Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 3 (of 4)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 3 (of 4)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- 1760-1789; Great Britain -- History -- George III, 1760-1820
If I lost my temper on the notification, reflection did not reconcile
me to the measure. Not to mention the impertinence of the supposed
point of honour in the Duke of Bedford, who, because he had excepted
to Conway in the meeting with the Rockinghams, pretended to think it
necessary to adhere to it in the very instant of deserting Grenville, I
was shocked at the indifference and levity of the Duke of Grafton and
the indecency of his making the proposal in such bare-faced terms to
Mr. Conway. I had expressed that indignation with so little management,
that the Duke, I am persuaded, did not forgive it. That was the least
part of my concern. His mutability was so glaring, that I determined
never to have anything to do with him more; and, in fact, did not see
him again in private afterwards. It was yet more lasting reflection
that I made on the futility of politics. All my success and triumph in
the preceding summer had lasted but five months. Conway was desirous
to quit, and the Bedfords were to come into place. It determined me to
busy myself no more in such delusive scenes. I had in the preceding
winter notified to my constituents at Lynn, that I would serve no
more in Parliament. The door was thus already favourably open to me.
Mr. Conway’s resignation would leave me at liberty to have done
with politics. I took my resolution to abandon them with the present
Parliament--a happy determination, and which I never found one moment’s
cause to repent. For, if the alarming designs of the Court have since
forced me at any time to encourage opposition to their measures,
I still had seen too much of parties, factions, and their leaders
to embark with any. Still, the weakness of the human mind, and the
difficulty of bursting from all one’s passions at once, did not suffer
these reflections to strike root directly, but occasioned my making a
few more struggles to thwart the overbearing arrogance of the Bedfords.
After parting from Mr. Conway, I saw Lord Hertford, who talked of going
out of town. I said, he absolutely must not. He asked Why? I replied,
I could not tell him; but go he must not. I was resolved to keep the
secret, but yet to disappoint the full effect of the plan, so far as to
reduce the Bedfords to come in under Mr. Conway.
He himself came to me the next morning, saying, I had quitted him in
such a passion, that he wished to talk the affair more cooly over with
me. I said, I had never in my life been so much hurt as at seeing him
submit to such an affront. He denied that it was one. At last I almost
engaged him to say he would keep the Seals till the end of the session,
and then resign them. All I desired was to finish with that triumph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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