DUKE OF BEDFORD TO THE EARL OF KILDARE. My Lord, Woburn Abbey, June 16. 1757. I am just now honoured with your Lordship's letter of the 9th instant at this place; and yesterday Mr. Rigby communicated to me your letter to Mr. Fox, which he had sent down to him hither for my inspection. I am much surprised and concerned to find your Lordship so uneasy about a thing which, when stated in its true light, cannot possibly put either the Lords Justices of Ireland or myself (who am equally implicated in it with your Excellencies) under the disagreeable circumstances you imagine. For though the King's first letter was never sent to the Treasury, yet the notoriety of its existence was so great, both in England and Ireland (of which I have convincing proofs, by its having been mentioned to me by many persons to whom I had never communicated it), that the recital and revocation of it, in the second letter, cannot make it a jot more public. And indeed, considering this notoriety, it was necessary, and I was advised by those conversant in the business of Ireland to cause it to be drawn up in this manner, and to explain it to the King as a revocation of the first letter. Besides, the reasons given me by the Lords Justices for not making use of the money allotted for granting bounties on the importation of corn were so cogent, that I directed my secretary to write it as my 1757. 1757. opinion, that the money designed for bounties should not be made use of but on the utmost emergencies. The situation of affairs in Ireland being such that this money could not, with any utility to the public, be made use of, and the distress occasioned by the want of corn in the North continuing, I, at my own risk, caused some cargoes of oats and barley to be bought, and to be shipped for Belfast and Londonderry; but finding it impossible for me as a private man to undertake an affair of so great risk and expense as would be adequate to supplying the wants in the northern counties, I was necessitated to apply to his Majesty for his most gracious assistance, to relieve by the money in the Treasury the distresses of his subjects; and I can assure your Lordship I am at present at least 5000l. out of pocket, and am still proceeding to get up more corn to send to Ireland. I must therefore, in order to enable me to proceed in what I have undertaken, desire that the King's letters may be immediately sent to the Treasury, and am very willing to take upon myself my share of any animadversions ill-natured people may be desirous of casting upon me; well content with knowing that I have done my duty to the King and the public, which reasoning, I think, will equally hold with regard to your Lordship. I am, &c. BEDFORD. P. S.-I must add one more argument in this postscript. Can it be advisable for your Lordship to apprise the Board of Treasury which is now forming (and which, by-the-by, I do not believe will be a very friendly one either to your Lordship or me) of your apprehensions of clamour by entering the King's first letter, and designing a third to be sent, in which no mention shall be made of either of the former ones? 1757. MR. RIGBY TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. My dear Lord, Leicester Fields, June 18. 1757. I was this morning at the King's levee to pick up what news I could to send your Grace, and the first thing I heard did not more astonish me than it will you: Lord Halifax had been with the King and resigned his employment.* This very person, whose first refusal last week to join with ' our wishes was one of the principal causes of our failing, to-day, when Mr. Pitt was to be with his Majesty, is the only one to throw up. I had a great deal of discourse with him, and in my life never abused, nor heard any body any body more abuse another, than he did the Duke of Newcastle. His 1757. point, that he says his Grace promised him over and over, was Secretary of State for America; which it seems, in the present arrangement of things, he was not only not to have, but his office to be lopped also of those valuable agrémens which your Grace and I are of opinion should never have been taken from the Secretary of State of the Southern Province. But what makes this matter more curious is, that when he came out from the King, with whom he was about ten minutes giving his reasons for his resignation, he met Mr. Pitt, who told him the Duke of Newcastle had never agitated this matter for him. He did not, indeed, say he should have given way, but assured him it had never come in contest between them. Nay it appears since, the Duke of Devonshire was so well prepared to part with this bosom friend of his, that my Lord Hardwicke this very morning has named my Lord Dupplin to the King for his successor, and he will have his place. My Lord Gower, who dines with you to-morrow, as does the Duke of Marlborough, invited Halifax to do the same in his way to Horton to-morrow, and he means to do so. He will tell you enough of the Duke of Newcastle's villany, but he will not tell you how much less he deserves ill-usage from him after having betrayed all Fox's confidence to him for a week together. So much for the only resigner in question. And now, my Lord, as I understand from the Duke of Devonshire, to whom Lord Hardwicke had communicated the contents of a long audience, things remained settled thus: 1757. Temple, as put down in the paper showed to the King, a place. Ellis, though he has been pushed at, is to remain where he is. Potter is to have Lord Cholmondeley's place, who is to be pensioned. Lord Thomond is to have Lord Bateman's stick, who is to have Jennison's buckhounds; and Jennison, if he does not die, a pension. Barrington is to remain; and Lord George Sackville nothing. I think, that that last being the case, if the Duke of Dorset is to be pensioned, his lordship has not made much of his politics this winter. The Duke of Newcastle gives up Stanley, and Lord Temple's Board of Admiralty comes in under Lord Anson. I have heard no determination yet about our Board, except as to Dupplin. Now a word concerning the Townshends, who were (both brothers) this morning with Mr. Pitt. He told them how matters were settled; that he was going to the King; asked George Townshend if he might name him to his Majesty for any employment, and hoped things had his approbation. His answer was, that he would take nothing; that he had a |