this conversation to me, “that if they did not shut the King up, he would talk enough to any body!”--but if they sometimes debarred him from talking, he was now instructed to talk--and every grain he sowed brought forth an hundred-fold. I must observe that his Majesty had told Lady Holland, in the drawing-room, that he should never forget Mr. Fox’s undertaking the House of Commons and the Peace in the last winter. It is certain that in this interview with Mr. Pitt, the King _proposed_ to take the Paymaster’s place from Fox, and bestow it on George Grenville. Of the persons really proscribed, the chief was Lord Mansfield. “He is a Jacobite,” said Pitt, “and means sir, to ruin your family.” He recommended Pratt for a peerage, and in future for the Chancellor’s Seals; would have saved the Duke of Marlborough, as a young man misled; Elliot, for having tried to preserve union between him and Lord Bute; and of Lord Halifax he had said, “that he was a pretty man, and, as in bad circumstances, might be Groom of the Stole or Paymaster.” “The Duke of Newcastle,” he said, “would take any place not of business.” Charles Townshend he proposed for Secretary of State with himself. The Secretary at War should not be of consequence, as it was now under Ellis,[359] that clerk of Fox the Paymaster, but should depend on him whom his Majesty should think proper to command his army. “Then,” said the King, “we shall agree in Lord Granby;” “or,” said Pitt, “in Lord Albemarle.”[360] This was the sole approach he seemed to make towards the Duke of Cumberland; but never would his Majesty have trusted his army with a creature of his uncle. Of Lord Gower Pitt spoke not favourably, having probably discovered that it was the way to make his court to the Favourite, who, having perceived that that Lord aimed at being a favourite himself, had taken care to alienate the King’s mind from him. Rigby was not excepted for mercy,[361] and Lord Sandwich much less. Of the Duke of Bedford Mr. Pitt spoke properly, as of a man well-intentioned, but shamefully misguided, and who might hereafter, if in proper hands, be useful to Government. But nothing harsh did Pitt utter against the peace: he would try to _meliorate_ it. Should a national spirit of inquiry arise, he would not resist it. He had held the same language formerly on the loss of Minorca: they were specious words then and now, but with no sanguinary intentions. When Calcraft was reproached by the Bedford faction with having deceived them on Pitt’s disposition towards them, he could not evade the charge. A breach ensued, and he remained attached to Mr. Pitt.