Frankfort, Oct. 2nd, 1794.
DEAR GRENVILLE,
I have written to Lord Spencer all I have to write officially. I
fear I have mixed up a little bile with my intelligence; but the
times are bilious, and it is beyond the compass of my patience to
see the great stake we are playing for lost by imbecility,
treachery, and neglect, without betraying a few symptoms of
discontent. It is really deplorable that we should be the only
nation in Europe who are up to the danger of the moment, and that
the minds of all the other Cabinets are either so tainted with
false principles, or are so benumbed, that it is impossible to work
upon them. It is manifest, from the most undoubted information,
that the interior of France is in a state of the greatest disorder
and confusion; that the successes of the armies are the only cause
of this confusion not breaking out in the shape of a civil war; and
that if we could at this moment obtain any one brilliant success,
that the whole fabric would fall to pieces.
It is said that H. P. M. will come here, and that when he does
come, things will take another turn. I doubt one and the other. Any
means will be employed at Berlin to keep him there, and if these
should not succeed, any means will be employed here to persuade him
to approve all that has been done, and to follow up the same line
of conduct. I know from experience the weakness of his character,
and the facility with which he gives way to the last advice. I know
also by experience that his assurances cannot be depended on, and
that his conduct does not always correspond with his promises. It
is from your mission and from your Court that I expect any good. I
am free to confess (still under the influence of that vile thing
called experience) that my hopes are not very sanguine.
Lord Howe is returned to Torbay. This is all I hear from England.
Nobody writes to me, since everybody supposes me on the road. Mr.
Braddye gave me your letter an hour ago, I will do all I can to
make Frankfort pleasant to him, but this is almost as impossible as
to make the Prussians act.
I probably shall be here still a fortnight. I will write again
soon.
Ever yours most truly and sincerely,
MALMESBURY.
The curious revelations that are made in the next letter respecting
Ireland are of infinite value in enabling us to estimate correctly the
events that afterwards took place in that country under Lord
Fitzwilliam's government, and the circumstances which led to its abrupt
termination. Two important facts are authenticated in this
communication: the first, that Lord Fitzwilliam, before he assumed the
government, and even before his appointment to it was advanced so far as
the removal of his predecessor, had not only determined upon the
introduction of a new system, involving extensive changes of policy and
persons, but that he had made known his determination to the heads of
that party in Ireland who had obstructed Lord Buckingham on the Regency
question; and the second, that this determination was formed without any
previous concert with Mr. Pitt and the Cabinet, and to a great extent in
opposition to their known and avowed principles.