The meeting between Lord Bute and Mr. Pitt, after the council, (_supra_ vol. i. p. 9,) was at the request of Lord Bute, and not of Mr. Pitt, and it was sought by the former in the hope of his being able to recover Mr. Pitt’s regard. He made every concession that the nicest honour could have required, to Mr. Pitt’s private feelings, and expressed unqualified approbation of his public conduct, even with respect to the war, and ended by offering him his cordial and sincere friendship. Mr. Pitt’s answer certainly held out no prospect of any reconciliation; it is cold and repulsive. He makes it plain that he would insist on entire and uncontrolled power in the cabinet; and the language in which this determination is expressed must have been most unpleasant to Lord Bute, as conveying an implied censure of his political views, which he admitted were to give disinterested assistance, as the King’s friend, in carrying on the government.[213] The position which Lord Bute thus designed for himself was as visionary as that “Patriot King” described by Bolingbroke; but Lord Bute was himself a visionary, and if Mr. Pitt had possessed the tact and temper of Sir Robert Walpole, he might have gained such an ascendancy over Lord Bute as to make the latter instrumental in carrying on his government. But Mr. Pitt too heartily despised and disliked Lord Bute to condescend to manage him, and there were others without the same fastidiousness, who soon turned the vain ambition of that nobleman to their own account. It was his constant interference, as well in public measures as in the disposal of patronage, that led to his appointment to the Secretaryship. Some of the Ministers thought, and wisely too, that his being a member of the Government would make him less dangerous.[214] Their own intrigues, however, led to his further elevation, the natural and inevitable result of which was, his utter failure and precipitate fall. Walpole, in more mature age, expressed a more favourable opinion of Lord Bute than will be collected from this work. He says:-- “Lord Bute was my schoolfellow. He was a man of taste and science, and I do believe his intentions were good. He wished to blend and unite all parties. The Tories were willing to come in for a _share_ of power, after having been so long excluded,--but the Whigs were not willing to grant that share. Power is an intoxicating draught; the more a man has, the more he desires.”[215] The most able character of Lord Bute, and a masterly one it is, has been drawn by Lord Chesterfield.[216] No one can read it without admiring the knowledge of the world, sagacity, and fine discrimination of its author.