[125]Hervey's "Memoirs of George II.," vol. ii. p. 551.[126]"Our immemorial Cabinet Dinner was at Lord Lonsdale's," writes Lord Malmesbury, on March 17, 1852. "Each of us gives one on a Wednesday."—"Memoirs of an Ex-Minister," vol. i. p. 321.[127]Wraxall's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 527.[128]"Granville dined at the Lord Chancellor's yesterday," wrote Lady Granville to the Duke of Devonshire, on November 8, 1830, when the question of the postponement of the King's visit to the city was filling the minds of Ministers. "The Chancellor came in after they were all seated from a Cabinet that had lasted five hours, returned to be at it again till two, and the result you see in the papers."—Lady Granville's "Letters," vol. ii. p. 63.[129]See Speaker Onslow's "Essay on Opposition," "Hist. MSS. Commission" (1895), App. ix. p. 460.[130]Coxe's "Pelham Administration," vol. i. p. 486.[131]Ashley's "Life of Palmerston," vol. ii. p. 233.[132]Walpole was First Lord of the Treasury for more than twenty-one years, but Macaulay says that he cannot be called Prime Minister until some time after he had been First Lord.—"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 359.[133]Walpole distributed government patronage freely among the members of his own family. His relations held offices worth nearly £15,000 a year, and, two years after he relinquished office, his own places brought him in an annual income of £2000. He made his eldest son Auditor of the Exchequer, and his second son Clerk of the Pells. He gave his son Horace two posts, as Clerk of the Estreats and Comptroller of the Pipe, when the boy was still an infant. Later on he gave him a position in the Customs, and lastly made him Usher of the Exchequer, an office worth about £1000 a year. See "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole," vol. i. p. 730; Cunningham's "Letters of Horace Walpole," vol. i. pp. lxxxiv. and 314.[134]"My father would be a very able man—if he knew anything," Lord Stanley is supposed to have said of him. Hutton's "Studies," p. 48.[135]"He evidently attempts to imitate Mr. Pitt in his manner and rhetorick; but the clumsy attempts of a heavy domestic fowl to take wing are very different from the vivid and lofty soaring of the lark." Courtney's "Characteristics," p. 42.[136]Grattan's "Life and Times," vol. v. p. 417.[137]Hayward's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 39.[138]Butler's "Reminiscences," pp. 154-157.[139]Russell's "Recollections," p. 263.[140]Among the unpublished manuscripts at Welbeck Abbey are some private notes made by the Duke of Portland, who was Prime Minister in 1783, suggesting methods of treatment suitable for various political allies at the time of the Coalition Ministry. The following extracts are of interest:—"Lord Salisbury. Irish jobs.Lord Thanet. Personal attention.Lord Cornwallis. Should be spoken to: has two members in theHouse of Commons.Lord Clarendon. Anything for himself or Lord Hyde.Lord Wentworth. Wants something. He voted against.Duke of Argyle. Great attention. Scotch jobs.Gen. Luttral. To be sent for next session. Lord Temple should notbe allowed all the merit of the job that we done for him lately.Gen. Vaughan. Quebec, or a Command anywhere.Lord Westcote. Distant hopes of a Peerage.Mr. Gibbon. Will vacate his seat for an employment out of Parliament:very much wished by Lord Loughborough."(N.B.—This Gibbon is the historian.)[141]"Fortnightly Review," No. I, p. 10.[142]The necessity of pleasing George III. compelled many Prime Ministers to include his friend Addington in their administrations, and inspired Canning to remark that this Minister was like the small-pox, which everybody was obliged to have once in their lives.[143]Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. v. p. 327.[144]"Life of Eldon," vol. iii. p. 486.[145]"History of the Political Life of C. J. Fox," pp. 76-7.[146]"The Chancellor of the Exchequer exists to distribute a certain amount of human misery," he once remarked, "and he who distributes it most equally is the best Chancellor."[147]See Bagehot's "English Constitution," p. 200.[148]Among the offices in the Royal Household which are filled by the Prime Minister, the most important are those of the Master of the Horse, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the seven Lords in Waiting, and the Mistress of the Robes.[149]A complete list of the salaries and offices of Ministers does not lie within the scope of this volume. It will be sufficient to enumerate briefly the most important members of the administration. First in order of precedence stand the Prime Minister, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal (an office to which, like that of the Prime Minister, no salary is attached), and the First Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty. After these come the five Secretaries of State: for Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, War, and India. These are followed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretaries for Scotland and Ireland, the Postmaster-General, the Presidents of the Board of Trade, Local Government Board, Board of Agriculture, and Board of Education, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the First Commissioner of Works. There are, besides, eight Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, four Junior Lords of the Treasury (one of whom is unpaid), a Patronage Secretary, a Financial Secretary, a Paymaster-General, Attorney-General, and Solicitor-General. Scotland is represented by a Lord-Advocate and a Scottish Solicitor-General; Ireland by a Lord-Lieutenant, a Lord Chancellor, an Attorney-General, and a Solicitor-General.[150]Exceptions are made by Statute in favour of the Secretary of the Treasury and some other officers, or of a Minister who is transferred from one office to another in the same Administration.[151]Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are very prone to puns. When Lord Campbell replaced Lord Plunket as Chancellor of Ireland he had to cross the Channel in a storm. Plunket's secretary remarked that if the new Chancellor were not drowned, he would be very sick. "Perhaps," said Plunket, "he'll throw up the seals!" Lord Chancellor Westbury once told an eminent counsel that he was getting as fat as a porpoise. "In that case," replied the other, "I am evidently a fit companion of the great Seal." Lord Lyndhurst is another Chancellor who made a joke of this sort. There must be something, too, in the atmosphere of a change of Ministry which evokes bad puns. When Disraeli was appointed to Lord Derby's Cabinet in 1852, more than one eminent politician facetiously remarked that now Benjamin's mess would be five times as great as that of the others. And, fourteen years later, when the same statesman was bidden to form a Ministry of his own, Lord Chelmsford, whom he had relieved of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, shamelessly observed that if the old Government was "the Derby," this new one was certainly "the Hoax" (see Martin's "Life of Lyndhurst," p. 481 n., and the "Life of Lord Granville," vol. i. p. 479, etc.).[152]If Pitt had been dismissed from office "after more than five years of boundless power," says Macaulay, "he would hardly have carried out with him a sum sufficient to furnish a set of chambers in which, as he cheerfully declared, he meant to resume the practice of the Law."—"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 347.[153]Lord Ellesmere observes that in the 8th Chapter of Samuel, Jehoshaphat the son of Abilud, the Chancellor among the Hebrews, was called "Mazur," which, translated into English, becomes "Sopher," or Recorder. "Whether the Lord Chancellor ofEnglandas now he is, may be properly termedSopheror Mazur, it may receive some needlesse question, howbeit it cannot be doubted but his office doth participate of both their Functions."—"Observations concerning the Office of Lord Chancellor," p. 2.[154]The Seal was stolen from Lord Thurlow by burglars in 1784, and the offer of a reward of £200 failed to retrieve it. When Lord Chancellor Eldon's house at Encombe caught fire in 1812, he buried the Seal for safety's sake in the garden, and then forgot where he had buried it. His family spent most of the next day digging for it before it was finally recovered. Eldon seems to have taken the fire very easily. "It really was a very pretty sight," he wrote, "for all the maids turned out of their beds, and formed a line from the water to the fire-engine, handing the buckets; they looked very pretty,all in their shifts." Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. vii. p. 300.
[125]Hervey's "Memoirs of George II.," vol. ii. p. 551.
[125]Hervey's "Memoirs of George II.," vol. ii. p. 551.
[126]"Our immemorial Cabinet Dinner was at Lord Lonsdale's," writes Lord Malmesbury, on March 17, 1852. "Each of us gives one on a Wednesday."—"Memoirs of an Ex-Minister," vol. i. p. 321.
[126]"Our immemorial Cabinet Dinner was at Lord Lonsdale's," writes Lord Malmesbury, on March 17, 1852. "Each of us gives one on a Wednesday."—"Memoirs of an Ex-Minister," vol. i. p. 321.
[127]Wraxall's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 527.
[127]Wraxall's "Memoirs," vol. i. p. 527.
[128]"Granville dined at the Lord Chancellor's yesterday," wrote Lady Granville to the Duke of Devonshire, on November 8, 1830, when the question of the postponement of the King's visit to the city was filling the minds of Ministers. "The Chancellor came in after they were all seated from a Cabinet that had lasted five hours, returned to be at it again till two, and the result you see in the papers."—Lady Granville's "Letters," vol. ii. p. 63.
[128]"Granville dined at the Lord Chancellor's yesterday," wrote Lady Granville to the Duke of Devonshire, on November 8, 1830, when the question of the postponement of the King's visit to the city was filling the minds of Ministers. "The Chancellor came in after they were all seated from a Cabinet that had lasted five hours, returned to be at it again till two, and the result you see in the papers."—Lady Granville's "Letters," vol. ii. p. 63.
[129]See Speaker Onslow's "Essay on Opposition," "Hist. MSS. Commission" (1895), App. ix. p. 460.
[129]See Speaker Onslow's "Essay on Opposition," "Hist. MSS. Commission" (1895), App. ix. p. 460.
[130]Coxe's "Pelham Administration," vol. i. p. 486.
[130]Coxe's "Pelham Administration," vol. i. p. 486.
[131]Ashley's "Life of Palmerston," vol. ii. p. 233.
[131]Ashley's "Life of Palmerston," vol. ii. p. 233.
[132]Walpole was First Lord of the Treasury for more than twenty-one years, but Macaulay says that he cannot be called Prime Minister until some time after he had been First Lord.—"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 359.
[132]Walpole was First Lord of the Treasury for more than twenty-one years, but Macaulay says that he cannot be called Prime Minister until some time after he had been First Lord.—"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 359.
[133]Walpole distributed government patronage freely among the members of his own family. His relations held offices worth nearly £15,000 a year, and, two years after he relinquished office, his own places brought him in an annual income of £2000. He made his eldest son Auditor of the Exchequer, and his second son Clerk of the Pells. He gave his son Horace two posts, as Clerk of the Estreats and Comptroller of the Pipe, when the boy was still an infant. Later on he gave him a position in the Customs, and lastly made him Usher of the Exchequer, an office worth about £1000 a year. See "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole," vol. i. p. 730; Cunningham's "Letters of Horace Walpole," vol. i. pp. lxxxiv. and 314.
[133]Walpole distributed government patronage freely among the members of his own family. His relations held offices worth nearly £15,000 a year, and, two years after he relinquished office, his own places brought him in an annual income of £2000. He made his eldest son Auditor of the Exchequer, and his second son Clerk of the Pells. He gave his son Horace two posts, as Clerk of the Estreats and Comptroller of the Pipe, when the boy was still an infant. Later on he gave him a position in the Customs, and lastly made him Usher of the Exchequer, an office worth about £1000 a year. See "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole," vol. i. p. 730; Cunningham's "Letters of Horace Walpole," vol. i. pp. lxxxiv. and 314.
[134]"My father would be a very able man—if he knew anything," Lord Stanley is supposed to have said of him. Hutton's "Studies," p. 48.
[134]"My father would be a very able man—if he knew anything," Lord Stanley is supposed to have said of him. Hutton's "Studies," p. 48.
[135]"He evidently attempts to imitate Mr. Pitt in his manner and rhetorick; but the clumsy attempts of a heavy domestic fowl to take wing are very different from the vivid and lofty soaring of the lark." Courtney's "Characteristics," p. 42.
[135]"He evidently attempts to imitate Mr. Pitt in his manner and rhetorick; but the clumsy attempts of a heavy domestic fowl to take wing are very different from the vivid and lofty soaring of the lark." Courtney's "Characteristics," p. 42.
[136]Grattan's "Life and Times," vol. v. p. 417.
[136]Grattan's "Life and Times," vol. v. p. 417.
[137]Hayward's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 39.
[137]Hayward's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 39.
[138]Butler's "Reminiscences," pp. 154-157.
[138]Butler's "Reminiscences," pp. 154-157.
[139]Russell's "Recollections," p. 263.
[139]Russell's "Recollections," p. 263.
[140]Among the unpublished manuscripts at Welbeck Abbey are some private notes made by the Duke of Portland, who was Prime Minister in 1783, suggesting methods of treatment suitable for various political allies at the time of the Coalition Ministry. The following extracts are of interest:—"Lord Salisbury. Irish jobs.Lord Thanet. Personal attention.Lord Cornwallis. Should be spoken to: has two members in theHouse of Commons.Lord Clarendon. Anything for himself or Lord Hyde.Lord Wentworth. Wants something. He voted against.Duke of Argyle. Great attention. Scotch jobs.Gen. Luttral. To be sent for next session. Lord Temple should notbe allowed all the merit of the job that we done for him lately.Gen. Vaughan. Quebec, or a Command anywhere.Lord Westcote. Distant hopes of a Peerage.Mr. Gibbon. Will vacate his seat for an employment out of Parliament:very much wished by Lord Loughborough."(N.B.—This Gibbon is the historian.)
[140]Among the unpublished manuscripts at Welbeck Abbey are some private notes made by the Duke of Portland, who was Prime Minister in 1783, suggesting methods of treatment suitable for various political allies at the time of the Coalition Ministry. The following extracts are of interest:—
"Lord Salisbury. Irish jobs.
Lord Thanet. Personal attention.
Lord Cornwallis. Should be spoken to: has two members in theHouse of Commons.
Lord Clarendon. Anything for himself or Lord Hyde.
Lord Wentworth. Wants something. He voted against.
Duke of Argyle. Great attention. Scotch jobs.
Gen. Luttral. To be sent for next session. Lord Temple should notbe allowed all the merit of the job that we done for him lately.
Gen. Vaughan. Quebec, or a Command anywhere.
Lord Westcote. Distant hopes of a Peerage.
Mr. Gibbon. Will vacate his seat for an employment out of Parliament:very much wished by Lord Loughborough."
(N.B.—This Gibbon is the historian.)
[141]"Fortnightly Review," No. I, p. 10.
[141]"Fortnightly Review," No. I, p. 10.
[142]The necessity of pleasing George III. compelled many Prime Ministers to include his friend Addington in their administrations, and inspired Canning to remark that this Minister was like the small-pox, which everybody was obliged to have once in their lives.
[142]The necessity of pleasing George III. compelled many Prime Ministers to include his friend Addington in their administrations, and inspired Canning to remark that this Minister was like the small-pox, which everybody was obliged to have once in their lives.
[143]Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. v. p. 327.
[143]Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. v. p. 327.
[144]"Life of Eldon," vol. iii. p. 486.
[144]"Life of Eldon," vol. iii. p. 486.
[145]"History of the Political Life of C. J. Fox," pp. 76-7.
[145]"History of the Political Life of C. J. Fox," pp. 76-7.
[146]"The Chancellor of the Exchequer exists to distribute a certain amount of human misery," he once remarked, "and he who distributes it most equally is the best Chancellor."
[146]"The Chancellor of the Exchequer exists to distribute a certain amount of human misery," he once remarked, "and he who distributes it most equally is the best Chancellor."
[147]See Bagehot's "English Constitution," p. 200.
[147]See Bagehot's "English Constitution," p. 200.
[148]Among the offices in the Royal Household which are filled by the Prime Minister, the most important are those of the Master of the Horse, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the seven Lords in Waiting, and the Mistress of the Robes.
[148]Among the offices in the Royal Household which are filled by the Prime Minister, the most important are those of the Master of the Horse, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the seven Lords in Waiting, and the Mistress of the Robes.
[149]A complete list of the salaries and offices of Ministers does not lie within the scope of this volume. It will be sufficient to enumerate briefly the most important members of the administration. First in order of precedence stand the Prime Minister, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal (an office to which, like that of the Prime Minister, no salary is attached), and the First Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty. After these come the five Secretaries of State: for Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, War, and India. These are followed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretaries for Scotland and Ireland, the Postmaster-General, the Presidents of the Board of Trade, Local Government Board, Board of Agriculture, and Board of Education, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the First Commissioner of Works. There are, besides, eight Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, four Junior Lords of the Treasury (one of whom is unpaid), a Patronage Secretary, a Financial Secretary, a Paymaster-General, Attorney-General, and Solicitor-General. Scotland is represented by a Lord-Advocate and a Scottish Solicitor-General; Ireland by a Lord-Lieutenant, a Lord Chancellor, an Attorney-General, and a Solicitor-General.
[149]A complete list of the salaries and offices of Ministers does not lie within the scope of this volume. It will be sufficient to enumerate briefly the most important members of the administration. First in order of precedence stand the Prime Minister, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal (an office to which, like that of the Prime Minister, no salary is attached), and the First Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty. After these come the five Secretaries of State: for Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, War, and India. These are followed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretaries for Scotland and Ireland, the Postmaster-General, the Presidents of the Board of Trade, Local Government Board, Board of Agriculture, and Board of Education, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the First Commissioner of Works. There are, besides, eight Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, four Junior Lords of the Treasury (one of whom is unpaid), a Patronage Secretary, a Financial Secretary, a Paymaster-General, Attorney-General, and Solicitor-General. Scotland is represented by a Lord-Advocate and a Scottish Solicitor-General; Ireland by a Lord-Lieutenant, a Lord Chancellor, an Attorney-General, and a Solicitor-General.
[150]Exceptions are made by Statute in favour of the Secretary of the Treasury and some other officers, or of a Minister who is transferred from one office to another in the same Administration.
[150]Exceptions are made by Statute in favour of the Secretary of the Treasury and some other officers, or of a Minister who is transferred from one office to another in the same Administration.
[151]Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are very prone to puns. When Lord Campbell replaced Lord Plunket as Chancellor of Ireland he had to cross the Channel in a storm. Plunket's secretary remarked that if the new Chancellor were not drowned, he would be very sick. "Perhaps," said Plunket, "he'll throw up the seals!" Lord Chancellor Westbury once told an eminent counsel that he was getting as fat as a porpoise. "In that case," replied the other, "I am evidently a fit companion of the great Seal." Lord Lyndhurst is another Chancellor who made a joke of this sort. There must be something, too, in the atmosphere of a change of Ministry which evokes bad puns. When Disraeli was appointed to Lord Derby's Cabinet in 1852, more than one eminent politician facetiously remarked that now Benjamin's mess would be five times as great as that of the others. And, fourteen years later, when the same statesman was bidden to form a Ministry of his own, Lord Chelmsford, whom he had relieved of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, shamelessly observed that if the old Government was "the Derby," this new one was certainly "the Hoax" (see Martin's "Life of Lyndhurst," p. 481 n., and the "Life of Lord Granville," vol. i. p. 479, etc.).
[151]Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal are very prone to puns. When Lord Campbell replaced Lord Plunket as Chancellor of Ireland he had to cross the Channel in a storm. Plunket's secretary remarked that if the new Chancellor were not drowned, he would be very sick. "Perhaps," said Plunket, "he'll throw up the seals!" Lord Chancellor Westbury once told an eminent counsel that he was getting as fat as a porpoise. "In that case," replied the other, "I am evidently a fit companion of the great Seal." Lord Lyndhurst is another Chancellor who made a joke of this sort. There must be something, too, in the atmosphere of a change of Ministry which evokes bad puns. When Disraeli was appointed to Lord Derby's Cabinet in 1852, more than one eminent politician facetiously remarked that now Benjamin's mess would be five times as great as that of the others. And, fourteen years later, when the same statesman was bidden to form a Ministry of his own, Lord Chelmsford, whom he had relieved of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, shamelessly observed that if the old Government was "the Derby," this new one was certainly "the Hoax" (see Martin's "Life of Lyndhurst," p. 481 n., and the "Life of Lord Granville," vol. i. p. 479, etc.).
[152]If Pitt had been dismissed from office "after more than five years of boundless power," says Macaulay, "he would hardly have carried out with him a sum sufficient to furnish a set of chambers in which, as he cheerfully declared, he meant to resume the practice of the Law."—"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 347.
[152]If Pitt had been dismissed from office "after more than five years of boundless power," says Macaulay, "he would hardly have carried out with him a sum sufficient to furnish a set of chambers in which, as he cheerfully declared, he meant to resume the practice of the Law."—"Miscellaneous Writings," p. 347.
[153]Lord Ellesmere observes that in the 8th Chapter of Samuel, Jehoshaphat the son of Abilud, the Chancellor among the Hebrews, was called "Mazur," which, translated into English, becomes "Sopher," or Recorder. "Whether the Lord Chancellor ofEnglandas now he is, may be properly termedSopheror Mazur, it may receive some needlesse question, howbeit it cannot be doubted but his office doth participate of both their Functions."—"Observations concerning the Office of Lord Chancellor," p. 2.
[153]Lord Ellesmere observes that in the 8th Chapter of Samuel, Jehoshaphat the son of Abilud, the Chancellor among the Hebrews, was called "Mazur," which, translated into English, becomes "Sopher," or Recorder. "Whether the Lord Chancellor ofEnglandas now he is, may be properly termedSopheror Mazur, it may receive some needlesse question, howbeit it cannot be doubted but his office doth participate of both their Functions."—"Observations concerning the Office of Lord Chancellor," p. 2.
[154]The Seal was stolen from Lord Thurlow by burglars in 1784, and the offer of a reward of £200 failed to retrieve it. When Lord Chancellor Eldon's house at Encombe caught fire in 1812, he buried the Seal for safety's sake in the garden, and then forgot where he had buried it. His family spent most of the next day digging for it before it was finally recovered. Eldon seems to have taken the fire very easily. "It really was a very pretty sight," he wrote, "for all the maids turned out of their beds, and formed a line from the water to the fire-engine, handing the buckets; they looked very pretty,all in their shifts." Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. vii. p. 300.
[154]The Seal was stolen from Lord Thurlow by burglars in 1784, and the offer of a reward of £200 failed to retrieve it. When Lord Chancellor Eldon's house at Encombe caught fire in 1812, he buried the Seal for safety's sake in the garden, and then forgot where he had buried it. His family spent most of the next day digging for it before it was finally recovered. Eldon seems to have taken the fire very easily. "It really was a very pretty sight," he wrote, "for all the maids turned out of their beds, and formed a line from the water to the fire-engine, handing the buckets; they looked very pretty,all in their shifts." Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. vii. p. 300.