Chapter C: J. Fox (1)

MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO MR. FOX.

(Private.)

Paris, June 16th, 1782.

Dear Charles,

I received your letter of the 10th by Ogg on the night of the
14th, and would have sent him back as immediately as you seemed
to wish; but having no other messenger to carry M. de
Vergennes's answer, I was obliged to keep him till he could be
the bearer of that likewise.

I can easily conceive the embarrassment occasioned to you by my
letter, and have so much confidence in the honour of the persons
to whom you communicated it, that I am not under the smallest
uneasiness on that account; the explanation, however, that you
wish to come to, certainly has its difficulties; and amongst
them some so sacred, that unless they can be kept altogether
clear, you cannot but agree with me in thinking that they must
be buried at least in silence, though not in oblivion. In order
therefore that you may see into every part of this business, I
will, as you desire, state in the most explicit manner the
circumstances of it, as far as I think they affect any
confidence reposed in me.

In the first place, then, you will have observed, that although
Franklin has actually made me no confidence, owing, as I
believe, without doubt, to the reasons I stated, yet as the
communication he had said he would make to me was of the most
confidential nature, and in full trust that the subjects which
he should mention should not be given as propositions coming
from him, I think it would be a breach of that confidence to
make it known even that he had promised to hold such a
conversation with me; and therefore to charge Lord Shelburne
with having diverted from me that expected communication, would
be to proclaim Franklin's promise to me; which promise, though
it has not been followed up, I cannot think myself at liberty to
quote. The delicacy of Franklin's situation with respect to the
French Court was, as he said, the ground of the caution which he
observed, and which, nevertheless, he was once inclined to risk
in my trust. He would certainly have both to repent and to
complain if anything on my part should lead to betray even the
confidential disposition he had entertained. These reasons you
will, I am sure, agree with me in considering as decisive
against any mention being to be made of the expectations I had
formed from the conversation I was to have had with Franklin.

The Canada paper is not perhaps quite under the same
circumstances. The only knowledge I have of that is from Oswald;
and as I before told you, I had it from him at a moment when I
fancy he apprehended I had heard or should hear of it from
Franklin. No other reason, indeed, can account for his not
mentioning it from the end of April till the 31st of May. He
told it me under no express limitation of confidence: the words
in which he introduced it were, "I think it right you should
know;" and I am perfectly sure that he asked from me no
engagement of secrecy, nor do I conceive myself under any with
regard to him, except that general secrecy which is always
attached to business of a confidential nature, such as was the
business I related to you. I recollect asking whether he had
showed the paper to you: he said No; but did not add any
injunction to me not to do so; indeed, if he had, I should have
stated to him the impossibility of my keeping from you a
circumstance of that importance, or of my becoming, by my
silence in it, a separate party to a business which it was my
duty fully and entirely to lay before you and to receive from
you; nor indeed at this moment is the knowledge of it confined
to Lord Shelburne; as I am pretty sure Oswald told me that Lord
Ashburton was with Lord Shelburne when he, Oswald, asked if he
might give any answer to Franklin about the paper, or rather
observed that he supposed he could not then have any answer to
it. Under these circumstances, the difficulty with regard to the
Canada paper, of which I have no copy, lies more possibly in the
indelicacy and perhaps bad policy of bringing forward Franklin
where he wished so much not to appear, than in the quoting it
from me. I do not wish to be quoted, if there exists the least
doubt whether I should. But I cannot more exactly explain to you
the whole extent of that doubt, than by showing you that it does
not exist in any specific obligation on my part, but only in the
nature of what was told to me; the subject itself carrying with
it, as you will see, many reasons for secrecy, and every mark of
it in the manner of conducting it; but as to positive engagement
or obligation upon this subject, I have none.

The remaining circumstance--of the intention mentioned to Mr.
Oswald by Lord Shelburne, of giving him a commission if it
should be necessary--stands altogether clear of the slightest
shade of difficulty upon the point of confidence; indeed, at the
time I wrote you word of it, I did not imagine I was informing
you of anything new or unknown to you; and only so far meant to
dwell upon it, as to regret its happening precisely at the
instant when it was most important it should not. I apprehended
that Lord Shelburne might have already expressed such an
intention to the rest of the King's Ministers, upon the ground
of the American share of this business, which ground, in the
present stage of it, I thought possibly you had not found it
easy to object to. In this idea it was that Lord Fitzwilliam's
appointment occurred to me, not to prevent a clandestine
negotiation, but to unite a separated one; always imagining that
you knew of, but did not resist, the intended commission to Mr.
Oswald, and therefore hinting the expediency of superseding it,
by giving to another person an appointment of such rank and
magnitude as should include a power which it seems neither for
the public interest, nor for yours and your friends' interests,
to leave separate and distinct.

To return, however, to the point of confidence: upon this last
subject there is none; and you are certainly at full liberty to
proclaim at Charing Cross that Lord Shelburne told Mr. Oswald he
supposed he would not object to a commission if it should be
necessary; and that since his last return to Paris, Mr. Oswald
has told me he found it very much Franklin's wish likewise. If I
may repeat, therefore, in a few words, what I have tried to
express to you in a good many, it is that, as to Franklin's
first intention of a private and confidential communication with
me, I hold myself so engaged in secrecy to him, that I think it
would be a breach of confidence in me to have that intention at
all spoken of. As to the Canada paper, I leave it, with the
comment I have made upon it, altogether to your discretion; and
as to the proposed commission, you are certainly at full liberty
to say of it what you please. I have it not in my power to give
you any additional proofs of sinister management in this
business. I seldom see Oswald, though upon good terms with him;
and have seen Franklin, since Oswald's coming, but once, when he
was as silent as ever, notwithstanding my reminding him of his
promise; so that I cannot help thinking that business altogether
irretrievable. But neither do I know what you will gain by
forcing Oswald's return; indeed I am inclined to think it might
be much more prudent to save appearances by leaving him here,
till you shall have completed your purpose of receiving the
propositions you wish or the refusal you wish from Versailles.
Perhaps, politically speaking, you may not think it wise to make
the conduct, or rather misconduct, of a foreign negotiation the
ground of a domestic rupture, which may betray too much weakness
and disunion; but this is too delicate a subject for me to say
anything upon, more than to assure you that, whatever is your
determination about it, you will not find me shrink from the
part I have or may have to take in it.

And one word here about the desire I have expressed to return to
England: it is impossible not to say that I feel that desire in
the strongest degree. I would not speak peevishly about my
disappointment in the unlucky check that I have met with; but I
think you will agree that the real service it might have been my
good fortune perhaps to have been assisting in, is by that check
completely annihilated, nor can any step now taken recover or
retrieve it; and that consideration weighs pretty heavily in a
situation in itself not agreeable to me. But if I repeat this
now, it is to keep you awake to the earnest solicitations I make
of returning in the first moment you may think it practicable;
till then you need have no apprehension of seeing me, but may
trust that no personal motives, however strong, can weigh
against the important reasons you state, as well as the desire
you express, for my continuing something longer at Paris.

I am writing to you on the 16th, waiting impatiently for M. de
Vergennes's answer, which he gave me reason to hope I shall have
to-morrow.

MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO MR. FOX.

June 21st.

I have been waiting day after day, and have not got my answer
till a few hours ago. I am sorry to have kept you so long, but
you see it was impossible to avoid it. A report prevails that
Bougainville is arrived at St. Domingo with two ships, as
likewise are the four that were at Curaçao. They add that Rodney
had been obliged to burn three of his captured ships. La Motthe
Peguet has twice had orders to sail from Brest with his seven
ships, and as often been recalled. They expect Guichen soon with
the fleet from Cadiz of thirty-two ships: they are said to have
sailed on the 4th.

Pray tell Sheridan to be more cautious in what he writes by the
post. If I had time I should give him a lecture; but I want to
send away the messenger.

Adieu. Oswald affects to consider me now as fully authorized,
but I believe expects different news as soon as the Independence
Bill is passed; but I cannot help thinking you had better leave
him where he is, for his going away will mend nothing. I have
bought your wine.

Ever very affectionately yours,
T.G.

* * * * *

Within a few days after this letter reached England, the Rockingham Administration had ceased to exist. The Marquis of Rockingham, whose health had been declining for some time, died on the 1st of July, and was succeeded in his title by his nephew, the Earl Fitzwilliam, who is alluded to in these letters by Mr. Thomas Grenville. The first intimation of this event conveyed to the Plenipotentiary at Paris was in a letter from his brother, Lord Temple. The circumstances that immediately followed are detailed in the letters of Lord Temple and Mr. Sheridan, written on the same day, and in a letter from Mr. Fox on the day following. The apprehension expressed by Lord Temple that Fox's resignation would be ascribed by the public to a mean contest for offices was not unfounded; although such a motive cannot be believed to have influenced the mind of that statesman, the conviction of what he felt to be his duty on this occasion being shared by Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Burke, Lord John Cavendish, Lord Althorpe and others, who instantly followed his example. The King's undisguised predilection for Lord Shelburne arose from the nearer agreement of their opinions on the American question, than existed between His Majesty and the Rockingham section of the Cabinet, who were for an unconditional recognition of the independence of America--a proceeding regarded by His Majesty with aversion. The rapidity with which the changes were adopted furnished a sufficient reason for Fox's determination not to act under Lord Shelburne, that nobleman having accepted the appointment to the Treasury immediately on the death of Lord Rockingham, without consultation with his colleagues, and Lord Grantham being appointed in the same unceremonious way to the secretaryship vacated by his Lordship. A remarkable contradiction will be observed in the language held on this occasion by Lord Shelburne, who is reported by Lord Temple to have stated that he looked naturally to the Treasury, and knew no reason why he should forego it, while to Sheridan he declared that he entered upon the office against his wish.

LORD TEMPLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

London, July 4th, Twelve P.M. 1782.

My dear Brother,

My letters by the post have been so unfortunate, and the subject
of the present hour is so important, that I have waited all this
day for the certainty of a courier, and I am now promised that
one shall be dispatched immediately. I was in the country when I
received from Mr. Fox an express with the news of Lord
Rockingham's death, and an earnest entreaty to come to town;
which I did, and found him anxious for the future arrangements.
I told him, in the course of our conversation, that I held
myself engaged to support the measures of the body of the Whigs,
and deprecated any precipitate resolution, unless there was
reason to imagine that _measures_ would be changed. He told me
that a meeting had been held of the four friends of Lord
Rockingham; viz., the Duke of Richmond, Lord J. Cavendish,
Keppell and himself; that they had agreed to submit the Duke of
Portland's name to the King, for the Treasury, but with little
hopes of success; that he had writ to other great peers, &c., to
come to town, and wished for their opinions; that he took it for
granted that Lord Shelburne would insist upon the Treasury, and
that the King would support him in that claim; that his idea was
to quit immediately, but that others differed upon this, but
that he was to see Lord Shelburne, and should then know more.
This interview took place, and the first account I had of it was
from Lord Shelburne, who came to me in the House of Lords and
desired to tell it to me. He stated general willingness to
accommodate, and a fixed determination at all events to adhere
to every measure of reform which had been proposed, and to
facilitate Cabinet arrangements as far as could be hoped from
him; that it was natural that the Treasury should be an object
to him, that he knew no reason why he was always to forego, and
stated the indisposition of the King's mind to any other person
at the head of that board. This was attended with every
expression of civility to me, and an earnest wish that I would
not decline employment, but would engage in the King's service.
To this I made the answer which you can so easily conceive, and
told him very fairly my intention to act with the great body of
the Whigs; I proceeded to state the inconceivable difficulties
attending our situation, the necessity of union, and the certain
consequences of a breach between himself and the other great
features of the Ministry.

I can hardly give you the detail of this very long conversation.
It was very free and open on both sides, and convinced me that
he was certainly, and at all hazards, to have the situation, of
which I hardly had a doubt before. He pledged himself repeatedly
to the public measures, and to a variety of details which it is
not necessary to state, and left me with every personal
expression and many wishes that I would reconsider my answer.
The next moment, Fox came to me in the Prince's chamber, and I
had nearly as long a conversation with him; he stated his
knowledge that Lord Shelburne would succeed to Lord Rockingham,
and his idea of throwing up. I stated Lord Shelburne's promises
to measures, which I found Lord Shelburne had made to him; but
the loss of the object, which was evidently a favourite point
with him, seemed to affect him much. I repeated my apprehensions
that the people would not stand by him in his attempt to quit
upon private grounds, which from their nature would appear to be
a quarrel for offices, and not a public measure. He saw all
this, and said that it had been urged to him by several, but
that he was not _determined_. I went into the House of Lords,
where I found the Duke of Richmond, who was outrageous at the
idea of a resignation, and who went before me in all I had said
to Fox upon this subject; and you will easily conceive that this
opinion was strengthened by the most explicit speech that I ever
heard, which Lord Shelburne gave as his creed and the test of
his conduct, and which indeed seemed satisfactory to every one
who heard him.

This day has opened a new scene: the King declared his intention
of giving the Treasury to Lord Shelburne; and it was proposed to
Lord J. Cavendish to take the vacant seals, which, from variety
of reasons, Lord John declined; and notwithstanding all that the
Duke of Richmond could urge, Fox has resigned, and the King has
accepted the seals. _En nova progenies!_ Lord Shelburne keeps
the Treasury, and it is _supposed_ that Pitt is his Chancellor
of the Exchequer; Duke of Grafton, Lord Camden, Conway, Duke of
Richmond and Keppell remain, and mean to go on; who are the two
Secretaries are not known. I have had a long conversation just
now with the Duke of Richmond, who is unhappy, but determined to
go on till the first breach on fair public grounds; and wherever
or whenever he finds Lord Shelburne tripping, he has apprized
him that he will quit, and the other has agreed to it, with
every seeming profession of cordiality; and thus matters stand.

My opinion, from all whom I have seen, is that Fox has undone
himself with the public; and his most intimate friends seem of
the same opinion. I am now to request and desire of you, in the
strongest terms, not to return from France till you hear further
from me. Fox tells me, that you (being envoy) cannot come
without the King's leave; and I must entreat of you, for the
sake of the public, and of that Ministry which I trust and hope
will still stand its ground, for the great and important objects
which we had in view in March last--let me add, for your own
sake--do not spread the alarm of returning till you hear from me
again, which you certainly shall in a very short period. With
every anxious hope and wish that affection can form,

I am,
My dear brother,
Ever yours,
N. T.

I am anxious to inform you that the Duke of Richmond has pressed
me to take the Secretary of State, as named by all our Whig
friends; and I shall accept.[1] This is another reason for
wishing you to stay till a few days clear up all our doubts and
difficulties, in which I need not say how happy I shall be to
see you so, and how cordially I love and esteem you. Adieu, my
dear Tom.

[Footnote 1: This first part of the postscript is written in cypher.]

MR. SHERIDAN TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Thursday, July 4th, 1782.

My Dear Grenville,

Knowing that you very much dislike your situation, I don't know
how to call ill news what I am now going to inform you of.
Charles has this day resigned the seals; as he is much engaged,
I have undertaken to let you know this event, and make the last
exercise of our office the sending a messenger to you, as it
would certainly be unfair to lose a single hour in assisting you
in your release. I understand you cannot leave Paris without
leave from hence, as you have the King's commission; but by
sending this to you directly, it will be in your own hands to
require that leave in as peremptory terms as you please.

What relates to Lord Rockingham's death you are informed of. The
day before it happened Charles made a question in the Cabinet on
the policy of not reserving the Independence of America as a
matter of treaty and the price of a peace, but to grant it at
once unconditionally; on which he was beat. And immediately on
Lord Rockingham's death, Lord Shelburne informs them that he is
to be First Lord of the Treasury and the King's Minister, though
_against his wish_, &c., &c. They proposed the Duke of Portland,
which the King refused; and after a great deal of idle
negotiation, in which it was evident there was no power left
with our friends, the measure of to-day was determined on. Lord
John Cavendish goes out with Charles, Keppel follows; but, to
his shame, in my opinion, the _Duke of Richmond_, I believe,
will remain. Mr. Pitt joins Shelburne, and will be either
Chancellor of the Exchequer or Secretary of State. For the rest,
it is not known whether they will make up out of the old set, or
take all new. Conway also will stay. But still, those who go are
right; for there is really no other question but whether, having
lost their power, they ought to stay and lose their characters.
And so begins a new Opposition; but wofully thinned and
disconcerted, I fear. I am sure, however, that you will think
what has been done was right. Fitzpatrick is here, but returning
to Ireland; where, however, neither he nor the Duke will remain.

I write in great haste, which you must excuse. Yours ever truly,
R. B. Sheridan.

What you hear of Cornwallis having lost some transports, is a
matter of no magnitude.

MR. FOX TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Dear Grenville,

You will not wonder at my being hurried too much at this moment
to write you a detail of what has happened. I do assure you that
the thing that has given me most concern, is the sort of scrape
I have drawn you into; but I think I may depend upon your way of
thinking for forgiving me; though to say one can depend upon any
man, is a bold word, after what has passed within these few
days. I am sure, on the other hand, that you may depend upon my
eternal gratitude to you for what you have undergone on my
account, and that you always must have the greatest share in my
friendship and affection. I do not think you will think these
[less] valuable than you used to do. I have done right, I am
sure I have. The Duke of Richmond thinks very much otherwise,
and will do wrong; I cannot help it. I am sure my staying would
have been a means of deceiving the public and betraying my
party; and these are things not to be done for the sake of any
supposed temporary good. I feel that my situation in the
country, my power, my popularity, my consequence, nay, my
character, are all risked; but I have done right, and therefore
in the end it must turn out to have been wise. If this fail me,
the pillared firmament is rottenness, and earth's base built on
stubble.

Adieu. Your brother disapproves too.
Yours most affectionately,
C. J. Fox.

St. James's, July 5th, 1782.

MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO MR. FOX.

(Private.)

Paris, July 9th, 1782.

Dear Charles,

You apologize for writing me only a few lines; I shall write you
still fewer, and make no apology; for after what has passed, I
count every minute that the messenger is getting ready to
return, as so much time lost, however it is employed. You are
sorry you have drawn me into a scrape; I know of none, at least
none that an honest man could keep out of, or need be either
sorry or ashamed to have got into; neither do I see what you
have to regret in any part of this business, farther than the
late hour in which it was done. You know my system upon that
subject, and how firmly it was my opinion that you should not
have lost one moment, to fight the battle with advantage, which,
with or without, everybody saw must be to be fought; but, as
long as it is fought honourably, it is sure to be successful in
the end, for one day or other, right will always come right.

I suppose I need not tell you that I have answered Lord
Shelburne's letter by the official information he desires,
adding to it "my fixed purpose firmly to decline any farther
prosecution of this business, and requesting him, as speedily as
may be, to lay before His Majesty, in all duty and humility, my
earnest and unalterable prayer that he will be graciously
pleased to recal me from the commission I am honoured with at
Paris."

I write too to beg my brother to press my immediate return. I
see by his letter he knows nothing of what has passed. If you
would show him my letter to you, at my request, under the
strictest confidence, he will be apprized of the true state much
sooner than if he waits till I come, when I shall certainly tell
him; this, however, is at your own choice, if you had rather
wait till I come.

Adieu. Pray thank Sheridan for his letter. I will write the
first moment my messenger is gone. Well, what a time to be out
of England! _et Montauciel n'y était pas!_ I don't think I can
quite forgive you. No news here. They say they have taken
eighteen transports from us, but they are not yet come into
Brest.

Yours most affectionately,
T. Grenville.

MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Paris, July 9th, 1782.

My Dearest Brother,

Your letter was given to me last night, and since I have been
able to read I never felt so much agitated. I hastily send back
the messenger, but he carries with him a letter to Lord
Shelburne, in which I formally request my immediate recal.

My dear brother, you do not know my situation, or you would see
in the first instant, as you will so soon as I can speak to you,
that if I continued at Paris, I should be the meanest and most
contemptible wretch that was ever born into the world; I should
falsify my word, I should betray my honour, I should repay the
confidence that was reposed in me with the most cowardly
treachery, I should disgrace every feeling that is honourable
and respectable between man and man. I have no choice; my
immediate return is as much a duty and obligation upon me as can
in human society be laid upon one who would not renounce the
character of a gentleman. Judge, then, of the distressful
situation I must have been in at the time of decyphering your
last lines, and judge how sacred and indispensable those
circumstances must be, that do not give me even room to hesitate
in a difficulty of so much delicacy. I love you, my dearest
brother, with the truest and sincerest affection; my pride and
ambition are ten-fold more gratified in your situation of life
than in any that could be mine; nor, so help me God! do I think
there is an interest, an advantage, present or future, that I
would not gladly sacrifice for you, if it could add one step to
your greatness; but you love me too well not to shrink at the
thought of my disgracing myself, and a fouler disgrace there
could not be, than I should inevitably incur by staying at Paris
as Minister.

One part of my difficulty you see already; it is that I dare not
write even in cypher, what would save me all the embarrassment
of this letter, and you the uneasiness of its obscurity, till I
see you. My dear brother, reflect, if it is not too late, upon
the opinions we have held in common, upon the judgment we have
formed in common, of the rectitude and integrity of some men,
and the utter and absolute want of it in others. Recollect, if
it is possible, the uneasiness that you felt, the doubt that you
expressed and I made light of, in the very last conversations we
had together. Think over all that might have happened, and be
persuaded that all has; think over the most pleasing parts of
your last letter, and be persuaded that a few plain words,
whenever I see you, will make you blot it out with indignation.
But above all, I do conjure you, in the most solemn terms, to
guard against expressing the surmises this letter may suggest to
you, and to drop no word of suspicion or jealousy till I see
you. The caution of this letter--to which I dare not add a
cypher, however it must grieve me to speak to you in the
dark--every circumstance, must show you how deeply my honour,
how much more deeply than human wisdom could apprehend, my
honour is involved in this business.

One word more, though I think every minute an hour till the
messenger is gone. Trust me till you hear me; and above all, if
you are applied to persuade me to stay, do not think of so
doing; it may make the delay of one post, and that will hurt me;
it can do no more.

God Almighty bless you, my dearest brother; a warmer affection
no man can bear you. Think of all my impatience to see you, and
do not forget that in pressing my recal, you do me a more
essential and honourable service than you know. Once more, God
bless you, my dearest brother.

* * * * *

Before Lord Temple had received this letter he had declined the secretaryship, and accepted the appointment of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, his brother, Mr. William Wyndham Grenville (afterwards Lord Grenville) accompanying him as Chief Secretary. In the reply that follows, Lord Temple expresses the profound sorrow he felt at his brother's determination to resign, of which he was confessedly not in a position to form a competent judgment.

LORD TEMPLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Pall Mall, July 12th, Eleven, P.M.

I have received your letter, my dearest brother, which has
sensibly--I need not say how sensibly--affected me. My letter to
you did not propose to decide upon the propriety of the great
question, whether you should or not continue to keep the
character in which you are now employed; of that I could be no
judge. The total and absolute ignorance in which I have
remained, since you left England, of what was passing at Paris,
and the total want of information of what was passing here, so
far as concerned your mission, make me wholly incompetent to the
question; of that you must be the judge, and I trust and hope
that your decision will stand every test. My object was solely
to prevent the possibility of your coming away precipitately,
and so far my point is gained. I will say nothing of the cruel
situation in which I stand; I feel it most bitterly, and feel it
the more because my affection to you has no bounds. I am not
Secretary at State; but think, my dearest brother, what must
have been my feelings, if I had (as was much pressed upon me
from every quarter) accepted that department to which your
negotiation was more immediately annexed, in confidence that you
would have done that for me which you have done for Mr. Fox. If
I had listened to that persuasion (and surely my heart might
have prompted me to have done so), I might have had the
mortification of finding myself in a situation which I can
hardly think of without the most violent agitation; the voice of
every one had pointed out to me that department; and every
reason, public and private, seemed to call me to it. Think this
over, my dearest brother, and tell me if the ties of private
friendship are such as would have justified you to your own
feelings for fixing upon me a disgrace, the extent of which I
shudder at.

I know, I feel, that you love me; but, great God! to what have
you exposed me! and, much as you value Mr. Fox, am I to think
(good God! after the uniform affection, which has never felt
more truly for you than at this hour) that you trust your honour
and reputation in his hands to an extent that knows no bounds;
and that the moment which calls upon you to withdraw yourself
from your situation, is that which possibly had put your brother
in that confidential public situation in which I trusted he had
stood with you in private life? I cannot dwell upon this. I
would have fought your quarrels, I would have felt with you
every reason which may have induced you to urge this recal,
possibly very prudently, justly, and honourably; but it was not
necessary to convince every member of the Cabinet, that your
honour, safe in the hands of Mr. Fox, was not so in mine. Good
God! my dearest brother, loving me as you do, and knowing how I
prize and value you, think over this picture of possibilities,
and join with me (which is all I will ever say to you on a
subject which cuts me to the very heart) in the happiness I
feel, that motives, in which I will say that considerations for
your credit, your honour, and your ease, were decisive,
determined me to reject the first and to accept a second
proposition. That die is cast; my opinion, my reputation, and my
honour are pledged to it. I will believe, because it is my only
joy at such a crisis, that your affections beat as highly to
what conduces to my honour and situation as ever I could wish;
and tell me, my dearest brother, if the whole tenor and every
hour of my life has not proved to you how I valued your
confidence, and how truly it would be my pride to consult your
advancement; and if in taking this situation I have consulted
what was most for the honour and ease of every one of my family,
if I have peculiarly consulted the possible delicacy of your
situation, and have sacrificed every favourite passion of my
heart to it, think what my present feelings are, in the
uncertainty of the extent of those sacrifices which you may
still think yourself obliged to make. The thought, my dearest
brother, distracts me; I hint it to you, but I shall not feel a
moment's happiness till I see you. My letter is dreadfully
incoherent, but it will paint to you the agitation of a mind
struggling for its dearest and nearest object--the affection of
a brother, whom from my childhood I have pressed nearest to my
heart.--I cannot go on.

I called upon Lord Shelburne the moment I had your letter, and
saw him soon after. I carefully obeyed _every injunction_, and
pressed your immediate recal. He stated the necessity of calling
a Cabinet, as he could not take it upon himself, and the King
does not return to town till Wednesday. I urged it with every
eagerness, and have prevailed that a leave of absence shall be
granted to you to come away immediately, and this to prevent
public mischief. But it is understood that you resign the
commission on your arrival here. I have prevailed that the
messenger is to return very early to-morrow morning; and most
ardently do I wish to annihilate the next eight tedious days.
Feel for me, my dear brother; consult your reason and your
affection, and let me hope that you will feel that satisfaction
which every one of my family most earnestly feels at my
acceptance of the Lieutenancy of Ireland. You know what follows,
and you will have time to think it over; but I conjure you, by
everything which you prize nearest and dearest to your heart, by
the joy I have ever felt for your welfare, by the interest I
have ever taken in your uneasiness, weigh well your
determination; it decides upon the complexion of my future
hours. I am jealous and nice of your honour more than of my own;
but think that I have staked my happiness upon this cast; and
may God direct you, my dearest brother, to the only answer which
can convince me that your esteem and affection equals that which
I have ever borne you. God ever bless you.

RESIGNED.
Mr. Fox.
Lord J. Cavendish.
Mr. Burke.
Lord Robert Spencer.
Lord Althorpe.
Lord Dungannon.
Mr. Townshend.
Mr. Montagu.
Mr. Lee.

These are all who have resigned.

APPOINTED
Lord Shelburne _Treasury._
Mr. T. Grenville ¯|
Mr. Jackson |_Ditto._
Mr. Elliott _|
Mr. Pitt _Chancellor of the Exchequer._
Mr. T. Townshend _Secretary of State, Home Department._
Lord Grantham _Ditto, Foreign Department._
Sir G. Yonge _Secretary-at-War._
Mr. Aubrey ¯|
|_Admiralty._
Mr. Pratt _|
Lord C. Spencer _Vice-Treasurer._
Colonel Barré _Paymaster._
Vacant _Treasurer of the Navy._
Ditto _Solicitor-General._
Duke of Richmond ¯|
Duke of Grafton |
Lord Camden |_Continue in their offices._
Lord Keppell |
General Conway _|

Mr. Sheridan's name should be included in the above list of resignations. The vacancies of the Treasurership of the Navy and the Solicitor-Generalship were respectively filled by Mr. Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville, and Mr. Pepper Arden, afterwards Lord Alvanley.

MR. FOX TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Dear Grenville,

I am exceedingly obliged to you for your kind letter; and
indeed, if political transactions put one out of humour with
_many_, they make one love the _few_ who do act and think right
so much better that it is some compensation. I understand a
messenger is just going, by whom I send this letter; he will
bring you others, from whence you will learn that your brother
is going Lord-Lieutenant to Ireland. If you go with him as
Secretary, I hope you will be so good as to endeavour to serve
my friend Dickson, who by this change has for the third time
missed a Bishopric.

I called upon your brother yesterday, and left with him the
letters that passed between you and me, explaining that it was
at your desire that I did so. I was very glad to have your
authority for this step, for to tell you the truth, I was very
much inclined to take it even of my own when it was supposed he
was to be my successor; now that he knows the whole of the
narration, if he still chooses (as I fear he will) to go into
this den of thieves neither you nor I have anything to answer
for. If this transaction had been withheld from him, he might
have had reason to complain of me, but much more of you. I have
not heard from him since he has been _au fait_. His expressions,
both to me personally and to the party, were so kind, that I am
far from considering him as lost; but whether he is or not, and
whatever part your situation may make it right for you to take
in politics, I shall always depend upon your friendship and
kindness to me as perfectly unalterable; and I do assure you
that this consideration is one of the things that most
contributes to keep up my spirits in this very trying situation.

Yours affectionately,
C. J. Fox.
Grafton Street, July 13th, 1782.

Lord Temple entered upon the Government of Ireland at a crisis of serious agitation. A short time before, under the Duke of Portland's Administration, a Bill had passed the Imperial Parliament, recognizing in full and in the most explicit manner the sole and exclusive right of the Parliament of Ireland to make laws for Ireland--establishing and affirming, in fact, the perfect independence of Ireland, legislative, judicial and commercial. This Bill had given complete satisfaction to the popular leaders. Even the Volunteers declared themselves appeased, and adopted final resolutions to that effect. But the factious and jealous spirit of the Irish was subsequently disturbed by indications on the part of the English Legislature of a disposition to depart in some particulars from this settlement, and by the unfortunate incident of some Irish appeals which lay over for judgment in England, the authority to adjudicate them having been relinquished, or disavowed, by the measure alluded to. The whole matter turned upon distinctions, but they were sufficient to influence the distrust of the turbulent, who were ready to seize upon any excuse for expressing their impatience of English authority. The introduction of a singular Bill by Lord Abingdon, having for its object the assertion of the sole and exclusive right of Great Britain to regulate her external commerce, and that of all countries under her sovereignty, and repealing so much of the former Bill as took that power out of the Parliament of Great Britain and vested it in the Parliament of Ireland, had the effect of affording an abundant pretext to the uneasiness which was now beginning to grow up in Ireland, and which Mr. Grattan exerted his utmost influence to dispel. Want of confidence, also, in the sincerity of Lord Shelburne's Ministry yielded an additional ground for national discontent. "Things were never more unsettled than they are at present," Mr. Perry writes to Mr. Grattan, in October, 1782; "some of the Ministry here are at open enmity with each other, and everybody seems to distrust the head." Such was the state of their affairs when Mr. William Wyndham Grenville came over to London to communicate confidentially with the Government on the part of his brother, the Lord-Lieutenant. The correspondence in which he details from day to day the results of his interviews with Ministers, and his observations upon the net-work of small difficulties in which he was involved by the want of unity in the Cabinet--especially between Mr. Townshend and Lord Shelburne on the Irish questions--is minute and voluminous; and only a few letters have been selected from the mass to show the course of ministerial diplomacy in reference to the equivocal relations subsisting at that period between the two countries. They form a running commentary upon a curious passage in Irish history; and although the circumstances to which they relate have long been completely disposed of, the Union having obliterated all the matters in dispute, the insight which they give us into the detail of Cabinet discussions, the occasional traits they bring to light of the characters of public men, and the calm and luminous views they develope of the distracting politics of Ireland, confer a permanent interest upon them. Two facts, by no means unimportant, are established in these letters--namely, the lively and judicious anxiety Lord Temple and his brother uniformly felt in their endeavours to restore the tranquillity of Ireland, and the impediments they met in their strenuous efforts to preserve the faith and honour of England in her transactions with that country.

MR. W. WYNDHAM GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, Nov. 27th, 1782.

My dear Brother,

I saw Townshend on the evening of my arrival here, which was
Sunday. Lord Shelburne was then out of town, so that I was of
course obliged to state what I had to say to Townshend alone.
This I did very fully, in a conversation which lasted near two
hours, and in which, to say truth, Townshend bore a less part
than I expected and could have wished. What he did say was,
however, very fair and explicit. He expressed a strong
determination in the King's servants to give you every possible
support. He had found _no_ opportunity (as I understood him) of
convening a Cabinet on the affairs of Ireland, but had talked
separately with all the Ministers upon the subject, and found in
them no difference of opinion, except perhaps in General Conway,
whom he thought "a little influenced by his nephew's pamphlet,
and by his own natural temper, to look towards further
concession." He saw little difficulty in what you wished;
thought you best able to judge of the propriety of the moment
for such a measure; and said it was the King's opinion, as well
as his own, "that where there was not some marked difference of
opinion, the Lord-Lieutenant should be _left to himself_,
without however being _abandoned_." I stated to him pretty
strongly the effect of the ideas of changes of men and opinions
in this country. On that point, as far as related to men, I
could get little or nothing from him, although I recurred to it
more than once. At last he said that the same effects were felt
here, and would be so till Government should show a sufficient
strength and consistency in Parliament. Scarce anything more
passed on his side, except strong expressions of personal regard
to you, and a warm encomium on the Duke of Portland, and the
language held by him on your subject, and on that of the state
of Ireland.

He gave me hopes of seeing Lord Shelburne the next day; but the
great man was at his recess at Streatham, and was not visible
till yesterday. When I went to him, he began with unbounded
expressions of a determination to support you as long as he had
anything to do here. He understood that you went in great
measure at his request, and therefore he considered it as common
cause. He begged that his silence might never be construed into
indolence or timidity: the subject was never off his mind. As a
proof, he mentioned his former silence, at which you was
alarmed, and its being followed by the most explicit
declarations, in which you had professed yourself fully
satisfied. After a great deal more of such verbiage, I stated
your wish as to the dissolution. He objected strongly to the
taking so capital a step till something was decided about the
negotiation at Paris. If the war should continue, it would be
necessary to determine on some plan suited to such an event. But
if we had peace, the advantages to Government in Ireland would
be great and almost infinite. Such an event would throw the
Volunteers upon their backs, would bring back the army to that
country and to this, and would also bring the fleet into the
Channel. He dwelt very much on the great advantage of not being
obliged to meet the Parliament till October, and when I hinted
at the possible necessity of a contrary resolution, he argued
strongly, and I think satisfactorily, against such a measure. He
then concluded the conversation, expressing a perfect readiness
to hear me again more at large on the subject. Seeing that he
would not hear any more at that time, I ended with saying that I
was not commissioned to state decisively your sentiments on this
very unexpected event, but that I was sure you would feel much
disappointed if a measure which you thought so necessary was
postponed without the most serious consideration and the most
urgent reasons. His answer was, that you might depend upon it
that whatever determination was made on the subject would be
most seriously weighed, and taken on the best grounds. He then
told me that a Cabinet should be held to-day, to take the
business into consideration.

To-day I dined with him, and saw both him and Townshend after
dinner. They both stated in the strongest manner the
inconvenience of so decisive a measure whilst a subject was in
agitation, and must be decided in a very few days, on which the
whole line and plan of your Government will have to depend. For
these reasons, they said it had been judged most proper to
postpone the Cabinet till something arrived from Paris. I ended
my conversation with Lord Shelburne by saying, that in the event
of war, I did not see how, after this delay, it would be
possible to resist; and that in that light it was my duty to
discharge my commission from you, and to state my own sentiments
as far as they could have any weight, that a few days might do
more mischief in Ireland than many years would be able to
repair. _Liberari animans meam._ To this he replied, that I had
done my part fairly, and that _he would be answerable for the
event_.

After all this detail, you will possibly wish to know my
sentiments upon the subject. From the whole of Lord Shelburne's
manner, I think that he is inclined to deal very fairly by you,
for his own sake. I have no doubt, from the style of his
conversation, that he is determined, in the present situation of
things, to stand the ground against concessions, and this both
from his own opinions and those of the King. But he certainly
either does not see, or affects not to see, the situation of
Ireland in that very alarming light in which it must be viewed
by every man acquainted with it.

As to the measure of the dissolution, I think you will agree
with him, that if we were sure of the favourable event, the
delay would not prove near so prejudicial on the one hand, as it
would be advantageous on the other. And from the language he
holds, I am persuaded, and Jemmy agrees with me in opinion, that
he is convinced that they will have their peace. On the other
hand, I cannot but say, that if the war continues, we shall be
in an awkward situation. The whole depends on the greater or
less probability of peace, to which we are neither of us
competent to decide; and I have thrown, if not the disagreeable
consequences, at least the responsibility of the measure on him.

In this situation of things, I thought you would rather choose
that I should remain here to give you the very first moment of
news, and to press then a Cabinet upon the affairs of Ireland in
general, than that I should run back to you in our present
uncertainty. You will observe, that although I have rather
expressed myself to you satisfied with the affair, I have taken
infinite pains not to let it appear to them; but on the
contrary, have left Lord Shelburne in no small uneasiness about
the manner in which you may take it; so that if you should be
dissatisfied, I have by no means pledged you. If you think with
me, the whole merit of it will lay at your door.

I desired Townshend to state to the King that I was ready to
obey His Majesty's commands, if he wished to ask me any
questions. He told me to-day that the King expressed himself
perfectly ready to give me an audience _if I wished for one_.
This I thought was better declined. I shall go to the levée on
Friday, and shall be very impatient for your answer to this long
detail.

Whatever your opinion may be of the line of conduct which I have
held, I trust you will do justice to my zeal for your interests
and honour, inseparably connected as they are, and I hope will
ever remain, with my own, and to the sincere affection with
which I am,

Ever most truly yours,
W. W. G.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO LORD TEMPLE.

Pall Mall, Saturday, Nov. 30th, 1782.

My Dear Brother,

I have just been with Townshend, who sent for me on the subject
of a despatch from you, relating to the proceedings in the
King's Bench here, on an Irish cause.