Pitt took no sort of notice of Erskine's Billingsgate.
I will write to you after Wednesday, and shall then have some other points to state to you. I am much obliged to you for your kind attention to my Windsor job; but I beg you to consult your own convenience in it, as it is not at all material to me.
Hastings's trial you hear enough of from others. One fact you cannot have heard, as we have but just received the accounts at the Treasury; the expense of the counsel and solicitors attending the management has already amounted to near £5000, the trial having lasted as yet only eleven days. There are five counsel employed at ten guineas a-day, besides consultation fees, and consultations are held every night. The first charge is not yet finished. Make your own calculations of the probable expense of this business, and of the patronage which it has placed in the immaculate hands of the great orators.
Ever yours most affectionately,
Mornington.
I cannot say how I rejoice in your success in Ireland—we hear nothing but good news of you in every way, and even from all quarters.
MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, March 6th, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I am very sorry to send you, in return for all your good news, an account from hence of a very different nature. By one of those strange caprices, to which our friends in the House of Commons are so peculiarly liable, they have taken the alarm about our explanatory East India Bill; and although that Bill does no more than declare that to be the law which not only every man who can think, but every man who can read, must agree with you is already the law on that subject, they have suffered themselves to be persuaded that we are doing neither more nor less than assuming to ourselves all the power of Fox's Bill.
You must often have observed, that of all impressions the most difficult to be removed, are those which have no reason whatever to support them, because against them no reasoning can be applied. Under one of these impressions; the question of the Speaker's leaving the chair came on last night, and after debating till seven this morning, we divided, in a majority of only 57: Ayes, 183; Noes, 125. So many of our friends were against us in this division, and that sort of impression runs so strongly after such a display of weakness, that I have serious apprehensions of our being beat either to-morrow on the report, or Monday on the third reading. I need not tell you, that besides much real inconvenience and embarrassment, with respect to the measure itself, such a defeat would be in the highest degree disreputable to Government, the personal opinions, conduct and character of every leading man in the House of Commons on our side being involved in this discussion. Add to this the impression in the country, where the people will certainly be persuaded that this House of Commons would not have rejected such a Bill, except on just and solid grounds. We must, however, weather it as well as we can, and submit to the consequences of an evil which, I think, you will agree with me it was not easy to foresee. What hurt us, I believe, materially last night was that Pitt, who had reserved himself to answer Fox, was, just at the close of a very able speech of Fox's, taken so ill as not to be able to speak at all, so that the House went to the division with the whole impression of our adversaries' arguments, in a great degree, unanswered. I had spoken early in the debate, and Dundas just before Fox. I think this is the most unpleasant thing of the sort that has happened to us; but I console myself with recollecting how many similar disasters we have surmounted. I have seen nobody this morning but apprehend that we shall certainly go on with the Bill, as nothing, I think, would be saved by withdrawing it.