One considerable difficulty in regard to this proposition seems to be the influence which this loan might have upon their wish to regain the Low Countries—a wish which we already think too weak in their minds, and which would probably become weaker from the reflection that the income of those revenues was already mortgaged for a considerable sum. It was with a view to this that I dropped to them the notion of their giving a larger security, and asking a smaller loan, as well as complying with the requisitions of augmented force and British command. The general security you see they do consent to give; but, until I hear some more distinct explanation, I shall still fear that they mean to throw the whole security upon the Netherlands. They are still quarrelling more every day with everything that is Prussian: they have stopped a large magazine of blue cloth from Prussia to Switzerland, which they say they know is destined to France; and the King of Prussia threatens, in consequence, to stop some of their supplies in their passage to their armies. Thugut said of the King of Prussia to-day, with some truth and some humour, that all he wanted was to save the whole of his army, to conquer Poland without the loss of a man, and in reward to receive from us a pension of a million and a half per annum. If half that sum would purchase from him thirty thousand troops absolutely at our disposal, to make with British, Hessian and Dutch an army under English orders of one hundred thousand men, for the side of Holland; and that the other half—viz.: L700,000—given in the way of subsidy to Austria, could give it good heart to make a vigorous offensive campaign, I know not whether my inclinations would not lead me to the experiment; but their wants here are so great, and their resources, or at least their spirit and exertions, so reduced, that the prospect is certainly very discouraging. They seem full of new fears about the Turks, and express much expectation that our Minister at Constantinople will make great efforts to keep all quiet there.

I believe I told you there were apprehensions of the Poles, under Kosciusko, breaking with the Austrians. A small affair had taken place, but it is said to be amicably settled, and to be, for the present, safe on that side. We are anxiously expecting our permission to return; and I depend now upon seeing you so soon, that I will not unnecessarily protract this letter.

I know not who you are sending here; but we have taken great pains to keep alive in them here the most favourable dispositions that we could; and as far as appearances can be depended on—if the pecuniary demands were out of the question—nothing can be more promising than their general language and professions are, of earnestly desiring to establish the most intimate union between the two Courts.

God bless you, my dearest brother.

LORD MALMESBURY TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Frankfort, Oct. 2nd, 1794. DEAR GRENVILLE,

I have written to Lord Spencer all I have to write officially. I fear I have mixed up a little bile with my intelligence; but the times are bilious, and it is beyond the compass of my patience to see the great stake we are playing for lost by imbecility, treachery, and neglect, without betraying a few symptoms of discontent. It is really deplorable that we should be the only nation in Europe who are up to the danger of the moment, and that the minds of all the other Cabinets are either so tainted with false principles, or are so benumbed, that it is impossible to work upon them. It is manifest, from the most undoubted information, that the interior of France is in a state of the greatest disorder and confusion; that the successes of the armies are the only cause of this confusion not breaking out in the shape of a civil war; and that if we could at this moment obtain any one brilliant success, that the whole fabric would fall to pieces.

It is said that H. P. M. will come here, and that when he does come, things will take another turn. I doubt one and the other. Any means will be employed at Berlin to keep him there, and if these should not succeed, any means will be employed here to persuade him to approve all that has been done, and to follow up the same line of conduct. I know from experience the weakness of his character, and the facility with which he gives way to the last advice. I know also by experience that his assurances cannot be depended on, and that his conduct does not always correspond with his promises. It is from your mission and from your Court that I expect any good. I am free to confess (still under the influence of that vile thing called experience) that my hopes are not very sanguine.

Lord Howe is returned to Torbay. This is all I hear from England. Nobody writes to me, since everybody supposes me on the road. Mr. Braddye gave me your letter an hour ago, I will do all I can to make Frankfort pleasant to him, but this is almost as impossible as to make the Prussians act.

I probably shall be here still a fortnight. I will write again soon.

Ever yours most truly and sincerely, MALMESBURY.

The curious revelations that are made in the next letter respecting Ireland are of infinite value in enabling us to estimate correctly the events that afterwards took place in that country under Lord Fitzwilliam's government, and the circumstances which led to its abrupt termination. Two important facts are authenticated in this communication: the first, that Lord Fitzwilliam, before he assumed the government, and even before his appointment to it was advanced so far as the removal of his predecessor, had not only determined upon the introduction of a new system, involving extensive changes of policy and persons, but that he had made known his determination to the heads of that party in Ireland who had obstructed Lord Buckingham on the Regency question; and the second, that this determination was formed without any previous concert with Mr. Pitt and the Cabinet, and to a great extent in opposition to their known and avowed principles.

LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

(Private.) Dover Street, Oct. 15th, 1794. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

I think it probable that you may receive with this letter, others mentioning to you the unhappy misunderstanding which has clouded all our prospects, and which seems to threaten the worst consequences to that system, from the permanence of which I had looked, as you did, for the safety of this country, under all the difficulties of our present situation. Everything has continued up to this hour to go on in the most satisfactory manner, with the single exception of this unfortunate subject of Ireland, which now is brought to that sort of point which must, as I fear, unavoidably produce the immediate dissolution of the union, which we were both so anxious to maintain and perpetuate.

It would be difficult for me to give you an exact account how this mischief has originated, because I am of course ignorant of the manner in which the Duke of P. and Lord F. received the impressions, on which they appear to have acted. About the time I wrote my last letter to you, or rather earlier, reports came round to Pitt and myself that the party who had acted in opposition in Ireland, and particularly Ponsonby and Grattan, had held the strongest language respecting assurances received by them from the Duke of P. and Lord F., that the latter was immediately to be declared Lord-Lieutenant, that Mr. Pitt had given Ireland over entirely to them, and that a new system of measures and men was to be adopted. In these reports particular persons were mentioned as being to be dismissed, and amongst these the Chancellor. The only impression which these produced on my mind was, that Lord F. had talked too soon of his intended appointment, as it had been uniformly explained that he could not be named till some provision was found for Lord W., the fact being that when the latter went to Ireland he accepted that situation, on an express engagement that he should return to one not less advantageous than the Post-Office, which he then quitted. I imagined also that in his communications with persons, whose support to a new Government in Ireland we all wished to secure, he had been less guarded than he might have been, and had given in his conversation more way to ideas stated by them than it could be prudent to do. And in this impression I wrote to you, thinking all the rest to proceed only from the usual exaggeration of reports of this nature, particularly in Ireland; and feeling confident that before any measure was really determined upon, we should have an opportunity of discussing it fully, and of weighing the proposed advantages of it against the very great objections which naturally and at first sight occur.

Soon after this we heard that Lord F. had actually taken such steps in Ireland as marked his persuasion of his being immediately to be appointed, and as gave on that account great offence to Lord W., to whom no communication of that nature had yet been made on our part, because we saw no such opening as it would have been necessary to hold out to him when such communication was made.

While we were doubting what step it might be best to take on this subject, to avoid giving any ground of uneasiness or dissatisfaction, the Duke of P. wrote to Pitt to urge the immediate appointment of Lord F. as a thing already determined upon, and without taking any notice of the necessity of the previous arrangement for Lord W. This led to intercourse upon the subject, and it is only since that time that we have found ourselves apprized of all the difficulties of the subject, and of the extent of the misunderstanding which prevails respecting it.

It appears that Lord F. has (on whatever grounds) announced to his friends in Ireland his immediate destination for that country, in such a manner as makes him now think that his appointment cannot even be postponed without discredit to himself, and that he cannot any longer continue in the King's service in any other situation than that of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

If this difficulty stood alone, it would be sufficiently great. The principle on which Pitt had always acted in forming this junction, and the justification which he has used to those of his friends who disapproved or doubted about the measure, was, that he sacrificed to it the situation of none of the former Government, or its supporters; but that he used such openings as presented themselves, and such as he could create without removals, for the purpose of bringing into the public service a large and respectable description of persons, actuated by the same view as himself of the present state and circumstances of the country. Yet it hardly seems possible that, without breaking in upon this principle, Lord F. could now be appointed. I am, however, persuaded that if this had been the only difficulty, some expedient would have been found to remove it, though it is not easy to say what that expedient could have been. But certainly for such an object as the maintenance of a system on which the fate of the country seems so much to rest, great sacrifices would and ought to have been made.

But it now appears that the reports which had reached us were in a very great degree, if not indeed wholly, founded in the real truth of what had happened. There is, I fear, no reason to doubt that some of the very expressions I have mentioned have actually been used, and that Lord F. has pledged himself too far to recede, with respect to a total new system, both of men and measures. The first point of this system goes to no less than the dismission of the Chancellor, who was, as I understand, to be replaced by Adair. On this subject, Pitt and myself cannot but feel that the only ground on which the Ponsonbys can desire the Chancellor's removal, is the conduct he held during the Regency in support of Lord Buckingham's Government, and that our consent to such a step must therefore be utterly dishonourable and degrading to us. But independent of this consideration, it is my sincere opinion that there cannot be adopted any measure more certainly destructive of the peace and tranquillity of that country. The system of introducing English party into Ireland, the principle of connecting changes of Government here with the removal of persons high in office there, and particularly the marking that system in the instance of a person of Fitzgibbon's situation, weight, and character, are all so utterly irreconcilable with every view that I have of the state of that country, that I should really be inexcusable if I could make myself a party to such a measure; and in this opinion Pitt entirely concurs.

On every principle, therefore, of duty and character, we are obliged to say that we cannot consent to this step, and we can only regret that, if it was originally intended, so capital a feature in the new arrangement was not brought forward earlier. The same observation applies to the whole idea of holding out a new system of men and measures in Ireland. If that was meant before the junction was made, it ought surely to have been stated then, in order that we might judge whether it did not oppose an insurmountable bar to the whole scheme. If it has only been conceived since that period, it ought certainly to have been communicated and concerted here, before any pledge or assurance was given to individuals who might be concerned in it there.

When I say this, you must not suppose that there enters into our minds anything like warmth or resentment on the subject. The manner in which everything else has been conducted since we acted together, convinces me that the evil has arisen from precipitation and indiscretion, and not from any concerted plan of committing us, without our knowledge, to measures which we could not be supposed willing to adopt. And if it were still possible that the thing could be settled without discredit to either party, not only my sense of the public interest, but my personal feeling towards them, would make me think that no means ought to be left untried for that purpose. I am, however, obliged to confess to myself that I see no possibility of this. The publicity which has been given to the whole business seems to render it utterly impracticable. The assurances which have been given are well known, and the breach or performance of them must be discreditable to one of the two parties, for such, unfortunately, they now are again.

I never can enough regret your absence from this country while this has been going on. I am sure if you had been here the whole thing would have been avoided. As it is, what determination you will take respecting your own line I know not, and I feel myself too deeply interested in it to think myself a fair or competent adviser.

Nothing can be more unfortunate to the public interest than this incident; but the sense of it would certainly be very much aggravated to me if it were to lead, which I still hope it may not, to the placing us two again on different lines, and in opposite systems. Whatever you decide in that respect, I cannot help flattering myself that you will do justice to our conduct; and without calling upon you to condemn others, I cannot help entertaining the belief that you will think no part of this great misfortune imputable to us. With respect to my own personal opinions of the importance of forming and maintaining the union, you were, I am sure, enough a witness to them to make it very unnecessary for me, in writing to you, to dwell much on that point.

I have written this to you, though the thing has not yet taken its final turn, because any delay might possibly prevent your receiving it before your arrival here, for which I now look with increased impatience and anxiety.

God bless you, my dearest brother.

The weak point of the Government was its combination of opposite parties; and the consideration which finally determined the course of Ministers, was the necessity of preventing their differences from coming to an open rupture—a result that would have jeopardized the very existence of the Administration. With that paramount object in view, Lord Grenville, writing again to his brother, analyses the difficulties of the situation, and points out the only paths that could be opened to an honourable and creditable accommodation.

LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Dover Street, Oct. 24th, 1794. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

Since I wrote my last letter I have received yours, written the day of your leaving Vienna, and I calculate that this will probably find you at the Hague. Our situation, with respect to the point on which I wrote to you so much at large, has been a little, and but a little, improved by a conversation between the Duke of P. and Pitt. Nothing having since passed, we conclude that there is a desire to wait for the benefit of your opinion and Lord Spencer's upon this difficult and distressing subject—a desire in which I need not say we most heartily concur.

As far as anything can be concluded from a conversation which did not lead to any decisive issue, I hope that we have been too easily alarmed by Irish reports on the subject of a new system, and that, probably in the imagination of those who have first given rise to those reports, some loose and general expressions have been construed into pointed and specific assurances. Be this however as it may, it is certain that infinite mischief has already been done by the prevalence of those reports, and both the settlement of the points in discussion here, and the subsequent task of the future Governor of Ireland, whoever he may be, have been rendered much more difficult than they would have been if more reserve and caution had been used. It is, however, useless to regret what is past, and all our endeavours ought to be applied to remedy the present evil. I most anxiously wait for the moment of talking over with you the means of doing this, which I am confident every one concerned joins in wishing, though all are obliged to confess the difficulty of it.

Three points are to be considered—Has Lord F. still kept himself sufficiently open with respect to his engagements with Grattan and the Ponsonbys, as to be able to undertake the Irish Government with honour and satisfaction to himself, without displacing the old tenants of Government to make room for their opponents, and without giving to the Ponsonbys in particular more influence and power than belongs to their situation as one among several of the great connexions in that country? If not, there seems no hope of any permanent agreement on this subject, even if it were so patched up for the present as that he could go to Ireland. The next is whether it is possible for him to undertake the Government without insisting on the removal of Fitzgibbon? If this cannot be done, the thing must come to an immediate stop, as we are more and more convinced that we cannot in honour or duty accede to that measure. And lastly, supposing any or all of these considerations to oppose an insurmountable obstacle in the way of his going, ought that to prevent his continuing to hold his present situation? and can the Duke of P., Lord F., and others, be justified in bringing on the country the infinite mischiefs of the dissolution of the present united Government, on no stronger ground than because alterations, however desirable in their opinion, in the system of governing Ireland cannot be adopted.

I have said nothing in all this of the question about Lord Westmoreland's removal. I should readily agree with what you say in your last letter on that subject, that he ought to wait for a provision, if I did not see that even this is rendered more difficult by the eclat of what has happened. Still I should think he ought to forego his claim; but if he thinks otherwise, he has a positive promise, which of course cannot be broken. But I always feel a confidence that this point would in some manner be arranged, because I am sure that we should all be willing to make almost any sacrifice rather than let it be said by the enemy, that after having professed to unite on public principle, we had separated on a mere squabble about the distribution of places.

The other points are those from which I fear the most. It is, however, a satisfaction to me to think that I see on both sides (I know it exists on one) a very sincere and earnest desire to prevent the fatal consequences which a division amongst us, at such a moment as the present, must infallibly produce. And I can truly add that, on our part, this desire is increased by the manner in which everything else had gone on before this unhappy subject was started.

You are coming from a bad scene and to a bad scene; but we must hope the best, both at home and abroad, and at least we ought all to be quite sure that we can tell ourselves we have each done our best to prevent the misfortunes which seem to hang over us.

God bless you, my dearest brother.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dover Street, Oct. 30th, 1794. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

I received your letter the day before yesterday at Dropmore. Mr. Pitt, who had left me that morning, had shown me your letter to him, with respect to which I say nothing, as I understood he meant to write to you upon the subject. The whole business to which it relates is in a situation, the final issue of which is extremely doubtful. With my impression of the advantage, and even necessity, of uniting at this time in the public service the great bulk of the landed property of the country, and doing away all distinctions of party between those who wish the maintenance of order and tranquillity here, I shall very deeply regret, as a great public misfortune, any event that leads to the dissolution of a system so lately formed. But, on the other hand, I have certainly no intention of making myself a party to any system of government in Ireland that is incompatible with my views of the interest of this country there. And in any case, I certainly neither have, nor can take, as far as relates to myself, any step upon the subject which has its origin in any other motive than a sense of public duty under circumstances of much difficulty.

I considered the subject of my brother's acceptance of the situation offered to him in Ireland as being, as in fact he appears to have stated it to you, very undecided, even if any arrangement were made for Lord Fitzwilliam's going there. I could have no motive to keep it back from you, but felt it due to him to leave it to him to do what I was sure he would be anxious to do. The whole subject appears now in some degree suspended till his arrival. When I see him I should of course state to him, as far as I am able to do it, your ideas respecting it.

I am still of opinion that it will turn out that the alarm created in Ireland, and the impression given here has originated in very loose reports, magnified, as usual, by persons repeating them according to their interest and wishes; but I state this as matter of opinion only.

I expect my brother here every day. They left Vienna in the beginning of this month, without having concluded any treaty, though they seem to have established a juster sense of the present crisis than prevailed before.

Our Prussian ally has had his payments stopped, and is withdrawing his troops. In the meantime, the Empress of Russia has done his business, or rather her own, in Poland, the Polish army being completely defeated, and Kosciusko, who was the soul of the enterprise, taken prisoner.

God bless you, my dearest brother.

Believe me ever most affectionately yours, G.

The conduct of Lord Fitzwilliam had been reprehensible from the beginning. The suggestion of the Lord-Lieutenancy had scarcely taken a definite shape, when he opened a communication, as appeared afterwards, with the heads of the Irish party, and announced the system on which he intended to govern the country. In any case, such a proceeding would have been inexpedient and indefensible, its inevitable effect being to commit the policy of the Administration beforehand, to deprive it at once of all dignity and independence, and to revive those heart-burnings and dissensions which had already so nearly endangered the connection of the two kingdoms.

But, composed as the Cabinet was of men who were known to entertain different opinions in reference to Ireland, the premature and unwarrantable publicity given by Lord Fitzwilliam to his own views was calculated to precipitate still more injurious results. So far back as the 23rd of August, he had written to Mr. Grattan, who was then personally unknown to him, apprising him of his approaching appointment; and, in plain terms, calling in that gentleman and his party to his future councils. From the very first paragraph of his letter, it is evident that at the time when this ill-judged communication was made, the arrangements respecting the Lord-Lieutenancy had not advanced sufficiently far to justify him in taking any ostensible step whatever in reference to Ireland. His own language was abundantly explicit on this point: "Though I have not as yet the honour of an appointment to succeed Lord Westmoreland, there certainly is great probability of that event taking place very soon." Yet in this early stage of the ministerial negotiations, he did not hesitate to inform Mr. Grattan that he intended to look to "the system of the Duke of Portland, as the model," by which he should regulate his conduct; and that, in order to enable him to render that system effective, it was necessary he should be supported by Mr. Grattan and his friends. "It is, Sir, to you," he observes, "and your friends, the Ponsonbys, that I look for assistance in bringing it to bear," adding, "it is that assistance which I am therefore now soliciting." The letter concludes by inviting Mr. Grattan to form an "intimate, direct, and avowed connection" with the Castle, which he had never hitherto "approached in confidence and avowed friendship;" and in the postscript he gives Mr. Grattan this significant caution: "It may seem a little inconsistent, and that this letter is written rather prematurely, when I beg not to be quoted as having announced myself in the character of a Lord-Lieutenant elect; my nomination not having yet been mentioned to the King, on account of his absence at Weymouth."[C]

This indiscreet and unjustifiable line of proceeding placed the Ministry in a dilemma, from which the escape, either way, was surrounded by dangers. They selected that alternative which appeared, under all circumstances, to be the least hazardous; and on the 10th of December, Lord Fitzwilliam attended the levee to kiss hands on his appointment.

Mr. Thomas Grenville, however, declined the office of Secretary, which was conferred on Lord Milton.

[Footnote C: This letter is published in full in the Life of Mr. Grattan.]



1795.

LORD FITZWILLIAM'S ADMINISTRATION IN IRELAND.

The line of policy Lord Fitzwilliam intended to adopt was intimated at the opening of the Parliament in January. Mr. Grattan moved the Address in answer to the Speech; a little later Mr. Conolly withdrew his opposition to the prorogation in deference to the wishes of Government; and the old supporters of the Administration were displaced by the Ponsonbys and their connections. Remembering how all these men had acted in the Regency business, the obstructions they had thrown in the way of the public service, and the vindictive opposition they had given to his measures, Lord Buckingham was deeply wounded by the apparent sanction extended to this complete change of system, which he regarded as a disavowal of the course he had pursued in Ireland, and, in some sort, as a personal indignity. In his communications with Lord Grenville he stated his feelings on this subject without reserve. He considered that in assenting to the appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam, after the damaging disclosures that had taken place, the Cabinet had abandoned him to the obloquy of that party against whose inveterate hostility he had successfully preserved the executive union of the two kingdoms; and this consideration was embittered by the reflection that Lord Grenville, from his position in the Ministry, had contributed influentially to place him in that humiliating light before the public. Lord Buckingham, with his acute sense of what was due to his own honour, looked at the question from that point alone; but Lord Grenville, in the discharge of his responsibilities as a Cabinet Minister, was compelled to take a more comprehensive view of it. Whether he decided rightly or wrongly, there can be no doubt that he decided conscientiously, and that it was impossible he could resolve upon any conclusion likely to be painful to Lord Buckingham which his affection for him would not render equally painful to himself. But he felt at the same time that his duty demanded at his hands the sacrifice of his private feelings, and that this was a case in which any hesitation upon such grounds would be attended by the gravest consequences to the Administration. It may be seen, also, from the following letter, that he did not put the same construction upon these transactions as that which was so sensitively urged by Lord Buckingham. His more practical mind discerned in the irresistible necessity of the position a sufficient answer to all individual scruples; and maintaining, as he had stated in a former letter, that the security and repose of Ireland depended, not upon this or that set of men, which his observation of the character of the people and their politics had led him to regard with comparative indifference, but upon the soundness of the measures applied to her condition, he could not admit that the decision which had been come to with respect to Lord Fitzwilliam implied, even remotely, a disavowal of the line of conduct Lord Buckingham had so successfully pursued under totally different circumstances.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dover Street, Jan. 5th, 1795. MY DEAR BROTHER,

As I keep no copies of my letters to you, and have neither time enough, nor a mind sufficiently disengaged, to measure my expressions, nor have ever accustomed myself to do so in writing to you, all I can say on the subject of my last letter is, that if it conveyed to you any impression different from that of the sincere friendship and affection which dictated it, it very ill expressed my feelings.

With respect to the rest, I can only say that, to the best of my understanding, I have neither disavowed nor abandoned you, but given a very strong proof of my determination to do neither; that I cannot believe that any such impression exists anywhere; that not knowing the proofs of its existence, to which you refer, I can only guess at them, and I therefore forbear to make upon them the remarks to which, if my conjecture is right, they are so obviously liable. But that I am at a loss even to guess at the meaning of that part of your letter, which speaks of proofs laying before you of some compact made on this subject above twelve months since, not having, in my own mind, the smallest idea of the fact to which this can refer.

Having never had any intention to disavow you, or to consent to any system or measure to which I thought you could wish to object, it was impossible for me to make to you any previous communication of such intention.

The detail of all that passed respecting Lord Fitzwilliam's appointment would be too long to go into now; and I have reason to believe that you are not unacquainted with many of the circumstances which would prove how very little idea there was of concealment or mystery on my part respecting that subject. From the first moment that you stated to me that you considered the idea of giving to the Ponsonbys a share of office in Ireland as a measure injurious to you, I explained to you my reasons for viewing it in a different light. But I anxiously reconsidered the object in my own mind, and I then acted, as I was bound to do, on my deliberate and fixed opinion respecting a point which, in either view of it, was of much too great public importance to make it possible for me to decide it merely on the desire I must ever feel to consult your wishes in preference to my own. Which of us is right in our view of this question, it is not for me to say. The motives and grounds of my opinion remain the same; and I see with regret that they do not make on your mind the impression they have made on mine.

It would be a painful and invidious task to discuss the question further; but I cannot receive from you a letter in which you tell me that you feel you have lost my affection, without repeating to you the assurance, which I still hope is not indifferent to you, that this is not, in the smallest degree, the case. I have intended to do nothing towards you but what should be the most kind and affectionate. I think I have so acted; but I am sure that I have so meant to act. If any contrary impression produces in your mind any feelings different from those which have made so great a part of my happiness throughout life, I shall deeply regret what seems to be annexed as a curse inseparable from the pursuit of a public life; but I will once more beg you to be assured that neither those feelings on your part, nor anything which they can produce, will vary my sincere and heartfelt affection towards you, and that whether my judgment has been right, as I still think it has, or wrong, as you think it, my heart is, and shall be, uniformly and invariably the same towards you.

It is with these sentiments that I shall ever be, my dearest brother,

Most sincerely and affectionately yours, GRENVILLE.

Lord Fitzwilliam had scarcely arrived in Ireland when he collected about him the party with whom he had been in previous communication, and commenced his new system by a series of dismissals of the former supporters of Mr. Pitt's Government. Announcing his conviction that the immediate concession of the Catholic claims was indispensable to the tranquillity and security of the country, he followed up his objects with a vigour and expedition that created considerable alarm in England. The Attorney-General was to be displaced, to make way for Mr. George Ponsonby; the Solicitor-General was also to be removed, and Mr. Beresford, who was Purse-bearer to the Chancellor, and Mr. Cooke, Secretary at War, were to be dismissed. The dismissal of Mr. Beresford was regarded as a measure of such extreme violence that it brought matters to an issue between Lord Fitzwilliam and the Cabinet. Some letters at this time from Mr. Cooke to Lord Buckingham present a striking coup d'oeil of these affairs, as they appeared to one who was deeply interested in their progress. Lord Fitzwilliam, it should be observed, arrived in Ireland on the 5th of January, and the rapidity of his official movements may be inferred from the date of the first of the following letters, which was written only ten days afterwards.

MR. COOKE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dublin Castle, Jan. 15th, 1795. MY DEAR LORD,

As it was through your Lordship's kind and affectionate partiality that I was placed in the War Office, I think it my duty to give you the earliest information of my removal.

Since Lord Fitzwilliam's arrival, I have merely seen his Excellency at levee. With his chief secretary, Lord Milton, I have daily transacted official business, without a syllable passing of a nature in any degree confidential. The removal of Mr. Beresford, of the Attorney and Solicitor-General, had created alarms; but there were assurances from an English quarter that Mr. Hamilton and I were not to be meddled with.

The reverse has taken place. About four o'clock to-day, Lord Milton conveyed to Mr. Hamilton his Excellency's pleasure that he should retire from office, with a desire that Mr. Hamilton should state his situation after removal, as it was his Excellency's intention to make him a provision.

About half an hour after, Lord Milton sent for me, and delivered a similar message; stating, upon conversation, that his Excellency did not in any degree mean to reflect upon my conduct, but that my retirement was necessary for his arrangements, and that he was disposed to make me a fair provision; at the same time, upon conversation, his Lordship intimated that it was possible his Excellency might differ as to the provision which I might expect and he might think reasonable.

I have thought it my duty to submit these particulars to your Lordship. From your Lordship I received my office; the Government with which you have been connected I have supported to my utmost; and I have the happiness to feel assured that I shall ever retain your Lordship's kindness and regards till I cease to deserve it.

Believe me, my dear Lord, with the utmost respect, Ever your most devoted and humble servant, E. COOKE.

The Most Noble the Marquis of Buckingham, &c. &c.



MR. COOKE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

(Most Private.) Dublin, Sackville Street, Feb. 7th, 1795. MY LORD,

I am to thank your Lordship for your most friendly and flattering letter; and as you seem curious to know the feelings of myself and colleagues on our removals, as well as the nature of our compensations, I will endeavour to detail them as well as I can.

With respect to Mr. Wolf, the first act was to claim the reversion recommended for him by Lord Westmoreland, and promised above a year ago by Mr. Pitt, and which the King had actually signed, as a measure for negotiation. Wolf in vain argued that the reversion was not a subject for negotiation. They offered him a Peerage for his wife, and a Chief Judge's place. Wolf, in addition, asked precedency at the Bar. After some days, the precedency was refused, and the promise of a Chief Judge's place was retracted. Wolf insisted on the promise. He was threatened that if he insisted, he should be superseded. He did insist, and the promise was at length renewed, in case a vacancy should happen.

Mr. Wolf gains nothing but the Peerage for his wife, for the reversion was actually his own, and had been signed by the King; the promise of a Chief Justiceship is very precarious, and he is degraded in his profession.

Mr. Toler, having in his pocket the promise of succeeding to the Attorney-Generalship, is to be superseded for Mr. Curran. He has asked for a Peerage to his wife, and for the succession to Lord Carleton. Upon his first demand, nothing has been said to him; upon his second, it has been intimated that he may look for any seat on the Bench short of Chief Justiceship. Your Lordship must guess that Mr. Toler feels himself gratified, especially when he recollects that, after having boldly and manfully, at the risk of his person, set himself against all the seditious and levellers in and out of the House, he is sacrificed to make way for Mr. Curran, who has been the most seditious incendiary in Ireland ever since he became a public character.

Mr. Beresford your Lordship may have probably seen. He, it seems, was dismissed because he was king of Ireland, as Bowes Daly authoritatively informed him in his Excellency's name. The object with respect to him was to publicly degrade him, give him a provision during pleasure, then attack him, and have a pretext to ruin him, if he should defend himself with spirit. He has been acquainted that, in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Commons, he is to have his salary of L2000 a-year on Excise Incidents—not for his services, but his long and laborious attendance. The attempt has been to stigmatize him, to degrade him, and to make him dependent. I hope the last will not be the case—the two former cannot.

Mr. Hamilton had merely fifty years of the most laborious and faithful service to plead, under all Administrations, whether adverse to each other or combined. He loses L1200 a-year by removal; he loses the comforts of settlement, he loses the prospect of providing for his sons; he is, however, informed that something will be done for one of them!

I am equally removed from a station of much advantage and opportunity. If I do not resort to my bargain with Thornton, I lose L1800 a-year; if I do, I lose L1300 a-year. I am told that I am not to expect compensation for my losses, but that his Excellency, on review of my situation, will make compensation for my services. As, however, Lord Milton was pleased to state to me that his Excellency did not mean to cast in any degree any imputation on my conduct, and that he removed me merely on the principle of accommodation, and to make room for arrangements which he thought necessary for his Government, I thought it my duty to claim compensation, not for my services, but for my losses, and to throw myself upon his Excellency's justice and honour.

I have heard that my having ventured not to appear satisfied in my dismissal, has given offence; and it has been intimated, though not from authority, that there is not an intention to compensate me at all, but merely to indemnify Thornton for what, by agreement, he is in honour obliged to pay me.

When Lord Fitzwilliam seized upon the Provostship and the Secretaryship of State, the patronage of which absolutely belonged to Lord Westmoreland, his Lordship was obliged to forced measures, in order to extricate himself from specific promises; he therefore, on this principle, included Lord Glentworth in Sir L. O'Brien's patent of Clerk of the Hanaper. Sir L. lately died. Lord Glentworth felt the luckiest of men; in a few days, Lord Fitzwilliam sent for him, and acquainted him that he could not suffer him to remain in that office; that, however, he had a high respect for him; that he had been particularly recommended to him by Mr. Pitt, and that he should hope to do something for him. The Duke of Leinster, being very hungry, has swallowed the office.

With regard to coalition here, or the slightest appearances of it, there are none. Parnell is the only old servant of the Crown who is at all consulted, and he only so far as concerns his situation. The whole is very strange. The Ponsonbys are all-powerful, and appear to direct everything. I know not at all what measures are intended, or whether an opposition will start up; but the giving up all the powers of the State to one family does not please.

The idea of removing all the remaining restraints from the Catholics is not relished; the worst is, that an appeal has been made to the Catholic democracy, and I know they are not to be depended upon; they look to the abolition of tythes and a reform of Parliament on numerical principles. Ever since the first movements of the Roman Catholic Committee, the lower classes have been in a state of fermentation, and they continue their disorders and insurrections.

I write this confidentially, and beg your Lordship to accept my best acknowledgments for your kind sentiments.

Ever most respectfully, your Lordship's most faithful and obedient servant,

E. COOKE.

The result of Lord Fitzwilliam's vigorous attempts to force upon the Cabinet a line of policy which reason and justice alike rejected, is well known. A Cabinet Council was called on the 19th of March, for the purpose of taking the whole subject into consideration, when it was unanimously resolved to recal Lord Fitzwilliam "as a measure necessary for the preservation of the empire." The most remarkable incident connected with this proceeding was the fact that the Duke of Portland, upon whose "system" Lord Fitzwilliam had based his operations, and who was supposed, all throughout, to have supported him in them, was present at this meeting of the Cabinet, and concurred in its decision.

But Lord Fitzwilliam had not done with Ireland yet. On his return to England, he brought the subject before the House of Lords and demanded an inquiry, which was refused. On this occasion some letters which had been addressed by him to Lord Carlisle were published, and in one of them "imputed malversations" were attributed to Mr. Beresford. In consequence of this statement, Mr. Beresford addressed the following letter to his Lordship:

MR. BERESFORD TO THE EARL FITZWILLIAM.

No. 11, Beaumont Street, June 22nd, 1795. MY LORD,

Your Lordship must have seen two letters to the Earl of Carlisle, which have been published in your name, and in general circulation. I have for a long time hoped, that they would be disavowed or explained by your Lordship; I was unwilling to suppose that such a publication had ever been sanctioned by you; I could not bring myself to believe, that your Lordship, possessing the feelings of a man, and the honour of a gentleman, could avail yourself of the power and the trust which had been committed to you by His Majesty, wantonly to traduce a private character, by insinuations expressed in terms so vague and unqualified, as to make it impossible publicly to refute them. From the rank which you hold in society, I must presume, if you thought it your duty to impeach my conduct as a servant of the Crown, you would have adopted the fair and manly course of advancing direct and specific charges against me, which must have led to my conviction, if they had been founded. Direct and specific charges I could fairly have met and refuted; but crooked and undefined insinuations against private character, through the pretext of official discussion, your Lordship must allow are the weapons of a libeller.

The publication in question, states that you recommended my removal from office, "because I was a person under universal heavy suspicions, subject to the opprobrium and unpopularity attendant on maladministration and much imputed malversation." The aspersions contained in this paragraph, are so utterly ungrounded, so unprovoked, unmanly, illiberal, and false, that I could not believe your Lordship could have meant to apply them to a gentleman, by birth your equal, and I will tell you, of reputation as unsullied as your own at any period of your life; there is no charge, however monstrous, of which the idea is not here conveyed; and yet there is none to which the paragraph points directly, so as to afford an opportunity for vindication.

Your Lordship will, I trust, feel the justness of the warmth with which I express myself on those aspersions of my character; and that when I give the lie to such aspersions, I give it upon reasonings as essential to your honour, as they are to mine; and if anything were wanting to induce me to believe that your Lordship will concur with me in this opinion, I should be satisfied of it, from the communications which were made to me by persons authorized to convey your Lordship's sentiments upon my projected removal from the Board of Revenue, and from the official communication made to me by Lord Milton on the same subject.

Considerations of domestic calamity might sufficiently explain the silence I have hitherto observed; but in other respects I should have been unwilling perhaps to have addressed you sooner. I would not appear to avoid any inquiry into my conduct, which insinuations originating from such high authority might be expected to provoke; it became me, therefore, to await with patience the result of the discussions respecting Irish affairs which were taking place in both Parliaments, and even until the close of the session had shown that it was not your Lordship's intention, nor that of either House, to take any further step in the business. I cannot now repent of my own forbearance, as it served, at least, to bring forward testimonies most highly honourable to me, from many individuals of the first weight and character in the age in which we live; these testimonies having been so repeatedly and so publicly urged in your Lordship's presence, and without contradiction on your part, cannot but have convinced you, that you had formed a wrong judgment respecting me, or that you had been deceived by others; in either case, I am entitled to hope and to presume that you will render to me, and to my character, that justice which one man of honour has a right to expect from another.

I have the honour to be, Your most obedient and humble servant, BERESFORD.

Earl Fitzwilliam.

To this letter Lord Fitzwilliam transmitted the following reply:

EARL FITZWILLIAM TO MR. BERESFORD.

Milton, June 23rd, 1795. SIR,

I had the honour of receiving your letter of the 22nd this morning. The letters you allude to, were written by me to Lord Carlisle; and those printed, though not printed by my direction, at my desire, or with my privity, I believe to be substantially copies of the letters I sent to Lord Carlisle; and certainly are so with respect to the quotation in your letter to me, which, therefore, I cannot permit any person whatever to charge with falsity.

It is difficult for me to leave this place abruptly (domestic considerations require a little management); but I will be in London in the course of a few days, where I trust I may rely upon your remaining for the present.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient and very humble servant, WENTWORTH FITZWILLIAM.

Rt. Hon. John Beresford.

In consequence of this letter Mr. Beresford sent his friend Mr. Montgomery to Lord Fitzwilliam, who refused to enter into any explanation. The usual arrangements were then made for a hostile meeting, Lord Townshend acting as the second of Mr. Beresford, and Lord Moira attending Lord Fitzwilliam. When the parties met upon the ground, however, at Kensington, the duel was prevented by the interference of a peace officer.

The correspondence of Lord Grenville with Lord Buckingham appears to have been suspended during the greater part of the year, but it was resumed towards its close. By this time the allies were gradually retrieving their losses.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Pall Mall, Nov. 12th, 1795. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

You will receive by this post the "Gazette," with the account of the late successes of the Austrians. These accounts came in yesterday at so many detached periods, and that circumstance, with others, occupied every moment so completely, as to make it really impossible for me to send you any detail of them by the post. I enclose for your better understanding the "Gazette," a Prussian map of the siege of Mentz, when the French occupied it. The position of the French in this business has been very nearly the same with that of the allies, as marked in this plan.

Craufurd's account of the successes is certainly understated, but particularly in what relates to the loss of the French; because, besides the killed and wounded—the number of which all the private accounts state to have been exceedingly great (as it must be in that precipitate retreat)—the enemy have lost very great numbers by desertion.

No doubt is entertained of our having Manheim very soon. I am not sanguine enough to hope that Pichegru will stay to be surrounded by Clerfage, who is marching up the left bank of the Rhine, or that he will suffer the latter to force him to a battle, which he may so easily avoid by retreating towards his own frontier, now covered by Landau, Luxembourg and Tours, &c., &c. The disappointment of the French projects, and the destruction of so great a part of the army which had been employed in them, are therefore, I fear, the chief advantages we shall reap from these successes, except in what relates to the impression produced here and on the continent, the effect of which is almost beyond calculation.

Our Bills are going triumphantly through the two Houses. The general impression of the House of Commons was, I understand, as favourable as it could possibly be, and you need not be told what the feelings of the House of Lords are on this subject. We shall not have Pitt's Bill up till after the call. If you should not then be in town, I should much wish you to send your proxy; and if you have no objection to do so, and had rather put it in my hands than any other, I will disengage myself in the interim from one of those I now hold.

What have you done about our meeting? Shall I attend it or not? Let me know which you wish, and I will do accordingly.

Ever most affectionately yours, G.

I should be much obliged to you to return my map when you have done with it, as I keep all these historical maps that fall in my way.



1796.

THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR SUSTAINED BY REPEATED MAJORITIES IN PARLIAMENT—MR. BURKE'S SCHOOL FOR THE EDUCATION OF EMIGRANT CHILDREN—BUONAPARTE APPOINTED TO THE COMMAND IN ITALY—LORD MALMESBURY'S MISSION TO PARIS.

The motion for negotiations with France had been again brought forward towards the close of the last session of Parliament, and was again negatived. Mr. Pitt still insisted upon the impossibility of France being enabled to prosecute the war, with her finances in a state of ruin, and seven hundred and twenty millions of assignats in circulation. Great changes had undoubtedly taken place. The National Assembly had been dissolved, and a regular form of Government established in its place; and although at that time Mr. Pitt rejected the idea of proposing any terms of peace to the Republic, he admitted without hesitation that if the new Government were put into activity with the acquiescence of the nation, so as that the voice of the people could be heard through their representatives, all obstacles and objections to negotiation would be removed. Thus the question stood at the close of the year 1795.

The subject was renewed at the opening of the session in 1796, with the same result. Mr. Pitt resolved it at once into a question of confidence in Ministers. If the House thought that confidence could not be safely vested in them, the proper course was to address His Majesty to remove them. He still maintained that the French had exhausted their means of carrying on the war; and that, with respect to negotiations for peace, the point to be considered was the probability of obtaining just and honourable terms, which, it was evident from their public declarations, the French were not disposed to admit. The confidence of Parliament in the wisdom and discretion of Ministers was unequivocally testified in the large majority by which the motion was rejected.

Failing to attain their object in this direct form, the Opposition resorted to other means of harassing the Administration. In a motion on the state of the nation, Mr. Grey entered into an examination of the financial condition of the country, exposing the enormous expenditure and heavy taxation entailed by the war, at a time when a more discreet patriotism would have avoided such details. He showed that during the three preceding years seventy-seven millions had been added to the funded debt, and that, in addition to the parliamentary grants, upwards of thirty-one millions had been expended without the consent of Parliament. Notwithstanding these disclosures, however, Mr. Pitt proposed a second loan of seven millions and a half for the prosecution of the war, which the House immediately acceded to.

In both Houses, the efforts of the Opposition to overthrow the Administration were followed up with indefatigable activity in the shape of condemnatory resolutions and motions of addresses to the Throne; and in all instances they were defeated by overwhelming majorities. The session terminated in the middle of May, when Parliament was dissolved by proclamation, His Majesty thanking both Houses emphatically for the uniform wisdom, temper, and firmness by which their proceedings had been characterised.

The destitute condition of the French emigrants who sought an asylum in England on the breaking out of the Revolution, and whose numbers were continually increasing, excited universal commiseration. The attention of Government was earnestly directed to the means of providing for them, and measures were adopted for giving the utmost efficacy to the public sympathy. Amongst the persons who interested themselves actively on their behalf were the Marquis of Buckingham and Mr. Burke. The object to which they mainly addressed their exertions was the education of emigrant children whose fathers had perished in the convulsions of their country, or who were unable to obtain instruction for them. The forlorn situation of these friendless children, in a country with whose language they were unacquainted, had attracted the notice of Mr. Burke, with whom the project originated, and who applied to Government in the first instance for assistance to enable him to carry out his charitable design. The appeal was liberally responded to. A house was taken and fitted up for the purpose in Buckinghamshire, at Penn, near Beaconsfield, the residence of Mr. Burke; and, by an order of the Treasury, the Duke of Portland, the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Buckingham, Mr. Burke, and others were appointed trustees for the management of the school, which had been established in the first instance by Mr. Burke at his own expense. The following interesting letter from Mr. Burke contains some particulars concerning this institution, which had just been opened. The "clean and not unpleasing" costume spoken of by the writer consisted of a blue uniform which he had assigned to the boys, with a white cockade bearing the inscription of "Vive le Roi." Those boys who had lost their fathers were distinguished by a bloody label, and the loss of uncles was marked in a similar manner by a black one. At this time Mr. Burke had the sole management of the school, and watched over its progress with unabated solicitude to the end of his life. The Commission nominated by the Government had not, it appears, been communicated to him, and he justly complains to his correspondent of the embarrassing position in which the oversight, or neglect, had placed him. The Marquis of Buckingham took a warm interest in the education and welfare of the boys, and, as a means of fostering a martial and loyal spirit amongst them, made them a present of a pair of colours and a brass cannon, which were exhibited with great pride and exultation on all public occasions.

MR. BURKE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

May 24th, 1796. MY DEAR LORD,

Having received no answer to my last letter, I persuade myself there was nothing in it to displease you; otherwise your general politeness and your kind partiality to me would have led you to give me such instructions as might prevent me from falling into errors in the delicate business in which, under your countenance and with your approbation, I have engaged myself.

We look forward with a pleasure, mixed with some degree of impatience, to the visit which your Lordship and Lady Buckingham have flattered us with the hope of, though I am afraid the heat of the general election will be over before we can enjoy that satisfaction.

I think, however unfortunate I may find myself in all my attempts to please the Bishop of Leon, that your Lordship and Lady Buckingham will feel the same pleasing and affecting interest in what is done here, that all have been touched with who see what is going on. You will be pleased with the celerity, if not with the perfection, of our work. Five-and-forty beds are ready; the rest will be so in a very few days. An old bad stable is converted into an excellent school-room. The chapel is decent, in place and in furniture. The eating-room is reasonably good. Twenty-five boys are received, clad in a cleanly and not unpleasing manner, and they are fed in an orderly way, with a wholesome and abundant diet. The masters are pleased with their pupils; the pupils are pleased with their preceptors; and I am sure I have reason to be pleased with them all. I see them almost every day, and at almost all hours; as well at their play as at their studies and exercise. I have never seen finer boys, or more fit for the plan of education I mean to follow for them, as long as it pleases the Government to continue that charge in my hands. I am responsible, that if they are left to me for six months, a set of finer lads, for their age and standing, will not be seen in Europe.

The only unfortunate part of the business is, that some of them speak not a word of English, and they who are the most forward in it are very imperfect. There is but one of the masters who can be said to know anything of it, and he is far indeed from the ability to teach it. There must be a person who, besides going with them through all their Latin readings and construing them into English, will daily converse with them, and ground them in the principles and the utterance of that tongue which belongs to the nation which alone promises them an asylum upon earth. For many reasons, I should prefer a clergyman of their own persuasion, and of our country. But though I have always known that their number was small, I did not conceive it to be so inconsiderable as I now find it. But some English subject must be found to be about these boys at all hours. It would be a terrible thing to condemn these poor creatures to an universal exile, and to be perpetual vagrants, without a possibility of being in a state of effectual communication with the natives of any country or incorporating themselves with any people. God forbid that, under the pretext of a benefit, I should be the cause of their utter ruin.

The Bishop of Leon has written me a letter which, in my present state of health (by no means the best), gives me a good deal of uneasiness. Hitherto, I have received the boys without any inquiry, as they were successively sent to me by the worthy prelate; considering them as the objects of his selection amongst the candidates for this situation. To my astonishment, in a letter which I received from him last Saturday he tells me that all the vacancies are filled: but that he has had nothing in the world to do with the matter, and that he is no more than a simple clerk. Your Lordship will see by the letters that I have the honour to enclose for your perusal, that after filling up all the places, the pleasure of rejecting the rest of the candidates is reserved for me. He has contrived matters so, that others have all the grace of obliging, and all the pleasure of being useful; and that all which is harsh and odious is thrown upon me, as a reward for all the trouble and expense I have been at in this business. On this I shall make no further remark.

By the letters, your Lordship will see that the Bishop of Leon tells the applicants, that the selection is to be made by certain Lords Commissioners. I never have been apprised by the Bishop of the existence of any Commission, or of any Commissioners for the purpose of a choice. If such a thing at all exists, I should have flattered myself that I should have been apprised of it; of their rules, of its proceedings, and of the times of its sitting. I believe I am the very first person who, having had the honour of proposing a plan to Government, and being permitted to have the management of it, have been kept wholly out of the secret of the appointment of its objects. The name of every boy sent to me was unknown to me to the moment of his arrival; the names of those who are to come are equally unknown. Not one circumstance relative to any of them is come to my knowledge. The poorest country schoolmaster would have been favoured with some better account of his pupils.

I must beg leave to remark to your Lordship, that the account given by the Bishop of Leon to the applicants is wholly different from that which he gives to me. In his two last letters to me (one, and the most explicit, of which I received just now) he tells me that the selection and nomination is not in any Commissioners, but solely in your Lordship, and that he is no more than a clerk. If I had not received it from so good an authority, I could hardly have believed that your Lordship, upon a mere abstract of petitions, without further examination, or any consultation, even with the Bishop of Leon, should have decided upon sixty out of perhaps fourscore applications. But, as I am sure you always act with equity and discretion, I am perfectly satisfied in your having assumed this very delicate and critical of all trusts. I only wish that I had been apprised of your Lordship's having taken on you that office, as, though I should not have ventured to recommend a single person, I really think I might, with all humility, have made some useful suggestions, which your desire of all matters being before you, that might guide you to a sure decision, would make you willing to receive, even from a person so very inconsiderable as I am in every point of view.

I am sure your Lordship wishes that, in the very reprehensible situation in which I stand, I may be able to give some sort of account of my trust; and when I have engaged with Government for the education of sixty boys, I ought to know at whose hands, on what authority, and on whose recommendation I receive them. Certainly they are not recommended or chosen by me; and when I go to the Treasury, and tell the Minister who issues the money to me (whenever it shall be issued) that I have employed it in the maintenance and the education of those whom I do not myself know, nor can tell in any regular and authorised manner from whom I received them, I should make a very despicable, not to say a criminal figure. I cannot take your Lordship's pleasure from the Bishop of Leon; though he tells me he is (not your Lordship's friend and adviser) but your clerk, as you have never informed me of this his relation to you. I therefore, for my voucher and justification, request that you will be pleased (the Committee and the Bishop absolutely disclaiming all choice) to send me a list of the names, circumstances and description of the boys whom you send to me, or have sent, together with a certificate, that having duly examined into the several claims and pretensions of the candidates, you have found these the best entitled.

When I have received this attestation as my authority and voucher, far from cavilling at either the person naming, or the names, I shall receive them most cheerfully; happy that your Lordship having generously and nobly taken to yourself the election, these objects have obtained security for a powerful protection, to place them, as successively they shall be qualified, in some way useful to themselves and to the public. I shall take care that they do no dishonour to your patronage; at least to the moment in which (having received them from your hands) I deliver them back into the same benevolent and protecting safeguard.

My dear Lord, have the goodness to excuse the length of this letter, on account of the weight of my responsibility and the very difficult situation in which I stand.

Mrs. Burke begs leave to join me in the most truly respectful compliments to Lady Buckingham, and if we may be permitted, on very little acquaintance, to Lord and Lady Temple. No persons can more sincerely wish, than we do, all kind of honour and happiness to you and all that belong to you.

I have the honour to be, with the most perfect respect and affection,

My dear Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient and faithful humble servant, EDM. BURKE.

The name of Buonaparte appears for the first time in this Correspondence in the month of August. Supported by the patronage of Barras, whose confidence in his talents and activity were so conspicuously justified by the results, he had recently been appointed to the command of the army of Italy, now augmented by large reinforcements. He was at this period only twenty-six years of age, and had never seen a regular engagement; but his genius inspired the highest hopes, and his extraordinary success gave a completely new aspect to the war.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, Aug. 14th, 1796. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

I was extremely sorry to hear so indifferent an account of your health, but I hope the worst of the attack is now over. I return you the letter from this unfortunate King, whose restoration to the throne of his ancestors is now, at least, as remote as that of Charles II. ever was—I fear, indeed, a great deal more so. I have heard no more particulars of the attempt to assassinate him, than the account which the Duke de Harcourt showed me, and which was the same which they afterwards put into the newspapers.

The Prince of Hohenlohe's language has always had a leaning to the side of Austria and England; but long experience has satisfied me that, from a Prussian General, language of this sort means no more than to describe to which party in the Berlin politics he may happen to be inclined. We have, however, now made a last effort to ascertain this point, but with very little expectation of success.

I do not wonder that the Navy should wish for a Spanish war, nor that they should be the only set of men in England who do so. I trust it may still be avoided, though the result is certainly very doubtful when treating with such a Court. The distribution of our limited number of sailors, into ships of the line and frigate force, is a very nice and delicate question; but as far as I can flatter myself that I understand it—which is not very much—I have always inclined more to the latter, and I think the experience of this war is in favour of that opinion. The same circumstances would surely operate still more strongly in the case of a war with Spain, whose commerce offers more prise than that of France, and whose line-of-battle force, even separately—and still more if united with French ships—can never be put in competition with ours, ship for ship, or anything approaching to it.

There is an account of a successful sortie from Mantua, in which the French have lost fifteen hundred men; but I do not yet know the particulars, the despatches being gone to Weymouth. The Archduke is at Donawert, or at least looking to that position, which is a strong one, if his army was not dispirited. The reinforcement sent to Italy has hitherto operated very fatally upon the campaign. It remains to be seen what effect it will produce against Buonaparte's army. But it is evidently too late to prevent the plunder of Italy—the great object of that expedition.

Ever, my dear brother, Most truly and affectionately yours, G.

Pray let me remind you of the sheep; though just now my pastures look rather brown, and will, I fear, give them a bad impression of the fare which they will have.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Sept. 24th, 1796. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

We have again a report, which seems worthy of credit, of an action at Montauban, on the 14th, previous to Jourdan's crossing the Rhine, at Neuwied, in which he was totally defeated, and lost all his cannon, &c. This seems to accord so well with dates and places, that I have little doubt of the truth. It therefore only remains to see what will become of Moreau. If he is dispatched, and that quickly, there will be time and means to make Buonaparte suffer severely for his late advanced move.

On the whole, the situation is, to be sure, very much improved within these few weeks, but there is still enough for serious alarm. The Directory has sent us the most insolent answer that can be conceived; but as the substance of it is in some degree ambiguous with respect to the main question of granting or refusing the passport, it has been thought better not to leave a loop-hole or pretence to them, or their adherents here, to lay upon us the breaking the business off. Another note is therefore to be sent to-day, by a flag of truce from Dover, in which the demand of the passport is renewed in such terms as seem most likely to bring that point to a distinct issue, ay or no. In other times, this last step would have been not only superfluous, but humiliating; in the present moment, the object of unanimity here in the great body of the country, with respect to the large sacrifices they will be called upon to make, is paramount to every other consideration.

I am extremely anxious to find that the plan in question may appear practicable. The advantages of it would be infinite.

Ever most affectionately yours, G.

The nature of the efforts which were making in England to sustain the war may be partially inferred from the following letter. Lord Grenville, it will be seen, notes with a mark of admiration a subscription of L100,000 from the Duke of Bedford. The circumstance was singular and significant, the Duke of Bedford having all along taken a leading part in the House of Lords in opposition to hostilities, and in calling for votes of censure and opprobrium upon the Ministry. He had been the chief mover of all those resolutions that protested against the expenditure to which the country had been put for the maintenance of the war, and now he was one of the largest of the voluntary subscribers to a fund for its continuance.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, Dec. 2nd, 1796. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

I have been followed here to-night by a letter, to mention that above twelve millions are already subscribed to the loan, and that it may very probably be full to-morrow, so that I had no time to lose in doing what of course the public will expect from me. I have therefore desired that L10,000 may be subscribed to-morrow in my name; and I imagine that by getting Coutts to advance the two first payments, and transferring the stock, at whatever loss, the moment it is transferable, I shall be able me tirer d'affaire, better than I had hoped. It was my intention to have written to you to-morrow, to let you know what other persons in your sort of situation and class had done; but what I have now heard, makes me think that I ought to send to you without delay, in order that you may know how the thing stands, and of course afterwards judge for yourself whether to do anything, and what.

The only names that have been mentioned to me, except among my colleagues, are the Duke of Bridgewater and the Duke of Bedford! each L100,000, and Lord Romney and Lord Carrington each L40,000, besides L100,000, which the house of Smith and Co. subscribe as bankers.

Lord Spencer, Lord Liverpool, Pitt and Dundas, subscribe L10,000, as I have done; the two last will, I believe, have still more difficulty in finding it than I shall.

You will, of course, not imagine that by sending to you in this manner, I have the least idea of saying or suggesting to you to do anything but what may have occurred to yourself, but I thought you would naturally expect to hear these particulars from me.

Other news I have none. There was a report yesterday that Kehl was surprised by the Austrians, but I could not trace it to any certain source.

God bless you, my dear brother.

The time had now arrived when the English Cabinet believed that an attempt might be made to negotiate for peace, without compromising its honour. In the preceding March, the ambassador to the Helvetic States had been authorized to inquire of the Government of France, through the medium of their representative, whether they were disposed to entertain such a negotiation. The answer was so unsatisfactory, laying down as a peremptory condition the retention of all those conquests which, during the course of the war, had been annexed to the republic, that nothing more was then done in the matter. The subject was resumed in September, and, the Directory having signified their readiness to grant passports to any persons who should be furnished with full powers and official papers, Lord Malmesbury was appointed as plenipotentiary on the part of His Britannic Majesty to treat for peace with the French Republic. On the 22nd of October his Lordship announced to M. de la Croix, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, his arrival in Paris in that capacity. The negotiations occupied nearly two months, and the main point of difficulty turned upon the Netherlands, Lord Malmesbury, who acted strictly on his instructions, making the restoration of the Netherlands a sine qua non, and M. de la Croix repeatedly stating that this difficulty was one which could not be overcome. The negotiations had arrived at that stage which made this insuperable difficulty perfectly clear and unmistakeable on both sides, when Mr. Talbot, a gentleman connected with Lord Malmesbury's embassy, addressed the following letter to Lord Buckingham. No allusion will be found in it to the pending negotiations, which were of too delicate and important a nature to be touched upon in a private letter; but it is very curious and interesting, as presenting a picture of the state of France at that period.

MR. TALBOT TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Paris, Dec. 18th, 1796. MY LORD,

Your Lordship, I trust, is aware of my motives for not having written to you since I left England; I shall, therefore, make no apologies for my neglect; but I must beg leave to assure your Lordship that I am, notwithstanding the urgency of my reasons, so much ashamed of the omission, that I now feel much embarrassed in taking up my pen.

The only letters I have hitherto sent to England have been to Lord Grenville, in answer to those he has done me the honour to write; and to Mr. B. Taylor, his secretary, for some articles which I stood in need of.

Your Lordship has without doubt received much better accounts of the appearance and state of things in this country than it is in my power to communicate; however, I will attempt a description of what has struck me as worthy of notice, and rely upon your kind indulgence for my errors.

Our first entrance into France was certainly not attended with the reception which might have been expected, under the particular circumstances in which we came. It is true a good many people of all sorts were upon the quay at Calais when we arrived, but they showed no signs of joy or any other feeling more than the arrival of an indifferent vessel would have occasioned; and very shortly after we had landed, and gone to the inn, the crowd was dispersed, and everything seemed as silent as if nothing had happened. Indeed, all those we conversed with expressed their happiness at seeing us, and wished success to the negotiation; and all the principal officers of the Government stationed there waited upon Lord Malmesbury with the utmost civility; but the bulk of the inhabitants—whether they were ignorant of the arrival of an envoy to propose peace, or whether they were afraid to express their satisfaction in any public manner, I cannot say—manifested not the least sign of rejoicing.

Nothing very material occurred between this place and Paris. The aubergistes and post-masters were almost the only persons with whom we had any conversation, and their language uniformly was that France was most anxiously desirous for the restoration of peace; that their sufferings had been more than they could describe, but that latterly their situation was much mended by the diminution in the price of provisions. But I was not inclined to give much credit to them, imagining that this language was intended to flatter us, and coming from those who had suffered more than any of their description in France, from the intercourse between the two countries being stopped. It must, however, be allowed that a general gloom seemed to prevail; and very little of that gaiety for which this nation was formerly remarkable was to be observed. At Amiens, I remember, the people of the inn where we supped entered more fully and with less reserve into the detail of their calamities. There had been a considerable manufacture of woollen cloths in this town, in which at this time no more than two hundred people were employed.

I profited of the opportunity which the changing horses afforded me to see the Chateau of Chantilly. I found it totally stripped of its furniture, and every decoration that bore the smallest reference to armorial bearings was defaced; but otherwise the building has not suffered much injury. The statue of the great Conde on the principal staircase remains, but the head is cut off. The barbarians were not content with beheading the statues of men, but they have likewise done so to all the busts of stags placed over the stalls in the stables. The chateau was used as a prison in the time of Robespierre, and almost all the apartments continue still divided into small spaces for that purpose. The gardens are totally destroyed, but the park has met with no injury further than the almost total destruction of the game. There is a keeper appointed by the nation for the protection of the wood. The timber on the opposite side of the river is chiefly cut down, the land having been sold.

The adjacent chateau of the Duc d'Angouleme, his son, as far as the walls, remains perfect; I had not time to see the inside of it. The care of the chateau has lately been given in charge to one of the former servants of the Prince de Conde.

The roads were in general in excellent condition, and the post-horses tolerably good; but we were in several places kept some time waiting for them. This is not to be wondered at, if we consider how little they have been accustomed to travellers for some years past.

A great number of the best houses by the roadside and in the towns were shut up, and seemed to be abandoned. Very few of the churches appeared to be open, many of them were pulled down, and none that were not considerably damaged; but the country was throughout in a state of high cultivation, although there was apparently a scarcity of men at work. This is to be accounted for by the encouragement which the late dearness of bread has given to the farmers, who are become, by a variety of circumstances, extremely wealthy. They are one of the very few descriptions of people who have profited by the Revolution. Very many of them have purchased lands, and this they were enabled to do almost for nothing by the depreciation of assignats, for an enormous nominal value of which they sold the produce of their farms; and this paper was received from them for the sum it represented, in payment for the estates of the ci-devant seigneurs and other confiscated property. I am told there have been repeated instances of the basest ingratitude on their part, in denouncing their landlords; and, on the contrary, that many of them have given proofs of the strongest attachment to them.

Provisions are in abundance, and at a very moderate price. Common bread is little more than two sous, and butchers' meat from five to eight sous the pound.

I have not observed any want of specie in circulation; never yet have I found any difficulty in getting change upon the purchase of any article, nor any such thing as paper money produced in such transactions. The exhausted state and the degree of distress which I could discover in this country, I must confess, fell short of the expectation which the various species of plunder, exaction, and cruelty, which it has for several years submitted to, had impressed upon my mind.

Between Calais and Paris, scarcely any troops were to be met with.

The scene being so perfectly new to me, and having little or no intercourse with any one here, except our own society, I was some time in Paris before I could form any opinion of the state of affairs, and the sentiments of the people. The streets seemed crowded, the shops tolerably well supplied, the theatres well attended, some private and a great number of public carriages to be met with; all this brought to my reflection how very difficult a matter it must be to destroy a great country, considering that all the pains which have been taken to ruin this have left so much undone. But the first fortnight we lived in the most populous part of the town, near the Palais Royal, and therefore the last place where distress would be evident.

There are few parts of Paris I have not since been in, and I find in many of them, the outlets particularly, the greatest wretchedness to prevail, and to be very thin of inhabitants. A great part of the Faubourg St. Germain, near the Boulevards, is in a great measure deserted; but this quarter was formerly inhabited principally by the noblesse. There is scarcely a street in Paris where there are not several houses written upon, Propriete nationale a vendre, and sometimes in addition, ou a louer; and in many places a great part of the street is in the same manner advertised for sale.

The names of many of the streets are, as your Lordship must know, entirely changed; but where they are not, and began with Saint, that word is invariably defaced, and the remainder of the name is left untouched. But, notwithstanding that, most places are commonly called as formerly; and this practice is becoming more general every day.

The hotels of many of the ci-devant noblesse are inhabited by the Ministers and other members of the Government. Many of them are converted into public offices and others of them into hotels garnis, &c.; besides, a prodigious number of them remain unoccupied, and offered for sale by the nation.

The Luxembourg is divided into five separate habitations for the Directory, besides the apartments that are used for their sittings, audiences, and other public business.

The Council of Ancients hold their sittings in the Palace of the Tuileries, and the Council of Five Hundred meet in what was formerly the riding-house of the King; but this is considered as merely a temporary chamber for this last body, until the Palais Bourbon, which is now undergoing great alterations and additions, is ready for their reception. This building is in the Faubourg St. Germain, in front of the new bridge called Pont de la Revolution. I shall take an opportunity hereafter of giving your Lordship a description of the interior of these several places.

The scene of any great revolutionary event continues still decorated with the national flag and other emblems of their glorious Revolution, accompanied with an inscription; that where the Bastille stood is, 14 Juillet 1789, la Bastille detruite, et elle ne se relevera jamais; and that in the Place du Carrousel, opposite the Tuileries, is, 10 Aout 1792, La Royaute francaise est abolie, et elle ne se relevera jamais. There are several marks of cannon-balls, but they have made but little impression on this front of the Tuileries; and under each of them is written, 10 Aout 1792.

The garden of the Tuileries is, I am told, kept as well as ever it was; some of the largest trees in it, however, have been cut down since our arrival, but they were chiefly decayed. Of the Bastille nothing remains, except a very small part of the foundations; and near it is a newly-erected powder magazine, and much of the remainder of the space is a depot for firewood.

The churches are many of them open, and have Divine service performed in them without restraint; but a great many more of them are shut, and some used as casernes, storehouses, &c.; but they have all been stripped of every internal decoration, and nothing suffered to remain but the bare walls. Sometimes, indeed—and it appears to be by an oversight—a piece of painting, or perhaps a little image, may have escaped injury; but such a thing is a curiosity, and to be found in a situation not readily to be observed, or difficult to be reached. The favourite mode of mutilating a statue seems to have been to break off the head. In the church of St. Sulpice there is a tolerably good statue of a Virgin and Child remaining, but of this the Child's head is taken off, and that of the Virgin seems to have met with the same fate, but to have been restored. It is wonderful the industry that has been used in the destruction of everything in the way of inscription, of sculpture, or coats of arms, which could possibly remind the people of the ancien regime; and I cannot help being much surprised that all this was done with so much care as to remove merely these particular objects of their enmity, without in the least damaging the adjacent parts. In defacing armorial bearings and things of this sort, the reformers have been at the trouble of cutting them away, so as to leave the shield quite plain, although they were carved in stone. I should have supposed that mischief done in the moment of frenzy would not have been so methodical.

Upon all the public buildings, the public offices, and many others, is written in large characters—Unite indivisibilite de la republique, liberte, egalite, fraternite, ou la mort; but in general the last word is rubbed out. The nation took it into their heads not to like death upon the downfall of Robespierre. Upon many of the churches is this inscription—Le peuple francais reconnait l'etre supreme et l'immortalite de l'ame. This was a decree of the Convention for the people at large, and your Lordship will allow that this must have a ridiculous effect upon the walls of a church entirely in ruins, as is often the case. Another modern inscription is—Citoyens, respectez le bien d'autrui, c'est le fruit de son travail et de son industrie; and perhaps close by it you may read propriete nationale a vendre, in direct violation of the other, offering to sell property of which some unfortunate person has been robbed by the very preachers of this doctrine.

I am obliged to break off suddenly, for reasons which will be very soon known to your Lordship.

I have the honour to be your Lordship's most obedient, faithful, humble servant,

JAMES TALBOT.

The last line of this letter is written in an agitated hand, which the circumstance that compelled Mr. Talbot to break off so abruptly sufficiently accounts for. At that moment a note had arrived at the embassy from M. de la Croix, giving Lord Malmesbury notice to depart from Paris in eight-and-forty hours, adding that if the British Cabinet were desirous of peace, the Executive Directory were ready to carry on the negotiations, on the basis they had already laid down, by the reciprocal channel of couriers.



1797.

DISCONTENTS IN ENGLAND—THE BREST SQUADRON—MOTION ON THE STATE OF IRELAND—AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT—LORD MALMESBURY'S MISSION TO LISLE.

The result of Lord Malmesbury's mission was communicated to Parliament as soon as it became known in London, by a message from the King, and addresses were moved approving of the conduct of Ministers. Amendments, condemning their policy, and demanding an investigation, were proposed in both Houses, and rejected by large majorities. In the House of Commons, notwithstanding an appeal of extraordinary eloquence and power from Mr. Fox, the address was carried by a majority of 212 to 37. Mr. Pitt's position, perhaps, was never stronger than at this moment, although the affairs of the Bank of England, in consequence of repeated loans to Government, were reduced to the most desperate condition, and the lower classes of the population, feeling heavily the burthens of the war, began to clamour against its prosecution. But the national spirit sustained the Government. Possessing the implicit confidence of the King, the two Houses of Parliament, the heads of the Church, the landed interest, and the monied and commercial classes, Mr. Pitt persevered. The greatest efforts were made out of doors to induce His Majesty to remove his Ministers. Public meetings were held in several places to get up petitions on the subject; and the energies of the Opposition were incessantly employed in spreading alarm and discontent through the country. Several unfortunate circumstances concurred to give effect to these movements. The war had reached its most disastrous point. England was left alone in the field to contend against the power of France, now grown haughty and formidable by a long course of successes. The credit of the country, under this pressure of events, was seriously affected. The Bank had stopped payment. Two mutinies had broken out in the fleet, one at Spithead, and another at the Nore. An organization of malcontents had been formed in Ireland under the name of "the United Irishmen," and had carried their insurrectionary views so far as to send deputies to treat with the French for assistance to enable them to throw off the English yoke. The year opened with the most gloomy prospects on all sides; but the firmness of Ministers triumphed over all difficulties, and conducted them to its close with the happiest results.

The first incident of the year to which allusion is made in these letters, is the appearance in British waters of a French squadron. It consisted of two frigates and two sloops, and its insignificance, compared with the demonstration that was anticipated from the loud threats of invasion by which it was heralded, excited ridicule rather than alarm.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Wednesday, Jan. 4th, 1797. MY DEAREST BROTHER,

A little after eleven this morning came an account of Elphinston's being arrived with the 'Monarch' (I believe at Spithead). He had letters from General Dalrymple of the 31st, by which it seems probable that the French fleet is, if not entirely, certainly in great part, broken to pieces. Two French seventy-fours and a frigate had put into Bantry Bay, one without a bowsprit, and all of them damaged, and were lying within mortar reach of Bantry when Dalrymple wrote: other vessels were seen also trying to get into Bantry Bay. The 'Impatiente,' a very fine frigate of forty-four guns, just reached Cuxhaven, and foundered there, the whole crew going down with her except a pilot and four men, who were saved. By their report twelve thousand men only were on board, and provisions so scarce from the first, that they were put upon short allowance the day that they left Brest. Another French frigate was seen driving up St. George's Channel, and is said to have gone to pieces upon the Welsh coast. A Barbadoes ship saw a large ship, supposed to be one of the flutes, struggle some time, and then founder; another of the flutes was seen to founder off the Lizard; and great traces of wreck are thrown upon the Irish coast.

Lord Bridport sailed very early yesterday morning, and met Elphinston, who gave him all this intelligence. I presume that he will probably detach part of his squadron towards Ireland, and part towards Brest; besides which, I believe he has power to take with him whatever he meets.

Kingsnill was indefatigable in collecting his frigates, which, with his two sixty-fours, will count heavily upon this shattered and disabled force of the enemy. Meantime, the greatest part of the Oporto fleet is come in, and very good accounts are received from the West Indies, where a strong naval force is gone down to the protection of Jamaica. One of the frigates, too, upon that station has taken a rich Spanish prize. Of the four ships out belonging to Colpoys' fleet, all are come in except the 'Powerful,' which is thought to have made Ireland. Upon the whole, therefore, you will admit that I send you to-day a very prosperous naval budget. In truth, I do think that, if the ruin of this French expedition be as complete as it promises to be from these circumstances, the security of Ireland, and of England too, has been more promoted by it than by any event which has happened during the war; and much as I applaud your manly and forward zeal in your military offer, I doubt whether the occasion for it will again be renewed. I ought to have mentioned to you that the four men saved from the 'Impatiente' describe the troops on board as having been from the first highly dissatisfied and discontented with the expedition, and that twelve thousand, instead of twenty thousand, sailed, because it was found difficult to persuade the troops in general to embark in the enterprise. The result will therefore add to the ill-temper upon this subject, and Irish invasion will for a long time be no popular measure in the harbour of Brest. Stay then at Stowe, my dear brother, and enjoy the satisfaction which you will feel in the prompt and handsome service which you were ready to have done. Laudo momentem—not so (between ourselves)—do I say to Elphinston. I do not know what is his pretence for coming away with the 'Monarch' in such a moment, but I shrewdly suspect his Cape treasure to have been on board and to have influenced his decision; if that is the case, of which I know nothing, I do think it will be disgraceful beyond all measure, but I am speaking my own conjectures only, for I have not had time yet to ask more. God bless you.

The sequel of the expedition was sufficiently ludicrous. Having effected a landing of some fifteen hundred men on the shore of the Bay of Cardigan on the 23rd of February, the militia, fencibles, and peasantry of the neighbourhood immediately collected; but the invaders saved them the trouble of an engagement, by laying down their arms, and surrendering themselves prisoners of war. The frigates were captured on their return to Brest; and thus terminated an enterprize, which was so inadequately planned, as to create universal astonishment that it was ever undertaken.

The state of Ireland offered a favourable opportunity to the Opposition for an attack upon Ministers; and Lord Fitzwilliam, having failed in his attempts to bring them into discredit in reference to his own case, now extended the grounds of accusation to the general discontents of the country. Lord Moira, who undertook to bring forward the motion, appears to have had no other object in view than to trace all these disorders to the recal of Lord Fitzwilliam.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Cleveland Row, March 14th, 1797 MY DEAREST BROTHER,

Lord Moira (having given to Government, through the Lord Chancellor, a sort of intimation that he was what he called going into Opposition) has this day given notice of a motion for Tuesday next, to address the King on the internal state of Ireland, which motion he is understood to have concerted with Lord Fitzwilliam.

You know I never think of pressing you to attend on any of the common points of attack and defence between the Government and Opposition. But on this occasion I should certainly most ardently wish that you should be present, and I think you yourself would not wish to be absent. At all events, I thought it right not to omit a moment giving you notice of it, that if you meant to attend you might arrange other matters accordingly. It is, however, not quite certain that he will make the motion that day, the Chancellor being too ill to come out; but he seems resolved, even if Lord Loughborough's illness continues, not to defer it for more than two or three days longer.