languid, fatiguing tone, Pitt, who sat opposite to him, mimicking his accent aloud, repeated these words of an old ditty, “Gentle shepherd, tell me where !” and then rising abused Grenville bitterly. He had no sooner finished than Grenville started up in a transport of rage, and said, if gentlemen were to be treated with that contempt—— Pitt was walking out of the house, but at that word turned round, made a sneering bow to Grenville, and departed.… The appellation of the Gentle Shepherd long stuck by Grenville. He is mentioned by it in many of the writings on the Stamp Act, and in other pamphlets and political prints of the time’ (Walpole, Memoirs of George III, i. 251). Fox, in his memorandum dated 11 March 1763, urged Bute to remove Grenville from the government, stating that, in his opinion, Grenville was ‘and will be, whether in the ministry or in the House of Commons, an hindrance, not a help, and sometimes a very great inconvenience to those he is joined with’ (Lord E. Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, i. 189).
Bute had other plans, and on his resignation of office Grenville was appointed first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer on 10 April 1763. Grenville afterwards practically avowed that he took office to secure the king from the danger of falling into the hands of the whigs. ‘I told his majesty,’ he says in a letter to Lord Strange, ‘that I came into his service to preserve the constitution of my country, and to prevent any undue and unwarrantable force being put upon the crown’ (Grenville Papers, ii. 106). A few days after his assumption of office the session came to an end. The king's speech identified the foreign policy of the new ministry with the old one, and referred to ‘the happy effects’ of the recently concluded peace, ‘so honourable to the crown, and so beneficial to my people’ (Parl. Hist. xv. 1321-31). On 23 April the famous No. 45 of the ‘North Briton’ appeared, in which the speech was severely attacked, and on the 30th Wilkes was arrested on the authority of a general warrant. There can be little doubt that Bute had hoped to make Grenville his tool, but he soon found out his mistake. Grenville resented his interference, and complained that the ministry had not the full confidence of the king. Negotiations were commenced, with a view to displacing Grenville, in July with Lord Hardwicke, and afterwards in August with Pitt. Upon the failure of the second attempt the king was compelled to ask Grenville to remain in office, which he consented to do on receiving an assurance that Bute should no longer exercise any secret influence in the closet. In September the ministry, which had been weakened by the death of Lord Egremont in the preceding month, was strengthened by the accession of the Bedford party, the duke becoming the president of the council, while Sandwich, Hillsborough, and Egmont were given important offices. On 9 March 1764 Grenville introduced his budget, speaking ‘for two hours and forty minutes ; much of it well, but too long, too many repetitions, and too evident marks of being galled by reports, which he answered with more art than sincerity’ (Walpole, Letters, iv. 202). On the following day his proposals for the imposition of duties on several articles of American commerce were carried without any resistance, as well as a vague resolution that ‘it may be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the said colonies and plantations’ (Journal of the House of Commons, xxix. 935). On 7 Feb. 1765 a series of fifty-five resolutions, imposing on America nearly the same stamp duties which were then established in England, were unanimously agreed to in the commons. The bill embodying these resolutions met with little opposition in either house, and quickly became law. Upon the recovery of the king from his severe illness the Regency Bill was introduced into the House of Lords, and by a curious blunder of the ministry the name of the Princess Dowager of Wales was excluded from it. This was eventually rectified in the commons but not until Grenville had suffered great discomfiture. The king had long been tired of his minister's tedious manners and overbearing temper. ‘When he has wearied me for two hours,’ complained the king on one occasion, ‘he looks at his watch, to see if he may not tire me for an hour more’ (Walpole, George III, ii. 160); and on another occasion the king declared that ‘when he had anything proposed to him it was no longer as counsel, but what he was to obey’ (Grenville Papers, iii. 213). Negotiations were again opened with Pitt, this time through the Duke of Cumberland, but failed, owing to the action of Lord Temple, with whom Grenville had been lately reconciled. Upon Lord Lyttelton's refusal to form a ministry the king was compelled to retain Grenville in office. The latter, however, insisted that the king should promise that Bute should no longer participate in his councils, and that Bute's brother, James Stuart Mackenzie, and Lord Holland should be dismissed from their respective offices of privy seal of Scotland and paymaster-general. The king reluctantly consented to these terms, but after the Duke of Bedford's celebrated interview with him
