Cleveland Row, June 28th, 1798.
My dearest Brother,
I this morning received your letter from Liverpool. I rejoice to think that the Wexford news will probably make your stay at Dublin of no long continuance, and much as I regret the present inconvenience to yourself, yet I will own that it is gratifying to me that this news did not arrive time enough to stop your embarkation. I consider it as very important on many accounts that some of the British Militia regiments should actually arrive in Ireland, and I would not willingly forego the pride of knowing that your regiment was the first of them. We have no news here of any kind; indeed Ireland has engaged the whole attention of everybody here, and left us no leisure to think of anything else except to cast now and then a longing wish to the Mediterranean. We have, as you will have heard from my brother, accounts of Nelson's being actually in the Mediterranean, and such particulars as seem to leave no doubt of his having been joined by the ten of the line and the fifty under Trowbridge. I am more and more convinced that Buonaparte's intention was only to proceed to Corsica and to wait there the event of the negotiations, hanging upon the rear of Naples and Tuscany, but without any other present object, and then to be determined by circumstances as to the future destination of his fleet, for Portugal, Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies. If we have tolerable luck, Nelson will disappoint all these plans.
When you see Lord Clare, pray tell him that in consequence of his having been spoken of by the Duke of Bedford and Lord Holland last night in a manner extremely galling to my feelings, I took the opportunity to express the sentiments which I believe he knows I entertain of his character and conduct. This passed with the doors of the House shut, so that he will not see any account of it in the papers. He will not suppose that I claim any thanks for a bare act of duty and justice, nor should I have wished it to be mentioned to him from me, if I had not thought it just possible that he might hear of the attack, in which case I should have felt much concern if he had not at the same time known that it had been treated with as much indignation and scorn as it merited.
The business of Williams is arranged to your wishes. I shall be anxious to hear of your son after his arrival at Dublin, for I did not think the account of his leg at all comfortable. If the Irish news continues good, you will not, I think, have any other Militia regiments besides those now there. We expect Lord Camden to-day. Lord Darnley made a useful speech last night, in which he told us, amongst other things, that he had never witnessed so much satisfaction from any event at Dublin, as from the destruction of Lord Moira's town. Lord M. was not there, and kept the Prince of Wales away.
Ever most affectionately yours,
G.
Lord Buckingham arrived in Dublin towards the end of June, to the infinite satisfaction of Lord Cornwallis, who found himself surrounded by the usual perplexities of Irish Government, considerably increased by the excited condition of the country.
The general opinion entertained in England of the change that had recently taken place in the character of the Irish insurrection, may be gathered from a passage in a letter addressed to Lord Buckingham by Mr. Thomas Grenville, on the 5th of July.
As far as I can judge from the public accounts in the newspapers, the rebellion seems rather to have changed its shape than to have abandoned its object, and it may be a question whether much advantage is gained in its becoming a Maroon war of plunderers and banditti, rather than continuing to be a formal array regularly opposed to the regular army in the country; because though it may be true that the danger of a large army of rebels may be a danger of greater magnitude, as well as more immediate, yet it furnishes at least the opportunity of meeting that danger, and of grappling with it; whereas this plundering, robbing, and burning war, carried on by an infinite number of small parties, associated together and hiding together like the thieves in the cave of Gil Blas, puts the peace and the security of the country in greater danger, keeps up a more constant alarm, is more difficult to resist, because it is more difficult to find and to prepare against, and, what is not the least consideration, it utterly ruins and destroys the hopes of these men, after indulging long in such habits, returning again either to labour or even to subordination.
To me, therefore, I own it seems to be more necessary than ever to make the most active exertions in order to counteract this new shape of evil; and I do hope and trust that, however ungracious and mortifying it may be to military habits and military education to be opposed to what may be deemed petty bands of robbers and incendiaries, Lord Cornwallis will feel the necessity of applying his best military talents in a service where no military glory can be obtained, except as it may be applied to the restoration of the security and tranquillity of the country.
The forbearance of Lord Cornwallis is alluded to in a subsequent letter from Lord Grenville. It was felt that his lenity in treating with the rebels was misplaced, and that the Government ought to have adopted a more decided course in extinguishing the dying embers of the insurrection.