MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.
Whitehall, July 1st, 1788.
My dear Brother,
I received yesterday morning your two letters of the 25th and 27th, and was preparing to answer them to-day, when I received a third letter from you with its enclosures. Nothing could exceed my surprise at reading Lord Sydney's letters. The only reason of their having been delayed till the 23rd was, that, at my request, Pitt had desired Lord Sydney not to write to you till he could see him, in order more certainly to secure—what I had understood to have been before settled with him—that the thing should not be done in the form in which it has been done. I had never imagined that the thing itself could be pleasing to you, although I certainly entertained no apprehensions of your thinking of quitting your situation, because in a single instance the King's private wishes had interfered with your patronage. I had, on the contrary, supposed that if it was done in such a manner as to mark, unequivocally, that it was a personal interference of the King's in behalf of his own aid-de-camp and equerry, and that it was not a competition for patronage on the part of any other person, you would think it right to do what is done in every other department of Government—to acquiesce in it as a thing out of the ordinary course, and as a gratification of the King's personal wishes. It was under these impressions, that when I was informed of the circumstance by Fitzherbert, on the Saturday morning, I thought it infinitely more desirable for you that I should confine myself to securing that the attention due to you should be preserved in the mode of doing it, and that it should be stated to you in a private letter, and afterwards be carried into effect upon your recommendation, than that I should endeavour to take any steps for inducing the King to withdraw his interference in favour of a man for whom he felt personally interested, and whom he had acquainted with his intentions in his favour. It was very doubtful whether any endeavours of this sort, from whatever quarter they came, could be successful after he was so far engaged; and he could not fail to consider the attempt in the most ungracious light, both with respect to you and to every other person engaged in it. Add to this, that I did not then know that you had any object in it, beyond the common course of army patronage. With respect to what you mention of the aggravation arising from the preference given in this instance over your own nephew, and of its being publicly known in Dublin that Colonel Nugent's name, and your wishes in his behalf, had been previously stated to the King, I can positively assure you that neither Pitt nor myself, nor even Fitzherbert, as he has expressly told me, had any knowledge of your intention to recommend Colonel Nugent till several days after this transaction passed. Under these circumstances, I cannot still help thinking that I acted right in not taking such steps as must involve you, whether you wished or not, in a personal contest of this nature with the King.
In the point which I did labour, I have failed; but from what reason, or from what fatality, I am utterly at a loss to conceive. It is certainly true that, both in the commission and in the instructions to the Lord-Lieutenant, all military promotions are expressly reserved to the King, and that they do not fall in the line either of those offices which the Lord-Lieutenant himself disposes of, or of those on which the King declares his intention of waiting for the Lord-Lieutenant's recommendation. But the practice and the understanding certainly is, and it is so recognised in Lord Sydney's letter, that the Lord-Lieutenant should recommend to all commissions below the rank of Colonel. It is on this ground that I thought, and continue to think, that the King's wishes only ought to have been intimated to you, and that your recommendation ought to have preceded the appointment. I understood Fitzherbert, at the time, that he had been assured by Lord Sydney that the thing should be done in this mode. To make this more secure Pitt, undertook, as I have before mentioned, to see him before he wrote to you, and as that was impossible before the Monday, he begged him to delay his letter till then. We none of us conceived that the delay of these two days would have afforded you any additional uneasiness, as the whole circumstance would, in the interim, have been stated to you, and explained by Fitzherbert and myself. When I saw Pitt afterwards, he assured me that the thing would be done as I wished it. How it has happened, after this, that you have received the notification exactly in that form which both Pitt and myself laboured so much to prevent, is to me utterly inexplicable. I know that what I am going to say will seem to you extraordinary, and yet I must say it, because it is the real truth: I am still in the entire, firm, and thorough persuasion that there is not in Lord Sydney the remotest wish (as there cannot be the shadow of an interest) to do anything that can be personally offensive, or even disagreeable to you. Pitt, on whose sincerity I have ever found reason to rely, has assured me that he is in the same belief, and Fitzherbert entirely agrees with me. I am to see Pitt again in the course of to-day; but I am not sure whether it will be time enough for this letter. He will have endeavoured to inform himself upon the subject, and to see whether any and what solution can be found for the difficulties which you feel with respect to it. You will, I am sure, feel—and, indeed, your last letter seems to express it—that after what has passed it is impossible to induce the King to withdraw Colonel Gwynne, as that would be a disgrace to which nothing could make him submit, short of a necessity more absolute than he could see in this case. Whatever else can be done you will, I am sure, find Pitt ready and desirous to do. I showed him your letter, which I received to-day; but I had not communicated to him your two former letters, because he is spoken of there in terms very different from what his conduct in this business has merited. Your letter to him was written in a strain of more justice; but it is surely early in this business for you to complain of having been abandoned.
I shall write to you again to-morrow, and it is not impossible that you may receive that letter even before this, as I think I shall avail myself of Bernard's offer to be the carrier of it. I have written this in the same free and unreserved manner in which I am happy to think our correspondence has ever been carried on; I am not, however, without uneasiness as to the impression which it may make on your mind. I feel the peculiarity of my situation, and the possibility of your thinking that I am biassed by my own personal objects, to lay less stress upon points affecting your honour than I should otherwise do. I have, however, relied on your entertaining a more favourable opinion of me. If I do not grossly flatter myself, I am capable of forming an opinion unbiassed by the considerations to which I allude; especially on points where my own honour, or that which I value as dearly as my own, is concerned. I have examined my own heart, and can say, with confidence, that it is not from personal motives that I speak, when I say that you lay upon these points a degree of weight far beyond what they deserve. If you were in a situation of inferiority or dependance, a watchful attention to everything of this sort would be necessary, and therefore commendable; because, without that, you could not preserve the degree of respect and consideration which is essential to carrying on the duties of your office. In your actual situation, it is surely not doing justice to yourself to talk of being disgraced by such circumstances as these, or to imagine that your consequence can be lessened or impaired by them. With respect to the thing itself, I believe that it never happened to the most absolute Minister that ever governed this country to feel it in his power to exclude all personal interference from the Crown in the nomination to offices. I am sure it is not a matter of policy to any Minister to wish it; and a very little reflection will convince you that such at least is not the system of the present Government, or of the present times. How, then, are you disgraced, because a single instance of this nature occurs within what are understood to be the limits of your patronage? But you will say this may be repeated, and I shall lose the means of carrying on the Government. My answer is, that you will act in Ireland as you would act here in any of the situations of this Government; that the line is perfectly easy to be defined to every man's understanding, though not reduced to a written rule, and the limits easily seen, where the King's recommendations cease to be the casual exertions of private favour, and begin to be systematic interferences with the power entrusted to his servants. Ask yourself which is the case in this instance.
I could say much more upon this subject—particularly to state the effect which a resignation on these grounds would have—but I am satisfied, from the tenour of your last letter, that this is a step you will not adopt, except on more pressing grounds.
I have not time to add anything more to this letter—not even those assurances (which are, however, I trust, unnecessary) of my constant, sincere, and zealous affection and interest in whatever concerns you. You shall hear again from me at latest by to-morrow's post.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.