pulteney, Earl of Bath, at
tributed the meeting of parliament on a Friday,
when he composed his elegant and classic im
promptu on George the Second and the Countess
of Yarmouth. During the spring of the year

GEORGE HI. 133
1788, his majesty, who had nearly attained the
age of fifty, found himself attacked by symptoms
of indisposition, which his physicians pronounced
to be gouty. Probably, the humour might have
exhausted its force in the extremities, in the
shape of gout, if his majesty had eat and drunk
like almost any other private gentleman. But
his natural disposition to temperance, encreased
by a dread of becoming corpulent, and perhaps
other apprehensions, impelled him to adopt the
habits of an ascetic. The most simple food, taken
in very moderate quantity, constituted his re
pasts. Yet his German origin shewed itself in
his predUections : — for sour crout was one of his
favourite dishes ; as Handel's or Mozart's music
charmed him more than that of Pergolesi, or of
Paesiello. His ordinary beverage at table was
only composed of a sort of lemonade, which he
dignified with the name of cup ; though a monk
of La Trappe might have drunk it without any
infraction of his monastic vow.
The king usually eat so little, and so rapidly,
that those persons who dined with him could not
satisfy their appetite, unless by continuing their
meal after the sovereign had finished, which was
contrary to the old etiquette. He was so sensible
of this fact, and so considerate, that when he
dined at Kew, without the queen, and only at
tended by two equerries, he always said, " Don't
regard me : take your own time." One of them.

134 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
an intimate friend of mine, relating to me the
particulars of these repasts, which were very com
fortless, observed, " We know so weU how soon
the king has finished, that after we sit down at
table not a word is uttered. AU our attention is
devoted to expedition. Yet, with the best dili
gence we can exert, before we have half dined,
his majesty has already thrown himself back in
his chair, and called for his cup, with which he
concludes his meal." Napoleon's dinners were, if
possible, even less convivial, and equally brief.
He, whose hours decided the fate of nations,
dedicated little time to the gratifications of the
table. The late Marquis Cholmondeley, who had
dined with him at the " grand couvert" in the
Tuileries, in 1802, has frequently assured me,
that from the moment they sate down, tiU the
coffee was served, not more than forty-three or
four minutes elapsed. They were then bowed
out. The late Earl Harcourt, who became master of
the horse to Charlotte of Mecklenburg, was a
nobleman of high breeding, weU informed, and
of a most correct deportment, though of manners
somewhat constrained and formal. When he had
the honour to receive and to entertain their majes
ties at Nuneham, on their road to visit Oxford, his
countess, who was one of the ladies of the queen's
bedchamber, said to him, " My lord, recollect that
as soon as the king lays down his knife and fork.

GEORGE III. — THE PRINCE OF WALES. 135
you must do the same. You cannot continue to
eat after he has ceased." Finding nevertheless
that Lord Harcourt either did not, or would not,
attend to her injunction, she was obUged to tread
on his foot, in order to accelerate his movements.
The queen by no means resembled her royal con
sort in this respect. No woman in the kingdom
enjoyed herself more at table, or manifested a nicer
taste in the article of wine. In consequence of
his majesty's rarely drinking even a single glass,
and of his weU-known indifference about its fla
vour or quaUty, he seldom had any good wine,
though he paid for it the best price. During
several years, the wines served at the equerries'
table were very indifferent. As they did not,
however, think proper to make any complaint on
the subject, it might so have continued without
redress, if, by accident, the Prince of Wales,
while on a visit at Windsor, had not chanced to
dine with them. The instant that his royal high
ness tasted the claret, he pronounced sentence
upon it. He did more: for he informed his
father of the manner in which his wine-merchant
treated him. The abuse was immediately cor
rected. Two other motives, besides the apprehension
of corpulency, impelled his majesty to practise
unremitting abstinence. The first was a secret
consciousness (which, however, he as carefully
concealed, as his grandmother. Queen CaroUne,

136 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
did her tendency to an internal rupture,) that the
disease which menaced him could only be re
pressed by severe renunciations, and that it me
naced his head. Why else did he inffict on him
self, before he attained his thirtieth year, the loss
of his hair? We know that shaving the head
is one of the earliest and most indispensable ope
rations performed on persons attacked with pri
vation of intellect. He did not, we may safely
assume, submit to it without strong reasons. It
is with probability conjectured, that the disorder
which seized him in the autumn of 1765, the
nature of which was mysteriously withheld from
the public, affected the brain. In order to sub
due that tendency, he thought no prescription
so effectual as spare and simple diet. " Junius"
says, in a note annexed to his letter dated " 3rd
of April 1770," that the king was so agitated,
in consequence of the remonstrance presented to
him by the city of London, in the month of
March of the same year ; and so irritated at his
inability to punish the lord mayor and sheriffs for
their presumption in approaching him with such
a paper ; as to have " been obUged to live upon
potatoes for three weeks, to keep off a malignant
fever." The second reason for denying himself any gra
tifications of appetite, was his great aversion to
confinement. The king was not a studious man.
He neither liked books, nor sedentary occupations,

GEORGE III. 137
nor convivial society, nor places of public diver
sion, if we except the theatre ; nor cards, till his
augmenting defect of sight compeUed him some
times to have recourse to the last-mentioned
amusement. George the Third never enjoyed
his existence so much as when in the open air ;
at times on foot ; but generally on horseback ;
either following the hounds, which he did with
great ardour ; or at a review, where he was al
ways animated ; or inspecting his farms, or visit
ing his various improvements and embellish
ments round Windsor. It was his delight to
mount his horse before the equerry in waiting
could possibly be aware of it; often in severe
or unpleasant weather, which rarely deterred him ;
always at an early hour. One of his equerries
has assured me, that when thus surprized, he
has been compelled to foUow the king down
Windsor Hill with scarcely time to pull up his
stockings under his boots. No place about his
majesty's court or person, so long as he retained
his intellect, could indeed be less of a sinecure
than the office of an equerry. The appointments
were very inadequate to the fatigue and exer
tions of the post : a fact of which the king him
self was so well aware, that he used to say he had
fewer applications for the employment of equerry
than for any other in his donation. Returning
late from his excursion on horseback, after a very
short time passed in the occupation of dress, he

138 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788,
sate down, surrounded by his famUy, at table,
AU indulgence he deprecated and avoided, as con
ducting to certain indisposition.
Among the noble individuals who formed the
estabhshment of the king's bedchamber in 1788,
was the Earl of Fauconberg; sprung from an
antient and loyal family, though an ancestor of
his had married one of Oliver's daughters. Being
constitutionally subject to a violent scorbutic
humour in his face, he frequently had recourse
to the mineral waters of Cheltenham, then a
small, obscure provincial town of the county of
Glocester. Its spring, though unquestionably
endowed with powerful and salubrious qualities,
yet during many years had faUen into neglect.
Lord Fauconberg finding or conceiving that he
derived great benefit from the water, purchased
some land in its vicinity, where he constructed
a house of moderate dimensions, which he named
Bays Hill Lodge, situate on a gentle eminence,
about three hundred paces from the spring. The
king, who usually entered into much famUiar
conversation with the lord of the bedchamber
in waiting, before he came out to begin his levees,
often made enquiries of Lord Fauconberg re
specting Cheltenham, His warm encomiums on
the virtues of the mineral water, as well as on the
beauty of the surrounding country, inspired his
majesty with a wish to visit the place. Its pri
vacy and simplicity formed additional recom-

GEORGE III.— BAYS HILL LODGE. 139
mendations. Lord Fauconberg offered Bays Hill
Lodge for his reception, which, though not very
capacious, might nevertheless contain the part of
the royal family destined to participate in the
excursion. The physicians who were consulted
expressing no disapprobation, the plan was finally
settled to take place as soon as the public business
would permit of its execution. Unfortunately, par
liament remained sitting, as we have seen, till the
11th day of July. But such was the king's impa
tience to begin his journey, that after proroguing
the two houses in person, and pronouncing a speech
from the throne at three on Friday afternoon, he
returned to St. James's, and drove down to Wind
sor. On the ensuing morning, before seven, their
majesties, accompanied by the three eldest prin
cesses, had already quitted the castle on their
way to Cheltenham. They only stopped to take
breakfast at Lord Harcourt's seat of Nuneham,
and reached Bays Hill Lodge on the same after
noon at an early hour,
12th — 31.s^ July. — Here his majesty found him
self, for the first time since his grandfather's
decease, transformed in some degree from a sove
reign into a country gentleman. No minister or
secretary of state attended him. During near
eight-and-twenty years of a stormy and calami
tous reign, marked with the greatest national dis
asters, though set off by some days of glory, he
had scarcely seen any part of his dominions. The

140 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Nore, Coxe Heath, Portsmouth, and Oxford,
formed almost the extent of his travels. At
Cheltenham, he had left a hundred mUes behind
him the " Fumum et opes, strepitumque Romae,"
His mode of Uving might be deemed patriarchal ;
more suited to the first ages of the world, than
to the dissipated state of society towards the close
of the eighteenth century. He visited the spring
at so early an hour, that few of his subjects were
found there to meet him. Constantly on horse
back, when the weather permitted, from eleven
till three, he sat down at four to dinner ; stroUed
out, like a citizen, with his wife and daughters,
on the public walk soon after seven ; and by
eleven at night, every thing was as completely
hushed at Bays HiU Lodge as in a farm-house.
The king was not even accompanied on this ex
cursion by any of his usual attendants ; neither by
a lord of the bedchamber, nor by an equerry. The
Earl of Courtown, an Irish nobleman, who held
the office of treasurer of the household ; himself
a man of very moderate faculties, but of polite
and pleasing manners ; followed his majesty to
Cheltenham, by special invitation. So did the
Honourable Stephen Digby, vice-chamberlain to
the queen. They usually were his companions
when he rode ; but he delighted to emancipate
hmiself from all restraint, to walk out alone in
the fields, and to enter into conversation with the

GEORGE in. — MR. POWNEY. 141
persons who accidentally fell in his way. He
made likewise some excursions of pleasure and
curiosity; particularly to Glocester, where, when
visiting the cathedral, he appeared to contemplate
with much interest the tomb of one of his unfor
tunate predecessors, on which is extended his re
cumbent figure. I mean, Edward the Second ;
who, after his inhuman murder at Berkeley
Castle, was conveyed for interment to Glocester,
The king, queen, and princesses drove over like
wise, on a morning visit, to the classic seat of Lord
Bathurst, the friend of Pope, at Oakley Grove.
But on that occasion, as on every other, the king
invariably declined all dinners or entertainments.
Lord Fauconberg himself could not have paid
more assiduous attention to the Cheltenham
spring than did George the Third. He drank
of it indeed so profusely, and its effects on him
were so violent, that many persons, not without
apparently good cause, attributed his subsequent
temporary loss of reason to the irritation pro
duced by the waters on his nervous system.
The two representatives for the town of Wind
sor in 1788 were the Earl of Mornington and
Mr. Powney. Royal and ministerial influence
combined had recently brought in the former, on
the decease of Lord Montagu, son of Earl Beau-
lieu ; but Powney had not so easily obtained his
seat. He successfully undertook, at a period
when the king, in consequence of the American

142 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
war, was very unpopular, to turn out Admiral
Keppel, who then sat in the house of commons
for Windsor. Scarcely any individual could be
more obnoxious to the king than was that naval
officer at the time when the general election took
place, in September 1780; though within little
more than eighteen months afterwards, he found
himself compelled to create Keppel a viscount,
and to place him at the head of the admiralty.
It is well known, that previous to the dissolution
of the parliament in question, George the Third
indirectly canvassed many of the tradesmen at
Windsor, in favour of Powney; and his influ
ence must necessarily have been great in a town
where he so much resided. After a sharp con
test, Powney only carried the election by sixteen
votes, though the freeholders amounted to nearly
three hundred. So efficient a proof of loyalty,
exhibited at such a juncture, could not fail to
make a favourable impression ; especially as Pow
ney was again returned for the same borough,
at the ensuing dissolution in 1784. The king, on
all occasions, treated him with marks of familiari
ty and regard. His landed property, which lay
in the immediate vicinity of Windsor, and was
considerable, rendered him likewise an object of
royal attention. Neither nature nor education
had set their stamp upon him, as a flt companion
for princes. His person, short and thick, was ig
noble; his manners, unrefined and rustic; his

MR. POWNEY. — GEORGE III. 143
countenance, destitute of elevation or expression ;
and his mind by no means highly cultivated.
The distinction shewn him by his sovereign pro
cured him nevertheless a place in the " RoUiad,"
as the esquire of the commander-in-chief, Sir
George Howard.
" Erect in person, see yon knight advance.
With trusty squire, who bears his shield and lance ;
The Quixote Howard ! royal Windsor's pride,
And Sancho Pan^a Powney by his side."
Since the decease of the Earl of Pomfret in
1785, who was ranger of Windsor Little Park,
the king had not filled up that office ; and it was
thought that he intended to confer it on one of
the princesses, his daughters. But, in the last days
of July, Powney was appointed ranger, with a
salary of five hundred pounds per annum. His
majesty undoubtedly designed it as a mark of his
predilection, and as some remuneration for Pow-
ney's expences incurred by bringing himself into
parUament. The king did not however mean
that Powney should consider the post as efficient,
or that he should exercise any control over the
park; having previously taken it into his own
hands as a farm, for the purpose of agricultural
experiments and occupation. Some time sub
sequent to the appointment, his majesty, ac
companied by Colonel Manners, his equerry, on
horseback, returning to Windsor, met Powney,
whom he accosted, and they rode together till

144 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
they arrived at the entrance into the Little
Park. Manners holding open the gate, the king
entered first ; and Powney was about to follow,
when the colonel let the gate fall, by which un
expected circumstance, the ranger found himself
excluded from the very park placed under his
supervision. The king and his equerry passing
on, he remained for a minute^ in silent mortifica
tion. Then turning his horse's head, he retraced
his steps homeward. Meeting Lord Sandwich,
who was master of the buck hounds, Powney
communicated the case to him ; intimating at
the same time, that he should probably ask some
explanation from Colonel Manners, for thus shut
ting the gate in his face. " Powney," replied the
earl, "I would advise you to desist from any
such intention ; first, because Manners, who has
kUled one or two highwaymen that attempted to
rob him, is not a man likely to give you any
satisfactory explanation of the matter; but still
more, because he probably either had the king's
private directions for his conduct, or guessed his
pleasure. Let the affair rest." The ranger fol
lowed Lord Sandwich's advice, who himself re
lated to me the story.
August. — The political power possessed and ex
ercised by Pitt at this time, placed him in a far
higher point of security than any minister of the
crown had enjoyed, not only since the accession of
the Brunswic line, but since the revolution. In
fact, if we except the chancellor in the cabinet, and

PITT,— GEORGE III. 145
Dundas, out of the cabinet, Pitt composed himself
the administration. His application to business, his
renunciation of pleasure, together with his facility,
rapidity, and activity in the conduct of affairs,
enabled him to superintend every department.
The formation of a sinking fund in 1786, fol
lowed in 1787 by the emancipation of Holland
from the French influence, rendered him not
merely popular, — he was idolized by the nation.
At St. James's he could dictate even when he
did not persuade or convince. The king feared
and respected him. George the Second enter
tained similar sentiments towards his father.
George the Third lamented and disapproved the
impeachment of Hastings, to which Pitt had
mainly contributed. Even on the recent mea
sure of the " Slave Regulation Bill," his majesty
would probably have taken part with his chan
cellor against the first lord of the treasury, if he
could have followed the impulse of his own in
clination or judgment. But, on the other hand,
the king justly appreciated Pitt's transcendent
parliamentary abilities, as well as his services dur
ing the long and doubtful struggle with "the
coalition." Conscious that whoever presided in
the councils of the crown, he must yield to his
minister upon many points ; so long as Pitt did
not interfere with matters of conscience, George
the Third felt the warmeist disposition to give
him unequivocal support.
VOL. in. L

146 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
In fhe cabinet he exercised almost uncontrolled
authority. Bastard, by his repeated attacks on
Lord Howe in the house of commons, which
ultimately produced that nobleman's resignation,
had in fact played into Pitt's hands, who filled
up the vacant office by placing in it his own bro
ther. Already the minister meditated to change
in like manner the two secretaries of state, and
to substitute in their places his most devoted
personal adherents. We must indeed candidly
admit, that though in December 1783, when the
country was in a state of convulsion, two indi
viduals more proper for those high employments
could not probably have been found on the mo
ment, than the Marquis of Carmarthen and Lord
Sydney; yet in August 1788, functionaries much
more capable might replace them. In the upper
house they were almost null. Lord Sydney had
even ventured to speak, though not to vote, in
opposition to the " Slave Regulation BiU." The
marquis, his colleague, who presided over the
foreign department, rather belonged to the Shel
burne school, than to that of Pitt. He was besides,
though not a man of superior talents, yet endowed
with a very independent mind : more so than a mi
nister of Pitt's character might Uke for one of his
associates in power. It was, however, necessary
to wait for favourable occasions of displacing the
two secretaries. Within ten months from the time
of which I speak. Lord Sydney was pushed out

LORD CARMARTHEN. — DUKE OF RICHMOND. 147
of the cabinet ; not, indeed, as the Archbishop of
Grenada dismissed Gil Bias, by the shoulders ;
but gently,— ^ a bed of repose being previously
prepared for him by the chancellor of the exche
quer. I mean, the chief justiceship in eyre, south
of Trent. Mr. William Grenville was imme
diately made secretary for the home department.
Lord Carmarthen survived his colleague nearly
two years. In June 1791, (before which period
he had become Duke of Leeds,) he formed the
instrument of impelling the court of Berlin to
adopt hostile demonstrations against Catherine
the Second, during the negotiations relative to
Ockzakow. But when it was found necessary to
abandon this line of foreign policy, rather than
submit to the humiliation, he threw up his em
ployment. Pitt instantly transferred Lord Gren
ville (who had intermediately been created a
peer) to the foreign office; while Dundas suc
ceeded to the vacant secretaryship of state.
Among all the members of administration, the
Duke of Richmond manifested the most implicit
deference to Pitt's wishes on every point, and
seemed to be united with him by the strongest
ties. Throughout the whole progress of Sir Wil
liam Dolben's bill in the house of peers, the
duke, like Abdiel, "faithful only he," while his
colleagues either stood aloof or opposed the mea
sure, defended it with his best exertions. The
minister had indeed paid dearly for his grace's
L 2

148 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
friendship, by adopting his plans of fortification :
plans not only very expensive, but adverse to the
genius of the nation, if not contrary to the spirit
of the British constitution. Like " the Westmin
ster scrutiny," and " the Irish propositions," the
attempt had only produced defeat, accompanied
with some portion of condemnation. Lord Cam
den, whom Pitt had created an earl, and made
president of the council, was, it is true, sincerely
attached to the chancellor of the exchequer. But
that great lawyer had already passed the ordinary
Umits assigned to human life; and if the brightness
of his faculties had suffered no diminution, yet
his energies, intellectual as well as corporeal,
began to feel the pressure of time. The Marquis
of Stafford, who held the privy seal, might be
considered as the least efficient of the cabinet
ministers ; and he had been throughout a con
siderable part of his life closely united with
Lord Thurlow by habits of convivial and social
intimacy. The chancellor remained, during the recess that
followed the prorogation, in a state of sullen
alienation. Pepper Arden's recent appointment
to the place-of master of the rolls, an employ
ment so closely and personally connected with
the court of chancery, furnished fresh aliment to
his irritated mind. He held Arden in personal
aversion, without respecting his legal talents or
acquirements. Nor did he fail to oppose every

PITT. — THURLOW. — BURKE 149
official impediment and delay that animosity
could suggest, to prevent its accomplishment.
But, after a long and ineffectual struggle, Pitt's
pertinacity prevailed. Thurlow could not how
ever be removed from the councils of the sove
reign, like the two secretaries of state. His ta
lents and eloquence were indispensable in the
upper house, where he formed the only adequate
opponent to Lord Loughborough. That necessity,
and that alone, prolonged his tenure of the great
seal for nearly four years longer ; till, in June
1792, Pitt, wearied out with incessant and acri
monious altercations which took place between
them, having sent Lord Grenville to fight the
ministerial battles in that assembly, and having
got complete possession of the cabinet, ventured
to dismiss Lord Thurlow. The great seal was
then put into commission for a few months, till
Wedderburn could be prevailed on to accept it.
The state of depression into which the opposi
tion was fallen as a party, in the summer of 1788,
formed a striking contrast with the apparent
stability of Pitt's ministerial power. Yet the
lapse of a few weeks demonstrated how slippery
are the foundations of ambition, and had nearly
precipitated the minister from his elevation.
Burke, at this period, occupied as he was with
the prosecution of Hastings, embarrassed in his
private circumstances, sinking in years, and al
most hopeless of any amelioration of affairs, had

150 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
become acrimonious in his temper, and irritable
in his manners. Sheridan, on the contrary, ac
customed from early youth to subsist by inge
nuity, placed at the head of one of the theatres,
fertile in plans for procuring money, and not fas
tidious in the means that he employed to raise it ;
convivial in his disposition, universaUy sought
after for the charms of his society, and always
extinguishing his cares in j^me; seemed, like Teu
cer, to exclaim, when looking round on his com
panions in political misfortune,
" O fortes, pejoraque passi
Mecum saepe viri, nunc vi'no peHite curas !"
His father, Thomas Sheridan, a man of eminent
talents, but whose whole life had been a struggle
for bread, finished his protracted career just at
this time. Immersed as he was in pecuniary diffi
culties, he must yet have derived no ordinary
pride and gratification at having given birth to a
son whose resplendent talents, collectively consi
dered, almost threw into the shade those of every
other competitor for fame.
Fox, after contending through five successive
sessions against an individual whom his own im
prudence had raised to power, and whom every
revolving year confirmed in authority; resolved
to quit for a time the scene of his own defeat,
and of his rival's triumph. He had only taken a
hasty view of Italy, when young ; a country to
which all his recollections, all his partialities, all

FOX. — LORD JOHN TOWNSEND. — HOOD. 151
his studies, continually re-conducted him. He
determined to visit once more the soil which had
produced a Dante, an Ariosto, a Guicciardini, and
so many illustrious historians, philosophers, or
poets. Already, accompanied by Mrs. Armstead,
whom he married about five years afterwards, he
prepared to set out on his journey ; projecting,
as he did, to pass the ensuing winter south of
the Apennines. His health likewise, which was
much broken, prompted him to try the air of a
softer climate. Before he left London, he had
the gratification of witnessing no ordinary victory
over administration, in the return to parliament
of his intimate friend. Lord John Townsend, as
member for Westminster. Pitt, when he gave
his brother a Mentor in the person of Lord Hood,
no doubt had anticipated the re-election of that
gallant veteran. But he found himself greatly
deceived in his expectations. After a violent
contest. Lord John obtained his seat. The suc
cess was celebrated by every proof of party exult
ation, and the metropolis again exhibited scenes
of riot nearly similar to those that disgraced
Westminster in 1784. Unfortunately, too, the
majority exceeding eight hundred, left no rational
hope of restoring Lord Hood by a scrutiny. The
very name had indeed left behind it recollections
which could not be pleasing to the minister.
Under these circumstances, it became necessary
to wait for the dissolution of parliament before

152 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
any new attempt should be made to replace Lord
Hood in the house of commons, as representative
for the city of Westminster,
His majesty, after passing above a month at
Cheltenham, during which time he indulged in a
more copious use of the mineral waters than pru
dence would have dictated, returned with the
royal family to Windsor, Previous to his depar
ture, as he had visited Glocester in July, so he made
an excursion, in August, to Worcester, Besides the
natural desire to see a place which might rank
among the greatest and most opulent cities of his
dominions, he was desirous of testifying his re
gard for the venerable prelate who then occupied
the episcopal see : — a prelate whom he would
willingly have raised, some years earlier, to the
metropolitan dignity of Canterbury. The king,
with the queen and princesses, passed a night at
the bishop's palace. On the following day he
held a sort of levee there ; previous to which
ceremony, at an early hour, the weather being very
fine, he went on foot, alone, to the bridge which
extends across the Severn. The mayor, corpora
tion, with many of the nobility and gentry of the
surrounding country, afterwards accompanied him
to the . Guildhall. It is unquestionable that he
displayed on the occasion an extraordinary eleva
tion of spirits, attended with some striking pecu
liarities of deportment. Wine being brought, he
drank one or two glasses before dinner, and ap-

GEORGE III. — PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY. 153
peared deeply sensible to the testimonies exhibited
of loyal affection. As he became totally alienated
in mind within twelve weeks afterwards, there
were not wanting persons who imagined that the
first symptoms of effervesence produced by the
Cheltenham waters on his nervous system might
be traced at Worcester. Soon after his return to
Windsor, the king celebrated with great splen
dour the Prince of Wales's birthday. Among
the sons and daughters of the crown who assisted
at that ceremony, was Prince William Henry,
third in order of birth. Having been destined by
his father for the naval service, he had proceeded,
when very young, to America and the West
Indies, as a midshipman, under the superintend
ence of Admiral Digby. There he soon gave
proof, not only of personal courage, but of ardour
and capacity. No prince of England since James,
Duke of York, (afterwards James the Second,)
had been brought up to the sea.
Having completed about this time his twenty-
third year, he expressed much impatience to be
created a peer, as his elder brother, Frederic, had
been on attaining to the age of majority. Inde
pendent however of the Duke of York's greater
proximity to the throne, his majesty always felt a
degree of predilection for his second son. He
likewise knew or believed that the Prince of
Wales possessed and exercised a great ascendant
over the mind of William Henry. These motives.

154 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
together with a reluctance to augment the pecu
niary pressure of the royal family on the nation,
induced the king tp reject the importunate solici
tations made to him on the subject. Mortified at
the denial, and naturally anxious to perform some
public part upon the great political theatre of the
world, the prince determined, if he could not
take his seat among the peers, at least to reach the
lower house. With that view, in the antiqipation
of an approaching dissolution of parliament, he
took measures for procuring his return, as one of
the members for Totness, in the county of Devon.
Probably, such an election, if it ever had taken
place, would have been pronounced invalid and
null by the house of commons. But the experi
ment was not made. About nine months after the
time of which I speak, in May 1789, George the
Third created him Duke of Clarence ; observing,
as I have been assured, at the moment when he
signed the patent, " I well know that it is another
vote added to Opposition." I may here remark
that though the title of York has, ever since the
accession of the house of Tudor, been uniformly
conferred on the second son of the sovereign, yet
it was otherwise under the Plantagenets. Edward
the Third made his second son, Lionel, Duke of
Clarence ; while h\& fourth son, Edmund, received
the dukedom oiYork, — not, indeed, from the king
his father, but from Richard the Second. Henry
the Fourth gave in like manner tb Thomas, his

CLARENCE. — DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 155
second son, the dukedom of Clarence. Since the
weak, imprudent, unfortunate George, Duke of
Clarence, next brother to Edward the Fourth,
whom we assume to have been drowned in a butt
of Malmsey wine, in 1478, no prince of the blood
had been invested with the title. Charles the
First, who had three sons, created the third,
Henry, Duke of Glocester, not of Clarence. A
circumstance still more singular is, that no such
place or county as Clarence exists within the
realm of England. I believe, antiquaries agree
in asserting that it is from the town of Clare in
Suffolk, or from the territory adjoining, the duke
dom derives its origin.
September. — I set out for Paris early in Septem
ber, and did not return to England before the en
suing month. Previous to my leaving London,
died the Duke of Manchester, after a short but
severe indisposition. The opposition lost in him
a steady adherent. His person and manners were
most dignified ; but neither his abilities nor his
fortune corresponded with his figure. On the
first day of Hastings's trial, which took place, as
we have seen, towards the middle of February,
the Duke attended in Westminster Hall. Before
he quitted that edifice, he experienced a sensation
of a paralytic nature in one of his arms, which he
attributed, probably with reason, to the damp,
noxious vapour that pervaded the whole building.
Having in the course of the summer visited

156 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Brighthelmstone for the benefit of his health, he
committed the imprudence of seating hiniself on
the turf, the weather being fine, in order to enjoy
the spectacle of a cricket-match, played on the
Steyne. A violent fever which ensued, carried
him off within two or three days.
The short administration of the Archbishop of
Sens, from whose supposed talents great expecta
tions were originally entertained, but who only ag
gravated the national calamities, was already ter
minated before I reached the Firench capital, and
Necker had resumed his place in the councils of
the crown. The effervescence which pervaded the
public mind, the deficiency in the revenue, and
the contending parties in the cabinet, — all por
tended some impending convulsion. A free con
stitution was demanded from every quarter of
France. So universal and so violent was this
reclamation, that neither Henry the Fourth, nor
Louis the Fourteenth could have successfully op
posed the will of the nation. But a free constitu
tion might have been conceded to the people,
without producing disorganization or revolution.
So well cemented was the French monarchy, and
so deeply rooted in long prescription was the
Capetian dynasty by a lapse of nearly eight hun
dred years, that no sovereign of ordinary vigour
could have been dethroned. Louis the Fifteenth,
indolent, dissolute, and feeble as he was, would
not have tamely resigned his throat to the knife.

LOUIS XVI. — TlPPOO SULTAN. 157
He would have resisted at some point of the con
test. But his grandson, with the most benign
intentions, allowed insurrection to organize itself,
and to proceed, unopposed, through every grada
tion of enormous crime, till he fell under the
stroke of the guillotine.
One of the last exhibitions of royal magnifi
cence which the French court displayed previous
to its fall, took place a short time before my arri
val at Paris. I mean, the ceremony attending the
presentation of Tippoo Sultan's embassadors to
Louis the Sixteenth, Versailles became the scene
of this splendid spectacle ; as it had been seventy-
four years earlier, of the reception given by Louis
the Fourteenth, a short time preceding his de
cease, to the embassadors of Siam, Tippoo, one
of the most enterprizing, active, and warlike
princes who has arisen in the East during the
course of the eighteenth century ; though, as we
must admit, one of the most imprudent ; the
Mithridates oi our time ; impelled by his inextin
guishable enmity to the English name and nation,
meditated, (like the King of Pontus in antiquity,)
to renew the struggle against his powerful oppo
nents. This object, which was never absent from
his mind, induced him to send an embassy to
France, charged with presents of the most costly
nature. Nor can it be doubted, that if the cala
mities which soon afterwards swallowed up the
French monarchy had not intervened, we should

158 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
have witnessed a new contest in the centre of
Hindostan, where the armies of Lt)uis the Six
teenth, and those of the Sultan of Mysore, would
have acted in concert. The queen, who had not
then completed her thirty-third year, decorated
on the occasion with the finest diamonds of the
crown ; herself the most majestic and graceful
princess in Europe ; was present at the reception
of the Asiatic embassadors. So were the Count
de Provence, now Louis the Eighteenth ; and his
brother. Count d'Artois, with their consorts ; ac
companied by the heroic Elizabeth of France, sister
to the king, who perished, five years later, on the
scaffold. Philip, Duke of Orleans, labouring at
that time under his sovereign's displeasure, and
already engaged in those criminal machinations
which burst out within twelve months, absented
himself, Tippoo's embassadors continued at Paris
during some weeks, and were treated with distin
guished honours : but their master derived little
or no benefit from a mission so expensive, which,
under more propitious circumstances, might have
subsequently changed the face of affairs in Asia.
1st — 15th October. — While the French capital
presented every symptom of approaching commo
tion, London exhibited at the beginning of Octo
ber a political calm. His majesty, who appeared
to enjoy perfect health, came up weekly from
Windsor, and held his levees at St, James's with
his accustomed regularity. If in the interior of

THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 159
his family he ever betrayed any indications of an
eccentric or a disordered mind, these ebullitions
were so carefully concealed as not to become
known beyond the limits of his residence. Such
was the tranquil aspect of this country, while the
far greater part of the Continent had already be
come a scene of war and devastation. In the
Netherlands, scarcely were the Flemings prevent
ed from rising in open insurrection against Joseph
the Second: while that restless and injudicious
prince, insensible to the dictates of prudence, pur
sued his ambitious but ruinous projects of aggran
dizement on the Lower Danube. Surrendering
his councils to the direction of Potemkin, and of
Catherine the Second; intent only on conquests
in Servia and Bosnia, anxious to acquire the for
tress of Belgrade ; directing his armies in person,
like Frederic the Second, but wholly destitute of
Frederic's military talents, — Joseph had nearly
subverted the Austrian monarchy.
At a time when France was menaced with
revolution, when the Low Countries hardly ac
knowledged his supremacy, and Hungary might,
from day to day, throw off all subjection ; he per
sisted in prosecuting hostilities against the Turks.
Never were the Austrian arms subjected to more
humiliating, as well as sanguinary defeats, while
contending against the Ottomans, than through
out the campaign of 1788 ! If the Turkish throne
had been then filled by an active, warlike, and

160 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
enterprizing sultan ; by a Mahomet the Second,
a SeUm the First, or a Solyman the Second ; all
Hungary and Transylvania must probably have
passed again under the Mahometan yoke. Joseph,
broken in health, irritated in his temper, and sunk
in reputation, at length quitted the camp, and
retired to Vienna. As it was said of his ancestor
the Emperor Charles the Fifth, when he regained
the Spanish shore after his ill-timed and unfortu
nate expedition against Algiers in 1541, " qu'il
dtoit a\\6 enterrer son honneur en Espagne, morte
en Afrique ;" so might it with equal truth have
been applied to Joseph, that he was gone to bury
his honour in Austria, which had expired in Hun
gary, Happily his reign drew towards its termi
nation. If that prince became the victim of his Musco
vite connexion, his ally, Catherine, succeeded far
better in her enterprizes along the shore of the
Euxine. Potemkin, by a desperate act of fortu
nate valour, made himself master of Ockzakow.
But previous to its capture, a most formidable
opponent had appeared at the other extremity of
Europe, who threatened to set Umits to the em
press's thirst of dominion, Gustavus the Third,
to whom I allude, must be ranked, notwithstand
ing his vices, among the greatest princes who have
reigned in Sweden. He possessed courage and
talents, military as well as civil, which, if they
had been seconded by his subjects and his sol-

GUSTAVUS III. OF SWEDEN. 161
diery, might have retrieved, at least in part, the
calamities inflicted on the Swedes by Charles the
Twelfth's insatiate ambition. After emancipating
the royal authority from the state of degradation
to which it had been reduced under his two
immediate predecessors, Gustavus undertook to
carry war to the city of Petersburgh itself. Nor
would the attempt, however hazardous, have
failed, if the empress had not corrupted both
his senate and his army, whUe she induced the
Danes to invade Sweden on the side of Gotten-
burgh. The efforts made by Gustavus under
these circumstances excite just admiration. His
uncle, " the great Frederic," scarcely exerted en
ergies more conspicuous during the memorable
campaign of 1757, The insubordination of Gus-
tavus's forces in Finland, who, when within so
short a distance of the Russian capital as to aUow
the noise of his cannon to be there heard, never
theless refused to advance, or to draw their
swords in his cause, compelled him to return to
Stockholm. There, new dangers and difficulties
awaited him. The senate, profiting of his ab
sence, had assumed all the functions of govern
ment. Count Razamowsky, Catherine's embas
sador, dictated his mistress's pleasure to that fac
tious, venal, and unprincipled assembly : but
Gustavus, by an eloquent appeal to the burghers,
dissipated their machinations.
The Danish auxiliaries of Catherine had
VOL. III. M

162 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
meanwhile advanced almost unopposed to the
gates of Gottenburgh. Gustavus, imitating the
founder of the house of Vasa, descended, like
him, into the mines of Dalecarlia, in order to
rouse the rude inhabitants of those subterranean
abodes to the defence of their country. Nor
were his exertions unsuccessful in awakening
their loyalty. They formed a body of three
thousand men for his protection. Gustavus's
efforts must nevertheless stiU have proved un-
avaiUng to rescue himself and Sweden from fo
reign enemies, unless he could preserve Gotten
burgh. In order to effect it, he was compeUed
to traverse the central provinces of his kingdom,
(precisely as Charles the Twelfth did those of
Germany in 1714, on his return from Demotica
to Stralsund,) unaccompanied, travelling by night
as well as by day, mounted on a common post-
horse, liable at any moment to be intercepted
by the Danish parties scattered over the open
country. Already the governor of Gottenburgh
prepared to capitulate, when the king, having
eluded all the dangers that menaced him, entered
the place.
His unexpected presence, and avowed deter
mination to perish rather than surrender, operated
with electric effect on the inhabitants. Yet such
was their defenceless state, that if no foreign
power speedily interposed, Gottenburgh could
not have resisted beyond a few days. Unques-

GUSTAVUS III. — HUGH ELLIOT. 163
tionably, under ordinary circumstances, and in
other times, France would have come forward
as the ally of Gustavus. During successive cen
turies, the closest political ties had subsisted be
tween the courts of VersaiUes and of Stockholm.
But Louis's domestic embarrassments, which in
1787 had compelled him to remain a passive
spectator of the British and Prussian operations
in Holland, incapacitated him in 1788 from ex
tending assistance to the Swedish prince. France
herself aheady approached the abyss of revolu
tion. Such was the desperate condition of Gus
tavus at the commencement of October. Impri
sonment, or flight, followed in either case pro
bably by deposition, seemed to constitute his
only alternatives.
In this moment of crisis, Hugh Elliot, the Bri
tish envoy to the Danish court, well apprized of
the incUnations of his own cabinet, and sustained
by the Prussian minister in Denmark, did not
hesitate to pass the Sound, and to join Gustavus at
Gottenburgh, Since the decease of Sir Thomas
Wroughtbn in the preceding autumn, the Eng
lish ministers had neglected to send any diplo
matic representative to Stockholm, Fortunately,
Elliot possessed all the energy, decision, and spirit
demanded for the King of Sweden's preservation.
" I found Gustavus," said Elliot to me, when
relating the fact, " in circumstances so distress
ing, that notwithstanding his determination to
M 2

164 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788,
resist as long as possible, he nevertheless regarded
himself as nearly dethroned. He even held a
smaU vessel ready in the harbour of Gottenburgh,
on which he intended to embark at the last ex
tremity; and his resolution was taken to retire
to Italy, I said to him, ' Sire, pr^tez-moi votre
couronne, et je vous la rendrai au bout de vingt-
quatre heures,'" Gustavus did not hesitate in
entrusting the interests of Sweden, as well as his
own, to Elliot's zeal and ability; who instantly
opened a negotiation with Prince Charles of
Hesse-Cassel, commander of the Danish forces.
The prince royal, (now Frederic the Sixth,) then
nearly twenty-one years of age, served under him
as a volunteer. Prince Charles of Hesse stood
in a very close degree of connexion with the
Swedish sovereign, they having both married
daughters of Frederic the Fifth, sisters of Chris
tian the Seventh, successive kings of Denmark.
But he was not the less ardently engaged in the
interests of Catherine, nor less decidedly hostile
to Gustavus. It required all the efforts of the
British minister, acting in conjunction with the
envoy of Prussia, to effect his extrication, and to
snatch Gottenburgh from the Danes. A dex
trous mixture of expostulation with menace at
length accomplished the two objects, and replaced
Gustavus on the Swedish throne. Within little
more than three years afterwards, he perished,
like Henry the Fourth of France, in the midst of

GEORGE III 165
his own capital, at a masquerade, by the hand
of an assassin.
WhUe I am recounting these facts, in the first
days of February 1820, George the Third has de
scended to the grave. Never, I believe, did any
prince — not even EUzabeth — leave behind him a
memory more cherished by his subjects ! Confined
as he was to his apartments at Windsor, unseen ex
cept by his medical attendants, having long ceased
to live in a moral, and in a political sense ; deprived
of sight, as well as of inteUect ; and oppressed under
the weight of old age ; yet his people have clung to
his memory with a sort of superstitious reverence ;
as if, while he stUl continued an inhabitant of the
earth, his existence suspended or averted national
calamities. This affectionate respect he owed far
more to his moral qualities, than to his abilities or
mental endowments ; and his long reign, if con
sidered only as a period of time, abstracted from
the consideration of the sovereign, presents a me
lancholy picture of enormous public debt, im
mense territorial loss, and most ruinous hostili
ties. Between 1760 and 1812, when he ceased
to reign, a period of fifty-two years, we enjoyed
scarcely twenty-four of peace. The decease of
every other sovereign recorded in history, labour
ing under incurable mental derangement, has al
ways been considered as a consummation equally
happy for the individual and for the community.
George the Third is the seventh prince whom

166 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Europe has beheld during the last four centuries,
seated on a throne, and alienated in mind. Of
the seven, two have been females, and three have
reigned in our own days. Germany, France,
Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, and Eng
land, have each, in turn, exhibited this painful
spectacle. The first in order of time, Wenceslaus of Lux
embourg, Emperor of Germany and King of
Bohemia, ascended the throne in 1378, before he
had weU attained to manhood ; and, like Nero, at
first gave hopes of many virtues. But they soon
became obscured under the most scandalous and
vicious excesses. In him, insanity was produced
by the combination of an understanding naturally
feeble, with furious passions and ungovernable
appetites, whose indulgence rendered him frantic.
Deposed from the imperial throne, repeatedly
imprisoned, and degraded to the lowest point of
wretchedness, he was nevertheless permitted to
retain the title of king, and died in 1419, at
Prague. The second instance of royal insanity was pre
sented nearly about the same period, in the per
son of Charles the Sixth of France ; a prince on
whom, with more reason than on Louis the Fif
teenth, his subjects bestowed the epithet of " le
Bien-aim6." Endowed by nature with faculties
adequate to the weight of government, a consti
tutional tendency to mental alienation, which

CHARLES VI. — JANE " LA FOLLE." 167
appears, to have been inflamed by a coup de soleil,
terminated ultimately in madness. Under so
severe an affliction he laboured during thirty
years; not, indeed, constantly deprived of rea
son : for, like George the Third, he enjoyed in
tervals of sound understanding ; relapsing never
theless from time to time into total incapacity,
Charles terminated his life and reign three years
after Wenceslaus, amidst scenes of national dis
tress, and of personal destitution, the most de
plorable. Jane, surnamed " la FoUe," or the Mad, daugh
ter of Ferdinand and IsabeUa, sister to Catherine
of Arragon, Henry the Eighth's wife; herself
the greatest princess in Europe, Queen in her
own right of Spain and of the Indies, who forms
the third example ; remained in a state of incur
able lunacy during near fifty years. In her, it
resulted from original weakness of intellect, ag
gravated by the untimely death of her husband
Philip " le Bel ;" on whom, notwithstanding his
indifference towards her, she doated with un
diminished fondness. Immured in the castle of
Tordesillas on the Douro, by her son the Empe
ror Charles the Fifth, from the age of twenty-
four to seventy-three ; neglected, forgotten, sleep
ing on straw, which she sometimes wanted, though
her apartments were hung with tapestry ; — she ex
pired in 1555 : an awful monument of human mi
sery, combined with the highest earthly dignities.

168 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
Sweden offers the fourth instance of a crowned
head bereft of reason, in the person of Eric the
Fourteenth, eldest son and successor of the great
Gustavus Vasa. He probably inherited at his
birth the intellectual malady which precipitated
him from the throne ; his mother having been
confined on a similar account. Eric, who was
deposed in 1568, after a reign of eight years ;
whose remaining life was passed in captivity,
transferred from one prison to another ; and over
the precise nature of whose death a veil is drawn,
— like those of Richard the Second, of Henry
the Sixth, and of Edward the Fifth, in our own
annals; — Eric, ferocious, sanguinary, and cruel,
as he ultimately became, seems, when not under
the dominion of frenzy, to have been mild, tract
able, and humane.
We now arrive at the present times. Here,
Christian the Seventh, King of Denmark, fur
nishes the fifth exhibition of disordered reason
among the sovereigns of Europe. It was neither
constitutional nor hereditary in him. Excesses,
followed by diseases, and the imprudent use of
remedies, wholly deprived him of understanding
before he had well accomplished his twenty-third
year. From 1772 down to 1808, when he ceased
to exist, Christian remained the victim of debili
ties, mental and corporeal, the most humiliating
and incurable in their nature. If I do not relate
the particulars of his condition, it is not because I

MARIA OF PORTUGAL. — CHRISTIAN VII. 169
am unacquainted with them, but from motives
of deUcacy and concern.
Widely different were the causes which de
prived of inteUect ISIaria, Queen of Portugal ; a
princess endowed with many virtues, animated
by the best intentions towards her people, and by
no means destitute of qualities or talents worthy
a throne. Superstition, combining with a me
lancholy temperament, overturned her mind. She
forms the sixth in this list. Dr.WilUs, who was
principally instrumental in restoring George the
Third to health, and who soon afterwards visited
Portugal, in the expectation that he might effect
a similar recovery in the queen, found her beyond
his art. Sir Sydney Smith nevertheless assured
me, that soon after she embarked on board his
ship in the Tagus, towards the close of 1807,
when she was seventy-three years old, she per
fectly recovered her reason during about twenty-
four hours ; at the end of which time she relapsed
into her former disordered state. It is an extra
ordinary fact, that the two last-mentioned sove
reigns should both have been driven out of their
respective capitals about the same time : one, by
the EngUsh ; the other, by the French. Chris
tian was conveyed into Holstein, previous to the
siege of Copenhagen. Maria, expelled from Lis
bon, crossed the equinoctial Une, and found an
asylum in the southern hemisphere.
George the Third, who closes this procession of

170 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
kings and queens " beheld in dim eclipse," is justly
embalmed in the affection of his subjects. Yet his
reign may with truth be divided into two por
tions : the first, comprizing about twenty-two
years, from 1760 down to 1782, during which he
enjoyed little or no popularity ; the last, of seven-
and-thirty years, throughout the whole of which
period, though the greater part of it was passed
in war, his virtues have obtained for him a higher
place in our esteem than any prince has occupied
since the Norman Conquest. Elizabeth, and Wil
liam the Third, were sovereigns of much greater
talents ; so were Henry the Second and Edward
the Third: but beneath him, considered in a mo
ral point of view.
I resume the subject of Gustavus the Third.
He unquestionably bore a strong resemblance in
the formation and features of his character to his
maternal uncle, " the great Frederic :" too close a
similarity, indeed, on various points. Conversing
with EUiot, in March 1791, I asked him his sen
timents respecting Gustavus, and his two bro
thers, the Dukes of Sudermania and of East
Gothland, " The king," replied he, " possesses
great talents, capacity, and resolution ; but his
moral principles are most relaxed, and he indulges
in scandalous irregularities of conduct. He is
besides a comedian, capable of practising every
species of artifice or delusion in order to serve
his purposes. When his mother, the queen dow-

GUSTAVUS III. AND HIS BROTHERS. 171
ager, a princess of very strong mind, lay expiring
at Stockholm, in July 1782, he waited on her,
embraced her, wept over her, and affected the
most acute distress. She was not, however, the
dupe of his pretended sorrow. No sooner had he
quitted her bedside, than the dying queen caUed for
pen and ink. She then wrote these, or nearly these
words, addressed to her brother. Prince Henry of
Prussia : — - Les marques d'attendrissement et de
douleur que le roi vient de marquer pour ma
mort prochaine, ne sont que des grimaces, II me
croit a I'agonie. J'6cris ces Ugnes d'une main
mourante, et je les signe de ma main. Louise-
Ulrique,' — Prince Henry retains the note in his
possession at this time. The Duke of Suder
mania, next brother of Gustavus, has displayed
eminent courage, energy, and activity, during the
late sanguinary war with Russia, when he com
manded the Swedish fleet at the memorable naval
action in the Gulf of Finland. I cannot speak in
the same terms of Frederic, youngest of the three
brothers, Duke of East Gothland. He possesses
no capacity ; and during the perilous crisis in
1788, he remained whoUy inactive, with his mis
tress, at Stockholm." One of Napoleon's Ueute-
nants now occupies the Swedish throne, to which
he has united Norway : whUe the weak and un
fortunate Gustavus the Fourth wanders in exUe
over Europe,
EUiot himself well merits a place in these me-

172 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788,
moirs, as one of the most eccentric, high-spirited,
and distinguished members of the corps diplo
matique, during thirty years of my time. His
father. Sir GUbert, placed him in the army at a
very early period of life ; but as profound peace
then prevaUed, he quitted the service, and, im
pelled by a martial dispositiota, made a campaign
in 1773, under Romanzow, against the Turks.
On his return, Sir Gilbert's interest procured him
the appointment of envoy at Munich ; and he was
soon afterwards removed in the same capacity to
Berlin. There I found him in the autumn of the
year 1777. While I was in that capital, the
American insurgents, who were then engaged in
endeavours to procure the co-operation, not only
of France, but of other European powers, sent
an agent, named Sayre, to the court of Prussia.
Elliot having received information that this man
was in possession of the treaty recently signed
between America and the ministers of Louis the
Sixteenth, determined to obtain it at all hazards.
Availing himself of Sayre's absence, who had
gone by permission for one night to Potzdam, he
caused the bureau to be broken open in which
the treaty was deposited. It was instantly copied
and transmitted by him to Lord North. The
servant who had performed the act, (which, we
must own, was not to be justified by the ordinary
rules of diplomatic usage,) Elliot immediately
mounted on a fine English hunter, and in less

HUGH ELLIOT. — FREDERIC II. 173
than eight hours he reached the territory of Meck
lenburg Strelitz. I have been assured that Lord
North received the first authentic proof of the
alliance contracted between France and America,
not from Lord Stormont, then our ambassador
at Paris, but through the copy thus obtained
from Sayre's bureau.
That agent, on his return from Potzdam, dis
covering the violence which had been used, and
its object, made loud complaints to the ministers
Hertzberg and Finckenstein, who presided in the
cabinet of Frederic the Second. He subsequently
laid the matter before the king himself, de
manding reparation for such an infraction of the
laws, as well as for the insult offered to himself
in his pubUc character. Frederic, who during
" the war of seven years," and even antecedent to
its commencement, had considered every mode of
obtaining intelligence as justifiable; and who had
practised arts, or committed acts, particularly in
Saxony, the most contrary to every principle of
honour or of morals, for his own protection and
defence; affected nevertheless great indignation
at the conduct of ElUot. He beheld England
engaged in a ruinous contest with her colonies,
on the point of being attacked by France, dis
united at home, and her councils destitute of
vigour ; or, at least, of success. Under these cir
cumstances he manifested much displeasure, and
was with difficulty restrained from ordering our

174 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
envoy to quit the Prussian territories, or redu
cing him to the necessity of demanding his own
recaU. Not long afterwards, early in 1778, a
French officer, who was then at BerUn, being in
company with EUiot, subsequent to the departure
of D'Estaign's squadron from Toulon for North
America, put various questions to him respecting
its supposed destination. The British minister
endeavoured by his answers to Uberate himself
from such importunity ; but the other persisting,
at length observed to him, " VoU^ au moins un
fier soufflet que la France vient de donner h
I'Angleterre." This insult exceeded ElUot's pa
tience to support. " Et le voUV replied he, " ce
mfime soufflet que I'Angleterre rend a la France de
ma main ;" at the same moment applying to the
Frenchman's ear a blow as severe as he could
inflict. The fact happened as I relate it, but I
have forgotten how the affair terminated.
Elliot nourished aU the AntigaUican antipathies
of a thorough home-bred EngUshman, though his
whole life had been passed on the Continent among
foreigners. Being at the " Comedie Fran9aise,"
at Paris, during the representation of " La Ba-
taiUe d'lvry," a dramatic piece in which Henry
the Fourth, after gaining the victory, with a view
to stop the effusion of blood, exclaims, "Epargnez
mes sujets! sauvez les Francais !" Elliot, who was
seated in the " amphitheatre," rose, and elevating
his voice, cried out, "Ne vous mettez pas en

HUGH ELLIOT. — GEORGE III. 175
peine! ils se sauveront bien eux-m^mes!" His
character fitted him more for the camp than for
the cabinet. He married, while at Berlin, a
Prussian lady of distinguished family; but it
proved a very unhappy connexion, terminating
in a duel and a divorce. After passing more
than twenty years among the Northern courts,
Pitt sent him as envoy to Naples, towards the
close of the last century. In 1808, when Bona
parte's power might be said to overshadow the
whole Continent, and when the English corps
diplomatique was almost expelled from every
foreign capital by his overwhelming interference,
Elliot accepted the post of governor of the Lee
ward Islands: less however from choice, than from
necessity, " If I had," said he to a friend, " not
otium cum dignitate, but, otium with a potatoe,
I would not cross the Atlantic." Fortune held
however in reserve for him a much longer voyage.
The Earl of Buckinghamshire, who had married
Elliot's niece, one of Lord Auckland's daughters,
and who was then president of the East India
Board, conferred on him the government of Ma
dras. Returning from Antigua in 1814, he em-
barked for Fort St. George ; and is now about to
revisit his native country, after a career of near
fifty years passed in public employments, through
out almost every part of the globe.
15th — 31st October. — Towards the middle of
October, while the king resided at Windsor, his

176 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
health first underwent a change, the earliest proof
of which was his postponement of the accustomed
weekly levee; but no suspicion existed in the
public mind of the nature or seat of his malady.
On Friday the 24th of the month, he however
again repaired to St. James's, and held a levee.
That he laboured nevertheless at the time under
a degree of mental alienation, became afterwards
well ascertained. It would indeed seem as if he
was not unconscious of his impending, or actual
insanity. Two days earlier, on the 22nd of October,
one of his physicians. Sir George Baker, first en
tertained a suspicion that he was not sane ; and
various singularities in his deportment were re
marked by persons who attended that levee. His
dress exhibited still stronger proofs of absence,
or oblivion. The chancellor, who was present,
having perceived the circumstance to which I
allude, requested permission to say a few words
to his majesty in the closet. He then informed
the king of the fact, who instantly availed him
self of the communication. It may be confidently
assumed, that he was not of sound mind on that
day : but he did not the less give away one, if
not two regiments, before he returned to Windsor.
General Gordon, a son of the Earl of Aberdeen,
one of the grooms of the bedchamber, kissed
hands for the seventh regiment of foot. I left
London in the last week of October, on my way
to Bath, stopping two days with Lord Walsing-

GEORGE III. 177
ham at Old Windsor. Vague reports of the
king's supposed indisposition pervaded the neigh
bourhood ; and a review, at which he had in
tended to be present, was in consequence deferred.
These rumours, however, excited no alarm. Indi
viduals of the highest condition, residing within a
very short distance of Windsor Castle, who were
accustomed frequently to see his majesty, to hunt
with him, and to be invited to the queen's even
ing parties, entertained not the most remote ap
prehension of the seat of the disease. — Yet it
subsequently appeared that from the 27th of Oc
tober he never had possessed his reason; though
the disorder did not assume the form of decided
insanity before the commencement of November.
1st — 20th November. — But the subsequent week
divulged the fact. On or about the 4th of No
vember, his malady became so serious that its
nature could no longer be mistaken. One of the
first paroxysms of his disordered intellect took
place after dinner, at the Queen's Lodge ; where
not only her majesty and the princesses were
present, but Ukewise the Prince of Wales and
Duke of York. On the 6th of the month, when
all the royal physicians were summoned to attend,
as well as the ministers and officers of state, the
king's condition was explained to them. The gates
of the lodge being shut on the same night, and no
answers returned to persons, even of the first rank,
who called to make enquiries, it was generally
VOL. III. N

178 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
supposed that his majesty had either breathed
his last, or lay expiring. Next morning the truth
became universally understood ; and as the dura
tion of so awful an attack, which suspended all
the functions of the executive government, form
ed an object of the greatest national anxiety,
measures were adopted for satisfying the public
curiosity. A lord and a groom of the bed-cham
ber remained in regular waiting at St. James's
Palace every day for the purpose. But the
greatest object of embarrassment related to the
proceedings of parliament ; both houses standing
prorogued to the 20th of the month, and no
power existing in the state which could postpone
the meeting beyond that day. Ministers, anxi
ous to procure a numerous attendance, issued cir
cular letters to their friends, stating the necessity
of being present on the occasion. So did the
heads of opposition. Men of all parties hurried
up to the metropolis, in order to witness so new
and so interesting a situation of affairs. I returned
to London from Bath a day or two previous to
the commencement of the session. The capital
exhibited a scene of fermentation difficult to con
ceive or to depicture. Yet was it far exceeded
during the last days of January 1793, on Louis
the Sixteenth's decapitation.
Two singular circumstances took place early in
November, both of them having reference to the
Sth of the month. It being the centenary of
King William's auspicious landing in England,

REVOLUTIONARY SOCIETY.— WIHG CLUB. 179
the day was celebrated not only in London, but
at Edihburgh and at Dublin, with testimonies of
extraordinary festivity. Lord Stanhope, one of
the most ardent and enthusiastic defenders of
civil liberty who has appeared in our time, took
the chair at the London Tavern, where seven or
eight hundred gentlemen assembled, under the
denomination of "the Revolutionary Society,"
On the other hand, " the Whig Club," in which
society the Duke of Portland presided during
Fox's absence from the kingdom, met at the
Crown and Anchor Tavern ; where Sheridan, in a
speech of great power, proposed the erection of a
column in Runnemede, a spot rendered histori
cally sacred by the signature of Magna Charta.
This proposition, made after dinner, when the
company was in a state of exhilaration, metwith the
most favourable reception, A subscription being
immediately commenced, twelve or thirteen hun
dred pounds were subscribed, and Colonel Fitz-
patrick was appointed treasurer of the fund.
Many persons nevertheless thought that the choice
of the treasurer threw a damp on the patriotic
sentiment exhibited : — for, though Fitzpatrick's
wit, gallantry, talents, and accomplishments were
universally acknowledged, yet his aptitude for the
office of receiving and accounting with the subscri
bers for their deposits did not excite the same con
viction. Whatever was the cause, the momentary
enthusiasm evaporated, and Runnemede still re-
N 2

180 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
mains without any column or monument to com
memorate the charter extorted by the barons from
one of the most odious and vicious princes who
has ever dishonoured the English throne.
The other event was meteorological. We know,
by the concurring testimony of many contempo
rary writers, the sudden and fortunate change
that took place in the wind on the fifth of No
vember 1688, when the Prince of Orange arrived
on board the Dutch fleet, off Torbay : — a change
so propitious, that Burnet says, the lines of Clau-
dian were applied to him,
" O nimium dilecte Deo, cui militat aether,
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti!"
That historian was himself a passenger in the
fleet which conducted WiUiam to our shores, and
has left us the most accurate account of the fact
in question. " On the third of November," says
he, "we passed between Dover and Calais, and
before night came in sight of the Isle of Wight.
The next day being the day in which the prince
was both born and married, he fancied, if he could
land that day, it would look auspicious to the
army, and animate the soldiers. But we all,
who considered that the day following being Gun
powder Treason Day, our landing that day might
have a good effect on the minds of the English
nation, were better pleased to see that we could
land no sooner." The pilot, miscalculating the
force of the wind, which blew very strong at
east, found himself, on the morning of the ffth, to

. WILLIAM III. — BURNET. 181
the westward of Torbay and Dartmouth. All
was consternation throughout the fleet, as they
must have proceeded to Plymouth, where their
favourable reception was more than doubtful.
" But," continues Burnet, " on a sudden, to all
our wonder, it calmed a little, and then the wind
turned into the south ; and a soft and happy gale of
wind carried in the whole fleet, in four hours' time,
into Torbay. Immediately, as many landed as
conveniently could." — "We had no sooner got
thus disengaged from our fleet, than a new and
great storm blew from the west ; from which, our
fleet being covered by the land, could receive no
prejudice. But the king's fleet had got out (of
the Thames) as the wind calmed, and, in pursuit
of us, was come as far as the Isle of Wight, when
this contrary wind turned upon them. They
tried what they could to pursue us ; but they
were so shattered by some days of this storm, that
they were forced to go into Portsmouth, and were
no more fit for service that year," We cannot
wonder that William should ask of Burnet, as he
did, " if I would not now believe predestination ?"
The singular fact which I have to record is, that
precisely the same sudden change of wind hap
pened in 1788, on the same day, and nearly in the
same manner, as in 1688. I was at Bristol Wells
on the fifth oi November, having gone there from
Bath. The wind had blown fresh at east during
two or three days, or in that direction. During
the day it fell nearly calm, and at night flew

182 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788,
suddenly round to the westward, with violent
rain; blowing strong from that point, where it
continued for some time, I beUeve the circum
stance was commemorated, when it took place, by
more than one of the daily newspapers or maga
zines. Though, in consequence ofthe adoption
of the new style in 1752, the Centenary Revolu
tion had been advanced eleven days, and therefore
was not complete in point of time; yet the coinci
dence of such simUar facts on the same nominal
day, at the termination of a hundred years, ex
cited considerable attention.
20th — 30/^ November. — The meeting of the two
houses of parUament, during a crisis when the
throne might be considered as vacant, being con
templated with the liveUest impatience and anx
iety, produced a very numerous attendance on
the day fixed for commencing their proceedings.
In the house of commons, as soon as the Speaker
had taken the chair, Pitt stood up, and having
aUuded in terms of becoming concern to the
awful and afflicting malady with which his ma
jesty was visited ; a malady that wholly incapaci
tated his servants from approaching his person,
or receiving his commands ; moved an immediate
adjournment of a fortnight. The proposition was
adopted without a dissentient voice, or the utter
ance of a single word ; each side acquiescing from
opposite motives. The friends of the minister
only desired to gain time, in order for ascertaining

THE PRINCE OF WALES.— FOX. 183
whether any beneficial change might intermedi
ately take place in the king's complaint : while
the principal persons in the opposition, deprived of
their leader by Fox's absence on the Continent,
impatiently anticipated his return. Early in the
month of November, as soon as the nature and
the seat of his majesty's illness became perfectly
ascertained, the Prince of Wales lost not a day in
dispatching to Fox information of so interesting
an event, urging at the same time his immediate
presence in London, As, however, it was altoge
ther uncertain where the intelUgence would reach
him, or how soon, at that season of the year, he
might be able to appear in his place at Westmin
ster ; his royal highness found himself necessitat
ed, tiU his arrival, to consult other advisers. The
members of the "coalition" cabinet, with the
single exception of Keppel, (who had been long
dead,) were, it is true, aU of them in existence ;
and the Duke of Portland might be again re
placed at the head of a new administration, as
Lord John Cavendish might occupy a second
time his former place at the exchequer. But
Lord North laboured under the privation of sight,
in addition to many infirmities ; and though Lord
Stormont possessed eminent talents, as well as elo
quence, yet he belonged, not to the party of Fox,
but to the friends of Lord North. The Earl of
Carlisle, who had held the privy seal in 1783,
stood in a similar predicament.

184 MEMOIRS Of my own TIME. 1788.
Under these circumstances, two individuals
assumed the principal temporary influence in the
prince's confidential deliberations. The first. Lord
Loughborough, unquestionably was one of the
most able lawyers, accomplished parliamentary
orators, and dextrous courtiers, who flourished
under the reign of George the Third, Yet, with
the qualities here enumerated, he never approved
himself a wise, judicious, or enUghtened states
man. His counsels, throughout the whole period
of the king's malady, were, if not unconstitutional,
at least repugnant to the general sense of parlia
ment, and of the country ; violent, imprudent,
and injurious to the cause that he espoused. In
1793, when he held the great seal, and sat in
cabinet, it was universally believed that the siege
of Dunkirk, one of the most fatal measures ever
embraced by the allies, originated with Lord
Loughborough. Nevertheless, his legal know
ledge, experience, and versatile talents, seemed
eminently to qualify him for guiding the heir
apparent, at a juncture when, if the king should
not speedily recover, constitutional questions of
the most novel, difficult, and important nature,
must necessarily present themselves.
The second individual who enjoyed the prince's
unlimited confidence, was Sheridan. His tran
scendent powers, so recently displayed in West
minster Hall, combining with the conviviaUty of
his disposition, and partiality to the pleasures of

ERSKINE. — PITT. 185
the table, were well calculated to establish him in
his royal highness's favour. His influence, how
ever studiously concealed it might be from the
public eye, was not on that account the less real.
Erskine, then attorney-general to the prince, and
who has since held the great seal for a short
period, occupied likewise very deservedly a high
place in his esteem, as well as in his affection.
The elevation of Erskine's mind, aided by the
attainments of his comprehensive intelligence, per
sonal, no less than professional, entitled him in
deed to be consulted at such a juncture. But his
avocations in the courts of law left him little lei
sure for personal attendance in Pall Mall ; and as
he was not a member of the house of cominons,
whatever service he might perform in the closet,
he could render none in parliament.
Pitt's situation at this period demanded not
only the firmest mind, but the most unruffled
temper, aided by the soundest judgment. He
beheld the edifice of his ministerial power, appa
rently constructed on such firm foundations, me
naced with speedy, as well as total subversion.
From the first moment that the king's seizure was
known to have affected the organs of reason, and
consequently that a regency must inevitably take
place, unless his entire recovery and resumption
of the government should be speedy, his son and
successor appears to have determined on an imme
diate change of administration. Nor did he make

186 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
any secret of his intention. Such a resolution,
nevertheless, seemed equally contrary to prudence,
as it was repugnant to decorum, and adverse to
the general wishes of the country. Even if the
king had been withdrawn from his people by
death, Pitt's dismission would have been consider
ed by a great majority of the nation as a calamity
of no common order. But, without waiting to
ascertain whether his father's attack of insanity
might prove only temporary, to begin at once by
overturning his institutions, and dismissing his
ministers ; (or, perhaps, more properly to speak,
his minister ; for Pitt constituted, in fact, the ad
ministration ;) — was an act which excited not
merely political, but a degree of moral disapproba
tion. It will indeed readily be admitted that seven
years earlier, in November 1781, after the sur
render of Lord Cornwallis at York-town, a differ
ent sentiment would have been felt under similar
circumstances, A Prince of Wales who should
then have availed himself of the power of regent
to dismiss the unfortunate conductors of the
American contest, would have been hailed as a
deliverer. But the intermediate lapse of time had
completely restored to the sovereign the affection
of his subjects : while Pitt, by acts of noble per
sonal renunciation, by financial measures of ac
knowledged wisdom and public utility, sustained
by councils not less judicious than energetic, had.
attained to a point of popularity scarcely surpassed
even by his father between 1759 and 1761,

PITT.— LORD THURLOW. 187
But Pitt had to contend with secret opponents
in his own cabinet, not less formidable than the
avowed adherents of the Prince of Wales, The
first lord of the treasury and the lord chancellor
had long ceased to feel those sentiments of mutual
regard or cordiality which two persons occupying
such high places in the councils of the sovereign
might naturally be supposed to cultivate and to
cherish for each other. Their tempers were in
deed iU suited to co-operate for a length of time,
though necessity and ambition had united them
against Fox, Thurlow was sullen, and often intrac
table : Pitt, imperious, inflexible, and dictatorial.
Many causes had combined to widen the breach.
The chanceUor highly disapproved of Hastings's
impeachment, in which Pitt had concurred. His
ill-humour was augmented by the obligation offi
ciaUy imposed on him of presiding in Westmin
ster Hall during an interminable trial; compel
led to Usten for successive hours to Burke's and
Fox's invectives, or to Sheridan's heart-rending
descriptions of exaggerated, if not imaginary
acts of tyranny ; while Thurlow seemed ready to
exclaim, " Semper ego auditor tantum, numquamne reponam,
Vexatus toties ?"
The " Slave Regulation Bill," in adopting and
forcing which measure through the house of
peers Lord Thurlow considered Pitt as having
violated ministerial faith with the mercantile part

188 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
of the nation, added to the preceding subjects
of irritation. Arden's appointment to the office
of master of the roUs gave him likewise deep
offence. In such a frame of mind, it was natural
for him to consider whether,' if the king's re
covery appeared hopeless, he might not retain the
great seal under a regency. He had sate during
the ten preceding years in four cabinets politi
cally opposed to each other ; namely, with Lord
North, with the Marquis of Rockingham, with
the Eari of Shelburne, and with Mr. Pitt. Why
should he not continue to occupy the same place
under a new order of things? The Prince of
Wales on all occasions treated him with distin
guished consideration ; and at the commencement
of his majesty's malady, as it became necessary to
adopt measures for the preservation of his private
property, the chancellor had acted in conjunction
with the queen and his royal highness to that
effect. So many concurring reasons or motives
might incline him either to open a negotiation
with Carlton House, or at least to lend a favour
able ear to any overtures made from that quarter.
It is nevertheless probable that Lord Thurlow
acted towards the prince with great caution, until
appearances justified a belief of the incurable
nature of the king's disorder. But how little
confidence Pitt reposed in him, became evident
when the upper house met on the 20th of No
vember. It was not the chancellor who perform-

GEORGE III. — WARREN. — LORD NORTH. 189
ed the principal ministerial part on that occasion,
or who formed the channel of public business.
After the intellectual attack under which his ma
jesty laboured had been announced from the wool
sack. Lord Camden, then president of the council,
rose, and concluded a very brief speech by moving
(as Pitt had done on the same day in the house
of commons) that the peers should adjourn to the
4th of December. His motion was received in
silence, with unanimous acquiescence. Mean
while, the king's iUness having assumed, towards
the last days of November, a character of decided
insanity, six physicians had been called in to at
tend on him. At their head must be placed
Warren. He was then in every sense the leader
of the medical professors, and he merited the dis
tinction. Possessing great skill in the healing
art, he was not less characterized by the pleasing
amenity of his manners, and the cheerful tone
of his conversation, which prescribed as much to
the mind as to the body. Enjoying a most ex
tensive practice, principaUy among the highest
orders of society in the metropolis, he had al
ready acquired an ample fortune. Though his
family was numerous, yet his ambition, unlike
that of his Esculapian brethren, disdained a ba
ronetage. Having successfully attended Lord
North, nearly ten years earlier than the time of
which I am now writing, throughout the course
of a dangerous iUness, that nobleman, then first

190 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
minister, offered to recommend him to the king
for the dignity in question. " My lord," answer
ed Warren, " I do not aspire to the honour which
you have been pleased to tender me : but if your
lordship will place my brother on the bench of
bishops, I shaU consider it as an indelible obli
gation." The object of his request was conceded ;
and his brother, after receiving the episcopal
mitre of St. David's, was subsequently promoted
to the see of Bangor. Dr. Warren's partialities
decidedly leaned towards the heir-apparent, and
his royal highness was known to regard him with
extraordinary predilection, as weU as to repose
the utmost confidence in his professional opinion.
Dr. Addington, father of the present Viscount
Sidmouth, was called in, principally because his
medical experience lay much in the particular
species of disorder under which his majesty suf
fered; it not being as yet thought proper to
place him in the hands of a practitioner exclu
sively occupied with the care of lunatics. Sir
Lucas Pepys, with whom I have lived in habits
of intimate friendship during more than forty
years, may not, I am aware, lay claim to the
highest place among the eminent physicians of
our time. That he is however a man of sound
judgment, an elegant scholar, possessing a most
classic and cultivated mind, I can attest of my
own personal knowledge. If, in his professional
capacity, he had any bias, it was not such as

GEORGE III. — PRINCE OF WALES. 191
actuated Warren. I shall have occasion, while
relating the particulars of his majesty's illness
and recovery, again to mention both Warren and
Pepys. Each became conspicuous from the dif
ferent view which he took of the malady, and its
probable termination. The calamity, great and
appalling in itself, was rendered still more painful
by the distance of Windsor from the capital, and
the consequent difficulty of procuring constant me
dical attendance. This circumstance determined
ministers to make an effort for bringing the royal
patient nearer London. Kew appeared to com
bine the advantage of good air with proximity.
The experiment succeeded. General Harcourt,
then a groom of the bedchamber, now Earl Har
court, and Colonel Robert Greville, equerry in
waiting, brother of the Earl of AVarwick, accom
panied their master in the coach. The Queen,
Prince of Wales, and Duke of York soon 'follow
ed; her majesty remaining at Kew, near the
king's person.
From the first moment that the heir-apparent
anticipated a regency as almost certain, if riot
inevitable, he exerted every endeavour to secure
the cordial co-operation and support of his bro
ther Frederic. Meditating, as he did, to place
Fox at the head of the government, without
waiting to ascertain the probable or final result
of his father's malady, and aware of the obstacles
which the minister might oppose to his intention.

192 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
he manifested the utmost anxiety to prevent any
discordance of sentiment arising in a quarter so
near the throne. It might, on the other hand,
have been naturally expected, that a prince whom
the king had always treated with marks of great
parental affection, if not with decided partiality,
would feel a disinclination, or rather a repug
nance, to overturn the existing administration.
His scruples, if any such he had, were however
speedily surmounted, A promise of being placed
at the head of the army, with all the appoint
ments, power, and patronage of a commander-in-
chief, effectually gained him over to his elder bro
ther's party. I have already spoken elsewhere of
the duke. He was at this time strongly attached
to a lady of my particular acquaintance, the Coun
tess of Tyrconnel. She was Lord Delaval's young
est daughter ; feminine and delicate in her figure,
very fair, with a profusion of light hair, in the
tresses of which,like the tangles of Nesera's in "Ly-
cidas," his royal highness was detained captive.
Her husband, the Earl of Tyrconnel, might be
said to contribute at this time, more than any
nobleman about the court, to the recreation of
the reigning family: for while his wife formed
the object of the homage of one prince of the
blood, his sister had long presided in the affec
tions of another. Lady Almeria Carpenter, one
of the most beautiful women of her time, but to
whom nature had been sparing of intellectual

LORD TYRCONNEL. — LORD DELAVAL. — FOX. 193
attractions, reigned at Glocester House. The
duchess remained indeed its nominal mistress ;
but Lady Almeria constituted its ornament and
its pride. Lord Tyrconnel himself had been
early married to a sister of the Duke of Rutland,
from whom he obtained a divorce in less than
five years. Not discouraged by so unfortunate a
matrimonial outset, he soon ventured a second
time on the same perilous experiment ; though,
as many persons thought, not with better success.
His fortune by no means equalling his rank.
Lord Delaval extended his paternal care over his
daughter and her lord. In Hanover-square dur
ing winter, as at Claremont in Surrey during
summer, (a country seat which has since obtained
a mournful celebrity, from the Princess Charlotte
of Wales's death,) the two families formed only
one household. The Duke of York was a con
stant visitor at each place, notwithstanding that
Lady Tyrconnel's father and husband were both
firmly attached to the administration. Lord De
laval had received his British peerage only two
years before, from Pitt ; and the Earl of Tyrcon
nel, who sate in the house of commons for Scar
borough, was elected by the Rutland interest
member for that borough.
1st — ith December. — Fox, so long and so im
patiently expected, at length arrived. I believe
he reached his lodgings in St. James's-street, con
tiguous to Brookes's, on the 24th or 25th of
VOL. III. o

194 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
November. He had been nearly five years out
of office. The account of his majesty's seizure,
accompanied with strong exhortations to accele
rate his return, reached him before the middle
of November, at Bologna, and he lost not a day
in compliance. Accompanied by Mrs. Armstead,
he took the road to England, through Lyons;
where new and more urgent letters, acquainting
him with the king's total loss of reason, induced
him to increase his speed. For that purpose,
quitting his female travelling companion, he pro
ceeded alone, in a French carriage, to Calais.
The construction of this hired vehicle, which was
not so well suspended as his own English post-
chaise, together with the bad condition and nature
of the roads through the interior provinces of
France, at an advanced season of the year, sensi
bly affected his health. His personal appearance
in the house of commons on the 4th, when the
adjournment ended, excited a great and general
sensation, I never saw Fox, either previously or
subsequently, exhibit so broken and shattered an
aspect. His body seemed to be emaciated, his
countenance sallow and sickly, his eyes swoUen ;
whUe his stockings hung upon his legs, and he
rather dragged himself along, than walked up
the floor, to take his seat. The attendance, as
might be expected, was numerous and tumultu
ous. Pitt having first presented a repoi't oi the
examination of the royal physicians relative to

GEORGE HI. — PITT. — VYNER. 195
his majesty's state, as delivered on oath before
the privy council, the document was immedi
ately read at the table. He then moved that it
should be taken into consideration four days af
terwards, on the 8th of December; to which
time he proposed that the assembly, at its rising,
should adjourn. While addressing the house, he
likewise gave notice of his intention to move
for a committee, which might search for prece
dents applicable to the present calamitous situa
tion of public affairs, and report upon if ; adding,
that too much caution and deliberation could not
be adopted in a crisis of such magnitude.
The first person who rose in reply to the chan
cellor of the exchequer was Vyner. He had been
a member of several parliaments, and in the pre
ceding house of commons represented the city of
Lincoln ; but after the total defeat of Fox's party
in 1784, he lay under a necessity of bringing
himself in for the Yorkshire borough of Thirske.
Vyner, who in his person always reminded me of
the portraits of " Hudibras," was a Lincolnshire
gentleman of large property, endowed with very
good common sense, and of an irreproachable cha
racter. He descended, I believe, lineally from
Sir Robert Vyner, lord mayor of London, of
jovial memory ; who, as the " Spectator" assures
us, followed Charles the Second down stairs, after
a city dinner, overtook, and compelled him " to
take t'other bottle." Mr. Vyner briefly expressed
o 2

196 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
his doubts whether the house ought not to exa
mine the physicians at their own bar, before the
report just read should be made the basis of a
parliamentary proceeding. Pitt endeavoured, on
the contrary, to shew that the deUcacy of the
subject, and the dignity of the great person
whose health it regarded, might induce them,
without any dereliction of their duty, or infringe
ment of their legislative consequence, to rest sa
tisfied with the report of the privy council. With
this opinion Fox disagreed, inclining to adopt
Vyner 's sentiment, yet in language of the utmost
moderation ; and the house immediately adjourn
ed to the subsequent Monday, A scene nearly
similar took place on the same evening in the
upper house ; Lord Camden again performing the
prominent ministerial part, while the chancellor
remained silent. By the report of the physicians,
it appeared that Dr. Addington, whose practice
had been more among patients afflicted with in
sanity than any other of the professional attend
ants on the king, expressed himself in more san
guine terms than his medical brethren respecting
the probability of his majesty's eventual recovery.
Above fifty members of the privy council were
present at Whitehall during the examination ;
but as at least one third of the number belonged
to the opposition, it was judged proper, with a
view to prevent disclosures of an unbecoming
nature, to determine previously the questions

GEORGE III.— DR. WILLIS, 197
which should be proposed to the physicians. The
precaution formed a salutary check ; and imme
diately after hearing the report read, the peers
adjourned, as the commons had done, to the 8th
of the month.
ith — Sth December. — Meanwhile, his majesty's
distemper, subsequent to his removal from Wind
sor to Kew, not exhibiting any symptonls of
amendment, but rather assuming a more decided
character of insanity, it was thought necessary to
call in a practitioner who had made the cure of
lunatics his sole occupation. Among the indi
viduals whose reputation was well established in
that branch of the art, was the Reverend Dr,
Francis Willis : for though he no longer per
formed any clerical functions, yet he united in
his person the medical and the ecclesiastical pro
fessions. His residence lay in the vicinity of
Boston, in the county of Lincoln ; and he had
attained, if he had not already passed, his seven
tieth year. Assisted by two sons, he had dedi
cated himself, during a great portion of his life, to
the exclusive care of persons deprived of reason.
I have been in his company, not long after his
majesty's recovery. He seemed to be exempt
from all the infirmities of old age ; and his coun
tenance, which was very interesting, blended in
telligence with an expression of placid self-pos
session. When summoned to attend the king,
he readily obeyed; but he at the same time

198 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
frankly informed her majesty, that if she ex
pected any benefit to accrue from his attendance,
he must be allowed to exercise the same autho
rity which he should do over the meanest indi
vidual submitted to his control.
A proof which he displayed not long after
wards of skill, or, more properly to speak, of his
empire over his patients, excited great amaze
ment, not unmixed with alarm, as well as admi
ration. The king, who had not undergone the
operation of shaving during more than five weeks,
nor would submit to have it performed, yet ex
pressed nevertheless a strong desire to shave him
self. Willis gratified him in his wish. "Your
majesty," said he, " is desirous to get rid of your
beard. You shaU have a razor given you for the
purpose," He instantly put the instrument into
the king's hand, who went through the process
with perfect success ; Willis governing him by
the eye throughout the whole performance.
From the first day of his arrival at Kew, on the
Sth of December, he not only declared that he
entertained sanguine hopes of the king's recovery,
but confidentially added his expectation of its
being effected within the space of three months.
The experiment of allowing a maniac to shave his
beard, when we reflect who that maniac was, may
appear to partake of temerity ; nor could it have
been safely tried under a despotic government,
where the physician would probably have been

DR. DIMSDALE. — CATHERINE II, — PITT. 199
sacrificed if his patient had committed violence on
himself. When Dr. Dimsdale inoculated Cathe
rine the Second for the small-pox, that princess, —
who, whatever might be the vices of her moral
character, possessed a very enlarged and magna
nimous mind, — took precautions for securing his
personal safety in case of her death. Finding
herself much indisposed on a particular day, she
sent for Dimsdale, whom she had already remu
nerated in a manner becoming so great a sove
reign. " I experience," said she, " certain sensa
tions which render me apprehensive for my life.
My subjects would, I fear, hold you accountable
for any accident that might befall me. I have
therefore stationed a yacht in the Gulf of Fin
land, on board of which you will embark as soon
as I am no more ; and whose commander, in con
sequence of my orders, will convey you out of
all danger." This anecdote, so honourable to the
empress, I heard from one of Dimsdale's sons,
above forty years ago.
Sth December. — As soon as the house of com
mons met again, Pitt presented himself to the
Speaker's notice ; more however for the purpose
of ascertaining the wishes or opinions of the
assembly respecting the proper mode of proceed
ing, under a temporary extinction of the execu
tive power, than with an intention of dictating
any specific measure. Fox was not present, be
ing prevented by indisposition. Vyner having a

200 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
second time taken on him to open the debate,
and caUing on Pitt to bring forward some plan
adapted to the nature of the emergency ; the lat
ter moved for " a committee to examine the phy
sicians relative to the state of his majesty's health,
and to report it to the house." This proposition
met with unanimous approbation. Powis gave it
as his advice, that the committee should be com
posed of members from both houses of parlia
ment: but the inconveniences overbalanced the
advantages of such an experiment, which, it was
apprehended, might embroU the two branches
of the legislature; a calamity greatly to be de
precated at any time, especiaUy when the royal
functions were in a state of suspension. Burke
pathetically adjured the house not to sacrifice any
of their constitutional privileges, and, least of all,
the right to examine evidence at their own bar.
Notwithstanding this exhortation, the committee
was named and chosen. It consisted of twenty-
one persons, the chancellor of the exchequer be
ing constituted chairman. Twelve of the number
were either ministers, or individuals who com
monly supported administration. Among the
remaining nine, besides Fox, Burke, and Sheri
dan, appeared the names of Lord North, Vyner,
Powis, and Windham. An adjournment imme
diately took place. On the same evening, the
Marquis of Stafford made a similar motion in the
upper house ; and the discussion being resumed

LORD THURLOW. — REGENCY. 201
on the following day, a committee, formed on
similar principles with that chosen by the house
of commons, and composed of the same numbers,
was unanimously elected. Neither on the first,
nor on the second of these occasions, did the chan
ceUor utter a word, nor even appear to feel any
interest in the proceedings. As they did not
emanate from him, so did they receive from him
no support. His silence at such a time, while
Lord Camden and Lord Stafford acted, each in
turn, as the managers of the house of peers, ne
cessarily attracted observation.
10th December. — We now enter on a period,
comprizing more than two months, of greater
agitation, violence, and mutual animosity, than
any other that I have witnessed in my time. The
contests in 1782, previous to Lord North's resig
nation ; and those which took place in 1784, be
tween Pitt and the coalition ; however personally
acrimonious, yet regarded only the possession of
ministerial power. In 1788, the throne was va
cant, though not by the demise of the sovereign ;
and the question was, by whom, as well as under
what restrictions, the vacancy should be supplied.
On the first point, no difference of opinion could
possibly exist, the heir-apparent being of full age
to administer the government, of sound mind,
and present on the spot. But as to the second ;
namely, what conditions should be imposed upon
him by parliament, while the recovery of the

202 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
sovereign appeared to be probable, and perhaps
not distant ; very opposite sentiments might arise.
Pitt appearing at the bar of the house of com
mons, presented the report of the physicians, which
was immediately read. They coincided in opinion
as to the probable recovery of their patient;
though relative to the time when it might be
expected to take place, they equally professed
ignorance. Willis alone, on whose conclusions
more reliance was placed than on aU the others,
assigned the probable causes oi his majesty's ma
lady, and the probable period of its duration.
" Weighty business, severe exercise, too great
abstemiousness, and little rest, pressing with
united force on his constitution, had," Willis said,
" produced the attack." — " The irritation," added
he, " has in a great measure subsided ; which
symptom must precede convalescence. Nine out
of ten among those who have been placed under
my care, have recovered within three months
from their first seizure."
No sooner had the examination of the phy
sicians been communicated to the house, than
Pitt moved the appointment of a committee " to
discover and report precedents of such proceed
ings as had taken place, to provide for the ex
ercise of the royal authority, when interrupted by
sickness, infancy, or infirmity." Hitherto, what
ever hostile sentiments might animate the two
parties who opposed each other within those walls.

REGENCY. — FOX. 203
no indecorous external demonstrations of it had
openly appeared. But the moment was now ar
rived when the most unqualified animosity suc
ceeded to a temporary restraint. It had already
been determined in the consultations held at
Carlton House, where Lord Loughborough pre
sided as legal guide, and on his authority, that
" the Prince of Wales possessed an inherent and
indisputable right to take on himself the regency
under the present circumstances." The time when
he ought to enter on the possession of this right,
and to exercise it. Lord Loughborough however
admitted, must rest for decision with the two
houses of parliament. Such were the constitu
tional principles laid down by Wedderburn, on
the solidity of which Fox relied. Rising as
soon as the chancellor of the exchequer had
concluded, he expressed his most animated con
demnation of the motion just made from the trea
sury bench. " Why," exclaimed he, " and for
what beneficial purpose, are we going to search
for precedents? It is a mere loss of time, and
pretext for delay. There is here among us an
heir-apparent, of full age and capacity to take
upon him the royal authority. In my opinion,
the Prince of Wales possesses as clear a right
to assume the reins of government, and to exercise
the sovereign power during his majesty's inca
pacity, as he would have in case of a natural
demise. He is not, indeed, himself to determine

204 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
when he is entitled to exercise it : the two houses
of parliament must pronounce on that matter. I
conceive, however, that as short an interval as
possible should be allowed to elapse before the
prince assumes the sovereignty. His royal high
ness wishes rather to wait the decision of parlia
ment, than to urge his claim. But ought he to
wait unnecessarily, while search is made after pre
cedents, when it is perfectly known that none
which bear upon the case are in existence ? Ne
vertheless I shall not oppose the motion, though it
is incumbent ori the house to restore without
delay the third estate."
Such was the substance of Fox's memorable
speech, than which the bitterest enemy of the
heir-apparent could not have made any more cal
culated to injure him. Pitt, who instantly per
ceived the error committed by the prince's ad
herents, availed himself of it with the rapidity of
lightning. Starting up the instant that his ad
versary had finished, while his eye flashed defi
ance, he denied every allegation made relative
lo the prince's right. " The doctrine now ad
vanced," observed he, " forms the most unanswer
able reason for appointing the committee. If the
claim of right now set up had a just foundation,
this house would be precluded from any possi
bility of deliberation on the subject. But I main
tain, that from every precedent, and every page
of our history, the assertion of such a right, either

REGENCY.— PITT. — FOX. 205
in the Prince of Wales, or in any other indivi
dual, is little less than treason to the constitution.
Under the actual circumstances, unless by de
cision of the two remaining branches of the legis
lature, the heir-apparent possesses no more strict
right to assume the government, than any other sub
ject of the realm." — "I admit, indeed," continued
Pitt, " that it is a claim entitled to the most
serious consideration. But a new object of de
Hberation has now presented itself, of greater
importance than even the original question. I
mean, the question of our own lights : ior, accord
ing to the opinion just laid down, it is become
matter of doubt whether this house possesses on
the present occasion a deliberative power. Let
us therefore ascertain, in the first instance, our
own rights, since on our future proceedings de
pend the interests of a sovereign deservedly the
idol of his people." Vainly Fox endeavoured,
when too late, with great ability and eloquence,
to explain away his expressions. As vainly he
urged that the two houses could not constitute
a parliament, and were only a convention. With
as little success did he retort on his antagonist
the charge of meaning to declare the crown elec
tive, instead of hereditary. Ineffectually did he
repeat his assertion, that the prince had an un
doubted claim to exercise the sovereign authority
during his father's present state ; and accuse the
two houses of arrogating to themselves a power

206 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
contrary to the spirit of the constitution, partak
ing of the crime of treason.
Burke, in energetic language, but intemperate,
and fuU of offensive personaUties to Pitt, reite
rated Fox's arguments, accused the minister of
becoming a competitor with the Prince of Wales
for the royal authority, and launched into the
most violent invectives. The chanceUor of the
exchequer was not, however, to be affected by
such imputations. He knew his own force, and
the enemy's weakness ; though he did not the
less reply to the charges made against him. "At
that period of our history," observed he, " when
the constitution was settled on its actual founda
tion ; when, in 1688, Mr. Somers, and other dis
tinguished statesmen, declared that no person had
a right to the crown independent of the consent of the
two houses; would it have been considered as either
fair or decent, for any member to have pro
nounced Mr. Somers a personal competitor of
WilUam the Third ?" No answer being made to
this remark, and Fox, however he might exclaim
against the appointment of a committee to search
for precedents, not venturing to divide the house
upon it; the question passed without any further
impediment. Never was any act more imprudent and iU-ad-
vised than Fox's reclamation of the regency for
the heir-apparent as his right; since it gave the
minister ground on which to stand, when he must

REGENCY. — FOX. — LORD CAMDEN. 207
otherwise have been driven to the last extremity !
Had Fox indeed possessed a majority of votes in
the assembly, he might safely have preferred any
claim. But how could he or his party suppose
that a minister whose prevailing passion was love
of power ; master, as he found himself, of both
houses of parliament, and generally popular
throughout the country ; would hasten to lay
down his employments on the first summons ?
If, instead of preferring a claim which he had not
the means to enforce. Fox had professed the
prince's readiness to accept the regency on any
terms, under any conditions, and with any limi
tations or restrictions which parliament might
think proper to impose, the minister would have
been disarmed. His only efficient weapon, delay,
would have been broken in his hand. The
prince must have been declared regent before the
middle of the approaching month of January ;
and when once installed in that high office, who
could say what events might have followed ? Fox
overturned all these speculations in a single
instant. 11th December. — The proceedings ofthe peers,
at this eventful period of our history, were not
less interesting, nor less important, than those of
the lower house. When they met on the follow
ing day. Lord Camden, after alluding to the
report of the physicians on the king's malady,
which had just been read, moved for a committee

208 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
"to inspect, and to report such precedents, as
might apply to the actual condition of public
affairs;" thus treading in the same traces with
the chancellor of the exchequer. Then diverging
to Fox's claim of right on the part of the prince
to assume the government during his majesty's
incapacity ; " If this be common law," observed
Lord Camden, " or analogous to the spirit of the
constitution, it is a secret to me. I neither enter
tained such a notion, nor have I ever met with it
in any writer, nor heard it laid down by any law
yer. Opinions so new and so extraordinary are
more easily promulgated than suppressed, and
may involve the whole kingdom in confusion."
Thus challenged and designated. Lord Lough
borough came forward, and in a manly manner
justified the doctrine, which he avowed to be his
own. He did more ; — for he arraigned the asser
tion made in the other house by the minister, in
terms of great energy. " I have heard," said
Lord Loughborough, " of a most extraordinary
assertion, boldly, arrogantly, and presumptuously
advanced elsewhere. It is, that ' the heir-apparent
to the throne, though of full age, has no more right
to assume the government, while his majesty's
malady incapacitates him from reigning, than any
other individual subject.' If this doctrine is
founded in law, the regency must be elective, not
hereditary. Alarming beyond measure would
be the dangers of such a principle. The two

REGENCY. — LOUGHBOROUGH. — THURLOW. 209
houses of parliament might then set up a pageant
of a regent, while they assumed, themselves, the
sovereignty ; because a regent so elected must
necessarily be the slave of his electors." — " Does
not the law describe the Prince of Wales to be
one and the same with the king ? Is it not as
much high treason to compass the death of the
former, as of the latter ? And does that penalty
attach to compassing the death of any other sub
ject?"- — We must admit that these arguments
were not void of weight, or solidity : but, in or
der to have sustained them, a majority of peers
should have thought and voted with Lord Lough
borough. It now became impossible for the chancellor to
remain any longer silent, unless he tamely sa
crificed the interests of that sovereign in whose
councils he held so high a place, as well as the ex
istence of the cabinet. Yet, his position was one
of uncommon difficulty ; he having already com
menced a treaty with the Prince of Wales, which
promised a most favourable termination. I be
lieve, the first overtures were made, not hy, but
to Lord Thurlow, on the part of his royal high
ness ; promising him to retain the great seal under
the approaching regency, provided that he would
immediately speak and vote with the heir-appa
rent. In the critical situation of the king, and
alienated as the chancellor had long been from
Pitt, such an offer merited mature consideration.
VOL. HI. P

210 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Notwithstanding WiUis's assurances, that his ma
jesty's recovery within a short period might be
almost confidently expected, the great majority
of his subjects incUned to believe and to fear his
condition would prove hopeless. Under these
impressions, the chancellor quitting the woolsack,
delivered a speech, every word of which had been
previously well weighed ; and which still left him
a free agent either to accept, or to reject, the
prince's propositions. Previous, he said, to making
any declaration of his opinion on the delicate
subject started, he wished to have the advantage
of every species of information or precedent which
might enlighten his judgment. Respecting Lord
Loughborough's doctrine, as it applied to the heir-
apparent ; with whatever force and authority it
might come from a magistrate so eminent, yet
to himself it was new. Towards the conclusion
he delicately panegyrised the Prince of Wales, by
praising Lord Loughborough for not resting any
part of his argument on the private virtues of
that illustrious person ; " who," he added, " should
always have his applause, when its expression
would not be an act of impertinence." Having
thus acquitted himself with no ordinary address,
he left the debate to take its course. Lord Stor
mont powerfully reiterated the arguments ad
vanced by Lord Loughborough ; but the house
did not the less agree, without any division, to
the motion made by the president of the council.

REGENCY.— FOX. — LORD CAMDEN. 211
12th December. — Fox's assertion or reclamation
of the prince's right to take upon himself the office
of regent; repeated in terms so emphatic and
positive, by the chief justice of the common
pleas, in his place as a peer ; — these two opi
nions having operated very unfavourably on the
public mind. Fox, conscious of the injury that
he had done to his own cause, lost no time in
endeavouring to efface the impression. As soon
as the house of commons met, Pitt gave notice
that he would move " to take into consideration
the present state of the nation," on the following
Tuesday, the 16th of the month. Fox immedi
ately stood up ; and, after complaining of the
manner in which Lord Camden (whom he de
scribed, though he did not name,) had misrepre
sented his words relative to an august personage,
he began by disclaiming any authority whatever
for those expressions. " I spoke merely," continu
ed he, "as a private member of parliament, wholly
unauthorized either by his royal highness, or by
any other person." He next laboured, if not to
explain away, at least to give a more limited
meaning to his late demand of the regency, as
the heir-apparent's right. The term " assume,"
Fox denied to have ever pronounced. With
great ingenuity he reasoned on the nature of
the prince's title. " Many persons," added he,
" admit him to possess an irresistible claim to
the regency. I agree to that idea ; because I
p 2

212 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
know no difference between an irresistible claim,
and an inherent right. But, whatever doubts may
exist on that point, none can arise as to the pro
priety of investing him with the sole administra
tion of the government ; together with the unli
mited exercise of all the regal functions, powers, and
prerogatives, in the same extent as they wdul^ have
been exercised by his majesty, if he had remained in
health." Aware, nevertheless, that this demand
might not meet with the ministerial concurrence.
Fox professed a disposition to accommodate, in
order to secure unanimity; deprecated the ne
cessity of being obliged to divide the house ;
but admitted that if conciliation should not be
found practicable, he must, however reluctantly,
ascertain on which side lay the force of numbers.
Lastly, he expressed his hopes that Pitt would
open the nature of the propo-sition which it was
intended to submit to them on the subsequent
Tuesday ; in order that when regularly made,
they might not come to it altogether unprepared
for its discussion.
The chancellor of the exchequer, thus pressed
to explain his ulterior intentions, did not altoge
ther refuse compliance. Previous however to en
tering on the demanded disclosure, he informed
his antagonist that there was a point at issue be
tween them, which must be decided before they
proceeded one step farther : namely, the assertion
of the Prince of Wales's right to exercise the

REGENCY. — PITT.— FOX. — SHERIDAN. 213
royal authority, under the present circumstances
of the country. " If that great preliminary ques
tion," continued Pitt, "should be determined on
constitutional principles, I shall certainly proceed
to propose measures for supplying the interruption
of the king's authority. And unshaken as my
opinion remains, that no part of the regal power
can vest in the heir-apparent as matter of right;
I am equally ready to say, that as matter of discre
tion and of expediency, it is highly desirable that
whatever portion of it shall be exercised, should
be conferred on the Prince of Wales. I likewise
think that he should exercise it with the free se
lection of his political servants ; and that what
ever authority is necessary for carrying on the
public business, ought to be conferred. On the
other hand, all authority which is not necessary,
should be withheld ; having ever in our view the
moment when his majesty may be capable of re
suming his prerogatives." Fox, in his reply,
charged the chancellor of the exchequer with the
intention of setting up, not a regent, but a parlia
mentary regent: whUe Sheridan warned Pitt of
" the danger connected with provoking the Prince
of Wales to assert his claim to the regency."
These menaces made no iinpression on a minister
who, conscious of possessing the confidence of par
liament, as well as that of the nation, pursued his
course with a firm step
I shall here relate an incident which its singu-

214 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
larity entitles to notice. During the course of
the debate on the 12th of December, James Mac-
pherson, so well known by the " Poems of
Ossian," proposed to me to take a hasty dinner at
his residence in Fludyer-street, Westminster, and
return immediately afterwards to the house of
commons. Ever since Pitt came into power,
down to that time, he had generally supported
administration ; but, Uke many other members of
parliament, he now went over to the party of the
heir-apparent. During the few minutes that
elapsed before dinner appeared, a superb quarto
edition of Virgil lying on the table, I amused my
self with trying the " Sortes Virgilianae," on the
great public questions which then so strongly
agitated every mind. Accordingly I asked of
the poet. " WUl the Prince of Wales become
regent, or not ?" Opening the book, my eye fell
on these words,
 " sic regia tecta subibat
Horridus."
They occur in the seventh book of the" Mne'id,"
where Aventinus, a son of Hercules, one of the
auxiliaries of Turnus, enters the palace of Latinus.
I thought the passage so descriptive of the inde
corous haste which the heir-apparent manifested
to assume the royal functions, as to justify me in
making a second appeal. I therefore proposed
for solution, to the spirit of Maro, "Will the
king recover his understanding, or will he be de-

"SORTES VIRGILlANa:." 215
tained in confinement during the remainder of
his life?" The line on which my finger lighted
occurs in the sixth book of the ".^neid," forming
a part of Charon's surly address to .^neas, on his
approaching the banks of the Styx,
" Corpora viva nefas Stygia vectare carina."
Applying it to George the Third, we must trans
late the words, " It is criminal to shut up, as a
man permanently deprived of his faculties, a
prince who will resume his intellect." Or, " It is
criminal to treat as dead, a man who has in him
the principle of Ufe." Whether either of these
interpretations may appear forced, I won't pretend
to assert : but the fact of my having opened on
the two passages above cited, on the 12th of De
cember 1788, is most accurately true. I by no
means trust to memory, having been so much
struck with the incident at the time, that I com
mitted it to paper instantly; and I now have
before me the identical memorandum, from which
I copy the words. That their application is not
equally striking, as it appears in the memorable
instance, recorded by Welwood in his Memoirs,
relative to Charles the First and Lord Falkland
at Oxford, when they consulted the " Sortes Vir-
gUianae*," — (if we give implicit credit to that
story,) — I readUy admit. Yet, I think, both the
* Wei wood's Memoirs. Fourth Edit. London, 1702. pp.
103—107.

216 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
passages on which I stumbled may bear the in
terpretation here given them, without violence.
The truth is, Virgil's divine poem inspires such
just admiration, that the gift of prediction has
been bestowed on it ; as if in it dwelt a pro
phetic and oracular spirit, capable of resolving all
questions. 15th December. — No sooner was the house of
peers met, than Lord FitzwUUam rose, in order to
deprecate any discussion on the claim of right to
the regency which had been made for the Prince
of Wales. His friends recognized too late the
act of imprudence committed by Fox, and re
peated by Lord Loughborough. But Lord Cam
den repUed, that the rights of the two houses of
parUament having been questioned, it had become
absolutely necessary not to leave undecided, points
so important, previous to their adopting any mea
sures respecting a regency. The Duke of York
coming forward at this period of the debate, en
deavoured, with much earnestness and emotion, to
enforce Lord FitzwiUiam's arguments. Speaking
in the name of his elder brother, as weU as in his
own, " The prince," observed he, " has not pre
ferred any such claim. I am confident that he
understands too weU the sacred principles which
placed the House of Brunswic on the throne of
these kingdoms, ever to assume or to exercise any
power, let his claim be what it may, not derived
from the public will, expressed through their re-

REGENCY. — PITT. 217
presentatives, and through your lordships, assem
bled in parliament."
Such a declaration, made from so high a quarter,
would unquestionably, in a case of minor import
ance, have sufficed to stop all further disquisition
on the point. But the Prince of Wales's advisers,
in their injudicious haste to get possession of
power, forgot that they had to contend against a
minister who could neither be cajoled nor intimi
dated. The Eari of Bute, the Duke of Grafton,
Lord North, and the Earl of Shelburne, aU had
successively, when hard pressed by national cla
mour, or outvoted in parliament, hastened to give
in their resignation. Pitt played an opposite
game. Popular in his own person ; maintaining
the cause of a popular sovereign, labouring under
an affficting malady, which might however prove
only temporary; and opposing men unpopular,
whose acquisition of office, if it should take place,
was generally contemplated in the light of a na
tional calamity ; — his business was to protract the
struggle. Possessing a superiority of numbers in
both houses of parliament, he could dispute every
inch of ground, and throw up new works against
the assailants as fast as the old defences were
carried. If the predictions of Willis were soUd,
three months might completely restore the king's
mind. In that case, the contest became merely a
race against time. Even should his majesty not
recover, Pitt could return to a private station, as

218 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
he had done in 1783, sustained by the regrets of a
great majority among his countrymen.
It was nevertheless evident that his whole su
perstructure rested on the numbers which he could
command and retain, in the houses of lords and
commons : a foundation frail in itself, and attack
ed by powerful opponents. Every successive week
that the sovereign remained in his present state,
without any visible symptoms of amendment,
weakened the minister's control over his adhe
rents. He might, like Fox in 1784, find himself
abandoned, and ultimately left in a minority.
Already, various peers, as well as commoners, de
clared their intention to join the prince's party.
Many others wavered, and might desert him.
Nor was the extent of his influence in either
house as yet ascertained, no division having
hitherto taken place since the meeting of parlia
ment. In this critical position, any defection in
his own cabinet might open a wide breach to the
enemy. But Pitt well knew that the chancellor
had closed his bargain with the heir-apparent, since
the house of peers last met on the 11th of
December. Every condition demanded was con
ceded by his royal highness ; and Thurlow en
gaged that in the progress of the approaching
debate, he would oppose Lord Camden's proposi
tion. Pitt, however, did not then know that the
negotiation, after being thus concluded, had been
suddenly and unexpectedly overturned. Lord

REGENCY. — DUKE OF YORK. — LORD THURLOW. 219
Loughborough having received intimation of it,
instantly repaired to Carlton House, where he
clamoured so loudly against the concessions, all
which must be made at his expence, that the
prince, in order to appease him, reluctantly con
sented to send Fox to the chancellor, with a mes
sage stating his inability' to fulfil the stipulated
conditions. Fox only made the notification a few
hours before the discussion came on in the house
of peers ; a fact of which the chancellor of the
exchequer was ignorant. The house of commons
having adjourned over that evening, to Tuesday,
the sixteenth of- December, all curiosity became
attracted to the upper house ; where the steps of
the throne were crowded with members of parlia
ment, anxious to hear the Duke of York : — for
it was well knowm that he intended to take a per
sonal part in the discussion. Among them stood
Pitt himself, accompanied by two or three of his
intimate friends. The minister came fully pre
pared for Lord Thurlow's defection, and in expec
tation of being an ear-witness of his first speech
for opposition.
As soon as the Duke of York sate down, the
chancellor began by declaring that no individual
present could feel a stronger repugnance than
himself to the agitation of any question not al^so-
lutely demanded by the nature of the subject.
Questions of right, he observed, were generally
invidious, often unnecessary. When the report

220 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
from the committee which was occupied in
searching for precedents should be made, they
would be enabled to judge what steps ought to
be taken for restoring vigour to the executive go
vernment. " But, above all other duties, we are
bound," continued he, " to preserve the rights of
the king entire ; so that when Divine Providence
shall restore his majesty to his people, he may not
find himself in a worse situation than he stood
previous to his malady, or disabled from exercis
ing all his rightful prerogatives." Adverting
next to an observation made by Lord Stormont
during the preceding debate, when that nobleman
had said that " his emotions on contemplating the
affliction under which the sovereign laboured,
were rendered more acute by his recollection of
the marks of kindness that he had been accustom
ed to receive from his majesty ;" " My own sor
row," pursued the chancellor, " is aggravated by
the same circumstance. My debt of gratitude
likewise to him is ample, for the numerous fa
vours which he has graciously conferred on me ;
which, whenever I forget, may God forget me!"
Pitt, who was standing at only a few paces dis
tant from him when he pronounced these words ;
well knowing the treaty into which Lord Thur
low had entered with Carlton House ; — no longer
master of his indignation, he turned round to
General Manners, and to the other friends close
to him, and in a low voice exclaimed, " Oh ! the

REGENCY. — LORDS THURLOW. — STORMONT. 221
rascal 1 " General Manners himself assured me of
this fact ; adding, " I was so astonished at it, and
so unable to account for it, that when walking
out with Pitt, some weeks afterwards, I asked
him the reason of his exclamation. He related to
me the particulars of the chancellor's conduct, to
gether with the cause that finally produced the
rupture of the negotiation." It is impossible to
call in doubt the truth of the testimony here pro
duced ; Manners, who is aUve at the present hour,
(in March 1820,) being a man of strict honour
and veracity, my intimate friend of forty years ;
above all suspicion of inventing such a story ; and
as devoid of any enmity towards Lord Thurlow,
or towards his memory, as I am myself.
The debate continuing after the chancellor had
finished, became angry, personal, and tumultuous.
Lord Stormont having charged the president of the
council with bringing into discussion a subject of
the most delicate nature in a disorderly and un
parliamentary manner, that nobleman vindicated
himself from the imputation. " I did not," ob
served he, " first broach this doctrine of the Prince
of Wales's right to the regency. But, having
been asserted, it must be noticed, because we are
engaged in a proceeding which will materially
affect the liberties of posterity." As the Duke of
York had risen to address the assembly early in
the evening, so the Duke of Glocester spoke to
wards its close. In language and in manner the

222 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
most earnest, he deprecated any further conversa
tion on a question calculated, as he asserted, to
produce the greatest calamities. The Duke of
Cumberland, though wl^oUy devoted to his ne
phew, yet, conscious of his own inabiUty to mix
in debate, remained silent.
Pitt, however indignant at the chancellor's
conduct, yet knew too well the value of Thur
low's talents and support, under circumstances so
critical, not to suppress his resentment. They
continued to sit in cabinet, and to act together, if
not cordially, yet in apparent union, throughout
the whole future progress of the king's malady.
But Lord Thurlow's meditated tergiversation did
not remain a secret. Political prints, exposed at
the time in the shops of the metropolis, represent
ed him stripping off his coat, and turning it inside
out ; accompanying the act with an appropriate
observation, that " one side would do as well as
the other." Dundas, on the contrary, who well
knew that for him no asylum would be found
at Carlton House, and that his only hopes of
office, or views of ambition, must centre in Pitt,
never once swerved from his friend the minister
throughout the whole protracted struggle.
iGth December. — Hitherto no division had
taken place in either house of parliament; but
such an appeal could not be much longer delayed,
each party being anxious to ascertain their respec
tive strength. It was, however, obvious that if

REGENCY.— PITT. — FOX. 223
some signs of convalescence did not manifest
themselves in the king's malady, the ministerial
numbers would insensibly, perhaps rapidly, dimi
nish : while the adherents of the heir-apparent
would receive continual accessions. No sooner
did the house of commons meet, than the chan
cellor of the exchequer opened his proposition for
supplying the deficiency in the legislature. Dur
ing the whole time that I was a member of that
assembly, I never had greater occasion to admire
the prodigious powers of his calm, collected, and
capacious mind, than on the evening in question.
Nor did Fox, though labouring under severe and
obvious indisposition, display abilities less splen
did. Throughout a debate of at least nine hours,
they, and they only, contended for superiority.
All the other members might almost be regarded
as auditors, though some of them occasionally
took part in the discussion. Pitt, while he deve
loped his intentions, and proposed his resolutions
for restoring the suspended functions of the royal
authority, did not the less adhere to his former
declaration, that the question so injudiciously
agitated by Fox, of the Prince of Wales's right
to assume the regency, must be decided before
any other topic.
" I readily acknowledge," continued he, " the
most eminent quaUties in the present heir-appa
rent. But it has been asserted within these
waUs, that he possesses, at this moment, a title as

224 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
indisputable to exercise the sovereign authority,
as he would have had by the natural demise of
the king ; because the present suspension is a civil
death. Can we then consider his majesty's indis
position, which is not an uncommon case, and in
general only temporary, as a civil death ? I am
persuaded that we shall not." — " The lofty terms
in which that claim of right was originally made,
have, I admit, been since somewhat lowered. It
has likewise been declared in another assembly,
that no intention 'exists of enforcing that right :
but words form no parliamentary ground of pro
ceeding, and cannot afford a guarantee that, at
some future period of our history, such attempts
may not be resumed or asserted,"
Powerful, eloquent, and admirably adapted to
the occasion, as was the minister's speech. Fox's
reply did not fall short of it in any of these parti
culars. I cannot indeed too strongly repeat, that
in mental endowments of every kind. Fox equal
led, perhaps exceeded his antagonist. It was
Pitt's superior judgment and correct life which
principally turned in his favour the scale ; which
retained him in office throughout almost his whole
career, while the want of those qualities excluded
Fox from office. The former had, moreover,
only one predominant passion : love of power,
and the fame as well as advantages connected
with it. Fox, as I have elsewhere observed,
found room in his bosom for many pursuits be-

PITT.— FOX, 225
sides ambition and thirst of glory. History and
poetry each attracted, soothed, and delighted him.
Pitt was always a minister, or aspiring and medi
tating to become a minister. Nature had intended
him for the cabinet, and for no other situation.
Fox, at his retreat on St. Anne's Hill, could de
rive amusement from his garden, from his library,
from conversation, in a variety of domestic or of
literary avocations. But Pitt, when compelled,
from 1801 to 1804, to reside during many months
of each year in solitary grandeur with Lady
Hester Stanhope, at Walmer Castle, listening to
the waves of the German Ocean ; while Adding
ton, whom he had raised from comparative obscu
rity to the highest offices, filled his vacant seat ;
— Pitt only supported life by the anticipation of
his speedy return to power. On that object, and
on that object alone, was his mind constantly
fixed. During his exile from Downing-street to
the Kentish shore, a period of nearly three years,
he underwent all the torments of mortified am
bition. I saw him frequently at that time, and
his countenance always seemed to say,
" Existence may be borne, and the deep root
Of life and suiferance make its firm abode
In bare and desolated bosoms."
His wishes were gratified. He resumed his office,
and died within twenty months afterwards, the
victim of his own accomplished desires. His star
produced him under the reign of George the Third.
VOL. III. Q

226 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
If he had flourished under George the Fourth, he
would probably have remained during the greater
part of his Ufe on the opposition bench, while
Fox would have been minister. Throughout the
whole contest, he was not less indebted to Fox's
errors, than to his own transcendent dexterity, for
the triumph that he obtained. If Fox had dis
played at that time as much ability in getting
possession of power, as Pitt exhibited in keeping
possession of it, the latter never could have held
out till the king's recovery.
In the course of his speech, Pitt had gone
largely into precedents analogous to the actual
condition of the country, drawn from the Planta
genet times, but, particularly from the calamitous
reign of Henry the Sixth, when it had become
necessary to elect a regent,— or rather, a protector.
Fox well observed, that precedents extracted from
such periods of our history, — or, indeed, from
any periods antecedent to the revolution, — were
altogether irrelevant and inapplicable ; because, at
no asra previous to 1688, "was civil Uberty clearly
defined and understood, all the rights of the dif
ferent branches of our legislature ascertained, and
the free spirit of the British constitution prac
tically acknowledged." Then adverting to the
great subject of actual dispute, " On the present
occasion," observed he, "two opposite assertions
have been made in this house relative to the
Prince of Wales's right to exercise the sovereign

REGENCY. — FOX. 227
authority during its actual suspension. I depre
cate any decision on so delicate a point ; but since
the minister seems determined to render it a
personal question, and to have recourse to his
majority, let the motion be, 'That we are of
opinion, the Prince of Wales, being of full age
and capacity, has no more right to exercise the
royal authority during his majesty's incapacity
than any other subject.' He knows that he
dares not risk it. Notwithstanding his high cha
racter, and his influence within these walls, he
would not be supported by twenty members." —
" The claim itself," continued Fox, " has been dis
avowed in another assembly, by an exalted per
sonage, in his brother's name; so that truly to
describe the case, the preamble of the bill must
run thus : ' Whereas the Prince of Wales has
never claimed any right to the regency, it be
comes necessary for the peers and commons of
England to declare that he has no right; and
we therefore declare his royal highness sole regent
of these kingdoms.' "
After exhausting every argument suggested
by reason, or furnished by history, to sustain his
cause. Fox concluded with addressing to his rival
the keenest personal animadversions. " He ap
pears," said Fox, " to have been so long in the
possession of power, that he cannot endure to part
with it from his grasp. Finding the whole au
thority entrusted by the constitution to the sove-
Q 2

228 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
reign not too much for carrying on the govern
ment with vigour, he is determined to cripple
his successors. What his motives can be for
adopting such a line of conduct, I am igno
rant ; but if in this assembly there exists an
ambitious individual who designs to throw the
empire into confusion, he would pursue the path
traced out by the minister." Pitt was not of a
temper to support such sarcasms without reply.
He retorted them on his adversary in language of
equal asperity ; denominating his attack " un
founded, arrogant, and presumptuous. I am
charged," continued he, " with acting from a mis
chievous spirit of ambition, unable to support the
idea of relinquishing power, and therefore dis
posed to envy or obstruct the credit of my suc
cessors. This house and the country will deter
mine what have been my motives throughout the
whole of the present unfortunate crisis." Fox
having declared it to be the prince's determination
to call himself and his friends to power, " It has
been announced to-day," observed Pitt, " that the
chiefs of opposition are to be the successors of
the present administration. I know not on what
authority this declaration is made; but we are
obliged to him for the warning. Their principles
are aheady well understood, and they furnish an
irresistible reason for us deliberately to consider,
what portion of the royal prerogatives should be
entrusted to them during the present temporary

REGENCY. — FOX. — PITT. — LORD NORTH. 229
incapacity of the sovereign." From the begin
ning down to the termination of the king's ma
lady. Fox and Pitt always beheld it through op
posite mediums ; the former regarding it-as in
curable and permanent; the latter affecting to
consider it as a mere attack of disease, neither
uncommon nor alarming, however afflicting, and
which would almost certainly yield to medical
skUl. I observed, that on the night of the 16th of
December these two extraordinary individuals
seemed by common consent to take the debate
exclusively into their own hands. Yet among
those members who actively participated in the
discussion, there was one whose eloquence for
merly melted and animated, as his wit delighted,
his hearers. I allude to Lord North, who, after
having scarcely been seen within the walls of the
house during the two last sessions, was now led
down, blind and infirm, to express his perfect co
incidence in aU Fox's opinions. Seated near his
former colleague, he rose at an early hour of the
evening, and delivered himself with his accus
tomed abUity ; though without a ray of that
humour which used to illuminate his most ordi
nary efforts. The time and the subject, it is true,
did not favour such effusions ; but as Sir Thomas
More jested on the scaffold, so Lord North knew
how to temper with gaiety the gravest topics.
Pitt finally moved three resolutions : the first, only

230 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788,
declaring that "the king was unable to attend to
public business ;" but the second, maintaining it
" to be the right and duty of the two houses to
provide the means of supplying the defect of the
royal authority," The third and last resolution,
which was the most important, asserted it to be
" necessary that the peers and commons of Great
Britain now assembled should determine on the
means by which the royal assent might be given,
in the name and on the behalf of the king, to
such biU as might be passed by the two houses."
Lord North having moved that " the chairman
leave the chair," a division took place' at a very
late hour, when only 204 members supported the
motion, while it was negatived by 268. I made
one of the 64 majority who voted with adminis
tration. It formed the first trial of numerical
strength between the two contending parties.
Lord North's infirmities did not permit him to
witness the conclusion of the debate.
19th December. — Fox being likewise incapaci
tated by severe indisposition from attending in his
place when the house met again ; as soon as Colo
nel Fitzpatrick stated the fact, Pitt immediately
consented to an adjournment till the following
day. On that evening a long and desultory dis
cussion arose relative to the second resolution,
moved by the chancellor of the exchequer. Sir
Grey Cooper, in a speech full of historical analo
gies or precedents appUcable to the actual position

REGENCY. — MARTIN  FOX. 231
of the country, laboured to prove that the Prince
of Wales had, if not a right to assume the re
gency, yet such unquestionable pretensions to it as
could not be rejected without alledging causes
which would exclude him from the crown.
Martin, a man whose recognized rectitude and
independence of character gave weight to his ob
servations even when they were trite, coarse, or
offensive, did not hesitate to compare the notifica
tion made by Fox of the prince's intention to call
new individuals to his councils, with Falstaff's
anticipation of the offices which he and his asso
ciates hopfed to fill under Henry the Fifth after
he should ascend the throne, Pitt's high character
and correct deportment protected him from similar
attacks. Fox disdained to notice Martin's allu
sion ; but Windham repelled it equally with the
weapons of ridicule and of reason. Powis and
Marsham both came forward, as did Dempster,
with propositions or motions calculated to prevent
the two contending heads of party from proceed
ing to extremities. Their efforts at producing
conciliation proved wholly ineffectual, and the
house at'length adjourned, after voting the second
resolution without a division.
It was against the third and last oi these three
resolutions that the adherents of the heir-apparent
levelled the accumulated strength of their facul
ties ; well knowing it to be the citadel of the minis
ter, within which he meditated to capitulate on

232 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788,
terms. They wished to force him to surrender
without previously making conditions. In order
to effect it, they moved " to address the prince to
take on him the administration during his ma
jesty's indisposition," By such a mode of pro
ceeding, analogous to the conduct of the two
houses towards the Prince of Orange in 1689,
they truly observed that " there would be a third
estate; and the royal power would devolve on, or
become vested in the individual who, from every
motive, must be most deeply concerned in the
preservation of the monarchy." These were Fox's
own expressions. When that preliminary step
was taken, then, and not till then, as they main
tained, was the proper moment arrived in which
the two houses should present to the newly-elected
regent the conditions, or limitations, on which his
authority was confided to him. Of his acqui
escence in those restrictions, there could not arise,
they said, the slightest doubt.
Unquestionably, such would have been the most
natural, simple, obvious, constitutional line of
parliamentary conduct. But it did not suit the
views of the minister ; nor perhaps would it be,
he wisely thought, the safest measure for securing
the king's resumption of his power, whenever he
might recover the use of his faculties. Pitt pre
ferred to treat with the Prince of Wales previous,
and not subsequent, to his being declared regent.
" Who," observed Pitt, " can answer for his not

REGENCY. — LORD THURLOW. — BURKE. 233
using the royal negative when the limitations are
presented to him for his assent ? " It was there
fore determined in the cabinet to create or erect
a third estate, by empowering the chancellor to put
the great seal to such bills as the two houses should
pass ; thus giving to them the form and force of
law. Pitt, no doubt, would have wished that a
man more accommodating than Lord Thurlow, as
well as one on whose adherence he could more se
curely rely, had held the great seal : but the chan-
ceUor's talents rendered him necessary ; and the
minister might say with the Duke of Venice,
" Men do their broken weapons rather use
Than their bare hands."
22nd December. — As soon as the house of com
mons met, Burke attacked the ministerial propo
sition with that impetuous, classic, splendid elo
quence which frequently disdained the restraints
of moderation, of reason, and almost of decorum.
" As little acquainted with the interior of Carlton
House as of Buckingham House, I profess," said
he, " only to deliver my sentiments in a manner
becoming a simple citizen. The great seal, it
appears, is to be affixed to a commission, robbing
the executive power of its due function. A
composition of wax and copper is to represent
the sovereign. So preposterous a fiction merits
only contempt and ridicule. I disclaim all alle
giance, I renounce all obedience to a king so
formed. I worship the gods of our glorious con-

234 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
stitution, but I wiU not bow down before Pria-
pus!" Against the chancellor, Burke inveighed
in the most personal tern^s. " I approve not,"
exclaimed he, " of robbery, house-breaking, or
any other felony. Yet is each of these crimes
less inexcusable than law forgery. If the unfor
tunate monarch whom we all lament could know
the proposition now agitated, he would no doubt
cry out with Macbeth,
' Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown.
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand.
No son of mine succeeding.'
' Restore me,' he would add, * to my former state.
Let me not behold a black-browed phantom seated
on my throne !'" Scott, the solicitor-general, op
posed to these shafts of oratorical declamation the
arms of legal metaphysics ; endeavouring, not
without success, to demonstrate that the fiction
of which Burke complained, and which he so
loudly reprobated, was dictated and justified by
necessity. Fox, who well knew how to appreciate
talents, and who respected Scott's abilities, which
were of another order from those of Arden and
of Macdonald, replied to him ; putting out all the
energies of his mind against an adversary so
worthy of his exertions. With prodigious force
of language, he placed in the strongest point of
view the absurdity of making the two houses
legislate, which act they were incapable of per
forming without the king.

REGENCY. — FOX. — PITT. 235
" It is however asserted," continued Fox, " in
order to justify this monstrous act of usurpation,
that though the king is incapable, yet the throne
is full. Admitting such a solecism, what is the
substitute which it is proposed to adopt? To
appoint a person who is to give the royal assent
to bills passed by the two houses. How is he to
ascertain that assent ? Is he to repair to Kew for
the purpose ? Human reason revolts at the suppo
sition. Can he exercise his own discretion ? No.
To whom then can he apply ? To the two houses
of parliament who created him. And thus shall
we have a monster unknown in EngUsh history."
Pitt answered these objections with corre
sponding ingenuity, if not with solidity. In re
ply to his adversary's denial that the two houses
could in any case legislate without the co-opera
tion and consent of the crown, he adduced the
revolution oi 1688 itself. " The two remaining
branches of the legislature," observed he, " did
what amounted to a legislative act in that crisis of
the country. They resolved to settle the crown,
not on the Prince of Orange, nor on the Princess
his consort, but on both jointly ; the royal autho
rity to be exercised only by him. Here it is evi
dent that whatever the necessity of the case re
quired, the lords and commons then did. So will
they do now."
In answer to Burke's and Fox's reproaches
respecting the fiction of empowering the great

236 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
seal to give the royal assent to bills, " It is this
fiction," said Pitt, " which has been so much tra
duced and ridiculed, that governs our judicial
proceedings in all the courts of law, and protects
our dearest rights, as well as property. It is the
principle which assumes the political capacity of
the king to be always entire. Certain legal forms
are evidence of his wUl. Such is the act of affix
ing the great seal. The highest authority in the
nation, is the great council of the nation ; and if
they think proper to signify the will of the sove
reign, there is no legal fiction." Pitt concluded by
applying these principles and facts to the actual
state of the country ; particularly as to the point
of binding the Prince of Wales under certain
conditions before the regency should be offered
him. " When powers are once conferred," ob
served he, " who can say how they may be exer
cised ? The regent may fill the other house with
new peers, while we are actually deliberating whe
ther that power shall, or shall not, be limited. The
powers ought to be discussed while we possess
the faculty of deliberation." How far the minis
ter veiled his own ambition under the mantle
of loyalty, and of zeal for the constitution, in
adopting these maxims of conduct, may excite
doubt : but we must admit their consummate
prudence and policy, in whatever principle they
originated. At the close of the debate, Pitt was
supported by a still larger majority than on the

REGENCY. — THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWN, 237
former discussion. Four hundred and twenty-
nine members voted, of whom 251 followed him,
while only 178 accompanied Fox into the lobby,
26th December. — After two such triumphant
divisions within the space of a few days, it still
remained to ascertain whether ministers Avould
meet with a similar degree of support in the other
house, where it was well known that they would
be opposed by three princes of the blood. That
assembly proceeding with more deliberate steps
than the commons, did not come to the discus
sion of the regency till towards the last days of
December, Lord Rawdon having moved " to
address the Prince of Wales, to take on him the
executive government as sole regent," Earl Cam
den replied, that however deeply he regretted the
agitation of the question of right, nevertheless, as
the doctrine had been once asserted, men's minds
must be set at rest respecting the point. But
the most interesting circumstance of that even
ing's debate, was the personal attendance of the
Marquis of Lansdown. Since his resignation in
1783, he rarely quitted his palace in Berkeley-
square, or his retreat at Bow Wood, to attend his
duty as a peer; and when he. rose to speak, few
persons knew into which scale he intended to
throw his weight. With Pitt he maintained no
political connexion ; nor could he indeed contem
plate that minister as other than an intruder, who,
avaUing himself of favourable circumstances, had

238 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
vaulted into his vacant office. The marquisate
which had been subsequently conferred on him
might gratify his pride, or console his vanity, but
could make no compensation to his mortified
ambition. Yet, on the other hand, if Pitt was a
rival. Fox was an enemy. He, as well as Sheri
dan and Burke, had levelled the most severe re
flections on Lord Shelburne's private and public
character while at the head of the treasury. The
spirit of party might nevertheless supersede all
recollection of these injuries, and the moment was
propitious for sacrificing antient enmities to ob
jects of personal interest, or of national consi
deration. In truth, the Marquis of Lansdown was not
less eminently qualified for the minister of a great
country than were either Pitt or Fox. Under
many points of view, he was superior to the for
mer : in some, he excelled the latter. Far more
affable, easy of access, and pleasing in his man
ners than Pitt, he surpassed even Fox in accurate
knowledge of the European courts, and their po
licy or interests. In application to business, faci
lity of comprehension, and aptitude for affairs, he
yielded to neither. George the Third considered
him with much partiality, while he entertained
no such personal attachment towards Pitt as he
had felt for Lord Bute and for Lord North ; and
he nourished a dislike allied to aversion for Fox.
Thus gifted by nature, ambitious, eloquent, highly

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWN. — PITT. — FOX. 239
informed, how happened it, we may naturally
ask, that he only held his power for eight months,
and never could regain it? The answer is obvi
ous. Lord Lansdown laboured under various
disqualifications, of which not the least heavy
was the peerage. AU our most eminent ministers
since the reign of Queen Anne were members of
the lower house. Walpole, Pelham, North, the
first and the second Mr. Pitt, remained commoners
during the whole time that they presided in or
directed the councils of the crown. If the pre
sent Earl of Chatham had died between 1784 and
1801, his decease, by transferring his brother from
the treasury bench to a seat among peers and
bishops, would have half extinguished him, not
withstanding all his talents. Pitt required the
tumult, and the effervescence, and the animation
of a popular assembly, to sustain his eloquence.
They required his presence to confirm their ad
herence, and to justify their votes. Nor would
Fox have suffered a less deep political eclipse
during the same period of time, if death had
carried off his nephew Lord Holland. At the
present hour, in 1820, though Lord Liverpool
occupies the head of the treasury, Lord Castle
reagh manages the lower house, and may be re
garded as the efficient minister. Fox performed
the same part in 1782, under the Marquis of
Rockingham ; in 1783, under the Duke of Port
land; and even in 1806, under Lord Grenville.

240 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
Such is the spirit and genius of the British con
stitution, which is essentiaUy democratic, though
tempered by monarchical and aristocratic insti
tutions. Lord Lansdown's second defect proceeded from
the want of that quality denominated in pugilistic
language bottom ; in other words, firmness. If he
had possessed it in 1783, as Pitt exhibited it in
1784, he might have maintained himself in office,
notwithstanding the vote of censure carried by
a small majority in the lower house against the
recently concluded peace. Even Lord North dis
played far more firmness than the Earl of Shel
burne. During the three last years of his admi
nistration, from 1779 to 1782, he was many times
left in a minority on questions of vital import
ance. Yet he did not resign ; and he was ulti
mately swallowed up in the overwhelming cala
mities of the American war. Addington wanted
almost every constituent quality of a great, an
accomplished, or an able statesman. He was
extinguished in May 1804 ; or rather, he disap
peared in an instant, without any adequate appa
rent cause, except Pitt's impatience to re-occupy
his former situation. It may indeed justly excite
wonder that Addington should have remained
above three years first minister of this country,
during at least one half of which period we were
contending for our existence against Napoleon.
In no endowment of mind did he excel. His

REGENCY.— THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWN. 241
eloquence was cold and spiritless, while of Con
tinental affairs he was supremely ignorant. Even
in finance, he exhibited no resources. The last
and greatest defect in Lord Lansdown's intellec
tual composition was his reputed insincerity : a
vice which, more than any other, brought Charles
the First to the block.
The sentiments expressed by the marquis on
that evening would have done honour to any
minister of any age. " I wish, my lords," said
he, " that the members of administration had
come down at once with such a commission as
the third resolution points out ; and that, instead
of now discussing the propriety of putting to it
the great seal, it had been acted upon in the first
instance. What impediment prevents the officers
of the crown from issuing such a commission?
They ought not to be deterred by hard words,
denominating the act a fiction." — "The principles
laid down at the revolution make the crown to
be, not descendible property, like a pigstye or a
laystall, but a descendible trust, for millions and
ages yet unborn. I contend therefore, that the
hereditary succession cannot be considered as a right.
It is a mere political expedient, capable of being
altered by the two houses. In cases of exigence,
they have always been termed the legislature, in
order to prevent the greatest of aU possible evils,
a disputed succession. This reasoning obviously
appUes with augmented force to the case of a
VOL. III. ^

242 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1788.
regent." Could Lord Somers, or Algernon Syd
ney himself, devoted as he was to a repubUc,
have more admirably defined our constitution ?
There were other passages in Lord Lansdown's
speech of great beauty and sublimity. " The peo
ple, my lords," said the marquis, " have rights.
Kings and princes have none. The people want
neither charters nor precedents to prove their
rights ; for they are born with every man in
every country, and exist in aU countries alike,
though in some they may have been lost. — I
wish, therefore, that the question of right to ex
ercise the royal authority, which has been claimed
and asserted, may be decided ; in order that those
who suffer oppression under governments the
most despotic may be taught their rights as men.
They will then learn that though their rights are
not, Uke ours, secured by precedents and charters,
yet, as soon as they assert their rights, they must
be acknowledged." Neither Hampden nor Locke
could have reclaimed for their countrymen, and
for mankind, the blessing of civil liberty, as their
birthright, in language of greater energy, than do
these expressions of Lord Lansdown. His men
tion of the Prince of Wales, and the encomiums
that accompanied it, were, however, regarded as
susceptible of a more doubtful interpretation.
" Let us suppose," continued the marquis, " that
the present heir-apparent, instead of residing at
Windsor, and exhibiting a model of affection

REGENCY. — LANSDOWN.— THURLOW. 243
towards the sovereign ;" instead of doing the ho
nours of the country to foreigners, and raising
the national character for polished manners ;
had been caballing away his time in the capital.
Let us suppose that he had been intriguing with
the army and the navy, cultivating his interests
with foreign courts, or raising money to carry on
his ambitious projects ; thus attempting to enforce
his claim, and to maintain his right, by undue
means. Would not every man in the kingdom
wish, if such had been the conduct of the prince,
that the two houses of parliament should inter
pose, to exclude him from exercising the powers
of regent, and appoint another to fill that office ?"
The chancellor strongly supported Lord Lans
down's arguments, while he bestowed eulogiums
on the prince, which were thought to be more
sincere than those of the marquis. In reply to
Lord Loughborough's assertions of the right
which his royal highness possessed to exercise the
regency, Thurlow demanded, " What means the
term of regent ? Where is it defined ? In what
law book, or in what statute ? I have heard of
protectors, guardians, and lords justices; but I
know not where to look for the office and func
tions of a regent. To what end then address the
prince to take on him a power the limits of
which are not ascertained?" — "No man enter
tains a higher respect than myself," continued he,
" for that iUustrious persoiL I wish as ardently
R 2

244 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
the advancement of his honour and interests, as
those who affect more attachment to him. But I
never will argue that he possesses any inherent
right to the regency ; or that, as heir-apparent,
he can possess such a right. There might even
arise Princes of Wales whose conduct would
justify the two houses in setting them aside
from the regency. It becomes, therefore, expe
dient that we should not abandon the power inhe
rent in us ; nor, under the circumstances in which
we are placed, fail to declare it to be our right."
If the Prince of Wales did not escape some re
flections on the claim set up to the regency, Fox
was treated with still more severity. The Earl of
Abingdon, a nobleman of eccentric character, un
guarded, and who, like myself, was once commit
ted to the King's Bench prison for an act of im
prudence, pointed out the inconsistency of Fox's
conduct in alternately maintaining contradictory
opinions. " These, my lords," exclaimed he, al
luding to the asserted right of the prince to as-
sume the government, " are the doctrines of the
same man who, only a few years ago, meditated
to pluck the crown from the king's head. He
calls himself a whig ; and while he is in the act of
erecting a monumental column to commemorate
the glorious revolution, he is tearing up the very
ground on which reposes that revolution." — " I
assert that the right to model anew, or, if necessary,
to alter the succession, vests solely and exclusively

REGENCY.^HE MARQUIS OF LOTHIAN. 245
in parliament. This, my lords, is revolution doc
trine; this is my doctrine, though I am not a
member of the Whig Club, nor have I subscribed
to the intended^ politico-patriotic obelisk which is to
be raised in Runnymead.''
At a very late hour, when the division took
place, only sixty-six peers supported Lord Raw
don's motion, while ninety-nine negatived the pro
position. The Dukes of York and Cumberland
voted in the minority ; as the Duke of Glocester
would have likewise done, if he had not been pre
vented from attending by severe indisposition.
All the lords of the bedchamber, with the single
exception of the Duke of Queensberry, adhered to
government. Thirteen bishops, including the
Archbishop of Canterbury, were likewise found on
that side ; three members of the episcopal bench
voting with opposition. The Scottish peers ranged
themselves, six with administration, seven on the
other side. Among the latter noblemen, the
Marquis of Lothian attracted severe animadver
sion by joining the prince's party. He command
ed the first regiment of Life Guards, was con
stantly near the king's person, and peculiarly ac
ceptable to him ; though, like Colonel Fitzpa
trick, he was more fitted for that court of which
Dryden says,
"Whitehall the naked Venus first revealed ;
There standing, as at Cyprus in her shrine.
The strumpet was adored with rights divine,"

246 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
than for the correct drawing-room of George the
Third. The Duke of Queensberry's desertion produced,
if possible, a stronger sensation than even Lord
Lothian's; the duke having been a lord of the
bedchamber ever since the king's accession, dur
ing eight-and-twenty years. Two motives led
him to vote with opposition on that night : his
great personal intimacy with and devotion to
the heir-apparent, joined to his conviction that
the sovereign had irrecoverably lost his mind.
The prince and his brother Frederic passed much
of their time with the duke, at his residence in
Piccadilly, principally at table ; where plentiful
draughts of champagne went round to the suc
cess of the approaching regency. Dr. Warren
confirmed the duke's wavering faith in the hope
less condition of the king. Not many weeks
subsequent to his majesty's seizure, before the
close of November, the duke, desirous of forming
his opinion, if possible, on solid grounds, drove
to Windsor. His enquiries were solely directed
to ascertain the probabUity of the king's recovery.
The person to whom he particularly applied, an
intimate friend of mine, gave him such strong
reasons for believing it neither improbable nor
remote, that he would have acquiesced in them.
But Warren entering the apartment, and being
informed of the object of the duke's visit, led
him to a window, where they held a long con-

GEORGE in. — PITT. — WILLIS. — WARREN. 247
versation in a subdued tone of voice. The result
was, that the duke, fully persuaded of the despe
rate nature of the malady, determined to join and
to vote with the Prince.
27th — 31*^ December. — The year now drew to
its termination. Pitt, sustained by large majori
ties on two divisions in the house of commons,
and on one division in the house of peers, already
prepared to lay before the Prince of Wales the
conditions on which the king's confidential ser
vants intended to propose to parliament, that he
should be invited and empowered to exercise the
royal authority during his majesty's illness. No
apparent amelioration had as yet taken place in
the disorder with which he was afflicted; but
WUlis's long experience and attentive observa
tion enabled him confidently to hold out expec
tations to the queen and to the ministers, that
a complete restoration of his mind would ensue
at no remote period. Warren as positively maiur
tained the contrary opinion. The former physi
cian obtained most credence at St. James's and at
Kew ; the latter, at Carlton and at Devonshire
Houses. If the first was believed by the club at
Whitens, the second was trusted at Brookes's.
The house of commons attempted to meet on the
29th of the month, and Cornwall, the Speaker,
though much indisposed, attended ; but the num
ber of members necessary for placing him in the
chair not having arrived at four, no business

248 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1788.
could be transacted. On the subsequent day,
illness incapacitated the Speaker from appearing,
and he never again entered within those walls.
His death took place early in 1789_; an event
which added to the embarrassments of parlia
ment and of the nation. The season was ren
dered more melancholy by the severity of the
weather, which during successive weeks buried
-the capital in snow. Under these gloomy physi
cal and political circumstances terminated the year
1788.

LORD GRANTLEY. 249

1789.
1st January. -The first event which arrested
attention at the commencement of the new year,
was the death of Lord Grantley. He had occupied
a conspicuous place under the reign of George
the Third, and was considerably advanced beyond
seventy at the time of his decease. After passing
successively through the posts of solicitor and of
attorney-general. Sir Fletcher Norton was placed
in the Speaker's chair of the house of commons,
by Lord North, early in 1770, on the demise of
Sir John Cust ; whose portrait, as drawn by
Wilkes, conveys the meanest idea of his ability to
fill the office. By the same minister, Norton was
displaced in 1780 ; and I formed one of the majo
rity on the occasion. Yet, though thus deprived,
after ten years' service, of an employment which
usuaUy or invariably conducts among us to the
peerage, he had the good fortune to enter the
upper house within eighteen months subsequent
to his exclusion from the chair : — a circumstance
for which he was however more indebted to Lord
Shelburne, than to the Marquis of Rockingham.
The last-mentioned nobleman, who only surviv
ed about twelve weeks Sir Fletcher's elevation,
would never have compelled the king to confer
on him that dignity, if his majesty, at the Earl of

250 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
Shelburne's soUcitation, had not created Dunning
a peer. Lord Grantley was a bold, able, and elo
quent, but not a popular pleader. Junius treats
him with great severity. " This," says he, " is the
very lawyer described by Ben Jonson," who
" Gives forked council ; takes provoking gold
On either hand, and puts it up.
So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue,
And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
Lye still, without a fee."
Acting constantly with opposition, he would have
formed one of the minority in the house of peers
on the division of the 26th of December, if he
had not been prevented by illness. Cornwall, his
successor in the Speaker's chair, followed him on
the ensuing day, only surviving him about twen
ty-four hours ; thus presenting to the metropolis
the singular spectacle of two successive Speakers
of the house of commons dying on two successive
days. Under George the First, in 1720, London
had witnessed two secretaries of state. Lord Stan
hope and Mr. Craggs, lying dead at the same
time. As Lord Grantley held the office of chief
justice in eyre south of Trent, so Cornwall was
possessed of the same office north of Trent. Both
these lucrative sinecures were bestowed by Pitt,
some months afterwards ; the former on his bro
ther's father-in-law. Lord Sydney ; while with the
other he gratified his friend John Charles ViUiers.

CORNWALL, — W, GRENVILLE. — SIR G. ELLIOT. 251
2nd — 5th January. — Never was any man in
public situation less regretted, or sooner forgot
ten, than Cornwall ! His death being notified on
the same day, by Hatsell, the first clerk, to a large
assemblage of members who crowded down to the
house as soon as the intelligence of the Speaker's
decease was announced ; Rose, acting as minister
in Pitt's absence, moved and carried an immedi
ate adjournment. On the ensuing Monday, being
the 5th of the month, the Earl of Euston, Pitt's
coUeague for the University of Cambridge, pro
posed Mr. WiUiam Wyndham Grenville to sup
ply the vacant chair. Pulteney seconded the mo
tion ; observing, after the customary encomiums
on Mr. Grenville, that " he possessed an hereditary
claim to the favour of the house, as the guardian
of their privUeges ; which he had contributed to
fortify by his judicious alteration of his father's
bUl ;" the Grenville Act for trying contested elec
tions. On the other side, Sir Gilbert Elliot was
started against the ministerial candidate. Neither
the chancellor of the exchequer, nor Fox, took
any part in the debate, which was short, and con
ducted on both sides with great moderation ; but
I believe not a word of regret, or even of approba
tion, was expressed for the character and services
of the deceased Speaker, from any part of the
house. In truth, he little deserved such recogni
tions of his official merit. The division formed a

252 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
test of the respective strength of the two parties.
Grenville carried it by a majority of seventy-one,
only 359 members voting, so that near two hun
dred were absent. The new Speaker was probably
the youngest man who had attained since the
reign of Edward the Third to so honourable an
eminence, having scarcely accomplished his twen
ty-ninth year. This proof of ministerial influ
ence being exhibited, the chanceUor ofthe exche
quer announced that on the following day he
should open to the house the restrictions which
he intended to propose as necessary to be annexed
to the office of regent.
I have already stated, that Pitt having estab
lished, by the votes of both houses, the principle
of the right inherent in them to confer the regen
cy, in contradiction to Fox's and Lord Loughbo
rough's assertion of the Prince of Wales's right to
assume the regency, was now about to address his
royal highness on the subject. He fulfilled that
intention a very short time before the close of the
year 1788. His letter was brief, if we consider
the important nature of its contents ; but free
from all ambiguity, and respectful, without any
mixture of unbecoming submission. It enume
rated the leading restraints proposed to be laid on
the future regent: — restraints unquestionably
severe, if they had been calculated for duration ;
but Pitt expressly added, that " they were formed

THE PRINCE OF WALES. — GEORGE III. 253
on the supposition that his majesty's illness would
be only temporary." The prince, if he had chosen
to adopt for his guidance the same assumption ;
and if, acting in conformity to it, he would only
have allowed the existing government to remain
untouched till it could be ascertained whether
Warren or Willis was best founded in his conjec
tures ; might have avoided all collision with the
administration. Three or four months would
have sufficed to make the experiment. A patriot
heir-apparent would have so acted. Patriot ad
visers would have so counselled him. Or, if those
words have no prototypes, — if patriot kings and
ministers never existed except in the writings of
Lord Bolingbroke ; yet, wise, decorous, judicious
counsellors would not have consented to take
office till the lapse of a few weeks had enabled
them to form some solid opinion respecting the
continuance, or the cessation, of the king's malady.
The gratitude and the approbation of the country
would have repaid them for their delay in taking
possession of power. Nay more, as soon as parlia
ment and the nation had been convinced that no
reasonable prospect presented itself of the full re
storation of the royal faculties, they would have
forced ministers to confer the prerogatives ofthe
sovereign on his representative, without limita
tions. It was the belief, or at least it was the
hope and wish generally cherished, of the king's

254 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
speedy recovery, that justified the chanceUor of
the exchequer in laying down restrictions, and
enabled him to carry them in parliament.
The prince's answer to Pitt's letter was long,
when compared with that of the minister. Con
cealed resentment, or rather, half-suppressed indig
nation, pervaded every line. Its composition was
attributed to Fox, approved by Lord Loughbo
rough, and if considered merely as a production
of the pen, might merit praise. But, instead of
accepting cheerfully the limited powers offered by
ministers, and acquiescing in their supposition
that a few weeks or months would replace his
father in the exercise of his functions, the prince
saw only " the weakness, disorder, and insecurity,
that would pervade every branch of the adminis
tration." He beheld the sovereign consigned
to a perpetual strait waistcoat, while Pitt confi
dently anticipated his resumption of the sceptre.
He complained that "a plan should be offered
to his consideration, by which govemment must
be rendered difficult, if not impracticable, in his
hands." He stigmatized it as " a project for di
viding the royal family from each other." He
denominated it " a scheme for disconnecting the
authority to command service, from the power of
animating it by reward ; and for allotting to
him all the invidious duties of government, with
out the means of softening them to the pubUc by
any one act of grace, favour, or benignity."

THE PRINCE OF WALES. — FOX. — BURKE. 255
Yet, after thus strongly censuring, and almost
criminating the fabricators of such a proposition,
he finally consented to accept " the painful trust
imposed on him," from considerations of a public
nature. His letter was dated from Carlton
House, on the 2nd of January. It may perhaps
excite surprize that Fox should not himself have
advised the prince to retain Pitt and the other
ministers in office for two or three months, rather
than seize on a government thus curtailed, the
tenure of which was so precarious. But ambi
tion, sharpened and impelled by poverty, could
not Usten to reason. Fox was already forty:
Burke verged towards sixty. Neither the one,
nor the other, possessed the means of comfortable
independent subsistence. If once installed in
office, they trusted to events, and to their own
ability, for prolonging the duration of their power.
Nor is it possible to assert 'that, putting public
opinion out of the question, they reasoned on fal
lacious grounds. If the prince had been declared
regent, and proceeded to exercise his authority,
who can pretend to say what events might have
taken place ? It opens a wide field of specula
tion, on which I do not think proper to enter, for
many reasons.
Qth January. — Meanwhile, the state of the king
became a subject of the most anxious contempla
tion. He had aheady remained during a period

256 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789,
of nearly ten weeks wholly deprived of reason,
subjected at times to the most coercive treatment
which it is necessary to use towards individuals
in his calamitous situation. Many persons, even
among those who most ardently desired his reco
very, yet began to consider it as very doubtful.
Every additional day seemed to diminish its pro
bability ; and the operation of that fact on the
members of both houses who had hitherto sup
ported administration, might be most injuriously
felt, unless some favourable symptoms speedily
manifested themselves, Willis, who displayed
great professional skill in his treatment of the
royal patient, invariably and confidently predict
ed the complete restoration of his intellect. But
these assurances made little impression on the
public mind. In every demand compatible with
propriety, Willis indulged him. During one of
his tranquil intervals, about this time, the king
desired that a volume of Shakspeare's plays might
be brought to him, Willis ordered it to be put
into his hands, without previously adverting to
the contents. It contained, among other tragedies,
" King Lear." His insanity too, Uke that of Lear,
exhibited all the characteristics of royal lunacy.
He stUl felt and expressed himself as a sovereign,
retaining a perfect consciousness of who he was,
even amidst his privation of all intelligence. On
or about the last day of December 1788, some

DR. WILLIS. — MR. LOVEDEN. 25^7
circumstances occurred in his malady, which,
though unobserved by the other medical attend
ants, or not considered as forming grounds of
hope, yet emboldened Willis to communicate
them to the chancellor, with the gratifying assur
ance that he regarded them in a most favourable
point of view. He added at the same time, that
he did not expect the recovery to be near at hand.
The information thus given, Lord Thurlow men
tioned on the following day, when addressing the
Duke of Norfolk in the house of peers, without
however expressly naming Dr. Willis as his au
thority. Nevertheless, such an allusion, coming
from so high a quarter, did not fail to produce a
corresponding sensation throughout the metropo
lis, and operated as a support to ministers.
In order to counteract that impression, the
leaders of opposition determined, if possible, to set
on foot a new examination of the physicians ;
hoping that the result would tend to invalidate,
if not wholly to overturn, Willis's prognostics.
But, as a motion for the purpose would come with
more effect from a country gentleman of inde
pendent character and fortune than from Fox or
Sheridan, Mr. Loveden undertook to bring it be
fore the house. I knew him well, and I believe
he is still alive at the present time in March 1820,
though far advanced in life. He represented the
borough of Abingdon in the county of Berks, near
VOL. III. s

258 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
which place he possessed a fine landed property.
His figure, manners, and address, all bespoke a sub
stantial yeoman, rather than a person of education
and condition: but he did not want plain common
sense, nor language in which to cloathe his ideas.
He, such as I have described him, starting up
unexpectedly, as the chancellor of the exchequer
was preparing to open, in a most crowded house,
the nature of the restrictions intended to be an
nexed to the regency, drew attention from the
singularity of his interposition at such a moment :
for I believe he had never, or scarcely ever, be
fore risen to speak in that assembly. Com
mencing by a declaration that he was
" NuUius addictus jurare in verba magistri,"
though he had voted with the minority on one,
and, I believe, on both the divisions ofthe 16th
and of the 22nd of December ; he proceeded to
observe, that before the terms on which the re
gency should be conferred became matter of dis
cussion, it imported to know accurately the pre
sent state of his majesty's health. A month having
elapsed since the last report of the physicians, the
house ought to be informed whether subsequently
the probability of a recovery had encreased or
diminished, as rumours of a contradictory nature
were circulated. Limitations of the regent's
power might, he added, be proper to a certain
extent, if the suspension of the royal authority

GEORGE III. — PITT. — FOX. — BURKE. 359
should prove merely temporary ; but such a pro
position would be very differently received, if
little expectation existed of his majesty's restora
tion to reason. Finally, he moved to re-examine
the physicians, for the purpose of ascertaining
whether " the present symptoms afforded ground
to hope for the king's speedy recovery."
Pitt, thus taken by surprize, exhibited, as he
always did when pressed on any occasion of mag
nitude or difficulty, that calm, collected, prompt,
sound judgment, which distinguished him from
Fox throughout his political life. He opposed
Loveden's motion as unnecessary ; all the physi
cians concurring in the probability of the king's
recovery ; and expressed his great anxiety to
restore the government, with as little delay as
possible, to a state of energy and effect. Fox,
while he concurred with the chancellor of the ex
chequer in the concluding sentiment, nevertheless
urged the propriety of re-examining the physi
cians, because four weeks had elapsed without
any alteration whatever in his majesty's health.
The declaration made by Lord Thurlow in the
other house, he censured in strong terms, as un
substantiated by evidence or facts ; and therefore
as only calculated, by holding out fallacious hopes,
to gain votes. Burke did not limit himself to
these reiriarks, but gave the reins to his irritable
temper. Having congratulated the house on the
s 2

260 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
minister's declaration that he wished to restore
energy and effect to the government, Burke ob
served that " those expressions ought to be real
ized ; not to set up a maimed, crippled, and im
potent mockery of government." Then diverging
to the state of the sovereign's malady, he pro
ceeded to read from the examination of one of
the physicians, who had been examined before the
committee of the house of peers, some answers
which were unfavourable to the expectation of
his majesty's recovery. Perceiving that the cita
tions thus made excited marks of disapprobation
from the ministerial benches, he burst into one
of those transports of classic rage in which he
frequently indulged, " It is," exclaimed he, " the
duty of those who sit opposite, to pay due atten
tion to the opinions delivered respecting the king's
state, before they cut and carve the government
as they would a carrion carcase for hounds, in
stead of immolating it as a sacrifice to the gods !"
George Vansittart, member for the county of
Berks, (whose seat of Bisham Abbey lay in
the vicinity of Windsor ; who had always re
ceived distinguishing marks of royal regard, and
whose sister had performed no ordinary part in
the household of the late Princess Dowager of
Wales ;) — this gentleman asking across the floor to
be informed of the physician's name whose opinion
Burke had read, he answered that it was the exami-

DR, WARREN. — BURKE. — LORD NORTH. — PITT, 261
nation of Dr. Warren. A loud cry arising among
the friends of administration at the mention of a
person regarded as so partial to the heir-apparent,
Burke renewed ia second time his exclamations.
" Were their projects so soon ripe," he demanded,
" that they ventured already to disclose their sen
timents; meaning to construct a miserable ma
chine of mutilated government on a foundation
of falsehood, of fraud, and of calumny ? Were
they about to rob the first physician in England
of his character?" Lord North, who was pre
sent, and seated near Burke, mindful of his for
mer obligations to Warren, rose likewise, in or
der to do justice to his moral qualities and inte
grity, no less than to his medical skill ; which he
did in terms of high encomium. On the other
hand, Pitt proved from Warren's own admission
while on his examination, that however recogniz
ed might be his professional ability, yet, in the
particular disorder under which his majesty suf
fered, his skill was comparatively little, as he
owned that he always thought it necessary to
call in others, to supply his own want of experi
ence in that line of practice. Adverting next to
Burke's violence, Pitt expressed his concern at
the injury which such warmth must produce to
Burke himself, " as it seemed to arise from his enter
taining wishes unlike those felt by the rest of the
house." Finally, he admitted that after the asser-

262 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789,
tions which had been made, and the inferences
which had been drawn, in the progress of the
evenings debate, he found himself reduced to
agree to a further enquiry. He hoped, however,
that it might be terminated in a day or two, and
he should therefore make no opposition to the
appointment of a select committee for the purpose.
Burke now starting up a third time, attacked
Pitt in the most personal manner. " I am neces
sitated," cried he, " to repel a malignant and un
merited imputation. When I fly from enquiry,
then let the minister aim at me his envenomed
shafts." — " If a difference of opinion exists among
his majesty's medical attendants, why is not Dr.
Munro called to give his advice ? The keeper of
one madhouse ought to be set against the keeper
of another, and by their colUsion we shaU arrive
at the truth. Let the keeper of a madhouse with
only thirty patients be opposed to one who has
three hundred under his care ! Thus wiU the
house attain complete inteUigence." Fox express
ed himself with equal animation, but with more
self-command. While he let loose his indigna
tion at the motive attributed by the chanceUor of
the exchequer to Burke, Fox did not the less
cloathe his emotions in measured language. Re
lative to the king, he declared that he had not the
least doubt of the hopelessness of the case. Such
was then indeed, I believe, the general opinion.

GEORGE. III. — SHERIDAN. 263
The debate being terminated, Pitt moved for the
appointment of a committee "to examine anew
the physicians," But Sheridan, not satisfied with
those words, attempting to substitute others of a
more comprehensive import, giving powers to the
committee " to send for persons and papers, as
well as to enquire into the probabiUty of the
king's speedy recovery," a division took place.
Administration, on this trial of strength, fully
sustained, and even exceeded, its former numbers;
carrying the question by a majority of eighty, in
a very full house, where four hundred and sixty-
two members voted.
7th — 13th January. — In consequence of Pitt's
compUance with the object of Loveden's motion,
the deUberations and proceedings of both houses
of parliament became suspended during ten days.
The prince's adherents, in thus supporting a new
enquiry respecting the king's state, hoped to prove
two points ; — first, the augmenting improbability
of his complete recovery ; and next, that the pro
bability of such an event became diminished from
day to day, by the duration of his malady. If
a general impression of these facts could once be
established, they well knew that Pitt's majority
would be sapped at its foundation. That ma
jority, it appeared from the results of three suc
cessive divisions in the house of commons on the
late questions, might be calculated at from sixty

264 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789
to seventy ; above the former but, below the latter
number. Consequently, thirty-five members pass
ing over from the ministerial side, to the other
party, would give his royal highness the com
mand of the assembly. In the upper house, the
administration had indeed been supported, on the
only division which had as yet taken place there, by
by ninety-nine peers, while their opponents could
only reckon sixty -six. But Pitt's superiority of
numbers, on which he could rely, might be estimat
ed under thirty. Fifteen votes therefore withdrawn
from government, and added to the opposition,
might turn the scale. The lords of the bedchamber
alone, eleven oi whom had supported ministers on
the 26th of December, if joined by three or four
bishops, would suffice to overturn all Pitt's ma
chinery. But, on the other hand. Fox and Lord
Loughborough never seemed to recollect that the
operation of time might save, as well as destroy,
the minister. By preferring the claim of the heir-
apparent to assume the regency, they had already
lost almost a month. They now set on foot a new
examination of the physicians, instead of propell
ing the election of a regent. Pitt was thus saved
by his opponents.
Let us suppose that they had adopted opposite
principles, had avoided every possible subject of
contest or delay, simply accepting the regency as
the donation of the two houses ; and however

DUCHESS OF GORDO^T.

^7i^niA'ed^ hy W. Read-, ^om,' «- favituz^ ~by S^ Jo^H^ R^/w2ds

Londou PalDlisked.'bj'fficliard.Eeii'dey .1836.

THE REGENCY. 265
they might condemn or lament the restrictions
imposed on the prince, yet had advised him cheer
fully to submit to them, making ministers respon
sible for any inefficie'ncy of the new government.
If Fox had so acted, he would have speedily
placed the heir-apparent in the regent's chair,
invested with the insignia of royal power. A
new administration would have been formed on
the basis of the coalition of 1783, with some vari
ations; Lord Stormont succeeding Lord North
as secretary for the home department, and the
great seal being virtually entrusted to Wedder
burn, as first commissioner. The newly-installed
regent would have opened the session with the
accustomed forms. Lord Loughborough occupy
ing the woolsack. In the other house. Fox and
Burke would have addressed an audience always
favourably disposed towards the individuals speak
ing from the treasury bench : while Pitt and
Dundas, removed to another quarter of the as
sembly, must have experienced the chilling in
fluence of departed power. Ireland would have
been placed under the absolute dominion of the
new government. Such must have been the cir
cumstances under which the royal Epimenides
would have awoke in February. Might not the
very consciousness of his son's being actually
regent, and the information that his first act of
authority was to displace the ministers, have

266 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
tended to plunge thp king's mind into new dis
order? Is it quite certain that, after having
been declared a lunatic by both houses of parUa-
liament, — a fact which must have been commu
nicated to every European sovereign, by the Bri
tish envoys at their respective courts, — George
the Third would have resumed the functions of
government? I know that he said to a nobleman
who enjoyed much of his confidence, — I mean,
the late Lord Walsingham, — who related it to
me : " If a regency had been established, I would
not have come forward to overturn it." And
though I make no question that his repugnance
on that point would have been easUy surmount
ed ; — (for he loved power, and the exercise of it;
— he was no voluptuary, nor votary of letters,
who would have been content with a splendid re
tirement at Windsor, whUe his son governed ;) —
yet, if the Prince of Wales had once occupied his
vacant seat, it might not have been easy to re
store things to their former situation.
While the select committee, to the number of
twenty-one, — where Pitt presided as chairman, and
of which Burke, Sheridan, and other opposition
leaders, were members, — remained in constant ex
amination of the physicians ; the two parties ex
erted their utmost efforts, the one to retain, and
the other to augment, their respective adherents.
Female auxiUaries were caUed into play on both

DUCHESSES OF DEVONSHIRE AND GORDON, 267
sides. The Duchess of Devonshire, whose blan
dishments had so eminently conduced to Fox's
success as representative for Westminster in 1784,
renewed her powerful applications in favour of
the heir-apparent, Pitt and Dundas opposed to
her the Duchess of Gordon. Far inferior to her
rival in feminine graces, in accomplishments of
mind, and in elegance of manners, the last-men
tioned duchess possessed qualities not less useful,
— pertinacity which no obstacles could shake, mas
culine importunity, emancipation from ordinary
forms, — ^propelled by the hope of place, and by
views of interest. Surrounded by five daughters,
three of whom were already marriageable, their
establishment in life occupied all her thoughts.
Inhabiting at the time the splendid mansion be
longing to the Marquis of Buckingham in Pall
Mall, she there assembled on evenings a crowd of
the most distinguished persons of both sexes,
composed mostly of those attached to adminis
tration. I was one of the number. She even
acted as a whipper-in of ministers. Confiding in
her rank, her sex, and personal attractions, she
ventured to send for members of parliament ; to
question, to remonstrate, and to use every means
for confirming their adherence to government.
The duke, her husband, who wanted her energy
of character, did not on that account derive less
benefit from her exertions. He received in due

268 MExMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
time the great seal of Scotland as his remunera
tion ; whUe Lord WUUam Gordon, his brother,
vice-admiral of the same kingdom, had long been
made deputy ranger of St. James's and of Hyde
Parks,— one of the most enviable sinecures in the
gift of the crown.
The Prince of Wales and Duke of York, on
the other hand, brought into action more soUd
and substantial means of seduction than female
charms or solicitations. About this time, dinners
began to be given at Carlton House on the Satur
day and Sunday of every week ; to which enter
tainments, thirty or more members, composed of
both houses, were usually invited, and at which
their royal highnesses presided in person. Wine,
attentions, and promises [were not spared. Go
vernments, regiments, offices, preferments, titles,
held out in prospect, retained the wavering, and
allured the credulous or the discontented. Pri
vate negotiations were likewise set on foot in
order to gain over the supporters of government.
A man of high rank made me propositions of that
nature. But the object which he had in view
extended much beyond my single vote. The no
bleman to whom I allude, the late Earl of Cler
mont, well knew that the Duke of Dorset,' then
our embassador at the court of France, maintain
ed with me a most unreserved correspondence.
Through me, they hoped to rea,ch him, who like-

DUKE OF DORSET. — PITT. — BURKE. 269
wise brought in two members for the borough of
East Grinstead. I consented to lay before the
duke his royal highness's offers, which were of
the most flattering nature, leaving him to ap
preciate them as he might think that they de
served. In his reply to me, he expressed a grate
ful sense of the prince's intentions ; adding, how
ever, at the same time, his determination to take
no political step whatever without his uncle the
Marquis of Stafford's participation and approval.
His answer terminated the negotiation, or rather,
overture. The kingdom at large unquestionably
gave its sanction to ministers. So did the city of
London : but in Westminster, Fox's party predo
minated. Such was the aspect of public affairs
towards the middle of the month of January.
13th January. — At length, after a week of in
cessant labour, Pitt, as chairman of the committee
for re-examining the physicians, appeared at the
bar of the house, holding in his hand the report.
But scarcely had he brought it up, when Burke
moved for its re-commitment, arraigned the con
duct of the committee, and accused them of un
faithfully discharging their duty. "Why," he
exclaimed, " had not the surgeons, apothecaries,
and others, who had attended on his majesty,
been summoned before them to give evidence?
There were, moreover, additional grounds of com
plaint ; consisting in the omission or concealment

270 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
of many circumstances necessary for forming a
just estimate of the king's state, and the probabi
lity of his cure." Against WUlis, Burke directed
the most acrimonious remarks ; averring that, in
his own opinion, and he believed, in the opinion of
other members of the committee, "his majesty's
life was not safe in such hands." He added, how
ever: " I do not mean to impute bad intentions to
any individual. It is of the rashness of those to
whom the care of his royal person is entrusted
that I complain." Pitt treated with some degree
of levity, not to say of ridicule, these charges.
" The house," he said, " would not probably think
the enquiry had been improperly narrowed, when
the bulk of the report laid on the table, consisting
of nearly four hundred folio pages, was duly con
sidered. Every one of the physicians had under
gone the most rigorous, as well as repeated ex
aminations." Relative to the accusation of the
king's life not being safe in such hands, "it
arises," continued Pitt, " from the fact having
been disclosed and avowed, that Dr. Willis had
trusted a razor in his majesty's hand;" an ex
periment which Willis justified by reasons found
ed on his long experience, and knowledge of the
disorder, Windham attempted to sustain Burke ;
but they did not venture to divide on the motion
for re-committing the report. It was therefore
ordered to be printed, the 16th of the month

REGENCY. — PITT. 271
being fixed for taking into consideration the state
of the nation.
16th January. — Never perhaps was greater and
more general expectation excited than when the
chancellor of the exchequer rose for the purpose
of disclosing the conditions on which he proposed
to offer the regency to the Prince of Wales !
And never did that eloquent minister acquit him
self with more consummate ability than on the
evening in question. Blending the details of every
feature of his plan with admirable brevity, Pitt
began by observing, that though the report re
cently laid on the table disclosed a vast mass of
information on the subject of his majesty's dis
order, yet, in his opinion, it afforded little
new matter for deliberation ; and no grounds what
ever for impeaching the propriety and prudence
of those measures which, ten days earlier, he had
been prepared to submit for their consideration.
He followed up this remark by another, applied
personally to Fox, who had argued that the pro
bability of the king's cure was diminished, be
cause a month had elapsed since the fir'st inquiry,
without any perceptible amelioration of his
health : whereas, all the physicians, however di
vided they might be on other points, coincided in
asserting that the ultimate cure rested precisely on
the same foundation as it had done in December.
Then discussing the depositions of the different

272 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
medical attendants, comparing and contrasting
them, he endeavoured to impress a conviction
that, at least in the opinion of two,— namely, Wil
lis and Sir Lucas Pepys, — there was an abatement
of disorder, though as yet no resumption of reason.
Finally, he entered into a defence of the queen,
who had subjected herself to some animadversions,
for having attempted, through the medium of the
diurnal reports, or bulletins, to convey a more
favourable impression of his majesty's condition
than was quite warranted by fact.
Pitt next proceeded to repeat the principles and
bases on which he had already proposed to invest
the heir-apparent with a considerable portion of
the royal authority. Yet, in so doing, he con
jured the house "to provide only for the necessity
of the case, not to exceed it ; and, above all things,
to recollect that they were not placing a king on
the throne, but to bear in mind that the throne
was full," Having reasoned, with great historical
knowledge of the subject, on the immutable dis
tinction between a monarch and a regent, he then
enumerated the four principal restrictions neces
sary, as he conceived, to be imposed on the Prince
of Wales. The first restrained him from granting
peerages, except to his majesty's sons, if they
should previously have attained the age of twenty-
one years. In order to impress the propriety of
this regulation, as drawn from past experience.

REGENCY. — PITT. 273
Pitt did not hesitate to urge " the possibility of
such another confederacy and cabal forming in the
state, as had attempted to overthrow the constitu
tion in 1783." " They," continued he, " might offer
advice to the regent of a nature which would pro
bably be rejected by the crown. Such a number
of peers might in consequence be created as must
greatly embarrass the sovereign in carrying on the
government, whenever he shall be restored to
health." It cannot be denied that the danger here
depictured was founded in reason.
To the second restriction, by which the regent
was prevented from bestowing annuities or patent
places /or life ; as well as to the third, which with
held from him all power over the king's personal
property; little or no objection could be urged.
On the fourth and last restraint, by which the care
of his majesty's person was to be consigned to the
queen, Pitt expatiated with more animation ;
" it being," he said, " his intention to put the
whole royal household under that princess's au
thority, investing her with full powers to dismiss,
or to appoint, at her pleasure." Conscious that
such an independent control placed her in a sort of
opposition to her son, and might even lead to col
lision between them, the minister entered into
some justification of its principle. In language of
energy, he depictured the emotions which must
painfully rend the bosom of the king, when
VOL. in. T

274 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
" waking from his trance of reason, and asking for
his usual attendants, if he should be told that his
subjects, taking advantage of his temporary pri
vation of intellect, had dismissed and changed
them." Having thus enumerated the restraints which
he was desirous of imposing on the future regent,
Pitt candidly admitted that a retinue adequate to
his high station ought to be provided for him by
parliament. Before the minister concluded, he
stated likewise his intention of proposing a council
for her majesty, to the members of which body
she might have recourse in cases of difficulty ;
limited, however, to the power of merely offering
her their advice. Neither Fox nor Burke rose to
answer him. They well knew how much more
forcibly the house would be affected by the ap
peal of a county member, who united inde
pendence of mind to distinguished talents, than
by any display of oratory or eloquence. Powis
combined in himself all those qualities. Almost
every feature of the proposed plan he held up to
condemnation, as " a monstrous fabric, calculated
to mutilate and dismember the constitutional pre
rogatives entrusted to the crown. — Gracious Hea
ven !" exclaimed Powis, " is it necessary that the
government should be entirely new-modelled?
Are the regal rights inherent in the person of his
majesty ? Or, are they not annexed to the kingly

REGENCY. — POWIS. — LORD NORTH. — SHERIDAN. 275
office ? Has the heir-apparent acted unbecomingly
during his father's illness ? Has he attempted by
cabal or intrigues to wrest from the king his
sceptre ? Has he been guilty of the crime of trea
son ? " " It is asserted that he may have bad ad
visers. May not the queen too have bad advisers ?
The country will regard their conduct with pecu
liar jealousy." " I consider these resolutions," pur
sued he, " as likely to excite animosities, not only
throughout the kingdom, but in the royal family,
and to arm the mother against her son. I regard
them as equally subversive of the constitution
with the East India Bill of 1783 ; and as I cannot
consent to parcel out the prerogatives of the Bri
tish crown at the pleasure of an individual, I will
move an amendment."
Lord North and Sheridan both attacked the
minister ; the former, with the arms of reason,
exemplified and illustrated by appeals to history.
Sheridan called in as auxiliaries not only his cha
racteristic weapons of wit and ridicule, but he pre
ferred personal accusations against Pitt. Lord
North depictured with force the calamities that
would infallibly arise from a violation of the con
stitution. Sheridan charged the chancellor of the
exchequer with duplicity, arrogance, and ca
lumny ; repeUing with scorn all the imputations
which he had thrown on the coalition administration.
After holding up Dr. Willis to universal reproba-
T 2

276 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
tion, as an empiric, if not as an impostor, on ac
count of the favourable symptoms which he pre
tended to have discovered in the king's malady ;
(every one of which became verified within a few
weeks ;) Sheridan directed his next observations
to a higher quarter. The manner in which the
queen had been mentioned appeared to be, he
said, the result of premeditated design to provoke
a discussion respecting her majesty's conduct.
Those persons only who wished to give her re
sponsibUity by taking her out of that domestic
station in which she had acted so irreproachably,
manifested a want of delicacy towards her. " The
true motive," continued Sheridan, " of the minis
ter's line of policy, is his belief that the regent
will change the administration, and will place it
in the hands of those who, as he dares to assert,
have been convicted of a confederacy to overturn
the constitution. Yet with them, after they had
completed their coalition, he had professed his
readiness to form a junction." Towards the con
clusion, he drew an animated picture, or rather,
caricature of the e.r-minister, as he designated Pitt,
coming down in state, under the future regency,
to the house, preceded by the lord steward, the
lord chamberlain, and the master of the horse,
clearing his way through the lobby, — with the
cap of liberty borne before him on the end of a
white staff.

REGENCY. — FULLARTON. 277
FuUarton, strongly attached to the heir-appa
rent, and equally averse to Pitt, attempted to
draw a parallel between the reign of Charles the
Sixth, king of France, and that of George the
Third. Both sovereigns had been rendered in
capable of conducting public affairs by a priva
tion of intellect. FuUarton endeavoured to shew
that Isabella of Bavaria, queen of France, and
her confidential minister, MorvilUers, — the former
one of the most vicious as well as unnatural
princesses commemorated in history ; the latter,
an ambitious and unprincipled politician, — were
realized and resuscitated before their eyes. He
depictured the queen of Charles the Sixth as " a
woman attached only to her treasures, influenced
by the chancellor, the prime minister, and other
principal officers of the court ; who apprehended
that if the government should be entrusted to the
heir-apparent during the king's incapacity, they
would lose their employments." MorvilUers was
described by FuUarton as " commencing his ca
reer in the profession of the law, but speedily
opening for himself a nearer road to greatness
by the more productive path of politics." Final
ly, he pourtrayed the prince, afterwards Charles
the Seventh of France ; " who possessed," he said,
" not only the most interesting qualities and the
most fascinating manners, but who had attached
to his cause the noblest spirits and the best abili-

278 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
ties of his country." Some striking points of
similarity unquestionably existed between the
two periods of time, as weU as a faint resem
blance in the leading personages of each country,
sufficient at least to furnish matter for parlia
mentary declamation,
A division took place on Powis's amendment to
Pitt's ^r*^ resolution, which proposed to confer
the regency on the heir-apparent, "subject to such
limitations as should be provided;" Powis's ob
ject being to emancipate him in great measure
from those restraints. Government carried the
question by seventy-three votes. Fox, who suffer
ed at the time under severe indisposition, which
soon compelled him to discontinue his personal
attendance, took no active part throughout the
whole discussion. But when, after its decision,
the chancellor of the exchequer moved the next
resolution, which precluded the future regent from
creating peers. Fox endeavoured to limit the du
ration oi the restriction. A second division en
sued, which administration again carried, though
with reduced numbers. The opposition rose from
154 to 159 ; while govemment feU from 227 to
216, leaving a majority of only fifty-seven. I
voted, with ministers throughout every stage, and
on every question, of this great conffict. Pitt's
two subsequent resolutions, — the first of which re
garded annuities or patent places for life, and the

REGENCY. — PITT. — DUNDAS. — SCOTT. 279
latter withheld from the regent any power over
his father's personal property, — were not con
tested. The house then adjourned, each side an
ticipating with anxiety the next proposition which
would be agitated ; namely, that of committing
the king's person to her majesty's care, and at the
same time putting the whole royal household
under her control. Fox postponed his departure
for Bath until the event should be ascertained.
19th January. — When the house met, Pitt im
mediately opened his proposition relative to the
queen. On the propriety of committing to her
care the person of his majesty, the minister said
that he would not anticipate an objection, because
he did not believe a difference of opinion to be
possible on the subject. But he argued at con-
sidei'able length the sound policy, propriety, and
other motives combining to allot the direction
of the royal household to the same hand. Pitt
was powerfully supported on that night from
various quarters. By Dundas, who, for the first
time since the commencement of the session, took
part in the debate ; and who not only defended
with his characteristic boldness the measure un
der deliberation, but accused the opposite party
of bringing forward such dangerous doctrines as
rendered it necessary to counteract them, thus
occasioning all the delay that had intervened.
By Scott, the solicitor-general, whose conspicuous

280 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
parliamentary, as well as professional talents, al
ready opened to him a prospect of attaining the
highest dignities of the law. Perhaps, neverthe
less, ministers derived more efficient service from
Pulteney. His figure and dress, which always
brought before my imagination Pope's Sir John
Cutler,— his whole wardrobe being threadbare, —
did not detract from the vigour of his under
standing, nor from the perspicuity of his argu
ments. Throwing the whole force of his reason into
the ministerial scale, he treated with contempt
the supposition, either that the actual administra
tion would factiously oppose the prince's minis
ters ; or that these latter, if they conducted them
selves well, could possibly fail of receiving general
support. " What !" observed Pulteney, " Cftnnot
they govern without having the nomination of
every butcher and baker belonging to the royal
household ! If they act uprightly, they will stand
in need of no such patronage. Even if a faction
should arise, a dissolution of parliament is a re
medy to which they can always have recourse.
I was not present when the right of the two
houses to provide for the deficiency of the execu
tive authority, and to name a regent, became
matter of debate. But on such an occasion I
would have given my hearty vote in its support ;
and I shall now vote as heartily in favour of

REGENCY.— PULTENEY. — FOX. — SCOTT. 281
the restrictions. Never will I admit the proba
bility of a cabal being formed in the house of
peers hostile to the regent's ministers. If, in
deed, another measure as unconstitutional as the
memorable East India Bill should be again intro
duced, I readily allow that the bedchamber lords
may form a powerful obstacle to its progress."
Fox did not rise till a very late hour ; and as his
design of quitting the scene of politics for a short
time, in order to recover sufficient health for un
dertaking the charge of the foreign department,
was well known, he drew more than ordinary at
tention. Addressing himself first to Scott, the
solicitor-general, whom Fox accused of " endea
vouring to entangle the understanding of his
hearers in the sophistries of legal metaphysics,"
he successively adverted to the arguments of
Dundas and of Pulteney. Conscious that the
present occasion would be the last in which he
should personally take any part before the de
cision of the regency question, he seemed to put
out all his intellectual strength,
Scott having laid down as an incontrovertible
proposition, that "the king's political character
was in the eye of the law inseparable from his
personal, and so would continue until his demise,"
Fox turned against this doctrine all the artillery
of reason and of ridicule. " I consider such a
tenet," said he, " as fitted only for ages of igno-

282 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
ranee, when human institutions were deified, and
declared to be of divine origin. That a sense
of duty, loyalty, and affection wUl animate the
breast of every EngUshman, and wUl lead him
to protect his majesty's sacred person, however
long his malady may prove, is unquestionable.
But, when this is stated to be the definition of
allegiance, I enter against it my protest. Alle
giance is a reciprocal duty, arising in the heart,
emanating from the mind, as a consequence of
receiving protection ; and it is only of equal
existence. If the definition of aUegiance given
from the treasury bench was well founded, whe
ther the king's malady should continue for one
year, or for thirty, the legislature could never
vest the full powers of the crown in any other
hands while the person of the sovereign remained
on earth. That such is the latent design of mi
nisters I have no doubt, though at present they
may think it prudent to conceal their intention."
Having depictured the hardship of precluding
the regent from the prerogative of creating peers,
while it was intended to place the household
under the queen's exclusive control; "To all
this series of paradoxes," exclaimed he, " there
can be only one solution. Ministers wish to
insinuate the scandalous idea, that a division may
take place between the mother and the son. I
cannot utter in language of adequate indignation

REGENCY. — FOX. — PITT. 283
my abhorrence of such a plan. Yet I confess
that the machination is artfully laid for accom
plishing the intended purpose. I trust, however,
that it will be prevented." — " It has been asked,"
continued Fox, " what would be the consequence
of the queen's demise? If the prince regent
should die, the mode of proceeding would be
easy and simple. The next prince in succession,
the Duke of York, if alive, or Prince William
Henry, would be appointed to the office. But,
if the queen should die, in whose hands would
they entrust the custody of the king ? In those
of the Duke of York ? Would ministers endea
vour to divide the royal brothers ? The attempt,
I beUeve, they will find as difficult as to remove
the planets from their orbits !" We have lived to
see this supposititious case realized, thirty years
after it was stated in parliament.
Fox concluded his speech, many parts of which
were unanswerable, by putting two questions to
the minister. First, if the custody of the royal
household was to be given to the queen, when was
the provision intended for the regent to be set
tled, and what was to be its extent? Secondly,
if the intended restrictions were to have a limited
duration, what period of time should he consider
as proper for their continuance? To these en
quiries the chancellor of the exchequer answered,
that it was difficult to fix any precise term for the

284 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
duration of the restrictions. " Should however,"
continued he, " contrary to my sanguine expecta
tion and belief, the king's recovery, after some time,
be protracted, and should it be pronounced by his
medical attendants, unlikely to take place soon;
my opinion would be to withdraw altogether the
restrictions, including the prerogative of creating
peers. The establishment of the royal household
may likewise then be revised and new-modelled."
A more undefined and vague reply probably
never proceeded from ministerial lips. Desirous
nevertheless to give some satisfaction on another
very interesting point, Pitt added, "Whenever the
act of the two houses shall have passed constitut
ing his royal highness regent, a proper retinue
ought to be immediately provided for supporting
his station with becoming splendour. Of what
precise extent the provision should be, I have not
yet fully determined. The declaration ma^e on
the prince's part, expressive of his reluctance to
encrease the national burthens, is most magnani
mous. But no dread of unpopularity shall deter
me from proposing a new establishment, suitable
to the illustrious rank and character of the regent.
/ know not whether I shall be left to propose this
matter, or whether it may not devolve to other hands.
In either case, in or out of office, I am ready to stand
up in my place, and to lay the additional expence
where it ought to fall, on the public purse of the
country."

REGENCY.— PITT. — SHERIDAN. 285
By this guarded disclosure of his intentions,
without naming any particular time for carrying
them into execution, Pitt stUl kept his opponents
in ignorance of his ultimate plans. If he had pos
sessed a prescience of the king's speedy recovery,
he could not have taken his measures with more
consummate ability. Irritated at the obscurity of
the minister's replies, Sheridan reminded him that
he had given no answer whatever as to the intend
ed duration of the restrictions, while he had to
tally omitted to explain the nature and constitu
tion of the council which was to be provided for
the queen. Thus pressed, he somewhat reluc
tantly owned that it was impossible for him to
state any fixed period ior taking off the restrictions ;
but he added, "Parliament will always possess
the power of removing them." To the other ob
ject of Sheridan's enquiry, he gave a much more
explicit reply. " It would only be a council of
advice, and in no degree of control. The great
officers of state, with some dignified prelates, were
intended to compose it." After a debate of full
twelve hours, a division at length took place on
the question of giving to her majesty the power
of removing, and of appointing, at her pleasure,
the officers of the king's household. One hun
dred and sixty-five votes negatived the proposi
tion. The minister was supported by two hun
dred and twenty-nine ; leaving him a majority of

286 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
sixty-four. But Lord North immediately after
wards moving to add the words, "for a limited
time," the house divided again ; when Pitt's fol
lowers fell to 220, whUe the opposite side lost one
vote, being 164. Consequently government car
ried the point only hy fifty-six.
The debate was now terminated, when Pulteney
offered a clause for limiting both the duration of
the proposed restrictions, and of the powers to be
conferred on the regent by parliament. But Pitt,
who while he affected to propel the decisions of
the house, nevertheless proceeded with measured
steps, like a man desirous, as far as he was able,
of allowing time its full operation; though he
professed his general coincidence of sentiment
with Pulteney, and a readiness to adopt the pro
position itself, yet dextrously evaded its immedi
ate acceptance. Fox contented himself with ob
serving, that such repeated elections of the chief
magistrate, however he might be denominated
regent, in fact changed the constitution from a
limited monarchy to a republic. The various reso
lutions successively moved by Pitt being finally
passed, were ordered to be communicated to the
lords, at a conference between the managers of the
two houses, on the following day. To that assem
bly, all eyes were directed ; and the commons, in
order to allow time for their deliberations, sus
pended their own, by an adjournment of a week.

REGENCY.— LORD CAMDEN. — BISHOP WATSON. 287
Fox, extenuated by exertions, and enfeebled by
a complaint the seat of which lay in the liver,
after vainly contesting against administration, set
out for Bath ; Burke and Sheridan remaining at
their posts, to dispute the ground with Pitt.
20th — 26th January. — Two debates, each mark
ed by circumstances of much personal asperity,
took place in the upper house, on the 22nd and
23rd of January. The former was opened by
Lord Camden, then in the seventy-fourth year of
his age; who, after the first resolution sent up
from the commons had been read, observed, that
"his advanced period of life furnishing the
strongest reason for his retirement from public
business, he trusted the present act would form
the last effort of his political existence." Through
out his whole speech he displayed all his charac
teristic intellectual superiority, though the great
energies of character which had distinguished him
during the early part of George the Third's reign,
in the cause of freedom, appeared to be sinking
under the pressure of time. Not so the chancellor ;
who, as if he designed to atone for his meditated
defection at an early stage of the king's malady,
unfolded all the powers of his capacious and vigor
ous intellect. But the most conspicuous exhibition
of parliamentary eloquence made on that night,
was by Watson, bishop of Llandaff; a prelate of
no ordinary ability or ambition, who has left us

288 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
memoirs of his own life. His speech, which
occupied nearly two hours in the delivery,
would unquestionably have secured him an Eng
lish mitre of the most solid description, and pro
bably have translated him to Durham, or to Win
chester, if the regency had been consummated,
and its supporters had remained permanently in
possession of power. The king's recovery chained
him down for life to an obscure Welsh diocese.
On the resolution being read which restricted the
regent from the prerogative of creating peers, the
Earl of Sandwich moved to add the words, " for a
time to be limited." A division taking place, the
motion was negatived by a majority of twenty-six
peers ; the respective numbers being 93 to 67.
And the house dividing a second time, on the
main question, ministers carried it by twenty-eight
votes. The discussion was renewed on the subsequent
evening, chiefly relative to the resolution commit
ting to her majesty the custody of the king's
person, accompanied with the control and manage
ment of the royal household. Towards its close,
the chancellor might be said to sustain and to re
pel, almost unassisted, the whole weight of oppo
sition, conducted by Lords Loughborough and
Stormont. Thurlow standing as it were over the
prostrate body of his sovereign, claimed for him
the respect due to his lamentable situation : — " a

REGENCY. — LORD THURLOW. — BURKE. 289
misfortune," he observed, "equal to any which
had ever fallen to the lot of man, since misfortune
was known on earth !" — "I cannot conjecture,"
exclaimed he, " upon what principle it is possible
to place the king in her majesty's hands, without
committing to her the superintendence of the
household; nor how the dignity of a sovereign
can be preserved, unless he retains his attendants.
Let it be remembered that he is not a destitute
individual, friendless or obscure ; but a monarch
to whom his people look up with anxious wishes
that he may speedily re-ascend his throne. Any
other treatment must manifest a total want of
compassion for that royal sufferer, who then
would be " Deserted in his utmost need.
By those his former bounty fed I"
The sensibility which the chancellor displayed
throughout this part of his speech, and which was
not confined to himself, excited Burke's spleen,
who treated it as hypocritical grimace. When
the house of commons met, a few days afterwards,
he compared " the tears shed in another assembly
to the iron tears that ran down Pluto's cheek ;"
protesting at the same time, that " they were not
tears of patriots for dying laws, but of lords for
their expiring places. They were tears for his
majesty's bread."
Lord Stormont, touched at Thurlow's citation,
VOL. III. u

290 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
immediately rose, and observed that however ge
neral might be the application of the words just
quoted, yet he could not avoid considering them
as peculiarly addressed to himself. " I have, in
deed, my lords," continued he, " enjoyed the high
est honours, and passed the greatest part of my
life, in the enjoyment of emoluments, conferred by
his majesty. I come, therefore, under the descrip
tion of those individuals who have largely shared
in the royal bounty. But I trust that I have not
repaid them with ingratitude, I love his majesty,
I love the Prince of Wales ; but I love still more
the constitution. This declaration I now make in
presence of some members of the royal family,
and I shall not hesitate to repeat it before my so
vereign himself, if I am ever restored to his pre
sence," Reverting to the subject under delibe
ration, he reasoned with force, sustained by exam
ples drawn from history, against a system which
might oppose the mother to her son, " Recollect,
my lords," said he, " the instance of Mary of Me-
dicis and Louis the Thirteenth, where an artful
minister set them at variance. In my opinion,
the person who is entrusted with the king's cus
tody ought not to have the control over the house
hold. It is cruel thus to throw her majesty on a
stormy political sea, without a rudder, chart, or
compass." — " Who may be her advisers, I know
not ; but she may have counsellors who may per-

LORDS STORMONT AND LOUGHBOROUGH. 291
suade her, that she cannot render a greater service
to her son, and to the country, than by attempt
ing to rescue him from the pernicious hands in
which he has reposed his confidence. From the
division of power contemplated, I expect to see
the standard of opposition erected in the centre of
the queen's palace," It must be admitted that if
the regency had permanently taken place, these
apprehensions were not altogether destitute of
foundation, nor of probability. Lord Loughbo
rough not only maintained the same propositions,
but declared in terms the most precise, that far from
abandoning his assertion of the Prince of Wales's
right to the regency during his father's incapacity,
he was ready to defend it against the chancellor.
On the division, 96 peers supported ministers,
while only 68 voted with their opponents,
26th and 27th January. — Pitt's numerical supe
riority being now incontestably ascertained by re
peated divisions in both houses, and Fox having
personaUy withdrawn, the contest might in some
measure be considered as terminated. But alter
cation and reproaches survived the struggle for
power. The chancellor of the exchequer inform
ing the house at its meeting, that he should pro
pose to lay the resolutions before the Prince of
Wales, in order to know whether his royal highness
would accept of the regency on those conditions,
Burke started up under violent agitation. Every
u 2

292 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
part of the minister's conduct, he said, was des
potic in the extreme. He had forced the discus
sion on the question of right, merely for purposes
of delay. He had in fact thus addressed the
house : " Slaves, do you presume to hesitate, or
hint a doubt on the point ? I wUl satisfy your
scruples. The question shall he debated and de
cided." Unintimidated by the indecent severity
of these remarks, Pitt did not the less move on the
subsequent evening, " for appointing a committee
to communicate to his royal highness the resolutions
oi the lords and commons ; expressing at the same
time their hopes that he would comply, by taking
on him the office of regent as speedily as an act of
parliament could be passed." This proposition
called out all the leaders from the opposite benches.
Sheridan observed, that the resolutions appeared to
be final and permanent, not as if calculated to
answer a temporary emergency; though upon
that single ground, urged repeatedly by the
minister himself, had they been voted. Another
matter, Sheridan added, which still remained
wholly unexplained, was the degree of state and
attendance intended to be annexed to the office of
regent, as a substitute for that power and patron
age taken from him by the last resolution. He
concluded by moving to add, that " the restrictions
were formed on the supposition that his majesty's
illness was only temporary, and might not prove

REGENCY. — GREY, — BURKE. 293
of long duration." It seemed difficult to suppose
that Pitt could make any objection to insert these
words, they being extracted from his own letter
addressed to the Prince of Wales on the preced
ing 30th of December.
Grey rising next, accused the minister of having
manifested a want of respect towards the heir-
apparent throughout every stage of his inter
course with Carlton House : a charge which Grey
laboured to prove by an enumeration of various
particulars. There seemed, however, to be more
of enmity than of justice in these details; as
they amounted, even if well founded, rather to
breaches of etiquette, or omissions of form, than to
any disrespectful intention. But Burke far ex
ceeded both his friends in violence. The ques
tion, he maintained, was obviously an endeavour
to create unnecessary delay ; as was the whole mi
nisterial system, to convert the constitution into a
repubUc, by the annual election of a regent. " If,"
continued he, " it is intended to erect a republic,
why is it not avowed ? Should I be asked whe
ther I dislike a commonwealth, I would answer.
No. I am however aware that, according to our
frame of government, we cannot speculate on a
republic." Having then eulogized, in language
the most picturesque and classic, the true repub
lican principles as transmitted down to us from
antiquity, which he declared were objects of his

294 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789,
utmost reverence and idolatry, he burst at once
into a paroxysm of rage at " the phantom, the fic
tion of law," as he denominated it, by which Pitt
intended to open the session of parliament. " So
far is it," vociferated he, " from representing faith
fully the forms of our admirable constitution, that
.^it is a mere mummery, a piece of masquerade
buffoonery, formed to burlesque every species of
government ! A hideous spectre, to which, with
Macbeth, when addressing the ghost of Banquo,
we may exclaim,
" ' Avaunt, and quit my sight 1 Let the earth hide thee I
Thy bones are marrowless : thy blood is cold.
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
That thou dost glare with.'
So is it with this ministerial poUtical spectre. Its
bones are marrowless, its blood is cold, and it
has no speculation in its eyes, I reprobate it as
a chimagra, a monster summoned up from the
depths of heU!" This beautiful picture, which
seemed to electrify the house, excited great ad
miration, even on the treasury bench,
Pitt repelled with temperate composure his
numerous and eloquent assaUants, To Sheridan
he replied, that the proposed amendment, though
consisting of words taken out of his own letter to
the Prince of Wales, yet was only a partial selec
tion of them, omitting other words which follow
ed, and formed their explanation. He therefore

REGENCY,— PITT,— SHERIDAN, 295
should object to any such insertion. The delays
wliich had hitherto impeded the progress of the
Regency .Bi//, he demonstrated to have originated,
not with ministers, but with their opponents.
Turning next to Grey, he recapitulated the vari
ous acts, either of omission and neglect, or of
positive disrespect towards the heir-apparent, with
which he stood charged ; justifying himself on
each, as it appeared to me, in a manner the most
satisfactory to any candid mind. " The highest
tribute of respect," continued he, "that I can
offer to every branch of the royal family, is to cul
tivate the interests of the nation which their an
cestors were called to govern ; and to watch over
the safety of tha^ constitution, in the protection
of which the prince himself will be eventually
interested." Having thus answered two of his
opponents, he omitted any reply to Burke ; whose
arguments, though fabricated by genius and illu
minated by fancy, produced no solid impression.
Sheridan stiU persisted in his amendment ; the ob
jection made to which by the chancellor of the
exchequer he endeavoured to obviate by adding
to his motion the remaining words of the sentence
contained in Pitt's letter to the Prince of Wales.
But the question being carried without a divi
sion, for communicating to his royal highness the
resolutions of the two houses, Pitt then moved an
address to the queen. Its object was to ascertain

296 ' MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
whether she would accept the care of his majesty's
person, together with the management and con
trol of the royal household. No opposition was
attempted. 28th— 31st January. — The minister's situation
during the last days of January was nevertheless
peculiarly arduous and critical. From the sum
mit of power, he beheld himself suddenly about
to be precipitated by an event of the most un
expected nature, against which he neither had
taken, nor could take, any measure of precaution.
Three months had already elapsed since the king's
seizure, and no indications of restoration to in
tellect were as yet perceptible. The violence of
the delirium or frenzy had, indeed, greatly abated,
and Willis confidently anticipated his speedy re
sumption of reason. But Warren as confidently
maintained the contrary position. Pitt possessed
no landed estate, no funded property, nor even
life annuity. He had disdained to bestow on
himself the clerkship of the peUs, and it was not
till some years later that he was made lord warden
of the Cinque Ports. His brother. Lord Chat
ham, as necessitous as Pitt, could afford him
no relief. I doubt whether the first lord of the
treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, when
his debts were discharged, possessed a thousand
pounds. Europe might then have witnessed the
extraordinary spectacle of a prime minister not

PITT.— FOX. — DUNDAS. — SIR G. COOPER. 297
yet thirty, who, after distributing nearly forty
British peerages, besides fifteen Irish ; after cre
ating a sinking fund of a million [sterling, hum
bling France, and by the vigour of his councils
extrfcating Holland from subservience to the
house of Bourbon; was reduced to return for
support to the bar, as in antiquity Cincinnatus
went back to the plough. Pitt unquestionably
meditated to resume his original profession. By
what other means, in fact, could he have main
tained his personal independence ? Fox, desti
tute of any such resource, found himself compell
ed to accept the assistance of his friends at a
subsequent period of his life, however painful it
might be to his feelings. Dundas's situation was
scarcely less destitute, in a pecuniary point of
view, than that of Pitt.
Nor were the embarrassments of the minister
by any means merely future and prospective. In
his own cabinet he had to encounter daily impe
diments, or mortifications, arising from the rugged,
intractable temper of the chancellor, who fre
quently would neither advise, dictate, nor com
ply. These internal agitations, which could not al
ways be concealed from the public ear, served to
invigorate opposition. I remember. Sir Grey
Cooper, when alluding, on the 27th of January,
to Pitt's assertion, that " the two houses of par
liament constituted the. only legal organs through

298 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
which the voice of the people could be heard
during the king's indisposition," observed that
" perhaps, by some accident, one of those organs
might be out of tune. Whispers of such a dis
cord had been heard ; and, therefore, tiU that
instrument was again restored to order, and the
great leaders of the band should have settled their
respective parts in the concert, an interlude might
probably be played off to amuse this house."
Burke, in the course of the same evening, spoke
out even more plainly on the subject. " I know
not," said he, " whether the postponement of the
present measure in the other house, which was
intended to have come on last night, arose from
any difference among ministers ; but a little bird,
a small robin-redbreast, has sung that something
of the kind has taken place. The same bird has
whispered in my ear, that certain secret reasons
have suddenly induced the house of peers to shift
the business from their own, to our shoulders.
Perhaps that dignified assembly has not yet re
covered from the effect caused by the burst of
the pathetic lately exhibited. They probably
have not yet dried their eyes, and may be there
fore at present incapable of attending to new
business." Pitt, it is true, denied the truth of these painful
reports. " I can assure the house," said he, " not
withstanding the mysterious insinuations of a

REGENCY. — LORD THURLOW. 299
want of harmony among ministers, that there has
arisen no such difference of opinion." The chan
ceUor did not, however, confirm the declaration
thus made : for on the foUowing evening, the
28th of January, during the debate which arose
in the upper house, relative to the two proposed
addresses to the prince and to the queen, he said,
while replying to Lord Stormont, — " I own that
I could have chalked out a plan which I should
have approved in preference to the line that has
been adopted. But, when I consider that many
other men's opinions must be consulted, the pre
sent measure is perhaps the best that could be
brought forward during the agitation of the mo
ment." He could not more unequivocally avow
the dissensions that prevailed in the ministerial
councUs. MeanwhUe, the peers having concurred
in the resolutions adopted by the commons for ad
dressing the prince and queen ; Earl Camden and
the Marquis of Stafford were ordered to wait on
his royal highness, in order to receive his answer.
Pitt, accompanied by the master of the rolls. Lord
Frederick Campbell, and Sir George Yonge, per
formed, on the part of the commons, the same
function. The heir-apparent received this depu
tation at Carlton House on the 30th of January ;
an anniversary on which, as commemorative of the
decapitation of Charles the First, neither of the
two houses met for the dispatch of public business.

300 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
The imperious necessity of restoring the executive
government superseded, however, every other con
sideration. On the same day the address was car
ried up to her majesty at Kew, by two members
of the upper and four members of the lower
house. 31*/ January. — The prince's answer, of which
Sheridan was considered the composer, manifested
great discontent at the manner of offering him the
regency, and at the conditions annexed to its ex
ercise ; though he added, that " his anxious con
cern for the public safety, and his respect for the
united desires of the two houses, determined him
to undertake the trust." He contrived, however,
to embody in his reply the very words which She
ridan had vainly endeavoured to insert in Pitt's
motion of the 27th of January, for communicating
to his royal highness the resolutions of the lords
and commons. " Confiding," said he, " that the
limitations on the exercise of the royal authority
have been approved only as a temporary measure,
founded on the hope that his majesty's disorder
may not be of long duration, I accede to your
wishes." The queen's reply was brief, but min
gled with testimonies of her respect for the desire
manifested by parliament to commit to her care
the king's person. As soon as the peers met, after
the answers of the queen and prince had been
read. Lord Camden stated that the next necessary

REGENCY. — LORD CAMDEN. 301
step was to determine on the means by which the
royal assent might be given to such bills as should
have been passed by the two houses respecting
the exercise of the powers of the crown. " I am
aware," observed he, " that the means by which it
is intended to open the parliament have been con
temptuously stigmatized elsewhere as a fiction and
a phantom. But it is a fiction admirably calcu
lated for preserving the constitution. The king
must be upon his throne in this assembly, or by
some mode he must sanction our proceedings.
Otherwise, parliament is a mere headless trunk,
incapable of legislation. The legal and constitu
tional expedient is by issuing letters patent under
the great seal, authorizing a commission to open
parliament in his majesty's name."
" If there exist any other means of accomplish
ing this national object," continued he, " I hope
those who so think will suggest them. But I
venture to assert, that whoever treats as matter of
ridicule the mode that I have proposed, is igno
rant of the laws of his country. The commission
must be issued by authority of some kind. Can
the Prince of Wales command the chancellor to
put the seal to such a commission ? Certainly he
cannot. Both houses have recently voted that he
possesses no such right. Would the chancellor
himself, unauthorized, venture to do it? Un
doubtedly he would not. The great seal is the

302 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
organ by which the sovereign speaks his will.
An act of parliament, passed by authority of a
commission issued under it, must be received as a
part of the statute law of the land," Having
thus explained the intended mode of proceeding,
as weU as the principle on which it was founded.
Lord Camden added, that when the bill appoint
ing a regent should have gone through all its
forms, it would become necessary to affix the
great seal to a second commission, giving the
royal assent to such a bill. He concluded by
moving, that " it is expedient and necessary to
issue a proper commission for opening the parlia
ment under the great seal," The Duke of York,
who was present, in few words protested against
the whole system ; but, in particular, against the
measure proposed, as unconstitutional and ille
gal. " I therefore request," added he, " that my
name may be left out of the commission; and
I am authorized to express a similar desire on
the part of the Prince of Wales," Rising in his
turn, the Duke of Cumberland intimated the
same wish, both for himself, and for his brother
the Duke of Glocester.
Severe indisposition having prevented both the
chancellor and Lord Loughborough from attend
ing in their places on that evening,- Lord Stor
mont replied to the arguments of Earl Camden,
" We might," said he, " my lords, have appointed

LORDS STORMONT AND HAWKESBURY, 303
a regent full six weeks ago, if the discussion of
the question of right had not been obtruded on
us. With respect to the two commissions in
tended to be issued under the great seal, the first
is informal, the second is illegal. It has been
asserted that necessity warrants the mode of pro
ceeding, and that necessity justifies it. I sub
scribe to the doctrine, but I deny its application
in the present instance. What impediment has
prevented ministers from addressing the Prince
of Wales, to take upon him the exercise of the
whole legislative authority of the crown ?" — " The
proceedings of the two houses within the last
three months have conduced more to introduce
and to sanction republican principles, than ail the
public acts done in my time. I rail not at re
publican principles. I know how beautiful they
appear in theory ; but they are not the less re
pugnant to the genius of our constitution." In
the absence of Lord Thurlow, rose Lord Hawkes
bury. While a member of the house of com
mons, he spoke rarely, always with brevity ; and
since his elevation to the peerage, except on
questions connected with trade or manufactures,
scarcely had his voice been heard in that assem
bly. With great force of reason he combated
the propositions of Lord Stormont ; demonstrated
that the measure under consideration was govern
ed by the necessity of the case, without exceeding

304 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
it; while he pointed out the total dissimilarity
between the Revolution of 1688, when the two
houses of parliament addressed the Prince of
Orange to assume the sovereign authority on a
principle of necessity, and the contrast presented
by the present position of affairs. The throne,
he observed, was then vacant, and all the func
tions of government suspended: whereas the
throne was now full, the courts of law open, and
parUament assembled.
2nd and 3rd February. — The debate having ter
minated without any division, it was moved to
report the resolution immediately to the house, in
order to accelerate its progress, though on a Satur
day : which being done, the commission for open
ing the parliament was instantly filled up for the
subsequent Tuesday, the 3rd of February. A
conference with the commons was requested to
be held on Monday, the 2nd, for the purpose of
communicating to them the resolution, and desir
ing their concurrence. It took place accordingly
on that day ; the whole proceeding of the two
houses forming an instance of legislative dis
patch probably not to be exceeded in the Bri
tish parliamentary annals. The conference be
ing ended, and the resolution of the upper house
read, together with the answers of the Prince of
Wales and of the queen to the deputation from
both houses, the chancellor of the exchequer pro
posed to agree with the peers in their resolution.

REGENCY. — LORD NORTH. — PITT. 305
Lord North, who, notwithstanding his want of
sight, performed an active part throughout all
the debates during the course of the king's ma
lady, warmly attacked the minister on this occa
sion. Having censured the spirit of distrust and
jealousy which pervaded every feature of the pro
ceedings relative to the heir-apparent. Lord North
added : "His royal highness's answer must diffuse
universal satisfaction. It must even create an
agreeable surprize throughout the kingdom, and
extinguish those false alarms which have been so
industriously circulated, that the prince had as
serted his right to assume the sovereign authority
independently of the two houses of parliament."
Pitt was not formed tamely to endure such
a reprehension, which he repelled with great
promptitude and equal force. " The noble lord,"
said he, "observes that a general, though false
alarm, has been diffused through the country lest
the question of right should be supported. I
deny the truth of his proposition. I allow, in
deed, that it was not claimed by the Prince of
Wales ; but it was asserted by others. That no
person has been bold enough to advise him to
assert such a right after the solemn decision of
the two houses of parliament, cannot form matter
of surprize. Even if any man could be found
so bold, it is very improbable that a prince of the
house of Brunswic would follow such advice. I
VOL. III. X

306 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789,
readUy admit that his royal highness's acceptance
of the regency wiU furnish subject oi joy to the
people, but not that it can prove a matter of sur
prize. They wiU not be disposed to censure par
liament for reprobating unconstitutional doctrines,
started by men who now lament their own asser
tions, which they are ashamed to avow, and seem
desirous to retract,"
If Lord North's observations had roused Pitt,
the pointed sarcasms of the latter against Fox
irritated Burke almost to a degree of madness.
" I assert," exclaimed he, " that the Prince of
Wales's right to the regency is as clear as the
sun ; and that it is the duty of this house to
appoint him regent, with the full powers of sove
reignty. His royal highness's right is founded in
law, in justice, and in equity." Then bursting
into one of his grand and eccentric appeals to the-
fancy, " The minister's plan," continued he, " me
rits a worse name than to be called a phantom.
Ministers are preparing to create the monster of
Sin and Death described by Milton : death to the
constitution, sin to the feelings of the country.
They are giving birth to innumerable barking
monsters, eager to destroy every principle of our
constitution. They are about to purloin the
great seal, to commit an act of forgery and of
fraud, to support violence, and to consummate
their climax of villainy. Their delays keep pace

REGENCY  BURKE.— SHERIDAN. — POWIS. 307
with every other part of their system. How un
like the convention parliament in 1688, who com
pleted all their objects of national benefit between
the 26th of December and the 12th of the en
suing month, finishing the whole work in sixteen
days !" — "I contend that the house has no right
to authorize the lord chancellor to put the great
seal to forgery, thus giving it the form of royal
authority instead of the substance. Such viola
tions of law are delusions. They are only the
sweepings of the cobwebs of Westminster HaU ;
the smoke of the dish, not its nourishment."
With more temper, Sheridan denied that Fox
had ever maintained the prince's right to assume
the exercise of the royal authority without the
adjudication of the two houses of parliament.
" The question of right was therefore," added he,
" unnecessarily agitated, because the right of the
two houses to provide for the defect in the exer
cise of the sovereign power never was contested."
Powis sustained Burke's opinions; " In order,"
said he, " to open a parliament, there must exist
a person competent to authorize the act ; either
the king himself, or his representative. In the
present case, there can be neither ; and the place
will be fiUed by a fictitious, imaginary phantom."
The resolution to agree with the lords being never
theless carried without any division, a motion was
made and voted, to request another conference
X 2

308 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
with that house. Before the adjournment took
place, Pitt, in answer to a question made from the
opposition bench, demanding " what measure was
next to ensue," explained, in the most explicit
terms, his intentions. " I trust," said he, " that
we may carry up the resolution to the conference
early on this very day. The commission being ready
sealed, parliament may be opened forthwith ; and
as soon as we are returned, I shall instantly move
for leave to bring in a bill for appointing a regent,
founded on those resolutions."
3rd February. — The time was now arrived when
the two houses, who had hitherto acted as a con
vention, were to assume the form of a parliament
assembled according to the established usages of
the constitution. Every impediment and delay,
which during nearly two months had prevented
a change of administration, being at length re
moved ; new ministers, together with a new order
of things, might be speedily and confidently ex
pected. Pitt, who had so long, and with so much
general approbation, occupied the first place in
the state, beheld in prospect a private station :
while Fox, twice driven by his own errors from
the cabinet, prepared to re-enter it under better
auspices. The queen, selected by parliament not
only to have the custody of the king's person, but
the control of the whole royal household, was
about to be invested with extensive power, pa-

REGENCY. — QUEEN CHARLOTTE. 309
tronage, and influence. Among all the legisla
tive dispositions made by Pitt for conducting the
government during his majesty's incapacity, the
wisdom, as well as the necessity, of thus arming
the queen with a degree of independent authority
in the state might appear the most doubtful. I
am nevertheless of opinion, that her good sense
experience, moderation, and the strong maternal
affection which animated her throughout her
whole life towards her eldest son, — an affection
amounting to predilection, and which he as
warmly returned, — would have secured the coun
try from any personal collision between them.
Mary of Medicis was a violent, implacable, weak,
misguided woman, destitute of attachment to
Louis the Thirteenth, the most unamiable of
princes ; who had likewise imbibed an early con
viction that she was not wholly unacquainted with
his father's assassination. There could not, there
fore, exist the slightest degree of real analogy be
tween the two cases, though Lord Stormont had
recently compared them. Yet, if we consider
how much power corrupts the heart, and how
much party inflames the passions, we shall pro
bably think it equaUy fortunate for herself, and
for the nation, that she should not have been
placed in a situation so trying to human nature.
Among the political caricatures which appeared
in the shops of the capital about this time, was a

310 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
print representing the chancellor, Pitt, and Dun
das, in the characters of the " three weird sisters,"
wildly but characteristically attired, standing on a
heath, intently gazing on the fuU moon. Her orb
appeared half enlightened, half eclipsed. The part
averted, which remained in darkness, contained
the king's profile. On the other side, resplen
dent with light, and graciously regarding the
three gazers, was pourtrayed a head of the queen.
The circumstance of Dundas being thus ranked
with Pitt and Thurlow sufficiently indicates the
degree of political consideration which he attract
ed, and how much higher he stood in the pubUc
estimation, as a man possessed of power or in
fluence, than any of the remaining cabinet mi
nisters. He was, in fact, far superior to either
of the secretaries of state in real weight and con
sequence. So certain, and so imminent, appeared
the Prince of Wales's appointment to the re
gency during the first days of February, that
medals were struck and sold commemorating the
event. One of them, which I purchased at the
time, lies now before me. It is of mean execu
tion, presenting no favourable specimen of the
arts in that line. The size is between a shilling
and a half-crown piece; the composition, a base
metal, designed to imitate silver. On one side
appears his royal highness's side face, the hair
dressed in smaU curls, as then worn ; which might

REGENCY MEDAL. — CARLTON HOUSE. 311
easily be mistaken for a tie-wig, loosely floating-
down his back. The resemblance of his counte
nance is bad and vulgar. He wears a coat em
broidered at the button-holes, a part of his star
just appearing; with a prodigious j«^o/ or frUl of
lace at the breast. Such was the costume of that
time. Round it is this legend or inscription :
" Prince Regent of Great Britain, France, and
Ireland," etc.
On the reverse are engraven the ostrich plumes
of the Princes of Wales, with the " Ich dien" on a
label, surrounded by the words,
"Born August 12, 1762.
Appointed Feb, 1789,"
This medal, struck in order to perpetuate a fact
which never was realized, is now probably become
very rare.
Carlton House, to which residence the destinies
of Great Britain were apparently about to be
transferred from St. James's, presented in its in
terior, during the first days of February, as may
well be supposed, a scene of political intrigue and
contending interests. The place of first lord of
the treasury was of course reserved for the Duke
of Portland ; but relative to the office of chan
cellor of the exchequer, and its future possessor,
there prevailed much uncertainty. Lord John
Cavendish had indeed been named to it by the
public voice, though he neither emulated to re-

312 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
sume that situation, nor in truth were his talents,
either financial or parhamentary, adequate to con
duct it with becoming dignity and credit to him
self. Common report asserted that Sheridan aspired
to fiU it, the prince approving and supporting his
pretension. Absurd or improbable as such a story
may appear, many circumstances conduced to di
minish its incredibility. During Fox's absence
and Lord Loughborough's indisposition, Sheridan
occupied a very high, if not the first rank in his
royal highness's confidence and councils. Nor
ought we to wonder at the fact. His talents, as
a member of the house of commons, yielded to
none within those walls. I believe, Pitt stood
more in awe of them, if he could be said to stand
in awe of any thing, than he did of Fox himself.
Sheridan moreover possessed other qualities not
less calculated to acquire the favour of the heir-
apparent. His convivial powers rendered him
equally delightful in society, as his vast intellectual
endowments quaUfied him to shine in parliament,
or in the cabinet. Fox's predominant passion, to
which he had devoted his youth and sacrificed his
fortune, was play. Sheridan supremely loved
wine, of which he swallowed vast quantities: a
recommendation of no common order in the court
and at the table of a prince who in that respect
emulated the younger Cyrus, if in no other feature
of his character. Neither Lord Rawdon, who

SHERIDAN. — MRS. FITZHERBERT. 313
deservedly stood high in his royal highness's per
sonal regard — nor Grey, nor Windham, nor
Erskine, though all partaking of his confidence,
and frequently the companions of his private
hours, were able to maintain a conflict over the
bottle with an antagonist like Sheridan, His
face, even at this period of his life, when he had
not long completed his thirty- seventh year, began
to exhibit eloquent proofs of his intemperance.
But there still remained a third cause of the
ascendant which Sheridan exercised at Carlton
House. I mean, the prominent part that he had
always taken in defence of Mrs, Fitzherbert's in
terests, honour, and character. When Fox came
forward in the house of commons to disavow and
to deny from authority, in the most formal terms,
the asserted matrimonial ceremony between her
and the heir-apparent, we have seen that Sheridan
contrived, without contradicting his friend, to do
away in a great degree the effect of his assurances.
The words chosen by Sheridan on the occasion
were admirably calculated to throw a mysterious
veil over the transaction, and to give it a sort of
sanctity ; while he paid the highest testimonies to
the distinguished merits of the lady herself. She
still continued to enjoy the first place in the
prince's affections, and her future destiny formed
at this time an object of general curiosity. What
would she become, it was asked, under the ap-

314 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
proaching regency ? Many persons believed, that
as soon as the restrictions should be taken off, a
very high rank of the peerage would be imme
diately conferred on her. But though George
the First made one of his two mistresses Duchess
of Kendal, the other — Countess of DarUngton ;
and though George the Second imitated his fa
ther's example, by creating Madame de Walmo
den, Countess of Yarmouth for her life ; — yet I
doubt whether any minister in 1789 would have
advised or sanctioned the adoption by the regent
of a similar measure.
Sheridan's want of high birth and connexions
could not of itself form an insurmountable impe
diment to his being placed at the head of the ex
chequer, if there had existed no greater obstacle.
Have we not, in fact, beheld a provincial phy
sician's son, of very moderate abilities, raised, in
1801, to the post of first minister; presiding over
both the treasury and the exchequer, during more
than three years ? Canning's descent, who has so
ably filled, and continues at this hour to fill, ca
binet offices, was not more iUustrious than that of
Sheridan, which produced, during three successive
generations, men of eminent talents. Nor could
Sheridan's want of property have excluded him,
since Pitt, as well as Fox, shared with him that
defect. But among us, morals, no less than ta
lents, are indispensable to ensure political eleva
tion !

CONVALESCENCE OF GEORGE III. 315
3rd — 6th February. — The month of January had
expired under the most gloomy presages respectr
ing the king's restoration to reason. Having re
mained more than three months in a state of total
alienation of mind — or rather, of decided lunacy, —
the daily reports issued by the medical attendants,
which at first were eagerly read, no longer excited
the same emotions. Varying little from one day
to another in their nature and contents, they
ceased to awaken any Uvely hope, or almost to in
spire strong curiosity. All the delays that had
hitherto impeded the formation of a regency being
at length surmounted, men of every description
looked forward to the transfer of the sceptre from
George the Third to the hands of his son ; when,
to the astonishment of aU, to the joy of the bulk of
the nation, but to the unspeakable disappointment
of many individuals, a salutary change began to
manifest itself in the disorder. It commenced
early in February, advancing progressively with
the month, and indicating an imperfect return or
resumption of reason. One of the first symptoms
that he gave of it happened in the following man
ner. Either on the 4th or 5th of February, a
friend of mine, Mr. Robert Greville, brother of
the late Earl of Warwick, then one of his ma
jesty's equerries, and in waiting at the time, hap
pened to be standing near the king's bed at Kew,
engaged in conversation with Dr. Willis, Both

316 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789,
of them were unprepared for, and unapprehensive
of, his either Ustening to or understanding their
discourse, GreviUe observed to WUlis, that Lord
North had made many enquiries after his majesty's
health, "Has he?" said the king. " Where did he
make them ? At St, James's, or here ? " On their
replying to his question, " Lord North," said he,
" is a good man, unlike the others. He is a good
man." — The king formed a perfectly just estimate
of Lord North. Party and politics had driven
him to take refuge under the shield of the coali
tion ; but an early and deep-rooted affection for
his old master survived in his bosom. Throughout
the whole progress of the royal disorder, Burke,
on the contrary, displayed little concern or sym
pathy for him ; but much indecorous impatience
to arrive at power.
The commons having met on the 3rd of Febru
ary, and agreed to the resolution of the lords, a
message was sent down from the upper house,
desiring their attendance at the act of reading the
commission. Lord Bathurst, as the representative
of the chancellor, who was still absent from indis
position, briefly stated the causes of convoking
parliament. Every form incident to opening the
session in the accustomed manner having been ob
served, as soon as the Speaker and the members
present were returned from the bar of the lords,
Pitt moved for leave to bring in a bill consonant

REGENCY. — BURKE. — DR. WILLIS. 317
to the purposes enumerated by Lord Bathurst.
No objection being made, he introduced it on the
5th, when it was read a first time, with little
other interruption than a few indignant comments
from Burke : but upon the subsequent evening,
that extraordinary man unlocked all the stores of
his eloquence to oppose its further progress.
" The duration of his majesty's malady," said
Burke, " lies hidden in the secret recesses of the
dispensations of Providence. He is insane ; but
his disease is not intermittent ; nor has it any
lucid intervals, and partial visitations of reason.
His faculties are totally eclipsed. Not a partial, but
a total and entire eclipse. The present bill is inde
finite in its duration ; because that bold promiser.
Dr. Willis himself, cannot venture to fix a time
when the king may be able to resume his func
tions. And as he, whose temerity would impel
him to decide on that point if the thing were
possible, does not hazard an opinion on it, we
may well presume that physicians of cooler judg
ment will not even pronounce a conjecture on the
subject." " The bill," continued Burke, " is intended not
only to degrade the prince, but the whole Bruns
wic family ; who are to be outlawed and at
tainted, as having forfeited all claim to the confi
dence of the country. This house is now scatter
ing the seeds of future dissensions in the royal

318 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
family, verging to treasons ; for the perpetration
of which acts, public justice will one day overtake
and bring ministers to trial. According to the
provisions of the bill, as it is drawn up, untU the
queen shall think proper to assert that the king
is recovered, the people possess no means of know
ing the fact. If, therefore, her council should de
clare it, and that his majesty shall be able to sit
in a chair at the head of that council, the bill pro
vides that he shall be declared capable. What is
this enactment, except putting into the hands of
Dr. Willis and his keepers the whole power of
changing the government ! A person who has
been insane may be so subdued by coercion as
to become capable of submitting to act the farce
appointed, and of appearing for a short period to
have resumed his intellects. I maintain the utter
impossibility of adducing proof, whether a person
who has been insane is perfectly recovered or not.
The whole business is a scheme, under the pre
tence of pronouncing his majesty recovered, to
bring back an insane king."
However indecorous and censurable some pas
sages of this speech may appear, and whatever
condemnation they excited at the time when they
were pronounced, yet Burke's observations were
not destitute of justice. If the king's restoration
of reason had proved partial and temporary, in
stead of complete, many of the predicted or sup-

GEORGE III. — REGENCY. — BURKE. 319
posed evils might have been realized. Happily,
in 1789 his recovery was rapid and total. So was
it in 1801. But, throughout the whole spring of
1811, I know that he floated between sanity and
insanity, till finally his mind seemed to become
effete and extinct. Fortunately, his eldest son,
then instructed by time and the progress of events,
aUowed the existing frame of government to re
main untouched ; as he unquestionably ought to
have done in 1789, till the probable event of the
king's malady could have been ascertained. Burke
concluded by again alluding to the position of the
queen. " I do not suspect her," observed he,
" of ever intentionally acting with impropriety.
But situations and temptations may pervert the
purest mind, and draw it aside from the path of
rectitude. This house, proceeding step after step,
has imperceptibly been led on to commit acts,
which, if they had been proposed at once, would
have been rejected by every man of principle.
Like Macbeth, who, after having murdered Dun
can and Banquo, exclaims,
 " I am in blood
Stept in so far, that should I wade no more.
Returning were as tedious as go o'er ;"
SO they find themselves inclined to proceed, from
a want of courage to retrace their steps." No fact
can more forcibly prove the degree of unpopulari
ty to which Burke had sunk at this period, than

320 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
the circumstance of a speech containing matter so
impressive, and so much calculated to awaken
deep reflections in the minds of his hearers, elicit
ing no reply. Not a word of answer was made to
it, either by Pitt, or by any member of adminis
tration. 9th February. — Already the king began to ex
hibit unequivocal symptoms of returning reason ;
information of which fact, however guardedly
expressed it might be in the medical reports, yet
becoming rapidly diffused throughout society,
contributed to sustain the administration. All
coercion of his person having long been with
drawn, as early as the 4th of February his ma
jesty not only shaved his beard, but part of his
head ; Willis being present during the operation.
His body seemed to sympathize with his mind,
and to aid its restoration ; an abscess forming in
his neck, which suppurated, and afforded relief.
Ever since the last week of January he had been
allowed, as often as the weather permitted, to
walk out in the royal gardens of Kew, or of Rich
mond, accompanied by Dr. Willis, and one of
that physician's sons. Though much emaciated
in consequence of his confinement, together with
the medical treatment that he had undergone, he
was capable of great exercise and exertion. Not
only the queen, but the princess royal was brought
into his apartment of evenings, and remained

REGENCY. — LORD NORTH. 321
with him a considerable time. Notwithstanding,
however, these apparently favourable indications,
as no reliance could yet be placed on their conti
nuance, the parliamentary proceedings advanced;
and it was supposed that the lapse of a few days
must place his royal highness in the regent's chair.
Each side of the house of commons seemed alike
emulous to expedite the progress of the bill by
which he was to be invested with that office.
But impediments to dispatch arose at every step.
Divisions even occasionally occurred on particular
regulations, in which ministers were usually sup
ported by a majority fluctuating between fifty and
sixty. The clause giving to the queen a power
over part of the privy purse, and locking up the
remainder, being carried by fifty-five votes, a
most obstinately contested debate followed on the
next enactment, which vested in her majesty the
care of the king's person, and the government of
the household. Against so vast an accession of
strength in that quarter the opposition concen
tered all their force.
Lord North demanded of Pitt if he was fully
aware of the parliamentary influence which it
must confer, " Eighteai peers," continued he,
"belong to the household. Do gentlemen consi
der that eighteen peers voting on one side, make
the difference of thirty-six on a division ?" It
was stated, without receiving any contradiction
VOL. III. Y

322 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
from the treasury bench, that the number of
officers in the royal household amounted to near
ly one hundred and fifty ; whose places were re
spectively worth from sixty, up to eighteen hun
dred pounds a year. Powis reprobated the mea
sure, and Marsham maintained that the aggregate
number of members of the two houses holding
employments, either in the king's or in the queen's
household, approached nearer sixty than thirty.
Sheridan was most pointed in his observations on
Pitt's avowed intention to propose a new esta
blishment for the regent. " How does he dare,"
asked Sheridan, " to suggest such an idea, after
having heard the declaration made from autho
rity, that the prince desires to have no such es
tablishment created as must occasion fresh bur
thens on the people? Does he not mean to leave
his royal highness the power of exercising his
own free will upon the point? The minister
must possess a pretty considerable share of pre
sumption, who can take it for granted that his
majesty, whenever he recovers, will be pleased to
hear of a new and unnecessary tax having been
imposed on his subjects for such a purpose, in ad
dition to their present heavy load,"
All these attacks were nevertheless conducted
with some degree of temper. But Burke, whose
impatience to attain possession of office, and
whose irritable formation of mind led him to

BURKE — MARQUIS OF GRAHAM. 323
spurn the ordinary restraints of prudence, let
loose his indignation on the chancellor of the
exchequer. "He demands," exclaimed Burke,
" whether we would strip the king of every mark
of royalty, and transfer them to the regent?
No ! Heaven forbid, while the person wearing
the crown can lend a grace to those dignities, and
derive a lustre from the splendour of his house
hold! But have we forgotten that we are de
bating relative to a monarch smitten by the hand
of Omnipotence ? Do we recollect that the Al
mighty has hurled him from his throne, and plung
ed him into a condition that may justly excite the
pity of the meanest peasant in his dominions !" —
Expressions so indecorous exciting very general
disapprobation, and a loud cry arising from the
ministerial ranks, of " Take down his words ;"
the Marquis of Graham, who was seated near
Pitt on the treasury bench, started up, and de
clared that "no individual within those walls
should dare to assert that the king was hurled from
his throne." A scene of great clamour and dis
order occurred during some moments, Burke
vainly attempting to obtain a patient audience.
No sooner had he, however, surmounted the tu
mult, than, without displaying any embarrass
ment, he assured the house that he would give
them a full opportunity to take down his words.
" I was interrupted," continiied he, " in the mid-
Y 2

324 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
die of a sentence ; and Scripture itself, so man
gled, may be rendered blasphemy. But when in
our very churches it is asserted that the king is
afflicted for our national sins, shall I not be per
mitted to say that he is struck by the hand of
God ? What ! when we are putting up prayers
for the restoration of his intellect, and declaring
that it is in punishment of our iniquities the sove
reign is deprived of reason, shall I not be al
lowed to assert that Omnipotence has smitten
him? His illness is caused by no act of ours.
But ought we, in this his hour of sickness and
calamity, to cloathe his bed with purple, to make
a mockery of him, to put on his head a crown of
thorns, to place a reed in his hand, to array him
in royal robes, and to cry ' Hail ! King of the
British !'"
This elegant and ingenious apology, cloathed
in the language of Scripture, which, with the sin
gle exception perhaps of Erskine, Burke alone
could have applied with so much felicity and
promptitude to the case, produced its full effect.
He improved it to inveigh with equal force, but
in less intemperate terms, against other features
of the bill. " How," demanded he, " will the
king be pleased, on his recovery, at finding the
patronage of the household transferred from his
son and representative to the queen ? He must
be shocked at such an act, unless on the mon-

REGENCY,— BURKE, 325
strous supposition that his majesty is a good hus
band and a bad father. The royal family are
in fact totally excluded from the present mea
sure, while power of an enormous description is
withdrawn from the king's eldest son, and vested
in a person not of his majesty's blood. No one
grateful function is left to the regent which may
balance the dreadful attributes of sovereignty.
He can make no peers. He can grant neither
pensions nor offices. He can exercise no chari
ties. We are about to confer on him a mock
crown, a tinsel robe, and a lackered sceptre."
" In former times," continued Burke, " the road
to popularity was by upholding the liberties of
the people. The chancellor of the exchequer is
born for the age in which he lives. He takes ano
ther path. The present bill is contrived to fortify
himself when out of office. His majesty may
continue insane for twenty years. And in such
case, what a state of anarchy are we creating,
when we thus set up a divided government!"
Highly coloured as were some parts of this picture,
it must be admitted that there was truth, as well
as talent, in its composition. If the king's reco
very had been delayed, or had only been doubtful
in its nature, a struggle for power would have en
sued between Pitt and Fox ; between the regent
and the queen ; which was obviated by his prompt
resumption of the reins of government. She-

326 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
ridan having moved a clause limiting her majes
ty's control over the officers of the household " to
such as should be deemed necessary for attending
about the king's person," ministers carried the
question again by the same majority as the pre
ceding, — namely, fifty-five votes,
10th February. — On the subsequent evening, the
minister proceeded to name the eight individuals
whom he proposed to form her majesty's council.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, toge
ther with Lords Thurlow and Kenyon, as the two
chiefs pf the law, naturally occupied the first
place. Pitt joined with these dignitaries of the
church and the bar, the four heads of the depart
ments constituting the royal household ; namely,
the lord steward, and lord chamberlain ; the
master of the horse, and the groom of the stole.
Lord North, who from his anxiety to supply the
void occasioned by Fox's absence took part in
every discussion, immediately intimated his in
tention of moving to insert the names of the
princes of the blood, being of full age, his majes
ty's sons ; as well as those of the Dukes of Glou
cester and of Cumberland, his brothers. Other
eminent public functionaries were pointed out
likewise from different quarters of the house, as
proper for the same distinction, Sheridan ingeni
ously treated the ministerial proposition of ex
cluding the princes of the blood as unnatural;

" LORD NORTH, — ADDINGTON, — PITT. 327
" because parliament became thereby the instru
ment of infusing into her majesty's mind a suspi
cion, that her sons were not proper persons to ad
vise her, which was an outrage on the feelings of
nature." The eight names enumerated by Pitt
having been severally carried without any division,
Lord North then moved, that " the Duke of York
be a member of the council." It was opposed,
not only by the chancellor of the exchequer, but
by Addington, then scarcely known as member
for Devizes ; destined nevertheless within two
years to fill the Speaker's chair, and within twelve,
to succeed Pitt himself at the head of the treasury
and the exchequer : — one of the most extraordi
nary political transmutations which we have wit
nessed in our time !
The minister resisted the Duke of York's no
mination on those general principles in confor
mity to which it had been thought improper to
allow the Prince of Wales any concern in the care
of his majesty's person. If therefore the eldest
son was excluded, respect to him made it necessary
to extend the same rule to the rest of the royal
family. Such a respect, Burke observed, operated
as a perpetual disqualification, like the respect ma
nifested by the followers of Epicurus for their
gods. Lord North reprobated it as " a barba
rous principle pushed to a barbarous extent :" while
Lord Maitland exclaimed with his characteristic

328 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
energy of voice.'and manner, that " it was not a
disrespect, but an insult to the king, to the queen,
and to the Prince of Wales." Burke treated the
idea as revolting to humanity. " I am myself
a father," said he. " So is the noble lord in the
blue ribband. How should we feel, on recover
ing from a malady such as the present, to find
that our sons had been precluded from all share in
the custody of our persons ! I should regard as a
murderer the man who had debarred my son all
access to me." Denunciations so violent produ
ced no effect on Pitt ; and when a division took
place. Lord North's motion was rejected, though
only by forty-eight votes. The Duke of Gloces
ter, when proposed, had against him forty-nine.
It was not attempted to divide the house on the
Duke of Cumberland, The two brothers had act
ed, indeed, a widely different part throughout the
whole period of the sovereign's illness. While the
latter, as well as the Duchess of Cumberland, ap
proved themselves devoted partizans of the heir-
apparent, and avowedly canvassed for him, the
Duke of Glocester withdrew in a great measure
from society. Secluded from politics and plea
sures, he absented himself equally from the house
of peers, and seemed deeply to feel the calamity
which obscured the throne.
During these parliamentary proceedings, Carl
ton House presented a scene of extraordinary agi-

GEORGE IIl.^— DR. WARREN. — SIR L. PEPYS. 329
tation. His majesty's progressive advance, not
only in bodily health, but in the resumption of
his mental faculties, was too steady, regular, and
apparent, to remain any longer matter either of
doubt or of concealment. Yet Warren, though
he admitted a considerable degree of composure to
have taken place in the king's general deportment
and conversation, pertinaciously adhered to his
opinion, that no real or permanent amelioration
had been operated in his complaint. As Warren
stood first in public estimation for medical skill,
many persons long accustomed to repose almost
unlimited confidence in his professional assertions
continued incredulous on the subject. Sir Lucas
Pepys, on the other hand, throughout the whole
progress of the disorder, had, as I know, enter
tained a contrary sentiment ; and his belief being
strengthened by the recent symptoms, he made
no secret of his conviction that a speedy and com
plete recovery would ensue. Information of the
circumstance reaching the Prince of Wales, he
immediately sent for Pepys, who, on his arrival
at Carlton House, being ushered into his royal
highness's presence, there found Dr. Warren, A
warm expostulation took place between them,
though they lived on terms of mutual regard, ap
proaching to friendship. Each reproached the
other with deceiving the prince by a false repre
sentation of facts. Warren maintained, that how-

330 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789,
ever flattering appearances might be, they would
prove fallacious, and that the alienation of mind
was incurable. Pepys as stiffly supported the op
posite belief. At length the two physicians
parted, leaving the prince to form his own judg
ment on their prognostics. But a few days de
termined the question in Pepys's favour, War
ren's political bias unquestionably obscured his
usual discernment. All these particulars were re
lated to me by Sir Lucas Pepys himself, within
a week after the time when they happened,
11th February. — A publication took place at
this juncture, which, however undeserving of seri
ous commemoration it may seem, yet threw no
ordinary degree of ridicule on the prince's cause
and followers, Hume, the most philosophic his
torian of the last century, though by no means the
most impartial, has thought even a song deserving
mention among the events of a reign. He says,
when enumerating the particulars which conduced
in December 1688, to produce the flight of James
the Second, " It may not be unworthy of notice,
that a merry ballad, called Lillibullero, being at
this time published in derision of the papists and
the Irish, it was greedily received by the people ;
and was sung by all ranks of men, even by the
king's army, who were strongly seized with the
national spirit. This incident both discovered
and served to encrease the general discontent of

WELTJEE. — SIR T. HALIFAX. — COL. G. LAKE. 331
the kingdom," So happened it in some degree
on the present occasion. Among the individuals
who filled an important place in the interior of
Carlton House, in February 1789, was Weltjee,
He occupied (not the post held by Bonneau in
the court of Charles the Seventh, king of France,
respecting which office Voltaire says,
" II eut I'emploi qui certes n'est pas mince,
Et qu a la cour, ou tout se point en beau.
Nous appellons etre I'ami du prince;"
but,) the charge of comptroller of the kitchen and
cellars of that royal residence ; an employment
that demanded great gastronomic talents. Welt
jee was a German of no ordinary bodily dimen
sions, not distinguished by the humility of his
deportment or manners, and fully impressed with
the importance of his post. Though he had re
sided some years in England, he spoke no lan
guage except a barbarous Anglo- Westphalian
jargon, which generaUy provoked laughter. Nor
was his English orthography more correct than
his enunciation. But amidst his attention to the
tastes of his royal highness, Weltjee had not been
oblivious of his own personal interests.
On the 7th of February died Sir Thomas Hali
fax, a city knight, one of the representatives for the
borough of Aylesbury. It was imagined that
Colonel Gerard Lake, who then filled the situation
about the prince of first equerry and commissioner

332 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789,
of the stables, and whose distinguished military
services in India have since raised him to the rank
of a British viscount, would have started for the
vacancy, I believe in point of fact he did offer
himself, butwithout success ; though at the general
election in 1790 he was chosen one of the mem
bers for Aylesbury,
A very few days after Halifax's decease, a
printed letter, addressed to the freeholders of that
borough, signed " W- Velshie," was circulated at
the west end of the town. Its contents could not
be perused by the most splenetic man with a
grave countenance. I copy the original as it now
lies on my table.
" To de Gendelmen, de Abbfes, and de Freholders
of de Comte of AUsbri.
" My frind Gerri Lake havin offurd his sarvis's.
to repreprepresent you in parlialialiament, I pre-
sum to tak de friddom to recummind um to you,
bein my frind, and grate frind of my master de
Prince. He is ver clever gendelmen, and kno de
horse ver veil, how to bi for de Prince, and how
to sel for himselv. But if you tink him two poor,
and send him to de divl, I beg to offer miselv on
his in trist, bavin got plenti of munny in de hon-
rable stasion I holds undur de Prince. I am natu
ralise Inglisman and Wig, and was introduce to
de Wig Club by Lord Stormant and Jak Payne.

COL; G. LAKE. — EARL ONSLOW. 333
I am no papis myselv, tho I keeps grate fat
papis bore, and sum say I am married to bur.
Mi public sentimints are dat I vii give you ver
good dinnurs and plenti of munni, if you vii lect
me your representatatavive. My frinds and con-
nuxions are de Duk of Qinsbri, Lord Lodian,
Lord Luffbro, Lord Malmsbri, Lord Clurmunt,
Lord Cartrit, Sheridan, Gerri Lake, Jak Payne,
Geo. Hangre, Burke, Singel Spict Hambledon,
Eglintown, Master Lee, Trevis de Jew, yong
Gray, all de Convays, Harri Standup, Tarletun,
and Tom Stepni. My principles are God dam de
King and de Quin, de Pitt, and de Rustricsuns;
and God bles de Prince and all his broders, and
de Duk de Cumberland. I say agen and agen
dat de Prince be our lawful suvring, and not his
fader. " I am, gendelmen, " Your frind and sarvant,
" W- Velshie."
The universally reputed author of this ludicrous
production was the present Earl Onslow, then
eldest son of Lord Onslow, commonly called in
society Tom Onslow. He represented at the time
the borough of Guildford. In his person he was
low, rather indeed beneath the middle stature, and
destitute of any elegance or grace ; most fluent
in discourse, his words and ideas always seeming

334 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
to press for utterance. His education had corre
sponded with his birth : the great compositions of
antiquity were familiar to him ; and he possessed an
infinity of wit, if unfortunately it had not too fre
quently degenerated into buffoonery. Even then,
he was often classical, though not always decorous.
Yet her majesty, and the princesses her daughters,
delighted in his society, seeming to enjoy his most
eccentric flights of humour, fancy, and mimickry.
They were peculiar to himself, baffling all attempt
at description. In order to spare the eye, though
he might sometimes wound the ear, he usually per
formed them behind a screen. His predominant
passion was driving /owr in hand. He passed the
whole day in his phaeton, and sacrificed every ob
ject to the gratification of that " ignoble ambi
tion," as he himself called it when speaking to me
on the subject. Nevertheless, while holding the
reins and exercising the whip in Piccadilly, his
mind was not inactive. If by accident we met,
he would sometimes stop, descend from the phae
ton, and entreat me to listen to a lampoon, or a
couplet which he had just composed : he had in"
fact a poetic vein, though the stream was shallow.
Voluble as he appeared to be in conversation, and
abounding with ideas, he possessed no political
talent ; and I believe he never made an attempt
to rise in either house of parliament, where the
name of Onslow would have secured him a fa-

EARL ONSLOW. — LORD CARTERET. 335
vourable hearing, at least in one house. On him
self, not less than on his acquaintance, he exercis
ed his satire, sparing neither his own defects of
mind nor of person. I have already observed that
he scarcely attained to middle height. Driving,
on a certain day, to the Custom-house in his
phaeton, while remaining on the quays, a crane
which was employed in landing goods, in swing
ing round, caught his carriage, and had nearly
lifted it from the ground, driver, horses, and all.
Onslow, who was an expert coachman, disen
gaged himself after some time, not without
difficulty, from his perilous situation. "Now,"
exclaimed he, "I can believe in the accounts
transmitted to us of the battle between the pig
mies and the cranes."
Among the eminent individuals enumerated
in " Weltjee's address to the electors of Ayles
bury," many have been already mentioned in the
course of these memoirs. Indeed, with the ex
ception of three, — namely, the Earl of Eglington,
Mr. Lee, and Travis,- — I personally knew, in a
greater or less degree, all the others. I have else
where spoken of the late Admiral Payne, one of
the most honest, honourable, and attached ser
vants of the Prince of Wales. Lord Carteret
still survives in 1821, at a very advanced age.
Having been raised to the peerage by Pitt in
1784, and holding at the time of his majesty's

336 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
malady the office of joint postmaster-general, his
defection in joining the prince's party excited
much surprize, while it cost him his place. The
Honourable George Hanger, now become an
Irish baron in his old age by the successive de
cease of his two brothers, the Lords Coleraine,
might rather be considered as a humble retainer
of Carlton House than justly numbered among
the friends of the heir-apparent. Poor even to a
degree of destitution, without profession or regu
lar employment, subsisting from day to day by
expedients, some of them not the most reputable,
he was regarded as a sort of outcast from decent
society. Yet he did not altogether want a de
gree of eccentric talent. Like myself, he is an
author, having published, nearly twenty years
ago, his " Life, Adventures, and Opinions :" a
work in which, together with much absurdity,
may be found some curious facts and anecdotes
of his own time. Sir Thomas Stepney, who has
succeeded to the title, but without the estate, of
his elder brother, and my friend, the late Sir John,
belonged to the Duke of York, not to the Prince
of Wales. In the duke's family, Stepney has held
for a quarter of a century, and still continues at
the present hour to fill, the post of groorn of
the bedchamber, Tarleton, distinguished in his
youth, on the other side of the Atlantic, as a
brave and enterprizing partizan during the course

REGENCY.— PITT. 337
of the American war, the Trenck of our time,
has been since known in parliament, through
many sessions, as member for Liverpool.
Notwithstanding the rapidity with which the
Regency Bill had advanced through the house of
commons, yet one great, delicate, and most im
portant provision stiU remained for regulation. I
mean, the mode and form by which his majesty
should be enabled, on his mental recovery, to
resume the monarchical power. It formed a point
of extraordinary difficulty for legislation. Pitt,
with his usual masterly compression of ideas,
stated his proposition to the house ; enabling the
queen, whenever she and five of her council should
consider the king to be restored to sanity of mind,
immediately to convoke the privy council, as far
as any number not less than nine. If six of the
latter body should coincide in opinion that his
majesty's disorder no longer existed, they were
authorized and bound to countersign the procla
mation informing the public of his recovery. A
copy of this instrument was ordered to be imme
diately transmitted to the lord mayor of London,
and to be printed in the Gazette ; parliament
being totally precluded from exercising any in
terference or participation throughout the whole
transaction. Such was the minister's plan, which
he justified by strong, plausible, and solid reasons.
" The king possesses," said Pitt, " an undoubted
VOL. III. z

338 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789,
right to resume the personal exercise of the royal
authority as soon as he has recovered his reason.
That fact must be notified through some osten
sible channel. Privy counsellors, responsible for
their advice, would form the proper mode of
communicating the event to the country ; which
notification would instantly terminate the re
gency. The queen and her council having stated
it to the president of the council, then, on the
king's requisition under his sign manual, the
privy council being assembled, are bound to
countersign the royal proclamation calling on
parliament to meet without delay. In conse
quence of such precautions, I conceive it to be
impossible that a resumption can take place un
der doubtful or equivocal circumstances."
Wise, able, and commensurate with the evil, as
this measure may perhaps appear to posterity, it
excited the general, unqualified indignation of
the chiefs of opposition. Powis stigmatized it
by the epithets of " incongruous, unprecedented,
and unconstitutional : an attempt to supersede
the rights of parliament, transferring them to a
hacknied and garbled junto," Marsham reite
rated all these accusations. Francis observed
how easy it was to prove beyond dispute the
existence of insanity, but how difficult to demon
strate the fact of a real and complete recovery.
"^ Yet parliament," continued he, " having thought

REGENCY. — DUNDAS. — BURKE. 339
it indispensable to establish the king's incapacity
to the satisfaction of the whole country, was now
called on to refer the question of his resumption
to an inferior tribunal." Sheridan pointing these
remarks against the minister with his accustomed
talent, Dundas came forward to Pitt's support.
" The proposition," said he, " submitted to the
house, is for enabling the king, on his recovery,
to meet his parliament in his own right as sove
reign. On the contrary, the alternative held out
would humiliate him to the character of a sup
plicant for his throne, while he must witness his
authority exercised by a regent. But there still
remains an additional check, and which I by no
means regard as feeble in its operation. It is the
pause allowed to his majesty, during which he
may exercise his philosophy and his religion, by
revolving deeply his situation, previous to issuing
the proclamation which will say to his people,
I am again your king. Can it be suffered, that
when he is recovered, the regent appointed to
exercise his functions shall come down to parlia
ment with the pomp of royalty, while the sove
reign is compelled to remain a spectator of the
show from the windows of Buckingham House ?
I believe this assembly and the country will
equally revolt at such a proposition."
It was not till towards the close of the debate
that Burke attempted to take part in the dis-
z 2

340 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
cussion : nor, such was his unpopularity, did he
succeed without considerable difficulty. " We
have been asked," observed he, "from the trea
sury bench, whether we would wish to see the
king a supplicant to parliament for his throne ? I
reply. Yes ; I consider parliament as the proper
judge of kings, and it is necessary that they
should be amenable to it. But I do not wish
him to be a supplicant to his own menial servants
who eat his bread, and receive his wages." — " The
first indispensable preliminary to his majesty's
resumption of the royal authority, is that the
sanity should not be doubtful. It would form mat
ter of awful responsibility, to bring forward the
person of a monarch who might become the tool
of a faction. The disorder with which he is vi
sited resembles a vast sea that has rolled in, and
then at a low tide has rolled back, leaving a bold
and barren shore. I have visited the dreadful
abodes in which are confined these unfortunate
beings. An author of no ordinary authority,
when describing the uncertainty of the symptoms
that indicate sanity, declares that many of the
patients who had remained a month after their
apparent recovery, before they were pronounced
free from all complaint, had relapsed on the very
last day previous to their intended liberation.
The consequences were of the most disastrous
kind. Some of these wretched individuals, after

REGENCY. — BURKE. 341
an assumed restoration of reason, have proceeded
to acts of sanguinary violence." Strong marks of
disapprobation, with cries of Order, issuing from
the ministerial benches at this part of his speech,
" I wish, Mr. Speaker," resumed Burke, " to ob
serve the utmost delicacy ; but delicacy is only a
subsidiary virtue, and ought always to be subor
dinate to truth, where the latter is of paramount
importance. Towards the other sex we cannot
preserve too much delicacy ; yet are there nu
merous occasions in which it must be sacrificed.
Child-birth, more especially where a kingdom is
at stake ; divorce bills, trials for rapes, proceed
ings in the ecclesiastical courts ; — on all these, a
total disregard is necessarily exhibited for deli
cacy, I readily admit that the king's resumption
of power, if his cure prove effectual and permanent,
will be a most auspicious event; but its effects
must be proportionably dreadful should a sud
den relapse take place."
I have attempted to state with precision the
purport of Burke's observations, as, independent
of the curious nature of the subject, it may pro
bably form the last occasion that I shall have
to mention that illustrious person in the course
of these memoirs. After the debate of the 11th
of February, Burke retired from the house of
commons, or took no part in the discussions that
arose there during a considerable time. Finding

342 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789,
that aU his opposition only produced great odium
to himself, whUe the king, contrary to Dr, War
ren's predictions, advanced rapidly to the com
plete resumption of his mental powers, Burke
abandoned a theatre "on which he could no longer
perform a part useful to his friends or to the
common cause. In truth, he had incurred, by his
line of conduct, severe, but perhaps unjust cen
sure: for it is impossible to deny that a most
striking analogy exists between the two cases of
Charles the Sixth and of George the Third, as
Burke more than once asserted ; though the ad
mirable provisions of the British constitution pre
served us from experiencing the calamities by
which France was desolated under that unhappy
reign. Nor did Burke by any means exaggerate
the misfortune of a partial restoration of reason,
if it had taken place in 1789, as actually hap
pened twenty-two years later, in the spring of
1811, George the Third, during successive
weeks, then seemed to have nearly or fully re
covered his faculties ; and he displayed in his
conversations with the ministers the utmost anx
iety, as well as impatience, to resume his sceptre.
What a collision might — nay, must have arisen
between Pitt and Fox, if the king, at the time of
which I now treat, had only enjoyed gleams and
intervals of sanity ! But other circumstances con
tributed to silence Burke, On the 11th of Fe-

GEORGE III. — PITT. — BURKE. 343
bruary, his majesty's disorder had evidently sub
sided ; and Warren himself, who remained so
long incredulous, at length signed upon that day
a most favourable report. Such progress, indeed,
had he made towards a perfect cure, that on the
morning of the very day in question, Pitt had
been allowed for the first time to visit the sove
reign since the beginning of his malady. He
went down alone to Kew, was introduced by Dr.
Willis, remained with his majesty about fifteen
minutes, conversed with him on ordinary topics,
of course avoiding political subjects, and found
him collected on every point.
Before I take leave of Burke, whose name fills
so conspicuous a place in the annals of George the
Third during more than thirty years, let us cast a
farewell glance on him at this period of his life.
Never throughout his splendid parliamentary ca
reer, — and splendid it unquestionably was, though
passed almost whoUy on the opposition bench, —
had he sunk so low in popular estimation as in
1789 ! He no longer contended against a king
and a minister engaged in a civil war, which pro
duced annually new disgraces and defeats. On
the other hand, Burke felt himself declining in
years and in health. His circumstances were very
embarrassed : his son, whom he fondly cherished,
was destitute of any provision or fortune ; and
his own temper had become sharpened by long

344 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
adversity: whUe his sanguine expectations of
filling the pay-office a third time, under the
approaching regency, had become suddenly over
clouded. Old age impended, with its infirmities
and diseases. From this seemingly hopeless situ
ation he was soon extricated by the French revo
lution ; of which event, and its consequences to
Europe, he early took a very different view and
formed a very different estimate, from Fox,
His speeches and literary productions in oppo
sition to the inroads of popular violence, anarchy,
and subversion in France, dissolving the ties
which had so long united him with Fox, naturally
led him over to Pitt, I was present in the house
of commons on that evening when Burke, after
producing from under his coat the revolutionary
dagger, and renouncing all further connexion with
his old political friends, crossed to the treasury
bench, where he squeezed himself in between
Dundas and Pitt, It formed the most interesting
and affecting scene that I witnessed during the
time that I remained in parliament ; Fox weeping
throughout the whole transaction, his emotions,
as often as he rose to speak, impeding his utter
ance, Burke, on the contrary, who shifted his
place more than once before he finally passed over
to the government side of the house, never shed a
tear, nor even manifested any sentiment of con
cern. Abhorrence of the revolutionary doctrines,

BURKE. — GEORGE HI. 345
as he esteemed them, which Fox had professed on
different occasions, seemed to have steeled Burke's
breast against all impressions or recollections of
former times. Indeed, his whole deportment re
sembled the wild and troubled movements of a
man disordered in mind, rather than the sober,
reflective determination of a statesman. So great
an accession of moral strength to administration
was justly appreciated by the sovereign and by
the minister. Two pensions, amounting together
to three thousand six hundred pounds a year,
were bestowed on him, each for three lives, as his
remuneration. I believe he obtained for them by
sale near six-and-thirty thousand pounds. Ho
nours and distinctions foUowed. Not, indeed,
titles or decorations, but the most flattering testi
monies of notice and of royal favour. George
the Third accompanied him from one end to the
other of Windsor Terrace, covering with atten
tions and expressions of regard the champion of
order, monarchy, and good government. Thus
secured by the bounty of the crown from pecu
niary difficulties, did that distinguished individual
shortly afterwards finish his days !
11th — 13th February. — No attempt to answer
Burke was made by any member of administra
tion ; but some coarse personal jests or sarcasms
on his visits to the receptacles for insane patients,
to which he had alluded in his speech, were thrown

346 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
out by Sir Richard HiU, from the treasury bench.
Sheridan, after observing that as the bill was drawn
up, the king's recovery would not be notified to
parliament in any shape, even though the two
houses should be actually assembled when it took
place, moved an amendment to Pitt's proposition.
Its object was to compel the privy council to take
care that the instrument announcing his majesty's
recovery should be submitted to parliament pre
vious to its transmission- to the lord mayor, or
its insertion in the Gazette, On a division, go
vernment negatived it by a majority of sixty-
eight, the respective numbers being 181 and 113,
It formed the last effort of opposition against the
bill, which was read a third time on that night.
Next day, Pulteney moved a clause for limiting
to the term of three years the provision which im
posed restrictions on the regent's power of creating
peers. The chancellor of the exchequer, who well
appreciated the value of Pulteney's support, not
only concurred with him in sentiment, but reite
rated, with testimonies of high approbation, all
Pulteney's opinions relative to the duration of the
restrictions. " I thank Heaven, however," added
he, " that I have every day stronger reason to be
lieve his majesty's illness will not be protracted to
any distant period !" In fact, on that very morn
ing the report of his physicians had pronounced
him to be in " a progressive state of amendment."

FOX. 347
Sheridan moved, that instead of three years, the
words " one year" should be inserted in the blank ;
but knowing the inutUity of dividing the house,
he allowed the clause to be filled up with the
former term. The hill then passed ; and on the
13th of February, Pitt, attended by many of his
friends, carried it up to the bar of the house of
lords. 13th — ISth February. — Fox returned at this
time from Bath, as much apparently amended in
his health as he was sunk in his expectations of
again entering the cabinet. Little more than
three weeks earlier, when he left London, the
king, according to appearances, seemed to be in an
almost hopeless state of lunacy. Before the middle
of February, his prompt and complete restoration
to sanity of mind was universally as well as confi
dently anticipated. How often must Fox have
deplored his recall from Italy, at a moment when
he already touched the land of arts, and was pre
paring to visit the three gems of Europe! — gems
which he was never again permitted to see. His
whole residence in London had been a " phantas-
ma," injurious to his health, and terminating in
disappointment. Already various individuals,
either of high rank, or holding offices of trust, or
distinguished by the king's personal favour, were
admitted to see and converse with him, Moore,
archbishop of Canterbury, a duH, but a worthy

348 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
and respectable prelate, was among the first ; and
on the following day, Pitt, together with the new
Speaker of the house of commons, had an inter
view of some length with his majesty. Even the
Earl of Chesterfield and the Duke of Richmond
were allowed to wait on him : but it was not
thought proper to introduce into his presence the
Prince of Wales or the Duke of York,
With the chancellor he held long and repeated
conversations, Willis being usually, but not inva
riably, present on these occasions, when only to
pics of ordinary discourse were agitated. With
the queen and his daughters he passed much time.
His appetite, sleep, and memory all returned;
while his pulse, which had risen to one hundred
and twenty pulsations in a minute during the se
vere accesses of his disorder, fell gradually to its
usual standard. He was not left in ignorance that
Warren, throughout his whole distemper, had au
gured ill of his recovery ; and that, when the other
medical attendants perceived amendment, Warren
either did not, or would not, coincide in opinion
with them. As early as the 11th of February,
when that physician arrived at Kew and entered
his apartment, the king held out his arm ; adding,
" Feel my piilse. Dr. Warren. How does it beat ?
And how many strokes did it beat three days
ago ? I think there is some amendment. Is there
not ? " — Warren admitted it, and fully confirmed

LORD RAWDON. — LORD STORMONT. 349
his conviction of the fact by the " bulletin" which
he signed on that day : but it was not until the
17th ofthe month that he certified under his hand
the king's being " in a state of convalescence."
Meanwhile the house of peers proceeded in the
Regency Bill with as much dispatch as if the ma
lady had not manifested any symptoms of abate
ment : but the interest which under opposite cir
cumstances would have attended their delibera
tions, became much diminished in consequence of
the recent change that had taken place at Kew.
No debate of importance arose in the early stages
of the measure, till the 18th, when Lord Rawdon,
after expatiating with force relative to the clauses
which conferred on the queen a control over the
royal household, moved the limitation of her ma
jesty's authority to such part of the establishment
" as should be deemed necessary to attend on the
king during his illness." Lord Stormont on this
occasion exhibited his accustomed powers of ar
gument and eloquence. " The ministers," said he,
" when they institute a feeble government, know
not the extent or magnitude of the evils that they
originate. I fear not, my lords, an open, bold
ambition. But I dread that dark and secret ambi
tion, which, working under ground and undermining
all opposed to it, may cripple the power which it
dares not avowedly combat in open day. The
patronage of the household extends over offices

350 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
exceeding one hundred thousand pounds a year in
value." — " I have ever understood that the king is
the fountain of office, as of honour. This bill
makes the queen the fountain of office. But the
present administration subvert every barrier of
the constitution."
" It has been observed," continued Lord Stor
mont, " that the queen can have no political views,
I well know how much she is entitled to venera
tion. But her advisers, who possess power with
out responsibility, may misguide her. Artifice
and cabal will find their way into her presence : —
for I know of no quality in the air of Kew
which has power to expel or to remove the
vermin that invariably infest courts."
Lord Hawkesbury, who might possibly find
some of the sentiments in this speech calcu
lated to afford him subject of reflection, rose
in reply. So did Lord Sydney, who denied that
the operation of the bill would weaken the new
government, " Let us," exclaimed he, " consider
who the regent is ! A Prince of Wales of high
character, of captivating manners, greatly beloved,
and in the flower of youth. The restrictions im
posed, it is well known, are only provided for the
period of his majesty's incapacity. Do we re
collect the present situation of the sovereign ? He
has been already declared convalescent in a report
signed by Dr. Warren; and his testimony, 1

EARL OF CARLISLE. — LORD STORMONT. 351
presume, wiU not be called in question." A di
vision taking place. Lord Rawdon's amendment
was rejected by twenty-three votes, the respective
numbers being 89 to 66 ; and a warm discussion
then arose on the question of adjournment. Mi
nisters, anxious to stop further proceedings, at a
moment when the king might again be speedily
brought forward in his regal capacity, proposed
to " report progress :" but the Earl of Carlisle,
Lord Stormont, and various other peers, opposed
it with the utmost vehemence. When the " Irish
propositions," said they, " were discussed within
these walls, we continued here till two in the
morning. And are we now, at half past eight, to
be told ofthe lateness of the hour ? No man who
considers the deep importance and urgency of the
present business can deny that it calls for dis
patch. If therefore ministers postpone it, they
must be responsible to their country for the con
sequences." Notwithstanding these reclamations,
an adjournment finally took place.
19th February. — On the following day, it hav
ing been determined in cabinet to arrest the fur
ther progress of the Regency Bill in the upper
house, the chancellor took his seat on the wool
sack. Then rising before the order could be read
for renewing the debate of the preceding evening,
he observed that since his majesty had been pro
nounced by his physicians in a state of convales'

352 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
cence, the accounts of his progressive improve
ment had almost hourly received confirmation.
" The recent inteUigence from Kew," continued
Lord Thurlow, " is so favourable, that I conceive
every individual present will coincide with me in
thinking it would be indecent to continue the
proceedings in which we are engaged, when the
principle of the bill itself may probably be com
pletely done away." Having then congratulated
the audience and the country on the auspicious
opening prospect, he submitted to the peers the
propriety of an adjournment until the ensuing
Tuesday, the 24th of the month. No opposition
whatever was experienced, and only two indivi
duals expressed any opinion on the occasion. The
first was Lord Stormont. After protesting that
the communication just made gave him the live
liest joy, "Although regencies," added he, "are
expedients required by necessity under pecu
liar exigencies, yet every man must feel how
great is the calamity of their existence. With
respect to the present Regency Bill, I consider it
as an aggravation of our national misfortunes. I
rejoice therefore, personally, if I should be deli
vered from the severe duty, which the urgent
nature of the case, and that motive alone, could
have induced me to undertake. Yet, even under
the embarrassing restrictions imposed, I am con
vinced that the Prince of Wales would have ex-

LORD STORMONT. — DUKE OF YORK. 353
hibited an earnest of that wisdom and exertion
which may be expected from him when in the
course of nature he shall ascend the throne. My
eyes, it is reasonable to suppose, will be closed
long before that day arrives : but there are lords
now present who may live to witness it. They,
I have no doubt, wiU experience the benefit, and
will acknowledge the truth, of my prediction."
We must candidly admit that during eight or
nine years the regent's administration did not in
any degree disgrace Lord Stormont's augury.
But what sentence will posterity pass upon the
king, for his treatment of the . unfortunate Caro
line of Brunswick, from the instant of his ascend
ing the throne ? The second and last person who
addressed the house was the Duke of York,
Having declared the high satisfaction which he
felt at the favourable account given, and his per
fect concurrence with the motion for adjournment,
he subjoined : " I should have derived the greatest
pleasure from making the same communication,
if I had been enabled to do it from any authentic
information. Impressed with the exhilarating
reports circulated, I esteemed it my duty yester
day to request admission to his majesty's pre
sence. From reasons which might be considered
as justifiable, I was denied that satisfaction. I
cannot have had any communication with my
royal brother on a subject so unexpectedly agi-
VOL. III. 2 A

354 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
tated ; but the knowledge which I possess of his
sentiments enables me to assert, that his gratifica
tion at this auspicious intelligence will be, if pos
sible, even higher than my own. It must liberate
him from the embarrassments in which he would
otherwise have been placed, and which no motive
could have impelled or induced him to encounter,
except a strong sense of his duty to the country."
When the house of commons met on the day
ensuing, Pitt, without assigning the slightest rea
son for his conduct, or giving any explanation
whatever, instantly moved an adjournment to the
24th of February. Vyner, affecting surprize at
so singular a proceeding when no part of the
public business was yet brought forward, added :
" I can, nevertheless, imagine the cause ; and if I
am well founded in my conjecture, it is a most
joyous cause to this house, as well as to the king
dom. Yet I cannot help wishing that we might
enjoy the gratification of hearing it stated from
the chancellor of the exchequer, in order to be
enabled to communicate it with confidence to our
constituents," Almost any other minister than
Pitt would have made some reply, if not dis
closure, in compUance with Vyner's invitation ;
but he, on the contrary, entrenching himself in
silence, the question of adjournment was put, and
carried without one dissentient voice,
24/A February. — Nor was he more communica-

GEO. III.— THURLOW. — DUKE OF NORFOLK. 355
tive when the house met again, though before
that day the king had nearly emancipated him
self from all medical attendance. The chancellor,
however little distinguished by the general suavi
ty of his manners or temper, acted very differently
towards the peers. He thought it proper to pre
mise, before he moved for an adjournment to the
2nd of the ensuing month, that every information
received from Kew confirmed the probabiUty
of his majesty's speedy and complete recovery.
Amidst the silence which followed, the Duke of
Norfolk rising, observed that notwithstanding the
want of any regular evidence to contradict the
testimony of the physicians who had been form
aUy examined, yet the chancellor enjoying the
honour of being personally admitted into the
royal presence, his statement carried with it irre
sistible authority. " Nevertheless," continued the
duke, " I could wish to learn what is the present
aspect of the king's health; what steps are in
tended to be pursued after the proposed period of
adjournment, if the sovereign, continuing to ad
vance in progressive amendment, shall neverthe
less be then unable to resume his regular func
tions. Lastly, wUl another examination of the
physicians take place ?" To the first of these en
quiries the chancellor gave a satisfactory reply.
"As far," answered he, "as my judgment enables
me to form an opinion, the posture of his majes-
2 A 2

356 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
ty's mind appears to be clear and distinct. Dur
ing the recent interviews which I have had with
him in obedience to his commands, I have re
mained in his presence at one time for an hour
and a quarter. On this very day I passed a fuU
hour with him. Throughout both these audi
ences I found his intelUgence perfectly sound, in
somuch that I consider him to be capable of
conversing on any subject." Evading the duke's
subsequent questions, " Whatever measures might
be hereafter proposed," he said, " must be founded
on the state of his majesty's health, and could
not therefore as yet be accurately stated." An
adjournment foUowed.
24>th — 2Sth February. — While all public busi
ness was thus suspended, the king continued to
make the most rapid and uninterrupted advances
to perfect recovery. As early as the 25th of
the month, Warren had signed a report declar
ing that "he appeared to be free from com
plaint;" and two days afterwards, orders were
issued to discontinue the " buUetins." His ma
jesty even resumed his accustomed intercourse
with Pitt by letters, manifesting in them, as well
as in every other act, a composed mind. He
might indeed be said to have recommenced the
exercise of his regal functions, as on the last
day of February he signed a commission filled
up at the treasury, and transmitted to Kew for

GEORGE III. — THE IRISH DEPUTATION. 357
that purpose. Perhaps, in such a proceeding
there was something informal, if not illegal ; no
parliamentary proof existing of his restoration to
sanity since the last examination of the physi
cians. But, as no legislative act had received
the royal sanction declaring him suspended from
the exercise of the sovereign authority, ministers,
conscious of the general wishes of the nation,
ventured to pass the strict limits of law. Nu
merous individuals distinguished by the king's
regard or partiality, among whom were Lord
Hawksbury, Sir Joseph Banks, and West the
celebrated painter, obtained access to him : but
he did not as yet think proper to admit into his
presence either the Prince of Wales or Duke of
York, A circumstance which took place likewise at
this time tended still more to widen the breach.
The two Irish houses of parliament having, in
opposition to all the efforts of the lord-lieute
nant, and certainly with more precipitation than
wisdom, addressed the Prince of Wales to take
on him the regency of that kingdom, duri?ig the
king's malady, without restrictions, sent over a de
putation to London for the purpose of announ
cing it to his royal highness. At their head were
placed the Duke of Leinster and the Earl of
Charlemont, who arrived in the English capital
on the 25th of February, the very day when his

358 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME, 1789.
majesty was declared to be " free from complaint,"
On the 27th, precisely as the medical reports
were suppressed on account of the king's complete
recovery, these delegates presented the address of
the Irish parliament to his royal highness at Carl
ton House. He made them a grateful and ap
propriate answer. But it was thought that the
members of the deputation would have acted
more judiciously, if, on finding the king reco
vered, they had written to their constituents at
DubUn, demanding new instructions. The Duke
of York entertained them at his residence in
Whitehall on the day of presenting the address.
This dinner was followed by a superb banquet
given at Carlton House, where not only the Dukes
of York and of Cumberland assisted, but at
which were likewise present, with the principal
opposition peers, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Francis,
Courtenay, and Lord John Townsend, then one
of the members for Westminster, Fox had pre
viously made his appearance in the house of com
mons. After passing a few weeks very joyous
ly and conviviaUy in the metropolis, the Irish
delegates returned home. If they had arrived a
month earUer, their appearance and mission would
have produced no ordinary effect : but, coming
after the king's recovery, and nevertheless persist
ing to prosecute the original purpose for which
they were sent, so strange a mode of proceeding

GEORGE III. — SIR CHARLES GOULD. 359
excited many animadversions, not unaccompanied
with ridicule.
As soon as the king resumed his ordinary oc
cupations, he passed a great part of his time in the
perusal of the recent debates that had arisen in
both houses. The divisions, accompanied with the
printed lists of the members who respectively
voted upon each side, formed likewise an inter
esting subject of his attention. I know that,
after maturely reviewing them, he said : " The
conduct of two individuals in the house of com
mons affects me with much surprize ; the one,
that he should have supported me; the other,
that he deserted me. I mean Mr. Dundas in
the first, and Sir Charles Gould in the second in
stance." However interested or relaxed Dun
das's political principles might be supposed, yet
the superiority of his judgment kept him firm to
Pitt. From the opposite party he could not hope
for employment. He consulted, therefore, his in
terest and his ambition, not less than his honour
and his character, in standing or falling with his
friend the minister. Sir Charles Gould found
himself in a different predicament. He was then
only a knight, having received the distinction in
1779, as the representative of Admiral Sir Ed
ward Hughes, when that naval officer was deco
rated with the order of the Bath. Mr. Gould be
ing bred to the law, at an early period of life made

360 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
proposals to Mr. Morgan of Ruperra, in the coun
ty of Glamorgan, for the hand of one of his
daughters. "I have," answered he, "two girls.
One is handsome ; the other, not so weU endowed
by nature. In order to repair that deficiency, I
mean to give her fifteen hundred pounds as a
marriage portion. To her sister I shall only give
one thousand. Which of them would you wish
to have?" "Allow me to enquire," replied
Gould, "which is the eldest?" "The plain girl,"
rejoined he. "Then, if you please, sir," said
Gould, " I'U have her."
The marriage was accomplished, the bride hav
ing at the time three brothers, two of whom I
personally knew in parliament. They neverthe
less all died without leaving issue ; and Gould, in
right of his wife, inherited the immense estates
situate at Tredegar, at Ruperra, and in other parts
of South Wales, which at this hour exceed forty
thousand pounds per annum. Not long after
the king's accession, in 1762, Gould had been
made judge advocate general of the forces ; a
post which he held nearly four-and-forty years.
His inclinations, his principles, and his official
employment, all impelled him to support ad
ministration. But he was brought into the
house of commons as member for the county of
Brecon by the Morgan interest ; and Pitt having
offended that family in order to oblige the Duke

SIR CHARLES GOULD. — GEORGE III, 361
of Beaufort, Gould, who beheld himself the pro
bable eventual heir to their vast property, quitted
the minister on some questions to follow his bro
ther-in-law into opposition. Such was the secret
history of his defection, at which the king ex
pressed so much astonishment, Gould, when he
obtained the Morgan estates, assumed at the same
time their name ; both of which have descended
to his son. But the father never could succeed
in attaining the grand object of his ambition, a
British peerage. Pitt created him, indeed, a
baronet in 1792, and subsequently raised him to
a place in the privy council. He suppUcated, im
plored, offered to resign his employment of judge
advocate general, and exerted during many suc
cessive years every effort in order to conciliate
the minister. Pitt remained, however, inflexible,
and Sir Charles died a commoner in 1806, as
his son continues in 1820.
1*/ — 9th March. — Both houses still adjourning
from time to time in order to allow a sufficient
interval for the confirmation of his majesty's reco
very, Pitt, on the 2nd of March, at length briefly
adverted to the fact, as forming a motive to post
pone during a few days the resumption of public
business. The Prince of Wales and Duke of
York were finaUy permitted to wait on the king ;
but their reception, as might be expected, was
cold, grave, and formal, admitting no explanations

362 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
whatever of their past conduct. Four pages of
the back-stairs, two of whom were Germans, the
other two EngUsh, suspected of divulging or
transmitting information to Carlton House dur
ing the critical periods of the king's malady, re
ceived their dismission. So did the Marquis of
Lothian, as colonel of the first regiment of Life
guards ; and the Duke of Queensberry, as one of
the lords of the bedchamber. Yet even in these
acts, his majesty manifested a mind exempt from,
and superior to, any vindictive sentiment. The
Duke of Queensberry's large property in England,
as well as in Scotland, rendered him indifferent to
the loss of his place, in a pecuniary point of view :
but Lord Lothian could Ul afford such a defal
cation from his income. Aware of the circum
stance, the king, whUe he removed the marquis
from a situation near his own person, neverthe
less bestowed on him another regiment; com
pensating the difference between it and the for
mer by an annual aUowance out of the privy
purse. General Burgoyne and Fox did not less in
veigh with the utmost acrimony against the treat
ment of Lord Lothian, as a shameless act of mi
nisterial vengeance and oppression. Taking ad
vantage of the army estimates being moved in the
house of commons some few days afterwards.
Fox exclaimed, " The language of ministers to
miUtary officers evidently is, ' You may vote

GEORGE III. 363
against government, you may oppose the interests
of the king, and you may do both without incur
ring punishment; but you shall not support the
interests of the Prince of Wales." No word was ut
tered by Pitt in reply.
If the fact relative to the Marquis of Lothian
strongly proves the placability of George the
Third's temper, the particulars that I am about to
recount will equally attest the enlargement and
serenity of his mind. During the first days of
March, being at Kew, accompanied only by one
of his equerries, while walking through the apart
ments of the palace, the astonished eyes of the
equerry were involuntarily arrested by a strait
waistcoat that lay on a chair. Hastily averting
his view from an object which recalled images so
painful, he endeavoured to conceal his embarrass
ment. But the king, who perceived it, and who
weU knew the cause, turning to him, said, " You
need not be afraid to look at it. Perhaps it is
the best friend I ever had in my life." The gen
tleman in question was Mr.. Robert GrevUle, bro
ther to the late Earl of Warwick, who related it
to Sir John Macpherson. Nearly at the same
time, before the king quitted Kew to remove to
Windsor, he received information that a poor-
house, or hospital, was constructing at Richmond.
Without previously giving notice of his design,
attended only by Major Price, his equerry in

364 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
waiting, he entered the building, and inspected
every part of it ; not omitting the rooms destined
for the reception of lunatics, which he examined
with minute and particular attention. Having
gratified his curiosity, he left the hospital; ob
serving that he derived great pleasure from see
ing so comfortable an asylum, and such excellent
accommodations, provided for persons labouring
under the misfortune of insanity. After his
complete recovery, on returning to Windsor, the
windows of his apartments at the lodge, which
had been nailed down during the first pal-oxysms
of his malady in order to guard against any sud
den act of frenzy, — by a censurable negligence
of the domestics still remained in the same state.
The king, not aware of the circumstance, at
tempted to throw up one of the windows. Find
ing it fastened, the cause was explained to him.
He expressed neither emotion nor irritation on
the occasion.
10th March. — At length, after repeated ad
journments, the two houses met for the dispatch
of business. The speech, which the chancellor
pronounced in his majesty's name, was evidently
drawn up in terms calculated to obviate oppo
sition, and, if possible, to produce unanimity. In
it the sovereign returned " his warmest acknow
ledgments for the proofs of affectionate attach
ment exhibited to his person, the zealous con-

EARL GOWER. — MR, YORKE. — FOX. 365
cern shewn for the honour and interests of his
crown, together with the security and good go
vernment of his dominions." No eulogiums,
either on ministers, or on their late measures,
were introduced. Earl Gower, eldest son of the
Marquis of Stafford, and who not long afterwards
succeeded the Duke of Dorset as ambassador at
the court of France, moved the address to the
throne in the lower house. He performed it
with brevity, avoiding cautiously every topic
likely to excite a difference of sentiment. Mr.
Yorke, now Earl of Hardwicke, who seconded
the motion, did not think it requisite to exert
equal circumspection. He ventured to observe,
that " the house might find subject of congratu
lation in having proceeded with more caution
than expedition :" adding, that " it must be to
them a source of exultation to perceive that his
majesty was able, on resuming the duties of his
office, not only to approve, but likewise to ap
plaud their proceedings." These expressions,
which implied the strongest approbation of Pitt
and his colleagues, did not escape Fox's animad
version, though he declared that they should not
prevent him from concurring in an unanimous
vote. " I do not believe, however," continued Fox,
" that the king intended tp express any such
opinion of the late parliamentary proceedings as

366 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
has been intimated ; because the speech is always
considered, not as his, but as the minister's
speech. It is therefore altogether improbable
that he would make it the vehicle of applauding
his own measures, I entertain likewise too high
an opinion of his majesty's regard for justice,
to suppose him capable of deciding between two
parties without previously hearing both ; and lam
sure that, down to the present time, no opportunity
has offered itself for giving any such explanation.
Nevertheless, I will not be prevented from join
ing in the general joy on the present auspicious
occasion," Pitt, unwilling, no doubt, to disturb
the unanimity of the house, remaining silent, the
address was voted without a dissentient voice.
Lord Graham then moved a congratulatory ad
dress to the queen. Fox remarked, that his only
objection arose from its being unusual; adding,
that when Margaret Nicholson made an attempt
on the person of the king, no such testimony of
respect or loyalty was proposed to be given to her
majesty. " If, however," added he, " all Europe
has admired the queen's conduct during the late
afflicting malady, there is likewise another person
whose conduct has equally excited universal ad
miration, and whose character has acquired ad
ditional splendor in the eyes of all mankind.
Should her majesty be addressed, I can perceive
no reason why an address ought not to be pre-

PRINCE OF WALES. — PITT. — EARL STANHOPE. 367
sented to the Prince of Wales." The minister,
who had hitherto resisted every provocation to
mix in the debate, now rose, without however
any avowed intention of contesting Fox's prin
ciple. He did not, he asserted, beUeve that a
difference of opinion existed relative to the virtues of
the heir-appa7'ent, nor had he the slightest objec
tion to address that iUustrious person : but he
could find no precedent for it. To queens, there
were numerous instances on the journals of the
house. As a proof of his assertion, he produced
an address carried up to Queen Anne, on her
husband Prince George of Denmark's recovery
from sickness. Fox tacitly concurred in this
example ; though he might have repUed, that
Anne reigned in her own right, not as a queen
consort. The two cases were therefore widely
different. He preferred, however, acquiescence.
In the house of peers, — (where two speeches
were pronounced ; the first, by the Earl of Ches
terfield ; the other, by Lord Cathcart ; through
out every word of which, court adulation borrow
ed the language of gratitude to the Supreme
Being for restoring to England her sovereign ;) — •
one, and only one, difficulty was suggested re
specting the propriety of their parliamentary pro
ceeding. Earl Stanhope, a man who at every
period of his life, whether as a commoner or as
a peer, displayed the same ardent, eccentric, fear-

368 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
less, indefatigable, and independent character,
stood forward to state his doubts on the principle,
as weU as the propriety, of the intended address to
the throne. " A bill," observed he, " is actually,
in progress, which contains a clause specifying the
precise manner in which the king is to resume
the reins of government on his recovery. The
queen and her council are empowered to judge,
and to decide, when this act may take place.
Now, the two houses having in the first instance
ascertained, by the testimony of the physicians,
the royal incapacity ; and having next specified
the mode and channel through which the nation
may be satisfied of the sovereign's complete re
storation ; is the present . measure strictly parlia
mentary? I give full confidence to the fact of
recovery ; but it is essential that we should act
in consonance to order." The chancellor, who
probably was not prepared for such an objection
from such a quarter, made nevertheless a prompt
and ingenious, if not a solid reply, " No decla
ration of the two houses could," he said, " deprive
the king of the right to govern : nor could any
clause interrupt his re-assuming his power, on the
total cessation of his disorder," Alluding to the
Regency Bill with a sort of repugnance, as a mea
sure which he wished to be buried in oblivion, he
denied that either the bill itself, or the clause
inserted in it, was founded on the testimony of

THURLOW.— STANHOPE.— ILLUMINATIONS. 369
the physicians, " ParUament," he asserted, " had
better proof of his majesty's illness ; namely, his
having neither met the two houses in person,
nor issued a commission to execute the duty."
These arguments, though coming from the wool
sack, made no impression on Lord Stanhope. He
retained, and repeated his assertions ; adding ne
vertheless, " I am a friend to ministers, and do
not mean any insinuation prejudicial to them.
My intention is only to put them on their guard."
I was of opinion at the time, and I remain so,
that, as a matter of parhamentary order, Lord
Stanhope was right in his positions. No other
peer however supporting him, the address both to
the king and queen passed unanimously, as it had
done in the commons.
These legislative deliberations were foUowed
on the same night by the most brilliant, as well
as the most universal exhibition of national loyal
ty and joy, ever witnessed in England. It ori
ginated, not with the poUce, nor with the govern
ment, but with the people, and was the genuine
tribute of their affection. No efforts of despo
tism could, indeed, have enforced it. London
displayed a blaze of light from one extremity to
the other ; the illuminations extending, without
any metaphor, from Hampstead and Highgate to
Clapham, and even as far as Tooting : while the
vast distance between Greenwich and Kensing-
VOL. III. 2 B

370 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
ton presented the same dazzling appearance.
Even the elements seemed to favour the spec
tacle : for the weather, though rather cold, was
dry. Nor were the opulent and the middle
orders the only classes who came conspicuously
forward on this occasion. The poorest mechanics
contributed their proportion ; and instances were
exhibited of coblers' stalls decorated with one
or two farthing candles. Such was the tribute of
popular attachment manifested in March 1789
towards a sovereign who, only seven years earlier,
in March 1782, after losing a vast empire beyond
the Atlantic, seemed to stand on a fearful pre
cipice! But it would be unjust not to admit
that the virtues of his character derived a lustre
from the wise or fortunate selection of his minis
ter ; from the recent severe affliction that he had
himself undergone ; and from the change of ad
ministration which his son meditated to accom
plish, as soon as he should be invested with the
regency. That measure itself, however necessary
its adoption had been under the existing circum
stances that produced it, and however deeply it
then occupied the public mind, seemed now to
disappear from recollection like a phantom.
Every part of the public business, which during
several months had been postponed or suspended
in consequence of the king's incapacity, was im
mediately brought forward ; and as early as the

CONCLUSION. 371
l6th of March, Sir George Yonge, secretary at
war, presented the army estimates in the house
of commons. The opposition, whose vision of
power had, been so unexpectedly and improbably
dissolved, again reduced to their former numbers,
beheld Pitt resume the helm of state with aug
mented popularity, amidst the general applauses
of the country.
It is at this point of time that I conclude my
memoirs. Many motives, personal as well as pub
lic, prevent me from prolonging them, though I
continued to sit in parliament near five years
afterwards, down to February 1794. I am al
ready entered on my seventieth year ; but if I
cannot therefore describe my time of life in the
language of Umbricius,
" Dum nova canities, Anraprinm et recta senectus,"
I can at least say with him,  " Pedibus me
Porto meis, nuUo dextrara subeunte bacillo."
I am not, however, on that account less mindful
of Horace's " Solve senespentem."
Other reasons prompt me here to lay down my
pen. After the restoration of George the Third
to health, another order of things seems to date ;
revolutionary France occupying the principal at
tention of Europe from 1789 to 1815. At the
moment of finishing this work, I am deeply sen-
2 B 2

372 MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. 1789.
sible to its numberless deficiencies ; some arising,
no doubt, from my want of ability; more, as
my enemies may perhaps assert, from want of
information. My best excuse is Pope's; who
says, " If Queensberry to strip there 's no compelling,
'Tis from her handmaid we must take a Helen."
With Lord Clarendon and Burnet, I well know
that I can enter into no competition, in the great
component materials of contemporary history.
Their rank, offices, and facility of access to the
highest sources of knowledge, place them far
above all rivality on my part. Yet upon two
points closely connected in themselves, and which
ought to form the basis of historical composition, —
I mean, truth and impartiality, — I may challenge
perhaps a superiority even to them. How, in
fact, could Lord Clarendon divest himself of his
partiality to Charles the First ; or the Bishop of
Salisbury lay aside his attachment to William the
Third ? I stand in no such predicament relative
to George the Third, or to George the Fourth.
From the former prince I received few or no
benefits, though I supported him in parUament,
and out of parliament, during some of the most
critical periods of his reign. Nor do I owe greater
obligations to his successor, though peculiar cir
cumstances led to his conferring on me the rank
of a baronet. The services that I rendered Pitt,

CONCLUSION. 373
to some of which I have had occasion to allude
in former parts of these memoirs, far outweigh,
even in the estimation of his friends, any favours
that I ever received from him. With Fox I
never had any political connexion, and rarely
voted with him, either in or out of office, during
nearly fourteen years that I remained in the
house of commons. Regarding both those illus
trious men through the medium of time, I con
template them only as objects of investigation,
wholly divested of partiality or of enmity. Con
scious that I stand on the verge of life, and that
I must render an account at the bar of that
Power from whom I received my being, of all
that I have written, as well as of all that I have
done, I can offer no homage to Him except truth ;
and to posterity, my greatest, if not my only
recommendation, must consist in my impar
tiality.

APPENDIX.

LETTERS AND PAPERS RESPECTING THE
QUEEN OF DENMARK.

FROM THE BARON DE SECKENDORF.
No. I,
Un mot pour vous, mon tr^s-cher. Tout va bien ;
on espere mfeme que la Princesse* se retirera k neuf
heures, alors Sa Maj'^'j" pourra vous parler jusqu'a
11 heures k son aise. Vous pouv6s lui dire tout ce
que vous av^s sur le coeur. Le mauvais tems m'an-
nonce rimpossibilit6 de me trouver demain matin au
rend6svous :^ ainsi, ayes la grace, etant d'aiUeurs des
tine d'etre mouill4 de passer k huit heures ch6s moi.
Ordonnes les chevaux a neuf, et partes sous la garde
de Dieu. Bon soir.
Je retourne le chifFre, dont j'ai pris copie. Rap-
portes-moi demain tout ce que vous av6s encore de
papiers ou d'aiUeurs.
Vous verres la Reine pr^cisement k neuf heures.
Baron de S  f.
Z— 11, 24 Mars, 1775.
* Hereditaire de Brunswic.
t La Reine de Dannemarc, Caroline Matilde.

376 appendix- No. IL
Mon trfes-cher ami, — La mort 6galement douleu-
reuse et rapide de mon incomparable maitresse ren-
verse tout d'un coup I'^difice de notre prosp6rit6.
Que nous sommes malheureux, et que sa perte est
grande pour nos amis ! Lepy a 6t^ incessamment
informe par moi de cette triste catastrophe, Le
paquet dont se trouvoit charg6 le courrier a 6t4
renvoy6 sans 6tre decachetfe au S"^ Abel par Alis, et
j'ignore entierement ce qu'auroit etc la resolution
qu'il comptoit donner aux amis de MontpelHer.
Alis m'a promis de faire en sorte que toutes les
d^penses faites par eux et par vous seroient rem-
bours^es par Abel le plus t6t que possible ; et sit6t
que j'ai des nouvelles sures k cet ^gard, vous en ser6s
instruit. En attendant, je vous prie de dire ceci k
Lepy. II est juste que personne perde son argent.
Que deviendrons-nous a cette heure, mon trfes-cher
ami ? Rester^s-vous k Londres, ou fer^s-vous le
voyage que vos parens avoient projette ? Puis-je
me flatter de vous revoir jamais? Grand Dieu,
quelle d6solation en si peu de momens ! Je ne
pourrai jamais me remettre de ce coup, Votre der-
rifere lettre parvint encore k la ch^re defuncte.
Adieu, mon trfes-cher ami. Je ne cesserai de ma vie
de vous aimer, et de conserver la memoire de votre
attachement sincere pour la pr^cieuse Agujari.
Ce 16 May 75. Tout k vous. Brocard.
From Zell. From the Baron de
S — k — f, immediately after
her majesty's death.
N. W. W. Jr.

appendix. 377
No. III.
Votre bien bonne et aimable lettre du mois pass6
est entre mes mains, et j'ose vous dire qu'elle m'a
6t6 dans mes amertumes actuelles d'une d'autant
plus grande consolation, que je sais quelle est I'hon-
n6tet6 de votre ame et la candeur de votre faf on de
penser. L'incluse a ^te non seulement remise d'abord
a Alis, qui, pour plus de suret^, ne vous fera reponse
qu'avec le courier ordinaire d'Hanovre ; mais je tiens
sa promesse sacr^e, de s'int^resser vivement pour
vous auprfes le S"^ Abel : il faut absolument que ce-
lui-ci aye soin d'un serviteur si z^l^ de sa soeur,
qui, de son vivant, 6toit si fort 6loign6 de tout ce qui
s'appeUe int6r6t ou recompense. Et d'aiUeurs, Lepy
et ses consortes renoncent et refusent restitution
des fraix quelquonques ; ils n'exigent que de vous voir
plac6. Comment le seri6s-vous, mon trfes-cher et
digne ami, selon vos voeux ? Ay6s la confiance en
moi de me le dire. Apparemment c'est k Londres
meme, dans quelque bureau d'un secretaire d'6tat ?
Car pour Hre employe dans les pays etrangers, il
faut, je crois, savoir beaucoup de langues etrang^res.
Vous continueres de m'addresser vos nouvelles k
Zelle; car tant que leRoi ne se declare pas sur notre
sort, il faut y rester tranquillement, et cela pourroit,
dit-on, bien durer encore quelques mois. Toutefois,
mon cher, vous saures dans quel trou du monde me
trouver. Comme vous me demandes quelques particularites
de la mort de celle qui faisoit nos deUces, et que
nous ne voulons jamais cesser de pleurer amferement,
je ne saurois mieux vous en informer, que par la

378 APPENDIX.
copie d'une lettre qui fut envoyee par une de nos
dames k Copenh. quelques jours aprfes ce decfes si in-
fortune pour nous. Du reste, les gazettiers en Alle-
magne, France, et en Hollande ont parie de ce triste
fevfenement d'une faifon trfes-touchante, et rendant
tous les regrets et respects imaginables aux cendres
de cette chhre Princesse. Oh leurs ennemis, qui ne
cessoient point de la persecuter, meritoient bien
que le bruit de I'empoisonneraent devint plus gene
ral ; car au bout du compte, c'est la douleur et leurs
cabales qui font tue.
Le billet cy-joint vous informera ce que les etats
veulent faire en honneur de sa memoire, et vous
seres aussi trfes-flatte de cette marque non-6quivoque
du z^le et de la veneration de tout un peuple.
Cette annonce paroitra dans toutes les gazettes d'AUe-
magne, de France, et des Pays Bas. Nous desirous,
mon cher, que vOus la faites traduire en bon Anglois,
et ayes soin que cela soit aussi insere en plusieurs
feuilles publiques, ches vous, en Ecosse, Irlande.
Quant a I'anecdote que j'ai I'honneur devous com
muniquer, il n'est pas possible de la lire sans pleurer.
On nous a soUicite de la publier aussi en Angleterre,
Cela sera encore vous, mon bon ami, qui la feera pa
roitre dans quelques journaux, sous titre. Trait de
Tendresse Maternelle. Mais comment traduire bien
et que le sens n'y perde rien, les quatre vers ? Eh
bien ; je vous recommande avec instance ces deux
entreprises, vous suppliant de m'en faire en tems et
lieu le rapport. Marie Mancini* n'a pas ete ici, ni
* La Princesse Hereditaire de B  c, soeur de la Rein
Matilde, et de Sa Majeste Britannique.

APPENDIX. 379
dans la maladie, ni apres la mort. Je ne la connois
pas asses pour juger sa sensibiUte k foccasion d'un
evfenement si triste ; mais si on en est susceptible, ne
faut-il pas se faire le reproche d'avoir aggrave par sa
conduite le poids des adversites sous lequel la chfere
Agujari gemissoit ? Ah, mon ami, que le souvenir de
sa perte me sera ineflfafable ! que je crains par-1^
bouleverser entierement le systeme de ma prosperite !
La chhre defuncte restera enterree k Zelle aux ca-
veaux de Due : c'est apparemment par une oeconomie
mesquine, qui se manifeste d'aiUeurs en tout ce que
les ExceUences de ce pays font, qu'on ne veut pas
la transporter k Hanovre. Saves-vous bien que les
gazettes disent, qu'apr^s que les enfans royaux etoient
deji en grand deuU, qu'on donna k Copenhague un
bal a la cour. N'y a-t-il done aucune dme honn^te
de gazetier k Londres, qui venge une conduite si
scandaleuse ?
Oh, mon ami, si j'etois susceptible de I'ombre de
joie, j'en aurois eu vivement, en ouvrant le dernier
paquet de Uvres qui furent envoyes d' Angleterre k
la cherissime Agujari, mais qu'eUe ne vit plus ; et y
trouvant " Cursory Remarks made in a Tour, by N.
Wra  :" j'en commencerai aujourd'hui la lecture,
moitie en la devorant, parceque c'est le stU de celui
que je ne finirai de ma vie k cherir. De grace n'ou-
bUes pas k me marquer quand vous quitt^s I'Angle
terre, et ou vous aUes. Je suis usque ad cineres
entierement le v6tre.
Brocard.
Ce 20 Juin 75.

380 APPENDIX.

No. IV.

Je suis en possession, mon bon, cher et bien-aime
ami, de vos lettres du 30 Juin, 10 Juillet, et je viens
recevoir celle du 21 Juillet aujourd'hui — -jour, apr^s
celui du 10 May, un des plus malheureux, des plus
tristes pour moi ; car c'est aujourd'hui que toute
notre cour se separe, que les dames partent, que
je suis sur le point d'aller m'enterrer k une campagne
k quelques meiles d'ici pour attendre encore quelle
sera ma destinee. Je comptois de-Ik vous repondre
avec autant de circonstance que possible; mais comme
vous me dites tire sur le point de votre depart, je me
hite de vous dire encore ce peu de lignes, car mes
chevaux sont dejk devant la voiture. II m'est in
comprehensible, mon cher, de ce que vous n'aves point
regu par le courrier d'Hannovre les nouveUes d'Alis.
II n'y a que cinq jours qu'il fut ici, et qu'il m'assura
non seulement qu'U vous avoit ecrit, mais que le rap
port a Abel etoit parti par la m^me occasion, con
formement k ce que vous avies bien voulu nous ma-
nifester de vos intentions. II est d'aiUeurs si fort
homme de parole et exact, que je ne puis douter un
moment que tout s'est execute k la figne. Or, mon
ami, s'il est possible encore, ne hites pas trop de
quitter la patrie ; voyons du moins ce que Abel re-
•pondra k Alis ; je le saurois au retour du courrier, et
je vous informerai incessamment, car je ne quitte pas
encore le pais, et vous pouves continuer k m'addresser
vos lettres k Zelle; en revanche je vous conjure de
me donner une direction ulterieure ou vous trouver,
ou a qui de vos amis a Londres je puis addresser

APPENDIX. 381
mes lettres, car il me paroit absolument impossible
de renoncer au commerce litteraire avec vous : mon
coeur vous cherit et vous estime ; et n'avons-nous pas
ete lies par des noeux que ni le tems ni la vie peut
dissoudre? Tous les amis de mon incomparable
Agujari me resteront eternellement en memoire, et
il n'y a que dans I'autre monde oil nous serous tous
ensemble heureux. Juges par ce que je viens de
vous dire, si le silence de Lepy et ses compatri-
otes, qui garde vis-k-vis de moi, tout comme vis-k-vis
de vous, ne me doit etre que de plus sensible ? En
core Lundi passe je lui ai ^crit : je I'ai conjure de me
repondre, je me suis ofFert k une entrevue partout
oh il le souhaiteroit, mais encore point de reponse ;
et cependant on n'en tend pas une syllabe de quelque
aventure sinistre arrivee. Cette conduite est done
pour se desesperer ; cependant nous ne voulons pas
le condamner, avant que de savoir leurs raisons.
Vous aures appris peut-etre qu'Abel fait administrer
les biens de la chhre defunte, jusqu'k ce que les en-
fans soyent majeurs. On dit, qu'aussitdt que I'in-
ventaire sera fait, qu'on chargera moi de cette admi
nistration ; occupation qui me sera predeuse et chfere,
parceque je puis rester par-Ik dans une espece de
connexion avec les amis de la Agujari, et me flatter
de voir, parler et connoitre ses enfans. Et puis, je
resterai dans ce pais-ci. Vous seres informe de tout,
mon cher, pourvu que vous daignes me nommer le
canal par ou je vous retrouve.
L'article de la gazette a etejnon seulement tout k
fait conforme aux voeux generaux de notre province
et de votre ami en particulier, mais ecrit avec une

382 APPENDIX.
eiegance, force et deiicatesse Cic6ronienne, qu'U a
ete lu, traduit, excerpte* etc. On fait imprimer k
cette heure, Les Dernieres Heures de notre ch^re de
funte : quoique I'original est en AUemand, et qu'U
sera difBcUe de le traduire bien dans une autre
langue, je souhaiterois pourtant vous I'envoyer tel
qu'il est ; faites le vous I'expliquer, et vous fondres en
larmes. En attendant, acceptes la silouette d'une
personne qui nous sera sacree, vous la reconnoitres
facilement ; il est triste pour nous qu'il n'en existe
point de portrait. Adieu, mon cher; je crois du
moins pas avoir manque de repondre aux points les
plus essentiels de vos cheres missives. II faut ab
solument que je finisse — mon coeur est navre de la
plus profonde douleur, et je ne peux plus. Adieu
encore une fois. Avant que de partir, votre addresse,
ne I'oubli^s pas.
Zelle, ce I Aout 75. Entierrement le votre,
Brocard.
No. V.
La votre du 11 Aoi&t, mon bon ami, toute chhre
et predeuse qu'elle m'est, parceque elle me vient de
votre part, m'a doublement afflige et me peiifetre de
douleur, vii que par le voyage que vous alies entre-
prendre je me sens arracher vos nouvelles et les in
formations de votre sort, et que d'un autre c6te vous
me faites connoitre les peu d'empressemens d'Abel
de vous recompenser le z^le et vos peines du tems
passe. Alis, toujours coupable d'avoir neglige et
oubli6 sa reponse qu'il vous devoit, vient pourtant
m'assurer le plus legalement du monde (car je suis

APPENDIX. 383
all6 moi-meme k Hannovre pour le pousser et lui
en faire des reproches) qu'il vous avoit recommande
par le dernier courier k son maitre avec toute
I'dnergie possible, mais qu'il n'avoit donn6 aucune
replique k cet egard: il ajoute, qu'il doute qu'on
fera d'abord quelque chose pour vous, vu qu'une
grace pareille intrigueroit le public, nommement
d'ou elle tiroit sa source ; il espfere cependant qu'
avec le tems on parviendra k son but ; il m'a jure,
que vous ne series pas oublie par lui, quand m^me
eioigne de votre patrie. II se peut bien que les mal
heureuses circonstances dans lesquelles se trouvent
actueUement les choses renversent toute autre medi
tation, et empSchent Abel de songer aux graces et
recompenses mfeme les plus legitimement meritees ;
mais toutefois la reconnoissance des grands est
presque une chimere, Personne de ceux qui ont
appartenus k la ch^re Agujari ont lieu de s'en louer :
Us ne raoureront pas de faim avec ce qu'on leur a
assigne pour pension, mais c'est aussi tout. La pen
sion de Brocard est des plus modiques ; on ne lui a pas
meme offert une place quelquonque dans le service,
et quoique on I'a k la fin charge de I'administration
dont vous etes instruit, tout ce qu'il en a de profit,
inclusivement sa pension, ne va pas au-delk de 110
guinees. Comment peut-on vivre de cela dans un poste
un peu eminent ? Mais non obstant de cela il est bien
aise d'en ^tre charge ; il obtient par-la un titre de
rester dans le pays, de continuer les relations intimes
avec le pauvre Lepy et ses amis abandonnes, et de
se faire connoitre en tems et lieu k la jeune famiUe,
Si done, mon digne ami, vous vouies daigner me
donner quelquefois de vos nouveUes, et j'ose vous

384 APPENDIX,
conjurer k ne me point refuser cette unique grace,
addressfes-les toujours k I'endroit oil j'avois le bon
heur de faire votre connoissance. Que ces jours me
seront toujours memorables et en m^me tems dou-
leureuses ! Souvent je vous ai encore bien vivement
devant mes yeux ; et le tout n'a ete pourtant qu'un
songe, Aussi puis-je vous assurer que la playe du
malheur que j'ai re9ue me fait encore sentir sa dou
leur comme si je n'en avois ete blesse que depuis
hier, et il me semble que le tems perd son droit et
ses peines avec moi.
Aves-vous a la fin re9u des nouvelles de nos amis ?
lis m'en ont donne il n'y a pas long-tems : le rideau
est tomb^, il s'en trouvent encore desoies. J'espere
qu'on pourra arranger entre Lepy et moi un rendes-
vous ; je languis aprhs cette connoissance. II ne me
reste, mon tr^s-cher et digne ami, que de vous souhaiter
le voyage le plus fortune du monde; et de vous
assurer, qu'en cas que Abel continue d'etre ingrat
et insensible aux recompenses qu'il vous doit, selon
toutes les loix naturelles et positives, je ne me tran-
quiUiserai pas, jusqu'k ce que j'aie pu en trouver ou
ches lui, ou dans I'administration, ou dans la jeune
famUle, qui assurement sera disposee de mieux
reconn&itre les sacrifices qu'on a faites pour leur
M**. Adieu encore une fois : il me coiite une peine
infinie de m'arracher de la conversation avec vous ;
mais j' esphre que cela ne sera pas pour long-tems,
car assurement vous vouies bien me donner de vos
nouvelles et de vos addresses ulterieures.
Ce 1 Septemb. 75.

APPENDIX. 385
No. VI.
PouRRifes-vous bien douter un seul moment, mon
bien cher et estimable ami, que je fus combie de
satisfaction et saisi de la joie la plus vive, lorsque il
m'arrivoit le plaisir inattendu de votre affectueuse
lettre du 18 courrant? Oh non, vous n'en doutes
pas, vous me rendes pleinement justice sur I'inviola-
biUte et la ferveur de mes sentimens pour vous ; vous
ne craignes pas, que le tems, I'eioignement et le
silence affoibUra des affections qu'un tems plus
heureux que celui d'k-present contracta, et dont la
base etoit zeie, respect et estime mutueUe. Receves
done miUe et miUe remercimens de ma part, d'avoir
voulu incessamment aprhs votre retour k Londres
penser k moi et me gratifier de vos predeuses nou
velles. Je me hate de vous donner les miennes par
le premier courrier ; et comme je devois d'aiUeurs
ecrire ce matin k Alis, qui se trouve depuis 4 se
maines sur ses terres en Franconie (dont il ne re
tourne qu'au mois d'Aout), j'ai saisi cette occasion
pour appeller k notre secours son intercession aupres
d'Abel, pour le faire reagir en votre faveur, et re-
assuraer une affaire que votre absence a peut-etre
fait languir. N'importe que cela ne soit pas d'abord
decide ; a force de lever sa voix, ce que je ne ces
serai jamais de faire tant que je suis entre les
vivans, il viendra surement un tems ou on r^com-
pensera un zeie, un desinteret, un merite semblable
au v&tre. Le plaisir que votre retour aura occa
sionne a FierviUe et consortes est assurement d'une
nature qui vous flktera, et pourra vous prouver
VOL. III. 2 c

386 APPENDIX.
qu'ils vous cherissent, Imagines-vous, mon ami,
qu'ils se sont formes I'idee que je n'6tois pas a
Zell, mais ches moi en Franconie, ce qui nous
empecha de lier connoissance personneUe; mais k
I'heure qu'il est, nous sommes convenus Lepy et
moi d'un rendesvous, et je me flatte que cela aura
Ueu en peu de jours, Combien de questions fera-t-on
mutuellement ! avec quel attendrissement parlera- t-on
de ce que nous avons perdu et dont la perte est irre
parable ! Car, mon ami, quant a moi, au lieu que le
tems ait diminue ma douleur, il y a des jours oil je la
sens plus vivement, dans une plus grande etendue
qu'immediatement apr^s le malheur que nous pleu-
rons, Cela est, sans doute, moins etonnant, parce
que je m'occupe a toute heure avec des objets qui
me ramfenent k ce souvenir lugubre, L'artiste Saxon
a mis actueUement la main au monument que les
etats du Duche de Lunebourg et Zell font ^riger
dans le Jardin Francois (oA jadis nous promenkmes)
k la memoire de notre chhre et bonne Reine : tout
I'ouvrage (qui sera d'un beau marbre blanc) ne
s'achevera qu'en deux ans d'ici ; n'importe, Le cer-
cueU, qu'on fait en partie ici, en partie k Hannovre,
sera, sans etre magnifique, de toute beaute. En
outre, trfes-cher ami, nous avons a la fin attrape un
image en cire, qui lui ressemble comme deux gouttes
d'eau; si le courrier d'Hannovre, qui va tous les
quartiers a Londres, ne part pas avant que je puisse
attraper une empreinte, vous aures de ma part ce
cher image, et en feres le pendant de celui que
vous aves dejk. Votre charraante, docte et instruc
tive description du Nord a ete avideraent lue par

APPENDIX. 387
toute I'AUemagne, admiree, approuvee, et nous en
avons une traduction, qu'on achete partout. L'ori-
ginal n'a-t-U pas et6 aussi traduit en France ? je
n'en doute pas. Toutefois, l'article de la malheu
reuse catastrophe de 1772 a fort estomache la cour
de Copenh . . . et j'ai entendu, sans savoir pour bien
sur, qu'on a voulu les confisquer daiis les etats du
Dannemarc. Tant mieux : aveu certain, qu'on ren
contre dans vos redts la pure v6rite.
Me voUk, mon trfes-cher ami, k la fin d'une bien
longue lettre. Si je suivois mon penchant de m'en-
tretenir avec vous, peut-^tre series-vous oblige de
lire encore quatre pages : je finis done par vous de
mander en grace de continuer k me donner de vos
chferes et prfecieuses nouveUes, car je tiendrai k vous
et pour la vie et pour la mort.
Brocard.
Zell, ce 29 Juin 76. No. VII. Zell, ce 15 Sept. 1776.
Je vous ecris, mon tres-cher, digne et estimable
ami, cette lettre, et qui fait reponse k la bien-chere
du 30 JuiUet, quelques semaines peut-etre avant
qu'eUe partira d'ici, et sera par consequent un peu
fort vieiUe au moment qu'eUe aura le bonheur d'etre
remise entre vos mains. Je veux m'expliquer plus
clairement. Le courrier ordinaire d'Hannovre en
doit etre pour cette fois le porteur, parce que je
veux y joindre certain image cheri, dont je vous
parlois dans ma precedente, et dont I'heureuse arrivee
me fera plaisir, parce que vous y mettes du prix,
2c 2

388 APPENDIX.
et sembies etre sensible k cette petite marque de mon
souvenir et zeie, qui est bien le moindre de ceux
que je ddsire tous les jours ardemment de vous don
ner en chaque rencontre. Comme il ne part qu'au
commencement du mois prochain, et que je ne puis
plus remettre mon voyage pour la Saxe et la Fran
conie au-delk du 15 du courrant, je laisse aujour
d'hui ce petit paquet entre les mains de mon com-
missionnaire d'ici, afin qu'il I'envoye k Hannovre
le jour du depart du courrier. Ce meme homme
a le plein pouvoir de recevoir toutes les lettres a
mon addresse ; et celles dont vous, cher et bien-aime,
daigneries me ravir, ne manqueront jamais de me
parvenir promptement et avec exactitude : car il
vous plaira pourtant de me tenir parole et de con
tinuer notre correspondance. EUe fait partie essen-
tielle du peu de bonheur reel qui est mon partage
dans ce monde, fera et dans le bruyant des cours et
dans la retraite les deiices de mon ame et un be
soin que je ne saurois plus manquer.
Alis a ete somme par moi ces jours pass6s,
afin qu'il retourne de vous rappeller, dans les de
peches qu'il a coutume de donner au courrier ordi
naire, au souvenir d'Abel. A la fin, nous parvien-
drons pourtant de faire preche sur I'inactivite et
I'oubli qu'on marque k votre sujet, et qui, je vous
I'assure, dans des moments de reflexion, et oiije
recapitule votre zeie, vos merites, votre desinte-
ressement dans un tems plus heureux, vos peines,
fatigues et meme vos dangers, me rongent le coeur
et m'attendrissent jusqu'aux pleurs. J'ai remis k
Alis un extrait tres-circonstancie et detailie de votre

APPENDIX. 389
derniere lettre, lequel le mettra absolument au fait
de la position oil vous vous trouves vis-k-vis de
quelques ministres d'Abel, et les intentions et
faveurs de la haute noblesse, de sorte que par-Ik
meme Alis trouve un pretexte plausible de plaider
votre cause.
Vous aves devine juste, mon ami, en supposant
que mon entrevue avec Lepy seroit touchante :
elle I'a ete k tous egards, et j'ai ete vivement affecte
lorsque le moment arriva de m'arracher de ses bras.
Elle se fit k trois postes d'ici k I'insqju de tout le
monde, parce que je n'avois pas meme un domes-
tique avec moi, et jusqu'k cette heure rien en a
transpire. Nous nous sommes rencontres le soir a
9 heures, point couches de toute la nuit, et s^pares
vers les 8 heures du matin. II est siirement un
homme tres-estimable, qui merite qu'on le cherit.
Vous etes entre pour beaucoup et bien souvent dans
notre conversation, mon ami. J'ai donne ma parole
de venir au Fevrier ou Mars, tems vers lequel je
serai de retour k Zell, leur rendre la visite de quel
ques jours, dans la viUe qui leur est la plus proche ;
car Us ne sont pas gens a ecrire beaucoup, k ce qui
me semble.
Je languis aprhs le moment que vos nouvelles
lettres sur I'histoire de la France, ecrites pendant
les momens de loisir de votre voyage, paroissent au
jour ; et je suis asses peu modeste de vous les de
mander avec la plus vive instance d'abord que le
courrier ordinaire retourne k Hannovre. Pour plus
de surete, faites une enveloppe k ma lettre avec
I'addresse, — A Monsieur Mantel, valet de chambre

390 APPENDIX,
defeu S. M. la Reine de Dannem. a Zell. On rp'a
aussi parie demierement d'une brochure qui vient
de paroitre a Londres au sujet de notre ch^re et
respectable defuncte protectrice, qui a pour titre.
Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen: quoique I'authen
ticite de ces lettres est incontestablement fausse, je
serois pourtant bien aise de les posseder, vu que je
forme coUection de tout ce qui a rapport k sa me
moire et k revenement douloureux de sa mort.
Oserai-je done, mon tres-cher et bien-aime ami, vous
supplier de vouloir bien, par le courrier ordinaire,
me faire avoir la dite brochure ? Je ferai en sorte
que le prix de son achat vous soit rembourse a
Londres, Et de cette fapon je serois done pour aujourd'hui
au bout de ma lettre. Si je voulois y joindre tout
ce que mon coeur sent pour vous, les voeux que je
ne cesse et que je ne cesserai de ma vie de faire
pour votre bien-etre et prosperite, et les assurances
du zeie et inviolable devouement qui m'anime quand
il s'agit de vous, je prendrois une autre feuUle et
courerois risque de tomber dans les redites et de
vous deplaire par-Ik, D'aiUeurs, les momens du jour
du depart sont, comme vous saves, un peu turbulans,
Vives done, cher ami, heureux et content ; vous ne
sortires jamais de mon coeur et souvenir, N'oubUes
pas celui qui est k vous Usque ad mortem.
P, S'""". — Encore un mot, mon cher ami, et meme
dans le moment ou je mets pied dans la voiture pour
partir. J'ai regu ce matin une lettre d'Alis, ou U
me dit, qu'il vous avoit recommande demierement

APPENDIX. 391
et a une occasion desu-ee : que cependant U croyoit
et vous conseiUoit meme de presenter une requette
au R. d'y demander une place dans un departement
de quelque secretaire d'etat, et de nommer les Lords
Barrington et Nugent vos protecteurs.
Adieu, mon cher : agisses de cette fa9on, s'U faire
se peut, je suis tout k vous. No. vni. Zelle, ce25 Fgvrier 1777.
D'ou prendrai-je, mon bien-cher, mon digne et
estimable ami, toutes les expressions de la joie et de
la vive reconnoissance qui ont penetrees mon ame k
la reception de vos trois cheres lettres du 30 Juillet,
8 d'Octobre et 29 de Novembre de I'annee passee ?
Mais comment vous depeindrai-je ma surprise de
voir par la derniere, que vous n'ayes point reifu, par
la voye du quartier courier, qui partit d'Hannovre
envu'on le 25 Octobre 1776, ma missive du 15 Sept,
avec le P. S*^"™ de la meme date, et une petite boete
marquee M. N. W. dans laquelle se trouvoit le por
trait en cire de feu notre incomparable protectrice ?
Permettes, "cher ami, que je vous mette, tant que pos
sible est, au fait des evenemens qui ont mis un si
long et penible intervaUe dans notre correspondance.
Dieu veuiUe que vous retrouvies encore mes dites
lettres et le portrait !
Je ref us votre chere lettre de Londres, Jermyn
Street, du 30 JuiUet, par la poste ordinaire, et ass^s
vite, c'est k dke le 6 d'Aout. Ne connoissant une voye
plus sure et commode de repondre et d'y joindre la
boete en question que ceUe du courrier d'H  , je

392 APPENDIX.
dresse (parce que j'etois necessite d'entreprendre le 15
Sept. un voyage en Saxe) et I'une et I'autre quelque
tems d'avance, la date du 15 de Sept. ; et comme
Alis me marque, un jour de poste avant mon depart,
qu'il vous avoit nomme et recommande de nouveau k
Abel, j'y joins deux mots dans un P, S*"", reraets le
tout entre les mains du fidel valet de chambre de la
chhre Agujari : celui-ci le garde jusqu'au moment que
le courrier veut se mettre en route, le lui envoye di
rectement avec une lettre de sa part, dans laquelle il
recommande ce paquet pour vous, comme un effet de
valeur et d'un grand prix ; ref oit de lui-meme I'as
surance qu'il en auroit le plus grand soin.
Le 24 Octobre le meme valet de chambre, mon
commissionnaire institue, m'envoye en Saxe votre
chhre lettre du 8 Octobre, qui etoit arrivee par la
poste. Je la mets dans mon bureau, n'y fait point de
reponse, parce que je voulus attendre la votre, que je
me flattois recevoir par le courrier retournant. En
attendant les choses restent Ik; mon homme me
mande, qu 'apparemment Mr. Wr  n'avoit pas ou
le tems de m'ecrire ou quoi ; je commenf ois k m'inqui-
eter, mais pour y voir bien clair, je ne voulus rien
faire qu'aprfes etre de retour moi-meme. Trois jours
apres celui ci, (et il avoit lieu le 12 du courrant,) AUs
me fait remettre par mon caissier, qui avoit ete pen
dant mon absence a Han . . . ches ses parens, la vdtre
du 29 Nov, Sa prudence etoit louable : mais cela
ne diminuoit point ma surprise sur ce que vous n'ayes
rien ref u. Des-lors je fis incessamment ecrire au dit
courrier, nomme Ulenbecker, et il repond hier :

APPENDIX. 393
" Qu'U avoit porte la lettre et la dite boete dans
plus que quatre caffes oil vous avies autrefois cos
tume d'aller et de vous trouver : qu'k la fin il avoit
appris que vous eties faire un voyage dans le pays : en
quoi il avoit ete d'autant plus confirme, qu'il s'etoit
trouve nombre de lettres k votre addresse, avec les
quelles il avoit aussi depose la boete, c'est a dire, k la
maison oii les lettres d'AUemagne sont portees et ar
rivent, et qu'elle s'y trouveroit encore."
De grace, mon cher ami, hktes-vous de vous en
informer ; ayes recours k la bonte de Mr. Hiniiber.
Pour votre legitimation, je joins I'original de la re
ponse du courier donnee au valet de chambre Mantel.
S'ils ne se trouvent point, je ferai punir ce miserable
d'importance, quoique cela ne peut en rien diminuer
la sensible douleur que ce revers me causeroit.
AUons k cette heure k repondre en detail sur vos
deux cheres lettres du 8 d'Octobre et 29 Nov.
Si FierviUe et Lepy vous ont marques dans leurs
lettres leur etonnement et douleur sur I'inactivite et
le silence d'Abel au sujet de votre emplacement
comme une juste recompense qui vous est due, juges
quelle est I'amertume et finquietude de mon coeur,
et comme il est vivement affecte par la position ac
tueUe d'un ami au bonheur duquel je porte mes
voeux et mes attentions presque plus qu'au mien
meme, et que je voudrois savoir aussi heureux qu'on
peut retre dans ce monde ci-bas ! Je souffre plus
que tout autre, ayant ete temoin oculaire de la pru
dence, de I'infatigabilite et du zeie ardent, qui vous
enflammoient k rendre service et k vous vouer aux in-

394 APPENDIX.
terets d'une personne dont les manes me sont Nacres,
et par I'enievement de laquelle j'ai vu ecrouler le ba-
timent de ma fortune, et ceUe d'un nombre de mes
amis cheris et estimables. Depuis je vous ai appris
k connoitre du c6te brUlant d'un esprit bien cultive,
de savoir et de plus beUes connoissances, et toutes ces
belles qualites, ce mdrite ne peut point vous conduire
k la lice d'un emplacement aussi modeste et modique
que vous la demandes ? Cela desespere. Mais malgre
ces obstacles, il est dans mon coeur une voix qui me
dit qu'avec le tems tout ira bien. C'est aussi de quoi
AHs m'assure par une de ses lettres du 14 du cour
rant. II ne semble point vouloir approuver I'idee
dont vous aves fait part k lui et k moi dans la der-
nihre missive ; c'est k dire, de remettre k Abel dans
une petite cassette cachetee le cours et la nature de
votre negodation au sujet de I'Agujari. II trouve
ceUe de presenter par le Lord Nugent, ou quelque
autre protecteur, une requete k Abel, et d'y demander
simplement une place dans un bureau d'etat plus na
turelle et moins epineuse; et je crois qu'U a raison, car
le pretexte de vous donner une charge est peut-etre ce
qui I'embarrasse ; mais il le trouveroit dans la requete
et dans I'intercession de celui qui la lui remet. D'un
c6te cependant je ne vois pas bien clair. II n'est
qu'une voix au sujet de la probite, de la justice et de
la candeur d'ame d'Abel : cesseroit-il d'agir par ces
sentimens uniquement vis-k-vis de vous ? Series-vous
le seul d'avoir de le plaindre k si juste titre ? II faut
done qu'il aye encore de bien fortes raisons pour rester
inebranlable contre les sollicitations d'Alis. Mais

APPENDIX. 395
pourquoi ne les manifeste-il pas ? Cela ne pourroit
pas le compromettre — pas etre au-dessous de son
rang. Pourquoi pas dire, de quelle faf on on doit s'y
prendre ? Oh si jamais j'apprends que vous aves ob-
tenu votre but, je respirerai plus k mon aise ; j'erigerai
k Abel dans mon coeur un autel, auquel la plus vive
reconnoissance fera mon sacrifice quotidien,
Alis vous aura expUque lui-meme et plus au long
ce qu'U y a encore k faire et ce qu'il en pense. Foible
comme je suis, sans influence, sans le moindre soutien,
etranger moi-meme et au caprice d'une fortune bien
modique, je ne puis faire pour mes amis que des
voeux ; mais ils sont d'autant plus ardents et sinceres :
je mesure d'aprfes leurs peines et leurs satisfactions les
miennes. Aujourd'hui je compte notifier k Lepy mon retour.
Nous etions convenus que je viendrois cet hyver moi-
meme k Avignon, mais mon retour retarde a tout
aneanti : la saison est ddjk trop avancee, et je crains
qu'il n'en sera rien. En outre, la commission dont
vous me saves charge exige necessairement ma pre
sence ces jours-cy.
Au reste, je ne crains pas que nos lettres sont in-
tereeptees ; cependant je me sers aujourd'hui de la
nouvelle addresse.
Aurai-je encore les MSmoires des Rois de la France
de la Race de Valois ? Vous series bien bon et aimable
a me les envoyer si I'occasion s'en trouve.
De grace, marques-moi quel peut etre I'auteur des
Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen, interspersed with
Letters written by herself. London, J. Bew, 1776.

396 APPENDIX.
II est plus que zeie, dit-on, pour nous, mais le stile et
les materiaux ne doivent pas etre des plus epures et
solides. Adieu, mon tres-cher, mon bien-aime ami, mon
digne Wr — . Si les battemens de coeur pourroient
etre entendus k cent lieues de distance, vous vous
convainqueries par vous-meme que le mien est en
agitation quand je vous nomme, quand je m'occupe
de vous. Adieu done. Pas meme la mort nous se-
parera. No. IX.
Seroit-U bien possible, mon bien-aime et digne
ami, que I'irregularite dont je me rends coupable
dans notre correspondance, diminue et absorbe les
sentimens de bonte et de I'amitie predeuse que nous
nous s'etions reciproquement voues pour le reste de
nos jours ? Vous n'en etes pas capable ; et moi,
je vous aime, je vous estime trop, pour que mon
coeur vous oublie, si meme ma plume trouve si
rarement le loisir de m'entretenir k vous. Quoique
toujours bien portant et en possession de votre che
rissime lettre du 11 Mars depuis le 18, j'ose avouer
que nombre de petites absences, et d'autres excur
sions en affaire, m'ont prive du bien doux plaisir de
vous faire parvenir quelques nouveUes de ma part.
Mais actueUement il me tarde d'avoir des v6tres, et
surtout d'etre informe, si depuis le long intervaUe
de notre silence, il ne s'est rien change dans votre
sort, et si vous n'aves fait aucune demarche pour
acceierer les vues que vous avies formees. AUs s'etoit

APPENDIX. 397
propose k deux ou trois reprises de venir pour quel
ques jours nous voir, mais il n'en a rien fait ; mes
intentions de m'expliquer vis-k-vis de lui sur votre
sujet sont par-Ik frustrees, et me laissent les regrets,
que selon toute apparence le Ciel me prive du bon
heur d'avoir contribue par mon zele et devouement
au moindre soutien de vos voeux. Si cependant je
pourrois etre persuade, qu'independamment de la
petite charge que vous ambitionnes k si juste titre, et
dont la difiiculte de I'obtenir me paroit une enigme
inexplicable, vous auries de quoi vivre conformement
k votre rang et k la situation qu'un homme de votre
merite peut exiger de la Providence, je serois bien
plus tranquiUe a votre sujet. Par des experiences
que j'ai faites dans le petit cercle de ma destinee,
et les principes qu'on se forme au bout d'une etude
du monde et des sorts des hommes comme ils sont
communement, je pretends, qu'k tout egard on n'est
pas malheureux si le Ciel nous laisse suivre nos pen-
chans dans une sorte de retraite, ignores de la mul
titude, estim es et distingues de ceux qui se donnent
la peine de nous appreder au juste, et doues de quel
ques talens, par lesquels nous sommes k meme de
faire tout le bien qu'on nous demande, k preter de
I'assistance k ceux qui nous appellent k leur secours,
et d'emporter de ce monde le temoignage d'avoir ete
honnete et toujours pret de servir au prochain si on
etoit capable. Or, mon ami, dites-moi si votre for
tune suffit pour vous fournir le necessaire pour vous
laisser vivre avec decence et k votre aise, en cas que
les vues que nous formons venoient k manquer ? Je

398 APPENDIX.
commence petit-k-petit k me former pour I'avenir
un plan de vivre qui repond k-peu-prfes aux idees
avec lesquelles je voudrois vous famiUariser ; et
quoique je suis bien plus kge que vous, et vous
doues d'un plus grand fonds d'activite que moi, U
me semble qu'avec certaines restrictions eUes sont
practicables pour toute epoche de la vie humaine.
Quelle joie pour moi, mon tr^s-cher et digne ami,
de vous revoir unjour, ou ici, ou, ce qui me feroit bien
plus de plaisir, k une campagne pres^dCtLeipzic dans
la Haute Saxe, oii je projette de ra'etablir pour tou
jours, si une fois la commission de laqueUe vous me
saves charge a cessee de se trouver entre mes mains.^
Pour me famUiariser peu-k-peu avec la verdure et
I'air champetre, j'ai quitte ma maison en viUe et ai
pris une bien beUe et grande dans les extremites
des fauxbourgs, qui a un asses vaste jardin, dont
I'entretien et les plantations m'occupent et me font
plaisir. II se trouve que c'est celle que notre ami
Lepy et son frere possedent ici. Je re9ois de tems
en tems des nouveUes de celui-ci, quoique il ne
parle point du tout de ce qui se passe au Nord, et de
deux objets qui nous y interessent le plus. II a
deux graves proces contre un fripon de fermier, qui
plaide ici aux tribunaux de justice, et m'a fait son
homme de soUicitation ; de quoi je suis bien aise, etant
par-Ik en etat de lui etre bon et utUe ' k quelque
chose. Le cercueil de feu la chere maitresse, qui sera
fait de bois de mahogany et decore de bronzes dorees,
n'est point acheve; d'autant plus belles et magni-

APPENDIX.

399

fiques seront les decorations : dommage que le tout
sera fourre dans un caveau, qui est rempli, et oii k
peine le grand jour entre. Le monument que les
etats font eriger, se trouve de meme encore entre les
mains de l'artiste, et je doute, qui pourra etre pose
dans un an. Adieu, mon bien cher et estimable ami.
Vous addresseres toujours vos lettres k L — : je
vous serre k mon coeur et suis usque ad mortem
Votre devoue et inviolableraent
attache ami.
Z. ce 1 JuiUet 77.

No. X.

NAMES BETWEEN MONS.
The K. of E.
The K. of D.
The Q. C. M.
 Juliana
The Pr. F— c
The Pri — sse Fr — c
Lie — n
B— w
Sch — n
Tex— r
Schaques
K— r B— r
P. of He— c
Eichstet
W— U
S— k— f .
Le Vieux C— e Al —

DE S — K — F AND ME.
. Abd.
. Bach.
. Agujari.
. Sestini.
. MiUico.
. Syrmen.
. AUs.
. Lepy.
. Grenier.
. FierviUe.
. Heinel.
. Valois.
. Moie.
. Vestris.
. Le Kain,
. Brocard.
. Moulin.

400

APPENDIX.

Fe d Al—

. La Motte.

Pergolese .

. Rantzau.

Lord Su — k

. CoUi.

Diedenhof

. Wolf.

Beringshold

. Conjolini.

Da Capo

, A mi de Beringsholc

Metastasio .

, Ami de Diedenhof,

Handd

, Gouldsberg,

Marie Mancini

. La Prin™ Her',

Vauglas

. P. of Bevern.

Cop — n

. Montpellier,

Lo — n

. Sud,

Al— a

. Toulon.

Ha— h

. Avignon.

Re— rg

. Lyons.

Z 1 . .

. Bourdeaux.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE BARON DE BULOW.

No. L
Le Roi donne son plein consentement. Tout est
pret pour mon retour, raais I'argent manque. Le
Roi ne donnera rien. II faut en trouver, et m'envoyer.
J'attends avec impatience votre reponse.
Adieu, mon cher ami !
N. Wraxall.
6 Decembre 1774.
Londres.
A Mons. le Baron de B  w.

APPENDIX. !0l
No. II.
(" Most secret, and most important !")
Monsieur, La nouveUe la plus malheureuse du monde m'avoit
mis dans un tel etat d'aneantissement, qu'il n'a H6
jusqu'ici pas possible de vous dire un mot.
Occupe avec Grenier k deiiberer sur les moyens
les plus prompts pour executer le plan, et rempli
de nouvelles esperances non equivoques, fixant pour
ainsi dire, malgre le silence opiniktre de Abel, le
jour, le moment tant desire, je re9ois une lettre de
Brocard. Je I'ouvre avec precipitation, dans I'idee
d'y trouver les choses les plus agreables ; mais, au
contraire, la premiere ligne annonce I'arret du destin
le plus cruel. Je ne dirai rien de ce que je sentis
dans un moment aussi inattendu, puisque je suis
sur que vous vous en faites une idee exacte par la
situation dans laqueUe vous vous seres trouve vous-
meme en apprenant notre malheur. Cen est done
fait de notre bonheur ! II s'est enfui pour toujours.
Nous n'avons pas du etre heureux, nous n'avons pas
dii le rendre les autres ! II ne nous reste auqu'un
espoir. Nous rentrons dans le neant dont nous vou-
lions sortir. Mais que ce fant6me de bonheur envoie
ne nous emporte pas votre amitie et attachement.
Coraptes jusqu'k la fin de mes jours sur le mien.
Mes amis vous assurent la meme chose. Nous vous
devons trop pour devenir ingrat ; tout qui dependra
de nous pour vous le temoigner ne sera jamais negli
ge. Paries et disposes de ce qu'il y a en notre pou
voir. Si vous aves eu encore des despences, dites-le-
VOL. III. 2 D

402 APPENDIX.
moi, et j'en ferai mon rapport. Continues surtout,
je vous en conjure, dans quel coin du monde que
vous vous trouveres, de me donner de vos nouvelles.
*' Private ) Dans votre lettre du 21, vous dites que
affairs." j yous aves eu la bonte de vous informer
d'un carosse coupe pour la ville, et que vous en aves
trouve un tres-bon. Je vous suis infiniment rede-
vable de votre amitie, et ^'espfere que FierviUe vous
aura marque ce dont je I'ai charge, et que vous aures
eu la bonte d'arreter le dit carosse. Je vous enverrai
au premier jour I'argent necessaire : coraptes Ik-des-
sus, et pardonnes que j'ai tarde jusqu'ici. Faites-
moi la grace de m'envoyer le carosse le plus tot pos
sible, et ayes celle de m'acheter aussi deux harnois
pour deux chevaux. Je connois votre bon gout, et
me rejouis de recevoir un joli equipage anglois.
J'aime tout ce qui est de ce pays-Ik, de coeur et
d'ame, et voudrois moi-meme en etre.
Aves-vous eu la bonte d'avoir eu soin de cette piece
d'etoffe ? Sera-t-eUe bient6t teinte, et arrivera-t-eUe
bient6t ?
Ne pourries-vous pas me faire I'amitie de me don
ner une bonne addresse a quelqu'un k Londres, qui
voudroit faire des commissions, et executer celle que
je lui demanderois quand j'aurois besoin de quelque-
chose ? II faudroit que ce fut un homme entendu
et sur, qui menaga mes interrets, et k qui je pourrois
payer des provisions pour sa peine. Par ce raoyen
on peut avoir de votre pays tout ce qu'on veut : on
le revolt bon, et non pas si cher que quand on
I'achete des marchands d'ici.

APPENDIX. 403
A recriture de ceUe-ci vous ne me reconnoitres
pas: mais mes sentiments vous diront qui je suis, et
que je vous suis attache pour la vie.
Le 22 de May.
Donnes-moi bientot de vos nouvelles, et dites-moi
si vous n'aves rien entendu de Abel, et comment
il a re9u la triste nouveUe.
" From the Baron de B  , only a few-
days after die Queen of D.'s death.
Most important I"

LETTERS FROM THE BARON DE LICHTENSTEIN.
No. I.
Monsieur, A Londres, ce !¦"*" Janv. 1775.
Je viens de recevoir dans ce moment la lettre ci-
jointe, et je ne manque pas de vous la faire parvenir
tout de suite sous votre adresse que vous aves eu la
bonte de donner avant votre depart d'ici.
Mes correspondants sur I'affaire en question ne
m'ont dit jusqu'ici autre chose, sinon qu'on avoit
reif u la nouvelle du consentement et de I'approbation
sur le projet que vous saves, monsieur, avec beau
coup de joie et de satisfaction, et qu'on m'ecriroit plus
amplement sur ce sujet par I'occasion du courier qui
arriveroit a Londres k-peu-prfes vers le mi du mois
de Janvier. J'ai I'honneur d'etre.
Monsieur,
Votre tres-humble et tres-obeissant serviteur,
H. I. B. de L.
2 D 2

404 appendix. No. n.
J'ai refu, monsieur, la lettre que vous m'aves fait
I'honneur de m'eciire en datte du 14"°^ de Mars.
Je suis tres-fache que mes occupations et mon em-
ploi k Hannovre ne me permettent pas de m'arreter
ici jusqu'au tems de votre retour pour avoir la satis
faction d'apprendre le succes de votre voyage, n'en
ayant pas eu, comme vous vous imagines, des nouveUes
par la personne en question. En attendant, j'ai
donne I'avis k I'endroit necessaire de votre arrivee
prochaine. Vous trouveres ci-jointe I'adresse de la
personne k laqueUe on veut que vous remettiez vos let
tres dont vous pourriez etre charge. Je dois vous dire
de n'etre pas surpris si vous ne receves point de re
ponse. On I'adressera k moi. Des raisons que vous
saves, c'est k dire qu'on ne donnera rien d'ecrit de sa
main touchant cette affaire, ne permettent pas d'agir
autrement. Si on ne change pas de sentiment, et
si on ne vous fait pas dire par celui auquel vous don-
neres vos lettres, d'attendre ici, je ne vois pas d'autre
expedient, que de retourner dans une quinzaine de
jours et de venir me trouver k Hannovre, ou je
compte d'etre infaiUiblement vers la fin du mois
d'Avril. J'ai I'honneur d'etre avec la consideration la plus
distinguee. Monsieur,
Votre tres-humble et tres-obeissant serviteur,
A Londres, ce 24 de Mars, 1775. B. L.
Adresse de lapersorvne a laqueUe Mr. Wr. remettra des lettres :
Monsieur de Hinuber, Jermain-street, St. James.
("Received in London the 4th of April 1775." N.W.W.)

appendix. 405
No. III.
A Hannovre, ce Q"" Janvier, 1777.
Monsieur, Ayant perdu, ou plutot bride, avec tous les pa-
piers relatives k I'affaire en question, I'adresse que
vous m'aviez donnee k Londres, pour vous faire par
venu- avec siirete mes lettres, je n'ai pu hazarder de
repondre k I'honneur de votre derniere du 29 No-
vemb. par la poste ordinaire. J'ai prefere, monsieur,
d'attendre le depart du courier d'aujourdhui, le por
teur de ceUe-ci, qui ne manquera pas de faire les
recherches necessaires pour trouver les moyens de
vous la remettre en mains propres.
Convaincu comme je le suis du zeie, du parfait
devouement et du desinteressement, autant que du
succes heureux, avec lequel vous aves servi dans cette
affaire difficile et epineuse, je ne sf aurois asses vous
raarquer mes regrets de vous savoir encore jusqu'ici
sans aucune recompence. Persuades-vous, monsieur,
que j'ai fait tout mon possible pour vous la faire avoir,
et que je tenterai par de nouveUes representations
k contribuer d'acceierer cette recompence juste et
due k vos peines et services.
Quoique je ne desapprouve nuUement le projet
que vous aves forme de vous remettre au souvenir
du Roi par I'envoi du memoire dresse sur les cir
constances de la negotiation dans laqueUe vous eties
employe, j'ose vous prior de remettre cette derniere
tentative encore pour quelque tems, et d'attendre la
reponse de Mr. de S  ff, sur la lettre que vous
m'aves envoyee pour la lui faire tenir : Commission

406 APPENDIX.
dont je n'ai pu m'acquitter, Mr. de S  ff se trou
vant absent de Zelle depuis 3 mois : mais sachant qu'U
doit necessairement etre de retour vers la fin de ce
mois, vous pouves compter, monsieur, que vous aures
infaiUibleraent sa reponse dans le courrent du raois
de Fevrier, et avec elle, les avis de I'effet de raa der
niere lettre k sa majeste sur ce sujet.
II ne me reste qu'k vous souhaiter tout le bonheur
que vous merites, et de vous assurer de la part
sincere que je prendrai, si mes voeux pour votre for
tune et contentement se reaUsent. J'ai I'honneur
d'etre avec les sentimens de la consideration la plus
distinguee. Monsieur,
Votre tres-humble et tres-obeissant serviteur.
Baron de Lichtenstein,

PAPERS RESPECTING THE QUEEN OF DENMARK.
No. L
Copie. Zelle, ce 15 Mai, 75.
La maladie epidemique qui nous menaifa n'existe
plus ici ; en viUe eUe n'a point ete du tout, et au
chateau elle n'a emporte qu'un page et notre chere
Reine, qui fait k si juste titre l'objet de nos plus sin
ceres regrets ; et cela est general. Sa cour, qui
I'idolktroit, est vraiment desoiee, malgre la ferme
persuasion que notre respectable maitre aura soin
d'eux, mais c'est pour elle-meme qu'on la regrette,
et vous ne sauriez vous imaginer I'affliction et la
consternation qui se repandit dans toute la ville
Ibrsqu'on la sifut en danger, Elle I'etoit du pre-

APPENDIX. 407
mier moment qu'elle toraba malade par le jugement
de notre habile medecin Leyser ; eUe s'en apperf ut
d'abord eUe-merae, et lui dit en propres termes :
" Vous m'avez tire deux fois depuis le mois d'Octobre
de deux maladies assez serieuses, mais de celle-ci vous
n'en viendrez point k bout :" et eUe ne dit que mal
heureusement trop vrai. La fievre du premier mo
ment etoit d'une violence prouvee par 131 Puls-
schldge dans une minute, et les deux derniers jours
Ion ne pouvoit plus les compter. Leyser de-
manda Zimmerraann d'Hannovre, qui vint k son
secours, mais sans effet. Le Friesel sortit, mais avec
des taches qui denotoient une fievre pourpree, et c'est
aussi k cette malheureuse maladie et aux decrets
d'une Providence immuable que nous devons sa perte.
Apres avoir souffert en Chretienne avec une pa
tience et une resignation parfaite et presque sans
exemple, garde connoissance, marque comrae de
coutume les plus tendres et gracieuses attentions
pour ses dames d'honneur qui la soignoient dans sa
maladie, et parie jusqu'au dernier moment, elle a fini
sa carriere d'une faif on qui a edifie et penetre d'ad-
miration tous les assistans. EUe a vu notre digne
Surintendant-general Jacobi et le Ministre Lehzen,
qui ne I'a pas quitte et k qui eUe a quasi dicte ce
qu'U devoit lui Ure k plusieurs reprises et entre ce
beau Cantique de Gellert iiber die Liebe der Feinde
— Nie will ich dem zu schdden suchen — en re-
petant souvent le 5'™' vers. En un mot, ces der
nieres heures, oii les masques de tous les humains
tombent, sa fermete vraiment stoique avec laquelle
eUe paroissoit soutenir les revers douloureux d'une in-

408 APPENDIX.
fortune si edatee, la magnanimite de toutes les ver-
tus humaines, peut-etre la plus difficile k pratiquer
envers ses adversaires, qui ne cessoient point de la
persecuter, joint k la conduite irreprochable qu'elle
a mene pendant tout le tems que nous avons eu le
bonheur de la posseder, nous persuadent, Mr., de
la malignite des ennemis que cette auguste prin
cesse a eu. Elle leur a pardonne, et il faut que nous
le fassions aussi, en souhaitant qu'ils le reconnoissent
pour se convertir ; et il n'y a qu'une voix generale
pour se convaincre que si cette jeune Reine etoit
tombee en des bonnes mains, et moins exposee et
abandonnee aux pieges qu'on lui dressa des son ar
rivee k Copenhague, dans un age oii I'experience ne
pouvoit que lui manquer, elle auroit fait, et par son
coeur et son esprit si bien orne, les deiices de tout un
peuple. A cause d'une necessite absolue il a fallu deposer
son corps apres deux fois 24 heures dans le caveau
des Dues de Zelle, jusqu'au tems quele Roi d' Angle
terre regie la porape de ces funeraiUes, Cela s'est fait
avec beaucoup d'ordre et de decence par le Grand
Marechal de Lichtenstein. Aux sermons k I'dglise
et k la lecture de la Abdanckung toute la viUe
a fondu en larmes depuis le premier jusqu'au
dernier. Son affabilite et sa douceur lui avoient
gagne les coeurs meme du plus petit peuple.
Les Juifs ouvrirent d'abord leur temple pour les
prieres publiques, et dans les rues fon n'entendoit que
des gemissemens et des invocations pour le retablis
sement unserer guten und lieben Koniginn. Les
Etats du Duche de Lunebourg asserabies k Zelle con-

APPENDIX. 409
jointement avec d'autres corps de la magistrature ont
envoye des lettres de condolence au Roi, remplis des
expressions qui marquent leur vive douleur, celle du
peuple, et la consternation s'est manifestee dans
toutes les classes des habitants de ces contrees.
No. II.
death and character of the queen.
Sir, Conscious of ray own incapacity to draw a
portrait so masterly and difficult as that of the late
Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, I waited in
the expectation that sorae more able and eloquent
pen would have attempted it. But few persons in
this kingdom were in any degree acquainted with
her life or actions while she resided in Copenhagen ;
perhaps still fewer had the honour to know that ex
alted sufferer during the latter years which she spent
in retreat at Zell. To this unacquaintance with her
Majesty's person may, I doubt not, be imputed the
universal sUence respecting her ; and it is from the
appearance of no other writer in so noble a cause
that the present attempt to present her real character
to the English people must derive its excuse.
Sacrificed in the first bloom of life, and decked
with the fillets of royal misery, she was sent, an in
experienced victim, to a court the most despicably
dissolute and debauched in Europe. The man to
whom she was wedded, — I raean, the present King
of Denmark, — was a compound of insanity and bru-
taUty. In the frequent paroxysms of debility or

410 APPENDIX.
frenzy to which he was subject, he resembled the
unhappy Charles the Sixth of France ; in the inter
vals of riot and intemperance he seemed to emulate
Alphonso the Sixth of Portugal. Surrounded with
spies and eraissaries who interpreted the raost trifling
levities of youth into enorraous crimes, the young
and unguarded Queen could not long remain in such
a court without giving her enemies too favourable an
opportunity to effect her faU. They succeeded, and
induced the wretched King to become the engine of
their malevolence, by signing the order for her im
prisonment. The interposition of the British court
saved her from farther violence, and conducted her
to an asylum in the Electoral dominions of Hanover,
Here she appeared in her true and native character.
Divested of the retinue and pomp which on the
throne of Denmark veUed her, in a great degree,
from the inspection of nice observers, the qualities
of her heart displayed themselves in her little court
at ZeU, and gained her universal love. Her person
was dignified and graceful : she excelled in all the
exercises befitting her sex, birth, and station ; she
danced the finest rainuet in the Danish court, and
managed the horse with uncomraon address and
spirit. She had a taste in music, and devoted much
of her time, whUe at ZeU, to the harpsichord. The
characteristic style of her dress was simplicity, not
magnificence ; that of her deportment, an affabUity
which, in a personage of such high rank, might be
termed extreme condescension. Her talents were
liberal and diffusive : she conversed with the most
perfect facihty in French, English, German, and

appendix. 411
Danish ; and to these extraordinary attainments she
added a thorough knowledge of the Italian, which
she studied and admired for its beauty and delicacy.
Her manners were the raost polished, soft, and in
gratiating ; and even the contracted state of her
finances could not restrain that princely munificence
and liberality of temper which made her purse ever
open to distress or misery. Though the natural en
jouement and gaiety of her disposition impressed those
who only saw her in the circle, with the idea of tran-
quUUty, of happiness ; yet it cannot be doubted that
the series of cruel and unmerited sufferings she un
derwent impressed her mind very deeply, and per
haps slowly conduced to produce those attacks of
sickness which in the end proved fatal. Banished
with every circumstance of indignity from the throne
of Denmark, she yet retained no sentiment of re
venge or resentment against the authors of her fall,
or against the Danish people. Her heart was not
tinctured with ambition, and she looked back to the
diadem which had been torn frora her brow with a
calraness and a superiority of soul which might have
made a Philip the Fifth or a Victor Amadeus blush.
It was not the crown she regretted : her children
only eraployed her care. The feelings of the Queen
were absorbed in those of the mother ; and if she
wept the day when she quitted the island of Zealand,
it was because she was then bereft of those dear ob
jects of her raaternal fondness. Two or three months
before her death, she showed with transports of joy
to Madame d'O  , her first lady of the bedcham
ber, a Uttle portrait of the Prince Royal her son.

412 APPENDIX.
which she had just received. It happened that this
lady, some few days after, entered the queen's apart
ment at an unusual hour : she was surprised at hear
ing her Majesty talk, though quite alone. While
she stood in this attitude of astonishment, unable to
retire, the Queen turned suddenly round, and ad
dressing herself to her with that charming smUe
which she alone could preserve at a moment when
her heart was torn with the most acute sensations,,
^' What must you think," said she, " of a circura-
stance so extraordinary as that of overhearing me
talk, though you find me perfectly alone ? — but it
was to this dear and cherished iraage I addressed
my conversation. And what do you imagine I said
to it ? Nearly the same verses which you applied
not long ago to a child sensible to the happiness of
having found her father ; verses," added she, "which
I changed after the manner foUowing," The verses
are French, and too delicate to admit of a translation.
" Eh I qui done, comme moi, gouteroit la douceur
De t'appeller mon fils, d'etre ch&re a ton cceur !"
Toi, qu'on arrache aux bras d'une mere sensible,
Qui ne pleure que toi, dans ce destin terrible."
Madame d'O  could not speak : she burst into
tears, and, overcome with her own emotions, retired
hastily from the royal presence.
When she was first apprehended to be in danger
from the disorder which seized her, anxiety and con
sternation were spread through her whole little court,
which idolized her ; but when she expired, no lan
guage can express the horror and silent grief visible
in every apartment of the palace. . Leyser, the phy-

APPENDIX. 413
sician who attended her Majesty during her whole
iUness, dreaded the event from the first moment.
She saw it, and, impressed with a presentiment of
her approaching death, which proved but too true,
" You have twice," said she, " extricated me from
very dangerous indispositions since the month of
October ; but this exceeds your skill : I know I am
not within the help of medicine." Leyser desired
that the celebrated physician Zimmerraann might be
caUed in from Hanover. He was so ; but her Ma
jesty's illness, which was a raost violent spotted
fever, baffled every endeavour. At the beginning
her pulse beat a hundred and thirty-one strokes in a
rainute, but during the two last days it was impos
sible to count them. She bore the pains of her dis
temper with exquisite patience, and even showed
the most delicate and generous attentions to her
maids of honour who waited by her. Her senses,
speech, and understanding, she preserved to the last
moment ; and only a short time before her death ex
pressed the raost perfect forgiveness of all those
enemies who had persecuted and calumniated her
during life. Monsieur de Lichtenstein, Grand Ma
rechal of the Court of Hanover, presided at the
funeral rites, which were conducted with a pomp
suited to her regal dignity. Her Majesty's body
was interred with her ancestors the Dukes of Zell.
The streets and the great churches were thronged
with crowds of people, drawn by the sincerest grief
and condolence, to behold the mournful obsequies of
their benefactress pass along in silent state. It was
a scene the most affecting and awful to be imagined :

414 APPENDIX.
nothing was heard but groans, invocations to Heaven,
interrupted by sobs and tears, through every quarter
of the city. The death of this amiable princess
most strikingly reminds one of that of Henrietta,
Duchess of Orleans, in the last century. They were
both eminent for their accoraplishraents of mind
and person ; they equally constituted the brightest
ornament of the courts in which they resided ; they
were both torn away in the pride of youth by violent
and short distempers, and in both were some sus
picions of unnatural means, comraonly received.
But the most striking proof of the love and attach
ment borne to the Queen, and of the impression
which her virtues had made among aU ranks of
people in the country where she died, is the reso
lution which the states of Lunenbourg framed at
Hanover on the 10th of last month.

*

INDEX.

A.
Abercorn, Earl of, see Hamilton.
Abingdon, Willoughby Bertie fourth
Earl of, his speech, iii. 244.
Adam, Mr. reconciled to Mr. Fox, i.
14.
Addington, Dr. Anthony, remarks re
specting, ii. 12 ; appointed to attend
George III. iii. 1 90 ; his opinion of
him, 196.
 Mr. afterwards Viscount
Sidmouth, seconds an address to
tlie crown, ii. 11; account of him
ib. ; his intimacy with Mr. Pitt,
12 ; remarks respecting his ap
pointment as first minister, 13 ; his
dread of the French invasion, 15
remarks respecting, iii. 327.
Addison, Mr. comparison between
and Dr. Johnson, i. 233 ; his writ
ings, ib. 234.
Adhemar, Count d', French ambas
sador, particulars of, ii. 118; his
paralytic attack, 119 ; his temporary
recovery, 120 ; his incapacity, 229 ;
succeeded by the Chevalier de
Luzerne, ib.
Adolphus, Prince, preserit Duke of
Cambridge, enters the university of
Gottingen as student, ii. 156.
Almas Ali Cawn, Prince, treatment
of, i. 123.
American colonies, independence of,
proclaimed, i. 177.
Ancaster, Robert Bertie fourth Duke
of, death of, i. 21.
Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, Du-
chesse de Longueville, remarks re
specting, i. 8.
Anne of Austria, comparison between,
and Marie Antoinette, i. 199.
Arcot, Nabob of, see Mahommed AU.
Arden, Richard Pepper, attorney-ge

neral, afterwards first Lord Alvan
ley, abilities of, i. 74 ; his defence
of administration, 271 ; remarks
respecting him, 341 ; his bill for
regulating the duration of polls and
scrutinies, 342 ; appointed master
of the rolls, iii. 100 ; created a
peer, ib.
Artois, Count d', his unpopularity, i.
180; separation from his wife, 195 ;
his personal appearance, 201 ; irre
gularities of, 202 ; his retreat at
Bagatelle, 203.
Astley, Sir Edward, M. P. for Nor
folk, speech of, relative to Mr. Pitt's
Declaratory Bill, iii. 30.
Atkinson, Mr. Richard, account of, i.
118 ; chosen M.P. for the borough
of New Romney, 119 ; anecdotes
of, ib. 120 ; his death, ib.
Augustus, Prince, present Duke of
Sussex, entered at the university
of Gottingen as a student, ii. 156.
Austria, Maria Theresa of, her forti
tude, i. 182. B.
Baker, Sir George, his suspicions of
the king's insanity, iii. 176.
Bankes, Mr. M.P. for Corfe Castle,
character of, i. 249 ; his friendship
for Pitt, 250 ; parliamentary inde
pendence of, ib. ; his speech on
Pitt's plan of reform, 295 ; his
elevated conduct, 296.
Barr^, Mr. his attack upon tbe Duke
of Richmond, i. 283.
Barthelemy, Mr. Secretary to Count
d' Adhemar, ii. 119.
Bastard, Mr. amendment of. to Mr.
Pitt's motion for fortifying the
dockyards, ii. 50 ; compromise of
fered by him, ib. ; questions the

416

INDEX.

propriety of Lord Howe's- naval
promotions, iii. 50 ; sound under
standing of, ib. ; moves an address
to the throne, 51 ; nature of, ib. ;
rejection of his proposition, 52 ;
states bis determination of renew
ing it, ib. ; fulfils his promise, ib. ;
declaration in favour of his motion,
53 ; debate respecting, 54 ; motion
carried, 56.
Bathurst, Henry Bathurst, second
Earl, states the reason for convok
ing the parliament, iii. 316.
Bearcroft, Mr. his observations relat
ing to Mr. Hastings, ii. 106.
Beauchamp, Viscount, afterwards
fourth Marquis of Hertford, account
of, i. 323; his marriages, 324.
 Lady, Marchioness of
Hertford, her extraordinary beauty,
i. 325.
Beaufoy, Mr. remarks on his elo
quence, i. 825 ; allusions to, in
" The RoUiad," 326 ; his petition
respecting the smuggling of tobacco,
327 ; moves the repeal of the Cor
poration and Test Acts, ii. 267 ;
his able arguments respecting, ib. ;
obtains a majority, 272.
Beaumarchais, M. author of " Le
Marriage de Figaro," i. 209.
Belgiojoso, Count, appointed by Jo
seph II. of Austria to be first mi
nister of the Low Countries, ii. 362 ;
ordered to repair to Vienna, 364.
Benfield, Paul, Burke's accusations
against, i. 258 : his transactions with
the Nabob of Arcot, 262 ; returns
to England, 263 ; elected M.P. for
Cricklade, 264; charges against,
ib. ; returns to Madras, 265 ; his
quarrel with Lord Macartney, ib. ;
ordered to repair to Permacol, ib. ;
returns to Fort St. George, 266 ; to
England, ib. ; his ambitious cha
racter, 267 ; opens a banking-house
with Mr. Boyd, ib. ; his bank
ruptcy, 268 ; notice of his death,
269.
Berkeley, Frederick Augustus fifth
Earl, anecdote of, ii. 23.
Bertie, Lady Elizabeth, her marriage,
i. 19.
Besborough, William Ponsonby, se
cond Earl of, his antipathy to She
ridan, i. 47 ; imposition practised
upon, 48.

" Bill for enabling the East Ind-ia
Company to make a dividend of 8
per cent, and for remitting the sum
of £100,000 to the public," discus
sion on the introduction of, i. 159.
" Bill for regulating the duration of
FoUsand Scrutinies," i. 342 ; passed
343.
Bonaparte, Napoleon, remarks re
specting, i. 215 ; his motive for
destroying the Temple, 221 ; re
marks on his imprisonment at St.
Helena, 221.
Bonnecarrere, Monsieur, Mr. Boyd's
confession to, i. 131 ; sent to Cal
cutta as a spy, 132 ; to England, ib.
Boughtorv, Rouse, representative for
the borough of Evesham, appointed
secretary to the new East India
Board, ii. 66 ; chairman of the
committee on Dundas's India
Bill, ib. ; personally addressed by
Mr. Burke, ib.
Boyd, Hugh Macaulay, Junius's Let
ters attributed to, i. 128 ; his con
fession to Monsieur Bonnecarrere,
131 ; his character, 133 ; Lord
Macartney's opinion of, 134.
 Mr. his connexion with Mr.
Benfield, i. 267.
Breteuil, Baron de, his representation
respecting state prisons in France,
i. 213.
Brieune, Lomenie, Abp. of Toulouse,
succeeds M. Calonne as minister of
finance, ii. 284 ; opinion of the
Duke of Dorset respecting, 285.
Brunswick, Princess of, her visits to
Zell, i. 375. 382. 405.
Buckingham, Marquis of, see Temple.
Bulow, Baron de, plans the restora
tion of the Queen of Denmark, i.
380 ; his interviews with Sir N.
Wraxall, 387. 393. 402 ; his letter
to him respecting the Queen of Den
mark, 401 ; announcing her death,
413 ; his solicitations in his behalf,
416.
Burges, Mr. remarks of, respecting
Mr. Hastings's fcounsel, iii. 105 ;
proposition of, ib.
Burgoyne, General, pointed allusions
made to, by Mr. Hardinge, ii. 107.
Burke, Mr. comparison between him
and Sheridan, i. 37, 38. 43 ; re
turned for Malton, 56 ; character
of fais " Representation," 103 ; at-

INDEX.

417

tacks Pitt's East India Bill, i. 112.
116; his invectives against Mr.
Hastings, ib. 123; comparison be
tween him and Mr. William Wind
ham, 242 i his reply to Major
Scott's accusations, 252 ; remarks
on his speech, 258 ; his accusations
against Pitt and Dundas, 259.
261 ; his speech respecting the
transportation of convicts, 286 ;
his attack upon Pitt, 320 ; his
animosity towards Warren Hast
ings, 335 ; projects an enquiiy into
his conduct, 339 ; reminded of his
promise respecting the charges
against INIr. Hastings, ii. 26 ; his
evasive answer ib. ; remarks con
cerning him, 27 ; his opinion of
Hastings's administration, ib. ; pro
duces the charges against him, 36 ;
his animadversions on Mr. Dun-
,das, 37 ; his charge against Mr.
Hastings relative to the peace
with the Mahrattas, 56 ; his violent
indignation at the introduction of
Mr. Dundas's India Bill, 65 ; his
personal address to the chairman,
ib. ; his reforming spirit, 83 ; his
motives for bringing forward the
impeachment of Mr. Hastings, 89 ;
particulars respecting him, 90 ;
delivers two more charges against
Hastings, 100 ; remarks upon the
impeachment, 102 ; his indignation
at the conduct of Kenyon and
Jenkinson, 105 ; his compari
sons, 1 09 ; his address respect
ing Mr. Hastings, 112; announce
ment of his intended prosecution
against Mr. Hastings, 120 ; de
mands the correspondence be
tween Mr. Middleton and the go
vernor-general, ib.i moves for Mr.
Middleton's examination at the bar,
ib.; justifies his conduct, 121 ; brings
forward his first charge against Mr.
Hastings, 123; disclaims any per
sonal malevolence, 124 ; nature of
his anger, ib. ; his opinion of Mr.
Hastings's exculpation, 125 ; dis
cusses the Rohilla war, 126; his
motion negatived, 131 ; his inten
tion signified of bringing forward
another charge against Hastings, ib. ;
remarks concerning, 132 ; pointed
comments upon his conduct, 137 ;
remarks of, concerning Mr. Pitt in
VOL. III.

the prosecution of Hastings, ii. 1 42 ;
signifies his readiness to introduce
the next charge against him, 146;
discusses the necessity of a com
mercial treaty with France, 194;
remaiks upon his intemperate con
duct, 196 ; upon his prospects, 197 ;
upon his disposal of his pensions,
198 ; expresses his approbation
of the measure for consolidating
the duties, 222 ; remarks of, re
specting Warren Hastings, 262.
266; moves the appointment of a
committee to prepare articles of
impeachment against him, 281 ;
invites Pitt and Dundas to join the
committee, 282 ; moves the im
peachment, 320 ; repairs to the
bar of the house of lords to fulfil
his commission, ib.; introduces a
new charge against Mr. Hastings,
327 ; adoption of, 348 ; observations
of, relative to Mr. Kenyon, iii. 14;
imputations by, respecting Mr. Pitt,
41 ; his animadversions upon Sir
Elijah Impey, 69 ; discusses the
question of relieving the royalists,
110; remarks on his acrimonious
temper, 149 ; his imputations re
specting Pitt, 206 ; speeches respect
ing the regency, 233. 259 ; his at
tack upon Pitt, 262 ; arraigns the
conduct ofthe committee for exa
mining the physicians, 269 ; his ac
cusations against Pitt, 291 ; his vio-'
lence, 293 ; his allusion to the diflTer-
ence between Pitt and the chan
cellor, 298 ; his violent speeches re
lative to the regency, 306. 323 ; his
remarks respecting George III.
317; comments on his speech, 318 ;
his allusion to the queen, 319 ; his
unpopularity, ib.; apologises for his
violence, 324 ; speech respecting
the Duke of York's appointment
as a member of the queen's coun
cil, 328 ; respecting the king's
resumption of the regal authority,
339; retires from the house of,
commons, 341 ; his unpopularity
in 1789, 343 ; unites with the
government party, 344; pensions
and favours conferred on, 345.
Burnet, Bishop, his remarks respect
ing Chief Justice Pemberton, i. 83 ;
respecting the Prince of Orange's
passage to England, iii. 180.
2 E

418

INDEX.

Burrell, Mr. (afterwards Lord Gwy-
dir) his marriage, i. 19 ; raised to
the peerage, 20 ; remarks respect
ing, 21.
Burrells, family of the, singular for
tune of, i. 19.
Byng, George, indefatigable zeal of,
i. 3 ; reconciled to Col. North, 16.

C.
Calonne, M. his propositions to
Louis XVI. ii. 224 ; personal ap
pearance of, 225 ; character of,
226 ; remarks of the Duke of Dor
set concerning, ib. ; his dismission
from the councils of France, 283 ;
remarks respecting his propositions,
ib. ; singular circumstance related
of, 284 ; withdraws to England, ib.
Camden, Charles Pratt, first Lord,
his speeches respecting the regency,
iii. 207 ; one of the deputation to
the Prince of Wales from the
Peers, 299 ; his speech on the re
gency, 301.
Campbell, Lord Frederic, member of
the board of control, i. 163 ; ac
count of, 246 ; his marriage, ib. ;
proposes an amendment to Colonel
Fitzpatrick's motion, 247 ; one of
the deputation to the Prince of
Wales from the Commons, iii. 299.
¦ Hay (lord advocate of
Scotland), his review of Hastings's
administration, ii. 309.
Campo, Chevalier de, minister from
the court of Spain, receives intelli
gence of the intended assassination
of George III. ii. 158 ; repairs to
Windsor, ib.; informs the queen
of the tranasaction, 159 ; created a
marquis, ib. ; appointed ambassa
dor from his Catholic Majesty to
the court of London, ib. ; ac
count of, ib.
Canterbury, Abp. of, see Sutton, Dr.
Capetian race, uninterrupted suc
cession of in France, i. 207.
Carhampton, Lord, see Luttrell.
Carhsle, Frederick Howard, eighth
Earl of, his remark respecting the
Irish Propositions, i. 345.
Carmarthen, Marquis of, secretary of
state, remarks respecting, i. 155.
Caroline Matilda, Queen of Den

mark, comparison between, and
Marie Antoinette, i. 373 ; con
fined in the castle of Zell, 374 ;
her message to Mr. Mathias, 376 ;
attempt made for her restoration,
379 ; receives a letter from Sir N.
Wraxall, 383 ; imprudent curio
sity of, 385 ; her reply to Wraxall's
propositions, 386 ; her interview
with him, 390 ; articles respecting
her restoration, 397; description
of her, 400 ; her conversation with
Wraxall, 400, 406 ; Bulow's letter
to, 405 ; letters and papers respect
ing, 407 ; death and character of,
409.
Carrington, Lord, see Smith,
Carteret, Henry Frederick Thynne,
fourth Lord, postmaster-general,
his disputes with Lord Tankerville,
ii. 328 ; loses bis office of post
master-general in consequence of
joining the Prince's party, iii, 335.
Castres, Mar&hal de, his opinion of
Monsieur Bonnecarrere, i. 132.
Catherine II. Empress of Russia, en
gaged in hostilities against the
Turks, i. 429 ; her antipathy to
Mr. Joseph Ewart, 430 ; Leopold's
opinion of, 431 ; refuses to restore
Ockzakow to the Prussians, 433 ;
her predilection for Fox, 435 ; her
magnanimous mind, iii. 199.
Cavendish, Lord George, his amend
ment to Mr. Pitt's treaty, ii. 193 ;
account of him, ib.
 Lord John, integrity of,
i. 2.
Chalmers, Mr. George, his publioa-
cation respecting "Junius's Let
ters," i. 128 ; attributes them to
Hugh Macaulay Boyd, ib. 13] ;
his compliment to George III. 135.
Chambers, Sir William, architect of
Somerset House, iii. 91 ; work
published by, ib. ; appointed sur
veyor-general to the board of
works, 92.
Charlotte of Mecklenburg, Queen of
England, disapproves of the Earl
of Abercorn's request, i, 63 ; her
condescension, 223 ; attends West
minster Hall during the trial of
Warren Hastings, iii. 16 ; remarks
concerning, 135 ; accompanies the
king to Kew, 191 ; deputation sent
to, 300 ; her reply, ib. ; her affec-

INDEX.

419

tion for the Prince of Wales, i. 309 ;
Burke's allusion to, 319 ; persons
proposed to form her council, 326.
Chartley, Lord de Feixers of, see
Leicester, Earl of.
Chatham, John Pitt second Earl of,
appointed first lord of the admi
ralty, iii. 59, 127 ; account of, ib.
129, 130, 131.
Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope fifth
Earl of, appointed ambassador to
the court of Madrid, ii. 20 ; de
parts from Madrid, ib. ; remarks of
the Earl of Surrey concerning him,
21 ; defence of his conduct by Mr.
Pitt, ib. ; renounces his paternal
seat of Britby, 22 ; offices confer
red upon him, 23 ; criminal prose
cution of his tutor, ib. ; dialogue
between him and the Earl of
Berkeley, ib.
Cheyt Sing, Zemindar or Prince of
Benares, his treatment by Warren
Hastings examined, ii. 135.
Choiseul, his death, i. 362.
Clermont, Earl of, intimacy of the
Prince of Wales with, ii. 339 ; his
temporary accident, 340 ; charac
ter of, ib. ; extraordinary bet made
by, 342 ; death of, ib.
¦  Countess of, her talents,
ii. 343 ; regard for, shown by the
Prince of Wales, 343 ; inti:oduces
Count Fersen to the prince, 345 ;
remarks respecting, ib.
Clive, Lord, notice of his persecution
in the commons, i. 337.
Coke, Mr, Sheridan's remark respect
ing, i. 3.
 Lady Mary, remarks concern
ing, ii. 115 ; her cheerful temper, ib.
Colyear, Sir David, created a peer of
Scotland, i. 339.
Commercial treaty with France, dis
cussed, ii. 215 ; address to the
crown on, voted, 221 ; debates upon,
245 ; discussion upon renewed, 250.
Cond^, Prince of, his courage, i. 180.
 family of, i. 205 ;
his military spirit, 206.
Congreve, Mr. comparison between
him and Sheridan, i. 40.
Consolidation of duties, bill for, in
troduced by Mr. Pitt, ii. 221.
Contat, Mademoiselle de, her inti
macy with the Count d'Artois, i.
203 ; her theatrical talents, 210.

Conway, Hon. Hugh Seymour, after
wards Lord Hugh Seymour, ac
count of, i. 187.
Cooper, Sir Grey, friendly to the for
mation of a sinking fund, ii, 80 ;
his encomiums upon Mr. Jenkin-
son's measures, 99 ; his allusion to
Pitt's assertion, iii, 297.
Cope, Lady, married to Charles Jen
kinson, afterwards first Earl of Li
verpool, i. 192.
Corbett, Mr. high-bailiff of Westmin
ster, comments upon his conduct,
i. 13. 60 ; his defence committed
to Mr. Kenyon, 75 ; summoned to
the bar of the house of commons,
102 ; examination of, 240 ; makes
a return of Lord Hood and Mr.
Fox for Westminster, 270.
Cornwall, Mr. elected Speaker of the
house of commons, i. 58 ; his in
disposition, iii. 247 ; death, 248.
251.
Cornwallis, Charles first Marquis, ac
cepts the post of governor-general
of Bengal, ii. 62 ; named com
mander-in-chief, 63.
Corporation and 'Test Acts, repeal of,
moved by Mr. Beaufoy, ii. 267 ;
carried, 272.
Courtenay, Mr. family of, i. 142 ;
his wit, 143 ; sarcastic disposition,
144 ; anecdote of, 145 ; ridicules
the i)uke of Richmond's projected
fortifications, 283 ; his speech re
specting the proposed teix on maid
servants, 305, 306 ; respecting
Arden, 342 ; his ironical compli
ment to Lord Hood, ii. 309 ; his
remarks concerning Hastings's treat
ment of the Begums, 310 ; au
explanation for his expressions de
manded by Lord Hood, 324 ; a
public apology urged by Mr. Pitt,
ib. ; voted, 326 ; concession made
by, ib. ; his bitter reflections upon
Mr. Pitt, ib.
Crewe, Mr, M. P. for Chester, after
wards Lord Crewe, his bill for re
form, ii. 83 ; derided by Mr. Dun
das, 84.
 Mrs. entertainment given by,
i. 16.
Cumberland, Henry Frederick fourth
Duke of, character of him, ii. 115 ;
his partiality for the Prince of
Wales, iii. 328. 21 E 2

420

INDEX.

Cumberland, Duchess of, remarks re
lating to, ii. 116; her personal
charms, ib. ; the king's opinion of
her character, ib. ; her partiality
for the Prince of Wales, iii. 328.
 Mr. patronized by Lord
Sackville, i. 423.

Debbeige, Colonel, incurs the dis
pleasure of the Duke of Richmond,
i. 284.
Delaval, Lord, desires an explanation
of Lord Hawksbury's reflections,
ii. 247 ; account of, ib. ; raised to
the British peerage, iii. 193.
Denmark, Queen of, see Caroline
Matilda.
Deslon, Mr. claims the merit of dis
covering " Animal Magnetism," i,
. 209.
Devonshire, William Cavendish Duke
of, character of, i.^ 9 ; patrimonial
property of, 10.
 Georgiana, Duchess of,
character of, i. 7 ; her interest for
Mr. Fox, 11 ; her exertions for the
Prince of Wales, iii. 267.
Dillon, Colonel Edward, particulars
respecting, i. 195.
Dimsdale, Dr. anecdote of, iii. 199.
Dolben, Sir William, wishes to post
pone the discussion relative to War
ren Hastings, ii. 205 ; his bill for
alleviating the sufferings of the
African slaves, iii. 95 ; impedi
ments against, 96 ; debates upon,
ib. 112 ; passes the commons, 115 ;
defended by the Duke of Rich
mond, 119; debates upon, ib. ;
division respecting, 123 ; amend
ments upon, ib. ; passes the lords,
126 ; receives the royal assent, ib.
Dodd, Dr. entertainment given by, ii.
24 ; request for his pardon, 25 ;
George III. wishes to grant it, ib. ;
opposed by Earl Mansfield, ib. ;
council held on the occasion, ib. ;
death-warrant signed, ib. ; peni
tent death of, ib. ; operation to re
store animation, ib.
Dorset, John Frederick Sackville,
third Duke of, presents Mr. Whit
worth to Marie Antoinette, i. 187 ;
his remarks respecting Eden's
defection, 441 ; ambassador at the

court of Versailles, ii. 180 ; his
letter concerning Mr. Eden, ib. ;
remarks respecting M. Calonne,.
226 ; his opinion of the Count de
Vergennes, 227 ; his opinion of
Lomenie de Brienne, 285.
Dorset, Duchess of, particulars re
specting, i. 190 ; married to Lord
Whitworth, 191 ; money paid by
to the Countess Gerbetzow, 192.
Douglas, Baron, see Queetisberry.
Draper, Sir William, account of his
death, ii. 185 ; his talents, ib. ;
remarks respecting, ib. ; his classi
cal lettei-s, 187.
Duncan, Sir William, his opinion of
Mr. Boyd, i. 134.
Duncannon, Lady, anecdote of, i. 8 ;
her political enthusiasm, 1 1 ; letter
written in her name, 48.
Dundas, Henry, afterwards Viscount
Melville, treasurer of the navy,
proposes the restitution of forfeited
estates in Scotland, i. 150 ; his in
fluence over Pitt, 153 ; ii. 300 ;
remarks on his elevation, i. 160,
161; his employments, 163; his
influence over the board of control,
ib. ; appointed member of the
board of trade, ib. ; his power in
Scotland, 164 ; attacks upon him,
ib. ; 165 ; his character, 166 ;
pensions granted by, 167, 168 ; his
accusations against Mr. Fox, 245 ;
his conduct on the inquiry into the
debts of Mohammed Ali, 255 ; his
defence of the Indian government,
257 ; Burke's accusations against
259 ; his friendship for Pitt,
276, 277; his reply to Fox,
321 ; his motives for abandoning
Mr. Hastings to his enemies, ii.
34 ; his declaration respecting the
production of papers, 39 ; objects
to divulge transactions concerning
Mr. Hastings, 56 ; introduces his
East India Bill, 63 ; attacked by
Sheridan, ib. ; reprobates Mr.
Crewe's bill, 84 ; his remarks
concerning the Rohilla war, 128 ;
reasons on the consequences of
impeaching Mr, Hastings, ib. ; his
remarks relating to the impeach
ment, 133 ; his habits, 301 ; sin
gular circumstance related of, 302 ;'
his ingenious flattery, 303 ; coun
teracts the Duchess of Gordon's

INDEX.

4£1

signs upon ]\Ir. Pitt, ii. 304 ; re
quests permission to attend the
Prince of Wales at Carlton House,
305 ; his gracious reception, ib. ;
particulars of the interview, 16. ;
his pecuniary embarrassments, iii,
297 ; caricature representing him,
310 ; supports Pitt's proposition,
339 ; his firmness of character,
359.
Dundas, Sir Thomas, interests him
self for Mr. Fox, i. 28 ; reproaches
Mr. Pitt for his conduct to Sheri
dan, 44. E.
East India Bill, condemnation of Mr.
Fox's, i. 103 ; Mr. Pill's intro
duced, 112; passes the commons,
153 ; introduction of Mr. Dundas's,
ii. 63 ; remarks respecting, ib. ;
passed, 75. v
East India Board of Control, creation
of the, i. 162 ; discussion of with
the court of directors of the East
India Company, iii. 26.
East India Declaratory Bill, intro
duced by Mr. Pitt, iii. 28.
Eden, Mr. (afterwards Lord Auck
land), moves for the adjournment
of the Irish Propositions, i.
319 ; opens a treaty with Pitt,
436 ; his appointments, ib. ; his
talents, 437 ; ballad respecting.
438 ; description of, ib. ; family of,
439 ; declamations against his de
fection, 440 ; assertion concerning
him, ii. 17 ; extract from his politi
cal circular, ib. ; attack upon his
character by the Earl Surrey, 18 ;
his defection animadverted upon by
Mr. Fox, 19 ; departs for Paris,
20 ; revisits London, 179 ; pre
sents to George III. a portrait of
Louis XVI. ib. ; remarks respecting
him, 180; his commercial princi
ples ridiculed by Mr. Sheridan,
218,
Eldon, Lord, Prince of Wales's pre
dilection for, i. 92; solicits per
mission to retire from office, 94 ;
dines with Lord Liverpool, ib.
Elliot, Alexander, premature end of,
iii. 65.
 Sir Gilbert (afterwards first
Earl Minto), particulars of, ii.372 ;

royal favour enjoyed by, ii. 373 ; pro
poses to refer the charges against
Sir Elijah Impey to a committee
of the whole house, 374 ; intro
duces charges against him relative
to the execution of Nundcomar,
iii. 63 ; remarks of, concerning his
brother's participation in the charge,
65 ; desires the postponement of,
68 ; question of impeachment ne
gatived, 78.
Elliot, Hugh, British envoy to the
Danish court, joins Gustavus King
of Sweden at Gottenburgh, iii.
163 ; interests of Sweden entrust
ed to, 164 ; observations of, respect
ing Gustavus, 170 ; character of,
172 ; his unfortunate marriage,
175 ; sent as envoy to Naples, ib. ;
accepts the post of governor of the
Leeward Islands, ib. ; appointed
governor of Madras, ib.
Ellis, Welbore, motion of, on the
Westminster scrutiny, i. 96 ; raised
to the peerage as' Baron Men-
dip,, ib. ; commences the proceed
ings relative to the Westminster
, scrutiny, 239 ; moves for a return
ofthe precept, 241.
Enghien, Duke d', notice of his exe
cution, i. 206.
England, King of, see George III.
 Queen of, see Charlotte.
 different dynasties in, i.
208.
Ernest, Prince, present Duke cf
Cumberland, entered as student in
the University of Gottingen, ii.
156.
Erskine, Mr. (afterwards Lord Chan
cellor Erskine), keen observations
of, i. 3 ; advocates Mr. Fox's cause,
80 ; sketch of his character, 82 ;
disgusted with the naval and mili
tary profession, 83 ; applies him
self to the law, 84 ; his eloquence
at Keppel's trial, ib. ; his defence
of Lord George Gordon, 85 ; per
sonal appearance of, 87 ; presented
to Napoleon Bonaparte, 88 ; his
poetry, 89 ; anecdote of, 90 ; his
political attachments, ib. ; his for
tune, 91 ; appointed lord chancellor,
92 ; remarks respecting, 93 ; his
conduct on the trial of Queen Caro
line, 95, 96 ; presents a petition
. from the East India Company

422

INDEX.

against Mr. Pitt's Declaratoiy Bill,
iii. 32 ; sentiments expressed by,
33 ; the Prince of Wales's esteem
for, 185.
Erskine, Sir Jjimes, account of, ii.
253 ; developes his charges against
Warren Hastings, 254 ; his motion
for impeaching Warren Hastings
carried, 258.
Ewart, Mr. Joseph, account of, i.
428 ; his influence over Frederic
William, King of Prussia, 429 ;
stimulates him to retake Ockzakow,
ib. ; his detestation of Catherine II.
430 ; her attempt to poison him,
ib. ; his commission to Berlin, 433 ;
unjust treatment of, 434.
Exchequer, Chancellor of, see Pitt,
Right Hon. WiUiam. F.
Farquhar, Sir Walter, his observa
tions on the last illness and death
of Mr. Pitt, ii. 72.
Fauconberg, Henry Belasyse, third
Earl of, lord of the king's bedcham
ber, iii. 138 ; recommends the wa
ters of Cheltenham to the king, ib. ;
offers Bays Hill Lodge for his re
ception, 139 ; accepted, ib.
Fenton, Lavinia (afterwards Duchess
of Bolton), her theatrical talents,
i. 210.
Ferrers, Dowager Countess, her
marriage, i. 246 ; anecdote of, 247 ;
her death, ib.
Fersen, Count, Swedish envoy to the
court of France, visits London, ii.
344 ; presented to the Prince of
Wales, 345.
Fitzherbert, Mrs. particulars of, ii.
114 ; inquiry respecting, 291 ;
Sheridan's defence, of, iii. 313.
Fitzpatrick, Colonel, presents a peti
tion from the electors of Westmin
ster, i. 246.
Foix, Catherine de. Queen of Navarre,
observation of, i. 183.
Foster, Lady EHzabeth, married to the
Duke of Devonshire, i. 10.
Fox, Mr. his friendship for the Hon.
John Townsend, i. 4 ; efforts to
expel him from his situation, 5 ;
exertions of his friends at the West
minster election, 1 1 ; procession and
entertainments in honour of, 13. 15,

16 ; congratulated by the Prince of
Wales, i. 14 ; reproves the Earl of
Lonsdale, 2'7 ; representative for
the Orkney and Shetiand islands,
28 ; compaiisons between him and
Sheridan, 38. 53 ; conversant in
the French and Italian languages,
42 ; comments on the conduct of
the high bailiff of Westminster, 60 ;
his charges against Pitt, 70; ex
ertions to prevent him sitting in
parliament, 72 ; demands the return
for Westminster, 73 ; his reproof to
Lord Mulgrave, 77 ; his supporters,
80 ; laments his poverty, 97 ; com-
paiisou between him and the Earl
of Chatham, 99 ; Pitt's remarks
respecting him, 101 ; attacks Pitt's
East India Bill, 113, 114; ap
proves of the measure for restoring
forfeited estates, 151 ; his impru
dent conduct, 161 ; pecuniary
difficulties, 238 ; anecdote of,
239 ; his reply to Lord Mulgrave,
240; to Pitt, 243; disapproves
of the liquidation of Mohammed
All's debts, 256; reagitates the
Westminster scrutiny, 269; re
turned member for Westminster,
270 ; his reply to Pitt's charge,
272 ; his opinion of the proposed
sinking fiind, 290; of the bill to
amend the representation of the
commons, 294 ; seconds the motion
for the repeal of the tax upon cot
ton, 300 ; asperities between him
and Pitt, 302 ; objects to the pro
posed tax upon maid servants, 303 ;
his speeches on the Irish Propo
sitions, 310. 312. 315; opposes
the bill for regulating the duration
of polls and scrutinies, 342 ; his
assertions respecting Jenkinson,
360 ; reprobates the Irish Proposi
tions, 361 ; sends an agent to
Catherine II. 433 ; her predilection
for him, 435; his animadversions
on Mr. Eden's defection, ii. 19;
his remarks respecting the charges
against Hastings, 26; his opinion
of Mr. Jenkinson, 33 ; derides the
proposition for fortifying the dock
yards, 43 ; his sarcasm against the
speaker, 51 ; his observations on
the amendment, 55 ; panegyrizes
Mr. Burke's speech, 67 ; sanctions
the formation of a sinking fund, 80 ;

INDEX.

423

remarks respecting him, ii. 81 ; his
motives for supporting the impeach
ment against Hastings, 92; his
representation of the inadequate
income of the Prince of Wales, 95 ;
arguments upon, 96 ; inveighs
against granting Mr. Hastings co
pies of the charges, 101 ; intro
duces the second article of im
peachment against him, 135 ; his
animated detail of, ib. ; pointed
comments ou him by Mr. Pitt, 137 ;
iii. 35 ; his attack upon Mr. Jen
kinson, ii. 151 ; opposes Mr. Eden's
commercial treaty, 190 ; examina
tion of it, 193 ; demands a call of
the house, ib. ; placability of his
disposition, 196 ; his admiration of
Mrs. Siddons, 197 ; implores Mr.
Pitt not to vote against tiie question
relative to the Princess of Oude,
207 ; opposes the commercial treaty
with France, 216; his opinion of
the French nation, ib. 223 ; obser
vations of, respecting the repeal of
the Corporation and Test Acts, 271;
arguments of, concerning the im
peachment of Warren Hastings,
277 ; his accusations against Mr.
Pitt, 331 ; his sentiments on the
subject of trials by impeachment,
iii. 25 ; opens the charge against
Hastings for treatment of Cheyt
Sing, 26 ; advises Pitt to withdraw
his Declaratory Bill, 43 ; agrees to
vote in favour of a committee upon
Mr, Bastard's motion, 53 ; remarks
of, respecting Mr. Pitt's statement
of the finances, 62 ; his accusations
against Sir Elijah Impey, 73 ; ob
servations made by, 74 ; expresses
his sorrow at the postponement of
Mr. Wilberforce's measure for sup
pressing the negro trade, 86 ; sup
ports the bill for regulating the
African Slave Trade, 98 ; his opi
nion relative to Hastings's counsel,
107 ; induces Mr. Pitt to augment
the sum proposed for relieving the
loyalists, HI; determines to visit
Italy, 151 ; hears of the king's
insanity, 194; returns to England,
ib.; his speeches respecting the
regency, 203. 211. 213. 226.227.
236 ; his indisposition, 278 ; his
reply to Scott's doctrine, 281 ; his
questions to Pitt, 283 ; sets out for

Bath, iii. 287 ; his pecuniary em
barrassments, 297 ; his abhorrence
of revolutionary doctrines, 345 ; re
turns to London, 347 ; speeches of,
on the congratulatory addresses to
the king and queen, 365, 366.
France, king of, see Louis XVL
 ¦ Queen of, see Marie Antoi
nette.
 aspect ofthe court of, ia 1784,
i. 173 ; successes of, 177.
Francis, Sir Philip, his duel with Mr,
Hastings, i. 125 ; his animosity to
wards him, ib. ; character of, 126
his protest against one of the regu
lationsinPitt'sEastlndiaBill, 127
"Junius Letters," attributed to, 129
136; remarks respecting him, 137.
his attempt to amend Pitt's East
India Bill, ii. 60 ; his observations
on Mr. Burke, 61 ; enmity towards
Mr. Hastings, 94; his conduct stig
matized by Mr. Pitt, 137 ; his in
veteracy towards Mr. Warren Hast
ings, 259 ; rejected from the com
mittee for impeaching him, 281 ;
complains of his exclusion, 282 ;
requires the delivery of a paper
from Sir Elijah Impey, iii. 13 ;
indignation of respecting, ib.; re
flections made by, 15.
Franking of letters, abuses of, i. 139 ;
regulations respecting, 140.
Frederick VI. of Denmark, refused
the hand of an English Princess, i.
414 ; his marriage, 415 ; forms an
alliance with France, ib.
Frederic the Great, King of Prussia,
his attainments, ii. 166 ; his par
tiality to the French nation, 169 ;
aversion to the English, ib. ; signs
the Germanic league, ib. ; his dis
solution, ib. ; wax figures represent
ing him, 170 ; account of his in
human severity, 171; his wish re
lative to his interment, 172.
 WilUam, King of Prussia,
Mr. Ewart's ascendancy over, i.
429 ; concludes a treaty with Leo
pold, 430 ; his intimacy with Sir
John Macpherson, ii. 10 ; character
of him, 172; marches into Holland,
358 ; subdues it, 359.
 Prince, created Duke of
York and Albany, his conversa
tion with Lord Surrey, i. 34 ; sent
to Hanover, 227. ii. 114 ; his mar-

424

INDEX.

riage, i. 433 ; iinites with the Priqce
of Wales's p'arty, iii. 192; his at
tachment to the Countess of Tyr
connel, ib. ; .his speech respecting
the regency, 216; protests against
Lord Camden's proposition, 302;
entertainment given by, 358.
•FuUarton, Colonel, his violent oppo
sition to Mr. Pitt's Declaratory Bill,
iii. 29 ; remarks of, concerning Sir
Elijah Impey, 76 ; his comparison
between the reigns of Chas. VI.
King of France, and George III.
of England, 227.
Fyzoola Khan, Nabob of Bohilcund,
treaties with, violated by Warren
Hastings, ii. 260.

G alway , Viscount, remarks respecting,
i. 2.
George III. King of England, tena
cious of the English- peerage, i. 66 ;
remarks of, 92 ; remarks respecting,
130 ; comparison between him and
Louis XIV. 178 ; his levees, 222.
224 ; serious accident of, ib. 225 ;
creates his second son Duke of York
and Albany, 226 ; his predilection
for him, 227 ; approves ofthe attempt
to restore Queen Caroline Matilda
to the throne of Denmark, 396 ;
hears of her death, 41] ; his dislike
of the Danish royal family, 414 ;
refuses the proposed union between
Fred. VI. and an English princess,
415 ; his remuneration to Sir N.
Wraxall, 417 ; signs the death-war-
lant for Dr. Dodd, ii. 25 ; his high
opinion of Mr. Hastings,30 ; receives
presents from him, 31 ; remarkable
caricature exhibited in consequence,
ib. ; refuses to increase the income
of the Prince of Wales, 98 ; re
moves his sons from England, 114;
his opinion of the Duchess of Cum
berland, 116; receives the packet
containing the diamond and a letter
from Nizam AUy Cawn, 143 ; at
tempt upon his life, 156 ; particu
lars of, ib. ; addresses of congratu
lations to, 157 ; remarks respecting
his speech at the opening of parlia
ment, 188 ; lefuses to confer the
archbishoprick of Canterbury upon
Dr. Pretyman, and resolves to be

stow it on Dr. Manners Sutton, ii.
233 ; approves of an accommodation
relative to the affairs of the Prince
of Wales, 305 ; consents to the aug
mentation of the Prince's income,
338 ; his speech at the prorogation
of parliament, 349; remarks respect
ing, 366 ; address to, moved by Mr.
Pitt, 368 ; indisposition of, iii. 133 ;
habits of, ib. ; extreme abstinence
of, 135 ; Letter of Junius respect
ing, 136 ; his enquiries respecting
Cheltenham, 138 ; repairs thither,
139; mode of living, 140; visits
Gloucester, 141 ; returns to Wind
sor, 152 ; celebrates the Prince
of Wales's birth-day, 153 ; creates
Prince William Henry Duke of
Clarence, 154; observations re
specting, 165; change observed in
his health, 176 ; postpones his ac
customed levees, ib. ; suspicion of
his mental alienation, ib. ; excite
ment in consequence, 178 ; re
moved to Kew, 191 ; anecdotes
of, 198. 359. 364 ; remarks on
his insanity, 256 ; his observa
tion to Lord Walsingham, 266 ;
report of his physicians, 269 ; com
parison between his reign and that
of Charles VI. of France, 277 ;
symptoms of his returning reason,
314. 320. 329 ; his impatience to
resume the sceptre, 342 ; conversa
tion with Pitt, 343 ; favours con
ferred by, on Burke, 345 ; persons
admitted to, 347 ; his convales
cence, 348 ; declared free from
complaint, 358 ; his reception of
the Prince of Wales and Duke of
York, 361 ; placability of his tem
per, 363 ; illuminations to cele
brate his recovery, 369.
Gerbetzow, Countess, her attachment
to Lord Whitworth, i. 189; di
vorced from her husband, 191 ;
money paid to, by the Duchess of
Dorset, 192.
Germany, Emperors of, see Joseph II.
Leopold.
Gibbon, Mr. his intimacy with Lord
North, i. 109.
Gordon, Lord George, defence of, i.
85.
 Duchess of, account of, ii.
297 ; her exertions to induce mi
nisters to an accommodation re-

INDEX.

425

specting the Prince of Wales, ii.
305 ; comparison between and the
Duchess of Devonshire, iii. 267.
Gordon, Lord William, appointed de
puty ranger of St. James's and Hyde
Parks, ill. 268.
Gould, Sir Charles, remarks respect
ing, iii. 359.
Gower, Earl, created Maiquis of Staf
ford, i. 232 ; one of the deputation
to the Prince of Wales from the
peers, iii. 299 ; moves the address,
365.
^—^— Lady Louisa, married to Mr.
Macdonald, i. 75.
Graham, Marquis of, afterwards Duke
of Montrose, honours conferred on,'
i. 68 ; character of, 59 ; his services,
60 ; his reply to Burke, iii. 323 ;
moves the congratulatory address to
the queen on the king's recovery,
366.
Grantley, Fletcher Norton, first Lord,
his death, iii. 249 ; account of, ib.
Greenland Fishery BiU passed, ii. 100.
Grenville Bill, remarks respecting, i.
. 101.
GrenviUe, Mr. WiUiam, afterwards
Lord Grenville, member of the East
India Board of Control, i. 162 ;
his intimacy with Pitt, 277 ; cha
racter of, ib. ; receives a personal
reprehension from Mr. Fox, ii, 133 ;
refuses to concur in Mr. Hastings's
impeachment, 138 ; retorts on the
reflections of Mr. Powis, 140; ap
pointed secretary for the home de
partment, iii. 147 ; created a peer,
ib. ; transferred to the foreign office,
ib.
 WiUiam Windham, pro
posed speaker of the house of com
mons, iii. 251 ; elected, 252.
Greville, Mr. Robert, his conversation
with Dr. Willis, iii. 315 ; anecdote
related by, to Sir John Macpherson,
363.
Grey, Mr. afterwards Earl Grey, ac
count of him, ii. 219 ; professes his
reluctance to oppose government,
220 ; resists the French commercial
treaty, ib. ; his enquiiy relative to
abuses committed in the post-office,
328 ; espouses the cause of Earl of
Tankerville, ib. ; discussion by, 329;
his animosity towards Mr. Pitt, ib. ;
addressed by Mr. Pitt, 330 ; re

marks of, respecting Earl of Tan-
kerville's dismission, ii. 333 ; his
motion rejected, 337 ; remarks re
specting, iii, 45 ; bis accusations
against Pitt, 293.
Gustavus III. King of Sweden, talents
of, iii. 160; account of, 161, 162 ;
joined at Gottenburgh by Hugh
• Elliot, 163 ; remarks of Elliot re
specting, 170. . H.
Hamilton, Mr, John James, after
wards Earl of Abercorn, proposes
an address of thanks to the king,
i. 61 ; description of, ib. ; his com
parison between Pitt and Fox, 62 ;
his application to Pitt for Miss
Cecil Hamilton, 63 ; married to
her, 64 ; created a British marquis,
z7>; ; his royal descent, ib. ; remarks
on the favours conferred on him,
65 ; moves for a call of the house,
ii. 146 ; his surprise at the absence
of Mr. Fox, ib. ; character of him,
147 ; his address to Mr. Sheridan,
148 ; endeavours to delay the ques
tion of impeachment against Warren
Hastings, 262 ; his proposition
condemned by Mr. Pitt, 266 ; se
vere remarks of Mr. Burke respect
ing, ib. ; his motion withdrawn,
267.
 Miss Cecil, application to
Mr. Pitt respecting, i. 63 ; married
to the Earl of Abercorn, 64.
Hanger, Hon. George, afterwards Lord
Coleraine, sketch of his character,
iii. 336.
Hardinge, Mr. solicitor-general to the
queen, his arguments respecting the
impeachment of Warren Hastings,
ii. 106 ; pointed allusions of, 107 ;
severe remarks upon the defence of
Hastings, 127.
Hare, M r. returned for K naresborough,
i. 57 ; his talents, ib.
Hai'grave, Mr. examination of, i. 239.
Hastings, Mr. governor-general of
Bengal, Burke's invectives against,
i. 116. 123, 124; his duel with
Mr. Francis, 125 ; his intimacy
with Mrs. Imhoff, 169 ; married lo
her, 170 ; returns to London, 328 ;
character of, 329 ; his generosity
lo Lacam, 330, 331 ; his cheer-

426

INDEX.

ful disposition, i. 331 ; his poet
ical compositions, 332 ; remarks on
his political acts, 333; his enemies,
335; their reason for impeaching him,
336 ; superseded as governor-gene
ral of Bengal by Lord Macartney,
ii. 1 ; his directions to his lordship,
2 ; charges against him, 26 ; reluc
tance of Mr. Burke to proceed a*
accuser against him, 27 ; opinion of
his public character, ib. ; rules for his
trial, 28 ; the king's opinion of him,
30 ; his valuable presents to the king,
31 ; debates relative to his impeach
ment, 100 ; petitions to be heard in
his own defence, ib. ; acceded to,
104 ; appears before the house, 108 ;
remarks upon him, 110; reads his
exculpation. 111 ; endeavours to
answer his charges, 112; assisted
by Mr. Markham, ib. ; recommend
ation of Mr. Burke respecting him,
113; hopes entertained by his ad
herents, ib. ; first charge against
him brought forward by Mr. Burke,
123; his advocates, 128; his im
peachment discussed, 129 ; com
pared to Sir Walter Raleigh, ib. ;
remarks relative to, by Mr. Har
dinge, 130 ; result of the first
charge, 131 ; exultation of his
friends, ib. ; their sanguine expec
tations, 132; his elevation to the
peerage anticipated, ib. ; second
article of impeachment brought
forward against him by Mr. Fox,
135 ; nature of it, ib. ; general an
xiety evinced, ib. ; observations
upon his proceedings by Mr. Pitt,
136 ; encomiums on, 137 ; unex
pected declaration of Mr. Pitt con
cerning him, 138 ; debate closed,
140 ; his acquittal of the second
charge, ib. ; his changed prospects,
142; receives the diamond from
Nizam Ally Cawn, 143; witnesses
its presentation to George III. ib. ;
postponement of his charges agi
tated, 1 43 ; objected to, ib ; re
marks relative to the diamond, 144 ;
proceedings against him terminate
during the session, 145; remarks
of Mr. Sheridan relating to him,
147 ; ingratitude exhibited towards
him, 148; his treatment ofthe Be
gums or Princesses of Oude discuss
ed, 199 ; postponement of the debate

moved by Sir William Dolben, ii.
205 ; opposed by Mr. Fox, ib. ; sen
timents of Mr. Pitt concerning his
charge, 206 ; an adjournment upon,
requested by Mr. Pitt, ib. ; acquisi
tions gained under bis administra
tion, 208 ; declared culpable by a
majority of, 175, 212 ; remarks re
lative to his impeachment, 214 ;
his prosecution renewed, 238; ac
cusations against, brought forward
by Mr. Pelham, ib. ; nature of, ib. ;
defended by Major Scott, 239 ; his
conduct justified by Lord Hood,
240 ; his merits discussed by Mr.
Pitt, 243 ; motion for his im-
impeachment carried, 258 ; inve
teracy towards him shown by Mr.
Francis, 259 ; sixth charge pro
duced against, by Mr. Windham,
260 ; nature of, ib. ; disproved by
Major Scott, ib.; observations of
Mr. Burke respecting, 261 ; motion
carried, 262 ; day fixed for discuss
ing his impeachment, ib. ; review
of his conduct by Mr. Sheridan,
273 ; discussion respecting, 276 ;
declaration of Major Scott concern
ing him, 280 ; resolutions read,
281 ; committee appointed to pre
pare articles for his impeachment,
ib. ; debates on the second reading
of the articles of impeachment, 307;
his administration reviewed by Hay
Campbell, 309 ; his offences enu
merated by Mr. Pitt, 315 ; allusions
of Major Scott in his justification,
317 ; second reading of the report
voted, 319 ; his impeachment moved
by Mr. Burke and carried, 320 ; ad
dress from Bengal in his favour read,
ib. ; his impeachment by Mr. Burke
at the bar of the house of lords, ib. ;
remarks of the Earl of Mansfield,
respecting, 321 ; charge respecting
misdemeanours committed in Oude
by, introduced by Mr. Burke,
327 ; carried, ib. ; charges re-pro
duced, 347 ; opinion of Major
Scott respecting the charges, 348 ;
adoption of them, ib.; commence
ment of his trial in Westminster-
Hall, iii. 16. ; repairs thither, 17 ;
counsel of, ib. ; unequalled display
of talent by Mr. Burke on the occa
sion, 20 ; his friendship towards
Alexander Elliot, 65 ; erects a

INDEX.

427

monument to, iii. 65; expenses of
his prosecution discussed, 83 ; his
trial discussed in Westminster Hall,
by Mr. Sheridan, 102 ; necessity of
employing counsel doubted by Mr.
Burges, 104; proceedings against
adjourned, 126.
Hastings, Mrs. (Mrs. Imhoff) account
of, i. 169 ; divorced from BIr. Im
hoff, and married to Mr. Hastings,
170; her influence over him, 171 ;
returns to England, 172 ; presented
at court, ib. ; lines respecting, 173 ;
her love of money, 329.
Hawkesbury, Lord, see Jenkinson.
Hester, Lady, her marriage, i. 80.
HiU, SirRichEird, member for Shrop
shire, his attachment to Pitt, i. 105
ridiculed in " The Rolliad," 106
his attack upon Lord North, ib.
his sarcastic observations on Burke
iii. 346.
Holland, Stephen Fox second Lord,
Pitt's accusations against, i. 1 59.
 invasion of, ii. 359.
Hood, Lord, returned for the city of
Westminster, i. 270 ; his justifica
tion of Warren Hastings, ii. 240 ;
appeals of in favour of W arren H ast-
ings, 308 ; ironical compliment of
Mr. Courtenay to, 309 ; desires an
explanation from him, 324 ; an apo
logy to, urged by Mr. Pitt, ib. ;
vote for passed, 326 ; Mr. Courte-
nay's apologies to, ib, ; vindicates
Lord Howe's conduct in the naval
promotions, iii. 54.
Howe, Lord, first lord of the admi
ralty, remarks respecting, i. 154 ;
accused of unjust preference in his
naval promotions, iii. 50 ; account
of, 56 ; resignation of, 57.
Howe, Mrs. privileges enjoyed by, ii.
353 ; singularity of, ib.
Hussey, Mr. M.P. for Salisbury, his
invectives against the erection of
Somerset House, iii 92 ; doubts the
claim of the Loyalists for relief,
111. I.
Imhoff, Mr. patronized by Queen
Charlotte, i. 169 ; embarks for In
dia, ib. ; accepts a sum of money from
Warren Hastings on condition of
agreeing to a divorce, 170.

Imhoff, Mrs. see Hastings, Mrs.
Impey, Sir Elijah, chief-justice of
Bengal, assists in seizing the trea
sures of the Princesses of Oude, ii.
203 ; his impeachment, discussed,
371 ; charges against him enu
merated, 373 ; referred to a com
mittee of the whole house, 374 ;
his prosecution discussed, iii. 9 ;
defence of, ib. ; desires a decision,
11 ; division of the house respect
ing, 16 ; charge against respecting
the execution of Nundcomar intro
duced, 63; debates upon, 64; de
fended by Sir Richard Sutton, 66 ;
observations of Mr. Burke concern
ing, 69 ; his impeachment discuss-
ed"", 72 ; negatived, 78.
Ireland, attempt to form a commercial
union between England and, i.
307.
Irish Propositions, introduced by Pitt,
i. 307 ; debates upon, 309 ; pe
titions against, ib. ; recriminations
respecting, 320 ; debates on, 355;
animadversions on in the Irish house
of commons, 358.

J.
Jenkinson, Mr. (afterwards Baron
Hawkesbury and Earl of Liver
pool), sanctions Pitt's East India
Bill, i. 113 ; his marriage, 192 ; his
friendship for Pitt, 278 ; his reply
to Sheridan's allusions, 304 ; sup
ports the Irish Propositions, 308.
355 ; receives the promise of a
peerage, 360 ; his character de
scribed, ii. 33 ; his proposition for
regulating the Newfoundland fish
ery, 98 ; for revising the trade and
navigation laws, 99 ; his descrip
tion of the state of the Greenland
fishery, 100 ; observations on his
measures, ib. ; refuses to receive
evidence concerning Mr. Hastings,
105; remarks of Mr. Burke on his
conduct, ib. ; defends Mr. Hastings,
against the charge of the Rohilla
war, 134 ; obtains the peerage,
150 ; appointed chancellor of the
duchy of Lancaster, ib. ; attacked
by Fox and Sheridan, 151 ; repels
their accusations, ib. ; his pointed
declaration, 152 ; his motto, ib.

428

INDEX,

remarks upon the close ot his life,
ii. 154 ; his acquisition of property,
ib. ; description of him, ib. ; de
fends the commercial treaty, 245 ;
appointed to head the new board
of trade revived by Mr. Pitt, 332 ;
severe animadversions of Mr. Fox
respecting him, 336.
Jordan, Mrs. notice of her appearance
on the London stage, i. 438.
Joseph II. Emperor of Germany, his
alliance with Catherine II. i. 429 ;
notice of his death, ib. ; his antici
pated conquest, ii. 361 ; selects
Count Belgiojoso to execute his de
crees, 362 ; appoints him first mi
nister of the Low Countries, ib. ;
intelligence received by, 363 ;
plunges into war with the Turks,
364 ; remarks respecting him, 365 ;
persists in hostilities against the
Turks, iii. 159 ; retires to Vienna,
160.
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, his remarks re
specting Maria Theresa of Austria,
i. 182 ; his death, 232 ; his
writings, 233 ; funeral, 234.
Johnstone, Sir James, remarks of, i.
81 ; supports the charge against
Sir Elijah Impey, iii. 77.
" Junius's Letters," inquiry respect
ing the author of, i. 128 ; character
of, 130 ; talents of Junius, ii. 186 ;
his derision of Lord Granby, ib.

K.
Kenyon, Mr. (afterwards Lord) ap
pointed to defend Mr. Corbett, i.
75 ; mastership of the rolls confer
red on, 76 ; opposes Mr. Burke's
demand to examine Mr. Middle-
ton, ii. 120 ; remarks of, 121 ;
created a peer, iii. 15 ; remarks re
lative to, 18 ; appointed chief-
justice of the king's bench, 102 ;
proposed as a member for Queen
Charlotte's council, 326.
Keppel, Adm. aUusion to his trial,
i. 84. L.
Lacam, Mr. plans the formation of a
harbour at Saugur, i. 330 ; his in-
, gratitude to Mr. Hastings, 331.
Lansdowne, Marquis of, see Shelburne.

Lake, .Colonel Gerard, remarks re
specting, iii. 331.
Leeds, Francis. Godolphin Osborne,
fifth Duke of, his noble conduct, i.
433.
 Dowager Duchess of, ac
count of, i. 340.
Leicester, George Townshend, twen
tieth Earl of, character of, i. 23.
" Le Marriage de Figaro," a play,
by Beaumarchais, i. 209.
Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany,
succeeeds his brother as Empejor
of Germany and King of Hungary,
concludes a treaty with the King of
Prussia, i. 430 ; his opinion of
Catherine II. 431 ; concludes peace
with the Turks, ib. ; his intimacy
with Sir John Macpherson, ii. 1 0.
Lichtenstein, Bsiron, his interview
with Sir N. Wraxall, i. 394 ; sets
out for Hanover, 409 ; his direc
tions to Sir N. Wraxall, ib.; his
letters to him respecting the Queen
of Denmark, iii. 401.
Lincoln, Bishop of, see Pretyman.
Linley ,*Miss, her marriage with She
ridan, i. 42.
Liverpool, Charles Banks Jenkinson
second Earl of, tenders his resigna
tion, i. 94.
Lomenie, Cardinal de, (ex-minister of
Louis XVI.) his eulogiuins on Sir
John Macpherson, ii. 10.
London, dissipation in, in 1786, ii.
114; excitement in, owing to the
king's insanity, iii. i78.
Long, Dudley, anecdote of, i. 239.
Longueville, Duchesse de, see Anne
Genevieve de Bourbon.
Lonsdale, Earl of, see Lowther.
Loughborough, Alexander Wedder
burn, first Lord, his abilities, i.
154 ; his influence over the Prince
of Wales, iii. 185 ; his speech re
specting the regency, 208.
Louis XVI. King of France, his po
pularity, i. 175 ; his judicious
changes, 176 ; brilliant victories
during his reign, 177 ; compari
sons respecting him, 178 ; de
throned, 179 ; defects of his mo
narchical character, ib. ; observa
tion on his execution, 181 ; his
aversion to Cardinal Rohan, 364 ;
orders his arrest, 371 ; his disap
pointment, ii. 176; his ill-humour

INDEX.

429

towards Marie Antoinette, ii. 177 ;
visits Cherbourg, 178 ; remarks
respecting, 223, 356, 358, 359 ;
proposition of M. Calonne to, 224 ;
his reception of the ambassadors of
Tippo Sultan, iii. 157.
Louis XVIII. King of France (Count
Provence), character of, i. 201.
Loveden, Mr. member for Abingdon,
moves for a re-examination of the
physicians of George III. iii. 257.
Lowther, Sir James, raised to the
peerage as Earl of Lonsdale, i. 24 ;
his violent conduct, 25 ; character
of, 26 ; reproved by Mr. Fox, 27 ;
his death, ib.
 Mr. M. P. for Cumberiand,
adopted by Lord Lonsdale, i. 317.
Rev. Sir William, raised to

the baronetage, i. 316.
Loyalists, account of, iii. 108 ; plan
proposed by Mr. Pitt for compen
sating, 109 ; losses of, ib. ; remark
of Mr. Burke respecting, 110.
Luttrell, James, his encomiums on
the Duke of Richmond's plans, i.
• 282.
 Colonel (afterwards Earl of
Carhampton), opposes Wilkes at
Brentford, ii. 117 ; his personal ap
pearance, ib. ; his dangerous illness,
ib.; anecdote relating to, 118.
Lady Elizabeth, account of,

ii. 117.
Luzerne, Chevalier de la, succeeds
Count d' Adhemar as French am
bassador, ii. 119; created a mar
quis, 229 ; remarks respecting, ib. ;
singularity of, 230 ; gives an enter
tainment, ib. ; account of, 231.
 Viscountess de la, her change
of fortune, ii. 231 ; engaging man
ners of, ib. ; death of, ib.

M.
Macartney, Lord, his opinion of Mr.
Boyd, i. 134 ; appointed governor
of Madras, 265 ; his quarrel with
Mr. Benfield, ib. ; notice of his re
signation, 266 ; his arrival in Eng
land from Calcutta, ii. 1 ; appoint
ed governor-general of Bengal, ib. ;
refuses to restore the Carnatic to
Mahommed Ali, 2 ; quits Ma
dras, 3 ; repairs to Calcutta, ib. ;

arrives in London, ii, 4 ; presents an
account of his acquisitions at Ma
dras to the East India Company, 4.
Macbride, Captain, M. P. for Ply
mouth, contradicts Mr. Luttrell's
statement, i. 282.
Macdonald, Mr. solicitor-general, abi
lities of, i. 74 ; family of, 75 ; mar
ried to Lady Louisa Gower, ib. ;
remarks respecting, 341 ; appointed
attorney-general, iii. 101.
 Sir James, his death,
i. 75.
Macpherson, Sir John, his conversa
tion with the Marechal de Castries,
i. 132 ; his mission to England,
254 ; account of him, ii. 5 ; his
personal appearance, 6 ; his pro
ductions, 7 i member of the su
preme council of Bengal, 8 ; sent
to restore peace in India, ib. ; re
turns from Bengal, 9 ; his intimacy
with the Prince of Wales, ib.; his
visit to Italy, 10 ; his acquaintance
with Leopold, Grand Duke of Tus
cany and Frederic William 11.
King of Prussia, ib, ; his'opinion of
the designs of the Count de Ver
gennes, 228 ; anecdote related by,
321.
 Mr. James, appointed
minister to Mahommed Ali, i. 254.
Mahommed Ali, (Nabob of Arcot,
and sovereign of the Carnatic,) en
quiry into the private debts of, i.
253 ; sends a Minister to England,
254 ; his debts, 255. 262 ; assigns
the administration of his revenues
to the Madras Government, ii. 2 ;
directions for replacing him in his
rights of sovereignty, 3.
Mahon, Lord, (afterwards Earl Stan
hope of Elvaston,) character of, i.
78 ; anecdote of, 79 ; takes an ac
tive part against Mr. Fox, 80 ; his
alliance to Mr. Pitt's family, ib.
Mansfield, William Murray, first Earl
of, remark respecting, i. 86 ; op
poses granting pardon to Dr. Dodd,
ii. 25 ; resignation of, 321 ; his con
versation concerning the impeach
ment of Warren Hastings, ih.; re
tires from public life, iii. 100.
March, Earl of, see Queensberry.
Markham, Mr. assists Mr. Hastings
in answering the charges brought
against him, ii. 112.

430

INDEX.

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France,
her misfortunes, i. 183; her cha
racter, ib. ; her imprudent conduct,
185 ; accusations against, ib. 187 ;
lettersof, to the DukeofDorset, 194 ;
hatred of thepopulace towards, 195 ;
anecdote of, 196 ; comparison be
tween her and Ann of Austria, 199,
200 ; her imprisonment in the
Temple, 219 ; her unpopularity,
362 ; her aversion to Cardinal Ro
han, 364 ; informed of the affair of
the diamond necklace, 370 ; com
municated it to the king, 371 ;
prejudices against, ii. 175 ; death
of her infant daughter, 176 ; her
attachment to the Duchess de Polig-
nac,177.
Marsham, Mr. M.P. for the county
of Kent, his attempt to extend the
disquEilifying enactments of Mr.
Crewe's Bill, ii. 83 ; his account
of the number of the royal house
hold, iu. 322.
Matthews, Mr. his duels with Sheri
dan, i. 42.
Mesmer, M. claims the merit of dis
covering " Animal Magnetism," i.
209.
Middleton, Sir Charles, M.P. for Ro-
Chester, his opposition to Mr.
Marsham's motion, ii. 87 ; obser
vations on his character, ib.
 Mr. his correspondence
with the governor-genera] de
manded by Mr. Burke, ii. 120.
Miller, Sir John, moves for a commit
tee of enquiry into the sums ex
pended in constracting Somerset
House, iii. 94 ; division upon ib.
 Lady, society established by
iii. 95 ; account of, ib.
Minikin, Humphrey, moves the ad
journment of the consideration of
the Irish Propositions, i. 318.
Misdemeanours committed in Oude,
charge against Warren Hastings
respecting, ii. 327 ; carried ib.
Montagu, Mr. Matthew, seconds the
address to the throne, ii. 188 ; his
paternal name, ib. ; his adoption,
ib. ; eulogizes the commercial treaty,
ib. ; compliments Mr. Pitt on his
public services, ib.
Monteson, Marchioness, married to
the Duke of Orieans, i. 204.
Montrose, Duke of, see Graham.

Motte Valois, Madame de la, her par
ticipation in the affair of the diamond
necklace, i. 365; conveyed to the
Bastile, 371 ; her punishment for
counterfeiting the signature of Marie
Antoinette, ii. 173.
Mulgrave, Constantine Phipps, first
Lord, remarks respecting, i. 76 ;
advocates Mr. Coibett's cause, 77 ;
reproved by Mr. Fox, ib ; member
ofthe board of control, 162 ; remarks
respecting, 240 ; ii. 54.
Murphy, Arthur, examination of, i. 240.
N.
National Debt, Mr. Pitt's Bill for
liquidating, ii. 75.
Newfoundland fishery, Mr. Jenkin-
son's bill for regulating, ii. 98 ;
passed, 99.
Newnham, Alderman, M.P. for the
city of London, his remarks on the
income of the Prince of Wales, ii.
96 ; selected to represent the in
adequacy of the Prince of Wales's
income, 285 ; addresses the chan
cellor ofthe exchequer, 286; gives
notice of a motion concerning the
prince, ib. ; his intention of moving
an address to the throne, 288 ; im
plored by Mr. Powis not to prose
cute his intention relative to the
Prince of Wales, 291 ; announces
his late intended motion no longer
necessary, 306.
Nicholson, Margaret, her impotent
attempt upon the life of George III.
ii. 156.
Nizam AUy Cawn, Soubah of the
Deckan, transmits to Calcutta a
diamond for Warren Hastings to
present to George III. ii. 142.
Norfolk, Charles Howard, sixteenth
Duke of, his cominents upon Lord
Hawkesbury's declaration, ii. 245 ;
his speech on the king's recovery,
iii. 355 ; see Surrey, Earl of.
North, Hon. Col. (afterwards fifth
Earl of Guildford) his friendship for
Mr. Fox, i. 14 ; reconciled to
George Byng, 16; wit of his con
versation, ib. 142 ; his reply to Sir
Richard Hill's attack upon him,
107 ; firmness of, ib. ; remarks
respecting him, 109 ; his speech
on the proposed bill to amend the

INDEX.

431

representation of the commons, i.
293; allusions made to by Mr.
Hardinge, ii. 107 ; remarks re
specting, 129 ; justifies his con
duct concerning Mr. Hastings, 130 ;
resists the repeal of the Corporation
and Test Acts, 269 ; impression
made upon his hearers, ib. ; indisposi
tion of, 271 ; complimented by Mr.
Pitt, ib. ; infirmities of, iii. 45 ; his
speech respecting the regency, 229 ;
his encomiums on Dr. Warren,
, 261 ; his attacks upon Pitt, 275,
305 ; his attachment to George III.
316 ; proposes the Duke of York as
a member for the Queen's council,
327.
North, Dudley, his reply to the Earl
of Surrey, i. 31.
Northumberland, Sir Hugh Smithson
Percy, third Duke, co-operates
with Mr. Pitt in politics, i. 18;
obtains a barony for his son, 23.
 Countess of, her de
clining health, i. 19.
Nugent, Lord, requested to procure
Dr. Dodd's pardon, ii. 26.
Nundcomar, charge brought against
Sir Elijah Impey for the execution
of. iii. 63. 0.
Oldenburgh, house of, uninterrupted
succession of, in Denmark, i. 207.
Oliva, Mademoiselle d', personates
Marie Antoinette in the affair ofthe
diamond necklace, i. 367 ; con
veyed to the Bastile, 371 ; her im
prisonment, ii. 174 ; her death, ib.
Onslow, George Onslow, first Earl, let
ter supposed to be written by, iii.
333 ; character of, 334.
Orde, Mr. opens the debate upon the
Irish Propositions, i. 308.
Orleans, Duke of, particulars respect
ing, i. 203 ; patrimonial posses
sions of, 205.
Oude, Princesses of, their treatment
by Mr. Warren Hastings brought
forward, ii. 199. P.
Paris, objects of curiosity in, i. 210 ;
observations respecting the parlia
ment of, 357.

Payne, Sir Ralph, afterwards Lord
Lavington, meeting ofthe opposi-
sition leaders at his house, i. 89.
 Lady, (Lady Lavington) ac
count of, i. 89 ; anecdote of, 90.
Pelham, Mr. opens the charge against
Warren Hastings, ii. 238 ; observa
tions respecting, ib. ; his detestation
of the traffic in slaves, iii. 87 ; his in
tention of regulating, ib.
 Miss, account of, ii. 162.
Pemberton, chief justice, remarks re
specting, i. 83.
Penrhyn, Lord, observations respect
ing, iii. 88 ; remarks of, relating to
the slave trade, 89 ; denies the
cruelty used towards slaves, 96.
Percy, Earl, his marriage, i. 18 ; di
vorced, 19 ; second marriage, ib.
 Lord Algernon, first Earl of
Beverley, his marriage, i. 19 ;
created Earl of Beverley, 23.
Pep^s, Sir Lucas, his talents, iii. 190 ;
his opinion of George the Third's
convalescence, 329.
PhUlipps, Richard, afterwards Lord
Milford, his application to the king,
i. 67 ; created an Irish peer, 68.
Pigot, Lord, notice of his imprison
ment and death, i. 263.
Pitt, Right Hon. WiUiam, (first lord
of the Treasury) candidate for re
presenting the University of Cam
bridge, i. 4 ; secures the co-opera
tion of the Duke of Northumber
land, 18 ; his reply to Lord Surrey,
30 ; comparison between him and
Sheridan, 38 ; reproached for his
conduct to him, 44 ; Mr. HamUton's
•praise of, 62 ; obtains the rank of
an earl's daughter for Miss Cecil
Hamilton, 63 ; raises Mr. Hamilton
to the peerage, 64 ; comments on
his favours to him, 65 ; honours
conferred by, on Lord Carrington,
68 ; his reply to Fox's charges
against him, 70 ; his measures to
exclude Fox from his seat for West
minster, 74 ; commits the defence of
the high bailiffof Westminsterto Mr.
Kenyon, 75 ; his conduct in the de
bate respecting Mr. Erskine, 82; Mr.
Fox's aUusions to, 97 ; his reply,
101 ; his motion respecting the high
bailiffof Westminster, 102 ; brings
forward his measures of finance,
111; remarks respecting in "The

432

INDEX.

llolliad,"i, 112; introduces hi,s East-
India Bill, ib. ; refuses to deliver up
papers respecting Mr; Hastings,
123 ; proposes a tax foB the privi
lege of franking letters, 138 ; for
race-horses, 140 ; observation of,
142 j accusations, against him, 156;
reputation of, 157 ; his BiU for
enabling the East India Company
to make a dividend of 8 per cent.
and for remitting the sum of
100,0001. to the public, 158 ; his
reply lo Fox's accusations against,
159; remarks on his elevation,
160 ; his character, 166 ; coolness
between him and tiie Earl of Shel
burne, 230 ; remarks on his speech,
237 ; his reply to Sheridan, 243 ; his
limited parliamentary supremacy,
248 ; his conduct in the enquiry into
the debts of Mahommed Ali, 255 ;
Burke's accusations against, 259 ;
remarks on his youth , 274 ; compari
sons respecting, 275 ; his private
friends, 276 ; his defence of the
Duke of Richmond, 285 ; states the
. produce of the existing taxes, 289 ;
proposes a sinking fund, 290 ; his
attempt to reform the representa
tion of the house of commons,
291 ; moves for a repeal of the tax
upon cotton, 300; asperities be
tween him and Fox, 302 ; proposes
a tax on maid-servants, 303 ; intro
duces the Irish Propositions, 307 ;
remarks on his speech, 310 ; obser
vation respecting Mr. Powis, 315 ;
his explanation of Dundas's speech,
321 ; description of him in one of
the "Probationary Odes," 322;
proposes a bill to regulate the trade
in tobacco, 328 ; Lord Lansdowne's
speech respecting, 347 ; moves an
address to the crown, 356 ; remarks
respecting him, 359. 435 ; attempts
to limit Catiierine II. 's conquests,
432 ; his treaty with Mr. Eden ;
436 ; his visits to him, 439 ; his
first intimacy with Mr. Addington,
ii. 12 ; his justification of the mea
sure of sending Mr. Eden to France,
19 ; his obligation to Hastings's
friends, 34 ; his remarks upon the
character of Mr. Hastings, 39 ;
proposes to fortify the dock-yard,
40 ; gives the Duke of Richmond

a seat in the cabinet, ii.41; de
bates relative to the proposed forti
fications, 42 ; refuses Mr. Sheri
dan a report of, 43 ; his discussion
upon the system of fortifications,
44 ; his indignation at the aspersion
of Mr. Walwyn, 45 ; division ofthe
house on his original measure, 49 ;
his proposition negatived, 50 ;
moves the order of the day, ib. ; ac
cepts a compromise, ib. ; refuses
to reveal transactions concerning
Mr. Hastings, 56 ; writes to Lord
Cornwallis, proposing his appoint
ment as governor-general of Bengal,
62 ; his remarks upon Mr. Burke's
violent address, 67 ; particulars of
him, 69 ; his act for the extinction
of the national debt, 75 ; demon
strates the rapid and salutary opera
tion of the sinking-fund, 76 ; enco
miums due to him, 79 ; refuses any
further innovation to Mr. Crewe's
bill, 83 ; assents to Mr. Hastings
being heard in his defence, 101 ;
his disapprobation of Mr. Burke's
attempt to produce the correspond
ence between Mr. Middleton and
Warren Hastings, 122 ; votes for the
acquittal of Mr. Hastings, 133 ; his
great influence, 1 34 ; his repugnance
to enter into proceedings relative to
the second charge against Warren
Hastings, 136; justifies the conduct
of Hastings towards Cheyt Sing,
ib. ; his high encomiums upon the
character of Hastings, 137 ; his
comments upon Fox and Burke,
ib. ; his bitter animadversions on
Mr. Francis, ib. ; his singular and
unexpected declaration, respecting
Cheyt Sing's fine, 138 ; speech ap
plauded by Mr. Powis, 139 ; his
opinion of the fine imposed on
Cheyt Sing, 1 40 ; remarks respect
ing him, 141 ; places Lord Hawkes
bury at the head of the new board
of trade, 150; exposes the incon
sistency of Mr. Fox, 191 ; defends
the commercial treaty system, and
delineates its advantages, ib. ; his
sarcastic remark on the arguments
of Mr. Fox,i6. ; hia popular power,
192 ; his impatience to enter into
an examination of the commercial
treaty with France, 193 ; his opi-

INDEX.

433

nion of Mr. Sheridan's speech rela
tive to the Princesses of Oude, ii.
206; desirous of an adjournment, ib.;
acquits Hastings of all culpability,
211; recommends the proposition
concerning the commercial treaty,
216 ; introduces a bill for the con
solidation of duties, 221 ; eloquent
speech respecting, ib. ; appoints Dr.
Pretyman to tiie bishopnc of Lin
coln, 231 ; his exertions to raise
Pretyman to the archbishopric of
Canterbury, 232 ; reply of Geo. III.
to, 233 ; his speech relative to Mr.
Pelham's accusations against the
Governor General, 242 ; proposes
a day for discussing his impeach
ment, 262 ; condemns Mr. Hamil
ton's proposed delay, 266; com
pliments Lord North, upon bis
-able discussion, 271 ; his opinion
of the course to be pursued against
Warren Hastings, 277 ; remarks
of, respecting the Prince of Wales,
288 ; his attachment to Mr. Dun
das, 300 ; habits of, 301 ; anec
dote of, ib. ; admitted to an au
dience at Carlton House, 306 ; con
cludes the articles of accommo
dation with the Prince of Wales,
ib.; remarks of, relating to Alder
man Newnham, ib. ; justifies the
conduct of George III. 307 ; pro
poses a public apology to Lord
Hood by Mr. Courtenay, 324 ; al
tercation with Mr. Fox respecting,
325 ; his motion carried, 326 ; ad
dresses Mr. Grey, 330 ; denies Mr.
Fox's charge against him, 331 ;
renews the board of trade, 332 ;
induces parliament to appoint com
missioners to investigate the abuses
in the post office, 334 ; observa
tions respecting him, 359 ; moves
an address to the throne, 368 ; car
ried, 369 ; his popixlarity, ib. ;
temperate habits of, iii. 5 ; his
contempt of money, ib. ; advance
ment of govemment securities under
his sidministration, 6; feelings of
George III. towards, 7 ; remarks
on his conduct respecting Warren
Hastings, 8 ; assents to the proposi
tion of Sir Elijah Impey, 12 ; un
dertakes to restrain the authority of
the East India Company, 27 ;
moves for peimission to introduce
VOL. III.

his Declaratory bill, iii. 28 ; debates
upon, 'lb. ; opposition tp, ib. ; peti
tion against, by East India Com
pany, 32 ; apparent security of his
bill, 44 ; opposes an address to the
throne respecting Capts. Balfour
and Thomson, 51 ; appoints his bro
ther to succeed I.ord Howe, 59 ;
debates respecting the finances, ib. ;
his observations on the French re
venue, 60 ; his resolutions adopted,
63 ; reluctant to postpone the pro
ceedings against Sir Elijah Impey,
69 ; enumeration of his followers,
79 ; introduces the plan of fllr.
Wilberforce for suppressing the
negro trade, 85 ; his resolution for
postponing the consideration of,
adopted, 89 ; defends Sir William
Chambers, respecting the erection
of Somerset-house, 94 ; opinion of,
respecting the regulation of the slave
trade, 96, 97 ; promotions by, 100 ;
proposes a plan for compensating
the loyalists, 109 ; supports the slave
regulation bill, 112 ; opinion of the
proposed amendments to, 121 ; his
inflexible determination to carry the
measure, 126 ; popular power of,
145, 186 ; moves for an adjourn
ment, in consequence of the king's
insanity, 182 ; his critical situation,
185; quarrel with Lord Thurlow,
187 ; presents the report of the
royal physicians, 194. 202 ; moves
the appointment of a committee on
it, ib. ; speeches respecting the re
gency, 204. 212 ; Burke's imputa-
tations against, 206 ; remarks re
specting, 217 ; anecdote of, 220 ;
his indignation at Lord Thurlow's
conduct, 222 ; his character, 224 ;
his resolutions respecting the re
gency, 229 ; character of his letter
to the Prince of Wales, 252 ; op
poses Loveden's motion, 259 ; his
reply to Burke, 261 ; moves for a
committee to re-examine the physi
cians, 263 ; presents their report,
269 ; discloses his conditions for
offering the regency to tbe Prince
of Wales, 271 ; bis proposed restric
tions, 272 ; proposition relative to
the queen, 279 ; his reply to Fox's
inquiries, 283 ; to Sheridan's, 285 ;
proposes to lay the resolutions of
the Houses before the Prince,
2 F

434

INDEX.

iii 291, 29^; his reply to his oppo
nents, 294; moves an address to
the Queen, 295 ; his critical situa
tion, 296 ; meditates resuming his
profession, 297 ; denies the reports
respecting him, 298 ; one of the
deputation to the Prince from the
Commons, 299 ; his reply to Lord
North's attack, 305 ; caricature
respecting, 310 ; his intention of
proposing a new establishment for
the Prince, 322 ; proposes the per
sons to form a council for the Queen,
326 ; disapproves of the Duke of
York's nomination, 327 ; his propo
sition, 337; interview with the
king, 343 ; speech on the proposed
address to the Queen, 367 ; Sir N.
Wraxhall's services to, 372.
Polignac, Duchess de, her return to
France, ii. 177 ; her ascendancy
over Marie Antoinette, ib.
Pope, Mr. his remarks respecting Sir
Robert Walpole, i. 109.
Portland, WilUam Henry Cavendish
Bentick, third Duke of, leader ofthe
Whigs, i. 10.
Portmore, Earl of, his death, i, 339 ;
account of, ib. 340.
Powis, Mr. his speech on the bill to
amend the representation of the
house of commons, i. 292 ; demands
time to examine the Irish Proposi
tions, 314, 315 ; his debate on the
deficiency in the civil list, U. 95 ;
his remarks respecting Lord North's
conduct, 130; animadversions on
Mr. Pitt's speech, 139; implores
Alderman Newnham not to prose
cute his intention concerning the
Prince of Wales, 290 ; his speech
on the regency question, iii. 274.
Powney, Mr. M. P. for Windsor,
royal favour towards, iii. 142 ; per
sonal appearance of, ib. ; appointed
ranger of Windsor little park, 143 ;
anecdote respecting, 144.
Pretyman, Dr. private secretary to
Mr. Pitt, appointed Bishop of Lin
coln, ii. 231 ; exertions made to
obtain for him the Archbishopric
of Canterbury, 232 ; refused it by
George III. ib.
Price, Major, accompanies the king
to the hospital at Richmond, iii.
363.
" Probationary Odes," character of

the, i. 297 ; description of Pitt and
Jenldnson, in, 322.
Prussia, King of, see Frederic the
Great ; Frederic William II.
Pulteney, Mr. his speech on the re
gency question, iii. 280; his mo
tion respecting, 346.
Q.
Queensberry, William Douglas fourth
and last Duke of, created Baron
Douglas, ii. 160 ; account of him,
ib. ; his attachment to Miss Pel
ham, 162 ; fabulous stories respect
ing, 163 ; his classic exhibitions,
ib. ; passion for music, 164 ; his
death, 165 ; distribution of his for
tune, ib. ; his desertion from Pitt's
administration, iii. 246.

Rawdon, Lord (afterwards first Mar
quis of Hastings), introduces the
injustice of Lord Howe's naval
promotion to the notice of the peers,
iii. 50 ; moves an address to the
throne respecting, ib. ; his speech
on the regency question, 349.
Regency Medal, description of, iii.
310.
Regency BiU, debates on, in the com
mons, iii. 201, 271 ; passes that
house, 337 ; debates on, in the
lords, 349 ; progress of arrested,
351.
Richmond, Charles. Lennox eighth
Duke of, his attachment to Pitt,
i. 279 ; remarks on his parsimony,
281 ; his passion for fortifications,
282; extract from " The Rolliad"
respecting him, 284; Pitt's de
fence of, 285 ; obtains a seat in
the cabinet, ii. 41 ; his proposition
respecting the fortification of the
dock-yards, ib. ; reception of, 42 ;
defends the Slave Regulation BUI,
iii. 119 ; his deference to Mr. Pitt's
wishes, 147.
Rigby, prediction of respecting Mr.
Hastings, ii. 57.
Rodney, Admiral Lord, bis victory
over De Grasse, i. 5 ; raised to the
peer^e, 6 ; Burke's persecution of,
337 ; particulars relating to him,
ii. 149.

INDEX.

435

Rohan, Cardinal Prince Louis de,
account of, i. 363 ; his interview
with Madame de la Motte, 366,
367 ; his participation in the affair
of the diamond necklace, 368 ;
conveyed to the Bastile, 371 ; ac
quitted of the charge, ii. 174; de
parts from Paris, ib.
Rohilla War, charge against Mr.
Hastings respecting, ii. 123.
RoUe, John second Lord, character
of, i. 298 ; a steady supporter of
Pitt's adminisUation, 299 ; ob
noxious to the opposition, t6. ;
his charges against Sheridan,
300 ; his disapprobation of the in
tended motion concerning the
Prince of Wales, ii. 288 ; equivocal
answer of, when pressed to express
himself satisfied with Fox's expia
tion, 295.
Rose, Mr. secretary of the treasury,
anecdote respecting, i. 144; ac
count of him, 146, 148 ; his per
sonal appearance, 149.
" Rolliad," the, a poem, description
of Lord Mahon in, i. 79 ; accusa
tions against Pitt in, 157 ; descrip
tion of Mr. Dundas in, 164 ; cha
racter of, 297 ; supposed authors
of, 298 ; extract from, ii. 42.
Russia, Empress of, see Catherine II.
Rutland, Charles Manners fourth
Duke of, lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
obligations of Mr. Pitt to, 349 ;
remarks respecting, 350; account
of his death, 351.
^— — Duchess of, visits England,
ii. 351 ; receives intelligence of her
husband's iUness, ib. ; prepares to
join him, ib. ; personal appearance
of, 354 ; her levity of manners,
355.

Sackville, George Sackville, first Vis
count, laments the introduction of
the Irish Propositions, i. 349 ; his
speech respecting, ib. ; reason for
opposing them, 353 ; his approach
ing dissolution, 354; character of
his correspondence, 419, 421 ; his
opinion of " The Rolliad," 422 ;
his partiality for men of talents,
423 ; his condemnation of the
Irish Propositions, 424 ; his libe
ral economy, 425 ; his account of

the council held respecting Dr.
Dodd, ii. 25.
St. Helens, AlleynFitz-Kerbert, Lord,
his intimacy with Queen Charlotte,
ii. 353.
Salisbury, Countess of, character of, i.
12.
Sawbridge, Mr. speech of, i. 104 ; his
personal appearance, 105 ; refuses
to withdraw his motion respecting
reform in parliament, 109 ; his
election for London, 118.
Schimmelman, Baron, plans the re
storation of the Queen of Denmark,
i. 379.
Scotland, act for restoring forfeited
estates in, i. 150 ; passed, 153.
Scott, Major, sent to England by the
governor-general of India, i. 121 ;
his traits, ib. ; fluency of his
speeches, 122 ; his call upon Mr.
Fox, 123 ; an advocate for Mr.
Hastings, 124 ; his "Probationary
Ode," 172 ; his accusations against
Burke, 251 ; Mr. Hastings's pre
sent to, 329 ; reminds Mr. Burke
of his engagement respecting Has
tings, ii. 26 ; refutes the assertions
made against that gentleman, 57 ;
presents a petition on the part of
Mr. Hastings, 100 ; objects to the
postponement of the charges against
him, 143 ; his alarm at the intel
ligence from Calcutta, ib. ; his nar
ration of the affair ofthe diamond
received by George III. 144 ; repre
sents the injustice of procrastinating
the prosecution against the late go
vernor-general, 146; discusses the
acquisitions gained in the East un
der his administration, 208 ; ad
dresses the members of the oppo
sition, 209 ; answers the accusa
tion of seizhig the treasures of the
Begums, ib. ; depictures the criti
cal situation of our empire in the
East, ib. ; remarks upon his argu
ments, 210 ; disproves the charge
against Warren Hastings, 260 ;
remarks of, respecting Fyzoola
Khan, 261 ; respecting Mr. Has
tings, 317; addresses the Speaker
on behalf of Hastings, 318 ; ar
guments of, relative to the new
charge against him, 327 ; exposes
the multiplied charges of Burke, 834.
Scott, John, afterwards Lord Chan-
cellor Eldon, appointed solicitor-

436

INDEX.

general, iii. 102 ; his proposition
relative to the personal and political
character of the king, 281.
Seckendorf, Baron, sent to Sir N.
Wraxall by Queen Caroline Ma
tilda, i. 385, 390 ; letters of, re
specting the queen's escape from
Zell, iii. 375 — 396 ; names in cy
pher between him and Sir N. W.
Wraxall, 399.
Selwyn, G. his antipathy to Sheridan,
i. 47 ; imposition practised upon, 48.
Shelburne, William Petty, second Earl
of, created Marquis of Lansdown,
i. 230 ; coolness between him and
Mr. Pitt, ib. ; remarks on his ele
vation, 231 ; his speech in favour
of the Irish Propositions, 346 ; his
hostility to Pitt, 348 ; reviews the
commercial treaty with France, ii.
250; remarks respecting, iii. 237 ; his
speech on the regency question, 241.
Sheridan, Mr. remarks of, i. 3 ; re
turned for Stafford, 36 ; his talents,
37 ; remarks respecting, 38 ; his
dramatic celebrity, 39 ; compari
sons respecting him, 41 ; his perso
nal courage, 42 ; his marriage, ib. ;
his love of country, 43 ; his ad
vances to Pitt, 44 ; attachment to
Fox, 45 ; pecuniary difficulties, 46 ;
artifice to elect him member of
Brooke's Club, 47 ; anecdote of,
49 ; his employments, 51 ; indo
lence of, 52 ; comparison between
him and Fox, 53 ; fai's in secur
ing his re-election for Stafford, 54 ;
money transmittted to, by the Prince
of Wales, ib. ; remarks respecting
his last days and death, 55 ; op
poses Pitt's East India BiU, 115,
his wit, 141 ; proposes an amend
ment to the cotton tax, 300 ; his
reply to Lord Rolle's accusations,
301 ; ridicules Pitt's 'proposed ad
dress to the crown, 366; moves
for a copy of the report on the pro
priety of fortifying the dockyards,
li. 43 ; his animated speech con
cerning, 45 ; remarks on, 46 ; com
municates with Major Scott con
cerning Mr. Hastings, 69 ; at
tacks Mr. Dundas's East India Bill,
63 ; his remarks upon Mr. Dundas,
84 ; his motives for extending im
punity to Hastings, 93 ; his re
marks on the inadequacy of the

Prince of Wales's income, ii. 95 ; his
enquiry respecting news from the
East, 144; his remarks on Warren
Hastings, ib. ; his attack upon Mr.
Jenkinson, 151 ; his intention of
bringing forward the third charge
against Mr. Hastings, 192 ; his me
morable speech respecting Hast
ings's treatment of the Princesses
of Oude, 199 ; admiration of, ib. ;
dramatic passages contained in,
201 ; appeals to the feelings of the
house, 203; his ridicule of Mr.
Eden, 218 ; undertakes to open the
charge against Warren Hastings,
relative to presents, 273 ; his re
marks respecting the conduct of, ib. ;
arguments of, respecting the Prince
of Wales, 289 ; indefatigable ex
ertions of, relating to abuses in
the post office, 334 ; his severe re
torts upon Mr. Pitt, iii. 39; ob
servations concerning his conclud
ing days, 62 ; motion of, respect
ing Warren Ilastings, 102 ; con-
vivial disposition of, 150 ; proposes
the erection of a column in Run
nemede, to celebrate the Magna
Charta, 179 ; his influence over
the Prince of Wales, 185 ; his at
tack upon Pitt, 275; his ques
tions to, 285 ; his ascendancy over
the Prince of Wales, 312 ; defence
of Mrs. Fitzherbert, 313; remarks
respecting him, 314; his speech
respecting the regency, 322 ;
" Short review of the political state of
Great Britain, at the commence
ment of 1787," noticed, ii. 181 ;
present of the manuscript, 182 ;
French translation of, ib. ; its au
thor suspected, 183 ; altercation to
procure copies, 1 84.
Sinclair, Sir John, proposed repre
sentative of the Orkney and Shet
land Islands,!. 29.
" Slave Regulation BiU, intro
duced by Sir William Dolben, iii.
95 ; passed, 126 ; receives the royal
assent, ib.
Smith, Mr. afterwards Lord Carring
ton, returned to Parliament fot Not
tingham, i. 67 ; raised to the peer
age, ib. ; favours bestowed upon, 68.
 Sir Sidney, particulars re
specting his detention in the Tem
ple, i. 218.

INDEX.

437

Smithson, Sir Hugh, see Northumber
land, Earl of.
Somerset House, construction of, iii.
90 ; indignation of Mr. Hussey re
specting, 92.
Soulliac, Viscount de, governor of the
Mauritius, sends Monsieur Bonne-
carre to Calcutta as a spy, i. 131.
Stafford, Marquis of, see Gower, Earl.
Stahl, Madame de, remarks in her
"Memoirs," i. 217.
Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, third
Earl, his speech on the king's re
covery, iii. 367.
 , Mr. Artiiur, appointed se
cretary to Earl of Chesterfield, ii. 20.
Steele, Mr. account of, i. 149.
Stormont, Lord, his speeches on the
regency question, iii. 221. 290.
302. 349. 352, 353.
Stuart, Lady Anne, her marriage, i.
18 ; divorced, 19.
Surrey, Charles Howard, Earl of, af
terwards 16th Duke of Norfolk,
character of, i. 29 ; proposition to
Pitt, ib- ; deputy earl marshal of
England, 30 ; his excesses, 30, 31 ;
anecdotes of, 33 ; his attachment
to Mr. Fox, 33 ; waits upon the
Duke of York, 34 ; dismissed from
his lord-lieutenancy, 35, his acti
vity, ib.; speech of, on the opening of
the new parliament, 69 ; his sugges
tion to Mr. Pitt, on the policy of
taxing race horses, 141 ; his disap
probation of Pitt's speech at the
opening of the parliament of 1785,
237; his attack upon Mr. Eden, U.
18 ; his enquiry into the Earlof Ches
terfield's embassy to Madrid, 21 ;
quits the lower house, 179. See
Norfolk, Duke of.
Sutton, Dr. Manners, appointed Arch
bishop of Canterbury, ii. 233 ; ac
count of, ib. ; his intellectual en
dowments, 236 ; his love of field
sports, 237 ; proposed as a member
for her majesty's council, iii. 326.
 Sir Richard, undertakes Sir
Elijah Impey's defence, iii. 66 ;
opposes delay in the proceedings,
68 ; addresses the house, 73 ; do
cuments introduced by, ib.
Sydney, (Tommy Townsend) Lord,
remarks respecting, i. 165 ; ap
pointed president of the East India
Board of Control, 162; delivers to

George III. the packet from Nizam
AUy Cawn, ii. 143 ; his remarks
respecting the Regency BiU, iii. 350.

TankervUIe, Charies Bennet, fifth Earl
of, his disputes with Lord Carteret,
ii. 328 ; receives his dismission as
post-master-general, ib. ; induces
Mr. Grey to espouse his cause, ib. ;
observations of Fox concerning,
332.
Temple, the, destroyed by Napoleon,
i. 220.
 Earl, created Marquis of
Buckingham, i. 228; his services
to the king, ib. ; his talents, 229 ;
his reception of Louis XVIII. 230 ;
defends the commercial treaty, ii.
250 ; succeeds the Duke of Rut
land as lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
352 ; temperate habits of, ib.
" Tbe author of Junius ascertained,"
publication so called, i. 128.
" The identity of Junius with a dis
tinguished Uving character, esta
blished," an anonymous publica
tion, i. 129.
Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, disap
proves of the act for restoring
forfeited estates, i. 151 ; defends
the East India BiU, 155; his
important services during its pas
sage, 156 ; justifies the demand of
Hastings's counsel, iii. 23 ; comment
of, 24 ; his disagreement with Pitt,
187; the Prince of Wales's
treatment of, 188; his offer to, 209 ;
speeches of, on the regency ques
tion, 210. 219. 243. 288. 299;
caricature of him and his coUeagues,
310; his indisposition, 316; pro
posed as a member of her majesty's
council, 326 ; proposes adjourning
the regency bill in consequence of
the king's recovery, 352 ; his reply
to the Dilke of Norfolk, 355.
Townshend, Hon. John, character of,
' i. 4.
 Lord John, elected mem
ber for Westminster, iii. 151.
Dowager Viscountess,

death of, iii. 46 ; account of, 47.
. Alderman, his astonish

ment at the unbecoming language

438

INDEX.

of Mr. Courtenay, ii. 313 ; adverts
tb the proceedings against Hastings,
ib. ; death of, 315.
Tyrconnel, Earl of, his marriage, iii.
193; M.P. for Scarborough, i6.
 ~— Countess of, the I)uke of
York's attachment to, in. 193.

Vanneck, Sir Joshua, created Lord
Huntingfield, i. 67.
Vansittart, George, M.P. for Berks,
his question to Mr. Burke; iii. 260.
Vandreuil, Monsieur de, his intimacy
with Marie Antoinette, i. 196. "
Vergennes, Count de, death of, ii.
227 ; his talents, ib, ; opinion of
the Duke of Dorset respecting, ib. ;
his meditated hostilities, 228.
Versailles, superb spectacle at, i.
173 ; dissipation at the court of,
ii.l77 ; Duke of Dorset, ambassador
to the court of, 180.
Victor AmadseusIIl. King of Sardinia,
his reasons for refusing to receive
back his daughter after her marriage
with the Count d'Artois, i. 202.
Vincennes, castie of, thrown open to
the pubhc, i. 212 ; retrospection of
state prisoners in, 213. '
Vyner, Mr. M. P. for Thirske, cha
racter of, iii. 195 ; his reply to
Pitt's speech, ib. ; speech of re
specting the proposed adjournment
on the king's recovery, 354.

W.
Waldegrave, Lord, death of, i. 226.
Wales, George Prince of, congratu
lates Fox on being returned for
Westminster, i. 14; Entertainments
given by, 15. 17 ; remarks respect
ing him, ib. ; money transmitted by,
to Sheridan, 54 ; his attachment to
Lord Eldon, 94 ; his inadequate
income discussed, ii. 95 ; debt in
curred by, 97 ; his excesses, 114 ;
his domestic embarrassments, 154;
dissol ves his household, 1 55 ; remarks
respecting, ib. ; his appearance, 156;
oppressive debts of, 285 ; determi
nation of his advisers, ib. ; debates
upon, 287, 288; his readiness to

prove his debts, ii. 292 ; debate re
specting, 295 ; affabUity of, 297 ;
grants an interview to Mr. Dun
das, 305 ; states his incumbrances,
ib. ; admits Mr. Pitt to an au
dience, 306 ; discussion refer-
ing to his eiiibarrassments termi
nated, 337 ; augmentation of his
income, .338; attends Lady Wil
liam Gordoti's assembly, 345 ;
remark of, respecting Count Fersen,
ib. ; his conversation with Lady
Clermont, 346; Informs Fox of the
king's insanity, 183 ; his confiden
tial friends, 184 ; determines on a
change of administration, 185;
secures the cooperation of Prince
Frederick, 191 ; debates respecting
his regency, 203 ; his offers to Lord
Thurlow, 209; negotiation with,
218'; Pitt's letter to, 252; his
reply, 254 ; consents to accept the
regency, 255 ; his promises to the
members, 269 ; Pitt's proposed
conditions for his regency, 271 ;
restrictions upon, 272; deputation
to from both houses, '299; his
reply, 300 ; medals respecting
his regency, 310; his attachment
to Sheridan, 312 ; ' deputation to,
from the Irish parliament, 357 ; his
answer, 358 : waits upon the king,
361.
Wallace, Lady, singular character
of, iii. 48 ; dramatic talent of, 49 ;
death of, ib.
Walsingham, Thomas de Grey, second
Lord, member of the board of con
trol, i. 162 ; dismissed, 163 ; offered
the post of governor-general of Ben
gal, ii. 62 ; remarks upon him, ib. ;
termination ofthe negociation, ib.
Walwyn, Mr. M.P. for Hereford,
objects to the measure for fortifying
dock-yards, ii. 45.
Warren, Dr. his professional skill, iii.
189 ; his partiality for the Prince
of Wales, 191 ; debate respecting
him, 261 ; his opinion of the king's
convalescence, 329 ; conversation
with George III. 348 ; his bulletin
respecting, 349 ; his report, 356.
Watson, Dr. Bishop of Llandaff,
his speech on the regency, iii.
288. ' Brook, Alderman, account
of, i. 144 ; anecdote of,145.

INDEX.

439

Weltjee, IMr. account of, iii. 331 ;
letter written in his name, 332.
Westminster election, scrutiny of the,
i. 73. 238. 270. 273.
Whitworth, Earl, introduced to Marie
Antoinette, i. 187 ; account of him,
188 ; his intimacy with the Countess
Gerbetzow, 189 ; married to the
Duchess of Dorset, 191 ; sent am
bassador to the French republic,
193 ; his prodigious elevation, ib.
194.
Wilberforce, Mr. M.P. for the county
of York, digests a plan for sup
pressing the Slave Trade, iii. 85 ;
prevented from bringing it forward,
ib.
Wilbraham, Roger, M.P. for Wel-
ston, seconds Burke's motion rela
tive to the Rohilla war, ii. 132.
Wilkes, Mr. his display of wit, ii.
308 ; his comparison respecting
Warren Hasting, ib.
WiUiam Henry, Prince, afterwards
Duke of Clarence, and King of
England, particulars of, ii. 114 ;
Commander of the Pegase, 166 ;
personal courage of, iii. 153.
WiUis, Dr. Francis, summoned to
attend George III. iii. 197 ; proof
of his influence over him, 198 ; his
reports respecting him, 202. 257 ;
Burke's remarks respecting him,
270.
Windham, Mr. M.P. for Norwich,
his parliamentary talents, i. 57 ;
character of, 241 ; comparison be
tween him and IBurke, 242 ; his
want of judgment, 243 ; opens the
sixth charge against Warren Hast
ings, ii. 260 ; nature of, ib. ; sup
port of the motion, 262.
Wodehouse, Sir John, elevated to the
peerage, i. 3.
Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel, his intimacy
with Viscount Galway, i. 2 ; visits
the vault of the Cavendish famUy,
8 ; dines with Lord Surrey, 30 ;
breakfasts with him, 33 ; intimacy
with Sheridan, 53 ; enters the house
of commons, 66; votes with Mr.
Pitt on the question relative to the
Westminster election, 72 ; the ob
ject of royal and ministerial en
mity, 74 ; dines with Lord Erskine,
83 ; present at a debate respecting
the Westminster election, 96 ; in

timacy with Lord NorUi, i . 109 ; his
supposition respecting the author of
Junius, 128. 137, 138 m.; his in
timacy with Mr. Rose, 148 ; visits
Paris, 173 ; visits the castle of
Vincennes, 212 ; conversation with
Sir Sydney Smith, 218 ; with Lieut.
Wright, 219 ; with Gen. Manners,
225 ; votes with ministers on the
Westminster scrutiny question, 273 ;
opposes the bill for amending the
representation of the English par
liament, 296 ; his supposition re
specting the authors of the "Pro
bationary Odes," 297 ; his know
ledge of Mr. Lacam, 330 ; his
opinion of Hastings's political acts,
333 ; dines with the Eari of Port-
more, 339 ; his interview with
Lord Sackville, 364 ; visits- Paris,
361 ; his visits to the Duke
of Mecklenburg Strelitz, 373;
to the Queen of Denmark at
Zell, 374 ; sets out for Hamburgh,
376; undertakes a commission to
the queen at Zell, 378 ; his inter
view with the Baron de Schimmel-
m.an, ib. ; with the Baron de Bulow,
380. 387. 392 ; sets out for Zell,
381 ; draws up a letter to the queen,
382 ; presents it to her, 383 ; re
turns to Zell, 389 ; conversation
withthequeen, 390 ; arrives in Lon
don, 393 ; conversation with Baron
Lichtenstein, 394 ; his dangerous
journey to Zell, 397 ; interview
with the queen, 399, 406 ; arrives
in London, 409; hears of the
queen's death, 411 ; waits on Lord
North, 417 ; remunerated for his
trouble, 418 ; hears of Lord Sack-
ville's death, ib. ; remarks on his
correspondence with him, 419. 421.
423 j his . ajcquaintance with Mr.
Eden, 438; letter from the Duke of
Dorset to, 440 ; his visits to Sir
John Macpherson, ii. 10 ; intimacy
with Dr. Dodd, 24 ; votes for
fortifying the dockyards of Ports
mouth and Plymouth, 50 ; believes
Sir Philip Francis to be the au
thor of "Junius," 61; dines with
Sir John Macpherson, 72 ; his
comparison between Pitt and Pe
ricles, 73 ; his respect for Mr.
Hastings, 108 ; votes against
Burke's proposition respecting War-

440

INDEX.

ren Hastings, ii. 131 ; his visits to
Lord Rodney, 150 ; remarks in
the Duke of Queensberry's note to,
165 ; his conversation with some of
the officers who fought in the battle
of MoUwitz, 166; remarks in the
Duke of Dorset's letter to, 180;
publishes his " Short Review of
the Political State of Great Bri
tain," 181 ; his secrecy respect
ing the author, 183 ; conver
sation with Mr. Debrett, 184 ;
letter from Debrett to, 185 ;
votes in favour of Hastings, 213 ;
his intimacy with M. Calonne, 225;
letters from the Duke of Dorset to,
226, 227 ; intimacy with the Che
valier de la Luzerne, 229 ; visits
the Viscountess de la Luzerne,
230 ; opposes Mr. Pelham's mo
tion respecting Warren Hastings,
244 ; his acquaintance with Lord
Delaval, 248 ; votes against Sir
James Erskine's motion respecting
Warren Hastings, 258 ; supports
Wilkes's motion relative to Warren
Hastings, 319 ; anecdote related to,
by Sir John Macpherson, 320 ; his
intimacy with the Earl and Countess
of Clermont, 339. 343 ; passes part
of the autumn of 1787, in Paris,
356 ; intimacy with Count Belgio
joso, 362 ; predilection for Lords
North and Sackville, iii. 6; pre
judiced against Sir Elijah Impey,
10 ; present at the trial of Warren
Hastings, 21 ; acquaintance with
Col. FuUarton, 29 ; attends the re
presentation of " The Ton," by
Lady Wallace, 48 ; supports Pitt
in the debate on the naval promo
tions, 54 ; leaves London to avoid
voting for Sir Elijah Impey, 69 ;
disapproves of his conduct, 70 ;
conversation with Lord Chatham,
129 ; story related to, by Lord
Sandwich, 145 ; conversation with

Hugh EUiot, iii. 163; leaves Lon
don for Bath, 176 ; returns to Loo-
don, 178 ; acquaintance with the
Countess of Tyrconnel, 192 ; dines
with Sir James Macpherson, 214;
conversation with Gen. Manners,
221; his admiration of Pitt, 223;
supports him on the regency ques
tion, 230. 278 ; votes for Sir Fletcher
Norton's dismissal, 249 ; intimacy
with Mr. Loveden, 267 ; his visits
to the Duchess of Gordon, 267 ;
the Earl of Clermont's propositions
to, 268 ; purchases a regency medal,
310; conversation with Sir Lucas
Pepys, 330 ; his semces to Pitt,
372 ; letters from Baron de Secken
dorf to, respecting the Queen of
Denmark, 376—396; letters from
Baron Bulow to, on the same sub
ject, 401 ; from the Baron de Lich
tenstein, 403.
Wray, Sir Cecil, M.P. for Westmin
ster, i. 5 ; character of, 6 ; exer
tions, for his re-election, 13 ; pe
tition of, 73 ; his proposition re
specting the Westminster scrutiny,
248.
Wright, Lieut, account of his impri
sonment in the Temple, i. 219.

Y.
Yonge, Sir George, secretary at war,
one of the deputation to the Prince
of Wales from the Commons, iii.
299 ; presents the army estimates,
371.
York, Duke of, see Frederic, Prince.
 . Archbishop of, proposed as a
member for her majesty's council,
ui. 326.
Yorke, Mr. afterwards Earl of Hard
wicke, approves of the address on
the king's recovery, iii. 365.

THE END.

LONDON
PllINTED BY SAMBEL BEKTLFY,
Dorsit Street, Fleet Street.

* i . . uumv
\w.l<iL. if?

, - ^ * ' '' -51' I 4 I