Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third | Page 6

till he was finally reconciled to his brother in 1765. He
afterwards had a serious difference with Pitt on the formation of the
Cabinet in 1766; but a reconciliation having been effected between
them in 1768, they subsequently acted in concert except upon the
taxation of America, Lord Temple invariably supporting the policy of

his brother and the Stamp Act.
George Grenville had been educated for the bar, and entered Parliament
for the borough of Buckingham at the instance of his uncle, Lord
Cobham; joined the Administration in 1744, as a Lord of the Admiralty,
afterwards as a Lord of the Treasury, then as Treasurer of the Navy,
and continued in office at intervals till 1762, when, separating himself
from Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt, he joined Lord Bute as Secretary of
State. On the resignation of Lord Bute in 1763, he became First Lord of
the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, remaining at the head of
the Cabinet till his dismissal in 1765, after which he never again
accepted office.
He left three sons, George, Thomas, and William Wyndham, who
variously distinguished themselves in the public service, and whose
letters, chiefly those of the last, in all respects the ablest and most
celebrated, constitute the bulk of the following pages.
George Grenville succeeded to the title of Earl Temple on the death of
his uncle, and was afterwards created Marquis of Buckingham, and was
father of the late Duke of Buckingham. He twice filled the office of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
Thomas Grenville, who died recently at an advanced age, filled several
high offices in the State, and accumulated one of the most splendid
libraries in the kingdom.
William Wyndham Grenville, afterwards Lord Grenville, was one of
the most eminent statesmen of the reign of George III., and, surviving
all his great contemporaries, died in 1834. "The endowments of his
mind," observes Lord Brougham, "were all of a useful and
commanding sort--sound sense, steady memory, vast industry. His
acquirements were in the same proportion valuable and lasting--a
thorough acquaintance with business in its principles and in its details;
a complete mastery of the science of politics as well theoretical as
practical; of late years a perfect familiarity with political economy, and
a just appreciation of its importance; an early and most extensive
knowledge of classical literature, which he improved instead of

abandoning, down to the close of his life; a taste formed upon these
chaste models, and of which his lighter compositions, his Greek and
Latin verses, bore testimony to the last. His eloquence was of a plain,
masculine, authoritative cast, which neglected if it did not despise
ornament, and partook in the least possible degree of fancy, while its
declamation was often equally powerful with its reasoning and its
statement. He was in this greatest quality of a statesman pre-eminently
distinguished, that, as he neither would yield up his judgment to the
clamour of the people, nor suffer himself to be seduced by the influence
of the Court, so would he never submit his reason to the empire of
prejudice, or own the supremacy of authority or tradition." The
character is accurately and justly discriminated; but, however fully this
searching panegyric is sustained and justified by the public acts and
recorded labours of Lord Grenville, we must turn to his correspondence
with Lord Temple for the complete development of that sagacity and
sound judgment, that intimate knowledge of public affairs, and that
remarkable comprehensiveness of view and lucidity of statement, by
which he was distinguished above his contemporaries in an age of great
political characters. This correspondence, extending over a long period
of years, is not less remarkable for the constancy with which it was
carried on than for the minuteness of its details, and the freedom of its
revelations. Written with the ease of familiar intercourse, and in that
confidential spirit which was the exponent of one of the most touching
attachments that ever bound one man to another, it is no less valuable
as a close, running commentary on the events of the day, lighting up in
its course the hidden springs of parliamentary action and the policy of
cabinets, than it is fascinating from the teeming evidences with which it
abounds of a warm heart and a highly disciplined and accomplished
mind.
The Correspondence commences in 1782, when Lord North, sinking
under the odium of the American war, found his small majorities
rapidly diminishing from 22 to 19, then to the vanishing point of 1, and
finally to a minority of 16. Every incident connected with the war, the
taxes, parliamentary reform, and all other questions upon which it was
possible to raise a discussion, were seized upon by the opposition to
harass the Ministry. The total surrender of York Town by Lord

Cornwallis, with the whole army