Whitehall, Dec. 10th, 1788.
MY DEAR BROTHER,
Your messenger having been, as he says, four or five days at sea,
has just brought me your letter of the 2nd. I cannot avoid
expressing to you the mortification I felt, on finding it filled
with complaints of want of communication. It is now more than a
month that I have written to you constantly seven days in the week,
with the exception, I believe, of not four days in the whole time.
I do this, not only without reluctance, but with pleasure, because
I think it contributes to your satisfaction, and because it is a
real relief to my mind to converse with you in this manner on the
subjects which are, in the present moment, so interesting to us
both. But I do it often under circumstances of so much other
business, as makes it impossible for me to keep any copies or
memoranda of what I write. I cannot, therefore, distinctly call
back to my mind the thread of that correspondence; but, as far as
my memory serves, I solemnly protest I know of no one fact,
opinion, or conjecture, that could be of the least use to you, or
could even satisfy your curiosity, that I have not regularly
communicated to you as it arose.
You seem to have mistaken some expression in one of my letters, and
to have understood that the proposition itself relating to the
Regency was to have been brought forward on Thursday last. You will
since have seen, that the preliminary steps require so much time,
that it must still be Monday, or more probably Wednesday next,
before anything can be moved. But you say that you have received no
communication of the extent or wording of that plan, so as to
consider its legal or political effect towards Ireland. On this, I
can only say, that long before the outlines of that plan were
finally settled, even, I believe, in Mr. Pitt's mind, certainly
long before they were at all agreed upon by the Cabinet, I
communicated them to you distinctly, and at length. There has since
been no variation in these. With respect to the precise wording of
the plan, I do not know that this is yet decided upon; nor do I
suppose it can be so, till within a few hours of its being moved.
But as to any legal effect which it can have upon Ireland, I have
certainly failed in what I intended to do, if I have not stated to
you a clear opinion, that no measure taken in Parliament here can
possibly affect Ireland any otherwise than as a precedent, which
every Irishman must think himself bound to follow, who does not
wish to separate the two countries. It surely could not be your
wish, nor would it be desirable, to attempt to pledge any Irishman
one step beyond that general proposition, that whatever is done by
the authority of the British Parliament as to England, must be done
in Ireland by the authority of the Irish Parliament; but that the
latter will grossly betray the interests of their own country, if
they do not adopt the English measure, whatever that may ultimately
be. I trust that we shall be able to carry the measure here, such
as I stated to you long ago, some time before your Parliament
meets; but if it should fail, and any different form be
established, I hope we should be the last men in the two countries
to wish to disunite them on this ground.
I cannot but repeat, that the expressions and style of your letter
have hurt me sensibly. I do not believe, that if you were living in
Pall Mall, you could be more distinctly or regularly informed of
what passes. You will, of course, hear in Dublin, as you would in
Pall Mall, an infinite variety of foolish reports, as is naturally
the case when every man has his own speculation. You cannot, I am
sure, think it possible that I can even enumerate, much less argue
upon, or contradict all these; but I cannot, at this time, after
some reflection, call to my mind any point of the smallest
consequence in our present situation with which I am myself
acquainted, and which I have omitted to state.
With respect to your own particular situation, I conceive that it
is not possible that things can be brought to the point of
affecting that for several weeks to come. The measure which is to
be brought forward here will, of course, meet with violent
opposition; and cannot, according to my calculation, be completed,
so as to put the Prince of Wales in possession of the Regency, till
the first or second week in January. I think as soon as you receive
the notification that this measure has passed in England, it would
be right for you to write a very short letter to the Secretary of
State, mentioning in a very few words the opinions of lawyers
there, that your patent can be vacated only by a Regent appointed
by the Irish Parliament, suggesting the expedient of Lords
Justices; and then desiring to know His Royal Highness's pleasure,
whether he chooses that under those circumstances you should meet
the Parliament, for the purpose of laying before them the
circumstances of the present situation, or whether you should name
Lords Justices, and who they should be. You see, I put this on the
supposition that you are not _immediately_ removed, which, for many
reasons, I think unlikely. You know my opinion has always been
that the Prince would not negotiate, and I am every day more
confirmed in it. But I think it may be a question, whether he may
not choose to look about him a little. Perhaps, however, in order
to anticipate any sudden step, you would do well to send a letter
such as I mention, so as to reach England a few days before the
measure can pass, and to be here ready to be laid before him when
he does accept. In a point of such importance, it seems to me that
it would be proper that you should have, for your own
justification, the written opinions of your lawyers on the point I
mention, but not to send them over here. I mention this as a
general idea; but wish you to consider it, because I am sure, in
general, the less you write on this subject the better, in order
that you may not give ground of misquoting, or misrepresenting what
you say.
As to the idea of vesting the Government in Lords Justices, or
taking any step for throwing up the Government in the interval,
except with the consent and by the direction of the Prince of
Wales, I should most earnestly deprecate it for a thousand reasons;
but, above all, for the impression which it would give here of
abandoning the interests of this country in Ireland, for the sake
of adding to the confusion, and creating factious difficulties. I
think your line clear, and that you have nothing to do but to sit
still saying or doing nothing till our measure passes. You then ask
the Prince of Wales whether he chooses that you or any Lords
Justices should meet Parliament; and if he directs you to stay, you
have nothing to do but to express to anybody that asks you, your
wish that the English measure should be precisely followed.
Whatever, under such circumstances, is the conduct of the Irish
Parliament, you cannot be responsible for it, unless you make
yourself so.
There is another urgent reason against your taking any step for
breaking up your Government: the King is daily getting better, and
has been continuing so to do ever since Sunday. Willis's
examination before the Committee yesterday, was all but decisive as
to the certainty of his recovery in a short time. I will send it to
you in the course of to-morrow, or the next day; but these are the
material parts. He is asked what hopes he entertains of the King's
recovery? He says he entertains great hopes; that if it was the
case of a common man, he should have no doubt of his recovery; but
in the King's situation, his own reflections on his situation, when
he begins to recover his reason, may retard the cure. (A good
lesson, by the bye, to the Prince of Wales, &c.) He says he cannot
yet affirm that there are signs of convalescence, but that there is
everything leading to it; particularly that the irritation has
almost entirely subsided, which must precede convalescence, or any
appearance of it. He is asked with respect to his own experience,
&c.? He says, that of ten patients brought to him within three
months of their being attacked, nine have recovered. That the
smallest time he remembers, is six weeks or two months from their
being brought to him; the longest, a year and a half; the average,
about five months.
With this account, it is not very sanguine to hope that the King's
actual recovery may take place before the measure can pass here;
or, at least, such a prospect of it as may make it absolutely
_impossible_ for the Prince, whatever his disposition may be, to
change the Government. If the amendment continues, it may even be a
question whether further adjournment may not be thought right,
though the inconveniences of this, particularly with respect to
foreign affairs, are so great that it must not be done but upon
very strong grounds indeed.
The nonsense about dissolution has been talked in England as well
as in Ireland; but I cannot persuade myself that it really comes
from Lord Loughborough. It has not made its fortune much here.
Anybody who had the smallest knowledge of the general turn and bent
of the public mind, both in and out of Parliament, would not have
broached so foolish an idea.
I told you, in one of my former letters, that I was utterly at a
loss to guess what Bernard's motive was for going to Ireland in the
moment which he chose. I stated my wishes against it; but I saw
that there was some mystery behind, which he did not wish to
explain, and therefore I pressed him no more about it.
Adieu, my dear brother. I hate writing anything to you, which can
bear even the appearance of complaint. I feel for the
disagreeableness of your situation at this moment: being at a
distance from the scene of events which interest you so much, and
from any conversation with those in whom you most confide. But I am
sure you will, on reflection, acquit me of any want of attention to
you on the head of communication.
I am much obliged to you for your anxiety about myself. I had a
slight attack of fever for a day or two; but it is now entirely
gone.
Five o'clock.
I am just returned from the Committee, who have finished the
examination of the physicians. The examinations of to-day are not
very material; but as far as they go, they confirm our favourable
hopes. Another account is just come from Kew, that the King has
continued better ever since the account of this morning, which is
the public one.
Pitt is to move to-day for the Committee of Precedents. Fox told us
he meant to say a few words against it, as unnecessary, but not to
divide; so I shall not go down again.
The notion of the Prince of Wales not accepting, seems to lose
ground; and all these favourable accounts of the King are evidently
strong grounds of argument for our measures.