Note 263 — Chapter XV

It appears that Lord Northington’s notification to the King was on the 5th of July.—(Lord Henley’s Life of Northington.) We learn from the same writer that the bad state of Lord Northington’s health, and his frequent disagreements with his colleagues, had for some months made him desirous of an honourable and quiet retreat. There is no doubt, both from his own letters, and the traditions still extant at the bar, that his habits of hard labour and extreme conviviality had by this time undermined his constitution much to the deterioration of his temper, and he perhaps suspected slights that were never intended. Moreover, the scrupulous sense of public duty, the natural reserve and strict propriety of deportment which characterized Lord Rockingham and Mr. Conway were by no means to his taste. He must have felt even less easy with such associates, than his successor Lord Thurlow did in a later day with Mr. Pitt; and, like him, his usual course in the Cabinet was to originate nothing, and to oppose everything. The commercial treaty with Russia, a measure of unquestionable benefit, nearly fell to the ground, owing to his unreasonable and obstinate opposition. He would rarely listen to remonstrances from his colleagues, and was on such cold terms with them as probably justified him in his own mind in breaking up the Cabinet so unceremoniously. He was too fearless to stoop to intrigue, and there was no necessity for it on this occasion. His communications with Mr. Pitt, on the formation of the new Government, are given in the Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 434.—E.