received the Duchy for life. Dunning accordingly became Lord Ashburton, taking his title from the village of that name in Devonshire where he was born. It was however only after many hesitations that he accepted the Duchy. "I have always," he wrote to Shelburne, "given myself the credit enough with your Lordship to have it believed and not imputed to a silly affectation, that instead of desiring I have a dread of any office of any sort, proceeding from a perfect satisfaction with my present situation, an apprehension that I cannot change it with credit to myself or advantage to my friends, and that as far as such talents as mine can be of any use, they may be better employed where I am. Your Lordship's authority has silenced though not satisfied me as to a particular office (for which the habits of my life must have gone further towards qualifying me than for any other), so far that when that office becomes vacant, if it shall be thought proper so to dispose of it, with a full sense of the danger I shall be ready to encounter it. But as to what your Lordship suggested last night of an interim situation, the more I think of it, the less I can bring my mind to the acceptance of an office which is in truth a pension under another name, and is to entitle me to public money without doing anything for it."[1]
The other appointments were as follows: Lord John Cavendish became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Keppel First Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Richmond Master-General of the Ordnance, Mr. Fox Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Camden President of the Council, the Duke of Grafton Privy Seal, and General Conway Commander-in-Chief. These with Thurlow, Dunning, and Shelburne, who became Secretary of State for Home, Irish, and Colonial Affairs, formed the Cabinet.[2] Barré became Treasurer of the Navy, Thomas Townshend Secretary-at-War, Sheridan Under-Secretary of State to
- ↑ Dunning to Shelburne, March 25th, 1782.
- ↑ The third or Colonial Secretaryship established in 1768 was now abolished. Fox was the first Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. No order in Council or Departmental minute authorizes the change, which is only recorded in a circular letter from Mr. Fox to our foreign representatives. (See Sir William Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, ii. i. 165.)
