Pitt was scarcely in the state in which a man should be who has to conduct delicate and arduous negotiations.  In his letters to his wife, he complained that the conferences in which it was necessary for him to bear a part heated his blood and accelerated his pulse.  From other sources of information we learn, that his language, even to those whose co-operation he wished to engage, was strangely peremptory and despotic.  Some of his notes written at this time have been preserved, and are in a style which Lewis the Fourteenth would have been too well bred to employ in addressing any French gentleman.

In the attempt to dissolve all parties, Pitt met with some difficulties.  Some Whigs, whom the Court would gladly have detached from Lord Rockingham, rejected all offers.  The Bedfords were perfectly willing to break with Grenville; but Pitt would not come up to their terms.  Temple, whom Pitt at first meant to place at the head of the Treasury, proved intractable.  A coldness indeed had, during some months, been fast growing between the brothers-in-law, so long and so closely allied in politics.  Pitt was angry with Temple for opposing the repeal of the Stamp Act.  Temple was angry with Pitt for refusing to accede to that family league which was now the favourite plan at Stowe.  At length the Earl proposed an equal partition of power and patronage, and offered, on this condition, to give up his brother George.  Pitt thought the demand exorbitant, and positively refused compliance.  A bitter quarrel followed.  Each of the kinsmen was true to his character.  Temple’s soul festered with spite, and Pitt’s swelled into contempt.  Temple represented Pitt as the most odious of hypocrites and traitors.  Pitt held a different and perhaps a more provoking tone.  Temple was a good sort of man enough, whose single title to distinction was, that he had a large garden, with a large piece of water, and had a great many pavilions and summer-houses.  To his fortunate connection with a great orator and statesman he was indebted for an importance in the State which his own talents could never have gained for him.  That importance had turned his head.  He had begun to fancy that he could form administrations, and govern empires.  It was piteous to see a well meaning man under such a delusion.

In spite of all these difficulties, a ministry was made such as the King wished to see, a ministry in which all his Majesty’s friends were comfortably accommodated, and which, with the exception of his Majesty’s friends, contained no four persons who had ever in their lives been in the habit of acting together.  Men who had never concurred in a single vote found themselves seated at the same board.  The office of Paymaster was divided between two persons who had never exchanged a word.  Most of the chief posts were filled either by personal adherents of Pitt, or by members of the late ministry, who had been induced to remain in place after the dismissal of Lord Rockingham.