MR. PITT TO WILLIAM BECKFORD, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

Hayes, October 15, 1761.

FINDING, to my great surprise, that the cause and manner of my resigning the seals are grossly misrepresented in the city, as well as that the most gracious and spontaneous marks of his Majesty's approbation of my services, which marks followed my resignation, have been infamously traduced, as a bargain for my forsaking the public, I am under the necessity of declaring the truth of both these facts, in a manner which I am sure no gentleman will contradict. A difference of opinion with regard to measures to be taken against Spain, of the highest importance to the honour of the crown, and to the most essential national interests, and this founded on what Spain had already done, not on what that court may further intend to do, was the cause of my resigning the seals. Lord Temple and I submitted in writing, and signed by us, our most humble sentiments to his Majesty ; which being over-ruled by the united opinion of all the rest of the King's servants, I resigned the seals on Monday, the 5th of this month, in order not to remain responsible for measures which I was no longer allowed to guide. Most gracious public marks of his Majesty's approbation of my services followed my resignation. They are unmerited, and unsolicited; and I shall ever be

proud to have received them from the best of sovereigns.

I will now only add, my dear Sir, that I have explained these matters only for the honour of truth, not in any view to court return of confidence from any man, who, with a credulity as weak as it is injurious, has thought fit hastily to withdraw his good opinion from one who has served his country with fidelity and success; and who justly reveres the upright and candid judgment of it; little solicitous about the censures of the capricious and the ungenerous. Accept my sincerest acknowledgments for all your kind friendship, and believe me ever, with truth and esteem, my dear Sir, Your faithful friend,

W. PITT. (1)

(1) "Upon the resignation of Mr. Pitt," says Burke, in the volume recently quoted, "a torrent of low and illiberal abuse was poured out. His whole life, public and private, was scrutinized with the utmost malignity, to furnish matter of calumny against him. The successes of his administration were depreciated; his faults were monstrously exaggerated; and the rewards and honour so justly conferred on him by his sovereign were, by every trick of wit, ridicule, and buffoonery, converted into matter of degradation and disgrace. Without entering into the sentiments of any faction, we may affirm with truth and impartiality, that no man was ever better fitted than Mr. Pitt to be the minister of a great and powerful nation, or better qualified to carry that power and greatness to their utmost limits. There was in all his designs a magnitude, and even a vastness, which was not easily comprehended by every mind: with very little parliamentary, and with less court influence, he swayed, both at court and in parliament, with an authority unknown before to the best supported ministers. He was called to the ministry by the voice of the people; and, what is more rare, he

THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER TO MR. PITT.

HONOURED SIR,

Prior Park, October 17, 1761.

I CAN never sufficiently express my sense of the obligation you have condescended to lay me under, by your favour of the 15th. But I had been beforehand with it, in the plain truths which it contains; for in these wretched times we treat our earthly benefactors just as we do our heavenly; less grateful for the benefits we have received, than mutinous for the absence of those which we fancied we had a right to expect.

held it with that approbation; and under him, for the first time, administration and popularity were seen united. Under him Great Britain carried on the most important war in which she was ever engaged, alone and unassisted, with greater splendour, and with more success, than she had ever enjoyed at the head of the most powerful alliances. Alone this island seemed to balance the rest of Europe. In short, he revived the military genius of our people; he supported our allies; he extended our trade; he raised our reputation; he augmented our dominions. With regard to the pension and title, it is a shame that any defence should be necessary. What eye cannot distinguish, at the first glance, the difference between this and the exceptionable case of titles and pensions? What Briton, with the smallest sense of honour and gratitude, but must blush for his country, if such a man retired unrewarded from the public service, let the motives to that retirement be what they would? It was not possible that his sovereign could let his eminent services pass unrequited: the sum that was given was undoubtedly inadequate to his merits; and the quantum was rather regulated by the moderation of the great mind that received it, than by the liberality of that which bestowed it.”

To such, in this very short interval, I have had occasion often to write, and oftener to say, that "when Mr. Pitt took the seals he sacrificed his ease, his health, and his fortune to his country; and (after a series of unparalleled services) in his resignation of the seals he risked the sacrifice of his popularity, to his country. Yet had he not done it in this manner, distracted councils and divided senates would probably have revived the days of Gertrudenburg and Utrecht; and that a little time would show him, even to the people, as well as to their posterity, the greatest and most virtuous minister that ever humbled the ambition of France, or arrested the falling reputation of Great Britain."

I was enabled to say this and more, not only from my knowledge of persons and the obvious face of things, but from all I could learn of the solicitor-general ('), who has just now left this place, after a visit to me of a few days for I should be unjust to him, on this occasion, to omit

(1) The Hon. Charles Yorke. He had for many years been the friend of Warburton, and corresponded with him at the age of twenty, on the subjects of some of his profoundest works. In one of these letters, written in 1742, at the time of the inquiry into the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole, he says, "When I am conversing with you on subjects of literature or ingenuity, I forget that I have any remote interest in what is going forward in the world, nor desire at any time of life to be an actor in parties; or, as it is called somewhere, subire tempestates republica: but when I find every body inquiring to-day concerning the report of the secret committee yesterday, this passion for still life vanishes; agilis fio, et mersor civilibus undis.”

saying, that to me he ever appeared to hold you in the highest honour, and your measures (as soon as ever the effects appeared) in the highest esteem. I ought in justice to add further, that he deceived me greatly if, at that very time when your just resentments were about breaking out against the Duke of Newcastle('), he did not use his best endeavours both with the duke and his father to repair their treatment, and procure you satisfaction. But he had not then that interest with them, which he has had since.

For the rest, Sir, I have little more to say than you. A tepid heart and a timid temper prevented him from serving me, and, what would have been of infinitely more honour to him, from seconding you, in such a manner as my affection for him seemed, and your public services appeared to all mankind, to deserve.

Your usual goodness, Sir, will pardon all this impertinence; which is only meant as a repetition of my professions of the most inviolable attachment to your person and interests; having the honour to be, Sir,

Your most obliged and

most devoted servant,

W. GLOUCESTER.

(1) See, on this point, the Duke of Newcastle's letter to Mr. Pitt of the 2nd, and Mr. Pitt's reply thereto, of the 5th of April, 1754. vol. i. pp. 95. 100.