There was another man less delicate. Lord Albemarle had been directed by the King to act as executor to his master, the late Duke of Cumberland. Ambitious, greedy, and a dexterous courtier, Lord Albemarle flattered himself that the door was now opened to him, and sought and made pretences from his trust to obtain frequent audiences of the King. He procured a grant, I think, for three lives, of the lodge at Bagshot, dependent on Windsor, which he had held during the pleasure of the Duke, and under colour of resigning a pension he enjoyed on Ireland, he obtained to have it made over to a brother and sister of his in indigent circumstances, with whom he would otherwise have been burthened. But here ended that gleam of favour. Lord Bute grew jealous, and the door of the closet was shut for ever against Lord Albemarle.
Yet this and every other evidence could not open the eyes of Lord Rockingham. He weakly flattered himself that he was grown a personal favourite with the King, and had undermined Lord Bute. Nor were the complaints he was forced to make received in a manner to nourish his delusion. When it was first proposed to call in Mr. Pitt, the King was said to reply, “Go on as long as you can; but if there is to be a change, I will choose my next Ministers myself.” When the royal assent for treating with Pitt had been extorted, the latter had replied (as I have mentioned)[251] in a manner not to inflame Lord Rockingham with eagerness to renew the proposal. Yet the Duke of Grafton was earnest for that junction; and disliking business, and probably not charmed to see all power arrogated by an associate, who was reduced to sit silent in the House of Lords, whilst he himself was almost the sole champion there of their joint-administration, daily threatened to resign unless Mr. Pitt was called to the head of affairs. Conway, under like circumstances, looked the same way, but with more temper. Some of the friends of the Administration, sensible of their tottering position, and wishing to burst the connection between Grenville and the Bedfords, the latter of whom were the only real supporters of the former, endeavoured to detach the Bedfords and unite them with the Ministers; but Rigby, devoted to Grenville, though not blind to his defects, which he often made the subject of his ridicule, detested Conway, and despised Lord Rockingham and the Cavendishes, and was too clear-sighted and too interested to attach himself to the desperate fortune of a set of men disliked by the King. Chance at the same time opened to the Duke of Bedford and his friends a prospect of an ally, able himself, and suited to their desire of reconciliation with Lord Bute. Lord Holland’s eldest son[252] fell in love with Lady Mary Fitzpatrick,[253] niece of the Duchess of Bedford, and educated by her. The marriage was proposed, and joyfully accepted by the Duke of Bedford, who lost not a moment to send overtures of peace to Lord Holland. But though the latter had consented to gratify the inclinations of his son, as he was a most indulgent father, he acted with the spirit of resentment that became him; and besides rejecting the Duke of Bedford’s offered visit, wrote him a most severe answer, and plainly told him how egregiously he was duped and governed by a set of worthless people. This letter Lord Holland showed to all that resorted to him, nor would at any time listen to various advances that were made to him by that family.