Volume II Part 14 (2/2)

In answer to your questions about Pitt, I beg you to believe that, however warm and sincere my friends.h.i.+p is for him, yet that it would not stand one moment in the way, if I thought him acting dishonourably or unfairly by you. I may, to-morrow, have time to write more at large on that subject; but, in the meantime, let me a.s.sure you that I am the grossest dupe in the world if that is the case. I am impatient to hear the result of Monday.

Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

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

Whitehall, April 17th, 1789.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

I have the greatest pleasure in being able to acquaint you that this unpleasant business of the lieutenant-colonelcy is now in a way of being settled, so as, I hope, may be perfectly satisfactory to you. I have just seen Mr. Pitt, and received from him the agreeable information that he found the King entirely disposed to do whatever might conduce to this object, and even _desirous_ of explaining that the former difficulties had arisen only from his actual engagements. It is not yet precisely settled in what mode this should be done; because, Mr. Pitt finding the King in so favourable a disposition on the subject, thought it better, on every account, to avoid pressing him further than appeared necessary. Two modes were, however, suggested in conversation between them: the one, that General Ainslie should have Mackay's regiment, by which means his lieutenant-colonelcy should be given to Taylor, and so Nugent be appointed to Gwynne's; the other, that the regiment should be given to Sir James Stewart Denham, which would vacate his lieutenant-colonelcy for Nugent. A third was also mentioned by the King, namely, the inducing Taylor, by the offer of the Lieutenant-Governors.h.i.+p of Cowes, to exchange with Nugent. Any one of these would, I flatter myself, answer your purpose; because they would show the King's disposition to attend to your recommendation, and that having been hampered by an actual engagement to Taylor, he is now ready to accommodate his own patronage in such a way as may, at the same time, provide for Nugent. But what I think even better than all this, is the account which Pitt gave me of the King's apparent manner of feeling on this subject. I had, I confess, very much apprehended that, however necessary it might be, in order to keep up your situation and apparent weight with the King, to insist upon some such solution for this business, yet that the doing this would leave a lasting and most unfavourable impression on his mind, which might lead to a renewal of this sort of contest on some future occasion. This appears to be by no means the case, at present; and I am sure that you will agree with me in thinking that although it might, in some points of view, have been desirable that the whole arrangement could have been concluded to-day, so as to put an end to all appearance of suspense, yet that it would have been unwise, in this state of things, to have pressed the King to this sort of peremptory decision as to the mode of doing it, which he seemed desirous of having an opportunity of revolving in his own mind.

It will now probably not be very long before whatever official business you will have in this country, will pa.s.s through a medium rather better disposed, and more attentive to you, than that of your present correspondent; and if I do not grossly flatter myself, a little attention on my part, to soothe the King's mind--which has evidently been irritated on these points--will make all this sort of business go smoothly, and to your satisfaction.

I am sorry not to have complied with your wish about the promotions; but, on very mature reflection, I was persuaded that it was risking too much, with regard to the princ.i.p.al and important point, to mix with it any other business on which it was always possible that some difficulty might arise in the King's mind. In the course of the next week, I hope to be able to write to you on that subject; but I trust you will not be unwilling to rely a little on me with regard to the exact time, which I a.s.sure you I will not delay, except I think I see very material reasons for it.

You must also make some allowance for the very great additional delay which is created in all this sort of business, by the King's residing wholly at Windsor, which gives Pitt fewer opportunities of seeing him, and for a shorter time.

I mentioned to you, in my last letter, that Lodge Morres would be immediately removed. I have desired that the letter notifying this, may contain some such expressions as you mention; but I cannot answer for this, because I cannot, as things now stand, interfere in the wording of those letters, except by a very circuitous mode.

I also answered your question about Pitt, but I did it shortly; nor indeed could any expressions that I could have used do justice to the warm and anxious feeling which he has shown on this occasion. I am inclined to impute this termination of the business, so much more favourable than I had expected, almost entirely to his judgment and address.

I have had the pleasure this morning of seeing Lady B. and your children. You will have heard that she has had a feverish cold, but I hope it has now quite left her. Your children are all well.

Adieu, my dear brother. I cannot express to you what a weight is removed from my mind by the success of Pitt's journey.

Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

The promotions and creations glanced at in these letters were recommended by Lord Buckingham as proper marks of His Majesty's sense of the services rendered to the Government during the late crisis in Ireland by some influential men in both Houses of Parliament. As those who had abandoned the Administration were dismissed, it was no less an act of justice that those who had supported it should receive some testimony of the King's approbation, and the Lord-Lieutenant's _carte blanche_ embraced this dispensing power on both sides. Some alarm was felt by the Cabinet at the list of promotions and creations (nineteen in number) forwarded on this occasion for the royal sanction. The increase of the peerage was, perhaps, the only point on which Mr. Pitt's Government was vulnerable, for, although he exercised the greatest caution in his selections, and introduced them by degrees, instead of making them in batches, as the peculiar circ.u.mstances of Ireland at this moment demanded, it was felt to be the objection which, of all others, operated most injuriously against the character and popularity of his Administration. His Majesty's engagements, too, enhanced the embarra.s.sment. Whenever any proposition for honours or appointments, naval, military, or civil, was submitted to him, it was certain to be obstructed by some obligation he had previously laid himself under by promise to different persons. In the present instance a difficulty of this kind interposed. Two peerages were already engaged in advance, and the arrangement of the Irish list depended entirely on the nature of the pledges to which His Majesty had committed himself in these cases. Mr.

Grenville writes that Mr. Pitt was to see His Majesty on the subject in two or three days. ”He will then endeavour to find out whether the King's engagements were so positive and absolute as to Lords A. and C.

as to lay him under the absolute necessity of conferring this honour on four persons in order to be able to reward the services of two.” It may be presumed that these engagements were not absolute, or, at all events, that they were not suffered to interfere with Lord Buckingham's list, as all the persons he named, with the exception of two or three, who were excluded on special grounds, received the honours to which he recommended them.

Amongst these was Mr. Fitzgibbon, Poor old Lord Lifford, who had kept his seat, and exerted himself indefatigably to the last, died on the 28th of April. The labours of that terrible session proved too much for his declining powers, and he finally sank under them. The opportunity to which Mr. Fitzgibbon had been so long looking forward was now thrown open to him. Lord Buckingham pressed his claims earnestly on the Government, recounting the signal obligations he had laid them under on the Regency question, tracing his career, and depicting his character in terms of the highest eulogy. The appointment rested with Thurlow, whose humours required to be waited upon, and who was suspected, moreover, to be unfavourable to Fitzgibbon. Much delay and suspense consequently ensued, and it was not until June that the patent was made out.

Fitzgibbon was immediately created a Baron. From that point his promotion in the peerage advanced rapidly. In 1793, he was created Viscount Fitzgibbon; and in 1795, Earl of Clare.

The King's recovery now enabled Ministers to resume those measures which the late unhappy suspension of public affairs had so grievously interrupted. One of the first subjects that called for consideration was the abolition of the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce had succeeded in raising such an excitement throughout the country about his forthcoming motion, that the West India interest took alarm, and desired to know whether it was the intention of Government to adopt the measure. But Mr.

Pitt, who had not yet pledged the Administration to any step beyond that of inquiry, maintained a reserve on this point, which the enthusiasm of Mr. Wilberforce may be said to have forced upon him. A letter from Sir William Young touches on this matter; and alludes, also, to some unseemly conduct on the part of the Princes, which is spoken of in a similar spirit of deprecation in other letters. The circ.u.mstances that rendered their proceedings on this occasion the more conspicuous and objectionable were, that the ball at White's Club, referred to, was given in honour of His Majesty's birthday, and happy restoration; and that the Queen had signified her intention of being present.

SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Stratton Street, April 22nd, 1789.

MY DEAR LORD,

The week pa.s.sed hath not afforded an item of information worthy the sending you. I have now a circ.u.mstance or two to mention in the political line, and a little scandal to garnish it with, of a sort ”_quod predetendici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli_.” Of business in the first place. Steele told me yesterday, that on Mr.

Fox's motion this day to repeal the Hop-tax, it was meant to give it up with the best grace possible. The next piece of Parliamentary intelligence is respecting the Slave Trade; a committee from the planters and merchants of the West Indies waited the other day on Mr. Pitt, to put the short question, whether Government supported Mr. Wilberforce in his motion for the _Abolition_ of the Slave Trade? Mr. Pitt answered, that ”He must decline committing his own opinion thus early, and that the Cabinet had not yet sat in discussion of that question.” The gentlemen of this committee speak of Lord Hawkesbury as against the _extent_ of Mr. Wilberforce's proposition, and that Administration are generally (Camden and others) with Lord Hawkesbury. _Je ne m'en mele pas._

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