Pall Mall, Jan. 31st, 1783.
My dear Brother,
While you are persecuted by Lords Arran, Aldborough, Altamnt,
and _omne quod incipit_ in A, I have had daily application from
Lord Clermont, which I have promised to submit formally to you.
His family and connexions in Ireland and their weight is the
first thing he states. To this I gave the answer of
non-residence. He says that he always resides during the
Parliament winter; that he has a house and establishment both in
Dublin and in the country; and that he is more a resident than
Lord Clanricarde or Lord Courtown. I then stated the
impossibility of increasing the number, which had been a
particular object with the King. His solution to that was, that
when the King named sixteen, he certainly did not mean to
include himself; and that the Thistle is twelve without the
Sovereign. He proposes therefore that, as he has always been one
of those talked of for it, and _as his friends make it_ a point
with him to apply, you should make it sixteen without the King,
by adding his name.
You will therefore be so good as either to send him from
yourself, or to commission me to write to him, a formal answer,
_tel qu'il vous plaira_.
In general, the list is approved; but they object to the
insertion of Lord Bechoe's name, and to the omission of Lord
Meath's.
Fox and his people are very industrious in turning it into
ridicule, by which I should think they would not increase their
Irish popularity. And what is ridiculous, is that at the same
time the Duke of Portland is taking pains to persuade all
Irishmen that he meant to have done the same if he had staid
long enough.
I have seen Edmonson, who has this day given me in a proposal,
which you will not think much more moderate than you did his
bill for the escutcheons (which, by the bye, he says you have
never paid).
I should think the twenty guineas per Knight for the
superintendence might very well be reduced to giving him _pro
tempore_, and for this installation only, one of the heralds'
places, in lieu of all travelling expenses and allowances. The
Painters' Bill, as they call it, is fixed for the Bath, and
might, I should think, reasonably be given to him at the same
rate.
He is making out copies of the drawings; one or two alterations
he has suggested which strike me. The first is the knots in the
Collar. If they are gold, and the harp likewise, the whole will
look, I think, too like a Lord Mayor's gold chain, and will make
no show; nothing being more dull to the eye than plain gold. He
wants to have them enamelled, so as to be like the strings and
tassels of the mantle.
He will also send a drawing of the Badge, with the wreath of
trefoil drawn in single leaves, instead of the full wreath,
which looks, as he says truly, like a civic crown or oak
garland. But this you will see in the drawing, and which looks
best.
I wish that there was a statute to fix the plates of the Knights
to remain in the stall in which they were first installed. In
the chapel at Windsor they are obliged now to put them up loose,
in order to their being removed; the consequence is, that they
are frequently lost. Besides, the plates of the first sixteen
might then be fixed in the centre of each stall as a mark of
distinction for the founders.
In the Garter there are no plates in the Sovereign's stall. I
should think that the Grand Master at each installation might be
allowed to put up his, as the banner must of course always be
the Sovereign's.
Edmonson proposes that he should have one of each article of the
Painters' Bill made here, to carry with him as a pattern. If you
see no objection, he might do Mornington's for this purpose. An
advantage might be given to Edmonson by authorizing him to
publish an account of the ceremony, with the arms and pedigrees
of the Knights, &c., &c., to which they would of course
subscribe.
Is the jewellery--I mean collars and badges--to be done in
Ireland? I believe there is no workmanship at all of that sort
there.
Townshend will, I believe, send the approbation to-night. It has
waited upon an idea of the Prince of Wales, who gave it out to
everybody that he had sent in to the King to ask for it.[1] This
was the day after the King had given his approbation to the
list, and named Prince Edward. I thought it right to wait a day
or two, to know if the King would speak to him about it. He
never has; and Townshend is to mention the Order again to-day,
and send the approbation to night or to-morrow. Adieu.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
[Footnote 1: The Premier did ask for it, but was refused.]
The "Coalition Administration" was now beginning to "loom" dimly in the
distance. Various changes were whispered, and from day to day new
reports got abroad of negotiations with Lord North's party. The first
step towards the consummation of an alliance may be said to have been
already taken when Townshend, abandoning the traditions of his party,
told Mr. Grenville that he saw no reason for proscribing all Lord
North's people from _office_, although he objected to giving them any
share in the _Government_. The meaning of this ingenious distinction is
clear. The Administration was tottering, and the only chance they saw of
strengthening their position was to buy off the opposition of the
followers of the late Cabinet. To swamp their opponents and at the same
time keep the actual power in their own hands, was a piece of strategy
which might be expected from the general character of Lord Shelburne's
tactics. But it failed, and failed conspicuously. Mr. Grenville
discerned clearly the danger of this clever plan, from which he could
anticipate no other result than that of sapping the foundations of the
existing Government. In the letters that follow we have a close running
commentary on the state of parties, and the rumours that hourly agitated
the public mind during this interval of intestine struggle. Mr.
Grenville considered the circumstances of the Ministry hopeless, as, we
gather from his previous communications, he appears to have done all
throughout. Their conduct upon the Irish Bill, which was still destined
to entail division and uneasiness, revealed to him the fatal want of
unity, earnestness and activity in their councils; and even if they had
had no perils to guard against from without, he saw sources of weakness
enough within the Cabinet itself to destroy all confidence in their
stability. There were only two parties from whose ranks the Ministry
could be recruited, and these two had hitherto acted in public life with
the fiercest animosity towards each other. The attempts that were made
to win over some of Lord North's adherents having failed, the only
alternative left was to apply to Fox. That this application was actually
made, and made in person by Pitt, who, with a thorough knowledge of the
character of Fox, believed that the most direct mode of ascertaining his
sentiments was not only the most honourable to both, but the most likely
to attain its end, either by a candid refusal or immediate acceptance,
is here authoritatively stated by Mr. Grenville. Fox's answer is
conclusive as to the real obstacle which impeded all negotiation. While
Lord Shelburne was in office nothing could be done: no party would
consent to coalesce with him. The humiliating condition to which he had
lowered the Administration, is shown in the straits to which it was now
reduced--seeking support alternately from opposite parties, and finding
its offers rejected in turn by both.