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 a 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, Barre, &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 L3000 per annum, Bank Stock, or a principal of L50,000, 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 eclat, 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.

[Footnote 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 manoeuvre. 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.