Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/376

 Thynne 2nd edit. iv. 371 n.) Edmund Burke referred to Weymouth at this time as 'a genteel man and of excellent natural sense' (Corresp. 1844, i. 75); Walpole dismisses him as 'an inconsiderable, debauched young man attached to the Bedfords' (Memoirs of George III, ed. Barker, ii. 126, 127).

Weymouth, however, soon began to make his mark as a speaker in the House of Lords. In May 1766 he made an effective attack on the proposed window tax; and when Chatham returned to power the Bedfords urged his claims to office. The negotiations for the time fell through. Weymouth remained in opposition for another year. On 27 Nov. 1767 he gave notice of a motion to inquire into the state of the nation, to avoid which the house was adjourned. Meanwhile the Bedfords had made it a condition of their support of the Duke of Grafton 'that Weymouth should divide the secretary's place with Shelburne,' and on 20 Jan. 1768 he was appointed to the northern department. Weymouth's appointment to an important office brought about no change in his habits. He continued to sit up all night drinking and gaming at White's or Brooks's, and left most of the official business to be managed by Wood, the under-secretary. In parliament, however, he frequently made brief but able speeches. He declared against interference in favour of Corsica, on the ground that while England retained her naval superiority France could never hinder her entrance into Mediterranean ports (, Shelburne, ii. 124). He also gave great satisfaction to the king, and in August was described to Grenville as one of the oracles of the court. The king's favour was largely due to the vigour with which he acted during the Wilkes riots. On 17 April he wrote to Ponton, chairman of the Southwark quarter sessions, that he was not to hesitate to apply for a military force, which he would find 'ready to march to his assistance and to act according as he shall find it expedient and necessary.' This letter somehow came into the possession of Wilkes, who published it on 8 Dec. 1768 in the 'St. James's Chronicle,' with a prefatory note, in which he said: 'The date, prior by more than three weeks to the fatal tenth of May [when the soldiery fired on the mob in St. Giles's Fields], shows how long the design had been planned before it was carried into execution.' Weymouth complained of the comment as a breach of privilege, and the lords declared it a scandalous and seditious libel; but the matter was ultimately taken up by the House of Commons. When Wilkes appeared at their bar on 2 Feb. 1769, he not only avowed the publication, but declared his object to have been to 'forward the impeachment of the noble lord' who wrote 'that bloody scroll.' He was expelled the house (, Memoirs of Wilkes, iii. 273 n., 298). In 'Junius's' first letter Weymouth is ironically complimented on his action, which was prompted by 'the deliberate motion of his heart, sup- ported by the best of his judgment.' The king's correspondence with him during April and May shows that Weymouth was acting almost under his personal direction (cf., Memoirs of George III).

On the resignation of Shelburne, in October 1768, Weymouth was transferred to the southern department, an arrangement which provoked the scorn of 'Junius,' as his new colleague, Rochford, had much better qualifications for it [see Zuylestein, William Henry (1717-1781) (DNB00), fourth ]. He held office till the close of 1770. He concluded an arrangement with the East India Company in 1769, one condition of which was a restriction of their dividends, a measure against which he had signed a protest the year before (, Memoirs of George III, iii. 111); and he made the first attempt to obtain for the crown some control over the political affairs of the company (Ann. Reg. 1769, p. 54; Vox Populi, Vox Dei: Lord Weymouth's Appeal to a General Court of India Proprietors considered). Relations with France and Spain were in a very strained condition in 1769-70, and Weymouth, says Walpole, 'was not apt to avoid hostile measures.' A French ship entering an English harbour and refusing to lower her pennant was fired at, and France threatened reprisals. Weymouth sent a vigorous reply, which Walpole insinuated was penned by his under-secretary with the view of lowering the stocks.

No sooner had this affair blown over than a dispute arose with Spain as to the possession of the Falkland Islands. In September 1770 news came that the governor of Buenos Ayres had driven out the British settlers in Port Egmont. On 22 Nov., when the Duke of Richmond moved for papers bearing on the question, Weymouth resisted the motion as inopportune pending the negotiations. (Parl. Hist. xvi. 1082 et seq.) Weymouth demanded from the Spanish government the disavowal of the action of the governor of Buenos Ayres and the restitution of the settlers, and, when this was conceded, refused to agree to a convention under which the question of the claim to the islands was reserved (cf. George III to Lord North, 22 Nov. 1770, to Weymouth 21 Nov.) At the end of the year war appeared highly probable. The question was complicated by