Chapter C: J. Fox (8)

But I cannot help complaining in private, as I have uniformly in
public, that I have been singularly unfortunate in the treatment
which I have met with. I resigned on the 12th of March, and that
resignation was notorious to every one conversant in public
business, and the intention communicated to your Grace on the
2nd of March. Notwithstanding this, I understand that no person
was recommended for this situation in the formation of the new
Ministry; nor from the date of their acceptance did I receive
any notification of the King's acceptance of my office, nor any
apology for the delay, nor any request to remain till the new
appointment or arrival of my successor, nor any communication
upon the very extensive business of this kingdom, for which I
have declined any responsibility; but, on the contrary, I have
been, under these circumstances, detained in a situation without
responsibility, which was actually objected as a charge against
Mr. Pitt, while I have been labouring to disengage myself; and,
ultimately, I have received Lord Northington's appointment,
dated on the 24th (two days after it had been communicated by
every one connected with Government to their friends), without
one line of the King's approbation of my conduct, in
circumstances and moments very critical, unless I am to
interpret Lord North's opinion on that subject, as the official
notification of His Majesty's satisfaction.

These circumstances, my Lord, have much galled me, because they
are personal; and because they are not necessarily connected
with the change of Government, and have laid me under the
necessity of resenting it by expressions very decisive, in my
despatch of the 24th; and your Grace will easily believe that
the period for my relief, fixed by Lord North for six weeks
hence, after a resignation on the 12th of March, has not much
soothed me. I shall regret any injury to the public service, but
I have my private feelings, and they will not suffer me to
remain in such a situation for such a time, even if the state of
this kingdom justified such an addition to the absolute
interregnum which has existed now since the second week in
February: but at the moment in which I write I remain totally
uninformed upon any of the voluminous details which I have
submitted, and particularly upon the subject the most delicate
from every consideration which depends upon it, I mean the
Parliament, which stands for next Tuesday. These facts, which I
have shortly detailed, press strongly on my mind. I have wished
to show every attention to your Grace, from whom I have
experienced great kindness, and to reconcile my private
sensations to a treatment which I must think unjustifiable, and
which I totally separate from the great political considerations
which have guided our respective lives, and with which I doubt
not we are both equally satisfied. These considerations never
would for a moment have broken in upon private friendship and
regard, but it severely pains me to think that I have reason to
complain of the personal conduct of a Ministry in which your
Grace has taken so distinguished a part, and in which I must
conclude, from your letter to me, that the powers of Government
are solely invested in those who had the advantage of being
denominated the friends of the late Lord Rockingham.

I am to apologize to your Grace for the length of this letter,
but I cannot conclude it without thanking you for the assurances
of your regard and good-will.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Grace's obedient humble servant,
N. T.

The despatch alluded to, dated 24th, officially addressed to Lord North, stated in detail, and with equal earnestness and decision, the just grounds of complaint here repeated to the Duke of Portland. Mr. Grenville, having no option in a matter of so much moment, and which admitted of no pause or remedy, forwarded the despatch to Lord North; although he would gladly have withheld it, under an apprehension that it might expose Lord Temple to injurious imputations, not only on the score of impatience, but as desiring to throw obstacles in the way of his successor. In the hope of averting the latter supposition, Mr. Grenville visited Lord Northington, to express on his part, and on that of Lord Temple, the desire of placing the Government in his hands with every possible advantage to his personal convenience and the public service. This interview was attended with the best result, so far as Lord Northington was concerned.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, April 28th, 1783.

My dear Brother,

Yesterday and this evening, I received your letters of the 21st
and 24th instant.

With respect to the first, there is, I think, no need of saying
anything as to its contents, except that it appears to me most
clearly that the Bill passed as a measure of the new Government,
especially from the Duke of Portland's words, which I took down
and sent to you. In all events, however, it had passed before I
received your despatch relating to it; so that the delivery of
that could have been of no use either in influencing their
conduct in present, or affording room for comments upon it in
future.

The despatches contained in your packet of the 24th, I have this
night sent to Lord North, conceiving, from the expressions of
your note, that I had no option whatever with respect to them.
If I had felt myself at liberty, I must own that I think I
should have hesitated about it; as Lord Northington is formally
announced, and consequently your main object, that of a speedy
release from your situation, will soon be accomplished by the
natural impatience he will feel to take, what you, on the other
hand, are so desirous to give him. All other objects, that of
marking to the King and to them your sense of the personal
incivility they have shown you, and that of pointing out their
scandalous inattention to the business of Ireland, might have
been attained by twenty other ways; while I cannot but fear that
this will be liable to the imputation which they are so
studiously endeavouring to fix upon you, and which, of all
others, I should think you would wish to avoid--that of throwing
additional difficulties in the way of your successor. I am
convinced nothing is farther from your intention: his situation
will already be much less easy than every Englishman--and
particularly every man who looks forward, and probably at no
very distant period, to a share in the Government of the
empire--must wish it. And even the appearance of contributing to
his difficulties will, I think, hurt you here; at the same time,
that it will give him an opportunity of throwing upon your
shoulders any want of success which he may experience.

Upon these considerations, which I am sure you feel, and which I
trust you will excuse my stating, I think of leaving my name
with him to-morrow, and of expressing either to him or to
Wyndham, with civility, but at the same time with a proper
reserve (so as not to commit you or myself), my readiness to
give any information in my power which they may wish to receive.
If I see either of them to-morrow, I shall most likely in a very
few days be able to inform you, in person, of the probable day
of your release. I look forward with much impatience to our
meeting. In the meantime,

Believe me, my dearest brother,
Ever most sincerely and affectionately yours,
W. W. G.

Upon reading this over, I find I have said nothing of the House
of Commons. Jemmy is not in town, and I own I think the saying
anything on the subject now (after Lord North's appointment),
would be so strong, that I am afraid to venture upon it without
his advice.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, April 29th, 1783.

My dear Brother,

I have this day seen Lord Northington. He entered a good deal
into your complaint with respect to their personal usage of
yourself, and said that as soon as the new Government were
appointed, they had written to express to you those wishes,
which every one felt, for your remaining; that your answer to
that had not been received till a few days before his
acceptance; and that they had written to notify to you the day
of his being to be declared, which had been postponed till
to-morrow, merely out of attention to you, in order that it
might not take place till you was apprized of it.

To this I answered, that I did not understand you had received
any other communication than the mere official notification of
Lord North's appointment; but that, be that as it might, I was
sure it would not alter (as it was a matter only between Lord
North and the other Ministers, and you) your wishes to place the
Government in your successor's hands with every possible
advantage.

We had a little more conversation, which turned entirely on
generals, with many expressions of personal civility on his
part; and that he intended to write to-morrow, immediately after
his being declared, to state to you the time which he desired
for his preparations, &c., &c.

Pitt spoke to Lord Bulkeley the other day, to express how much
he admired your conduct and character, particularly in remaining
so long; and that you were the person to whom the country looked
for the first situations.

Adieu, my dear brother.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.

Tom asked me to-day, whether you had mentioned anything to me of
your having received a letter from him.

This interview was followed by an immediate communication from Lord Northington.

LORD NORTHINGTON TO LORD TEMPLE.

St. James's Place, April 30th, 1783.

My dear Lord,

It is with much concern I find that your Excellency has not been
prevailed upon to continue in the execution of a Government
which all accounts agree, and universal opinion confirms, your
Excellency to have conducted with so much credit to yourself and
satisfaction to the country over which you have the honour to
preside. I could have hoped, that the many honourable
testimonies of regard given to you might have produced other
sentiments, and that the general wishes of the country might
have effected what the Administration here might have attempted
in vain. This, however, not having been the case, I have it to
notify to your Excellency, that the pressing instances of my
friends have been able to overcome my own apprehensions, and I
have consented to accept the arduous situation of becoming your
Excellency's successor.

I have had the honour of being declared this day, by His Majesty
in Council, as the person to relieve your Excellency, which, as
I understand your wishes to be, that it should be as soon as can
be, with any tolerable convenience to the affairs at home, and
the settlement of my establishment in Ireland, I shall forward
as much as possible. I hope, therefore, to be able to set off
from here in a month from the day of my declaration, at
furthest, by a week after, which I understand will be about the
time you find necessary for the arrangement of your affairs, and
the soonest you would have been able to have gone from hence.

I had the pleasure of a conversation the other day with Mr.
Grenville, who very politely acquainted me with your Lordship's
sentiments, and readiness to give every communication which
might be of service to a successor. These assurances I was happy
to receive, although I could entertain little doubt that a man
of your Lordship's honour and liberality of mind would feel a
pleasure and satisfaction in doing that which others, not with
the same liberality of sentiment, might consider only as a duty
upon them. I shall think myself much obliged, and shall derive
no small assistance from a communication of your Lordship's
active exertions and inquiries since you have been in Ireland;
and I make no doubt I shall find many plans which it will be
much for the interest of Ireland for me to adopt and carry into
execution.

I have the honour to be, with great truth,

My dear Lord,
Your most obedient humble servant,
Northington.

Amongst the papers in Lord Temple's hand-writing, is the rough draft of a letter to Lord North, dated May 2nd, complaining that he had received no answer to his despatch of April 24th, although a messenger had just arrived, bearing His Majesty's commands on the subject of the Parliament. The terms of this letter show how deeply he felt the neglect of the Administration, in reference to the public interests involved in his resignation.

LORD TEMPLE TO LORD NORTH.

Dublin Castle, May 2nd, 1783.

My Lord,

The messenger who is this moment arrived with His Majesty's
commands upon the subject of the Parliament, has not brought me
one syllable in answer to my despatch of the 24th, so
interesting to my feelings. Your Lordship, I am certain, does
not propose to delay receiving His Majesty's commands upon the
many matters contained in it, and yet your total silence upon
it, and the very distant day to which the Parliament is
prorogued (for which measure the King's servants alone are
responsible), do not hold out to me that prospect of release,
which I still conceive, from every principle of public duty to
this kingdom, and from every personal consideration to me, will
not be delayed many days longer. I have sufficiently pressed
upon your Lordship's attention these reasons of my conduct. I
have only to add, that I have well considered the alternative to
which I may be driven, and must again remind your Lordship, that
in no contingency do I consider myself responsible for any one
of the consequences which may be the result of the public
inattention to this Government, under which this high and
important office has been left unfilled from the formation of
the new Government till the 24th ult., and under which the same
interregnum is, in your Lordship's despatch of that date, held
out for six weeks longer.

And I am the more particularly anxious for this answer, from the
heartfelt concern with which I wait for the notification of His
Majesty's sense of those assurances of attachment and dutiful
respect, which makes me solicitous that no part of my conduct
may be liable to misconstruction: to his wisdom I submit those
considerations, which touch so nearly the interests of this
kingdom, and to his justice, with all humility, those which are
personal to myself.

I have the honour to be,
N. T.

While this letter was on its way to London, it was crossed by Lord North's answer to the despatch of the 24th, containing, in detail, the defence of the Government on the numerous points pressed upon their attention by the Lord-Lieutenant.

LORD NORTH TO LORD TEMPLE.

Whitehall, May 5th, 1733.

My Lord,

The anxiety which your Excellency felt in writing your letter of
the 24th of last month, cannot, I will venture to affirm,
possibly exceed my surprise at receiving it. Having, during the
very little time that I have been in office, made it my object
to return the most speedy answers to all your Excellency's
letters, and having had the good fortune in every instance to
convey the most favourable return all to your Excellency's
wishes and commands, you may well suppose that I must have been
much struck at reading your complaints of ill-treatment,
indelicacy, or something (whatever it may be) that deserves a
harsher name. If, in the course of my life, it had not been
frequently my lot to see very great offence taken upon very
slight causes, the terms of your Excellency's letter would have
given me more uneasiness. But, upon a calm and dispassionate
review of your complaints, and of the conduct of His Majesty's
servants, I can, by no means, either in their name, or in my
own, plead guilty to the neglects and other misbehaviour which
your Excellency thinks proper to lay to our charge.

Your Excellency is of opinion, that His Majesty's servants
should have employed themselves in endeavouring to find a
successor to your Excellency from the receipt of your letter of
the 12th of March. If your Excellency will give yourself the
trouble to recollect the transactions of that period, you will,
I am sure, concur with me in opinion, that it would have been
the extreme of folly and presumption for any of His Majesty's
present servants to have treated upon this subject with any
person breathing before the 2nd of April, when they had the
honour of kissing His Majesty's hand. Long after the day of the
receipt of your Excellency's letter, it was perfectly uncertain
here, to whose hands His Majesty would commit the management of
his affairs; nay, your Excellency cannot be ignorant, that,
since that time, the expectations (and I doubt not the hopes) of
the public were fixed upon seeing your Excellency at the head of
the Administration.

The 2nd of April was, therefore, the first moment that any of
His Majesty's present servants could take any step towards the
nomination of a new Chief Governor of Ireland. From that time
measures for that purpose have been constantly pursued, till the
affair was finally settled, on the 24th of last month. The
various impediments which have arisen I need not mention to your
Excellency, but the fact is exactly as I have stated; and, as
the delay is not unprecedented, nor even very long, I think it
is not trespassing too much upon your Excellency's candour to
expect that you will believe my assertion.

In your last letter, your Excellency seems hurt, that the London
newspapers should have announced in Dublin the appointment of
the Earl of Northington two days before you received my letter.
Whatever might have been the information or the conjectures of
the news-writers, I assure your Excellency that I wrote within
an hour after I received authentic information of that
appointment.

As to the total and absolute neglect of Irish considerations, on
which your Excellency expresses yourself so strongly, you
certainly cannot mean to allude to the ordinary and current
business (which has been regularly attended to, and has met with
the most speedy decision that each case would admit of), but to
some great commercial points, upon which your Excellency had
written at different times to the late Administration, and which
had not, as I collect from your Excellency's letter, been
considered, when they quitted His Majesty's service.

I well remember, that Lord Carlisle very fully and clearly
stated, very earnestly and repeatedly pressed, the demands of
Ireland, with respect to the refusal of Portugal to admit their
woollen goods. Lord Hillsborough, then Secretary of State, urged
the claim of Ireland with much zeal and perseverance in his
despatches to the Court of Portugal, and in his conferences with
the Portuguese Minister in London. What was done in that
business by the late Administration I know not: nothing of that
sort has yet come to my knowledge; but, during the few days that
we have been in office, the Secretary of State for the Foreign
Department has renewed this negotiation with Monsieur de Pinto,
and I doubt not but it will be pursued with all the attention
that so important a question deserves. But it is singular, that
His Majesty's present servants should be criminated for not
having finished in the first busy three weeks of a new
Administration what has been depending during the two last
Ministries, and, notwithstanding the efforts of one of them at
least, is by no means so far advanced as to promise an immediate
conclusion.

That the interests of Ireland should not be separated from those
of Great Britain in any commercial treaty with France and Spain,
and that they should be considered in every arrangement with the
United States of America, are important truths, upon which your
Excellency, with much propriety, lays a great stress. They
cannot be urged too often or too strongly; but whether your
Excellency has any particular measures to suggest on these
heads, or whether the late Administration, when they signed the
provisional articles, and projected the commercial treaties with
the House of Bourbon, had formed any detailed and digested plan
upon these principles, I am not informed; but this is certain,
that it would have been very hasty and rash, for His Majesty's
servants in the first hurry of a new arrangement, before any
commercial treaty is formed with America, or the definitive
treaties signed with France and Spain, to think themselves
capable of proposing a well-formed system of commerce, adapted
to the new situation of Great Britain with her late and present
dependencies.

Your Excellency will consider, that we came to the situations we
now possess, in the midst of a session of Parliament, with
almost all the material business of that session unfinished,
indeed, hardly begun, and that, besides Parliamentary affairs,
there never was a time in which the Executive Power was occupied
with a greater variety of complicated and important questions.

Many of the matters to which your Excellency alludes, must
necessarily employ the attention of His Majesty's Ministers for
a long space of time. Your Excellency will, therefore, I hope,
judge of our exertions according to the capacities of ordinary
men, and not according to the rapidity of your Excellency's
conceptions, and the eagerness of your zeal for the prosperity
of Ireland.

I beg pardon for detaining your Excellency so long, but I trust
that what I have written may serve to justify me to your
Excellency, when I confess, that the heavy and severe censures
in your Excellency's letter have produced no other emotions in
my mind than those of astonishment.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest truth and respect, My Lord,
Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant,
North.

Earl Temple, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland

Perhaps "astonishment," after all, was the most convenient refuge for Lord North, under the circumstances. But it is clear, throughout the whole correspondence, that, let the responsibility rest where it might, a delay--fraught with the worst consequences to the repose of the kingdom--had been suffered to take place, greatly detrimental to the public service, and personally compromising to Lord Temple. Lord North himself acknowledges that from the 2nd to the 24th of April was consumed in the pursuit of measures which ought to have been carried into operation without delay. The new Ministry confess that they were three weeks looking for a successor to Lord Temple, instead of having come into office prepared to fill that important vacancy at once. They could not plead ignorance of Lord Temple's determination to retire; for he had apprised the Duke of Portland that his mind was made up before the coalition was formed. There was no excuse for the protracted inconvenience--public and private--to which Lord Temple was exposed, except the fact that the Ministry, too eager in the chase of office, had accepted the reins of Government before they were ready to undertake its functions; and that it was not until the situation of Lord-Lieutenant had been offered to one nobleman after another, they at last found a peer who was willing to incur the hazard of serving under them in so responsible a post. That Lord Temple should have expressed his feelings strongly on this occasion, that he should have complained warmly of the personal slight with which he was treated, and that he should have represented with earnestness the injury inflicted on the public service throughout this harassing interregnum, was due equally to his own character, and to the duty he owed to the King. Instead of being enabled to relinquish office to his successor with ease and satisfaction to both, the affair was so hurried, that in the correspondence which ensued between Lord Temple and Lord Northington, a tone of asperity insensibly displaces the amicable dispositions with which it opens, and shows that the political discord which had been sown by the "unprincipled coalition," was not without a damaging influence upon the private relations of public men. Lord Temple, after sacrificing much of his own personal feelings to adapt his withdrawal to the convenience of Lord Northington, at last expressed his resolution--at any risk of consequences--not to be in Dublin on the 4th of June, the anniversary of the King's birthday. To this point the correspondence, interspersed with one or two letters from Lord North, is finally drawn.

LORD TEMPLE TO LORD NORTHINGTON.

Dublin Castle, May 6th, 1783.

My dear Lord,

My former letter will have sufficiently stated to you my full
determination that my private feelings should not prevent me
from showing to you every personal regard, which is so much your
due. My line was long since adopted; and standing upon public
grounds, I could not yield to the honourable testimonies which I
have received, much less to any solicitations from the King's
servants, _if any such had been made_. But for particular
reasons I desire to assure you that, neither directly or
indirectly, have I received, since the hour of their
appointment, any such intimation, or any solicitation to
continue in this Government till after your appointment. For
_that_ attention I should thank them, as I should not have
conceived that they could entertain any real wish that I should
act with people with whom I did not agree in general principles.
But my complaint is, that the kingdom has materially suffered by
this delay; that it still suffers; and that this consideration
will not permit me to remain, independently of the
considerations of a personal nature, which I strongly feel.

Under these circumstances, I must strongly press upon your
convenience. I feel it, and, with truth, I regret it, as a real
misfortune; for, from private friendship, I would do everything
which could mark my regard; but you will see, upon your arrival,
that I have not exaggerated the difficulties of the country
under such an interregnum. I accept your expressions of esteem,
as I should, with every wish to return them by real services. I
think that I have the means of assisting you by information, and
you may command me; but I must be relieved before the 25th of
May, for reasons which involve my public character and credit;
and when I fix that period, I assure you, my dear Lord, that I
sacrifice much of my private feelings to a desire of
accommodating you. In truth, I wish to you every success in your
undertaking; and I feel a most unpleasant difficulty in the
present moment, from my private sensations with respect to you,
and the other principles, public and private, which make me
appear to fail in attention to you. This is my only uneasiness.
But at all events, let me continue to stand well in your
regards. As to every article of domestic accommodation, much
time might be spared if you would commission our friend Baugh,
or send your steward to Ireland. In all this, do as you will;
but be assured that

I am, my dear Lord,
Your very faithful and obedient servant,
(Signed) Nugent Temple.

P.S.--When I fix the 25th of May, I allow one month from the day
of the notification of your acceptance--a time, I confess,
short; but, in truth, I was prepared within that period. At all
events, though I mean to urge that day in my despatches to
Government, all that I am anxious about is to be relieved before
the 4th of June, as you will see particular reasons of delicacy
for my not holding that Court. And when you recollect that from
the 17th of February the Government of Ireland has been nearly
at a stand, you will see the necessity of it in a public point
of view; and be assured, that personal impatience or want of
regard to you has no share in the resolution which I have taken
not to be in Ireland upon that day.

Your Lordship will derive little advantage from the
communication of my ideas on the subject of Parliament, as the
Cabinet, by their prorogation, have decided that arduous
question; but be assured, that I have every inclination to show
to you every attention of that nature; although I must think
that the conduct of the Cabinet has acquitted me of every _duty_
of communication.

I have added this postscript, having kept my letter one day,
expecting Mr. Grenville. I must now close it, with every
expression of regard and esteem.

N. T.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, May 7th, 1783.

By Lord Northington's Messenger.

My dear Brother,

I understand from Lord Northington, whom I saw to-day, that both
he and Lord North write to you this evening on the subject of
his departure, which I understand to be fixed for the beginning
of June.

I had some conversation with him on the subject, in which I
enlarged upon the ideas of your letter, your personal good-will
and wishes for his success, the mischief of the delay, and the
difficulties of your situation; and particularly stated the
circumstances of Ireland with respect to its army, to the
Fencibles, and to the different points of commerce which call
for the immediate interposition of Government, and which we
meant to have settled by having a Parliament sitting at this
time, if things had gone on as they were. His observations on
all this you will, I suppose, receive to-night.

I am in some doubt what to do about coming over to you, as, on
account of the Prince's death, there is no levée to-day, nor, I
fear, on Friday. If there is, I will set out that evening. It is
the more unfortunate, as I wished to know the King's ideas as to
your coming away. Your provocation is certainly very great; yet
I cannot help fearing that such a step will hurt you here. I
still wish to see the King, and will try it, if I can.

Pitt's motion comes on to-day; but nobody knows it, though it is
imagined to go only to fifty or one hundred Knights, and to some
enlargement of boroughs, to take place only on proof of
delinquency, as in the case of Cricklade and Shoreham.

No news of any Dutch peace, nor can I guess why we are arming,
as is said to be the case; but query. Adieu.

Ever yours,
W. W. G.

LORD NORTHINGTON TO LORD TEMPLE.

St. James's Place, May 7th, 1783.

My dear Lord,

Your despatch of the 29th of April, afforded me no small degree
of pleasure, as it conveyed to me such flattering assurances of
your Lordship's esteem and regard; sentiments perfectly similar
to which, I beg to assure your Lordship I entertain for you,
with the utmost sincerity and attachment. I feel likewise, with
much satisfaction and gratitude, those kind and liberal offers
of information and communication upon all points which may tend
to give me an early knowledge of the state and situation of that
country, and shall hope from such assistance to be the better
enabled to encounter the many difficulties and embarrassments
which I already foresee against my Administration. I sincerely
wish it was in my power to answer that part of your Lordship's
letter upon the subject of my speedy departure, as you wish; but
although on many accounts, both of a public and private nature,
some delay is unavoidable, it is my wish and my intention, as
far as concerns myself, that a delay of a moment shall not be
created, that is not of absolute necessity for my own
indispensable convenience. Some attention is likewise necessary
to His Majesty's servants, whose time is now so much employed in
the parliamentary discussion of many subjects of great
importance. The many objects which claim much consideration, as
stated in your Excellency's despatches, and which have been
pressed so frequently, and urged so forcibly by your Lordship on
His Majesty's late servants, and which appeared to them so
weighty in themselves, and of such moment as to require so long
a time for deliberation, cannot be suddenly and easily resolved
upon by Ministers of so short a date in office, and with such a
pressure of public affairs upon them, occasioned by a
discontinuance of any active or responsible Government for such
a period, for which they cannot be in the least responsible.

I could, therefore, much wish your Lordship to believe, that if,
in the desire you have to be relieved, your wishes are not met
by me to the utmost, that you will not attribute it to any want
of a due exertion to remove the difficulties which obstruct my
compliance therewith, or the desire of staying here myself a
week longer; but that if I am enabled to overcome them sooner,
and His Majesty's Ministers are ready to give me their final
opinions earlier than I have expected they will be able to do,
that I shall embrace with pleasure an opportunity to relieve
your Lordship from a situation you feel so unpleasant and
irksome to you.

I have the honour to be, my dear Lord,
Your very faithful and obedient servant,
Northington.

LORD NORTH TO LORD TEMPLE.

Whitehall, May 9th, 1783.

My Lord,

Your Excellency may be assured that it is not the wish of His
Majesty's servants on this side of the water to detain your
Excellency in Ireland a moment longer than the time that will be
necessary for your Excellency's successor so to arrange his
business here, as to be able to relieve your Excellency in your
Government.

Since the receipt of your Excellency's letter of the 29th of
last month, I have shown to the Earl of Northington all your
letters respecting your earnest desire of quitting your present
situation without delay, and received yesterday from his
Lordship the letter which accompanies this packet. I have reason
to believe that his Lordship is endeavouring to get himself
ready for his departure, with all possible diligence. His letter
will best explain to your Excellency when he expects to set out
for Dublin.

Your Excellency, in one part of your letter, seems hurt, that
mine of the 24th of last month did not convey, in terms
sufficiently explicit, a communication of His Majesty's gracious
acceptance and approbation of your Excellency's services. Your
Excellency certainly may infer, not only from that letter, but
from the whole tenor of my correspondence, that your
Administration of Ireland is approved by His Majesty; and having
substantially conveyed the royal sentiments on that subject, I
hope that I shall stand excused by your Excellency, if I should
not have used any particular form of words, though it might have
been more proper on the occasion, and more agreeable to your
Excellency's wishes.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest truth and respect, My Lord,
Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant,
North.

Earl Temple, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

LORD NORTHINGTON TO LORD TEMPLE.

St. James's Place, May 16th, 1783.

My Lord,

The last letter which I had the honour of receiving from your
Lordship has very sufficiently stated the determinations you are
come to with regard to your stay, and that your resolution is
fixed, at _all events_, not to be in Dublin on the 4th of June.
I must confess myself perfectly at a loss to conceive what those
_particular reasons of delicacy_ may be, which appear to have
made such weighty impression on your Lordship's mind, so as to
have produced this resolution; but as the consequence will be
the placing the Government of the country in other hands, and is
a measure which does not seem to meet with the approbation of
His Majesty, I shall think it my duty (however greatly my
convenience must be the sacrifice) to attend, to the utmost of
my power, to His Majesty's wishes, that such an event may not
take place.

It is my purpose, therefore, to relieve your Excellency from
your Government, as you desire, before the 4th of June, and to
be in Dublin on that day, under circumstances the most
unpleasant and mortifying, an half-formed household, and the
impossibility of being able to pay that respect and reverence
which is due to the happy event of that day. It is my intention
to quit London on the 28th or 29th instant, and to make it a
point to be at Holyhead early on the 1st of June, so that if the
wind is fair and the tide should serve, I may be in Dublin that
night.

I cannot too frequently return my thanks to your Lordship for
the very kind and friendly intentions you have of affording me
every communication in your power, and of allowing me to derive
every assistance I can from your Lordship's great knowledge of
the country, its interests, and the view of its parties and
leading men. It will be with the greatest pleasure I shall ever
receive any instance of your Lordship's regard, and I am sure
none can be more agreeable, or of more importance to me, than
this will be.

With regard to the articles of domestic accommodation, I shall
reserve the discussion of them to Sir Willoughby Acton and Mr.
Fremantle. Sir Willoughby proposes to set out for Dublin on
Monday next, and is so obliging as to undertake this trouble for
me. He will have the honour of paying his respects to your
Excellency, if you will give him leave.

I have the honour to be, my dear Lord,
Your most obedient and faithful humble servant,
Northington.

LORD NORTH TO LORD TEMPLE.

Whitehall, May 17th, 1783.

My Lord,

Upon the receipt of your Excellency's letters of the 9th and
10th of this month, I took immediately every step in my power
that might forward your Excellency's wishes, and have now the
satisfaction of informing your Excellency that Lord Northington
will not fail to be at Holyhead on the 1st day of next month;
and I am commanded by His Majesty to express to your Excellency
his wish, that you will not quit the Government of Ireland
before the arrival of Lord Northington. Although your Excellency
will, according to this arrangement, be detained a few days
longer than the 25th of the present month, yet I hope that the
time fixed by Lord Northington is not so remote as to cause any
public or private inconvenience.

By my letter of the 9th instant, I flatter myself that I have
removed the uneasiness which your Excellency has expressed more
than once, because His Majesty's approbation of your
Excellency's Government has not been notified in a manner the
most agreeable to your Excellency. I am sure that when you read
that letter, your Excellency was convinced that your former
complaint was ill-founded; that His Majesty's gracious
approbation of your Excellency's conduct has been substantially
conveyed to your Excellency; and that there is nothing in the
whole tenor of my letters which can justify your Excellency's
opinion, that a total change of system is to be adopted both
with regard to the Chief Governor, and the measures of
Government in Ireland.

I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, My Lord,
Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant,
North.

P.S.--The messenger carries three letters from Lord
Northington--one to your Excellency, one to Lieutenant-General
Burgoyne, and another to General Baugh.

His Excellency the Earl Temple, &c., &c., &c.

LORD NORTHINGTON TO LORD TEMPLE.

St. James's Place, May 25th, 1783.

My dear Lord,

Your Excellency has not been able to remove those unpleasant and
mortifying ideas I entertain at the thoughts of being obliged to
pay either no attention to a day, to which all honour and
respect is due, or to do it in a manner unbecoming, and not
suitable to the occasion. Indeed, my information by numerous
Irish gentlemen now here, tells me that, although it may not be
expected that I should give (what your Lordship says) _a dinner_
on the occasion, it will be expected I shall hold a Court, and
that I shall give a ball. Then I understand likewise, from your
letters, as you declare your positive and fixed resolution not
to hold a _Court_ on that day in the despatch, the last but one
which I had the honour to receive, and that from strong reasons
of delicacy, both public and private, which, as your Excellency
does not explain, at this distance and in my state of ignorance
at present I am at a loss to conceive.

I have the honour to be, my dear Lord,
Your faithful and obedient humble servant,
Northington.

Lord Temple's administration was too brief to enable him to develop the plans he had laid down for the benefit of Ireland; but the most conclusive testimony that can be adduced in favour of his policy is the assurance he received from Lord North, that no intention of deviating from it was entertained by the new Ministers. Although, however, Lord Northington did not openly deviate from the main points of his policy, he followed it up with a luke-warmness and insincerity that rendered it to a great extent inoperative. His Lordship appears to have betrayed, not only in his measures, but in the spirit and tone in which they were brought forward, an unworthy desire to discredit the influence and reputation of his predecessor, who pursued a line of conduct after he left Ireland which--putting aside all obligations to the public--entitled him at least to protection against such sinister attempts to undermine the confidence his zealous services had acquired. Having resigned the Government into the hands of Lord Northington, to whom he frankly offered all the assistance and information his experience enabled him to bestow, he strictly avoided all interference in Irish affairs that might be likely--even remotely--to embarrass his successor. Numerous applications were made to him on a variety of subjects; individuals and parties sought his advice and interposition; but he made the same answer to all--referring them at once to the established authority, and declining to use any influence, upon the most trifling occasions, which in his position he might have legitimately exercised. His magnanimity was thrown away upon a thankless soil. The situation he had filled with so much honour and advantage, was now occupied by a nobleman who could neither appreciate nor imitate his lofty example.

The principal objects to which Lord Temple had directed his attention were the Bill of Renunciation, and a wise economy in the public expenditure. The former he carried; the latter it was impossible to consolidate in the short term of six months. In his indefatigable labours for the good of Ireland he never stooped to conciliate faction at the cost of duty, or the sacrifice of principle. He administered his high office to promote the interests, and not to pander to the passions of the people. The Bill of Renunciation was said to have been a scheme of Mr. Flood's; but by taking charge of it himself, Lord Temple deprived it of the mischievous _prestige_ it might have acquired under such dangerous auspices. The Bill, however, was not Mr. Flood's. Whatever merit, or demerit attaches to it, belongs exclusively to Lord Temple. Lord Northington, overlooking the fact that this Bill was simply a confirmation of the settlement of 1782, and that it really granted nothing new, endeavoured to make it a fulcrum for working further changes and more extensive concessions--not, it may be presumed, without an indirect view to the improvement of his own popularity. The mode in which he thus proposed to carry out Lord Temple's policy provoked the Government, at last, to remonstrate with him. Even Mr. Fox, who could not be suspected of any disinclination to give a patient hearing to Irish demands, seeing the part he had already taken on such questions, felt it necessary to check his exuberant zeal on behalf of the particular party, whose views and opinions he had so injudiciously adopted. On the 8th of November, he wrote to Lord Northington an admonishing letter upon a variety of points connected with Irish affairs, towards the conclusion of which he observed:

I hope, my dear Northington, you will not consider this long
letter as meant to blame your conduct; but I think I owe it as
much to my friendship for you as to the public, to give you
fairly my opinion and advice in your most arduous situation; and
I will fairly own there is one principle which seems to run
through your different _despatches_, which a little alarms me:
it is this--you seem to think as if it were absolutely necessary
at the outset of your Government, to do something that may
appear to be obtaining _boons_, however trifling, to Ireland;
and what I confess I like still less, is to see that this is, in
some degree, grounded upon the ampleness of former concessions.
Now I see this in quite a different light, and reason that,
because these concessions were so ample, no further ones are
necessary. If, because the Duke of Portland gave much, are you
to give something? Consider how this reasoning will apply to
your successor. I repeat it again, the account must be
considered as closed in 1782.[1]

[Footnote 1: Extracted from a letter published in the Life of Mr. Grattan.]

It may be observed, _en parenthèse_, that the assertion that the Duke of Portland gave much, is a gratuitous assumption. When his Grace came into office, he found the Renunciation Bill passing through its last stages, and he suffered it to pass; but, as Mr. Fox states in this very letter, with the utmost reluctance. The Duke of Portland, in fact, gave nothing. He submitted to the measure of his predecessors because he could not avoid it, and he would have retreated from it if he could.

No useful result would be gained by a comparison between the intelligible principles and consistency evinced by Lord Temple in his government of Ireland, and the small views and tremulous policy of his successor; but it is something to the purpose of history to note that, while Lord Northington affected to adopt the economical system of Lord Temple, he secretly desired to stultify it, and that so far from being actuated by any sentiment of respect for the government of his predecessor, he suffered the motions of thanks which both Houses of Parliament voted to Lord Temple, when they met in the following October, to pass without a solitary expression of approval on the part of any member of the Administration. These facts are somewhat indignantly stated in a letter addressed to Lord Temple, by Lord Mornington, on the 18th of October, 1783. Respecting the vote of thanks, his Lordship observes:

Government had not the spirit to take a part against the motions
of thanks in either House, _but I have every reason to think
that they would have done it, if there had been the smallest
prospect of success in the attempt_. You must observe that the
vote of the House of Commons is much weaker than that of the
Lords; Gardiner was obliged, by the interference of Government's
friends, to omit several expressions which, if they had been
retained, would have rendered the vote more just to your
Lordship's Administration, but would have occasioned debate. The
fact is, that no compliment to the Act of Renunciation, or even
to the framer of it, can be borne with patience by certain
supporters of the present Castle.

And in the report of his own speech on this occasion, which accompanies the letter, Lord Mornington plainly charges the Government with duplicity in reference to Lord Temple's system of economy. Referring to a passage in the Lord-Lieutenant's speech, where his Excellency, in recommending the establishment of the Genevans, reminded Parliament of their duty to "avoid _unnecessary expense_," his Lordship expresses a hope that in "other cases, where all profusion would be dangerous, and where the public safety demanded the most rigid economy, _in the establishments of Government, his Excellency would think it_ HIS _duty to avoid all unnecessary expense_;" and then, comparing the recommendation respecting the Genevans with another passage where his Excellency applied for a supply, and in which "his Excellency's economy made no appearance," Lord Mornington goes on to say:

Comparing the two passages of the speech, he [Lord Mornington]
was apt to imagine that the expression, "unnecessary expense,"
was dictated by another spirit, and with other views, than of
saving to the public: he suspected that it was meant to
insinuate by so special, and seemingly superfluous a
recommendation of economy in the further progress of the
establishment of the Genevans, that there had been some neglect
of economy in the original foundation of the scheme; if that was
meant, he called upon the confidential servants of the Castle to
avow it; if not, he insisted that they should do justice to the
personage who had originally framed this plan, and disclaim his
construction of this ambiguous phrase. _He knew what had been
the language of the Castle on this subject; he knew how this
scheme had been decried; and what a damp had been cast upon the
proposers of it_--such a damp, as he had reason to believe, that
the settlement had not advanced one step since the departure of
Lord Temple; and he would add, in justice both to the late and
present Ministry, that he, in his conscience, believed, if the
public were put to any _unnecessary expense_ by the settlement,
_it must be attributed solely and entirely to the delays and
impediments which had been thrown in its way by the present
Castle_.

On a subsequent day, moving the thanks of the House to Lord Temple, Lord Mornington delivered an eloquent panegyric upon his Government. He spoke of the Act of Renunciation as having produced an "instantaneous calm in Ireland," and, adverting to other matters, observed:

These were the great public acts of Lord Temple's Government,
the nation at large had felt their effects, the Lord-Lieutenant
had from the throne applauded them; the House itself had
applauded them in detail, and therefore would not object to
doing so in the gross, which he now called upon the House to do.
With regard to the general attention of Lord Temple to the
common duties of his office, and his management of the interior
system of government here, he would deliver no opinion of his
own; he would appeal to those whose high stations and
confidential offices gave them constant access to the person and
councils of Lord Temple, to testify his ability and assiduity in
business, the extent of his researches, the vigilance with which
he penetrated into the secrets of departments where the most
gross rapine and peculation had been practised for ages with
impunity, _and particularly the firm integrity with which he
resisted all jobs, however speciously concealed, or powerfully
recommended_.

Nothing need be added to this unimpeachable eulogium on the character of Lord Temple's administration of the Government of Ireland. It comes from an authority above suspicion, and its statements will guide the decisions of history.

In the midst of these political anxieties there was a private grief, arising out of the sundering of attachments consequent upon the unnatural state of parties, that preyed severely on the sensitive mind of Lord Temple. This painful matter forms the subject of a letter from Lord Temple to his brother, Mr. Thomas Grenville, which has not been inserted in its chronological place, as it would have interrupted the sequence of the preceding correspondence. The tender and affectionate feelings hitherto subsisting unimpaired between the brothers, who, in addition to the rest of their noble qualities, were distinguished beyond most men by their domestic virtues, had been interrupted by one of those fatal divisions in public life, which, during this memorable crisis, separated the closest friends.

The particular occasion which now for the first time produced disunion between Lord Temple and his brother, is not expressly stated in the letter; but it may be surmised from the correspondence which took place early in the preceding year between Mr. Thomas Grenville and Mr. Fox, when the former was employed upon the American negotiation in Paris. Mr. Thomas Grenville, devoting himself to the interests of Mr. Fox, still preserved his allegiance to him under the arrangements of the Coalition Administration; and, from certain expressions in this letter, it would appear that he had ventured to make some overture to Lord Temple, with a view to induce him to reconsider the line of action he had resolved upon, if indeed it did not amount to the distinct proposal of an office under the new Ministry. The exact nature of that offer is veiled under the language of a poignant and bitter regret, which seeks to avoid details the writer was most unwilling to enter into; but it is sufficiently explicit as to the "new connection" Mr. Thomas Grenville had formed, in an opposite direction to that which Lord Temple's devotion to the principles they held in common had led him to embrace. The sensibility manifested by Lord Temple in reference to this unhappy affair, shows that his heart was as impressionable as his judgment was clear and firm.

LORD TEMPLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Ph[oe]nix Lodge, May 9th, 1783.

Dear Brother,