closet with such marks of goodness and favour," writes Calcraft to Pitt, "as he must ever remember, but he thought himself obliged to take this step. Believe me, Sir, I can never forget the confidence you have placed in me, or be insensible to your approbation of my conduct, and it is with the utmost satisfaction I can add Lord Shelburne feels with very great concern what happened to you in the end of the late transaction."[1]
"Lord Shelburne," says Walpole, "has resigned: many reasons are given, but the only one that people choose to take is that thinking Pitt must be Minister soon, and finding himself tolerably obnoxious to him he is seeking to make his peace at any rate."[2]
The following letters passed on the occasion of his resignation between Shelburne and Bute:
Lord Bute to Lord Shelburne.
September 4th, 1763.
My dear Lord,—I hear you have resigned. Had my views tended in the least to continue in business, I should have felt severely this step, as I have long flattered myself we should have trod the publick paths of politicks and honor together; but having so absolutely abandoned all thoughts of interfering more in business, having seen every honest wish and endeavour, every action of my life, turned in the most false and cruel lights, I take my part without hesitation, so that all I lament in your retiring from the King's Service, is the minute you do it in; but that is over, and I am firmly persuaded you will try by your conduct, to obviate any ill-natured interpretations that the enemies of Government may make of it; as for myself, I hear I am not spared by those who, in Mr. Pitt's proposals, would have suffered.[3] 'Tis hard indeed to make me responsible for the unreasonable demands of a party. I scorn to deny that I was of opinion that Mr. Pitt's
