useful to the King and your country. I shall endeavour to deserve the continuance of that friendship with which you honour me, and I am very ready in this and in all other instances to do my part in the manner and at the time you desire it. The request you make to the King of conferring a further title upon your mother, to be limited afterwards to you and your brothers, is undoubtedly a very natural and reasonable one, and I hope and believe will meet with no difficulty. The only thing I shall submit to you, and that I shall leave entirely to your own determination, relates singly to the point of time', whether it might not be as well to defer it 'till winter or some time after the meeting of Parliament, as to propose it just now, so soon after Lord Cobham's death and before you have had an opportunity of appearing at Court. I mention this purely for your own consideration, and am ready to do in it just as you wish. I am the more inclined to mention it, as the King has lately had a good deal of solicitation about Peerages, &c., which in three weeks or a month may be a little forgot. I beg you would not misunderstand me; your answer to this letter shall determine me to do my best towards obtaining what you propose, in the manner and at the time you shall desire it. I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you when you come to town, and will wait upon you as soon as I know you are in London. The Duchess of 1 The application for the earldom was first made to the Duke of Newcastle on the 28th instant; and, considering that Lord Cobham had died only on the 13th instant, it is not surprising that the Duke should suggest the propriety of deferring it until a more convenient season. Dodington has recorded, however, in his Diary, under the date of October 15th, the following-" At Leicester House. The Grenvilles presented for the title of Temple." Newcastle' and I join in our compliments to Mrs. Grenville-Temple. I am, dear Sir, very sincerely, Your most affectionate humble Servant, MR. GRENVILLE-TEMPLE TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. Stowe, October 1, 1749. MY LORD,-Nothing can be more obliging than the kind manner in which your Grace is pleased to answer the letter I took the liberty to trouble you with, and the readiness you are so good as to express, in laying before His Majesty a request which you do me the great honour not to think unfit. As to the time, since your Grace seems to make some doubt upon that, I confess I could wish that your Grace had taken me out of the difficulty of deciding that, by determining the thing yourself, because possibly some reasons for delay may occur to your Grace of which I cannot be so proper a judge; but since you have had the extreme goodness to leave me to chuse at what time I should wish an application might be made to the King in my favour, upon a matter which I have presumed to recommend to your Grace's protection, I own every reason which I conceived in my poor judgment to be strong ones, that led me so soon to ask this favour, would determine me yet more strongly to wish to receive this great mark of His Majesty's condescension and goodness, and of your Grace's countenance and friendship, as early as may be, 1 The Duchess of Newcastle was Lady Harriett, daughter of Francis, Earl of Godolphin, and granddaughter of John, Duke of Marlborough. and without drawing into the delays which sometimes happen upon these occasions. Your Grace sees that I have, in obedience to your commands, taken upon me to chuse in a matter which I should most willingly have submitted to your Grace, if your letter had given me to understand that you yourself had laid any very great stress upon any objections that may arise in point of time. I trust that you will easily feel for me that the grace and pleasure of these things depend so much upon their being carried into execution before they become the subject of discussion and conversation, that you will forgive me for desiring to repeat my first request to you as to time, as well as to the substance of the favour I have presumed to ask. Mrs. Grenville-Temple desires me to assure Lady Duchess of her most humble respects, and your Grace may be certain that I shall pay very mine to you the very moment I can come to town; being, with the greatest gratitude and respect, &c., &c. RICHARD GRENVILLE-TEMPLE. MR. GRENVILLE-TEMPLE TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE. October 3, 1749. DEAR BROTHER,-By this post I have time to send you a copy of my last letter to the Duke of Newcastle, which will inform you more precisely of our present state: I likewise send you his. I believe somebody' is offended; but when I recollect Legge and Campbell' on your account, and Mason 3 on my own, I think there 1 Mr. Pelham is, no doubt, here referred to. He probably thought that the application should have been first made to him. 2 Legge and Campbell were both in office at this time. 3 Probably Mason, the poet, for whom he had desired some prefer ment. can be no real complaint that I have thought fit to apply where I have always met with most favour. As to BUCKINGHAM, if you find that nail will not drive, let us resort to TEMPLE immediately, as TEMPLE will appear most decent to the world, and justify the more strongly this early application; besides, if the disposition of obstructing remains, this will be a handle for a longer delay, and BUCKINGHAM may hereafter be a pretence for a further step. In my last letter, I rather desired you would defer your journey hither, but as you will be the best judge whether this matter will be settled so soon as to require me to be in town Tuesday or Wednesday in the next week, you will take your own measures accordingly, remembering that Monday remains the day fixed for the ancient and loyal, unless I change it upon this account, and the quarter sessions I had forgot. I think it not in the least likely that I should be in town before Tuesday or Wednesday, and if this meets with further delays, I shall be very cavalier indeed about it, though I shall not think I have the least reason to complain of the Duke of Newcastle; on the contrary, every reason to be satisfied. MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE TO MR. GRENVILLE-TEMPLE. Upper Brook Street, October 3, 1749. DEAR BROTHER,-Mr. Lloyd delivered to me your letter of Saturday, and I received yesterday that which you put into the post at Aylesbury: as mine came safe I hope the Duke of Newcastle has received that which you wrote to him at the same time, and if so, he may speak to the King in consequence of it to-day. I have been this morning with Mr. Pelham, in order to remove any difficulties that might arise from his not having been informed of it sooner. I found him but just arrived from Greenwich, and extremely engaged, so that I had but very little time to speak to him. I told him that you had directed me to communicate to him the request that you had desired the Duke of Newcastle to lay before the King, and that you flattered yourself with having his assistance in obtaining that mark of the King's favour. He seemed not to know what it was, but when I had told it him, asked me why you should wish it so soon, as no Government would long refuse it to you. I repeated to him the reasons you mention in your letter to the Duke of Newcastle, and he concluded with saying, to be sure, he wished you success in everything you desired. It was so late before I could see him, that I could not hope to see the Duke of Newcastle to-day if I had gone to him. I propose waiting upon His Grace to-morrow morning, and if he tells me that he has spoken, and that the King has consented to it, I will delay my journey, as I take it for granted he will have informed you of it by to-night's post; but if nothing has been done in it, I will keep my purpose, and you may depend upon seeing me on Thursday morning, for I should be very sorry to put off my journey unnecessarily, as everything is fixed for it, and it will be very difficult for me to make it the week after. Before I received your letter I had sent to Mr. Mason, and promised to bring him down with me. you do not receive the account of its being done by to-night's post, you cannot hear of it before Friday or Sunday evening, and the utmost of my stay cannot exceed Monday, because there are none of the Treasury If |