Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third Volume II Part 31

As it was through your Lords.h.i.+p's kind and affectionate partiality that I was placed in the War Office, I think it my duty to give you the earliest information of my removal.

Since Lord Fitzwilliam's arrival, I have merely seen his Excellency at levee. With his chief secretary, Lord Milton, I have daily transacted official business, without a syllable pa.s.sing of a nature in any degree confidential. The removal of Mr. Beresford, of the Attorney and Solicitor-General, had created alarms; but there were a.s.surances from an English quarter that Mr. Hamilton and I were not to be meddled with.

The reverse has taken place. About four o'clock to-day, Lord Milton conveyed to Mr. Hamilton his Excellency's pleasure that he should retire from office, with a desire that Mr. Hamilton should state his situation after removal, as it was his Excellency's intention to make him a provision.

About half an hour after, Lord Milton sent for me, and delivered a similar message; stating, upon conversation, that his Excellency did not in any degree mean to reflect upon my conduct, but that my retirement was necessary for his arrangements, and that he was disposed to make me a fair provision; at the same time, upon conversation, his Lords.h.i.+p intimated that it was possible his Excellency might differ as to the provision which I might expect and he might think reasonable.

I have thought it my duty to submit these particulars to your Lords.h.i.+p. From your Lords.h.i.+p I received my office; the Government with which you have been connected I have supported to my utmost; and I have the happiness to feel a.s.sured that I shall ever retain your Lords.h.i.+p's kindness and regards till I cease to deserve it.

Believe me, my dear Lord, with the utmost respect, Ever your most devoted and humble servant, E. COOKE.

The Most n.o.ble the Marquis of Buckingham, &c. &c.

MR. COOKE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

(Most Private.) Dublin, Sackville Street, Feb. 7th, 1795.

MY LORD,

I am to thank your Lords.h.i.+p for your most friendly and flattering letter; and as you seem curious to know the feelings of myself and colleagues on our removals, as well as the nature of our compensations, I will endeavour to detail them as well as I can.

With respect to Mr. Wolf, the first act was to claim the reversion recommended for him by Lord Westmoreland, and promised above a year ago by Mr. Pitt, and which the King had actually signed, as a measure for negotiation. Wolf _in vain_ argued that the reversion was not a subject for negotiation. They offered him a Peerage for his wife, and a Chief Judge's place. Wolf, in addition, asked precedency at the Bar. After some days, the precedency was refused, and the promise of a Chief Judge's place was retracted. Wolf insisted on the promise. He was threatened that if he insisted, he should be superseded. He did insist, and the promise was at length renewed, in case a vacancy should happen.

Mr. Wolf gains nothing but the Peerage for his wife, for the reversion was actually his own, and had been signed by the King; the promise of a Chief Justices.h.i.+p is very precarious, and he is degraded in his profession.

Mr. Toler, having in his pocket the promise of succeeding to the Attorney-Generals.h.i.+p, is to be superseded for Mr. Curran. He has asked for a Peerage to his wife, and for the succession to Lord Carleton. Upon his first demand, nothing has been said to him; upon his second, it has been intimated that he may _look_ for any seat on the Bench short of Chief Justices.h.i.+p. Your Lords.h.i.+p must guess that Mr. Toler feels himself _gratified_, especially when he recollects that, after having boldly and manfully, at the risk of his person, set himself against all the seditious and levellers in and out of the House, he is sacrificed to make way for Mr. Curran, who has been the most seditious incendiary in Ireland ever since he became a public character.

Mr. Beresford your Lords.h.i.+p may have probably seen. He, it seems, was dismissed because he was king of Ireland, as Bowes Daly authoritatively informed him in his Excellency's name. The object with respect to him was to publicly degrade him, give him a provision during pleasure, then attack him, and have a pretext to ruin him, if he should defend himself with spirit. He has been acquainted that, in pursuance of a resolution of the House of Commons, he is to have his salary of 2000 a-year on Excise Incidents--not for his services, but his long and laborious _attendance_. The attempt has been to stigmatize him, to degrade him, and to make him dependent. I hope the last will not be the case--the two former cannot.

Mr. Hamilton had merely fifty years of the most laborious and faithful service to plead, under all Administrations, whether adverse to each other or combined. He loses 1200 a-year by removal; he loses the comforts of settlement, he loses the prospect of providing for his sons; he is, however, informed that something will be done for one of them!

I am equally removed from a station of much advantage and opportunity. If I do not resort to my bargain with Thornton, I lose 1800 a-year; if I do, I lose 1300 a-year. I am told that I am not to expect compensation for my losses, but that his Excellency, on review of my situation, will make compensation for my services.

As, however, Lord Milton was pleased to state to me that his Excellency did not mean to cast in any degree any imputation on my conduct, and that he removed me merely on the principle of _accommodation_, and to make room for arrangements which he thought necessary for his Government, I thought it my duty to claim compensation, not for my services, but for my losses, and to throw myself upon his Excellency's justice and honour.

I have heard that my having ventured not to appear satisfied in my dismissal, has given offence; and it has been intimated, though not from authority, that there is not an intention to compensate me at all, but merely to indemnify Thornton for what, by agreement, he is in honour obliged to pay me.

When Lord Fitzwilliam seized upon the Provosts.h.i.+p and the Secretarys.h.i.+p of State, the patronage of which absolutely belonged to Lord Westmoreland, his Lords.h.i.+p was obliged to forced measures, in order to extricate himself from specific promises; he therefore, on this principle, included Lord Glentworth in Sir L. O'Brien's patent of Clerk of the Hanaper. Sir L. lately died. Lord Glentworth felt the luckiest of men; in a few days, Lord Fitzwilliam sent for him, and acquainted him that he could not suffer him to remain in that office; that, however, he had a high respect for him; that he had been particularly recommended to him by Mr. Pitt, and that he should hope to do something for him. The Duke of Leinster, being very hungry, has swallowed the office.

With regard to coalition here, or the slightest appearances of it, there are none. Parnell is the only old servant of the Crown who is at all consulted, and he only so far as concerns his situation. The whole is very strange. The Ponsonbys are all-powerful, and appear to direct everything. I know not at all what measures are intended, or whether an opposition will start up; but the giving up all the powers of the State to one family does not please.

The idea of removing all the remaining restraints from the Catholics is not relished; the worst is, that an appeal has been made to the Catholic democracy, and I know they are not to be depended upon; they look to the abolition of tythes and a reform of Parliament on numerical principles. Ever since the first movements of the Roman Catholic Committee, the lower cla.s.ses have been in a state of fermentation, and they continue their disorders and insurrections.

I write this _confidentially_, and beg your Lords.h.i.+p to accept my best acknowledgments for your kind sentiments.

Ever most respectfully, your Lords.h.i.+p's most faithful and obedient servant,

E. COOKE.

The result of Lord Fitzwilliam's vigorous attempts to force upon the Cabinet a line of policy which reason and justice alike rejected, is well known. A Cabinet Council was called on the 19th of March, for the purpose of taking the whole subject into consideration, when it was unanimously resolved to recal Lord Fitzwilliam "as a measure necessary for the preservation of the empire." The most remarkable incident connected with this proceeding was the fact that the Duke of Portland, upon whose "system" Lord Fitzwilliam had based his operations, and who was supposed, all throughout, to have supported him in them, was present at this meeting of the Cabinet, and concurred in its decision.

But Lord Fitzwilliam had not done with Ireland yet. On his return to England, he brought the subject before the House of Lords and demanded an inquiry, which was refused. On this occasion some letters which had been addressed by him to Lord Carlisle were published, and in one of them "imputed malversations" were attributed to Mr. Beresford. In consequence of this statement, Mr. Beresford addressed the following letter to his Lords.h.i.+p:

MR. BERESFORD TO THE EARL FITZWILLIAM.

No. 11, Beaumont Street, June 22nd, 1795.

MY LORD,

Your Lords.h.i.+p must have seen two letters to the Earl of Carlisle, which have been published in your name, and in general circulation.

I have for a long time hoped, that they would be disavowed or explained by your Lords.h.i.+p; I was unwilling to suppose that such a publication had ever been sanctioned by you; I could not bring myself to believe, that your Lords.h.i.+p, possessing the feelings of a man, and the honour of a gentleman, could avail yourself of the power and the trust which had been committed to you by His Majesty, wantonly to traduce a private character, by insinuations expressed in terms so vague and unqualified, as to make it impossible publicly to refute them. From the rank which you hold in society, I must presume, if you thought it your duty to impeach my conduct as a servant of the Crown, you would have adopted the fair and manly course of advancing direct and specific charges against me, which must have led to my conviction, if they had been founded. Direct and specific charges I could fairly have met and refuted; but crooked and undefined insinuations against private character, through the pretext of official discussion, your Lords.h.i.+p must allow are the weapons of a libeller.

The publication in question, states that you recommended my removal from office, "because I was a person under universal heavy suspicions, subject to the opprobrium and unpopularity attendant on maladministration and much imputed malversation." The aspersions contained in this paragraph, are so utterly ungrounded, so unprovoked, unmanly, illiberal, and false, that I could not believe your Lords.h.i.+p could have meant to apply them to a gentleman, by birth your equal, and I will tell you, of reputation as unsullied as your own at any period of your life; there is no charge, however monstrous, of which the idea is not here conveyed; and yet there is none to which the paragraph points directly, so as to afford an opportunity for vindication.

Your Lords.h.i.+p will, I trust, feel the justness of the warmth with which I express myself on those aspersions of my character; and that when I give the lie to such aspersions, I give it upon reasonings as essential to your honour, as they are to mine; and if anything were wanting to induce me to believe that your Lords.h.i.+p will concur with me in this opinion, I should be satisfied of it, from the communications which were made to me by persons authorized to convey your Lords.h.i.+p's sentiments upon my projected removal from the Board of Revenue, and from the official communication made to me by Lord Milton on the same subject.

Considerations of domestic calamity might sufficiently explain the silence I have hitherto observed; but in other respects I should have been unwilling perhaps to have addressed you sooner. I would not appear to avoid any inquiry into my conduct, which insinuations originating from such high authority might be expected to provoke; it became me, therefore, to await with patience the result of the discussions respecting Irish affairs which were taking place in both Parliaments, and even until the close of the session had shown that it was not your Lords.h.i.+p's intention, nor that of either House, to take any further step in the business. I cannot now repent of my own forbearance, as it served, at least, to bring forward testimonies most highly honourable to me, from many individuals of the first weight and character in the age in which we live; these testimonies having been so repeatedly and so publicly urged in your Lords.h.i.+p's presence, and without contradiction on your part, cannot but have convinced you, that you had formed a wrong judgment respecting me, or that you had been deceived by others; in either case, I am ent.i.tled to hope and to presume that you will render to me, and to my character, that justice which one man of honour has a right to expect from another.

I have the honour to be, Your most obedient and humble servant, BERESFORD.

Earl Fitzwilliam.

To this letter Lord Fitzwilliam transmitted the following reply:

EARL FITZWILLIAM TO MR. BERESFORD.

Milton, June 23rd, 1795.

SIR,

I had the honour of receiving your letter of the 22nd this morning.

The letters you allude to, were written by me to Lord Carlisle; and those printed, though not printed by my direction, at my desire, or with my privity, I believe to be substantially copies of the letters I sent to Lord Carlisle; and certainly are so with respect to the quotation in your letter to me, which, therefore, I cannot permit any person whatever to charge with falsity.

It is difficult for me to leave this place abruptly (domestic considerations require a little management); but I will be in London in the course of a few days, where I trust I may rely upon your remaining for the present.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient and very humble servant, WENTWORTH FITZWILLIAM.

Rt. Hon. John Beresford.

In consequence of this letter Mr. Beresford sent his friend Mr.

Montgomery to Lord Fitzwilliam, who refused to enter into any explanation. The usual arrangements were then made for a hostile meeting, Lord Townshend acting as the second of Mr. Beresford, and Lord Moira attending Lord Fitzwilliam. When the parties met upon the ground, however, at Kensington, the duel was prevented by the interference of a peace officer.

The correspondence of Lord Grenville with Lord Buckingham appears to have been suspended during the greater part of the year, but it was resumed towards its close. By this time the allies were gradually retrieving their losses.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.