Volume 4 — MINISTRY OF ALL THE TALENTS (1806). Source.—Diaries ... James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury, 1844. Vol. iv., p. 349.

February 1.—His Royal Highness was cold with me for several days; but when he found my opinion to be the prevalent one, and even that of the King himself, he very handsomely gave way, and, having sent for me, by a fair and honest avowal of his mistake, left me more satisfied with him than before. The new Ministry was appointed a few days after this.

Lord Grenville and Fox were its two leaders, and their respective adherents and friends made up the Cabinet.[9]

The Prince of Wales went most heartily and unbecomingly with them, and lowered his dignity by soliciting office and places for his dependents, and by degrading himself into the size of a common party leader.

From this moment I withdrew entirely from official men, my determination being to act as if Mr. Pitt was alive, and to endeavour to regulate my political conduct, and that of those I influenced, on what I supposed would be his, were he still in existence, whether in or out of office.

I told this to Lords Bathurst and Camden on the 27th January, considering these two as more personally, and less politically, attached to him, than any one else, not excepting Canning himself.

On the 4th February, Lord Carrington came to me in consequence of my having canvassed him for his interest at Cambridge University for Lord Palmerston. This he promised me in the handsomest manner; but I was surprised—when I lamented Mr. Pitt’s death, and spoke of the wisdom and propriety of his friends’ acting together, and in conformity to his doctrines and principles—to find Lord Carrington lukewarm on the subject. He said he conceived “we were all now free to act as we pleased. All bond of union was dissolved; no obligation remained with anyone to abide by a party which had lost its leader, and with its leader everything.” He said this in so very positive a way, that I contented myself with saying my sentiments were directly contrary to his, but that it was not for me to dispute with him on a point rather of feeling than of party. Lord Carrington was profuse in his lamentations on the death of Pitt, and equally so in his profession of friendship and gratitude to him, and respect for his memory, and, as a proof, he instanced his wish, that the part of Mr. Pitt’s debts, arising from a loan his friends contributed to raise for him in 1800, should not be produced when the items of them were laid before the House. [N.B. the House had voted a public funeral, and to pay Mr. Pitt’s debts immediately after his death, which Wyndham (strange to say) opposed, giving as a motive that no public funeral had been decreed to Burke.] Lord Carrington, however, said he was overruled by the Bishop of Lincoln, Prettyman[10] (who had been Pitt’s private tutor at Cambridge), who assured him it was one of Pitt’s last dying requests, that the six friends who had advanced him certain sums should be repaid. (They were Lord Bathurst and Carrington, Steele, Bishop of Lincoln, and two others, who at the time never would take any acknowledgment, or ever expected to be repaid.) This assertion of the Bishop of Lincoln, Lord Carrington said, shut his mouth, and the debt was laid before the House, which raised his (Pitt’s) debts to 43,000l.

Ministers went on quietly, and with a very large majority, the whole year of 1806. In June an idea was suggested to make a push at them before the Recess, and I had several conversations with Canning, and one with Perceval on the subject, and constant ones with the Duke of Portland, who, by having undergone an operation for the stone, was wonderfully recovered.