Various: Notes and Queries, Number 05, December 1, 1849

Original Letter, written on the Resignation of Mr. Pitt, in 1761–Public Feeling on the Subject, and Changes at Court in consequence–First Impressions of Queen Charlotte.

[The following valuable original letter is now published for the first time. It will be found to be of very considerable historical curiosity and interest. The resignation of the Great Commoner in 1761, and his acceptance at the same time of a pension and a peerage for his family, were events which astonished his admirers as much as any thing else in his wonderful career. Even now, after the recent publication of all the letters relating to these transactions, it is difficult to put any construction on Mr. Pitt's conduct which is consistent with the high-spirited independence which one desires to believe to have been a leading feature of his character. There may have been great subtlety in the way in which he was tempted; that may be admitted even by the stoutest defenders of the character of George III; but nothing can excuse the eager, rapturous gratitude with which the glittering bait was caught. The whole circumstances are related in the Chatham Correspondence , ii. 146, coupled with Adolphus's Hist. of England.

A kind judgment upon them may be read in Lord Mahon's Hist. of England , iv. 365, and one more severe–perhaps, more just–in Lord Brougham's Historical Sketches , in the article on Lord Chatham. See also the Pictorial History of the Reign of George III , i. 13. After consulting all these authorities the reader will still find new facts, and a vivid picture of the public feeling, in the following letter.]

Dear Robinson,–I am much obliged to you for both your letters, particularly the last, in which I look upon the freedom of your expostulations as the strongest mark of your friendship, and allow you to charge me with any thing that possibly can be brought against one upon such an occasion, except forgetfulness of you. I left town soon after receiving your first letter, and was moving about from place to place, till the coronation brought me to town again, and has fixed me here for the winter; however I do not urge my unsettled situation during the summer as any excuse for my silence, but aim to lay it upon downright indolence, which I was ashamed of before I received your second letter, and have been angry with myself for it since; however, as often as you'll do me the pleasure, and a very sincere one it is I assure you, of letting me hear how you do, you may depend upon the utmost punctuality for the future, and I undertake very seriously to answer every letter you shall write me within a fortnight.

The ensuing winter may possibly produce many things to amaze you; it has opened with one that I am sure will; I mean Mr. Pitt's resignation, who delivered up the seals to the King last Monday. The reason commonly given for this extraordinary step is a resolution taken in Council contrary to Mr. Pitt's opinion, concerning our conduct towards the Spaniards, who upon the breaking off of the negotiations with France and our sending Mr. Bussy away, have, it is said, made some declarations to our Court which Mr. Pitt was for having the King treat in a very different manner from that which the rest of the Cabinet advised; for they are said to have been all against Mr. Pitt's opinion, except Lord Temple. The effect of this resignation you'll easily imagine. It has opened all the mouths of all the news-presses in England, and, from our boasted unanimity and confidence in the Government, we seem to be falling apace into division and distrust; in the meantime Mr. Pitt seems to have entered, on this occasion, upon a new mode of resignation, at least for him, for he goes to Court, where he is much taken notice of by the King, and treated with great respect by everybody else, and has said, according to common report, that he intends only to tell a plain story, which I suppose we are to have in the House of Commons. People, as you may imagine, are very impatient for his own account of a matter about which they know so little at present, and which puts public curiosity to the rack.

Fresh matter for patriots and politicians! Since writing the former part of this letter, I have been at the coffee-house, and bring you back verbatim, a very curious article of the Gazette . "St. James's, Oct. 9. The Right Hon. William Pitt having resigned the Seals into the King's hands, his Majesty was this day pleased to appoint the Earl of Egremont to be one of his principal Secretaries of State, and in consideration of the great and important services of the said Mr. Pitt, his Majesty has been graciously pleased to direct that a warrant be prepared for granting to the Lady Hester Pitt, his wife, a Barony of Great Britain, by the name, style and title of Baroness of Chatham to herself, and of Baron of Chatham to her heirs male; and also to confer upon the said William Pitt, Esq. an annuity of 3000 l . sterling during his own life, that of Lady Hester Pitt, and that of their son John Pitt, Esq!"

A report of this matter got about the day before, and most unfortunately all the newspapers contradicted it as a scandalous report, set on foot with a design to tarnish the lustre of a certain great character. This was the style of the morning and evening papers of Saturday, and of those who converse upon their authority; so that upon the coming in of the Gazette about ten o'clock at night, it was really diverting to see the effect it had upon most people's countenances at Dick's Coffee House, where I was; it occasioned a dead silence, and I think every body went away without giving their opinions of the matter, except Dr. Collier, who has always called Mr. Pitt all the rogues he can set his mouth on. It appears at present a most unaccountable proceeding in every part of it, for he seems to have forfeited his popularity, on which his consequence depended, for a consideration which he might have commanded at any time; and yet he does not make an absolute retreat, for in that case one should think he would have taken the peerage himself.

Lord Temple has resigned the Privy Seal, which is commonly said to be intended for Lord Hardwycke; some comfort to him for the loss of his wife, who died a few weeks ago. So that we seem to be left in the same hands out of which Mr. Pitt gloried in having delivered us; for, as you have probably heard before this time, Mr. Legge was removed from his place in the spring, for having refused to support any longer our German measures, as has been commonly said and not contradicted that I know of. Every body agrees that he was quite tired of his place, as is generally said on account of the coolness between him and Mr. Pitt, the old quarrel with the Duke of Newcastle, and some pique between him and Lord Bute on account of the Hampshire election. People were much diverted with the answer he is said to have made to the Duke of Newcastle when he went to demand the seal of his office. He compared his retirement to Elysium, and told the Duke he thought he might assure their common friends there, that they should not be long without the honour of his Grace's company; however, he seems to be out in his guess, for the Newcastle junta, strengthened by the Duke of Bedford, who has joined them, seems to be in all its glory again. This appeared in the Church promotions the other day, for Dr. Young was translated, the master of Bennet made a bishop, and Mr. York dean: however, as you will probably be glad of a more particular account of our Church promotions, I am to tell you that the scene opened soon after the King's accession with the promotion of Dr.