luable, as a reward for his complaisance. He was
succeeded by Bute as secretary of state on the 25th.

At the same time Legge, the chancellor of the exchequer, who had refused
to accede to Bute's wishes with regard to two elections, and was much
disliked by the king,[29] was dismissed, and was succeeded by Lord
Barrington, an honest man, with no strong political convictions, who was
always ready to carry out the king's plans. Barrington was succeeded as
secretary-at-war by Charles Townshend, a brilliant wit and orator, "the
delight and ornament" of the house of commons,[30] a reckless and
unstable politician, who was destined to bring evil on his country. A
month earlier, one of Bute's adherents, George Grenville, the treasurer
of the navy, a brother of Earl Temple, lord privy seal, and a
brother-in-law of Pitt, was rewarded by a seat in the cabinet. He had
considerable ability, great aptitude for business, and a thorough
knowledge of parliamentary affairs, was a statesman of unsullied purity,
public-spirited, hard-working and ambitious;[31] he was deficient in
tact, had no generosity of mind, and was harsh, formal, and impatient of
opposition. Newcastle's perfidy increased the ill-feeling between him
and Pitt, against whom the new alliance was avowedly directed,[32] for
at the time that Newcastle sold himself to Bute in order to gain his
support, Pitt was becoming aware that the king was probably about to
oppose his policy with respect to the war. Newcastle was delighted with
the success of his trick, but he soon found that Bute slighted him, and
that his power was going from him, for he was no longer allowed to
control the patronage of the crown.[33] By treating him in this way the
king and Bute kept him subservient. Bute aggravated the division between
the ministers, and used Pitt's colleagues against him in the conflict
which was impending on the question of peace and war. The history of
that conflict is for convenience' sake deferred to the next chapter.

[Sidenote: _THE KING'S MARRIAGE._]

The satisfaction caused by the young king's gracious manners and
respectable life was increased by his marriage. In 1755 his grandfather
had proposed that he should marry a princess of the house of Brunswick,
but abandoned the project in consequence of the opposition of George's
mother. About a year before his accession George fell in love with Lady
Sarah Lennox, a daughter of the late Duke of Richmond and sister-in-law
of Hen