Mr. Pitt, full of a grand northern alliance, without attending to the conjuncture, or above informing himself of the situation, immediately names Mr. Stanley[288] Ambassador to Russia instead of Sir George Maccartney,[289] a personal favourite of the Czarina, and who had just concluded a treaty of commerce with her; and orders Stanley, in his way to St. Petersburg, to learn if the King of Prussia was disposed to enter into strict alliance with us. The King had acquiesced in this new arrangement, for he submitted even to treat with the King of Prussia, whom he hated, rather than not accommodate Lord Bute with a more favourable Administration. Conway was thunderstruck. He saw we should miss the opportunity of recovering the Court of Vienna, and expected nothing from Prussia. To add to the mortification, the nomination was made in his own office, and he not acquainted with it till it was done; nor had he been summoned to the Council in which it was declared. So little confidence to the confidential Minister looked ill, and prognosticated how entirely the new Earl intended to engross the sole direction. Conway wrote to Lord Chatham to beg Mr. Stanley’s journey might not be precipitated, but debated in Council: if the King’s servants should approve it, he should acquiesce. The Earl returned a very civil answer, and promised they should consult on it. The event was, the King of Prussia refused to receive Stanley’s visit, and the Czarina did not like to admit an Ambassador. After a long delay, Stanley’s embassy was laid aside[290]--the union with Austria was lost. These foreign disappointments, I believe, were the chief ingredients in the strange conduct of Lord Chatham that ensued. Peace was not his element; nor did his talent lie in those details that restore a nation by slow and wholesome progress. Of the finances he was utterly ignorant. If struck with some great idea, he neither knew how nor had patience to conduct it. He expected implicit assent--and he expected more, that other men should methodise and superintend, and bear the fatigue of carrying his measures into execution; and, what was worse, encounter the odium and danger of them, while he reposed and was to enjoy the honour, if successful. The history of the ensuing winter will justify every word here asserted. His conduct in the late war had been the same. He drew the plans, but left it to the Treasury to find the means; nor would listen to their difficulties, nor hold any rein over their ill-management.