APPOINTING AN ARCHBISHOP are renewed. This gives the King the more satisfaction, as he is fully sensible that their personal attachment to him and to their country are the true causes of this most gratifying event."1 Early in the new year Addington was created Viscount Sidmouth, and was sworn in as Lord President of the Council. The King's words to him when he kissed hands were, "I am glad to have you with me again." When, about the middle of January, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Moore, died, it was expected that Pitt would have raised his old tutor, secretary, and friend, Bishop Tomline, to the Primacy. Tomline himself during the Archbishop's illness expected this. "Mr. Pitt," he wrote to Rose, "means to write fully upon the subject. I am confident that he will do everything in his power, short of absolute force. But George's intentions ran in a contrary direction. He designed to appoint Sutton, Bishop of Norwich, to the vacant Primacy. "If a private secretary of a first Minister," said George, "is to be put at the head of the Church, I shall have all my Bishops party-men and politicians." This issue between the King and his Prime Minister was watched with deep interest. "The King," says a well-informed contemporary, "received a message from Pitt that Archbishop Moore was dead, and that he would wait upon his Majesty the next morning. The King, suspecting the cause, ordered his horse, and rode over to Bishop Sutton, 1 Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth, vol. ii. p. 334. then residing at Windsor. He found he was at dinner with some friends, and sent in the servant to say a gentleman wished to speak to him. The Bishop said immediately he could not go, but something in the servant's manner made him change his determination. When he came out, he found the King standing in a little dressing-room near the hall door. The King took him by both hands. 'My Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,' he said, I wish you joy. Not a word; go back to your guests.' On Pitt's arrival the next day the King said to him he was sure he would be glad to have an opportunity of providing for a most deserving friend and relative. A friend, indeed,' said Pitt, but your Majesty is mistaken as to there being any relationship.' The King, not minding him, lashed on: And then it is such a good thing for his twelve children.' This was quite too much for the Premier, and he said, Bishop Pretyman1 I am certainly most anxious to promote: but he is not my relative, nor has he such a family.' Pho! Pho!' said the King, it is not Pretyman whom I mean, but Sutton.' 'I should hope,' said Pitt, that the talents and literary eminence- 'It can't be, it can't be; I have already wished Sutton joy, and he must go to Canterbury.' 6 6 "The business," says Lord Rosebery, 66 was settled in a moment and at the front door; the sovereign went off chuckling at having outwitted 1 Bishop Pretyman had changed his name to Tomline on coming into possession of some valuable estates in Lincolnshire in 1803. A JUST PREROGATIVE Pitt. It is said, however, that when they met language of unprecedented strength passed between King and Minister. It cannot, though, be doubted that the King was right."" 1 Rosebery's Pitt. CHAPTER XXI THE LONG NIGHT AND THE DAWN It is in the highest degree doubtful if Napoleon, with all his pretended insight into character, ever quite understood George. He was perpetually making inquiries concerning him. Nothing was too trivial that he could glean from ambassadors, and travellers, and correspondents. George's habits, his manner of life, his sayings were all poured into the First Consul's ear. He who thought all men had their price and their weakness found some difficulty in ascertaining just what was his English neighbour's ruling passion. The Prince of Wales, with his love of power, of women, of display, he could and did understand; but "Farmer George" baffled him. At the beginning of 1805, a month only after his coronation, Napoleon took the unusual step of trying to place himself directly and personally en rapport with the King of Great Britain. The letter he addressed to George is now a curiosity. It was composed by Napoleon with great pains, and he expected that it would exert as great an effect upon George as it would have done upon Alexander or Joseph. 66 "SIR AND BROTHER," it began grandiloquently, called to the throne of France by Providence, LETTER FROM NAPOLEON and by the suffrages of the Senate, the people, and the army, my first sentiment is a wish for peace. France and England abuse their prosperity. They may contend for ages; but do their Governments well fulfil the most sacred of their duties, and will not so much blood, shed uselessly, and without a view to any end, condemn them in their own consciences? I consider it as no disgrace to make the first step. I have, I hope, sufficiently proved to the world that I fear none of the chances of war; it besides presents nothing that I need to fear; peace is the wish of my heart, but war has never been inconsistent with my glory. I conjure your Majesty not to deny yourself the happiness of giving peace to the world, nor to leave that sweet satisfaction to your children; for certainly there never was a more fortunate opportunity, nor a moment more favourable, to silence all the passions, and listen only to the sentiments of humanity and reason. This moment once lost, what end can be assigned to a war which all my efforts will not be able to terminate? Your Majesty has gained more within ten years, both in territory and riches, than the whole extent of Europe. Your nation is at the highest point of prosperity; what can it hope from war? -to form a coalition with some Powers of the Continent? the Continent will remain tranquil; a coalition can only increase the preponderance and Continental greatness of France. To renew intestine troubles ?-the times are no longer the same. Το destroy our finances ?-finances founded on a flourishing agriculture can never be destroyed. To take |