Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 Part 47

MY DEAR B----,

Canning not having come up to town, I have not been able to speak to him on the subject of your letter, but after communicating with Lord Liverpool, I can, I believe, say with certainty, that though of course no part of the King's speech has yet been framed or considered, you may depend upon its containing such a recommendation of relief from taxation as will satisfy the principle upon which Lord C---- wishes for information.

I have much pleasure in telling you that a change will, I trust, take place by the retirement of Bragge Bathurst, which will enable us to take the field with better auspices at the meeting of Parliament.

It is proposed that Vansittart shall succeed to the Chancellorship of the Duchy, with a _Peerage_; Robinson to the Exchequer; Huskisson, Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy, without Cabinet; Arbuthnot, Woods and Forests; Herries, Secretary to the Treasury. As yet, this is completely a secret even to the Cabinet, but as the King has approved it, it probably cannot long so continue. One consequence I apprehend will be, that Peel and I must stand the pelting of the first fortnight of the Session by ourselves, which probably your kindness will admit as an additional reason for my wishing C---- to listen favourably to Canning's request.

I really do not think that there is the least ground for your supposition of intentional neglect on the part of Government towards you. Nothing which I have seen looks at all like it. It is possible that you may think that you ought to have been written to oftener, but it has naturally been supposed, that as I was in constant communication with you, it was not necessary for anybody else.

I have to-day heard from Dublin that the Grand Jury has thrown out Bills preferred against the rioters for a misdemeanour, very much in consequence of the feeling originally excited by the first design of proceeding against them capitally for a conspiracy to a.s.sa.s.sinate. Plunket has, I understand, immediately declared that he would file an _ex officio_ information against them. Whether this is wise or not depends, I think, wholly on the nature of his evidence; if he can produce sufficient to warrant a conviction it will be quite right, and expose the Orange spirit of Dublin; but if it is deficient, it will have a most mischievous effect to subject them to such a proceeding, after the Grand Jury has thrown out the Bill.

I am very sorry that you differ with me about Henry, but it really seems to me that after Canning has intimated this opinion in favour of the reduction of the mission, he has only the choice of leaving it or of carrying into execution his original offer of taking it with his own rank, but a reduced salary. In the event of a repet.i.tion of last year's attack, it would be no trifling change if the Secretary of State were in his heart against us, and if, perhaps, his intimates knew that he had proposed an arrangement for averting it. I will also fairly state that, after thwarting Canning's favourite plans for Huskisson, I am the more anxious not to interpose unnecessary difficulty in the way of this.

I have to-day heard from Lord Hastings, that he awaits his successor in India. The last _Guardian_ is not quite as good as that of the preceding week, but the letter to Lethbridge is excellent, and the general tone and conduct quite right.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

Audley End, Jan. 14, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,

The mission of Lord F. Somerset[103] is not of a nature to give any jealousy to A'Court, being rather despatched by the Duke of Wellington to Alava, and some of his old friends in the Spanish army, than by Canning to the King of Spain; besides, he having been at Verona, can more correctly state to them the means by which they may enable us to avert the war with which they are menaced.

Henry accepts Stuttgart, though extremely reluctantly. You have never made any observation on the changes which I announced to you before I left town, and which I thought would please you. An attempt was made to persuade me to take Robinson's succession, but I really was exactly of Mr. Huskisson's opinion, and thought 2000_l._, or rather 1800_l._ a-year, worth more than a house, coal and candles; besides which, I did not like the idea of a second time undertaking a new department of the business, of which I knew nothing, just at the outset of the Session.

I think Old Nick ought to be Viscount Van, for alliteration sake. I believe he trusts still to his own loins to perpetuate the peerage, and applies for no remainder. With this exception, I think the arrangement as far as it goes good. Indeed, I do not know why Arbuthnot should have the Woods and Forests, but that the diplomatic pension list is full. I wish Lushington would retire also, for I believe he does his work ill. I suppose you have had a due announcement of the marriage of M. F----. Poor man, with such a simpleton of a wife, and such a collection of radical brethren-in-law, I think he has a good thing of it. Lord Braybrooke has been ill, and was last week very largely bled; he is now better, but has not yet quite recovered.

Lord Liverpool positively a.s.serts that he has neither directly nor indirectly pensioned Cobbett. I really think the Duke of Wellington not a little indebted to him for forcing the Whigs to declare county meetings a farce.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

[103] The late Lord Raglan.

East India Office, Wednesday.

Reginald Heber has, after much hesitation, to-day accepted the Bishopric of Calcutta; I grieve at losing him, but believe that the appointment will be most extensively beneficial. Our Brighton detachment reports the K---- to have been in excellent humour and spirits, and the general health good, but so lame as to occasion considerable doubt whether he may recover the use of his feet, which are much contracted.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office, Jan. 20, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,

I see the changes have at length got into the newspapers. I am only astonished that the secret has been preserved longer than any similar one which I recollect, as it has been in agitation ever since Canning came into office, and the hope of a.s.sisting it by inducing Van to take my office was one of the considerations most strongly urged upon me at the close of our discussion relative to the Speakership.

For the best possible reason I cannot tell you our finance plans, but I trust that considerable reduction of taxes must form a part of them, agreeably to Liverpool's a.s.surances. In the course of two or three days I shall know more.

Robinson[104] will be a decided improvement on poor Van, both in manner and popularity with the House, but as to measures, Liverpool must of course give the orders, and he obey. Still he is a man of sense and judgment, though perhaps deficient in energy, and if (as I am told) Huskisson will draw well with him, it really is the best appointment, both ostensibly and in fact, that we have materials for.

Lord F. Somerset's instructions are decidedly to act under A'Court's orders, and only to make those communications from the D---- of W---- to Alava and other individuals, which could not with any propriety be conveyed through the accredited Minister, and which would in truth excite all the clamour against interference in the internal affairs of Spain, which we most desire to avoid.

With respect to the question of sugars, I am very far from having formed any definite opinion, and am disposed to go into the Committee which Van last year pledged himself to grant, with a most impartial spirit. The bias of my mind certainly is to believe that by no means in our power can the ruin of the old sugar islands be averted, and that the present plan only sacrifices the East Indies to the new ones, which in their turn will be obliged to give way to the S. American Continent.

The state of India is now certainly most critical, as by the successful introduction of the British muslins you have completely destroyed that which till within a very short time has been their great staple export, and which now they have ceased to use themselves. I doubt, however, whether Robinson will even consider himself bound by Vansittart's pledge to go into the Committee, as I know he disapproved extremely of its being given, and thinks that the East Indies ought rather to look for relief from encouragement to the silk trade, and consequently to their growth of raw silk, than to any other source.

The question, however, is one of which I am by no means master, and on which I am not in any way committed.

Ever most affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

[104] Afterwards created Viscount G.o.derich and Earl of Ripon.

The presence of a popular Lord-Lieutenant, as the Marquis Wellesley was considered on his first arrival in Ireland, did not eradicate that feverish spirit of disaffection in a certain portion of the population of the island, which had been the great difficulty of his predecessors.

Indeed, his Lordship had lately become an object of open hostility, and an outrage had been perpetrated apparently against the vice-regal dignity, that was now undergoing investigation before the proper tribunal. This was only one indication of a mischievous spirit that had defeated the wisest intentions; in other places, the chronic disorder was so conspicuous as almost to make the friends of Ireland despair of being able to effect any permanent good in this unfortunate country.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office, Jan. 23, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,

I have scarce a moment to write to you, as between general business and that belonging to the office, which presses particularly at this moment, I am hard pressed. The depositions in the Dublin riot seem to me completely to establish the fact of a preconcerted disturbance, but rather directed against the Lord Mayor than the Lord-Lieutenant; but there is nothing to support the idea of a capital charge, unless some subsequent declarations that they should not so miss him another time, and that they were ready to sacrifice their lives for the object, should be so thought. We are to-morrow to consider the steps to be adopted.

On the first flush, the proceeding by information after an indictment has failed, certainly seems objectionable, but I believe it must certainly be legal, just as preferring a second indictment would. I am myself, however, most inclined to support this course, not because I approve it, but because after all that has happened, it would degrade both Wellesley and Plunket, and exalt the Orange faction in the public eye, to refuse our sanction to the measures which they have adopted.

The great object of France, in all her twisted course, has been to have the question of War and Peace left in her hands by the rest of Europe, then by a dexterous application of this power to produce a restoration of some portion of the King of Spain's authority, and on that ground to regain her ancient influence in his Court. In this, at all events, she has completely failed. Spain now promises payment of all our just claims, some of which she admits, and is willing to refer the remainder to a mixed commission. She also sends over a specific request for our good offices, to avert from her the calamities of war. Canning, I think, expects that peace will be preserved, and reasons much as you do. Both the King of France and Villele profess to see how prejudicial to the interest of France war must be.

I verily believe Lord Melville's conduct to you to be only the same by which he gives offence to everybody else. Hay, I believe, told Phillimore that Lord M---- had not answered one letter of all those which arrived during the time he was in Scotland. Canning retires from Liverpool, and succeeds to one of the seats for Harwich, vacated by B. Bathurst's retirement and Nick's peerage.

Ever most affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

There is some talk of Lord Maryborough quitting the Cabinet, and I believe that the Doctor only remains till he can appear to leave it without any reference to Canning's appointment.