368 Letter 215 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, April 7, 1757.

You will receive letters by this post that will surprise you; I will try to give you a comment to them; an exact explication I don’t know who could give you.  You will receive the orders of’ a new master, Lord Egremont.  I was going on to say that the ministry is again changed, but I cannot say Changed, it is only dismissed—­and here is another inter-ministerium.

The King has never borne Lord Temple,(772) and soon grew displeased with Mr. Pitt:  on Byng’s affair it came to aversion.  It is now given out that both I have mentioned have personally affronted the King.  On the execution, he would not suffer Dr. Hay of the admiralty to be brought into Parliament, though he had lost his seat on coming into his service.  During this squabble negotiations were set on foot between the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Fox, and would have been concluded if either of them would have risked being hanged for the other.  The one most afraid broke off the treaty; need I say it was the Duke?(773 While this was in agitation, it grew necessary for the Duke(774) to go abroad and take the command of the army of observation.  He did not care to be checked there by a hostile ministry at home:  his father was as unwilling to be left in their hands.  The drum was beat for forces; none would list.  However, the change must be made, The day before yesterday Lord Temple was dismissed, with all his admiralty but Boscawen, who was of the former, and with an offer to Mr. Elliot to stay, which he has declined.  The new admirals are Lord Winchelsea, Rowley again, Moyston, Lord Carysfort, Mr. Sandys, and young Hamilton of the board of trade.(775) It was hoped that this disgrace would drive Mr. Pitt and the rest of his friends to resign—­for that very reason they would not.  The time pressed; to-day was fixed for the Duke’s departure, and for the recess of Parliament during the holidays.  Mr. Pitt was dismissed, and Lord Egremont has received the seals to-day.  Mr. Fox has always adhered to being only paymaster; but the impossibility of finding a chancellor of the exchequer, which Lord Duplin of the Newcastle faction, and Doddington of Mr. Fox’s, have refused, has, I think, forced Mr. Fox to resolve to take that post himself.  However, that and every thing else is unsettled, and Mr. Fox is to take nothing till the Inquiries are over.  The Duke of Devonshire remains in the treasury, declaring that it is only for a short time, and till they can fix on somebody else.  The Duke of Newcastle keeps aloof, professing no connexion with Mr. Pitt; Lord Hardwicke is gone into the country for a fortnight.  The stocks fall, the foreign ministers stare; Leicester-house is going to be very angry, and I fear we are going into great confusion.  As I wish Mr. Fox so well, I cannot but lament the undigested rashness of this measure.

Having lost three packet-boats lately, I fear I have missed a letter or two of yours:  I hope this will have better fortune; for, almost unintelligible, as it is, you will want even so awkward a key.