n at his
approaching elevation to the peerage, and his near assumption of the
title by which he is best known in the history of the country, is a
characteristic of that nobility of mind which conferred dignity upon,
rather than derived it from, the station to which he was advanced.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

St. James's Square, Nov. 22nd, 1790.
MY DEAR BROTHER,

I send this by a messenger, in order to lose no time in informing
you that Pitt wrote yesterday to the King, to propose the measure
of my going to the House of Lords, and that he has received His
Majesty's acquiescence, in terms very satisfactory to me. The delay
has been occasioned by a sort of negotiation which has been pending
with the Chancellor for some time past, and which there seemed a
prospect of bringing to a point before the meeting. As the
determination respecting my peerage might possibly have been
affected, one way or the other, by this negotiation, we were
unwilling to decide that question finally till the last moment; but
as that last moment is now arrived, it seemed, after much
deliberation, better to take the step in the present situation of
things, rather than to wait the issue of a business, one event of
which could much have increased the difficulties of the measure
itself.

Pitt is gone to-day to Windsor, to lay before the King the whole of
the transaction, and to explain more fully the motives which have
induced us to wish for my being removed to the House of Lords.
There is no probability that this conversation will alter the full
consent which the King expressed yesterday by letter. If it does
not, it will be necessary that I should kiss hands on Wednesday, in
order to give time, which even that will barely do, for passing my
patent, &c., so as to enable me to take my seat on Friday, which is
the day on which the King makes his speech, and on which the
general Address will be moved in the House of Lords. We mean to fix
a separate day for considering the Convention, and to have a
particular Address upon it. The precise day for this is of course
not yet settled.

This arrangement will necessarily occasion a delay of two or three
days before the writ can be moved in the House of Commons, who do
not proceed to business till the Monday, on account