Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/117

Rh "Your Lordship must be Minister, and he explain the measures; Fox, Oswald, &c., support him in the House with as much vigour as possible. Mr. Fox by this measure brings no odium. He is still Paymaster, does not appear in affairs, and only supports one gold Box against another. Fox, whose character is whole in dealing with particulars, and much depended on, and some others—Oswald suppose—must be the people to persuade the timid Legge to this Measure. If this is brought about, I should imagine all would be well, the House of Commons being the present great object, the rest depending on your Lordship. If the Duke of Newcastle choose to go out, you, if you did not choose to succeed him yourself, could put Lord Hardwicke in his place. As to the Idea of your Lordship confining yourself to your Department, I should conceive it to the last degree absolutely impossible, nor can I conceive Mr. Pitt ever to be in office in your Lordship's time. In either of these cases, upon your own account, I should rather wish to see you retired from affairs, which I should be sorry to see on account of the public."

The above proposal, however, did not find favour in the eyes of Fox. He wished Lady Caroline to be made a Peeress immediately, and professing to conceive that a general support of the Ministry was tantamount to a half-opposition, he wrote in reply to Shelburne:

"The more I think of the sort of half-Opposition mentioned, the more I think it impracticable and merely imaginary.

"To resign and oppose thoroughly, I understand and may be forced to it, but will avoid it if I can with honour. If I cannot avoid it with honour, I will get as much honour as I can by it.

"But why should I be forced to it? What I ask is not in your opinion enough, nor in mine; so far is it from being too much.

"A like favour to Lady Hester was done the day