Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/68

42 castle, so much his inferior in point of understanding, and every kind of capacity except cunning, could never stand a French war. On this point they were perfectly agreed, and required little or no co-operation, for war naturally makes itself, if there is no trouble taken to prevent it: and this I take to be the real cause of the war of 1755.

"Immediately upon Mr. Pelham's death three parties made their appearance, and there happened to be just as many courts. The Duke of Newcastle's party, of course, remained out of all comparison the most numerous, the most powerful and dignified. They were besides in possession. But Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt had risen to great consideration; the one educated under Sir Robert Walpole and brought up in all the principles of that school, or rather in a still worse, that of Lord Hervey and Mr. Winnington, men remarkable for their profligacy, their debauchery—which was supposed to exceed the common bounds—and their total contempt and disregard of all principle; they were supposed to have given Sir Robert Walpole great trouble before they quitted by their unreasonable pretensions and interested demands. The other, Mr. Pitt, was bred in the Opposition and more particularly in 's House, which was a school which commonly went by the name of Cobham's cubs, consisting of Pitt, Lyttleton and the Grenvilles, to which many men of promising talents attached themselves, such as Mr. Potter, Wilkes, &c.—Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox were just begun to be balanced and played against each other by Mr. Pelham, of whom they both agreed to me in one character, and gave several instances of the cunning and duplicity of the two brothers which I cannot recollect. Mr. Pitt told me that Mr. Pelham used to send for him when they quarrelled, which they perpetually did, to negotiate between them, and went so far as to press him to be Secretary of State, in the room of his brother, without the smallest meaning or sincerity whatever. Upon Mr. Pelham's death the Duke of Newcastle brought