No. 11, Beaumont Street, June 22nd, 1795.
MY LORD,
Your Lordship must have seen two letters to the Earl of Carlisle,
which have been published in your name, and in general circulation.
I have for a long time hoped, that they would be disavowed or
explained by your Lordship; I was unwilling to suppose that such a
publication had ever been sanctioned by you; I could not bring
myself to believe, that your Lordship, possessing the feelings of a
man, and the honour of a gentleman, could avail yourself of the
power and the trust which had been committed to you by His Majesty,
wantonly to traduce a private character, by insinuations expressed
in terms so vague and unqualified, as to make it impossible
publicly to refute them. From the rank which you hold in society, I
must presume, if you thought it your duty to impeach my conduct as
a servant of the Crown, you would have adopted the fair and manly
course of advancing direct and specific charges against me, which
must have led to my conviction, if they had been founded. Direct
and specific charges I could fairly have met and refuted; but
crooked and undefined insinuations against private character,
through the pretext of official discussion, your Lordship must
allow are the weapons of a libeller.
The publication in question, states that you recommended my removal
from office, "because I was a person under universal heavy
suspicions, subject to the opprobrium and unpopularity attendant on
maladministration and much imputed malversation." The aspersions
contained in this paragraph, are so utterly ungrounded, so
unprovoked, unmanly, illiberal, and false, that I could not believe
your Lordship could have meant to apply them to a gentleman, by
birth your equal, and I will tell you, of reputation as unsullied
as your own at any period of your life; there is no charge, however
monstrous, of which the idea is not here conveyed; and yet there is
none to which the paragraph points directly, so as to afford an
opportunity for vindication.
Your Lordship will, I trust, feel the justness of the warmth with
which I express myself on those aspersions of my character; and
that when I give the lie to such aspersions, I give it upon
reasonings as essential to your honour, as they are to mine; and if
anything were wanting to induce me to believe that your Lordship
will concur with me in this opinion, I should be satisfied of it,
from the communications which were made to me by persons authorized
to convey your Lordship's sentiments upon my projected removal from
the Board of Revenue, and from the official communication made to
me by Lord Milton on the same subject.
Considerations of domestic calamity might sufficiently explain the
silence I have hitherto observed; but in other respects I should
have been unwilling perhaps to have addressed you sooner. I would
not appear to avoid any inquiry into my conduct, which insinuations
originating from such high authority might be expected to provoke;
it became me, therefore, to await with patience the result of the
discussions respecting Irish affairs which were taking place in
both Parliaments, and even until the close of the session had shown
that it was not your Lordship's intention, nor that of either
House, to take any further step in the business. I cannot now
repent of my own forbearance, as it served, at least, to bring
forward testimonies most highly honourable to me, from many
individuals of the first weight and character in the age in which
we live; these testimonies having been so repeatedly and so
publicly urged in your Lordship's presence, and without
contradiction on your part, cannot but have convinced you, that you
had formed a wrong judgment respecting me, or that you had been
deceived by others; in either case, I am entitled to hope and to
presume that you will render to me, and to my character, that
justice which one man of honour has a right to expect from another.
I have the honour to be,
Your most obedient and humble servant,
BERESFORD.
Earl Fitzwilliam.
To this letter Lord Fitzwilliam transmitted the following reply: