CHAPTER III.

'The Witch' and the Earl-How the new Reign was Disturbed-Pitt and Peace-Popular Feeling---The King ridiculed by the Mob-The Scotch Favourite— Public Demonstrations-What the Pamphlets and Ballads said-Caricatures of the Day-The Royal Prorogation-Wholesale Bribery-Triumph and Vengeance-The Toast to Wit, Beauty, Virtue, and Honour-Lord Bute Resigns.

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T the beginning of this reign, the public looked forward with some apprehension to the power which the Princess Dowager of Wales-commonly known as the Witch-and Lord Bute were well known to hold over the young monarch. What could be expected,' says Walpole, 'from a boy' (the king) 'locked up from the converse of mankind, governed by a mother still more retired, who was under the influence of a man that had passed his life in solitude, and was too haughty to admit to his

familiarity but half a dozen silly authors and flatterers?'

Both the princess and the earl were, however, too wily to give any direct indication of their power within the first half year of the new reign. All things ministerial, remained much as they had been through the last years of the reign of his late Majesty of blessed memory, a matter which occasioned some wonder.

'After all,' said Horace Walpole, raising his eyebrows to an expression of melancholy cynicism, there is nothing new under the sun.'

'No,' replied George Selwyn, the fine beau and excellent wit, nor under the grandson either.'

However, when the king had been proclaimed about six months, the dowager and the earl made their premier move upon the political chess-board, the result being that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Legg, was suddenly dismissed, and Lord Holderness was ordered to give up the seals of Secretary of State, which were immediately delivered by the royal puppet to Lord Bute, the evil genius of his life. Legg had, in the late reign, refused to support

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a follower of the favourites at a Hampshire election, therefore proving himself worthy of all humiliation and punishment in the eyes of the young sovereign. His downfall was not a surprise; Lord Holderness's dismissal, however, was unexpected.

These steps were taken without consulting Pitt, the great minister, who, though naturally indignant, thought it best to take no notice of the slight for the present. Parliament was dissolved in March, 1761, and, when it again assembled, Lord Bute, who had now become a minister, gave some indications of his future course in a more open manner than he had yet ventured to adopt.

The Whigs, under the powerful leadership of Pitt, had become popular by a long war, which, crowned with success and fortune, had raised England to a pre-eminence over every other nation in Europe. France was, by repeated losses of her colonies, reduced to despair; in America she had been rifled of Quebec, in Africa her chief settlements fell, in the East Indies her power was abridged; her navy was almost annihilated, her commerce reduced to

ruin, and she was therefore ready to grant whatever concessions this country might require. It was therefore plainly at the option of England to extend her victories and acquisitions still further. The country was in this situation when the king read his first speech to his Council, who were struck with astonishment to hear him refer to a war which had captivated the whole country as bloody and expensive,' and of his hopes of obtaining an honourable and lasting peace.'

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Humiliated and indignant, Mr. Pitt, on the evening of its delivery, waited on Lord Bute, and, after a stormy argument which lasted for three hours, prevailed on him that in the printed copy of the royal speech the words should be changed to an expensive but necessary war,' and that after the words 'honourable peace should be inserted, in consort with our allies.' The inclination for peace which the king's speech indicated gave sudden and unexpected hopes to France; its ministers, feeling the pulse of the Court, soon opened a negotiation with the government, and, believing they could make easy terms with Bute, sued for peace. Pitt,

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however, demanded greater concessions than they seemed willing to make, and refused peace on any other terms than his own. It was subsequently proved that he was judicious in his demands, and that France, under a plea of negotiating for peace, was in reality secretly forming an alliance with Spain, in order to gain that country's assistance in her war with England: This treaty between these powers was signed in August, 1761.

Pitt, having been secretly made aware of this treachery, and having also been informed of the preparations that were going on in Spain, proposed to recall the English ambassador from Madrid unless satisfactory explanations were given by the Spanish government, and to issue an immediate declaration of war on that country; but he who had formerly led, now found his advice was rejected on the plea of temporizing; that his power in the ministry had been undermined; and that factions which had been happily extinguished during the latter part of the late reign, in a desire for common weal, had now sprung to life again at the instigation of the king's favourite. He therefore declared he

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