Note 16 — Chapter I
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"On the 6th of March, 1754, the calm and languid course of public business had been suddenly broken through by the death of the prime minister,[57] Mr. Pelham. 'Now I shall have no more peace!' exclaimed the old king, when he heard the news; and the events of the next few years fully confirmed his majesty's prediction. At the tidings of his brother's death—a death so sudden and unlocked for—the the mind of Newcastle was stirred with the contending emotions of grief, fear, and ambition. The grief soon passed away, but the fear and the ambition long struggled for the mastery. After a dishonest negotiation with Henry Fox (younger son of Sir Stephen Fox, a brother of the first Earl of Ilchester), the duke, finding him not sufficiently subservient, bestowed the seals of secretary upon Sir Thomas Robinson. It was certainly no light or easy task which Newcastle had thus accomplished: he had succeeded in finding a secretary of state with abilities inferior to his own.... The new Parliament met in November, 1754. Before that time a common resentment had united the two statesmen whom rivalry had hitherto kept asunder, Pitt and Fox. 'Sir Thomas Robinson lead us!' exclaimed Pitt to Fox: 'The duke might as well send his jackboot to lead us!' ... At length, in January, 1755, the Duke of Newcastle renewed his negotiations with Fox. The terms he offered were far less than those Fox had formerly refused, neither the head of the House of Commons nor the office of Secretary of State, but admission to the cabinet, provided Fox would actively support the king's measures in the House, and would in some sort lead without being leader.... The conduct of Fox to Pitt (in accepting these terms) seems not easy to reconcile with perfect good faith, while the sudden lowering of his pretensions to Newcastle was, beyond all doubt, an unworthy subservience. On one or both of these grounds he fell in public esteem. By the aid of Fox and the silence of Pitt the remainder of the session passed quietly. But great events were now at hand. The horizon had long been dark with war, and this summer burst the storm."—Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 65; Belsham, vol. ii., p. 354, 355.