RIGHT HON. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Dropmore, July 5, 1820.
My dear Lord B——,
I cannot help writing a line to say how well satisfied I am with the result which this post has brought us, and how glad I am that no secondary matter has been tacked on to that which is of primary interest. We neither of us can as yet collect by what precise course the matter is to be so charged as to give the proper notice so as to enable the party concerned to provide a reply. I should, of course, suppose that by this time the whole march of all the proceedings is foreseen and determined upon, if there was not such frequent occasion to remark that foresight and decision are much more frequently to be desired than to be found.
I should suppose that the Bill must contain specific charges, or that those charges must be communicated by a resolution of the House. What is most to be apprehended is that dexterous advocates may awaken new questions in so novel a proceeding, and may thereby prolong the discussion to a most inconvenient and dangerous length, by which this state of hazardous agitation of the public mind will be continued, and a feeling of commiseration will be excited by the length of the proceeding, although the prolongation of it will be owing more to the accused than to the accusers. You see every hour of every day that "the mountain" is dragging all that side of the house into an avowed party-protection, to be afforded before trial; that the answers to addresses are so many appeals made to the "soldiers and sailors;" and that the hypocritical lamentations over the ill-judged time of the Coronation, are indulged in for the obvious purpose of exciting the tumults which they affect to deprecate. All this is very disgusting, and not without real danger. I suppose your Committee, being now dissolved by its Report, you have nothing more to do in these odious abominations, which the Vice-Chancellor will probably have to manage.
LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Dropmore, July 5, 1820.
I see nothing primá facie to object to in the Report, and I am very glad that the doubt was decided negatively.
I imagine, however, that there may still be some difficulty in the course of the proceeding, if she requires, as I suppose she will be advised to do, that the facts of both descriptions should be more precisely specified as to time and place, before she is called upon to answer them in any judicial form.
MR. W. H. FREMANTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.