V. 1765. power of appointing, by instruments in writing, CHAP. under his sign manual, either the queen, or any other person in the royal family, usually residing in Great Britain, to the office of regency.' A doubt arising on the question, who are the royal family of Great Britain?' it was explained as comprehending the descendants of George II; and this explanation was declared by the secretary of state, Lord Halifax, to be perfectly agreeable to the royal construction. According to this interpretation, no one could be named regent except the queen, or some one sprung from George II; her royal highness the princess dowager of Wales was therefore not included. This omission was regarded by the house of commons as an indignity to her royal highness; and a motion was made by a relation of Lord Bute, that her name should be inserted next after the queen's. In this amended state, the bill being remitted to the peers, passed into a law. The ministry had never been popular, and by this late neglect, they were commonly supposed to have lost the confidence of the crown, having drawn upon themselves the relentless displeasure of Leicesterhouse. It filled the measure of offence, already deeply afforded, by their having remonstrated with the sovereign on his bestowing several places of trust and dignity, without their approbation. His majesty, in concurrence with the earl of Bute, formed the resolution of dismissing them, CHAP. VI. Negociation of the duke of Cumberland with Mr. Pitt for forming a new ministry.... The king submits for the present, but commences another treaty with Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple ... Formation of a new ministry under the auspices of the duke of Cumberland, consisting of the marquis of Rockingham, and other statesmen of whig principles.... Clamour of the colonies against the stamp-act.... Disturbances of Boston .... Formation of a congress from several states in America Resolution of the colonists to abstain from all articles of British manufacture.... Character of the Rockingham ministry.... Baneful tendency of.... Meeting of parliament.... Mr. Pitt's speech....Mr. Grenville's answer.... Mr. Pitt's reply.... The declaration-act passed.... Opposition to the repeal of the stamp-act.... Reception of the stamp-act in America.... Defects and disagreement of the Rockingham ministry.... Repeal of the cyder-tax.... Restriction of general warrants.... Plan of the ministry for governing Canada .... Mr. Pitt applied to for the formation of a new ministry Formation of Mr. Pitt's ministry.... Mr. Pitt accepts of a peerage, under the title of Lord Chatham.... Affairs in India..... Lord Clive arrives in India with full powers.... Appointment of the select committee.... Lord Clive concludes mild and merciful terms with Sujah Doulah, and restores him to a share of his power.... Revenue arising to the company from this treaty.... Lord Clive restrains the corruptions existing in East-India transactions.... Mutiny of the officers in the company's service.... Dividends claimed by the proprietors of East-India stock.... Scarcity of corn felt in England.... Proclamation against forestalling and monopoly .. .... .... Marriage of the princess Matilda to the king of Denmark.... Meeting of parliament in November 1706.... Weakness of the ministry.... Baffled in the question of the 129 land-tax.... Committee appointed by parliament to inspect the affairs of the East-India company.... A bill passed for establishing an agreement between government and that company.. Terms of the agreement.... Regulation of the company's dividends by parliament.... Act of parliament for imposing on America certain duties payable on glass, paper, pasteboard, tea, &c.... Aversion of the colonies to these duties expressed in Boston, October 1767.... Resolutions of American societies formed for discouraging British imports .... Message of the king to Lord Chatham.... His lordship's answer.... Offers made to Lord Rockingham.... His lordship consults Lord Temple and Mr. Grenville.... The negociation is broken off by their difference of opinion respecting America.... Death of Charles Townsend.... Lord North succeeds Townsend as chancellor of the exchequer. MR. PITT having declared in parliament, on CHAP. the subject of his political intentions, that he would live and die with his brother-in-law Lord Temple, it became necessary for the projectors of a new ministry, their views being fixed upon Mr. Pitt, to make application to his lordship, as the most essential step for obtaining their object. Accordingly, on the 15th of May, the duke of Cumberland sent for Lord Temple from Stowe, informed him of the king's wishes for a change, and required to know from him the conditions upon which his party were willing to come in. His lordship, in answer, stated his proposals:-the making certain foreign alliances; the restoration of officers whom the opposition considered as unjustly dismissed; a repeal of the excise on cyder; and a full condemnation of general warrants. His royal highness assenting to these, proposed adding, in compliance with the king's desire, that Lord Northumberland should be placed at the head of the treasury. Lord Temple replied, that he would never come in under Lord Bute's heutenant, Vol. I. I VI. 1765 1765. CHAP. (Northumberland was at this time lord-lieutenant VI. of Ireland). The duke, however, had still hopes of success. On the 19th of the same month he waited on Mr. Pitt at Hayes. Mr. Pitt assured his royal highness that he was ready to go to S. James's, if he could carry the constitution along with him. Next day his royal highness sent Lord Frederic Cavendish to Mr. Pitt, offering to relinquish the proposed elevation of Lord Northumberland, provided another situation could be found for him. Mr. Pitt repeated his former emphatic declaration. The treasury was then offered to Lord Lyttleton, who desired to consult Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt. At this the duke of Cumberland was offended, and advised his majesty to continue his present servants, At the same period Lord Temple, and his brother, Mr. Grenville, were reconciled their reconciliation was declared to be only a renewal of their family friendship; but it had a great and mutual effect upon their subsequent politics. Had this negociation with Mr. Pitt's party been successful, the Grenville administration must have fallen immediately: proving abortive, it gave the latter a temporary triumph. In the present state of strange and unexempled hostility between the monarch and his servants,' these ministers, as if 1 In one of the conferences that cause you had been a slave. On another occasion, the same writer says,-The ministry having endeavoured to exclude the dowager out of the regency bill, the earl of Bute determined to dismiss them. Upon this the duke of Bedford demanded —, reproachan audience of the ed him, in plain terms, with duplicity, baseness, falsehood, treachery, and hypocrisy; repeatedly gave him the lie, and left him in strong convulsions.'-Junius's Letters, the author's own edition, printed by Weedfall. - VI. 1765. to punish his majesty for an attempt to introduce CHAP. their opponents, made a tender of certain conditions, without which they refused to remain in office. These were, 1st, that Lord Bute should not interfere, directly or indirectly, in the affairs of government; 2d, that Mr. Stuart McKenzie, Lord Bute's brother, should be dismissed from the office of keeper of the privy seal for Scotland; 3o, that Lord Holland should be deprived of the paymastership of the forces, which should be bestowed on a member of the house of commons; 4th, that the marquis of Granby should be placed at the head of the army; and 5, that the government of Ireland should be left to the discretionary arrangement of the ministry. The obtaining of these demands did not restore harmony in the cabinet. His majesty chose to yield, but felt the first of the proposals as a personal insult. The dismission of Lord Holland and Lord Northumberland was likewise unpleasant to the royal inclination, and, when considered as an act of the Grenville ministry, was a foolish sacrifice to their own interests. Lord Bute and the duke of Cumberland having both failed in their negociations, the king himself undertook a third treaty with Mr. Pitt. By desire Mr. Pitt waited upon his majesty at the queen's house (on the 25th of June 1765) along with Lord Temple, when the following conditions were proposed to the brothers.-Mr. Stuart McKenzie to be restored; Lord Northumberland to be lord-chamberlain; the king's friends to continue in their present situations. Upon the two first conditions Mr. Pitt was not obstinate; of the last he required an explanation: but Lord Temple declared against the whole. This third negociation having failed, the duke of Cumberland was again applied to; and as his majesty was determined, at all events, to part with the present mi |