Volume II Part 8 (1/2)

W. YOUNG.

Six o'clock.

SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Tuesday, Dec. 23rd, 1788.

MY DEAR LORD,

Never did any debate of nice discussion go off better in our eye than that of last night: never was I more agreeably surprised than by the result--having gained nine on our former majority. The House was thinner by forty at twelve at night, than the debate before at three in the morning. The s.h.i.+rkers I alluded to may now come in, and we may augur our future divisions to be yet stronger and more decisive: our rats having all shown their tails on last night's motion to address the Prince.

Sir John Aubrey, rat-major, receiving his emoluments of the Treasury for five years, and declaring himself unconnected with any, afforded a subject of general laugh. Master Popham, Sir Samuel Hurmery, James Macpherson, W.G. Hamilton, &c., &c., followed the ill.u.s.trious Aubrey. Fox, after Pitt's reply, and his own rejoinder, paired off with Stevens of the Admiralty. The Marquis of Lansdowne's friends, Barre, &c., were with us. Masham, voting for the Address, declared himself not precluded thereby from voting for limitations. Drake, on the same head, not to preclude himself, left the House. We shall, therefore, have those _two_. Sir John Scott spoke with such learning, truth, and uncommon energy of reasoning and language, that he carried the House with him, and extorted from Lord North, in particular, the highest compliments ever paid to a lawyer in the House of Commons. I never heard Fox speak so temperately, or better, in point of argument. Pitt, in reply, was equally great. He stated, to conviction, ”the fiction of the law, which admitted the application of the royal political authority, when the personal was disabled, as implicated in the very principles of hereditary succession, which otherwise would suffer interruption from nonage, infirmity, dotage, and every contingency in the state of man.” Sheridan spoke very ill: very hot, injudicious, and _ill-heard_. Rolle, whilst adverting to Sheridan's speech, made use of a remarkable expression, and which seems to hint some future acting up to the rumours of his purpose. He said that in proper time, ”He should heartily vote for the Prince's being Regent, _if_ the Prince had done no act by which he had forfeited pretensions to executive government in this country.”

Our resolutions being carried to the Lords, in conference this day, on Friday next the Lords will debate thereon. Lords Townshend, Romney, Radnor, and many other occasional opponents, I understand to be decidedly with us on the second Whig resolution.

In speaking of our debate, I had forgot Burke, who, after I finished my last night's letter, finished his wild speech in a manner next to madness. He let out two of the new t.i.tles--Fitzwilliam to be Marquis of Rockingham, and Lord G.

Cavendish, jun. His party pulled him, and our friends calling ”Hear, hear,” we lost the rest of the twenty-five new Peers, who would all have come out.

For the King's health, the world is yet in expectation of some crisis. The St. James's notes of last night ”quiet,” or ”unquiet,”

are disregarded, as too general, or as of course; and accounts from ladies about the Queen, and from the physicians themselves, pa.s.s in the greater circles, still mentioning violent intermitting fevers, and profuse occasional perspirations. Having generally, in my last, stated that the faculty had conspired to render the public less sanguine, I mention to _your Lords.h.i.+p only_ what T. Warner, above seventy years of age, and forty years first surgeon of Guy's and St. Thomas's Hospitals, told me, ”Being at the head of these city hospitals, he has been often called in to meet the physicians of Bethlem, where a surgeon for scalping, &c., was required, and that a madness after fifty, without a clear a.s.signable cause--and that cause to be reached by surgery or medicine--did not admit a perfect recovery above one time in an hundred.” The opinions of many others of the faculty are bandied about; but, as matter of conversation for your private ear, I give this particular one as authentically coming to my own knowledge.

You'll observe in this day's papers, a meeting advertised of the bankers. It is understood to be for the purpose of tendering W.

Pitt, on his going out of office, a transfer of 3000 per annum, Bank Stock, or a princ.i.p.al of 50,000, in the name of the commercial world.

Adieu, my dear Lord. Health and prosperity be yours, and be a.s.sured that you have no one more devotedly attached than your most affectionate and obliged friend and servant,

W. YOUNG.

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

Whitehall, Dec. 23rd, 1788.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

I received this morning your letter of the 18th; but am so much engaged to-day that it is impossible for me to enter into it, which I will, if possible, do to-morrow. I write now only to press again, in the strongest manner, that you will get Fitzgibbon and Wolfe to state all the particulars of the case, particularly as to the form of the enrolment of your patent under the Irish Great Seal, and to give you their opinions and arguments upon it. I will then take care to know Kenyon's sentiments on that paper, and if I can, the Chancellor's; but you are not ignorant of the bias of his mind, which is, on all occasions, to consider the relative situation of the two kingdoms, not such as it is, but such as it was, and as he thought it should have remained. My idea of your tie by no means went to your pledging yourself to do any act so contrary to your duty and feelings, as the recommending from the throne, in Ireland, a form of Regency varying one iota from that adopted here.

On the contrary, I think you should give it explicitly to be understood, that everything in your power will be done to preserve entire this link of connection. And under this explanation only, do I think you ought to offer the proposed alternative.

I say nothing of our triumph last night. You will hear it from other quarters; and you will probably be able to judge of its extent, by knowing the confidence with which the enemy looked to gaining upon us on this occasion. It is, I think, now quite certain that we shall carry our restrictions.

Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

Another letter upon the Irish difficulty, into which Mr. Grenville enters in elaborate detail:

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

Whitehall, Dec. 25th, 1788.

MY DEAR BROTHER,