and Shelburne. The first was ready to defend whatever his royal master thought fit to do; the second sacrificed his old friendship to the prospect of immediate gain; and the third weakly allowed his disgust for the old Whig system to persuade him of the real existence of the cabal. The two following letters shew the position of the three statesmen:[1]
Bute to Shelburne.
November 3rd.
My dear Lord,—In a few hours after I saw you I received a note from the King, telling me he had executed his intentions concerning the Privy Councillors, and this he explain'd in a manner that shows me no man alive could have prevented it, nor would I for the world hint to Him Mr. Fox's opinion, not only as the thing is over, but as He looks on this whole affair as personal insult to Himself. Suffer me now, far from excusing, to justify strongly the King's conduct. Was ever a punishment so justly adapted to an offence? The oath of Counsellor broke, the name is erased, the real Lex Talionis. The Duke of Cumberland is represented to me, my dear Lord, as growing more placid, and yet the certain account I have of Newmarket carries no equivocal marks to me of that sweet temper talked of. The King is insulted on every side. I own I feel for Him, I know you do; I wish all who serve Him did the same; and then we should not hear these lamentations, these timid halfmeasures. I will not screen myself under my Prince. I advised not indeed the measure, but that I won't own, and I most heartily approve it.
Adieu, my dear Lord,
- ↑ Lord Stanhope in his History, iv. xxx., represents the King as acting under the advice of Bute. The letters given above prove the contrary, and also exculpate Fox from the charge brought against him of having been the special adviser of the disgrace of his old patron, the Duke of Devonshire. Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., i. 202.
