f the whigs who acknowledged the Duke of Cumberland as their
head. Newcastle proposed that a vote of L2,000,000 should be asked for,
L1,000,000 as usual for the German war and L1,000,000 for the war in
Portugal. Bute and Grenville maintained that only L1,000,000 was wanted.
That, he said, implied the abandonment of the German war. The question
was decided against him in a cabinet meeting on May 4. Bitterly as he
felt this defeat on a matter concerning his own office, the treasury, he
would not do more than threaten to resign, and found an excuse for
retaining office for the present. George and Bute were determined that
he should go; George was ungracious, Bute uncivil. His friends urged him
to resign. At last he brought himself to the point and resigned on the
25th.[56]

[Sidenote: _BUTE'S ADMINISTRATION._]

On his resignation the king spoke kindly to the old man, as indeed he
well might, for the duke had spent a long life and a vast fortune in the
service of his house; he had, it is said, reduced his income from
L25,000 to L6,000 a year in securing support for government by means
which, whatever we may esteem them now, were then considered becoming to
a man of his wealth and station. George pressed him to accept a pension.
He refused, declaring that the gracious sense which the king expressed
of the sacrifices he had made for his royal house was all the recompense
he desired.[57] If Pitt's acceptance of rewards needs no defence,
Newcastle's refusal of them demands admiration. Bute succeeded him as
first lord of the treasury. Several other changes were made in the
administration. George Grenville became secretary of state in Bute's
place, and Sir Francis Dashwood chancellor of the exchequer in
succession to Barrington, who took Grenville's office as treasurer of
the navy. Dashwood was utterly ignorant of the rudiments of finance, and
was scandalously immoral; his house, Medmenham abbey, was the
meeting-place of the Hell-fire club, of which he was the founder, and he
took a foremost part in the childish mummery, the debauchery, and
blasphemy of the "Franciscans," as his companions called themselves.
Lord Halifax, a man of popular manners, loose morals, and small ability,
succeeded Anson at the admiralty; Henley remained lord chancellor,
Bedford privy seal, and Fox paymaster. Devonshire had ceased to attend
meetings of the cabinet but was still lord chamberlain. The king and
Bute had won a signal success; the whig admini