on 'Friday in the forenoon' but he found that Charles Yorke had been
taken very ill that morning.

'When I saw him on the evening of the 19th he was in bed and too much
disordered to be talked with. There was a glimmering of hope on the 20th
in the morning, but he died that day about five in the evening. The
patent of peerage had passed all the forms except the Great Seal, and
when my poor brother was asked if the seal should be put to it, he
waived it, and said "he hoped it was no longer in his custody." I can
solemnly declare that except what passed at my house on the Wednesday
forenoon, I had not the least difference with him throughout the whole
transaction, not a sharp or even a warm expression passed, but we
reasoned over the subject like friends and brothers.... In short, the
usage he met with in 1766 when faith was broke with him, had greatly
impaired his judgment, dejected his spirits, and made him act below his
superior knowledge and abilities. He would seldom explain himself, or
let his opinion be known in time to those who were ready to have acted
with him in the utmost confidence. After the menacing language used in
the closet to compel Mr. Yorke's acceptance and the loss which the King
sustained by his death at that critical juncture, the most unprejudiced
and dispassionate were surprised at the little, or rather no notice
which was taken of his family; the not making an offer to complete the
peerage was neither to be palliated nor justified in their opinion. It
was due to the _Manes_ of the departed from every motive of
humanity and decorum. Lord Hillsborough told a friend of mine, indeed,
that the King had soon after his death spoke of him with tears in his
eyes and enquired after the family, but it would surely not have
misbecome his Majesty conscious of the whole of his behaviour to an
able, faithful, and despairing subject, to have expressed that concern
in a more particular manner, and to those who were so deeply affected by