Americans were in active rebellion; it could not be blinked. He
praised Chatham while he opposed him. He was 'fighting for his own
hand.' Ministers felt the advantage of his aid; they knew his
unscrupulous versatility, and in November 1775 bought Lyttelton with
a lucrative sinecure--the post of Chief Justice of Eyre beyond the
Trent. Coulton calls the place 'honourable;' we take another view.
Lyttelton was bought and sold, but no one deemed Lyttelton a person
of scrupulous conscience.

The public prospects darkened, folly was heaped on folly, blunder on
blunder, defeat on defeat. On April 24, 1779, Horace Walpole says
that Lord Lyttelton 'has again turned against the Court on obtaining
the Seals'* November 25, 1779, saw Lyttelton go boldly into
Opposition. He reviewed the whole state of the empire. He poured
out a torrent of invective. As to his sinecure, he said, 'Perhaps
he might not keep it long.' 'The noble Lords smile at what I say!'

*Is this a slip, or misprint, for 'on NOT obtaining the Seals'?

They need not have smiled. He spoke on Thursday, November 25; on
Saturday, November 27, the place in Eyre was vacant, and Lord
Lyttelton was a dead man.

The reader will keep in mind these dates. On Thursday, November 25,
1779, the first day of the session, Lyttelton overflows in a
volcanic speech against the Court. He announces that his place may
soon be vacant. At midnight on November 27 he is dead.

On all this, and on the story of the ghostly 'warning' to Lord
Lyttelton, delivered in the night of Wednesday, November 24, Coulton