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.
It will now probably not be very long before whatever official
business you will have in this country, will pass through a medium
rather better disposed, and more attentive to you, than that of
your present correspondent; and if I do not grossly flatter myself,
a little attention on my part, to soothe the King's mind--which has
evidently been irritated on these points--will make all this sort
of business go smoothly, and to your satisfaction.
I am sorry not to have complied with your wish about the
promotions; but, on very mature reflection, I was persuaded that it
was risking too much, with regard to the principal and important
point, to mix with it any other business on which it was always
possible that some difficulty might arise in the King's mind. In
the course of the next week, I hope to be able to write to you on
that subject; but I trust you will not be unwilling to rely a
little on me with regard to the exact time, which I assure you I
will not delay, except I think I see very material reasons for it.
You must also make some allowance for the very great additional
delay which is created in all this sort of business, by the King's
residing wholly at Windsor, which gives Pitt fewer opportunities of
seeing him, and for a shorter time.
I mentioned to you, in my last letter, that Lodge Morres would be
immediately removed. I have desired that the letter notifying this,
may contain some such expressions as you mention; but I cannot
answer for this, because I cannot, as things now stand, interfere
in the wording of those letters, except by a very circuitous mode.
I also answered your question about Pitt, but I did it shortly; nor
indeed could any expressions that I could have used do justice to
the warm and anxious feeling which he has shown on this occasion. I
am inclined to impute this termination of the business, so much
more favourable than I had expected, almost entirely to his
judgment and address.
I have had the pleasure this morning of seeing Lady B. and your
children. You will have heard that she has had a feverish cold, but
I hope it has now quite left her. Your children are all well.
Adieu, my dear brother. I cannot express to you what a weight is
removed from my mind by the success of Pitt's journey.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The promotions and creations glanced at in these letters were
recommended by Lord Buckingham as proper marks of His Majesty's sense of
the services rendered to the Government during the late crisis in
Ireland by some influential men in both Houses of Parliament. As those
who had abandoned the Administration were dismissed, it was no less an
act of justice that those who had supported it should receive some
testimony of the King's approbation, and the Lord-Lieutenant's _carte
blanche_ embraced this dispensing power on both sides. Some alarm was
felt by the Cabinet at the list of promotions and creations (nineteen in
number) forwarded on this occasion for the royal sanction. The increase
of the peerage was, perhaps, the only point on which Mr. Pitt's
Government was vulnerable, for, although he exercised the greatest
caution in his selections, and introduced them by degrees, instead of
making them in batches, as the peculiar circumstances of Ireland at this
moment demanded, it was felt to be the objection which, of all others,
operated most injuriously against the character and popularity of his
Administration. His Majesty's engagements, too, enhanced the
embarrassment. Whenever any proposition for honours or appointments,
naval, military, or civil, was submitted to him, it was certain to be
obstructed by some obligation he had previously laid himself under by
promise to different persons. In the present instance a difficulty of
this kind interposed. Two peerages were already engaged in advance, and
the arrangement of the Irish list depended entirely on the nature of the
pledges to which His Majesty had committed himself in these cases. Mr.
Grenville writes that Mr. Pitt was to see His Majesty on the subject in
two or three days. "He will then endeavour to find out whether the
King's engagements were so positive and absolute as to Lords A. and C.
as to lay him under the absolute necessity of conferring this honour on
four persons in order to be able to reward the services of two." It may
be presumed that these engagements were not absolute, or, at all
events, that they were not suffered to interfere with Lord Buckingham's
list, as all the persons he named, with the exception of two or three,
who were excluded on special grounds, received the honours to which he
recommended them.
Amongst these was Mr. Fitzgibbon, Poor old Lord Lifford, who had kept
his seat, and exerted himself indefatigably to the last, died on the
28th of April. The labours of that terrible session proved too much for
his declining powers, and he finally sank under them. The opportunity to
which Mr. Fitzgibbon had been so long looking forward was now thrown
open to him. Lord Buckingham pressed his claims earnestly on the
Government, recounting the signal obligations he had laid them under on
the Regency question, tracing his career, and depicting his character in
terms of the highest eulogy. The appointment rested with Thurlow, whose
humours required to be waited upon, and who was suspected, moreover, to
be unfavourable to Fitzgibbon. Much delay and suspense consequently
ensued, and it was not until June that the patent was made out.
Fitzgibbon was immediately created a Baron. From that point his
promotion in the peerage advanced rapidly. In 1793, he was created
Viscount Fitzgibbon; and in 1795, Earl of Clare.
The King's recovery now enabled Ministers to resume those measures which
the late unhappy suspension of public affairs had so grievously
interrupted. One of the first subjects that called for consideration was
the abolition of the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce had succeeded in
raising such an excitement throughout the country about his forthcoming
motion, that the West India interest took alarm, and desired to know
whether it was the intention of Government to adopt the measure. But Mr.
Pitt, who had not yet pledged the Administration to any step beyond that
of inquiry, maintained a reserve on this point, which the enthusiasm of
Mr. Wilberforce may be said to have forced upon him. A letter from Sir
William Young touches on this matter; and alludes, also, to some
unseemly conduct on the part of the Princes, which is spoken of in a
similar spirit of deprecation in other letters. The circumstances that
rendered their proceedings on this occasion the more conspicuous and
objectionable were, that the ball at White's Club, referred to, was
given in honour of His Majesty's birthday, and happy restoration; and
that the Queen had signified her intention of being present.