me yesterday, and more particularly for what he had said to the Duke of Devonshire. That as I never served his Majesty nor his Royal predecessors with any view to the emolument of my employments, I was determined when I was out of his service, not to be any charge to him. That if my fortune had suffered by my zeal for his Majesty's Royal Family, it was my honour, my glory, and my pride; and the gracious sense his Majesty had expressed of it was all the reward I desired. The King seemed to receive it very graciously; pressed me again to accept his offer, which his Majesty said he To which I made looked upon as a debt owing to me. the answer I have mentioned above. The King was pleased, at parting, to say that, he could depend on my support, to which I made a bow, and said nothing. I have been so much misunderstood on both sides of that question, that I thought it was best to be absolutely silent; as I had twice declared to the King, that I could make no promises, nor enter into any engagements upon that head."

H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TO THE DUKE OF

NEWCASTLE.

"Windsor, Great Lodge, May 26, 1762.

"MY LORD DUKE OF NEWCASTLE,—

"I return you many thanks for the early communication of this great event, concerned as I and every honest man must be at it. Yet I have some pleasure to see the King has been pleased to show the sense he and

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[1762. all his family ought to have of your long, expensive, and most useful services. But I must take the freedom to add, that I most heartily rejoice at the manner in which you received the King's good intentions. Your friends must like it, your enemies will not dare to blame it. We shall meet at the Chapter to-morrow. If court should be over in time, perhaps you may like to call upon me afterwards, if not, the Lodge is not so far from Claremont, but that I may flatter myself with your company sometimes, for we have become spectators not actors, and have leisure to talk over past transactions, if precluded from the knowledge of fresh events. I hope you have no doubt but that I shall have the same regard for your services to the public, whether you are in place or out; and I must add that the manner of your going out has more decency and dignity than I have seen in my period.

"I remain,

"Your very affectionate friend,

"WILLIAM."

CHAPTER V.

CHARACTER OF SIR FRANCIS NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE. CHARACTER OF DUO DE

DUKE OF NEWCASTLE'S RESIGNATION.

NIVERNAIS. CAPTURE OF THE HAVANNAH.-HENRY FOX. —-COURT PERSECUTION OF THE WHIG PARTY. - DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE'S DISMISSAL. CHARACTERS OF LORDS ROCKINGHAM, KINNOUL, LINCOLN, AND ASHBURNHAM, AND DUKE OF RUTLAND.- PROPOSED ALLIANCE AMONG THE WHIGS. DISMISSAL OF WHIG LORD LIEUTENANTS AND CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS.-LORD MANSFIELD.

ON the Duke of Newcastle's resignation, Lord Bute became first Lord of the Treasury, Mr. Grenville, Secretary of State, and Sir Francis Dashwood, Chancellor of the Exchequer. This last appointment was not a happy one. Sir Francis was highly eccentric and grossly immoral. In his youth he went to Russia dressed in the costume of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, in the hopes of captivating the heart of the Czarina. After leading a life free even for Italy, he returned to England, when he openly set at defiance every principle of decency and decorum. It has been urged that the public service would suffer if the private character of its servants were too narrowly examined. But no plea of state expediency could be pleaded for such an appointment as that of Dashwood. His capacity was on a par with his propriety. His knowledge of accounts, if we

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[1762. may believe his contemporaries, was confined to the reckoning of tavern bills, while to him "a sum of five figures was an impenetrable secret." He had a coarse style of speaking, which had hitherto passed current for unadorned good sense; but no sooner did the new Chancellor of the Exchequer make his financial statement than the illusion was dispelled, and his budget was received with loud shouts of contemptuous laughter.

Scarcely had the favourite been two months installed in his new office than he invited the old Duke to return to the administration from which he had so lately driven him. In an interview with Lord Hardwicke, on the 28th of July, Lord Bute said, "He was glad to see the Duke of Newcastle look so well, and in such good spirits; that he had been sorry to hear reports that he was uneasy." Lord Hardwicke replied, that "He knew no grounds for such reports. He (the Duke) might possibly not be easy respecting the public, but that he never knew him in better health and cheerfulness personally in his life." Lord Bute said it had given him a great deal of uneasiness that his Grace had thought it necessary for him to leave the administration as he did; that he thought he could have gone on with his Grace longer and better than with anybody else; for there was always a good humour about him, and he had not the starts and emotions that some others were liable to; that if he (the Duke) should think any office proper for his rank and age the King would most readily confer it."

The next conciliatory overtures were made through

the medium of Lord Lyttleton,-first, in a conference with Lord Hardwicke, and after in two direct communications with the Duke of Newcastle himself. In these interviews with the ex-minister, Lord Lyttleton offered the Duke the post of Lord President of the Council.

"The conference ended," said the Duke, "with my resolution to accept no employment, nor to return to the Council. To come," said his Grace, "to support my Lord Bute and his measures, to have the odium thrown upon me, would not be a part much approved in the nation, and very improper for myself."

The foreign negociations of the preceding year were resumed in August 1762, and as a pledge of reciprocal sincerity it was agreed on both sides that envoys of the first distinction should be exchanged by the French and English Courts. Accordingly in September, the Duke of Bedford went to Paris, and the Duc de Nivernais repaired to London, furnished respectively with full powers to adjust the preliminaries of peace.

Louis Jules Barbon, Duc de Nivernais, or Duke Nevernew, as the London mob soon learned to call him, was remarkable for his high birth, his poetical talents, his social accomplishments, and his personal ugliness. He was the French representative of the ancient and illustrious house of Mancini, was a Peer of France, a Grandee of Spain, a Roman Baron, and a Prince of the Empire. The fastidious Chesterfield held him up as a model of politeness. He spoke several languages fluently, and was the author of many trifles both in verse and prose, which were popular enough at the time to excite