THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. CHAPTER XVIII. THE COALITION MINISTRY-THE INDIA BILL-EXPULSION OF THE MINISTRY. ALTHOUGH Lord Shelburne resigned on the 24th of February, it was not till the 2nd of April that the Coalition Ministry was admitted to office. The delay was almost entirely occasioned by the repugnance evinced by the King to submit to the rule of the Whig party. Meeting Lord North's father, Lord Guildford, who was Chamberlain to the Queen, the King said to him: "Did I ever think, my Lord Guildford, that Lord North would have delivered me up in this manner to Mr. Fox?" Lord Guildford replied, that he was sure it was not Lord North's intention to do what was disagreeable to his Majesty, but he understood his Majesty had got over any difficulty on that head by his sanction of the interview between Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt. It is said that the Lord Advocate advised that Mr. Pitt should be made Prime Minister; and that, on the morning of the 27th of February, Mr. Pitt had consented for a short time to stand on that perilous eminence. If this account was true, his boldness was but for a moment. Thoughts of placing Lord Gower at the Treasury, and other ineffectual schemes, together with the desperate reso * lution of going to Hanover, fluctuated in the royal bosom. At length, on the 4th of March, the King sent for Lord North, and endeavoured to prevail on him to return to the Treasury. But Lord North, though weak in character, was too much a man of honour to recede from his engagements. On the 8th, in the evening, the King saw Lord North again. He then consented that the Duke of Portland should be at the head of the Ministry, according to the plan Lord North had proposed, but said that, as he should not like to change again, he desired the basis might be broad enough. The meaning of this intimation was, that the King wished Lord Thurlow to remain Chancellor. He also told Lord North to desire the Duke of Portland to send him his arrangement in writing. This was positively refused by the Duke, who sent word that if the King condescended to employ him, it would be necessary that he should see his Majesty. It had been a common practice of the King, from the beginning of his reign, to obtain a list of persons proposed to fill Cabinet offices from the statesmen charged by him to form a Ministry, and then to work on the resentments of those who had been omitted. In this he had, in 1764, inflamed the anger of the Duke of Bedford against Mr. Pitt, and induced him to become President of the Council in the Grenville Ministry. In the same way he now endeavoured to work on the feelings of General Conway, whom it was not intended to place in the new Cabinet. But Conway, being of a calm temper and unambitious character, was not irritated, nor even displeased, at this omission. The King likewise endeavoured at various times. to sow jealousy between Lord North and Mr. Fox. But these attempts to work on the tempers of two men, both of them * Fitzpatrick to Lord Ossory: "Correspondence," vol. ii. way devoid of envy or jealousy, were entirely unsuccessful. Indeed, Mr. Fox observed in the House of Commons, that there had been, it was true, some slight difference between the members of the Coalition; but that out of five weeks, it only took up ten hours, and was then finally and conclusively settled. The difference here alluded to arose on the question of the office to be held by Lord Stormont. It seems to have been intended by Lord North that Lord Stormont should be Secretary of State for the Home Department. But this arrangement not suiting the views of the Whigs, who dreaded fresh complications from the appointment of two Secretaries differing so widely in opinion as Mr. Fox and Lord Stormont, it was agreed on the 14th of March, between the Duke of Portland and Lord North, that Lord Carlisle should be Secretary of State, and Lord Stormont should be President of the Council, or Privy Seal. But Lord Stormont declined both these offices; and the King, on his part, insisted that, in order to form the Administration on a broad bottom, Lord Stormont should be Secretary of State, and the Chancellor should retain his office. These differences were at length adjusted; the King did not insist on the retention of the Chancellor, Lord North took the office of Secretary of State, and Lord Stormont consented to be Lord President. The list finally presented, and agreed upon for the Cabinet, was as follows:First Lord of the Treasury Duke of Portland. Secretaries of State Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord President Lord Privy Seal C. Fox and Lord North. Lord Stormont. First Lord of the Admiralty. Lord Keppel. Had Lord John Cavendish been Secretary of State with Mr. Fox-Mr. Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer-Lord North, President of the Council-and had Mr. Burke, as Paymaster, been admitted to the Cabinet,-a really strong government would have been formed. As it was, the King, irritated but not dismayed, cast about him for means and opportunity to overthrow his new tyrants, as he was said to call them. Mr. Pitt, relieved from all obligations to Lord Shelburne, was at liberty to combine the discontented followers of Lord North and Mr. Fox, with the King's friends, and thus rally a beaten army upon a strong position. The favour attendant upon the son of Chatham, the bright and rising flame of his eloquence, the confidence with which he confronted Fox, gave a reputation to this new party which Dundas and Jenkinson, with their suspicious connexions and corrupt antecedents, could never have acquired. The stirpis Achillea fastus emboldened this young orator, scarcely three-and-twenty years old, to meet in debate the united strength of the leaders of the two parties who for nine years had divided the admiration and the allegiance of the House of Commons. Internally the Ministry was united; Lord North, always indolent, and seeking present ease, yielded in everything, with a passing remark (often sagacious and prophetic), to the genius and energy of Mr. Fox. In foreign politics Mr. Fox was of course supreme; on the affairs of Ireland he wrote to the Lord Lieutenant in the language of a master; in finance alone he abandoned the direction to his colleague who was charged with that department. The Great Seal was put in commission, and Lord Loughborough was placed at the head of the commission. In this situation he was not formidable to the Minister as a rival, but neither was he so useful an assistant as he might have been had he held the office of Lord Chancellor. When Mr. Fox kissed hands on his appointment, Lord Townshend, an observing and caustic old man, said he saw the King turn back his ears and eyes just like the horse at Astley's, when the tailor he had determined to throw was getting on him. Yet Mr. Fox was treated with civility; Lord North, with manifest coldness and dislike. In fact the King had never felt any attachment to Lord North, and from the moment he ceased to be a convenient tool, his easy, benevolent good-nature provoked a master who was fretting with pride, anger, and resentment. To Lord North himself he owned that, although on former occasions he had commanded his temper, he now was unable to restrain it. To others he had spoken more openly. To Mr. William Grenville his Majesty gave a description of the characters of Lord North and Mr. Fox: "The first, he said, was a man composed entirely of negative qualities, and actuated in every instance by a desire of present ease at the risk of any future difficulty. This he instanced in the American War, and in the riots of 1780, of which he gave me a very long detail. As to Fox, he allowed that he was a man of parts, quickness, and great eloquence; but that he wanted application, and consequently the fundamental knowledge necessary for business, and above all was totally destitute of discretion and sound judgment.”* Mr. Fox immediately applied himself with the diligence he had before displayed to the duties of his office. His simple and direct manner of transacting business-his friendly kindness to all employed under him, whether at home, or * "Court and Cabinets of George III." vol. i. p. 213, March 23rd, 1783. |