I ought to have mentioned, that, in consequence of the Duke of Bedford’s offers, the Admiralty, on Lord Egmont’s demission, was offered to Lord Gower; Lord Chatham still deluding himself with the thought that he could detach any separate man from any connection. But if men were grown more venal, they were grown, too, to understand their own interests better than to loosen their strength by separating themselves from powerful bodies; a single and temporary emolument could not compensate for the support of their friends. Lord Gower answered that he could not stand _alone_ in so responsible a place, and was connected with none of the present Ministry. Lord Frederick Campbell was removed, and Mr. Mackenzie restored to his ancient place. However alert and peremptory Lord Chatham was in offending or promoting, domestic power by no means occupied his thoughts. The stocks had fallen on his accession, from the apprehension entertained that he would hurry into war. Had his views succeeded, one cannot tell how soon it might have been his measure. I know certainly that he despatched emissaries to visit the frontier towns in France. His immediate and avowed purpose was to cement an union between England, Russia, and Prussia. Baron de la Perriere,[285] the Sardinian Envoy, had given notice that the new Emperor[286] was much disinclined to the French system, and even disposed to break with that Court, beholding with an eye of discontent their possession of his hereditary dominion, Lorrain. It was expected that Count Kaunitz, his mother’s Prime Minister, devoted to France, would retire.[287] I had sent notice of this favourable opening, and had repeated it at my return from Paris. A short time before the change in the Ministry, an event corroborated this intelligence. Count Seilern, the Austrian Ambassador, had opened himself freely to Mr. Conway, and said, if the latter would assure him that we neither had leagued, nor would league with Prussia, his court would enter into a defensive league with us against France. Mr. Conway replied we could not advance so far at once, but assured him we were not, nor were likely to be, in league with Prussia. Seilern was to report this answer, and no reply was arrived when Mr. Pitt became Minister. The King had been so indiscreet as to tell Count Seilern in the drawing-room that Count Malzahn, the new envoy from Berlin, had had his audience, and was the first foreign Minister that ever came to him without saying anything personally civil.