Charles Street, April 27th, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
It is only from your letter to William that I have learnt what is
the actual state of the discussion which you had begun upon the
subject of the flank companies of the Militia, and very sorry I am
to find that it is likely to take any shape which can be unpleasant
or disagreeable to you. The measure itself is one which I have
understood to be one of the few measures upon which, in point of
necessary military preparation, all our officers are agreed, and
which, if I recollect right, you yourself are as strongly inclined
to as anybody, though not precisely in the mode recommended by the
Commander-in-chief; if the objections which you felt on the point
of _Militia_ establishment had been equally felt and adopted by the
generality of the commanding officers of Militia, some way or other
must, I suppose, have been found to accommodate the difficulties of
such a representation; but in the present instance (as far as I
could collect from Fortescue, who was at a pretty numerous meeting
of all the Militia commanders who were in town), there was not any
one of those who did not express their readiness to adopt this
plan, and their approbation of it; so that, in fact, this matter,
so far from being taken up by the generality of commanding officers
in the same light in which you had objected to it, has really the
sanction of every commanding officer, except, as I am told, Lord
Berkeley, Lord Carnarvon and yourself.
Under these circumstances, much as I regret that any arrangement
could be proposed and could be likely to be carried, which is so
disagreeable to you, you will, however, I am sure, agree with me
that it stands upon very different ground, when it stands upon the
ground of individual opinions, from what it would have done if it
had been taken up by the whole or the majority or a large part of
the Militia. My best hopes are that some mode may yet be found
which may place your own regiment in the shape that you had wished;
and William has, I know, taken all the pains he can to urge the
adoption of all or of any of the modifications of this order, which
may make it less objectionable to you; and I cannot therefore but
hope that his zeal and anxiety in this will carry it to a better
shape for you as far as you are immediately interested. But we live
in times of such pressing public duty, and the military post to
which you are called and in which you are placed, is one so forward
both in danger and in honourable distinction to you, that I should
not do my duty by you if I did not (however uncalled upon for that
opinion) add that, in my poor judgment, no state of military
arrangements or orders can for a moment admit of the possibility of
your giving up your command in an hour of danger, as immediate as
that in which I write. I know you will give me credit for the
honesty of this opinion, as well as for the affection which calls
it forth from me.
God bless you, my dearest brother.
Ever most affectionately yours,
T. G.