The strange scene, my dearest Bulkeley, of the last month, has
left me little time (even if my public duty would have allowed
me) to have communicated with you upon the subject of your last
letter, and of my present or future situation. The constant
intelligence which I have had from England, has enabled me to
form a very adequate judgment upon the state of your politics,
the complexion of them altered every moment; and I have been
obliged to preserve a most cautious and scrupulous silence upon
the variety of subjects which the last anxious month has
presented. My line has been for several days past decisively
taken; but I have not till this day thought myself at liberty to
avow to any one that I have requested from the King that he will
release me from a situation in which I can no longer be useful;
for no consideration shall tempt me to hold this Government,
where I do not see my way in the English Cabinet, whose
formation must ever revolt and disgust me. I have much to say
upon this point, more than I can include in a letter, which from
my want of time must be short; but my brother William, who will
deliver you this letter open, will tell you in detail what I
feel upon the subject. I do not say that I am indifferent to
what I sacrifice; Ireland holds out a career the most brilliant
to my honest fame; but there are feelings which I would not
exchange in the present moment for all that the two kingdoms
could bestow: to those feelings, whenever you are in public
office, I recommend you; and trust me that they will amply repay
you for any change which a resignation may make in your
situation. To those scenes of domestic happiness which have
hitherto blessed me, I shall with pleasure return; and in those
scenes I shall look for your friendship with the same warm
feelings with which I first embraced it; for in all situations I
shall, and must, be to you the same George Grenville, and no
longer to any one
Sancho Pança, the Governor.
Mr. Townshend, who had filled the office of Secretary of State for the
Home Department under Lord Shelburne, and had been just elevated to the
peerage (March 6th, 1783) as Baron Sydney of Chiselhurst, was the only
member of the Administration who had cordially concurred with Mr.
Grenville in his efforts to forward the unfortunate Irish Bill in which
Lord Temple was so deeply interested. Previously to his retirement from
office, Lord Temple, reminded of his neglect by Mr. Grenville in not
having earlier forwarded his congratulations, addressed the following
letter to Lord Sydney. A closer acquaintance afterwards sprang up
between them, and was ripened into an intimate friendship before the
close of the year. "I cannot conclude," observes Lord Sydney, at the
close of a letter dated October 27th, 1783, "without expressing, in the
strongest manner, how sensible my family, as well as myself, are of the
civilities we received at Stowe during the agreeable time which we spent
there. We drink your health every day, and desire, _en corps_, to be
remembered to your Lordship and Lady Temple, and to the rest of the
party at Stowe, in the kindest manner."