To this letter, nor to the offer, did Lord Orford give himself the trouble of making the least reply; but, arriving in town on the very day the Parliament met, he came to me, and asked what he was to do? I replied very coldly, I did not know what he intended to do; but, if his meaning was to accept, I supposed he ought to go to Mr. Fox, and tell him so, I having nothing farther to do with it than barely to acquaint him with the offer. Without preface or apology, without recollecting his long enmity to Fox (it is true, he did not know why he was Fox’s enemy), and without a hint of reconciliation, to Fox he went, accepted the place, and never gave that ministry one vote afterwards; continuing in the country, as he would have done if they had given him nothing. I return from this digression. CHAPTER XV. Conference between the Duke of Cumberland and Mr. Pitt.--Pitt’s lofty style and inconclusive manner.--Want of union in the Opposition.--Anxiety of the Ministers.--Debates in both Houses on the Preliminaries of Peace.--Sudden and unexpected appearance of Mr. Pitt.--Legge, Fox, and Beckford.--Prerogative.--Pitt’s Speech.--His retirement from the House when Fox rose to speak.-- Speech of the latter.--Charles Townshend’s versatility.--The Minority on the Division.--Exultation of the Princess of Wales on the Preliminaries being carried.--Severe political persecution.-- Numerous dismissals from place. The rupture between the Duke of Cumberland and Fox seemed naturally to pave the way for a connection between that Prince and Mr. Pitt. They accordingly met, and had a conference of four hours; but there their amity commenced and ended. The good sense of his Royal Highness could, in spite of all his haughtiness, make him bend properly. Pitt, having less good sense than parts, and affecting more haughtiness even than he possessed, and being full of schemes rather than plans, could not be brought to any rational system. Meaning to make use of the Prince but to a certain degree,--that is, to thwart the Court, or to give it jealousy, not to erect the Duke as head of a party,--he talked in his usual vague and inconclusive manner; his nearest friends having often said, that between the uncommunicativeness of his temper and the want of suite in his reasoning faculties, it was ever impossible to pin him down to any chain of definite propositions.