remove a Lord-Lieutenant by resolution. I am persuaded, the more I think of it, that it is impossible for you to quit the Government in any other manner, than in consequence of a recal from hence, or a resignation grounded on the removal of the Ministers here, or on the Regent's acceptance of the office, under what you consider an illegal appointment.

Mr. Pitt entirely concurred in these views, and it was resolved that Lord Buckingham should remain in Ireland till he had overcome the confederacy by which the security of the British power in that kingdom was so seriously perilled. In a subsequent letter, Mr. Grenville conveys the assurances of Mr. Pitt's determination to support Lord Buckingham in any measures he should think necessary to the maintenance of the supremacy of the Crown, and the vindication of his conduct in these transactions. One of the measures which was considered indispensable, as marking the sense and upholding the authority of the Government, was the immediate dismissal of all those persons who, holding offices and emoluments under the Crown, had joined in a factious resistance to the policy of Ministers.

I had, yesterday evening, a long conversation with Pitt on the subject of your letter of the 25th. I have already told you that his ideas agree entirely with yours as to the proposition of your remaining in your present situation long enough to complete your victory over this combination, and to establish a Government founded on a better system. We both consider it as a point of absolute necessity and of indispensable duty, that we should resist this profligate conspiracy against the Government of both kingdoms, by every means, and to the last extremity; and we agree in thinking that this battle ought, both for your

own credit and for ours, to be fought by you, preferably to any other person. He desires me to say that there cannot be the least hesitation here in adopting any proposal which you may think it right to make on the subject of dismissals, and that his opinion inclines to the immediate removal of all the people whom you have named, on the ground not of their former votes, but of the combination which is now avowed.

The King was now so much better that he was permitted, at his own request, to see the Chancellor, who, however, was prohibited by the medical attendants from talking to His Majesty on business. Even this prohibition was removed in a few days; and Willis considered him so completely recovered that he recommended, as a preliminary experiment to test the state of his mind, that the Chancellor should be authorized to communicate to His Majesty the public events which had occurred during his illness. Of all men that could have been selected for so delicate an affair, Thurlow was, perhaps, the worst qualified; but his relation to the Crown as Chancellor left Ministers no alternative.

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. Whitehall, Feb. 19th, 1789.

MY DEAR BROTHER,

The account which you will receive by this post of the King, is as favourable as any of the others.

This is now the thirteenth

day since Warren thought him so much—

I am agreeably interrupted in my reasoning by the arrival of Pitt, who has seen Willis this morning. His account is, that as far as he is enabled to judge, the King is now actually well. That he is not sufficiently acquainted with the sort of effect

which the peculiar duties of the King's situation produce upon his mind, to be able to pronounce as decidedly with respect to him as he would in other cases; but that in the instance of any common individual, he should not feel the smallest difficulty in pronouncing the cure complete, and the patient as capable of attending to his own affairs as he had been before his illness. He added that the keeping back from the King the present situation of public business and the measures which have been taken by Parliament, did him now more harm than good, because it created a degree of anxiety and uneasiness in his mind. He therefore recommended that the Chancellor, whom the King has already seen, and whom he has expressed a wish to see again, might go to him, for the purpose of explaining to him all that has passed. You will easily imagine that this will be an anxious trial for us, because if anything can bring back the agitation of his mind, it must be such a recital as Thurlow must have to make. It must, however, be made, and we can do no more than follow the opinion of the physicians, and of Willis in particular, as to the time of making it.

If the experiment succeeds, you need not be told that we shall not feel ourselves disposed, nor indeed at liberty, to give up the King's authority (he being well) into the hands of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; and the less so, because we now know that he and his friends, as he calls them, have taken the resolution of making the change at all events, and of taking all the offices of the country into their own hands, even (as they express themselves) if they are to hold them only twelve hours.

Certainly, if we looked only to the objects of party, and had nothing more important to attend to than the exposing in their true colours this profligate and unfeeling set of men, we could desire no fairer opportunity of doing it than by showing how much their ambition, or revenge, overbear any other sentiment, when it leads them to overturn the whole Government of

their country, and to bring on the confusion which must attend a double change of Government in the space of a few weeks, merely in order to set the Prince of Wales and Pitt more at variance; for that can be their only object, unless indeed they look to that of drawing the line of separation between His Royal Highness and his father stronger than it was before.

We must not, however, be guided by these considerations. It is impossible not to know and feel how much mischief such a change would produce; and it is our duty to prevent it, both for the sake of the King and of the country. Besides which, there are other reasons which make it impossible that the present measure should go on. We cannot suffer a Bill to proceed which asserts the King's incapacity, at a time when his physicians pronounce him to be capable. He cannot pass such a Bill himself, because the mere act of passing it contradicts the averment of the Bill, and shows its provisions to be improper. Still less can the Chancellor, who has had an opportunity of being personally acquainted with the King's actual restoration to perfect health, receive the orders of any other man, or body of men, as to the use of the Great Seal for the purpose of expressing the King's pleasure.

Our idea, in the present situation, is that the House of Lords should adjourn till Monday, in consequence of the Chancellor's communicating to them that the state of His Majesty's health is such as to make it improper for them to proceed. If nothing unfavourable should have occurred by that day, a motion will then be made for an examination of the physicians; and that would be followed by an Address from both Houses, congratulating the King on his recovery. The King would then pass a Commission for proroguing the Parliament, and another for opening it again, and the business will proceed in the usual form.

I think that your object will be to use every possible endeavour, by all means in your power, debating every question,

dividing upon every question, moving adjournment upon adjournment, and every other mode that can be suggested to gain time. I do not know that we can send you any communication from hence of which you can take formal notice by speech or message, till the examinations of the physicians are sent to you, which they shall be instantly on their being made.

But your Ministers, in both Houses, may certainly communicate to them what it has been thought right for the Chancellor to say to-day, and may make similar motions for adjournments; unless, indeed, which I hardly imagine, the whole business is concluded in Ireland before you receive the account of this happy event.

I have great pleasure in thinking upon the disappointment and mortification of those who have deserted you on this occasion. I hope in God that you will make up your mind to the remaining where you now are long enough to make them feel what they have done, and to show that you are not driven away. After this, we shall probably agree in thinking that the future Government of Ireland may be carried on to more advantage in other hands, because it may possibly become of absolute necessity to receive back some of these rats into favour, and that is not an occupation in which I should like to see you engaged.

Unless I understand from Fremantle that he has any business of yours to do here, I shall desire him to return to you on Tuesday with the examination of the physicians, which will, I hope, be presented on that day, or perhaps I may keep him till the Addresses are carried.

I make you no congratulations on this great event; but it has made a deep impression in my heart, and so I am sure it will in yours.

God bless you, and believe me ever most affectionately yours, W. W. G.