Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/308

 communications with the king through Lord Eldon, Pitt was again requested to form a cabinet. Pitt first proposed a strong coalition cabinet, in which he was to be chancellor of the exchemier and first lord of the treasury; Dundas, Fox, and Lord Fitzwilliam, secretaries of state; Lord Grenville, lord president; and the Duke of Portland, lord privy seal; but the king's objection to Fox caused this scheme to fail, and Pitt had to take office with only his own personal friends and a very small majority; the duke continued to hold the office of lord president of the council. He had imbibed some of his eldest son's warm personal attachment to Pitt, and did all he could to relieve the prime minister's difficulties. Lord Titchfield and George Canning had married sisters, the two daughters and heiresses of the successful gambler, General Scott, and they had become very intimate friends; Lord Titchfield caught Canning's enthusiastic feelings for Pitt, and his enthusiasm reacted on the old duke. When, therefore, Pitt desired to find a place in his cabinet for Addington, who was also made Lord Sidmouth, the Duke of Portland readily consented to surrender his place to him. 'The Duke of Portland agrees to remain in the cabinet without office. Nothing could be kinder or handsomer than his whole conduct' (Pitt to Sidmouth, 's Life of Pitt, iv. 249). When Pitt died, and the ministry of All the Talents came into office, the duke gladly retired to Bulstrode. He was now growing an old man, and suffered very much much from the gout, and he naturally hoped for a peaceful old age. But this was not to be. The ministry of all the Talents made mistake after mistake, and in 1807 Pitt's old friends were again called to power. The difficulty was to find a prime minister under whom such rival spirits as Canning and Lord Castlereagh would consent to serve. The only fit man was the old Duke of Portland, and he, very unwillingly, from a his sense of public duty accepted the burden.

The last premiership of the Duke of Portland, from 1807 to 1809, is by no means the brightest period of his political career. He was old and feeble, and unequal to his great duties. Owing to his incapacity for work, the real power of government fell to Castlereagh and Canning. The expedition to Copenhagen, the failure at Walcheren, the victories of Vimeiro and Talavera, and the convention of Cintra, all occurred in this last premiership; but the prime minister hardly deserves either the praise or blame. Still less was he responsible for the dissensions in his cabinet. Castlereagh and Canning could not agree. The duke was afraid to accept Canning's resignation, and promised to dismiss Lord Castlereagh, but he was equally afraid of dismissing Castlereagh, and so procrastinated. The inevitable discovery was made by Castlereagh of what had been going on; the famous duel took place between Canning and Castlereagh on Wimbledon common, and both statesmen resigned. This blow killed the old duke; his health had for months been so bad that he was unable to attend to any details of business ; in October 1809 he insisted on resigning, and on 30 Nov. 1809 he died at Bulstrode.

Few statesmen have suffered more obloquy than the Duke of Portland. He was not a great man, and was a very poor orator, but he deserves to be remembered rather for his administration of the home department from 1794 to 1801 than for his two premierships. In his home secretaryship he showed himself a good administrator, tolerant in his exercise of great and extraordinary powers, careful in details, and yet not wanting in broad statesmanlike views. In private life he was in every way admirable.

 BENTINCK-SCOTT, WILLIAM JOHN CAVENDISH, fifth (1800–1879), son of William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, the fourth duke, who, by royal license dated 5 Sept. 1705, was authorised to assume the additional final surname of Scott, by Henrietta, eldest daughter and coheir of Major-general John Scott of Balcomie in the county of Fife, was born 17 Sept. 1800. By the death of his elder brother, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (4 March 1824) he succeeded to the title of manquis of Titchfield, and to the seat of the late marquis in parliament as member for the borough of King's Lynn, being returned on the 19th of the 