Cleveland Row, April 27th, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
On receiving your letter to Pitt, I sent it to him, and have since
seen him and Dundas. I understand from them that you have been
misinformed about the idea of their intending to bring in any new
Bill on the subject of forming the flank companies of Militia into
light infantry battalions, as the opinion both of the Attorney and
Solicitor-General is quite clear on the interpretation of the
present law. With respect to the measure itself, I must say that as
far as I understand it, my opinion is and always has been clearly
for it. But what is much more important is, that the Duke of York,
all the Generals of districts and Lord Cornwallis, the only
military Cabinet Minister, all put the salvation of the country
upon it. In this situation I do not think that Pitt, or Dundas, or
any of us, could take upon ourselves the responsibility of omitting
a measure, stated to be clearly within the law, and in which so
large a proportion of the Militia officers are disposed to
acquiesce with cordiality and cheerfulness.
Nothing certainly can be further from their wishes, even as public
men only, than to place you in any unpleasant or difficult
situation; but you will not think this a moment when points of real
importance can be given up to personal considerations of regard and
good-will.
It has occurred, that adopting the measure generally, the
application of it to your particular regiment might be avoided, by
permitting you to form a separate light infantry battalion, under
the command of Fremantle, he being an army officer, and one whom
the Duke of York himself allows to be as fit for that purpose as
any he could select; and that this permission may, under certain
circumstances and conditions, be extended to other colonels
desirous of taking that mode preferably to the other.
But this is not without its difficulty, nor is it possible for any
man, beforehand, to engage for the Duke of York's consent to a
measure, on which he has so much right not only to have _voix au
chapitre_ but to have a voice nearly decisive, so long as his
regulations do not interfere with the law. All, therefore, that I
can say is, that I am persuaded Dundas will do whatever he can to
promote this arrangement, the only solution that I see to
difficulties, one side of which, in the alternative stated by you,
present consequences to which I am very sure, whatever else
happens, you will never bring yourself to look. If I had the least
doubt upon that point, I certainly could and should say much of the
time, of the situation of the country, of the local position of
your regiment in its present quarters, and of the possibility of
any man, under such circumstances, resigning a command because he
disapproves in his own judgment, even supposing him right in that
judgment, of a military order which the Commander-in-chief has
clearly a right to give, and for the omission, as well as the
giving of which, he and the Government are exclusively responsible.
I know nothing more of the supplementary Militia than that they are
to be immediately called out.