Aylesbury, June 11th, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
By a letter from Cleveland Row which I have this moment received, I
find the Irish storm, which I told you I had seen gathering, is
likely to fall as I had expected it. It is settled that Lord
Cornwallis is to go Lord-Lieutenant, and in case of Pelham's
declining on account of his health, I see I shall be urged in the
strongest manner possible to fill his situation there. I have
already talked this matter so much over with you, and you know so
entirely, both my utter aversion to it, and my reluctance to
decline any personal risk or inconvenience in these critical times,
that I cannot on either side add anything upon this subject; but
upon a matter of so much anxiety and importance to me, a matter too
of which you are in every respect qualified to give me so good an
opinion, you will not be surprised at the solicitude which I
express to know all that you may think about it. Perhaps it may not
come in question, if Pelham is strong again and in health, but if
it does, as very possibly it may, I cannot enough say how desirous
I shall be to discuss the whole matter with you; and as time may
press in the instant of its being proposed, I know that you will
readily turn this in your mind in the present moment. I shall be in
town on Thursday, which being a fair day here, ends our eight days'
exercise; it has passed very prosperously, they do extremely well,
and have been from seventy to eighty out, and working every day
seven or eight hours. We go on to beat the rebels in Ireland, but
we beat them into soldiers.
God bless you, dearest brother.