Volume II Part 9 (1/2)
Our division in the House of Lords, though sufficiently decisive, was less than it would have been, owing to a variety of accidental circ.u.mstances. There is every reason to believe that we shall divide stronger on Monday. I have no apprehension whatever as to the carrying our restrictions in the House of Commons. Accidental circ.u.mstances may vary our majority from 50 to 80; but there can be no doubt of success. There seems very little reason to believe that they will venture to dissolve Parliament till March or April, if they do it then, which I doubt.
There certainly never was in this country, at any period, such a situation as Mr. Pitt's. It is no small addition to the satisfaction which we derive from all these events, to observe that every man of all parties seems to feel how well the game has been played on our side, and how ridiculously it has been mismanaged by our opponents. Add to this, that they are all quarrelling amongst themselves, and that we were never so united as at this moment.
With all these reflections you will own that _the prospect before us_ is not an unpleasing one. The opinion of Willis continues as sanguine as ever.
Believe me, my dear brother, Most sincerely and affectionately yours, W. W. G.
Lord Bulkeley announces, with exultation, the division in the Commons, and returns to his enumeration of _rats_.
LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stanhope Street, Dec. 29th, 1788.
MY DEAREST LORD,
We are in high spirits here at the first majority of 64, and at the last of 73, which, considering the open and undisguised canva.s.s of the Prince and the Duke of York, and the very liberal distribution of promises from both, does the House of Commons a great deal of honour. Parry fell down in a fit about two hours before the division of the first day, and was carried home in a chair speechless, where he remained confined till Monday, when I polled him by means of a pair with Sir Robert Clayton, which T. Steele arranged for him. A _certain lady_ in St. James's Square has been tampering with Parry, and he certainly vented all his grievances into the compa.s.sionate bosom of that active and politic fair one, who has likewise infused such a political ardour into the mind of her dear Sir Poddy, that on the first division he was seen to take down the names of the different speeches and the members, besides _other occasional notes_. I have not been in St. James's Square since I have been in town, the manner with which they affect to treat me being such that _an old English Baron_ cannot put up with; besides _we are_ not in the best of humours at present, Sir Poddy being unwell, and unable to attend the last division and _we find_ it difficult to sing the praises of the Prince and the Duke of York on the usual themes of filial piety, virtue, &c., in the face of a majority of 73 in favour of a falling Minister.
Sir George Warren was one of the rats, which Lady B. was much affected at. He and Lady W. dined with us the day before the first division, and both sung the praises of Mr. Pitt, and expressed the warmest anxiety for the King's recovery. I was not all surprised, well knowing his rattish dispositions. Glynne Wynne, whom I have been working for three years to detach Lord Uxbridge from, has, with the utmost effrontery, cast his benefactor off, and set him at defiance, to which he has been led by promises at Carlton House. I trust we shall be able to do his business on a dissolution, and he well deserves it, being one of the first of scoundrels.
I subjoin a list of those members who usually have voted with Mr.
Pitt, who have quitted him in the late divisions, _i.e._ _rats_.
Yours sincerely, B.
Sir Peter Parker.
Sir George Warren.
Sir J. Aubrey.
Sir S. Hannay.
Sir Charles Gould.
James Macpherson.
---- Clevland.
Glynne Wynne.
Gerrard Hamilton.
---- Fraser.
---- Osbaldiston.
The Lonsdales voted against Pitt in the first division, and staid away the second. The Lansdownes voted with Pitt in the first, and, I believe, in the second, or staid away.
1789.
DEATH OF THE SPEAKER--MR. GRENVILLE ELECTED IN HIS PLACE--COMMITTEE ON THE REGENCY--THE HOUSEHOLD BILL--CONDUCT OF THE PRINCES--ADDRESS TO THE PRINCE OF WALES FROM THE IRISH PARLIAMENT--RECOVERY OF THE KING--DECISIVE MEASURES OF LORD BUCKINGHAM--IRISH PROMOTIONS AND CREATIONS--DISSENSIONS IN THE ROYAL FAMILY--MR. GRENVILLE APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE--MR. ADDINGTON ELECTED SPEAKER--LORD BUCKINGHAM RESIGNS THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND.
The one absorbing subject which for the last few weeks had engrossed the public mind, almost to the exclusion of every other consideration, kept the Parliament sitting close up to Christmas-day, in the year just expired. On the 23rd of December, a resolution, vigorously opposed by Lord North as inst.i.tuting a fiction in lieu of the royal authority, was adopted, empowering the Chancellor to affix the Great Seal to such Bill of Limitations as might be necessary to restrict the power of the future Regent; but Ministers had no sooner succeeded in carrying their object to this important stage, than a new impediment presented itself. On the 2nd of January, 1789, Mr. Cornwall, Speaker of the House of Commons, died. It was immediately decided that Mr. Grenville should be proposed to succeed him. On all accounts, it was indispensable to hasten this arrangement, as the functions of the Commons were unavoidably suspended in the interim. A serious obstacle arose from the informality of the proceeding, the sanction of the royal approbation being necessary, according to custom, upon the nomination of a new Speaker. The elastic character of the Const.i.tution, however, although not providing direct remedies for such special cases, admits of adaptation to the most unforeseen exigencies; and so urgent was the pressure of affairs at this agitating juncture, that the irregularity was pa.s.sed over by the tacit consent of all parties.