Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/34

26 town, Co. Antrim, to the Irish House of Commons, and early in 1783 he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain under the title of Baron Rawdon of Rawdon, Co. York; but beyond speaking against Fox's India Bill in December, he appears during four years to have taken little part in politics. Meantime he became warmly attached to the Prince of Wales and to his cause; he gradually estranged himself from Pitt, whose party he had at first supported, and in 1787 he openly joined the opposition. He was certainly ambitious, and dreamt of power, but he also sought and stipulated for independence, and he endeavoured to make a position for himself, with a party of his own, by coming prominently forward to advocate the interests of the Prince on the Regency question. The recovery of the King, early in 1789, frustrated the hopes he entertained, and he does not appear again in political life until 1797. He still, however, took an interest in some public questions, and, in 1793, attempted unsuccessfully to alter the harsh laws then prevailing against insolvent debtors.

On account of his intimacy with the Prince of Wales and his brothers, and it is stated by some, at the personal request of the King, he acted as second to the Duke of York in the duel which took place between the latter and Colonel Lennox (afterwards Duke of Richmond), in May, 1789. He maintained afterwards that having delayed the signal, he rendered Lennox's aim unsteady, and thus saved the