must be owing to some accident of supposing his Grace to be in the country, which sometimes happened,[1] as they were in general very punctual, but I am vastly happy that no real evil has happened to the King's affairs or those of the public, which I had the care of in that quarter of the world, but that it had been reduced in the main to some degree of order and obedience also to Parliamentary authority, from a very different state in which I found it; a degree of success which I could not attribute to my own ability but to good luck alone. As to the rest I cannot help observing frankly to his Grace, that had I been where his Grace is, and he Secretary, and supposing me to have the same opinion with his Grace, that I should most certainly have chosen to have communicated it frankly to the person whom it regarded, rather than to those several other persons whom his Grace mentioned, or at least have avowed and communicated it at the same time. I will not detain your Grace longer at present, but will be ready to talk further to your Grace whenever you think proper and whenever you please.
The Duke of Grafton answered:
That it would have been most agreeable to him to have communicated it, but that he was obliged to consider at that time of the going on of the King's affairs.
He then repeated many civil expressions and professions of the same sort with those above mentioned, and proposed to talk further about it at the Council to be held at the Queen's House the next day at half-an-hour after two.
At this second interview Shelburne said:
I think it a pity this thing had not been thought of at first, when Lord Chatham's sentiments upon so important a subject might have been known. I am afraid in his present situation we cannot have his assistance, but as your Grace is so thoroughly convinced that the measure is necessary and useful to the King's affairs, my duty to His Majesty must produce in me a most cheerful acquiescence. Your Grace understands me, however, to mean my continuing in my present office, as I do not choose to take upon me the framing and modelling of this new office. This did not come up to his idea; he desired then that I should take the American part, as the Bedfords cannot be trusted with it on account of different principles, and that it was as well under me, and that he did not like to change it.[2]
