He died on March 6, and the news found Pitt, on March 7, crippled and immovable at Bath. His feet were impotent with gout, but his brain and hands were evidently unaffected. He at once despatched a brief note of condolence to Newcastle, 'whose grief must be inconsolable as its cause is irreparable. You have a great occasion for all your strength of mind to exert itself. Exercise it for the sake of your master and your country, and may all good men support you. I have the gout in both feet and am totally unable to travel.'[228] To Lyttelton and the Grenvilles he wrote on the same day at length 'the breaking of first thoughts to be confined to you four,'[229] enclosed in a covering letter to Temple, saying that he was worn down with pain, and incapable of motion. But he was none the less vigilant with regard to the least ripple on the surface of politics, 'I heard some time since that the Princess of Wales inquired after my health: an honour which I received with much pleasure, as not void, perhaps of some meaning.'[230] Newcastle at once answered Pitt's note of condolence, for we find Pitt acknowledging the reply on March 11, and mentioning a letter written to him by Hardwicke, under Newcastle's authority, 'with regard to some things in deliberation for the settling the Government in the House of Commons and the direction of the affairs of the Treasury. My answer is in a letter to Sir George Lyttelton.'[231] This was practically giving powers to Lyttelton to negotiate with Newcastle as Pitt's representative; a strange choice, when we read in the covering letter to Temple: 'let me recommend to my dear Lord to preach prudence and reserve to our friend Sir George, and, if he can, inspire him with his own.' Lyttelton indeed was not destined ever to earn fame as a negotiator. And now it is necessary to give the principal passages of this letter to Lyttelton and the Cousinhood, which would have been a fuller and clearer manifesto had not all politicians at that time felt a well-grounded apprehension that their letters would be opened and read before they were delivered. Fulness and clearness were therefore the last qualities aimed at in their epistolary style, and inquiring posterity rues the result. MR. PITT TO SIR GEORGE LYTTELTON AND THE GRENVILLE BROTHERS. _March 7, 1754._