Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/272

 resumed the lead of the House of Commons as secretary of state for the northern department, while Newcastle returned to the treasury, bringing his brute votes with him (June 1757). Pitt's ascendency established, Newcastle found himself reduced to the same position of impotence which he had occupied under Walpole. On the accession of George III, he adopted the peace policy of Lord Bute [see, third ], who succeeded Lord Holderness as secretary of state for the northern department, and carried the majority of the ministers with him. Pitt, however, was no sooner out of office than the new ministers blundered into the very war with Spain which Pitt had sought to precipitate [see ]. Newcastle, who had hoped on Pitt's resignation to regain his old ascendency, found that he had only played jackal to Bute's lion, and veered round to the policy of continuing the war in Germany. He was accordingly driven out of office by an accumulation of studied slights, or positive indignities. When at length he tendered his resignation the king expressed neither surprise nor regret, but only spoke of filling up his place. Clinging to office with ignominious tenacity, he condescended to procure Lord Mansfield's ‘intercession’ with the favourite. Bute, however, was inexorable, and on 26 May 1762 Newcastle parted with the seals. He refused a pension, but was created (4 May) Baron Pelham of Stanmer, with remainder to his cousin, Thomas Pelham (afterwards first Earl of Chichester) [q. v.] Bute's ironical congratulations on his attainment of the peace befitting his advanced years elicited from him a flash of spirit worthy of a competent minister. ‘Cardinal Fleury,’ he replied, ‘began to be prime minister of France just at my age.’ Bute's hostility pursued him in his retirement; he was dismissed from his lord-lieutenancies and the stewardship of Sherwood Forest and Folewood Park. All who had received offices from him were cashiered. In face of this proscription his adherents melted away. The bishops, most of whom had received preferment from him, and had been conspicuous by their obsequiousness at his levees, fell from him almost to a man. ‘Even fathers in God,’ he wittily observed, ‘sometimes forget their maker.’ Newcastle closed his political career as lord privy seal in Lord Rockingham's administration, July 1765–August 1766. During this period he was one of the most earnest advocates of the repeal of the Stamp Act. Early in 1768 Newcastle had a paralytic stroke, after which he sank gradually, and died the same year (17 Nov.) at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. His remains were interred in the chancel of the parish church at Laughton, Sussex. His duchess survived until 17 July 1776, and was also buried at Laughton. Newcastle left no issue; and, except the dukedom of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the barony of Pelham of Stanmer, which devolved according to their limitations, his honours became extinct [see, ninth and second , and , first ].

By the acknowledgment of his bitter foe, Horace Walpole, Newcastle's person was not naturally despicable (Memoirs of the Reign of George II, ed. Lord Holland, i. 162), and probably he was less ridiculous in real life than he appears in Walpole's pages. It is evident, however, that he was nervous and pompous, always in a hurry, and always behindhand; ignorant of common things, and not learned in any sense. He is said to have earnestly besought Lord Chesterfield to let the calendar alone; to have discovered with surprise, after its conquest, that Cape Breton was an island; and to have been convinced of the strategic importance of Annapolis before he knew its latitude and longitude. His name is associated with no great legislative measure; and, though in abandoning Walpole's policy of non-intervention he was indubitably right, he evinced none of the qualities essential to a great minister of foreign affairs. The Spanish war he neglected, and the continental war he mismanaged. Had Carteret's counsels prevailed in 1743, peace might have been secured, at least for a time. Had Newcastle's counsels prevailed in 1748, the war must have been protracted to no purpose. His change of front in 1762 was probably due to mere personal pique; and, indeed, throughout his career a morbid vanity and immoderate love of place and power made him jealous, suspicious of his colleagues, fretful, and faithless.

On the other hand, he undoubtedly was, according to the standard of his age, an honest politician; and, while profuse in secret-service expenditure, kept his own hands clean, and died 300,000l. the poorer for nearly half a century of official life. Newcastle was a devout churchman, a patron of men of letters (cf., Claremont, and Congreve's ‘Dedication’ prefixed to Tonson's 12th edition of Dryden's Plays, 1717), a placable foe, an easy landlord, a kind master, and a genial host. The fame of the Homeric banquets with which he used to regale his tenantry and dependents survived in Sussex until the present century. His portrait, by William