My dear B——,
I yesterday met Fremantle, who told me of his conversation with the Duke of W——, which terminates that business just as I expected. The moment that the pressure of immediate difficulty is removed by the prorogation, they are content to go to sleep, just as they did in autumn, and depend upon what good fortune, chance, or the chapter of accidents may send them before next session, which will find them just as unfit, unprepared, and incapable as the present has left them. They all say that Lord Liverpool is in a state of such nervous irritation, from mental distress and the accumulation of business which has taken place in his absence, that it is impossible to get an answer from him upon anything. I spoke the other day to Lord Londonderry about Henry, and he held just the same language as before—hope of making an early communication, but had not yet been able to speak to Lord Liverpool.
Report states the intended reduction to be four regiments of dragoons, three of infantry, and ten men per troop and company on the remainder. I doubt the dragoons, since that would be lower than the establishment of 1792.
The Ordnance is also to be well pared.
Ever yours,
C. W. W.
MR. W. H. FREMANTLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Stanhope Street, July 7, 1821.
My dear Lord,
I am just come from the Duke of W——, who had shown your letter to Lord Liverpool. Of course he said little upon it, more than admitting the general terms and the necessity of forming a strong Government.