val, being levee-day, he went to court. The King was in the closet. He sent in his name. The King took no notice. In this particular the Duke was wrong-he was too delicate-he should have demanded an audience. He next desired to know to whom he should deliver his key? The King returned an answer, That he should send for it next morning, which he did, and with his own hand struck his Grace's name out of the list of his privy council.

The reader will make his own observations on this extraordinary conduct. No one need be told, that the Cavendishes were amongst the most warm and most determined supporters of the Revolution in 1688, and of the House of Brunswick; nor have their virtue and zeal diminished in an opposition to the most subtle attempts to accomplish the most despotic designs.

Nor has the immediate cause of the Duke of Newcastle's resignation been less mistated. When his Grace found that the annual convention with Prussia was not to be renewed, as usual, he suggested another mode to save the national honour, and which would, at the same time, support the national dignity and essentially contribute towards commanding the terms of peace. This was when the application was made to Parliament

in the month of May 1762, for a vote of credit of one million, his Grace wished to extend the sum to two millions. A vote of credit of one million had been usual every year of the war. His Grace's intention was, to have supplied the King of Prussia with the amount of his annual subsidy out of the second million. But this design being made known to Lord Bute, by one of the secretaries of the treasury*, almost as soon as it was suggested, that Lord opposed it with the greatest warmth. The duke finding this opposition from Lord Bute, and expecting no better success in the closet, he saw his influence at an end, and immediately resigned.

Mr. Wood, who had been Mr. Pitt's secretary during the war, says in the preface to his Essay on Homer, that having waited upon Lord Granville, president of the council, when he was dying, with the preliminary articles of the treaty, and read them to him, his Lordship declared "It was the most honourable peace he ever saw." This anecdote only proves Lord Granville's attachment to Lord Bath to the last moment of his life. The celebrated Dr. Franklin used fre

* The political paper called The North Briton accused Mr. S. Martin of having betrayed the Duke of Newcastle to Lord Bute. Martin was also treasurer to the Princess of Wales.

quently to entertain his friends with an anecdote of this nobleman, which deserves to be remembered. Upon the embargo being laid on all American vessels laden with corn, flour, &c. in the year 1757, the American agents petitioned against it, and were heard before the privy council. Lord Granville, who was lord president, told them, That America must not do any thing to interfere with Great Britain in the European markets; that if America grew corn, so did England; that if America shipped corn, so did England. Upon which Dr. Franklin told his Lordship that America could not do any thing that would not interfere with Great Britain in some respect or other. If they planted, reaped, and must not ship, the best thing he could advise his Lordship to do would be, to apply to Parliament for transports sufficient to bring them all back again.

Has it not been the misfortune of England, that most of her great men have frequently shewn, that they were influenced by very narrow ideas, when exercising their political talents on national subjects? If the policy of that part of the treaty was just, which extended the British colonies in America, what benefit could be derived from those colonies if these ideas of restraint were to be maintained?

CHAPTER XXIII. .

Extraordinary preparations for the Meeting of Parliament.-Preliminary Articles of Peace laid before Parliament.-Mr. Pitt's Speech against

them.

PARLIAMENT met on the 25th of November 1762*. The most extraordinary provision was made for this event. The royal household had been increased beyond all former example. The lords and grooms of the bedchamber were doubled. Pensions were thrown about indiscriminately. Five and twenty thousand pounds were

In the evening of the day preceding the meeting of Parliament, the members of the House of Common met, as usual, at the Cockpit. Mr. Fox took the chair, and produced to the company a paper which he only called a Speech, and which he said he would, as usual, read to them. He afterwards produced an Address, which he read, and then said, that Lord Carysfort and Lord Charles Spencer had been so kind as to undertake to move and second that address. The same ceremony is observed with respect to the House of Lords.-The speech is read by some Peer, who is supposed to conduct the business of that House. The manager of the House of Commons takes the chair at the Cockpit,

issued in one day, in bank notes of one hun

dred pounds each.

The only stipulation was, Give us your vote. A corruption of such notoriety and extent had never been seen before. There is no example, in any age or country, that in any degree approaches to it. The dole was lavish beyond the probability of account, or possibility of credit. Mr. Fox had the management of the House of Commons, with unlimited powers.

On the 29th of November, the preliminary articles of peace with France and Spain were laid before both Houses.

On the ninth of December they were taken into consideration, and a motion was made, "To return his Majesty thanks for his gracious condescension in ordering the preliminary articles of peace concluded between his Majesty and their Most Christian and Catholic Majesties, to be laid before them; to assure his Majesty his faithful Commons were impatient to express to his Majesty their approbation of the advantageous terms upon which his Majesty hath concluded preliminary articles of peace; and to lay before his Majesty the hearty applause of a faithful, affectionate, and thankful people, &c. &c.