Yorke reported to his father, and Hardwicke saw Pitt on August 8 (1755), with power to offer a seat in the Cabinet. After compliments, to use Eastern language, which were usually the preface of such interviews, in which both parties assured each other of high mutual esteem, which Pitt went so far on this occasion as to declare for Newcastle, in strange contrast with his language to Yorke, they came at once to the point. Before he could take what was required, 'a clear, active, and cordial part in support of the King's measures in the House of Commons,' Pitt desired to know what those measures might be. Hardwicke at once specified them. 'Twas all open and above board; the support of the maritime and American war, in which we were going to be engaged, and the defence of the King's German dominions, if attacked on account of the English cause. The maritime and American war he came roundly into, tho' very orderly, and allowed the principle and obligation of honour and justice as to the other, but argued strongly as to the practicability of it. That subsidiary treaties would not go down; the nation could not hear' (obviously 'bear') them. That they were a connection and a chain, and would end in a general plan for the Continent which the country would (obviously 'could') not possibly support.' Then he went into financial considerations. The maritime and American war would alone add two millions a year to the National Debt, which could not bear an addition of one million. He would treat Hanover like any other foreign dependency of the British Crown; the worst that could happen was that it should be occupied by the enemy for a time and restored at a peace, and that then compensation might be given to the King. As to the subsidies, Hessian and Russian, he asked questions but did not commit himself. But he inquired, with peculiar emphasis, what others, such as Fox, Legge, Lee, and Egmont, thought of them. At last he said he must consult his friends, one of whom, Legge, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was about to visit. But why, asked Hardwicke, should he not see Newcastle himself? 'With all my heart, if he would see me,' replied Pitt. To the offer of a seat in the Cabinet he said neither yea nor nay, but he was, thought Hardwicke, gratified by the overture.[282] One cannot but note the strange contrast between Pitt's language about Newcastle to Hardwicke and that which he had used to Yorke. 'He expressed great regard for your Grace and me.' But this was the base coinage in political use at that time, and Pitt had by this time become a master of dissimulation. Fox hated Newcastle to the full as much as did Pitt. In truth, every one seems to have secretly hated or despised him, or both; a melancholy reward for an industrious ministerial existence. But so great was his political influence that scarce any one could afford to say so.