Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third

I have not heard the account of to-day at St. James's. Nothing can be better than all the accounts, both public and private, for the last three or four days. It is certainly not sanguine to entertain the very best hopes; and the progress has even been more rapid than Willis expected; so that I think we may look with some confidence to March or April at latest.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

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

Whitehall, Jan. 4th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

The plan for the Regency was sent to the Prince of Wales in a letter from Pitt, three days ago, with an expression of his readiness to give any explanation, either in person or in any other manner that he might intimate. Yesterday his answer was received, directed to the Cabinet. It is long, and with much affectation of good writing, and is in parts of it well expressed, in other parts confused and timid. It ends, however, with saying that if these restrictions are adopted by Parliament he will accept.

I have no doubt of carrying the Chair to-morrow, but not a little doubt whether I ought to have accepted it. The die is, however, now cast. The restrictions will, I think, pass without much difficulty.

I still adhere strongly to my opinion about the prorogation, because I think there is a wide difference between exercising during the King's health a power which he commits to your discretion, but which he might if he pleased regulate by instruction at any moment, and exercising the same power now when you are to state that the King is prevented by infirmity from attending at all to the administration of his Government. I am sure that your acting in the manner you speak of is liable to, and will probably bear, the very worst construction in the minds of the public here; and I cannot for the life of me conceive what fear there can be that the two Houses will not adjourn, considering that the great point which they all wish, is that they may not be obliged to pledge themselves. The extraordinary anxiety in those whom you see, to get you to prorogue, is, in my opinion, a very strong proof of their being actuated by that sort of wish.

I have not time to write any more, except to express my anxiety to hear how Lady B. and your child go on.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

There was no doubt about the issue of the election to the Speakership. "Your brother William will certainly be Speaker," writes Lord Bulkeley on the 3rd, "and has already stood the hoax at White's, where it was debated last night whether he should wear a wig or his own hair." The election went off to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Grenville, who, reporting the event, says that "the majority, though quite large enough, would have been larger if they had divided half an hour later, as nearly forty of my friends were locked out below, and about eleven of theirs." With his customary philosophy, he made the best of everything; but he does not disguise from Lord Buckingham that he had strong doubts in his mind whether he ought to have accepted the Chair. The Opposition might, probably, have been stronger against his election, but for the belief that prevailed that the King was getting rapidly better. "The progress of the King," observes Mr. Grenville on the 7th, "is such, according to our accounts, that it is by no means impossible, nor even a very improbable case, that before the Irish Bill can pass, he may re-assume his Government."

Another contingency that weighed with the floating mass of undecided politicians was the rumour which now began to be circulated that the Regent would not dismiss the existing Ministers till the end of the session.

LORD MORNINGTON TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Jan. 6th, 1789.

My dear Lord,

As I understood that Sir W. Young and Bernard wrote you an account of the division last night, which placed Grenville so honourably in the Chair of the House of Commons, I did not trouble you with any letter by the post of yesterday; but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of acquainting you, that nothing could be more perfectly satisfactory to all our friends than the conduct of the new Speaker on an occasion naturally distressing; his speech of excuse, and his speech from the steps of the Chair, were universally admired, they were both so composed and delivered as to render a scene, which I have always understood to be very ridiculous, really interesting and affecting. It is deemed a misfortune amongst our friends, that the practice of printing the Speaker's speeches on this occasion in the journals is now disused. Grenville's speeches would have done him the highest credit, as well as afforded an excellent precedent to future Speakers. I have prevailed with Mr. Speaker to mount his wig, and the whole apparatus to-day: he must consider this as a young lawyer does his first appearance at the bar, and the sooner the laugh is over the better for the dignity of the Chair. Whatever may be Grenville's future fortunes, it can be no discredit to his character to have been placed in the Chair by such a majority, in such times and circumstances, and at his age.

I write no accounts of what we are doing, you hear that much more correctly from Grenville. I am anxious to know what will be the temper of Ireland at the meeting. Grattan is as much a creature of Fox and his party, as the meanest libeller in the "Morning Herald;" he lives entirely with them. I hear Pelham is to take his father on his back to the Government of Ireland. Grattan will stand, in my opinion, on most unpopular ground, if he either attempts to assert the hereditary right of the Prince, or to give him larger powers in Ireland, than the Parliament of this country entrust to him for the administration of the British Government. The hereditary right, I suppose Grattan will not venture to touch; and the latter proposition, I think, might be argued exactly as he argued the Perpetual Mutiny Bill, and other questions, where the danger of larger powers in Ireland than were held in England by the same hands, were considered with a view to the Constitutions of both countries. This argument is, in my opinion, clear, if the rights of the King on the throne are admitted to be the rights of the people at large, and if they are not, I know not why they exist. I have not much fear that the Irish Parliament will listen to such proposals. As to reversions and offices for life, a Regent, who has not the power of granting them here, and attempts to obtain it in Ireland, can mean nothing else than to indemnify his disappointed friends in England at the expense of Ireland; I do not think this can go down. On the whole, I think your argument in Ireland stronger in every view than ours here, and that is saying a great deal.

Arthur informs me that my Trimmers wish to have a company of foot quartered on them. I am sure I have no objection to your giving free quarters to the whole army on the worthy inhabitants of that ancient and loyal town.

I sincerely wish you joy of your son, and hope the bad weather does not affect either him or Lady Buckingham.

Ever, my dear Lord,

Yours most affectionately,

Mornington.

What think of Sir John Aubrey, rat?

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

Whitehall, Jan. 10th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I send you a letter of Camplin's, about an exchange which had been proposed. We have no news here – everything remaining in precisely the same state. The Committee, will, I think, most probably not make their report to-day, though we meet for the chance of it. In this manner, it will be impossible that the restrictions can be opened before Tuesday or Wednesday. The debates of the Committee have been conducted with great heat and violence on both sides, and much indecency towards the King, particularly from Fox and Burke. They are now endeavouring to turn it into a personal attack upon the Queen, for having wished to make one of the reports of the physicians more favourable, and for having dismissed Baker from her service, on the ground of the great inattention towards the King and his family, which appears on the face of his former examination: he having perceived symptoms of this disorder so early as the 22nd of October, and having, subsequent to that time, entirely left the King.

The examination of Baker and Warren state the probability of recovery as being nearly the same as when they were before examined, but rather less. Willis and Pepys state it as much greater; particularly the former of these two, who speaks in the most sanguine terms. The answers of Reynolds and Gisborne are also, as I believe, favourable.

These delays put all idea of dissolution out of the question, till the end of the present session, at soonest; and that cannot take place, according to my calculation, till the end of June. People begin to speak doubtfully about the Regent's making any immediate change, and I know that some of their friends affect to hold that language; but I am inclined to think that, however difficult it may be for them to undertake the Government under the existing circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for them to satisfy the Regent, or to quiet their own dependants, without running that risk.

Fox is apparently recovering, but slowly.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

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

Whitehall, Jan. 12th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I understand from different conversations, as well as from the general report here, that there is an intention of moving for an Address to the Prince, such as was proposed here, immediately on the first meeting of the Irish Parliament. Grattan, &c., &c., are all going over, so as to be in Dublin by the 20th. He is understood to have entered completely into all the views of the party here, and to be ready to pledge himself to all their doctrines, maintained, or retracted, or both. I thought it right to give you this intelligence, although you will probably hear it from many other quarters, and though I have very little apprehension, indeed, from the effect of such a manœuvre. If anything could more completely ruin them here than they are ruined already, it would be such a measure. As to its effect in Ireland, I cannot persuade myself that there can be any difficulty in getting people to pledge themselves not to run before this country; and to appoint a Regent, without conditions, in Ireland, before it is even known what conditions are to be proposed, much less whether they will be adopted by the British Parliament. At all events, however, the battle must be fought; for it would be the most disgraceful thing in the world to appear to give it up, or rather not to appear to dispute it inch by inch.

Lord Glendon and Lord Fairford are both going over to assist you. They both complain (particularly the former) of want of attention from you; but I am so accustomed to such complaints, without foundation, that I am not disposed to give much credit to them in this instance. I understand that Lord Hillsborough has expressed himself on the subject in a more decided manner than you seem at all disposed to give him credit for.

Our report cannot probably be made to-day; but when it does appear, I am told that the impression of it will be favourable to the idea of the King's recovery. Surely, when this circumstance is taken into consideration by your Irish speculators, in addition to the many other considerations which make everybody here allow that Pitt's side has the best of the day, they will not be induced to hazard so decisive a step as you must give them to understand their agreeing to this Address will be considered.

It was mentioned to me, that considerable offers had been made to Corry. I mention this to you, but you will probably be able to ascertain the truth of the report more accurately than I can.

It is worth observing, that the appointment of a Regent in Ireland by Address goes directly to dissolve the Union of the two kingdoms, because a Regent so appointed could not command the use of the English Great Seal.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

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

Whitehall, Jan. 19th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I was so knocked up on Saturday, that I found it impossible to write to you; though there is one circumstance, which, if I had been acquainted with, would have prevailed over all fatigue – I mean that of Captain Nugent's having voted against us upon the second division. The question has not been distinctly stated in any of the papers, as far as I have seen. It was a proposal of Fox's, that the restrictions, particularly that of peerage, should continue only for a limited time; by which means, we should have been placed in this sort of situation, that if, at the expiration of that term, the King should be so far recovered, as to afford hopes even of an almost immediate recovery, the Regent would be able, by a sudden creation of Peers, to make it impossible for him to resume his authority.

Nugent had voted with us upon the first question; but was, I suppose, led away by some part of Fox's speech, which had the effect of carrying over Bankes and about six or seven more of our conscientious friends. I think it right to mention this circumstance to you, though not with any view of suggesting what you may think it right to do. I shall, I own, be much mortified if he should vote against us on Monday; but nothing that you can do will be in time enough to prevent that. I do not feel that I can take any measures on the subject, although I certainly have no doubt what your wishes would have been if you were on the spot.

I find, from general report, that some of our friends are staggered about the household resolution, which is to be proposed on Monday. It is, therefore, probable, that we shall not carry this by so triumphant a majority as we have the other questions. I think, however, there is little doubt that we shall carry it; and that is the point of real importance.

I shall be anxious to hear the event of your meeting. You will have observed that, by Lord Sydney's despatch, a latitude is given you of proroguing, in stating the opinion of the King's servants on the different points. I thought, when the despatch was shown to me, that this was a favourable circumstance, as, from your letters, it seemed to me at that time very doubtful whether you would not have adopted that measure; and, in that case, I felt that you would certainly have been glad to have this sort of sanction.

Believe me ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

The Duke of Leinster has, as I suppose you know, written to the Prince of Wales, to offer himself to him. The consequence has been, that Lord Charles Fitzgerald has declared, that he does not consider himself in a situation to be turned over from party to party every half-year; and that he has hoisted an Orange cape. He will, as I understand, not go over to Ireland at the meeting; and I take it for granted, that in case of a dissolution the Duke will not re-elect him.

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

Whitehall, Jan. 19th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

Since I wrote my other letter of this date, I have received yours of the 15th, stating your alarm at the lies spread in Ireland about the proceedings of the Committee of the House of Commons. You will, long before this, have received the report itself from me, and by reading it, will have found how much more favourable the account of the King's situation appears from that examination, and how much you are in the wrong to suffer your noble spirit to be cast down by such weak inventions of the enemy; and above all, how monstrous the idea is that Fox is to gain with the public by a transaction which only shows their inveterate malice against the King and Queen, and its utter impotence. Your expressions of duper and duped, you will see are equally inapplicable to our representations of the King's situation, which I think you will still believe to be as authentic and as credible as the lies which Grattan and Forbes retail from the porter's lodge at Carlton or Burlington House. Seriously speaking, I am vexed to see the importance which you attach to all these reports, because I know that it must work and agitate your mind. A whole life would not suffice, on my part, to answer every lie in circulation: but I beg you to believe that although, perhaps, naturally a little sanguine in my temper, yet that if there was any really unfavourable circumstance which arose here, I would not conceal it from you. The King is better ever since that examination; and this I speak on no partial authority, but on the information of Warren himself, who gave yesterday to the person who repeated it to me a much more favourable account.

I have not time to answer the rest of your letter to-day. Our Bill is not prepared yet, nor can be till the resolutions have been agreed to by both Houses; but it will be short, and nearly in the same words with the resolutions, adding only the oath of office from the Regency Bill of 1765, and a few other particulars.

Ever yours,

W. W. G.

I suppose you know that Lord Spencer certainly goes to Ireland.

The notion that the Regent would continue Mr. Pitt and his friends in office was rapidly dissipated during the progress of these discussions. The Household Bill, alluded to in one of Mr. Grenville's letters, gave deep offence to His Royal Highness; and from the moment that part of the plan was disclosed, there was no longer any disguise about the fact that the Prince had not only made up his mind to dismiss the Ministers, but that the list of the incoming Administration was actually settled, and ready for use. The object of the Household Bill was to confide to the Queen the care of the King's person, and the disposition of the royal household, which would have the effect of placing at Her Majesty's control the patronage of four hundred places; while the Regent was to possess no power whatever over any office, reversion, or pension. This appeared to the Prince and his allies a monstrous proposition, calculated to introduce "weakness, disorder, and insincerity into every branch of political business;" to "separate the Court from the State;" to "disconnect the authority to command service from the power of animating it by reward;" and to impose on the Regent "all the invidious duties of the kingly station, without the means of softening them to the public by any one act of grace, favour, or benignity."

In these poised and melodious sentences (said to have been written by Burke) may be recognized the policy of the master spirit that raised the storm which was to overwhelm Ministers. When the moment came, however, at which it should have burst – Pitt's motion for the Address – Fox was absent. "Fox is gone to Bath," says Mr. Grenville. "Whether he is very ill, as some say, or wants to shirk the discussion about Mrs. Fitzherbert, as others assert, I know not."

This business of Mrs. Fitzherbert, of which we hear something in these letters, was suspended like a sword over the heads of the royal Opposition; and whenever it threatened to descend, they endeavoured to escape from it by avoiding the discussion, or to avert it by abating their violence. The rumour, however, which ascribed Fox's absence on this occasion to that cause was certainly unfounded. On the 19th of January, he made his motion for limiting the continuance of the restrictions; and on the 26th he was ill at Bath, where he remained for some weeks in a precarious state of health. His loss was severely felt by his party. Ministers were triumphant in both Houses. The incidental shocks they experienced from the vibrations of that class of persons designated by Mr. Grenville as "conscientious friends," and from the defection of the rats, had been completely recovered in the final majorities of Lords and Commons; and although Fox may not have thought it prudent on some occasions to enhance the inevitable defeat of the Prince's followers by assisting at their discomfiture, it is unlikely that even the dread of a debate on Mrs. Fitzherbert would have kept him away at this critical juncture.

While these discussions were going on, always ending in fluctuating majorities for Pitt, the Prince of Wales and his brother, notwithstanding the dissipation in which they indulged, were indefatigable in their efforts to cultivate popularity. Thus writes Lord Bulkeley:

The Princes go on in their usual style, both keeping open houses, and employing every means in their power to gain proselytes, attending the Beefsteak Clubs, Freemason meetings, &c., and will probably very soon attend the parochial meetings of Lord John Townshend's Committee in Westminster. Notwithstanding all this, the Parliament still continues steadily to Mr. Pitt, which, considering the looseness of morals and of the times, does the members great credit. * * * The Duke of York never misses a night at Brookes's, where the hawks pluck his feathers unmercifully, and have reduced him to the vowels I. O. U. The Prince likewise attends very often, and has taken kindly to play.

General Cuninghame appears to have disappointed the expectations of his friends at this period, and, although present in the House on the 19th, did not vote. It was the next thing to ratting, and seems to have been regarded in that light by Lord Bulkeley.

General Cuninghame has been blowing hot and cold in his language here, but has not voted, not even last night, when he appeared for the first time in the House. I have had a letter from the Duke of Dorset, complaining of his conduct in not resigning his seat, as his conscience troubled him.

No man had so keen a scent for rats as Lord Bulkeley, and he was generally in advance of his party in detecting them.

Thurlow and Loughborough were both ill at this time ("which," says Sir William Young, with a touch of sarcastic humour, "will much shorten the progress of the Regency Bill in the Lords"); and on the 2nd of February, when Mr. Grenville, in his capacity of Speaker, attended at the bar of the House of Peers to hear the Commission under the Great Seal read, Thurlow was unable to attend, and Lord Bathurst officiated for him. The night before, Thurlow declared, as reported by his physician, that "if he were ten times worse, he'd go, by G – ;" his physician, however, overruled him; and the obstruction of his presence being thus fortunately removed, it was anticipated that the progress of the Bill through the Lords would be so rapid as to place the Regent on the throne in a fortnight. Active preparations were, consequently, set on foot for settling the new Administration. Amongst the other great situations, Ireland was offered to the Duke of Northumberland, who declined it, and then to Lord Spencer, who accepted it, with Pelham for his secretary.

Ireland was a considerable item in the calculations of the Opposition. "The Prince and the Opposition," writes Lord Bulkeley, "have great hopes of a riot in their favour in the Parliament of Ireland." Some such result was to be apprehended from the temper of the people, and the adverse views they took of the Regency question; although a true sense of their own independence ought to have shown them that there were national objections against allowing the Prince to indemnify himself by the use of the royal prerogatives in Ireland for the restraints which were put upon him in England. The object to which, under these difficult circumstances, Lord Buckingham and Mr. Grenville directed their attention, was to assimilate, as nearly as possible, the Regency Bills in both countries, so as to prevent the occurrence of so great an anomaly as that of having a Regent whose powers should be strictly limited in the one kingdom, and who should, at the same time, be invested with unrestricted powers in the other. The Parliament of Ireland possessed the unquestionable right of deciding the Regency in their own way, leaving the legal validity of the act for subsequent consideration; and as it was understood that the Opposition intended to move an Address to the Prince, which there was reason to believe they would be able to carry, calling upon His Royal Highness to assume the Government of Ireland unconditionally during the term of His Majesty's illness, the position of Lord Buckingham had become peculiarly embarrassing. What course should be taken in the event of such an Address being carried? This question is anxiously discussed in numerous communications between Lord Buckingham and Mr. Grenville and other members of the Government. The predicament was so strange, and involved constitutional considerations of such importance, as to give the most serious disquietude to the Administration. The first expedient thought of was to delay the proceedings of the Irish Parliament, by adjournment, or any other available means, till after the Regent had been appointed in England, provided the motion for the Address could be successfully resisted in the first instance. But as it was almost certain the Administration would be beaten on that motion, it remained to be determined whether Lord Buckingham, in that event, should refuse to transmit the Address to His Royal Highness. Upon the propriety of so extreme a measure Mr. Grenville entertained some doubts in the beginning. By refusing to transmit the Address, the Lord-Lieutenant would clearly put himself in the way as an obstacle to that mode of providing for the emergency which the two Houses of Parliament were determined to adopt; or, on the other hand, by sending it he would make himself, in some degree, a party to a request by which His Royal Highness was asked to do an act which he, Lord Buckingham, held His Royal Highness to be precluded by law from doing. Such was the dilemma as it presented itself to the mind of Mr. Grenville. One escape from it was, to forward the Address, accompanied by a representation from Lord Buckingham of his own views of its illegality. Another was, to resign.