of Bath? Was he to be the laborious, sound | reason of his own overthrow. By the and cautious Henry Pelham, the financial pupil of Sir Robert Walpole, and in whom the moneyed classes had confidence? These were the chief candidates in the field, and each commanded the support of a loyal following. Walpole, from his retirement at Houghton, strongly counselled Pelham to enter into competition for the post. He advised his former colleague, no matter what might be the conditions stipulated, to accept office should it be offered him. "If the offer comes to Mr. Pelham," he writes to the Duke of Newcastle, mindful of the dislike of the king and Carteret to "the Pelhams," "however circumscribed, conditional, or disagreeable, even under a probability of not being able to go on, it must be accepted. "It will be more honourable and justifiable to resign upon impracticabilities than to appear defeated, and thereby disappointed, from whence no credit or merit can arise; but we have often seen a back game at backgammon recovered.

"I can easily foresee the immense difficulties that must attend Mr. Pelham, whatever his fate is; but difficulties must be struggled with, and few there are that cannot be surmounted, if properly and resolutely engaged in. I wish you all possible success, and I cannot hesitate in the support of a government upon which, I think, the whole depends.'

support of the Pelhams, who had always opposed the policy of their sovereign across the water, George now hoped to counteract the unpopularity he had excited by his undue favouritism towards the electorate. Walpole received the news of the appointment with much satisfaction. "I do not load you," he wrote to Henry Pelham, "with personal assurances; but I never knew a time when I thought it more incumbent upon me to exert myself in support of the government; and I rejoice, for your sake and for my own, that affairs are put into your hands, where my private friendship and my political opinion unite in engaging me to do all I can, and call upon me to act in character; and how great had my difficulty been, if a contrary determination had put me under the necessity of demurring between the support of the king and reconciling my conduct with the measures of those who are incapable of acting a right part, where interest, ambition, or vengeance can at all influence their actions. I think it needless to suggest to you the necessity of forming within yourselves your own scheme. You must be understood by those that you are to depend upon; and if it is possible, they must be persuaded to keep their own secret. Remember, that the weakness of the present Treasury has left them at your mercy, and exposed them to the contempt of mankind. Pitt is thought able and formidable; try

Ultimately the choice of the king, as the least of the evils proposed to him, fell on Pelham. The claim of Lord Bath was dis-him or show him. Fox you cannot do regarded because he was personally disliked by the sovereign; that of Carteret was no more successful. The king, though his sympathies were in favour of Lord Carteret, feared that such an appointment would only add to the discontent which already prevailed, owing to the royal partiality for everything Hanoverian. It had been the aim of Carteret to bid for office by encouraging George II. in all his Hanoverian predilections; and now to his mortification the wily minister discovered that the very cause he had advocated had been the

without. Winnington must be had, in the way that he can or will be had. Your solicitor [Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield] is your own, and surely will be useful. Hold up the attorney-general; he is able and very honest. There are other members of the law, no ways contemptible, in party considerable, that may be had. It is your business now to forgive and gain. 'Broad bottom' cannot be made for anything that has a zest of Hanover. Whig it with all opponents that will parley; but 'ware Tory! I never mean to a person

The appointment of Pelham was generally popular, and the following effusion faithfully represents the tone of public feeling on the occasion:—

"When to the king the tidings Carteret bore,
That Wilmington, good earl, was now no more,
And a long list of nobles, old and new,
Of knights and squires, presented to his view;
Demanding low, to whom it pleased his Grace
Of all the train to give the late earl's place?
'To the most worthy,' the just monarch said,
And straight to Pelham were the honours paid."

or so; but what they can bring with them | king, which would have resulted in the will prove a broken reed. Dear Harry, I adoption of a foreign policy pernicious to am very personal and very free, and put the interests of England; he had to raise myself in your power. Remember me fresh supplies to carry on the war; and kindly to my lord duke." throughout the conduct of these harassing defensive measures he had to combat the jealousies and opposition of a cabinet divided against itself. The difficulties against which he had to contend were mainly inspired by Carteret, now, since the death of his mother, Earl Granville; therefore Pelham, taking the advice of his colleagues, resolved that unless the obnoxious secretary of state was dismissed from the counsels of the sovereign he would no longer consent to be at the head of an administration. Between the alternative of retaining Granville and givThe path of the incoming minister was, ing Pelham his congé the king dared not however, beset with many difficulties. hesitate. The prime minister was daily Lord Carteret, who still continued to hold becoming more and more popular in the the seal as secretary of state, was, as might country, while Granville, owing to the be expected, exasperated by the appoint- foreign policy he had suggested, and which ment, and a foe who might at any moment had not turned out favourably for English prove most dangerous; Lord Bath was not interests, was on the contrary cordially disa whit more amiable; while several of the liked. Granville was summoned to the colleagues of the late Lord Wilmington royal presence and commanded to give up were uncertain as to what course they the seals. This dismissal of the bête noire of should adopt. It was the wish of Pelham, the Opposition led to the formation of a always in favour of compromise, to form coalition between the Whigs, the disaffected his ministry upon a Whig basis, but at Whigs, and the Tories. Pelham was first the same time to include certain of the less lord of the Treasury and chancellor of violent members of the Opposition. His the Exchequer, Lord Harrington succeeded overtures were, however, not accepted, owing Lord Granville, Lord Gower was privy to the objection of the Tories to the employ-seal, the Duke of Bedford first lord of the ment of Hanoverian troops, and to the Admiralty, and Lord Chesterfield lord lieutardy prosecution of the war on the Con- tenant of Ireland. Pitt had been promised tinent, which since Dettingen had been the place of secretary at war, but as the conducted with great expense and much king refused to give his consent to the apinactivity. Pelham had therefore for the pointment, owing to Pitt's philippics against moment no alternative but to utilize the Hanoverian partialities, the "patriot" had services of the members of the Wilmington to content himself with the pledge of cabinet who consented to serve under him. Pelham, that every opportunity would be During the next few months the position taken to overcome the objections of the of the new premier was arduous in the ex-sovereign. "Thus," writes Archdeacon Coxe, treme. He had to defend the government" was a ministry formed which has been against the bitter attacks of Pitt and others ludicrously styled the Broad Bottom Adupon payment being accorded to the hated Hanoverian troops; he had to counteract the mischievous advice of Carteret to the

ministration, as comprising a grand coalition of all parties. The Whigs were fully satisfied, because their influence was pre

With

dominant in the cabinet; and the Tories, | could command in the Lower House caused though considered as accessory and sub- Newcastle to be a personage of such political ordinate, were yet pleased, because many importance that no minister, not even the of their leaders, who had been hitherto bold and independent Walpole, could afford excluded, were admitted into offices of to exclude him from the cabinet. trust and power." amazing industry, but no intelligence; puffed up by the political influence he possessed; and with that insatiable ambition which incapacity occasionally stimulates, he was never content unless when employing all his wiles to force himself into a prominent position. As he had been jealous of Stanhope, of Walpole, of Carteret, so now was he jealous of his brother. He considered that owing to his exalted rank, and from his influence as the leader of the Whigs, he should be entitled to the principal direction of affairs. Frequent, therefore, were the feuds between the brothers, and it was often only upon the good offices of some common friend that a reconciliation was effected. Shortly after the formation of the Broad Bottom ministry the duke was much hurt at the dislike exhibited towards him by the king, who regarded him as the chief cause for the dismissal of Lord Granville; he was at the same time much displeased at the superior favour shown to his brother by the court and the House of Commons. Wounded by these slights, Newcastle was determined to make it clear to his brother that the secretary of state was to have a powerful voice in the administration of affairs, and not to be calmly ignored. What he desired was that government should be carried on by a trio-Henry Pelham, Hardwicke, the lord chancellor, and his Grace of Newcastle.

Though Henry Pelham was virtually head of the administration, his authority was often opposed by one who had intrigued against every minister with whom he had come in contact. The Duke of Newcastle had intrigued against Walpole to oust him from the premiership; he had intrigued against Carteret to oust him from the post of secretary of state; and now he intrigued against Pelham, not to oust his brother from office, but to render the post of secretary of state equal to that of the prime minister. The firm was to be, to quote Walpole's phrase, not Pelham, but Pelham and Newcastle. A few words as to this statesman. He was born in the summer of 1693, and after having been sent to Westminster School, completed his education at Clare Hall, Cambridge. By the will of his maternal uncle, John Holles Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, who died in 1711, he was left his adopted heir, assumed the name of Holles, and succeeding to the vast estates of the late duke, became one of the richest subjects in the kingdom. The following year, on the death of his father, Lord Pelham, he succeeded to the title; in 1714 he was created Earl of Clare, and in 1715 Duke of Newcastle. Since the year 1724 he had held the seals as one of the secretaries of state. His grace receives the distinction of being the most foolish and incompetent minister that political influence has ever raised to high office. Dull, false, vain, a wretched speaker, a fussy man of business, Thomas, duke of Newcastle, was the most contemptible public man of his age. "His name is perfidy," said Sir Robert Walpole. "He is a very great liar," pithily exclaimed Lord Chesterfield. "He has not brains enough to be chamberlain in a little German court," said George II. Yet, stupid and meddlesome, his wealth and the votes he

"I am sure you will not think unreasonable what I now propose," he writes to his brother, "that everything, as far as possible, should be first talked over by you and me before it is either flung out in the closet or communicated to any of our brethren: I always except the chancellor, who I know is a third brother; that we shall have no reserve, either public or private, with each other; and that in our transactions with the other ministers, and other persons who may be to be negotiated with, we should