Volume I Part 40 (1/2)
The letters that follow, depict the distressing anxieties which, day by day, throughout this painful interval, attended the progress of the fatal malady.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall,
Nov. 5th, 1788, Five o'clock.
My dear Brother,
I have delayed till this hour writing to you to-day, as I have nothing of any consequence to write about, excepting the King's health; and I wished to send you the account which I have just received from Pitt, and which I now enclose. The general alarm on the subject is very great, and it is impossible not to feel that so long an illness without much amendment, if any on the whole, and without coming to any crisis, has a most serious appearance. You may naturally conceive the exultation, not wearing even the appearance of disguise, which there is in one party, and the depression of those who belong to the other. I think some few days more must now decide the point, not, perhaps, by the blow actually happening within that time, which I trust there can be no reason to fear, but by showing whether he has strength sufficient in his const.i.tution to throw out the disorder which is evidently lurking in it, and which will otherwise infallibly destroy it by no very slow degrees.
Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, Nov. 7th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I waited yesterday before I wrote to you, in the hopes of seeing Pitt, who had promised to call upon me, and carry me to the place where we were to dine; but he was delayed by a visit from the Chancellor so long, that I found myself too late for the post.
I sincerely wish that I had better news to communicate to you; but I believe you must consider the thing as completely over.
The King has now been two days entirely delirious, and during part of the time has been thought to be in the most imminent danger. It now appears that Warren, Heberden and Sir G. Baker, who are the three physicians who attend him, profess themselves unable to decide whether the disorder is or is not of such a nature as may soon produce a crisis which may lead either to health or death. The other alternative is one to which one cannot look without horror--that of a continuance of the present derangement of his faculties, without any other effect upon his health. He is certainly at present stronger in body than he has been, but I understand with much fever. I believe the general idea of his danger is now very prevalent; but we endeavour (I know not with what success) to keep these particulars as much as we can from the public. I have ventured to write this and a former letter by the post, because you do not seem to have entertained any apprehensions that, under the sort of precautions which I take in sealing, &c., this mode is unsafe; and I think they are such as must have enabled you to detect any improper tricks being played. The sending a messenger would give so much alarm, that I thought it much better to avoid it. If the event happens, which there is now so much reason to dread, it is possible that I may have much to write to you, and I should not then have the same confidence in the post. For this reason I have enclosed a paper, of which you know the use. It is a transcript of what you left with me, which I have been prevented sending you before, and cannot send now. Bernard can supply it in a temporary manner with pasteboard.
Fox is not yet returned, nor have we as yet any ground for judging of the immediate measures which would be taken, beyond those which result from former conduct and language.
Since I wrote the above, I understand that Lord Sydney sends off a messenger. Lest, however, there should be any mistake in this, I send this letter by the post. The enclosure I will send by the messenger.
I received your letter of the 3rd this morning. You may easily conceive that I cannot now enter into the particulars of it. I will only say that, with regard to the papers, I am persuaded that, if you yourself have an opportunity of conversing with M.
(as is perhaps too probable), there will be no difficulty in anything which you desire.
Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.
There is one point on which I much wish for your answer, with as little delay as possible. Suppose an immediate dissolution, and an opposition started in Bucks--as will certainly be the case, either for one or both members--would you have me stand? I mention this, because the delay may be decisive.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Nov. 7th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I have written to you by this day's post, and now take the opportunity of Lord Sydney's messenger. I am afraid that it would be very sanguine indeed to say that there is even _any_ hope that the King will recover both his health and his understanding, though the physicians do not say that it is absolutely impossible for his disorder to have a crisis which may produce such an effect. His disease is now almost entirely confined to his brain. He has all along had an agitation of spirits, which has been gradually increasing; and for these two days he has been quite delirious. It is apprehended that this is the effect either of water on the brain, or of an ossification of the membrane. If it is only an humour checked, it is still possible that he might throw it out by some violent crisis, such as either to destroy him, or entirely to restore him. But this, I again repeat, there seems little reason to hope.
If his indisposition of mind continues, without some more material bodily illness, he may live years in this melancholy state; and this, of all events that can happen, is perhaps the most to be feared. He was, however, thought yesterday to be in imminent danger of death. Should this not happen, but the other, it seems generally agreed that the Prince of Wales must be appointed Regent, with kingly power.
We have no grounds on which to judge of our own situation, except from such conjectures as you are equally able to form on the grounds of the P.'s former conduct and language.