A few days later, on April 7, Bute announced that ill-health compelled him to retire from office. The announcement caused general surprise, but he had for some weeks determined to retire, and had arranged with the king that Grenville should succeed him. That he should have taken office was, Pitt wrote, more astonishing than his departing from it.[63] He took office with the intention of carrying out the king's policy of breaking up the whig phalanx and bringing about a peace. Both objects were accomplished. Though still strong in votes in the commons, he had few allies of any weight, for Bedford was offended with him. The newly formed opposition caused him uneasiness, specially as it included Pitt and Temple; it was strong in the lords, and he feared its influence in their chamber.[64] Though his health was not materially affected, he was doubtless weary of a task which he must have learned was too great for his abilities. He knew that he was generally hated by the people, and feared that if he remained longer in office, his unpopularity would become injurious to the king. Before his resignation he provided handsomely for his relations and friends at the expense of the nation; reversions of L52,000 a year were distributed among them. Fox was rewarded by his creation as Baron Holland, and managed to keep the pay office for two years longer. FOOTNOTES: [35] _Chatham Correspondence_, ii., 69 _n._ [36] Dutens, _Memoires d'un voyageur_, i., 178-79. [37] _Parliamentary Hist._, xv., 1044-47. [38] Newcastle to Bedford, July 2, 1761; _Bedford Correspondence_, iii., 19. [39] Newcastle to Hardwicke, Aug. 17, 1761, Add. MS. 32,927, f. 68; _Bedford Correspondence_, iii., 36-42. [40] Bristol to Pitt, Aug. 31, 1761, Add. MS. 32,927, ff. 285-87. [41] Stanley to Pitt, Sept. 2, 1761, Add. MS. 32,928, f. 14. [42] Stanley to Pitt, Sept. 6, 1761, _ibid._, ff. 1, 148, 179. [43] Stanley to Pitt, Sept. 8, 1761, _ibid._, f. 40. [44] _Ibid._, f. 225, printed in _The Grenville Papers_, i., 386-87. [45] Newcastle to Hardwicke, Sept. 20, 1761, Add. MS. 32,928, f. 260. [46] Stanley to Pitt, dated Sept. 14, 1761, received the 21st, _ibid._, f. 148. [47] Newcastle to Hardwicke, Sept. 21, 1761, _ibid._, ff. 303-6. [48] Stanley to Pitt, dated Sept. 19, 1761, received the 25th, _ibid._, f. 245. [49] Newcastle to Hardwicke, Sept. 26, 1761, _ibid._, f. 362.