his Lords of the Regency, who could fatally put a negative on all
this, unless they were first gained over. On the morrow, July 15th,
Carteret, instead of signing, as expected, has to--purpose a
fortnight's delay till he consult in England! Absolutely would not
and could not sign, till a Courier to England went and returned.
To Landgraf Wilhelm's, to Klinggraf's and the Kaiser's very great
surprise, disappointment and suspicion. But Carteret was
inflexible: 'will only take a fortnight,' said he; 'and I can hope
all will yet be well!'

"The Courier came back punctually in a fortnight. His Message was
presented at Hanau, August 1st,--and ran conclusively to the
effect: 'No! We, Noodle of Newcastle, and my other Lords of
Regency, do not consent; much less, will undertake to carry the
thing through Parliament: By no manner of means!' So that
Carteret's lately towering Affair had to collapse ignominiously, in
that manner; poor Carteret protesting his sorrow, his unalterable
individual wishes and future endeavors, not to speak of his
Britannic Majesty's,--and politely pressing on the poor Kaiser a
gift of 15,000 pounds (first weekly instalment of the 'Annual
Pension' that HAD, in theory, been set apart for him); which the
Kaiser, though indigent, declined. [Adelung, iii. B, 206, 209-212;
see Coxe, Memoirs of Pelham (London, 1829),
i. 75, 469.]'

"The disgust of Landgraf Wilhelm was infinite; who, honest man, saw
in all this merely an artifice of Carteret's, To undo the Kaiser
with his French Allies, to quirk him out of his poor help from the
French, and have him at their mercy. 'Shame on it!' cried Landgraf
Wilhelm aloud, and many others less aloud, Klinggraf and King