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Lord Chatham had for some time entertained thoughts of resigning. This event decided him. The appointment of Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was such an outrage of his American system (see appendix X.) and the achievement of Corsica, by France, was such an abandonment of his European policy, that they were the principal causes of his resignation. He did not go to Court when he resigned, but sent the Privy Seal by Lord Camden.

This was the last place he held under the Crown.

His resignation was an event that had been long expected, and therefore it occasioned no surprise to the public, nor distress to the ministry. The Duke of Grafton having completed his alliance with the Bedford interest, esteemed himself fully adequate to all the difficulties and burthens of the state. Lord Camden attached himself to his Grace, and continued in office.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Reconciliation between Lord Chatham and Lord Temple.-Distraction of the Country-Lord Chatham's Speech on the Address at the beginning of the year 1770.

LORD Chatham had unceasingly lamented his difference with Lord Temple, from the time it happened; and being now emancipated from the connexions of office, and even from the suspicion of a connexion with the Court, he sought the friendship of his brother with anxiety and sincerity. On this occasion he made Mr. Culcraft his confidant. He confessed to him, that almost every body else had betrayed him-his brother, he said, had indeed abused him; but it was in the warmth of his temper, and in the openness of his nature which was superior to all hypocrisy, or concealment of disapprobation. Mr. Calcraft approved himself a cordial and assiduous mediator. He accomplished their reconciliation: they had no more differences afterwards; and they were, if possible, more affectionately united than ever they had been. Mr. Grenville perfectly acceded to the union.

Parliament met on the eighth of November. A great part of the session was occupied by the several expulsions of Mr. Wilkes, and questions concerning the Middlesex election. Lord Chatham did not attend during the session. Rest and retirement he found were the best preservatives against the return of his disorder. But to his friends he declared, in the strongest terms, his thorough detestation of those measures. Petitions from several counties, cities, and large towns, were presented to the King, against them, but without any effect. The dearest rights of the people were sacrificed to personal resentment. The corruption of Parliament is become a grievance of the first magnitude. When the Court can command the Legislature, the Constitution is at an end. The case of the Middlesex election, is an indisputable evidence of this melancholy truth.

The session closed on the ninth of May, 1769.

The respite which Lord Chatham gave himself from all kinds of business, and the happiness he enjoyed in the reconciliation of his relations, so largely contributed to the restoration of his health, that, on the approach of the following session, he found himself able to attend the labours of Parliament.

The next session was opened on the ninth day of January, 1770. The discontents which pervaded the whole nation, stimulated him to the most vigorous exertion of his talents. He considered the conduct of the House of Commons, on all the questions concerning the Middlesex election, as wholly unconstitutional. He attended on the first day. His speeches on that day have fortunately met with a better fate than many of his former speeches; for they were accurately taken by a gentleman of strong memory, now a member of the House of Commons, and from his notes they are here printed.

The motion for an Address was made by the Duke of Ancaster, and seconded by Lord Dun

more.

"Earl of Chatham, after some compliment to the Duke of Ancaster, took notice how happy it would have made him to have been able to concur with the noble Duke in every part of an Address, which was meant as a mark of respect and duty to the Crown-professed personal obligations to the King, and veneration for him; that, though he might differ from the noble Duke in form of expressing his duty to the Crown, he hoped he should give his Majesty a more substantial proof of his attachment than if he agreed with the motion.

That, at his time of life, and loaded as he was with infirmities, he might, perhaps, have stood excused if he had continued in his retirement, and never taken part again in public affairs. But that the alarming state of the nation called upon him, forced him to come forward once more, and to execute that duty which he owed to God, to his sovereign, and to his country; that he was determined to perform it, even at the hazard of his life. That there never was a period which called more forcibly than the present, for the serious attention and consideration of that house; that as they were the grand hereditary Counsellors of the Crown, it was particularly their duty, at a crisis of such importance and danger, to lay before their Sovereign the true state and condition of his subjects, the discontent which universally prevailed amongst them, the distresses under which they laboured, the injuries they complained of, and the true causes of this unhappy state of affairs.

"That he had heard with great concern of the distemper among the cattle, and was very ready to give his approbation to those prudent measures which the Council had taken for putting a stop to so dreadful a calamity. That he was satisfied there was a power in some degree arbitrary, with which the Constitution trusted the Crown, to be made use of under correction of the Legislature, and at the hazard of the Minister, upon any sudden emer

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