Nothing could be more injudicious than this step taken by the Favourite. The conduct he ought to have pursued was obvious; which was, lying quiet, till some or all of a few events, most probable to happen, should have paved the way to his taking the reins. Newcastle was old, Mr. Pitt very infirm. Their deaths, or at least a rupture between them, would have delivered him from them; at least have constituted him umpire between them. Any sinister event of the war might have demolished Mr. Pitt’s popularity. Prudence, at least, should have dictated to Lord Bute to await the conclusion of the peace, which, however good, would have given a shock to Mr. Pitt’s credit, from the impossibility of contenting all mankind. But the Favourite was as impatient to have the honour of making that peace, as if he had intended to make it an honourable one. His thrusting himself into administration at the moment he did, was so preposterous, that most men thought him betrayed into it by malicious advice. The Duke of Bedford, to pay his court, and from desire of peace, certainly counselled it; but Newcastle, and Hardwicke too, were generally believed to have infused the same advice, with a view to his destruction; for while only Groom of the Stole, Lord Bute stood in no responsible place. This was the more likely, as what emoluments they obtained for their friends in the new shuffling of the cards, by no means compensated for the credit they lost by the appearance of this new star in the horizon of power. The Duke of Rutland[59] was named Groom of the Stole; Lord Sandys,[60] First Lord of Trade, but upon the ancient footing; the West Indies, to please Mr. Pitt, being again put under the province of the Secretary of State. The Duke of Leeds[61] was turned back to his old place of Justice in Eyre, in the room of Lord Sandys, but with an additional salary of a thousand pounds a year. Legge, who refused to resign, was dismissed; and Lord Barrington made Chancellor of the Exchequer; being succeeded by Charles Townshend[62] as Secretary at War. Sir Francis Dashwood was made Treasurer of the Chambers. Elliot,[63] another of Lord Bute’s court, succeeded James Grenville at the Board of Treasury. Lord Villiers[64] and Thomas Pelham[65] were placed in the Admiralty, as John Yorke, Lord Hardwicke’s fourth son, Rice,[66] son-in-law of Lord Talbot, and Sir Edmund Thomas were at the Board of Trade. Mr. Spencer[67] and Sir Richard Grosvenor (at the recommendation of Mr. Pitt) were created Viscounts; Sir Thomas Robinson,[68] Sir Nathaniel Curzon,[69] a rich Tory, Sir William Irby,[70] chamberlain to the Princess, were made barons, along with Dodington,[71] whose ambition still hovered about the Court, in which he was at last likely to have some lead, by his connexion with the Favourite. Nor did Lord Bath[72] himself quit sight of the back-stairs, by which he obtained leave to hobble up to the King whenever he pleased.