Whitehall, Nov. 14th, 1787.
My dear Brother,
I enclose you a letter from Sir William Bowyer, who seems
frightened out of all the senses he ever possessed. I take it
for granted it is not your intention he should serve, or that
there will be no harm in putting him out of his alarm as soon as
possible.
I wait only for your return to town to lay before you a list of
applications, which would completely fill up your family, and
supply any deficiencies in Orde's list. Every man who knows me
by sight, who remembers my name at Eton or Oxford, or who voted
for me in Bucks, is to be immediately made either a chaplain or
an aid-de-camp, or is to have a snug place of £1,000 a-year to
begin with, as Sir Francis Wronghead says. As I know you can
have no difficulty in complying with all these requests, I do
not answer them till I see you, in order that I may then inform
them all of your entire acquiescence.
Seriously, I have been pestered with applications beyond all
imagination, but have the satisfaction of not having received
one about which I have any other desire than that of being able
to say that I have mentioned them to you, and have received an
answer, informing me of the impossibility of complying with
them.
Harris writes word that, with great activity, the Alliance may
possibly be concluded before Christmas.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
Everything else going on very peaceably, notwithstanding
newspapers and stock-jobbers.
Lord Buckingham arrived in Dublin on the 16th of December, and his
reception is described as having been highly enthusiastic.
1788.
Irish Correspondence--The India Declaratory Bill--Trial of Warren
Hastings--Contemplated Changes in the Administration--The King's
Interference in Military Appointments--The Irish Chancellorship--The
King's Illness--Views of the Cabinet Respecting the Regency.
On the 1st of January, 1788, Lord Buckingham transmitted to the
Ministers a copy of the speech he proposed for the opening of the Irish
Parliament on the 17th. He threw himself at once into the labours of his
Government, which, judging from the multitude of topics that pressed
upon his time, and the conscientious consideration he bestowed upon
them, were onerous and absorbing. His correspondence of this period is
very voluminous, and embraces in detail an infinite variety of subjects.
The universal reliance which was placed in his justice and toleration,
drew upon him petitions and complaints from all manner of people.
Sometimes advice upon the state of the nation was volunteered from an
obscure student, who, looking out upon the great world through the
"loopholes of retreat," imagined he had discovered a panacea for all
public evils; sometimes the claim, real or imaginary, of individuals
upon the patronage of Government were urged with vehemence, or humility,
according to the temperament of the claimant, but in most cases, with
the sanguine eagerness of the national character; in one instance, a
retired Quaker, animated by the best intentions, suggests a project for
protecting the mail-coaches against robbers, by sending them to their
destination under an escort of dragoons; and in another, a citizen begs
the personal interference of the Lord-Lieutenant concerning a cheat
which was put upon a poor country-boy, who had been buying some
second-hand article at an old furniture shop in Dublin. To all the
applications, of every kind, that were addressed to him, Lord Buckingham
paid scrupulous attention, bringing to the discharge of the most trivial
duties of his station the same diligence and earnestness he bestowed on
the most important.
The majority of the questions relating to Ireland, which are thrown up
in the course of his political and public correspondence, possess little
attraction at this distance of time, having reference chiefly to
fugitive topics, such as the augmentation of the army (a measure which
his Lordship held to be of paramount necessity), the reduction of
expenditure, and the conflicts of local parties; but, although the
immediate importance of these questions has long since passed away, they
place in a strong historical light the difficulties the Viceroy had to
contend with, in his government of a country rent by intestine factions
and overrun by corrupt agencies. In the midst of the feuds and
jealousies that plunged both the Parliament and the people into a
condition of constant tumult, there were some gleams of a nobler spirit;
and wherever they appeared, whether on the part of the friends or the
opponents of the Government, Lord Buckingham was ready to recognise
their purifying and regenerating influence. From a mass of letters
bearing upon personal matters, and illustrative of the conduct of
individuals who occupied conspicuous positions, the following may be
selected as deserving special notice, on account of the subsequent
celebrity of one of the writers. Mr. Curran sat at this time in the
Irish Parliament for a borough of Mr. Longfield's; and when Lord
Buckingham assumed the government of Ireland for the second time, Mr.
Longfield, being desirous to contribute all the parliamentary strength
he could to the service of the Administration, endeavoured to secure the
support of Mr. Curran. It was a matter of some delicacy on both sides.
The nominee was generally understood to take the colour of his politics
from the owner of the borough; and although no explicit compact could
have been entered into in such cases, and was distinctly disclaimed in
the present case, yet it was usually felt that the relation between the
patron and the member implied a general harmony of opinion, which
precluded the latter from the assertion of an independent line of
policy. Such were the circumstances under which the subjoined
correspondence took place. The spirit of independence it displays is
equally honourable to all parties. At the date of these letters Lord
Buckingham's first session had just commenced; and it is scarcely
necessary to add, that Mr. Curran took his seat amongst the opponents of
his Lordship's Administration.