much the times called for a higher, I did not venture to push him on,
and gave in to the idea he himself started, of advising to put the Great
Seal in commission, by which time would be gained. He went from me to
the Duke of Grafton, repeated his declining answer, and proposed a
commission for the present, for which precedents of various times were
not wanting. The Duke of Grafton expressed a more earnest desire that my
brother should accept than he did at the first interview, and pressed
his seeing the King before he took a final resolution. I saw him again
in Montague House garden, on Monday the 15th, and he then seemed
determined to decline, said a particular friend of his in the law, Mr.
W. had rather discouraged him, and that nothing affected him with
concern but the uneasiness which it might give to Mrs. Yorke.

'On Tuesday forenoon the 16th, he called upon me in great agitation and
talked of accepting. He changed his mind again by the evening when he
saw the King at the Queen's Palace, and finally declined. He told me
just after the audience that the King had not pressed him so strongly as
he had expected, that he had not held forth much prospect of stability
in administration, and that he had not talked so well to him as he did
when he accepted the office of Attorney-General in 1765; his Majesty
however ended the conversation very humanely and prettily, that "after
what he had said to excuse himself, it would be cruelty to press his
acceptance." I must here solemnly declare that my brother was all along
in such agitation of mind that he never told me all the particulars
which passed in the different conversations, and many material things
may have been said to him which I am ignorant of. He left me soon after
to call on Mr. Anson and Lord Rockingham, authorising me to acquaint
everybody that he had absolutely declined, adding discontentedly that
"It was the confusion of the times which occasioned his having taken
that resolution." He appeared to me very much ruffled and disturbed, but