LORD BULKELEY TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
Englefield Green, May 27, 1822.
My dear Lord Duke,
It is certainly most true that I promised your Grace to vote in favour of Mr. Canning's motion whenever it came into the House of Lords, and being conformable to my former votes and opinions, I should with pleasure have ranged myself under the standard of the party with which I had so long acted, had not a storm arisen in Wales on that question, in consequence of Sir Robert Williams's vote in the House of Commons, which I own to your Grace staggered my intention very much. It was plainly told me, that if I did not put water in my wine, all my popularity there would sink to the ground, and an opposition declared which would put me to great expense, and a very doubtful issue; and that it depended on my vote to allay the storm, especially as Sir Robert had raised it. At the head of these ultra anti-Catholics stand the Bishop of the diocese (Magendie), and all the parsons to a man, and Mr. Ashton Smith, Lord Kenyon, and Sir Robert Vaughan, and hundreds who look up to Lord Eldon and Mr. Peel, and who think that the King is hostile to the Catholics. I hope, therefore, I may be permitted to absent myself as I have few days to live, and those few I can pass with tolerable goodwill in my own natale solum, if I do not provoke their ardent feelings on a point which they have opinions like those of the University of Oxford. In my general support of Government under your standard, my Taffies are rejoiced, but upon the Catholic question they are raving mad.
Hoping the Duchess is well, and your Grace, I am, my dear Lord Duke, with Lady B——'s joint best remembrances,
Your ever faithful,
W. B.
This is the last communication the writer addressed to his friend, as he died suddenly, at the age of sixty-nine, at Englefield Green, on the 3rd of June.
THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
Dropmore, May 29, 1822.