I imparted to Lord John Cavendish the probability of Mr. Pitt coming into place. He said, “If that should be so, we could no longer oppose: his family would take nothing, but the young Duke would go to Court.” This I reported to Lord Holland: he replied, To be sure, if there was any change, the Duke of Devonshire must be at Court; nor would the King scruple to say he had been in the wrong in refusing to see the late Duke. At length it was declared that a bill of Regency was intended; but to the great dissatisfaction of mankind, it was declared, too, that the nomination of the Regent would be reserved by the bill in the King’s breast. The crowd instantly conceived that this was a mode of bestowing that important trust on the Favourite; a chimera too wild and much too dangerous to enter into so dastardly a nature as Lord Bute’s. I have no doubt but there was an uniform intention of appointing the Queen Regent; though to save the dignity of the Princess, and to keep up a dubious attention towards her, she might have obtained this palliative, with the contingency too, however improbable, of her outliving, and then occupying the place of the Queen. The Ministers rejoiced at these murmurs; and to pay their court to the Queen, and to mortify the Princess and her favourite, spared no pains to heighten this disgust, which they even pretended to adopt; proceeding so far as to make representations to the King against his keeping the nomination secret. His Majesty was obdurate. At last they obtained that the Regent should be one of the Royal Family: a clear indication of their affecting to suspect that he had had thoughts of Lord Bute for that high office. When this was conceded, and yet the Queen was not named, it seemed to intimate that she was not the person designed. Grenville and the Bedfords were not men to offend by halves, or to halt when they had gained ground. Pursuing their blow, they told his Majesty, that the Queen not being one of the Royal Family, if his Majesty had her in contemplation, it would be requisite to specify her by name. Even this point they carried at last. Yet thus had every step of the former Regency-bill furnished precedents for the most dangerous attempts. A power had been granted to the late King, of adding by his will four persons to the Regent’s Council. As prerogative seldom adheres to the strict letter of a precedent, but builds new pretensions on the slightest foundation, the Crown now, from four secret nominations, had jumped at once to demand a secret nomination of the Regent. Newcastle, one of the three authors[86] of the former bill, was still alive to behold its copy, as was also Fox, the opposer of it; but Newcastle now dreaded, and Fox recommended the example!