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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
On Thursday, Nov. 27th, I received a letter from Mr. Pitt, dated the preceding day, to Lord Sydney, sent me by the latter agreeable to Mr. P.'s desire, stating that a message had been received late the night before from the Prince of Wales desiring the attendance of the Kings confidential servants the next day at two o'clock at Windsor Castle.
I arrived at Windsor a few minutes before two, and walked up from the Inn to the Castle, where I met Lord Sydney, and we went together to the Prince of Waless apartment; there we found the Duke of York and the Lord Chancellor. The Duke of Richmond, Lord Stafford, Lord Chatham, and Mr. Pitt, arrived soon afterwards.
page 121 note 1 W. Grenville writes to the Marquis of Buckingham (Courts and Cabinets, ii 20): “The Prince of Wales has sent a letter to the Chancellor, desiring that all the members of the Cabinet may attend at Windsor to-day; but this I imagine (and indeed his letter conveys it) has no relation to any other subject but to an idea of moving the King to Kew, where he can take the air without being overlooked, as is the. case at Windsor.“
page 121 note 2 Lord Sydney was Secretary of State with Lord Carmarthen.
page 124 note 1 Probably Betham's famous hotel. W. Grenville writes to the Duke of Buckingham on Nov. 28: “The Ministers were all sent for to Windsor yesterday by the Prince, in order to give advice with respect to moving the King. They were detained so late that Pitt went to Salt Hill to sleep there.”
page 124 note 2 See Mem. p. 118, which evidently refers to this dinner.
page 124 note 3 Pepper Arden had been appointed to the office in June 1788.
page 124 note 4 Lord Camden.
page 125 note 1 The Marquis of Stafford, born in 1721, was now sixty-seven years old.
page 125 note 2 December 4, the day to which both Houses of Parliament had been adjourned from the time of their meeting on November 20.
page 126 note 1 W. Grenville to Lord Buckingham, December 2, 1788: “A Privy Council is summoned for tomorrow, to which all the Privy Councillors are summoned, those of the royal family by letters from the Lord President.”
page 126 note 2 William Markham, since 1776.
page 130 note 1 Lord Loughborough held the opinion that the regency passed of right to the Prince of Wales, in opposition to those who held that a regent must be appointed by the Legislature. Lord Loughborough reasserted these principles in the debate of December 11. Fox expressed the same opinion.
page 131 note 1 The Marquis of Stafford.
page 132 note 1 Since June, 1788, Sir John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon. For his conduct in this crisis see Ms life by Twiss, i. 189 foll.
page 136 note 1 Lord Malmesbury had always been a supporter of the Opposition. When he accepted the embassy to the Hague it was understood that he was not expected o t change his party. There is a letter from Fox to him (Diaries, ii. 434), dated November 27, 1788, asking him to return from Switzerland to support the Opposition. Lord Carmarthen was so extremely intimate with him that it is strange that he Bhould have been surprised at his action.
page 136 note 2 This letter is printed at p. 143, from a copy in the Leeds MSS.
page 136 note 3 Better known as Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons.
page 141 note 1 In the interval the King had quite recovered from his illness, and all likelihood of the advent of a Whig Ministry to power under the inflnence of the Prince of Wales had passed away.