Cleveland Row, June 28th, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
I this morning received your letter from Liverpool. I rejoice to
think that the Wexford news will probably make your stay at Dublin
of no long continuance, and much as I regret the present
inconvenience to yourself, yet I will own that it is gratifying to
me that this news did not arrive time enough to stop your
embarkation. I consider it as very important on many accounts that
some of the British Militia regiments should actually arrive in
Ireland, and I would not willingly forego the pride of knowing that
your regiment was the first of them. We have no news here of any
kind; indeed Ireland has engaged the whole attention of everybody
here, and left us no leisure to think of anything else except to
cast now and then a longing wish to the Mediterranean. We have, as
you will have heard from my brother, accounts of Nelson's being
actually in the Mediterranean, and such particulars as seem to
leave no doubt of his having been joined by the ten of the line and
the fifty under Trowbridge. I am more and more convinced that
Buonaparte's intention was only to proceed to Corsica and to wait
there the event of the negotiations, hanging upon the rear of
Naples and Tuscany, but without any other _present_ object, and
then to be determined by circumstances as to the future destination
of his fleet, for Portugal, Great Britain, Ireland, or the West
Indies. If we have tolerable luck, Nelson will disappoint all these
plans.
When you see Lord Clare, pray tell him that in consequence of his
having been spoken of by the Duke of Bedford and Lord Holland last
night in a manner extremely galling to my feelings, I took the
opportunity to express the sentiments which I believe he knows I
entertain of his character and conduct. This passed with the doors
of the House shut, so that he will not see any account of it in the
papers. He will not suppose that I claim any thanks for a bare act
of duty and justice, nor should I have wished it to be mentioned to
him from me, if I had not thought it just possible that he might
hear of the attack, in which case I should have felt much concern
if he had not at the same time known that it had been treated with
as much indignation and scorn as it merited.
The business of Williams is arranged to your wishes. I shall be
anxious to hear of your son after his arrival at Dublin, for I did
not think the account of his leg at all comfortable. If the Irish
news continues good, you will not, I think, have any other Militia
regiments besides those now there. We expect Lord Camden to-day.
Lord Darnley made a useful speech last night, in which he told us,
amongst other things, that he had never witnessed so much
satisfaction from any event at Dublin, as from the destruction of
Lord Moira's town. Lord M. was not there, and kept the Prince of
Wales away.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
Lord Buckingham arrived in Dublin towards the end of June, to the
infinite satisfaction of Lord Cornwallis, who found himself surrounded
by the usual perplexities of Irish Government, considerably increased by
the excited condition of the country.
The general opinion entertained in England of the change that had
recently taken place in the character of the Irish insurrection, may be
gathered from a passage in a letter addressed to Lord Buckingham by Mr.
Thomas Grenville, on the 5th of July.
As far as I can judge from the public accounts in the newspapers,
the rebellion seems rather to have changed its shape than to have
abandoned its object, and it may be a question whether much
advantage is gained in its becoming a Maroon war of plunderers and
banditti, rather than continuing to be a formal array regularly
opposed to the regular army in the country; because though it may
be true that the danger of a large army of rebels may be a danger
of greater magnitude, as well as more immediate, yet it furnishes
at least the opportunity of meeting that danger, and of grappling
with it; whereas this plundering, robbing, and burning war,
carried on by an infinite number of small parties, associated
together and hiding together like the thieves in the cave of Gil
Blas, puts the peace and the security of the country in greater
danger, keeps up a more constant alarm, is more difficult to
resist, because it is more difficult to find and to prepare
against, and, what is not the least consideration, it utterly ruins
and destroys the hopes of these men, after indulging long in such
habits, returning again either to labour or even to subordination.
To me, therefore, I own it seems to be more necessary than ever to
make the most active exertions in order to counteract this new
shape of evil; and I do hope and trust that, however ungracious and
mortifying it may be to military habits and military education to
be opposed to what may be deemed petty bands of robbers and
incendiaries, Lord Cornwallis will feel the necessity of applying
his best military talents in a service where no military glory can
be obtained, except as it may be applied to the restoration of the
security and tranquillity of the country.
The forbearance of Lord Cornwallis is alluded to in a subsequent letter
from Lord Grenville. It was felt that his lenity in treating with the
rebels was misplaced, and that the Government ought to have adopted a
more decided course in extinguishing the dying embers of the
insurrection.
I do not know how to trust my own judgment upon the very small
lights which (_entre nous_) Lord C. gives us as to what he is doing
in Ireland. But as far as I can judge, he is proceeding very fast
indeed, particularly when he allows rebels to stipulate for the
point of honour of not naming their confederates, and thereby
accepts a fresh act of misprision of treason, as a satisfaction for
former acts of treason. But this of course is only to you. The
great point I wish to be assured of, _if I could_, is that he has
not suffered a nearer view of difficulties to discourage him from
the pursuit of the only measure which can make it signify one
farthing what he does in the present moment. Let him carry that,
and I will willingly compromise for all the rest.
On the 22nd of August the long-threatened French invasion took place in
a shape that covered the expedition with universal ridicule. A handful
of men, to the number of eight hundred, landed at Killala, and were
joined by the rebels; and when they were attacked by General Lake a few
days afterwards, the whole force surrendered at discretion. This
incident formed a striking contrast to the progress of the French in
other directions, for at the very time when they were suffering this
humiliation in Ireland, their victorious arms were completing the
subjugation of Switzerland.