In IV. Virulent libels, audacious beyond the example of CHAP. former licentiousness, were circulated through the nation in these nothing was held sacred, and 1763. no character spared; and it must be admitted, that whoever first set the example, no party was free from the particular species of intemperance, of which it accused the other. Still the ministry braved the storm, and, except on the single April 8, question of excise, their strength in parliament 1763. seemed rather augmented than diminished. the midst of this contention, and while all persons anxiously awaited the event, which, however, nobody thought could very speedily be decided, to the astonishment of all but the few who had been in the secret, the earl of Bute suddenly resigned his place of first lord of the treasury, and retired from public business. Abundance of speculation was naturally excited by so instantaneous and unexpected a resignation: his own declaration, and the language of his friends, explained it by his love of that private and retired life to which he could now honourably retire, since he had been called into ministry to conclude a peace, and had concluded it on the best and most honourable terms: when this was effected, he wished no longer for power. His lordship's enemies ascribed his retirement to motives of a humbler kind. He had drawn upon himself, they said, the odium of England, by displacing a patriotic ministry, by treachery to Prussia, by submission to France, by impolitic (it was even asserted by treacherous) dealings abroad, and by despotic arrangements at home: conscious, they said, of this well-earned detestation, he had fled from a contest which he could no longer face, and hid his head in privacy, because he could not shew it in public. There was too much precipitation in Lord Bute's manner of retiring, to exclude the belief of its being on IV. 17631 CHAP. his part a measure unwillingly adopted: his hasty disappearance had rather the aspect of flight than of retreat. Enough of unpopularity, indeed, attached to him from the nation at large, to justify his retiring from office, if such a cause could have been sufficient to account for it; but retaining, as he was still supposed to do, the personal favour of the king, and a majority in the house of commons, it seemed inexplicable, except on the score of egregious pusillanimity, that a minister, still capable of exerting influence, should have all at once dropt the reins. There is an account of his retirement given by a respectable English historian,' (upon private authority indeed), extracted from a letter of his lordship's own writing to a confidential friend, in which we find, that his party in the cabinet was by no means so strong as was generally supposed: single,' said he, in a cabinet of my own forming; no aid in the house of lords to support me, except two peers, (Lords Denbigh and Pomfret), both the secretaries of state silent, and the lord chief-justice, whom I brought myself into office, voting for me, yet speaking against me; the ground I tread upon is so hollow, that I am afraid not only of falling myself, but of involving my royal master in my ruin it is time for me to retire. The question of Lord Bute's merit or demerit reduces itself to narrow bounds, if we take the history of his short ministerial reign for the test of either he did little during the continuance of his power, nothing so laudable but what a very ordinary capacity could have devised, and nothing so impolitic, but what might, from accidental circumstances, have been done by the wisest minister. The peace which he made, was of that Adolphus, vol. i, p. 126. IV. 1763. decent mediocrity which did not certainly merit CHAP. Mr. Pitt's severest epithets, but was as little entitled to be regarded as a glorious achievement, considered with reference to the high career of victory which then distinguished Britain. If the friends of Lord Bute were extravagant in their praises of that extraordinary wisdom which he never possessed, or of those exalted principles of patriotism, which, if more correctly, named, were but the common place maxims of a tory; it is still more disgusting to read the illiberal attacks made upon him by such infamous writers as Antisejanus and the North Briton: in these he was accused of selling the country to France, of bringing up Scotchmen to London, with the deliberate purpose of devouring the riches of England; and of hoarding up stolen treasures from the state, for his own private emolument: he was called a dabbler in literature, because he had sufficient taste to have a library and a cabinet of natural curiosities, without being either a profound scholar or a perfect natural philosopher, characters almost incompatible with the political education he had received, and the political life he led. Such abuse from the press, was as disgraceful to the English nation, as the attacks which were made upon his person were to the English rabble, who twice attempted to murder him, till he was rescued from their brutality by superior force. Though the political enemies of Lord Bute had occasion to triumph in his resignation, it did not produce that revolution in the appointment of places which they expected. The honourable George Grenville succeeded to his lordship's of fice: he was the son of George Grenville, esquire, of Wooton, in the county of Bucks, by Esther, sister of Lord Cobbam: he was bred to the law, and, in the year 1741, was initiated in parliamentary and of 1763. CHAP. ficial business his speeches in the house were alIV ways more distinguished for soundness of knowledge, and arrangement of argument, than for brilliant and impressive power. He came into office under the auspices of Lord Cobbam, and continued under the standard of his brother Lord Temple, till jealousy of his brother-in-law, Mr. Pitt, broke the family phalanx. The strength of the new ministry was increased by the great weight and influence of the duke of Bedford, so powerful from his fortune, and the firmness of his character: he accepted the place of president of the council, which, for some time had been kept vacant. Lord Sandwich took the seals as one of the secretaries of state; and lord Egremont was removed, in the late change, from the post-office to the admiralty, a man of public spirit, rising to enthusiasm, and universally acknowledged to be one of the best informed of the whole body of the nobility. savages... Publication called the North Britain....General warrant isa sued by Lord Halifax, to apprehend its author, printers, and publishers.... Mr. Wilkes committed to the Tower... Speech from the throne.... Condemnation of the 45th No. of the North Britain by the house.... Question of parliamentary privilege brought before parliament.... Resolved that privilege does not extend to the case of libel.... Mr. Wilkes expelled from the house of commons.... Is afterwards outlawed.... Death of Lord Egremont.... Lord Bute's idea of forming a new ministry.... His conference with Mr. Pitt.... Message from the king to Mr. Pitt.... Divisions of our new acquisitions in America into separate governments.... Dreadful in-. road of the Indians on our back settlements in America.... Campaign against the savages.... Fort Pitt invested by the Peace concluded with the tribes.... Question of general warrants moved at the opening of the first session of 1764.... Mr.Pitt's speech upon this occasion.... Amendment to the question proposed and carried.... The question adjourned for four months.... Affairs in India.... Mir Jaffier Ally Kawn displeases the English, who had raised him to the sulahdary.... Mir Cossim, his son-in-law, set up in his place as subah of Bengal.... Character of Mir Cossim.... Removes his capital from Marshudabad to Mongheer, which he fortifies....Disciplines his army after the English fashion ....Imposes taxes upon the English traders, to assert his independance of their power.... Governor Vansittart sent to remonstrate with him.... Concludes a treaty which the factory of Calcutta disavow.... Hostilities with Mir Cossim... Patna taken by our troops.... Retaken by the natives.... · Major Adams fights the battle of Ballasara.... The Indians defeated.... Second defeat of Mir Cossim's troops, which forces them to fly to the utmost limits of Bengal.... Battle of Nuneas Nullas.... Siege and surrender of Mongheer, the |