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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 449: CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.

From the period of the king’s malady, and the lord chancellor’s double-dealing in the matter of the Regency Bill, a misunderstanding had existed between him and Pitt. Lord Thurlow, in fact, was the aggressor, and the more inclined to continue the quarrel, for on no occasion did Pitt exhibit his hostility, while my lord chancellor was continually manifesting it both in the council and in parliament. In private society also Thurlow was often heard to speak contemptuously of the chancellor of the exchequer, and no remonstrance on the part of their mutual friends could check his display of ill-feeling. In parliament, on some occasions when the assistance of Thurlow was necessary, he would-preserve a dogged silence; while at other times he would oppose measures to which Pitt attached the highest importance. At length his rough temper brought matters to a crisis. Early in this session Thurlow severely condemned Pitt’s bill for liquidating future loans, and irritated thereby the chancellor of the exchequer wrote to the king stating the impossibility of his remaining in office with his lordship, and that it was necessary for his majesty to choose between them. In consequence of this communication, the king informed Thurlow that he must resign; but as a change was not desirable during the session, and as it was wished that the lord chancellor should terminate some chancery business, it was agreed that he should hold the seals until the prorogation of parliament, on which day the great seal was placed in the hands of three commissioners; an event which was not followed by a single resignation or change in any political or legal department. There is no doubt that Pitt knew, when he wrote to his majesty, that the choice of dismissal would fall on his rough-minded colleague, for the chancellor of the exchequer was well aware that he stood high in his royal master’s favour. His majesty, indeed, had often expressed his high sense of his minister’s services in words, and soon after this he testified it in a more tangible manner. By the death of Lord Guildford on the 5th of August, the wardenship of the cinque ports, worth about £3000 a-year, became vacant, and his majesty offered it to Pitt in such pressing terms, that even if he had been inclined to refuse the boon it would scarcely have been possible. The royal letter by which it was offered to him was in fact imperative, and Pitt had only to obey—no very difficult task, as the chancellor of the exchequer, though he could guide the helm of the state with a skilful hand, nevertheless could not manage his own affairs with sufficient skill to keep himself out of debt.