There was some truth in these statements, although the general deduction was erroneous, and the colouring throughout false. The allies had not given that cordial co-operation to Great Britain which they were bound to do, and Prussia had evaded the onus of the coalition. Mr. Thomas Grenville's letter to the Duke of Portland discovers a great deal more than was known to the Duke of Bedford or Mr. Fox in illustration of these facts; and the correspondence that follows, which is of the highest importance from the confidential character of its details, confirms them. But the attempt to cast the responsibility of these circumstances upon the English Cabinet was equally ungenerous and unjust. The policy of Ministers had undergone no change, except that which was contingent upon the altered situation of affairs. To preserve a strict neutrality in the face of a declaration of war, was clearly impossible; and to abandon the war, from an abstract desire for peace, at a time when the common enemy had gained enormous advantages, and were menacing the tranquillity and liberties of other nations, and threatening an invasion of England, would have precipitated results the very reverse of those contemplated by the Opposition. To have made proposals to France on what the resolutions termed "equitable and moderate conditions of reconciliation," would have involved two serious difficulties – the negotiation, in the first place, with a Government of anarchy which England had justifiably refused to treat with from the outset; and, in the second place, the admission of the power of France to dictate terms which England could not accept without degradation, or refuse without aggravating the existing grounds of hostility. Circumstances might arise – such as a change in the Government – to obviate the former difficulty; but the latter was insuperable. It would have been inconsistent with the principles upon which the war was undertaken to have proposed or submitted to any conditions which France, exulting over her recent successes, could have been expected to approve; and the result of such a negotiation at such a moment must have been, in any event, fruitless and inglorious. The decision of Parliament was unequivocal and decisive. The Duke of Bedford's motion was lost on the question of adjournment, and Mr. Fox's thrown out by a majority of 210 against 57 votes. The influence of the Opposition was overthrown. The country was against them, and their ranks were daily weakened by secessions. So strongly and unanimously had the Parliament pronounced its judgment in favour of the maintenance of the war, that His Majesty at the close of the session was enabled to urge both Houses "to persevere with increased vigour and exertion in the present arduous contest against a power irreconcilably hostile in its principles and spirit to all regular and established government."
Immediately after the close of the session, some changes took place in the matériel of the Administration, arising out of the accession of power the Ministry had obtained by the adhesion of some of the leading Whigs. The Duke of Portland (to whom Mr. Thomas Grenville addressed his first letters from Vienna) was appointed Third Secretary of State; Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord President of the Council; Earl Spencer, Privy Seal; and Mr. Wyndham, Secretary at War. Further changes took place before the close of the year, when Lord Fitzwilliam accepted the Government of Ireland, and was succeeded as President of the Council by Earl Mansfield. Lord Spencer, at the same time, was placed at the head of the Admiralty; and Lord Chatham, the brother of the Premier, who had for some years occupied that department, was made Lord Privy Seal.
The junction with the Whigs was, as far as it went, a new coalition; but, under the circumstances which led to it, a coalition of a very different character from that which had been entered into by Mr. Fox and Lord North. The old elements of the Cabinet still held the ascendancy; and although some sincere friends of Mr. Pitt doubted the prudence of admitting the Whigs to office, no actual disturbance of the existing system was apprehended from it. All agreed upon the question of the war – the one great question upon which agreement was essential to the repose and security of the country. In forming this alliance, however, another question had been overlooked, which was now daily rising into importance, and upon which the Whigs differed widely from Mr. Pitt, not so much in principles, as in the time and mode of their application. That question, the clog and difficulty of every Administration, was Ireland. But the moment had not yet arrived when the dangers of this question became manifest.
The following series of letters trace the whole course of the negotiations going forward on the continent, and exhibit in minute detail the actual position in which England stood in her relation to the rest of the allies, and the incessant energy she exerted in vain to awaken them to a just sense of their obligations.
LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.
(Private.) St. James's Square, Aug. 26th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
I have to acknowledge your private letters, which I do not attempt to answer by this conveyance for obvious reasons, and only write that you may not receive my public despatch without a line to tell you that your private letters have reached me, and that I will state to you, by a safer opportunity, what occurs to me upon them. I am a little out of humour with you for not telling me how you bore your journey, and how you are, but I am willing to hope it has not renewed any symptoms of your former complaint. There never was such a succession of cross-incidents as seem to have accompanied every part of poor Merey's mission, and I fear his loss is a serious one to us all. What do you think of Robespierre's death? I look upon it as a very favourable event, not from any opinion that I ever entertained of his personal talents, but because those who succeed him are evidently under the necessity of lowering the despotism of the Revolutionary Government, and of giving up thereby the great instrument with which they worked. A strong proof of this, and a circumstance very favourable in itself, is, that instead of a Committee of six or eight efficient persons who conducted the Government in all its branches, and with absolute power, they have already been obliged to institute twelve Committees, who are to be chosen with a sort of rotation, those who go out not being re-eligible. This is, in fact, a substitution of the weakest possible form of Executive Government in lieu of the strongest.
God bless you, my dearest brother, and believe me
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
We have received this morning accounts from Italy, mentioning the reduction of Calvi. You will probably have heard it by this time.
It was in the beginning of this month of August, that the Duke of York, at that time stationed at Breda, retreated before the French towards Bois-le-Duc; and afterwards, upon the advance of General Pichegru, crossed the Maese, and took up a fresh position near Grave. Seeing the necessity of placing the conduct of the campaign in more experienced hands, Ministers now proposed to give the command in chief to Lord Cornwallis; but before this step could be finally resolved upon, it was necessary to consult the feelings of His Majesty on the subject. Mr. Pitt therefore submitted a statement to the King, assigning the reasons which induced him to urge the appointment of Lord Cornwallis upon His Majesty's consideration; and suggesting that Mr. Wyndham should be sent on a mission to the army. The following was His Majesty's answer:
Weymouth, August 27th, 1704.
Thirty-five minutes past One, p. m.
I have this instant received Mr. Pitt's letter accompanying the Paper of Considerations, which I undoubtedly should wish to keep; but not knowing whether Mr. Pitt has a fair copy of it, I have thought it safest to return.
Whatever can give vigour to the remains of the campaign, I shall certainly as a duty think it right not to withhold my consent; but I own, in my son's place, I should beg my being allowed to return home, if the command is given to Lord Cornwallis, though I should not object to the command being entrusted to General Clairfayt. From feeling this, I certainly will not write, but approve of Mr. Wyndham's going to the army, and shall be happy if my son views this in a different light than I should.
I will not delay the messenger, as I think no time ought to be lost in forming some fixed plan, and that the measure of sending Mr. Wyndham is every way advantageous.
George R.
It is hardly necessary to observe that Mr. Wyndham was sent upon his mission; and that the Duke of York, having met some further reverses, which almost incapacitated the troops from acting even on the defensive, shortly afterwards returned to England.
LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.
(Private.) St. James's Square, Aug. 29th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,
The despatch which you will receive by this messenger, and the letter which Wyndham has promised to write to you from the British head-quarters, will explain to you the whole of the system which we have adopted, as affording the only hope of vigorous or successful exertion. The Austrian Government is already prepared for your proposal, respecting the giving to Lord Cornwallis the command of the whole combined force, as Count Starhemberg is apprized of it, having, indeed, himself in a great degree suggested the measure, on some general hints which I threw out to him, in order to try the ground. For the moment, the great point seems to be to bring them to acquiesce in the virtual command which his rank of Field-Marshal will give him over Clairfayt, and to send positive orders to the latter to that effect; and if there should be any difficulty in Clairfayt's submitting to this, then to let Clairfayt absent himself for the moment, and leave the Austrian troops under the command of some officer whose standing will occasion no difficulty in this respect. You will observe that, by virtual command, we mean precisely the same deference as the Duke of York has shown to the Prince of Coburg, not extending to any of the points of military etiquette by which command is usually rendered ostensible, but going to the effect of complying with his suggestions respecting the mode of executing the operations agreed upon in concert, when the instructions of his Court do not interfere with such suggestions. Before you receive this letter, Lord Cornwallis will probably be on the spot; and it is therefore urgent, to prevent the first beginnings of dissension, that no time should be lost in making the Austrians give their orders to Clairfayt. Knowing the delay of that Government, and the difficulty of getting them to adopt any decided line of conduct, we have thought it best to do the thing first, and afterwards to try to obtain their consent to it. If you succeed, or, indeed, in any case, it will be useful that you should write directly to Lord C. upon the subject, as that may save a week, at a time when a week's delay might be of the utmost importance.
With respect to the Duke of York, Wyndham will probably tell you in confidence how he succeeds in his negotiation. It certainly is a pretty strong instance of zeal and desire to facilitate whatever can promote the cause, when he undertakes a task of no less difficulty than the reconciling the mind of a young Prince to a supercession in his military command, and that too at the precise moment of moving forwards, after so mortifying a retreat. I am, however, not without hopes of his success; and, at all events, the moment was too critical to suffer any consideration to interfere with the only means of salvation that appeared practicable.
With respect to the languor of the Austrian Government, and the doubt whether even money will obtain from them decisive efforts, we have strongly felt the force of all that you have stated on that head. But we are inclined to flatter ourselves, that if we once obtain so large a force as is mentioned in my despatch, and can put that force, in addition to our own, under the absolute and supreme direction of such a man as Lord Cornwallis, we shall at least be able to say to ourselves, whatever be the result, that we have done everything that it was possible to do; and without trying this measure, I confess for one that I should not have that sentiment in my mind. I lament that we have thought ourselves obliged to bring forward the discussion of a precise barrier, and yet I do not see how it could be avoided. But the impression may be very bad on their minds, if we appear to be narrowing the benefits which they are to derive from exertion, instead of animating them by the hope of increased advantage. I have not dwelt on this point in my despatch, as you mention that you intended to write further upon it.
When the idea of transferring the subsidy was opened to me by Starhemberg, from Merey's instructions it was expressly stated, as a part of the plan, that the empire could be made to subsidize the Prussian troops; and this agrees with every information we receive on the subject, all which concur in stating the efforts of the empire, particularly in money, as being very far below what they could be brought to make by the joint exertions of Austria and Prussia. But on my pressing Starhemberg for further detail on this point, he has always avoided it, assuring me, whether truly or not, that he found no particulars respecting it among Merey's papers. You will see that in the despatch we make the whole dependent on a complete and bonâ fide execution of this point, and my language to him has always been of the same nature. But I confess that it is on this point that I feel the strongest apprehensions, and I much fear that Austria will both be disposed to evade it, and, in truth, unable to accomplish it. Should this be the case, the whole plan must be abandoned; and we should, I believe, in that event, be disposed to turn our subsidy to the object of raising other force, of whatever nature, so as, if possible, to form a separate British and Dutch army, destined to act under Lord Cornwallis, without the pretence or show of concert with either of the German Powers.
With respect to your remaining at Vienna, you will easily conceive, that having a project of this nature to propose, none of us thought we should give it its fair chance if we put it into other hands than those in which the business now is. We allow for your natural desire of quitting a scene which, God knows, must be mortifying enough to men who feel how much of the safety of Europe depends on the conduct of the Austrian Government, and who see how unfit that Government is to be trusted with the interests of the smallest corporation. But we are confident that as long as there may remain the hope of doing so much good as would, we trust, be done by the complete success of the present plan, you will not be unwilling to give your assistance to it.
With respect to what you mention about yourself, you know my wishes on the subject, but I certainly will not urge them beyond what you are disposed to do. The proposal Lord Fitzwilliam makes to you is, I fairly own, in my apprehension, one less eligible than that of Vienna; but I fear a nearer view of that Court has rather strengthened than diminished your indisposition to that situation. You know, as well as I do, all the désagrémens belonging to the post of Irish Secretary; but it is certainly an important and honourable one, and such as to afford you ample room for showing yourself such as you are: more, perhaps, than many others which commonly rank higher in public estimation. My objection to it is the banishment, which obtains as much as in the foreign missions, and certainly to the most disagreeable of all countries. I do not know well how to make myself quite a disinterested adviser; but if I was to give you fairly the result of my thoughts upon it, I should still beg you to look at the foreign line, and if that must not be, I should then say yes to the question of Ireland.
Supposing that yes were decided, let me ask you whether your remaining some time longer at Vienna, so as finally to conclude, not the leading points only, but all the details of the arrangement now in question, and of the preparations for the active scene of next year, is wholly out of the question? It seems very clear that no arrangement will happen before that time which can change the Irish Government, and in the meanwhile you would be honourably and most usefully employed. I have, however, not hinted this idea to any individual, nor will I. If all this is wholly out of the question, I conclude that my reply to your answer to these despatches, will bring to Lord Spencer and you the King's permission to return to England.
It would be very satisfactory to you to see how well things are going on here, and how completely our hopes have been realized on the subject which employed so much of our time and thoughts this summer.
God bless you, my dearest brother.
At this time, the new changes in the Administration, already alluded to, were under discussion in the Cabinet; and, amongst the rest, it was proposed that the government of Ireland should be offered to Lord Fitzwilliam. As soon as this appointment was suggested, his Lordship wrote to Mr. Thomas Grenville to offer him the office of Secretary.
MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO EARL FITZWILLIAM.
(Private.) Vienna, Aug. 30th, 1794,
Dear Lord Fitzwilliam,
You will already have heard enough of our proceedings here to give you no considerable expectations of any great good to be done here; and if you happen to have been in London, and to have read a very tedious and long letter which I wrote on the 24th to the Duke of Portland, you will have seen there, more at large than it is necessary to repeat, the general view and impression of our minds as to the business with which we are charged; and the little ground which there appears to us for hoping that even by satisfying their pecuniary demands, we could depend upon such exertions being made in consequence, as the country would expect in return for expense of so great and heavy a scale. It is very true, to be sure, that in this as well as in many other cases, the difficulties present themselves something more readily than the remedies to them, yet upon the question of the subsidy, if we are right in our conception that it would not probably produce, either in degree or in shape, that energy and cordial co-operation which we are looking for, perhaps no difficulty could be much more serious than that of engaging ourselves at home in an expense, the disappointment of which might produce in the minds of the public an effect, both with respect to the war itself and with respect to the Government which supports it, of the most perilous description. It is very true that great objects must sometimes be pursued at great hazards, and nobody is more ready than I to acknowledge that a greater object cannot be found than the successful prosecution of this war; but the peculiar question of subsidy seems to me to apply chiefly to the mode of carrying on the war, and, I would hope, not to the entire decision of pursuing or abandoning it.
I will not again go over the same detail which I pursued in my letter to the Duke of Portland, but satisfy myself with recalling to your observation, that the Government here, in speaking of the exertions which they should be driven to the necessity of making, if the French should threaten the German empire, plainly admitted that they do still possess resources capable of being applied to such critical exigencies, and in this confession show pretty plainly that nothing but the necessity of the case will drive them to the use of those means. Is it not then probable that a much greater exertion may be made by that necessity existing in our refusal of subsidy, than will be made by such pecuniary assistance being given, as may relieve them from the necessity of making any exertion of their own?
If the immediate alarm on the side of Holland seems to be a considerable inducement to the grant of the subsidy, in order to interest Austria in that very important defence of which the Netherlands make so essential a part, it should not, on the other hand, escape notice, that all our observation on their language and views would lead us very much to doubt how far they would cordially concur in the defence of the Netherlands, even though they might consent to do so in the words of their contract; whatever value they may or may not themselves put upon the possession of the Low Countries, they always argue and act under the manifest persuasion, that the Maritime Powers are alone interested enough in this point to secure its being ultimately carried, and they give it pretty plainly to be understood, that they mean to depend upon us for that object. Under this view, they seem to me always disposed to consider the operations of the Austrian army in another campaign as likely to be concentered for efforts from the German frontier, by which means they will have a more collected force more immediately applying to the Imperial dominions, and better suited to the jealousies which they entertain of the King of Prussia, but certainly not best adapted to the defence of Holland, and the recovery of Brabant.
Perhaps I may be considered as carrying these suspicions too far, but I own I cannot help fearing too, that the suggestion made by them of mortgaging the Low Countries to us, is not as security for the money in question in this and the next campaign, is not a bonâ fide offer of their best security, but is considered by them as a fresh motive for interesting us in their possession of those territories, and as contributing the more to make that object our business, by either taking upon ourselves the whole defence of them, or, what they rather look to, by our purchasing the cession of them at the peace, by some of the acquisitions which Great Britain has made in the war: a measure which they may have the more hope for our concurrence in, if we have two millions lent out upon the security only of the Austrians regaining those territories at the peace.
Do not believe that these impressions are taken from any starving principle of economy, or from a too timid apprehension of the unpopularity of a subsidy in England; but be assured, that even if there should be no difficulty at home as to this demand being acquiesced in, I should retain the same doubts as to any expectation of proportionate advantages resulting from it, and should be inclined to believe that even if the whole amount of the subsidy was to be expended, it might be more advantageously used in the purchase of Hessians, Swiss, or any other such troops absolutely at our disposal, in addition to the Austrians, than in the proposed purchase of increased vigour and activity in the government and army of this country: you cannot buy what they have not to sell.
Sept. 14th, 1791.
The former part of this letter had already been written before I received yours of the 11th of August, which did not reach me till the 2nd instant. I am very sincerely rejoiced to find by it that you have made your decision for Ireland, because I believe that much good may be done there, by your taking that heavy load upon your shoulders; and although you are wanted enough both in London and Yorkshire, I am persuaded that for public objects you are still most wanted at Dublin. I am not enough acquainted with the interior there, to judge how far the means (as Government now stands) are competent to the end, or to what degree you may be able to supply all those links of connection between the two countries, which have latterly appeared to be very much worn away and broken through. I presume that it will be found easy enough to continue the same negative course of administration, and that it will be a work of great difficulty and delicacy for you to do all that you will think should be done; I am, therefore, from a strong persuasion of the arduousness of the task, well pleased to know that it is in such good hands.
With respect to my undertaking the office of Secretary, I am very far from being confident that I should be able to make myself, in that situation, as useful to you as it undoubtedly should be made. You know it is not the first moment in which I have expressed my doubts as to that employment, since it is twelve years ago that the same objections presented themselves to me; and if I still feel the weight of them, it is not from any disinclination to pull at my oar in the galley, or from any reluctance to take part in public measures at a time when I think, as you do, that everything is at stake; on the contrary, I confess that, all other considerations put apart, I shall be gratified in making myself actively one of a system with which the prosperity of the country will, I am persuaded, be to stand or fall; and I shall be best gratified by doing this in whatever shape it could be hoped that I should be serviceable. To foreign mission, I own I know not how to reconcile myself; and for Ireland, besides my own disinclination to it, I should have thought Pelham better suited, as I have often told you. But my own opinion upon this, as upon all other subjects, gives way to the better judgment of my friends; and if the Duke of Portland and you think, that in the present state of things, I should do best to go to Ireland, I cannot say that I will not try it; sure I am that your going there gives to the situation every advantage which I can receive in it, and that if my engaging in it could succeed, it is on every account as promising and gratifying to me with you, as the situation itself can be made. Thus, therefore, it stands, that my own inclination, if no difficulties stood in the way, would rather lead me to any such employment at home as I might be fit for, when any such offered itself; but no such destination being easily found, if the Duke of Portland and you think it any way desirable that I should go to Ireland, I will certainly undertake it, and do the best I can in it; trusting always, that if hereafter, when you are settled on your Irish throne, the chance of events should make any home-situation of business practicable for me, you would not object to any such arrangement if it could be found.
The long delay which has prevented my sending a messenger when I wrote the first sheet of this letter, has now so altered the events of the negotiation that it is hardly worth sending to you, except as a proof that want of opportunity, and not want of punctuality, has prevented my letter reaching you at an earlier period.
The loss of the fortresses, at a moment when they had been reluctantly induced here to make an effort to save them, is vexatious in the extreme. They threaten the vengeance of a court-martial on the officers who surrendered Valenciennes; but what will that avail towards recovering these great objects, which were equally material, both to the regaining of the Netherlands, and to their security when reconquered?
The hopeless inactivity of this Court is too long a theme to write upon, and will continue, I fear, to be a fertile source of uneasiness. It is shocking to foresee that their assistance may be as much wanted to save Holland as it was to save Valenciennes, and may likewise be retarded till it is equally ineffectual.
I expect to be in England towards the 12th or 15th of November.
Ever very faithfully and affectionately yours,
T. G.
THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM TO MR. T. GRENVILLE.
Camp, Weymouth, Aug. 31st, 1794.
My dear Brother,
I have just received your letter of the 16th from Vienna, and am glad to find from it that you are as well as I wish you to be, and as sanguine as any one could wish who is less desponding than myself. I fear that very much of your difficulty is insuperable, for I have no idea that it is possible to induce the Imperial Government to exert themselves more for the recovery of Brabant than they did for the preservation of it. Various circumstances (some of which you have stated) co-operated to the scandalous dereliction of a country, which all former history proves to us might have been defended (even for a losing campaign) with one half of the allied force; and it is no part of my creed that the zeal or activity of the Austrian Ministry (even if they act with good faith) can replace us by the end of November where we were last year. But if it is to be proposed to us to add Austria to the list of powers subsidized, and to call upon Great Britain, the ally of the war, to consider herself as the only principal in it, I fear that the proposition will meet with every difficulty, and (if acceded to) with as little success as the subsidy paid to Prussia. You will then ask me for my solution of this difficulty; and I will fairly own that I see none, but in endeavouring to stimulate Austria, by showing them clearly that we will not take the whole upon our back; and that we can better keep the wolf out of our house, than they can out of theirs, if the war is to be defensive.
As to the military operations of the Prince of Saxe Coburg, I make no doubt that he has done very ill; indeed, it seems difficult to conceive that his groom could have done worse. But I fear that the ignorance or treachery of the German Generals goes much deeper than you imagine, for I do not recollect one instance in the course of this campaign – and perhaps not one in the last – in which they answered the expectation formed of them. Again, if we imagined that by protracting the war we might exhaust the enemy, though I might not agree as to the prospect of success, I could understand it as a system; but in that case, the war would have been defensive, and co-operation settled to that object, instead of abandoning the Duke of York to certain ruin, if the winds and the circumstances of this country had not permitted Lord Moira's army to arrive just (and only just) in time to cover their retreat, and communication. These points are all mysterious to us lookers-on, and perhaps not much more clear to you at Vienna. The only point clear and indisputable is, that we begun the campaign offensively in the south-west point without securing West Flanders; that we undertook by defensive positions to cover it; and notwithstanding the very slow progress of the French, which gave us full and ample time, it was lost for want of sufficient force on the western flank of our combined force, and for want of co-operation, either of defensive retreat, or of mutual support in a systematic evacuation of a country so very tenable. Now, if all this is proposed to be cured by changing the Commander, and by taking the Austrians into British pay, I fear that I shall be one of the first to cry out against such a measure, which cannot in the least tend to remove those difficulties, and will superinduce many others on the continent, and others more serious at home, to which you cannot be a stranger. If the object be to add to our force, we do not accomplish it by changing the Paymaster or Commander of the troops; but we may obtain a very considerable force under our immediate and actual command, by adding to the levies of French troops; or, in plain terms, by raising an immense French army in British pay, who would not be liable to be called off à la Prussienne to schemes of plunder, or possibly of home defence, in the moment in which they are the most wanted by us. I have taken some pains to get information on this subject; and I verily believe, that if we take the small remnant of the Prince of Condé's army into our pay, with him at the head of it as a foundation, we may in a very short time increase it to twenty-five, or perhaps thirty thousand men, which, added to our British, Hessian and Hanoverian army, would effectually support the Dutch in covering Holland, and would enable us to make a very serious diversion either in Normandy or in Poitou.
I have written upon this subject more at large than I at first intended, but it is very difficult to compress it; and having found it difficult to reconcile the conduct of Ministry in the management of this campaign to my own feelings, or the plan (so far as I understand it from common report) of reconquering Brabant for the Emperor by an Austrian army in British pay, or of assisting Holland by a force of the same nature on which the experience of two campaigns shows how little we can depend, I have not thought it fair to withhold these opinions from you, having stated them to my other brother as soon as I heard of your mission (and from public report of the objects of it) to Vienna. But be assured, my dear brother, that I do not feel the less warmly for your credit, and for the success of your negotiation (whatever it may be) as far as the question is personal to yourself. I have always seen, with very sincere regret, your talents useless to the public; and I am happy, on every account, that you have found an opportunity of showing them in co-operation with my brother William, who seemed so happy in this proof of your confidence and affection.
I feel, as I ought, your anxiety about the yeomanry. I have the satisfaction of hearing that they go on very well, but of course meeting very seldom, because of the harvest. Their numbers, however, increase; and are, as near as can be, as follows:
Most of them have got their swords, and have returned their pistols, which were most scandalously bad; they have got their appointments, and (except Young's troop) they come on very well. I am, however, tied by the leg to Weymouth, while the King is here, and cannot stir. He is in wonderful health; but very unruly as to the common precautions which ought to be taken, and which keep me in constant hot water, notwithstanding our incessant rains. Lord Howe passed Portland yesterday with thirty-three sail of the line, and three Portuguese ships; of which one ran foul of the 'Barfleur,' and stove in her bows so as to force her to return to Portsmouth. All the sea prisoners lately taken, say, that Barrère is determined to force the Brest fleet of thirty-five sail to sea. Sir J. B. Warren's last prisoners say, that they were brought from the interior to Brest, and embarked handcuffed; another account states, that sixteen thousand men have been sent to Brest en réquisition, since Lord Howe's action. Our line of battle is thirty-seven sail, including what is to join at Plymouth; from which deduct two ships not ready, and the 'Barfleur,' his number will be thirty-four. He will probably fall in with your friend, Lord Macartney, who is coming back with "the Emperor's copy of verses," and left St. Helena on the 6th of July with nineteen East India ships.
Adieu, my dear brother,
Ever most affectionately yours,
N. B.
Sept. 5th, 1794.
P.S. – This letter was begun five days ago, but I have been for the last four days confined, and very ill from an epidemic, which is running all over England. It is not confined to the army, and it has not been fatal, but very painful. I have got clear of it, but I have above forty men ill of it at this moment. Adieu.
The difficulties of the negotiation in which Lord Spencer and Mr. Thomas Grenville were engaged, are very clearly stated in the following letter. It is perfectly evident from these curious revelations, that Austria and Prussia were pursuing a crooked and evasive policy in their diplomacy with England, that the vacillations and infirmity of purpose they betrayed left them open to the suspicion of insincerity, and that the affairs of both Courts were conducted by Ministers utterly deficient in all qualities of firmness and judgment, which the occasion imperatively demanded.
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