The impropriety of such a character probably convinced Wood that a temporary retreat was necessary; and the confidence of the Bedford squadron in their own strength disposed them to acquiesce in it; for I cannot believe that, while their conduct harmonized with Weymouth’s, they were ignorant of his intentions. Lord Weymouth, Lord Gower, the Duke of Grafton, and Lord Sandwich, were more considerable in the House of Lords than any Speakers that would remain in the Ministry; so that if Lord North could carry through the peace, they might still command terms; or if Lord Chatham was forced upon the King, he must have been glad of their support. But Lord North had the sagacity to secure Lord Sandwich (between whom and Weymouth was much jealousy), by making him Secretary of State. The others escaped by having been less precipitate; and Lord Weymouth and Wood remained the sole victims of their own insidious artifices. No man was more troubled at this sudden resignation than Monsieur Francés, the French Resident. As I was very intimate with him, he vented his lamentations to me in several visits. He said the Bedfords were _des scélérats_; that they might have made peace three months before; and that that very morning he himself had offered to Lord North to set out directly for Paris, and would pawn his head if he did not return with peace; that Lord North wanted courage, and was too jealous of Spain--that the King of Spain would easily have made peace at first if we would not have armed. I was far from agreeing that Lord North had been to blame in being prepared. Wood, said Francés, had nearly blown up a war with France the last year on the affair of the flag, having insisted on giving an answer to their memorial, though Francés, who had been forced to demand an answer in form, had begged Wood not to give one.[137] He imputed much of the delays in the negotiation to Wood’s stock-jobbing (in which, no doubt, no man was more capable of detecting another than Francés, who was deep in that mystery himself), and said he had sent to Lord Weymouth on the 14th to ask that he might make new propositions; but the other had refused to see him.