Cleveland Row, Dec. 11th, 1798.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,
I have this morning received your letter; and to the first
paragraph of it I will only say that I am too much accustomed to
your kindness to be surprised at this fresh instance of it. Be
assured that I feel it as I ought.
Tom will, I think, set out to-morrow, though it is in truth useless
for him to leave town while this east wind blows in the teeth of
all our projects. He will have a more difficult task to accomplish
than I once thought, particularly on account of a new intrigue that
has just sprung up at Berlin, as if on purpose to cross or thwart
our plans. Still, however, I persuade myself that all will
ultimately go right, and I am confident that he will do whatever
can be done.
If no more solid arguments are opposed to the Union than those of
Mr. Wild, we shall have at least the victory in disputation, though
in point of violence and inflammation he will, to be sure, not be
easily surpassed. The part which you say the Catholics are disposed
to take is undoubtedly very important; but does this mean only
their leaders, who do _not_ lead them, or has this opinion been
spread among the parish priests and lower orders? Certainly, if
they knew their interest, those descriptions ought to be peculiarly
favourable to it, for they will come under the especial protection
of the mildest and most equitable government upon the earth. But do
they see and feel this, and are any pains taken to impress them
with it? Forster's language continues to be very hostile, and I
imagine he thinks the Government will be frightened out of the
measure. The appointment of Commissioners seems, on the whole, to
be unavoidable, and the Acts for that purpose should, I think, be
proposed on the same day to both Parliaments.
Much objection seems to be taken to any Committee or other body of
that sort resident in Ireland; and perhaps the novelty in our
Constitution of Members of Parliament who cannot attend Parliament
is a solid objection to it. Would it not be easier to make the
representation consist of thirty county members, eight or ten city
members chosen from Dublin, Cork, &c., and the remainder elected by
alternate choice from classes of four boroughs each? What I mean is
not that the four in each class should choose altogether by
delegates, &c., but that the choice should be in one of them for
each Parliament, and this rotation settled at first by lot, and
then to continue unalterable. If this will not do, we must then
class them and choose by delegates, as in the Scotch precedent. But
who shall regulate this classing? and how conciliate the jarring
interests of great men?
By the way, you got me into something of a scrape by giving Cooke a
copy of the queries in the margin of the paper I sent you. I
omitted to give you any caution on this subject, because I thought
it was quite safe that you would not communicate it, and you
probably thought that the communication was very unimportant and
indifferent. It happened otherwise, but do not say anything to
Cooke about it.
You see the French papers confirm our hopes of Minorca. The
Russians and Turks have begun their operations against the
_department of the Egean Sea_, and have taken Cephalonia, I
believe Zante. I expect to hear very soon of the attack of
Alexandria by the Turks.
Ever yours,
G.
Dec. 12.
By a mistake this was omitted to be sent to you yesterday. No mails
in to-day, nor anything new of any kind. By the newspaper accounts,
Canning seems to have made an admirable speech yesterday.
1799.
ENGLAND ENTERS INTO A TREATY WITH RUSSIA AGAINST FRANCE--MR. THOMAS
GRENVILLE'S MISSION TO THE CONTINENT--THE UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN
AND IRELAND--SUSPENSE RESPECTING THE FATE OF MR. GRENVILLE--PROGRESS OF
EVENTS ON THE CONTINENT--AUSTRIA JOINS THE COALITION--VACILLATIONS AND
INACTIVITY OF PRUSSIA--EXPEDITION TO HOLLAND--FURTHER AUGMENTATION OF
THE MILITIA--PROJECTS FOR THE ENSUING YEAR.
About the middle of December, 1798, a provisional treaty had been
entered into between Russia and England, by which the Emperor bound
himself, on condition of a monthly subsidy from Great Britain, to have a
contingent of forty-five thousand men ready for the field, whenever the
common cause should require their services. The original object of this
treaty was to induce Prussia to join the confederacy of European powers
which England was now endeavouring to form against France, with a view
to bring the war to a conclusion by an overwhelming military
combination; but Prussia, guarded and timid, declined to embark in the
coalition; and, failing that result, Russia accepted the alternative of
a subsidy proposed and guaranteed by the treaty. The value of her
co-operation was not limited merely to the force she brought to bear
against the enemy. England hoped that the influence of her example would
stimulate the other Powers to concur in a general movement to repel the
aggressions of the French, who were rapidly extending the scene of
hostilities, and who, in the course of this year, carried their arms
over the whole surface of Italy, swept the banks of the Rhine,
penetrated Holland, and ravaged the valleys of Switzerland.
When Mr. Thomas Grenville set out upon his mission to the Courts of
Vienna and Berlin, intelligence had arrived of the disasters that had
recently befallen the King of Naples, who, alarmed at the approach of
the French, had taken the field with twenty thousand men, and was driven
back by Championet with a much inferior force, and compelled to act upon
the defensive. The last news was that Naples had surrendered to the
French after a gallant resistance, chiefly sustained by the Lazzaroni,
who have an insuperable aversion to all changes in their government.
The first incident that befell Mr. Grenville on his departure from
England was inauspicious and discouraging. The weather was unusually
severe. On the night of Christmas Eve, the thermometer was 14 deg. below
freezing point; and for many weeks afterwards the snow lay so thickly on
the ground that the service of the ordinary coaches was arrested, and
the mails were forwarded on horseback. This delay and suspension of
communication occasioned serious anxiety at a time when every item of
intelligence was of importance to the country. The effect of the
inclement state of the season was to force Mr. Grenville back to
England. He embarked on his destination as had been arranged, but the
sea was frozen up, and, unable to effect a landing, he was compelled to
return and wait for a more favourable opportunity.
The Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, which Ministers
were now preparing, was recommended to the consideration of Parliament
in a message from the King on the 22nd of January. The Rebellion had
given a decisive impulse to the project by effectually demonstrating the
want of power, energy, and influence of the local Parliament to control
the insubordinate spirit of the country, or to provide adequate remedies
for existing and acknowledged evils. It was considerably accelerated
also by the despair of the Protestants and the landed proprietors
generally, who, exhausted by the long and wasting struggles of faction,
looked to England, across the ashes of a desolating insurrection, for
the last hope of relief from anarchy and spoliation. In the letters that
immediately follow, the views of Ministers in reference to the proposed
plan are incidentally elucidated; and it appears, from Lord Grenville's
allusions to the subject, that it was originally suggested to make the
representation of the Irish Peerage in the Imperial Legislature elective
under every new Parliament, like that of the Scotch Peerage; a mode of
representation to which Lord Grenville objected, although, in other
respects, he approved of the adoption of the Scotch Union as a model for
imitation. He foresaw clearly the confusion and jealousies likely to be
engendered in such a country as Ireland by repeated elections amongst a
body whose title to the right of election rested on hereditary grounds,
and he felt that the frequent recurrence to such contests would re-open
old grievances and party feuds, and, instead of satisfying the
expectations of the Peers, would only create a new element of
discontent. The elective principle was the single feature in the Scotch
Union which Lord Grenville seems to have considered injudicious and
impolitic. We gather from many passages in his letters that he regarded
harmony in the structure of the legislative body to be as essential to
its effective action as unity in the executive; and that the nearer the
House of Lords approached to permanency in the foundation of all its
parts, the more completely would it realize, as a whole, the
constitutional theory of an hereditary estate.