George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition., Chapter 8: , page 141

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chap. VIII.} 1763. Aug.

of Bedford² on the other.

The anger of Bedford towards Bute, for having Aug. communicated to the French minister the instructions given him during his embassy, had ripened into a stiff, irrevocable hatred. He was therefore willing to enter the ministry³ on condition of Bute's absence from the king's counsels and presence, and Pitt's concurrence in a coalition of parties and the maintenance of the present relations with France.⁴ Pitt was willing to treat,⁵ had no objection to a coalition of parties, and could not but acquiesce in the peace, now that it was once made; but Bedford had been his strongest opponent in the cabinet, had contributed to force him into retirement, and had negotiated the treaty which he had so earnestly arraigned. For Pitt to have accepted office with Bedford would have been a marked adoption of the peace, alike glaringly inconsistent with his declared opinions and his engagements with the great Whig families⁶ in opposition. So ended the attempt to supersede Egremont by Pitt, with Bedford in the vacant chair of President of the Council.

For a day or two the king hesitated, and had to endure the very long and tedious speeches of Grenville

1 Calcraft to Lord Temple, 10 August, and Temple to Calcraft, 12 August, 1763, in the Grenville Papers, II. 90, 91.

2 Geo. Grenville's Diary, in Grenrille Papers, II. 204.

3 Note by Grenville to his Diary, in Grenville Papers, II. 204.

4 Bedford Papers in Wiffen's Memoirs of the House of Russell, II. 526, 527. The paper here cited by Wiffen seems not to be printed in the Bedford Correspondence.

5 Grenville's Diary, in Grenville Papers, II. 204.

6 Rigby to the Duke of Bedford, 15 August, 1763, in Wiffen, II. 527, and Bedford Cor., II. 236.

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860.

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George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

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chap. VIII.} 1763. Aug.