Dorchester, and Sir Harbord Harbord Lord Suffield; and English Baronies were granted to the Irish Earls of Shannon and Tyrone. Earlier in the year Pitt also obtained from the King two promotions in the Peerage on strong grounds of merit: the advancement of Lord Camden to be an Earl and Viscount Bayham; and the advancement of Earl Gower to be Marquis of Stafford. Yet the Minister was anxious at this time to stand firm against most new claims. On the 19th of July he writes as follows to the Duke of Rutland: "I have no difficulty in stating fairly to you that a variety of circumstances has unavoidably led me to recommend a larger addition to the British Peerage than I like or than I think quite creditable; and I am on that account very desirous not to increase it now farther than is absolutely necessary."

CHAPTER IX.

1786-1787.

State of the Ministry - William Grenville Lord Mornington Henry Dundas - Lord Carmarthen Death of Frederick the Margaret Nicholson's attempt on the life of George the

Great
Third

- Death of Pitt's sister, Lady Harriot Treaty of Commerce with France State of Ireland Dr. Pretyman becomes Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of St. Paul's - Parliamentary Debates on French Treaty Mr. Charles Grey Proceedings against Hastings resumed - Unanimous testimony to Sheridan's eloquence

Pitt's measures of Financial Reform The Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert Attempted Repeal of the Test Act

Settlement in Botany Bay.

mons.

IN the Session which was just concluded, Pitt had been able to strengthen himself in the House of ComHe was still the only Cabinet Minister in that assembly; but there were two young men of high promise, one of whom he had just promoted, and the other just placed in office. These were the new VicePresident of the Board of Trade, William Grenville, afterwards Lord Grenville, and the new Lord of the Treasury, Richard Wesley, Earl of Mornington in the Irish Peerage, afterwards Marquis Wellesley. It was some time, however, ere Pitt obtained from them much assistance in debate. The oratorical eminence of both was a plant of later growth.

Writing to the Duke of Rutland in October, 1785, Pitt had thrown out the idea of Grenville for Irish Secretary in the place of Orde. He added: "I do not know that he would take it, and rather suppose that he

would not. I think, too, that his near connection with Lord Buckingham is itself, perhaps, a sufficient objection; though in temper and disposition he is much the reverse of his brother, and in good sense and habits of business very fit for such a situation." Grenville had also taken part in several important debates, always with authority, and sometimes with success. But he did not, according to the common phrase, “make way” in the House of Commons. To his style of speaking the House of Lords was certainly the appropriate sphere, and to this it appears that so early as 1786 Grenville in his secret hopes aspired.1

Lord Mornington at the Treasury did not for a long time do justice to himself. Some years elapsed before he spoke at much length or with much effect. Even after he had made manifest his great oratorical powers, it required much persuasion of others and much preparation of his own before he would engage to take part in a debate. Pitt once said of him that he was the animal of the longest gestation he had ever seen. His speeches, when at last they came, were excellent and justly admired, above all for their classic taste, their graceful elocution, and their vivid style.

The main reliance of Pitt in all debates was still, therefore, that able and zealous friend who had stood by him ever since his outset in official life. Henry Dundas, sprung from a family most eminent in Scottish jurisprudence, was the son of one President of the Court of Session, the brother of a second, and the uncle of a

1 See the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third, vol. i. p. 315, ed. 1853.

Lord Chief Baron. Born in 1742, and sent to Parliament in 1774 by his native county of Edinburgh, his outset in public life among "the Southron" might be compared to Wedderburn's, twelve years before. But there was all the difference between a very cold heart and a very warm one. Wedderburn, with no predilections except for his own rise, took the utmost pains, and with success, to divest himself of the Scottish dialect and accent. Dundas, on the contrary, in a far more manly spirit, as he clung to all other kindred ties, retained the speech and the tones of his fatherland. Intent only on the matter, to which he applied his masculine good sense, he never seemed to care for or to hesitate in the choice of words. Thus the graces of elocution and delivery were perhaps despised, or certainly at least neglected, by him. Throwing himself boldly into the van of the Parliamentary conflict, he would grapple at once with the strength of the arguments before him, and strike home at their vulnerable points. His adversaries might now and then indulge a smile at some provincial phrase or uncouth gesticulation, but they had often to quail before the close pressure of his logic and the keen edge of his invectives. They quickly found that it was difficult to answer, and impossible to daunt him. In business, as in public speaking, his turn of mind was eminently practical, clear, and to the point. Frank and cordial in his temper, fond of jests and good fellowship in private life, convivial to the full extent admitted by the far from abstemious habits of his age, he was much beloved in the circle of his friends, nor always disliked even by his political oppo

nents. Besides that his temper was to every one generous and kindly, his heart warmed to a fellowcountryman as such. I have heard a Scottish Peer of the opposite party, but a discerning and longexperienced man-the second Earl of Minto-say that, as he believed, there was scarce a gentleman's family in Scotland, of whatever politics, which had not at some time and in some one of its members received some Indian appointment or other act of, in many cases quite disinterested, kindness from Henry Dundas.

In the House of Lords, the venerable Camden was enfeebled by the weight of advancing years. Lord Thurlow was most powerful and ready, but in an equal degree wayward and impracticable. Lord Carmarthen, at this time Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, brought to the Government more of polish than weight. After Wilberforce had one day in 1785 dined with Pitt, we find him in his Diary contrast "pompous Thurlow and elegant Carmarthen." And at the same period the new American Minister, John Adams, writes: "The Marquis of Carmarthen is a modest, amiable man; treats all men with civility, and is much esteemed by the Foreign Ministers, as well as the nation, but is not an enterprising Minister." 2

Such was the general state of the Ministry at the close of the Session of 1785, and for a long time afterwards.

In August of this year died Frederick the Second, or

2 To Secretary Jay, November 4, 1785; Adams's Works, vol. viii. p.

336.