CHAP.

XI.

1753.

was admitted of his cabinet.

time

may

From this

be dated that unhappy and dangerous idea which Lord Bute had imbibed, of planation forming a double cabinet. He had it from principles Lord Bath, who told him, the official men

Further ex

of the

inculcated

at Leicester ought never to be trufted with information

house.

of any measure until it was given them to execute, They were the fervants, he said, of the executive power; not the power itself. This extraordinary doctrine will appear more fully if the letters at Fonthill are printed; for Mr. Alderman Beckford was one of those who at this time paid their devoirs at Leicester-house.

After Stone and Murray had been acquitted by the privy council, very little attention was paid to Leicester-house or its concerns by the Pelhams or their Whig friends. In a very few years the ideas of a separate intereft, and of a feparate party, were become perfectly vifible at Leicesterhoufe.

CHAP

CHA P. XII.

Subfidiary Treaties with Hanover, Heffe, and Ruffia, -Payment to Ruffia refufed.-Duke of Newcaftle fends Mr. Yorke to Mr. Pitt.-Mr. Fox offers to join Mr. Pitt.-Debate on the Subfidiary Treaties.-Mr. Pitt difmiffed-His Balances found in the Bank.-The Duke's Miniftry appointed. Further Debate on the Treaties.France menaces an Invafion of Great Britain.Heffian and Hanoverian Troops requested, and arrive in England.-Mr. Pitt difapproves of it. -The defign of the French Cabinet.-France takes Minorca.-Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox explain the Caufes of that Capture.-True caufe of Admiral Byng's execution.-Convention with Pruffia.

ON

CHAP

XII.

1755

with Hang

ver, He

and Ru

N the 15th of September 1755, the King returned from Hanover, with a fubfidiary treaty he had concluded with the Landgrave of Heffe, for twelve thousand Treaties men, for the defence of Hanover or Great Britain. Another treaty with Ruffia, which he had negotiated abroad for 40,000 men, for the defence of Hanover in cafe that Electorate fhould be invaded, was finished, and figned at Kensington on the 30th of the fame month.

CHAP.
XII.

1755.

Payment

to Ruffia refufed.

fent to Mr.

In the month of October, a draft from Petersburgh was prefented to the British exchequer for 100,000l. in confequence of the Ruffian treaty. Mr. Legge confulted Mr. Pitt. They ́united in refusing payment until the treaty had been approved by Parliament.

While the King was at Hanover, the Duke of Newcastle received information of the negotiations carrying on there; and being fenfible of the difapprobation with which the treaties with Heffe and Ruffia would be received in England, he endeavoured by negotiations at home to strengthen his minifterial power. Of all his opponents he reckoned Mr. Pitt the moft formidable; Mr. Yorke to him therefore he firft applied. He fent the hon. Charles Yorke to him, to found him, . as he called it. When Mr. Yorke had opened his bufinefs, and began to make a tender of the Duke's fincere friendship for Mr. Pitt, his Grace's unlimited confidence in Mr. Pitt flopped him short, and faid, "That as to friendship and confidence, there were none between them; if ever there had been any, they were now entirely deftroyed: That he (Mr. Pitt) laboured under

Pitt,

the

XII.

1755

the King's displeasure, which the Duke of CHAP Newcastle ought to have removed; the Duke perfectly knew, he faid, that the Royal difpleasure arose from mifreprefentation, and until that profcription was taken off he would enter into no conversation whatever, either with his Grace or with any perfon from him.'

Mr. Fox

offers to

-join Mr.

Mr. Fox having been informed of this difference between the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, made a propofal to join Mr. Pitt against the Duke of Newcastle. Mr. Pitt rejected the propofal. It is easy to see Pitt. Mr. Pitt's motive for this. Mr. Fox was the favourite of the Duke of Cumberland; and his Royal Highnefs had differed with the Duke of Newcastle concerning the preparations for war, in which his Highness thought the minifter negligent and backward; and he moreover had in contemplation the ap. pointment of a new miniftry. If Mr. Pitt had accepted Mr. Fox's propofal, he must have taken a fubordinate fituation, which hé could never think of, under Mr. Fox.

The Prince's party at Leicester-house was increasing, and Mr. Pitt was generally fuppofed

1

CHAP pofed to belong to them; but it was not true: He was their friend, but not their coadjutor.

1755.

Mr. Pitt's fpeech against the treaties

with

Heffe and

Ruffia,

Parties were in this ftate when Parliament met, on the 13th of November 1755. The treaties with Ruffia and Heffe were mentioned in the King's fpeech; and an infinuation of an engagement to approve of

them was introduced in the addrefs of each House.

Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge condemned them in the ftrongeft terms.

Mr. Pitt faid,They were advifed, framed, and executed, not with a view to the defence of Great Britain in cafe fhe fhould be invaded by France; not with a view to protect the allies of Great Britain if they should be attacked by France, but purely and entirely for the prefervation of Hanover against the attempts of France and her confederates, which I believe to be fo entirely the only object of the treaties, that I am convinced they would not have been made, had not that Electorate belonged to the fovereign of this island.