Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/141

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1757-1762
SHELBURNE, BUTE, AND FOX
115

expressing his regret for his own friends in that country, he continued "to represent to the Prime Minister every time he saw him, that there was not a moment to be lost either in signing the peace or in assuring himself of a competent majority in the House of Commons to support him."[1] Bute was also much perplexed as to the best method of bringing the peace before Parliament, whether to lay the preliminaries before it though not confirmed by a Treaty, or wait for the confirmation,[2] a difficult question involving a discussion of the Treaty-making power in the country, as to which much difference of opinion has existed at all times.[3]

On this and other questions connected with the peace Shelburne was not only consulted by Bute, but was the person through whom the latter corresponded with Fox, then in his retreat on the sea coast. The recent death of Lord Melcombe had just made a great addition to his already enormous fortune, for in 1757 the Duke of Cumberland, as already seen, had induced the King to acknowledge Fox's claims to a recognition of his services, by the grant of a reversion to him and two of his children successively of a sinecure, the Writership of the Tallies and the Clerkship of the Rolls in Ireland, contingent on the death of the actual holder Bubb Dodington, who had since become Lord Melcombe. The two following

  1. Shelburne to Bute, August 30th.
  2. Shelburne to Fox, September 1st; September 18th.
  3. Compare Pitt's speech, November 9th, 1762, and Mr. Gladstone's speech, Hansard, ccix., February 14th, 1873. Fox, writing to Bute on October 4th, says, "I should be glad in this ugly situation to have the sense of Parliament, not for security, but to remove difficulties. The objection of its letting down Government is obviated by its having been done before, and in times when prerogative was carried high, and it would obviate the great difficulty, because the greatest coward would sign what the Parliament authorized without considering that he was not secured by it. But now, on the other hand, not seeing the precedent, I cannot imagine how the sense of Parliament can be taken; and by taking it you subject yourself to as many questions as there are articles in the preliminaries, and if any one question is carried or not defeated by a great majority the whole is marred, unless France and Spain, who I believe will not like to see their offer presented to the House of Commons sub spe rati, will go farther and submit to our alterations of it. How difficult will it be to keep the attention of a number of men upon the whole, through so many questions on particular articles? Friends, I should fear, would leave us on some. From the nature of opposition none from the other side would come to us on any; and, upon the whole, I have no idea of a House of Commons turned into a Council of State. What then is my opinion? I told you I could give none."