Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third

Whitehall, Dec. 23rd, 1788.

My dear Brother,

I received this morning your letter of the 18th; but am so much engaged to-day that it is impossible for me to enter into it, which I will, if possible, do to-morrow. I write now only to press again, in the strongest manner, that you will get Fitzgibbon and Wolfe to state all the particulars of the case, particularly as to the form of the enrolment of your patent under the Irish Great Seal, and to give you their opinions and arguments upon it. I will then take care to know Kenyon's sentiments on that paper, and if I can, the Chancellor's; but you are not ignorant of the bias of his mind, which is, on all occasions, to consider the relative situation of the two kingdoms, not such as it is, but such as it was, and as he thought it should have remained. My idea of your tie by no means went to your pledging yourself to do any act so contrary to your duty and feelings, as the recommending from the throne, in Ireland, a form of Regency varying one iota from that adopted here. On the contrary, I think you should give it explicitly to be understood, that everything in your power will be done to preserve entire this link of connection. And under this explanation only, do I think you ought to offer the proposed alternative.

I say nothing of our triumph last night. You will hear it from other quarters; and you will probably be able to judge of its extent, by knowing the confidence with which the enemy looked to gaining upon us on this occasion. It is, I think, now quite certain that we shall carry our restrictions.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

Another letter upon the Irish difficulty, into which Mr. Grenville enters in elaborate detail:

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Dec. 25th, 1788.

My dear Brother,

I am extremely anxious that you should lose no time in transmitting over to England an exact statement of the case respecting your commission, and of the points and arguments on which your lawyers ground their opinions, in order that they may be well considered here by those who are interested in your situation and character, as deeply and as warmly as Pitt and myself. You mention in your last, that it has occurred to you, that it would be right if you are intemperately removed to desire the opinion of our judges on the point. But you do not seem to consider that, whenever that case occurs, you may have to decide on the moment, either to quit your Government, and to swear in the new Lord-Lieutenant, or to hold it against him, in contradiction to the orders of English Government. Suppose he should himself be the messenger of his own appointment, as was the case with the Duke of Portland. The same reason exactly exists for it now as before, namely, the fear of suffering the dismissed Lord-Lieutenant to meet the Parliament, especially in a moment when their conduct is so important. The best and, indeed, almost only security that you could have in such a case for the justification of your own conduct, whatever it might be, would be the having given a full previous intimation to the English Government of the difficulties and dangers of the case.

You say that I should feel myself at liberty to act for you on the pressure of any unforeseen case. I certainly should; and my confidence in your affection, and in your persuasion of my desire to do the best for you, would encourage me to take, if it were absolutely necessary, steps even of considerable delicacy and difficulty. But I cannot but be infinitely anxious, as far as possible, to be previously in possession of your ideas on every case that can be foreseen. Besides this, I am at present unable to do the precise thing which I think would be the most desirable, because I am not myself in possession of the particular forms of your commission's passing in England and in Ireland, so as to be able to state them to others. And yet this is the point on which, in one view of the case, the whole question turns. I confess that, in my own individual opinion, there is another point distinct from that of forms, on which I should be disposed to maintain the incompetence of any English revocation of your commission. It is this:

We (that is Pitt and his friends) hold and have persuaded Parliament to declare that, in such a case as the present, the right of providing for the emergency rests in the two Houses, not as branches of the Legislature, but as a full and free representative of all the orders and classes of the people of Great Britain. Now the moment that we admit this, we do it on the ground of this being a case unprovided for. If it is so in England, it is unquestionably equally unprovided for in Ireland; and the right of making such provision must of necessity rest in the same manner in the Lords and Commons of England. There is this difference, that here the Parliament could not be legally opened, unless the Lord Chancellor had taken upon himself to put the Great Seal to a commission for that purpose, whereas your commission enables you (as I understand) generally to open and hold Parliament. But even in your case, it seems to me to be a doubt whether you can regularly do this without having received the King's pleasure for it, and whether your opening the Parliament in such circumstances is not an act very much of the same nature as the Chancellor's would have been if he had sealed such a commission.

In the same view of the subject, I should most earnestly deprecate your taking upon yourself to issue a further prorogation. Surely, under such circumstances as the present, the two Houses should themselves decide, and not any individual for them, whether it is expedient or not to proceed to any business. My clear and decided opinion on that subject is, that you should go down on the day of meeting, and state the circumstances of the case, saying that you have ordered the several examinations of the physicians before Council and before the two Houses here, to be laid before the two Houses. Your Ministers should then, upon that, propose to adjourn to a further day, on the ground of its not being known (as it cannot then be known) what form will be adopted here, and of its being, at all events, desirable that they should be in possession of that fact before they deliberate, especially as the Government may go on in the interval without inconvenience.

If you see no objection to this, it is, I think, high time that you should write an official letter, stating all the circumstances of the situation, and that your intention is, unless you should be informed that it appears to His Majesty's servants to be improper, &c., to meet the Parliament on the 20th, for the purpose which I have stated.

It is excessively important that you should, at the same time, transmit, either publicly or privately, such a case as I have mentioned, considering the subject in the two points of view: first, with respect to the particular forms; and secondly, to the question, how far any difference in point of form can preclude the Parliament of Ireland from the exercise of the same substantive right as that which we have declared to vest in us under the existing circumstances.

I have great doubts of the propriety of what you mention of an address of the two Houses to empower you to give the royal assent to any Bills, because that would prematurely, as it seems to me, bring into discussion the great question of all – namely, how far the Lords and Commons of Ireland have the right, either of commanding the use of the English Great Seal, or of superseding its use, in an instance in which that, and the concurrence of the English Council, are fundamental points of the present constitution of Ireland. I am quite sure that the safest of all things will be the adjournment; and I think it very improbable that such a proposal can be opposed, as it must extremely fall in with the wishes of the party who are looking to the Government immediately after the passing the English Bill. I have no means of knowing or guessing at General Pitt's intentions, but should think they can be no other than royal.

You could surely find no difficulty in pledging the servants of Government in Ireland to the adjournment; because it can so clearly be argued not to preclude any future opinion on the subject, and still less to pledge anybody to the adoption of the English system; but only shows the opinion of the Irish Parliament, that a knowledge of the system adopted here, is a point which they wish should enter into their deliberations respecting Ireland.

I am much amused with the circumstance of Lord Sh. and Lord T. having sent their proxies, as it has answered no other purpose but that of pledging them; for it now seems to be agreed, that no use can be made of proxies in a case where the Parliament does not legally meet, but is rather to be considered as an extraordinary assembly of the same persons who constitute the two Houses of Parliament. It is something more than a Convention, and something less than a Parliament.

Our triumph here is very great. The indignation of the two Princes is, by what I hear, beyond all measure or bounds. The steadiness of the House of Commons on this occasion is no bad lesson to them, and I believe they will long remember it.

Ever yours,

W. W. G.

In the House of Peers, Ministers did not come off so triumphantly. Lord Bulkeley communicates the result, and enumerates the rats.

LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dec. 27th, 1788.

My dear Lord,

We divided last night at half-past twelve; our majority was 33, the members being 99 to 66, which in the House of Peers was certainly a large minority. The rat Peers were Duke of Queensbury, Marquis of Lothian, Bishop Watson, Lord Malmesbury, Earl of Abergavenny, Lord Chedworth, Lord Audley, Lord Eglinton; and all of the armed neutrality, who are: Duke of Northumberland, Lord Rawdon, Lord Selkirk, Lord Breadalbane, Lord Hawke, Lord Kinnaird, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Huntingdon; Lord Lonsdale absent; Lord Lansdowne with us, and spoke better than I ever heard him in my life, fewer flourishes, and less rhodomontade. The Chancellor spoke incomparably; and did give it Lord Loughborough and Lord Rawdon most completely, particularly the former, who felt it. We are in good spirits, for we fall with éclat, and high in public estimation. I have no time to add more; but that I am yours affectionately,

 

B.

The Opposition are in great hopes of a riot in the Irish Parliament.

MR W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Dec. 28th, 1788.

My dear Brother,

The messenger carries with him, as usual, the account received to-day from Kew. I do not know that I have anything material to write in addition to my former letters. I stated to you on Friday, at length, the strong objections which both Pitt and myself feel against your idea of proroguing the Parliament. If any accident should detain that letter till after you receive this, I hope you will take no step of that sort till you have received that letter, and seriously considered the nature of our objections, which seem to me to be of the utmost importance.

The belief that the Prince of Wales will certainly accept seems to gain ground. It is most probable that we shall be enabled to speak with more certainty on this subject in the course of to-morrow, as a letter is to be written to him to-day by the Ministers, stating the outlines of their plan. It will not materially differ from what I originally stated to you. Peerages, grants for life (with the necessary exceptions), and reversions, are to be restricted for a certain time, which will be about a year and a half. This time is fixed in consequence of what you will observe in the evidence both of Willis and Addington, who both state the recovery as infinitely, and beyond all calculation, less probable if it does not take place within that time. Some line is to be drawn with respect to the King's household, but what that shall be is the subject of this morning's deliberation. It is a point of delicacy and difficulty. The entire custody, management, and government of the King's person; the appointment, &c., of his physicians, and the regulation of his actual family, &c., is to be vested in the Queen, with the advice of a Council, to be named and removable by her. The idea of a Council of Regency to assist the Prince, but to be removable by him, seems to be given up.

Our division in the House of Lords, though sufficiently decisive, was less than it would have been, owing to a variety of accidental circumstances. There is every reason to believe that we shall divide stronger on Monday. I have no apprehension whatever as to the carrying our restrictions in the House of Commons. Accidental circumstances may vary our majority from 50 to 80; but there can be no doubt of success. There seems very little reason to believe that they will venture to dissolve Parliament till March or April, if they do it then, which I doubt.

There certainly never was in this country, at any period, such a situation as Mr. Pitt's. It is no small addition to the satisfaction which we derive from all these events, to observe that every man of all parties seems to feel how well the game has been played on our side, and how ridiculously it has been mismanaged by our opponents. Add to this, that they are all quarrelling amongst themselves, and that we were never so united as at this moment. With all these reflections you will own that the prospect before us is not an unpleasing one. The opinion of Willis continues as sanguine as ever.

Believe me, my dear brother,

Most sincerely and affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

Lord Bulkeley announces, with exultation, the division in the Commons, and returns to his enumeration of rats.

LORD BULKELEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Stanhope Street, Dec. 29th, 1788.

My dearest Lord,

We are in high spirits here at the first majority of 64, and at the last of 73, which, considering the open and undisguised canvass of the Prince and the Duke of York, and the very liberal distribution of promises from both, does the House of Commons a great deal of honour. Parry fell down in a fit about two hours before the division of the first day, and was carried home in a chair speechless, where he remained confined till Monday, when I polled him by means of a pair with Sir Robert Clayton, which T. Steele arranged for him. A certain lady in St. James's Square has been tampering with Parry, and he certainly vented all his grievances into the compassionate bosom of that active and politic fair one, who has likewise infused such a political ardour into the mind of her dear Sir Poddy, that on the first division he was seen to take down the names of the different speeches and the members, besides other occasional notes. I have not been in St. James's Square since I have been in town, the manner with which they affect to treat me being such that an old English Baron cannot put up with; besides we are not in the best of humours at present, Sir Poddy being unwell, and unable to attend the last division and we find it difficult to sing the praises of the Prince and the Duke of York on the usual themes of filial piety, virtue, &c., in the face of a majority of 73 in favour of a falling Minister.

Sir George Warren was one of the rats, which Lady B. was much affected at. He and Lady W. dined with us the day before the first division, and both sung the praises of Mr. Pitt, and expressed the warmest anxiety for the King's recovery. I was not all surprised, well knowing his rattish dispositions. Glynne Wynne, whom I have been working for three years to detach Lord Uxbridge from, has, with the utmost effrontery, cast his benefactor off, and set him at defiance, to which he has been led by promises at Carlton House. I trust we shall be able to do his business on a dissolution, and he well deserves it, being one of the first of scoundrels.

* * * * *

I subjoin a list of those members who usually have voted with Mr. Pitt, who have quitted him in the late divisions, i. e. rats.

Yours sincerely,

B.

Sir Peter Parker.

Sir George Warren.

Sir J. Aubrey.

Sir S. Hannay.

Sir Charles Gould.

James Macpherson.

– Clevland.

Glynne Wynne.

Gerrard Hamilton.

– Fraser.

– Osbaldiston.

The Lonsdales voted against Pitt in the first division, and staid away the second. The Lansdownes voted with Pitt in the first, and, I believe, in the second, or staid away.

1789

DEATH OF THE SPEAKER – MR. GRENVILLE ELECTED IN HIS PLACE – COMMITTEE ON THE REGENCY – THE HOUSEHOLD BILL – CONDUCT OF THE PRINCES – ADDRESS TO THE PRINCE OF WALES FROM THE IRISH PARLIAMENT – RECOVERY OF THE KING – DECISIVE MEASURES OF LORD BUCKINGHAM – IRISH PROMOTIONS AND CREATIONS – DISSENSIONS IN THE ROYAL FAMILY – MR. GRENVILLE APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE – MR. ADDINGTON ELECTED SPEAKER – LORD BUCKINGHAM RESIGNS THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND.

The one absorbing subject which for the last few weeks had engrossed the public mind, almost to the exclusion of every other consideration, kept the Parliament sitting close up to Christmas-day, in the year just expired. On the 23rd of December, a resolution, vigorously opposed by Lord North as instituting a fiction in lieu of the royal authority, was adopted, empowering the Chancellor to affix the Great Seal to such Bill of Limitations as might be necessary to restrict the power of the future Regent; but Ministers had no sooner succeeded in carrying their object to this important stage, than a new impediment presented itself. On the 2nd of January, 1789, Mr. Cornwall, Speaker of the House of Commons, died. It was immediately decided that Mr. Grenville should be proposed to succeed him. On all accounts, it was indispensable to hasten this arrangement, as the functions of the Commons were unavoidably suspended in the interim. A serious obstacle arose from the informality of the proceeding, the sanction of the royal approbation being necessary, according to custom, upon the nomination of a new Speaker. The elastic character of the Constitution, however, although not providing direct remedies for such special cases, admits of adaptation to the most unforeseen exigencies; and so urgent was the pressure of affairs at this agitating juncture, that the irregularity was passed over by the tacit consent of all parties.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Jan. 2nd, 1788.²

My dear Brother,

You will probably not be a little surprised at the contents of this letter. The Speaker died this morning at about nine o'clock, and after some consideration, it has been determined that I should be proposed to the House to succeed him. I am not quite sure whether the choice will come on to-morrow or Monday. The situation is a new one, it having always been held, that the King's commands are necessary for the election of a Speaker, and his approbation for confirming him in his situation. But this cannot be had under the present circumstances; nor can the House take any steps to supply the deficiency till they have a Speaker. At the Restoration and Revolution, the House, in both instances, chose a Speaker, who was acknowledged as such, and was never afterwards confirmed by the King.

With respect to myself, the time for deliberation has not been long. But upon the whole, I think the decision which I have made is clearly right. If the King recovers before Parliament is dissolved, it is clearly understood that my acceptance of this situation is not to prejudice my other views; and in the public opinion, the having filled this office, though but for a short time, will rather forward them. If the Regent goes on without dissolving, I am then in a situation which, though perhaps not perfectly pleasant, is nevertheless respectable, and will give me occupation. If they dissolve, and carry the Chair against me in the new Parliament, I do not see how I stand worse, in any respect, for having held this office. Such is my reasoning, and I think you will approve it. As far as I can judge, there is no doubt of my carrying it now. I have not yet heard whether they start any opponent, but I think they have none whose personal connexions can materially vary the proportion between the two parties: it is very sufficiently decisive.

I have not heard the account of to-day at St. James's. Nothing can be better than all the accounts, both public and private, for the last three or four days. It is certainly not sanguine to entertain the very best hopes; and the progress has even been more rapid than Willis expected; so that I think we may look with some confidence to March or April at latest.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Jan. 4th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

The plan for the Regency was sent to the Prince of Wales in a letter from Pitt, three days ago, with an expression of his readiness to give any explanation, either in person or in any other manner that he might intimate. Yesterday his answer was received, directed to the Cabinet. It is long, and with much affectation of good writing, and is in parts of it well expressed, in other parts confused and timid. It ends, however, with saying that if these restrictions are adopted by Parliament he will accept.

I have no doubt of carrying the Chair to-morrow, but not a little doubt whether I ought to have accepted it. The die is, however, now cast. The restrictions will, I think, pass without much difficulty.

I still adhere strongly to my opinion about the prorogation, because I think there is a wide difference between exercising during the King's health a power which he commits to your discretion, but which he might if he pleased regulate by instruction at any moment, and exercising the same power now when you are to state that the King is prevented by infirmity from attending at all to the administration of his Government. I am sure that your acting in the manner you speak of is liable to, and will probably bear, the very worst construction in the minds of the public here; and I cannot for the life of me conceive what fear there can be that the two Houses will not adjourn, considering that the great point which they all wish, is that they may not be obliged to pledge themselves. The extraordinary anxiety in those whom you see, to get you to prorogue, is, in my opinion, a very strong proof of their being actuated by that sort of wish.

 

I have not time to write any more, except to express my anxiety to hear how Lady B. and your child go on.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

There was no doubt about the issue of the election to the Speakership. "Your brother William will certainly be Speaker," writes Lord Bulkeley on the 3rd, "and has already stood the hoax at White's, where it was debated last night whether he should wear a wig or his own hair." The election went off to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Grenville, who, reporting the event, says that "the majority, though quite large enough, would have been larger if they had divided half an hour later, as nearly forty of my friends were locked out below, and about eleven of theirs." With his customary philosophy, he made the best of everything; but he does not disguise from Lord Buckingham that he had strong doubts in his mind whether he ought to have accepted the Chair. The Opposition might, probably, have been stronger against his election, but for the belief that prevailed that the King was getting rapidly better. "The progress of the King," observes Mr. Grenville on the 7th, "is such, according to our accounts, that it is by no means impossible, nor even a very improbable case, that before the Irish Bill can pass, he may re-assume his Government."

Another contingency that weighed with the floating mass of undecided politicians was the rumour which now began to be circulated that the Regent would not dismiss the existing Ministers till the end of the session.

LORD MORNINGTON TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Jan. 6th, 1789.

My dear Lord,

As I understood that Sir W. Young and Bernard wrote you an account of the division last night, which placed Grenville so honourably in the Chair of the House of Commons, I did not trouble you with any letter by the post of yesterday; but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of acquainting you, that nothing could be more perfectly satisfactory to all our friends than the conduct of the new Speaker on an occasion naturally distressing; his speech of excuse, and his speech from the steps of the Chair, were universally admired, they were both so composed and delivered as to render a scene, which I have always understood to be very ridiculous, really interesting and affecting. It is deemed a misfortune amongst our friends, that the practice of printing the Speaker's speeches on this occasion in the journals is now disused. Grenville's speeches would have done him the highest credit, as well as afforded an excellent precedent to future Speakers. I have prevailed with Mr. Speaker to mount his wig, and the whole apparatus to-day: he must consider this as a young lawyer does his first appearance at the bar, and the sooner the laugh is over the better for the dignity of the Chair. Whatever may be Grenville's future fortunes, it can be no discredit to his character to have been placed in the Chair by such a majority, in such times and circumstances, and at his age.

I write no accounts of what we are doing, you hear that much more correctly from Grenville. I am anxious to know what will be the temper of Ireland at the meeting. Grattan is as much a creature of Fox and his party, as the meanest libeller in the "Morning Herald;" he lives entirely with them. I hear Pelham is to take his father on his back to the Government of Ireland. Grattan will stand, in my opinion, on most unpopular ground, if he either attempts to assert the hereditary right of the Prince, or to give him larger powers in Ireland, than the Parliament of this country entrust to him for the administration of the British Government. The hereditary right, I suppose Grattan will not venture to touch; and the latter proposition, I think, might be argued exactly as he argued the Perpetual Mutiny Bill, and other questions, where the danger of larger powers in Ireland than were held in England by the same hands, were considered with a view to the Constitutions of both countries. This argument is, in my opinion, clear, if the rights of the King on the throne are admitted to be the rights of the people at large, and if they are not, I know not why they exist. I have not much fear that the Irish Parliament will listen to such proposals. As to reversions and offices for life, a Regent, who has not the power of granting them here, and attempts to obtain it in Ireland, can mean nothing else than to indemnify his disappointed friends in England at the expense of Ireland; I do not think this can go down. On the whole, I think your argument in Ireland stronger in every view than ours here, and that is saying a great deal.

Arthur informs me that my Trimmers wish to have a company of foot quartered on them. I am sure I have no objection to your giving free quarters to the whole army on the worthy inhabitants of that ancient and loyal town.

I sincerely wish you joy of your son, and hope the bad weather does not affect either him or Lady Buckingham.

Ever, my dear Lord,

Yours most affectionately,

Mornington.

What think of Sir John Aubrey, rat?

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Jan. 10th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I send you a letter of Camplin's, about an exchange which had been proposed. We have no news here – everything remaining in precisely the same state. The Committee, will, I think, most probably not make their report to-day, though we meet for the chance of it. In this manner, it will be impossible that the restrictions can be opened before Tuesday or Wednesday. The debates of the Committee have been conducted with great heat and violence on both sides, and much indecency towards the King, particularly from Fox and Burke. They are now endeavouring to turn it into a personal attack upon the Queen, for having wished to make one of the reports of the physicians more favourable, and for having dismissed Baker from her service, on the ground of the great inattention towards the King and his family, which appears on the face of his former examination: he having perceived symptoms of this disorder so early as the 22nd of October, and having, subsequent to that time, entirely left the King.

The examination of Baker and Warren state the probability of recovery as being nearly the same as when they were before examined, but rather less. Willis and Pepys state it as much greater; particularly the former of these two, who speaks in the most sanguine terms. The answers of Reynolds and Gisborne are also, as I believe, favourable.

These delays put all idea of dissolution out of the question, till the end of the present session, at soonest; and that cannot take place, according to my calculation, till the end of June. People begin to speak doubtfully about the Regent's making any immediate change, and I know that some of their friends affect to hold that language; but I am inclined to think that, however difficult it may be for them to undertake the Government under the existing circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for them to satisfy the Regent, or to quiet their own dependants, without running that risk.

Fox is apparently recovering, but slowly.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, Jan. 12th, 1789.

My dear Brother,

I understand from different conversations, as well as from the general report here, that there is an intention of moving for an Address to the Prince, such as was proposed here, immediately on the first meeting of the Irish Parliament. Grattan, &c., &c., are all going over, so as to be in Dublin by the 20th. He is understood to have entered completely into all the views of the party here, and to be ready to pledge himself to all their doctrines, maintained, or retracted, or both. I thought it right to give you this intelligence, although you will probably hear it from many other quarters, and though I have very little apprehension, indeed, from the effect of such a manœuvre. If anything could more completely ruin them here than they are ruined already, it would be such a measure. As to its effect in Ireland, I cannot persuade myself that there can be any difficulty in getting people to pledge themselves not to run before this country; and to appoint a Regent, without conditions, in Ireland, before it is even known what conditions are to be proposed, much less whether they will be adopted by the British Parliament. At all events, however, the battle must be fought; for it would be the most disgraceful thing in the world to appear to give it up, or rather not to appear to dispute it inch by inch.

Lord Glendon and Lord Fairford are both going over to assist you. They both complain (particularly the former) of want of attention from you; but I am so accustomed to such complaints, without foundation, that I am not disposed to give much credit to them in this instance. I understand that Lord Hillsborough has expressed himself on the subject in a more decided manner than you seem at all disposed to give him credit for.

Our report cannot probably be made to-day; but when it does appear, I am told that the impression of it will be favourable to the idea of the King's recovery. Surely, when this circumstance is taken into consideration by your Irish speculators, in addition to the many other considerations which make everybody here allow that Pitt's side has the best of the day, they will not be induced to hazard so decisive a step as you must give them to understand their agreeing to this Address will be considered.

It was mentioned to me, that considerable offers had been made to Corry. I mention this to you, but you will probably be able to ascertain the truth of the report more accurately than I can.

It is worth observing, that the appointment of a Regent in Ireland by Address goes directly to dissolve the Union of the two kingdoms, because a Regent so appointed could not command the use of the English Great Seal.

Ever most affectionately yours,

W. W. G.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.