it was to act, he was entitled to take the command of both. Lord Cornwallis, however, overruled his wishes, as tending to produce inconvenience to the service in the matter of rank, and in other respects. To Lord Buckingham's remonstrance on the subject, Lord Cornwallis transmitted a reply which induced Lord Buckingham to request his Lordship's permission to lay the whole correspondence before the King. It was to be expected under these feelings of irritation that Lord Buckingham should have been desirous of returning to England. But the expression of such a desire was liable to misconstruction. Lord Grenville felt that it was possible it might be interpreted into an appearance of declining service.

Now, my dear brother, as to the question of sending the Bucks back, I really scarce know what to do about it. I have no communications (for none of us have any) which can enable one to form the least guess of Lord Cornwallis's intentions, much less any previous knowledge of his measures. Nothing could be more unexpected to me than to hear that he had ordered back any part of the Militia force, which can alone enable him to accomplish his object, or to protect Ireland during the winter. If any part is to go back, it certainly

seems reasonable that those who went first should be first relieved; but I am totally at a loss how to take any steps for this purpose which shall not be liable to interpretations the most repugnant to your feelings and to the spirit with which you set the example of a measure by which alone Ireland was to be preserved to this country.

In a state of unreserved communication, such as ought to prevail between a Lord-Lieutenant and his employers, or with a Secretary to whom one might speak openly, and put such a

point on its true bearing, there would be no difficulty; but you know how far we are from such a situation. Nor can I honestly advise the taking any steps towards the removal of any part of the British Militia from Ireland; though if any is to come away contrary to my opinion, I feel and acknowledge the justice of your claim, and should, for every personal reason to yourself, be most anxious to contribute towards relieving you from such a scene. But even then, how to make the application, and urge the claim without putting it into his power to say that there is an appearance of declining service, I know not, and yet I much wish to manage it. I have made an indirect suggestion, in the hope that it may be conveyed to him, of the propriety of considering (if any come away) how the choice should be made; but I cannot answer for it that this will be stated to him, and still less that he will pay any attention to it; and I am restrained by the very forcible consideration I have already mentioned, from taking more direct and active steps.

Lord Castlereagh was now appointed to the Secretaryship in Ireland, and the question of the Union, which had been for some time under the consideration of Government, began to shape itself into a practical form. We have here the first rough outline of the views of Ministers upon that measure.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

MY DEAREST BROTHER,

Dropmore, Nov. 5th, 1798.

I am extremely obliged to you for your constant and kind letters, which supply the vacancy of all other information.

You will perhaps know before you receive this, that after having employed Pitt, and through him, me, and also General Ross, separately, to press Tom to accept the thankless office of his Secretary, Lord Cornwallis has, without one word of communication to him, written to say that, Pelham declining, he desires to have Lord Castlereagh. It is of a piece with all the rest! Pelham has declined, and so the whole thing will go on exactly as it does now. Yet, lamenting this most sincerely on public grounds, I cannot but rejoice that Tom is not to be embarked dans cette maudite galère. For what satisfaction or honour could he receive from it? If he had gone at first, he might have acquired and exercised some influence over his principal, and God knows that could not but have turned to good. But now the pli is taken, the system is set up, and what can alter it I know not. With respect to Lord Castlereagh, I have always heard him spoken of as a man of parts and character; but he cannot have, with Lord Cornwallis, or with the public, the weight which his peculiar situation requires.

You will easily do me justice enough to believe that I am not blind to the difficulties which all this heaps on the object (already sufficiently difficult) which we have in view. I have had no opportunity (and I am vexed at it) to discuss this subject in private with Lord Clare. He was to have come here. in his way to Ireland, but he now writes me word that his letters from Ireland are so pressing for his immediate return that he cannot lose a day. I can well enough understand that his absence dissolves the little government that did exist; but I fear, from what Pitt tells me, he has not spoken out to him, nor would probably to me, as to the real state of affairs there. I am assured that he talks not only decisively of the necessity, but also very sanguinely of the success of our measure, provided always that no attempt is made to change, as a part of the Union, the existing laws about the Catholics. And in this last point I am very much disposed to agree with him now,

though before the rebellion I should have thought differently. For, the doing this thing as a part of the present measure, would be to hold out an encouragement to rebellion, instead of showing that every endeavour to disunite Great Britain and Ireland only makes them "cling close and closer" to each other.

I send you the sketch of our ideas-beyond that, I am sorry to say we have not yet proceeded, though time presses so much. Many points of detail will obviously arise from the discussion of these general ideas, but who is to discuss them if the Lord-Lieutenant is afraid to communicate with anybody? Forster has been written to twice, to come over here; he holds back, but will I suppose now come, and means will easily be found of having that said to him which may be necessary, whatever it may be.

One great doubt in my mind has been the mode of bringing the thing into regular shape. In the case of two really independent kingdoms, like England and Scotland, an union was as much matter of treaty as an alliance between either of them and Austria and Prussia, but here the kingdoms are inseparably annexed to each other, and the legislatures only are independent. The King cannot, therefore, by commission or full powers, authorize two sets of his subjects to treat with each other concerning the mode in which he shall hereafter govern his two kingdoms.

The manner in which the Irish propositions, as they were called, were brought forward in 1785, was in my mind the most objectionable part of that whole measure, and that which most contributed to its failure. The scheme which has occurred to me in the present instance is that the King should, by Order in Council in each kingdom, refer it to a Committee of Council in each, to consider of the means of an union, referring to them at the same time some general sketch like that which I now enclose to you, or possibly a little more detailed. Towards

the conclusion of the business, it might perhaps be necessary that the King should order a part of his Irish Committee of Council to come over to confer with the British Committee on any points of difficulty; and if at last the two Committees can be brought to agree on one plan, that might by the King be submitted to the consideration of Parliament in both kingdoms, and then passed all together, in one Bill, as in the case of the Scotch Union.

You will observe in this plan which I now send, the particular care taken not to alter the present rights of election, nor to give into any theory of uniting small boroughs into sets, and leaving cities as at present, in order to equalize, as it is called, the representation of Ireland. This I consider as the cornerstone of the whole building. If once we touch this, Parliamentary Reform rushes in upon us here and in Ireland; and, as my friend Condorcet said, "from thence to the establishment of a complete republic, the transition will be short indeed."

In better times, if we lived in them, I could certainly arrange this matter more according to my own fancy; and there is nobody who could not make to himself some theory on this subject, the very framing of which is an amusing occupation of the mind, and for which it then acquires a parental fondness. But now, if ever, and here if in any matter, stare super vias antiguas is the only salvation to this country.

The idea of the French tariff I consider as very luminous and happy. It was suggested by Cooke, but possibly he may not like that it should be known, either to his principal or to the public, that he is in the course of offering such suggestions.

You will not complain at least of the shortness of this letter. I sent you no bulletin about transports in Alexandria, because, I am sorry to say, I do not believe one word of the report, but am persuaded that it will turn out to be nothing more than the destroying a gun-boat or two, the account of which we received