Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third Volume I Part 21

My dear Lord,

I have been waiting for some days (now almost weeks) for my delivery; but finding the situation of Government so uncertain, I will not delay to the period when our correspondence would naturally have closed, my cordial acknowledgments for the very steady, honourable, and let me call it affectionate support which you have given me in the complicated scene of the four winter months, and in the whole detail of our communications. I shall ever think of it with grat.i.tude; but if I were vain enough to think my presence in Ireland necessary, you have effectually prevented my continuance by a candour and sincerity, which I could little expect in your successor. Upon these grounds of good-will to those with whom I acted, and of detestation of that coalition to which you have given way, I have, without communication with any one, sent to you my letter of resignation. I am not insensible to the sacrifice; for arduous as the station most truly is, I had hopes at this early period of my life to have built my honest fame upon the event of my Administration. Those prospects are vanished, but I have that satisfaction in reflecting upon the scene of these last six months, which amply contents me. As to future events, let those who have played this desperate game, deeply answer it; and upon that subject (as far as it relates to this kingdom) I will say nothing, as you will, from my despatches, have collected all that can occur to me. G.o.d knows whether this may still find you Secretary; if it should, I wish you to write to me an ostensible letter, in the strongest terms, upon the conduct of the Portuguese, with respect to our trade at Lisbon. If you had all remained in office I should have seriously proposed reprisals on their effects in our ports, as the only means to bring them to a sense of what is due to Ireland; as it is, I wish for many reasons to leave to Ireland a proof of the pains which you know I have taken upon that subject.

Adieu, my dear Townshend; excuse the name, it has dropped from my pen, and reminds me that I have not a.s.sured you of the cordial interest I take in your creation; but till I am more familiarized to Sydney, the former name more easily recalls those feelings of regard, with which I am ever,

Your very faithful and affectionate servant, (Signed) Nugent Temple.

Many thanks for your exertions on Lord Rawdon's business: it has been shamefully delayed, and I thought the stoppage of subsistence the likely means to bring it forward; but you will easily believe that I have taken care, though it is nominally stopped, yet that the men are paid.

Rt. Hon. Lord Sydney.

By this time the arrangements were completed, and the new Ministers had kissed hands.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, April 2nd, 1783.

My dear Brother,

I enclose a paper containing the new arrangement, who kissed hands to-day. The King sent last night to Lord North, to bid him tell them that they were to come to the levee to-day to kiss hands.

You will, as I understand, have the supreme felicity of receiving from the Right Honourable Frederick Lord North, a notification of his appointment; though I hear to-day that Fox is to take Ireland as part of the _Foreign_ Department.

I hear nothing of your successor. Adieu.

Ever yours, W. W. G.

On the day on which this letter was written, the Duke of Portland was publicly announced as First Lord of the Treasury, Fox and Lord North as joint Secretaries of State (an arrangement which explains Mr.

Grenville's allusion to Ireland as part of the _Foreign_ Department), Lord John Cavendish as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Keppel, First Lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Stormont, President of the Council, and the Earl of Carlisle, Privy Seal. The King had endeavoured in vain to retain the services of Lord Thurlow. Upon this point, which had been ceded very reluctantly by the Shelburne Cabinet, the coalition Ministers were inexorable. They insisted upon putting the Seal into commission, with Lord Loughborough as First Commissioner; and, as they were in a position to dictate their own terms, His Majesty at last gave up this point, to which he had clung with more tenacity than all the rest.

His Majesty's attachment to Lord Thurlow may possibly have been founded on the conviction that he could securely calculate on the allegiance of a man who was ready to avail himself of every opportunity to promote his own interests, and who might therefore be expected, on all occasions, to pay a deferential attention to the wishes of the King. His Lordship's subsequent conduct during the Regency discussions in 1788 afforded a conspicuous proof of his unscrupulousness: when, upon hearing one night, at Carlton House, from one of the King's physicians, of the approaching convalescence of His Majesty, he went down at once to the House, and, to the utter astonishment of everybody, undertook a defence of the King's rights against the Prince and the Whigs, with whom, up to that moment, he had been engaged actively intriguing on the other side. The same implicit devotion to the ascendant authority might no doubt have been looked for from Lord Loughborough, who was a thorough party-man. But there was a certain st.u.r.diness in Thurlow, that rendered him a more valuable adherent, and a more formidable antagonist. He seems to have regarded all mankind with distrust. On the Bench, his disposition vented itself in judgments remarkable for their brevity and the irascible tone in which they were delivered. His utterance was sonorous, with the mysterious pomp and grandiloquence of an oracle, kindling up at times into solemn denunciation. His "make up" must have been perfect in its way, from the awful air of preparation for which his speeches are said to have been so remarkable. Thurlow acted with Pitt and the Whigs, and was p.r.o.nounced equally impracticable by both. Pitt complained of him that he was always raising difficulties, and strangely irresolute of purpose on public measures, for a man who was so decided on the Bench.

The Whigs had the same complaint against him, and were always embarra.s.sed by him, and at a loss to know how he would act on particular emergencies. Throughout these letters, numerous traces will be found of the continual doubts and apprehensions with which he inspired them.

Lord Loughborough's career was no less remarkable for violence, and the unconscientious pursuit of professional promotion, to which he made all other objects subservient. He and Thurlow had been Solicitor and Attorney-General under Lord North's Administration, and were amongst its most strenuous supporters; although the former had entered Parliament in uncompromising hostility to Lord North's Cabinet, and distinguished himself for some years as one of its bitterest a.s.sailants. Having thus opposed Ministers in the early period of their Government, when their measures were most deserving of support, he joined them on the eve of the American war, when their measures were most open to objection; and carried his partizanship to such a height, that even the judicial function did not restrain his zeal. While he was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, he made war upon Pitt's Administration in the Upper House, where he headed the Foxite Opposition, and became one of the boldest and, consequently, one of the most dangerous of the Prince's advisers on the Regency question.

The coalition, which placed the Seals in the hands of Lord Loughborough, is so vigorously and minutely pourtrayed in this Correspondence, that it need not here be further alluded to. Its origin, progress and fate present one of those instructive episodes in political history which all statesmen may consult with advantage, and which they will find amply detailed in these letters. The disgrace of the junction certainly lay more heavily on the Whigs than on Lord North. Fox had spent his whole life in a.s.sailing the person and policy of Lord North, whose principles were utterly opposed to his own; yet he entered into a Cabinet compact with this very Minister, because Lord Shelburne and Mr. Pitt had endeavoured to repair the errors of his Government--the very errors Mr.

Fox had all along condemned--by negotiating a peace which, upon the whole, was more favourable than could have been reasonably expected.

Three years before, Lord North made an overture to the Rockingham party for a coalition, but it was rejected; and that which Lord Rockingham considered to be a violation of consistency and an abandonment of principle was, on this memorable occasion, not only adopted by Fox, but negotiated under circ.u.mstances which for several weeks placed the interests of the empire in jeopardy. We shall probably never learn with whom the movement originated in the first instance; but that it was pursued with equal earnestness on both sides, admits of no doubt. The only point upon which the contracting parties appear to have differed was the distribution of offices!

One of Lord North's first steps in office, was to address a conciliatory and complimentary letter to Lord Temple; but it was too late--no temptations could have induced his Lordship to retract.

LORD NORTH TO LORD TEMPLE.

Secretary of State's Office, Whitehall,

April 5th, 1783.

My Lord,

I must beg your Excellency's permission to accompany the despatches which are going to Ireland, by a few lines in a private letter, to express my great concern to find, upon my entrance into this office, that your Excellency has taken a resolution to quit your Government. The important station which you now fill never, I believe, required more discretion and more firmness than at the present moment; and there was, perhaps, never more difficulty in finding any person capable and willing to succeed to an office of such consequence, and to give to His Majesty and to the people of Ireland the satisfaction which your Excellency has done.

If, in the situation in which His Majesty has been pleased to place me, I can be of any service to your Excellency, I hope that you will command me without scruple; and be a.s.sured that I shall rejoice in every opportunity of showing the respect with which I have the honour to be,

My Lord, Your Excellency's most faithful, humble servant, North.

The Administration had hardly entered upon its functions, when its overthrow became an object of speculation. Everybody saw that it could not stand. It began in a false position, and had not the power to recover itself. General Cuninghame writes to Lord Temple, on the 9th of April: "Lord North will not be called to the House of Peers till the question on Representation has been discussed in the Commons, then that House will be left entirely to Mr. Fox, and from that moment many wise men already begin to date his downfall. I do not meet with any who think the present arrangement looks permanent. n.o.body now pretends to guess who will go to Ireland. The Duke of Devonshire has put himself entirely out of the question, and Lord Fitzwilliam still declines it." This intelligence is corroborated by Mr. Grenville.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

April 9th, 1783.

My dear Brother,

I waited till this morning to deliver the Badge, &c., in hopes of receiving your answer to the letter of the 1st instant; but receiving last night, by messenger, yours of the 4th, and perceiving that you had not then received it, I thought I could not any longer delay it.

As it was late before I could get in, I had very little conversation. I think it, however, right to mention to you, that he asked me whether I had heard anything of their having written a letter to you, pressing you to stay; and that when I said that I knew nothing of it except from common report, but had heard that His Majesty's name had been made use of to induce you to stay, he answered that it might be so, but if it had, it was without his consent, or even knowledge.

I send this to you by express, because I cannot help giving credit to the report, and the rather, because I hear nothing of any successor being appointed. The Duke of Devonshire has positively refused; _so has Lord Derby_; and Lord Fitzwilliam (the properest man they have to send) has declined it on account of Lady Fitzwilliam's health, which makes it absolutely impossible for her to undertake such a journey. My opinion, however--and, I confess, my hope--is, that he will at last be prevailed upon. I have as yet had no sort of communication with our new Secretary, having sent your despatch to Lord Sydney, to whom it was addressed.

Nothing is yet done on the Irish Bill. It has waited till now for the appointment of a Government; and that being at last so happily settled, I applied to Lord Sydney to proceed with it. He told me he wished first to ask the Duke of Portland what his intentions were on the subject, in order to give him an opportunity of taking it up if he chose it. This coincided perfectly with what has always been my idea on the subject, that it ought to proceed from Government; and accordingly we went (in the House of Lords) to the Duke of Portland, who seemed not a little embarra.s.sed, but, however, said he would take it up, and would move for the second reading for Thursday or Friday next--which he has _not_ done.

I mean to-morrow to ask him about it; and if he shuffles, shall press Lord Sydney to go on with it. I do not think it impossible that Ponsonby either has or will desire him to amend it. If this should be the case, it must be returned into the House of Commons, where I will certainly attend it, and speak my opinion very freely and plainly upon it. Mornington tells us that Yelverton is dissatisfied with it, as not recognising _the original inherent right_ (you see the consistency of these men!); but that Grattan defends it, and he himself approves.

Fitzpatrick, Secretary-at-War, selling his commission, but not his rank; Conway being continued on the staff, in order to prevent Fitzpatrick's issuing the military orders, to which flattering solution Conway submits; Lord Hertford, Chamberlain; Lord Dartmouth, Lord Steward; Duke of Manchester, Paris; Lord Sandwich outrageous, and in violent opposition; Lord Townshend, Ordnance; Sir W. Howe remains, at his brother's particular request.

* Lord North | * Lord Stormont | * Lord Carlisle | Lord Hertford | Lord Dartmouth | Lord Townshend | Lord Loughborough | Lord Weymouth | Charles Townshend } _Privy Council offices._ Eden | Greville | * Duke of Portland | * Fox | * Lord Keppel | * Lord John Cavendish | Burke | Fitzpatrick _|

_Tibi Brachia contrahit ardens Scopiur, et c[oe]liae plus justa parte reliquit._

Lord Mansfield, Speaker, House of Lords; Lord de Ferrars resigns; Duke of Richmond, ditto, and violent.

April 11th.

So far, I wrote on Wednesday; but delayed sending it, in the hopes of having something more to write to you on the Irish Bill, and in the full confidence that their letter, even if it has been sent, which I doubt, is not likely to make any very great impression upon you.

To-day I attended the House of Lords, as it had been agreed that the Irish Bill should come on. To my utter astonishment, the Duke of Portland, so far from performing his promise, got up when the order of the day was called for, and said, that as the Bill was brought in before he came into office, he did not consider himself as responsible for its contents. The Duke of Richmond, on this, attacked him pretty warmly on the idea of a Minister suffering a Bill of such magnitude to go on, without having some settled opinion to declare upon it.

A little more conversation of this sort pa.s.sed, of which you will probably see the detail in the papers, better than I can give it you. It ended by fixing the second reading for Monday, for which day the Lords are summoned. The Chancellor paid you a great many compliments, lamenting your departure, &c.; and saying, at the same time, very justly, that if a new Government was to take place in Ireland, they might possibly be to adopt a system directly contrary to that to which the Bill is calculated.

Lord Sydney is to move it on Monday; the Duke of Portland having told him (in consequence of his having, at my desire, put the question explicitly to him), that he meant to take no part in it. Probably, however, this determination will last only till he gets a fresh set of instructions from Fox.

The news of the day is, that they are quarrelling about having Lord Loughborough of the Cabinet. I am going to the King to deliver your letter, and if it be true, shall very likely hear it.