" Such an answer certainly gives a
great color to Moore's suspicion, since it is hardly possible to
conceive that Lord Moira took on himself the responsibility of giving it
without a previous knowledge that it would be approved by his royal
master. In a constitutional point of view, there can, it will probably
be felt, be no doubt that the two lords had a right to the liberty they
required. And the very men concerned, the great officers of the
household, were evidently of the same opinion, since the chief, Lord
Yarmouth, informed Sheridan that they intended to resign, in order that
he might communicate that intention to Lord Grey; and Sheridan, who
concealed the intelligence from Lord Grey, can hardly be supposed, any
more than Lord Moira, to have acted in a manner which he did not expect
to be agreeable to the Prince. But, in Canning's opinion, this question
of the household was only the ostensible pretext, and not the real
cause, of those two lords rejecting the Regent's offers; the real cause
being, as he believed, that the Prince himself had already named Lord
Wellesley as Prime-minister, and that they were resolved to insist on
the right of the Whig party to dictate on that point to the Regent,[170]
just as, in 1782, Fox had endeavored to force the Duke of Portland on
the King, when his Majesty preferred Lord Shelburne.
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