rest are, that she may not lose that precedence which His Majesty perhaps intends should be regulated according to the present rank of those to whom he grants this great favour.
I am, with the greatest respect and gratitude,
My Lord,
"After the debate on the address, the rest of the session," wrote Lord Shelburne many years after,[1] "passed without anything remarkable till the Vote of Credit, which became the subject of very material differences. The Duke of Newcastle, then at the head of the Treasury, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer[2] thought it necessary to ask two millions on account of the great expenses which were apprehended from the continuance of the German war, which the Duke of Newcastle took for granted, and really was so personally engaged in, that it was impossible for him with any degree of consistency to see it tamely given up. Lord Bute, who was of a different opinion with regard to Germany, and who talked as if he was determined to recall the troops or make the peace, and was hard pushed by the Duke of Bedford to this (whose friendship he was obliged to court, notwithstanding what had passed), as well as some other of his friends who were determined to continue their opposition to it, thought therefore a single million sufficient. Mr. Grenville, who was intrusted chiefly in the House of Commons, and the other Lords of the Treasury were strongly for asking only a single million. Lord Bute alleged it to those who were of opinion against the German war as a proof of the sincerity of his intention in that respect; but as men mostly are not without two motives, and men of his character especially, one which they tell the world and at last persuade themselves is the true one, the other, which they scarce venture to own to their own minds, I should imagine one of the latter kind operated on this occasion, which weighed somewhat in the
