Still did the same grievance remain, the favour and secret power of Lord Bute. Grenville and Lord Halifax insisted that he should go abroad; and it was said to be promised. At least his refusal, or breach of promise, was made the pretence for depriving him of the custody of the King’s Privy-purse, an office he yet retained. The nomination of a successor showed how little the ministers had gained, and how vainly they endeavoured to destroy his credit, the Purse being immediately given to Sir William Breton, who was Groom of the Bedchamber to the King, as he had been to the King’s father, and who was a most devoted tool of the Princess and her favourite. A stronger proof of the latter’s confidence in his own power was given by himself. George Grenville having written a very voluminous letter to Sir John Phillips, giving an account of the negotiation with Mr. Pitt and its miscarriage, of which letter the King had seen and approved every paragraph, Sir John wrote a warm expostulation to Lord Bute (who he did not know had been concerned in that treaty), blaming the timidity of sending for Mr. Pitt. Lord Bute returned a haughty answer, in which he said, _whatever the ministers might think, they should find he himself was minister still_. A memorable sentence, confirmed by facts, and of which the contrary assertion was vainly attempted afterwards to be imposed upon the world.
The mysteries of this man’s conduct, and the reserve and eccentric starts of Mr. Pitt, have made any lights valuable that can be thrown on this part of our history. Mr. Pitt’s was the character suited to support and colour over the pusillanimity of the Favourite, but his jealousy and their mutual pride threw them at a distance. The affair of Lord George Sackville, who was attached to Lord Bute, and proscribed by Pitt in compliment to Prince Ferdinand, had given the finishing stroke to their rupture; hastened too, by that very attachment of Mr. Pitt to the foreign house of Brunswick. Nor, with all the disposition of Pitt to forgive the Favourite’s offences, could they meet again, while Lord Temple hung upon his brother-in-law, and was the _sine quâ non_ of Mr. Pitt’s return to Court. On every occasion of moment appeared the justness of the character drawn of Lord Bute by the late Prince of Wales, who did not want parts, nor ill-nature to sharpen those parts, nor insolence to utter what either of them dictated. Growing tired of Lord Bute a little before his death, he said to him, “Bute, you would make an excellent ambassador in some proud little Court where there is nothing to do.” It had been happy for England, and for Lord Bute too, if the Prince could have made that destination of him--I mean, without living to execute it himself.