Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third Volume I Part 20

Two or three days must, by their events, and by the King's letter to you, enable you to judge decisively upon the situation of the country, present and to come. The prospect is truly gloomy, and the combination of calamitous circ.u.mstances such as to leave very little reason in my apprehension to hope that this situation will be such as we must all wish--that of a settled Government, even in hands which we dislike, if it can be settled in no other. In the meantime, I do not think you called upon to transmit to the King any answer to this conversation; especially as, I suppose, you must naturally send one to his letter, whenever it arrives.

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

P.S.--The Treasury have written to Hamilton to give a.s.surances of the repayment of the money advanced to Lord Rawdon's regiment, and to desire a state of that money. The natural way would have been, to have given you credit for the whole money due from them to the regiment; but as it is, I hope you will not any longer think it necessary to stop the subsistence, as it has so harsh an appearance.

Having traced the history of the coalition up to this point, we now come to His Majesty's answer to Lord Temple, referring to these transactions.

It was transmitted in the following letter from Mr. Grenville.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, April 1st, 1783.

My dear Brother,

I have this evening seen the King, and received from him, with every expression both towards you and myself, the enclosed letter to transmit to you. I take it for granted that it will sufficiently inform you of the determination which he has at length taken, but not avowed, of acquiescing in the Duke of Portland's Cabinet for the present; and of his wishes, that those who act with us should hold themselves apart from such a Government, in order that he may have something else to look to whenever circ.u.mstances shall allow of it.

At all events, if there is anything in his conversation with me which is not implied in his letter, I shall so soon have an opportunity of detailing it to you at length, that I do not think it worth while to trouble you with what must for the most part be a repet.i.tion of what he has written to you. Our ground I think clear--honourable to ourselves, consistent with our principles and professions, and holding out to us the fairest prospects of honest ambition. If those prospects fail us, we shall have nothing to reproach ourselves with; if they succeed, we shall stand firmly and honourably upon the ruins of weakness and disgrace.

The King talks of their kissing hands in two or three days. I shall wait till their inferior arrangements are settled, because the difficulty about the peerages still remains. They are said to be pledged by absolute promises; on the other hand, the King neither can, will, nor I think ought, to give way on that head.

Should they be so weak as to resign on that ground, their support would certainly fail them, and the road would be opened for us. As soon as this point is understood to be settled, I will go back to you; as, notwithstanding our voluminous correspondence, I wait with the utmost impatience for the moment when I may state to you in person much which I have necessarily left unsaid, and, above all, the sincere and heartfelt affection with which I am

Ever most truly yours, W. W. G.

You will observe that part of the King's ground is a resistance to _advancements_ as well as _creations_. This seemed naturally to throw so much difficulty upon your object, that I thought there would be an indelicacy in pressing it at the time that you are lamenting the unavoidable difficulties under which he already labours. The delay, I firmly believe, will be very short indeed.

While I am making up this, I receive yours of the 28th of March.

It is supposed that the King, when he wrote the note negativing the coalition, either depended on Pitt, or meant by that means to force him. I have, as far as possible, observed towards Pitt the line you state, and I think with success.

I have heard nothing till this moment of the pretty negotiation of which you speak; but do not suppose any man, or set of men, would authorize the sale of a judicial office.

Here follows the letter from the King, enclosed in the above. The historical interest of this confidential communication cannot be overrated.

THE KING TO LORD TEMPLE.

Queen's House, April 1st, 1783.

My Lord,

I had the pleasure, on the 26th of last month, to receive from your truly amiable and right-headed brother and secretary, your very able letter of the 23rd on the state of Ireland, couched in terms that also conveyed the warmest attachment to my person and Government, which makes me not deem among the least of public misfortunes, that the want of resolution in some, and of public zeal in others, will oblige you to quit a station which you fill so much to the satisfaction of all honest men as well as to mine.

Since the conversation I had with Mr. William Grenville on the 16th of last month, I have continued every possible means of forming an Administration; an experience of now above twenty-two years convinces me that it is impossible to erect a stable one within the narrow bounds of any faction, for none deserve the appellation of party; and that in an age when disobedience to law and authority is as prevalent as a thirst after changes in the best of all political Const.i.tutions, it requires temper and sagacity to stem these evils, which can alone be expected from a collection of the best and most calm heads and hearts the kingdom possesses.

Judge, therefore, of the uneasiness of my mind, at having been thwarted in every attempt to keep the administration of public affairs out of the hands of the most unprincipled coalition the annals of this or any other nation can equal. I have withstood it till not a single man is willing to come to my a.s.sistance, and till the House of Commons has taken every step, but insisting on this faction being by name elected Ministers.

To end a conflict which stops every wheel of Government, and which would affect public credit if it continued much longer, I intend this night to acquaint that _grateful_ Lord North, that the seven Cabinet Counsellors the coalition has named shall kiss hands to-morrow, and then form their arrangements, as the former negotiation they did not condescend to open to many of their intentions.[1]

A Ministry which I have avowedly attempted to avoid, by calling on every other description of men, cannot be supposed to have either my favour or confidence; and as such, I shall most certainly refuse any honours they may ask for. I trust the eyes of the nation will soon be opened, as my sorrow may prove fatal to my health if I remain long in this thraldom. I trust you will be steady in your attachment to me, and ready to join other honest men in watching the conduct of this unnatural combination, and I hope many months will not elapse before the Grenvilles, the Pitts, and other men of abilities and character will relieve me from a situation that nothing could have compelled me to submit to, but the supposition that no other means remained of preventing the public finances from being materially affected.

It shall be one of my first cares to acquaint these men that you decline remaining in Ireland.

George R.

[Footnote 1: This pa.s.sage is printed accurately from the original. Its obscurity may be removed by a slight alteration: "as _in_ the former negotiation they did not condescend to open _too_ many of their intentions."]

A Ministry forced in this way upon a Sovereign who, during the twenty-two years referred to in the above letter, had struggled successfully to resist the dictation of Parliament, and to break down the ascendancy of powerful families and party combinations, contained within itself the seeds of early dissolution. The King accepted them, but never gave them his confidence. He resolved from the first to treat them as men who had violently broken into the Cabinet; and he called upon his friends to withhold their support from them, and to sustain him in his resistance to their policy. The ingrat.i.tude of Lord North touched him deeply; and in proportion as he shrank from all personal intercourse that could be avoided with the new allies of his former favourite, he turned for succour to men like Lord Temple, who preserved their honour unsullied, however their political views, on some subjects, might have differed from his own. If it cannot be said of His Majesty in this crisis, that "royalty conspired to remove" these Ministers, the language of His Majesty's letter (in itself an excellent specimen of his pure English style and practical good sense) plainly and unreservedly declares his resolution to get rid of them as soon as possible by all the means the Const.i.tution placed in his hands. Lord Temple's answer frankly indicates the course he was prepared to take during the existence of what the writer designates as the "unprincipled coalition."

It will be seen in the sequel how fully he justified the confidence reposed in him by the King.

LORD TEMPLE TO THE KING.

Dublin Castle,

April 6th, 1783, Thirty minutes past Eleven, P.M.

Sire,

This moment has brought to me your Majesty's letter. Every anxiety which I felt, and which my letter so faintly expressed, is relieved by that condescension with which your Majesty has deigned to accept the state of Ireland, and of my situation.

Permit me to express my thanks, with every a.s.surance of that attachment which has your Majesty's service as my only object, and of that heartfelt concern which presses upon me at the detail of the situation of your Majesty's health and feelings, as well as of the kingdom. May Providence long secure to us that health and life; a resource upon which our all depends. To yourself, Sire, and to posterity, you stand acquitted for every consequence, which nothing but the frenzy of the moment could have forced upon you. The interval is truly painful, but a short time must rescue your Government from the fetters thrown round it. My respectful, and (suffer me to say) cordial attachment to your person, and to that best of political Const.i.tutions which is hourly threatened, will ever lead me to sacrifice every private feeling to your service. I must, however, say, and say truly, that every feeling of ambition is deadened by these times and circ.u.mstances; and that a public situation has none of those charms for me which have brought forward this unprincipled coalition. But I have, and ever must retain those feelings of duty and affection which will urge me to obey your Majesty's commands in exerting every faculty for your satisfaction and the public service. The scene before you is indeed unparalleled in the annals of history. May those who, by timidity and weakness for some years past, have driven your kingdoms to the verge of destruction, and those, who, by a dangerous and unprincipled attack upon every part of the Const.i.tution, are now enabled to avail themselves of our distress, deeply answer it. My opinions (uninteresting as they are to your Majesty) have never varied upon that great jewel of const.i.tutional supremacy over all the parts of the empire, now torn from your Crown; nor upon the system of our Government founded on law and practice of ages, which draws the line between the Const.i.tution of Great Britain and all other establishments. These principles, from my earliest infancy, I have imbibed; and if I could reconcile a deviation from them to my political or moral duties, I will confess that no hopes of ambition have power to tempt me. Under these impressions I embarked in an undertaking under which nothing but your Majesty's protection, and a confidence in my own intentions, could have supported me. And with these impressions I retire, with every feeling amply gratified by your favour and approbation.

May no circ.u.mstances delay the hour of your Majesty's deliverance from that thraldom which bears so heavily upon you, and may you find in those cool heads and hearts, to whom your Majesty would entrust your service, that resource to which you are so well ent.i.tled. In such an arrangement, no consideration will direct your Majesty's thoughts for one moment towards me, except the conviction (which I will beg to urge to your Majesty, and which it will be my pride to cultivate,) of the grat.i.tude, duty, and affection, with which I have the honour to subscribe myself,

Sire, Your Majesty's very faithful and devoted subject and servant, N. T.

Lord Temple had decided upon his resignation early in March; and one of the first persons to whom he confided his determination, was his friend Lord Bulkeley. The letter conveying this intelligence is so honourable to his character, and contains so intimate a revelation of the high principles and paramount sense of duty by which his conduct was governed, that it will inspire even a deeper interest than the more elaborate statement of his motives and opinions which he laid before the King.

LORD TEMPLE TO LORD BULKELEY.

Dublin Castle, March 20th, 1783

The strange scene, my dearest Bulkeley, of the last month, has left me little time (even if my public duty would have allowed me) to have communicated with you upon the subject of your last letter, and of my present or future situation. The constant intelligence which I have had from England, has enabled me to form a very adequate judgment upon the state of your politics, the complexion of them altered every moment; and I have been obliged to preserve a most cautious and scrupulous silence upon the variety of subjects which the last anxious month has presented. My line has been for several days past decisively taken; but I have not till this day thought myself at liberty to avow to any one that I have requested from the King that he will release me from a situation in which I can no longer be useful; for no consideration shall tempt me to hold this Government, where I do not see my way in the English Cabinet, whose formation must ever revolt and disgust me. I have much to say upon this point, more than I can include in a letter, which from my want of time must be short; but my brother William, who will deliver you this letter open, will tell you in detail what I feel upon the subject. I do not say that I am indifferent to what I sacrifice; Ireland holds out a career the most brilliant to my honest fame; but there are feelings which I would not exchange in the present moment for all that the two kingdoms could bestow: to those feelings, whenever you are in public office, I recommend you; and trust me that they will amply repay you for any change which a resignation may make in your situation. To those scenes of domestic happiness which have hitherto blessed me, I shall with pleasure return; and in those scenes I shall look for your friendship with the same warm feelings with which I first embraced it; for in all situations I shall, and must, be to you the same George Grenville, and no longer to any one

Sancho Panca, the Governor.

Mr. Townshend, who had filled the office of Secretary of State for the Home Department under Lord Shelburne, and had been just elevated to the peerage (March 6th, 1783) as Baron Sydney of Chiselhurst, was the only member of the Administration who had cordially concurred with Mr.

Grenville in his efforts to forward the unfortunate Irish Bill in which Lord Temple was so deeply interested. Previously to his retirement from office, Lord Temple, reminded of his neglect by Mr. Grenville in not having earlier forwarded his congratulations, addressed the following letter to Lord Sydney. A closer acquaintance afterwards sprang up between them, and was ripened into an intimate friendship before the close of the year. "I cannot conclude," observes Lord Sydney, at the close of a letter dated October 27th, 1783, "without expressing, in the strongest manner, how sensible my family, as well as myself, are of the civilities we received at Stowe during the agreeable time which we spent there. We drink your health every day, and desire, _en corps_, to be remembered to your Lordship and Lady Temple, and to the rest of the party at Stowe, in the kindest manner."

LORD TEMPLE TO LORD SYDNEY.

Dublin Castle, April 2nd, 1783.