Pall Mall, Jan. 8th, 1783.
My dear Brother,
This morning I received your letter and despatch of the 3rd and
4th instant, and soon after, the enclosed note from Townshend.
The general idea is, that they have received the exceedingly bad
news of their negotiation being totally at an end; and the style
of this letter seems, I must own, to confirm it. Before I close
this letter, which shall not be till to-night, I shall most
probably know with certainty. If it should be so, I see nothing
in Lord Shelburne's conduct throughout this business, which can
prevent me from being convinced that he has foreseen this
conclusion, that the _acquiescence_ is to be ascribed to that
foresight, and to an intention of pledging you to some very
strong measure to be immediately proposed to Ireland--of men,
money, or some other support; and that his language about peace
was calculated for no other purpose than that of making to
himself a merit which he had not, and inducing me to pledge you
with less difficulty to something of this sort, in the
_improbable event_ of a continuation of the war. If that should
have been his aim, I have at least the consolation to reflect
that I made none but a _very_ general answer to that part of his
conversation to which I allude, and which I stated to you at
length in a former letter.
At the same time, I must freely own that I have been duped upon
the subject of peace; not so much by their assurances, strong as
those have been, and often as they have been repeated, as by the
opinion which I then held, and which I have not much altered
now, that a peace was absolutely necessary to their system of
government. However, be all this as it may, I think you are in a
situation to _voir venir_, and to rest upon your oars in full
confidence that you are now completely master of your own
ground, whether you are to be left to carry on the Government of
Ireland upon those principles on which you have begun it, and on
which alone we know it can be carried on with success, or
whether the system is to be altered, and committed, of course,
to other hands; in which there is no doubt but that the
ill-success and confusion that must follow will justify your
predictions to such a degree, and place your character in such a
light, as would almost make it an event to be wished for by you,
if it was not so fatal to the interests of both countries.
And this brings me to another point, in which I am very happy to
feel myself justified and confirmed by your instructions in that
line of conduct which I had fully resolved to adopt. I mean the
holding out the most peremptory refusal to making either you or
myself at all a party to postponing the business beyond the
21st, except in the single instance of their having some
proposition to bring forward then, about their negotiations, of
such a nature as to make the reason obvious to the mind of every
man in Ireland, as well as in England. In such a case I will
acquiesce, because I think I cannot in decency avoid it, under
the delay of one day only. In every other case which can be
supposed, I will claim a right to state to the House that the
delay is neither consented to by you, nor arises from you; but
is in your idea most pernicious. Surely, my own character and
honour, as well as your's, demand this from me.
I am sick to death of this scene. Since I wrote the first part
of my letter I have been to the levée, where I saw Townshend,
and learnt from him that Lord Camden had taken upon himself to
draw up a new preamble, which was _to soften on both
sides_.--(What the meaning of this curious expression is, I will
not pretend to say.) I then said, that at least I hoped it would
contain an _explicit_ recognition; because the measure would
only be useful, in proportion as it _was_ explicit. He agreed
with me, as he had always done, and wished that I had seen Lord
Camden. I asked if he was in town; he said he was to go back
to-day to Chiselhurst, and had desired _him_ to hold the
council, _in his absence, on Friday_. I immediately went home,
and wrote to Lord Camden, desiring to be allowed to wait upon
him; but he was gone. I have just sent your despatch of the 4th,
with the enclosed note to Townshend, which I hope will find him
before dinner. How little does all this agree with Lord
Shelburne's idea of doing what would be most satisfactory, and
with all my fine reasoning at the beginning of my letter!
I will certainly write to you more when I come back from dinner;
and, if I _can_ make him, Townshend shall write too, because
they cannot, upon paper, assign any good reason for the delay,
and a bad one will give you advantages. Upon the whole, what a
scene it is!
The news at Court was, that the negotiations are not broke off,
only delayed; and this I take to be the real case, as no letter
has been written to the Lord Mayor. If that be so, I shall of
course hear no more of it to-day.
Elliott is to have a Red Ribband.
Jan. 10.
I have delayed finishing this letter till this morning, in the
vain hope of being able to get something specific to propose to
you. After dinner, on the 8th, Townshend produced Lord Camden's
preamble. I send you a copy of it, and need not, I am sure,
observe to you how unsatisfactory it is to Ireland, and how
humiliating to Great Britain; and how perfect an ignorance it
shows, after all that has passed, of that business which is
referred to him for a decision. Neither Lord Shelburne,
Townshend, nor Pitt, who were present, attempted to defend it
against the observations I made upon it.
Some conversation passed upon it, after which Townshend went
away. The conversation then turned more particularly upon what
was to be done, in which the only very settled idea that I could
find was, that your preamble was not to be adopted.
Pitt then threw out the idea of declaring the intention of the
Act of Repeal, and making the new enacting clause a consequence
of the principles then adopted. We talked this over a little. I
pressed for something being settled to send over to you. The
answer Lord Shelburne gave me was, that the Cabinet lawyers were
all dispersed, and without them nothing could be finally
settled. Pitt then went away. I continued the conversation, and
asked Lord Shelburne if it would not be right, as he had
approved of Pitt's idea, that I should see Pitt, and endeavour
to put something upon paper upon it. In this he agreed.
When I went home, I sent the enclosed note to Pitt, and in
consequence of it saw him yesterday morning. I was near two
hours with him, drawing up something of a form. At last, the
Bill No. 1. was settled: more, I believe, because we were both
tired out with weighing words, than for any great merit that I
see in it. However, at the time I thought it might do; but in
the course of the day, thinking it over, I disliked it, and sent
the form No. 2. to Pitt, who desired to see me again. When I
went to him, he proposed, after some conversation, the Bill No.
3., which I took to consider.
But, in the meantime, I am _au dernier point_ at a loss what to
do in it; because, after an absence of six weeks, I know no more
of the present ideas of people in Ireland, and of the squabbles
and distinctions of words on which the whole turns, than the
Ministers here do; and less, God knows, I cannot know! If you
wait till something is formally sent you, I shall certainly be
reduced to the necessity either of putting the business off, or
of doing something in a hurry, without knowing whether it be
right or wrong. For you may depend upon it, that neither will
any of the unlearned Ministers pledge themselves to a specific
form, nor will the learned come from their rural retreats one
hour before the 17th.
In this situation I feel myself obliged to lay upon my oars, and
to entreat you to return the messenger as soon as possible, to
say whether any and which of the forms will do, or what kind of
thing I am to press for; for I am thrown quite wide. Your old
preamble they will not adopt except compelled to it. What their
objection is I cannot find; but most likely it is the dear
delight of alteration that operates upon them. If you think that
nothing short of saying "They have now the right" will do, for
God's sake say so explicitly in a despatch. I have never quite
lost my patience in this cursed business till this moment, and I
confess now I cannot quite preserve it. After having carried the
great point against their will and inclination, we shall now be
ruined by their delay and their damned country-houses.
If you don't like any of these forms I send you, and yet will
not _propose_ any other, for God's sake send one over to me that
_I_ may propose it, or bring their's as near as possible to it.
Pray return your messenger as soon as you can, for this
disappointment and anxiety works me more than I can express to
you. Adieu.
Believe me, my dearest brother,
Most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
You will observe that these cursed delays have driven us so near
the mark, that it will be impossible for me to hear from you
again before the 21st. You will, therefore, send me your full
determination on every point, and in every case that you can
foresee. Nobody can feel more than I do the painful necessity of
being obliged to act upon my own judgment upon the general
contents of your letters, instead of acting up to any specific
idea. What increases my difficulty is the whole matter having
arisen since I left Ireland, and my consequent ignorance of the
language of individuals on every other part of the subject,
except the preamble you sent over, to which they were pledged.
Would to God that they would adhere to that!
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
Pray return Lord Camden's preamble.