Dublin Castle,
April 6th, 1783, Thirty minutes past Eleven, P.M.
Sire,
This moment has brought to me your Majesty's letter. Every
anxiety which I felt, and which my letter so faintly expressed,
is relieved by that condescension with which your Majesty has
deigned to accept the state of Ireland, and of my situation.
Permit me to express my thanks, with every assurance of that
attachment which has your Majesty's service as my only object,
and of that heartfelt concern which presses upon me at the
detail of the situation of your Majesty's health and feelings,
as well as of the kingdom. May Providence long secure to us that
health and life; a resource upon which our all depends. To
yourself, Sire, and to posterity, you stand acquitted for every
consequence, which nothing but the frenzy of the moment could
have forced upon you. The interval is truly painful, but a short
time must rescue your Government from the fetters thrown round
it. My respectful, and (suffer me to say) cordial attachment to
your person, and to that best of political Constitutions which
is hourly threatened, will ever lead me to sacrifice every
private feeling to your service. I must, however, say, and say
truly, that every feeling of ambition is deadened by these times
and circumstances; and that a public situation has none of those
charms for me which have brought forward this unprincipled
coalition. But I have, and ever must retain those feelings of
duty and affection which will urge me to obey your Majesty's
commands in exerting every faculty for your satisfaction and the
public service. The scene before you is indeed unparalleled in
the annals of history. May those who, by timidity and weakness
for some years past, have driven your kingdoms to the verge of
destruction, and those, who, by a dangerous and unprincipled
attack upon every part of the Constitution, are now enabled to
avail themselves of our distress, deeply answer it. My opinions
(uninteresting as they are to your Majesty) have never varied
upon that great jewel of constitutional supremacy over all the
parts of the empire, now torn from your Crown; nor upon the
system of our Government founded on law and practice of ages,
which draws the line between the Constitution of Great Britain
and all other establishments. These principles, from my earliest
infancy, I have imbibed; and if I could reconcile a deviation
from them to my political or moral duties, I will confess that
no hopes of ambition have power to tempt me. Under these
impressions I embarked in an undertaking under which nothing but
your Majesty's protection, and a confidence in my own
intentions, could have supported me. And with these impressions
I retire, with every feeling amply gratified by your favour and
approbation.
May no circumstances delay the hour of your Majesty's
deliverance from that thraldom which bears so heavily upon you,
and may you find in those cool heads and hearts, to whom your
Majesty would entrust your service, that resource to which you
are so well entitled. In such an arrangement, no consideration
will direct your Majesty's thoughts for one moment towards me,
except the conviction (which I will beg to urge to your Majesty,
and which it will be my pride to cultivate,) of the gratitude,
duty, and affection, with which I have the honour to subscribe
myself,
Sire,
Your Majesty's very faithful and devoted subject and servant,
N. T.
Lord Temple had decided upon his resignation early in March; and one of
the first persons to whom he confided his determination, was his friend
Lord Bulkeley. The letter conveying this intelligence is so honourable
to his character, and contains so intimate a revelation of the high
principles and paramount sense of duty by which his conduct was
governed, that it will inspire even a deeper interest than the more
elaborate statement of his motives and opinions which he laid before the
King.