Majesty desired that overtures to Lord Chatham might be made.*

Lord North's rejoinder appears to have been to the following effect-that he must adhere to his own request of being permitted to resign - but that he could only advise, he could not presume to dictate to His Sovereign as to the choice of the next Prime Minister-and that in compliance with His Majesty's desire he would proceed to ascertain how far Lord Chatham and his friends might be willing to coalesce with (in Lord North's own phrase) "the fundamentals of the present administration."

Meanwhile there were some public measures admitting of no delay. The insulting French Note required some step to be taken, some step to vindicate the offended dignity of England. The King sent orders to his ambassador, Lord Stormont, to return home forthwith ; and in consequence, the Marquis de Noail leslikewise took his departure from London. Thus was a war with the Court of Versailles impending, though not as yet avowed or declared. A Royal Message was read to both Houses, communicating the French Note, and assuring them that His Majesty was firmly determined to maintain and assert the honour of his Crown. Loyal Addresses were moved in reply, and were carried in each House by large majorities, but not without reproachful debates. In these the name of Chatham was more than once mentioned, as the only Minister who might still unite the confidence of all parties, who might deter France and Spain, who might reconcile America. Lord North, without publicly adverting to these hints, by no means concealed his own earnest desire of retirement. †

Measures were likewise taken at this juncture, by means of the Lords Lieutenant, to call out and assemble the

*The King to Lord North, March 13. 1778. Appendix. The expression "that perfidious man," occurs in the letter of the ensuing day.

† Lord North's expressions in Almon's Register, and the Parl. Hist. (vol. xix. p. 950.), declaring himself resolved not to quit the helm during the storm, must be, in a great measure, inaccurately given, as may be gathered from Mr. Aubrey's reply: "Since the "Noble Lord in the blue ribbon had so strongly expressed his desire " of retiring -."

Militia in the several counties. Another matter requiring prompt despatch was the appointment of Commissioners under the new Conciliatory Bills. The intended names had been in great measure known and commented upon even before the Bills had passed. Lord Howe and Sir William were included in the Letters-Patent, on the chance of their still being in America when their colleagues should arrive. Of the new Commissioners, the first was to be Lord Carlisle; with him William Eden and George Johnstone. It could not be alleged that the selection of these gentlemen had been made in any narrow spirit of party.-George Johnstone, who retained the title of Governor from having filled that post in Florida, was a member of the House of Commons, and as such a keen opponent of Lord North.-The brother of William Eden had been the last Colonial Governor of Maryland. William Eden himself was a man of rising ability on the Government side; in after years, under Mr. Pitt, ambassador in succession to several foreign Courts, and at last a Peer, with the title of Lord Auckland. - Frederick Howard, the fifth Earl of Carlisle, was then only known to the public as a young and not very thrifty man of fashion and of pleasure. Against his appointment, therefore, there were many cavils heard both in and out of Parliament. Thus in one debate the Duke of Richmond said, "I have lately been told that one of the "Governors in America made objection to the Congress "because some of them sat in Council with woollen caps on. Congress were highly offended at this, and persisted in doing so. How inadequate, then, must "this embassy be, where a noble Lord, bred up in all the "softness that European manners make fashionable to rank, I say, how inadequate must such an embassy "be to men in woollen night-caps!"*

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It was through one of these Commissioners, namely

*Debate in the Lords, March 9. 1778. In the same spirit Wilkes exclaimed of Lord Carlisle : "The Muses and the Graces, with a group of little laughing loves, were in his train, and for the first "time crossed the Atlantic!" (Debate in the Commons, November 26. 1778.) See also an amusing jeu d'esprit which appeared in a London paper of that day, and which has been reprinted in the Appendix to the Life of Reed (vol. i. p. 423.).

Mr. Eden, that Lord North opened his communications to Lord Chatham. Mr. Eden could not see the great Earl, who was still at Hayes, but had several conversations with his trusted friend, Lord Shelburne.* It was soon apparent, as Lord North must have foreseen, that Lord Chatham had not the smallest inclination to make common cause with the party in power. If he came into office at all, it must be on the call of his Sovereign, and as planning a new administration; it must be as what the King in high displeasure terms him- -a Dictator. In Lord Chatham's own papers, as subsequently published, there appears no trace whatever of these overtures, which may probably have passed by messages and word of mouth. We only find that his family and friends, in common with the public, expected at this juncture a summons from St. James's. Thus writes William Pitt to his mother from his studies at Cambridge:— -"I am "not sure whether I can find in the history of antiquity any instance of a nation so miserably sacrificed as this "has been; but I believe almost every page will furnish an example of the only method left to revive it,—recurring in the extremity of danger to those whose "superiority is unhappily as much proved by the failure "of others as by their own success." Mr. Thomas Coutts, already rising into eminence as a banker in the Strand, transmits an offer of public service from Lord Rochford, and adds, to Lady Chatham: "I do not meet with any one who does not lament and wonder that His Majesty "has not yet publicly desired the only help that can have a chance to extricate the country from the difficulties "which every day grow greater."

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If called upon, Lord Chatham was ready to obey the call. His blood was roused, as of yore, against the House of Bourbon, and he deemed that the war with France, if it could not be averted, should be most vigorously waged. We may gather, that it was his intention to propose, as

* A full account of these conversations was drawn up by Mr. Eden at the time, and, after remaining in MS. for three quarters of a century, has at length appeared in Lord John Russell's Memorials of Fox (vol. i. p. 180-187.). Lord Shelburne said that, as he had often already declared, "Lord Chatham must be the Dictator." (1853.)

General-in-chief, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who in his former administration had commanded our armies with so much glory and success.* On reading the French note of the 13th, he had given his eldest son, Lord Pitt, permission to re-enter the army. Soon afterwards, accordingly, Lord Pitt sailed for Gibraltar, as an aide-decamp to the Governor; he served long enough, let me observe in passing, to become, as second Earl of Chatham, himself the General and Governor of that fortress.

Meanwhile, many members of the Rockingham party, feeling, as they well might, greater confidence in Lord Chatham than in their own immediate chief, and not willing at this crisis to be absent from his thoughts, desired to transmit to him, through his friend Lord Granby, the expression of their sentiments. Of that overture there is nothing further known to me beyond its mention, as follows, by the King:-"I am extremely indifferent "whether Lord Granby goes or does not go with the "abject message of the Rockingham party to Hayes: I "will certainly send none to that place."†

At this moment, indeed, the King was more than ever incensed against Lord Chatham, from the high claims which the conversations with Lord Shelburne had disclosed. With a spirit as high, His Majesty protested that he would surrender the Crown sooner than stoop to Opposition. He called upon Lord North to answer one plain question, Will you, like the Duke of Grafton, desert me at the hour of danger? Lord North, in reply, gave the King no hope of his consenting to remain in office permanently, but agreed, if the King should insist upon it, to carry through the present Session to its close. The King next desired that the Attorney-General, Mr. Thurlow, might forthwith be appointed Chancellor, as a preliminary step to the new arrangements. It was plainly His Majesty's object to continue the same system, though with other hands. But for that very reason, and with a just sense of his public duty, Lord North was most un

* See the observations of Lord Shelburne in the House of Lords, April 8. 1778.

†To Lord North, March 18. 1778.

willing to trammel and embarrass his successor, by having first disposed of the Great Seal.

It is certain, moreover, that the object of the King was at this juncture wholly unattainable-that if Lord North retired, as not willing or not able to carry his system further, no other administration on the same system could be formed. Of that fact there can be no stronger evidence than the language of Lord Barrington affords. Lord Barrington was then Secretary at War. Lord Barrington had ever been forward among the party or section of the "King's friends." Yet what are the terms of advice with which we find Lord Barrington, in this very month of March, address His Majesty? "I represented 66 to the King that he had not one General in whom His "Majesty, the nation, or the army would place confidence, "in case of the invasion of Great Britain or Ireland, and "the necessity_there was of bringing Prince Ferdinand "hither. In a subsequent audience I thought it my "duty to represent to His Majesty the general dismay "which prevailed among all ranks and conditions; arising, 36 as I apprehended, from an opinion that the administra❝tion was not equal to the times; an opinion so universal "that it prevailed among those who were most dependent on and attached to the Ministers, and even among the "Ministers themselves."*

Other testimonies from the same time all point to the same conclusion. The tide in favour of Lord Chatham was setting in too strong to be resisted. Great as was the King's aversion, he must soon have yielded, as, notwithstanding aversions full as great, His Majesty did yield on other occasions, both before and since. It seems to me beyond all doubt, that had Lord Chatham's last and fatal illness been delayed a few weeks, perhaps even a few days longer, he would have been called to the helm of public affairs, and invited, with such friends as he might choose, to solve the problem he had himself propoundedto regain the affections while refusing the independence of America.

* Private Memorandum, drawn up by Lord Barrington, in March, 1778, and inserted in his Life by the Bishop of Durham (p. 186. unpublished).