BERKELEY SQUARE, _Feb._ 12, 1789.
I now do believe that the King is coming to _him_self: not in the
language of the courtiers, to his senses--but from their proof, viz.,
that he is returned to his _what! what! what!_ which he used to prefix
to every sentence, and which is coming to his nonsense. I am
corroborated in this opinion by his having said much more sensible
things in his lunacy than he did when he was reckoned sane, which I do
not believe he has been for some years.
Well! now, how will this new change of scene operate? I fancy if any one
could win access to him, who would tell him the truth, he would be as
little pleased with his Queen, and his or her Pitt, as they will take
care he shall be with his sons. Would he admire the degradation of his
family in the person of all the Princes? or with the tripartite division
of Royalty between the Queen, the Prince, and Mr. Pitt, which I call a
_Trinity in disunity_? Will he be charmed with the Queen's admission to
power, which he never imparted to her? Will he like the discovery of his
vast private hoard? Will he be quite satisfied with the codicil to his
Will,[1] which she surreptitiously obtained from him in his frenzy _in
the first agony of her grief_? How will he digest that discovery of his
treasure, which will not diffuse great compassion when he shall next ask
a payment of his pretended debts? Before his madness he was indisposed
towards Pitt; will he be better pleased with him for his new dictatorial
presumption?
[Footnote 1: "_His will._" This refers to a scandal propagated by some
of the opposition newspapers, for which there was not the slightest
foundation.]
Turn to the next page--to Ireland. They have chosen for themselves, it
is believed, a Regent without restrictions,[1] in scorn of the
Parliament of England, and in order further to assert their
independence. Will they recede? especially when their courtiers have
flown in the face of our domineering Minister? I do not think they will.
They may receive the King again on his recovery; but they have united
interests with the Prince, and act in league with him, that he may
pledge himself to them more deeply in future at least; they will
never again acknowledge any superiority in our Parliament, but rather
act in contradistinction.
[Footnote 1: "_Regent without restrictions._" The King, in the autumn of
1788, having fallen into a state of temporary derangement, Pitt proposed
that the Parliament should appoint the Prince of Wales Regent, with some
temporary limitations in the exercise of the power. Fox and his
followers contended that the Prince, being of full age, was as
absolutely entitled to the Regency as his right, as he would have been
to the Crown in the event of his father's death; and Grattan, who had a
paramount influence over the Irish Parliament, adopting Fox's view,
carried an address to the Prince, entreating him to take upon himself
the Regency as his right--a view which, of course, was incompatible with
any power of limiting his authority. Fortunately, before this address
could be acted upon, the King recovered. The matter unfortunately caused
great divisions in the Royal Family, to which Walpole alludes in the
latter part of the letter; the Queen considering (not without grounds)
that the Prince had shown unfilial eagerness to grasp at power; and
indeed he had already made it known that he had intended to dismiss Pitt
and to appoint Fox Prime Minister.]
[Illustration: Hand-written Letter]
_Feb. 22nd._
The person who was to have brought you this was prevented leaving town,
and therefore I did not finish my letter; but I believe I shall have
another opportunity of sending, and therefore I will make it ready.
Much has happened this last week. The Prince is Regent of Ireland
without limitations--a great point for his character; for Europe will
now see that it was a faction which fettered him here, and not his
unpopularity, for then would not he have been as much distasted in
Ireland? Indeed, their own Attorney-General made way for him by opposing
on the most injudicious of all pleas, that it would be necessary before
he could be Regent there, to set the _Great Seal of England_ to the act!
How could the fool imagine, that when that phantom had been invented
here, it would not be equally easy for the Irish to invent a parallel
phantom of their own? But though this compliment is most grateful to the
Prince at present, he will probably find hereafter that he has in effect
lost Ireland, who meant more to emancipate themselves from this country
than to compliment the Prince or contradict the English ministerial
faction.
What will be the consequence of that rapid turn in Ireland, even
immediately, who can tell? for the King is called recovered, and the
English Regency is suspended, with fresh and grievous insults to the
Prince, who with the Duke of York are violently hindered by the Queen
from even seeing their father, though she and their sisters play at
cards with him in an evening; and that the Chancellor was with him for
an hour and three quarters on the 19th.
Under colour of what new phantom her Majesty, the Chancellor,[1] and
Pitt will assume the Government, we shall know in two or three days; for
I do not suppose they will produce the King instantly, at the risk of
oversetting his head again, though they seem half as mad as he, and
capable of any violent act to maintain themselves. And so much the
better: I do not wish them temperate; and it looks as if people never
were so in minorities and incapacities of their kings. The Prince set
out as indiscreetly as Pitt.
[Footnote 1: The Chancellor was Lord Thurlow, an able but unprincipled
man. Johnson expressed a high opinion of him as an arguer "who brought
his mind to bear upon yours." But Fox declared his very face "proved him
an impostor, since no man could be as wise as he looked."]
Of the event I am very glad; it saves the Prince and the Opposition from
the rashness of changing the Administration on so precarious and
shackled a tenure, and it saves them too from the expense of
re-elections. If the King recovers, they are but where they were, but
with the advantage of having the Prince and Duke of York rooted in
aversion to the Ministers, and most unlikely to be governed by the
Queen. If the King relapses, the Opposition stock will rise; though in
the mean time I do not doubt but the nation will grow drunk with the
loyalty of rejoicing, for kings grow popular by whatever way they lose
their heads. Still, whatever eccentricity he attempts, it will be
imputed to his deranged understanding. And, however even Lord
Hawkesbury[1] may meditate the darkest mischiefs under the new fund of
pity and loyalty, he will _not_ be for extending the prerogative, which
must devolve (on any accident to the King) on the Prince, Duke of York,
or some of the Princes, who will all be linked in a common cause with
their brothers, who have been so grossly affronted; and Prince William,
the third, particularly so by the last cause of hindering his peerage
while abroad. The King's recovery before the Regency Act was passed will
be another great advantage to the Prince; his hands would have been so
shackled, that he could not have found places for half the expectants,
who will now impute their disappointments to the King's amendment, and
not to the Prince.
[Footnote 1: Lord Hawkesbury was afterwards promoted to the Earldom of
Liverpool, and was the father of the sagacious, prudent, but resolute
minister under whose administration the French Revolutionary War was
brought to a conclusion by the final overthrow of Napoleon.]
_Monday, 24th._
The King has seen the Prince [of Wales], and received him kindly, but
the Queen was present. Iron Pluto (as Burke called the Chancellor) wept
again when with the King; but what is much more remarkable, his Majesty
has not asked for Pitt, and did abuse him constantly during his frenzy.
The Chancellor certainly did not put him in mind of Pitt, whom he
detests; so there is a pretty portion of hatred to be quaffed amongst
them! and swallowed, if they can; yet _aurum potabile_ will make it sit
on their stomachs.
_"THE ARABIAN NIGHTS"--THE AENEID--BOCCALINI--ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE._