Pall Mall, Dec. 30th, 1782.
My dear Brother,
I have been with Townshend this morning, and have had a long
conversation with him. He showed me his despatch to you, and
that brought on the conversation, which I managed so that I
might at any time have produced your last letter; but upon the
whole I thought it better not shown, although the words of his
despatch are certainly by no means satisfactory. He spoke very
openly to me, and said that as his despatch had been written
without the concurrence of Cabinet, he thought he could hazard
no more. In this I could not but agree with him, especially as
it gave me occasion to press upon him, for his sake as well as
yours, the necessity of something being finally settled.
He then went at large into the difficulties. He was convinced,
he said, that it would come in the end to your proposition. But
in the meantime Thurlow was against it, and meant to oppose the
Bill; and Shelburne wanted to be forced to it, and said that he
was sure a stand would be to be made somewhere; and why not now?
I answered that it did not seem to me the most prudent step to
choose a post where no man of any description would stand by
you. We had much more conversation of the same sort. There were
those, Townshend said, who had said that as the preliminaries
were expected soon, it would come with better grace then. But,
continued he, if we wait till then, I am afraid it may not come
at all. To this I answered, that this was exactly my idea, but
in the meantime, was it not fit you should know on what ground
you stood? He said so; and (he went on) see where we should be
in that case. The Lord-Lieutenant would not stay an hour. Here
he stopped, as waiting my answer. I immediately said, most
certainly not. And then the person who succeeds him will be to
wait on you. You know better than I do the situation of things
and men. Tell me to whom I am to apply. To the Duke of
Portland's people?--to the old Court and Lord Shannon?--to Hood
and his set? I went on a good deal more in the same strain, and
ended with saying that he could not be astonished, or even at
all surprised, that every day should increase your impatience.
This was to prepare him for your peremptory despatch, which, if
my subsequent letters have not stopped, I shall now most
certainly deliver. He told me that on Wednesday he should see
most of his colleagues, and he should then hope to have some
answer to give me.
I threw out one idea to him, which I said proceeded entirely
from myself: and therefore, if he mentioned it at all, it should
be as a thing to be proposed to you, and not as one coming from
you. It was that, as it would probably be thought right that the
matter should be discussed in a Committee of the whole House as
a foundation for bringing in the Bill, such terms might be used
in the resolutions of that Committee as should obviate the
difficulty which was made upon the idea of the preamble's
referring to past rights. I then mentioned in general words my
idea for those resolutions, but did not give them to him in
writing. I have since reduced them to writing, and enclose them
to you for your ideas upon them. I mean to-morrow to read them
to Townshend, in order to explain my idea fully, but not to
leave them with him. The first resolution is copied almost
verbatim from the addresses. If you turn to them, you will see
what I have omitted, and that I have inserted nothing but what I
thought absolutely necessary, in order not to clog the
resolution, and render it thereby less perspicuous.
Pray let me have your ideas on this as soon as possible. I still
think your preamble will at last be consented to: but a pressing
despatch, to be used or not, as occasion requires, can do no
harm.
Believe me,
My dearest brother,
Most affectionately and sincerely yours,
W. W. G.
1783.
The Renunciation Bill--The Fall of the Shelburne Administration--The
Cabinet Interregnum--The Coalition Ministry--Resignation of Lord Temple.
The impediments and delays Mr. Grenville had to encounter in his
negotiations with Ministers, are sufficiently detailed in the preceding
correspondence. They appear to have originated chiefly with Lord
Shelburne, who, in the line of conduct he pursued on this occasion,
betrayed either a singular indifference to the state of Ireland, or an
inexcusable ignorance of it. For the latter, indeed, he had no
reasonable excuse, since the suspense of the public mind, and the
growing discontents of the people, were constantly pressed upon his
attention by Lord Temple and Mr. Grenville. There certainly was no
shadow of pretence for not thoroughly understanding the whole merits of
the question at issue between the two kingdoms, and still less for not
setting it at rest at once, as the Ministry did at last, and must have
intended to do in some shape all throughout. Yet it was not until the
beginning of January, 1783, after nearly six weeks of incessant
representations and harassing interviews with Lord Shelburne, Pitt and
Townshend, that the mission of the Irish Secretary assumed a definite
shape, and that something like a distinct hope was held out of its being
brought, at last, to a satisfactory conclusion.
Lord Shelburne appears to have been desirous of postponing the Irish
difficulty until after he should have succeeded in securing the peace,
for which he was then treating with France. He thought that a measure,
however just and indispensable in itself, emanating from a strong
Government, would be received as a graceful concession, while the same
measure, granted by a Government which had been described early in the
preceding December by Lord Mornington (afterwards Marquis of Wellesley)
as subsisting solely on the divisions of its enemies, might seem to be
wrung from the embarrassments of the Administration. This shuffling
policy, and want of magnanimity in the Minister--this coquetting with
extremities, in the forlorn hope of extracting from them some advantage
for a sinking Government, pervaded the councils of the Cabinet, and led
finally to its downfall.
In the meanwhile, agitation was rising into open manifestations of
distrust and resentment in Ireland. The Volunteers, whose nationality
had been appeased by the recent Repeal of the Declaratory Law, renewed
their demands for a specific measure, by which the legislative and
judicial independence of the country, guaranteed by that Repeal, should
be unconditionally recognized, and placed beyond doubt or cavil. Their
suspicions were excited by the hesitation of the Imperial Government,
and their indignation was roused by the fact that, in contravention of
the settlement by Act of Parliament of the rights of Ireland, an Irish
case had been heard in an English court of law, and decided by Lord
Mansfield. The circumstances were irritating, and peculiarly calculated
to shake the confidence of so sensitive a race in the sincerity of their
rulers. Nor were there wanting persons who were ready to avail
themselves, for factious purposes, of every fresh symptom of national
disquietude to inflame the passions of the people. At the head of these
disturbing patriots were Lord Beauchamp and Mr. Flood; fortunately, on
the other side, was Mr. Grattan, whose pure patriotism, confiding in the
honour and justice of the Imperial Legislature, resisted all violent
demands, until a fair opportunity had been afforded to England to
vindicate the integrity of a settlement, the principle of which was
clear, and admitted on all hands. His language on this point, in reply
to an Address from the Volunteers, was explicit: "I know of no
circumstance, except one, which has really happened to alarm you: the
entertaining and deciding by the Court of King's Bench, in England, an
Irish cause, is, no doubt, a very great infringement. You do not imagine
that I mean to rest under it; but I shall never suppose such a measure
to be the act of England, unless her Parliament shall hesitate to do it
away in a manner the most clear, comprehensive and satisfactory." Mr.
Grattan's firmness stayed the impetuous course of the Volunteers; but it
was at the cost of his immediate popularity, and, as it afterwards
proved, at the imminent risk of his personal safety.
It was while these events were taking place in Ireland, that Lord Temple
and Mr. Grenville were urging upon the Administration the imperative
necessity of bringing forward a measure that should satisfy the
apprehensions of the Irish people. With that view a Bill, known by the
title of the Bill of Renunciation, was prepared by Lord Temple and
forwarded to Mr. Grenville. Upon the structure, and not upon the
substance, of this Bill, innumerable quibbles were raised. The
difficulty with Lord Shelburne was, not the renunciation itself, for
that was nothing more than a confirmation of the repeal, but the
technical form in which it was to be expressed. Nobody dreamt of
disturbing or evading the principle of the measure which this Bill
simply declared anew and fortified by a more distinct enunciation; but
Ministers could not agree upon the words--for into a discussion about
words the whole negotiation finally degenerated. And thus, the fear of
compromising the dignity of England by some unguarded expression, or of
failing from over caution to satisfy the demands of Ireland, had the
effect of protracting the passage of a measure, upon the substantive
justice and urgent necessity of which all parties were unanimous.
At length Mr. Grenville was enabled to announce to his brother that
these petty discussions were brought to a satisfactory close. But the
issue, as will be subsequently seen, was not quite so near as he
supposed. The Administration had wasted so much time in verbal
criticisms, that, although they had the merit of ultimately introducing
the Bill into Parliament, they were obliged to bequeath the satisfaction
of earning it to their successors.