to his opinion. Still the two
friends took counsel together on this important affair. In a letter
from Doddington to Bute, which was written in December, he advises "that
nothing be done that can be justly imputed to precipitation; nothing
delayed that can be imputed to fear." He adds: "Remember, my noble and
generous friend, that to recover monarchy from the inveterate usurpation
of oligarchy, is a point too arduous and important to be achieved
without much difficulty, and some degree of danger; though none but what
attentive moderation and unalterable firmness will certainly surmount."

In his career of ambition, Bute, who was "better fitted to perform
Lothario on the stage," than to act as secretary of state, paid small
regard to danger, but kept his eye fixed steadily on the point he had
in view. In January, he told Doddington that "Mr. Pitt meditated a
retreat;" and in the same month Doddington writes to him--"If the
intelligence they bring me be true, Mr. Pitt goes down fast in the city,
and faster at this end of the town: they add, you rise daily. This may
not be true; but if he sinks, you will observe that his system sinks
with him, and that there is nothing to replace it but recalling the
troops and leaving Hanover in deposit." Again, on the 6th of February,
Lord Bute declared, that it was easy to make the Duke of Newcastle
resign, but at the same time he expressed a doubt as to the expediency
of beginning in that quarter. Doddington replied, that he saw no
objection to this step; and that if Bute thought there was, he might put
it into hands that would resign it to him when he thought proper to take
it. But Bute was not disposed to try the duke too much, nor to risk
too bold a leap at once: so all ill humours were concealed under a fair
surface.

Had Earl Bute taken any decisive step thus early in the reign of the new
king, it would probably have exposed him to public derision and scorn.
At this time the old system seemed to please everybody; and among the
supplies voted by the House of Commons, none were more freely granted
than the continental subsidies, and especially that of L670,000 to
the King of Prussia. His victory at Torgau, which subjected all
Saxony--Dresden excepted--to his power, was made known in England just
before the meeting of parliament, and it had the effect of raising him
high in the public favour of the people of England. Nor was it less
advantageous to him on the Continent. His victory,