the Ministry, which Lady Yarmouth expressed very fully, but Mr. Pitt refusing to come in if the Duke of Newcastle continued in office, or to engage to cover his retreat, this interview ended for the present without any farther effect than a general explanation of Mr. Pitt's views and intentions.

On the 16th of October, Mr. Pitt received an invitation to meet Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, which he consented to.

On the 17th of October he informed Lord Temple and me by letter of his resolution to go to this conference, determined to declare that he would not act with the Duke of Newcastle, nor promise to secure his retreat, and desired us to come to town to give him the meeting on the evening of the day appointed for it (Tuesday the 19th); he likewise mentions in his letter his intention not to inform Lord Bute of it, 'till after it was over. We met him at Sir Richard Lyttelton's at the time appointed, when he reported to us the sum of what had passed both with Lady Yarmouth' and Lord Hardwicke, the negotiation breaking with both upon the same difficulty relative to the Duke of Newcastle.

In the course of this report he informed us that he

1 Lord Hardwicke, in a letter to his son, Lord Royston, giving an account of the conference with Mr. Pitt, says also, "Mr. Pitt sent this morning to my Lady Yarmouth, to desire leave to wait upon her. He had that leave, and was with her a great while. Nobody knows what he has said to her, except that he has made vast professions to the King, and proposed to her Ladyship some sort of plan: but whether he has adhered to, or receded from what he said to me, she has not said, for she would say nothing 'till she had related it to the King. I understand he has flattered me black and blue, but if that be all it passes for nothing. What is most remarkable is, that he had never been with my Lady Yarmouth before in his life."Harris's Life of Lord Hardwicke, vol. iii. p. 79.

had stated me for the office of Paymaster, which was then held by Lord Darlington and Lord Dupplin, and that it was consented to without any difficulty.

I thanked him for his attention to me in this instance, which I accepted with pleasure, but said I should have been sorry that any pretensions of mine, however well founded, should have been any obstacle in this transaction.

He answered me that he pretended to no merit, that my rank in the House of Commons entitled me to the step, which was admitted as a thing of course.

This report, and the conversation I have mentioned, passed in the presence of Lord Temple, my brother James Grenville, and Sir Richard Lyttelton.

Thus ended this negotiation for the present, and we all returned into the country, where in a few days we were informed, first of Mr. Fox's resignation, and then of the Duke of Newcastle's.

The Duke of Devonshire was sent by the King to renew the communication with Mr. Pitt and his friends; upon this we were again summoned to town, and Mr. Pitt informed us of what he had settled with the Duke of Devonshire, whom he had with difficulty persuaded to obey the King's commands by accepting the office of First Lord of the Treasury.

Mr.

By this arrangement Mr. Pitt was to be Secretary of State, Lord Temple First Lord of the Admiralty, with the rest of the Board recommended by himself. James Grenville was appointed a Lord of the Treasury, and Mr. Legge, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Many other preferments and alterations were made at the same time. With regard to myself, when Mr. Pitt communicated to

us what had passed between the Duke of Devonshire and him, he informed me, to my great surprise, that my name and that of Mr. Fox were put down jointly in the paper writ by the Duke of Devonshire, for the two offices of Paymaster and Treasurer of the Navy; that he had insisted on my destination for the Paymaster, but that the Duke of Devonshire had earnestly pressed the putting it down in that manner in the list of preferments made out by him.

From this shuffling account it was easy to foresee what was intended, though it was not ventured to be explained at that meeting.

In a few days after I heard, though not from Mr. Pitt, but from my brothers, that Mr. Fox was to be Paymaster.

Mr. Pitt retired to Hayes, where I saw him but once upon an invitation to us all to meet together in order to consider whether Mr. Pitt should, at the hazard of breaking the whole, not insist upon being appointed Secretary to the Northern Department instead of the Southern, which the King had refused his consent to.

Not one word passed at this meeting relative to myself, nor did Mr. Pitt, however extraordinary it may appear, ever speak to me again upon this subject.

In the mean time Mr. Pitt, being jealous of the consequences of bringing Mr. Fox into that great office, and Mr. Fox being offended at the declaration Mr. Pitt had made to him of his resolution not to act with him any more than with the Duke of Newcastle, the latter refused to take any office whatever, which stopped any farther negotiation upon that head. Thus this office became vacant a second time, but instead of carrying

into execution the appointment which had been so repeatedly made of it in my favour, it was now divided and given to Lord Dupplin and Mr. Potter.

This was the more extraordinary as a very agreeable provision might have been made for Mr. Potter, as Treasurer of the Household in the room of Mr. Charles Townshend, to whom the office of Treasurer of the Navy, which was the declared object of his wishes, would by this means have been opened; nor would it have been difficult to have accommodated the Duke of Newcastle's friend Lord Dupplin, if that could be necessary, as was afterwards proved when some time after Mr. Fox was appointed Paymaster.

I have said before that Mr. Pitt never spoke to me again upon this subject, for which his illness at Hayes, where I saw him but twice during this transaction, was the real or pretended excuse.

My two brothers were privy to all that had passed upon this occasion; to them I expressed my surprise and dissatisfaction at a behaviour so contrary not only to the friendship and alliance subsisting between us, but to the engagements of honour and good faith.

I cannot say that either of them interested themselves at all in this complaint, or took any other part than to use their utmost endeavours to persuade me to acquiesce to it.

MR. JENKINSON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

St. James's, April 13, 1762.

DEAR SIR, Though the news we have received since I wrote last is not of any great importance, I cannot help troubling you with this letter.

We received our Dutch mail on Monday.

The first accounts that were received in France of the loss of Martinique was by the garrison of Fort Royal, which some of our ships landed at Rochelle, the latter end of last month. All their trading towns are in the greatest alarm and consternation upon it: but what is unfortunate, they have accounts that Mons. Blenac's squadron, hearing at sea that Martinique was gone, had changed its course and was gone for St. Domingue.

A great many private accounts from Ireland give the same intelligence of the riots that have happened there, as you will see in the newspapers. It is, however, singular, that Lord Halifax has not as yet mentioned anything about them. The King, however, has ordered Lord Egremont to write to him to-night upon that subject.

I think when you return to town you will find a change of sentiment with respect to continental measures, and I think we begin to turn our thoughts seriously towards putting an end to that burthen. I am, &c., &c. C. JENKINSON.

MR. GRENVILLE TO THE EARL OF BUTE.

Great George Street, April 29, 1762.

MY DEAR LORD,-When I saw you yesterday you expressed your wishes that His Majesty's Message to the House of Commons for the supply of credit might be sent on Monday next, and the last time I saw you before, you desired me to put down in writing the words which I thought necessary for the notice to be taken in