India Office, Jan. 28, 1822, Five p.m.
My dear Duke,
I have this instant returned from the Cabinet, to which the first sketch of the King's Speech has been submitted. The principal parts of it are the expression of hope that peace may still be preserved between Russia and the Porte; pleasure at the manifestation of loyalty and attachment during his visit in Ireland; hope that it has produced beneficial effects, but regret at the spirit of outrage which has evinced itself by systematic violence, &c.; determination to exert every means in his power to protect the peaceable and loyal, and referring it to the consideration of Parliament whether further powers may be necessary—i.e., Insurrection Act; assurances of the determination to administer the law equally and impartially to every description of subjects; great satisfaction at the increasing produce of the revenue, and the flourishing state of manufactures. The Speech concludes with the depression of the agricultural interest, and so commending the subject to the most serious attention of Parliament.
I have no time to enter into a discussion of these points before the post goes out, as I only returned from Dropmore to the Cabinet, and have some other letters which cannot be delayed. I am anxious to hear how soon you come up, as subjects of this kind can be considered infinitely better by conversation than correspondence.
Our accounts from Ireland are very bad. There has been a desperate engagement between the insurgents and a party of the King's troops near Bantry, in which the former fought with great resolution. One of the soldiers was killed, and twelve of the others. There has also been a search for arms in Kildare, which has produced 667 fire-locks and a great number of other weapons. This, so near Dublin, is a more alarming circumstance than the former.
The Commission for the new Board, consisting of Fremantle, Phillimore, and myself, is at length ordered, and will appear in to-morrow night's Gazette.
If you have no particular objection, I wish that you would yourself propose to Lord Liverpool the arrangement for the change of Phillimore for Sir E. Carington at St. Mawe's, and the return of the former for a Government seat.
I think that Lord Liverpool seems indisposed to Phillimore, and perhaps has not yet forgot his resentment on account of Phillimore voting for Lord Grenville immediately after he (Lord L.) had made him Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford. I have been obliged to urge him a good deal to obtain what I have, and I therefore should not like immediately to make a new request to him, apparently in favour of the same person, though really for Sir E. C——.
There is a strong disposition in the Cabinet to relieve the agricultural interest, but whether this can be done most effectually by a sacrifice of taxation to the amount of 1,500,000l., or by an issue of Exchequer Bills, as has been done in former instances for the commercial interest, is not yet determined.
The absurdity of supposing that the importation of corn three years ago, since which the ports have been shut, can govern the present markets, seems really too absurd for even a country gentleman to swallow.