a very considerable person in England to the Primate, besides another letter to one in his family; and it is from this correspondence, I fear, these injurious reports have arisen. That I may not appear to have taken any thing up upon vague reports, I can inform you that Sir Thomas Prendergast has been the person who has propagated them all over this town, and I must leave it to you to judge whether even the bare suspicion of my not enjoying the King's entire countenance and support in my administration is not sufficient to defeat my best endeavours for his Majesty's service. I beg, Sir, that what I now write may not be imputed to the least diffidence I have conceived of you; but I have been long enough about court to know that those of a prying and busy disposition do worm themselves into secrets in a very unaccountable manner, and the more easily the more open and ingenuous the person they have to deal with is. I shall trouble you no longer in this most secret and particular letter, than to assure you that whatever orders from his Majesty you shall transmit to me during my stay here, I shall endeavour to execute them with fidelity and punctuality; and as for my return hither a second time, I must leave that to the wisdom of his Majesty and the judgment of his servants in England, who, I am convinced, can never advise him to entrust the government of this kingdom, in its present factious and unsettled state, in the hands of one who shall not be judged proper to be trusted with that power which can alone 1757. 1757. enable him to make that reformation, as well in men as in things, which appears to be absolutely necessary at present. I am, &c. BEDFORD. DUKE OF BEDFORD TO THE EARL GRANVILLE. My Lord, Dublin Castle, December 6. 1757. I think myself much obliged to your Lordship, for the very friendly and confidential letter which Goodhall the messenger brought me from you on the 30th of last month. The method his Majesty has taken, of acquainting me through your Lordship's channel how I should regulate my conduct in this critical situation of affairs, and of his gracious inclination and resolution to support me where it shall be necessary for his service so to do, fills me with the deepest sense of gratitude; and I do assure your Lordship, that it gives me great pleasure to find that his Majesty has thought fit to prescribe the methods of conciliation to be tried in the first instance, and that it was far from my thoughts to desire to punish now the undutiful and impertinent, without first using all gentle methods to reclaim them to their duty. This is what I am now attempting, but at present with no very immediate prospect of success; the obstinacy of parties being so great, and the expectation of many of the principal persons who compose them being raised to a great height by the emoluments their predecessors in opposition have obtained from the Government, to suffer the King's business to be carried smoothly on through a session. There are besides two other difficulties I am to contend against; namely, the great influence popularity has amongst the members of the House of Commons, who think of nothing so much as the securing their elections in a succeeding Parliament, and the reports which are industriously propagated here by those who wish ill to my administration, that the Primate and his party will have all kind of support from your side of the water, and that the power of rewards and punishments will be very sparingly entrusted to me. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, I will endeavour to bring about that conciliation and union which his Majesty has so wisely thought proper to recommend, and which your Lordship thinks, by the experience you have had of the people of this country, may be effected. Believe, me my dear Lord, that I think myself very much obliged to you for the very friendly advice you have given me; and your Lordship, as you express it, having rowed in the same galley with me, and having experienced the mutinous disposition of the crew, is doubtless the best pilot I can consult with to bring her safe into port. I am, &c. 1757. BEDFORD. 1758. MR. FOX TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. My dear Lord, Saturday night, Pay Office, Jan. 7. 1758. Every body here, except Lord Granville, seems to think the situation of parties in Ireland such as must put your Grace under great difficulties: Lord Granville sees nothing in it that should give your Grace any trouble. I therefore (not at all able to obviate what I am afraid may happen) shall choose to send your Grace Lord Granville's thoughts, rather than my own, which are too much puzzled to conclude in any opinion. His lordship says your Grace has nothing to do but to let them dash their loggerheads together, and to transmit whatever nonsense they may cook up to England to be rejected, remaining quietly and coolly at the Castle, till with the last transmiss of bills your Grace desires leave to come away, and humbly to recommend to his Majesty such persons as your Grace shall choose to leave in the government during your absence; which being complied with, you may, he says, come away with dignity, and settle at Bedford House with him and others of the cabinet upon what foot what foot you can with like dignity return, and with what prospect of success go to hold another parliament. Well, but can the lord-lieutenant name his regency, and yet keep the future management of Ireland under him, to be debated on in conciliabulo here as de re integrá? and, if his Grace leaves out the beloved Primate, will his Majesty be suffered to appoint such justices as the lord-lieutenant shall recommend? To the first question his lordship says, your Grace will probably recommend the Chancellor and Lord Kildare, or Lord Kildare alone, to whom you may add as you shall think proper after consultation here, or supersede both by a lord-deputy from hence. To the second question he says, that if it is intended (as he protests he thinks it is not) to weary your Grace out of being lord-lieutenant, he don't imagine they can (even in that case) think of requiring your Grace to leave the government in hands you do not recommend. No; in that case, says his lordship, they would let the King appoint your Grace's nominees however, and after your arrival in England accept your resignation, and let another lord-lieutenant appoint other justices. He wants the King's authority to write all this; and could he have seen the King, he had wrote all this to-day to your Grace himself. He will see his Majesty soon, and then your Grace will hear from his lordship. I have now wrote as well as I can the substance of three conversations with his lordship, the last of which was yesterday. Your Grace may observe he mentioned a deputy, and so have others here on former occasions as well as now. His lordship says that may probably be the best way at last; but thinks no fit man can undertake it, unless it is a measure which King and ministers are determined ex animo to support your 1758. |