Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/126

Grenville iv 8), the statutes of the order received the royal signature on 28 Feb., and the first chapter was held by Temple on 11 March 1783 when he invested himself grand master. Shelburne resigned on 24 Feb. 1783 and early in March Temple determined to follow his example. Owing, however, to the ministerial interregnum and the delay in appointing as his successor Lord Northington, Temple did not leave Ireland until early in June. During the short time that he was in office he introduced several economical reforms into the administrative department, and was successful in punishing several cases of official peculation. The proposed scheme for establishing a colony of emigrants from Geneva at Passage, co. Waterford, subsequently tell to the ground (, Historical Review, ii. pt. i. 23-7). Upon his return to England Temple was frequently consulted by the king on the question how he was to get rid of the coalition ministry. In the debate on the address at the opening of parliament in November 1783, Temple denounced the ministry (Parliamentary Hist. xxiii. 1127-30). Upon the introduction of Fox's East India Bill into the House of Lords on 9 Dec. following, he seized ‘the first opportunity of entering his solemn protest against so infamous a bill’ (ib. xxiv. 123). On the 11th he was authorised by the king to oppose the bill in his name, and at the same time was given a letter in which it was stated that ‘his majesty allowed Earl Temple to say that whoever voted for the India Bill were not only not his friends, but he should consider them as his enemies. And if these words were not strong enough, Earl Temple might use whatever words he might deem stronger, or more to the purpose’ (ib. xxiv. 207). This famous interview is spiritedly described in ‘The Rolliad' (1799, p. 123), in the lines commencing thus :

On the great day, when Buckingham by pairs Ascended, Heaven impell'd, the k—'s back-stairs ; And panting breathless, strain'd his lungs to show From Fox's bill what mighty ills would flow.

In consequence of this unconstitutional proceeding the bill was thrown out by a majority of nineteen. On the 19th Temple was appointed a secretary of state, while Pitt was charged with the formation of a new ministry. On the 22nd Temple suddenly resigned the seals. The real reason of his resignation is obscure. According to some it was because he had been refused a dukedom ; according to others, because Pitt resisted his proposal of an immediate dissolution. The reason publicly given in the House of Commons was that ‘he might not be supposed to make his situation as minister stand in the way of, or serve as a protection or shelter from, inquiry and from justice’ (ib. xxiv. 238), a resolution having been passed in the House of Commons declaring that the circulation of the opinion of the king ‘upon any bill or other proceeding depending in either house of parliament, with a view to influence the votes of members, was a high crime and misdemeanour.’ On 4 Dec. 1784 Temple was created Marquis of Buckingham, and on 2 June 1786 was elected and invested a knight of the Garter, being installed by dispensation on 29 May 1801. Buckingham was again appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland on 2 Nov. 1787 (in the place of the Duke of Rutland, who had died in the previous month), and arrived at Dublin on 16 Dec. On the death of his father-in-law on 14 Oct. 1788, he succeeded to the Irish earldom of Nugent, in accordance with the limitation in the patent. On 6 Feb. 1789, during the debate on the address, Grattan entered a protest against ‘the expensive genius of the Marquis of Buckingham in the management of the public money’ (, Speeches, ii. 100). In consequence of Buckingham's refusal to transmit the address of the two houses of parliament to the Prince of Wales, desiring him to exercise the royal authority during the king's illness, votes of censure were passed on the lord-lieutenant in both houses. On the recovery of the king, Buckingham dismissed from office many of those who had opposed the government on the regency question, and in order to strengthen his administration resorted to a system of wholesale corruption. Buckingham had now become very unpopular, and his health beginning to give way he resigned office on 30 Sept. 1789, and returned to England in the following month. After his return from Ireland Buckingham practically retired from political life, and took but little part in the debates in the House of Lords. On 14 March 1794 he received the rank of colonel in the army (during service), and during the insurrection of 1798 served in Ireland as colonel of the Buckinghamshire militia regiment. In moving the address to the House of Lords on 24 Sept. 1799, Buckingham spoke strongly in favour of the proposed union with Ireland, being ‘confident that the happiest effects would result from it’ (, Historical Review, ii. pt. ii. 978). He died at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, on 11 Feb. 1813, aged 59, and was buried at Wotton. Buckingham was a man of considerable industry and some financial ability ; but his overbearing manner, his excessive pride, and his extreme proneness to take offence unfitted him for political life. Horace Walpole describes him as having