AN ODD MEDLEY

persons than I believe ever was known before. I have to the last fought for individuals, but the number I have saved, except my Bedchamber, is incredibly few. You would hardly believe that even the Duke of Montagu was strongly run at; but I declared that I would sooner let confusion follow than part with the governor of my sons and so unexceptional a man. At last I have succeeded, so that he and Lord Ashburnham remain. The effusion of my sorrows has made me say more than I had intended, but I ever did, and ever shall, look on you as a friend as well as a faithful servant. Pray acquaint the Cabinet that they must this day attend at St. James's to resign. I shall hope to be there if possible by one, and will receive them before the levée, as I think it would be awkward to have the new people presented at the levée prior to the resignations."

On the same day the King wrote to Lord Dartmouth: "Though I have directed Lord North this morning to acquaint all the Cabinet that they must come and resign their respective offices before the levée this day, as I think it would make an odd medley, therefore I shall, if possible, be at St. James's before one for that melancholy purpose. I own I could not let Lord Dartmouth hear this without writing him a few lines to aver how very near he will always be to my heart, and that I have ever esteemed him since I have thoroughly known him in another light than any of his companions in Ministry. What days it has pleased the Almighty to place me in, when Lord Dartmouth can be a

man to be removed but at his own request! But I cannot complain. I adore the will of Providence, and will ever resign myself obediently to His will. My heart is too full to say more.'

North retired with a pension of £4000 a year. He had, says Walpole, "besides the office of Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, received the Garter, the place of Warden of the Cinque Ports, a Patent place for his son, Bushey Park for his wife, a pension of £4000 on his late resignation, and, some said, a grant of part of the Savoy, though that has not been verified. His father was Treasurer to the Queen, and his brother has the Bishopric of Winchester." For a man who did not care for emoluments or honours this was doing pretty well.

A few weeks after North's resignation the King addressed him a letter, pointing out the shameful neglect with which the accounts had latterly been managed, especially those of the secret service, the account books of which were two years in arrear. "No business," said George, "can ever be admitted for not doing that." North seems to have taken the reprimand much to heart. He had endeavoured, he wrote, through the course of his life to promote the King's service to the best of his judgment; "no one can better know his unfitness for the office he held than he did himself, and the King will do him the justice to own that from the very first he frequently and repeatedly represented his incapacity and solicited for his dismission. The uneasiness of his mind, arising from the consciousness of his being inade

THURLOW RETAINED

quate to his situation, greatly impaired his faculties, and is now, he fears, undermining his constitution. He hopes the King will not embitter the remainder of his days by withdrawing from him that good opinion which he has long, and often by the sacrifice of his inclinations and private comfort, endeavoured to deserve."

All this was very well, and a frank avowal of his being "inadequate to his situation" softened the King's asperity. But North, with a far stronger physique, never worked as hard as the second Pitt, his successor, and he had been well rewarded for his labours. The truth is, North's character had undergone a change far greater than his body.

For the moment the Whigs were victorious. After nearly fifteen years' exclusion they returned to taste the sweets of power. The new administration was dubbed the "Regency," and the new Ministers the "Regents." A caricature of the day, entitled "The Captive Prince, or Liberty run Mad," represents Shelburne, Richmond, Keppel, and Fox fixing fetters on the King's feet and ankles, while the last three are severally made to exclaim, "I command the Ordnance"-"I command the Fleet"-"I command the mob." In the meantime the world, according to Walpole, looked on and smiled at the phenomenon of half-a-dozen great lords claiming "an hereditary and exclusive right" to retain the Government in their families, "like the Hebrew priesthood in one tribe."

Albeit George was not without a triumph of his own. He had succeeded in retaining Thurlow, upon