Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/171

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1762-1763
THE PIOUS FRAUD
145

knows they don't themselves believe, they will be little regarded: and indeed it is time to lay aside all thoughts of that objection on every occasion. All has been said that can be said, and if you think no more of it, I believe you will hear no more of it. Whether Sir J. Turner will be governable, I don't know, he is shallow and conceited, and I should fear would not.[1] Lord North is young and interested, and his views of rising in the House of Commons will, I fancy, make him I won't say only tractable, but obsequious. There must never be a difference among the Treasury about anything. I would have all business, the whole system of the next session, settled between you and Oswald before the Parliament meets, and not a tittle of it departed from afterwards. I do not propose Oswald to have a Levée and manage, as it is called, the Members of the House. That never was, nor ever can be done but by the Minister, who is in your station; but Oswald will on all occasions take the lead, and will be supposed to speak your sense. If this scheme is punctually followed, the House of Commons will in another session gain great credit by the ability with which the business will be planned, and the steadiness with which it will be pursued, and both together will beget an opinion of discipline so established as may make things go on well, even if you should then retire, and put a less able man into your place. Who that man should be, His Majesty must judge. He is so amiable, and condescends to make himself so agreeable to those who have the honour to approach him, that it is very fit he should consider the agreeableness as well as ability of a man he is to see every day: I have endeavoured therefore to draw honest men to be under his immediate observation out of whom to choose.

"Lord Chancellor must be brought to take Judges with a view to Parliamentary interest where they are equally fit. If he will not lead he must be drove.[2]

"But, my Lord, in what way is Lord Hardwicke and


    and financial questions. See Life and Letters of the First Earl of Minto (Introduction), by the Countess of Minto.

  1. M.P. for King's Lynn.
  2. Lord Keeper Henley had been made Chancellor in 1761.
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