Dropmore, Nov. 5th, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
I am extremely obliged to you for your constant and kind letters,
which supply the vacancy of all other information. You will
perhaps know before you receive this, that after having employed
Pitt, and through him, me, and also General Ross, separately, to
press Tom to accept the thankless office of his Secretary, Lord
Cornwallis has, without one word of communication to him, written
to say that, Pelham declining, he desires to have Lord Castlereagh.
It is of a piece with all the rest! Pelham _has_ declined, and so
the whole thing will go on exactly as it does now. Yet, lamenting
this most sincerely on public grounds, I cannot but rejoice that
Tom is not to be embarked _dans cette maudite galere_. For what
satisfaction or honour could he receive from it? If he had gone at
first, he might have acquired and exercised some influence over his
principal, and God knows that could not but have turned to good.
But now the _pli_ is taken, the system is set up, and what can
alter it I know not. With respect to Lord Castlereagh, I have
always heard him spoken of as a man of parts and character; but he
cannot have, with Lord Cornwallis, or with the public, the weight
which his peculiar situation requires.
You will easily do me justice enough to believe that I am not blind
to the difficulties which all this heaps on the object (already
sufficiently difficult) which we have in view. I have had no
opportunity (and I am vexed at it) to discuss this subject in
private with Lord Clare. He was to have come here in his way to
Ireland, but he now writes me word that his letters from Ireland
are so pressing for his immediate return that he cannot lose a day.
I can well enough understand that his absence dissolves the little
government that did exist; but I fear, from what Pitt tells me, he
has not spoken out to him, nor would probably to me, as to the real
state of affairs there. I am assured that he talks not only
decisively of the necessity, but also _very sanguinely_ of the
success of our measure, provided always that no attempt is made to
change, as a part of the Union, the existing laws about the
Catholics. And in this last point I am very much disposed to agree
with him now, though before the rebellion I should have thought
differently. For, the doing this thing as a part of the present
measure, would be to hold out an encouragement to rebellion,
instead of showing that every endeavour to disunite Great Britain
and Ireland only makes them "cling close and closer" to each other.
I send you the sketch of our ideas--beyond that, I am sorry to say
we have not yet proceeded, though time presses so much. Many points
of detail will obviously arise from the discussion of these general
ideas, but who is to discuss them if the Lord-Lieutenant is afraid
to communicate with anybody? Forster has been written to twice, to
come over here; he holds back, but will I suppose now come, and
means will easily be found of having _that_ said to him which may
be necessary, whatever it may be.
One great doubt in my mind has been the mode of bringing the thing
into regular shape. In the case of two really independent kingdoms,
like England and Scotland, an union was as much matter of treaty as
an alliance between either of them and Austria and Prussia, but
here the kingdoms are inseparably annexed to each other, and the
legislatures only are independent. The King cannot, therefore, by
commission or full powers, authorize two sets of his subjects to
treat with each other concerning the mode in which he shall
hereafter govern his two kingdoms.
The manner in which _the Irish propositions_, as they were called,
were brought forward in 1785, was in my mind the most objectionable
part of that whole measure, and that which most contributed to its
failure. The scheme which has occurred to me in the present
instance is that the King should, by Order in Council in each
kingdom, refer it to a Committee of Council in each, to consider of
the means of an union, referring to them at the same time some
general sketch like that which I now enclose to you, or possibly a
little more detailed. Towards the conclusion of the business, it
might perhaps be necessary that the King should order a part of his
Irish Committee of Council to come over to confer with the British
Committee on any points of difficulty; and if at last the two
Committees can be brought to agree on one plan, _that_ might by the
King be submitted to the consideration of Parliament in both
kingdoms, and then passed all together, in one Bill, as in the case
of the Scotch Union.
You will observe in this plan which I now send, the particular care
taken not to alter the present rights of election, nor to give into
any theory of uniting small boroughs into sets, and leaving cities
as at present, in order to equalize, as it is called, the
representation of Ireland. This I consider as the corner-stone of
the whole building. If once we touch this, Parliamentary Reform
rushes in upon us here and in Ireland; and, as my friend Condorcet
said, "from thence to the establishment of a complete republic, the
transition will be short indeed."
In better times, if we lived in them, I could certainly arrange
this matter more according to my own fancy; and there is nobody who
could not make to himself some theory on this subject, the very
framing of which is an amusing occupation of the mind, and for
which it then acquires a parental fondness. But now, if ever, and
here if in any matter, _stare super vias antiguas_ is the only
salvation to this country.
The idea of the French tariff I consider as very luminous and
happy. It was suggested by Cooke, but possibly he may not like that
it should be known, either to his principal or to the public, that
he is in the course of offering such suggestions.
You will not complain at least of the shortness of _this_ letter. I
sent you no bulletin about transports in Alexandria, because, I am
sorry to say, I do not believe one word of the report, but am
persuaded that it will turn out to be nothing more than the
destroying a gun-boat or two, the account of which we received and
published long ago. I am, however, totally without letters from
Eden by the last mail, from which I conclude that he has, _for
expedition's sake_, sent a messenger with his letters, who will
some time or another arrive. But there are many occasions of
sending a messenger besides this news. It does seem likely that
Malta will itself drive out the French. What a wonderful change in
twelve months!
God bless you.
The affairs of the continent, which had undergone latterly some
considerable alterations, appearing to open a favourable opportunity for
laying the foundation of a new confederation against France, Mr. Thomas
Grenville was charged with a mission to undertake negotiations for that
purpose. His destination was Vienna and Berlin, with a roving commission
subject to circumstances. The rash and impolitic ambition of France had
awakened an angry resistance on the part of Austria, who had recently
entered into an alliance with the Court of St. Petersburg; and England,
desiring to avail herself of these events, employed Mr. Grenville to
ascertain the views of Prussia and Austria with reference to the
formation of a general combination against the common enemy. "He will
have, if I mistake not," observes Lord Grenville, "very much the glory
of signing the overthrow of Jacobin France."