CHAP. A. D. 1789. Letter from the Prince of Wales to the King, Lord borough. "MY DEAR LORD, "I have received a letter from the Queen, which requires some consideration. I wish much to have your advice. Pray call upon me at five o'clock, if you can. "Carlton House, half-past one o'clock, Feb. 21st, 1789."* "Ever sincerely yours, "G. P. Any attempt which he made to bring about a reconciliation between the members of the royal family entirely failed, and both the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, who had taken part with him, were treated by their parents with great harshness. In the Rosslyn MSS. I find in Lord Loughborough's handwriting the draught of a letter from the Prince to the King, which must have been written during the following summer: — "SIR, "Thinking it probable that I should have been honoured with your commands to attend your Majesty on Wednesday last, I have unfortunately lost the opportunity of paying my duty to your Majesty before your departure from Weymouth. "The accounts I have received of your Majesty's health have given me the greatest satisfaction; and should it be your Majesty's intention to return to Weymouth, I trust, Sir, there will be no impropriety in my then entreating your Majesty's gracious attention to a point of the greatest moment to the peace of my own mind, and one in which I am convinced your Majesty's feelings are equally interested. "Your Majesty's letter to my brother the Duke of Clarence in May last, was the first direct intimation I have ever received that my conduct, and that of my brother the Duke of York, during your Majesty's late lamented illness, had brought on us the heavy misfortune of your Majesty's displeasure. "I should have been wholly unworthy the return of your Majesty's confidence and good opinion, which will ever be the first objects of my life, if I could have read the passage I refer to in that letter, without the deepest sorrow and regret for the effect produced upon your Majesty's mind, though at the same time I felt the firmest persuasion that your Majesty's generosity and goodness would never permit that effect to remain without affording us an opportunity of knowing what had been urged against us, of reply*Rossl. MSS. ing to our accusers, and of justifying ourselves, if the means of justification were in our power. "Great, however, as my impatience and anxiety were on this subject, I felt it a superior consideration not to intrude any unpleasing or agitating discussions upon your Majesty's attention during an excursion devoted to the ease and amusement necessary for the re-establishment of your Majesty's health. "I determined, therefore, to sacrifice my own feelings, and to wait with resignation till the fortunate opportunity should arrive, when your Majesty's own paternal goodness would, I was convinced, lead you even to invite your sons to that fair hearing, which your justice would not deny to the meanest individual of your subjects. me. "In this painful interval I have employed myself in drawing up a full statement and account of my conduct during the period alluded to, and of the motives and circumstances which influenced When this shall be humbly submitted to your Majesty's consideration, I may possibly be found to have erred in judgment, and to have acted on mistaken principles, but I have the most assured conviction that I shall not be found to have been deficient in that duteous affection to your Majesty which nothing shall ever diminish. Anxious for every thing that may contribute to the comfort and satisfaction of your Majesty's mind, I cannot omit this opportunity of lamenting those appearances of a less gracious disposition in the Queen towards my brothers and myself than we were accustomed to experience, and to assure your Majesty that if by your affectionate interposition, those most unpleasant sensations should be happily removed, it would be an event not less grateful to our minds than satisfactory to your Majesty's own benign disposition. I will not longer, &c. &c. &c. "G. P." I conclude this long, but I hope not uninteresting chapter, win a letter from the Prince of Wales to Lord Loughborough, showing his Royal Highness in a very amiable point of view-and leading to the charitable belief that, with much native goodness of heart, he was betrayed into his subsequent errors by the perils of his high station, and by adverse circumstances over which he had little control: "MY DEAR LORD, CHAP. CLXX. A. D. 1789. "The excessive goodness and friendship I ever have experienced Creditable from you, makes me trespass, I assure you much against my letter from CHAP. A. D. 1789. the Prince Lord Lough borough, excusing wishes, once more upon you, hoping that you will forgive my absence this evening from a party, which I am certain, from every thing I have hitherto witnessed, must afford the greatest pleasure and delight to all whose minds are perfectly at ease, and who have of Wales to nothing to occupy them but the hospitable and pleasing reception you give all your friends. But, to tell you the truth, my dear Lord, I am very unfit for any thing either so gay or so agreeable. The anxiety I have undergone the whole of this day has worried me to death, and though, thank God, the physicians assure me that my brother is as well as can be, considering the violence of his complaint, yet I should feel miserable to leave him. Could I have the pleasure of seeing you in Bedford Square this night, I tending the should wear the same countenance of pleasure, which I am sensible sick bed of that all those who have not a sick bed to attend naturally must do at your house. I am sure, from what I know of you, that you will feel for me, and, for once, forgive me for the disappointment I occasion myself. his absence from a party of pleasure, on account of his at his brother. "I remain, my dear Lord, "Ever most sincerely your friend, "York House, half-past 12 o'clock, P. M. July 2d, 1789." * Rossl. MSS. "GEORGE P.* CHAPTER CLXXI. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD LOUGHBOROUGH TILL HE WAS CHAP. CLXXI. A. D. 1789. Lough continues a Whig. ALTHOUGH the Whig party was now in a very low and seemingly hopeless condition, Lord Loughborough adhered to it for several years, and continued on the most friendly and familiar footing with Fox, Sheridan, and Burke. Never- Lord theless, he attended little in Parliament, and from the King's borough recovery till the middle of the session of 1791, only one speech by him is to be found in the printed Reports: that was on the malt tax, the increase of which he strenuously Dec. 27. resisted; but so slender was the attendance of Opposition 1790. peers, that he could not venture to divide the House, lest being appointed teller he should be under the difficulty of borough's grammatically reporting to the House that there was only one NOT CONTENT. While Lord Loughborough continued a leader of the Whigs, he took an active part in all the measures and manœuvres of that party—even to the arrangement of seats in the House of Commons. I will copy one curious letter to him on this subject from William Adam, afterwards Lord Chief Commissioner for jury trial in Scotland-as it gives a curious picture of the old "nomination system." "MY DEAR LORD, Lord Lough fortunes at a very low ebb. Lord Com missioner "The following lines are written in consequence of a conversa- Dec. 30. tion I had yesterday with the Prince of Wales, when I had the 1790. honour to be with his Royal Highness, and in which he expressed himself with the utmost anxiety, and at the same time under difficulty about the mode of obtaining what H. R. H. has so much 28 Parl Hist. 1202. I have heard a teller in the House of Commons say "the noes were one." He defended himself by observing, that he could not have said, "the NOES was one." Q. What ought he to have said, adhering to the established form? Adam to Lord Loughborough CHAP. CLXXI. at heart. At the same time that I am executing the commands of H. R. H., I need not inform your Lordship how much those commands coincide with the wishes of the Duke of Portland and nomination all our friends. respecting seats in the House of Commons. "It is understood that Lord Lonsdale has two seats yet to fill up one for Haslemere and one for Appleby, and that he has 1789-1792. not fixed upon the persons who are to fill those places. H. R. H. is extremely anxious that Sir William Cunnyngham should be recommended to Lord Lonsdale. But under the circumstances in which H. R. H. says he stands with Lord Lonsdale, he thinks it cannot flow directly from him. What he has desired me to do, therefore, is to request of your Lordship to open this matter to Lord Lonsdale, to assure him of Sir William Cunnyngham's attachment to H. R. H., and of his being ready at any time to vacate his seat, if Lord Lonsdale should signify to him his disapprobation of his politics, and that if the Prince is referred to by Lord Lonsdale, his Lordship will find his Royal Highness most anxiously zealous for Sir William's success. March 29. Pitt on the 66 Ever, my dear Lord, "Yours most faithfully, "WILLIAM ADAM.” After a long silence, Lord Loughborough took courage again to engage in parliamentary conflict, when Mr. Pitt had got into some difficulty and discredit by his negotiation with the Empress Catherine, and by the ill-advised "Russian Armament." In the debate which followed the King's message Armament. upon this subject, he strongly inveighed against the foreign policy of the Government. "It is matter of serious consideration," said he, "by what fatality it happens that year after year we are thus to be involved in disputes in every quarter of the world. If we are to travel on in this course of blind and irrational confidence, yielding abject assent to every scheme of Ministers, what must be the result? His Majesty has sent a mandate to the Court of Petersburgh which the Empress has not thought fit to obey. Is the mandate to be enforced by arms? It is fortunate that we are still on the brink of the precipice: before we plunge into the abyss below, let us pause and look around us. It is with astonishment and horror that I see the King's Ministers Rossl. MSS. |