If I could be allowed but a few minutes to wait on you, it would give me great relief; for the moment is too critical for your Lordship's advice and direction not to be necessary. If, therefore, you can allow me one quarter of an hour to intrude upon you without prejudice to your health, which I rejoice to hear is in a mending way, it will greatly oblige me, who have the honour to remain, with the truest esteem and respect, my dear Lord, Your most obedient humble servant, GRAFTON. THE EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. [From a draught in the hand-writing of Lady Chatham.] [May 27, 1767.] LORD CHATHAM, still unable to write, begs leave to assure the Duke of Grafton of his best respects, and at the same time to lament that the continuation of his illness reduces him to the painful necessity of most earnestly entreating his Grace to pardon him, if he begs to be allowed to decline the honour of the visit the Duke of Grafton has so kindly proposed. Nothing can be so great an affliction to him as to find himself quite unable for a conversation, which he should otherwise be proud and happy to embrace. THE DUKE OF GRAFTON TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM. MY DEAR LORD, Grosvenor Square, May 29, 1767. I SUFFICIENTLY expressed to your Lordship by my letter of Wednesday last, how very necessary I thought it for the well-being of the King's affairs, indeed almost for their existence, that I should be permitted to deliver some advice from you on a situation of affairs that appeared to me to be pressingly critical. Disappointed of such an interview, and thus deprived of an assistance which I never expected to have been without, to direct me in the difficulties that might arise, I thought the state of affairs too serious not to wish, as a man of honour, to apprize his Majesty of my thoughts upon them, that the King might be able to consult others of his servants, and decide what was most judicious to be done. I found, on imparting my ideas the night before last to my Lord President, that his Lordship saw the King's affairs at least as embarrassed as I did, and that the King might find factions united intruding themselves upon the closet, before he might be expecting so offensive an event. We judged it thoroughly proper to lay fully our opinions before his Majesty, who would have cause most truly to blame a silence on this head, from those in his service who were in a situation to form some judgment on the present state of things. We yesterday separately laid before the King the real state of his administration; in one house, acting from the beginning of the session in direct contradiction to all cabinet decisions; in the other, by the prevalence of faction, brought to such a crisis, as to carry questions in a very full house by majorities of three only, and even those made up by the votes of two of the King's brothers, and some lords brought down from their very beds. The King was of opinion, that your Lordship's presence and advice would still reinstate and give administration some consistence again. Unfortunately, your illness deprives us of the first; and unless your Lordship's experience and abilities can suggest any measure for bettering the state of things, and in support of your administration, all our powers and faculties having been tried, we see no possibility of serving his Majesty with effect, honour or justice to him or to the public. It is in conjunction with my Lord President, that I have the honour of writing this to your Lordship, whom I met, by the King's orders, for that and I believe I do not go beyond my purpose; authority when I say, his Majesty has no expectation of being relieved from this embarrassing dilemma, but by your counsel and advice. What I feel, in this situation, I leave your Lordship to judge; but, disagreeable as the task is to carry the opinions of others on so delicate a subject, I am ready to undertake it, if you prefer that mode to a letter. Pray send me your commands. Indeed, my Lord, your thoughts and advice, in such a situation, are due to the King, as well as to those who have supported to their utmost, in your absence, every view of yours. I have the honour to be, with the most perfect esteem and respect, my dear Lord, Your most faithful and obedient humble servant, GRAFTON. P.S. We should have desired Lord Chancellor to have been with us last night; but unfortunately he was gone into the country to profit of the adjournment. THE EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. [From a draught in the hand-writing of Lady Chatham.] [May 29, 1767.] LORD CHATHAM, continuing under the same inability to write which he was under the unhappy necessity of conveying to the Duke of Grafton so lately, begs again his Grace's indulgence for taking this method of repeating the same description of his health, which for the present renders business impossible for him. He implores the Duke of Grafton to be persuaded that nothing less than impossibility prevents him from seeing the Duke of Grafton, which he so ardently desires, and entering into the fullest conversation with his Grace. At present, all he is able to offer, in true zeal for his Majesty, is that the Duke of Grafton and Lord President may not finally judge it necessary to leave the situations they are in. The first moment health and strength enough return, Lord Chatham will humbly request permission to renew at his Majesty's feet all the sentiments of duty and most devoted attach ment. THE KING TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM. LORD CHATHAM, Richmond Lodge, May 30, 1767, 34 m. past 2, p. m. No one has more cautiously avoided writing to you than myself, during your late indisposition; but the moment is so extremely critical, that I cannot possibly delay it any longer. By the letter you received yesterday from the Duke of Grafton, you must perceive the anxiety he and the President at present labour under. The Chancellor is very much in the same situation. This is equally owing to the majority in the House of Lords, amounting on the Friday only to six, and on the Tuesday to three, though I made two of my brothers vote on both those days; and to the great coldness shown those three ministers by Lord Shelburne, whom they, as well as myself, imagine to be rather a secret enemy; the avowed enmity of Mr. Townshend ; and the resolution of lieutenant-general Conway |