Lord Edgcumbe commanded four boroughs, and it was within a year of the general election. Instead of replying by letter, Conway went and expostulated with Lord Chatham on the ill-usage of his friend, and of the silence to himself, desiring to retire; did not mean to oppose, but thought that the Government could do without him now Charles Townshend was in their service. Lord Chatham talked of his desire of pleasing all parties by taking some of all: some Bedfords--Burke, to please Lord Rockingham--(but Burke had said he would take nothing but on proviso of resigning, if Lord Rockingham went into opposition--though, as the Duke of Grafton told me, Burke would not have been obdurate if his demands had not been too extravagant)--Norton--Conway remonstrated--Lord Chatham rejoined, “only in case of a vacancy, perhaps Master of the Rolls, if the present should die.” While this matter was in suspense, Mr. Conway moved the House of Commons for leave to bring in a bill in favour of _all_ who had acted under the Order of Council for restraining exportation of grain. Grenville said the motion was not adequate to the case: the indemnity ought to extend to the Privy Council, as had been customary in the reign of Charles II. and at the Revolution. Yet he would not then propose the amendment; would wait to see the bill. If he should not find the extension there, that great question would and should be discussed. Burke, more moderate, said, it would be sufficient if the preamble specified _all those who had counselled or advised_. Beckford, to disculpate the Chancellor, said, _in times of danger the Crown might dispense with law_. Grenville started up, and demanded that the clerk should take down those words. Beckford said, he was glad to see that gentleman so zealous for liberty _at present_, but that he had interrupted him before he had finished his sentence; that he was going to add, _by the advice of his Council, for the salus populi_. Grenville demanded that those words should be taken down too. Several interposed, and desired that Beckford might have leave to explain himself. Grenville said, he aimed at the doctrine, not the person. Beckford pleaded ignorance, and that he was not one of the docti. Nugent replied, that the House had often been witness to his ignorance. “But, sir,” said he, “I exaggerate his ignorance to excuse him.” Hussey, a very honest man, and who had refused any preferment, though an intimate friend of the Chancellor, stated an explanation of Beckford’s meaning, which, indeed, was totally the reverse, and a full definition of liberty against a dispensing power, which the House accepted. I went home with Mr. Conway, and though I entirely approved what the Council had done, yet as precedents of power cannot be too strongly guarded against, I begged him, as Hussey had advised, to obtain a firm declaration against a dispensing power in the preamble to the bill. He was zealously of that opinion, and said he would. I told him, if Lord