Whitehall, Feb. 24th, 1789.
MY DEAR BROTHER,
Pitt has just shown me a letter which he received last night from
the King, written in His Majesty's own hand, couched in the warmest
terms, thanking him for his unshaken attachment to his interests,
and desiring to see him this morning. He went accordingly to Kew,
and was with the King above an hour. He says that there was not the
smallest trace or appearance of any disorder; that the King's
manner was unusually composed and dignified, but that there was no
other difference whatever from what he had been used to see. The
King spoke of his disorder as of a thing past, and which had left
no other impression on his mind than that of gratitude for his
recovery, and a sense of what he owed to those who had stood by
him. He spoke of these in such a manner as brought tears into his
eyes; but even with that degree of affection of mind, there was not
the least appearance of disorder.
After Pitt had left His Majesty, he conversed with Willis, who told
him that he now thought the King quite well; that he could not
perceive the least trace remaining of his disorder. Under these
circumstances, the more I consider our actual situation and what
seems due to the King's feelings, the more I am persuaded of that
opinion, to which I think our friends begin in general to lean,
that the King's resumption of his authority must be done purely by
his own act, and that it is impossible to hear of any examination
of physicians.
The two Princes were at Kew yesterday, and saw the King, in the
Queen's apartment. She was present the whole time, a precaution for
which, God knows, there was but too much reason. They kept him
waiting a considerable time before they arrived; and after they
left him, drove immediately to Mrs. Armstead's, in Park Street, in
hopes of finding Fox there, to give him an account of what had
passed. He not being in town, they amused themselves yesterday
evening with spreading about a report that the King was still out
of his mind, and in quoting phrases of his to which they gave that
turn. It is certainly a decent and becoming thing, that when all
the King's physicians, all his attendants, and his two principal
Ministers, agree in pronouncing him well, his two sons should deny
it. And the reflection that the Prince of Wales was to have had the
Government and the Duke of York the command of the army during his
illness, makes this representation of his actual state, when coming
from them, more peculiarly proper and edifying. I bless God it is
yet some time before these _matured and ripened virtues_ will be
_visited upon us_ in the form of a Government.
Believe me ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Acting on the _carte blanche_ which he had asked, and which had been
freely accorded to him, respecting dismissals, appointments, and
creations, Lord Buckingham proceeded at once to redress the balance of
power in Ireland, by dismissing from their offices the persons who had
recently opposed the conduct of the Government on the Regency question.
A similar course had been pursued in England on His Majesty's recovery.
Mr. Grenville mentions specially "the justice which had been executed on
Lord Lothian" in this way, the King taking his troop from him, and
sending him to join another in Ireland. "The joke current here," says
Mr. Grenville, "is, that the Irish Ambassadors came over here to
Lothian's hotel, and that the King sends Lothian to return the visit."
In Ireland the disaffection had been more dangerous and extensive, and
demanded more severe measures.
The moment it was known that the King was recovered, a negotiation was
opened with the Government through Mr. Fitzgibbon, then
Attorney-General, by the principal members of the Lords and Commons who
had supported the Address, tendering their submission, and asking for an
amnesty. It has been stated in some publications referring to these
proceedings, that the negotiations were opened by Government; but Lord
Buckingham's official despatch, dated the 23rd of March, not only shows
that statement to be erroneous, but establishes the fact that Lord
Buckingham peremptorily refused to entertain the negotiation until he
should have received a positive assurance that a certain defensive and
hostile agreement, into which those gentlemen had entered, was to be
considered as abandoned. This agreement, or association, was called the
Round Robin (although not really a round robin, being merely a
declaration, followed in the usual way by the signatures of the
subscribers), pledging those who attached their names to it to "stand by
each other" (to use the phrase by which Mr. Beresford described it) in
the event of their offices or pensions being taken from them, and to
oppose any Administration that should resort to such a proceeding.
Finding Lord Buckingham immoveable upon the condition he stipulated for,
Lords Shannon, Loftus, Clifden, and many others, authorized the
Attorney-General to declare the association at an end, adding that they
desired to be represented to His Majesty as anxious to support his
Government, and to endeavour to remove by their future conduct all
unfavourable impressions from his mind. In the wise exercise of the
discretion reposed in him, Lord Buckingham accepted this voluntary
tender of allegiance, and permitted the gentlemen who had made it to
retain their offices. The Duke of Leinster, who had been only recently
appointed to the Rolls, and Mr. Ponsonby, who held the situation of
Postmaster-General, refusing to give the required undertaking,
aggravated, in the case of the latter, by a declaration that he would
not enter into any communication with Lord Buckingham, were at once
dismissed from their offices. This dismissal was followed by that of a
few others of less note.
These energetic measures were founded, not only on the dangerous
resistance these gentlemen had carried to extremity, at a period of
anxious suspense and universal excitement, against the Government, but
upon a knowledge of the existence of an organized combination they had
embarked in with the English Opposition to supersede the authority of
the Sovereign in the person of the Regent. In order the more effectually
to accomplish their objects, they had seized upon every act of the
Administration, and held it up to obloquy. A pension which had been
granted to Mr. Orde, and the reversion of Lord Clanbrassil's office
which had been conferred on Mr. Grenville, afforded them a pretext for
charging the Government with corruption and profligacy. They opened
their impeachment at the very beginning of the session, in February,
defeated the motion for adjournment, carried their Address at the
sacrifice of their own dignity and independence, and were only arrested
at last in their headlong career by those vigorous measures which broke
up the combination, and once more gave a legitimate preponderance in the
Senate to the saving influence of the Administration. The effect of the
_coup d'etat_--for as such these dismissals may be considered--was
decisive. The hostile majority was broken down; and when Mr. Grattan,
still confident in his resources, brought forward his Pension Bill, to
disable persons who held pensions during pleasure, or offices that had
been created after a certain time, from sitting in Parliament, he was
defeated by a majority of 9. This was justly claimed as a conclusive
victory by a Government that had only just before been denounced in a
vote of censure in the same assembly by a majority of 32.
There is no doubt that the happy and unexpected recovery of His Majesty
averted a struggle that might have gone near to dissolve the connection
of the Executive authority between the two kingdoms; for, had His
Majesty's illness continued much longer, there is too much reason to
believe that His Royal Highness would have been advised to accept the
invitation of the Irish Parliament, by which he would have been created
Regent of Ireland, with full powers, before an Act of Parliament had
passed in England under the Great Seal empowering him to assume the
functions of Sovereignty. The confusion that would have ensued upon such
a state of affairs, and the disastrous issues to which it would have
inevitably led, cannot be contemplated, even at this distance of time,
without an expression of astonishment that men were to be found capable
of entertaining such a proposition. The heroic endurance of Lord
Buckingham, upon whom the whole weight of contending against the madness
in which this scene of folly and violence originated, enabled him,
happily for the repose of both countries, to live down the dangers and
the odium which his steadfast discharge of his duties, and his firm
adherence to the policy of the English Cabinet, had drawn upon him
during this season of political delirium. His own impressions of the
scene around him, and the strength of the resolution he brought to bear
upon it, will be shown in an extract from a hasty note written to Lord
Bulkeley, in the midst of the clamour of the Parliament, on the 14th of
March.
I have not shrunk from my duty in the worst times, and I will not
trifle with it in those which look more prosperous. Much must be
done to save the British Government from an infamous and daring
combination, which might have been yielded to by a more
pusillanimous minister; but could only be met by one confident in
his character and conduct. Do not think this the language of
vanity; the times have been, and still are much too serious for
such a boyish passion: I feel that the dearest interests of both
kingdoms are at stake, and nothing but firmness can save it. I have
been insulted, I may be beat, but I will not be disgraced.
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: