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Title: Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third

Author: Duke of Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges
Chandos Grenville Buckingham and Chandos

Release date: January 5, 2009 [eBook #27704]
Most recently updated: January 4, 2021

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF
THE COURT AND CABINETS OF GEORGE THE THIRD ***

Contents of 'The Court and Cabinets ...'
Advertisements Included in the Original Edition
Transcriber's Notes

THE COURT AND CABINETS
OF
GEORGE THE THIRD.
VOL. II.

The Right Hon. Lord Grenville
Chancellor of the University of Oxford

MEMOIRS
OF THE
COURT AND CABINETS
OF
GEORGE THE THIRD.
FROM ORIGINAL FAMILY DOCUMENTS.
BY
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS,
K.G.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1853.

LONDON:
Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.

CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
1788.
(CONTINUED.)
THE KING'S ILLNESS—CONDUCT OF THURLOW—PLANS OF
MINISTERS—DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT—IRISH VIEW OF
THE REGENCY QUESTION—PROCEEDINGS OF THE PRINCE'S
PARTY—THE RATS IN BOTH HOUSES
1-83
1789.
DEATH OF THE SPEAKER—MR. GRENVILLE ELECTED IN HIS
PLACE—COMMITTEE ON THE REGENCY—THE HOUSEHOLD
BILL—CONDUCT OF THE PRINCES—ADDRESS TO THE PRINCE
OF WALES FROM THE IRISH PARLIAMENT—RECOVERY OF THE
KING—DECISIVE MEASURES OF LORD BUCKINGHAM—IRISH
PROMOTIONS AND CREATIONS—DISSENSIONS IN THE ROYAL
FAMILY—MR. GRENVILLE APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE—
MR. ADDINGTON ELECTED SPEAKER—LORD BUCKINGHAM
RESIGNS THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND
84-175
1790.
MR. GRENVILLE'S ELEVATION TO THE PEERAGE
176-181
1791.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS—RESIGNATION OF THE DUKE
OF LEEDS—FLIGHT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE—
PROSPERITY OF ENGLAND AT THIS PERIOD
182-198
1792.
MR. PITT'S BUDGET—THE STATE OF IRELAND—THE KING
DISMISSES LORD THURLOW—DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND—
FRENCH EMIGRANTS—RETREAT OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK
—MEASURES OF INTERNAL DEFENCE—THE FRENCH
CONVENTION DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND AND
HOLLAND
199-233
1793.
CAUSES AND OBJECTS OF THE WAR—SECESSIONS FROM THE
OPPOSITION—REVERSES IN HOLLAND—DISASTERS OF THE
ALLIES—STATE OF FRANCE AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR
235-249
1794.
PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND FOR THE PROSECUTION OF THE
WAR—INACTIVITY OF THE AUSTRIANS—LORD SPENCER AND
MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE SENT ON A MISSION TO VIENNA—
HOSTILE RESOLUTIONS OF THE OPPOSITION—SEVERAL OF THE
LEADING WHIGS JOIN THE ADMINISTRATION—LORD
CORNWALLIS APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND ON THE
CONTINENT—PROGRESS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS—LORD
FITZWILLIAM NOMINATED TO THE LORD-LIEUTENANCY OF
IRELAND—HIS CONDUCT ON THAT OCCASION
250-323
1795.
LORD FITZWILLIAM'S ADMINISTRATION IN IRELAND
324-338
1796.

THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR SUSTAINED BY REPEATED
MAJORITIES IN PARLIAMENT—MR. BURKE'S SCHOOL FOR THE
EDUCATION OF EMIGRANT CHILDREN—BUONAPARTE
APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND IN ITALY—LORD
MALMESBURY'S MISSION TO PARIS
339-360
1797.
DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND—THE BREST SQUADRON—MOTION
ON THE STATE OF IRELAND—AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT—
LORD MALMESBURY'S MISSION TO LISLE
361-383
1798.
CONDITION OF ENGLAND—PLANS FOR THE NATIONAL
DEFENCES—THE AUGMENTATION OF THE MILITIA—
VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTIONS—A REBELLION BREAKS OUT IN
IRELAND—LORD CORNWALLIS SUCCEEDS LORD CAMDEN AS
LORD-LIEUTENANT—LORD BUCKINGHAM VOLUNTEERS FOR
IRELAND—DIFFERENCES WITH LORD CORNWALLIS—MR.
THOMAS GRENVILLE IS APPOINTED ON A MISSION TO VIENNA
AND BERLIN.
384-421
1799.
ENGLAND ENTERS INTO A TREATY WITH RUSSIA AGAINST
FRANCE—MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE'S MISSION TO THE
CONTINENT—THE UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND—SUSPENSE RESPECTING THE FATE OF MR.
GRENVILLE—PROGRESS OF EVENTS ON THE CONTINENT—
AUSTRIA JOINS THE COALITION—VACILLATIONS AND
INACTIVITY OF PRUSSIA—EXPEDITION TO HOLLAND—
FURTHER AUGMENTATION OF THE MILITIA—PROJECTS FOR
THE ENSUING YEAR
422-452

COURT AND CABINETS
OF
GEORGE III.

1788.
(CONTINUED.)
THE KING'S ILLNESS—CONDUCT OF THURLOW—PLANS OF
MINISTERS—DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT—IRISH VIEW OF
THE REGENCY QUESTION—PROCEEDINGS OF THE PRINCE'S
PARTY—THE RATS IN BOTH HOUSES.
The fluctuations of the daily accounts from Windsor, and afterwards from
Kew, to which place the King was ultimately removed at the instance of the
Prince of Wales, and the effect they produced upon the public and the
Opposition, greatly increased the difficulties of the Government in this
unprecedented emergency. So long as there was the faintest hope of His
Majesty's recovery, Mr. Pitt was enabled to avert extremities between the
Administration and the Prince of Wales, by repeated adjournments of
Parliament. The interest, therefore, which attached to the slightest items of
intelligence contained in these letters may be easily understood. All other
subjects were of inferior consideration. Even the serious inconvenience
occasioned to the public service by the suspension of business in Parliament
was forgotten in the one absorbing topic.
The uncertainty that hung over the issue, the responsibility that attended the
treatment of the case, and the extreme caution observed by the physicians in
the opinions they were called upon to pronounce, kept all classes of the
people in a state of constant agitation. The Prince and his supporters availed
themselves of these circumstances to strengthen their party in Parliament
and out of doors. The passions of the inexperienced, and the hopes of the
discontented, are always on the side of youth and excitement; and every
vicissitude in the condition of the King that diminished the prospect of his
recovery, augmented the ranks of the Opposition, which now became
familiarly known as "the Prince of Wales's Opposition." Mr. Pitt acted
throughout with the utmost reserve. Deeply impressed by the complicated
hazards of the situation, he carefully avoided all allusions to his ulterior
intentions in his intercourse with the Prince of Wales, which was strictly

formal and official, and confined to such communications as were
unavoidable in his position.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 15th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I enclose you the note, which I received from Pitt last night on his return
from Windsor. I have seen him this morning; and understand that Warren
said one thing which is still more favourable. He told him that a more rapid
amendment would, in his opinion, have been a less pleasing symptom; and I
find, from Pitt, that on conversing both with Sir G. Baker and Reynolds, he
found them rather more sanguine, upon the whole, than Warren, but
agreeing with him in his general account. What I have learnt this morning
seems to confirm the pleasing hope which I cannot help indulging, from all
these circumstances, though, God knows, it is still exposed to much doubt
and hazard. The public account, which has been uniformly less flattering
than the private letters from Windsor, states that he has had six hours' sleep,
and that he is a little better this morning. All the other accounts say that he
is certainly getting better.
Pitt saw the Prince of Wales yesterday, for the purpose of notifying to him
the step which the Council had taken, of ordering prayers, and of
acquainting him that he had written circular letters to all the Members of
the House of Commons, stating the probability of Parliament having to
meet on Thursday; and that he meant then to propose to adjourn.
Prince of Wales received the communication with civility, and told him he
was persuaded no opposition could be made to this. It is, I think, plain, from
Pitt's account of his general behaviour, and from what one hears, that my
conjecture is right, and that he will dismiss Pitt without hesitation.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 17th, 1788.
My dear Brother,

The accounts for the last two days have been, I think, rather less favourable
than that of Saturday, which I sent you. You can, however, hardly conceive
the difficulty which we have, even at this small distance, to procure such
information as can be in any degree depended on. All the private accounts
are so strongly tinctured by the wishes of those who send them, that no
reliance can be placed upon them; and the private letters of the physicians
are frequently inconsistent with each other, and even with the public
account which they send to St. James's. In general, that account has been
uniformly found to be the least favourable; and seems as if it was drawn for
the purpose of discouraging the hopes which their own letters and
conversation excite. The letters which they read to Pitt, though frequently
varying in their general tenor from the public account, are not at all more
detailed than that is, and take no sort of notice of the most material
circumstances. I imagine all this is to be imputed to a difference of opinion
which is supposed to prevail amongst them, it being believed that Warren is
strongly inclined to think the disorder permanent, and that Reynolds is
sanguine in the contrary opinion. Pitt is gone down again to Windsor to-
day; but will hardly be back again time enough for me to insert his account
in this letter. The public account of to-day says, I understand, that the King
has had much quiet and composed sleep, but is nearly the same as before.
The sleep, I am told, is generally considered as a favourable symptom.
Under these circumstances, there can, I think, be no doubt that the two
Houses will adjourn on Thursday, without opposition.
Everything remains as before. I think you clearly have done right in
stopping Corry, it being so much our interest to prevent, and not to promote,
negotiation. I think, on more reflexion, that the idea of refusing the power
of dissolving is impracticable, and may be turned against us in the end; the
other limitations will, I believe, be proposed; and that alone will be
sufficient to put all negotiation out of the question.
Fox is expected in three or four days; but it seems impossible that he should
be here so soon.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Nov. 18th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I do not find from Pitt that he learnt anything very particular yesterday in
addition to what you already know. The King continues much quieter, but
still deranged in his intellects and conversation. The fever has not yet
entirely left him. The physicians seem very unwilling to say anything with
respect to his situation, and declare that it must still be eight or ten days
before they can pronounce at all decisively as to the nature of his disorder.
You seem, in your letter, to conceive the point of his recovery to be much
more desperate than I understand it to be thought even after a derangement
of months, or even years. There hardly passes a day in which one does not
hear of cases of that sort, and we are now told that a disorder of this sort has
appeared in several instances in Devonshire in the course of this autumn,
where the patient has been in this way for six weeks together, and has then
entirely recovered.
I have no other news.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 20th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I went down yesterday to Windsor, as a matter of form, to inquire after the
King's health. Having nothing very material to write to you in the morning,
I thought it best to take the chance of being back early enough to write
before the post went out. This, however, I found impossible, on account of
the different people whom I met at Windsor, and with whom I was naturally
anxious to converse.
The account, as far as relates to the King's actual situation for these two or
three last days, is much less favourable than it has been. The disorder of his
intellects has continued almost, if not entirely, without intermission for the
whole of that time. He talks incessantly for many hours together, and
without any appearance of sense or reason, sometimes knowing the persons

who are about him, at other times mistaking them, or fancying himself
employed in different occupations, such as taking notes on books, or giving
different orders. He has appeared several times to have that sort of
consciousness of his situation which lunatics are observed to possess, and to
use the same sort of methods for concealing it. All this constitutes the
gloomy side of the picture; and Warren is so much impressed with this, that
he told Pitt there was now every reason to believe that the disorder was no
other than direct lunacy.
On the other hand, I understand that he, as well as the other physicians, are
now agreed as to the cause of the disorder. You may remember that, at the
beginning of this unhappy situation, I mentioned to you that an idea had
been entertained of its proceeding from some local cause, such as water on
the brain, or some change in the texture of the brain itself, by induration or
ossification. Warren has decidedly said, that he is satisfied this is entirely
out of the question; this he told Pitt in express terms. The cause to which
they all agree to ascribe it, is the force of a humour which was beginning to
show itself in the legs, when the King's imprudence drove it from thence
into the bowels; and the medicines which they were then obliged to use for
the preservation of his life, have repelled it upon the brain. The
consequence of this opinion is so plain, that there certainly requires no
professional skill to know that his recovery must depend upon this single
circumstance, whether there is, or is not strength enough in his constitution
to throw off this humour by any other channel. The physicians are now
endeavouring, by warm baths, and by great warmth of covering, to bring it
down again into the legs, which nature had originally pointed out as the best
mode of discharge.
I was mentioning these circumstances yesterday to a person who lives in
intimacy with John Hunter, the anatomist. He told me that they had been all
stated to him three days ago, by Hunter, who had collected them from the
different inquiries he had made. Hunter added, that we must still expect for
some days, and perhaps even weeks, to hear of no decisive alteration, but
possibly of some occasional variation from day to day; that at the end of
this it would probably come to some sort of crisis, by which it would appear
whether there was strength enough in the constitution to prevail over the
disease; that all he had heard of the manner of the King's life, did
unquestionably make him an unfavourable subject for such a struggle, but

that if it was the case of any common man, he should have no hesitation in
pronouncing even now that it would be very bad luck indeed if he did not
recover, and that the chances were nine to one in his favour. You will easily
suppose that this was said under the seal of confidence, and that a
professional man would not choose to have his name quoted in a case of so
much importance in which he is not employed, and in which his opinions
may be either founded at present on false information, or may be defeated
by the mode of treatment adopted by those who are called in. I have,
therefore, mentioned this only to you, though possibly you may hear it from
other channels. On such authority, one certainly may be allowed to indulge
some degree of hope. I am, however, far from letting this expectation take
possession of my mind, but, on the contrary, have prepared myself for the
worst, and can with truth say that I have made up my mind to meet it with
cheerfulness, and to accommodate myself as a reasonable man ought to do
to my situation.
You will particularly see that this consideration had no effect on my
judgment, and that I feel as you do. On the question of a coalition, no offers
have as yet been made. The language of Opposition inclines one to think
that their idea is to that, but the conduct of the Prince of Wales marks a
desire of avoiding Pitt. I believe he has had no communication with the
Duke of Portland, or with any of them, except Sheridan and Lord
Loughborough; the latter is supposed to be much in his confidence. Pitt has
opened his plan of Regency to Thurlow and Lord Weymouth, and they both
approved it; he is to lay it before the Prince of Wales in a few days, and will
then make it public.
Whatever is done, I have no conception that it can be brought to a point so
as to enable you to form any decisive judgment with respect to your
situation so early as the beginning of next month. We are now at the 19th.
Pitt means to-day to move an adjournment to this day sevennight, and a call
of the House for this day fortnight. It is doubtful whether the business will
even then be brought on, and the intervening adjournment is made with the
view of enabling Pitt to put off the call to a more distant day if the King's
situation should be thought to render that a proper step.
Bernard is now out of town, but I understood from him that your house in
Pall Mall was let to the Duke of Gordon for another year, to commence

from Christmas.
I am just returned from the House, where Pitt moved the adjournment for
the whole fortnight (in consequence of an opinion of the Chancellor's), and
a call at the end of that term. Not a word was said by any other person, and
he himself barely stated that the continuance of the King's illness had
prevented the prorogation, and that the same circumstance made it desirable
to have the public attendance when the House met again.
The public account of to-day is that he has passed a less disturbed night, but
that the fever continues.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 20th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
The accounts which Pitt received last night are more favourable than any
which have yet been sent. They stated particularly, that during the whole
course of yesterday the King was more composed, and with less
incoherency in his conversation, than he has been at any period during the
last fortnight. The opinion which I mentioned to you yesterday prevents my
being very sanguine with respect to the uniform continuance of these
symptoms; but it is certainly no light confirmation of that opinion to
observe this sort of fluctuation; and it is a pleasant circumstance to find that
this abatement of his disorder has followed so immediately on the
application of fomentations to the legs.
Since I wrote the above, the accounts of this morning have been received. I
enclose the public note, which admits that there is some remission of the
fever, by which word they describe the delirium. The letter sent to Pitt only
states that the King is less well than he was during most part of yesterday. I
do not learn that there is yet any appearance of swelling or eruption on the
legs. On the whole, though the account of this morning is certainly less
encouraging, I think the two taken together by no means diminish the hopes
which I trust there is reason to entertain.

It is become very difficult to get at the real truth; for since there has been an
appearance of amendment, Opposition have been taking inconceivable
pains to spread the idea that his disorder is incurable. Nothing can exceed
Warren's indiscretion on this subject.
You will probably have heard from other quarters how favourable the
appearance of yesterday, and the reception of Pitt's speech, were. There
seems to be just such a spirit and zeal gone forth among his friends as one
would most desire; and whatever is now the event of this anxious moment, I
am persuaded you will see him increase from it in point of character, and
lose little in point of strength. What passed yesterday, and the tone of our
friends, are much beyond the expectations which I had formed.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 22nd, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I went this morning to Nepean, to speak about sending you the official
accounts of the King's health. He assured me that he had regularly done so
for the last week, and that he would continue it. He sends a messenger to-
morrow, so that this letter will be very short.
You will receive the St. James's account of this day from Nepean. I have not
yet seen it, but am assured that all the private accounts are favourable. So
are, as far as I can learn, the declared opinions of every medical man except
those who are employed: and of those, Warren only speaks unfavourably.
The rest say nothing.
The indecency of any language held on your side of the water cannot
exceed that of the universal tone of Opposition within these last four or five
days. So long as they considered the case as desperate, they were affecting a
prodigious concern and reverence for the King's unhappy situation. Now
that people entertain hopes of his recovery, they are using the utmost
industry to combat this idea—circulating all the particulars of everything
which he does or says under his present circumstances, and adding the most
outrageous falsehoods.

I think I can say with confidence, that no enmity against an individual,
much less against a person in such a rank as his, could induce me to retail
the different acts of frenzy which he may commit in a state of delirium or
insanity.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Don't use your new cypher, for I doubt whether mine is not rendered
useless. I will write to you about it to-morrow.
P.S.—The cypher will be better set by the last letter of the word en clair,
immediately preceding the cyphered part of the letter. I will use it in that
manner when I write.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 23rd, 1788.
My dear Brother,

I[A] write this by Lord Sydney's messenger, but with such an aching head
that it is impossible for me to enter into much detail. Pitt was at Windsor
yesterday, and by his account, which he collected from the persons who
immediately attend the King's person, there can be no doubt of the King's
being much better, and more composed than he has been since his illness
began. At the same time, the accounts of the physicians are gloomy, and
with less hope than they have before expressed. It is very difficult to
reconcile these contradictions. Rennel Hawkins, the surgeon who has
attended him during the whole illness, and sits up with him every other
night, has written a letter to Sir Clifton Wintringham, which the latter has
shown about London, in which the King's recovery is mentioned as a thing
certain, and likely to take place, sooner than people in general expect. On
these data you can judge as well as we can here. I confess myself to be
sanguine in my hopes of his recovery. In the meantime, no pains are spared
to circulate all sorts of lies, in order to depress people's spirits on this
subject; and the support which is given to these gloomy ideas by the
language and conduct of the physicians does certainly produce a
considerable effect.

Think of the Prince of Wales introducing Lord Lothian into the King's room
when it was darkened, in order that he might hear his ravings at the time
that they were at the worst. Do not let this fact come from you; it begins to
be pretty well known here, and no doubt will find its way to Ireland; but it
is important that we should not seem to spread the knowledge of anything
which can injure His Royal Highness's character in public opinion.
I think the best thing that can be done in Ireland is to let your Parliament
meet at its prorogation; and that you should then communicate to them the
King's situation, and the measures taken in England. A similar proceeding
might then be adopted in Ireland, and your commission then revoked in the
usual form by the Regent, which I should think far preferable to any
contrivances of Justices, &c. Long before all this can be necessary, things
will have begun to take some more decided turn than in the present
moment, when hopes and fears make the opinions of people fluctuate from
day to day.
Unless we are clearly satisfied (which is far from being the case now), that
the King is not mending fast, we shall certainly propose another
adjournment on the 4th. This will perhaps be opposed, but if it is, we shall
clearly have the opinion of people in general with us on that point.
It is quite impossible for me to enter into the other discussions in your
letter, important as they are, for it is with difficulty that I write this
desultory stuff.
There seems to be a notion among Lord North's friends that he is preparing
to take a more moderate line, and more inclining to the King than Fox's
people. I suppose he has a mind to make a parade of gratitude. He has not
five votes in this Parliament, and yet any appearance of difference of
opinion might assist us.
If I am better to-morrow, I think of going to Stanlake for a few days. I shall
have the Windsor news as soon there as in town, and will write to you from
thence.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.

Your cypher is, as I feared, spoilt by the unequal extension of the paper in
pasting. In future, in using the old cypher, I will use ou instead of out, and
er, es, and or, in the three places that are now occupied by word, blank, and
ends. The cypher may be set by the first letter, which is written en clair, as I
in this letter.
[A] The letter thus written in italics is the key to a new
cypher in which these communications were carried on.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 24th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
The same contradiction still prevails between all the private accounts, even
those of the physicians themselves, and the public information which they
give either to Ministers or to the country. At the same time, the medical
people seem so confident in their declarations of his not being better, that it
cannot but shake the trust which one should otherwise place in the accounts
of his improvement.
My head is by no means better to-day, so that you must excuse the shortness
of this.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Baronhill, Nov. 25th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
When I left London last Saturday, the accounts were not arrived of the state
of the King's health. He was much better on the Friday morning, but
relapsed in the evening. I am afraid it is a very hopeless case, though much
time ought to elapse before anybody ventured to pronounce for a certainty;
and the physicians, who have been so warped by party, or by an anxiety to
pay their court to the Prince, as to venture to do so, certainly deserve the
severest reprehension. The meeting of Parliament was much the fullest, in
both Houses, I ever saw; and in the House of Peers, the greatest decency I

ever witnessed, considering the hopes and fears of each party. There were
but seven Bishops (among whom Chester was one) present, which is a
proof that crows soon smell powder. I took the opportunity of coming down
here to settle my private affairs, which my sudden departure had left
unsettled, your brother William having promised to send for me in case
there is no appearance of the King's recovering before the 4th of December,
in which case another adjournment would certainly take place, or in case
Government should not contest the Prince's becoming Regent without a
Council. It will be with great unwillingness I shall return, as I wish to
remain here till the beginning of February; but if I find we are all expected
to stand to our guns, and that our generals are ready to fight a battle without
a compromise, I shall leave my dear Baronhill, and all my comforts, for all
pleasures of war's alarms: marching and countermarching in the House of
Lords, drums beating, and colours flying, &c. I supped at White's the night
before I left town, where Pitt was in high spirits, and Selwyn uncommonly
ridiculous; in general, our friends seem to await the approaching storm with
the greatest sang-froid and philosophy: the longest faces I saw were Lord
Hawkesbury's, Lord Sydney's, and Sir George Yonge's. I heard for certain
that the Chancellor, who was suspected of being rattically inclined, was
firm as a rock, and that the whole Cabinet were determined to die together.
Fox was either not found, or averse to returning, although the Opposition
were looking out for him as the Jews look out for their Messiah. Je crois
qu'il boude un peu. Sheridan and Lord Loughborough are those who more
immediately correspond with the Prince, with which, I believe, the old
Rockinghams were much dissatisfied; in short, there is every reason to
think there is a division among them, which, however, a sense of common
interest and common danger may rectify before the day of trial. Your sister
Williams, and Sir Watkin, were in town both crying up the affection,
humanity, filial piety, feeling, &c., of the Prince, and lamenting the little
chance of the King's recovery, &c. The Nevilles were to leave town last
Sunday, and by being in the neighbourhood of Windsor, can inform you, if
they choose it, of the real state of the late and present behaviour and
conduct of some persons in that quarter who are so puffed by the papers and
by the Opposition. In the changes and chances of this mortal life, our
Barony of Braybroke appears to have been secured at a lucky moment. I left
Parry in town, and I set Rose and Steele to coax him a little, for the old
grievance sticks by him, and he wants much persuasion to efface the

memory of it. Sir Hugh is here, and complains much of never having had
one letter answered since Pitt has been in power; notwithstanding which, I
shall take him up if the battle is to be fought before Christmas. I am afraid
more rats will run, on account of Pitt's inattention to these trifles, than on
any other account whatsoever; indeed I heard as much in town. Rose and
Steele may laugh at such details, but they are necessary; and the constituent
will not believe the member's assiduity unless he sees a real or ostensible
answer. I gave my £100 to the Westminster election, in consequence of a
letter from Rose; I could ill spare it, but finding others were dosed in the
same manner, I gulped the grievance.
I am, my dear Lord's sincere friend,
B.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street, Nov. 25th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
However, at a crisis of such national concern as the present, my mind is
impressed with its importance, and would communicate to you the
vicissitudes and opinions thereon of each hour, as leading in the minutest
variation to new consequences, and of the first moment; yet I confess
myself at a loss how to arrange these parvula quidam ex queis magun
exoriuntur, and give them their due weight, by stating the deductions
thereon as they appear to me, within any compass of letter.
As to the fact on which our fears and speculations are to build, the change
of mere words in stating the malady, as daily announced at St. James's, may
be proper enough to keep alive the hopes of the public, who will argue on
mere words, in reality, within this fortnight the King hath remained from
day to day without any variation in symptoms: so this very morning Dr.
Gisborne told me, as his opinion, resulting from conversation with his
brother physicians in immediate attendance. My friend Dr. Milman seems
to be of the like opinion. That possibly His Majesty may recover the perfect
use of his understanding is not less believed than hoped for: cases have
been stated, more desperate than the present, wherein the recovery hath
been perfect. Yet much mischief is already done, or rather the basis of
mischief is already and irremoveably laid. In future times, designing,

ambitious and profligate men may start the idea that what has been may be,
and in the desperate effort of factious opposition, even venture to arraign
the temper and health of mind, though it shows its perfect state, and the
wise measures of Government should put such daring insult at defiance.
If the King remains a length of time in the same state, I would, on such too
probable circumstance, join my speculations to your Lordship's, could I
imagine any resting-place, or outlet, in the labyrinth of cases and deductions
which the subject affords. I had best, therefore, confine my correspondence,
and take up the immediate matter and language of the mere day, unless I
meant a book rather than a letter.
The language touches on the hopes and views of partymen, and on the
interests of the country as complicated with the present Administration
remaining in power. My business calling me often into the city, I speak as
an eye-witness to the temper of men at the Royal Exchange, and Lloyd's
Coffee-rooms, never did Administration stand so high in opinion of the
moneyed and commercial world: throughout the city, the fears of losing Pitt
from the finance make as much of the regrets of anticipation, as the fears of
losing the King from the throne. Should the change of Ministry (too much
apprehended) take place, it is thought that Fox's party—to temporize with
the public opinion, too strong directly to meet in the teeth—will propose a
coalescence of some sort; but so narrowed, and in regard to Mr. Pitt,
moreover, placing him in such jar of official situation, that it cannot be in
any manner listened to. The refusal of the insidious offer is then to be
noised throughout the country, and a trial to be made to engage the people
"to join with those who proffered a sacrifice of enmities to Pitt for the
public good." My opinion is, that the trial will be abortive, and the present
Administration retire (if so necessitated), merely to return to power on the
shoulders of the nation. The Opposition, I understand, foresee their
difficulties, and are exceedingly embarrassed, even supposing the Regent,
or Regency, to venture on the change of Ministry.
I presume to hazard an opinion that such Regent, or Regency, cannot and
will not risk a change of Ministry with so precipitate declaration in favour
of our opponents, as some expect, at such eventful crisis as the present. It is
natural for men's hopes, or fears, to colour too strongly the contingency on
which their relative interests depend. Some hope too much, and some fear

too much. If the Prince of Wales is made and continues at the head of
Regency a twelvemonth, then indeed a revolution in Ministry, or in
everything, may be worked out of the occasions ingenuity and ambition
may have to take hold of; but here I am running into a book, and to avoid it
close my letter. From time to time I shall write, almost from day to day, if
aught occurs deserving your perusal. Meantime, and ever, my dear Lord, in
truest affection and attachment,
Your faithfully devoted friend and servant,
W. Young.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 25th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I am very sorry to be obliged to say that the account from the physicians to-
day, confirmed by the most accurate testimony from private quarters, state
the King's situation in the most unfavourable manner, his disorder having
returned with great violence. I do not understand that there is any return of
bodily complaint, so that nothing can be worse than this intelligence. From
what I now understand, it should seem that some considerable time must
elapse, even after the two Houses meet, before any decisive step can be
proposed, as it seems now to be thought necessary that some mode of
satisfaction should be given to the Houses themselves, by means of Secret
Committees, or otherwise, respecting the King's situation, and that after that
precedents must be searched.
Fox arrived yesterday morning early, having come in little more than nine
days from Bologna. He expected, it is said, from the accounts which he had
received, to find the King dead.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 26th, 1788.
My dear Brother,

I sit down to write a few words, because I know it is a satisfaction to you to
hear from me in such a moment as this, although I have nothing particular
to say.
The situation of the King continues to be such as I described it yesterday;
and Warren told Pitt yesterday, that the physicians could now have no
hesitation in pronouncing that the actual disorder was that of lunacy; that no
man could pretend to say, that this was, or was not incurable; that he saw no
immediate symptoms of recovery; that the King might never recover; or, on
the other hand, that he might recover at any one moment. With this sort of
information we shall probably have to meet Parliament. I much hope that
the previous examination by the Privy Council may be judged sufficient,
without any further inquiry into the particulars of a subject which one so
little wishes to have discussed.
I have no other news of any sort.
I do not know, whether I mentioned to you in my last letter, that I tried, but
to no purpose, to make out that part of yours which was written in the new
cypher; my cypher, which you sent over to me, being wholly spoilt in the
pasting. I must, therefore, beg you to write in the old cypher, with the
alterations I suggested.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 27th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
The accounts of the King's situation continue to be so much the same as for
the last two or three days, that it now appears perfectly plain that we shall
be under the necessity of bringing forward some measure for an
intermediate Government immediately after the 4th; and that there can be
no further adjournment.
The Prince of Wales has sent a letter to the Chancellor, desiring that all the
members of the Cabinet may attend at Windsor to-day; but this I imagine
(and, indeed, his letter conveys it), has no relation to any other subject, but

to an idea of moving the King to Kew, where he can take the air without
being overlooked, as is the case at Windsor. I have nothing new to write to
you on other subjects, though I believe I shall have in a day or two;
probably by Sunday's messenger.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 28th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
The Ministers were all sent for to Windsor yesterday by the Prince, in order
to give their advice with respect to moving the King. They were detained so
late, that Pitt went to Salt Hill to sleep there; and is not yet returned, at least
not to his own house, so that I have not seen him.
I had a note from him yesterday evening, to say that they had not seen the
Prince, he having sent a written message to them by the Duke of York. It
related to the removal. He says, that the opinion of the physicians,
particularly of Addington, who had been desired to come over that day from
Reading, was favourable as to a possibility, and even a prospect of recovery,
and clear for removing him as soon as possible.
We are still in the dark, as to the Prince of Wales's intentions; though what
passed yesterday confirms my opinion. The general language leans to
negotiation.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 29th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I received your letter of the 23rd, by the messenger only this morning, and
have sent the enclosed, which, as you will have seen, exactly tallies with the
ideas which I have stated to you in some of my letters. I shall write to you
to-morrow, being Sunday, when a messenger would of course be sent with
the official bulletin, and as you may very probably receive that letter as
soon as this, I think it unnecessary to fatigue either you or myself with

figures, especially as I have nothing very material to say, except a
confirmation, from my subsequent conversation with Pitt, of the ideas
which I mentioned to you yesterday, particularly with respect to
Addington's opinion, which seems to have encouraged the rest to speak out.
Addington told Pitt that he had himself kept a house for the reception of
these unhappy people for seven years. That during that period, he had
hardly ever had fewer than ten or twelve with him, and that of all those one
only was not cured, he having died in the house of bursting a blood-vessel.
He said that the symptoms, as they at present appeared, were those of a
morbid humour, flying about and irritating the nerves. The physicians
desired Pitt to see the King yesterday, which he did, and found him, though
certainly in a state of derangement, yet far better than he had expected from
the accounts. It is not yet settled whether he shall be removed, as he has
expressed some reluctance to it, and the physicians are extremely averse to
any force.
We are still under some uncertainty whether or not to propose a further
adjournment; in the meanwhile we have thought it absolutely necessary to
summon all our friends, as without their attendance, we should not even
have the decision of that question in our own hands.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 30th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
There is no particular account of the King this morning, He was yesterday
evening removed to Kew. There was considerable difficulty in persuading
him to agree to this removal, but it was at last accomplished without
violence. Pitt saw him again at Windsor before his removal, and thought
him rather less well in his manner than on the preceding day. Addington's
conversation is still such as to show that he thinks the probabilities greatly
in favour of his recovery. He mentioned particularly to Pitt, that he had in
his house one person whose case appeared to him exactly to resemble the
King's, and that this person had been cured.

We are still much undetermined about the time of bringing forward the
decisive measures. The general leaning of people's minds appears to be for
delay, and there is not anything that can perhaps absolutely be said to
require that immediate steps should be taken. There are, however, several
points of foreign business which seem to press considerably, and there
seems little reason to hope that this situation will be at all altered within
such a time as it would be possible to wait. I am rather inclined towards
bringing the business forward on Thursday; and yet I am very apprehensive
of the effect which might be produced by any appearance or imputation of
precipitancy.
When the Cabinet went down to Windsor two days ago, in consequence of
the Prince of Wales's letter, he did not see them, but sent them a written
message by the Duke of York, respecting the King's removal. This message,
whether accidentally or not, was couched in terms that were thought a little
royal. Some caution was thought necessary in wording the answer to avoid
the style of giving His Royal Highness advice, or of acknowledging any
authority in him.
You will have heard, in all probability, much on the subject of the
Chancellor. His situation is a singular one. It is unquestionably true that he
has seen Fox, and I believe he has also seen Sheridan repeatedly, and
certainly the Prince of Wales. And of all these conversations he has never
communicated one word to any other member of the Cabinet. Yet I am
persuaded that he has as yet made no terms with them, and that whenever
they come to that point they will differ. With this clue, however, you will be
at no loss to guess where the Prince acquires his knowledge of the plans of
Regency which are to be proposed, because, even supposing the Chancellor
not to have directly betrayed the individual opinions of his colleagues, yet
still his conversation upon these points, in all of which he has explicitly
agreed with the opinions of Pitt, must lead to the communication of the
plans in agitation. I am, however, rather inclined to believe that
Cuninghame's correspondent has taken by guess one out of a variety of
reports circulated, and that he has been right by accident. The general belief
of the Opposition certainly is, as you may by their papers, that measures of
much more violence are intended.

Pitt has been induced, from his regard to the King, to dissemble his
knowledge of Thurlow's conduct, and to suppress the resentment which it
so naturally excites. There is no reason, but the contrary, for believing that
any of those who have acted with him are at all disposed to follow his
example. It is universally reprobated, and explicitly by them. I think you
will do well, if it comes in question, to do as I do, which is to avoid saying
anything on the subject as long as I can; and when pressed, to profess
ignorance.
There is no great inconvenience arising, in reality, from the communication
of these intentions to the Prince. His intentions are sufficiently decided, and
he has no means of traversing our schemes.
We do not yet know with certainty whether he has any idea of negotiation;
but if he has, it is unquestionably only as a cloak, and meaning that it
should be rejected. But the prospect of detaching the Chancellor may make
this less probable, although he may perhaps insist on something of the sort
being done to provide for his delicacy. The general language is universal
and immediate dismission. If I am not mistaken, a storm is rising that they
little expect, and the sense of the country, instead of being nearly as strong
as in 1784, will be much stronger. But the party in general are so hungry
and impatient, that I think they will act upon the better judgment of their
leaders, and prevent them from doing anything which may allow a
moment's delay.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
It was beginning to be suspected that Thurlow was about to rat. His conduct
justified the worst doubts. Sir William Young confirms the intelligence
about his increasing and suspicious intimacy with the Prince of Wales.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street, Nov. 30th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
Since my last, all the intelligence to be given consists merely of rumours
and of opinions respecting the probable changes in the Administration, on
accession of the Prince to the executive authority. The Prince, it is said, is

wonderfully of late attached to Thurlow. His Royal Highness hath not been
equally gracious to Mr. Pitt; and from the authority of a person who dined
with him, I am assured that his melancholy derived from the malady of his
father and King, is not of that deep and rooted sort for which "no physic of
the mind" can be found. Drinking and singing were specifics on the day
stated to me.
As to opinions alluded to above, they appear to me, who am not in the
secret, mere sermons to Shakspeare's text of "Harry, thy wish was father to
the thought." If aught is settled, your Lordship is undoubtedly apprised of it;
if things yet remain for arrangement, your grounds for mere fabrics of
speculation must ere this be better laid than mine; and so, in either case, I'd
better e'en refrain from the subject, until Thursday begins the course of
authentic matter for my letters.
Meantime, a word in regard to myself. I write under the greatest
embarrassment of mind, between pressing necessity of not moving from
London and a justness of sentiment which would particularly at this
moment urge my repairing to you at the Castle. When your kind friendship
conferred what, at that moment, was a most essential aid to my family
subsistence, your goodness added that I need not visit Ireland oftener than
the convenience of my family allowed. Of this goodness I by no means
thought to avail myself, and proposed this winter proceeding with my wife
and son to the Castle, and returning to accomplish the passing of my "Poor
Laws," in February or March.
The loss of my father hath placed me in a situation wherein, from the
magnitude and delicacy of the concern, every hour may afford an important
crisis; and in which a single omission, a momentary absence, may entail
consequences irretrievable, in matters wherein the result to me and mine is
to be conjoined reputation and affluence, or disgrace and penury. I cannot,
under impression of such alternatives, delegate an iota of conduct to a
second person. I have laid down a systematic plan of conduct for myself,
which in executing I am sure of honour and credit, have a certainty of
competence, and a prospect of considerable wealth. The more I reflect, the
more I am confirmed in the propriety of the grounds of procedure which I
have adopted, and I feel myself equal to the accomplishment, as far as it
depends on steady pursuit of a well-weighed purpose. Obstacles, however,

may arise, and difficulties occur, such as I have daily to obviate or to
surmount, in shape of impatient creditors, who, if they were not led to just
understanding of circumstances, would not wait two years for a final
liquidation of private claims, with an inventory before them in the
Commons of property to the amount of £200,000, but would jump forward
to their own and my loss. One of the two years I have now securely in hand;
the crop of 1789 being shipped from Christmas to March, of produce all
grown, and partly manufactured. If Government leaves me the year 1790, at
the close of it there will not be a private debt, nor an article alienated of
security for public claims; and my gain of the income of 1788-9-90 is
actually the amount of £45,000 clear gain, above the result of immediate
sale of the estates, which in ordinary course, or other line than I have
chalked out, would be the direct legal recurrence for general liquidation of
first public and then private claims. One year of this gain to my residue I
have already secured, the second I have no doubt of, the third I have great
hopes of, and at the period thereof, the gross total of the Crown demand,
without a deduction or charge per centage, would scarcely necessitate any
sale, or but a partial one, should I wish quickly to clear all away.
Having no reserve for you, my best friend, I have, in accounting for my
"fixing myself on the watch" in England this winter run into these details;
and further (which will explain them fully) enclose a rough copy of my
instructions to my attorneys in St. Vincent's, which, when read, you will
consign to the flames.
I have that grateful attachment to you, that I should yet scarcely hesitate in
hazarding a month's absence from home, did not I anticipate that your
friendship would rather chide than approve the sacrifice. I am ever at your
command, being, my dear Lord, in truest affection,
Your devoted and obliged friend, &c.,
W. Young.
The plans of Ministers are further developed in the next letter from Mr.
Grenville.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Tuesday, Dec. 2nd, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I have nothing of any importance to add to my letter of Sunday, everything
remaining here precisely in the same state. It is determined to proceed, after
Thursday, without any further adjournment. A Privy Council is summoned
for to-morrow, to which all the Privy Councillors are summoned; those of
the Royal Family by letters from the Lord President. The physicians are
ordered to attend, and questions will be put to them, to which they will be to
give their answers on Wednesday. It is then meant, that on Friday, the Lord
President in the House of Lords, and Pitt in the House of Commons, should
communicate these questions and answers, but not as a message, from the
Privy Council. We hope that Parliament will be disposed to proceed,
without any inquiry, by themselves; but on the ground of the examination of
the Privy Council, a Committee is then to be appointed to search
precedents, so that it will be more than a week from this day before the
propositions can formally be made. They will, I believe, be nearly, if not
exactly, the same as I have already stated them to you. The point, on the
prudence of which you had doubts, is of such absolute necessity, that I am
sure, by a very little conversation, I could satisfy you in a moment that it
must be taken care of. It is intended to say of the whole plan, that it is
merely temporary, adapted to the present circumstances, when we are
obliged to act after the King has been ill a very short time, and when there
is much uncertainty with respect to the nature of his complaint, and an
absolute ignorance as to its probable duration; that if, under different
circumstances, and after a longer and more defined illness, Parliament shall
think it necessary to make other arrangements, that power must rest with
them, which cannot, indeed, be taken from them. This would, I think, cure
your difficulty.
Pray tell Bernard that the sooner he returns the better, and that I will engage
to find him full employment.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
I hope Bernard is not necessary to you in Ireland, because I think he is
already seriously wanted here. He will tell you for what.

THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM TO LORD BULKELEY.
Dublin Castle, Dec. 2nd, 1788.
My dear Bulkeley,
Many thanks for your very interesting and affectionate correspondence,
which I have not neglected from inattention, but from anxiety, and from
business, which you can easily figure to yourself, and as easily excuse.
Much of your Windsor anecdotes had reached me from other quarters; but I
could not, without very accurate information, have given credit to details so
very unpleasant as some of those which I have heard. The messenger, who
will deliver this to you, is going to London; but I was anxious that he
should leave this at Baronhill, as I think it may be doubtful whether you
know that the new system of government is to be proposed at the next
meeting of Parliament; and that unless the King's health should vary
materially after the 28th (my last date), there was no idea of a further
adjournment. My brother will probably have written to you, to press your
attendance, and, in that case, this will find you in London, as I shall order
the messenger not to leave it at Baronhill; but, if it should reach you in the
country, let me implore you not to lose this (perhaps last) occasion of
paying a debt to our master, which every principle of private honour and
public duty must make sacred to us. The only object to which I look is, not
to private power or ambition, but to the means of waking our unhappy
King, at some future period, to the use, not only of his reason, but of his
power. How this is to be secured I cannot, in my uninformed situation,
pretend to say; but I have the fullest confidence on this head in Mr. Pitt, and
if I could imagine that he could suffer a consideration of private situation to
interfere on such a question, I should despise him as much as I now love
him. I can have no doubt, that as soon as His Royal Highness is possessed
of the power of dismissing us, we shall feel the full weight of it, and to that
you will believe me most indifferent; but the subsequent scene must, in all
events, be so interesting, that I must wish every assistance to Mr. Pitt that
friends and countenance can give him. If this should be realized, I shall not
be long absent from you; and perhaps our Christmas pies may be too hot for
the new Government, if their folly and intemperance should urge them to
the steps which those immaculate Whigs, Lord Loughborough and
Sheridan, may suggest. Adieu. I am almost too late.

Ever yours,
N.B.
Robert and I have made our peace. Pray carry Sir Hugh with you.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 3rd, 1788.
My dear Brother,
It is now past four o'clock, and I am but just returned from the Privy
Council. The whole number that attended was above fifty, including Lord
North, Lord Stormont, Lord Loughborough, &c., &c. Fox was not there,
being confined with a flux, which he has got by the rapidity of his journey.
None of the Royal Family attended. The physicians who were examined,
were Warren, Baker, Pepys, Reynolds, and Addington. The general
questions that were proposed to them were three:
1. Whether the King is now incapable of attending to business?
2. What hopes do you entertain of his recovery?
3. What do you conjecture may be the probable duration of his complaint?
These are not the precise words, but the substance. They all answered the
first question decisively, that he is now incapable, &c.
To the second, Warren gave an ambiguous answer; but said that the majority
of persons afflicted with all the different species of this disorder, recovered.
An explanatory question was put to him, which it took about an hour and a
half to settle; whether, as far as experience enabled him to judge, he thought
it more probable that the King would or would not recover. To this he said
that he had not, and he believed no one else had, sufficient data to answer
that question.
All the rest stated, though in terms more or less strong, that the probability
is in favour of recovery.
The time, they all declared themselves unable to speak to.

A question was put to them, to show the degree of experience each had had
in these cases. That of the three first appeared not to be great; that of
Reynolds more; and Addington stated the particulars, which you already
know, about his house at Reading.
On the whole, I think the impression of the examination was universally
more favourable than was expected.
After the Council was formally broke up, Pitt proposed, in consequence of
some things which had been thrown out by Lord Stormont and Lord
Loughborough, that it should be understood, that any proposal for further
examination in Parliament should be resisted. After some conversation, this
was acceded to; and Monday settled as the day when these papers are to be
taken into consideration. A Committee is then to be moved to search
precedents, so that the motion itself cannot come on till Friday, or more
probably Monday se'nnight.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 4th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
Lord Sydney sends off this messenger with the proceedings of yesterday's
Council. I write a few lines by him, because I know you would wish to hear
from me, although I have, in fact, nothing to say.
Our situation continues exactly as it was. The prevailing idea seems to be
that of a general dismission, and of an immediate dissolution of Parliament.
How far the examinations of yesterday may operate with respect to this, it is
impossible to say; but I thought the Opposition people seemed evidently
struck and disappointed with them. If they do dissolve Parliament in such a
moment as this, when the physicians concur in declaring the King's
recovery probable, I am persuaded the cry will be as strong as it was in
1784.
There is a report, that before the Duke of Portland would consent to have
any communication with the Prince of Wales, he insisted on an apology

being made to him, for some very rough treatment which he received at the
time of the question of the debts; and that this apology has been made. This,
however, I give you only as a report, for the truth of which I do not vouch.
I enclose you a pamphlet, which you may perhaps think worth reprinting in
Ireland.
I hear as yet of no rats, but I suppose a few days will bring some to light;
though I cannot help thinking that the examinations of yesterday donneront
à penser à Messieurs les Rats.
I have not heard from you for almost a fortnight, and am impatient to know
that you receive my accounts; and to hear your opinions upon them as they
arise.
Pray send Bernard back as soon as you can. I cannot guess what his motive
was, for persisting so strongly in wishing to undertake two such journeys at
this season of the year; but he assured me, that he had no wish to stay any
time in Dublin.
The list, which you will see in the "Morning Post," of the Council is
accurate. It makes a curious medley.
James is come to town, looking very sturdy. He is now with me; and has no
other message to send, except to wish you all safe home again.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street, Dec. 5th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
When I came home yesterday afternoon from the House, I wrote the
enclosed minute of proceedings—a practice I shall continue to pursue until
we meet, for your satisfactory information.
As to news, it consists in the rumour of a general change in Administration.
I confess that so hasty a step as is generally talked of and believed, comes
not within the scope of credit which my mind is framed to. Political wisdom

suggests a multiplicity of reasons why the Prince of Wales should not act
precipitately—nay, why Mr. Fox, &c., should not act precipitately; unless,
indeed, to embroil the times, and seek occasions of profit and power from
their turbulency and vicissitudes, may be the plot of some desperate men of
the party. Of authorities for intentions of change, my best is Colonel
Stanhope, who, coming from the Duke of Portland's the day before
yesterday, mentioned that the arrangement of the new Administration was
finally settled in everything; but, "that they had not yet succeeded in
persuading the Duke of Devonshire to go to Ireland."
A-propos of Ireland. Accustomed to speculate on historical points, the
precedent seems to me eventful, indeed, on that side of the water. The
times, indeed, are perilous, and must be met everywhere with wisdom and
firmness. At all times, I am ever, my dear Lord, in truest affection of
friendship, your devoted and obliged friend, &c.,
W. Young.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 6th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I have great pleasure in being able to tell you that, in addition to what you
will have seen in the examination taken before the Privy Council, a Dr.
Willis, whose name you will probably have heard, saw the King yesterday,
and that his opinion is still more favourable as to the prospect of recovery. I
have but just seen Pitt, who has been at Kew this morning, and saw Willis
there. This general information is all that he had then to mention; but if
there should be any particulars of any importance, I will let you know them.
I am much mortified by receiving half a dozen Irish papers together this
morning without a word from you, as the speculations on your side of the
water are by no means indifferent, or uninteresting here.
The papers will have told you what passed in the two Houses. It was too
late for me to write; nor, indeed, was Viner's nonsense worth sending. Fox
looked ill, and spoke worse than I ever have heard him. His object was to
beat about, and feel the pulse of the House with respect to further
examination. I do not think he received much encouragement; but they are

so anxious to mend this part of their case by cross-examining the
physicians, that I am inclined to think they will try it. This opinion of
Willis's is some temptation to us to allow it; but, on the whole, I think it
better resisted. I should be quite clear about it, if it was not from a fear that
some individuals may be caught by the notion of parliamentary dignity, and
that our first division may thereby be less favourable than if it was taken on
any direct question of party.
I send you a note which Wilberforce put into my hands. If the thing cannot
be done, pray send a separate and very civil letter about it; because this Sir
J. Coghill is one of his chief friends in Yorkshire, and he particularly desires
to be able to send him a civil answer.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The next day, immediately after this favourable report from a physician
whose experience in this particular branch of practice gave great weight to
his opinions, Thurlow began to veer round again to the Ministry. "Whatever
object he might at one time have had in view," says Mr. Grenville, "he has
now taken his determination of abiding by the present Government."
Thurlow, in short, was exactly the man the King believed him to be, and
always kept in the sun.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 7th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
There is nothing particularly worth mentioning to you with respect to
Willis, more than what I told you in my last letter. He expressed himself
very strongly to Pitt as to his hopes of the King's recovery, and said that
there was no symptom which he saw in him, or could learn from the other
physicians, which he had not seen much stronger in other people who have
recovered. He has, I understand, already acquired a complete ascendancy
over him, which is the point for which he is particularly famous. He had the
boldness yesterday to suffer the King to shave himself in his presence. The
King was much more composed than he has ever been, slept uncommonly
well the night before last; said in the morning that he found himself much

better, for that Dr. Willis had settled his mind; and was remarkably quiet the
whole of yesterday. The account this morning is also, I understand, very
favourable. I have just seen a man who saw a note of Willis's dated late last
night, in which he says that he is confident the King would do very well. He
is to continue entirely with him, and to have the complete management of
him. The other physicians are, however, to see him, in order to keep him in
bodily health.
It is quite ridiculous to see how angry the Opposition are at the report of the
physicians, and particularly at what Warren said, which, I understand, was
very different from what they had expected. They go so far as to say, that if
Fox had been present he would not have dared to give such an evidence.
They hope to mend it by a subsequent examination before a Committee of
the House: the object of Willis being examined is so great, that I think we
shall consent to something of this sort. Not only his opinion will have great
weight, but it will also make the others very cautious what they say in
opposition to it.
The behaviour of the two Princes is such as to shock every man's feelings.
What do you think of the Duke of York's having a meeting of the
Opposition at his house on Thursday, before the House of Lords met, and
then going down there to hear the examinations read? After that, they closed
the day, by both going in the evening to Brooks's. The truth is, that the
Duke is entirely in his brother's hands, and that the latter is taking
inconceivable pains to keep him so, in order that he may not see what a line
is open to him if he had judgment to follow it.
The assurances of support which Pitt receives from all quarters are much
beyond the expectations which we had formed. It is also clear that,
whatever object Thurlow might at one time have had in view, he has now
taken his determination of abiding by the present Government, and
supporting their measures with respect to the Regency. I imagine that Lord
Stafford and Lord Weymouth have chiefly influenced his resolution—their
line having been clear and decided from the beginning.
On the other hand, there seems great reason to believe that the Prince of
Wales is inclined to go to all the lengths to which that party are pushing
him. They have for several days been spreading a report that he has

expressed a determination not to accept of the Regency under any
restrictions or in any manner at all short of regal power; and that the Duke
of York was commissioned by him to have declared this on Thursday, if
anything had been said that could at all have led to it. The story of to-day is,
that the three Royal Dukes have assured him of their resolution to refuse it
if tendered to them on similar terms, and that they have authorized Fox to
say this in the House of Commons. There is no knowing what sort of effect
this may produce with respect to the measures of the present moment: that
must depend entirely on the sort of turn that the people in general may take
upon it at first. But it is very evident that by such a step the Prince will do
himself a permanent mischief which he will never be able to repair, and
which we shall probably all of us have much reason to regret. It is quite
clear that, having once proposed these restrictions, as thinking them
necessary for the interest of the King (and on that ground only could we
propose them), no other motive whatever can be a justification for
abandoning them, as long as there can be found one individual or set of
individuals who will undertake to carry on the Government, and as long as
Parliament continues to think the proposal right and equitable. What all this
may produce, God only knows. Our reliance can only be on the discharge of
what we owe to the King in gratitude and duty, and in the decided manner
in which we have put all considerations out of the question which can
personally affect our own interests.
In the midst of all this confusion, and while his sons and brothers are
struggling to gain entire possession of his authority, the King may recover
his reason. What a scene will present itself to him! and how devoutly must
he pray, if he is wise, to lose again all power of recollection or reflection.
The struggle was now beginning in earnest between the Ministers and the
Prince of Wales. The point at issue apparently narrowed itself to the
restrictions; but there lay beneath this question of royal expediency a great
constitutional principle, which was gradually developed in the progress of
the subsequent debates. It was not alone that Mr. Fox and his party
demanded the Regency without any limitations whatever, but that they
demanded it as a right; setting up the doctrine that when the Sovereign,
from any cause, became incapacitated, the Heir Apparent had an
indisputable claim to the executive authority during the continuance of the
incapacity, just as he would have on the demise of the Crown. It was

strange enough that this doctrine, which Mr. Pitt denounced as "treason
against the Constitution," should have been maintained by the avowed
champions of popular liberty; and that it should have been reserved for the
Ministers of the King to defend the interests of the people against the
encroachments of royalty. Mr. Pitt asserted that the right of providing a
remedy for the suspension of the regular powers of Government rested
solely with the people, "from whom," he added, "all the powers of
Government originate." The language he held upon this occasion is
remarkable not only from its constitutional soundness, but for the
perspicuity with which it states the actual question in contest, stripped of all
disguises and evasions. "To assert an inherent right in the Prince of Wales to
assume the Government, is virtually to revive those exploded ideas of the
divine and indefeasible authority of Princes, which have so justly sunk into
contempt and almost oblivion. Kings and Princes derive their power from
the people; and to the people alone, through the organ of their
representatives, does it appertain to decide in cases for which the
Constitution has made no specific or positive provision." It will be seen that
in the end the Prince of Wales was obliged to abandon his claim of right,
and that the steadfastness of Pitt finally secured the recognition of the
principle which placed in the hands of Parliament the settlement of the
conditions under which His Royal Highness was to enter upon the Regency.
This glance at the subject is a little in advance of the correspondence; but it
will be useful as a key to the points of discussion thrown up in its progress.
The fulness and freshness of the letters, written daily, and containing the
most minute history of those proceedings that has yet appeared in print,
requires such slight elucidation as to render it undesirable to interrupt their
continuity by commentaries, except where it may become necessary to
direct attention to some special matter.
Both parties were now gathering their allies around them, and preparing for
a contest which was not very creditable to the political character of the
Opposition. In the meanwhile a third party was forming, which, trying to
reconcile hopeless antagonisms, ran its head against a crotchet, resisting the
restrictions on the one hand, and supporting Mr. Pitt, as Minister, on the
other, for the sake of his popularity and transcendant abilities. This line of
conduct is justly described by Mr. Grenville as "absolute nonsense."

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 9th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
The messenger who carries this is sent for the purpose of collecting proxies.
It is, you know, necessary that they should be renewed every session; for
which reason I have desired that a blank proxy should be directed to you,
which I suppose you will fill up, as before, with Fortescue's name. He is
quite eager (especially for him), and came up to town for the first day. I
think there is every reason to hope that we shall not stand in need of this
sort of canvass, either for the House of Commons or the House of Lords;
but you will certainly agree with me, that no pains are superfluous when
such points are in question.
I do not learn that there is any foundation for the report which I mentioned
to you of the round-robin entered into by their Royal Highnesses. The
partizans of Opposition are, however, still circulating, with great industry,
the idea that the Prince of Wales has positively declared his resolution not to
accept the Regency under any restrictions whatever. I take this, however, to
be nothing more than a bully, intended to influence votes in the House of
Commons. If, however, he should be so desperate, I should hope there
would be every reason to believe that the Queen would be induced to take
the Regency, in order to prevent the King's hands from being fettered for
the remainder of his life. Nothing has yet passed with respect to this subject.
Pitt has seen her once; but the conversation was nothing more than general,
although with the greatest civility, and even kindness, on her part towards
him.
We receive every day new professions of attachment; and I do not yet hear
of any one individual of any consequence whom we shall lose, except,
probably, the Duke of Queensbury. The Duke of Grafton has declared
himself explicitly. There is no longer any doubt of Thurlow; and there never
has been any of Lord Stafford, Lord Weymouth, &c. Lord Lonsdale is still
uncertain, and so is, I believe, the Duke of Northumberland—though this
will have been brought to a point by this time. The general idea is, that he
has connected himself with the Independents, of which there was some
appearance last session. It is said that they mean to support Pitt as the

Minister, but to oppose any restrictions on the Regent. This is not the less
likely to be their conduct, on account of its being absolute nonsense.
With respect to individuals in the House of Commons, there are several
who have long been wavering, and who have sent the most positive
assurances of support.
There is every reason to believe that the country will continue entirely with
us, and that addresses will be presented from all parts to the Regent, to
continue the Government. I am afraid that, in point of time, nothing can be
done of that sort in Ireland, without exposing you to much embarrassment.
I conceive that our Regent will probably be appointed, the Bill passed, &c.,
&c., by about the 10th or 12th of January, and that we shall then
immediately be dismissed. You certainly must remain till your Parliament
has met and appointed the Regent for Ireland, because there is no one else
who can vacate your commission; and I think the contrivances which you
once mentioned for avoiding it, are liable to great objections. Now, you will
observe, that the addresses from Ireland could not be presented to the Prince
of Wales till he was Irish Regent, and that it would be a very awkward thing
to have the people there addressing him to continue you in Ireland, after
you had declared your own resolution to quit it in consequence of the
removal of your friends here. I wish you would consider all this attentively,
because, if these difficulties could be removed, it would certainly be very
desirable that it should appear as far as possible to be the united sense of all
the three kingdoms, as well as of both Houses of Parliament, and of the
King, that the present Government should remain; and that these Whigs
should recommend the dismission in the teeth of all these.
Willis sent last night a note to Pitt about his attendance at the Committee to-
day. In a postscript, he tells him that he thinks the King better and more
composed than he has been since he has attended him.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
A new question and a new embarrassment now arose, as to what was to be
done about the Regency in Ireland. It was natural enough that the Prince of
Wales should be popular in Ireland as a pis aller, on account of the known

antipathy of the King to the Catholic claims; and it was apprehended that
the Irish Parliament, acting independently of English precedent, would
declare itself in favour of an unlimited Regency. The anxiety to which Lord
Buckingham was exposed by this disturbing prospect (some people went so
far as to cast the horoscope of an Irish revolution), and by the delays in the
receipt of intelligence, owing to the imperfect and irregular means of
communication existing between the two countries, betrayed him into some
expressions of impatience, against which Mr. Grenville remonstrated with
his habitual temperance and good sense, throwing out at the same time
some sound suggestions as to the course it was desirable the Lord-
Lieutenant should pursue. There are no qualities in these letters, wherever
reference is made to the conduct of public men in great crises, more worthy
of unmixed admiration than their practical sagacity and complete self-
control.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 10th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
Your messenger having been, as he says, four or five days at sea, has just
brought me your letter of the 2nd. I cannot avoid expressing to you the
mortification I felt, on finding it filled with complaints of want of
communication. It is now more than a month that I have written to you
constantly seven days in the week, with the exception, I believe, of not four
days in the whole time. I do this, not only without reluctance, but with
pleasure, because I think it contributes to your satisfaction, and because it is
a real relief to my mind to converse with you in this manner on the subjects
which are, in the present moment, so interesting to us both. But I do it often
under circumstances of so much other business, as makes it impossible for
me to keep any copies or memoranda of what I write. I cannot, therefore,
distinctly call back to my mind the thread of that correspondence; but, as far
as my memory serves, I solemnly protest I know of no one fact, opinion, or
conjecture, that could be of the least use to you, or could even satisfy your
curiosity, that I have not regularly communicated to you as it arose.
You seem to have mistaken some expression in one of my letters, and to
have understood that the proposition itself relating to the Regency was to

have been brought forward on Thursday last. You will since have seen, that
the preliminary steps require so much time, that it must still be Monday, or
more probably Wednesday next, before anything can be moved. But you say
that you have received no communication of the extent or wording of that
plan, so as to consider its legal or political effect towards Ireland. On this, I
can only say, that long before the outlines of that plan were finally settled,
even, I believe, in Mr. Pitt's mind, certainly long before they were at all
agreed upon by the Cabinet, I communicated them to you distinctly, and at
length. There has since been no variation in these. With respect to the
precise wording of the plan, I do not know that this is yet decided upon; nor
do I suppose it can be so, till within a few hours of its being moved. But as
to any legal effect which it can have upon Ireland, I have certainly failed in
what I intended to do, if I have not stated to you a clear opinion, that no
measure taken in Parliament here can possibly affect Ireland any otherwise
than as a precedent, which every Irishman must think himself bound to
follow, who does not wish to separate the two countries. It surely could not
be your wish, nor would it be desirable, to attempt to pledge any Irishman
one step beyond that general proposition, that whatever is done by the
authority of the British Parliament as to England, must be done in Ireland
by the authority of the Irish Parliament; but that the latter will grossly
betray the interests of their own country, if they do not adopt the English
measure, whatever that may ultimately be. I trust that we shall be able to
carry the measure here, such as I stated to you long ago, some time before
your Parliament meets; but if it should fail, and any different form be
established, I hope we should be the last men in the two countries to wish to
disunite them on this ground.
I cannot but repeat, that the expressions and style of your letter have hurt
me sensibly. I do not believe, that if you were living in Pall Mall, you could
be more distinctly or regularly informed of what passes. You will, of course,
hear in Dublin, as you would in Pall Mall, an infinite variety of foolish
reports, as is naturally the case when every man has his own speculation.
You cannot, I am sure, think it possible that I can even enumerate, much
less argue upon, or contradict all these; but I cannot, at this time, after some
reflection, call to my mind any point of the smallest consequence in our
present situation with which I am myself acquainted, and which I have
omitted to state.

With respect to your own particular situation, I conceive that it is not
possible that things can be brought to the point of affecting that for several
weeks to come. The measure which is to be brought forward here will, of
course, meet with violent opposition; and cannot, according to my
calculation, be completed, so as to put the Prince of Wales in possession of
the Regency, till the first or second week in January. I think as soon as you
receive the notification that this measure has passed in England, it would be
right for you to write a very short letter to the Secretary of State,
mentioning in a very few words the opinions of lawyers there, that your
patent can be vacated only by a Regent appointed by the Irish Parliament,
suggesting the expedient of Lords Justices; and then desiring to know His
Royal Highness's pleasure, whether he chooses that under those
circumstances you should meet the Parliament, for the purpose of laying
before them the circumstances of the present situation, or whether you
should name Lords Justices, and who they should be. You see, I put this on
the supposition that you are not immediately removed, which, for many
reasons, I think unlikely. You know my opinion has always been that the
Prince would not negotiate, and I am every day more confirmed in it. But I
think it may be a question, whether he may not choose to look about him a
little. Perhaps, however, in order to anticipate any sudden step, you would
do well to send a letter such as I mention, so as to reach England a few days
before the measure can pass, and to be here ready to be laid before him
when he does accept. In a point of such importance, it seems to me that it
would be proper that you should have, for your own justification, the
written opinions of your lawyers on the point I mention, but not to send
them over here. I mention this as a general idea; but wish you to consider it,
because I am sure, in general, the less you write on this subject the better, in
order that you may not give ground of misquoting, or misrepresenting what
you say.
As to the idea of vesting the Government in Lords Justices, or taking any
step for throwing up the Government in the interval, except with the
consent and by the direction of the Prince of Wales, I should most earnestly
deprecate it for a thousand reasons; but, above all, for the impression which
it would give here of abandoning the interests of this country in Ireland, for
the sake of adding to the confusion, and creating factious difficulties. I think
your line clear, and that you have nothing to do but to sit still saying or

doing nothing till our measure passes. You then ask the Prince of Wales
whether he chooses that you or any Lords Justices should meet Parliament;
and if he directs you to stay, you have nothing to do but to express to
anybody that asks you, your wish that the English measure should be
precisely followed. Whatever, under such circumstances, is the conduct of
the Irish Parliament, you cannot be responsible for it, unless you make
yourself so.
There is another urgent reason against your taking any step for breaking up
your Government: the King is daily getting better, and has been continuing
so to do ever since Sunday. Willis's examination before the Committee
yesterday, was all but decisive as to the certainty of his recovery in a short
time. I will send it to you in the course of to-morrow, or the next day; but
these are the material parts. He is asked what hopes he entertains of the
King's recovery? He says he entertains great hopes; that if it was the case of
a common man, he should have no doubt of his recovery; but in the King's
situation, his own reflections on his situation, when he begins to recover his
reason, may retard the cure. (A good lesson, by the bye, to the Prince of
Wales, &c.) He says he cannot yet affirm that there are signs of
convalescence, but that there is everything leading to it; particularly that the
irritation has almost entirely subsided, which must precede convalescence,
or any appearance of it. He is asked with respect to his own experience,
&c.? He says, that of ten patients brought to him within three months of
their being attacked, nine have recovered. That the smallest time he
remembers, is six weeks or two months from their being brought to him; the
longest, a year and a half; the average, about five months.
With this account, it is not very sanguine to hope that the King's actual
recovery may take place before the measure can pass here; or, at least, such
a prospect of it as may make it absolutely impossible for the Prince,
whatever his disposition may be, to change the Government. If the
amendment continues, it may even be a question whether further
adjournment may not be thought right, though the inconveniences of this,
particularly with respect to foreign affairs, are so great that it must not be
done but upon very strong grounds indeed.
The nonsense about dissolution has been talked in England as well as in
Ireland; but I cannot persuade myself that it really comes from Lord

Loughborough. It has not made its fortune much here. Anybody who had
the smallest knowledge of the general turn and bent of the public mind,
both in and out of Parliament, would not have broached so foolish an idea.
I told you, in one of my former letters, that I was utterly at a loss to guess
what Bernard's motive was for going to Ireland in the moment which he
chose. I stated my wishes against it; but I saw that there was some mystery
behind, which he did not wish to explain, and therefore I pressed him no
more about it.
Adieu, my dear brother. I hate writing anything to you, which can bear even
the appearance of complaint. I feel for the disagreeableness of your
situation at this moment: being at a distance from the scene of events which
interest you so much, and from any conversation with those in whom you
most confide. But I am sure you will, on reflection, acquit me of any want
of attention to you on the head of communication.
I am much obliged to you for your anxiety about myself. I had a slight
attack of fever for a day or two; but it is now entirely gone.
Five o'clock.
I am just returned from the Committee, who have finished the examination
of the physicians. The examinations of to-day are not very material; but as
far as they go, they confirm our favourable hopes. Another account is just
come from Kew, that the King has continued better ever since the account
of this morning, which is the public one.
Pitt is to move to-day for the Committee of Precedents. Fox told us he
meant to say a few words against it, as unnecessary, but not to divide; so I
shall not go down again.
The notion of the Prince of Wales not accepting, seems to lose ground; and
all these favourable accounts of the King are evidently strong grounds of
argument for our measures.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street, Thursday, Dec. 11th, 1788.
My dear Lord,

I did not receive your kind letter of Dec. 2nd, until my arrival last night
from the House of Commons, when it was too late to write, and the
conversation which then arose was of so important a nature, that it was not
practicable or proper to steal a moment from the debate, or to send a line
respecting it ere it was closed, and the subject took a decisive turn, which
was after the post hour.
To a friendship so dear and honourable to me as yours, and shown me by so
many instances of goodness, the best answer I can make is, through life, by
a return of grateful attachment, honour, and disinterestedness; and in these,
if I aught know myself, I shall never fail.
Of the momentous business opened last night, I can only say that our
astonishment is only to be equalled by the spirits we are in, on viewing the
grounds Mr. Fox hath abandoned to us and left our own. Lord Radnor, who
breakfasted with me this morning, told me he understands that Fox's
doctrine, "that the Prince of Wales was Regent, invested with full regal
authority immediately and de jure on the incapacity, however temporary, of
the King, and that the two Houses of Parliament had no right to debate
thereon even," came from that constitutional lawyer, Lord Loughborough.
Radnor's further remark, that Fox, having on a former occasion sought to
trespass on the royal just prerogative, had now completed his attack on the
Constitution, in denying the rights of Lords and Commons, is worthy
observation. Talbot, who made one of my morning's levée, told me that at
White's last night, all was hurra! and triumph. Charles Sturt and other
youngsters took part at the bar, to echo the "Hear, hear," from Fitzpatrick
and Burke, of Fox's doctrine; yet the "Hear, hear," was but little caught or
repeated, though given loudly. Looking back to the history of this "Man of
the People," and to his present conduct, in despite of his talents of logical
discrimination, I begin almost to doubt whether his weakness or profligacy
is transcendant. Pitt's language was most masterly and decisive; and has
been done but little justice to in the papers of this day. The general tenor of
subject they will give you, but what I have seen does not touch on the
overthrow of Fox's resort to the doctrine that Parliament was of "Kings,
Lords, and Commons; that no two branches thereof could make a law," by
the just and constitutional distinction between the two Houses making a
law, and the providing or giving efficiency to the third executive branch of
Legislature in cases of defect, whatever it may be. The report of the

physicians being ordered to be printed, will be out to-morrow, when I will
send it, with a few remarks. Our great days are to be Monday and Tuesday.
It will scarcely escape your Lordship's penetration, that when Fox said
recognition of the Prince's claim de jure to be the sole right and province of
Parliament, implied an act of the House to debate, and, if to debate, to
decide upon. So idle is genius! I see through the motive power: if
Parliament has a right to confer power, it has a right to say what sort of
power. So far Fox's penetration reached, and so he boldly denied the major
of the proposition; and then, in a puzzle for consistency of popular
attachment to good old rights of the Lords and Commons, and his
subscription to the pillar at Runnymede, run into the contradiction of
admitting the major in shape of recognitions. It is impossible yet to foresee
what tergiversation will take place, or how many will sacrifice their
principles to the rising sun; forgetting that apostacy to honest principles
requires that there should be a transcendancy of merit of another sort—
namely, of great ability to be useful to make that apostacy acceptable or the
object of remuneration. Hating the traitor and loving the treason, is a state
maxim to be remembered by those whose treason is scarcely ever to be
regarded while themselves are the objects of civil contempt. Yet some hold
a language of doubt. One or two, whom I will not yet name, I told if they
had not made up an opinion, they had better ask their constituents for one. It
seems to me, that the business must close in a resort to the sense of the
nation. In what shape such resort may possibly, I think not probably, be
made, is serious indeed. But the violence of the faction of Fox portends
every evil. Perhaps, however, and most likely, the resort to a new election,
may give us time to grow cool, and close matters there. Adieu, for the day.
Ever, my dear Lord, in truth and affection,
Your devoted friend and servant,
Wm. Young.
LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stanhope Street, Dec. 11th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
The scene here is a very busy one, and I never was so interested in any
public measures in my life as in the support of Mr. Pitt and the King at this

moment, looking upon it as my duty to do all in my power to stem the
torrent of profligacy which the Opposition and their King seem determined
to hazard with the good sense, decency, and character of the country. I
really do see such things, and hear of such doings, that my tolerant spirit
cannot forgive, and if you had not very good information of them, I should
think myself bound to treat you with them. The Nevilles, Fortescues,
Jemmy, and the General, being in town, we make a very strong corps
together; and we are sent to White's every night to gain intelligence for our
ladies, who are not a little animated in favour of the good cause. Charles
Fox and Pitt were at issue yesterday in the House, when the former
advanced the most extraordinary doctrines, considering his former opinions
in the Whig Club and in Parliament on constitutional points. I hope the
nation will see what lengths he is capable of going when it answers his
purposes. I do not hear of many rats running as yet, except the Duke of
Queensbury, Lord Brudenell, and W. Gerrard, Hamilton, and Sir Robert
Smyth, but probably some more dirty dogs will follow them. The
Chancellor seems very sour and crusty, and certainly does not like Pitt, but I
cannot believe he will do otherwise than right on this momentous occasion.
* * * * *
We sat yesterday till eight, in the Lords, and thought Lord Camden
imprudent in touching upon what had passed in the Commons the day
before, as it gave the Opposition an excuse for being violent; it, however,
had one good effect, that the Chancellor opened enough of his sentiments to
show that he means to stand by his colleagues. His speech was not long, but
one of the finest I ever heard, and made so strong an impression, that we
gave him a merry "Hear, hear," which you know is not very frequent in the
House of Lords. I think we shall carry the question of restrictions very
powerfully in the Lords, as I hear of no rats but the Duke of Queensbury,
the Duke of St. Albans, and Lord Rodney. In the Commons, a great deal
will depend on the state of the King's health at the time the question comes
on, and on the previous activity of Pitt and his two secretaries, in talking a
little to dubious friends, which they have not time nor inclination to do,
notwithstanding so much depends upon it.
Adieu, my dear Lord. Our joint and kindest love and remembrance attend
you both.

Yours ever, &c.
Pray order your secretary to send me word of the number and income of the
tide-waiters' offices which you can spare me, as I have dependants enough
if they are as highly paid in Ireland as in England. In the meantime I give
you the name of John Thomas, for one of them. Did you ever promote one
Alexander Gammach, tide-waiter at Belfast? Pray do before you quit
Ireland.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 11th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
You will, no doubt, be as much surprised as I was, to find that the notion of
the Prince of Wales's right was brought forward yesterday by Fox in the
House of Commons. It was a matter of no less astonishment to many of his
own friends, who were by no means prepared for the assertion of such a
doctrine. One should lose oneself in conjecture, by attempting to find out
what motive can have induced him to take exactly the most unpopular
ground on which their side of the question can be rested. I was not in the
House; but I find there was an impression on our friends, that in his second
speech he had rather seemed desirous of stating the proposition less
strongly.
Our present idea is, that it will be right, in consequence of this debate, that
nothing should be moved on the first day (which, I think, cannot be till
Wednesday) beyond the abstract proposition, as maintained by Pitt; namely,
that in every case of suspension or interruption of the personal exercise of
the royal authority, otherwise than by death, the care of making provision
for the emergency rests with the two Houses of Parliament. These are not
the words, but the substance. A stronger question we cannot desire.
12th.—I intended to have sent this off to you yesterday; but was kept in the
House of Lords till it was too late. You will see by the papers, better than I
can pretend to retail it, what passed there. The doctrine, as stated by Lord
Loughborough, was not quite so strong as Fox's; but is sufficiently so, to be
reprobated by every lawyer in the country. Even Erskine says openly, that
he cannot go this length.

The idea is, and some words which Fox dropped yesterday in the House of
Lords seem to confirm it, that whenever the report of our Committee of
Precedents is made, which will probably be to-day, or, at latest, to-morrow,
he intends to explain away his assertion, into the mere statement, that the
Prince has such pretensions to a Regency as Parliament cannot overlook. Be
this as it may, we are determined to state the right distinctly, by a resolution
of the House, before we proceed to any other measures.
Fortescue has this instant been with me, to say that he has heard a report,
said to come from a considerable Oppositionist, that they have resolved, in
consequence of the examinations and particularly Willis's, to accede to the
proposed restrictions, for a short time, reserving to themselves the right of
contending for more, should the continuance of the King's illness appear to
give grounds to expect that it will be permanent. I do not think this by any
means impossible, because the question will clearly go against them in the
present moment; and this appearance of moderation may give them grounds
at a more distant period. It is difficult, however, to conceive that they can
make up their minds to wait so long without a greater struggle.
Only think of Fox's want of judgment, to bring himself and them into such a
scrape as he has done, by maintaining a doctrine of higher Tory principle
than could have been found anywhere, since Sir Robert Sawyer's speeches.
I enclose the examination of the physicians before our Committee. I am
sorry to say, that the examination before the Lords is infinitely less decent
and respectful, and goes into a variety of particulars, which, I am sure it will
shock you to read, as it did me to hear them.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
I do not know in what manner what Thurlow said about Ireland will be
represented in the papers, not having seen them. It was so enveloped, that I,
who heard it, could form no notion what his opinion is. In the debate in the
House of Commons, I mean, for your sake, to state my principles on that
subject distinctly.
Sir William Young, in the next letter, reports what was done on Pitt's motion
for the Committee.

SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
House of Commons, Friday, Half-past Five, Dec, 12th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
Fox got up, on Mr. Pitt's having moved for a Committee to inquire into the
state of the nation on Tuesday. Fox explained away much of the harshness
of the doctrine of right in the Prince of Wales to assume the royal authority
during the temporary incapacity of the King; but left all the substance of the
doctrine. He then spoke his sentiments of what ought to be done, whatever
the manner; namely, to recognize, or confer, as others might say, full regal
authority on the Prince, for the time of the King's incapacity. He then called
on Pitt to relieve the nation from doubt, and give an opening of his plan.
Pitt, in reply, stated the point of law and the Constitution yet to be at issue,
the substance of difference yet remaining, and that such great question
could not be slurred over. It must be decided by Parliament, and should be
the first subject of debate and decision; namely, for Tuesday. It was a
question for themselves and for posterity. He then said, that the outline of
his plan was, as matter of discretion and conveniency, to appoint the Prince
of Wales sole Regent, with no permanent council, with power to remove
and make his Ministry at pleasure, and with all other regal powers
necessary for giving force, dignity, and vigour to his Administration; but
with no powers that might be needless, intrench on the Crown, and cause
embarrassment on the King's recovery, &c.
Our business for Tuesday, therefore, is the question of right.
Pitt stands higher and higher in general estimation. As I passed the gallery
to write this, Marquis of Townsend caught my arm, and said: "A glorious
fellow, by G——, Young! His speech is that of an angel."
Post bell rings.
Yours ever,
W. Y.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Dec. 13th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I must refer you to the papers for an account of our triumphant day in the
House of Commons yesterday. You will see by that, that I was not mistaken
in my opinion that the doctrine of the Prince's right was not likely to be a
very popular one. Fox found that by what he said before he had offended so
many people, that he was obliged to take the very first moment of
explaining it away; still, however, he has left it in such a shape that we
cannot fail of debating it with great advantage. He intends, as you will see
by his speech, to move the previous question on Pitt's proposition, which he
is afraid to attempt to negative. After this recantation was over, the day was
closed by such a blunder of Sheridan's, as I never knew any man of the
meanest talents guilty of before. During the whole time that I have sat in
Parliament, in pretty warm times, I never remember such an uproar as was
raised by his threatening us with the danger of provoking the Prince to
assert his right, which were the exact words he used.
You may conceive what advantage all this gives us, especially when
coupled with the strong hopes entertained of the King's recovery. The
account, as given at St. James's, is rather less favourable this morning. I do
not well know how to account for this circumstance, as the letters from
persons immediately about the Queen continue as favourable as ever. I
rather guess it to be Warren's malice against Willis, who was yesterday put
into possession of many points which they had disputed with him,
particularly the right of signing the reports. I imagine he was unwilling the
first day of this to contest with Warren about the precise words.
There is a report, which I heard yesterday before I went to the House, and
which Fox's speech appeared to countenance, of their intending to acquiesce
in the limitations, provided they are established only for a short time.
The precise mode of carrying our propositions into effect is not yet settled.
Our general idea is, that the two Houses should authorize the Chancellor to
put the great seal to a Commission, empowering the Prince to open the
session. And that then the propositions should then be brought forward in
the shape of a Bill, to which the Prince may, by a similar Commission, be

authorized to give the royal assent. We shall, however, in the course of two
or three days have reduced this to form, and I will then send it over to you.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The report alluded to above turned out to be true, which could be said of
few of the reports that were so industriously circulated during the King's
illness. The Prince's party, finding it impossible to get rid of the restrictions,
were ready to enter into a compromise, and to agree to them, provided their
duration was limited to a certain period. A Bill to that effect was afterwards
introduced. But Ministers were not inclined to accept compromises when
they had the power in their own hands to dictate conditions; and so the
limited Regency scheme came to nothing.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street, Dec. 13th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
The account at St. James's this morning is, that the King had a quiet night;
but that, on awaking, His Majesty was more unquiet than yesterday. Unless
something very particular is noted in these official returns of the King's
health, shall not in future transmit accounts so inconclusive to such a
distance. The disorder in its nature is subject to intervals, and to variations
which even a medical inquirer could not build upon, without being a
witness to such vicissitudes of malady or having a recital of each minute
symptom, and that with comments. Each authentic account, more in detail,
as it comes to me you shall have; and then, too, the St. James's note as a
corollary.
After my note from the House of Commons—which, if your Lordship can
read, I do not think I now could, such was the haste of scribble—Sheridan
threw out the menace which the papers state, with Pitt's answer; the
comment on which is, in the mouth of Opposition: "Pray, for God's sake,
don't put a question, and urge it to a division, which will ruin our
pretensions as Whigs if we do, as we must do, divide against it."
On walking out this morning, the first thing that struck me, was a long row
of handbills, stuck from one end to the other of the wall of Devonshire

House; in which a few words of Fox for the Prince's prerogative, and of
Pitt, in reply for privilege of Parliament and liberties of the nation, were not
badly selected.
We are likely to have a conversation in Parliament, I am pretty authentically
informed, of even a more delicate nature than the last; John Rolle intending
to bring forward his old subject of Mrs. Fitzherbert.
Rolle and Sheridan had a whispering conference under the gallery for some
minutes; the result of which, Sir J. Scott, Solicitor-General, with whom I
dined, said he understood to be firmness on the part of Rolle, in his
intention at a proper time to come forward.
To our question of right, on Tuesday the previous question is expected from
Opposition; and that they will be stronger on that point than any other, from
having the timidity of some, co-operate with the interestedness of others.
The list on that day will be worth marking. I trust we shall yet have a great
majority of Parliament who will not submit to be dragooned out of their
privileges and freedom by an Irish Brigade.
Grattan is every day under the gallery, not admiring, I hope, the Captains
Sheridan and Burke. I know not which side he leans to.
Adieu, my dear Lord. My wife desires to forward her kindest wishes and
best respects to the Marchioness, with your most affectionate and devoted
friend's,
W. Young.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 14th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I received this morning your letter of the 8th, and am very sorry that I am so
hurried to-day as to make it absolutely impossible for me to enter into the
subject which you discuss, in the manner which I should wish. You will
collect from a former letter my general notions upon it, but I doubt whether
those may not be considerably varied by the consideration which you

suggest of being able to carry more for the King by remaining, than
otherwise.
I have had a good deal of conversation with Pitt on the subject. He promises
me that he will, immediately after Tuesday, discuss it thoroughly with me,
and enable me to send you his decided opinion how you ought to act. I find,
from what he says, that he apprehends Lord Thurlow's opinion to be
contrary to ours. This, however, seems immaterial, except with a view to
future support, and, probably, cannot easily be brought to a point, as no
Cabinet measure or instructions can be grounded upon it. The idea still
continues of proceeding by Bill; and as we preface that with an assertion of
the right in both Houses, it must still be a considerable time before any
measure can come in question with respect to Ireland.
I believe we shall word the proposition in a less abstract form, and apply it
more particularly to this individual case, still, however, asserting the right.
The account is less favourable to-day, notwithstanding that of yesterday. I
saw a letter from Willis to Pitt, in which he said that the King "had passed
the day calmly, and was, in other respects, much the same as yesterday."
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 15th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I had yesterday some conversation with Pitt on the subject of your letter,
which I had received in the morning.
On the best consideration, we agreed that the line I before mentioned to you
is the best which you ought to follow; that you should write a letter, to be
delivered immediately upon the Prince of Wales being Regent, to state the
doubts, to suggest the solution of Lords Justices, to desire His Royal
Highness's commands upon the danger of giving offence here, by the
appearing to raise difficulties in Ireland. This was agreed to be more proper,
even to the King, than leaving them to open the Parliament. Pitt has
received a very haughty letter from the Prince of Wales to Thurlow,

complaining of his general behaviour to him, and of his not having had
Pitt's plan communicated to him, and ordering Thurlow to require him to
send it to him in writing. Pitt has sent a respectful answer, disclaiming any
disrespect to him; but saying that he does not think it proper to do this until
the question of right has been discussed.
It is reported that the four Princes of the blood met yesterday, and agreed to
refuse the Regency under any limitations, and this is to be declared in the
House of Commons to-morrow. I have reason to believe this to be true. Pitt
saw the Queen yesterday; I do not know what passed, though I think he is
satisfied.
I enclose a letter from Camplin, upon which you must decide. I have not yet
seen Captain Nugent, who has sent me a letter from you, but his business is
wholly out of our cognizance.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
When Pitt was at Kew he saw Willis, who told him that he did not think the
difference in the King's state within these last two days, of the smallest
importance. That this sort of fluctuation was naturally to be expected, and
did not in any degree diminish his hopes, which are as sanguine as ever.
MR W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 17th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I have nothing to add to what I said in my last letter, on the interesting
subject of your situation and conduct in the events that may most
reasonably be expected to arise. It appears, however, to me, to be of the
utmost importance that you should not neglect for a moment taking the
opinion of the law servants of the Crown in Ireland, with respect to the
operation of a new patent granted by a Parliamentary Regent here, under the
English Great Seal, previous to any proceeding having been held in Ireland.
I have a real confidence in Fitzgibbon's honour; but I think this a point of
much too great importance to yourself, to be vested on verbal opinions. You
may, and I think ought, both to keep these written opinions secret, and to
require them to do so; but as soon as you have received them, you should, I

think, transmit them to Lord Sydney, to remain in his office. You will
observe that the ground is now in some measure cleared for you by the
declaration of right, which we came to last night, and which will certainly
be agreed to by the House of Lords. I expected to have been able to send
you an exact copy of the resolutions, but am disappointed. You will,
however, probably see them in the "Morning Chronicle," if that comes out
early enough for the post. The first states the fact of the King's present
inability to attend to business, "and that the personal exercise of the royal
authority by His Majesty is thereby for the present interrupted."
The second: "That it is the right and duty of the Lords and Commons
(describing them as in the preamble to the Bill of Rights) to provide the
means of supplying the defect in the personal exercise, &c., in such manner
as the exigency of the case may appear to them to require."
The third: "That for the above purpose, and for maintaining entire the
constitutional authority of His Majesty, it is necessary that the said Lords
and Commons should determine on the means by which the royal assent
may be given in Parliament to such Bill as may be passed by the two
Houses, respecting the exercise of the royal power, in the name and on the
behalf of His Majesty, during the continuance of His Majesty's
indisposition."
I believe I have given you very nearly the words, which I ought to
remember, having employed very near the whole of two days in settling
them with Pitt and our lawyers.
Our principle is, that the King's authority remains entire. That no legislative
act can be done but with the formal sanction of his assent. That no person
can take upon him to give that assent, except by the direction and authority
of the two Houses, who have the right, in the present emergency, to act for
the King; but must, even in doing that, adhere as nearly as possible to the
forms of the Constitution.
Fox opposed these resolutions, in one of the best speeches I ever heard from
him; but I think indiscreetly supporting and enforcing all his old ground of
the Prince of Wales's right. Towards the end, he made a violent personal
attack on Pitt, intimating that he was desirous, through envy, to weaken the
hands of those who were to be his successors. This opening was not

neglected by Pitt, but laid hold of in a manner which enabled him to speak
of his own conduct towards the King and the Prince, and towards the
country in the present moment, and to contrast it with that of his opponents.
I never heard a finer burst of eloquence, nor witnessed such an impression
as it produced. But you will know all this better from the papers.
The division exceeded our expectations. All the neutrals, and many of the
wavering people, and some of the most timid of our friends, were against
us, on the ground of the inexpediency of agitating this question. You will
also naturally see that something is to be allowed for the impression of two
Princes of the blood speaking; one of them to assure the country that the
Prince of Wales would not urge this claim, and both beseeching, as a sort of
personal point, that it might not be made necessary to come to a division
upon the question. Still, however, the impression which the claim itself had
made on the country, was such that it was a point of real duty to quiet
people's minds upon it. But it cannot be surprising, that under all these
circumstances, and under the fear of some unexplained danger, many
people should be caught by a previous question. I was a little mortified at
finding our friend Sir P. P. among these. I had no previous intimation of this
till I saw him in the division, nor have I had any opportunity of conversing
with him since. I am not sure that he did not think he ought to have been a
Lord of the Admiralty instead of Lord Hood. It is either that, or his
intercourse with some of the Independents. On the whole, I think it better to
leave him to himself, as I do not think I have sufficient influence over him
to do any good, and the attempt might do harm. You know best how you
stand in that respect. We have certainly no claim upon him beyond
friendship and opinion.
Lord Lonsdale's people were against us, in consequence of a letter, written
by the Prince of Wales himself, soliciting it as a personal favour. This,
which I know from authority, may serve to give you an idea of the pains
they had taken. They were so confident, that, on Sunday night, Fox assured
the whole party, at a general meeting at Burlington House, that he had no
doubt of beating us. I imagine that we are now sure of carrying our
restrictions, and probably by a larger majority.
Lord Loraine has separated himself from the Duke of N.; in consequence of
which, Rainsforth has vacated. We do not know who comes in, but Lord

Loraine says it is a friend.
Gerard Hamilton is among the rats, which is no small amusement to me,
who have frequently been abused by Pitt for my bad opinion of him, at the
time that he was swallowing toads à toute outrance. There are one or two
more individual members in the House of Commons, but nobody of any
consequence but the Duke of Queensbury, which, though everybody
expected it, is nevertheless a thing that raises my indignation in no small
degree.
The popular opinion shows itself every day more and more, and I have no
doubt you will hear of addresses, &c. Fox's declaration of the Prince of
Wales's right has been of no small service to us. Is it not wonderful that
such great talents should be conducted with so little judgment?
Our mode of proceeding will now be to communicate these resolutions to
the Lords; and when they have concurred in them, then to bring forward the
plan; and lastly, to authorize the Lord Chancellor to put the Great Seal to a
commission to His Royal Highness, to empower him to open the
Parliament, and afterwards to another (at least, I think they should be
separate), authorizing him to give the royal assent to the Bill appointing him
Regent.
You will easily see, that all this will be no very short proceeding. In the
meantime, the prospect of the King's recovery is daily growing more
favourable. Willis and Addington have both said, separately, that his
emotion at seeing the Queen for the first time, and his subsequent agitation,
instead of being discouraging, were symptoms highly favourable. He is now
quite calm; and at three o'clock yesterday, the account which came from
Willis was, that he was better than at any time since his illness.
It will be ridiculous if he should recover just in time to give the royal
dissent to the Regency Bill—which is not impossible. The more probable
supposition is, that they will just have time to parcel out the spoils, to
dismiss us, and to hold their offices about a month; and so will end (if this
should happen) the third reign of King Charles III.
So little was said about Ireland, that it would have been an affectation in me
to have talked about it; besides this, I had no opportunity of speaking that

pleased me.
Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.
What I mentioned in my last about the four Princes, I now know not to be
true with respect to the Duke of Gloucester, who has held aloof from all
cabal with them, and even declared in the House of Lords that he had done
so.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 19th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I am very sorry that this letter must necessarily be so short, as I should have
great pleasure if there was time to state to you the particulars of our
triumph, and of the effect which it has produced, and which is indeed little
less than miraculous. It certainly exceeded my expectations; but it was so
infinitely beyond what our opponents had thought possible, that they are
beat down by it beyond all description. I hope you will hear all this more
particularly from others. I write now only for the purpose of sending you
the following paragraph from a letter of Willis's to Pitt last night, which he
showed me. W. is speaking of the effect of the blisters. He says: "From this,
and from several other little occurrences in the course of these last three
days, I am more than ever confirmed in my opinion that there can be no
doubt of the King's entire recovery."
I know the pleasure which this will give you, and therefore send it, though
in great haste.
Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Dec. 21st, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I have delayed writing for these two or three last days, in hopes of being
able to give you an account of the event of our second division, which has,
as you will have seen, been deferred from day to day, and now is finally
fixed for to-morrow. The adjournment on Friday was necessary, on account
of Pitt's health. He had entirely lost the use of his voice by a cold, so that he
could not have spoken five sentences together, and he was in other respects
much exhausted. Our friends were a little chagrined at the delay; but it was
unavoidable, and will not, I hope, be productive of any inconvenience.
Our next question is not a pleasant one. It turns on an abstruse maxim of
law, which makes it necessary for us to take a very circuitous mode of
doing a very plain thing. The necessity of it is forced upon us by our
lawyers, whom we could not otherwise have satisfied, with regard to the
second proposition which we have voted. I am indeed convinced, that, in
strict law, they are right, and that the mode now proposed is the regular and
proper mode of doing what is required to be done. At the same time, it
would have been more agreeable to have had a more familiar and obvious
measure to defend in such an assembly as the House of Commons.
We shall probably lose some individuals, both on this question, and on the
subsequent question of restrictions; but we have some new recruits, who
were absent by sickness, or other accidents; so that, on the whole, I hope the
difference will not be considerable, though nothing can exceed their
industry in canvassing, except the open manner in which they offer every
sort of bribe.
We have some idea of making the restrictions temporary, by which means
they will certainly be much more palatable. You will observe that almost all
the physicians seem to point out the probability of his recovering within a
year or a year and a half, if at all. This seems to afford a real ground of
expediency, besides giving a strong topic of argument for imposing the
restrictions only for a similar time. This point is, however, not yet
determined.

The accounts from Windsor for the last week, though they have varied, are
yet, on the whole, less favourable than before. Willis ascribes this entirely
to the effect of the blisters, which give him great pain; and Willis says that
is, on the whole, by no means an unfavourable symptom. The effect,
however, which these accounts produce here, is injurious to us, and must be
the same in Ireland. Our solid ground of hope does not appear to be in the
smallest degree weakened.
You will see in the Opposition papers that they are beginning to abuse the
Queen in the most open and scandalous manner. I collect from this that they
have some information, on which they can depend, with respect to her
sentiments, and I conjecture that they are such as we could wish.
If we were together, I could tell you some particulars of the Prince of
Wales's behaviour towards the King and her, within these few days, that
would make your blood run cold; but I dare not commit them to paper,
because of my informant.
The demands of the Opposition appear to have risen and fallen with the
bulletins; and according as the King was better or worse, the resistance to
the limitations was faint or violent. The conduct pursued by the Prince's
party to obtain votes and strengthen their parliamentary influence, is not
shown in a very favourable light.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street,
Monday, Dec. 22nd, 1788.
My dear Lord,
I should scarcely venture to anticipate a subject, the event of which within
twenty-four hours may belie any pretensions of political sagacity, might not
the difference of one day's post from London eventually delay your
receiving a letter for a week, should wind and sea prove perverse, as when I
passed my Christmas at Holyhead. This, and the anxiety for intelligence,
which must necessarily arise from the suggestion in my note of Saturday,
induces me to pursue the matter I then opened, and the more especially as
the circumstance, I foresaw, is now more than likely to occur. As I purpose
closing this letter at the House of Commons, and the last moment which the

post may allow me, I shall have to transmit fact in lieu of probability; at
present, I state briefly my grounds for the latter—namely, that the specific
great question, whether the Prince shall be Regent without any limitations,
and invested with the full prerogatives of royalty, will be agitated and
decided upon this Monday night. The turn of debate and temper of the
House on Friday, which induced me to suppose such question might be
pressed upon us, have induced others to press it. This morning a printed
paper hath been sent to certain members, containing a motion for
addressing, and an address at length to the Prince, corroborating what Mr.
Steele told me yesterday, that Fox's party had some design in view for
Monday. Letters having been sent in Fox's name to several members,
requesting attendance and an answer; and that Mr. Pitt had written in like
manner to such as he apprehended might be withdrawing for the Christmas
holidays, with the same unusual request of answer. Two of these letters
(pretty long), to Sir H. Hoghton and to Mr. Pye, I afterwards had the perusal
of.
The true friendly language, and which I openly hold, is that we shall be
stronger on the division than before; such language is proper, because
ordinary men consider numbers as a shelter for their opinions and conduct,
and some even consider it as the test of truth. But this language hath not its
origin in my judgment and feelings. There are circumstances which impress
great doubt on my mind, whether the division can be so favourable to our
wishes, as was the last. Taking the data of the examination of the
physicians, the King's recovery therein presumed, gives a vantage-ground in
argument for limitations. But I am sorry to say this ground is now shaken:
the public is no longer sanguine in hopes, medical gentlemen have
generally conspired to render the object of recovery much more doubtful at
least, and the physicians about the King have had dissensions and disputes
amongst themselves. It is now rumoured that Dr. Warren wishes to be re-
examined. All this is indeed not before the House of Commons, and the
report of the physicians is; I think, therefore, that though not so decisive, we
yet shall have a considerable majority on the premises; but even for this
dependant on other considerations—namely, how far apprehensions of the
King's actual demise may operate from, I believe, the faithful report of the
day, that a fever is come on, and that for a day or two past the King has had
a constant sweating of the head, to which he was at no time before

accustomed. According to wishes or fears, men construe this crisis to
portend health or decease; the political effect in the alternative, being in the
first case uncertain, in the second case certain. The bent of this is against us,
as few narrow motives and personal considerations may extend and favour
the active spirit of subornation which stalks in open day, with each hand full
of patents of honour and purses of money. Offers have been so prodigal that
not fifty years of patronage could accomplish the performance. Those
gentlemen who have rejected these kind tenders of service speak openly,
and no notice is taken. In these moments of public curiosity, it may not be
so well to trust names to a letter. I could give you several.
The bearing of this letter is thus unfavourable to this night's debate
terminating fully as we could wish, though yet I think for us. Having thus
far written, I shall pocket my paper for the purpose of adding what I can at
the House of Commons.
House of Commons,
Half-past Five, Monday, Dec. 22nd, 1788.
I dined at three, at a coffee-house, with my cousin, old William Lawrence,
who called on me; Smith, member for Sudbury, leader of the Dissenters,
joined us on the walk, and was of our dinner party. Lawrence said he
wished a compromise, a limited regency for a year, and then to take up the
business anew, if the King was not recovered, on the other ground, and he is
a leading country gentleman of their party, Smith is in an unqualified
manner with us; and Thornton, whose place in the House is next to me,
being equally staunch, I augur that we have all the Dissenters' interest with
us. Indeed, generally speaking, the House looks better for us than I
expected, and I doubt not our majority, yet thinking it will not be great;
indeed the House is not nearly so full as it was on the late question, and the
apprehensions I set out with of temporizers and shirkers, as we called them
at Eton, seem confirmed.
Edmund Burke arose a little after four, and is speaking yet. He has been
wilder than ever, and laid himself and party open more than ever speaker
did. He is Folly personified, but shaking his cap and bells under the laurel
of genius; among other things, he said Mr. Pitt's proposals could not be
adopted, as gentlemen, as cavaliers: the word will not be forgot.

Fox is present, but looks very ill. Pitt looks recovered. Your brother in high
glee at Burke. Burke stated the Chancellor to be like to the God Priapus,
and Pitt the carpenter. He run his idea to a charming extravagance, and
finished by declaring that "he could not be a votary to Priapus, the false
God! vid. Horace, &c."
The question is an amendment of Dempster's, to follow; the Lords and
Commons, &c., determine "to address the Prince of Wales, to take on him
the Regency, &c."
Adieu, my dear Lord. Your Marchioness in health, and a boy, and yourself
in all good that Providence can dispense, is the prayer of your most
faithfully affectionate and devoted friend, &c.
W. Young.

Six o'clock.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Tuesday, Dec. 23rd, 1788.
My dear Lord,
Never did any debate of nice discussion go off better in our eye than that of
last night: never was I more agreeably surprised than by the result—having
gained nine on our former majority. The House was thinner by forty at
twelve at night, than the debate before at three in the morning. The shirkers
I alluded to may now come in, and we may augur our future divisions to be
yet stronger and more decisive: our rats having all shown their tails on last
night's motion to address the Prince.
Sir John Aubrey, rat-major, receiving his emoluments of the Treasury for
five years, and declaring himself unconnected with any, afforded a subject
of general laugh. Master Popham, Sir Samuel Hurmery, James Macpherson,
W.G. Hamilton, &c., &c., followed the illustrious Aubrey. Fox, after Pitt's
reply, and his own rejoinder, paired off with Stevens of the Admiralty. The
Marquis of Lansdowne's friends, Barré, &c., were with us. Masham, voting
for the Address, declared himself not precluded thereby from voting for
limitations. Drake, on the same head, not to preclude himself, left the
House. We shall, therefore, have those two. Sir John Scott spoke with such

learning, truth, and uncommon energy of reasoning and language, that he
carried the House with him, and extorted from Lord North, in particular, the
highest compliments ever paid to a lawyer in the House of Commons. I
never heard Fox speak so temperately, or better, in point of argument. Pitt,
in reply, was equally great. He stated, to conviction, "the fiction of the law,
which admitted the application of the royal political authority, when the
personal was disabled, as implicated in the very principles of hereditary
succession, which otherwise would suffer interruption from nonage,
infirmity, dotage, and every contingency in the state of man." Sheridan
spoke very ill: very hot, injudicious, and ill-heard. Rolle, whilst adverting
to Sheridan's speech, made use of a remarkable expression, and which
seems to hint some future acting up to the rumours of his purpose. He said
that in proper time, "He should heartily vote for the Prince's being Regent,
if the Prince had done no act by which he had forfeited pretensions to
executive government in this country."
Our resolutions being carried to the Lords, in conference this day, on Friday
next the Lords will debate thereon. Lords Townshend, Romney, Radnor, and
many other occasional opponents, I understand to be decidedly with us on
the second Whig resolution.
In speaking of our debate, I had forgot Burke, who, after I finished my last
night's letter, finished his wild speech in a manner next to madness. He let
out two of the new titles—Fitzwilliam to be Marquis of Rockingham, and
Lord G. Cavendish, jun. His party pulled him, and our friends calling "Hear,
hear," we lost the rest of the twenty-five new Peers, who would all have
come out.
For the King's health, the world is yet in expectation of some crisis. The St.
James's notes of last night "quiet," or "unquiet," are disregarded, as too
general, or as of course; and accounts from ladies about the Queen, and
from the physicians themselves, pass in the greater circles, still mentioning
violent intermitting fevers, and profuse occasional perspirations. Having
generally, in my last, stated that the faculty had conspired to render the
public less sanguine, I mention to your Lordship only what T. Warner, above
seventy years of age, and forty years first surgeon of Guy's and St.
Thomas's Hospitals, told me, "Being at the head of these city hospitals, he
has been often called in to meet the physicians of Bethlem, where a surgeon

for scalping, &c., was required, and that a madness after fifty, without a
clear assignable cause—and that cause to be reached by surgery or
medicine—did not admit a perfect recovery above one time in an hundred."
The opinions of many others of the faculty are bandied about; but, as matter
of conversation for your private ear, I give this particular one as
authentically coming to my own knowledge.
You'll observe in this day's papers, a meeting advertised of the bankers. It is
understood to be for the purpose of tendering W. Pitt, on his going out of
office, a transfer of £3000 per annum, Bank Stock, or a principal of
£50,000, in the name of the commercial world.
Adieu, my dear Lord. Health and prosperity be yours, and be assured that
you have no one more devotedly attached than your most affectionate and
obliged friend and servant,
W. Young.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 23rd, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I received this morning your letter of the 18th; but am so much engaged to-
day that it is impossible for me to enter into it, which I will, if possible, do
to-morrow. I write now only to press again, in the strongest manner, that
you will get Fitzgibbon and Wolfe to state all the particulars of the case,
particularly as to the form of the enrolment of your patent under the Irish
Great Seal, and to give you their opinions and arguments upon it. I will then
take care to know Kenyon's sentiments on that paper, and if I can, the
Chancellor's; but you are not ignorant of the bias of his mind, which is, on
all occasions, to consider the relative situation of the two kingdoms, not
such as it is, but such as it was, and as he thought it should have remained.
My idea of your tie by no means went to your pledging yourself to do any
act so contrary to your duty and feelings, as the recommending from the
throne, in Ireland, a form of Regency varying one iota from that adopted
here. On the contrary, I think you should give it explicitly to be understood,
that everything in your power will be done to preserve entire this link of

connection. And under this explanation only, do I think you ought to offer
the proposed alternative.
I say nothing of our triumph last night. You will hear it from other quarters;
and you will probably be able to judge of its extent, by knowing the
confidence with which the enemy looked to gaining upon us on this
occasion. It is, I think, now quite certain that we shall carry our restrictions.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Another letter upon the Irish difficulty, into which Mr. Grenville enters in
elaborate detail:
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 25th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I am extremely anxious that you should lose no time in transmitting over to
England an exact statement of the case respecting your commission, and of
the points and arguments on which your lawyers ground their opinions, in
order that they may be well considered here by those who are interested in
your situation and character, as deeply and as warmly as Pitt and myself.
You mention in your last, that it has occurred to you, that it would be right if
you are intemperately removed to desire the opinion of our judges on the
point. But you do not seem to consider that, whenever that case occurs, you
may have to decide on the moment, either to quit your Government, and to
swear in the new Lord-Lieutenant, or to hold it against him, in contradiction
to the orders of English Government. Suppose he should himself be the
messenger of his own appointment, as was the case with the Duke of
Portland. The same reason exactly exists for it now as before, namely, the
fear of suffering the dismissed Lord-Lieutenant to meet the Parliament,
especially in a moment when their conduct is so important. The best and,
indeed, almost only security that you could have in such a case for the
justification of your own conduct, whatever it might be, would be the
having given a full previous intimation to the English Government of the
difficulties and dangers of the case.

You say that I should feel myself at liberty to act for you on the pressure of
any unforeseen case. I certainly should; and my confidence in your
affection, and in your persuasion of my desire to do the best for you, would
encourage me to take, if it were absolutely necessary, steps even of
considerable delicacy and difficulty. But I cannot but be infinitely anxious,
as far as possible, to be previously in possession of your ideas on every case
that can be foreseen. Besides this, I am at present unable to do the precise
thing which I think would be the most desirable, because I am not myself in
possession of the particular forms of your commission's passing in England
and in Ireland, so as to be able to state them to others. And yet this is the
point on which, in one view of the case, the whole question turns. I confess
that, in my own individual opinion, there is another point distinct from that
of forms, on which I should be disposed to maintain the incompetence of
any English revocation of your commission. It is this:
We (that is Pitt and his friends) hold and have persuaded Parliament to
declare that, in such a case as the present, the right of providing for the
emergency rests in the two Houses, not as branches of the Legislature, but
as a full and free representative of all the orders and classes of the people of
Great Britain. Now the moment that we admit this, we do it on the ground
of this being a case unprovided for. If it is so in England, it is
unquestionably equally unprovided for in Ireland; and the right of making
such provision must of necessity rest in the same manner in the Lords and
Commons of England. There is this difference, that here the Parliament
could not be legally opened, unless the Lord Chancellor had taken upon
himself to put the Great Seal to a commission for that purpose, whereas
your commission enables you (as I understand) generally to open and hold
Parliament. But even in your case, it seems to me to be a doubt whether you
can regularly do this without having received the King's pleasure for it, and
whether your opening the Parliament in such circumstances is not an act
very much of the same nature as the Chancellor's would have been if he had
sealed such a commission.
In the same view of the subject, I should most earnestly deprecate your
taking upon yourself to issue a further prorogation. Surely, under such
circumstances as the present, the two Houses should themselves decide, and
not any individual for them, whether it is expedient or not to proceed to any
business. My clear and decided opinion on that subject is, that you should

go down on the day of meeting, and state the circumstances of the case,
saying that you have ordered the several examinations of the physicians
before Council and before the two Houses here, to be laid before the two
Houses. Your Ministers should then, upon that, propose to adjourn to a
further day, on the ground of its not being known (as it cannot then be
known) what form will be adopted here, and of its being, at all events,
desirable that they should be in possession of that fact before they
deliberate, especially as the Government may go on in the interval without
inconvenience.
If you see no objection to this, it is, I think, high time that you should write
an official letter, stating all the circumstances of the situation, and that your
intention is, unless you should be informed that it appears to His Majesty's
servants to be improper, &c., to meet the Parliament on the 20th, for the
purpose which I have stated.
It is excessively important that you should, at the same time, transmit, either
publicly or privately, such a case as I have mentioned, considering the
subject in the two points of view: first, with respect to the particular forms;
and secondly, to the question, how far any difference in point of form can
preclude the Parliament of Ireland from the exercise of the same substantive
right as that which we have declared to vest in us under the existing
circumstances.
I have great doubts of the propriety of what you mention of an address of
the two Houses to empower you to give the royal assent to any Bills,
because that would prematurely, as it seems to me, bring into discussion the
great question of all—namely, how far the Lords and Commons of Ireland
have the right, either of commanding the use of the English Great Seal, or
of superseding its use, in an instance in which that, and the concurrence of
the English Council, are fundamental points of the present constitution of
Ireland. I am quite sure that the safest of all things will be the adjournment;
and I think it very improbable that such a proposal can be opposed, as it
must extremely fall in with the wishes of the party who are looking to the
Government immediately after the passing the English Bill. I have no
means of knowing or guessing at General Pitt's intentions, but should think
they can be no other than royal.

You could surely find no difficulty in pledging the servants of Government
in Ireland to the adjournment; because it can so clearly be argued not to
preclude any future opinion on the subject, and still less to pledge anybody
to the adoption of the English system; but only shows the opinion of the
Irish Parliament, that a knowledge of the system adopted here, is a point
which they wish should enter into their deliberations respecting Ireland.
I am much amused with the circumstance of Lord Sh. and Lord T. having
sent their proxies, as it has answered no other purpose but that of pledging
them; for it now seems to be agreed, that no use can be made of proxies in a
case where the Parliament does not legally meet, but is rather to be
considered as an extraordinary assembly of the same persons who constitute
the two Houses of Parliament. It is something more than a Convention, and
something less than a Parliament.
Our triumph here is very great. The indignation of the two Princes is, by
what I hear, beyond all measure or bounds. The steadiness of the House of
Commons on this occasion is no bad lesson to them, and I believe they will
long remember it.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
In the House of Peers, Ministers did not come off so triumphantly. Lord
Bulkeley communicates the result, and enumerates the rats.
LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Dec. 27th, 1788.
My dear Lord,
We divided last night at half-past twelve; our majority was 33, the members
being 99 to 66, which in the House of Peers was certainly a large minority.
The rat Peers were Duke of Queensbury, Marquis of Lothian, Bishop
Watson, Lord Malmesbury, Earl of Abergavenny, Lord Chedworth, Lord
Audley, Lord Eglinton; and all of the armed neutrality, who are: Duke of
Northumberland, Lord Rawdon, Lord Selkirk, Lord Breadalbane, Lord
Hawke, Lord Kinnaird, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Huntingdon; Lord Lonsdale
absent; Lord Lansdowne with us, and spoke better than I ever heard him in
my life, fewer flourishes, and less rhodomontade. The Chancellor spoke

incomparably; and did give it Lord Loughborough and Lord Rawdon most
completely, particularly the former, who felt it. We are in good spirits, for
we fall with éclat, and high in public estimation. I have no time to add
more; but that I am yours affectionately,
B.
The Opposition are in great hopes of a riot in the Irish Parliament.
MR W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 28th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
The messenger carries with him, as usual, the account received to-day from
Kew. I do not know that I have anything material to write in addition to my
former letters. I stated to you on Friday, at length, the strong objections
which both Pitt and myself feel against your idea of proroguing the
Parliament. If any accident should detain that letter till after you receive
this, I hope you will take no step of that sort till you have received that
letter, and seriously considered the nature of our objections, which seem to
me to be of the utmost importance.
The belief that the Prince of Wales will certainly accept seems to gain
ground. It is most probable that we shall be enabled to speak with more
certainty on this subject in the course of to-morrow, as a letter is to be
written to him to-day by the Ministers, stating the outlines of their plan. It
will not materially differ from what I originally stated to you. Peerages,
grants for life (with the necessary exceptions), and reversions, are to be
restricted for a certain time, which will be about a year and a half. This time
is fixed in consequence of what you will observe in the evidence both of
Willis and Addington, who both state the recovery as infinitely, and beyond
all calculation, less probable if it does not take place within that time. Some
line is to be drawn with respect to the King's household, but what that shall
be is the subject of this morning's deliberation. It is a point of delicacy and
difficulty. The entire custody, management, and government of the King's
person; the appointment, &c., of his physicians, and the regulation of his
actual family, &c., is to be vested in the Queen, with the advice of a
Council, to be named and removable by her. The idea of a Council of

Regency to assist the Prince, but to be removable by him, seems to be given
up.
Our division in the House of Lords, though sufficiently decisive, was less
than it would have been, owing to a variety of accidental circumstances.
There is every reason to believe that we shall divide stronger on Monday. I
have no apprehension whatever as to the carrying our restrictions in the
House of Commons. Accidental circumstances may vary our majority from
50 to 80; but there can be no doubt of success. There seems very little
reason to believe that they will venture to dissolve Parliament till March or
April, if they do it then, which I doubt.
There certainly never was in this country, at any period, such a situation as
Mr. Pitt's. It is no small addition to the satisfaction which we derive from all
these events, to observe that every man of all parties seems to feel how well
the game has been played on our side, and how ridiculously it has been
mismanaged by our opponents. Add to this, that they are all quarrelling
amongst themselves, and that we were never so united as at this moment.
With all these reflections you will own that the prospect before us is not an
unpleasing one. The opinion of Willis continues as sanguine as ever.
Believe me, my dear brother,
Most sincerely and affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Lord Bulkeley announces, with exultation, the division in the Commons,
and returns to his enumeration of rats.
LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stanhope Street, Dec. 29th, 1788.
My dearest Lord,
We are in high spirits here at the first majority of 64, and at the last of 73,
which, considering the open and undisguised canvass of the Prince and the
Duke of York, and the very liberal distribution of promises from both, does
the House of Commons a great deal of honour. Parry fell down in a fit about
two hours before the division of the first day, and was carried home in a
chair speechless, where he remained confined till Monday, when I polled
him by means of a pair with Sir Robert Clayton, which T. Steele arranged

for him. A certain lady in St. James's Square has been tampering with Parry,
and he certainly vented all his grievances into the compassionate bosom of
that active and politic fair one, who has likewise infused such a political
ardour into the mind of her dear Sir Poddy, that on the first division he was
seen to take down the names of the different speeches and the members,
besides other occasional notes. I have not been in St. James's Square since I
have been in town, the manner with which they affect to treat me being
such that an old English Baron cannot put up with; besides we are not in the
best of humours at present, Sir Poddy being unwell, and unable to attend the
last division and we find it difficult to sing the praises of the Prince and the
Duke of York on the usual themes of filial piety, virtue, &c., in the face of a
majority of 73 in favour of a falling Minister.
Sir George Warren was one of the rats, which Lady B. was much affected
at. He and Lady W. dined with us the day before the first division, and both
sung the praises of Mr. Pitt, and expressed the warmest anxiety for the
King's recovery. I was not all surprised, well knowing his rattish
dispositions. Glynne Wynne, whom I have been working for three years to
detach Lord Uxbridge from, has, with the utmost effrontery, cast his
benefactor off, and set him at defiance, to which he has been led by
promises at Carlton House. I trust we shall be able to do his business on a
dissolution, and he well deserves it, being one of the first of scoundrels.
* * * * *
I subjoin a list of those members who usually have voted with Mr. Pitt, who
have quitted him in the late divisions, i.e. rats.
Yours sincerely,
B.
Sir Peter Parker.
Sir George Warren.
Sir J. Aubrey.
Sir S. Hannay.
Sir Charles Gould.
James Macpherson.
---- Clevland.
Glynne Wynne.

Gerrard Hamilton.
---- Fraser.
---- Osbaldiston.
The Lonsdales voted against Pitt in the first division, and staid away the
second. The Lansdownes voted with Pitt in the first, and, I believe, in the
second, or staid away.

1789.
DEATH OF THE SPEAKER—MR. GRENVILLE ELECTED IN HIS
PLACE—COMMITTEE ON THE REGENCY—THE HOUSEHOLD
BILL—CONDUCT OF THE PRINCES—ADDRESS TO THE PRINCE
OF WALES FROM THE IRISH PARLIAMENT—RECOVERY OF THE
KING—DECISIVE MEASURES OF LORD BUCKINGHAM—IRISH
PROMOTIONS AND CREATIONS—DISSENSIONS IN THE ROYAL
FAMILY—MR. GRENVILLE APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE—
MR. ADDINGTON ELECTED SPEAKER—LORD BUCKINGHAM
RESIGNS THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND.
The one absorbing subject which for the last few weeks had engrossed the
public mind, almost to the exclusion of every other consideration, kept the
Parliament sitting close up to Christmas-day, in the year just expired. On
the 23rd of December, a resolution, vigorously opposed by Lord North as
instituting a fiction in lieu of the royal authority, was adopted, empowering
the Chancellor to affix the Great Seal to such Bill of Limitations as might
be necessary to restrict the power of the future Regent; but Ministers had no
sooner succeeded in carrying their object to this important stage, than a new
impediment presented itself. On the 2nd of January, 1789, Mr. Cornwall,
Speaker of the House of Commons, died. It was immediately decided that
Mr. Grenville should be proposed to succeed him. On all accounts, it was
indispensable to hasten this arrangement, as the functions of the Commons
were unavoidably suspended in the interim. A serious obstacle arose from
the informality of the proceeding, the sanction of the royal approbation
being necessary, according to custom, upon the nomination of a new
Speaker. The elastic character of the Constitution, however, although not
providing direct remedies for such special cases, admits of adaptation to the
most unforeseen exigencies; and so urgent was the pressure of affairs at this
agitating juncture, that the irregularity was passed over by the tacit consent
of all parties.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Jan. 2nd, 1788.[B]
My dear Brother,
You will probably not be a little surprised at the contents of this letter. The
Speaker died this morning at about nine o'clock, and after some
consideration, it has been determined that I should be proposed to the
House to succeed him. I am not quite sure whether the choice will come on
to-morrow or Monday. The situation is a new one, it having always been
held, that the King's commands are necessary for the election of a Speaker,
and his approbation for confirming him in his situation. But this cannot be
had under the present circumstances; nor can the House take any steps to
supply the deficiency till they have a Speaker. At the Restoration and
Revolution, the House, in both instances, chose a Speaker, who was
acknowledged as such, and was never afterwards confirmed by the King.
With respect to myself, the time for deliberation has not been long. But
upon the whole, I think the decision which I have made is clearly right. If
the King recovers before Parliament is dissolved, it is clearly understood
that my acceptance of this situation is not to prejudice my other views; and
in the public opinion, the having filled this office, though but for a short
time, will rather forward them. If the Regent goes on without dissolving, I
am then in a situation which, though perhaps not perfectly pleasant, is
nevertheless respectable, and will give me occupation. If they dissolve, and
carry the Chair against me in the new Parliament, I do not see how I stand
worse, in any respect, for having held this office. Such is my reasoning, and
I think you will approve it. As far as I can judge, there is no doubt of my
carrying it now. I have not yet heard whether they start any opponent, but I
think they have none whose personal connexions can materially vary the
proportion between the two parties: it is very sufficiently decisive.
I have not heard the account of to-day at St. James's. Nothing can be better
than all the accounts, both public and private, for the last three or four days.
It is certainly not sanguine to entertain the very best hopes; and the progress
has even been more rapid than Willis expected; so that I think we may look
with some confidence to March or April at latest.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.

[B] This is the date in the original, but it is evidently a
mistake. Mr. Grenville forgot that he was in a new year.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Jan. 4th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
The plan for the Regency was sent to the Prince of Wales in a letter from
Pitt, three days ago, with an expression of his readiness to give any
explanation, either in person or in any other manner that he might intimate.
Yesterday his answer was received, directed to the Cabinet. It is long, and
with much affectation of good writing, and is in parts of it well expressed,
in other parts confused and timid. It ends, however, with saying that if these
restrictions are adopted by Parliament he will accept.
I have no doubt of carrying the Chair to-morrow, but not a little doubt
whether I ought to have accepted it. The die is, however, now cast. The
restrictions will, I think, pass without much difficulty.
I still adhere strongly to my opinion about the prorogation, because I think
there is a wide difference between exercising during the King's health a
power which he commits to your discretion, but which he might if he
pleased regulate by instruction at any moment, and exercising the same
power now when you are to state that the King is prevented by infirmity
from attending at all to the administration of his Government. I am sure that
your acting in the manner you speak of is liable to, and will probably bear,
the very worst construction in the minds of the public here; and I cannot for
the life of me conceive what fear there can be that the two Houses will not
adjourn, considering that the great point which they all wish, is that they
may not be obliged to pledge themselves. The extraordinary anxiety in
those whom you see, to get you to prorogue, is, in my opinion, a very strong
proof of their being actuated by that sort of wish.
I have not time to write any more, except to express my anxiety to hear how
Lady B. and your child go on.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.

There was no doubt about the issue of the election to the Speakership.
"Your brother William will certainly be Speaker," writes Lord Bulkeley on
the 3rd, "and has already stood the hoax at White's, where it was debated
last night whether he should wear a wig or his own hair." The election went
off to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Grenville, who, reporting the event, says
that "the majority, though quite large enough, would have been larger if
they had divided half an hour later, as nearly forty of my friends were
locked out below, and about eleven of theirs." With his customary
philosophy, he made the best of everything; but he does not disguise from
Lord Buckingham that he had strong doubts in his mind whether he ought
to have accepted the Chair. The Opposition might, probably, have been
stronger against his election, but for the belief that prevailed that the King
was getting rapidly better. "The progress of the King," observes Mr.
Grenville on the 7th, "is such, according to our accounts, that it is by no
means impossible, nor even a very improbable case, that before the Irish
Bill can pass, he may re-assume his Government."
Another contingency that weighed with the floating mass of undecided
politicians was the rumour which now began to be circulated that the
Regent would not dismiss the existing Ministers till the end of the session.
LORD MORNINGTON TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Jan. 6th, 1789.
My dear Lord,
As I understood that Sir W. Young and Bernard wrote you an account of the
division last night, which placed Grenville so honourably in the Chair of the
House of Commons, I did not trouble you with any letter by the post of
yesterday; but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of acquainting you, that
nothing could be more perfectly satisfactory to all our friends than the
conduct of the new Speaker on an occasion naturally distressing; his speech
of excuse, and his speech from the steps of the Chair, were universally
admired, they were both so composed and delivered as to render a scene,
which I have always understood to be very ridiculous, really interesting and
affecting. It is deemed a misfortune amongst our friends, that the practice of
printing the Speaker's speeches on this occasion in the journals is now
disused. Grenville's speeches would have done him the highest credit, as

well as afforded an excellent precedent to future Speakers. I have prevailed
with Mr. Speaker to mount his wig, and the whole apparatus to-day: he
must consider this as a young lawyer does his first appearance at the bar,
and the sooner the laugh is over the better for the dignity of the Chair.
Whatever may be Grenville's future fortunes, it can be no discredit to his
character to have been placed in the Chair by such a majority, in such times
and circumstances, and at his age.
I write no accounts of what we are doing, you hear that much more
correctly from Grenville. I am anxious to know what will be the temper of
Ireland at the meeting. Grattan is as much a creature of Fox and his party, as
the meanest libeller in the "Morning Herald;" he lives entirely with them. I
hear Pelham is to take his father on his back to the Government of Ireland.
Grattan will stand, in my opinion, on most unpopular ground, if he either
attempts to assert the hereditary right of the Prince, or to give him larger
powers in Ireland, than the Parliament of this country entrust to him for the
administration of the British Government. The hereditary right, I suppose
Grattan will not venture to touch; and the latter proposition, I think, might
be argued exactly as he argued the Perpetual Mutiny Bill, and other
questions, where the danger of larger powers in Ireland than were held in
England by the same hands, were considered with a view to the
Constitutions of both countries. This argument is, in my opinion, clear, if
the rights of the King on the throne are admitted to be the rights of the
people at large, and if they are not, I know not why they exist. I have not
much fear that the Irish Parliament will listen to such proposals. As to
reversions and offices for life, a Regent, who has not the power of granting
them here, and attempts to obtain it in Ireland, can mean nothing else than
to indemnify his disappointed friends in England at the expense of Ireland; I
do not think this can go down. On the whole, I think your argument in
Ireland stronger in every view than ours here, and that is saying a great
deal.
Arthur informs me that my Trimmers wish to have a company of foot
quartered on them. I am sure I have no objection to your giving free
quarters to the whole army on the worthy inhabitants of that ancient and
loyal town.

I sincerely wish you joy of your son, and hope the bad weather does not
affect either him or Lady Buckingham.
Ever, my dear Lord,
Yours most affectionately,
Mornington.
What think of Sir John Aubrey, rat?
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Jan. 10th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I send you a letter of Camplin's, about an exchange which had been
proposed. We have no news here—everything remaining in precisely the
same state. The Committee, will, I think, most probably not make their
report to-day, though we meet for the chance of it. In this manner, it will be
impossible that the restrictions can be opened before Tuesday or
Wednesday. The debates of the Committee have been conducted with great
heat and violence on both sides, and much indecency towards the King,
particularly from Fox and Burke. They are now endeavouring to turn it into
a personal attack upon the Queen, for having wished to make one of the
reports of the physicians more favourable, and for having dismissed Baker
from her service, on the ground of the great inattention towards the King
and his family, which appears on the face of his former examination: he
having perceived symptoms of this disorder so early as the 22nd of October,
and having, subsequent to that time, entirely left the King.
The examination of Baker and Warren state the probability of recovery as
being nearly the same as when they were before examined, but rather less.
Willis and Pepys state it as much greater; particularly the former of these
two, who speaks in the most sanguine terms. The answers of Reynolds and
Gisborne are also, as I believe, favourable.
These delays put all idea of dissolution out of the question, till the end of
the present session, at soonest; and that cannot take place, according to my
calculation, till the end of June. People begin to speak doubtfully about the
Regent's making any immediate change, and I know that some of their
friends affect to hold that language; but I am inclined to think that, however

difficult it may be for them to undertake the Government under the existing
circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for them to satisfy the Regent, or
to quiet their own dependants, without running that risk.
Fox is apparently recovering, but slowly.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Jan. 12th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I understand from different conversations, as well as from the general report
here, that there is an intention of moving for an Address to the Prince, such
as was proposed here, immediately on the first meeting of the Irish
Parliament. Grattan, &c., &c., are all going over, so as to be in Dublin by
the 20th. He is understood to have entered completely into all the views of
the party here, and to be ready to pledge himself to all their doctrines,
maintained, or retracted, or both. I thought it right to give you this
intelligence, although you will probably hear it from many other quarters,
and though I have very little apprehension, indeed, from the effect of such a
manœuvre. If anything could more completely ruin them here than they are
ruined already, it would be such a measure. As to its effect in Ireland, I
cannot persuade myself that there can be any difficulty in getting people to
pledge themselves not to run before this country; and to appoint a Regent,
without conditions, in Ireland, before it is even known what conditions are
to be proposed, much less whether they will be adopted by the British
Parliament. At all events, however, the battle must be fought; for it would
be the most disgraceful thing in the world to appear to give it up, or rather
not to appear to dispute it inch by inch.
Lord Glendon and Lord Fairford are both going over to assist you. They
both complain (particularly the former) of want of attention from you; but I
am so accustomed to such complaints, without foundation, that I am not
disposed to give much credit to them in this instance. I understand that Lord
Hillsborough has expressed himself on the subject in a more decided
manner than you seem at all disposed to give him credit for.

Our report cannot probably be made to-day; but when it does appear, I am
told that the impression of it will be favourable to the idea of the King's
recovery. Surely, when this circumstance is taken into consideration by your
Irish speculators, in addition to the many other considerations which make
everybody here allow that Pitt's side has the best of the day, they will not be
induced to hazard so decisive a step as you must give them to understand
their agreeing to this Address will be considered.
It was mentioned to me, that considerable offers had been made to Corry. I
mention this to you, but you will probably be able to ascertain the truth of
the report more accurately than I can.
It is worth observing, that the appointment of a Regent in Ireland by
Address goes directly to dissolve the Union of the two kingdoms, because a
Regent so appointed could not command the use of the English Great Seal.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Jan. 19th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I was so knocked up on Saturday, that I found it impossible to write to you;
though there is one circumstance, which, if I had been acquainted with,
would have prevailed over all fatigue—I mean that of Captain Nugent's
having voted against us upon the second division. The question has not
been distinctly stated in any of the papers, as far as I have seen. It was a
proposal of Fox's, that the restrictions, particularly that of peerage, should
continue only for a limited time; by which means, we should have been
placed in this sort of situation, that if, at the expiration of that term, the
King should be so far recovered, as to afford hopes even of an almost
immediate recovery, the Regent would be able, by a sudden creation of
Peers, to make it impossible for him to resume his authority.
Nugent had voted with us upon the first question; but was, I suppose, led
away by some part of Fox's speech, which had the effect of carrying over
Bankes and about six or seven more of our conscientious friends. I think it
right to mention this circumstance to you, though not with any view of

suggesting what you may think it right to do. I shall, I own, be much
mortified if he should vote against us on Monday; but nothing that you can
do will be in time enough to prevent that. I do not feel that I can take any
measures on the subject, although I certainly have no doubt what your
wishes would have been if you were on the spot.
I find, from general report, that some of our friends are staggered about the
household resolution, which is to be proposed on Monday. It is, therefore,
probable, that we shall not carry this by so triumphant a majority as we
have the other questions. I think, however, there is little doubt that we shall
carry it; and that is the point of real importance.
I shall be anxious to hear the event of your meeting. You will have observed
that, by Lord Sydney's despatch, a latitude is given you of proroguing, in
stating the opinion of the King's servants on the different points. I thought,
when the despatch was shown to me, that this was a favourable
circumstance, as, from your letters, it seemed to me at that time very
doubtful whether you would not have adopted that measure; and, in that
case, I felt that you would certainly have been glad to have this sort of
sanction.
Believe me ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The Duke of Leinster has, as I suppose you know, written to the Prince of
Wales, to offer himself to him. The consequence has been, that Lord
Charles Fitzgerald has declared, that he does not consider himself in a
situation to be turned over from party to party every half-year; and that he
has hoisted an Orange cape. He will, as I understand, not go over to Ireland
at the meeting; and I take it for granted, that in case of a dissolution the
Duke will not re-elect him.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Jan. 19th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
Since I wrote my other letter of this date, I have received yours of the 15th,
stating your alarm at the lies spread in Ireland about the proceedings of the
Committee of the House of Commons. You will, long before this, have

received the report itself from me, and by reading it, will have found how
much more favourable the account of the King's situation appears from that
examination, and how much you are in the wrong to suffer your noble spirit
to be cast down by such weak inventions of the enemy; and above all, how
monstrous the idea is that Fox is to gain with the public by a transaction
which only shows their inveterate malice against the King and Queen, and
its utter impotence. Your expressions of duper and duped, you will see are
equally inapplicable to our representations of the King's situation, which I
think you will still believe to be as authentic and as credible as the lies
which Grattan and Forbes retail from the porter's lodge at Carlton or
Burlington House. Seriously speaking, I am vexed to see the importance
which you attach to all these reports, because I know that it must work and
agitate your mind. A whole life would not suffice, on my part, to answer
every lie in circulation: but I beg you to believe that although, perhaps,
naturally a little sanguine in my temper, yet that if there was any really
unfavourable circumstance which arose here, I would not conceal it from
you. The King is better ever since that examination; and this I speak on no
partial authority, but on the information of Warren himself, who gave
yesterday to the person who repeated it to me a much more favourable
account.
I have not time to answer the rest of your letter to-day. Our Bill is not
prepared yet, nor can be till the resolutions have been agreed to by both
Houses; but it will be short, and nearly in the same words with the
resolutions, adding only the oath of office from the Regency Bill of 1765,
and a few other particulars.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
I suppose you know that Lord Spencer certainly goes to Ireland.
The notion that the Regent would continue Mr. Pitt and his friends in office
was rapidly dissipated during the progress of these discussions. The
Household Bill, alluded to in one of Mr. Grenville's letters, gave deep
offence to His Royal Highness; and from the moment that part of the plan
was disclosed, there was no longer any disguise about the fact that the
Prince had not only made up his mind to dismiss the Ministers, but that the

list of the incoming Administration was actually settled, and ready for use.
The object of the Household Bill was to confide to the Queen the care of the
King's person, and the disposition of the royal household, which would
have the effect of placing at Her Majesty's control the patronage of four
hundred places; while the Regent was to possess no power whatever over
any office, reversion, or pension. This appeared to the Prince and his allies a
monstrous proposition, calculated to introduce "weakness, disorder, and
insincerity into every branch of political business;" to "separate the Court
from the State;" to "disconnect the authority to command service from the
power of animating it by reward;" and to impose on the Regent "all the
invidious duties of the kingly station, without the means of softening them
to the public by any one act of grace, favour, or benignity."
In these poised and melodious sentences (said to have been written by
Burke) may be recognized the policy of the master spirit that raised the
storm which was to overwhelm Ministers. When the moment came,
however, at which it should have burst—Pitt's motion for the Address—Fox
was absent. "Fox is gone to Bath," says Mr. Grenville. "Whether he is very
ill, as some say, or wants to shirk the discussion about Mrs. Fitzherbert, as
others assert, I know not."
This business of Mrs. Fitzherbert, of which we hear something in these
letters, was suspended like a sword over the heads of the royal Opposition;
and whenever it threatened to descend, they endeavoured to escape from it
by avoiding the discussion, or to avert it by abating their violence. The
rumour, however, which ascribed Fox's absence on this occasion to that
cause was certainly unfounded. On the 19th of January, he made his motion
for limiting the continuance of the restrictions; and on the 26th he was ill at
Bath, where he remained for some weeks in a precarious state of health. His
loss was severely felt by his party. Ministers were triumphant in both
Houses. The incidental shocks they experienced from the vibrations of that
class of persons designated by Mr. Grenville as "conscientious friends," and
from the defection of the rats, had been completely recovered in the final
majorities of Lords and Commons; and although Fox may not have thought
it prudent on some occasions to enhance the inevitable defeat of the Prince's
followers by assisting at their discomfiture, it is unlikely that even the dread
of a debate on Mrs. Fitzherbert would have kept him away at this critical
juncture.

While these discussions were going on, always ending in fluctuating
majorities for Pitt, the Prince of Wales and his brother, notwithstanding the
dissipation in which they indulged, were indefatigable in their efforts to
cultivate popularity. Thus writes Lord Bulkeley:
The Princes go on in their usual style, both keeping open houses, and
employing every means in their power to gain proselytes, attending the
Beefsteak Clubs, Freemason meetings, &c., and will probably very soon
attend the parochial meetings of Lord John Townshend's Committee in
Westminster. Notwithstanding all this, the Parliament still continues steadily
to Mr. Pitt, which, considering the looseness of morals and of the times,
does the members great credit. * * * The Duke of York never misses a night
at Brookes's, where the hawks pluck his feathers unmercifully, and have
reduced him to the vowels I. O. U. The Prince likewise attends very often,
and has taken kindly to play.
General Cuninghame appears to have disappointed the expectations of his
friends at this period, and, although present in the House on the 19th, did
not vote. It was the next thing to ratting, and seems to have been regarded in
that light by Lord Bulkeley.
General Cuninghame has been blowing hot and cold in his language here,
but has not voted, not even last night, when he appeared for the first time in
the House. I have had a letter from the Duke of Dorset, complaining of his
conduct in not resigning his seat, as his conscience troubled him.
No man had so keen a scent for rats as Lord Bulkeley, and he was generally
in advance of his party in detecting them.
Thurlow and Loughborough were both ill at this time ("which," says Sir
William Young, with a touch of sarcastic humour, "will much shorten the
progress of the Regency Bill in the Lords"); and on the 2nd of February,
when Mr. Grenville, in his capacity of Speaker, attended at the bar of the
House of Peers to hear the Commission under the Great Seal read, Thurlow
was unable to attend, and Lord Bathurst officiated for him. The night
before, Thurlow declared, as reported by his physician, that "if he were ten
times worse, he'd go, by G—;" his physician, however, overruled him; and
the obstruction of his presence being thus fortunately removed, it was
anticipated that the progress of the Bill through the Lords would be so rapid

as to place the Regent on the throne in a fortnight. Active preparations were,
consequently, set on foot for settling the new Administration. Amongst the
other great situations, Ireland was offered to the Duke of Northumberland,
who declined it, and then to Lord Spencer, who accepted it, with Pelham for
his secretary.
Ireland was a considerable item in the calculations of the Opposition. "The
Prince and the Opposition," writes Lord Bulkeley, "have great hopes of a
riot in their favour in the Parliament of Ireland." Some such result was to be
apprehended from the temper of the people, and the adverse views they
took of the Regency question; although a true sense of their own
independence ought to have shown them that there were national objections
against allowing the Prince to indemnify himself by the use of the royal
prerogatives in Ireland for the restraints which were put upon him in
England. The object to which, under these difficult circumstances, Lord
Buckingham and Mr. Grenville directed their attention, was to assimilate, as
nearly as possible, the Regency Bills in both countries, so as to prevent the
occurrence of so great an anomaly as that of having a Regent whose powers
should be strictly limited in the one kingdom, and who should, at the same
time, be invested with unrestricted powers in the other. The Parliament of
Ireland possessed the unquestionable right of deciding the Regency in their
own way, leaving the legal validity of the act for subsequent consideration;
and as it was understood that the Opposition intended to move an Address
to the Prince, which there was reason to believe they would be able to carry,
calling upon His Royal Highness to assume the Government of Ireland
unconditionally during the term of His Majesty's illness, the position of
Lord Buckingham had become peculiarly embarrassing. What course
should be taken in the event of such an Address being carried? This
question is anxiously discussed in numerous communications between Lord
Buckingham and Mr. Grenville and other members of the Government. The
predicament was so strange, and involved constitutional considerations of
such importance, as to give the most serious disquietude to the
Administration. The first expedient thought of was to delay the proceedings
of the Irish Parliament, by adjournment, or any other available means, till
after the Regent had been appointed in England, provided the motion for the
Address could be successfully resisted in the first instance. But as it was
almost certain the Administration would be beaten on that motion, it

remained to be determined whether Lord Buckingham, in that event, should
refuse to transmit the Address to His Royal Highness. Upon the propriety of
so extreme a measure Mr. Grenville entertained some doubts in the
beginning. By refusing to transmit the Address, the Lord-Lieutenant would
clearly put himself in the way as an obstacle to that mode of providing for
the emergency which the two Houses of Parliament were determined to
adopt; or, on the other hand, by sending it he would make himself, in some
degree, a party to a request by which His Royal Highness was asked to do
an act which he, Lord Buckingham, held His Royal Highness to be
precluded by law from doing. Such was the dilemma as it presented itself to
the mind of Mr. Grenville. One escape from it was, to forward the Address,
accompanied by a representation from Lord Buckingham of his own views
of its illegality. Another was, to resign.
In the meanwhile, the projects of the Opposition in England were checked
by the gratifying accounts from Kew. The King was visibly improving, and
hopes began to be entertained that there might be no necessity for a
Regency after all. The letters of Mr. Grenville, reverting to the opening of
the Parliament, trace the progress of these circumstances in detail.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 2nd, 1789.
My dear Brother,
Our Parliament has this day been opened by Lord Bathurst, the Chancellor
being so ill as to make it absolutely impossible for him to come down. The
Commission was first read, and then Lord Bathurst said, in a few words,
that the Lords Commissioners being empowered by the said Commission to
declare the causes of calling the Parliament, thought it their duty to call the
attention of the two Houses to the melancholy circumstance of His
Majesty's illness, and to recommend to them to provide for the care of His
Majesty's royal person, and the administration of the royal authority during
His Majesty's illness, in such manner as the exigency of the case requires.
I think that my former calculation is rather too sanguine, and that the 18th is
the soonest that the Bill can pass, allowing for the debate, of which notice
has been given in both Houses, on the Committee for the royal assent. The

idea is, that the letters of dismission are ready written, and will be sent that
day.
I cannot yet learn, with certainty, who is to be the Home Secretary of State.
It is supposed to lie between Lord Stormont and Lord Rawdon; and there is
a report that they are quarrelling about that as about everything else, and
that the Duke of York espouses Lord Rawdon's cause very warmly.
The accounts of Fox are that he is not at all better, and that he has not been
able yet to drink the waters. His death would throw them into complete
confusion, though the Prince is so far pledged, that even in that case he
must attempt to form a new Government.
We mean (but this inter nos only) to move an Amendment upon the
Address, expressive of our satisfaction at the flourishing state in which the
public affairs are delivered into His Royal Highness's hands, and of our
hope that the same principles and measures will continue to be pursued. I
have no doubt of our carrying this, in their teeth.
Everybody seems to think a dissolution certain. I imagine it cannot by
possibility take place till May or June, though some people expect it in
March.
I believe I mentioned to you in my last the great improvement which these
last few days have made in the King's situation, and the strong hope which
we derive from it.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 7th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I do not know of anything that has happened here since I wrote last, which
is worth mentioning to you. Our Bill is to be in the Committee to-day, and
Monday, so that I guess we shall not get it into the House of Lords till
Wednesday or Thursday. This will put off the passing a little beyond my
calculation, and I imagine the Regent will not now be in full possession of

his office till about the 19th or 20th. I wait with much impatience to hear
what has passed on Thursday in the Irish Parliament. I find that people here,
those at least with whom I converse, are indifferent about the success of the
measure in Ireland, but are much exasperated at the madness and folly of
the people who are endeavouring to stir fresh questions of separation
between the two countries.
The accounts of the King still continue to be very favourable, but I have not
heard what degree of hope Willis grounds on this long period of tranquillity.
I should think that the breaking out in the neck must be a favourable
circumstance, but I begin to think the time long if he still continues without
real amendment of the complaint itself. This, however, arises more from
one's natural impatience than from any reasonable ground which there is to
think worse of the case from this circumstance.
One hears of nothing now but of the intended arrangements. Among these,
the military is not the least curious part. His Royal Highness the Duke of
York is to be Commander-in-chief; Fitzpatrick, Secretary at War; and there
are to be four Field-Marshals; consisting of the Regent himself, of the
Dukes of York and Gloucester, and General Conway. These Field-Marshals
—of whom three never saw a shot fired, and the fourth of whom has not
served for six-and-twenty years, except in the very peaceful situation of
Commander-in-chief in England for a few months at the end of the war—
make a pretty curious promotion. Faucitt is to continue, notwithstanding a
positive promise of the Duke of Portland's to General Vaughan, for the sake
of securing his vote and his brother's. They are to make all the Colonels
Major-Generals, down to Lord Rawdon. The list of the Prince's aides-de-
camp you will have seen in the papers.
Lord Spencer is declared for Ireland.
The accounts from Bath say that Fox is better, and will recover.
The town and neighbourhood of Buckingham have voted an unanimous
Address to Pitt, without any of us knowing a word about it. It is signed by
near two hundred persons, as Jemmy tells me, for I have not seen it.
I am living in hourly fear of having a meeting called in the county, which
would be a troublesome and useless thing, though, I understand, the sense

of the yeomanry is entirely with us. I hear nothing of their intentions in case
of a dissolution, but much doubt, from what I hear, whether they will think
of doing more than ousting Aubrey, which they may do very peaceably; for
by what I hear, he would not have ten votes.
I have, at length, decided not to think of the Bolton Street house, at least for
the present year, as the repairs necessary to make it habitable amount to so
large a sum. Perhaps, if I was to be re-elected after a dissolution it might be
worth my while; but that is, as you will easily suppose, a very doubtful
contingency. Is it not a singular thing that it should be doubtful at all, and
that there should be any chance of beating them in the new Parliament on
such a question as that?
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
I open this letter again, to let you know that I have just received an account
of Sir Thomas Halifax's death, which happened this morning. This
circumstance is not a little perplexing to me, especially in Bernard's
absence. I have sent an express to Chaplin to desire him to come to town to-
morrow, and I shall then hear what he says. The thing to be wished is, that
we could secure Bernard's election, now and hereafter, without much
increase of expense; but on that whole subject I am very much at sea, and
there cannot be time to hear from you and him upon it. Perhaps Chaplin
may think it better that we should now propose some other person, who
might be supported by Lord Chesterfield's interest, and not appear so
decidedly connected with us as Bernard is. We had a scheme for a candidate
of that sort at the general election, and Lord C. was inclined to give into it.
At all events, I think it is absolutely necessary that Bernard should come
over instantly, as his presence is equally necessary, either as a candidate or
in order to get a repetition of the promises which this intervening election
might otherwise be construed to annul.
I have heard, since I wrote the preceding part of this letter, that the
Chancellor has been at Pitt's to-day, with an account that he had seen
Warren this morning, who had spoken to him in a very favourable manner
of the King's present state, and had even said that he thought the
amendment so material, that he had felt it his duty, immediately on coming

to town, to wait upon His Royal Highness with the account. So there is a
little bane for your rats.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 14th, 1739.
My dear Brother,
Although I have nothing else to write to you, yet I could not refuse myself
the pleasure of letting you know that I have been at Kew to-day with Pitt,
and that the account which he received from Willis is such as to confirm
and strengthen all our hopes. The public account is, as you will see, that the
King continues in a state of gradual amendment; and every circumstance
which we can learn, affords us room to entertain the most sanguine hopes.
What has already passed in the public, on the subject of Willis, and the
violent attacks of Opposition against him, have made him more cautious
and reserved in what he says, and he particularly desires that his name may
not be quoted. But I could not find in my heart to conceal from you the
favourable manner in which he speaks of the present situation.
His account is confirmed by that of the other physicians, who all speak the
same language. Sir G. Baker told him to-day, that if it was the case of a
common patient whom he was attending, he should not think it necessary to
give him any more medicines. The most favourable circumstance of all is,
the great abatement of the pulse, which, till now, has always been much too
high.
You will easily imagine how much speculation all this makes, and a more
curious scene, I think, I never saw. The prevailing opinion is, that we are
not to be turned out. There is a report, which is very confidently circulated
(but I do not vouch for the truth of it), that the Duke of Portland has
positively told His Royal Highness that, under these circumstances, it is
impossible for him to take any share in a new arrangement. It is also said
that they have quarrelled about the Prince's debts, but these are points of
which I know nothing but from report.

The account which Lord Chesterfield had yesterday from his friends at
Aylesbury tallies with Chaplin's, as to the possibility of Bernard's success,
though it is not quite so sanguine as to numbers. If he succeeds at all, this
last point may be no misfortune to him, as it will diminish the claims upon
him.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The Irish Parliament had met in the interim, and were debating with
extraordinary vigour and asperity the Address by which the Prince of Wales,
before he had been appointed Regent in England, was to be invited to
assume at once the functions and privileges of the Crown in Ireland. Many
of the usual supporters of the Government, including even some persons in
high employments, had joined the ranks of the Opposition; and Lord
Buckingham in his letters to Lord Sydney declares that his powers had been
annihilated by that lapse of the sovereign authority which led to this result,
and that it would be no longer proper for him to interfere any further, except
only in reference to the "usual business of the kingdom." Acting on the
pressure of these circumstances, he felt it due to his own credit, and to the
service in which he was engaged, to tender his resignation, as appears by
the following letter from Mr. Grenville:
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 13th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
We have no news here, except of the favourable accounts of the King's
situation, which are every hour more and more confirmed. All our present
anxiety is, to keep down the too sanguine expectations of our friends, in
order to prevent their being too much damped by any check, which Willis
considers as an event by no means unlikely, and not such as in any degree
to diminish his confidence in the King's recovery. From the general turn of
people's conversation here, it seems by no means certain that the Prince will
take any step for dismissing the present Government, if the King continues
to mend. It would, indeed, be a measure so grossly indecent to turn out the
King's servants at the eve of his recovery, that it would be too strong even
for those counsels by which His Royal Highness has hitherto been actuated.

But there is another consideration which will possibly have still more
weight, namely, that the acceptance of office under such circumstances
would put his friends to considerable inconvenience and expense, such as to
be by no means worth incurring, if they are to hold them for so very short a
period as the King's present situation appears to indicate. This mode of
reasoning is of itself sufficiently obvious, and I understand that the Prince
has held a language which corresponds with it, since so great an alteration
has taken place.
Under these circumstances, you must see that the letter which you sent me
is clearly inapplicable to the present situation. If, contrary to our present
expectation, the Prince should dismiss us all immediately, I will lose no
time in sending that letter; but if not, it seems to be the wish of all your
friends that you should remain where you are for some little time, in order
that you may not have the appearance of being driven away either by the
event which has happened, or by the violence of the abuse thrown out
against you. I see and acknowledge the difficulties of such a situation, and
lament that you should in any case be subject to them, but you must, on the
other hand, consider that these difficulties do not of themselves,
unaccompanied by other circumstances, afford a reason for withdrawing
yourself from them. I am far from being desirous, for many, very many
reasons, that your stay should be prolonged to the usual period of a Lord-
Lieutenant's reign; but I cannot help most earnestly wishing that you could,
in some mode or other, struggle through the present session, in order to
cover your retreat, which will otherwise by your enemies be represented as
a flight.
You see that all this refers to an event which may possibly not happen; but I
felt it indispensably due to you that I should beg you to consider this case
very seriously, and that with a view not to present difficulties only, but
taking into the account your future situation. I have told you what I believe
is the unanimous wish of your friends on such lights as we possess here. It
is possible that circumstances with which we are unacquainted might alter
our opinion, but they must be very strong before they could produce that
effect.
I know no other point which is worth writing to you about: certainly none
which is worth your bestowing a moment, thought upon, in comparison

with that which I have mentioned. I enclose my last account from
Aylesbury. I need not say how much I feel for the unpleasant circumstances
of your present situation. But I know that you have the best resource against
them, in the sense of your own conduct, and in the consciousness of the
sincere and invariable affection of those whose friendship you value.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Two days afterwards, the report of the King's health was so encouraging
that his recovery was considered by the Cabinet as little less than absolutely
certain. Under these circumstances, it became a matter of speculation
whether the Prince would dismiss the Ministers, or, if he did not, whether
he would treat them in such a manner as to make it impossible for them to
stay in office. In any case, whether they were dismissed or driven to resign,
Mr. Grenville judged it prudent to withhold Lord Buckingham's letter of
resignation, till the solution, either way, should have been ascertained. The
conflicting difficulties of the situation, looking at it from all sides, are ably
stated in a letter of the 15th of February.
You cannot come away, without appearing to desert your trust, while the
King's servants here abide by theirs; nor without giving the Regent an
opportunity to object to the nomination of any person who may be proposed
to him by Pitt to succeed you. You cannot remain without the means of
carrying on some appearance, at least, of government in the House of
Commons. You cannot employ those who have now deserted you; nor can
we expect that the Prince will allow you to dismiss those whom he
considers as having stood by him. On the whole, I cannot imagine a more
puzzling or distressing case.
Nothing short of the implicit confidence and cordial support of the
Ministers, seconded by the highest courage and firmness on his own part,
could have enabled Lord Buckingham to sustain his authority in this trying
emergency. That he possessed the confidence and support of Government to
the fullest extent, is attested by the following letter from Mr. Pitt; and that
he displayed the qualities of resolution and self-reliance demanded by the
occasion, is sufficiently shown in the sequel.
MR. PITT TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

(Private.) Downing Street, Feb. 15th, 1789.
My dear Lord,
The account received this morning of the step which the Irish House of
Commons have taken, has not surprised me; as it seemed before evident
that the torrent was too strong to be stemmed by any exertion. Those who at
the moment felt it as a triumph, perhaps already begin to repent of it, and
will probably have more and more reason to do so every day. It will be
abundant satisfaction to you and your friends that you have done everything
which depended on you; and in the midst of so much profligacy, that you
have experienced such a support as that of Fitzgibbon and a few others,
which is in the highest degree honourable and manly.
I am fully aware how delicate your ground has been in all the progress of
the business, of which we have hitherto learnt the result; and that it is not
less so in what remained relative to the transmission of this strange Address.
Whatever you may have decided on the spot will, I dare say, under all the
circumstances, have been right; and in either of the alternatives, you will
not want here the most cordial and decided support, whenever the measure
comes into discussion. All that I am now writing is, I hope, superfluous; but
I could not let the messenger go, without expressing in part the sentiments
for which I trust you would at any rate have given me credit.
* * * * *
Believe me, my dear Lord,
Sincerely and affectionately yours,
W. Pitt.
Lord Buckingham, acting on the discretion thus confided to him, resolved
to decline accepting or transmitting the Address. This determination, which
threw the whole responsibility of the measure upon those with whom it
originated, afforded the highest satisfaction in England. Letters from Lord
Mornington, Lord Sydney, and others, abound in admiration of the firmness
of Lord Buckingham's conduct.
As had been anticipated, the Address was voted in both Houses of
Parliament, and laid before Lord Buckingham for transmission to His Royal
Highness. His Lordship at once declined to receive it; and in a short and

explicit answer, rested his refusal on the obligations imposed upon him by
his duty and his oath, adding that he did not feel warranted in forwarding to
His Royal Highness an Address, purporting to invest him with powers to
take upon him the government of the realm before he should be enabled by
law to do so. This answer, which had received the full approbation of Mr.
Pitt, by whom it had been communicated to the Cabinet, was, as might have
been expected, deeply resented by the Opposition, whose hostility to the
Government had been all along assuming that shape of combination in
which it now appeared without disguise.
Frustrated in their desire of transmitting this Address through the channel of
the Lord-Lieutenant, they passed a resolution appointing ambassadors of
their own to lay it before His Royal Highness. The persons nominated to
undertake this extraordinary commission were, the Duke of Leinster, the
Earl of Charlemont, Mr. Conolly, Mr. O'Neill, Mr. Ponsonby, and Mr.
Stewart. Nor did they stop here. It was necessary to avenge the indignity
that had been put upon them; and a resolution, declaring the conduct of
Lord Buckingham unwarrantable and unconstitutional, was accordingly
moved by Mr. Grattan, and carried. That a resolution still stronger than this,
going to the preposterous length of declaring the commission of the Lord-
Lieutenant actually void by the will of the Irish Parliament, was at one
moment contemplated, would appear from a passage in a letter of Mr.
Grenville's, dated the 18th of February.
I am a little alarmed by one part of your letter, in which you talk of a
resolution of the two Houses being passed for avoiding your commission,
and of your resigning the Government in consequence of it to Lords
Justices appointed under the Act of last year. I trust, however, that these
favourable accounts [of the King's health] will have put this idea out of the
question. But if not, for God's sake consider whether there is any one
principle in which you deny the right of the two Houses to appoint a Regent
by address, which does not apply equally to prove that they cannot either
appoint or remove a Lord-Lieutenant by resolution. I am persuaded, the
more I think of it, that it is impossible for you to quit the Government in
any other manner, than in consequence of a recal from hence, or a
resignation grounded on the removal of the Ministers here, or on the
Regent's acceptance of the office, under what you consider an illegal
appointment.

Mr. Pitt entirely concurred in these views, and it was resolved that Lord
Buckingham should remain in Ireland till he had overcome the confederacy
by which the security of the British power in that kingdom was so seriously
perilled. In a subsequent letter, Mr. Grenville conveys the assurances of Mr.
Pitt's determination to support Lord Buckingham in any measures he should
think necessary to the maintenance of the supremacy of the Crown, and the
vindication of his conduct in these transactions. One of the measures which
was considered indispensable, as marking the sense and upholding the
authority of the Government, was the immediate dismissal of all those
persons who, holding offices and emoluments under the Crown, had joined
in a factious resistance to the policy of Ministers.
I had, yesterday evening, a long conversation with Pitt on the subject of
your letter of the 25th. I have already told you that his ideas agree entirely
with yours as to the proposition of your remaining in your present situation
long enough to complete your victory over this combination, and to
establish a Government founded on a better system. We both consider it as a
point of absolute necessity and of indispensable duty, that we should resist
this profligate conspiracy against the Government of both kingdoms, by
every means, and to the last extremity; and we agree in thinking that this
battle ought, both for your own credit and for ours, to be fought by you,
preferably to any other person. He desires me to say that there cannot be the
least hesitation here in adopting any proposal which you may think it right
to make on the subject of dismissals, and that his opinion inclines to the
immediate removal of all the people whom you have named, on the ground
not of their former votes, but of the combination which is now avowed.
The King was now so much better that he was permitted, at his own
request, to see the Chancellor, who, however, was prohibited by the medical
attendants from talking to His Majesty on business. Even this prohibition
was removed in a few days; and Willis considered him so completely
recovered that he recommended, as a preliminary experiment to test the
state of his mind, that the Chancellor should be authorized to communicate
to His Majesty the public events which had occurred during his illness. Of
all men that could have been selected for so delicate an affair, Thurlow was,
perhaps, the worst qualified; but his relation to the Crown as Chancellor left
Ministers no alternative.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 19th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
The account which you will receive by this post of the King, is as
favourable as any of the others. This is now the thirteenth day since Warren
thought him so much—
I am agreeably interrupted in my reasoning by the arrival of Pitt, who has
seen Willis this morning. His account is, that as far as he is enabled to
judge, the King is now actually well. That he is not sufficiently acquainted
with the sort of effect which the peculiar duties of the King's situation
produce upon his mind, to be able to pronounce as decidedly with respect to
him as he would in other cases; but that in the instance of any common
individual, he should not feel the smallest difficulty in pronouncing the cure
complete, and the patient as capable of attending to his own affairs as he
had been before his illness. He added that the keeping back from the King
the present situation of public business and the measures which have been
taken by Parliament, did him now more harm than good, because it created
a degree of anxiety and uneasiness in his mind. He therefore recommended
that the Chancellor, whom the King has already seen, and whom he has
expressed a wish to see again, might go to him, for the purpose of
explaining to him all that has passed. You will easily imagine that this will
be an anxious trial for us, because if anything can bring back the agitation
of his mind, it must be such a recital as Thurlow must have to make. It
must, however, be made, and we can do no more than follow the opinion of
the physicians, and of Willis in particular, as to the time of making it.
If the experiment succeeds, you need not be told that we shall not feel
ourselves disposed, nor indeed at liberty, to give up the King's authority (he
being well) into the hands of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; and
the less so, because we now know that he and his friends, as he calls them,
have taken the resolution of making the change at all events, and of taking
all the offices of the country into their own hands, even (as they express
themselves) if they are to hold them only twelve hours.
Certainly, if we looked only to the objects of party, and had nothing more
important to attend to than the exposing in their true colours this profligate

and unfeeling set of men, we could desire no fairer opportunity of doing it
than by showing how much their ambition, or revenge, overbear any other
sentiment, when it leads them to overturn the whole Government of their
country, and to bring on the confusion which must attend a double change
of Government in the space of a few weeks, merely in order to set the
Prince of Wales and Pitt more at variance; for that can be their only object,
unless indeed they look to that of drawing the line of separation between
His Royal Highness and his father stronger than it was before.
We must not, however, be guided by these considerations. It is impossible
not to know and feel how much mischief such a change would produce; and
it is our duty to prevent it, both for the sake of the King and of the country.
Besides which, there are other reasons which make it impossible that the
present measure should go on. We cannot suffer a Bill to proceed which
asserts the King's incapacity, at a time when his physicians pronounce him
to be capable. He cannot pass such a Bill himself, because the mere act of
passing it contradicts the averment of the Bill, and shows its provisions to
be improper. Still less can the Chancellor, who has had an opportunity of
being personally acquainted with the King's actual restoration to perfect
health, receive the orders of any other man, or body of men, as to the use of
the Great Seal for the purpose of expressing the King's pleasure.
Our idea, in the present situation, is that the House of Lords should adjourn
till Monday, in consequence of the Chancellor's communicating to them that
the state of His Majesty's health is such as to make it improper for them to
proceed. If nothing unfavourable should have occurred by that day, a
motion will then be made for an examination of the physicians; and that
would be followed by an Address from both Houses, congratulating the
King on his recovery. The King would then pass a Commission for
proroguing the Parliament, and another for opening it again, and the
business will proceed in the usual form.
I think that your object will be to use every possible endeavour, by all
means in your power, debating every question, dividing upon every
question, moving adjournment upon adjournment, and every other mode
that can be suggested to gain time. I do not know that we can send you any
communication from hence of which you can take formal notice by speech

or message, till the examinations of the physicians are sent to you, which
they shall be instantly on their being made.
But your Ministers, in both Houses, may certainly communicate to them
what it has been thought right for the Chancellor to say to-day, and may
make similar motions for adjournments; unless, indeed, which I hardly
imagine, the whole business is concluded in Ireland before you receive the
account of this happy event.
I have great pleasure in thinking upon the disappointment and mortification
of those who have deserted you on this occasion. I hope in God that you
will make up your mind to the remaining where you now are long enough
to make them feel what they have done, and to show that you are not driven
away. After this, we shall probably agree in thinking that the future
Government of Ireland may be carried on to more advantage in other hands,
because it may possibly become of absolute necessity to receive back some
of these rats into favour, and that is not an occupation in which I should like
to see you engaged.
Unless I understand from Fremantle that he has any business of yours to do
here, I shall desire him to return to you on Tuesday with the examination of
the physicians, which will, I hope, be presented on that day, or perhaps I
may keep him till the Addresses are carried.
I make you no congratulations on this great event; but it has made a deep
impression in my heart, and so I am sure it will in yours.
God bless you, and believe me ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Do not say more of the King's situation than Lord Sydney's despatch
authorizes, because Willis's name should not be committed after what has
passed.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 20th, 1789.
My dear Brother,

The House of Commons met to-day and adjourned to Tuesday, without a
word being said, except from Viner, who desired to hear from Pitt an
account of the King's real situation. No answer was given, and the House
adjourned.
Pitt has seen the Chancellor since his return from Kew to-day. He, Thurlow,
was with the King to-day for two hours. He did not enter into particulars of
what had been done, but only in general terms. He says that he never saw, at
any period, the King more composed, collected, or distinct, and that there
was not the least trace or appearance of disorder.
Willis, however, does not allow the cure to be yet quite complete, although
he thinks it as nearly so as possible. All the other medical people seem to
think him quite well; but Willis's means of information and his experience
are so much greater, that we cannot but give entire credit to what he says.
The Chancellor is to be at Kew again on Sunday. I think our present idea is
to adjourn the two Houses again from Tuesday to Thursday or Saturday. If
that is the case, I shall send Fremantle back to you, as he tells me he has
nothing to detain him here, and it is very desirable that Bernard should be
on the spot soon, to make his bow at Aylesbury.
You must not expect to hear from me on any other subject than the King's
recovery; for nobody here writes, talks, thinks or dreams of anything else.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 21st, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have little to add to Lord Sydney's letter. Your refusal to transmit the
Address is generally approved here; and I have the pleasure of seeing daily
proofs that the Opposition in this country are ashamed of what they and
their friends have done in Ireland. Your answer, I think, much improved by
the transposition, especially as it avoids the necessity of your submitting
any advice to His Royal Highness, which might have been said to be an

officious interference, as you are not in any situation which calls upon you
to advise him.
You will hear with as much pleasure as I write it, that the King was not at
all agitated by his interview with the Chancellor, and was perfectly
composed and collected all yesterday evening. The accounts this morning
are as good as can be.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and Duke of York have been
once or twice at Kew, to desire to be admitted to see him, which you will
naturally suppose was not permitted. This morning they thought proper to
make a formal demand that they should be allowed to see him; or if not,
insisting that the physicians should give in writing the reasons for their
refusal. In consequence of this, Warren and Gisborne, who were there this
morning, sent Willis in to the King, to acquaint him that the two Princes
wished to see him. Willis returned with a message to them from the King,
thanking them for their inquiries, but wishing to put off the seeing them till
he had seen Thurlow again, which he is to do to-morrow. This was reduced
to writing, and sent to them; how it will be received I know not, but it has
completely defeated the avowed object of the visit, which was to prejudice
his mind against the measures which have been taken.
There seems now every reason to hope that by the 6th or 7th of March he
will be sufficiently recovered, or rather will have been recovered a
sufficient time to make it proper to take his commands for opening the
Parliament. If not, you will see by the despatch the nature of the measures
which we have in contemplation; and I can have no doubt of your agreeing,
that no principle which we have ever maintained would require or even
justify us in putting the Prince of Wales in such a situation as to enable him
to overturn the whole system of the King's Government, the King being all
the while perfectly well, conscious of what is going forward, and restrained
from acting himself only by the apprehension of a relapse.
You will already have seen and considered what I have said to you on the
subject of remaining. You cannot form to yourself an idea how universally
it is the wish of all who wish for your own personal credit, and of all who
are interested for the credit of the party, that you should remain in Ireland so
long as to make it appear that you have thoroughly weathered the storm.

Your session need be but very short indeed. The uncertain state of
everything since November last, is an ample apology for not being prepared
with other business, and for deferring it till another year. But the leaving it
in the middle, would convey the impression that all this difficulty had been
personal to yourself, and that you were the only obstacle to the success of
English Government in Ireland. Directly the reverse of this proposition is, I
am convinced, the truth; but it is a truth which it is of the utmost importance
to yourself to establish in the general and public opinion in this country.
You have great advantages for this, from the general disposition which is
prevalent here to feel the strongest indignation at the conduct which your
opponents have held. I must own it would be a severe mortification to me to
see you forego this opportunity.
You know the only motive which I can have for pressing this so much, and
how much violence I do to my own feelings when I urge anything which
may delay my seeing you again.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Lord Bulkeley, in a letter dated the 24th, describes one of these interviews
of the Princes with His Majesty. The general impressions which prevailed
respecting the conduct and dispositions of their Royal Highnesses in this
crisis, may be gathered from these unreserved revelations.
The accounts from Kew this morning are as good as possible (but I have not
got the precise words); notwithstanding, the Princes were with him half an
hour yesterday, which is a proof that his miraculous recovery is not to be
shaken. Lord Winchelsea, who was at Kew the whole time, told me that the
Prince and Duke of York, though appointed at one, did not arrive till half-
past three; and that when they came out, they told Colonel Digby that they
were delighted with the King's being so well, and remarked that two things
in the half-hour's conference which they had with him had struck them very
forcibly: that he had observed to them how much better he played at picquet
than Mr. Charles Hawkins, and that since he had been ill he had rubbed up
all his Latin; and these facts, which are facts, I expect to hear magnified by
the Carlton House runners into instances of insanity.

The Princes entered the King's apartment without any emotion, and came
out of it with none visible in their countenances. The Queen only was
present, and the conference lasted half an hour. I have not heard as yet; but
conclude they were both rioting, ——, and drunk last night at the
masquerade, as they were at one a week ago; the truth is, that they are quite
desperate, and endeavour to drown their cares, disappointments, and
internal chagrin in wine and dissipation.
The Duke of York plays much at tennis, and has a score with all the
blacklegs; and in the public court tells them they shall all be paid as soon as
his father can settle with him some Osnaburg money which he owes him.
* * * * *
The Princes give out, that as soon as they have an opportunity of explaining
their conduct to the King, they are sure he will approve of it as much as he
will reprobate that of Mr. Pitt's.
"It is now almost certain," says Mr. Grenville on the 23rd, "that we shall not
pass the Regency Bill, and consequently that the Government will not be
changed." In the same letter he refers to a suggestion of Lord
Buckingham's, that the answer declining to transmit the Irish Address
should be laid before His Royal Highness.
On conversing with Pitt, we were both clearly of opinion, that no
communication ought to be made to H.R.H. of what has passed in Ireland,
as we have uniformly considered him as not entitled, under the present
circumstances, to any communication of any part of the business of
Government. Nothing has accordingly been ever laid before him, except the
measures which Pitt intended to bring forward respecting him personally;
but that principle certainly does not extend to such a communication as had
been proposed in your separate letter, which I have for that reason not sent
to Lord Sydney.
In so absurd a light, indeed, did the whole proceedings of the Irish
Parliament appear to Ministers, that Mr. Grenville thought it highly
improbable that the Irish Ambassadors, as they were called, would venture
to present the Address in the improved state of the King's health, or that His

Royal Highness would be advised to accept it. They did present it
notwithstanding, and their reception is thus reported by Mr. Grenville:
Your Ambassadors are arrived; and presented their Address yesterday
evening to the Prince. The answer which, as I understand, he gave them,
was, that he was highly gratified with the expressions of loyalty to the King,
which the Address contained; but that with respect to the rest he could not
give them an answer before Tuesday, on which day he desired to see them
again. I take it for granted, he will then say, that the King being recovered,
all consideration of a Regency is out of the question.
People in general here do not seem disposed to consider this transaction in
any other than a ludicrous manner, and as the most absurd and ridiculous
farce. It is impossible to describe how much and how universally their
Excellencies are laughed at. One of them came into an assembly last night,
and was received with a general roar of laughter. I did not think they would
have been so foolish as to present it. The Prince and his friends must have
been a good deal embarrassed what answer to give them; and I do not think
they have succeeded remarkably well, if the account of the answer, such as I
have stated it, is true.
It was on the day after the Princes' interview that Mr. Pitt had his first
audience of the King since his illness; no Minister, except the Chancellor,
having hitherto been admitted to see His Majesty, on account of the
jealousies with which every step they took throughout this painful interval
was watched and turned to account.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Feb. 24th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
Pitt has just shown me a letter which he received last night from the King,
written in His Majesty's own hand, couched in the warmest terms, thanking
him for his unshaken attachment to his interests, and desiring to see him
this morning. He went accordingly to Kew, and was with the King above an
hour. He says that there was not the smallest trace or appearance of any
disorder; that the King's manner was unusually composed and dignified, but
that there was no other difference whatever from what he had been used to

see. The King spoke of his disorder as of a thing past, and which had left no
other impression on his mind than that of gratitude for his recovery, and a
sense of what he owed to those who had stood by him. He spoke of these in
such a manner as brought tears into his eyes; but even with that degree of
affection of mind, there was not the least appearance of disorder.
After Pitt had left His Majesty, he conversed with Willis, who told him that
he now thought the King quite well; that he could not perceive the least
trace remaining of his disorder. Under these circumstances, the more I
consider our actual situation and what seems due to the King's feelings, the
more I am persuaded of that opinion, to which I think our friends begin in
general to lean, that the King's resumption of his authority must be done
purely by his own act, and that it is impossible to hear of any examination
of physicians.
The two Princes were at Kew yesterday, and saw the King, in the Queen's
apartment. She was present the whole time, a precaution for which, God
knows, there was but too much reason. They kept him waiting a
considerable time before they arrived; and after they left him, drove
immediately to Mrs. Armstead's, in Park Street, in hopes of finding Fox
there, to give him an account of what had passed. He not being in town,
they amused themselves yesterday evening with spreading about a report
that the King was still out of his mind, and in quoting phrases of his to
which they gave that turn. It is certainly a decent and becoming thing, that
when all the King's physicians, all his attendants, and his two principal
Ministers, agree in pronouncing him well, his two sons should deny it. And
the reflection that the Prince of Wales was to have had the Government and
the Duke of York the command of the army during his illness, makes this
representation of his actual state, when coming from them, more peculiarly
proper and edifying. I bless God it is yet some time before these matured
and ripened virtues will be visited upon us in the form of a Government.
Believe me ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Acting on the carte blanche which he had asked, and which had been freely
accorded to him, respecting dismissals, appointments, and creations, Lord
Buckingham proceeded at once to redress the balance of power in Ireland,

by dismissing from their offices the persons who had recently opposed the
conduct of the Government on the Regency question. A similar course had
been pursued in England on His Majesty's recovery. Mr. Grenville mentions
specially "the justice which had been executed on Lord Lothian" in this
way, the King taking his troop from him, and sending him to join another in
Ireland. "The joke current here," says Mr. Grenville, "is, that the Irish
Ambassadors came over here to Lothian's hotel, and that the King sends
Lothian to return the visit." In Ireland the disaffection had been more
dangerous and extensive, and demanded more severe measures.
The moment it was known that the King was recovered, a negotiation was
opened with the Government through Mr. Fitzgibbon, then Attorney-
General, by the principal members of the Lords and Commons who had
supported the Address, tendering their submission, and asking for an
amnesty. It has been stated in some publications referring to these
proceedings, that the negotiations were opened by Government; but Lord
Buckingham's official despatch, dated the 23rd of March, not only shows
that statement to be erroneous, but establishes the fact that Lord
Buckingham peremptorily refused to entertain the negotiation until he
should have received a positive assurance that a certain defensive and
hostile agreement, into which those gentlemen had entered, was to be
considered as abandoned. This agreement, or association, was called the
Round Robin (although not really a round robin, being merely a declaration,
followed in the usual way by the signatures of the subscribers), pledging
those who attached their names to it to "stand by each other" (to use the
phrase by which Mr. Beresford described it) in the event of their offices or
pensions being taken from them, and to oppose any Administration that
should resort to such a proceeding.
Finding Lord Buckingham immoveable upon the condition he stipulated
for, Lords Shannon, Loftus, Clifden, and many others, authorized the
Attorney-General to declare the association at an end, adding that they
desired to be represented to His Majesty as anxious to support his
Government, and to endeavour to remove by their future conduct all
unfavourable impressions from his mind. In the wise exercise of the
discretion reposed in him, Lord Buckingham accepted this voluntary tender
of allegiance, and permitted the gentlemen who had made it to retain their
offices. The Duke of Leinster, who had been only recently appointed to the

Rolls, and Mr. Ponsonby, who held the situation of Postmaster-General,
refusing to give the required undertaking, aggravated, in the case of the
latter, by a declaration that he would not enter into any communication with
Lord Buckingham, were at once dismissed from their offices. This dismissal
was followed by that of a few others of less note.
These energetic measures were founded, not only on the dangerous
resistance these gentlemen had carried to extremity, at a period of anxious
suspense and universal excitement, against the Government, but upon a
knowledge of the existence of an organized combination they had embarked
in with the English Opposition to supersede the authority of the Sovereign
in the person of the Regent. In order the more effectually to accomplish
their objects, they had seized upon every act of the Administration, and held
it up to obloquy. A pension which had been granted to Mr. Orde, and the
reversion of Lord Clanbrassil's office which had been conferred on Mr.
Grenville, afforded them a pretext for charging the Government with
corruption and profligacy. They opened their impeachment at the very
beginning of the session, in February, defeated the motion for adjournment,
carried their Address at the sacrifice of their own dignity and independence,
and were only arrested at last in their headlong career by those vigorous
measures which broke up the combination, and once more gave a legitimate
preponderance in the Senate to the saving influence of the Administration.
The effect of the coup d'état—for as such these dismissals may be
considered—was decisive. The hostile majority was broken down; and
when Mr. Grattan, still confident in his resources, brought forward his
Pension Bill, to disable persons who held pensions during pleasure, or
offices that had been created after a certain time, from sitting in Parliament,
he was defeated by a majority of 9. This was justly claimed as a conclusive
victory by a Government that had only just before been denounced in a vote
of censure in the same assembly by a majority of 32.
There is no doubt that the happy and unexpected recovery of His Majesty
averted a struggle that might have gone near to dissolve the connection of
the Executive authority between the two kingdoms; for, had His Majesty's
illness continued much longer, there is too much reason to believe that His
Royal Highness would have been advised to accept the invitation of the
Irish Parliament, by which he would have been created Regent of Ireland,
with full powers, before an Act of Parliament had passed in England under

the Great Seal empowering him to assume the functions of Sovereignty. The
confusion that would have ensued upon such a state of affairs, and the
disastrous issues to which it would have inevitably led, cannot be
contemplated, even at this distance of time, without an expression of
astonishment that men were to be found capable of entertaining such a
proposition. The heroic endurance of Lord Buckingham, upon whom the
whole weight of contending against the madness in which this scene of
folly and violence originated, enabled him, happily for the repose of both
countries, to live down the dangers and the odium which his steadfast
discharge of his duties, and his firm adherence to the policy of the English
Cabinet, had drawn upon him during this season of political delirium. His
own impressions of the scene around him, and the strength of the resolution
he brought to bear upon it, will be shown in an extract from a hasty note
written to Lord Bulkeley, in the midst of the clamour of the Parliament, on
the 14th of March.
I have not shrunk from my duty in the worst times, and I will not trifle with
it in those which look more prosperous. Much must be done to save the
British Government from an infamous and daring combination, which
might have been yielded to by a more pusillanimous minister; but could
only be met by one confident in his character and conduct. Do not think this
the language of vanity; the times have been, and still are much too serious
for such a boyish passion: I feel that the dearest interests of both kingdoms
are at stake, and nothing but firmness can save it. I have been insulted, I
may be beat, but I will not be disgraced.
When the victory was finally achieved, he writes again to Lord Bulkeley in
a strain of justifiable exultation, announcing his complete triumph over the
Opposition. The letter is dated the 4th May, and the passage extracted from
it contains an animated picture of the strife through which the writer had
just passed.
I told you, two months ago, that my friends would not blush for me—that I
might be beaten, but that I would not be disgraced. I write to you now in the
moment, and with the transports of the warmest exultation and of honest
pride, to tell you, that on Saturday night I closed the session in the House of
Commons, having thrown out every measure brought forward by
Opposition. They would not divide after their second defeat, where, though

our majority was the same, yet, as fewer members voted, it was more in
proportion than before; and the illness of Lord Clanbrassil and of Lord
Lifford lost us three votes. The House of Lords still sits for a cause which
they are hearing, and for some private Bills. The House of Commons
adjourned to Friday, and on that day both Houses adjourn to the 25th, when
I shall pass the Bills, and shall finally prorogue them.
In the space then of six weeks, I have secured to the Crown a decided and
steady majority, created in the teeth of the Duke of Leinster, Lord Shannon,
Lord Granard, Ponsonby, Conolly, O'Neil, united to all the republicanism,
the faction, and the discontents of the House of Commons; and having
thrown this aristocracy at the feet of the King, I have taught to the British
and Irish Government a lesson which ought never to be forgotten; and I
have the pride to recollect that the whole of it is fairly to be ascribed to the
steady decision with which the storm was met, and to the zeal, vigour, and
industry of some of the steadiest friends that ever man was blessed with.
While these anxious events were passing in Ireland, the old passion of the
King for interfering with military promotions, as if he were resolved, as Mr.
Grenville remarks, to absorb that branch of patronage, involved Lord
Buckingham and the Cabinet in another series of protocols similar to those
which passed concerning Colonel Gwynne's appointment. Another
lieutenant-colonelcy had fallen vacant, and Lord Buckingham desired that it
should be bestowed on his nephew, Colonel Nugent, who had been
disappointed of a similar favour on the former occasion; but His Majesty
directed that it should be given to Colonel Taylor. Even Mr. Grenville, who
exercised a philosophical patience in these matters, was so hurt at the
manner in which Lord Buckingham's wishes were passed over, at a time
when he was rendering such signal services to the Crown, that he could not
restrain the expression of his dissatisfaction. Writing to Lord Buckingham,
he says:
I feel that I would be unworthy, not only of your confidence and affection,
but of the name and character of a gentleman, if I did not warmly partake of
your just resentment at this gross and unmerited offence, offered at a
moment when your conduct had entitled you to so very different a line of
treatment.

Lord Buckingham was again on the point of resigning, and Mr. Grenville
participated so strongly in his feelings that he indicated his determination of
following his example. After stating in a subsequent letter that he thought
he saw in the King's mind "a strong wish to take into his own hands this
piece of military patronage whenever it falls," he proceeds to observe upon
the consequences.
The whole transaction gives me the greatest uneasiness, because I am not
afraid to say to you, fairly and openly, that the measures to which, I fear,
you may ultimately be driven in consequence of it are of a nature which I
fear extremely; and that, I trust, for better reasons than any consideration of
their effect on my views. It is on every account a most critical and
embarrassing moment for you; and the sense which I entertain of the
injustice of those who have brought you into this situation, does not remove
or diminish my apprehensions of the consequences to which it leads. It is no
affectation or parade of disinterestedness, but the necessary consequence of
the first principles of justice and honour, when I assure you that I am
resolved to follow your decision upon it, and that I consider your honour as
inseparably connected with my own.
Fortunately, however, this solution of the difficulty was rendered
unnecessary. A compromise, as usual, afforded a convenient escape to all
parties, without disappointing any; and by an ingenious re-distribution of
three or four regiments (devised by His Majesty himself), Taylor was
provided for elsewhere, and Nugent obtained his lieutenant-colonelcy.
There was great difficulty, nevertheless, in bringing His Majesty to this
point. He had made up his mind to give the vacant regiment to Taylor, and
would hear of no one else. "I am truly sorry to say," observes Mr. Pitt, in the
course of the negotiations, "that he seems thoroughly determined not to
yield, and I am sure no consideration will induce him to agree to any other
arrangement." Had it depended solely on the disposition of the King, the
difference would never have been adjusted, and Lord Buckingham, stung by
these repeated indignities, might have thrown up his Government at a
conjuncture when his retirement must have plunged the country into
anarchy. How seriously this step was contemplated by him and Mr.
Grenville will appear from the following correspondence:
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, April 7th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have just received your letter of the 3rd, and though I have nothing new to
say to you upon the point of Captain Taylor, he not having yet sent his
answer, I cannot help writing a few lines, lest you think the subject is out of
my mind. With respect to the promotions of peerage, the fault, if there is
any, is mine; because I felt, and still continue to feel, that under the present
circumstances, and till this business of Taylor is settled, the other ought to
be postponed; nor can I imagine any real inconvenience to arise from it. I
am, however, by no means sanguine in my expectations of the event of this
business. I have already expressed to you my sense of the King's treatment
of you in this instance, and my determination to abide by any measures that
you may think it right to take in this situation. I cannot, however, in justice
to you or to myself, avoid saying, that I most sincerely wish you to consider
well the step which you are about to take; and that not only with a reference
to your present situation or to your immediate feelings, but with a view to
the interpretation which the public will put upon it, and with a view to any
future political object of ours. With respect to the latter, I am persuaded you
must see that it is impossible for you to resign the Lord-Lieutenancy of
Ireland at this time, and on this ground, without making up your mind at the
same moment finally to renounce all ideas of our taking any part hereafter
as public men in this country. If you will consider what our situation would
be, after such a step, with the King, with the Prince, with Pitt's friends, and
with Fox, and lastly with the public at large, you will, I am sure, think that
the consequence which I state is not overstrained.
I can, without affectation, assure you, that though I am not indifferent either
to the recollection of what we have already done, or to the prospects which
are now before us; yet that I could perfectly well make up my mind to a
different line of life, and that I am confident I possess sufficient resources
within myself to reconcile myself to such a step, provided it were taken for
an object which I felt to be tanti. And such I certainly do consider the object
of marking to you, and to the world, and of discharging, in a manner
satisfactory to my own feelings, my gratitude and affectionate attachment to
you, in an instance where I entirely agree with you in thinking you ill-
treated, at a time when you had deserved best.

It remains, therefore, for you to consider what step it may be best for you to
take under all the present circumstances. Even if your mind should
ultimately lean to the idea of resigning, I should certainly strongly press you
not to carry this idea into effect till you have closed your session in Ireland;
and in this advice, at least, I am certainly disinterested, because my
situation would, in the interim, be more disagreeable and embarrassing than
it could be under any other circumstances. But I am sure that if you were to
quit immediately, as you now talk of doing, you never could induce any one
to believe that this step was not taken with a view to escape from present
difficulties, instead of being intended to mark your sense of personal ill-
treatment; and that when the impression of the present moment upon your
feelings was over, you never would forgive yourself for having concluded
the transactions of this winter by such a termination.
I have only to add that I am not indifferent, and that I am persuaded you are
not, to the public consequences of our conduct. It is one of the
circumstances which are necessarily attendant upon a public situation and a
public line of life, that a person who is engaged in it cannot act even in
those points which most nearly concern himself without producing
consequences which are often of great public importance. It will certainly
not be a pleasant reflection to me to have materially contributed to the
overthrow of that system of public men and public measures which I
believe to be of the utmost importance to the welfare and prosperity of my
country. On the best reflection which I can give to the subject, weighing
what I owe to you and to myself, and what I owe to others, I shall feel
myself justified, whatever may be the consequences; but certainly my
feelings upon them will be such as to prevent my ever again putting myself
into a similar situation, even if the circumstances to which I have alluded in
the beginning of this letter did not, as they probably will, render such an
event absolutely impossible.
When I speak of contributing to the overthrow of the present system you
certainly understand me to refer to the probable consequences of our
withdrawing ourselves from it, and not to any idea of your being led, which
I am persuaded is impossible, to contribute actively to the triumph of a most
wicked and profligate faction. I should feel that I gave you just cause of
offence, if I thought it necessary to say, that this is a point to which no
consideration could lead me.

You will excuse me if I have said so much in this letter upon my own
subject, in treating of a point which relates to your conduct and to your
situation. I feel that the two subjects are too intimately connected for me to
speak of them separately, and I felt that you could not but be desirous, in the
moment of deciding a step so interesting to us both, that I should open my
heart to you in as free and unrestrained a manner as I have now done.
One thing more I must recommend to your serious consideration. Nothing
is clearer to my mind than the propriety of the step you have taken in
dismissing Ponsonby, of the intimation which you have given to Lord
Shannon of the necessary consequences of his present conduct, and of the
measures you have adopted for securing to yourself efficient assistance by
the removal of Fitzherbert, and by the nomination of Hobart on the
persuasion which you entertain of his ability to serve you. But I must
entreat you to reflect that this line of conduct is only to be justified on the
supposition of your being to remain in Ireland; while, on the other hand,
entertaining as you now do the idea of quitting your situation, it is surely a
duty which you owe to yourself, as well as to the public, to leave to your
successor his decision as free and open as your own is now, on points which
may be of such infinite importance to his Government. To have failed in
this instance would, I am sure, much add to the many grounds of regret
which will press themselves upon your mind.
I will say no more on all these points. I have now written you a dissertation,
instead of a few lines, as I had intended, but my anxiety on the subject has
drawn me on. The groundwork of all this difficulty may, after all, be
removed by Taylor's refusal, or by Pitt's exertions; but I again repeat that I
am not sanguine on that head, and it is certainly more reasonable that we
should prepare our minds for a contrary event.
Believe me ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Why should you feel yourself offended because particular marks of favour
have been shown to Burrard and Lenox, two most steady, warm, and
deserving friends of ours at all times, and in all circumstances?
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

April 10th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have just received your letter of the 7th, and feel myself bound to answer
the question which you put to me as directly and as explicitly as I am able
to do. The business remains hitherto in the same situation as when I wrote
last to you. A further answer has been received from Major Taylor, in which
he still persists in his former refusal; but by some confusion about dates, it
is not perfectly clear whether this is his final answer to the notification
which had been made to him, that he must renounce his further expectations
from the King if he refuses this. We were desirous to delay any
communication with the King upon the subject, till it was perfectly clear
that the plea of his engagement to Taylor was removed by the refusal of the
latter, because we thought that, under those circumstances, the
representation of what was due to you would come with greater force. I am,
however, obliged to say that there is a further difficulty, even supposing this
of Taylor to be removed by his refusal. The King has destined his Majority
of Dragoons to Garth, one of his equerries, and has had the folly and
precipitation to communicate this intention to Garth. Under these
circumstances, it appears doubtful whether even a final refusal from Taylor
would remove the plea of actual engagement, and whether Nugent's
appointment would not still meet with the same difficulty on account of its
not opening a Majority of Dragoons for Garth. You will observe that I speak
only from a general idea of the King's feelings and habits of thinking and
acting on these subjects, when I state these probable difficulties, but that I
have no further information as to his disposition in this particular instance,
than I had when I wrote to you last.
This will, however, now be brought in some measure to a point, as Pitt and
myself have agreed that there should be no further delay; but that he should
now write to the King to state Taylor's last answer of refusal, and to express
his hope, that in consequence of this, His Majesty will, under all the
circumstances of the case, be disposed to comply with your
recommendation of Colonel Nugent.
It has occurred to us, that even if the King should obstinately persist in a
refusal on this occasion, there is another solution which you might possibly
deem satisfactory. You will recollect that the business of Colonel Gwynne

closed last year, by the King's consenting that Nugent should have the office
of Adjutant-General, provided any arrangement could be made by you for
Faucitt. Neither Pitt nor myself ever knew from you on what point your
negotiation with Faucitt broke off. But if that could be renewed, Pitt
authorizes me to say that he could find the means of opening a ten Sh.
Government for him in England immediately, and that he has no doubt of
the King's consent to the arrangement, even preceding the signing Taylor's
commission.
You, however, will best know how far this mode of arranging the business
would be satisfactory to you, and what probability there would be of
bringing it to bear, with the assistance which I state. If you feel this to be
impossible, there will then remain nothing but to press the King on the
other point as far as possible, and at last, if it is found absolutely necessary,
to give him to understand that his option must be made between his Major
Taylor and his Major Garth on the one hand, and his Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland on the other. You do justice to the manner in which I have felt and
written to you on this occasion, and it is extremely satisfactory to me to
know that you are not insensible to the warmth and sincerity of my
affection and gratitude towards you. Let me therefore, upon that ground,
presume so far only as to beg that you will not send your resignation, or
notify formally (or indeed in any other manner) your intention so to do, till
you learn from me that I am convinced all other steps will be ineffectual. I
persuade myself that this is a trust which you will not believe me capable of
abusing, however unwilling I must be, on so many accounts, to see you
driven to the necessity of taking this last and decisive step.
I mentioned also to you, in my last letter, the reasons which I feel for
wishing that, in all events, the actual execution of this measure may be
delayed till the conclusion of the session. I press this for reasons personal to
you, and which I feel very strongly, although the interval will
unquestionably be very embarrassing to you, and perhaps even more
distressing to myself. But I am desirous of knowing how far you feel the
force of those reasons, and what your determination would be in that case,
because I think it might make some difference in the manner of stating your
intention to the King, if this should be rendered necessary.

I feel it needless to repeat to you what I have already said of my intentions
respecting my own conduct; and I hope you do me the justice to believe,
that however deeply I am involved in the result of this business, my first
anxiety is that it may terminate in a manner consistent with your honour,
character, and happiness.
Believe me, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Holwood, April 12th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
As I understand that Mr. Pitt writes to you by this messenger, in order to
state to you the nature of the King's answer to his letter, and to explain the
arrangement which is proposed to you as a solution of this unpleasant
business, I feel that I can have nothing to add. I have already mentioned to
you, in the most full and unreserved manner, the whole of my feelings on
this occasion, and I see nothing in the present state of it which can at all
vary them. I still continue very desirous that this business may not proceed
to those extremities which you have mentioned, because I think such a step,
independent of its public consequences, would close our political prospects
in this country, and would, besides, be liable to a construction which we
should most wish to avoid. But I also continue in the full determination to
abide by your decision upon it, and that your conduct shall regulate mine;
because I feel this as no less due to myself than to you, on an occasion in
which I certainly think the King has been much wanting to you.
If I were to write volumes to you, I could only enlarge upon these points, on
which I have already fully written to you, and with the same freedom and
sincerity as if I were thinking aloud. I always feel some embarrassment and
difficulty in writing upon points in which I am myself so much interested;
although I have not, on this occasion, suffered that consideration to weigh
with me, so as either to say what I should not otherwise have said, or to
leave unsaid anything which I felt I ought to say. I have now, therefore, only
to conclude, with my sincere assurances of the uniform and warm affection
with which I am,

My dear brother, most truly yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, April 16th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I came to town yesterday with Mr. Pitt, and found your letter of the 11th,
and this morning I received yours of the 12th. I was much mortified that I
was not able to write to you yesterday evening, as I had intended to do, first
by the post, and afterwards by a messenger. But different circumstances
arose, which made it impossible. I could have wished to have answered
your letter at length, in order to state to you everything that occurs to me
upon it; but I cannot now do this without unnecessarily delaying the
messenger, and I wish to lose no time in letting you know the exact state of
the business, as it now stands. Taylor has accepted, which considerably
increases the difficulty of making a point with the King to undo what he has
done for him. But another solution has now offered itself, on which I cannot
help feeling rather sanguine. We have just heard of the death of General
Mackay: Pitt is now writing to the King, to represent the propriety of
making any arrangement, which this event may give rise to, subservient to
the purpose of removing this difficulty, and to desire to see the King, in
order to converse with him upon that point. The King will probably appoint
to-morrow; but as Pitt may not be back till late, I thought it better to send
off this messenger, as my letter is now a day later than I meant to have
written, and I can easily judge of your impatience to hear from me on this
subject.
Lodge Morres will be instantly dismissed, with such a letter as you
mention.
You shall hear from me again to-morrow, or Saturday, at latest. I hope you
have not taken any step on the receipt of our letters of Sunday; but if any
letter of formal resignation comes from you, I should feel myself justified,
under these circumstances, to stop it.
In answer to your questions about Pitt, I beg you to believe that, however
warm and sincere my friendship is for him, yet that it would not stand one
moment in the way, if I thought him acting dishonourably or unfairly by
you. I may, to-morrow, have time to write more at large on that subject; but,
in the meantime, let me assure you that I am the grossest dupe in the world
if that is the case. I am impatient to hear the result of Monday.

Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, April 17th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have the greatest pleasure in being able to acquaint you that this
unpleasant business of the lieutenant-colonelcy is now in a way of being
settled, so as, I hope, may be perfectly satisfactory to you. I have just seen
Mr. Pitt, and received from him the agreeable information that he found the
King entirely disposed to do whatever might conduce to this object, and
even desirous of explaining that the former difficulties had arisen only from
his actual engagements. It is not yet precisely settled in what mode this
should be done; because, Mr. Pitt finding the King in so favourable a
disposition on the subject, thought it better, on every account, to avoid
pressing him further than appeared necessary. Two modes were, however,
suggested in conversation between them: the one, that General Ainslie
should have Mackay's regiment, by which means his lieutenant-colonelcy
should be given to Taylor, and so Nugent be appointed to Gwynne's; the
other, that the regiment should be given to Sir James Stewart Denham,
which would vacate his lieutenant-colonelcy for Nugent. A third was also
mentioned by the King, namely, the inducing Taylor, by the offer of the
Lieutenant-Governorship of Cowes, to exchange with Nugent. Any one of
these would, I flatter myself, answer your purpose; because they would
show the King's disposition to attend to your recommendation, and that
having been hampered by an actual engagement to Taylor, he is now ready
to accommodate his own patronage in such a way as may, at the same time,
provide for Nugent. But what I think even better than all this, is the account
which Pitt gave me of the King's apparent manner of feeling on this subject.
I had, I confess, very much apprehended that, however necessary it might
be, in order to keep up your situation and apparent weight with the King, to
insist upon some such solution for this business, yet that the doing this
would leave a lasting and most unfavourable impression on his mind, which
might lead to a renewal of this sort of contest on some future occasion. This
appears to be by no means the case, at present; and I am sure that you will
agree with me in thinking that although it might, in some points of view,

have been desirable that the whole arrangement could have been concluded
to-day, so as to put an end to all appearance of suspense, yet that it would
have been unwise, in this state of things, to have pressed the King to this
sort of peremptory decision as to the mode of doing it, which he seemed
desirous of having an opportunity of revolving in his own mind.
It will now probably not be very long before whatever official business you
will have in this country, will pass through a medium rather better disposed,
and more attentive to you, than that of your present correspondent; and if I
do not grossly flatter myself, a little attention on my part, to soothe the
King's mind—which has evidently been irritated on these points—will
make all this sort of business go smoothly, and to your satisfaction.
I am sorry not to have complied with your wish about the promotions; but,
on very mature reflection, I was persuaded that it was risking too much,
with regard to the principal and important point, to mix with it any other
business on which it was always possible that some difficulty might arise in
the King's mind. In the course of the next week, I hope to be able to write to
you on that subject; but I trust you will not be unwilling to rely a little on
me with regard to the exact time, which I assure you I will not delay, except
I think I see very material reasons for it. You must also make some
allowance for the very great additional delay which is created in all this sort
of business, by the King's residing wholly at Windsor, which gives Pitt
fewer opportunities of seeing him, and for a shorter time.
I mentioned to you, in my last letter, that Lodge Morres would be
immediately removed. I have desired that the letter notifying this, may
contain some such expressions as you mention; but I cannot answer for this,
because I cannot, as things now stand, interfere in the wording of those
letters, except by a very circuitous mode.
I also answered your question about Pitt, but I did it shortly; nor indeed
could any expressions that I could have used do justice to the warm and
anxious feeling which he has shown on this occasion. I am inclined to
impute this termination of the business, so much more favourable than I had
expected, almost entirely to his judgment and address.
I have had the pleasure this morning of seeing Lady B. and your children.
You will have heard that she has had a feverish cold, but I hope it has now

quite left her. Your children are all well.
Adieu, my dear brother. I cannot express to you what a weight is removed
from my mind by the success of Pitt's journey.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The promotions and creations glanced at in these letters were recommended
by Lord Buckingham as proper marks of His Majesty's sense of the services
rendered to the Government during the late crisis in Ireland by some
influential men in both Houses of Parliament. As those who had abandoned
the Administration were dismissed, it was no less an act of justice that those
who had supported it should receive some testimony of the King's
approbation, and the Lord-Lieutenant's carte blanche embraced this
dispensing power on both sides. Some alarm was felt by the Cabinet at the
list of promotions and creations (nineteen in number) forwarded on this
occasion for the royal sanction. The increase of the peerage was, perhaps,
the only point on which Mr. Pitt's Government was vulnerable, for, although
he exercised the greatest caution in his selections, and introduced them by
degrees, instead of making them in batches, as the peculiar circumstances of
Ireland at this moment demanded, it was felt to be the objection which, of
all others, operated most injuriously against the character and popularity of
his Administration. His Majesty's engagements, too, enhanced the
embarrassment. Whenever any proposition for honours or appointments,
naval, military, or civil, was submitted to him, it was certain to be
obstructed by some obligation he had previously laid himself under by
promise to different persons. In the present instance a difficulty of this kind
interposed. Two peerages were already engaged in advance, and the
arrangement of the Irish list depended entirely on the nature of the pledges
to which His Majesty had committed himself in these cases. Mr. Grenville
writes that Mr. Pitt was to see His Majesty on the subject in two or three
days. "He will then endeavour to find out whether the King's engagements
were so positive and absolute as to Lords A. and C. as to lay him under the
absolute necessity of conferring this honour on four persons in order to be
able to reward the services of two." It may be presumed that these
engagements were not absolute, or, at all events, that they were not suffered
to interfere with Lord Buckingham's list, as all the persons he named, with

the exception of two or three, who were excluded on special grounds,
received the honours to which he recommended them.
Amongst these was Mr. Fitzgibbon, Poor old Lord Lifford, who had kept
his seat, and exerted himself indefatigably to the last, died on the 28th of
April. The labours of that terrible session proved too much for his declining
powers, and he finally sank under them. The opportunity to which Mr.
Fitzgibbon had been so long looking forward was now thrown open to him.
Lord Buckingham pressed his claims earnestly on the Government,
recounting the signal obligations he had laid them under on the Regency
question, tracing his career, and depicting his character in terms of the
highest eulogy. The appointment rested with Thurlow, whose humours
required to be waited upon, and who was suspected, moreover, to be
unfavourable to Fitzgibbon. Much delay and suspense consequently ensued,
and it was not until June that the patent was made out. Fitzgibbon was
immediately created a Baron. From that point his promotion in the peerage
advanced rapidly. In 1793, he was created Viscount Fitzgibbon; and in
1795, Earl of Clare.
The King's recovery now enabled Ministers to resume those measures
which the late unhappy suspension of public affairs had so grievously
interrupted. One of the first subjects that called for consideration was the
abolition of the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce had succeeded in raising such
an excitement throughout the country about his forthcoming motion, that
the West India interest took alarm, and desired to know whether it was the
intention of Government to adopt the measure. But Mr. Pitt, who had not
yet pledged the Administration to any step beyond that of inquiry,
maintained a reserve on this point, which the enthusiasm of Mr. Wilberforce
may be said to have forced upon him. A letter from Sir William Young
touches on this matter; and alludes, also, to some unseemly conduct on the
part of the Princes, which is spoken of in a similar spirit of deprecation in
other letters. The circumstances that rendered their proceedings on this
occasion the more conspicuous and objectionable were, that the ball at
White's Club, referred to, was given in honour of His Majesty's birthday,
and happy restoration; and that the Queen had signified her intention of
being present.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Stratton Street, April 22nd, 1789.
My dear Lord,
The week passed hath not afforded an item of information worthy the
sending you. I have now a circumstance or two to mention in the political
line, and a little scandal to garnish it with, of a sort "quod predetendici
potuisse, et non potuisse refelli." Of business in the first place. Steele told
me yesterday, that on Mr. Fox's motion this day to repeal the Hop-tax, it
was meant to give it up with the best grace possible. The next piece of
Parliamentary intelligence is respecting the Slave Trade; a committee from
the planters and merchants of the West Indies waited the other day on Mr.
Pitt, to put the short question, whether Government supported Mr.
Wilberforce in his motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade? Mr. Pitt
answered, that "He must decline committing his own opinion thus early, and
that the Cabinet had not yet sat in discussion of that question." The
gentlemen of this committee speak of Lord Hawkesbury as against the
extent of Mr. Wilberforce's proposition, and that Administration are
generally (Camden and others) with Lord Hawkesbury. Je ne m'en mêle
pas.
I know of no other business to engage the attention of Parliament after
Easter but my poor Bill, which is much amended and enlarged from last
year. It seems to have general support. I have thought it more candid to read
it a first time and print it, deferring the second reading to the first week of
meeting after Easter, when I am engaged to the House to open fully the
principle of my undertaking, in what your Lordship terms mémoires
raisonnées. If I succeed in this Bill, as I expect to do, relating to the able
poor, I shall, next sessions, proceed to accomplish the rest of my plan, by
amending and giving force to (where necessary) the Bastard, Vagrant Laws,
and generally those of police respecting the poor. The plan is extensive, but
I have much considered it. I think I have it clear in comprehension, and can
pursue it through each effect on the industry and manners of our people. I
cannot be idle, ainsi je veux quelque part me faire ministre.
For the dish of scandal I promised, it is of marked importance as to the
character of those whose character must have leading consequences in this
country; and, in fact, it is no scandal, it is a shameful truth; otherwise, tales
of this sort, are not such as I like blotting my paper with. In the first place,

on the ball given by White's Club, at the Pantheon, the Prince of Wales sent
round to canvass non-attendance by every one of his party; yet both himself
and the Duke of York took the tickets sent, and then the Duke of York sent
them all to be sold, at Hookham's, to any one that would buy them. The fact
was intimated at White's, when the stewards adopted a regulation to
preclude the mischief of improper company, by directing that the person
subscribing, or to whom the tickets were sent, should put his name. The
Duke thereon put his name, and the tickets were sold, with the prostitution
of the title of "York." To close this disgraceful detail, a ball, the same night,
of ——, was given at the Horse Guards, expressly for the Duke of York. I
have not authentically heard whether the Prince of Wales was of the party.
The day will come when Englishmen will bring these Princes to their
senses.
Adieu, my dear Lord; health and prosperity, and success in all you
undertake, be yours; and to me, the happiness whilst I have life, of signing,
your affectionately devoted and obliged friend and servant,
W. Young.
The lamentable divisions that existed in the royal family formed a topic of
common conversation, and deeply disturbed the tranquillity of His
Majesty's mind. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York took industrious
advantage of all available means to cultivate popularity out of doors; and
when it was thought advisable by Ministers, that the King should make a
procession to St. Paul's to offer up thanks for his recovery, their Royal
Highnesses seem to have entered into a sort of rivalry with the King for the
applause of the spectators. Indeed, there was so little disguise about their
personal conduct to His Majesty, that the newspapers did not hesitate to
charge them with it, and the Dukes of York, Gloucester and Cumberland,
felt it necessary to protect themselves against the animadversions of the
Press, by prosecuting the publisher of the "Times," for accusing them of
"insincerity" in their professions of joy at the King's recovery. Some fears
were entertained as to the bearing of His Majesty on the occasion of the
procession; but he passed through it with a composure and self-control that
inspired his friends with the utmost confidence in the future. Mr. Bernard,
writing to Lord Buckingham on the 23rd of April, gives the following
account of the proceedings:

MR. BERNARD TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
London, April 23rd, 1789, Five o'clock, p.m.
My Lord,
The ceremony of this day has been gone through exceedingly well. The
procession from the House of Commons began at eight o'clock, and the
King reached St. Paul's between eleven and twelve. The arrangement of the
cathedral, particularly the dome, presented a beautiful sight. The King
seems much reduced by his late illness—was remarkably composed during
the service, and attentive to the music. His Majesty, as well as the Queen,
seemed much affected with the solemnity of their first entrance, as were
many of the persons present. Lady Uxbridge was near fainting away.
As the King went out of the church, he seemed to be in good spirits, and
talked much to the persons about him; but he stared and laughed less than
ever I knew him on a public occasion. He returned to the Queen's House
between three and four o'clock. Mr. Fox and most of his party were there.
He and Colonel Fitzpatrick were stationed in front of the altar, and directly
opposite the King, being the part of the cathedral for Privy Councillors and
Peers' sons. Mr. Pitt sat near them, but not in the first ranks. I saw Lord
Temple in a very good place, in that part of the church. I did not see Mr.
Burke there, and therefore suppose he continues ill. The trial was deferred
yesterday on account of his illness, which people say was occasioned by his
working himself into too great a passion the day before.
I have the honour to be ever, my Lord,
Your Excellency's most faithful and affectionate servant,
S. Bernard.
The same subject is followed up in a letter from Lord Bulkeley.
LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stanhope Street, April 27th, 1789.
My dear Lord,
The pilgrimage to St. Paul's, which funck'd us all very much, has turned out
exceedingly well, for the King conducted himself throughout the whole of

that very arduous trial in such a manner as to convince all, except those who
will not see nor hear, that he is in perfect possession of his faculties. The
Princes of Wales, York, Cumberland, and, I am sorry to say, Gloucester,
talked to each other the whole time of the service, and behaved in such an
indecent manner that was quite shocking. The King in Pall Mall was
received without applause, and the Prince with a good deal; but from
Cockspur Street to St. Paul's he had the warmest acclamations possible,
particularly in the city of London, where all ranks of people were
unanimous, which the King perceived, and since has much praised. In parts
of the Strand the Prince's dependants were posted to give him an huzza as
he passed, which flattered him most exceedingly; but he lost his temper in
the City, and he never recovered it afterwards, for at St. Paul's he was in the
worst humour possible, and did everything he could do to expose himself in
the face of an amazing concourse of persons, and of all the foreign
Ministers.
On the return of the procession the Prince and Duke of York put on their
uniforms at Carlton House, and headed the whole brigade of Grenadiers,
and fired a feu de joie before Buckingham House, the King and Queen and
the Princesses standing in one of the windows. The Prince, before the King
got into his carriage, which the whole line waited for before they filed off,
went off on a sudden with one hundred of the common people, with Mr.
Wattie in the middle of them, huzzaing him, and was done evidently to lead,
if possible, a greater number, and to make it penetrate into Buckingham
House.
The breach is so very wide between the King and Prince, that it seems to
me to be a great weakness to allow him any communication with him
whatsoever; for under the mask of attention to their father and mother, the
Prince and Duke of York commit every possible outrage, and show every
insult they can devise to them. The report of the journey to Hanover
prevails to an alarming degree, and the King talks of it right hand and left;
but it is to be hoped the Ministers will be able to divert his attention from it
at this particular moment, for in the present unhinged state of things it
might be pregnant with very disagreeable consequences. I believe the
King's mind is torn to pieces by his sons, and that he expects to relieve
himself by a new scene, and by getting out of the way of hearing of and
seeing the Prince of Wales, with the hopes of being able to detach the Duke

of York, whom he fondly and dotingly loves, and of prevailing on him to
marry on the continent, of which there is no chance, for in my opinion he is
just as bad as the Prince, and gives no hopes of any change or amendment
whatsoever in thought, word, or deed.
* * * * *
P.S.—It is said that the King abuses Dundas to those about him very much,
in a language that is very much copied by those whom we all know by the
term of "King's friends;" and there are some who pretend to say that his loss
of ground at Buckingham House has been owing to the part he took against
Hastings, in which he has the reputation of having engaged Pitt to concur. I
have made every inquiry whether the King ever expresses himself to his
people about him in favour of Hastings, and I am told he is very guarded
and reserved on his subject, but that some females in his house talk loud and
warmly in his favour, which occasions the attributing the same opinions to
him.
On one of the adjourned questions on Hastings's trial in the House of Lords,
Lord Maitland, standing next to Dundas, asked him what he thought would
be the result of the inquiry, to which he replied in these words: "I don't care
what is done with him, for you and your friends in Opposition have done
our business, by keeping him out of the Board of Control." Lord Maitland
on this called up Colonel Fitzpatrick and Dudley Long, in whose presence
Dundas actually repeated his words, and they, of course, trumpeted them all
over town, and they have occasioned much conversation and much abuse of
Dundas, in addition to their former abuse on the part of Hastings's friends.
The folly of such language, especially to three violent Oppositionists, was
very absurd, weak, and ill-judged, but the fact is certain.
I hear many complaints of Pitt and his Secretaries' personal inattentions to
Members of Parliament, but they will think twenty times before they go into
Opposition; and it is most probable that these complaints are not made till
impossible jobs have been refused; I therefore only mention them as
certainly existing, and most probably as to any consequences, vox et
præterea nihil, at least till the last sessions.
* * * * *

Just as I was sealing my letter a person called on me, who tells me that
divisions in the Cabinet, or rather among the Cabinet Ministers, certainly do
exist, to a great degree, about Mr. Dundas, and has confirmed to me what I
have before told you, that every corner of Buckingham House resounds
with abuse, and opprobrious epithets against him.
A passage in a letter of Mr. Grenville's, dated the 2nd of May, indicates an
approaching event, to which many circumstances, but chiefly the increasing
weight the writer had latterly acquired in the councils of Mr. Pitt, had for
some time been obviously tending.
I wish to mention to you that Lord S. has taken great offence, from the
circumstance of having at last found out that your despatches to him come
over enclosed to me. I could wish, therefore, that for the very short time that
your correspondence with him is likely to continue you would alter this, as
nothing material is likely to arise that can render it necessary, and I am
desirous just at this particular moment to avoid any altercation with him.
This jealousy on his part, and a just sense on mine of his conduct towards
you, has entirely broke off all communication between us with respect to
Irish, or indeed any other, business. Some delay and awkwardness
necessarily arises from this; but it is unavoidable, and I repeat that it will
probably be of very short duration.
The nomination of Mr. Grenville to the Home Office had been delayed only
till the arrangements consequent upon the necessary changes it involved
could be satisfactorily carried out. The means of effecting it were now
within Mr. Pitt's reach; and at the moment this letter was written, Mr.
Grenville's appointment was on the eve of being ratified.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, May 15th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
Just as I was sitting down to write to you, I received a note from Hobart,
informing me of his arrival. I have seen him, and had a long conversation
on the different points which he is charged with. My appointment is, I think
I may now decisively say, fixed for Friday next, and I hope that you will
soon feel the effects of your new correspondent, in the expedition of the

various matters which are now lying on hand. You must, I am sure, be
sensible that under the circumstances of these last three weeks, it has been
quite impossible for me, however ardently I wished it for your sake, to bring
forward these different points of business; but on Monday sev'nnight, at
latest, I hope to write to you upon them all, though the length of Hobart's
memorandum-paper has a little frightened me. I do not complain of it as
thinking your bill a large one, considering the value received, but only I
think the impression of my début in the closet may be a little awkward. I
must, however, meet this as well as I can; and although this ten days' more
delay must, I know, be very unpleasant to you, I trust you will see it is
unavoidable.
If you find it necessary, for reconciling any of your principal people to the
delay, to assign the intended change in the Secretary's office as a reason,
there can now be no objection to it, as we have agreed that it would be right
that, by the time you can receive this letter, we should begin to buzz it
about, as a thing not improbable to happen.
With respect, however, to your peerages, I have, as I promised you, got Pitt
to state them to the King, who has consented to them, Marquisates and all.
You may now, therefore, recommend them as soon as you please, and I will
take care there shall be no further unnecessary delay.
There are, however, still two points with respect to this business. I
understand from Hobart that Lord Glerawley wants his promotion to be
limited to his brother. This had not been stated in your letters, and I was
therefore unable to mention it to Pitt. It is therefore still possible that the
King may make some objection to this, as you know it is against one of his
rules (though by no means an invariable one) to give a step and a limitation
at the same time.
The other is essential, and can, I hope, make no difficulty with you. He is
willing to engage that these should all be done without delay, but he seems
much to wish that the promotions and creations should be separated, in
order that they may not, by coming together, appear to fill too large a
column in the "Gazette." There must, therefore, be an interval of a fortnight
or three weeks. You will judge whether the promotions or creations should
come first.

The only remaining point is that of the Seals. I beg you to believe me
sincere when I assure you that, independent of your wishes upon the
subject, my own opinion is quite as much made up as yours is on the
subject of Fitzgibbon's appointment. But, in the same sincerity, I assure you
that it is by no means advantageous towards the attainment of this object,
that it should be pressed forward in the present moment. Hobart has asked
me whether Fitzgibbon's coming over would not be of use to him? I am
strongly inclined to be of opinion that it would; but before I gave him a
decisive answer, I wish to consult Pitt, and he is not to write to Fitzgibbon
till after that. With respect to the difficulty of your Chancery causes, I can
conceive no earthly reason why Carleton, especially as he is to receive so
great a favour, should not have to go on with them, just as Lord
Loughborough did here when the Seals were in commission for a year.
Depend upon it that I do not deceive you, when I say that it is much better
to wait for the favourable moment, than to hurry it on to a decision now.
That favourable moment may arise sooner or later, but I am confident that
ultimately le bon tems viendra. Your information about the Chancellor's
resolution is very curious, because I have reason to know that McNa. is
exactly the very person who has most strongly urged Thurlow on the
propriety of an English appointment, and who has suggested this curious
notion of F.'s unpopularity. But I mention this, relying upon your honour
that you will not repeat it to any one, but particularly not to Fitzgibbon.
I am most sincerely sorry that the consideration of your health should enter
at all into the question of your going or remaining. Pray let me entreat you,
whether you take the one resolution or the other ultimately, not to delay nor
put off one day a fixed resolution to use constant and sufficient exercise. I
am sure any delay on that head is of a hundred times more consequence
than all those which we have been lamenting. Nothing in the world could
make up to you for the consequences which your omission in this respect
(which I am grieved to learn from Hobart still continues) may bring upon
you. You cannot conceive how earnestly I feel on this subject, because I am
every day feeling the good effects of a contrary practice, which enables me
to go through all the business I have, without hurting my health or spirits.
Adieu, my dear brother,
Believe me ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.

The duel between Colonel Lenox and the Duke of York took place on the
26th of May. The town gossiped about it, but regarded it with indifference;
and neither party got much credit in the end. Mr. Hobart, on the 30th,
communicates another on dit concerning the behaviour of the Princes.
The Queen and Princesses were last night at the fête given by the French
Ambassador. The Prince of Wales, Dukes of York and Clarence, were also
there; but would not dance, or stay supper, lest they should have the
appearance of paying the smallest attention to Her Majesty. The officers of
the Duke of York's regiment met yesterday, at the request of Charles Lenox;
they did not come to a decision till about an hour ago. I hear it is that Lenox
acted with courage, but not with judgment.
There was some difficulty in finding a successor for Mr. Grenville in the
House of Commons. The choice at last fell on Mr. Addington. The selection
was not altogether unexceptionable; but, upon the whole, he was the best
person that could be found.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, June 1st, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have this morning received your two letters, of the 26th and 28th together,
which was a great relief to me from the uneasiness which I should have felt
from your first letter, if I had received it separately. I most sincerely hope
that you will feel no further bad effects from this accident. Lady B. has been
some days on her road to Dublin, and is probably with you before this time.
I cannot express to you how much I am concerned that any parts of my
letter on the subject of the promotions should have appeared to you in the
smallest degree wanting in that kindness and warmth of affection which I so
sincerely feel, and always wish and mean to express. I have no copy of that
letter, nor have I any recollection of the particular turn or expression of it
which can at all serve me to remember what part of it can have impressed
your mind with this sensation. I can therefore only say that, whatever it
was, it has been most remote from my intention, and that as to any
expression which can bear such an interpretation—totum hoc indictum volo.

With respect to the King's health, on which you ask me so particularly, I can
only repeat to you what I said in my last letter—which I have from what I
believe to be the very best authority—that he continues perfectly well, both
in mind and body, and, with respect to the latter, is growing stronger every
day. I beg you to believe, that though I should write you any contrary
account with much pain and mortification, yet that I feel too much the
importance of your being well and accurately informed on the subject, to
have a moment's hesitation in stating anything of that sort to you as soon as
I heard it myself. But, in truth, I believe that all these reports originate in
nothing else than the anxiety of the King's friends for the preservation of his
health, and the impatience which his enemies feel for the only event which
can give them any prospect of seeing their wishes accomplished.
Addington is the person intended for my successor. He wants only a little
more age, and being a little more known, to make his nomination
unexceptionable; but I certainly cannot but confess that he does want both
these. It is, however, the best appointment that we can make to a situation to
which so few people are willing to look, and for which so much fewer are at
all qualified. I have no doubt of his acquitting himself well in it, and of his
becoming, in a little time, extremely popular in the House. We shall
certainly lose our Abolition question. The cry against us upon it is growing
every day stronger, without anybody being willing to give themselves the
trouble of entering, in the smallest degree, into the examination of the
grounds upon which our arguments rest.
We have no foreign news, except the continuance of the disputes and
difficulties in France. But these you have as fully in the newspapers as I
could detail them to you. The accounts from Vienna seem to agree that there
is not much probability of the Emperor's finally recovering these repeated
attacks, though he may linger out a considerable time.
Adieu, my dear brother,
And believe me ever most sincerely and affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Lord Buckingham's health had suffered so much from the toils and anxieties
to which he had been exposed during the last few months, that his
physicians urged upon him the necessity of trying the waters at Bath. So

long as the exigencies of the public service made an imperative demand on
his energies, he bore his labours with unshrinking resolution; but now that
the contest was over, and the security and influence of the Government
were restored, he felt the recoil severely. It was natural that there should be
mixed with this hope of recruiting his strength by change of scene, a strong
desire for repose. The stormy times he had fallen upon in Ireland rendered
his position there onerous and oppressive. He had ridden the storm in
safety, and had the satisfaction of feeling that, whenever he retired from the
Government, he would leave to his successor, untrammelled by the
associations and recollections of the past, a comparatively easy task.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
(Private.) Whitehall, June 13th, 1789.
My dearest Brother,
You will receive with this the official notification of Fitzgibbon's
appointment to the Seals, which I send with the more pleasure at this
particular moment, because I know that it will relieve your mind from one
of the points on which you have felt a peculiar degree of anxiety. The
decision on this point gives me great satisfaction, on many accounts, as an
act of justice towards him, and as an example both to our friends and our
enemies; but the interest which you took in it makes the event infinitely
more agreeable to me than it would otherwise have been, however much I
am convinced that it was right and necessary.
The particular occasion, however, of my writing this letter, was not so much
the conclusion of this business, as something which relates to another, more
nearly concerning yourself. In consequence of your letter, and of the alarm
which I have since had on your account, I thought it very material that the
idea of your going to Bath should be opened to the King, in order to
ascertain how far it was practicable for you to avail yourself of this, which I
am persuaded will be the best of all remedies for you, without, at the same
time, giving up the idea of returning to Ireland, if you should feel yourself
desirous of it. I accordingly took to-day the first opportunity which I have
had, of mentioning this to the King, and I have great pleasure in saying, that
he not only acquiesced in the idea, but that he lent himself to it with the
greatest readiness, and seemed desirous that you should not omit this if it

could be useful to you. If, therefore, on consultation with Austin, you
should find that a journey to Bath will be of service to you, there remains
nothing for you to do, but to write an official letter "requesting the King's
permission to be absent from Ireland for a limited time, in order that you
may go to Bath for the recovery of your health," and I shall be able to return
you an answer, signifying the King's consent, before your preparations for
your journey can be made. If, after some residence at Bath, you should find
your health and spirits not equal to the returning, you will be better enabled
then to decide upon that point, and it will be perfectly easy for you then to
state this, and to resign on the ground of the injury which the King's service
would sustain from any longer absence. But I am sure I need not mention to
you, who are so well acquainted with that country, the absolute and
indispensable necessity of your doing everything (in the event of your going
to Bath) which may give the strongest impression of your determination to
return. If this is not done, you must feel that the Government will be thrown
loose, and that the mischief of such an interval may be such as to be
irretrievable. If, on the contrary, this persuasion prevails, I see no fear of
inconvenience from your absence on this account.
I enclose to you, under a flying seal, a letter of congratulation and
compliment to Fitzgibbon, which expresses no more than I really feel on
that subject. Adieu, my dear brother.
Believe me ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
P.S.—You will, of course, immediately recommend Fitzgibbon for a
Barony; but if you can dissuade him from it, pray do not let him take the
title of Limerick, actually possessed by Lord Clanbrassil. The instance of
Earl of Buckinghamshire (so created) and Marquis of B. by no means
applies, and it would look invidious.
Lord Buckingham's resolution to relinquish the Government of Ireland was
now finally taken. He communicated his intentions, in the first instance, in a
private letter to Mr. Grenville, to which the following is the reply.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Wimbledon, Sept. 14th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I received your letter of the 6th respecting your resignation, and your
subsequent letters of the 10th and 11th. You are too much aware of the
extreme difficulty of finding persons willing and qualified to undertake the
office which you are quitting, not to expect some little delay before we can
say anything to you respecting the choice itself, or the mode or exact period
of your resignation; though I certainly agree with you, that, if you have
entirely abandoned the idea of returning, the formal notification of that
intention ought not to be long delayed. It certainly would have been a
satisfaction to me, both on public and private grounds, if the state of your
health would have admitted of your completing your triumph even more
decidedly than you have already done, though I trust that is sufficient.
The finding a proper person to replace you is, indeed, no easy task; because,
although I am entirely of your opinion, that by proper management, the
situation of English Government in Ireland is secure; yet, on the other hand,
I cannot but feel how very little mismanagement would throw us back
again, and how much more the crisis seems to demand, than is, I fear, to be
found in any of the persons who may probably be to look to that situation. It
will certainly be my wish on many accounts, that the change of the Lord-
Lieutenant should not affect Hobart's situation.
I have not yet seen him, as I have not been in town for this last week; but if
he is come, I suppose I shall either to-day or to-morrow.
The question about Lord Loftus can, I think, end no otherwise than as
Hobart proposes. I shall, however, not say or write anything on the subject
to the King till I have seen Hobart. I have no difficulty in conversing with
him quite freely about his own situation, as when I saw him in town last, I
told him very fairly what my wishes would be in the event of your quitting
the Government; but, at the same time, told him as fairly, that nothing could
be decisively fixed on that subject till your successor was appointed, and his
wishes consulted.
I enclose you a letter from Lord Clonmel, which was transmitted to me with
one which I also send you a copy of. I shall merely write an answer

acknowledging the receipt, and saying, that agreeably to his desire, I have
transmitted it to you.
I heartily wish, that the distance of Teignmouth was not such as to put all
idea of our meeting there entirely out of the question; especially as
Nepean's being ill makes it still more impossible for me to leave this
neighbourhood.
We have no sort of news. The French Assembly is going on with endless
disputes about their Constitution; but one ought to be much more interested
than I feel myself in the event of these disputes, not to be heartily tired of
hearing of them. The main point appears quite secure, that they will not for
many years be in a situation to molest the invaluable peace which we now
enjoy.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
P.S.—I had almost forgot to mention, that on hearing of the contest for
Cornwall, and being informed that no time was to be lost, I took upon me to
desire Camplin to write to Dale to exert himself in favour of Gregor, our
candidate, having every reason to believe that you would have no other
wish on the subject, than that of helping to keep out an enemy.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Holwood, Sept. 25th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have not yet sent to the King your letter of resignation. Pitt has, however,
explained to him that you have notified to us the impossibility of your
returning, and that you have only delayed the formal resignation till His
Majesty shall have considered of the arrangement to be made for that
Government. This point is not yet decided. It is indeed one of most extreme
difficulty.
In consequence of Cooke's letter to Hobart, which the latter showed me, I
mentioned to the King your intended recommendation of Lord L.,
explaining to him at the same time that you clearly understood yourself not
to have made any such engagement, but that as a contrary interpretation was

put upon it by Lord C., through whom the transaction passed, it seemed for
the benefit of His Majesty's service that this step should be recommended. I
also stated that this would necessarily bring with it the two others and
perhaps a third, which I named to him at Hobart's desire. He acquiesced in
the whole of this without difficulty.
Adieu, my dearest brother.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
There has been an action off the coast of Finland, between what are called
the Swedish and Russian army fleets. The Russians appear to have had the
victory decisively, but to be so disabled by it as to be quite unable to do
anything more with that fleet this year. Nothing new from France.
On the 30th of September, Lord Buckingham formally resigned. His
successor, however, was not yet decided upon, and the subject occasioned
much perplexity in the Cabinet. The Lieutenancy was offered to the Duke
of Beaufort, who declined. The next person thought of was the Earl of
Westmoreland, who accepted. "There are several points," observes Mr.
Grenville, "in which Westmoreland would do perfectly: there are those in
which he fails; but God knows the list to choose out of is not long."
The letter containing this intelligence announced also the death of the Duke
of Chandos, who held the office of Lord Steward, with an intimation that it
was probable the new Lord Steward would be the Duke of Dorset. Upon
receipt of this information, Lord Buckingham wrote to Mr. Grenville,
expressing his desire to be appointed to the vacancy, and urging also his
claims upon promotion in the peerage. He felt strongly upon this point. The
personal obloquy and factious resistance he had encountered and triumphed
over in his Government, appeared to him to demand some distinct and
special mark of His Majesty's favour and approbation; and as this was the
mode most likely to make that impression upon the public mind in Ireland
which the dignity of the Crown, and his own justification in the policy he
had pursued, emphatically called for, the feelings that were awakened
throughout the course of the following painful correspondence may be
readily conceived.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Holwood, Oct. 5th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
Your messenger brought me here, yesterday evening, your letter of the 3rd
instant; but I have deferred answering it till this morning, because I wished
for a little time to turn the subject of it over in my own mind, and
particularly to consider whether I should communicate it to Pitt. After some
deliberation with myself, I have resolved not to make this communication,
because I consider the Lord Steward's staff as being, in fact, disposed of;
and I feel, on that account, an unwillingness to state, even to Pitt, that you
had entertained a wish to succeed to that office. I am sure I need not say,
that if this idea had ever come across my mind, I should have given you the
earliest intelligence in my power of the death of the Duke of Chandos; and
should have endeavoured to prevent any steps being taken for filling up his
office, till I had heard from you. As it is, you will already have heard from
me, that our intention was to offer it to the Duke of Dorset; there not being
the smallest ground to imagine that the Duke of Leeds wishes to quit his
present situation. This offer was accordingly made two days ago; and the
Duke of Dorset has all but accepted it, desiring only to have five minutes
previous conversation with Pitt. He is to come here for that purpose this
morning; and I have no doubt, from the turn of his letter, that he intends to
accept. Under these circumstances, you will, I am sure, approve of my
saying nothing to Pitt on that part of your letter; nor do I feel it necessary to
state to you all that would otherwise occur to me upon it as matter for your
consideration. * * *
Ever most sincerely and affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Oct. 6th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
The D. of D. has, as I imagined he would, accepted without hesitation. His
wish to see Mr. Pitt appears to have been only for the purpose of stating his
situation and feelings with regard to the French Embassy. The D. of B. has
refused. We shall have W.'s answer to-morrow.

I send you no French news, for in fact we get none that is not more fully
detailed in the papers.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 2nd, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I saw Mr. Pitt on Saturday evening, and explained your wishes to him. He
has undertaken to mention the subject to the King on Thursday (as he does
not return to town till Wednesday evening), and to second it with all the
eloquence of which he is possessed. He expressed himself with real
friendship and zeal upon the subject; though, I am sorry to say, he appears
to entertain the same apprehensions with myself as to the result. I am,
however, persuaded that this opinion will not lessen his exertions for a more
favourable answer, if it can be obtained. He thought it better to mention to
the King, at the same time, the idea respecting the Duke of Grafton; though
he seems to think it doubtful whether the Post-office will afford the means
of that arrangement.
We have no news from France; the express, which generally comes on
Sunday, not being yet arrived.
The insurrection has broke out in Austrian Flanders; but in a manner which
seems little likely to be successful. Our accounts from thence are, however,
very imperfect.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Nov. 6th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
The drawing-room was so very late yesterday, that it was impossible for Pitt
to go into the closet afterwards, as it was not over till past five, and the

King had to go back to Windsor. This being the case, we have agreed that,
in order to prevent any further delay, Pitt shall write to the King upon the
subject, stating all the arguments upon it, and at the same time reserving a
ground for speaking to the King upon it at the next levée, if it should be
necessary. I own I am by no means sorry that the circumstance of the
lateness of the drawing-room, has given a plea for having recourse to this
mode, as I have always observed it to succeed best with the King. There are
many things which can be much more strongly put in a letter than in
conversation with him, especially on any subject on which he is unwilling
to converse; and all the points of this particular business may be more
forcibly urged by being collected and stated with a reference to each other,
in a manner which the King's desultory way of speaking makes almost
impossible. I am persuaded, therefore, that whatever the chance is of
success in this business, it is greater in this mode; especially as Pitt will still
have to mention it to him on Wednesday, if his written answer is not
favourable.
I would write to you oftener, or desire Bernard to do it when I cannot, on
the French and Flemish news, but that I really find the papers are every
morning just as good intelligencers as I could be. They will even tell you all
that I can about the Duke of Orleans' mission, which is evidently only a
pretence for leaving Paris, as he has not even affected to talk to the King, or
his Ministers, about any business, except to ask, in general terms, what is
thought of the state of the Low Countries? to which you may suppose the
answer would be quite as general, even supposing that we had anything
more particular to say, which we have not.
What the motive was for his leaving Paris, I know no more than by the
general report which circulates there as well as here, of his having been
detected in plans against the small remains of the King's authority.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Nov. 7th, 1789.
My dear Brother,

I am persuaded it is unnecessary for me to say how sincerely sorry I am to
be obliged to acquaint you that the King's answer to Pitt's letter of yesterday
is such as to give, I am afraid, very little hope indeed of success in the
business to which it relates. The King says, however, in it, that in
compliance with Pitt's request he defers giving a final answer till he sees
him on Wednesday, so that we cannot consider the subject as closed till
then; but I fairly own to you that I think there is now very little ground for
expecting a favourable result. The King does not enter into the subject at all
in his answer, but only refers to what has formerly passed upon it.
I heartily wish that I was the channel of more pleasing intelligence, and this
the more, because though I certainly do not see this point exactly in the
light in which you seemed to consider it when we conversed upon it, yet the
success of it would have afforded me real satisfaction, independent even of
the gratification of your wishes.
Believe me ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Nov. 9th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I received this morning your letter, acquainting me with your determination,
in the event of the King's answer on Wednesday being such as there is
certainly every reason to believe it will be. You announce this as a
determination in some measure taken in your own mind, and on which you
do not appear to wish for my advice; and there are perhaps too many
circumstances which must make such a step painful to me, to allow me to
be a competent adviser on such a subject. I must therefore confine myself to
expressing my very great and sincere concern both in the cause and the
effect.
Your letter does not express whether any and what part of it should be
communicated to Pitt. Perhaps you will think it right that he should have
some previous knowledge of your resolution, if such it is, before he sees the
King, but this is a point of infinitely too much delicacy for me to take upon

myself to decide; and I also confess that the task of communicating it would
be to my feelings so extremely painful, that I should be particularly desirous
to avoid it.
I have only to add my strong sense of the kindness of your expressions and
wishes towards me. I hope I have deserved your affection, I am sure I have
endeavoured to do so; and this business, unhappy as it is, would be a
thousand times more so to me, if I could think it possible. I trust in God that
it is not so, that any event of it could produce the smallest diminution of
that mutual affection and confidence which has now so long subsisted
between us, and to which I have felt, and shall ever feel, that I owe more
than to any other circumstance of my life. In these sentiments,
Believe me ever, my dear brother,
Most truly and affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Nov. 12th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
As I understand from Pitt that he means to write to you to-day in answer to
your letter, I have nothing to add to the account which he will give you of
the unfavourable result of his conversation of yesterday. He mentioned to
me an idea which he had of contriving to see you if possible before you
took the step of resigning the Lieutenancy of the county. Perhaps if he
comes down to Stowe for that purpose, it would be more agreeable to you
that I should accompany him, and in that case I would certainly contrive to
do so. Otherwise, I feel that you are already so fully in possession of all that
I think and feel on this painful subject, that I could not wish to give you the
labour of a journey to Missenden for the purpose of a conversation, which
could only be a repetition of what I have already said and written. I have
turned the whole question over and over again in my mind, and the result is
the same with what I have already stated to you, and is founded on the same
feeling: that though the object is a natural one for you to have looked to, I
cannot think that the King's refusal does, in any manner, call upon you for
that line of conduct which you can be disposed to adopt only in the belief
that you are called upon so to do. It is unnecessary for me to enlarge again

on the grounds of this opinion; but in stating it, I give you my sincere and
honest sentiments, freed, as far as I can free them, from the bias which they
are necessarily liable to, on account of the painful impression which is
made on my mind by the idea of the smallest difference in our political line.
I cannot conclude this letter without again expressing to you the heartfelt
satisfaction which I derive, under these circumstances, from the sense
which you entertain and express of my sincere and zealous affection.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Nov. 28th, 1789.
My dear Brother,
I have just received your letter. Things remain hitherto on the same footing,
with every appearance of doing well. All depends, however, on the ultimate
arrangement of the point referred. I own I am inclined to hope better things
than you seem to do. Real friendship and connection is, I agree with you,
not to be hoped for; but if public appearances are preserved, and public
support effectually, even though not cordially, given, all is obtained that is
in any degree necessary for public objects; and the present disposition does,
as far as I can judge, go the whole length of what I have now stated. It is by
no means a difficult or new situation for people to act together in public
business without the bond of private connection and friendship. It is indeed
very rare, I believe; and what I consider as a most singular and peculiar
happiness, that the contrary should exist to the degree to which it does, and
it would, I am afraid, be much too sanguine to entertain hopes that this
should be extended to the case now in question. I will not fail to let you
know as soon as anything occurs on the main point.
There is every appearance that the Flemish revolution is complete.
Trautsmansdorf and the patriots are running a race for Luxemburg, where
the former means to wait for succours. There are not fifteen thousand troops
in the provinces, and there are above forty thousand of the patriots already
armed, and the whole country with them. They collect the revenues of the
country, on which they maintain their army. They flatter themselves that,

allowing for the necessary requisitions for passage, &c., no effectual force
can be brought to act against them till the spring; and the style of the
Emperor's concessions, as well as the mode of making them, looks as if he
was of the same opinion.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
It was some compensation to Mr. Grenville that, in his official capacity as
Secretary of State, he had the satisfaction of conveying to Lord
Buckingham His Majesty's entire approval of the line of conduct his
Lordship had pursued in Ireland. After expressing His Majesty's concern at
the state of Lord Buckingham's health, which rendered him unable any
longer to serve His Majesty in the situation of Lord-Lieutenant, the letter
signifies the royal approbation of his Lordship's attachment and zeal in the
discharge of the important duties of his station; adding, "and, particularly, I
have His Majesty's express direction to acquaint your Lordship with the
satisfaction which His Majesty has felt from your attention to maintain the
honour and dignity of his Crown, and to preserve the constitutional
connection between his two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, under
the interesting circumstances which were occasioned by His Majesty's late
indisposition."
Feeling the delicacy of the position in which he was placed by his
relationship to Lord Buckingham, in having to convey this gracious
message, Mr. Grenville submitted a draught of the letter to His Majesty for
his approval, before it was forwarded. Upon this draught His Majesty made
the subjoined minute:
Windsor, October 17th, 1789.
Eighteen minutes past Ten o'clock.
The draught of an answer to the Marquis of Buckingham's letter of
resignation meets entirely with my sentiments. If I thought any alteration
necessary, it would be by more explicitly stating the allusion to his very
commendable conduct, during my late calamitous illness, which would
render the approbation in effect more marked.
G. R.

A retirement thus graced and dignified by the special approbation of the
Sovereign, left nothing for Lord Buckingham to regret in the scene of party
conflict he had quitted. It was an exchange from turmoil to peace, rendered
still more acceptable to him by the expressions of regard and attachment it
drew from some of the most distinguished men of his time. Well might Lord
Fife congratulate him, in one of the numerous letters addressed to him at
this period, on the difference he would find between Stowe and the Castle
of Dublin.

1790.
MR. GRENVILLE'S ELEVATION TO THE PEERAGE.
The events of this year on the continent of Europe offer a striking contrast
to the repose of England. While the wise and steadfast policy of Mr. Pitt had
secured to this country the blessings of peace, now rapidly expanding into a
condition of almost unexampled prosperity, France was undergoing the
throes of that desolating Revolution which brought the Sovereign to the
scaffold, and laid the train of those disasters which finally expelled the
Bourbons from the throne. There are few traces of those disturbing
circumstances in the correspondence of Lord Buckingham and his brother,
which, in consequence of the frequent opportunities they now enjoyed of
personal intercourse, had become scanty, and, so far as public affairs were
concerned, unimportant. Slight scraps of intelligence, the last rumour from
abroad, or matters of purely personal or domestic interest, form the staple of
the letters that passed between them at this period.
It was in this year that Edmund Burke, to the infinite surprise of his old
allies, published his famous pamphlet on the French Revolution. The
impression it made in England may be accepted as an evidence of the
soundness of the national judgment, and the devotion of the people to the
established institutions of the country. This healthy condition of the public
mind was attributable, in a greater degree than we can venture now to
estimate, to the spirit of patriotism and union awakened in the kingdom by
the firm Administration of Mr. Pitt and his friends. They had restored the
general confidence in the justice and stability of the Government, which the
weakness and divided councils of former Cabinets had dissipated; they had
struck the happy mean between the prerogatives of the Crown and the
encroachments of the Legislature; and, above all, in the recent conflicts on
the Regency question, they had successfully asserted the doctrine, that the
rights of the Sovereign and the rights of the people were founded on a
common basis; and, by showing that their interests were identical, they had
reconciled those extreme elements in the Constitution which a powerful

party had laboured, with great eloquence and considerable effect, to
separate on the grounds of a natural antagonism. Their popularity was
unbounded, and saved the country. Paine's "Age of Reason" fell innocuous
upon the people; the tidings of the Revolution, and of the massacres that
tracked its daily steps in blood, excited wonder and horror, but produced no
frenzy of imitation such as they inspired elsewhere; and while Europe was
convulsed with alarms, England, strong in her liberties and self-reliance,
was united and unmoved.
In Ireland, the departure of Lord Buckingham was followed by a revival of
the factious intemperance his energy had for a season suppressed. The
Parliament opened in disorder, and carried on its debates in a tone of
vindictive hostility to the British connection. The opponents of Government
had strengthened their hands by the accession of new orators, and by the
occasional lapses into their old violence of others who had given in their
submissions to the late Viceroy, and who, now that he was gone, affected an
independence of their obligations. The Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon was
growing into increasing disfavour with the Opposition, and becoming, by
the force of resistance, more English and less popular than before. The
invectives in which the wild passions of party found a congenial vent,
descended to the fiercest recriminations, and led to the severance of
friendships, and personal rencontres. Fitzgibbon and the Ponsonbys, who
had hitherto preserved unimpaired, amidst the contentions of the Senate,
their intimate relations in private life, were now cast asunder by an
explosion of animosity that tempted the Chancellor to declare "that he
would never speak to them again;" even the close bonds that united the
Ponsonbys and the Beresfords were imperceptibly relaxed; and Mr. Hobart,
to use his own expression, was "obliged to fight Mr. Curran," for which he
excuses himself to Lord Buckingham by saying that "in any other country
in Europe he would not have met him." In no other country, undoubtedly,
from a cause so absurd and unwarrantable, could the necessity for such a
meeting have arisen. Numerous letters from Ireland conveyed fragments of
news of this kind to Lord Buckingham in his retirement, the old supporters
of Administration still seeming to look up to him for encouragement and
advice. But these letters are not now of sufficient interest to justify their
publication.

Such, indeed, is the general character of the correspondence of the year.
One letter, however, announces an incident which cannot be so
satisfactorily recorded as in the language of the writer. Mr. Grenville was
about to receive that recognition of his great talents and important services
which few men had earned so worthily or were destined to wear more
honourably and usefully. The absence of all exultation at his approaching
elevation to the peerage, and his near assumption of the title by which he is
best known in the history of the country, is a characteristic of that nobility
of mind which conferred dignity upon, rather than derived it from, the
station to which he was advanced.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Nov. 22nd, 1790.
My dear Brother,
I send this by a messenger, in order to lose no time in informing you that
Pitt wrote yesterday to the King, to propose the measure of my going to the
House of Lords, and that he has received His Majesty's acquiescence, in
terms very satisfactory to me. The delay has been occasioned by a sort of
negotiation which has been pending with the Chancellor for some time past,
and which there seemed a prospect of bringing to a point before the
meeting. As the determination respecting my peerage might possibly have
been affected, one way or the other, by this negotiation, we were unwilling
to decide that question finally till the last moment; but as that last moment
is now arrived, it seemed, after much deliberation, better to take the step in
the present situation of things, rather than to wait the issue of a business,
one event of which could much have increased the difficulties of the
measure itself.
Pitt is gone to-day to Windsor, to lay before the King the whole of the
transaction, and to explain more fully the motives which have induced us to
wish for my being removed to the House of Lords. There is no probability
that this conversation will alter the full consent which the King expressed
yesterday by letter. If it does not, it will be necessary that I should kiss
hands on Wednesday, in order to give time, which even that will barely do,
for passing my patent, &c., so as to enable me to take my seat on Friday,
which is the day on which the King makes his speech, and on which the

general Address will be moved in the House of Lords. We mean to fix a
separate day for considering the Convention, and to have a particular
Address upon it. The precise day for this is of course not yet settled.
This arrangement will necessarily occasion a delay of two or three days
before the writ can be moved in the House of Commons, who do not
proceed to business till the Monday, on account of swearing the Members;
but this does not seem to me to be at all material, and I am persuaded that
you will feel with me that it is unavoidable. The writ once moved, the
election may come on upon the tenth, or at latest, the eleventh day from the
Monday, so that the whole notice will not exceed a fortnight.
I reserve, till I see you, the particulars of the negotiation of which I have
spoken, and of our present situation with a view to that important point. I
am sorry for the delay in making the other arrangements, but you must
allow something for the difficulties which always occur in bringing points
of this nature to bear, and for the various loads which press at such a
moment as this on Pitt's time, by whose personal negotiations alone all this
must be done. Pray let me know, by the return of my messenger, when I
may expect you in town.
I am sorry to hear of so long a sick list. Adieu, my dear brother, and believe
me
Ever most truly and affectionately yours,
W. W. G.

1791.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS—RESIGNATION OF THE DUKE
OF LEEDS—FLIGHT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF FRANCE—
PROSPERITY OF ENGLAND AT THIS PERIOD.
The first object to which the attention of Ministers was addressed at the
opening of Parliament in 1791, was a measure for the further relief of the
Roman Catholics. The only objection urged against it by the Opposition
was that it did not go far enough. Mr. Pitt himself held the same opinion,
but did not consider it expedient to act upon it.
The interest which Lord Buckingham never ceased to feel in Ireland, where
this question of Catholic disabilities was a spring of constant agitation, led
him to regard the subject in relation to that country with much solicitude.
Agreeing in principle with Mr. Pitt, he held that the Roman Catholics
should be placed on the same footing in both kingdoms; and that whatever
privileges were bestowed upon them in England should also, and at the
same time, be granted to them in Ireland. Mr. Hobart, who had been his
Lordship's secretary during his last Administration, and who was continued
in that appointment by his successor, Lord Westmoreland, corresponded
with him frequently on this topic; and it may be gathered from his letters
that the views of the new Lord-Lieutenant were unfavourable to the
demands of the Roman Catholics. In the early part of the correspondence,
Mr. Hobart expresses considerable doubt about the policy of placing power
in their hands, especially with reference to their admission to the bar, which
had been conceded to them in England. His observations on that particular
point are curious. In Ireland, he remarks, the sentiments of the lawyers have
considerable weight in the discussion of political subjects, which, "whether
it arises from the confident and pertinacious loquacity of gentlemen of that
profession, or from the deference which is shown and felt for those in
whose hands are entrusted the most interesting concerns of every family in
the kingdom, and from their frequent intercourse with all parts of it, is
matter of no consequence." The influence which the lawyers were thus

supposed to possess, weighed strongly with Mr. Hobart as an argument
against the admission of the Roman Catholics to the bar. Such a measure
might be adopted with comparative safety in England, but it was likely in
Ireland to be productive of increased agitation and social disorder. The
perplexities of the question were evidently taking a very distinct shape at
this time, and occupying no inconsiderable share of the attention of
Government. In endeavouring to sift them, and to extricate something like a
practical line of policy from them, Mr. Hobart was not a little embarrassed
by the example of England, which he could not quite make up his mind
either to follow or renounce.
The English Bill has put us under no small degree of difficulty. The
circumstances of the two countries, with respect to Roman Catholics, are so
different, that what may be extremely advisable in the one, may be just the
reverse in the other; and, therefore, for us precisely to follow your Bill,
would be to adopt a principle which in its consequences might be
productive of the greatest mischief. Nevertheless, if we do not go so far, the
Roman Catholics of Ireland will be highly discontented; and if we go
further, we shall throw too much power into their hands.
That Lord Buckingham removed Mr. Hobart's objections as to the wisdom
of conformity in legislating for the Roman Catholics in both countries, is
indicated in a subsequent letter; but that Mr. Hobart differed from his
Lordship as to the prudence of maintaining a Government opposition
between the two sects is no less apparent. Lord Buckingham's influence in
moderating Mr. Hobart's opinions on other points is frankly admitted. Mr.
Hobart gave up his objections to admitting the Catholics to the bar, or even
to the army or navy, if England should think fit to set the example; but civil
offices, or the elective franchise, he still considered highly dangerous.
My opinion, I speak with great deference, does not concur with yours, as to
the little importance of supporting the Protestants against the Catholics; it
is, in my mind, the link which binds the two countries: break that, and you
endanger the connection. Every means should be exerted to prevent the
struggle taking place; and, therefore, every indulgence that with any degree
of safety can be given to the Roman Catholics, and more particularly at this
time, ought to be extended to them. Notwithstanding a variety of objections,
I cannot help thinking that the safest principle for the Parliament of Ireland

to adopt, is, that of following England upon all questions relative to Roman
Catholics; but it is of the utmost consequence, that the Government of
England should accede to no measure upon that subject, without a due
consideration of its effect in Ireland, and fairly weigh the benefits to be
attained in the one country, against the disadvantages that may arise in the
other.
The example of England, if adopted as a principle, may be extremely useful
as a means of resisting inconvenient pretensions urged here; for, whether
avowedly adopted or not, it will always be made use of by the Roman
Catholics when they have anything to gain by it; and ultimately they must
be successful upon that ground. I would therefore admit them to the bar;
and if England opens the army and navy to them, it should follow of course
here; but admission to civil offices, or anything that led to voting for
Members of Parliament, or sitting in either House, would, I conceive, be
highly dangerous in this country; because I am a friend to the Protestant
ascendancy, and that can be maintained only through the medium of a
Protestant Parliament, aided by a profitable encouragement to those who
profess that faith.
The times are growing so enlightened, or so depraved, that a man need not
live very long, to have a chance of seeing all religious distinctions
abolished; but so long as things remain in their present state, I am strongly
impressed with the idea, that the connection between England and Ireland
in a great degree depends upon the maintenance of the Protestant
ascendancy. It is the principle which attaches the Parliament of Ireland to
Great Britain; it is the security for the property of those whose influence
gives them power in this country; it is the strength of English government in
Ireland. If ever the Roman Catholics should acquire power enough to render
the prospect of regaining their properties sufficiently promising for the
attempt, they must begin by the destruction of English government. I do
therefore consider it indispensably necessary to give every degree of
influence to the Protestant interest; but that would be as a drop of water to
the sea, unless that interest was supported by the power of England. But as I
do not believe John Bull would much like to expend his money in a struggle
between the Protestants and Roman Catholics of Ireland, merely on a
crusade principle, I would not have him called upon in a case wherein the
ground to be maintained was not similar to that which had been sanctioned

by the British Parliament, and might therefore, in a certain degree, be
considered as the cause of the empire.
You desire me to turn my thoughts to a permanent system. The only
permanent, practicable system that I can discover, is, that there should at all
times be a perfect understanding and concurrence between the Governments
of the two countries upon this subject; that no step affecting the Catholics
should be taken in England without a minute attention to Ireland; and that
the people of that persuasion should be on the same footing in the two
countries.
The entire passage may be accepted as an epitome of the principle on which
Lord Westmoreland's Administration in Ireland was conducted; and this
authentic exposition of it is invested with some claim to historical
importance.
A letter from Lord Grenville in the beginning of the session refers to certain
new arrangements which were in progress in the Cabinet, but which did not
materially affect its constitution.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Feb. 4th, 1791.
My dear Brother,
I should have written to you before on the subject of the arrangements, if I
had been able to say anything satisfactory or decisive to you about them.
But I think it right to mention to you the state of the business, in order that
you may know exactly how it stands. An unexpected difficulty has arisen
where we least looked for it, on the part of Lord Hawkesbury, who has
declined exchanging the Duchy for the Mint, although he has been
distinctly told that the Cabinet is to be given him with the latter, and not
with the former. Whether he is playing any game in this we are unable to
discover, but such is the answer which he has given, after having taken time
to consider of it. This, as you see, at once stops the whole business in
limine, unless some solution can be found for the difficulty; and I must
confess I do not now see what solution there is for it. It was not till two
days ago that this great man gave his answer, and therefore it is still, I think,
by no means impossible that his stomach may come down when he sees Pitt

determined to abide by this as a condition of the other, which there is indeed
no temptation to grant him without it. On the whole it may be only a piece
of magnificence, in order to give to his admission to the Cabinet the
appearance of a favour done by him, instead of one received. But of all this
you are as well able to judge as ourselves, and none of us have anything to
go upon but conjecture. A few days may probably enable us to form a better
judgment, and for that we must wait.
It is, I am sure, unnecessary for me to say how much this unexpected
difficulty has hurt both Pitt and myself. I am racking my brains to find a
remedy for it, and shall be truly happy if any such should occur either to
you or to us.
The accounts of our dear Catherine are now such as I hope to put all idea of
present danger out of the question; but it has been a most alarming attack,
and I fear is only the earnest of much suffering and frequent illness from the
same cause, the existence of which seems now to be but too clearly
ascertained.
Everybody in London has been ill. I have not escaped my usual cold, but
am now getting well. I rejoice in the satisfactory account which the
Bulkeleys give of you.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
G.
They have suddenly stirred in Ireland a question about spirits, beer, &c.,
which they seem to understand no more of than I do, who have had no
opportunity of learning anything about it. Lord W., in one of his private
letters, mentions some plan of yours about hops, and I think I recollect
something passing between us on the subject, but have no trace what it was.
I have a clerkship vacant in my office: can it be made useful to any object
of yours?
You probably know also that Selwyn's death gives me the disposal of his
office in Barbadoes, of between £100 and £500 per annum, but it can be
held only by a resident. I feel myself bound, in the first instance, to offer to
Nepean, who is killing himself by his labour here, to give it to any proper

person who will vacate anything for it here. If that fails, you know I have no
other idea of patronage than that of consulting your wishes, or serving our
joint objects.
A little stray light is thrown upon this question of spirits and beer in Ireland
by Mr. Hobart in a letter to Lord Buckingham. The great evil which
demoralized the Irish, including, it appears, even the country gentlemen,
was whiskey-drinking; and with a view to diminish it, if possible, the Irish
Government brought in a Bill, putting a heavy duty on spirits, and liberating
beer, hoping that the measure would act as a prohibition in the one case, and
as an encouragement in the other.
Sobering the people of Ireland, I look upon to be an impracticable
undertaking; but the abominable use of whiskey, rendered it necessary that
Government should endeavour to do something which might tend in some
degree to check the evil. Meeting and reconciling all the difficulties you
have adverted to, I cannot flatter myself has been accomplished; but we
have struggled against them as well as we could, and by not attempting too
much, perhaps we shall effect something. I enclose a paper, showing what
will be the state of the duties when the Bill passes; in addition to which, we
take all restrictions off the brewery, leaving the brewers at liberty to sell at
their own price, and to brew as they please. We have also some hopes from
regulations, to which we are encouraged by the general outcry against
whiskey, and assurances that country gentlemen will violate their natures,
and assist in carrying the laws into execution. I must acknowledge that I am
not very sanguine upon the subject; but the magnitude of the grievance
called for the interposition of the legislature—et librari animum meum.
The subject of the following letter, although, from its nature, cautiously
expressed, may be inferred from the allusion it contains to the Duke of
Leeds, who held the office of Secretary of State. His Grace was on the eve
of relinquishing the Seals, but, for reasons of his own, or, perhaps, to avoid
embarrassing the Ministry, he desired his intentions to be kept secret.
Having imposed this obligation on others, he seems to have violated it
himself, and thus his approaching retirement became known to Lord
Buckingham before his Lordship received any intimation of it from Lord
Grenville. The silence of his habitual and confidential correspondent on a

point of so much interest disturbed Lord Buckingham's sensibility; but it
will be felt that Lord Grenville's vindication is conclusive.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Holwood, April 26th, 1791.
My dear Brother,
I should certainly be much to blame if I were insensible to the kindness of
your last letter, though written under an impression, in the justice of which I
should be very sorry indeed to acquiesce. I have little time for justifications
on that subject, but my anxiety to remove such an impression makes me say
that I am not conscious to myself of any want of that confidence towards
you, which our friendship demands, and which I wish to be reciprocal. But
that I neither ask of you, nor can think that you require from me, the breach
of actual or even of implied engagements to others, not to divulge points in
which they are concerned. A strict observance of such engagements is
surely the condition of all honourable intercourse in society, and a duty
from which no degree of confidence, friendship, or affection towards a third
person, can absolve one. With respect to this particular case of the Duke of
L., I am sure your own reflections will not suffer you to impute blame to
me, if after having required from those with whom he was acting an
engagement of secrecy, which he had a right to demand from them, his own
levity, or any other reason, induced him to divulge his own secret. Ask
yourself, and I will leave the subject there, whether you had rather have
known this event, as has been now the case, a day or two later than you
might otherwise have done, or have been the occasion of my doing an act
which my own mind would have reproached me with as dishonourable in
itself, and in this particular instance a breach of a positive promise which I
had given.
Surely if I am deserving of your confidence, or any man's, it can only be so
long as I feel the nature of such confidence, and fulfil the obligations which
it imposes upon me, even where the violation of them might be of real
advantage to you, much more where it could have answered no one purpose
of utility, or even of gratification. All I can add is, that if I see this subject in
too serious a light, or entertain ideas too strict with respect to it, my
impressions upon it are at least those of serious reflection; and that they are

the same which direct my conduct towards the few other persons who have
a right, and none has so much right as yourself, to affection and confidence
from me.
I have anticipated your advice, and taken refuge here. I feel already the
advantage of air, and of rather more exercise than I have been able lately to
allow myself. I am sorry if my former letter bore the appearance of
depression, but you know that my mind has not been at ease on other
subjects, and will therefore allow for the effect of the weight of fresh labour
and anxiety suddenly thrown upon me.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most truly and affectionately yours,
G.
The Duke of Leeds resigned on the 8th of June, and was succeeded by Mr.
Dundas.
At this moment, not England alone, but all Europe, was engrossed by the
strange drama that was going forward in Paris. The first piece of
intelligence that arrived was an announcement that the King and the royal
family had effected their escape at night from the Tuileries by a
subterranean passage leading to the Seine; and, as it afterwards appeared,
that His Majesty had left behind him a paper formally revoking, on the
grounds of compulsion, the oaths and declarations to which he had been
forced to subscribe. Lord Grenville conveyed the startling news, just as it
had reached him, in a hasty note to Lord Buckingham.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, June 25th, 1791.
My dear Brother,
The enclosed, which I received this morning from Lord Gower, will inform
you of the very unexpected event which has happened at Paris. As the
messenger came through Calais, he heard a report, which was circulated
with much confidence, that the King, &c., had been stopped at a place
which he calls Quinault, and which I guess to be Quenoy in the Cambresis,
if, indeed, there is any foundation at all for the story. Montmorin is to write
to Lucerne, to make a communication here from the National Assembly, of

their intention to maintain peace with other countries. We have, of course,
not had time to consider what answer to give, or what steps to take.
One of the French papers contains an account of a party of travellers
passing through Senlis about four or five in the same morning, which
evidently appears to have been the King and his suite. This account was
read at the Assembly; and confirms the idea of their having taken the route
of the Netherlands.
You will have the goodness to communicate this letter and its enclosure, to
Lord Camelford.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
Tell me what Lord Camelford and you think we ought to do; as it is very
possible we may not have taken our determination before I can receive your
answer.
The story was, of course, doubted at first. But it turned out to be true in
every particular except the name of the place, which was Varennes. The
royal fugitives were seized on the 22nd of June, and carried back to Paris to
be confronted with the Provisional Executive Council that had been
established as soon as their flight was known.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, June 26th, 1791.
My dear Brother,
The King and Queen of France were stopped at Varennes, a small town
between St. Menchond and Luxemburg. The post-master at St. Menchond,
suspected them to be aristocrats making their escape, and followed the
carriage. Seeing it strike out from the great road, to Verdun, he got before
them by another road, to Varennes, and gave the alarm. When they arrived,
the National Guard was already drawn out; and they were forced to stop,
and go into the inn. There they were known by a man of the town. They
were prevailed upon, without much resistance, as it appears, on their part, to
turn their horses' heads, and to go back to Chalons, where they slept that
night. They were to sleep at Epernay the Thursday night; and were expected

in Paris, Friday, or more probably, Saturday. Commissioners have been
named by the Assembly, at the head of whom is Barnave, to protect their
return to Paris. The proclamation, or manifesto, left behind him, by the
King is curious, and in some parts well drawn. I hope to be able to send it
you by to-morrow's post. Paris had remained pretty quiet; but there was
some disposition in the Poissardes and Faubourg St. Antoine to assemble, in
order to manifest their joy. Bouillé appears to have been in the plot, and is
suspended from his command by the Assembly, who have also given orders
to arrest him; but I suppose he is too wise to suffer himself to fall into their
hands.
Monsieur and Madame are safely arrived at Mons; so that if the King had
taken that route, he might probably have escaped. I feel sincerely for him;
and still more for the Queen, who, I imagine, must expect to suffer much.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, June 29th, 1791.
My dear Brother,
Lord Gower's courier arrived this morning, with an account of the King and
Queen being brought back to Paris. Everything passed with a black and
sullen silence; no mark of respect whatever was allowed to be shown them.
Biron and Lafayette were in the carriage with them. The mob followed the
carriage into the garden of Tuileries; and on alighting, these wretched
captives heard every species of abuse and insult, that even a Paris mob is
capable of.
They talk of sending the Queen to the Convent of Val de Grace for the
present; and the report is, they mean to try her. The King is to undergo an
interrogatory on Tuesday; and on the result of that, it is supposed he is to be
deposed, and the Dauphin declared King, with a Council of Regency.
These, as you will see, are all reports; but the melancholy certainty is, that
neither in Paris, nor in any part of the country which we have heard of, does
there seem the least disposition to pity, and much less to assist them.

We have the bad news, that the Austrian Plenipotentiaries have left Sistovo;
but, as they express it, without breaking up the Congress. The armistice is
not renewed; but it seems as if it would be continued by a sort of tacit
consent. You will have seen in the papers the further demands made by the
Emperor, on which the business has stopped.
Ever yours,
G.
The Queen's behaviour is said to have been admirable.
Early in this year, Ministers had moved and carried an Address from His
Majesty, reporting the failure of his negotiations to bring about a peace
between Russia and Turkey, and desiring to augment his naval forces for the
sake of giving more weight to his interposition. This Address was
vehemently, but unsuccessfully, opposed in both Houses, on the ground that
such a course was calculated to lead to hostilities, and plunge the nation
into an unnecessary expenditure. Advantage was taken of the occasion to
make it appear that Mr. Pitt wanted to involve the country in the war, and
that his policy was essentially injurious to the industry and material welfare
of the people. The following interesting passage from a letter of Lord
Grenville's, dated the 17th of August, not only disproves the imputation, but
shows how anxious Ministers were to secure peace, how much they were
relieved and gratified by its accomplishment, and to what a height of
prosperity they had succeeded in bringing the commerce and revenue of the
kingdom.
We received this morning the account that the negotiations at Sistovo are at
last satisfactorily concluded. A definitive treaty of peace, on the grounds of
the status quo strict, was to be signed on the 4th of this month, under the
mediation of the Allies; and at the same time a separate Act, by which the
Austrians and Turks treat as powers between whom peace is already
concluded (and consequently without mediation) for some such
arrangements of frontier, and the settlement of a dispute about Old Orsova,
which town is to remain in the hands of Austria. You may suppose this
event gives me no small satisfaction; and I hope I shall now begin to
breathe a little, which I have hardly done since April last. You can hardly
form to yourself an idea of the labour I have gone through; but I am repaid

by the maintenance of peace, which is all this country has to desire. We
shall now, I hope, for a very long period indeed enjoy this blessing, and
cultivate a situation of prosperity unexampled in our history. The state of
our commerce, our revenue, and, above all, that of our public funds, is such
as to hold out ideas which but a few years ago would indeed have appeared
visionary, and which there is now every hope of realizing.
The next letter refers to a matter of personal interest. A Rangership had
fallen vacant by the death of Lord Orford, and it appeared desirable to Lord
Grenville to effect an exchange between that office and the reversion he
held of the Chief Remembrancership in Ireland. Upon all questions of this
nature, as indeed on all questions that directly affected himself and his own
objects, Lord Grenville was always reluctant to decide until he had first
consulted Lord Buckingham, in whose judgment and affection he reposed
unbounded confidence.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Dec. 7th, 1791.
My dear Brother,
I mentioned to you last week, that there was a subject I wished to talk with
you about; but as my getting down to Stowe seems to grow every day more
and more uncertain, and as the subject in question is now brought to a point,
I am obliged to write to you upon it; though I cannot so easily say all I wish
upon it in this manner. It is, shortly, to ask your advice whether, in
consequence of Lord Orford's death, I should not exchange my reversion of
Lord Cl.'s office, for the immediate appointment to the Rangership, which I
apprehend it is clearly in the King's power to grant for life. The different
reasons, pro and con, will as readily suggest themselves to you as to me.
The great points to be gained by the exchange are, first, the certainty of
some provision, instead of an expectancy, which I may never live to enjoy;
and what is still more than that, the great advantage of having that provision
in this country, instead of looking for it in Ireland, subject to the chance of
what injustice party may be able to do in Ireland, which they could not do
here, and subject, also, to the general chance of troubles in that country,
which I fear are too probable. Against this, is to be set some difference (as I
believe) in the value of the two offices, though I have not yet been able to

ascertain it; and the degree of invidiousness and clamour which my
receiving any new favour (for such this would undoubtedly be considered)
would be subject to, especially at a moment when Government are rather
under difficulties, and when I must expect so many competitors, for a thing
in many respects so desirable.
The impression of my own mind is, I confess, very strongly for taking the
step. Pitt is entirely ready to acquiesce in what I judge best, though I can see
he is, to a certain degree, alarmed at the impression it may make. The thing
has been generally opened to the King as a possible arrangement, in order
to prevent his entering into any other engagements. I cannot describe the
real kindness of manner and expression with which he assured me of his
readiness to do in it whatever I wished. It rests, therefore, with myself to
decide; and although I have, as you see, a strong bias in favour of the step, I
do not feel confident enough of my own opinion not to be very desirous of
knowing yours. I fairly own to you, that if I was in the same situation as I
was a year and a half ago, I should be inclined to let this go by me, and to
run my chance for some better opportunity. But I certainly feel that after the
conduct which Lord C. has observed towards me on the subject of money, I
am (even as with respect to him) hardly as much at liberty as I was to
consult my own feelings, supposing that it were possible for me to put out
of the question another consideration a good deal more interesting to me.
If the thing is to be done, "then 'twere well it were done quickly," in order to
prevent applications from different people, every one of whom might feel,
to a degree, offended by the preference, if his wishes were known. You will
conceive, therefore, for this reason, and from the anxiety of the suspense,
how glad I shall be to hear from you soon, as your affection is the only
quarter to which I can look for advice, founded on a view and knowledge of
my real situation. I hinted the thing generally to Tom before he left town,
but the unfortunate difference of politics makes it impossible for me to talk
over with him freely and fully that part of the subject, which is a material
one. He is getting well very rapidly.
I have heard from Lord C. from Rome. He gives a very good account of the
health of the whole party. He had received letters from his son and Mudge,
which he tells me are all he could wish. He desires to be remembered to
you.

Adieu, my dear brother,
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.

1792.
MR. PITT'S BUDGET—THE STATE OF IRELAND—THE KING
DISMISSES LORD THURLOW—DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND—
FRENCH EMIGRANTS—RETREAT OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK
—MEASURES OF INTERNAL DEFENCE—THE FRENCH
CONVENTION DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND AND
HOLLAND.
Notwithstanding the vast expenditure to which the country had been
recently exposed, the Budget, at the opening of Parliament in 1792, more
than realized the anticipations of Lord Grenville. The statement laid before
the House of Commons by Mr. Pitt was a complete answer to the
apprehensions of the timid, and the taunts of the Opposition. There was a
clear surplus of £900,000 in the month of January, after paying the interest
of the National Debt, the annual million devoted to its extinction, the Civil
List, the naval and military establishments, and all other items of current
outlay. Upon this basis of unexampled prosperity the Minister proposed to
remit a large amount of taxation, and to apply a further sum towards the
extinction of the National Debt. He did not regard this surplus as a
temporary or transient incident, but as the genuine and natural result of
regular and permanent causes. In the existing state of the continent, it was
impossible to calculate with certainty upon the future, and Mr. Pitt, even in
this solid condition of the national finances, was careful not to indulge in
hopes of too sanguine a character, which a sudden turn of events, beyond
the control of English influence, might frustrate and disappoint. His
language was explicit as to his confidence in the present, but guarded as to
his views of the future. "On the continuance of our present prosperity," he
observed, "it is indeed impossible to count with certainty; but
unquestionably, there never was a time when, from the situation of Europe,
we might more reasonably expect a durable peace than at the present
moment." The subsequent course of European politics, unfortunately, did
not bear out this expectation; but at the moment when it was uttered, the lull
that had set in on the continent, and the flourishing state of our own trade

and commerce, abundantly justified the statement of the Minister. Some
additional reliance on the stability of our prospects might also have been
drawn from the fact that the destinies of England were never in abler hands
than those to whom they were confided in 1792, with Mr. Pitt at the
Treasury and Lord Grenville at the Foreign Office.
Parliament met on the 31st of January. The Speech from the Throne
announced the conclusion of the treaty between Austria and the Ottoman
Porte, and the agreement to preliminaries between the latter and Russia. The
maintenance of peace was regarded, under the circumstances, as so certain
that His Majesty was induced to recommend for the consideration of
Parliament an immediate reduction of the naval and military establishments.
The following letters, written before the opening of Parliament, touch
slightly on these affairs.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Jan. 6th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
My present idea on the subject of your last letter entirely agrees with yours,
and I wait only till the great bear returns to this hemisphere to put it in
execution roundly, and without reserve. The only thing that restrains me is
the extreme importance that I feel it is of to my honour not to involve any
other persons, and still less a whole system of Government, in a personal
contest, which I am obliged to maintain (being embarked in it) for a
personal object. The mode of doing this is not without much difficulty, and
it is the only difficulty I feel on the subject.
Before I do anything decisive, I will certainly contrive in some manner to
talk it over with you, but till I know the precise time of his return my
motions are of course suspended. The moment I am able I will write to you
again.
The solution of the French enigma which you state is, that it is a war of
bullying on both sides, the two parties being equally afraid of each other. In
the meantime there certainly are some in France who wish the war, but very
many more who fear it, and the ruin of their finances is approaching with
very rapid strides indeed. What a contrast we shall make with them, when I

come to state to you the particulars, about which I am now little less
sanguine than I was at Weymouth.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Jan. 17th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
Nothing more has passed on the subject, but a day or two will now probably
bring it to a point, as Dundas is to see him, and put the question to him, yes
or no, either to-morrow or Thursday. This is not to be done with any
message from me, a point which I have thought it indispensably necessary
to stipulate, in order that I might not have to reproach myself with anything
like personal solicitation to him on such a point. I feel this so material, that I
have made a pretext of going to take possession of my castle on Thursday,
in order to be completely out of the way of all negotiation upon the subject.
Pitt comes to me on Saturday, and brings me the answer on which my future
conduct must depend. I shall remain there, if possible, till the Friday or
Saturday following. It would be very little out of your way to make it your
run on Tuesday, when you would certainly find me there, and I need not say
that I should, in any case, be extremely glad to see you there; but more
particularly if any further step is to be taken about this business, in which I
do not well see my way, because I hardly see how I can take that line which
my own situation personally seems so loudly to demand, without involving
more than I should like to do of public consequences. If I alone were
concerned, my line would be very soon taken.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
G.
Everything looks like peace on the side of France.
A letter from Mr. Hobart gives a sketch of the state of Ireland at this time.
The English Bill of toleration had produced a ferment in the country, and
the war of religious animosity was assuming a more violent aspect every
day.

MR. HOBART TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Dublin Castle, Jan. 30th, 1792.
My dear Lord,
The multiplicity of business, both public and private, in which I have been
engaged since I left Stowe, must plead my excuse for having so long
postponed writing to your Lordship. I cannot, however, delay thanking you
for the communication you have made through Mornington on the subject
of my marriage—a subject I should not have been silent upon when I had
the pleasure of seeing you, had I not predetermined the case, and therefore
was not open to advice. I flatter myself you will be happy to hear that I have
received a most friendly and liberal letter from the Earl of Bucks upon the
occasion, and have experienced every attention and kindness from all my
friends, and a marked civility from all persons here on both sides of the
question.
You can have little idea of the ferment that has been raised on the subject of
Catholics. When I saw you, I talked of existing prejudices, which would
ever render it no easy task to carry the English concessions. I little thought
that the minds of the Protestants could be so inflamed, as a variety of
circumstances (but principally the industry of Mr. R. Burke) has inflamed
them. He has endeavoured, and with too much success, to persuade the
Catholics that British Government were determined to compel the Irish
Administration, and through them the Parliament of Ireland, to open the
franchise to the Catholics; that therefore, if they persevered in the assertion
of their claims, they could not fail of carrying their point. The alarm and
indignation that this created amongst the Protestants was such as I will not
venture to describe; but you may be assured that any Irish Government that
countenanced such a measure could not stand twenty-four hours afterwards,
if the Parliament was sitting. So far from the Protestants being likely to be
terrified into compliance, they instantly became desperate at the very idea
of it. The cry was, "Let us bring it at once to an issue. If England will not
protect us, the sooner we know it the better: anything is preferable to the
horrid state of suspense we are now reduced to; at all events, we must resist
every concession. Let us not make the Catholics stronger, the better to
enable them to annihilate us at a future day. The Protestants must unite for
their own protection; and although Mr. Pitt's Government will not defend

us, possibly the weight of all the Parliamentary power of Ireland thrown
into the scale of English Opposition may force them into office, and they
may be more disposed to favour us than the present Administration."
These ideas were rankling in every man's mind when the Parliament met,
and it is with the utmost difficulty that we have been able to remove them. I
cannot paint more strongly to you the real situation of the feelings of the
House of Commons, than by telling you, that a declaration from me upon
my legs, "that it was the determination of the Government of both countries
to maintain the Protestant establishment, and to resist any attempts by force
or intimidation that might be made to subvert it," afforded a degree of
consolation which, not having witnessed, you can hardly credit, so great
was the apprehension upon the subject.
The newspapers will have informed you of our proceedings upon that day; I
shall, therefore, only add that I am still doubtful of the event of the Bill, but
am inclined to believe we shall carry it. I hear that, if the Ponsonbys are
satisfied that there will be a majority in favour of it, they will concur; if
they think they can throw it out, they will oppose. Should we carry the Bill,
the gentlemen of the Roman Catholics will be highly gratified, and the
rabble bullied—both circumstances which will tend very much to the future
quiet of the country.
I am informed that Mr. R. Burke and his employers have quarrelled, and
that Ireland may soon hope to be relieved from his gracious
superintendence. I am sure I heartily wish it, for he has contrived, by his
impudence, folly, and misrepresentations, to awake animosities between the
Protestants and Catholics that had slept for fifty years, and that a reasonable
man might have hoped would have slept for ever. I see no ground to
apprehend tumult of any kind. The Catholics, I think, dare not stir; and the
United Irishmen, with Napper Tandy at their head, are sinking into nothing.
Napper, and indeed his friend Grattan, have totally lost their influence in the
Corporation.
The Duke of Leinster had committed himself very far indeed upon the
subject of franchise, and is now retreating through his Corporation of Athy,
who have addressed their representatives, Colonel Arthur Ormsby and Mr.
Falkiner, to support the Protestant ascendancy.

I am told that the northern people do not much object to our Bill. Any one
step further would have been totally impracticable, and would have
produced a confusion that no man could have foreseen the consequence of.
My best compliments to Lady Buckingham.
Believe me ever, my dear Lord, with every respect and gratitude,
affectionately yours,
R. Hobart.
Amidst the arrivals of foreign news, which every day created new
excitements in the political circles, a movement was beginning to be felt in
the Cabinet which was shortly to produce an important change in the
Administration. The eccentricities of the Chancellor had on several
occasions given much uneasiness to Ministers. He seemed to move in an
orbit of his own, independently of his colleagues; while the influence he
exercised over the King's mind, and his repulsive bearing, made all
approaches to him difficult and hazardous. The first consideration, when an
unexpected question sprung up, was to ascertain what view Thurlow was
likely to take of it; and it was sometimes as necessary to conciliate him and
to wait upon his moods, as if he had been a powerful, but doubtful
supporter, instead of a member of the Government. "We may do with, but
cannot do without him," appears to have been the general feeling in
reference to him; and it was only by the most skilful management that Mr.
Pitt averted those dissensions in the Cabinet which his strange line of
conduct had so palpable a tendency to provoke. At last the Chancellor
committed himself openly to a hostile vote upon a vital measure, and left it
no longer possible for the Minister to palliate their differences by private
negotiations. The character and dignity of the Administration was at stake,
and there was but one alternative left. The extremity to which matters were
thus reduced is glanced at hesitatingly by Lord Grenville. The commentary
which he did not think it right to make at such a moment may now,
however, be supplied. The vote of Lord Thurlow placed the Cabinet in this
position, that it remained for the King to choose between them. Mr. Pitt was
prepared to resign, if the decisive advice he tendered to His Majesty was
not immediately acted upon.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

St. James's Square, May 15th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
I have the happiness of being able to send you an account of the capture of
Seringapatam. The news is brought by a letter from a Dr. Abercromby, who
was sent with Lord Cornwallis's despatches, in the 'Vestal.' He put this letter
on board another vessel in the Channel, and it comes by express from
Bristol.
A decisive action took place about the 6th of January, at a village near
Seringapatam. Tippoo's army was entirely routed, and a few days after the
place surrendered. Tippoo is said to have been wounded in the action, and
carried to the hill-fort: this is all we know. If the "Gazette" is out in time,
Goddard will send it you.
The Duke of P. and his friends have declined being at the Council. We
mean, nevertheless, to take the step, and to propose Addresses in both
Houses of Parliament. It seems impossible for them not to support us there,
but it is at least right to bring it to a point. When the day is fixed for the
motion in the House of Lords I will let you know it, as I think you will wish
to be present, and probably may be desirous of expressing your opinion. I
consider the Duke of P.'s refusal as an additional proof of the decisive
influence Fox possesses over their minds when he chooses to exert it.
You will have seen that the Chancellor opposed the National Debt Bill
yesterday by surprise, and had nearly beat us. What this may lead to, I do
not yet know; but as at present advised, I think the consequences must be
decisive on his situation or ours. But it requires some reflection, and some
management in the quarter that you know.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
Grenville.
The "quarter" alluded to had the courage to decide not only wisely but
promptly, and Thurlow was peremptorily called upon to resign.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

St. James's Square, May 18th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
The King has charged Dundas with a message to the Chancellor, stating the
necessity he was under of making his option, and therefore requiring him to
give up the Seals, leaving the time to his choice. The Chancellor is to see
the King to-day, and after that the thing will, I imagine, be immediately
announced, though I hardly think it can take place till the end of the session.
Our present idea is to put the Seals in Commission, with Eyre at the head,
which (with the vacation) will give time for future arrangements. It is
impossible as yet to guess at the success of those arrangements, but I
imagine they would unquestionably be much facilitated by the sacrifice you
so generously offer. I have not, however, thought myself at liberty to make
any use of what you say on that subject, nor will I, as I think that if you
make up your mind to so very handsome an offer, you ought at least to have
the merit with Pitt of announcing it to him, instead of its having the
appearance of passing in any manner through me.
We shall, I believe, issue the proclamation to-day or to-morrow at latest,
and Friday is, I think, the most likely day for the Address in the House of
Lords; but you shall hear further from me. I say nothing of that part of the
Indian news which is true, as you will already have seen it in all the papers.
The King has conducted himself towards Pitt in this unpleasant situation in
a manner the most handsome possible, and such as must leave a lasting
impression in our minds. I do not look without some uneasiness at the
increase of personal labour of all sorts which this will bring upon me; mais
le vin est tiré.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, June 13th, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
I know you share the happiness I feel, in learning that my travellers were to
be at Brussels in the course of last week, and did not purpose making more
than four or five days' stay there, so that I may reasonably expect them here

from day to day. I am rejoiced that my holidays have begun before they are
arrived. We prorogue on Friday, and have finished all our business to-day,
which is a great load off my shoulders. The Chancellor is to give up the
Seals immediately, and they will be put into Commission with Eyre, Buller,
and Wilson, as I imagine, though the names are not yet quite settled. We
shall have the summer to look about us; and I feel no great uneasiness even
at the thoughts of meeting them again precisely as we are, if that should be
the case.
There is no news of any sort, except the continuance of the French follies,
which you read day by day in their papers, as fully, and indeed often much
more so, than I could detail them. There have been some great failures at
Bordeaux, and some at Paris, which makes those few of our merchants who
are concerned with them look about them a little.
Our Addresses are going on swimmingly, and it will, I think, soon be time
for the loyal county of B. to show itself. They expect a dust in Surrey,
which my good Lord Onslow does not seem to have quite wit enough to lay.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
Two days after the date of this letter, Parliament was prorogued, and the
Chancellor sent in his resignation.
The events that were taking place in France had recently awakened in
England a spirit of sympathy amongst the lower classes, which it was
apprehended might lead to disastrous consequences, if strong measures
were not adopted for its suppression. Several associations were established
in London and elsewhere to give practical effect to the democratic and
revolutionary doctrines of the day, under such titles as the Corresponding
Society, the Revolution Society, and the Society for Constitutional
Information; and some of them carried their views so far as to transmit
congratulatory addresses to the National Assembly. The Government,
seeing the peril that was impending over the country, took immediate
measures for the suppression of seditious correspondence abroad, and
revolutionary publications at home. A proclamation embodying these
objects was laid before Parliament towards the end of May, and carried
without a division, notwithstanding a violent opposition from Mr. Grey and

others, who had formed themselves into a Society called "The Friends of
the People," for the ostensible purpose of appeasing the discontents, by
obtaining a reform in the representation.
Immediately after the prorogation of Parliament, meetings were held all
over the country, to testify to the King the loyalty and gratitude of the
population, and to return thanks to His Majesty for the activity and decision
with which the dangers of the crisis had been met. In the course of two or
three months, the number of addresses that were voted at these meetings
and presented to the King amounted to three hundred and forty-one.
It is to these circumstances Lord Grenville alludes in the closing paragraph
of the last letter. In the next communication he urges Lord Buckingham to
move the Address in his own county; and in the letters that follow he
touches upon the progress of the sanguinary drama that was then enacting
in Paris. The domestic allusions refer to his approaching marriage.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, June 21st, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
Although I have as yet no tidings of my travellers, I feel so confident of
their being here before the day fixed for the Address, that I think I run no
risk in promising to be there at all events. I have, however, no idea that the
noble Marquis will give us the meeting; though I will own to you, there are
few things which I should like better. I think the Address perfectly
unexceptionable as it now stands; but I should wish to add a sentence
somewhere, expressing the satisfaction and concurrence of the county in the
sentiments expressed by Parliament on this subject, because I think it may
not be indifferent to future debates, to have to quote expressions of this sort,
in order to show that, on a great occasion like this, the sense of the people
was immediately and completely expressed by Parliament. I enclose you the
Devonshire Address, which Fortescue sent me. It was drawn by him; and I
think singularly well put together.
It appears to me, that you ought certainly to move the Address yourself; this
not being a case where the common objections apply, but rather the
contrary. In that case, perhaps, some person of higher rank ought to second

than Drake, Duke of Portland, or Lord Chesterfield, or Lord Inchiquin, or
Lord Hampden. If, however, you have actually applied to him, it must be
managed as well as it can.
Do you advertize the meeting in the London papers? I think you ought to
write to Lord Chesterfield. When you return me the Address, I will put it
into Tom's hands for the Duke of Portland. I think this meeting ought by no
means to supersede the idea of the Grand Jury presentment. If you still
think that right, I will contrive that Lord Loughborough, who goes your
circuit, shall have a hint to prepare the way for it by his charge. You will, of
course, be very civil to him. Whether it will come to anything I have not;
but there is reason enough to be civil to him, as I will explain when we
meet.
The Berlin news is nothing more than the common story of a squabble
between Mistress and Favourite, in which, contrary to custom, Favourite
has this time got the better of Mistress. As far as it goes, it is unfavourable
to the Jacobins; for the whole project of French interference is
Bishopwerder's; and the crime imputed to the other, is a leaning towards the
democrats.
I need not tell you how much I feel the kindness of what you say about my
domestic concerns, and the near approach of my prospects. I am sure you
do me the justice to think that I am not insensible of all your affection to me
on that subject, as, indeed, on every other. Till they arrive, I can form no
guess of their plans, nor, consequently, of my own; but, as I shall certainly
see you so soon, either here or at Aylesbury, we shall be able to talk about
it; and, till then, I think you had better not write to Lord C. on the subject of
Stowe, for a reason which you perhaps guess.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, June 25th, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
Having been out of town Saturday and Sunday, I did not get the East India
news time enough to write to you. The newspapers contain all we know or

have received. There is no doubt of the authenticity of the "Bombay
Gazette," the original of which is received. But it seems very odd how the
news should first reach Bombay through the Nizam's Durbar. On the whole,
however, I see no sufficient ground to disbelieve it; and, if true, it is as good
as the most sanguine wishes could have desired.
Lord Camelford is landed at Deal, and will be in town to-morrow night. I
shall, therefore, certainly keep my engagement for Friday. I shall see Tom
this morning, and will put the Address into his hands, to be communicated
to the Duke of Portland, and will also talk to him about the Grand Jury. The
new French Ministry is wholly Fayette's, and by his letter he seems to think
himself strong enough to take the whole into his own hands and keep it. I
have, however, no opinion of his judgment. I am persuaded his plan is to
negotiate with the two Courts, and he will find a ready ear to all he can say
there. The Princes are wholly excluded, and systematically so, from all that
is doing, and will scarce be allowed the honour of fighting should it come to
blows. And the King will be too happy to yield to any compromise that he
may think will insure his personal safety. And so far for prophecies, in
which you know I do not deal much.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
P.S.—The enclosed is for Lord Buckingham. Pray let it be put among the
portraits of other heroes. It is original, and Liston says very like. The
whipping-post, knife, and pistol, are also portraits.
I open my letter again to tell you, that by way of anniversary of the 20th,
there was a procession of the two faubourgs with pikes, &c., to the National
Assembly. From thence they went to the Tuileries, to present what they
called a petition to the King. He ordered them to be let in, and they entered,
notwithstanding the National Guard, who were there in force, but made no
resistance, though it is said they were disposed to it if they had been
encouraged. They remained three hours in the King's room, loading him
with insults, and demanding the recal of the Jacobin Ministers, and the
sanction for the two decrees. They put the red cap upon his head, upon the
Queen's, and upon the Dauphin. They were at length persuaded to disperse
by Petion telling them that they had sufficiently manifested their patriotism.

The King is said to have behaved with uncommon firmness and apparent
indifference. The whole was expected, and had been announced for a week,
and you see how it was met. The Jacobins feel it a complete triumph, and
talk of sending La Fayette to Orleans.
Luckner has taken possession of Menin, Ypres, and Courtrai, the latter after
some resistance, in which the Austrians lost about one hundred men. An
action was expected every hour.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
July 2nd, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
I have a whole budget of news for you, but I must begin with what interests
myself most, which is, the thanking you again for your kindness to your
future sister. I have told her of it, and she feels it as she ought to do. You
know I do not deal much in long speeches, nor do you much delight in
hearing or reading them; but I am sure that you do me the justice to believe
me not the less sensible of all your affection to me, which I have
experienced in every stage of my life, and most of all on the most
interesting occasion of it. I feel that it is to you I owe my happiness.
When you give your directions to Froggatt, will you be so good as to bid
him put in Lord Camelford's name as the trustee.
Now for news. The "Gazette," which Goddard sends you, will tell you of
Lord Cornwallis's victory. We have this morning a letter from Brooke at St.
Helena, enclosing a "Madras Courier," with the account of a second victory,
followed by a peace, in which Tippoo stipulates to cede half his dominions
to the allies, and to pay them £3,500,000 for the expenses of the war, and to
give his two sons for hostages. Nothing can appear more complete; but I
wait with impatience for Lord Cornwallis's despatches, as the above
expression relative to the cessions is so very loose.
Lafayette has left his army to go to Paris, and has made a speech to the
Assembly, threatening them in pretty plain, though guarded terms, with the
resentment of his army, if they do not punish the outrages of the 21st, and
demolish the Jacobins. His friends moved to refer his address to the
commission des douze, which was carried on the appel nominal by 110

majority. He was afterwards carried in triumph to the Tuileries by the
National Guards. But the Jacobins are not stunned, and much disturbance
was expected in Paris.
I take it for granted you have told my own news to Lady B., and therefore
do not trouble her with a letter. Will you be so good as to say everything
that is most kind to her, both from Anne and myself.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
Grenville.
Crowds of emigrants that were driven out of France by the massacres that
were going on there, night and day, swarmed into the streets of London,
where they wandered about in great distress. The majority of these people
were priests; and it was computed that the number of French refugees that
landed in England, between the 30th of August and the 1st of October,
amounted to nearly four thousand. Large subscriptions were raised for their
relief; but as it was essential that the protection extended to them should not
be abused, Lord Grenville turned his attention to the necessity of providing
some measure for regulating the assistance they received, and guarding
against any sinister advantage the disaffected amongst them might be
disposed to take of the asylum which the free institutions of this country
threw open to them. Here we have the first suggestion of the Alien Bill,
which, three months afterwards, Lord Grenville introduced into Parliament.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

St. James's Square, Sept. 20th, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
We returned here from our expedition the day before yesterday, having
passed through Weymouth in our way. We left Lord Camelford far from
well, and in the intention of coming immediately to town, in order to set out
again for the continent. It is a melancholy reflection to think that he should
again so soon be obliged to leave us.
My sudden expedition from Castlehill has delayed my return here so much
later than I expected, that I fear it cuts off all hope of my making you a visit
in the autumn at Stowe. Pitt goes to-day to take possession of his castle. I
suppose you will have heard that Paine had a very narrow escape at Dover. I
send you the enclosed, because you may, perhaps, not have seen it, and I am
sure it will please you. Pray read Necker's last work.
We have no news from the armies, except that the siege of Thionville was
turned into a blockade, and a general action hourly expected. The Duke of
Brunswick's progress does not keep pace with the impatience of our wishes,
but I doubt whether it was reasonable to expect more. The detail of the late
events at Paris is so horrible, that I do not like to let my mind dwell upon
them; and yet I fear that scene of shocking and savage barbarity is very far
from its close. I deliver this day to the Imperial and Neapolitan Ministers a
note, with the formal assurance that in case of the murder of the King or
Queen, the persons guilty of that crime shall not be allowed any asylum in
the King's dominions. Opinions are a little doubtful about the best means of
giving effect to this promise, should the case arise. Our lawyers seem clear,
and Blackstone expressly asserts, that the King may prevent any alien from
coming into the kingdom, or remaining there. But this power has so rarely
been used, that it may, perhaps, be better to have a special Act of Parliament
applying to this case. This, however, relates only to the mode. I imagine
everybody will think the thing itself right, and some people seem to hope it
may prevent the commission of the crime in question. In this hope I am not
very sanguine.
We have no account of Spain having declared war, except what comes
through France.

God bless you, and believe me
Ever most affectionately yours,
Grenville.
The retreat of the combined army, under the Duke of Brunswick, cast a
gloom over the hopes of the struggling royalists. The soldiers had suffered
severe sickness from eating the unripe grapes of Champagne, and, contrary
to the expectations in which they had been led to indulge, the peasantry
everywhere opposed them by attacking detachments, and breaking up the
roads.
Whilst these events were spreading consternation over the continent, the
proceedings of the Irish Roman Catholics were of a nature to awaken
serious uneasiness in England. The whole country was convulsed on the
subject of concessions, the debates in Parliament exhibited unexampled
intemperance, and it was said that subscriptions to the extent of nearly three
millions had been entered into with the intention of purchasing lands in
America, should the demands of the Roman Catholics be refused.
Whatever opinion Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt might have previously
entertained as to the justice or policy of granting further relief, was much
shaken by the attitude which the Irish assumed at this alarming juncture. It
was no longer possible to deal with the question on the grounds on which it
originally rested; and the Imperial Government could not compromise its
influence and authority by yielding to menace those claims which it was
willing to accept as a legitimate subject for deliberate legislation. Out of
these unfortunate checks, hindrances, and distrusts on both sides, arose that
calamitous condition of Ireland which broke out a few years afterwards into
open rebellion; but, looking back dispassionately on these events at this
distance of time, it is difficult to see how that disastrous issue could have
been prevented. The hazard lay between going too far and not going far
enough, with the certainty that whatever was done must have fallen short of
satisfying one party, and in an equal degree must have dissatisfied another.
It was also a matter of continual perplexity with the Government to find the
right moment for initiating the policy of conciliation. There were always
moments when, in certain shapes, it would have suited one party or the
other; but the moment when it would have suited both never came.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Oct. 11th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
We go to Dropmore to-morrow, to fix ourselves for the remainder of the
autumn—if any autumn remain. I shall be very much obliged to you for
your cargo, whenever Mr. Woodward's prudence allows him to send it.
We are all much disappointed with the result of the great expectations that
had been formed from the Duke of Brunswick's campaign. According to the
best accounts I can get, of a business involved in almost inextricable
mystery, the flux—which had got into his camp—was the true cause of his
retreat. Whatever be the cause, the effect is equally to be regretted. The plan
seems now to be, to hold Verdun and Longwy; and to employ the interval
before the spring allows them to march forwards again, in besieging the
different frontier towns in the neighbourhood. But the example of
Thionville will prevent the success of intimidation, or of coups de main;
and the opening trenches is impossible, at least, till the post comes.
Clairfayt's corps of about twenty thousand men is to march towards the
Low Countries, to prevent them from being insulted.
I have thought much of the Irish business. I am very much inclined to think
that the alarms stated by the people there are much exaggerated, partly with
the view of producing an effect here, and partly, because you know such is
the genius of that people to carry everything to extremes. Allowing,
however, for this, there is certainly much real cause for alarm. It is, I think,
clearly impossible not to resist the demands of the Catholics, in the manner
and circumstances in which they are now made. How far it was prudent to
have gone last year, in voluntary and gratuitous concession, I know not, and
really feel that it requires more local knowledge than I possess to decide.
My leaning was certainly in favour of going as far as could be gone with
safety, but no person is authorized to state even that leaning; and the
subsequent conduct of the Catholics does, in my opinion, go far to shake
any opinion which might then have been entertained in favour of further
concession.
My idea, therefore is, that the Irish Parliament must be enabled to meet the
struggle, if struggle there is to be, by having the means put into their hands

of calling forth all the resources of that country; which, if called forth, I
believe to be very great indeed. That this may not ultimately lead to some
drain upon the purse and force of this country, is more certain than any man
would affirm, who sees what has passed in France. But the probability is, I
think, against it. I am inclined to believe, that the voting an increase of the
army may be a wise measure of intimidation, and as such, it will be stated
to that Government for consideration; but, on the other hand, any increase
of expense, which is to lead to increase of taxes, is certainly objectionable.
My own persuasion is, that with a very little firmness, the Convention of
1793 will vanish like that of 1783; but this is no reason for neglecting
reasonable measures of precaution.
Ever most affectionately yours,
Grenville.
In these letters occur the first allusions to Dropmore, Lord Grenville's seat
in Buckinghamshire, which he had recently purchased, and upon the
embellishment of which he bestowed all the spare hours he could rescue
from the fatigues of public business. The trees, acknowledged in the
following letter as having been just received from Stowe, were destined to
convert a common into pleasure-grounds, under the direction of his
accomplished taste, which "made the wilderness smile," and transformed a
remote country nook into a scene of singular and matchless beauty.
The state of Europe, and the views of the writer in reference to it, are
treated at large in this letter, which is of great historical value as an
exposition of the firm and judicious course pursued by Lord Grenville
through a period of universal panic and confusion. To have kept England in
tranquillity aloof from the perils that were devastating the continent, and to
have sustained her in such prosperous circumstances as to justify the hope
that in the next year the Government might be enabled to announce a
further remission of taxes, furnishes a triumphant answer to the charge so
frequently brought against Mr. Pitt's Administration, of wantonly
encouraging a policy that plunged the country into a profligate war
expenditure.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

St. James's Square, Nov. 7th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
The trees arrived safe at Dropmore yesterday, and we were at their
unpacking in the middle of such a fog as I never saw before. They will
answer admirably well for my purpose, and will make a great figure on my
hill in the course of a century or so, provided always that the municipality
of Burnham does not cut them down sooner.
I cannot deny that you have some reason to complain of my silence for the
last month, but you have the kindness to assign the true cause; unless,
indeed, I was to add another almost equally strong—I mean the absolute
want of anything to say. This sounds strange, but it is not the less true. The
events you read in the newspapers, often before I get them, and they have
been such as it could give me little pleasure to detail. The causes have been
hid, caliginosâ nocta, in a fog almost as thick as that of yesterday, and I
have been among the guessers only, and not always among those who were
luckiest in their guesses. I bless God, that we had the wit to keep ourselves
out of the glorious enterprize of the combined armies, and that we were not
tempted by the hope of sharing the spoils in the division of France, nor by
the prospect of crushing all democratical principles all over the world at one
blow. But having so sturdily resisted all solicitation to join in these plans,
we have been punished for our obstinacy by having been kept in profound
ignorance of the details by which they were to be executed, and even of the
course of events, as far as that could be done, which occurred during the
progress of the enterprize. Now that it has failed, we must expect these deep
politicians to return to the charge, and to beg us to help them out of the pit
into which they wanted to help us. But they have as yet been in no hurry to
begin this pleasant communication, and most assuredly we are in no
disposition to urge them on faster. You have here, therefore, the explanation
of the total impossibility in which I find myself to explain all the
inexplicable events of the last two months otherwise than by conjecture. It
is but lately that I have thought I had even grounds enough to guess by. But
you shall hear my guess. The Austrians and Prussians thought they were
marching to certain victory. The emigrants, who had given them this idea,
confirmed them in it till the facts undeceived them. The Duke of
Brunswick, who joins to great personal valour great indecision of mind, and
great soreness for his reputation, hesitated to take the only means that could

have insured success—a sudden and hazarded attack. The more he delayed,
the more difficult his position grew. He then attempted to buy a man, who,
under other circumstances, would have been very purchasable; failed in
this; lost time; excited distrust and jealousy among his allies; dispirited his
own troops; and ended his enterprize by a disgraceful retreat, which coffee-
house politicians are, as usual, willing to attribute to all sorts of causes
except the natural and obvious one. The subsequent successes of the French
are natural. An army that expected to be in Paris in October, had naturally
taken little precaution to prevent the French from attacking Germany in the
same month. The French officers, who could have no authority over their
armies in defeat and disgrace, have naturally acquired it in success; and the
business will begin again in the spring, being about twice as difficult as it
was when it began this autumn.
I have little doubt that this is the project of both parties. The Austrians may
perhaps put themselves a little more forward than the Prussians; and from
what I have heard of the conduct of the latter, the enterprize may not fare
the worse for this difference. The Emperor must feel that he has now got an
enemy whom he must devour, or be devoured by it. And the governing
party at Paris have very many very obvious reasons for continuing the war.
The rest of the empire will give their contingent, unless they have been
lucky enough to be forced to sign a capitulation of neutrality. The King of
Sardinia and Italy will defend themselves as they can, which will probably
be very ill. What Spain will do, she does not know, and therefore certainly
we do not. Portugal and Holland will do what we please. We shall do
nothing. Sweden and Denmark can do nothing, and Russia has enough else
to do, and has neither the will nor the means of doing much against France.
And there is the tableau of Europe for next year, according to my almanac.
You will not complain that this time I have not given you speculation and
prophecy enough—more than any man ought to make who has profited, as I
have done, by the experience of all these events, to learn that human
wisdom and foresight are somewhat more shortsighted personages than the
most shortsighted of us two, whichever that is.
All my ambition is that I may at some time hereafter, when I am freed from
all active concern in such a scene as this is, have the inexpressible
satisfaction of being able to look back upon it, and to tell myself that I have

contributed to keep my own country at least a little longer from sharing in
all the evils of every sort that surround us. I am more and more convinced
that this can only be done by keeping wholly and entirely aloof, and by
watching much at home, but doing very little indeed; endeavouring to nurse
up in the country a real determination to stand by the Constitution when it is
attacked, as it most infallibly will be if these things go on; and, above all,
trying to make the situation of the lower orders among us as good as it can
be made. In this view, I have seen with the greatest satisfaction the steps
taken in different parts of the country for increasing wages, which I hold to
be a point of absolute necessity, and of a hundred times more importance
than all that the most doing Government could do in twenty years towards
keeping the country quiet. I trust we may again be enabled to contribute to
the same object by the repeal of taxes, but of that we cannot yet be sure.
Sure I am, at least I think myself so, that these are the best means in our
power to delay what perhaps nothing can ultimately avert, if it is decreed
that we are again to be plunged into barbarism.
I find that I am growing too serious, even for you, upon a subject on which
I know you are serious enough, and it is high time to release you. God bless
you, and thank you once more in my name, and my little woman's, for your
trees. May we long continue to love one another as we do, and we shall
both, I trust, have a comfort in our long affection and friendship, which the
study or practice of the art of governing men seems very little likely to
afford in our time.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
Grenville.
The disasters of the Duke of Brunswick reanimated the factious spirit which
the vigorous measures of the Government had previously succeeded in
subduing. The prosecutions instituted under the proclamation against
seditious publications had been followed by the most decisive results; and
Thomas Paine, who was the chief offender, foreseeing the inevitable issue
of his impending trial, although Mr. Erskine was engaged to defend him,
had absconded to France, where he was admitted to a citizenship more
congenial to his principles, and enjoyed the doubtful honour of being
returned by two constituencies as a member of the National Assembly.

The flight of Paine broke down the courage of his disciples; and the
circulation of seditious libels was effectually arrested, until the misfortunes
of the Allies once more revived the hopes of the disaffected. Fresh measures
of prevention and defence were now rendered necessary to preserve the
peace of the country. The Militia was to be augmented by volunteer
companies, and the law officers of the Crown were to exercise with
vigilance the powers entrusted to them for bringing malcontents to justice.
But it was not by such means alone the Administration proposed to meet the
evil. It appealed to the good sense and loyalty of the people. Upon these
elements it depended for the ultimate success of its efforts. The language of
patriotism never found more felicitous or energetic utterance than in these
words of Lord Grenville's: "The hands of Government must be strengthened
if the country is to be saved; but, above all, the work must not be left to the
hands of Government, but every man must put his shoulder to it, according
to his rank and situation in life, or it will not be done."
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 14th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
The events in Flanders have brought so much hurry of things to be done and
thought of upon me, that I really have been unable to answer your letter,
which I have been some days intending to do. With respect to what you
mention about prosecutions, you do not advert to the forms of our laws, by
which no step of that nature can be taken by the Attorney-General, except in
term time, when alone his informations can be filed. No seditious
publication has ever come to my knowledge, without my referring it to the
Attorney-General for prosecution; and out of the five which you mention,
viz., Jockey Club, Paine, Cooper, Walker and Cartwright, the three first
have been so referred, the two last I have never seen. In truth, without
assistance from the magistrates and gentlemen of the country, who give
none except Addresses, it is very vain for Government to attempt to see and
know, at Whitehall, every libel which may be dispersed in the country.
But the real fact is, that these people were completely quelled, and their
spirit destroyed, till the Duke of Brunswick's retreat. Since that they have
begun to show themselves again, and nothing that I know of has been

neglected that could tend to put the law in force against them. Steps are now
taking by Government to send persons into the counties to purchase these
libels, with a view to indictments at the Christmas Quarter Sessions; but this
is a thing that can be done but once, and could not be continued without an
expense equal to that of the old French police. Our laws suppose
magistrates and Grand Juries to do this duty, and if they do it not, I have
little faith in its being done by a Government such as the Constitution has
made ours. If you look back to the last time in our history that these sort of
things bore the same serious aspect that they now do—I mean the beginning
of the Hanover reigns—you will find that the Protestant succession was
established, not by the interference of a Secretary of State or Attorney-
General, in every individual instance, but by the exertions of every
magistrate and officer, civil or military, throughout the country.
I wish this was more felt and understood, because it is a little hard to be
forced to run the hazards of doing much more than one's duty, and then to
be charged with doing less.
As to what you mention of overt acts, those things are all much
exaggerated, where they are not wholly groundless. The report of what is
called "Cooper's Ass-Feast" (Walker's I never heard of), and of the Scotch
Greys being concerned in it, reached me by accident, for of all the King's
good subjects, who are exclaiming against its not being noticed, not one
thought it worth his while to apprise the Secretary of State of it. I took
immediate steps for inquiring into it, and am satisfied that the whole story
has no other foundation than Mr. Cooper having invited two officers to dine
with him in a small company, and having given them, by way of curiosity,
as a new dish, a piece of a young ass roasted. I inquired, in the same
manner, about the riot stated to have happened at Sheffield; and learn from
Lord Loughborough, who lives in the county, and is enough on the qui vive
on the subject, that there was nothing which, even in the most peaceable
times, could deserve the name of a riot. That supposed at Perth I never
heard of yet, though Dundas has been within a short distance of that place.
It is not unnatural, nor is it an unfavourable symptom, that people who are
thoroughly frightened, as the body of landed gentlemen in this country are,
should exaggerate these stories as they pass from one mouth to the other;

but you, who know the course of this sort of reports, ought not too hastily to
give credit to them.
It is, however, not the less true that the danger exists, and perhaps not the
less from its not breaking out in the manner stated. The conquest of
Flanders has, as I believe, brought the business to a much nearer issue here
than any reasonable man could believe a month ago. The hands of
Government must be strengthened if the country is to be saved; but, above
all, the work must not be left to the hands of Government, but every man
must put his shoulder to it, according to his rank and situation in life, or it
will not be done. I could write much more of the same sort, but I have
already people waiting for me.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 25th, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
Our hopes of anything really useful from Opposition, are, I am sorry to say,
nearly vanished. In the meantime the storm thickens. Lord Loughborough
has declined, and Fox seems to govern the rest just in the old way.
We are called upon on all sides for counter associations, and indeed it seems
too clear that the peace of the country cannot otherwise be preserved. The
army, though I trust still steady, is too small to be depended on. We must
look to individual exertions, and to the Militia. I forgot to beg you to state
to me the grounds you had to think parts of that body infected. It is material
to know the truth on that subject. Our plan is to enable the King to authorize
the Lord-Lieutenants to commission volunteer companies to be added to the
Militia on the first appearance of tumult. This seems to add the advantage of
subordination to regular power to that of association.
In the meantime, we are preparing an association in London, which is to be
declared in the course of next week. I enclose you the plan of their
declaration, in which you see the great object is to confine it within the
limits of the regular Government, and not to go beyond that point. A few
persons of rank cannot be kept out of it, but we mean it chiefly to consist of

merchants and lawyers, as a London society, and that the example should
then be followed by each county or district—including there as many
farmers and yeomen as possible. In this we shall of course have no
difficulty. Probably we need hardly appear much before the Quarter
Sessions. It seems desirable that at the different Quarter Sessions the
magistrates should name an adjourned day for receiving the reports of their
different constables, &c., &c., relative to the state of their districts in this
respect, and taking the necessary measures thereupon.
I throw out these ideas to you for your consideration, as it is now clear I
cannot see you before Saturday, if then. If I cannot leave town I will let you
know in time.
Ever yours,
G.
I really have not time to extract for you a state of the Austrian and Prussian
armies. Both Courts are making the utmost possible exertions to march
down fresh troops. But then, I apprehend, the amazing superiority of
numbers must keep them on the defensive, unless they can cut off Custine,
of which I have little hope.
I am delighted with the spirit and feeling of your son's letter, which are, I
hope of the best augury, with a view to a game in which he will probably be
called upon to play his part pretty soon.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 29th, 1792.
My dearest Brother,
As we have, I think, nearly determined that, in consequence of the situation
of affairs, both at home and abroad, we cannot discharge our duty to the
country, nor even answer for its security, without calling the whole or a
considerable part of the Militia immediately, I lose not a moment in
apprizing you of it, both that you may be enabled to hold yourself in
readiness to take your measures, and also to beg you to suggest to me any
particular of importance that may occur to you respecting the mode of
doing the thing.

Parliament must, as you know, by law be assembled within fourteen days;
and it will, I think, be so within twelve days of the proclamation, which I
expect to issue on Friday. But the precise day is not yet determined, because
we are desirous, before the thing is known, to have troops enough round
London to prevent the possibility of anything happening in the interval,
which they would of course try if they saw an opening.
You must not, from this measure, think the alarm greater than it is. The step
is principally founded on the total inadequacy of our military force to the
necessary exertions.
At the time that the order is sent, directions will be given to the Lord-
Lieutenant immediately to assemble the serjeants, &c., and to place the
arms under proper guard. I am, as you will easily believe, too much hurried
to be able to go into more details.
We have nothing new from abroad.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
I am afraid all visits to Dropmore are quite out of the question.
I do not understand what you say in one of your letters about quarters
instead of lodging.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Saturday, Dec. 1st, 1792.
My dear Brother,
The King's orders are this day given to embody the two-thirds of all the
Militias of the counties on the east coast from Scotland to London, which,
together with Cumberland, Westmoreland and Kent, give us a strength of
about five thousand one hundred men.
Parliament will meet on Thursday sev'nnight. Before that time, I conclude I
shall see you here. I am really so occupied, as not to have a moment to
spare.

Dumourier is advancing towards Liege; and I think if some blow is not
already struck by their small force from Ostend against Flushing, the season
secures Holland for some months, during which much must happen of all
sorts.
We have, I trust, secured the Tower and the City, and have now reason to
believe that they are alarmed, and have put off their intended visit; but we
are prepared for the worst.
Ever yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Dec. 5th, 1792.
My dear Brother,
We determined last night to call out, in addition to the regiments already
ordered, the Militias of the maritime counties from Kent to Cornwall,
inclusive, and those of Berks, Bucks, Herts, and Surrey. You will, in
consequence, receive by this messenger the warrant and letter for that
purpose. The reason of the addition is partly the increasing prospect of
hostilities with France, and partly the motives stated in your letter. Our
object at first was to limit the number, in order not to give too great an
alarm. The spirit of the people is evidently rising, and I trust that we shall
have energy enough in the country to enable the Government to assert its
true situation in Europe, and to maintain its dignity.
We shall certainly proceed to business on Thursday; but how long we shall
sit, it is impossible as yet to decide. I think the present idea is to bring
forward the bills immediately which are necessary for strengthening the
hands of Government. Hitherto, we have every reason to be satisfied with
the impression our measure has made.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
Parliament stood prorogued to the 3rd of January; but it was convened by
proclamation on the 3rd of December, in consequence of the urgent
necessity that existed for adopting immediate measures of internal defence.

On the 17th, Lord Grenville introduced his Alien Bill; and two other
measures were rapidly passed for interdicting the circulation of French
assignats, and preventing the exportation of naval stores and ammunition.
The signs of the future were now darkening the horizon. The French
Republic sent over an ambassador extraordinary, under the title of Minister
Plenipotentiary, to demand of England whether France was to consider her
as a neutral or a hostile power. Lord Grenville refused to negotiate with him
in a character which England could not acknowledge; but intimated that if
France was desirous of maintaining peace with Great Britain, she must
renounce her views of aggression and aggrandizement, and confine herself
to her own territory, without insulting other Governments, without
disturbing their tranquillity, without violating their rights.
The sequel need not be detailed. The King of France was brought to trial,
sentenced to death, and beheaded. This terrible catastrophe terminated the
mission of the French Ambassador, who was informed by Lord Grenville
that he could no longer remain in this kingdom in a public character, and
ordered to retire within eight days. In a week from that time, the
Convention passed a decree declaring the Republic of France at war with
the King of England and the Stadtholder of Holland.

1793.
CAUSES AND OBJECTS OF THE WAR—SECESSIONS FROM THE
OPPOSITION—REVERSES IN HOLLAND—DISASTERS OF THE
ALLIES—STATE OF FRANCE AT THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR.
The policy of England in reference to the proceedings in France had
hitherto been that of a conservative neutrality. The letter of Lord Grenville
to the Marquis of Buckingham, dated 7th November, 1792, to which
attention has been specially directed, clearly and unequivocally establishes
that fact. Had the motive commonly imputed to Ministers, of having entered
into the war for the vindication of the monarchical principle and the
restoration of the Bourbons, been really the actuating object, it would have
appeared in these confidential communications. Not only, however, is there
no such motive avowed or contemplated, but, on the contrary, Lord
Grenville declares that the greatest source of pride and satisfaction he finds
on reviewing the line of conduct he had acted upon throughout that reign of
anarchy, is in the reflection that he had kept England out of it. Up to the last
moment, so long as France confined her public acts and the dissemination
of her new doctrines to her own territory, the English Government remained
merely a spectator of events in which she took no part, and evinced no
concern. The case was altered when France invaded Holland, and passed a
decree fraternizing with the people of other countries, and offering them
assistance to procure their liberties. These were the measures of oppression
and aggrandizement referred to by Lord Grenville in his communications
with the French Envoy; and upon these grounds, and these grounds alone,
England accepted and prosecuted the war.
Immediately after the declaration of hostilities by the Convention, the King
sent a message to Parliament explicitly declaring the causes of the war,
which were, the occupation by the French of the Scheldt, the exclusive
navigation of which had been guaranteed by treaty to the Dutch; the
fraternizing decree which invited the people of other countries to
revolutionize their Governments; and the danger with which Europe was

threatened by the progress of the French arms. In one aspect this was a war
of principles; in another, it was a war of self-defence. In both, it was just
and inevitable. Even the Opposition admitted the validity of the grounds on
which it proceeded, although they could not resist the temptation of
assailing the Minister, while they adopted his measures. The resolutions
founded on the message were carried with scarcely a shadow of objection in
either House of Parliament. The people of all classes were wholly with Mr.
Pitt. Amongst the last to be convinced was Mr. Wilberforce, who had a
moral aversion to all wars, but who ultimately expressed himself converted
to the necessity of war on this occasion.
The effect of the message from the King was remarkable. Numbers of the
most influential men, who had previously voted with the Opposition, passed
over to the Ministerial benches, including Burke and Wyndham, and the
Lords Portland, Spencer, Fitzwilliam, Loughborough, and many other peers
and commoners. Lord Loughborough, who had so often run in couples with
Thurlow, was now appointed to succeed him on the Woolsack; and
Ministers, acquiring augmented strength from all quarters, addressed
themselves vigorously to the task of preparation.
The letters of this year are scanty, but not unimportant, in their references to
passing events. Taken in connection with the history of the period, which is
too familiar to require any further elucidation, they will be found to throw a
new light upon some points of contemporary interest.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Jan. 19th, 1793.
My dearest Brother,
It is at length settled that Lord Loughborough shall take the Seals on
Wednesday. He has written a long letter to the Duke of Portland, which has
not been answered. It is as yet very difficult to say what proportion of the
ci-devant Opposition will follow Lord Loughborough's example, and join
Government avowedly, but I am inclined to hope a pretty large one. The
Prince of Wales has also written to the Duke of Portland, and sent a
message to us, declaring his intention to join Government. I have not seen
the letter, but my informant, to whom it was shown yesterday morning by
the Duke of York, told me it was proper and explicit.

424 against the referring the judgment to the Assemblées Primaires, 283 for
it.
The first question, of guilty, decided almost unanimously; the third, that
punishment should be inflicted, was deferred to the 10th.
Brissot's report, which you will see in the French papers, seems well
enough calculated for our purpose. The thing must now come to its point in
a few days; and we shall, I trust, have appeared to the public here to have
put the French completely dans leur tort.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, June 12th, 1793.
My dearest Brother,
In consequence of what you requested in the conversation we had at
Dropmore, I write to mention to you that the vacant Ribands are to-day to
be given to Lord Salisbury, Lord Westmoreland, and Lord Carlisle. I did not
learn this yesterday till it was too late to write to you. With respect to what
you mentioned to me of your own intentions, you know too well what my
opinion is, and how anxiously I am impressed with that opinion, to make
me feel it right to urge you with what could only be a repetition of all I have
already stated. But I wish to make it my earnest request to you that you will
not take any actual step till you have seen Pitt. I have not told him anything
of your idea of taking any measure on this occasion but I have stated to him
in general terms the uneasiness you still seemed to feel on the subject of the
former request, and the possibility that this impression might be
strengthened, supposing Lord Camden's death to produce that sort of
arrangement to which you had so handsomely consented, but which might,
nevertheless, bring the other idea more forward in your mind.
His plan was (if he had not been hindered by the gout) to have run down to
Somersetshire for a week, at the close of the business in the House of
Commons, and to have been back before he could almost be known to be
gone. He had then intended to take Winchester in his way. I have not seen
him for several days, and cannot therefore say whether this idea still holds,

but at all events there could be no difficulty in your coming to town for a
day or two for that purpose.
I urge this because I know you may fully rely upon his friendship, and that
even if he should not be able to alter the thing itself, which I am sure I
know not how he can, it is still, in my opinion, very desirable that you
should not take so marked a step without hearing the advice of those who
love you best, supposing even that after all you should not be influenced by
their reasoning upon it.
I say nothing about myself in all this, because I am sure you believe me
truly sensible of your constant and unvaried affection to me, and unwilling
to intrude upon you repetitions which I must fear would be useless. But you
will not attribute it to indifference or unconcern about the thing itself,
which, God knows, are sentiments the reverse of what I feel upon it.
We have no news of any material event at the army. The siege was to be
opened on Monday, and they seem to entertain very sanguine ideas indeed
as to its speedy success. I have some doubt whether the report from Paris,
respecting Marat's new revolution, is to be credited, though all the late
accounts from thence seemed to indicate an approaching crisis. I have a
confused account from the Hague, of the Duke of Brunswick having gained
a decisive advantage over the army that was Custine's. But it is not distinct
enough to place much reliance upon it.
Mudge is returned by the way of China with despatches from Vancouver. I
have not yet seen them, but I understand, generally, that some difficulty
arose about the restitution of Northa. It is not, however, of a nature to create
any real embarrassment. He has brought a letter for poor Lady Camelford
from her son, whom he tells me he left in great health and spirits. We have
not opened it, but wait till Lord C. comes, which I hope will be about the
end of this month at latest. From what he says, Vancouver's expedition is
likely to continue so much longer, that I think of proposing to Lady C. that
her son should return by the first opportunity, in order to go into some
larger ship, which at his age now will clearly be desirable. He will have
served his time before he can hear from Europe. Juan de Fuca's inlet is
explored, and found to be closed with high lands.

Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Sept. 11th, 1793.
My dear Brother,
I am sorry to acquaint you that we have unpleasant accounts from the army,
and the more unpleasant from their uncertainty. All that seems to be certain
is, that the Duke of York thought himself obliged to raise the siege of
Dunkirk, at least for the present, in consequence of an attack which I
imagine to have taken place on the evening of the 7th; and which must, of
course, have been bloody, and the event unfavourable to us. We have no
direct account from the army, but the report is that of an officer of the navy,
who comes, I understand, from Nieuport, and states that he had prevented
any other letters from coming over, in order to prevent the spreading an
alarm till the official accounts arrive.
There is also a letter from Watson, the Commissary-General, which seems
to confirm the intended retreat, and says that he has provisions, &c., enough
in the rear of the army; but he mentions no particulars of what has
happened, except that he says the spirit of the troops is good—that they
have suffered, but have not been beaten. His letter is from Furnes, on the
8th.
I am sorry for the suspense in which this must leave you, as it does us. If we
hear more before the post goes out, I will add a line to this letter.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
I should have added, that the same officer brings the account that they had
got at Ostend of the capture of Quesnoy, which I credit, because my last
letters from the Austrian army state the fall of that place as certain within a
very few days. This is the more important, as P. Cob. would then be at
liberty to march towards Flanders, if necessary.
Since I wrote the above, I have seen the narrative of the officer in question
—Lieutenant Popham. It is long, and full of little details; but the result of

the whole is, that he was going, by Macbride's orders, to communicate with
the Duke of York, and turned back on account of the news he heard; that he
met on the road parties of our cavalry evacuating Furnes on the 8th, and
many wounded soldiers going to Ostend; but he does not appear to have
collected accounts of what had happened, and indeed it is most probable
that individuals could not give any general information. It does not appear
whether they were going from Furnes by orders or not.
Five, p.m.
I have just got the enclosed letter to Bruges from a young man I sent as
Secretary to Sir James Murray; and as it is very doubtful whether I shall get
the particulars time enough to send you anything further, I would not omit
letting you have this, which will at least put you at ease for individuals. You
will observe it is dated from Furnes, on the 9th. It is brought by an officer
charged with the despatches.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Dropmore, Sept. 15th, 1793. At Night.
My dear Brother,
You will receive with this letter, which will be sent you from London, the
good and the bad accounts together. For the Flanders war, I fear the latter
overbalance the former; there is, however, in my opinion, very little reason
to be discouraged at these checks, which must be expected whenever the
French took the resolution to leave the sieges on the side of Hainault to
their fate, in order to break in upon the line of communication. This must
have happened equally if the combined armies had remained together, and
undertaken a joint operation; and the proposed plan had the advantage of
being the only one whose success would have remedied this inconvenience,
resulting from the nature of an attack from an open country against such a
barrier.
It must be left to military decision what is precisely the best point of attack,
combined or separate, which now remains; but the loss of Menin as a post
of communication does not tend to lessen the difficulties of any plan, and I
am decidedly averse to anything that shall hazard the delaying the West

India expedition, for which, when you consider how much is to be done
there, you will not think a whole season too much.
After all, a few towns more or less in Flanders are certainly not
unimportant; but I am much mistaken in my speculation, if the business at
Toulon is not decisive of the war. Only let your own mind follow up all the
consequences of that event, and you will, I believe, agree with me that the
expression I have used is not too sanguine. We have news that the people of
Lyons have defeated Dubois Cranée, with a loss to the latter, as it is said, of
four thousand men. Allow this to be exaggerated, as I suppose it is, but take
the fact to be true that he has been defeated, and it is everything to us. The
next month or six weeks will be an anxious period, and big with events.
You asked me some time ago about Parliament, and that with a view to your
own motions. Nothing can, of course, be absolutely fixed on that subject;
but I think it highly improbable that Parliament should meet before January.
I heartily wish that we may arrange it so as to meet, though in the present
moment I should be afraid even of such a distance as Stowe. At all events,
when your camp breaks up, I trust you will take Dropmore in your way, as
indeed I believe it will lay directly in your road, if you come by town, and
not far out of it, if you go straight to Stowe.
My dear wife desires best love to you and Lady B. Lady Camelford is, I
think, better than we could have hoped.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
16th.
This ought to have gone to-day, and I am sorry to find it this evening in one
of my boxes here. We have nothing new to-day, except the account of the
murder of the King of Poland, which is believed.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Walmer Castle, Oct. 1st, 1793.
My dear Brother,

Your letter of the 27th followed me here yesterday, and I have just received
that of the 29th. With respect to the first, I can only say that I have by this
post sent your letters to Pitt, and am very sure that if it depends on him,
what you wish will be done.
Lord Amherst's answer of the reduced state of the regiments at home is,
however, surely not quite so much out of the way as you state it. It is a great
pity that your protégé is in Canada, where no promotion can be going
forward, and from whence, I conclude, he cannot be brought into regiments
upon actual service. Sir C. Grey conveyed to me the other day a wish to
know whether there was any officer in his army that I felt interested about;
but I know of none that I should think it worth laying myself under an
obligation for. If Talbot had happened to be in one of the regiments in Nova
Scotia, he would probably have been in this predicament; but I suppose the
force in Canada is little likely to be weakened, in the present state of
America.
I am delighted to find that you are so well pleased with the manifesto. I
have hardly had time yet to consider your observations on the particular
passages you have marked, but I will do so, and am much obliged to you for
the trouble.
The Duke of Richmond will, I am persuaded, not resign in the present
moment, though he has been talking and doing foolishly. As far as I can
learn, there is no sort of ground for the accusation of delay on his part
relative to Dunkirk. When I see you, I can say on that subject what for
many reasons I do not choose to write. Au reste, the Duke of Richmond's
campaign seems completely to have annihilated the little popularity he ever
had; and though I am satisfied he will not resign till after the meeting of
Parliament, and perhaps till after the session is over, I am equally persuaded
he will not continue another year in the Cabinet.
We are sending Hessians to Toulon, and shall soon have there a really
respectable force; the interval is the only thing to be feared; but Mulgrave's
being there is a great comfort to me; as great, indeed, entre nous, as if I
knew the new Governor was actually arrived there. We have nothing like
force enough for all the objects that present themselves, and you know my
settled aversion to undertaking little points of detail; some of which might

succeed, but the result of the whole must be to cut to pieces the small force
we have, without adequate success. Besides this, the reliance on the
dispositions of the country, with the single exception of Toulon, pressed as
it was by famine at one door, and the guillotine at the other, has always
failed us.
I believe it is true, that almost in every part of France they detest the
Convention, but that they are quite incapable of giving any solid footing in
the country.
Ever yours most affectionately,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM
Walmer Castle, Oct. 11th, 1793.
My dearest Brother,
I was just going to write to you when I received your letter. My present
plans are to return to town about Tuesday next, and to get to Dropmore by
dinner on Friday, if possible; but I would not wish you to let your dinner
depend on that. I conclude, from what you say of your having been
reviewed, that you will be able to get away soon, and it will be a great
gratification to us both to see you, especially if, as I hope, Lady
Buckingham comes with you. Lady Camelford writes to Anne that she
much wishes to see you, and if she knows of the time of your coming will
endeavour to contrive to be with us. I return you Freemantle's letter, for fear
of accidents. You have, perhaps, guessed that it anticipates part of what I
had to say to you, but I hope you have also felt the singularly embarrassing
situation in which the King's Ministers are placed in this respect, with the
cause of Royalty to defend, and with the great obligations they owe to the
extreme liberality and honour of the King's conduct towards them. They are
obliged, therefore, to say nothing, and to let nothing be said: and indeed I
hardly know what I should wish to be said, so great is the difficulty in all
respects. I know I may reckon upon your discretion, not only in saying
nothing from me, but also in saying as little as possible from yourself,
which would not fail to be repeated, and to be ascribed to me. We will talk
this over fully when I see you, and I really much wish to know what you
think ought ultimately to be done on the subject. You will have seen that it

is not the camp of Mauberge, but the advanced posts that had been
unsuccessfully attacked. The attack of the camp itself was to take place
somewhere about this time, and yesterday the British troops marched to
Cysoing, where they thought it not improbable they might be engaged with
the French, who are collecting at Bouchain and Cambray.
George Nugent had written to me twice on the subject of his proposal, and I
sent him Lord Amherst's answer, which is negative, at least for the present.
He seems to have an invincible aversion to new corps, I fancy, from all the
badgering he got upon that subject last war. He now states only the plea of
seniority, that the number intended to be raised is filled up by older
Lieutenant-Colonels. I fancy Nugent had not received my letter when he
wrote to you.
The language of the Convention looks as if some serious attack might be
expected here; serious at least as they intend it, but ridiculous, I trust, it will
prove. An attempt in force requires preparations they have not, and a
superiority in naval force which they certainly have not. Buccaneering
expeditions I take to be practicable, with only the certainty of much greater
loss to themselves than to us. They would be unpleasant in their effect here,
but what help.
I have profited of your advice about the manifesto, and now send you the
English translation which I have prepared, with the transpositions you
recommended. I do not think it reads as well in English as in French, which
I am sorry for, as it must be read in English by John Bull, whose
approbation of my writings I should like to retain. I hardly know how to ask
you to correct, as it must be a translation, and a literal one. But mark what
you dislike, and I will try if, retaining the translation, it can be altered. I
have kept guerre defensive and that pour cause: which indeed you may
guess, when you see in the papers that His Prussian Majesty is returned to
Berlin, and when I tell you that we had no previous notice of his journey.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

St. James's Square, Nov. 21st, 1793.
My dearest Brother,
I had already spoken to Pitt upon the idea of G. Nugent's being appointed
one of the aides-de-camp, if the promotion mentioned by him should take
place. I have reason to be sure, that for the present no idea exists of that
promotion. If it had, I should certainly have pressed his declining the offer
of the corps; because, though that is no absolute bar according to any rule,
yet it may, certainly, in the King's mind, stand in his way; and such
exceptions as Lord Chenton and Lord Rawdon do not prove much. I am
very confident, that, as it is, whatever can be done by Pitt will be done, if
the promotion should hereafter take place; but I am sure you know that the
King's Ministers do not name his aides-de-camp; and that the pressing such
a request, beyond a certain point, makes difficulties in his mind, instead of
removing them. Besides his wish to oblige you, Pitt is personally well-
disposed towards Nugent, and I have reason to think that Lord Amherst is
so too.
Sir James Murray will, I think, not continue in his present situation; and the
mode of removing him, will probably be by putting him at the head of some
corps; but this is not yet mentioned to him, and, therefore, I rely on your not
speaking of it to any one else. I do not know whether, in that case, the King
will fill up his place as aide-de-camp, or not; but one vacancy cannot be
expected to make room for Nugent, who is at the end of his year; besides,
the natural claim which Manners has on the King. It is, therefore, I think,
better on the whole, that Nugent should go on with his corps.
With respect to your lesser army jobs, I say nothing about them, because I
really do not understand them, and am unable to judge of the facility or
difficulty of Lord Amherst's complying with them. It is useless for me to
talk about Pitt's share in all this, though I certainly do not think it very fair
that he should bear on his shoulders all the grievances of cornetcies and
lieutenancies, which Lord Amherst or any other Commander-in-chief is sure
to create.
I have spoken about the précis, and you will certainly have them whenever
there is news to send. The army is safe, and I hope quiet, in its winter
quarters. Lord Moira sets out to-morrow morning, and will find everything

ready for him at Portsmouth. You see how right you was about the
impossibility of keeping secret at Portsmouth the new destination of this
force. Luckily, it is so ready, that the thing itself will take place even now as
soon as the news can reach Paris.
Lord Malmesbury is going to Berlin, to bring our good ally to a point—ay
or no. I think it will end in no.
I certainly will not forget my engagement; and I still hope we shall find a
Saturday and Sunday for Stowe.
God bless you, my dear brother, and believe me
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Dec. 12th, 1793.
My dearest Brother,
At your request, I certainly will do a thing extremely disagreeable to
myself, by putting into Mr. Pitt's hands the letter you desire me to show
him. In any case where you or yours could have the smallest interest, I
should never consider whether a compliance with your wishes is or is not
pleasant to me; but I freely own, that I hardly think you would be repaid, by
Mr. Pigott's getting his company, for the uneasiness I feel in being made
(unprofitably, too, as I think, even to the object) the channel of such a
communication between two persons whom I have so much reason to love
and value.
The accounts of the Duke of Brunswick's victory, though they have not
come to us from any channel that we can consider as strictly official, are
such as to leave no doubt of the fact. There appears to have been different
actions for three days, from the 29th of November to the 1st of December;
and on the last of these days the victory was obtained, which persons, pretty
well informed, seem to consider as decisive of the fate of Landan. The great
object of the French was to relieve that place, and surround Wurmser; and
in both they have failed, having been repulsed in a last attack they made on

the latter the 1st instant. It appears likely now that little more will be done
on that frontier till Landan is obliged to surrender; nor anything after that.
All our expectations are turned towards Brittany; but the news from that
quarter is by no means favourable, as far as it goes. The Royalist army
appears unable to make any siege, or even to continue twenty-four hours in
the same place; and this for want of provisions. There is, besides, among
them much disunion, and a total want of discipline; and they seemed to
have formed the resolution of retiring inwards into France. Whether they
will be deterred from this by the communications since made to them, and
by the knowledge of our force being actually at their doors, remains to be
seen.
I did not send you the account of the failure of all our hopes, from Lord
Howe. I was not in town; and if I had been, I do not know whether I was
not too much vexed to write. He is still off Ushant; so that the idea of
sending out the second fleet is, for the moment, at least, out of the question.
Some of those ships are, as you know, destined for other services; and the
whole, without Lord Howe, would not be strong enough to meet the Brest
fleet; and with him, would be much too strong.
The business of St. Domingo is highly important. The possession of the
Mole, though not beyond what we had looked to, is much beyond my
hopes. Dansey's letter to Williamson expresses much confidence of
maintaining himself there, with such a force, as I trust, by this time, and
long before, he actually has there.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
At the close of the year France was stronger than at the commencement.
The destruction of her navy at Toulon was the principal reverse she
suffered. On the other side the allies had encountered defeat at almost every
point; the Prussians compelled to retreat to Mentz, the Imperialists driven
beyond the Rhine, and the English forced to raise the siege of Dunkirk. The
enthusiasm of the masses, sustained by these successes, and acted upon by
the popular appeals of the Jacobins, placed at the disposal of the Republic
an enormous physical force, which the whole winter was occupied in
augmenting and organizing for the campaigns of the ensuing year.

1794.
PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND FOR THE PROSECUTION OF THE
WAR—INACTIVITY OF THE AUSTRIANS—LORD SPENCER AND
MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE SENT ON A MISSION TO VIENNA—
HOSTILE RESOLUTIONS OF THE OPPOSITION—SEVERAL OF THE
LEADING WHIGS JOIN THE ADMINISTRATION—LORD
CORNWALLIS APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND ON THE
CONTINENT—PROGRESS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS—LORD
FITZWILLIAM NOMINATED TO THE LORD-LIEUTENANCY OF
IRELAND—HIS CONDUCT ON THAT OCCASION.
Parliament was convened on the 21st of January, 1794; and the Speech
from the Throne expressed a sanguine hope on the part of His Majesty that
the resources of France would be speedily exhausted. There was certainly
little in the operations of the last year upon which the country could be
congratulated; and the only remaining encouragement that could be held out
was in reference to the future. The prodigious exertions of the Republic
undoubtedly justified the expectation, that she could not long continue to
meet the increasing demands which the extension of the war was making
upon her means and energies; but it was difficult, in the heat and excitement
of the conflict, to form an adequate estimate of the devotion with which the
French were prepared to follow up their successes. A series of fortunate
incidents and some brilliant achievements had inflamed the national vanity
to such a height of exultation as to produce a perfect military mania in all
parts of the country; and when Mr. Pitt, in the course of the opening debate,
declared that "France had been converted into an armed nation,"—an
expression that elicited much criticism at the time—he described accurately
the exact state of the people, and the lengths they were prepared to go in the
assertion of the principles they had baptized in the blood of the Sovereign.
There were not wanting persons in England who sympathized with the
republicans of France, and regarded their martial spirit with something of
the admiration which the impassioned and the thoughtless bestow upon

gallantry and heroism. But the bulk of the nation entertained a different
opinion, and viewed with alarm and detestation the sanguinary excesses by
which the war was initiated and sustained. While the former class, few in
number, and confined chiefly to the lowest dregs of the population,
continued to give occupation to the Government at home, the latter were
ready to make any sacrifices the exigency of circumstances required to
support the policy of the Government abroad.
Parliament unanimously voted an augmentation of eighty-five thousand
men to the navy, and sixty thousand to the army. Ample preparations in
other respects were made for the approaching operations; and, amongst the
extraordinary measures resorted to, arrangements were made for
augmenting the Militia, and raising voluntary subscriptions for the
maintenance of the war. The spirit of the country was awakened to the
defence of those constitutional principles which presented the surest
safeguard for the public liberties; and the delusions which at first had seized
upon the factious and discontented rapidly vanished as the war advanced.
Success alone was wanted to confirm the confidence of the people; but as
yet the genius and headlong valour of France was in the ascendant, and the
solid endurance of England was doomed to a long and harassing term of
fluctuating fortunes.
The Correspondence traces some of the principal events of the year; and
maps out in advance the plans and difficulties of Ministers, by which we are
admitted, so to speak, to the deliberations of the Cabinet upon nearly every
fresh exigency that arose in the course of the campaigns.
MR. T. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Charles Street, Jan. 1st, 1794.
My dear Brother,
I had no sooner received your letter, than I communicated it to Lord
Grenville; and desired him to write to you as soon as he could. It gives me
great pain to see, by the language of it, how very much your mind is
oppressed and disturbed in the impression under which you write. Of the
proposition which you suggest, it certainly does not in any shape become
me to offer any opinion; I am precluded from doing so, both by the
magnitude of the question, and by its being of a nature upon which I cannot

have either the pretence or the means of exercising any judgment; and I so
expressed myself to Lord Grenville, when I read your letter to him; all that,
on my part, can be for me to do is, what I am sure you will believe is the
honest feeling of my mind, to express to you the anxious and earnest wish
of my heart, that all disquietude and uneasiness may vanish from your
mind; and that you may heartily and happily continue to co-operate with
Lord Grenville and Pitt, at a time when the greatest interests which this
country ever knew seem to me to be at stake. For myself, you know that I
am but a private man, and have no other concern in these great public
questions, than that sense of common danger and common interest, which
ought, I think, to produce but one common voice in the country. Mr.
Wilberforce, you see, thinks otherwise, but does not change my opinion by
having changed his.
I am much obliged to you for the naval letter, which the post of to-day
brings me from Stowe; I will make the use of it which you allow me to do,
and will then return it to you. I hope Dr. Pegge will find Lady B. better. I
take for granted we shall soon meet here.
I hear no news.
God bless you, my dear brother.
P.S.—As soon as I heard from you to-day (which was very late, as I had
gone out before the post came in), I sent to Lord G., to tell him that if he
wrote to-day, he must direct to Stowe.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Jan. 30th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
I believe Pitt's budget is finished, as it is to be opened on Wednesday. I
have, however, sent him your project; though I do not conceive favourably
of it, as the object appears so small, and such a nest of hornets to be brought
upon one by it.
The French seem certainly disposed to try their scheme of invasion. This
leads to the necessity of some augmentation of interior force, and possibly
some of our last year's plans will be resorted to. Our best defence is

unquestionably our water-guard, which is very strong, and will, I trust,
every day get stronger. In the meantime, Lord Moira's force stationed at
Cowes, and with its transports ready to put to sea at the shortest notice, is
no inconsiderable check upon them.
I have no faith in their attacking Flanders; but rather believe they will wait
our attack. But two Dutch, and as many Flanders mails are due.
Mack returns to the army to the great joy of every one. We expect him over
here every day.
Ever my dear brother's
Most affectionately,
G.
The Budget was brought forward by Mr. Pitt on the 2nd of February. It
estimated the total supply for the year at twenty millions; and proposed for
the ways and means a loan of eleven millions, and the imposition of some
new taxes.
Here was the first great pressure of the war on the industry of the people. It
was a trying moment with Government; but the demands of the Minister
were, nevertheless, heartily responded to. The interior force of the kingdom
at this time amounted to one hundred and forty thousand men; and the
foreign troops in British pay to forty thousand more. The augmentation of
the Militia, which was not carried into effect till the following month, was
now occupying the consideration of Government.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, Feb. 1st, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
The idea of augmentation which I think most practicable, is that of militia
cavalry, to be raised by volunteers, in the same manner as the additional
companies in the last war, but to a much larger extent than you mention in
your letter. Dundas told me two days since that he had been looking for
your plan of last year, but had mislaid it. Have you a copy? It does not seem
advisable to broach this idea much in conversation or discussion with Lord-
Lieutenants and Colonels till it is to a degree matured; for the St. Albans'

meeting, though very good for supporting a measure resolved upon, or even
for arranging particular details of a plan, of which the outlines are already
fixed, is but a bad place to prepare the plan itself. As far as I am capable of
judging, I think that the natural defence of this country against an enemy
once landed, is by the immense irregular cavalry that might be collected,
and formed round small bodies of disciplined horse. This, of course, does
not exclude the necessity of some infantry to oppose the enemy in front,
while the cavalry harass his flanks and rear, and while your naval force,
even supposing it unable to have prevented the landing, cuts off all
possibility of supplies from France. We are preparing, partly with the latter
view, and partly as a means of defence where frigates cannot act, a
formidable force of gun-boats.
You say that all this is superfluous, and that the attempt will not be made. I
think its being made or not depends wholly on the other employment which
we can find for their force, and this depends on points which we cannot
command; viz.: internal commotion, and the exertions of the German
Powers on the side of the Rhine.
That they are making preparations with a view to having the thing in their
power is unquestionable, and we should be very deficient in our duty if we
did not put the country in a state to be prepared for all events.
The employment of Lord Moira's force, and its future destination, depend
on plans of continental operations, but in the meantime its effect is almost
beyond calculation in its present position, menacing everything from
Dunkirk to Brest, and defending everything from Yarmouth to the Land's
End. You will see this in a minute, if you compare the facility of moving
that force, either by land or sea, with the efforts of the same sort that the
enemy can make, either offensively or defensively.
We cannot have too much force anywhere, but if I am not very sanguine, Sir
C. Grey has already a force beyond what the service requires; and it is
likely that he will still be reinforced without breaking up Lord Moira's
army, which I consider as the most usefully employed, and telling the most
effectually against the enemy of any troops now in our service.
I will send your artillery plan to Dundas.

Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, July 9th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
I am sincerely sorry to see that you do not entertain the same hopes as I do
of good from the new arrangements. I confess I think it so great an object to
have annihilated all distinction of parties in this country among those who
are attached to the present order of things; and I feel that the late events
abroad have given so much more importance to this point, with a view to
the internal situation of this country, than it had before, that I cannot help
feeling very sanguine as to the consequences of the steps now taken with
that view. God only knows which of us is right, and time only can show. In
the meantime, jacta est alea, and we must abide by it.
On the subject of war and peace, you state very truly, that nothing is less
probable than that peace should now be in our option. The retreat to
Antwerp has been decided, not by opinions here, nor even by those of the
Duke of York and Lord Cornwallis, but by the necessity consequent upon
the Austrian movements. Whether those movements were right, I am not
enough of a soldier, nor enough informed as a statesman, to pretend to form
an opinion. The immediate effect of them is not necessarily the abandoning
the towns taken last year, which are in a state to maintain themselves long,
and to impede many of the operations of the enemy. Nor, as long as the
Austrians maintain their line from Louvain to Namur, is the possibility of
succouring them considered as desperate. What I most fear in the present
moment is the effect of despondency here and abroad, without which I
should see no reason why we should not, as you suggest, fight the country
over and over again, inch by inch, with means and resources for carrying on
the war, such as are out of all comparison superior to those of the enemy. It
would have been a flattering and glorious thing, and a brilliant success, to
have terminated the war by the favourable result of a plan of offensive
operation in Flanders. If that has failed, I am very far from thinking this a
reason for abandoning a cause in the issue of which I consider our existence
as implicated. If we listen to the ideas of peace in the present moment (even

supposing it were offered), it can be only because we confess ourselves
unable to carry on the war. Such a confession affords but a bad security
against the events which must follow, in Flanders, in Holland, and (by a
very rapid succession) in this island.
I do not know from whence the papers have got the idea of Lord
Camelford's return. He is not come, nor any officer or despatch, from
Vancouver, but I understand the ship has been heard of in October last, all
well. Many thanks for the offer of Paddington, which we may probably be
glad to avail ourselves of.
Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
G.
We have nothing new from Lord Hood; and I am told that officers who
know the coast do not speak favourably of the chance of doing anything
against the French fleet in their present situation.
The failure of the Imperialists had thrown a serious damp on the spirits of
the allies. It appears to have been thought the Austrians had not shown
sufficient energy and determination; and it was resolved to send over Lord
Spencer and Mr. Thomas Grenville to Vienna, in the hope of inducing them
to make more vigorous exertions. A subsequent letter from Mr. Thomas
Grenville to the Duke of Portland contains an admirable report of the
progress of the mission.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
St. James's Square, July 19th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
Tom has, I know, mentioned to you the Commission which he has
undertaken—jointly with Lord Spencer—to endeavour to encourage our
Austrian allies to a little more exertion and energy, which, after all the late
events, I continue persuaded is the only thing wanting to ensure success,
instead of such a series of retreats as the last month has shown. God knows
whether they will succeed; but it is an infinite satisfaction to me to see his
talents employed in the public service, and to be corresponding with him on

subjects of this nature. The rest of our public events are just such as you see
them in the papers.
Lord Cornwallis is returned, speaking highly of the Duke of York, and far
otherwise of the Austrian Generals, to whom he, and all mankind in
Flanders, impute all that has happened. It is a whimsical circumstance, and
hardly to have been foreseen, that in a war which we carry on conjointly
with Austria, the great want which we experience should be that of Austrian
Generals, of capacity sufficient to command the excellent troops which are
acting in the Netherlands.
My American negotiation is, I think, going on promisingly. I have nothing
else to tell you; and am, indeed, so completely knocked up by this last
week's fagging, as hardly to be able to write at all. This evening I am going
to Dropmore, for a little respite.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO THE DUKE OF PORTLAND.
(Private.) Vienna, August 24th, 1794.
Dear Duke of Portland,
It had been very much my intention to have written to you by our
messenger of the 16th instant, because, although our despatches have been
very much detailed, and have not, therefore, left much to be said in private
letters, it is upon these occasions, I know, some satisfaction to hear that
nothing remains behind, which is material to the subject; but having been
hitherto prevented, by the very entire occupation of our time here, I take the
opportunity of writing to you, a little at large, by the messenger who is
going to England to-night.
You know that upon the slight view which the shortness of the time allowed
me to take of the business in question here, I was persuaded that we
probably might, in some degree, succeed in our expedition; because, if the
course of things here could not be improved by our journey, yet I should
consider the being able to ascertain what that state was, as an object very
useful to pursue, and one which, if pursued with attention, we might
probably succeed in possessing ourselves of. How far we have already

obtained this information you will have seen by the communications which
we have made; and I much fear that our journey will not produce any
advantage of a more solid and substantial description. To say that it might
not be possible to procure from the Government here a formal consent to
such an arrangement as we have to propose, is more than I would assert:
although, the condition which they positively insist upon of being paid for it
by loan and subsidy, as well as all the difficulties which they throw upon
the subject of the proposed barrier, and upon that of acting in the
Netherlands, might well seem to justify the opinion of its being improbable
that anything like the proposed arrangement would be consented to. But the
misfortune is, that—in my judgment, at least—the evil lies much deeper,
and is such as would leave me little hope of seeing any effectual purpose
served, even by the signature of a Convention between the two Courts.
I do not know of any good ground for believing the common report of
treachery, either in the civil or military government of the country; but I
know, that if the principle upon which our Government act in the
prosecution of the war is not cordially felt here—if the greatness of those
interests, which we think now at stake, is not to the same degree here
considered as being of the very essence and existence of all regulated
government, a Convention will not give them a livelier perception of this
common danger, or teach them to see in it a crisis such as demands greater
energy and exertions, than any other state of things could call for. But this
common principle is not all that is wanting in the present case: we think, in
England, that the preservation of the Austrian Netherlands is an object
important to us as providing a defence for Holland, and important to the
Court of Vienna as forming a rich and considerable possession to the House
of Austria, and, therefore, making an object of common interest, though
touching Austria still more sensibly than England. If this obvious view of
the interests of both countries prevailed in the Governments of both—as
one might rationally expect that it would—it would naturally furnish, by
common consent, a very leading and governing motive, as well to the
operations of the war, as to the ultimate issue of it. This, however, is not the
view which is entertained here, or which I can persuade myself is really
acted upon by those whose influence is decisive here.
M. de Thugut, the efficient Minister of this Court, is personally very much
disposed (and long has been so) to the old project of an exchange of the

Netherlands; and though that project appears to be laid aside for the purpose
of conciliating Great Britain and Holland, yet it is evident that M. de
Thugut's opinions are such as lead him to set but little value upon the
possession of the Netherlands, and, therefore, that every circumstance,
either of expense or of military enterprise, which looks towards the
acquisition and defence of those provinces, is as much discouraged by him
as he can venture to do, without openly declaring the whole bias of his
mind: and it is very remarkable that, much as we have made it our business
to press this to him in all our conversations, we have never yet been able to
draw from him even a cold assent to the idea of the Low Countries being of
any real value in themselves to the Emperor; though he sometimes feebly
admits that, with a considerable addition to them, they might be made so.
It may be said, that a Convention might engage them on this point,
whatever their inclinations may be; but the answer is, first, that in point of
fact they do object to bind themselves to the employing one hundred
thousand men in the Netherlands, though they have not finally refused it;
and secondly, that be there what agreement there may, the only substantial
security for a hearty co-operation in fighting for that country, or for any
manly system to be adopted hereafter for the preservation of it, must arise
from a sense—in the owners—of the value of its possession, and not from
the words employed in any treaty respecting it. I am aware that part of the
indifference which I so much remark in M. de Thugut may be affected, for
the purpose of throwing the whole weight of the defence of the Low
Countries upon the Maritime Powers; but if that is his policy, he must mean
to support it by abstaining from any vigorous exertions in behalf of it, and
in the end, whether his coolness and inactivity shall have been produced by
a real or disguised opinion, the result will equally have been fatal to that
earnest and animated concert, which is so much to be wished for on this
occasion.
You see that I have so far considered the Convention, as taking place upon
the terms proposed by us; but you will have known, long before you receive
this letter, that they have persisted from the first in asking, as indispensable
conditions, that their loan must be completely satisfied in England to enable
them to answer the demands of this year, and that they must receive from
England a considerable subsidy for next campaign, if it is expected that they
should act vigorously in the prosecution of the war, which they assert

themselves to be utterly unable to do without pecuniary assistance from
England. We have urged them very ineffectually on this point: they declare
that they have good hopes of M. de Merey's succeeding in obtaining these
demands at London, and the negotiation actually hangs upon the report
which they hourly expect from him on this subject; though we have
repeatedly told them that their expectation was hopeless, and that,
meanwhile, the delay occasioned by it might be fatal to those exertions
which required immediate action and enterprise.
What decision the Cabinet will make upon this heavy demand of subsidy, is
doubtless a very important question, of which they will be the fit and
competent judges; but if that question simply turned upon the supposed
probability of our being able to purchase, even at that dear rate, a
proportionate degree of energy and activity in the war from this
Government, I confess I do not hesitate to say that, from what I see here, I
should not believe, if the experiment is tried, it will well answer their
expectations. There is no soul in the bodies of these men—none, at least,
which is alive to the magnitude of all the objects now at stake, or which
leads them to share with you, as it ought the great points of common danger
and common interest; and while these mainsprings are wanting, it is in vain
to look for such movements and effects as cannot be produced without
them. If this radical defect did not exist; if the Government here was as
earnest as it ought to be in its contemplation of this war, but really was
without the means of prosecuting it; if it acknowledged and took its proper
interest in the possession of the Netherlands, and asked your assistance to
that object, only because they had exhausted all their own resources, there
might be great inducements to hope that, in furnishing to them the supply
which they wish, you might on your side expect all the active effects which
ought to be produced by it; but I know not how to hope that a subsidy will
give vigour to their councils or enterprise to their armies; still less can I
hope that a subsidy, given for the preservation of the Netherlands, will teach
them to put a proper value upon those possessions on their own account,
though it certainly would teach them how highly you value their retaining
them on your account.
All M. de Thugut's conversation, even upon the idea of the subsidy taking
place, is evidently adverse to the prosecuting of the war in the Netherlands;
and even when the danger of Holland is urged as a powerful argument for

this course, he very coldly answers that, supposing the French to succeed in
Holland for a time, they would be glad enough to relinquish it if the arms of
the allies were successful in the interior of France. How, then, can one
easily hope that the payment of a subsidy will reconcile views so remote—
as I apprehend these are—from the wishes of the English Cabinet, or
prevent much of thwarting and contradiction in the operations of the
campaign? I confess that I suspect this disinclination to the defence of the
Netherlands to arise, not only from a habit of undervaluing them, but partly,
too, from a persuasion that the Maritime Powers must and will, at their own
expense, protect them; and partly, also, from a narrow and timid view of
collecting the whole Austrian force on the German frontier, so as to be more
immediately ready for the defence of the imperial dominions, as well as to
have less reason to fear in their jealousy of the intentions of the King of
Prussia.
Upon this latter point the difficulties are, perhaps, much more likely to be
increased than to be relieved, by transferring the Prussian subsidy to the
army of Austria, because the Court of Berlin will doubtless express great
dissatisfaction at that measure; and everything which excites their
apprehension here, will naturally more or less interfere with the energy of
their operations against France. I do not mean that these arguments would
be stated as reasons against their acting up to the conditions of the subsidy;
but I fear they would nevertheless be found to have too much influence and
effect in practice.
The objections which have seemed to me to arise against a large subsidy to
Austria—from the little hope which I should have of its producing from
hence that exertion of force, and that course of military operations which,
with a view to Holland, we should think ourselves fully entitled to—are of
course much increased by my apprehension of the bad and dangerous
consequences which would affect our Government at home, from a second
disappointment of so costly an experiment, which I must hope need not be
considered as necessary to the prosecution of the war.
If it is true—as it may, perhaps, be found—that much of the languor and
apathy of this Court arises out of a confidence in the greatness of our
exertions, which may allow them to be sparing of their own, if (as there is
reason to believe) they have still the fair means of recruiting their armies

and maintaining their present military force, is it not to be hoped that the
necessity of the case will rouse them to the use of those means, when they
see no other prospect of safety open to them? They sometimes talk stoutly
of all that they would do by arming the empire, and other vigorous
measures, in case the French succeeded in forcing their way to menace
Germany. But why are these exertions to be reserved for any other situation
of things? and why are we to pay them a million and a half, rather than put
them to the full extent of all their own exertions and resources? Nor is it,
perhaps, to be overlooked, in this view of the subject, that the crooked
policy of Prussia would perhaps acquiesce in the loss of his own subsidy
much more readily, if he does not see it given to Austria, but has the
satisfaction of seeing Austria fight her own battles with her own men and
money. They always insist here, too, that they are sure the King of Prussia,
even if his bargain should not be renewed with England, will not withdraw
entirely from the war, and still less will take a part hostile to the combined
Powers. And whether this speculation of theirs is true or not, while they
believe it, they are more at liberty to act solely against France, without
fearing any attack from the quarter of Berlin.
The great danger, perhaps, of trying another campaign without subsidizing
either Prussia or Austria, might first be found with respect to Holland (at
least, if the Government here act as they threaten in the case of being
unsubsidized), by their withdrawing of the Austrian army from the
neighbourhood of Maestricht, and contracting their defence to the limits of
their German frontier. But even if they did so—which may be much
doubted—might not England and Holland, at a smaller expense than that
paid to the King of Prussia, subsidize an army of auxiliary troops to act for
the defence of Holland, and for carrying on the war in the Netherlands, and
have that army really and effectually at their own disposal, and doing the
service which they were paid for. How far this may be practicable, I do not
pretend to judge. If it is so, nobody could doubt that it would be an expense
more grateful to the public of our own country than that of paying for a
force which we cannot bring as we ought into action, and which we must
consider as compelled by their own interests to continue the war, whether
we pay them or not for doing so. By subsidizing Austria, we acquire no
greater force than that of the last campaign, and we put the justification of
that enormous expense upon the unpromising chance of a vigour and energy

on their part such as they appear to be altogether incapable of exerting,
unless under the pressure of such a danger as would force them to act
without hiring them to do so.
The length of this letter is such as I am really ashamed to add to.
Lord Spencer writes to Lord Grenville by the same opportunity. Neither he
nor I see much prospect of making ourselves useful in the shape and with
the views proposed, and we are therefore naturally anxious to see the
ordinary course resumed in some other person, and any such arrangements
taken as may admit of our return as soon as without inconvenience might
be. We speak the more directly on this matter, from the entire and perfect
agreement of our view of it, and our opinions concerning it; at the same
time, if, in your determinations at home, it should seem to you that Lord
Spencer can and ought to stay longer, with any fair prospect of such
advantages to this great subject as his peculiar situation alone could
promise, I do not doubt but that he would consent to protract his stay a little
longer; and while he does, I certainly will not ask to desert him, bien
entendu, that I cannot think of staying one hour after him.
Ever, my dear Duke,
Very truly and faithfully yours.
The session had been protracted to the beginning of July, not merely by the
interest of passing occurrences, but by the efforts of the Opposition to
damage the character and embarrass the action of Ministers. The most
remarkable of these movements was a string of resolutions moved in the
Upper House by the Duke of Bedford, and in the Lower by Mr. Fox, and
urged upon the consideration of both Houses with an amount of ability that
could not have failed of its object, had that object been a sound one, or
sustained by the public opinion of the country. The main purpose was to
obtain from Parliament a protest against the war, and to compel the
Government to enter into proposals for a peace with France. After setting
forth that the policy of the Administration had been that of strict neutrality
before the commencement of hostilities, and that, after the declaration of
war, Ministers adopted the policy of resistance to the ambition and
aggrandisement of France, the resolutions went on to state, that at the
beginning of the war it was considered a matter of general concern in which

His Majesty was to have the cordial co-operation of the powers united with
him by the ties of interest and alliance; that His Majesty had not received
that co-operation; that Russia had not contributed in any shape to the
common cause; that Denmark and Sweden had coalesced to defend
themselves against any attempt to force them into it; that Venice and
Switzerland remained neuter; that Sardinia was subsidized merely to act on
the defensive; and that Great Britain was loaded with a subsidy which ought
properly to be borne by Prussia; and, finally, that the time was now come
when peace might be secured on a permanent basis, and that it was the duty
of His Majesty's Ministers to avail themselves of the opportunity.
There was some truth in these statements, although the general deduction
was erroneous, and the colouring throughout false. The allies had not given
that cordial co-operation to Great Britain which they were bound to do, and
Prussia had evaded the onus of the coalition. Mr. Thomas Grenville's letter
to the Duke of Portland discovers a great deal more than was known to the
Duke of Bedford or Mr. Fox in illustration of these facts; and the
correspondence that follows, which is of the highest importance from the
confidential character of its details, confirms them. But the attempt to cast
the responsibility of these circumstances upon the English Cabinet was
equally ungenerous and unjust. The policy of Ministers had undergone no
change, except that which was contingent upon the altered situation of
affairs. To preserve a strict neutrality in the face of a declaration of war, was
clearly impossible; and to abandon the war, from an abstract desire for
peace, at a time when the common enemy had gained enormous advantages,
and were menacing the tranquillity and liberties of other nations, and
threatening an invasion of England, would have precipitated results the very
reverse of those contemplated by the Opposition. To have made proposals
to France on what the resolutions termed "equitable and moderate
conditions of reconciliation," would have involved two serious difficulties
—the negotiation, in the first place, with a Government of anarchy which
England had justifiably refused to treat with from the outset; and, in the
second place, the admission of the power of France to dictate terms which
England could not accept without degradation, or refuse without
aggravating the existing grounds of hostility. Circumstances might arise—
such as a change in the Government—to obviate the former difficulty; but
the latter was insuperable. It would have been inconsistent with the

principles upon which the war was undertaken to have proposed or
submitted to any conditions which France, exulting over her recent
successes, could have been expected to approve; and the result of such a
negotiation at such a moment must have been, in any event, fruitless and
inglorious. The decision of Parliament was unequivocal and decisive. The
Duke of Bedford's motion was lost on the question of adjournment, and Mr.
Fox's thrown out by a majority of 210 against 57 votes. The influence of the
Opposition was overthrown. The country was against them, and their ranks
were daily weakened by secessions. So strongly and unanimously had the
Parliament pronounced its judgment in favour of the maintenance of the
war, that His Majesty at the close of the session was enabled to urge both
Houses "to persevere with increased vigour and exertion in the present
arduous contest against a power irreconcilably hostile in its principles and
spirit to all regular and established government."
Immediately after the close of the session, some changes took place in the
matériel of the Administration, arising out of the accession of power the
Ministry had obtained by the adhesion of some of the leading Whigs. The
Duke of Portland (to whom Mr. Thomas Grenville addressed his first letters
from Vienna) was appointed Third Secretary of State; Earl Fitzwilliam,
Lord President of the Council; Earl Spencer, Privy Seal; and Mr. Wyndham,
Secretary at War. Further changes took place before the close of the year,
when Lord Fitzwilliam accepted the Government of Ireland, and was
succeeded as President of the Council by Earl Mansfield. Lord Spencer, at
the same time, was placed at the head of the Admiralty; and Lord Chatham,
the brother of the Premier, who had for some years occupied that
department, was made Lord Privy Seal.
The junction with the Whigs was, as far as it went, a new coalition; but,
under the circumstances which led to it, a coalition of a very different
character from that which had been entered into by Mr. Fox and Lord
North. The old elements of the Cabinet still held the ascendancy; and
although some sincere friends of Mr. Pitt doubted the prudence of admitting
the Whigs to office, no actual disturbance of the existing system was
apprehended from it. All agreed upon the question of the war—the one
great question upon which agreement was essential to the repose and
security of the country. In forming this alliance, however, another question
had been overlooked, which was now daily rising into importance, and

upon which the Whigs differed widely from Mr. Pitt, not so much in
principles, as in the time and mode of their application. That question, the
clog and difficulty of every Administration, was Ireland. But the moment
had not yet arrived when the dangers of this question became manifest.
The following series of letters trace the whole course of the negotiations
going forward on the continent, and exhibit in minute detail the actual
position in which England stood in her relation to the rest of the allies, and
the incessant energy she exerted in vain to awaken them to a just sense of
their obligations.
LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.
(Private.) St. James's Square, Aug. 26th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
I have to acknowledge your private letters, which I do not attempt to answer
by this conveyance for obvious reasons, and only write that you may not
receive my public despatch without a line to tell you that your private letters
have reached me, and that I will state to you, by a safer opportunity, what
occurs to me upon them. I am a little out of humour with you for not telling
me how you bore your journey, and how you are, but I am willing to hope it
has not renewed any symptoms of your former complaint. There never was
such a succession of cross-incidents as seem to have accompanied every
part of poor Merey's mission, and I fear his loss is a serious one to us all.
What do you think of Robespierre's death? I look upon it as a very
favourable event, not from any opinion that I ever entertained of his
personal talents, but because those who succeed him are evidently under the
necessity of lowering the despotism of the Revolutionary Government, and
of giving up thereby the great instrument with which they worked. A strong
proof of this, and a circumstance very favourable in itself, is, that instead of
a Committee of six or eight efficient persons who conducted the
Government in all its branches, and with absolute power, they have already
been obliged to institute twelve Committees, who are to be chosen with a
sort of rotation, those who go out not being re-eligible. This is, in fact, a
substitution of the weakest possible form of Executive Government in lieu
of the strongest.

God bless you, my dearest brother, and believe me
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
We have received this morning accounts from Italy, mentioning the
reduction of Calvi. You will probably have heard it by this time.
It was in the beginning of this month of August, that the Duke of York, at
that time stationed at Breda, retreated before the French towards Bois-le-
Duc; and afterwards, upon the advance of General Pichegru, crossed the
Maese, and took up a fresh position near Grave. Seeing the necessity of
placing the conduct of the campaign in more experienced hands, Ministers
now proposed to give the command in chief to Lord Cornwallis; but before
this step could be finally resolved upon, it was necessary to consult the
feelings of His Majesty on the subject. Mr. Pitt therefore submitted a
statement to the King, assigning the reasons which induced him to urge the
appointment of Lord Cornwallis upon His Majesty's consideration; and
suggesting that Mr. Wyndham should be sent on a mission to the army. The
following was His Majesty's answer:
Weymouth, August 27th, 1704.
Thirty-five minutes past One, p.m.

I have this instant received Mr. Pitt's letter accompanying the Paper of
Considerations, which I undoubtedly should wish to keep; but not knowing
whether Mr. Pitt has a fair copy of it, I have thought it safest to return.
Whatever can give vigour to the remains of the campaign, I shall certainly
as a duty think it right not to withhold my consent; but I own, in my son's
place, I should beg my being allowed to return home, if the command is
given to Lord Cornwallis, though I should not object to the command being
entrusted to General Clairfayt. From feeling this, I certainly will not write,
but approve of Mr. Wyndham's going to the army, and shall be happy if my
son views this in a different light than I should.

I will not delay the messenger, as I think no time ought to be lost in forming
some fixed plan, and that the measure of sending Mr. Wyndham is every
way advantageous.
George R.
It is hardly necessary to observe that Mr. Wyndham was sent upon his
mission; and that the Duke of York, having met some further reverses,
which almost incapacitated the troops from acting even on the defensive,
shortly afterwards returned to England.
LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.
(Private.) St. James's Square, Aug. 29th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
The despatch which you will receive by this messenger, and the letter which
Wyndham has promised to write to you from the British head-quarters, will
explain to you the whole of the system which we have adopted, as affording
the only hope of vigorous or successful exertion. The Austrian Government
is already prepared for your proposal, respecting the giving to Lord
Cornwallis the command of the whole combined force, as Count
Starhemberg is apprized of it, having, indeed, himself in a great degree
suggested the measure, on some general hints which I threw out to him, in
order to try the ground. For the moment, the great point seems to be to bring
them to acquiesce in the virtual command which his rank of Field-Marshal
will give him over Clairfayt, and to send positive orders to the latter to that
effect; and if there should be any difficulty in Clairfayt's submitting to this,
then to let Clairfayt absent himself for the moment, and leave the Austrian
troops under the command of some officer whose standing will occasion no
difficulty in this respect. You will observe that, by virtual command, we
mean precisely the same deference as the Duke of York has shown to the
Prince of Coburg, not extending to any of the points of military etiquette by
which command is usually rendered ostensible, but going to the effect of
complying with his suggestions respecting the mode of executing the
operations agreed upon in concert, when the instructions of his Court do not
interfere with such suggestions. Before you receive this letter, Lord
Cornwallis will probably be on the spot; and it is therefore urgent, to
prevent the first beginnings of dissension, that no time should be lost in

making the Austrians give their orders to Clairfayt. Knowing the delay of
that Government, and the difficulty of getting them to adopt any decided
line of conduct, we have thought it best to do the thing first, and afterwards
to try to obtain their consent to it. If you succeed, or, indeed, in any case, it
will be useful that you should write directly to Lord C. upon the subject, as
that may save a week, at a time when a week's delay might be of the utmost
importance.
With respect to the Duke of York, Wyndham will probably tell you in
confidence how he succeeds in his negotiation. It certainly is a pretty strong
instance of zeal and desire to facilitate whatever can promote the cause,
when he undertakes a task of no less difficulty than the reconciling the mind
of a young Prince to a supercession in his military command, and that too at
the precise moment of moving forwards, after so mortifying a retreat. I am,
however, not without hopes of his success; and, at all events, the moment
was too critical to suffer any consideration to interfere with the only means
of salvation that appeared practicable.
With respect to the languor of the Austrian Government, and the doubt
whether even money will obtain from them decisive efforts, we have
strongly felt the force of all that you have stated on that head. But we are
inclined to flatter ourselves, that if we once obtain so large a force as is
mentioned in my despatch, and can put that force, in addition to our own,
under the absolute and supreme direction of such a man as Lord Cornwallis,
we shall at least be able to say to ourselves, whatever be the result, that we
have done everything that it was possible to do; and without trying this
measure, I confess for one that I should not have that sentiment in my mind.
I lament that we have thought ourselves obliged to bring forward the
discussion of a precise barrier, and yet I do not see how it could be avoided.
But the impression may be very bad on their minds, if we appear to be
narrowing the benefits which they are to derive from exertion, instead of
animating them by the hope of increased advantage. I have not dwelt on this
point in my despatch, as you mention that you intended to write further
upon it.
When the idea of transferring the subsidy was opened to me by
Starhemberg, from Merey's instructions it was expressly stated, as a part of
the plan, that the empire could be made to subsidize the Prussian troops;

and this agrees with every information we receive on the subject, all which
concur in stating the efforts of the empire, particularly in money, as being
very far below what they could be brought to make by the joint exertions of
Austria and Prussia. But on my pressing Starhemberg for further detail on
this point, he has always avoided it, assuring me, whether truly or not, that
he found no particulars respecting it among Merey's papers. You will see
that in the despatch we make the whole dependent on a complete and bonâ
fide execution of this point, and my language to him has always been of the
same nature. But I confess that it is on this point that I feel the strongest
apprehensions, and I much fear that Austria will both be disposed to evade
it, and, in truth, unable to accomplish it. Should this be the case, the whole
plan must be abandoned; and we should, I believe, in that event, be
disposed to turn our subsidy to the object of raising other force, of whatever
nature, so as, if possible, to form a separate British and Dutch army,
destined to act under Lord Cornwallis, without the pretence or show of
concert with either of the German Powers.
With respect to your remaining at Vienna, you will easily conceive, that
having a project of this nature to propose, none of us thought we should
give it its fair chance if we put it into other hands than those in which the
business now is. We allow for your natural desire of quitting a scene which,
God knows, must be mortifying enough to men who feel how much of the
safety of Europe depends on the conduct of the Austrian Government, and
who see how unfit that Government is to be trusted with the interests of the
smallest corporation. But we are confident that as long as there may remain
the hope of doing so much good as would, we trust, be done by the
complete success of the present plan, you will not be unwilling to give your
assistance to it.
With respect to what you mention about yourself, you know my wishes on
the subject, but I certainly will not urge them beyond what you are disposed
to do. The proposal Lord Fitzwilliam makes to you is, I fairly own, in my
apprehension, one less eligible than that of Vienna; but I fear a nearer view
of that Court has rather strengthened than diminished your indisposition to
that situation. You know, as well as I do, all the désagrémens belonging to
the post of Irish Secretary; but it is certainly an important and honourable
one, and such as to afford you ample room for showing yourself such as
you are: more, perhaps, than many others which commonly rank higher in

public estimation. My objection to it is the banishment, which obtains as
much as in the foreign missions, and certainly to the most disagreeable of
all countries. I do not know well how to make myself quite a disinterested
adviser; but if I was to give you fairly the result of my thoughts upon it, I
should still beg you to look at the foreign line, and if that must not be, I
should then say yes to the question of Ireland.
Supposing that yes were decided, let me ask you whether your remaining
some time longer at Vienna, so as finally to conclude, not the leading points
only, but all the details of the arrangement now in question, and of the
preparations for the active scene of next year, is wholly out of the question?
It seems very clear that no arrangement will happen before that time which
can change the Irish Government, and in the meanwhile you would be
honourably and most usefully employed. I have, however, not hinted this
idea to any individual, nor will I. If all this is wholly out of the question, I
conclude that my reply to your answer to these despatches, will bring to
Lord Spencer and you the King's permission to return to England.
It would be very satisfactory to you to see how well things are going on
here, and how completely our hopes have been realized on the subject
which employed so much of our time and thoughts this summer.
God bless you, my dearest brother.
At this time, the new changes in the Administration, already alluded to,
were under discussion in the Cabinet; and, amongst the rest, it was
proposed that the government of Ireland should be offered to Lord
Fitzwilliam. As soon as this appointment was suggested, his Lordship wrote
to Mr. Thomas Grenville to offer him the office of Secretary.
MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO EARL FITZWILLIAM.
(Private.) Vienna, Aug. 30th, 1794,
Dear Lord Fitzwilliam,
You will already have heard enough of our proceedings here to give you no
considerable expectations of any great good to be done here; and if you
happen to have been in London, and to have read a very tedious and long
letter which I wrote on the 24th to the Duke of Portland, you will have seen
there, more at large than it is necessary to repeat, the general view and

impression of our minds as to the business with which we are charged; and
the little ground which there appears to us for hoping that even by satisfying
their pecuniary demands, we could depend upon such exertions being made
in consequence, as the country would expect in return for expense of so
great and heavy a scale. It is very true, to be sure, that in this as well as in
many other cases, the difficulties present themselves something more
readily than the remedies to them, yet upon the question of the subsidy, if
we are right in our conception that it would not probably produce, either in
degree or in shape, that energy and cordial co-operation which we are
looking for, perhaps no difficulty could be much more serious than that of
engaging ourselves at home in an expense, the disappointment of which
might produce in the minds of the public an effect, both with respect to the
war itself and with respect to the Government which supports it, of the most
perilous description. It is very true that great objects must sometimes be
pursued at great hazards, and nobody is more ready than I to acknowledge
that a greater object cannot be found than the successful prosecution of this
war; but the peculiar question of subsidy seems to me to apply chiefly to the
mode of carrying on the war, and, I would hope, not to the entire decision of
pursuing or abandoning it.
I will not again go over the same detail which I pursued in my letter to the
Duke of Portland, but satisfy myself with recalling to your observation, that
the Government here, in speaking of the exertions which they should be
driven to the necessity of making, if the French should threaten the German
empire, plainly admitted that they do still possess resources capable of
being applied to such critical exigencies, and in this confession show pretty
plainly that nothing but the necessity of the case will drive them to the use
of those means. Is it not then probable that a much greater exertion may be
made by that necessity existing in our refusal of subsidy, than will be made
by such pecuniary assistance being given, as may relieve them from the
necessity of making any exertion of their own?
If the immediate alarm on the side of Holland seems to be a considerable
inducement to the grant of the subsidy, in order to interest Austria in that
very important defence of which the Netherlands make so essential a part, it
should not, on the other hand, escape notice, that all our observation on
their language and views would lead us very much to doubt how far they
would cordially concur in the defence of the Netherlands, even though they

might consent to do so in the words of their contract; whatever value they
may or may not themselves put upon the possession of the Low Countries,
they always argue and act under the manifest persuasion, that the Maritime
Powers are alone interested enough in this point to secure its being
ultimately carried, and they give it pretty plainly to be understood, that they
mean to depend upon us for that object. Under this view, they seem to me
always disposed to consider the operations of the Austrian army in another
campaign as likely to be concentered for efforts from the German frontier,
by which means they will have a more collected force more immediately
applying to the Imperial dominions, and better suited to the jealousies
which they entertain of the King of Prussia, but certainly not best adapted to
the defence of Holland, and the recovery of Brabant.
Perhaps I may be considered as carrying these suspicions too far, but I own
I cannot help fearing too, that the suggestion made by them of mortgaging
the Low Countries to us, is not as security for the money in question in this
and the next campaign, is not a bonâ fide offer of their best security, but is
considered by them as a fresh motive for interesting us in their possession
of those territories, and as contributing the more to make that object our
business, by either taking upon ourselves the whole defence of them, or,
what they rather look to, by our purchasing the cession of them at the peace,
by some of the acquisitions which Great Britain has made in the war: a
measure which they may have the more hope for our concurrence in, if we
have two millions lent out upon the security only of the Austrians regaining
those territories at the peace.
Do not believe that these impressions are taken from any starving principle
of economy, or from a too timid apprehension of the unpopularity of a
subsidy in England; but be assured, that even if there should be no difficulty
at home as to this demand being acquiesced in, I should retain the same
doubts as to any expectation of proportionate advantages resulting from it,
and should be inclined to believe that even if the whole amount of the
subsidy was to be expended, it might be more advantageously used in the
purchase of Hessians, Swiss, or any other such troops absolutely at our
disposal, in addition to the Austrians, than in the proposed purchase of
increased vigour and activity in the government and army of this country:
you cannot buy what they have not to sell.