Dublin Castle,
March 23rd, 1783, Two o'clock, A.M.
Sire,
I have this moment received from Mr. Grenville the detail of the
conversation, with which your Majesty was pleased to honour him
on the 16th instant. I will not attempt to state the feelings of
gratitude and respect with which I have received the testimonies
of your approbation, and the signal proofs of that
condescension, with which you were graciously pleased to inform
me of the situation of the kingdom at this most alarming crisis.
Every feeling of duty and of inclination call upon me to offer
my situation and opinions to your Majesty's consideration; and,
as I have no official means of conveying them, I trust to your
goodness to excuse what must be a long detail, but truly
interesting to me, as your good opinion must ever be the object
of my eager wishes.
When your Majesty did me the honour to destine me to this high
office, I unaffectedly felt that diffidence, which my
inexperience and scale of talents naturally suggested to me. I
will not say that I was insensible to the hopes of building my
honest fame upon the event of my administration, but I solemnly
protest my principal object was to contribute my small share to
the support of your Majesty's Government, abandoned in a
situation, from various reasons the most critical, upon grounds
which appeared to me upon every principle, public and private,
wholly indefensible. To the natural difficulties of my
undertaking, I had the additional misfortune of not finding
myself peculiarly in those confidential habits with your
Majesty's servants, to which, in such a situation, I should
naturally look for support. My trust, under God, was in your
Majesty's goodness and protection; and I acknowledge, with pride
and gratitude, that I have been honoured with the most
unequivocal proofs of that goodness.
Judge then, Sire, the pain which I felt in that moment, when I
thought myself called upon by every principle of public duty to
solicit officially your Majesty's permission to retire from this
high station. I have not vanity enough to conceive that my
presence in Ireland is material to your service further than as
it will be always eligible to preserve, particularly in this
kingdom, some settled system of Government. And upon this
ground, I hold it my indispensable duty to lay at your Majesty's
feet the reasons which induced me to believe that my residence
in this kingdom can be no longer useful to that service, to
which I will beg your permission to say I have dedicated every
hour and every faculty since my arrival. And as those reasons
cannot be deposited in the office with safety to the interests
of both kingdoms, and as, for many reasons, it might not be
judged eligible that they should fall into the hands of every
description of gentlemen who aspire to high office, I have
ventured upon the unusual measure of depositing them in your
royal breast, still trusting to that indulgent goodness, which I
have experienced, for my excuse. And if any part of these
reasons shall appear to your Majesty to be painted too strongly,
I must apologize truly for them, though I solemnly declare that
the state of facts which I am about to draw, is the result of
cool deliberation; and I will venture to hope that your Majesty
will believe that I will not attempt to mislead your judgment
either upon facts, characters, or opinions.
From the first moment of my arrival in Ireland, I have struggled
with infinite difficulties. I was told in England, that the
situation of this kingdom held out every hope which could be
suggested by perfect confidence in English and Irish Government,
and by unanimity arising from the spirit of gratitude for the
liberal concessions made by England. And I was likewise told,
that I should find prepared to my hands such a mass of solid
strength, as would effectually secure the means of conducting
the ordinary purposes of Government not only with facility, but
even with _éclat_. Your Majesty will judge my mortification in
finding this kingdom engaged in a ferment on a constitutional
question more violent than that which had preceded Lord
Carlisle's departure, and that ferment much increased by the
injudicious arrangement of a measure, which might have been
truly useful if conducted with address--I mean that of the
provincial levies--but which, from circumstances infinitely too
long for the present detail, totally defeated the only essential
object which it ought to have accomplished, the division of the
Volunteers. To this spirit of dissatisfaction, arising from
these two essential objects, I had not the shadow of Government
to oppose. Those who composed it were respectable for their
integrity, and had been high in popular estimation; but many
circumstances concurred to weaken the advantages which were
proposed from their support: the want of knowledge and habits of
office, the thirst of popularity which pervaded them all, and
the fetters which they had forged for themselves by popular
questions during an opposition of fifteen years, by making them
timid and undecided, rendered them wholly unfit for the defence
of Government. The several characters respectable for their
services, their rank, their connections and their influence, had
been systematically and ostentatiously depressed, except in the
sole instance of Mr. Ponsonby, whose influence was unbounded,
and brought forward that spirit of discontented jealousy, of
which your Majesty well remembers instances in the last weeks of
the Irish Sessions. The variety of dismissals, some of which
were considered as peculiarly cruel, had weakened every
confidence in Government, and had spread an apprehension and
distrust through every Board and Department. And the natural
consequence of this was, that the interior business of the
kingdom was much at a stand, while the general expectation was
raised, by professions, to a pitch, which it would have been
found difficult to gratify in a country where the offices are
really insufficient to the purposes of Government. And at the
same time, the confidence which had been given to the
Volunteers, by the attention paid to them at every meeting, had
drawn them into the discussion of every speculative question
which could embarrass the public service.
In this situation, my first object was to restore that
confidence in the equity of Government, which I judged
indispensable for the quieting the alarms of the servants of the
Crown. Every attention was paid which could conciliate the
feelings of those friends who felt themselves proscribed. At the
same time, care was taken not to alarm the very jealous feelings
of those to whom the Duke of Portland had trusted the
Administration. Your Majesty will recollect, that one of my
earliest objects was that of taking the efficient Government
from those from whom I expected no permanent assistance, at the
moment, when by fighting their ground of the adequacy of the
simple repeal, which, from the beginning, I stated as very
hazardous, they pledged themselves to the public to a doctrine
which was truly unpopular, and has completely ruined them in the
opinions of those from whom they derived their consequence.
Lastly, I have never lost sight of that first essential object,
the depressing the Volunteers by every caution; but with the
determined purpose of endeavouring to restore the sword and
executive power to the hands in which the Constitution has so
wisely placed them.
Great part of these general opinions appear in my official
correspondence: other parts of this system are palpable with the
smallest clue, and the whole militates decisively against the
opinions of the Duke of Portland and Mr. Fox, whom I
particularize, as they continue to keep up a constant
correspondence with the popular leaders in this kingdom. Your
Majesty will, therefore, judge how perfectly impracticable it is
for me to hope to conduct your Government upon the plan which I
have stated to be necessary to its existence, and which is in
the very teeth of those ideas which have been adopted by the
persons whom, from the exigency of public affairs, your Majesty
has probably been obliged to call to your counsels.
To these circumstances, Sire, suffer me to add my feelings of
indignation at the formation of that coalition to which your
Government has given way, formed at such a time, in such a
manner, having necessarily for its basis the foul abandonment of
every principle, public and private, and holding but one
principle in common--and that principle avowed--of forcing
themselves into employments at all hazards to the kingdom, which
never was exposed to such calamities, and, I fear, never can
recover such a shock. I trust, then, that I do not break through
the bounds of that respect, which I so truly feel, when I say
that no consideration shall make me a friend to such a
coalition, or to the component parts of it. These opinions I
have not concealed, having (from a very particular circumstance)
been forced to explain them.
The whole of these considerations will, I hope, justify me to
your Majesty, for a step which I have taken with the utmost
reluctance; but which, in conscience and duty, was unavoidable.
And I trust that you will not for a moment believe that I could,
by such a step, mean to increase those difficulties, which I
would relieve with my life; but that my official letter was
written under the idea that the new Administration was formed
upon principles and characters which I could not approve. But in
all contingencies this Government has suffered so materially
from the uncertainty of the last eight weeks, and from the
necessary delay of several points which have been submitted, and
which I think most essential to Government (so much so, that I
have been truly importunate respecting them), that I very much
fear the general event, and my own personal credit, from
consequences which I foresee, but cannot now wholly prevent. But
whatever may be my fears, I will not press this consideration
till your Majesty's arrangements shall be made, in the hopes
that I may then be allowed to retire, particularly if my
confidence and good-will cannot (as is too probable) engage me
to the support of the new Ministry.
I need not add, that whenever your Majesty's goodness shall
relieve me from the situation, I shall quit it with that regret
which is the natural result of leaving a great and essential
work of Government incomplete, which I had vanity enough to
imagine I might, by your Majesty's goodness, be enabled to
restore. And with the same vanity I will add, that I had rather
that your Majesty should collect the present state of Ireland
from any one than from myself.
Suffer me then, Sire, to hope that my system and my conduct have
not been unacceptable to you. Suffer me likewise to hope that
your Majesty sees the reasons for this resignation, neither
founded in personal motives of indolence, disinclination, or
inattention to that service which is so truly flattering to me;
nor in others more disgraceful, because they would be more
prejudicial to your Government. And suffer me to hope that your
Majesty sees me yielding to a necessity which I cannot avert,
with a heart filled with the most lively emotions of gratitude,
respect, and affection. With these feelings, it is my fervent
prayer, that your Majesty's wisdom and firmness may save the
kingdom from the calamities which must be the consequences of
this unprincipled coalition--unprincipled, because they can be
bound to no political or moral principles in common. And with
these feelings, I shall retire with satisfaction to that
obscurity from which your Majesty's great goodness called me,
desirous, however, on all occasions to sacrifice every private
feeling, which would naturally lead me to indolence and
retirement, whenever your Majesty shall call upon me to give you
that assistance which every honest man owes to rescue the
Government from a system, which will either be disgraceful and
dangerous if it comprehends the whole of this faction, or weak
and inefficient if it is partial.
Once more, Sire, I entreat your Majesty's pardon for this long
detail; in which, however, many very important considerations,
which have been suggested by the present situation of Ireland,
are necessarily omitted. My reasons for wishing to quit Ireland
have been necessarily secret; and possibly your Majesty will not
think it for your service that they should be avowed. To your
wisdom, and to your justice I submit them; and must once more
urge to your Majesty those sentiments of gratitude, affection,
and respect, with which it is my pride to subscribe myself,
Sire,
Your Majesty's very faithful and devoted subject and servant,
N. T.
To this very able and lucid statement His Majesty returned an answer
under his own hand; but it is desirable, before we lay that remarkable
document before the reader, to trace, through the intervening
correspondence, the "lets and hindrances" which in the interim marked
the progress of the struggle between His Majesty and the high
contracting parties on the other side.