He to be certain. "His [the king's] aunt, the Princess Amelia," writes Lord Brougham, "had some plan of again bringing the two parties together; and on a day when George the Third was to pay her a visit at her villa at Gunnersbury, near Brentford, she invited Lord Bute, whom she probably had never informed of her foolish intentions. was walking in the garden, when she took her nephew down-stairs to view it, saying there was no one but an old friend of his, whom he had not seen for some years. He had not time to ask who it might be, when on entering the garden he saw his former minister walking up an alley. The king instantly turned back to avoid him, reproved the silly old woman sharply, and declared that if she ever repeated such experiments, she had seen him for the last time in her house." The truth of this anecdote is curiously corroborated by the following extract from a MS. letter written by the late King of Hanover. "I have been reflecting and trying to recall to my memory all I have heard upon this subject, and to the best of my recollection can only say that perhaps in the course of talking over, while walking with my late revered father in the gardens at Kew, (which I was in the habit of doing, and especially when there were crisises in the state of affairs), he then often talked of the different difficulties he had been placed in, from various changes of ministries. With respect to Lord Bute, there seemed to me always something which denoted a reluctance on his part to speak out on the subject; but, if I am not very much mistaken, about the time that the late Mr. Pitt resigned office, and which brought me into that very close connection with my father, as I was the person whom he employed to make the first overture to Addington, the speaker of the House of Commons, that he then said (some paragraphs having at that time appeared in one of the opposition papers mentioning him and Lord Bute as if he had been in the constant habit of seeing and communicating privately with him after he had left office), that he never had any communication either verbally or by letter with him. And I believe that it was on account of Lord Bute's having been invited to Gunnersbury, unknown to the king, that he seldom or ever saw Princess Amelia afterward; and there is no doubt that, though exterior civility was kept up between my father and his mother, still there was very little intercourse during the last years between them. As she died in 1772, when I was one year old, all I tell you here is from hearsay, and what I have heard at different times from my late brother, George the Fourth, and [my] uncle, Duke of Gloucester, who I should think was upon much better and more cordial terms with his mother than my father was."' "In speaking of those times to his son, the Duke of York," writes Earl Russell, he [George III.] said that he never saw It may be considered, perhaps, that we have dwelt at too great a length on the subject of the presumed influence of Bute over the mind of his sovereign. It should be remembered, however, that not only, for nearly two years past, had the popular belief in its existence led to many of the king's motives being misinterpreted and many of his actions misrepresented; but, moreover, that, for some years to come, it was destined to lead to the weakening of successive administrations, by inducing the king's ministers to suspect their sovereign, and the people to suspect ministers. In justice, therefore, not only to the king but to his legitimate advisers, a full exposition of the relative footing on which he and Bute stood toward each other appears to be highly desirable. Even Pitt himself, shortly after his acceptance of power, was accused of cringing to the favourite of his sovereign." I Lord Bute after he left office except once, when, being with his mother, the Princess of Wales, in her garden at Kew, Lord Bute came out of a summer-house where he had been purposely concealed. The king added that he effectually showed his displeasure at this intrusion of his former favourite." 'So late even as the year 1782, on the formation of the second Rockingham administration, we find Horace Walpole writing: "It was thought the king saw Lord Bute on that occasion: for others he certainly sent." CHAPTER III. The King's Letter to Mr. Pitt · Interview at Richmond Pitt Receives a Carte Blanche for Forming an Administration - Earl Temple, after Negotiations, Declines to Take Part — General Satisfaction at Pitt's Return to Power - Dissatisfaction at His Acceptance of a Peerage as Earl of Chatham Diminution of His Influence on Continental Politics in Consequence of His Elevation in Rank - His Pompous Manner in Transacting Public Business - Bread Riots - Suspension of Exportation of Grain by Order in Council- - Challenged in Parliament - Lord Chatham's Defence - Bill of Indemnity -The King's Attention to Business. PITT was at his seat at Burton Pynsent, employed, to use his own words to Lady Stanhope, in "farming, grazing, haymaking, and all the Lethe of Somersetshire," when, on the 8th of July, he was surprised by a summons to attend his sovereign. The communication was made to him in a flattering letter from Lord Northington, enclosing an autograph letter from the king. "Mr. Pitt," writes his Majesty, "your very dutiful and handsome conduct the last summer makes me desirous of having your thoughts how an able and dignified ministry may be formed. I desire, therefore, you will come, for this salutary purpose, to town." Pitt, in a reply which contained as much inflated language as could well be compressed into a few lines, expressed his intention of immediately repairing to London. Penetrated, he writes, with the deepest sense of the "king's boundless goodness," he only wishes that he "could change infirmity into wings of expedition," the sooner to have the high honour of laying the "poor but sincere offering of his little services " at his Majesty's feet. Pitt arrived in London on the 11th of July, fatigued and in ill health, and on the following day was admitted to an interview with the king at Richmond.' His Majesty not only received him with the utmost graciousness, but gave him a carte blanche for forming an administration. He had no terms, he said, to propose. He placed himself entirely in Mr. Pitt's hands. Agreeably with the advice tendered to him by his new minister, the king summoned Lord Temple from Stow, and proposed to place him at the head of the treasury. On scarcely a single point, however, could Temple be brought to agree with his despotic brother-in 'On the 15th, George Grenville writes to the Duke of Bedford: "I hear from town that the measure of sending for Mr. Pitt was a sudden resolution: that Lord Bute disdains having anything to do with it; that lord chancellor wrote to him yesterday se'nnight by the king's commands to come to town; that he came on Friday about two o'clock; saw my lord chancellor and Lord Camden that evening; and went to Richmond, where he was with the king from eleven o'clock till two on Saturday." |