Note 24 — Chapter I

"At home, in the king's absence, our councils were most feeble and wavering.... A great difference appeared among the members of the regency. The Duke of Cumberland, always inclined to vigorous measures, wished to declare war at once, and to strike the first blow.... The Duke of Newcastle, trimming and trembling as was ever his wont, thought only of keeping off the storm as long as possible, and of shifting its responsibility from himself.... At length, as a kind of compromise, it was agreed that there should be no declaration of war; that our fleet should attack the French ships of the line, if it fell in with any, but by no means disturb any smaller men-of-war or any vessels engaged in trade. When, at the Board of Regency, these instructions came round to the bottom of the table to be signed by Fox, he turned to Lord Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and asked if there were no objections to them. 'Yes,' answered Anson, 'a hundred; but it pleases those at the upper end of the table, and will signify nothing, for the French will declare war next week, if they have not done it already.'[59] While the prospects of peace grew darker and darker, there was also gathering a cloud of popular resentment and distrust against the minister. It was often asked whether these were times when all power could be safely monopolized by the Duke of Newcastle? Was every thing to be risked—perhaps every thing lost—for the sake of one hoary jobber at the Treasury?"—Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. iv., p. 72.