I mentioned to you, in my last letter, that Lodge Morres would be immediately removed. I have desired that the letter notifying this, may contain some such expressions as you mention; but I cannot answer for this, because I cannot, as things now stand, interfere in the wording of those letters, except by a very circuitous mode.
I also answered your question about Pitt, but I did it shortly; nor indeed could any expressions that I could have used do justice to the warm and anxious feeling which he has shown on this occasion. I am inclined to impute this termination of the business, so much more favourable than I had expected, almost entirely to his judgment and address.
I have had the pleasure this morning of seeing Lady B. and your children. You will have heard that she has had a feverish cold, but I hope it has now quite left her. Your children are all well.
Adieu, my dear brother. I cannot express to you what a weight is removed from my mind by the success of Pitt's journey.
Ever most affectionately yours,
W. W. G.
The promotions and creations glanced at in these letters were recommended by Lord Buckingham as proper marks of His Majesty's sense of the services rendered to the Government during the late crisis in Ireland by some influential men in both Houses of Parliament. As those who had abandoned the Administration were dismissed, it was no less an act of justice that those who had supported it should receive some testimony of the King's approbation, and the Lord-Lieutenant's carte blanche embraced this dispensing power on both sides. Some alarm was felt by the Cabinet at the list of promotions and creations (nineteen in number) forwarded on this occasion for the royal sanction. The increase of the peerage was, perhaps, the only point on which Mr. Pitt's Government was vulnerable, for, although he exercised the greatest caution in his selections, and introduced them by degrees, instead of making them in batches, as the peculiar circumstances of Ireland at this moment demanded, it was felt to be the objection which, of all others, operated most injuriously against the character and popularity of his Administration. His Majesty's engagements, too, enhanced the embarrassment. Whenever any proposition for honours or appointments, naval, military, or civil, was submitted to him, it was certain to be obstructed by some obligation he had previously laid himself under by promise to different persons. In the present instance a difficulty of this kind interposed. Two peerages were already engaged in advance, and the arrangement of the Irish list depended entirely on the nature of the pledges to which His Majesty had committed himself in these cases. Mr. Grenville writes that Mr. Pitt was to see His Majesty on the subject in two or three days. "He will then endeavour to find out whether the King's engagements were so positive and absolute as to Lords A. and C. as to lay him under the absolute necessity of conferring this honour on four persons in order to be able to reward the services of two." It may be presumed that these engagements were not absolute, or, at all events, that they were not suffered to interfere with Lord Buckingham's list, as all the persons he named, with the exception of two or three, who were excluded on special grounds, received the honours to which he recommended them.
Amongst these was Mr. Fitzgibbon, Poor old Lord Lifford, who had kept his seat, and exerted himself indefatigably to the last, died on the 28th of April. The labours of that terrible session proved too much for his declining powers, and he finally sank under them. The opportunity to which Mr. Fitzgibbon had been so long looking forward was now thrown open to him. Lord Buckingham pressed his claims earnestly on the Government, recounting the signal obligations he had laid them under on the Regency question, tracing his career, and depicting his character in terms of the highest eulogy. The appointment rested with Thurlow, whose humours required to be waited upon, and who was suspected, moreover, to be unfavourable to Fitzgibbon. Much delay and suspense consequently ensued, and it was not until June that the patent was made out. Fitzgibbon was immediately created a Baron. From that point his promotion in the peerage advanced rapidly. In 1793, he was created Viscount Fitzgibbon; and in 1795, Earl of Clare.
The King's recovery now enabled Ministers to resume those measures which the late unhappy suspension of public affairs had so grievously interrupted. One of the first subjects that called for consideration was the abolition of the Slave Trade. Mr. Wilberforce had succeeded in raising such an excitement throughout the country about his forthcoming motion, that the West India interest took alarm, and desired to know whether it was the intention of Government to adopt the measure. But Mr. Pitt, who had not yet pledged the Administration to any step beyond that of inquiry, maintained a reserve on this point, which the enthusiasm of Mr. Wilberforce may be said to have forced upon him. A letter from Sir William Young touches on this matter; and alludes, also, to some unseemly conduct on the part of the Princes, which is spoken of in a similar spirit of deprecation in other letters. The circumstances that rendered their proceedings on this occasion the more conspicuous and objectionable were, that the ball at White's Club, referred to, was given in honour of His Majesty's birthday, and happy restoration; and that the Queen had signified her intention of being present.
SIR WILLIAM YOUNG TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stratton Street, April 22nd, 1789.
My dear Lord,