Memoire'^f iM'^Afevoif tlte "Slight Hon. Wm. Pitt. 



only mode of ascertaining the senti- 

 »icn(!S of the house, he moved, " That 

 a committee be appointed to examine 

 tlie physicians who hare attended his 

 Majesty, touching the state of his health, 

 a»d report such examination to tiie 

 b«use."^ This motion was unanimously 

 approved, and a committee of twenty- 

 one members, proposed by Rlr. Pitt, 

 nine of whom were of tlie opposition 

 party, was appointed, after wliich the 

 iiouse aeijourned. 



The committee met next day, and 

 Mr. Pitt was ciiosen chairman. Those 

 jfhysiciansi who had been examined by 

 the privy coimcil, repeated the opinions 

 they had before delivered; and Dr. 

 Willis, who was now examined for the 

 first time, expressed a confident hope, 

 that the King would recover, though he 

 could not pronounce how long his ma- 

 jesty's illness might continue. He 

 attrihuted the disorder to v\eighty 

 business, severe exercLse, too great 

 abstemiousness, and too little rest ; he 

 added, that the medicine, which had 

 been given to his Majesty, since Sun- 

 day morning, Avith the intention of 

 ineetiog and counteracting those causes, 

 had alieady produced as much eftect as 

 he coald reasonably have expected, and 

 that bLs Majesty had been gradually 

 l)etter from the first six hours after 

 taking it. Some of the other physicians 

 admitted, that his Majesty's general 

 health was rather improved. The fact 

 was, that the view which Dr. Willis 

 took of the King's complaint was very 

 different from that of the regular phy- 

 Burians ; their mode of treating his Ma- 

 jesty, had, it was confessed, entirely 

 ihiled ; and, by the recommendation of 

 Dr. Willis, a new plan was adopted, 

 and on their part with very slender, 

 iattd on his with very sanguine, expec- 

 tations of success. 



'.blSMlSSAL OF THE LORD CHAN- 

 CELLOR TUUULOW. 

 ' The extraordinary manner in which, 

 as has been related, the Lord Chancellor 

 opposed the loan bill, rendered it ne- 

 cessary for Mr. Pitt to take a step, 

 which the common friends of those two 

 !«iii*tinguished persons ha«l for some time 

 »Beu to be inevitable. From the com- 

 mencement of Mr. Pitt's administra- 

 tion, tb the period of the King's illness, 

 *hc Lord Chancellor had acted with the 

 Utmost zeal and cordiality as a mem- 

 1»er of the cabinet ;' but during the 



* >fr. Pitt used to say that he always 

 /ound it useful to talk over any luuaiiuru 



.K) 



633 



proceedings in parliament, to which 

 that unhappy event gave rise, a great 

 alteration took place in his conduct ; 

 to such a degree indeed, that upon se- 

 veral occasions Mr. Pitt felt by bo 

 means confident what part he would, 

 take in the debates in the House of 

 Lords. In all the discussions, how- 

 ever, relative to the regency, he inva- 

 riably, and with apparent sincerity, 

 supported the principles and measures 

 of Mr. Pitt, but not entirely without 

 suspicion, at a moment of the greatest 

 difficulty, of a disposition to pursue an 

 opposite line, in consequence of his be- 

 ing admitted to frequent interviews 

 with the Prince of Wales. Whether 

 the amendment, which took place in 

 the King's health, had any influence in 

 this respect, it is impossible to know. 

 After his Majesty's recovery, the same 

 coolness and reser%'e towards Mr. Pitt, 

 continued and gradually increased, al- 

 though thei"e was no difterence of opi» 

 nicn upon any political question, nor 

 did there appear any other cause iix 

 dissatisfaction. 



This was a matter of so great impor- 

 tance, that it was thought right to make 

 the King acquainted with it ; and his 

 RIajesty wrote to the Lord Chancellor 

 upon the subject, towards the end of 

 November, 1789, and received such an 

 answer as led him confidently to hope 

 that Mr. Pitt would in future have no 

 reason to complain of the Lord Chan- 

 cellor. This, however, proved by no 

 mcans^the case; and Mr. Pitt at length, 

 convinced that he could not rely upon 

 Lord Thurlow's co-operation, submit- 

 ted to the King, at the beginning of the 

 following November, the expediency 

 of advancing Mr. William Grenville, 

 who was then Secretary of State, to 

 the peerage, for the purpose of con- 

 ducting the public business in the 

 House of Lords, and of remedying those 

 incouveniencies which had frequently 

 arisen from the waywardness of the 

 Lord Chancellor. To this proposal hl.s 

 Majesty immediately assented ; but 

 though Mr. Pitt had now the satisfaction 

 of feeling entirely at ease, as far as the 

 support of the measures of government 

 WHS concerned in the House of Lords, 

 yet he still had tlic mortification of ob- 

 serving a continuance of the same un- 

 friendly disposition in the Lord Chan- 

 ct^llor. 



•which he Iiad in contemplation, with Lord 

 Thiidow, as he wa>» sure lo hc-ar from him 

 every objcctiou to which it was liable. 



One 



