Lord Fitzwilliam nominated Richard Burke for the seat which his father had thus vacated at Malton.

Pitt was then making arrangements for the accession of the Portland Whigs to his Government, and it was natural, in connection with these arrangements, to confer some favour on the man who had done more than anybody else to promote the new alliance.

It was proposed to make Burke a peer under the style of Lord Beaconsfield,--a title in a later age whimsically borrowed for himself by a man of genius with a delight in irony.

To the title it was proposed to attach a yearly income for two or more lives.

But the bolt of destiny was at this instant launched.