IO THE INFLUENCE OF GRENVILLE ON PITT’S FOREIGN POLICY. 
English Foreign Office in such a manner as to prevent Leeds’s knowl- 
edge of Grenville’s authorship. * Leeds was in fact rapidly becoming 
a mere figurehead in English diplomacy. Pitt more and more exercised 
a direct supervision, leaning the while on the advice of Grenville. 
It was while engaged in this negotiation with Holland that Gren¬ 
ville consented to an arrangement which, in the opinion of many of 
his friends, involved a distinct .sacrifice of his political future. On 
November 25, 1790, he was created Baron Grenville, and was trans¬ 
ferred to the House of Lords. Personally he was not averse to the 
change, and politically he rendered a great service to Pitt, w T ho did not 
possess in the upper house a single supporter of ability upon whose 
fidelity he could rely.f Grenville was admirably suited to the place 
and at once assumed the leadership of that majority of mediocrity 
always at Pitt’s service in the House of Lords. As it proved, he was 
considerably advanced in political importance by the change. Each 
departure in governmental policy, each serious defense against the 
attacks of the opposition, was made in the Commons by Pitt, in the 
Lords by Grenville. Both spoke for the government with the voice of 
authority, while Grenville was listened to with an increased attention. 
Auckland in particular was quick to express his sense of the much 
greater influence now likely to be wielded by Grenville, and sought to 
establish an intimacy that might'be used in thwarting what seemed to 
him an ill-considered and dangerous scheme of foreign policy. The 
time was now at hand in fact when Grenville was to enter formally 
upon his long tenure of office as Foreign Secretary, in which his influ¬ 
ence w T as to be no longer occasional and concealed, but constant and 
direct. 
*Pitt wrote to Grenville, Jan. 11, 1791, referring to the draft sent him by Gren¬ 
ville : “ • ■ * ’ I am satisfied that in substance your proposal is the best that can 
be made. I have suggested some alteration as to the form which I wish you to 
consider and to dispose of as you think best. • • • • j see no possibility of 
conveying this to the office without its being known that you have been chiefly 
concerned in the manufacture. I have thought that the best way of avoiding any 
difficulty on that account was to send a letter to the Duke of Leeds, which Smith 
can seal and forward with the draft.” Dropmore, II, 12. 
t Pitt to his mother, Nov. 24, 1790. Stanhope, II, 74. Thurlow had already 
begun to evince the sullen temper which ultimately caused Pitt to remove him 
from the chancellorship. 
