Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third Volume II Part 13

You will already have seen and considered what I have said to you on the subject of remaining. You cannot form to yourself an idea how universally it is the wish of all who wish for your own personal credit, and of all who are interested for the credit of the party, that you should remain in Ireland so long as to make it appear that you have thoroughly weathered the storm. Your session need be but very short indeed. The uncertain state of everything since November last, is an ample apology for not being prepared with other business, and for deferring it till another year. But the leaving it in the middle, would convey the impression that all this difficulty had been personal to yourself, and that you were the only obstacle to the success of English Government in Ireland.

Directly the reverse of this proposition is, I am convinced, the truth; but it is a truth which it is of the utmost importance to yourself to establish in the general and public opinion in this country. You have great advantages for this, from the general disposition which is prevalent here to feel the strongest indignation at the conduct which your opponents have held. I must own it would be a severe mortification to me to see you forego this opportunity.

You know the only motive which I can have for pressing this so much, and how much violence I do to my own feelings when I urge anything which may delay my seeing you again.

Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

Lord Bulkeley, in a letter dated the 24th, describes one of these interviews of the Princes with His Majesty. The general impressions which prevailed respecting the conduct and dispositions of their Royal Highnesses in this crisis, may be gathered from these unreserved revelations.

The accounts from Kew this morning are as good as possible (but I have not got the precise words); notwithstanding, the Princes were with him half an hour yesterday, which is a proof that his miraculous recovery is not to be shaken. Lord Winchelsea, who was at Kew the whole time, told me that the Prince and Duke of York, though appointed at one, did not arrive till half-past three; and that when they came out, they told Colonel Digby that they were delighted with the King's being so well, and remarked that two things in the half-hour's conference which they had with him had struck them very forcibly: that he had observed to them how much better he played at picquet than Mr. Charles Hawkins, and that since he had been ill he had rubbed up all his Latin; and these facts, which are facts, I expect to hear magnified by the Carlton House runners into instances of insanity.

The Princes entered the King's apartment without any emotion, and came out of it with none visible in their countenances. The Queen only was present, and the conference lasted half an hour. I have not heard as yet; but conclude they were both rioting, ----, and drunk last night at the masquerade, as they were at one a week ago; the truth is, that they are quite desperate, and endeavour to drown their cares, disappointments, and internal chagrin in wine and dissipation.

The Duke of York plays much at tennis, and has a score with all the blacklegs; and in the public court tells them they shall all be paid as soon as his father can settle with him some Osnaburg money which he owes him.

The Princes give out, that as soon as they have an opportunity of explaining their conduct to the King, they are sure he will approve of it as much as he will reprobate that of Mr. Pitt's.

"It is now almost certain," says Mr. Grenville on the 23rd, "that we shall not pa.s.s the Regency Bill, and consequently that the Government will not be changed." In the same letter he refers to a suggestion of Lord Buckingham's, that the answer declining to transmit the Irish Address should be laid before His Royal Highness.

On conversing with Pitt, we were both clearly of opinion, that no communication ought to be made to H.R.H. of what has pa.s.sed in Ireland, as we have uniformly considered him as not ent.i.tled, under the present circ.u.mstances, to any communication of any part of the business of Government. Nothing has accordingly been ever laid before him, except the measures which Pitt intended to _bring forward_ respecting him personally; but that principle certainly does not extend to such a communication as had been proposed in your separate letter, which I have for that reason not sent to Lord Sydney.

In so absurd a light, indeed, did the whole proceedings of the Irish Parliament appear to Ministers, that Mr. Grenville thought it highly improbable that the Irish Amba.s.sadors, as they were called, would venture to present the Address in the improved state of the King's health, or that His Royal Highness would be advised to accept it. They _did_ present it notwithstanding, and their reception is thus reported by Mr. Grenville:

Your Amba.s.sadors are arrived; and presented their Address yesterday evening to the Prince. The answer which, as I understand, he gave them, was, that he was highly gratified with the expressions of _loyalty to the King_, which the Address contained; but that with respect to the rest he could not give them an answer before Tuesday, on which day he desired to see them again. I take it for granted, he will then say, that the King being recovered, all consideration of a Regency is out of the question.

People in general here do not seem disposed to consider this transaction in any other than a ludicrous manner, and as the most absurd and ridiculous farce. It is impossible to describe how much and how universally their Excellencies are laughed at. One of them came into an a.s.sembly last night, and was received with a general roar of laughter. I did not think they would have been so foolish as to present it. The Prince and his friends must have been a good deal embarra.s.sed what answer to give them; and I do not think they have succeeded remarkably well, if the account of the answer, such as I have stated it, is true.

It was on the day after the Princes' interview that Mr. Pitt had his first audience of the King since his illness; no Minister, except the Chancellor, having hitherto been admitted to see His Majesty, on account of the jealousies with which every step they took throughout this painful interval was watched and turned to account.

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

Whitehall, Feb. 24th, 1789.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

Pitt has just shown me a letter which he received last night from the King, written in His Majesty's own hand, couched in the warmest terms, thanking him for his unshaken attachment to his interests, and desiring to see him this morning. He went accordingly to Kew, and was with the King above an hour. He says that there was not the smallest trace or appearance of any disorder; that the King's manner was unusually composed and dignified, but that there was no other difference whatever from what he had been used to see. The King spoke of his disorder as of a thing past, and which had left no other impression on his mind than that of grat.i.tude for his recovery, and a sense of what he owed to those who had stood by him. He spoke of these in such a manner as brought tears into his eyes; but even with that degree of affection of mind, there was not the least appearance of disorder.

After Pitt had left His Majesty, he conversed with Willis, who told him that he now thought the King quite well; that he could not perceive the least trace remaining of his disorder. Under these circ.u.mstances, the more I consider our actual situation and what seems due to the King's feelings, the more I am persuaded of that opinion, to which I think our friends begin in general to lean, that the King's resumption of his authority must be done purely by his own act, and that it is impossible to hear of any examination of physicians.

The two Princes were at Kew yesterday, and saw the King, in the Queen's apartment. She was present the whole time, a precaution for which, G.o.d knows, there was but too much reason. They kept him waiting a considerable time before they arrived; and after they left him, drove immediately to Mrs. Armstead's, in Park Street, in hopes of finding Fox there, to give him an account of what had pa.s.sed. He not being in town, they amused themselves yesterday evening with spreading about a report that the King was still out of his mind, and in quoting phrases of his to which they gave that turn. It is certainly a decent and becoming thing, that when all the King's physicians, all his attendants, and his two princ.i.p.al Ministers, agree in p.r.o.nouncing him well, his two sons should deny it. And the reflection that the Prince of Wales was to have had the Government and the Duke of York the command of the army during his illness, makes this representation of his actual state, when coming from them, more peculiarly proper and edifying. I bless G.o.d it is yet some time before these _matured and ripened virtues_ will be _visited upon us_ in the form of a Government.

Believe me ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

Acting on the _carte blanche_ which he had asked, and which had been freely accorded to him, respecting dismissals, appointments, and creations, Lord Buckingham proceeded at once to redress the balance of power in Ireland, by dismissing from their offices the persons who had recently opposed the conduct of the Government on the Regency question.

A similar course had been pursued in England on His Majesty's recovery.

Mr. Grenville mentions specially "the justice which had been executed on Lord Lothian" in this way, the King taking his troop from him, and sending him to join another in Ireland. "The joke current here," says Mr. Grenville, "is, that the Irish Amba.s.sadors came over here to Lothian's hotel, and that the King sends Lothian to return the visit."

In Ireland the disaffection had been more dangerous and extensive, and demanded more severe measures.

The moment it was known that the King was recovered, a negotiation was opened with the Government through Mr. Fitzgibbon, then Attorney-General, by the princ.i.p.al members of the Lords and Commons who had supported the Address, tendering their submission, and asking for an amnesty. It has been stated in some publications referring to these proceedings, that the negotiations were opened by Government; but Lord Buckingham's official despatch, dated the 23rd of March, not only shows that statement to be erroneous, but establishes the fact that Lord Buckingham peremptorily refused to entertain the negotiation until he should have received a positive a.s.surance that a certain defensive and hostile agreement, into which those gentlemen had entered, was to be considered as abandoned. This agreement, or a.s.sociation, was called the Round Robin (although not really a round robin, being merely a declaration, followed in the usual way by the signatures of the subscribers), pledging those who attached their names to it to "stand by each other" (to use the phrase by which Mr. Beresford described it) in the event of their offices or pensions being taken from them, and to oppose any Administration that should resort to such a proceeding.

Finding Lord Buckingham immoveable upon the condition he stipulated for, Lords Shannon, Loftus, Clifden, and many others, authorized the Attorney-General to declare the a.s.sociation at an end, adding that they desired to be represented to His Majesty as anxious to support his Government, and to endeavour to remove by their future conduct all unfavourable impressions from his mind. In the wise exercise of the discretion reposed in him, Lord Buckingham accepted this voluntary tender of allegiance, and permitted the gentlemen who had made it to retain their offices. The Duke of Leinster, who had been only recently appointed to the Rolls, and Mr. Ponsonby, who held the situation of Postmaster-General, refusing to give the required undertaking, aggravated, in the case of the latter, by a declaration that he would not enter into any communication with Lord Buckingham, were at once dismissed from their offices. This dismissal was followed by that of a few others of less note.

These energetic measures were founded, not only on the dangerous resistance these gentlemen had carried to extremity, at a period of anxious suspense and universal excitement, against the Government, but upon a knowledge of the existence of an organized combination they had embarked in with the English Opposition to supersede the authority of the Sovereign in the person of the Regent. In order the more effectually to accomplish their objects, they had seized upon every act of the Administration, and held it up to obloquy. A pension which had been granted to Mr. Orde, and the reversion of Lord Clanbra.s.sil's office which had been conferred on Mr. Grenville, afforded them a pretext for charging the Government with corruption and profligacy. They opened their impeachment at the very beginning of the session, in February, defeated the motion for adjournment, carried their Address at the sacrifice of their own dignity and independence, and were only arrested at last in their headlong career by those vigorous measures which broke up the combination, and once more gave a legitimate preponderance in the Senate to the saving influence of the Administration. The effect of the _coup d'etat_--for as such these dismissals may be considered--was decisive. The hostile majority was broken down; and when Mr. Grattan, still confident in his resources, brought forward his Pension Bill, to disable persons who held pensions during pleasure, or offices that had been created after a certain time, from sitting in Parliament, he was defeated by a majority of 9. This was justly claimed as a conclusive victory by a Government that had only just before been denounced in a vote of censure in the same a.s.sembly by a majority of 32.

There is no doubt that the happy and unexpected recovery of His Majesty averted a struggle that might have gone near to dissolve the connection of the Executive authority between the two kingdoms; for, had His Majesty's illness continued much longer, there is too much reason to believe that His Royal Highness would have been advised to accept the invitation of the Irish Parliament, by which he would have been created Regent of Ireland, with full powers, before an Act of Parliament had pa.s.sed in England under the Great Seal empowering him to a.s.sume the functions of Sovereignty. The confusion that would have ensued upon such a state of affairs, and the disastrous issues to which it would have inevitably led, cannot be contemplated, even at this distance of time, without an expression of astonishment that men were to be found capable of entertaining such a proposition. The heroic endurance of Lord Buckingham, upon whom the whole weight of contending against the madness in which this scene of folly and violence originated, enabled him, happily for the repose of both countries, to live down the dangers and the odium which his steadfast discharge of his duties, and his firm adherence to the policy of the English Cabinet, had drawn upon him during this season of political delirium. His own impressions of the scene around him, and the strength of the resolution he brought to bear upon it, will be shown in an extract from a hasty note written to Lord Bulkeley, in the midst of the clamour of the Parliament, on the 14th of March.

I have not shrunk from my duty in the worst times, and I will not trifle with it in those which look more prosperous. Much must be done to save the British Government from an infamous and daring combination, which might have been yielded to by a more pusillanimous minister; but could only be met by one confident in his character and conduct. Do not think this the language of vanity; the times have been, and still are much too serious for such a boyish pa.s.sion: I feel that the dearest interests of both kingdoms are at stake, and nothing but firmness can save it. I have been insulted, I may be beat, but I will not be disgraced.

When the victory was finally achieved, he writes again to Lord Bulkeley in a strain of justifiable exultation, announcing his complete triumph over the Opposition. The letter is dated the 4th May, and the pa.s.sage extracted from it contains an animated picture of the strife through which the writer had just pa.s.sed.

I told you, two months ago, that my friends would not blush for me--that I might be beaten, but that I would not be disgraced. I write to you now in the moment, and with the transports of the warmest exultation and of honest pride, to tell you, that on Sat.u.r.day night I closed the session in the House of Commons, having thrown out every measure brought forward by Opposition. They would not divide after their second defeat, where, though our majority was the same, yet, as fewer members voted, it was more in proportion than before; and the illness of Lord Clanbra.s.sil and of Lord Lifford lost us three votes. The House of Lords still sits for a cause which they are hearing, and for some private Bills. The House of Commons adjourned to Friday, and on that day both Houses adjourn to the 25th, when I shall pa.s.s the Bills, and shall finally prorogue them.

In the s.p.a.ce then of six weeks, I have secured to the Crown a decided and steady majority, created in the teeth of the Duke of Leinster, Lord Shannon, Lord Granard, Ponsonby, Conolly, O'Neil, united to all the republicanism, the faction, and the discontents of the House of Commons; and having thrown this aristocracy at the feet of the King, I have taught to the British and Irish Government a lesson which ought never to be forgotten; and I have the pride to recollect that the whole of it is fairly to be ascribed to the steady decision with which the storm was met, and to the zeal, vigour, and industry of some of the steadiest friends that ever man was blessed with.

While these anxious events were pa.s.sing in Ireland, the old pa.s.sion of the King for interfering with military promotions, as if he were resolved, as Mr. Grenville remarks, to absorb that branch of patronage, involved Lord Buckingham and the Cabinet in another series of protocols similar to those which pa.s.sed concerning Colonel Gwynne's appointment.

Another lieutenant-colonelcy had fallen vacant, and Lord Buckingham desired that it should be bestowed on his nephew, Colonel Nugent, who had been disappointed of a similar favour on the former occasion; but His Majesty directed that it should be given to Colonel Taylor. Even Mr.

Grenville, who exercised a philosophical patience in these matters, was so hurt at the manner in which Lord Buckingham's wishes were pa.s.sed over, at a time when he was rendering such signal services to the Crown, that he could not restrain the expression of his dissatisfaction.

Writing to Lord Buckingham, he says:

I feel that I would be unworthy, not only of your confidence and affection, but of the name and character of a gentleman, if I did not warmly partake of your just resentment at this gross and unmerited offence, offered at a moment when your conduct had ent.i.tled you to so very different a line of treatment.

Lord Buckingham was again on the point of resigning, and Mr. Grenville partic.i.p.ated so strongly in his feelings that he indicated his determination of following his example. After stating in a subsequent letter that he thought he saw in the King's mind "a strong wish to take into his own hands this piece of military patronage _whenever it falls_," he proceeds to observe upon the consequences.

The whole transaction gives me the greatest uneasiness, because I am not afraid to say to you, fairly and openly, that the measures to which, I fear, you may ultimately be driven in consequence of it are of a nature which I fear extremely; and _that_, I trust, for better reasons than any consideration of their effect on my views.

It is on every account a most critical and embarra.s.sing moment for you; and the sense which I entertain of the injustice of those who have brought you into this situation, does not remove or diminish my apprehensions of the consequences to which it leads. It is no affectation or parade of disinterestedness, but the necessary consequence of the first principles of justice and honour, when I a.s.sure you that I am resolved to follow your decision upon it, and that I consider your honour as inseparably connected with my own.

Fortunately, however, this solution of the difficulty was rendered unnecessary. A compromise, as usual, afforded a convenient escape to all parties, without disappointing any; and by an ingenious re-distribution of three or four regiments (devised by His Majesty himself), Taylor was provided for elsewhere, and Nugent obtained his lieutenant-colonelcy.

There was great difficulty, nevertheless, in bringing His Majesty to this point. He had made up his mind to give the vacant regiment to Taylor, and would hear of no one else. "I am truly sorry to say,"

observes Mr. Pitt, in the course of the negotiations, "that he seems thoroughly determined not to yield, and I am sure no consideration will induce him to agree to any other arrangement." Had it depended solely on the disposition of the King, the difference would never have been adjusted, and Lord Buckingham, stung by these repeated indignities, might have thrown up his Government at a conjuncture when his retirement must have plunged the country into anarchy. How seriously this step was contemplated by him and Mr. Grenville will appear from the following correspondence:

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

Whitehall, April 7th, 1789.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

I have just received your letter of the 3rd, and though I have nothing new to say to you upon the point of Captain Taylor, he not having yet sent his answer, I cannot help writing a few lines, lest you think the subject is out of my mind. With respect to the promotions of peerage, the fault, if there is any, is mine; because I felt, and still continue to feel, that under the present circ.u.mstances, and till this business of Taylor is settled, the other _ought_ to be postponed; nor can I imagine any real inconvenience to arise from it. I am, however, by no means sanguine in my expectations of the event of this business. I have already expressed to you my sense of the King's treatment of you in this instance, and my determination to abide by any measures that you may think it right to take in this situation. I cannot, however, in justice to you or to myself, avoid saying, that I most sincerely wish you to consider well the step which you are about to take; and that not only with a reference to your _present_ situation or to your _immediate_ feelings, but with a view to the interpretation which the public will put upon it, and with a view to any future political object of ours. With respect to the latter, I am persuaded you must see that it is impossible for you to resign the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland at this time, and on this ground, without making up your mind at the same moment finally to renounce all ideas of our taking any part hereafter as public men in this country. If you will consider what our situation would be, after such a step, with the King, with the Prince, with Pitt's friends, and with Fox, and lastly with the public at large, you will, I am sure, think that the consequence which I state is not overstrained.

I can, without affectation, a.s.sure you, that though I am not indifferent either to the recollection of what we have already done, or to the prospects which are now before us; yet that I could perfectly well make up my mind to a different line of life, and that I am confident I possess sufficient resources within myself to reconcile myself to such a step, provided it were taken for an object which I felt to be _tanti_. And such I certainly do consider the object of marking to you, and to the world, and of discharging, in a manner satisfactory to my own feelings, my grat.i.tude and affectionate attachment to you, in an instance where I entirely agree with you in thinking you ill-treated, at a time when you had deserved best.

It remains, therefore, for _you_ to consider what step it may be best for you to take under all the present circ.u.mstances. Even if your mind should ultimately lean to the idea of resigning, I should certainly strongly press you not to carry this idea into effect till you have closed your session in Ireland; and in this advice, at least, I am certainly disinterested, because my situation would, in the interim, be more disagreeable and embarra.s.sing than it could be under _any_ other circ.u.mstances. But I am _sure_ that if you were to quit _immediately_, as you now talk of doing, you never could induce any one to believe that this step was not taken with a view to escape from present difficulties, instead of being intended to mark your sense of personal ill-treatment; and that when the impression of the present moment upon your feelings was over, you never would forgive yourself for having concluded the transactions of this winter by such a termination.

I have only to add that I am not indifferent, and that I am persuaded you are not, to the public consequences of our conduct.

It is one of the circ.u.mstances which are necessarily attendant upon a public situation and a public line of life, that a person who is engaged in it cannot act even in those points which most nearly concern himself without producing consequences which are often of great public importance. It will certainly not be a pleasant reflection to me to have materially contributed to the overthrow of that system of public men and public measures which I believe to be of the utmost importance to the welfare and prosperity of my country. On the best reflection which I can give to the subject, weighing what I owe to you and to myself, and what I owe to others, I shall feel myself _justified_, whatever may be the consequences; but certainly my feelings upon them will be such as to prevent my ever again putting myself into a similar situation, even if the circ.u.mstances to which I have alluded in the beginning of this letter did not, as they probably will, render such an event absolutely impossible.

When I speak of contributing to the overthrow of the present system you certainly understand me to refer to the probable consequences of our withdrawing ourselves from it, and not to any idea of your being led, which I am persuaded is impossible, to contribute actively to the triumph of a most wicked and profligate faction. I should feel that I gave you just cause of offence, if I thought it necessary to say, that this is a point to which no consideration could lead me.

You will excuse me if I have said so much in this letter upon my own subject, in treating of a point which relates to your conduct and to your situation. I feel that the two subjects are too intimately connected for me to speak of them separately, and I felt that you could not but be desirous, in the moment of deciding a step so interesting to us both, that I should open my heart to you in as free and unrestrained a manner as I have now done.