Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 Part 50

Stocks are down to 73-1/2, but we have nothing new either from Paris or Madrid.

Ever yours affectionately,

C. W. W.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office, Feb. 13, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,

We are, I believe, going to augment our estimates from 21,000 to 25,000 seamen, which it is thought will be sufficient to protect our neutrality in the contest which now seems all but certain.

I am glad to say that the increase of the number of judges is consented to, and the measures of a third a.s.size, the alteration of the Welsh Judicature, and the appointment of a Committee of Lords, with certain judges as a.s.sessors, are to be consequent upon it.

We are also to increase the efficiency of secondary punishments by sending convicts to different parts of our colonies, there to be employed in hard-labour; the worst to Sierra Leone; and to diminish the number of offences liable to capital punishment.

I expect Plunket every hour. He sailed from Dublin on Monday night, and I should think ought at latest to have been in town to-day. The remarks mentioned in my last have been general enough to have produced much observation, and they are, I am told, attributed rather to disinclination to the _master_ than the man.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office, Feb. 15, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,

No one who does not reside the greatest part of his time in London, can possess real influence in public affairs. Lord Chatham at Hayes, and Lord Grenville at Dropmore, neither of them half your distance, are instances of the loss of political consequence at a time when from the extreme multiplication of correspondence, Parliamentary inquiries, &c., every single department was not over-worked and over-occupied to the degree they now are. There really now is no time even for communication among the different members of the Government, each member of which manages his own department almost without interference from his colleagues, except when he thinks it necessary to call a Cabinet on any point of peculiar importance.

Plunket arrived yesterday evening, and I have had a long conversation with him to-day. He is hara.s.sed and fatigued to a great degree by all he has lately been going through. The dismissals of Sir C. Vernon, St. George, and Stanhope, have taken place since he left Dublin, he having dissuaded Lord W----y strongly from the removal of the former before he went, and as he thought with success, he being just the good-natured, silly animal whom everybody would compa.s.sionate, and the women in particular.

The particular offence is their presence at the Beef-steak Club, where the _Chancellor and Commander-in-Chief_ also dined, when the Lord-Lieutenant was drunk to the tune of "Now Phoebus sinketh in the west," with dead silence, and Lord Talbot with great applause; and afterwards the toast, which you will read in the _Courier_.

Now really, as the Dublin paper observes, for poor Charley Vernon to have got up, and in the presence of the Chancellor and Lord Combermere to have objected to the toast which they joined in because the Lord-Lieutenant was clearly the person who wished to "_subvert the const.i.tution_," would have been rather a strong measure; and it seems pitiful to resent conduct in the Chamberlain, because he was part of his household, which the Lord-Lieutenant dare not notice in the Chancellor.

He [Plunket] has seen Liverpool, who, as is usual with him, dealt in generals, and avoided any particular conversation on the late events.

It seems to me that the proposition for extending the Act against secret and affiliated societies to Ireland (which has not yet been decided upon by the Cabinet) will probably bring the matter to an upshot. If that is agreed to, it will be evident that the Government are determined to support Lord Wellesley, and if not, that they are willing to resign Ireland to the tyranny of the lodges.

Plunket describes the flame in Dublin as beyond description, and regretted Wellesley being surrounded by a set of people totally incapable of a.s.sisting or advising him, and who merely carry rumours to irritate him.

I have no time to write more.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

The Duke of Buckingham having accepted a proposal made to him to preside at the anniversary meeting on St. Patrick's day, wrote to the Duke of Clarence to obtain for the festival the advantage of his Royal Highness's presence, who thus replied:--

H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CLARENCE TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

Bushey House, Feb. 10, 1823.

Late at night.

DEAR DUKE,

I have this instant received your Grace's letter of yesterday, and can only observe that in general I decline dinners of the kind mentioned in that epistle; however, my profession has carried me to Ireland more than once, and particularly when I was in the sister kingdom in the year 1787 I experienced those attentions which time cannot obliterate from my memory. I esteem and value Ireland, and wish her well from the bottom of my heart. I am confident the meeting on St. Patrick's day ought to be one of charity and good humour, and totally void of those politics which unfortunately distract that unhappy country; in your Grace's hands, I am sure the business will be ably conducted to the utter exclusion of topics which might produce discord, and I shall be happy, as Earl of Munster, to a.s.sist your Grace in supporting the object of charity, and in preserving harmony and unanimity on the 17th of next March; till then adieu, and

Ever believe me, dear Duke,

Yours sincerely,

WILLIAM.

The imprudence of Lord Wellesley had become the subject of much comment even among his Lords.h.i.+p's friends, and somewhat embarra.s.sed his colleagues in the English Cabinet. He excited in Dublin considerable opposition, in which more than one person in authority, with whom he ought to have cultivated the most friendly relations, made himself conspicuous.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office Feb. 17, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,

I very much agree in the view which you take of the situation of Lord Wellesley, and what I intended to convey to you was a disapprobation of his having SWOOPED at such small birds, when the Chancellor and Commander-in-Chief crowed in his face. He had only to decide between the course of entirely overlooking the transaction, and that of requiring _their_ dismission.

You will see the tone a.s.sumed by the _Courier_ to-night is obviously with the intention of forcing the Orange part of the Government into action. A Cabinet will be held to-morrow, when I think the matter cannot fail to be brought forward.

Wellesley has played his cards wretchedly, particularly in not communicating with anybody. I really believe that by a contrary course he might have carried Peel with him. He has not even, I understand, written to the King, whom he ought to have treated as his sheet-anchor.

The information which you give me of the ascendancy of the Orange faction in every department of Government, is strongly confirmed by Plunket. His view is, that if the Act against secret and affiliated societies is pa.s.sed, it should be considered as the manifestation of the resolution of Government, and be followed up by a private communication that all persons in office who endeavour to evade it and continue members of Orange Lodges, should be dismissed.

Canning appears engrossed in his own department, and certainly does not seem to place confidence in any of his colleagues but Liverpool. With Peel I have made much progress, and find him in general more fair, more manly, and more statesmanlike in his views than I had at all hoped.

I think it clear that either Lord Wellesley or Lord Manners must be recalled. I still hope it will be the latter, but either way it must decide what the future character and bearing of the Administration is to be, and drive out one part of it.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. WILLIAMS WYNN.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

House of Commons, Feb. 18, 1823.

MY DEAR B----,