Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third

When the victory was finally achieved, he writes again to Lord Bulkeley in a strain of justifiable exultation, announcing his complete triumph over the Opposition. The letter is dated the 4th May, and the passage extracted from it contains an animated picture of the strife through which the writer had just passed.

I told you, two months ago, that my friends would not blush for me – that I might be beaten, but that I would not be disgraced. I write to you now in the moment, and with the transports of the warmest exultation and of honest pride, to tell you, that on Saturday night I closed the session in the House of Commons, having thrown out every measure brought forward by Opposition. They would not divide after their second defeat, where, though our majority was the same, yet, as fewer members voted, it was more in proportion than before; and the illness of Lord Clanbrassil and of Lord Lifford lost us three votes. The House of Lords still sits for a cause which they are hearing, and for some private Bills. The House of Commons adjourned to Friday, and on that day both Houses adjourn to the 25th, when I shall pass the Bills, and shall finally prorogue them.

In the space then of six weeks, I have secured to the Crown a decided and steady majority, created in the teeth of the Duke of Leinster, Lord Shannon, Lord Granard, Ponsonby, Conolly, O'Neil, united to all the republicanism, the faction, and the discontents of the House of Commons; and having thrown this aristocracy at the feet of the King, I have taught to the British and Irish Government a lesson which ought never to be forgotten; and I have the pride to recollect that the whole of it is fairly to be ascribed to the steady decision with which the storm was met, and to the zeal, vigour, and industry of some of the steadiest friends that ever man was blessed with.

While these anxious events were passing in Ireland, the old passion of the King for interfering with military promotions, as if he were resolved, as Mr. Grenville remarks, to absorb that branch of patronage, involved Lord Buckingham and the Cabinet in another series of protocols similar to those which passed concerning Colonel Gwynne's appointment. Another lieutenant-colonelcy had fallen vacant, and Lord Buckingham desired that it should be bestowed on his nephew, Colonel Nugent, who had been disappointed of a similar favour on the former occasion; but His Majesty directed that it should be given to Colonel Taylor. Even Mr. Grenville, who exercised a philosophical patience in these matters, was so hurt at the manner in which Lord Buckingham's wishes were passed over, at a time when he was rendering such signal services to the Crown, that he could not restrain the expression of his dissatisfaction. Writing to Lord Buckingham, he says:

I feel that I would be unworthy, not only of your confidence and affection, but of the name and character of a gentleman, if I did not warmly partake of your just resentment at this gross and unmerited offence, offered at a moment when your conduct had entitled you to so very different a line of treatment.

Lord Buckingham was again on the point of resigning, and Mr. Grenville participated so strongly in his feelings that he indicated his determination of following his example. After stating in a subsequent letter that he thought he saw in the King's mind "a strong wish to take into his own hands this piece of military patronage whenever it falls," he proceeds to observe upon the consequences.

The whole transaction gives me the greatest uneasiness, because I am not afraid to say to you, fairly and openly, that the measures to which, I fear, you may ultimately be driven in consequence of it are of a nature which I fear extremely; and that, I trust, for better reasons than any consideration of their effect on my views. It is on every account a most critical and embarrassing moment for you; and the sense which I entertain of the injustice of those who have brought you into this situation, does not remove or diminish my apprehensions of the consequences to which it leads. It is no affectation or parade of disinterestedness, but the necessary consequence of the first principles of justice and honour, when I assure you that I am resolved to follow your decision upon it, and that I consider your honour as inseparably connected with my own.

Fortunately, however, this solution of the difficulty was rendered unnecessary. A compromise, as usual, afforded a convenient escape to all parties, without disappointing any; and by an ingenious re-distribution of three or four regiments (devised by His Majesty himself), Taylor was provided for elsewhere, and Nugent obtained his lieutenant-colonelcy. There was great difficulty, nevertheless, in bringing His Majesty to this point. He had made up his mind to give the vacant regiment to Taylor, and would hear of no one else. "I am truly sorry to say," observes Mr. Pitt, in the course of the negotiations, "that he seems thoroughly determined not to yield, and I am sure no consideration will induce him to agree to any other arrangement." Had it depended solely on the disposition of the King, the difference would never have been adjusted, and Lord Buckingham, stung by these repeated indignities, might have thrown up his Government at a conjuncture when his retirement must have plunged the country into anarchy. How seriously this step was contemplated by him and Mr. Grenville will appear from the following correspondence:

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

Whitehall, April 7th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I have just received your letter of the 3rd, and though I have nothing new to say to you upon the point of Captain Taylor, he not having yet sent his answer, I cannot help writing a few lines, lest you think the subject is out of my mind. With respect to the promotions of peerage, the fault, if there is any, is mine; because I felt, and still continue to feel, that under the present circumstances, and till this business of Taylor is settled, the other ought to be postponed; nor can I imagine any real inconvenience to arise from it. I am, however, by no means sanguine in my expectations of the event of this business. I have already expressed to you my sense of the King's treatment of you in this instance, and my determination to abide by any measures that you may think it right to take in this situation. I cannot, however, in justice to you or to myself, avoid saying, that I most sincerely wish you to consider well the step which you are about to take; and that not only with a reference to your present situation or to your immediate feelings, but with a view to the interpretation which the public will put upon it, and with a view to any future political object of ours. With respect to the latter, I am persuaded you must see that it is impossible for you to resign the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland at this time, and on this ground, without making up your mind at the same moment finally to renounce all ideas of our taking any part hereafter as public men in this country. If you will consider what our situation would be, after such a step, with the King, with the Prince, with Pitt's friends, and with Fox, and lastly with the public at large, you will, I am sure, think that the consequence which I state is not overstrained.

I can, without affectation, assure you, that though I am not indifferent either to the recollection of what we have already done, or to the prospects which are now before us; yet that I could perfectly well make up my mind to a different line of life, and that I am confident I possess sufficient resources within myself to reconcile myself to such a step, provided it were taken for an object which I felt to be tanti. And such I certainly do consider the object of marking to you, and to the world, and of discharging, in a manner satisfactory to my own feelings, my gratitude and affectionate attachment to you, in an instance where I entirely agree with you in thinking you ill-treated, at a time when you had deserved best.

It remains, therefore, for you to consider what step it may be best for you to take under all the present circumstances. Even if your mind should ultimately lean to the idea of resigning, I should certainly strongly press you not to carry this idea into effect till you have closed your session in Ireland; and in this advice, at least, I am certainly disinterested, because my situation would, in the interim, be more disagreeable and embarrassing than it could be under any other circumstances. But I am sure that if you were to quit immediately, as you now talk of doing, you never could induce any one to believe that this step was not taken with a view to escape from present difficulties, instead of being intended to mark your sense of personal ill-treatment; and that when the impression of the present moment upon your feelings was over, you never would forgive yourself for having concluded the transactions of this winter by such a termination.

I have only to add that I am not indifferent, and that I am persuaded you are not, to the public consequences of our conduct. It is one of the circumstances which are necessarily attendant upon a public situation and a public line of life, that a person who is engaged in it cannot act even in those points which most nearly concern himself without producing consequences which are often of great public importance. It will certainly not be a pleasant reflection to me to have materially contributed to the overthrow of that system of public men and public measures which I believe to be of the utmost importance to the welfare and prosperity of my country. On the best reflection which I can give to the subject, weighing what I owe to you and to myself, and what I owe to others, I shall feel myself justified, whatever may be the consequences; but certainly my feelings upon them will be such as to prevent my ever again putting myself into a similar situation, even if the circumstances to which I have alluded in the beginning of this letter did not, as they probably will, render such an event absolutely impossible.

When I speak of contributing to the overthrow of the present system you certainly understand me to refer to the probable consequences of our withdrawing ourselves from it, and not to any idea of your being led, which I am persuaded is impossible, to contribute actively to the triumph of a most wicked and profligate faction. I should feel that I gave you just cause of offence, if I thought it necessary to say, that this is a point to which no consideration could lead me.

You will excuse me if I have said so much in this letter upon my own subject, in treating of a point which relates to your conduct and to your situation. I feel that the two subjects are too intimately connected for me to speak of them separately, and I felt that you could not but be desirous, in the moment of deciding a step so interesting to us both, that I should open my heart to you in as free and unrestrained a manner as I have now done.

One thing more I must recommend to your serious consideration. Nothing is clearer to my mind than the propriety of the step you have taken in dismissing Ponsonby, of the intimation which you have given to Lord Shannon of the necessary consequences of his present conduct, and of the measures you have adopted for securing to yourself efficient assistance by the removal of Fitzherbert, and by the nomination of Hobart on the persuasion which you entertain of his ability to serve you. But I must entreat you to reflect that this line of conduct is only to be justified on the supposition of your being to remain in Ireland; while, on the other hand, entertaining as you now do the idea of quitting your situation, it is surely a duty which you owe to yourself, as well as to the public, to leave to your successor his decision as free and open as your own is now, on points which may be of such infinite importance to his Government. To have failed in this instance would, I am sure, much add to the many grounds of regret which will press themselves upon your mind.

I will say no more on all these points. I have now written you a dissertation, instead of a few lines, as I had intended, but my anxiety on the subject has drawn me on. The groundwork of all this difficulty may, after all, be removed by Taylor's refusal, or by Pitt's exertions; but I again repeat that I am not sanguine on that head, and it is certainly more reasonable that we should prepare our minds for a contrary event.

Believe me ever, my dear brother,

Most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

Why should you feel yourself offended because particular marks of favour have been shown to Burrard and Lenox, two most steady, warm, and deserving friends of ours at all times, and in all circumstances?

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

April 10th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I have just received your letter of the 7th, and feel myself bound to answer the question which you put to me as directly and as explicitly as I am able to do. The business remains hitherto in the same situation as when I wrote last to you. A further answer has been received from Major Taylor, in which he still persists in his former refusal; but by some confusion about dates, it is not perfectly clear whether this is his final answer to the notification which had been made to him, that he must renounce his further expectations from the King if he refuses this. We were desirous to delay any communication with the King upon the subject, till it was perfectly clear that the plea of his engagement to Taylor was removed by the refusal of the latter, because we thought that, under those circumstances, the representation of what was due to you would come with greater force. I am, however, obliged to say that there is a further difficulty, even supposing this of Taylor to be removed by his refusal. The King has destined his Majority of Dragoons to Garth, one of his equerries, and has had the folly and precipitation to communicate this intention to Garth. Under these circumstances, it appears doubtful whether even a final refusal from Taylor would remove the plea of actual engagement, and whether Nugent's appointment would not still meet with the same difficulty on account of its not opening a Majority of Dragoons for Garth. You will observe that I speak only from a general idea of the King's feelings and habits of thinking and acting on these subjects, when I state these probable difficulties, but that I have no further information as to his disposition in this particular instance, than I had when I wrote to you last.

This will, however, now be brought in some measure to a point, as Pitt and myself have agreed that there should be no further delay; but that he should now write to the King to state Taylor's last answer of refusal, and to express his hope, that in consequence of this, His Majesty will, under all the circumstances of the case, be disposed to comply with your recommendation of Colonel Nugent.

It has occurred to us, that even if the King should obstinately persist in a refusal on this occasion, there is another solution which you might possibly deem satisfactory. You will recollect that the business of Colonel Gwynne closed last year, by the King's consenting that Nugent should have the office of Adjutant-General, provided any arrangement could be made by you for Faucitt. Neither Pitt nor myself ever knew from you on what point your negotiation with Faucitt broke off. But if that could be renewed, Pitt authorizes me to say that he could find the means of opening a ten Sh. Government for him in England immediately, and that he has no doubt of the King's consent to the arrangement, even preceding the signing Taylor's commission.

You, however, will best know how far this mode of arranging the business would be satisfactory to you, and what probability there would be of bringing it to bear, with the assistance which I state. If you feel this to be impossible, there will then remain nothing but to press the King on the other point as far as possible, and at last, if it is found absolutely necessary, to give him to understand that his option must be made between his Major Taylor and his Major Garth on the one hand, and his Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on the other. You do justice to the manner in which I have felt and written to you on this occasion, and it is extremely satisfactory to me to know that you are not insensible to the warmth and sincerity of my affection and gratitude towards you. Let me therefore, upon that ground, presume so far only as to beg that you will not send your resignation, or notify formally (or indeed in any other manner) your intention so to do, till you learn from me that I am convinced all other steps will be ineffectual. I persuade myself that this is a trust which you will not believe me capable of abusing, however unwilling I must be, on so many accounts, to see you driven to the necessity of taking this last and decisive step.

I mentioned also to you, in my last letter, the reasons which I feel for wishing that, in all events, the actual execution of this measure may be delayed till the conclusion of the session. I press this for reasons personal to you, and which I feel very strongly, although the interval will unquestionably be very embarrassing to you, and perhaps even more distressing to myself. But I am desirous of knowing how far you feel the force of those reasons, and what your determination would be in that case, because I think it might make some difference in the manner of stating your intention to the King, if this should be rendered necessary.

I feel it needless to repeat to you what I have already said of my intentions respecting my own conduct; and I hope you do me the justice to believe, that however deeply I am involved in the result of this business, my first anxiety is that it may terminate in a manner consistent with your honour, character, and happiness.

Believe me, my dear brother,

Most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

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

Holwood, April 12th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

As I understand that Mr. Pitt writes to you by this messenger, in order to state to you the nature of the King's answer to his letter, and to explain the arrangement which is proposed to you as a solution of this unpleasant business, I feel that I can have nothing to add. I have already mentioned to you, in the most full and unreserved manner, the whole of my feelings on this occasion, and I see nothing in the present state of it which can at all vary them. I still continue very desirous that this business may not proceed to those extremities which you have mentioned, because I think such a step, independent of its public consequences, would close our political prospects in this country, and would, besides, be liable to a construction which we should most wish to avoid. But I also continue in the full determination to abide by your decision upon it, and that your conduct shall regulate mine; because I feel this as no less due to myself than to you, on an occasion in which I certainly think the King has been much wanting to you.

If I were to write volumes to you, I could only enlarge upon these points, on which I have already fully written to you, and with the same freedom and sincerity as if I were thinking aloud. I always feel some embarrassment and difficulty in writing upon points in which I am myself so much interested; although I have not, on this occasion, suffered that consideration to weigh with me, so as either to say what I should not otherwise have said, or to leave unsaid anything which I felt I ought to say. I have now, therefore, only to conclude, with my sincere assurances of the uniform and warm affection with which I am,

My dear brother, most truly yours,

W. W. G.

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

Whitehall, April 16th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I came to town yesterday with Mr. Pitt, and found your letter of the 11th, and this morning I received yours of the 12th. I was much mortified that I was not able to write to you yesterday evening, as I had intended to do, first by the post, and afterwards by a messenger. But different circumstances arose, which made it impossible. I could have wished to have answered your letter at length, in order to state to you everything that occurs to me upon it; but I cannot now do this without unnecessarily delaying the messenger, and I wish to lose no time in letting you know the exact state of the business, as it now stands. Taylor has accepted, which considerably increases the difficulty of making a point with the King to undo what he has done for him. But another solution has now offered itself, on which I cannot help feeling rather sanguine. We have just heard of the death of General Mackay: Pitt is now writing to the King, to represent the propriety of making any arrangement, which this event may give rise to, subservient to the purpose of removing this difficulty, and to desire to see the King, in order to converse with him upon that point. The King will probably appoint to-morrow; but as Pitt may not be back till late, I thought it better to send off this messenger, as my letter is now a day later than I meant to have written, and I can easily judge of your impatience to hear from me on this subject.

Lodge Morres will be instantly dismissed, with such a letter as you mention.

You shall hear from me again to-morrow, or Saturday, at latest. I hope you have not taken any step on the receipt of our letters of Sunday; but if any letter of formal resignation comes from you, I should feel myself justified, under these circumstances, to stop it.

In answer to your questions about Pitt, I beg you to believe that, however warm and sincere my friendship 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 assure 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-Governorship 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.