Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/207

 Dunk a later period Halifax twice resigned (in June 1756 and again in June 1757), and on both occasions the ground of his resignation was that he had not been promoted to the dignity of secretary of state for the West Indies. Cumberland allows that his patron threw up his place, alleging a ‘breach of promise on the part of the Duke of Newcastle to give him the seals and a seat in the cabinet as secretary of state for the colonies,’ but adds that he resumed his old position ‘upon slight concessions’ from the duke. During these negotiations Halifax behaved ‘with sense and dignity,’ and it is to his credit for independence that he pleaded in his place in the House of Lords for the unhappy Admiral Byng. In October 1757 he was admitted to the cabinet, and with this honour remained at the head of the board of trade until 21 March 1761. He was then nominated to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, and assumed the duties of his new position on his arrival at Dublin in October 1761, in company with W. G. Hamilton (‘Single-speech Hamilton’) as his chief secretary, and Richard Cumberland as his Ulster secretary. In February of the following year the Irish parliament raised the viceroy's allowance from 12,000l. to 16,000l. per annum, whereupon Halifax accepted the increased emolument for his successors, but declined to receive it himself, although his pecuniary affairs were already involved, and his expenditure of 2,000l. a year while in Ireland led to greater embarrassments. Through his popularity with the merchants he was created first lord of the admiralty in June 1762, and allowed to retain the viceroyalty of Ireland for a year from that date. Before that time expired he became secretary of state for the North in Lord Bute's administration (October 1762), and when Bute was succeeded by George Grenville (April 1763), the seals of secretaryship continued in Halifax's hands. His position was further strengthened by an intimation to the foreign ministers that the king had now entrusted the direction of his government to Grenville and the two secretaries, Lords Egremont and Halifax. The three ministers were at once christened the triumvirate, and their characters were immediately criticised by their contemporaries in politics. One onlooker deemed Egremont incapable, but assigned to Halifax ‘parts, application, and personal disinterestedness.’ Another considered Halifax the weakest but the most amiable of the set, praising the readiness, and condemning the substance of his speeches, while adding that his profusion ‘in building, planting, and on a favourite mistress’ had made him poor, and that he sought to recover himself ‘by discreditable means.’ The troubles with Wilkes had already commenced. Halifax, acting on the advice of Edward Weston, then under-secretary of state, signed a general warrant against Wilkes. He was arrested on 30 April 1763, and carried to the house of Halifax, where he was examined by the two secretaries of state. On 6 May he was discharged by the unanimous order of the judges, and without any delay rushed into controversy with the two ministers, endeavouring, though in vain, to obtain warrants for searching their houses. Halifax tried every means to escape from the attacks of Wilkes and the other victims of the warrant—the ‘mazes of essoigns, privileges, and fines, ordinary and extraordinary,’ in which the minister involved himself are set out in the ‘Grenville Papers,’ ii. 427—but without success, for Beardmore recovered 1,500l. damages in 1764, and the jury awarded to Wilkes in November 1769 damages amounting to 4,000l. In August 1763, when Pitt was called upon to form an administration, the king suggested Halifax as the head of the treasury. Pitt instantly refused, with the remark that ‘he was a pretty man, and as in bad circumstances might be groom of the stole or paymaster.’ The Grenville ministry dragged on its course until July 1765, when Halifax and his friends were dismissed. In the following December overtures were tendered to him by the new government, but he remained out of office until the formation of his nephew Lord North's administration, in January 1770, when he received the dignified place of lord privy seal. Exactly a year later he was transferred to the more laborious duties of secretary of state, although George III, in writing to Lord North, said: ‘Had I been in his situation and of his age, I should have preferred his motto, otium cum dignitate;’ and Horace Walpole, in surprise at the appointment, wrote: ‘He knew nothing, was too old to learn, and too sottish and too proud to suspect what he wanted.’ The rapid decay of his faculties would not have permitted him to continue long in that arduous position, but he died in harness on 8 June 1771, when the king expressed his sorrow ‘at the loss of so amiable a man.’ A monument by Bacon to his memory was erected in the west aisle of Westminster Abbey. At the time of his death he was secretary of state for the northern department, ranger and warden of Salcey Forest and Bushey Park, lord-lieutenant of Northamptonshire (to which he was appointed in November 1749), privy councillor (created 11 Jan. 1749), and knight of the Garter (23 April 1764). Langhorne inscribed to him in 1762 a poem called ‘The Viceroy,’ in praise