were  summarily  dismissed  from  the  Lord-Lieutenancies  of  their
respective  counties.  The  Duke  of  Devonshire,  with  proper
spirit,  insisted  on  sharing  the  honourable  disgrace  of  his  friends,
and  placed  the  Lord- Lieutenancy  of  Derbyshire  at  the  disposal
of  the  Government.  Every  post  where  a  Whig  had  been  draw-
ing salary,  or  exercising  authority,  was  now  filled  by  a  young
Tory  or  an  old  Jacobite.  It  was  said  in  the  newspapers  that
Bute  had  turned  out  everybody  whom  the  Duke  of  Newcastle
had  helped  to  bring  in,  except  the  King.
"Whenever  his  cold-blooded  rigour  flagged.  Fox  was  hounded
on  to  his  prey  by  his  relentless  and  rapacious  colleagues.  "Be-
fore another  question  comes,"  said  Lord  Shelburne,  "let  the
213  taste  some  of  the  plunder  of  the  74."  Bute,  paraphrasing
in  a  clumsy  sentence  the  concise  wish  of  the  Roman  t}Tant,
expressed  a  hope  that  "everything  the  King  detests  will  be
gathered  into  one  ostensible  heap,  and  formed  either  to  be
destroyed  by  him,  or,  by  getting  the  better,  to  lead  him  in
chains."  Rigby,  the  worst  of  the  graceless  clique  who  lived
upon  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  influence  and  reputation,  boasted
to  his  patron  of  the  share  which  he  had  in  encouraging  Fox  to
make  a  clean  sweep  of  the  public  offices.  The  Court  was  be-
side itself  with  glee ;  and  the  Princess  Royal,  glad  at  heart  for
Bute,  but  affecting  to  rejoice  because  her  son  was  at  length
King  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  led  the  chorus  of  jubilation.
