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Rh expressing his regret for his own friends in that country, he continued "to represent to the Prime Minister every time he saw him, that there was not a moment to be lost either in signing the peace or in assuring himself of a competent majority in the House of Commons to support him." Bute was also much perplexed as to the best method of bringing the peace before Parliament, whether to lay the preliminaries before it though not confirmed by a Treaty, or wait for the confirmation, a difficult question involving a discussion of the Treaty-making power in the country, as to which much difference of opinion has existed at all times.

On this and other questions connected with the peace Shelburne was not only consulted by Bute, but was the person through whom the latter corresponded with Fox, then in his retreat on the sea coast. The recent death of Lord Melcombe had just made a great addition to his already enormous fortune, for in 1757 the Duke of Cumberland, as already seen, had induced the King to acknowledge Fox's claims to a recognition of his services, by the grant of a reversion to him and two of his children successively of a sinecure, the Writership of the Tallies and the Clerkship of the Rolls in Ireland, contingent on the death of the actual holder Bubb Dodington, who had since become Lord Melcombe. The two following