Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third Volume I Part 19

My dear brother, Ever yours, W. W. G.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, March 24th, 1783.

My dear Brother,

Since I wrote last, things have again taken a different turn; though I am not sufficiently informed of the particulars of what has pa.s.sed to say any more than that the King has insisted upon seeing the list of inferior arrangements, which having been declined (obviously from a want of agreement upon the subject), the King wrote a note to the Duke of Portland, which was very decently handed about at Brookes's last night, to say that he would trouble him no further on the subject.

To-day the prevalent report during the whole morning, was, that Pitt had accepted; but when c.o.ke put the question to Pitt in the House of Commons, previous to making his motion, the latter said that he knew of no Administration being formed.

c.o.ke then made his motion, which I enclose to you, as nearly as I can recollect it. Very little opposition was made to it, and it pa.s.sed without a division, though not without a good deal of conversation on the part of Fox, Lord North, and Pitt. Nothing, however, material pa.s.sed beyond the old ground of coalition and non-coalition. Pitt's speech was inimitable. McDonald made a speech which was not very pleasant, supposing that Pitt should join the Gowers, as it turned entirely upon an avowal of all his old principles, which he charged Lord North with having abandoned, &c., &c.

I am utterly at a loss as to forming any conjecture, but my wishes are very strong that the King would suffer the new allies to make their arrangements, and try their strength. Adieu.

My dear brother, Ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

T. Pitt's daughter is either dying or actually dead, which prevented his attendance. I pity them exceedingly, for no people dote more on their children.

MR. c.o.kE'S MOTION TO ADDRESS HIS MAJESTY.

"That His Majesty will be graciously pleased to take into his serious consideration the distracted state of his kingdom after a long and exhausting war, and will condescend to comply with the wishes of this House, by forming a Government which may be ent.i.tled to the confidence of the House, and may have a tendency to put an end to the unhappy divisions of the country."

Two days after the date of this letter, Lord Shelburne, who still nominally held the Seals, formally resigned. The scene at the levee on this occasion, which may be described as _le commencement de la fin_, was not only curious in itself, but helped greatly to increase the perplexity in which these strange transactions plunged even those persons who had the best opportunity of observing them. "I am just come from the levee," says General Cuninghame, writing on the 26th of March: "the Duke of Portland was there, and scarcely spoke to. Lord Shelburne, Mr. Pitt, Lord Howe, and the rest of the Ministers present, were loaded with attention. After the levee, Lord Shelburne resigned in ample form.

It is universally understood Mr. Pitt will not undertake. These circ.u.mstances put together, puzzle the world more than ever." It was a spectacle in perfect harmony with the unparalleled oscillations of the preceding six weeks to see the retiring Ministers overwhelmed by royal condescension, and the heads of the incoming Administration (for in the extremity to which His Majesty was now reduced there was literally no choice) treated with undisguised aversion.

On the 26th, Mr. Grenville saw the King, and placed in His Majesty's hands the letter Lord Temple had written on his suggestion. There is not a cranny of the negotiations--which still hung, and which now appeared even farther from a conclusion than at the beginning--left unexplored in this luminous Correspondence. It is quite evident that the King resisted the coalition to the utmost extremity, that he tried every available individual, and some even who were not in a position to bring any strength to the Government, before he submitted, and that in the end he submitted only under the compulsion of an overruling necessity.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, March, 27th, 1783.

My dear Brother,

I received your letter on Tuesday night so late, that I was not able to take any steps towards delivering its enclosure till yesterday, when Lord Sydney acquainted the King, at my request, with my wish to see him. I went there in the evening. Lord Ashburton was there before me, and had an audience of near two hours. When I went in, I said that you had been highly flattered with his gracious communication, and had been encouraged by it to trouble His Majesty with a detail of your situation, and the circ.u.mstances in which you stood. He received it very graciously, saying, that he was infinitely obliged to you for it; that he would take the first moment to look it over, and would certainly answer it, which should pa.s.s through my hands, as he had never been more satisfied, &c., &c.

He then entered into a detail of what had pa.s.sed since I saw him last. This, however, differs so very little, if at all, from what I have before stated to you about the Cabinet which was proposed, and the subordinate arrangement which was refused, and upon which the whole negotiation broke off, and has never since been resumed, that I will not trouble you with it over again.

One thing, however, is worth mentioning, of which I was not before apprized, that the King complained of personal incivility from the Duke of Portland.

Since the negotiation with the coalition broke off, the Government has been repeatedly and most eagerly pressed upon Pitt, who has, however, yesterday, once more firmly declined it.

What the present intention is, I have scarcely a guess. The King seems as much disinclined as ever to open the negotiation again, and yet I see no resource which he has. He complained much that no one would step forth, and asked me whether I thought Tom Pitt could be worked upon. To this I gave little answer, except my ignorance, &c.; but I believed I might have answered decisively in the negative, as he declined even with William Pitt.

He then entered into a conversation on the subject of Ireland, stating your universal popularity there, and inquiring about different people, particularly Scott. This brought us to the precipitate appointment of the Duke of Portland, and to the insult which had been offered by it to Lord Carlisle, and his astonishment that immediately afterwards he could accept such an office under him.

He mentioned Lord Ely's having applied to be invested in England, and his having desired Lord Sydney to refer the letter to you.

I do not recollect that anything else material pa.s.sed, except compliments, &c., &c.

I cannot help mentioning to you that you have never written to Lord Sydney, either on his peerage, or your resignation, and that I cannot help thinking that he feels it.

The Irish Bill sleeps in the House of Lords. The Chancellor desired to put it off till something was settled. Lord Abingdon has given notice, in a most ridiculous speech, of his intention to oppose it. I spoke to Townshend yesterday about it, and he promised to appoint some day to-morrow for its being read a second time. They talk here of the Duke of Devonshire for Ireland. He is a respectable man, undoubtedly, and if you except the scale of his talents, which I think inferior to the situation, I know only one objection to the appointment, and that is a capital one.

Pray communicate a little with Mornington about your resignation, &c. It will flatter him; and he is beyond measure disposed to you both in Ireland and _here_, to which he looks in a short time; but you must not let him know I have told you that.

Adieu, my dearest brother, Believe me ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.

T. Pitt's child is recovering very fast.

The allusion to Lord Mornington (afterwards Marquis Wellesley) is not quite clear. We are left in some doubt as to whether his Lordship looked at this time to office in England, or to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. His ambition and his genius, however, had ample scope subsequently in India and in Ireland, the Government of which latter country was twice confided to him.

In the next letter Mr. Grenville reports another interview with the King, in which His Majesty expressed his regret at the absence of Lord Temple, to whom, even at the cost of still further delay, and some risk of confusion in Irish affairs, he would still have applied, but for the impediments which the distracted and unnatural state of parties threw in the way of the formation of an honest and independent Administration.

Mr. Grenville saw that the attempt to form a Cabinet in the face of such adverse circ.u.mstances would be attended with no credit to Lord Temple, or permanent advantage to the King, and judiciously discouraged it. He appears all throughout, from the dawn of the alliance between Fox and Lord North, to have desired that they should be allowed to make the experiment, in which he was confident they would fail.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, March 28th, 1783.

Half-past Seven, P.M.

My dear Brother,

I am just returned from the Queen's House, where the King sent for me about two hours ago. When I came into the room, he began the conversation by saying, that although his time was so much occupied in the present hour, he had wished to see me, in order to express how much he had felt upon reading your letter to him; that he had never been more pleased than he had been by that; so much matter in so little s.p.a.ce--the whole state of our present situation so justly seen, and so accurately described--in short, he was at a loss to say which appeared to him in the strongest light, the affection which had dictated that letter, or the ability with which it was drawn up.

He expatiated a good deal more on this, and then went on to say, that he was fully convinced that your not having been here at this moment was a very unfortunate circ.u.mstance, for that you would have stood forth to a.s.sist him. I said I was certain that nothing would have made you so happy as the possibility of being of any service to His Majesty in the present crisis. He answered that he fully believed it, and that the idea had occurred to him this morning of sending for me, to know what I thought of it in the present moment, as there was not time for a communication with you. I told him that there was one very considerable difficulty which struck me upon it--"the distance--besides that, Sire, the finding any person for the House of Commons, where it is most likely that the great push will be made."

This seemed to strike him. He mentioned his having sent yesterday again to Tom Pitt, to endeavour to persuade him to stand forward, and his having declined it. He then went a good deal into T. Pitt's character, speaking very highly of his good sense and integrity, but expressing his doubts whether his health would ever allow him to take any active part; that, however, he had received this satisfaction from his conversation with him, that he had the pleasure of seeing that he approved of the conduct which he had held. He mentioned his having shown him the material letters which had pa.s.sed, and then took them out of a drawer, and gave them me to read, consisting of four. One from the Duke of Portland, desiring to see the King. The King's note to Lord North, desiring to see the arrangement; and Lord North's answer, enclosing a letter to him from the Duke of Portland, both declining to give in the list.

While I was reading these letters he went over with me a great variety of topics, chiefly the same as in the two former conversations, and very particularly upon the characters of Lord North and Fox, whom I think he described very justly, though certainly not in the most flattering colours. The first, he said, was a man composed entirely of negative qualities, and actuated, in every instance, by a desire of present ease at the risk of any future difficulty. This he instanced in the American war, and in the riots of 1780, of which he gave me a very long detail. As to Fox, he allowed that he was a man of parts, quickness, and great eloquence; but that he wanted application, and consequently the fundamental knowledge necessary for business, and above all, was totally dest.i.tute of discretion and sound judgment. He paid many compliments to William Pitt, to Jemmy, to the Major-General, to myself, and above all, to you, which language, I know, he has within these few days held most universally, which has probably given rise to the second report of your being sent for.

In more than one instance, he made use of expressions which, if they did not absolutely declare his resolution at all hazards not to send again for the Duke of Portland, at least, have very strongly impressed me with that idea. In this I may be mistaken, but I own I so understood him; although I am utterly at a loss to form any conjecture of what he is looking forward to.

After he had gone through a very long detail of this sort, he dismissed me, saying, that he would certainly write to you, through me, in a day or two; and, in the meantime, desiring that you would understand how much he had been satisfied with you, and how happy he should have been if you could have helped him.

You see this does not amount to an offer; and the reason is, I think, sufficiently plain why the offer was not made: namely, that he had been staggered at what, I fear, is an insurmountable difficulty, with respect to the lead of the House of Commons. W.

Pitt would certainly not hear of it, after his second peremptory refusal of the Treasury; T. Pitt as certainly not, after his refusal, for the second time, together with the comment afforded by a very long conversation which I had with him yesterday morning upon the subject; Jemmy has not health, and still less spirits, for so very arduous an undertaking; and as for myself, even if equal in other respects, which I very unaffectedly know I am not, still I am much too young, and too little versed in the navigation of that tempestuous sea, to venture out in such a hurricane as this. Indeed, upon the whole, I think the King seemed more to wish that you should know he had entertained, and been inclined to the idea, than to desire to press it upon you, at a moment when it appears so very impracticable.

I said nothing in my last letter upon the subject which you mentioned to me respecting yourself, as I had no opportunity of dropping any hint of it to the King, when I saw him to deliver your letter. To-night, I certainly had that opportunity, and would as certainly have made use of it, but that I was never certain, till the last moment of the conversation, whether it would have ended by desiring me to state the offer to you as one now actually made, or as one wished to have been so if circ.u.mstances had allowed it. If it had been the former, a much better field would have been opened for the application: as it is, I will certainly throw out the idea, if I can find any opportunity of doing it when he delivers me his answer to you.

I shall be impatient to hear your observations upon this interesting conversation. I certainly did not mean to take upon me to answer on your behalf in the negative, nor do I think I was so understood; but the objection which I started, in order that I might learn if any solution could be found, appeared to him, having no such solution to offer, as it does to me, seeing none such which can be offered, totally and absolutely insurmountable.

In the meantime, the idea of his resolution not to give way, has most seriously alarmed me. I wish I may prove a false prophet, but I solemnly protest to G.o.d that I am afraid of the most fatal consequences. In a week's time, there will not be in the Treasury a farthing of money to defray the ordinary and current expenses of the Government! Judge how this will operate upon the seamen and soldiers, who are daily expecting to be paid off, and who, G.o.d knows, do not seem to want so strong an inducement to mutiny as must be afforded them by the total want of money. The licentiousness of the people, already arrived at a pitch never known in this country, is daily inflamed by newspapers and pamphlets, while there is no Government whatever to restrain its effects. These considerations hold out little encouragement to any man; but they afford an inducement to every good citizen to risk much, not only of personal ease and personal safety, but also of personal situation and character, in the hopes of averting the calamities which seem to threaten us. But if the attempt should be unsuccessful (and who shall say it will be otherwise?), it would plunge the Government into greater difficulties, by cutting off from the King his only resource and refuge.