[29] According to the Duke of Bedford’s Journal, this meeting originated with the Duke of Newcastle: it look place at Newcastle House on the 21st, at 9 o’clock in the evening. The two Dukes, the Marquis, and Messrs. Rigby and Dowdeswell were the only persons present. The point on which they finally disagreed was Mr. Conway’s continuing Secretary of State with the lead in the Commons. “This,” says the Duke, “necessarily put an end to any further possibility of going on, and we broke up with our declaring ourselves free from all engagements to one another, and to be as before this negotiation began.”--Cavendish’s Debates, vol. i. Appendix, p. 606.--E. [30] At the beginning of the ensuing year, being in great danger, and recovering to some degree, he resolved to give over politics; he was then seventy-four. This determination he notified by letter to Princess Amelie, Lord Rockingham, and others; for he could not quit folly but in a foolish manner. He languished near ten months, and died November 17, 1768. [31] Many of the letters that passed between the Opposition leaders during this negotiation are preserved among the Bedford MSS. They confirm substantially the narrative in the text. The Grenvilles appear from first to last to have been the real obstacles to any satisfactory arrangement. The Duke of Bedford would probably have been satisfied with such a share of power as would (to use his own words) “rescue the King and the country out of the hands of Lord Bute, and restore strength and energy to the Government upon a constitutional footing, free from _favouritism_ and the _guidance_ of a Minister not in a responsible employment.”--(MS. Letter to the Marquis of Rockingham, July 16.) He thought less of measures than of men, and his bold, sanguine turn of mind made him underrate the difficulties inseparable from a coalition. Mr. Grenville looked much further than the exclusion of Lord Bute. He concurred in the idea of an extended and comprehensive administration on the ostensible ground that such an administration was likeliest to be a permanent one, but his concurrence hinged on the condition “that a plan of measures should be adopted to the satisfaction of Lord Temple and himself, and particularly the capital measure of asserting and _establishing_ the sovereignty of Great Britain over the Colonies,” which he insinuates had been purposely kept back by Lord Rockingham. This was the purport of the message brought from him by Mr. Rigby to Woburn.--(MS. Letter from Mr. Grenville to Mr. Rigby, July 16.) From the moment that his determination was made known, all hopes of union between the parties in Opposition were at an end.