eturn from
Ireland, and during the existence of the Coalition, naturally enough
made him a special object of suspicion and resentment to the Cabinet. We
find him, in his letter to Mr. Cuff, stating that his attention has been
wholly engrossed by the anxious state of public business, and the
memoirs of the period show in the results how powerfully he contributed
to the overthrow of that ministerial combination, which he had denounced
as unnatural and infamous. But the details of his services to the King
throughout this harassing crisis have never found their way into
history; nor is it now possible, from their secret and confidential
nature, to trace them in full. The disclosures, however, which may be
gleaned from the few letters that passed to and from Lord Temple at this
period, sufficiently prove that the King trusted all along to his
counsel and support, and acted altogether on his advice. There was so
much hazard in committing opinions and suggestions to so unsafe a medium
as that of correspondence, that we can look but for scanty revelations
in the papers which have been preserved. It appears that Lord Temple
conducted his proceedings in reference to the struggle between the King
and his Ministers chiefly by means of personal interviews and detached
memoranda of his views, intended only to assist the memory in
conversation, and torn up as soon as used. Lord Thurlow was sometimes
employed by his Majesty as an agent on these occasions, and through him,
probably to avert suspicion from the real quarter on which his Majesty
relied, the intercourse with Lord Temple and his friends was
occasionally carried on.

From the commencement to the close of the brief tenure of the Coalition,
his Majesty held aloof from his Ministers; and it was not till the
opening of the Session, on the 11th of November, that an opportunity was
presented for acting effectively upon his determination to get rid of
them as soon as he could. During the interval that had elapsed since the
prorogation of Parliament in the preceding July, they prepared their
measures; but, from the want of co-operation and confidence on the part
of the Sovereign, the precise character of their policy was a matter of
speculation outside the Cabinet. His Majesty either did not, or would
not, know the course they intended to pursue; and it is evident, from
subsequent circumstances, that the plan of operations for relieving him
of their presence was kept in suspense, wai