Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third

MR. T. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Berlin, April 17th, 1799.

If I am behind-hand, my dearest brother, in thanking you for your two letters of the 11th and 24th of March, I am less so than those dates would lead you to imagine, for the messengers did not bring me the first of them till a week ago, and the last arrived here only the day before yesterday. The amities of the 'Proserpine' are out of date with me, and would long ago have been forgotten, if they were not daily recalled to me by new and continued proofs of the affectionate interest which has been taken in them. To know what you would feel in a state of anxiety and suspense which I could not relieve, was a distress greater to me than the fatigue and danger which accompanied my escape. It has ended well, and I trust it will not be long before we shall laugh over it together.

I presume that you will have heard from William how exactly the politics of Berlin have continued to remain in statu quo; how much more occupied they are in enumerating the follies and disgraces of Austria, than in adapting their own conduct to any wise system or any liberal principles, and how little applicable are the measures which they take, either to the danger which they fear, or to the hopes which they entertain. Their fear of France is, however, not dissembled by them, and certainly is not affected by them; it engrosses all their attention, and furnishes to them great and constant disquietude in the present, and serious apprehension for the future. But as there is no man of leading and commanding talents enough to show them the greatness of their danger, and to provoke from the public the adequate means of resisting it, there is nothing done by the Government, and they are living on from day to day, conscious of all they have to fear, but destitute of energy and activity, and submitting to a state of things which could only be produced by the most extreme weakness and incapacity; for you will certainly have remarked that the little influence which Prussia exercises, either from her hopes or fears, in Europe, is not owing to the defeat of any great and ambitious projects, is not to be attributed to the disappointment of any great plans, civil or military, but to a total absence of any leading and governing talents in those who direct the measures which prevail here.

It has been the fashion, I know, to consider the influencing men here as having views and principles of a bad description, and as being engaged in a systematic course of conduct pursued by them with great address and dissimulation. It is perhaps presumptuous in a stranger, as I am, to trust to any opinion formed upon so short a residence amongst them, but if I am sure of anything, I tell myself I may be sure that the miserable policy which is seen here is very much more weak than wicked, and the wretched state of Government much more to be attributed to the absence of great talents than the influence of deep and dangerous designs. Whatever be the cause, the effect is the same; and although it seems to be a pretty universal opinion that Prussia must and will at length be driven into war, they are content rather to let their enemy choose that moment for the commencement of hostilities, than make common cause and fight one common battle, which in my conscience I believe would be successful. Indeed, the Austrian successes in driving the French to the Rhine, if they are followed by similar success in Switzerland, will almost justify one's hope that, even without Prussia, the French may in this campaign be pushed back upon their own country; and the continued state of insurrection in the Low Countries, where the republican troops can scarcely restrain the inhabitants, give good hopes on that side as soon as any solid force could be made to bear in that quarter. The zeal and enthusiasm of the Court of Petersburg increases every hour, and they will become very immediately principals in the war against France, both by word and deed.

In this immediate state of the negotiation, I am remaining here more because there is an inclination in London to think I can do good, than from any great good that is likely to be done. I am very much obliged to you for your offer of a loan, which, however, I hope will be unnecessary by the shortness of my stay. If that should unexpectedly be prolonged, I will then have recourse to you to assist by an advance the tardy payment of His Majesty's Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary, who are always left in arrears seven quarters for the better credit of the Court that employs them. I hope my loss by the 'Proserpine' will turn out not to exceed £600, as many things have been saved.

I trust you are now happy and well at Stowe. God bless you, dearest brother.

By this time, Lord Buckingham had returned to England, and the next despatch from Berlin is addressed to Stowe. The account of the vacillation of the Court, and the sketch Mr. Grenville gives of the King, are full of interest. Since he had last written, Suwaroff had taken the command of the Austro-Russian armies in Italy, and in a short time had expelled the French from the principal towns of the North, which forced Macdonald to evacuate Naples, and cross the Apennines.

MR. T. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Berlin, May 25th, 1799.

My dearest Brother,

My last letters from Cleveland Row have, thank God, brought you back safe and sound to your own fireside and to the many who share the comforts of it with you; it cannot, I presume, be very long before I may reckon myself of that number, although as I do not like to do anything by halves, I consider myself as liable to duty as long there is any fair demand to be made upon me. You will have heard from William all that was to be heard of our hopes and of our disappointments, and you will know likewise from him that our stock of those articles is not yet exhausted, although the briskness of the market is a little affected by the absence of the King. The Berlin reviews being over, he has begun a military progress, which will carry him through Brunswick, Minden and Wesel to Cassel and to Anspach, and after various reviews in those places he will return to Potsdam in the first week of July.

Whether in the first of these places, or in the last, or in any of them, he will have determined to take his part with us, remains to be decided, and it will be less hazardous to abide the event than to pretend to foretel it. It is certain that the inclination to war has grown very much of late among all the thinking men in the country, and the regular Ministers have agreed in recommending it very strongly to the King; the disinclination to it is chiefly found in the confidential aides-de-camp and the subordinate characters, whose familiar habits with the King enable them to exercise a very governing influence upon him.

The King himself is, I believe, of a very well-disposed and honest character; his inclinations are English, and his personal respect for the King of England is very striking; his suspicion and dislike of the French is also beyond all question, and there are so many ingredients in his situation and character that should lead him to an open declaration against France, that it is not easy to account for the different line which he pursues; it must, however, be attributed to the influence of the very weak persons who are in familiar confidence with him, and to his being too diffident in himself to decide upon the important measure of engaging Prussia in war. I am, however, inclined to believe that such will at last be his decision, though there is too much hesitation in his own mind to give us any solid ground of reliance until he shall be completely embarked.

Meantime, all is going on prosperously under the active exertions of Suwaroff, who is daily hemming in and menacing Turin, and who has now advanced to Chivasso, and has detached Kaim with a considerable force to the Valais. The general opinion here is that the French will evacuate Switzerland whenever their line at Luceinsteig and Coire is forced, and some accounts to-day seem to announce that event as having happened.

Moreau, with seventeen thousand men, is at Alexandria, and I suppose the Naples army will try to join him, although Macdonald will find that junction rather difficult to accomplish.

We are all still waiting in anxious expectation for news of the fleet. The Ministers here think the Mediterranean is the object, and to me it seems not unlikely that they may pursue that object, and at the same time detach to Ireland.

God bless you, dearest brother.

The occupation which was given by the Austrians and Russians to the French troops in Italy and Germany, appearing to offer a favourable opportunity to rescue Holland from the hands of the republicans, an expedition, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby, set sail from England on the 13th of August, and disembarked off the Helder. On the 30th, the Dutch fleet surrendered, and hoisted the Orange flag. In order, probably, to give more weight and effect to a mission which had for its object the restoration of the Stadtholder, it was proposed that Lord Grenville should undertake an embassy to Holland, and that Mr. Thomas Grenville (who had in the interim returned home) should proceed to St. Petersburg.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, Sept. 5th, 1799.

My dearest Brother,

I was much obliged to you for your kindness to us in writing on the subject of Lady B. We earnestly hope that all cause of uneasiness to you on her account has ceased, and that both fever and cold are gone. If you would let anybody write us a line to say so, you would much oblige us.

You will have seen that, in spite of wind, we have succeeded at the Texel. The Lieutenant says that the Dutch fleet had cut the buoys, and run up into the Zuyder Zee. Lord D. was preparing to lay the buoys down again, and to follow them, but it was not expected that Storey would make any further resistance, more than half his fleet being Stadtholderians.

 

The wind is now changed to the N.E., as if to bring our Russians. The Dutch reported that they were to have had nine thousand French at the Helder by the Wednesday night, but that is doubted. I have not learnt what their actual force is, but it appears that there were some Trench there. We have now about seventeen thousand men there, and when the transports return, we can, if necessary, send ten thousand more, besides our eighteen thousand Russians. I trust, therefore, I am not very sanguine in thinking the business as nearly certain as one can allow oneself to call anything in these times.

But for the plans which we have in view, supposing this to terminate well, and soon, we want full twenty thousand more British force. Do you think it is possible to get them from the Militia? and how? Dundas is revolving in his mind projects for the purpose, but I should much wish to know from you whether you think the thing practicable for a great object, and in what manner.

An idea has been proposed to me, which I think I shall not be at liberty to decline, if, when the time comes, I should myself be satisfied that I could be of more use than other people: it is to go to Holland as Ambassador Extraordinary, carrying myself and my office there for about a month or six weeks, to help to fix Old Stadt a little more firmly in his chair. You know I had destined Tom to this service, and if he should go, I still think my going would be quite superfluous. He had agreed to undertake the service as a temporary one only; but I have been since urged to press him to go to Petersburg, to establish a further concert there, and I trust he will not refuse the earnest entreaties we have made him on that subject. You may suppose that I do not look to this as a very pleasant interlude to my other business, but I cannot deny that it is at least possible I may be of use there, and if so, I must practise as I preach.

God bless you, my dearest brother.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, Sept. 5th, 1799.

My dearest Brother,

Your letter, which I received yesterday, though a little more satisfactory than your former account, still leaves room for so much uneasiness, that Lady G. and I are extremely anxious to hear again from you, and I trust in God the answer will be such as to set us quite at our ease; but the complaints of which you speak are of so ugly a nature, that one cannot feel satisfied while any trace of them remains.

I have not yet my answer from Tom; but by an intermediate letter, I guess that he will be very little disposed to undertake this jaunt to Petersburg. Even if he should not, but should go to Holland, I am not quite sure that I must not go, for as short a time as I speak of, to assist him in Holland; not that personally I have the vanity to think that I could do any part of the business better, or as well as he, but my red boxes and my seals would have a great effect in enabling me to expedite, and even in some degree to brusque a business which, if left to Dutch arrangement only, or with nothing more than the usual aid of an English Ambassador, would take not six months, as you say, but six years, and not be done at last.

I fully understand the nature of your offer, and should not certainly have suspected even, if you had not explained it, that you were canvassing for the delectable amusement of leaving Stowe and England, to figure at the Hague or Petersburg. But the best negotiation you can carry on for us just now would be one with the Militia for giving us twenty thousand more men. I hardly dare say, or let myself think, what we could do, or rather what we could not do, with such a reinforcement, supposing Holland to go on quick, and our troops not to suffer much from sickness; for of their suffering in battle there, I am not much afraid.

If any fresh parliamentary authority is necessary, we can now call Parliament together in a fortnight. I will write to Dundas, as you desire. If I had known of his coming to town to review his East India regiment, I would have proposed precisely the Dropmore plan you speak of; but I fear you could hardly have looked at it at that moment, and I presume he is gone back to Walmer; I shall, however, expect his answer.

Ever most affectionately yours,

G.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, Sept. 9th, 1799.

My dearest Brother,

I hope, from your account, that the worst is over, and that Lady B. will continue to mend, but we shall be very anxious to hear that it is so. If nothing new arise, and if we shall not be troublesome to you, we think of being with you on Wednesday in next week; but pray let us know if you would wish us to delay our visit.

If the project holds respecting Holland, it is likely, I think, that I shall not be much longer before I am called upon to begin my preparations. I have as yet no answer from Tom, but I shall have one to-day or to-morrow; for we know that the wind changed to the eastward on the other side the water on Friday, and we have three mails due.

Our first division of Russians, five thousand two hundred men, are arrived, and are under sailing orders for the Texel. Popham left the second division at Elsineur on Sunday last; and calculates that both this and the rear division, amounting together to above eleven thousand men, will be here by Tuesday or Wednesday next. Our own transports were also beginning to arrive, so that we shall have to send them in the course of a week or ten days a reinforcement of twenty-six thousand men, besides cavalry. I have no doubt that this is more than sufficient, with tolerable activity and enterprise, to do our work completely, and in a very few weeks – I might almost say days – for we have the command of the Zuyder Zee, by which we can turn the enemy on their right, and of the North Sea, which equally turns their left; and they have, I am confident, no means of assembling an army of half the force of ours, to oppose it in front. All this, however, is a question of time; for if that is allowed them, one can answer for nothing.

We have not heard of Abercromby (nor indeed could we) since the 31st. He was then preparing to march forward to Alkmaar. Have you got Wiebeking's map of Holland and Utrecht? If not, let anybody write for it for you from Hamburgh. You will see, indeed, in any map, a little promontory that runs forward opposite to Amsterdam, on the north bank of the Y., between Buyksloot and Newdam. The opinion of persons of the country is, that if we can make ourselves masters of that point, Amsterdam is open to be bombarded, and must capitulate on the first summons. All the other advantages of the country we have to act in, upon our line of march, are obvious by looking at the map. The disadvantages are, the facility of retarding our march by defending the dykes and narrow causeways along which we must pass; but a great superiority of force will enable us to surmount many of these. The French papers talk of having marched against us the garrisons of the Generality. So much the better if it is so, for then we shall not find them there, and the fact itself proves (if even our intelligence were defective) how little other force they have in the country.

I am greatly obliged to you for what you have written on the subject of the Militia. It seems to me that allowing the Militia to volunteer by companies for a fixed time is the best suggestion I have yet heard. But it would be necessary to consider, on a statement of numbers, how many could be so procured from all the Militias – English, Scotch, and Irish – though, with respect to these last, there is, I fear, an insurmountable difficulty, from the necessity of assembling Parliament, which could not be done in Ireland without broaching the question of Union before we are prepared for it.

Less than twenty thousand men would not, on the most sanguine calculations, answer our object, and the issue of the war so much depends upon it that we should be unpardonable to omit any possible effort that we could make for it. What we want is to be able to garrison Holland with twenty thousand men so as to have as soon as possible after the conquest of it the means of disposing of our whole army now there. It is a very doubtful question, I think, whether our Militia volunteering would be more or less promoted if we confined our proposal to that particular service, and sent our Militia battalions into the Dutch garrisons, employing the army now there in the active service, or if we took the offer generally for foreign service, and made such distribution between the two as might best suit our convenience.

There would be no difficulty as to Parliament; we can call them together at a fortnight's notice. We would do so for this object alone. The King would speak of nothing else, and ask no supply; and we could easily, in a moment of triumph like the present, exclude all other discussions, so that the execution, were the plan once arranged to the satisfaction of the Militia officers, would take up not more than ten days or a fortnight at most.

If anything new occurs to you upon it, let me hear it. If not, we will talk it over when we meet; but as that is always precarious, write if you have anything to suggest upon it.

Ever yours,

G.

A year, memorable in the annals of the war for the European confederacy which was formed by the energies of England to resist the aggressions of France, and for the successes by which it was crowned, was now drawing to a close. How much of that vast machinery of diplomacy, of that activity in council and promptitude in action, by which the happy results were obtained, may be justly attributed to the genius and firmness of the distinguished statesmen whose correspondence forms the substance of these volumes, need scarcely be pointed out; nor would it be becoming in this work to pronounce the eulogy which their virtues and patriotism deserve. That grateful duty may be securely left to history.

The last letter of the year appropriately terminates the record of its events, by a general outline of the projects that were contemplated and in preparation for the arduous and important period that marked the opening of the nineteenth century.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Cleveland Row, Nov. 6th, 1799.

My dearest Brother,

I have just received your letter. My business seems to increase upon me so much that I fear I must abandon all hope of my Stowe project. I heartily wish that I could see the means of executing the idea you mention, but our force is not as yet sufficient for the purpose, especially considering that the possession of the country would give the enemy such incalculable advantage over an army whose communication would be maintained in that season across the Channel. We cannot well put the army brought back from Holland at more than thirty thousand effective men, including Russians. Twenty or twenty-five thousand Militia volunteers, English and Irish, may be added to this during the winter if our last measure succeeds, and other additions will also be gradually coming forward; but I doubt whether even then we shall have enough to encounter the mass of force which the enemy could bring against us in his own country, if not occupied by some serious attack on the other side.

Our system must therefore, I think, of necessity be this, viz.: to complete the winter in negotiating on the continent, in furnishing supplies to the royalists, who have, however, shown themselves much too soon, both for their own interest and ours; and in nursing up our own force to make it as considerable and as fit for action as we can.

In the spring its employment must be regulated by the state of the other two points. If Austria has made her peace (which, though certainly not improbable, I do not however consider as the most likely event), and if the royalists are crushed, our force can then only be used in desultory expeditions to annoy the enemy, and weaken his means of acting against us; for to make a serious impression on France with sixty, or even eighty thousand men, unsupported by any diversion, is impossible, and the attempt can only lead to disaster, and to the loss of the only army we ever can have during this war. This was our situation in 1798. We fought manfully through it under much greater disadvantages than we should now have to meet. The enemy was stronger and more abundant in resources. We were weaker in force, and the extent of our means was unknown even to ourselves.

 

If, on the contrary, the French are materially occupied either by Austria, or by royalists, or still better if by both, we may then choose our own point of attack; our fleet will threaten the whole coast from Cadiz to the Texel and Delfzuyl, and nothing but a course of ill luck, equal to that of this year, can deprive us of the benefit of a fortnight or three weeks' start in whatever point we really attack.

I should be sorry that any degree even of private blame in people's minds should attach on the Duke of York, who has, I really believe, had no other fault on this occasion than that of following, perhaps too implicitly, the advice of those whose advice he was desired to follow. In many things he has certainly done extremely well.

The business of the Union is going on well, and I trust rapidly approaching to a conclusion. Even if it were possible that we should again fail next year, still I should regard the ultimate success of the measure as certain.

I have been ruminating on some ecclesiastical projects, but I do not know whether I shall be able to bring them to bear, nor do I yet possess all the knowledge of the actual state of things which is necessary in order to enable me to fix my own judgment. They relate to the two points of episcopal jurisdiction and superintendence, and residence of parochial clergy.

My notion is to strengthen, if necessary, the legal powers of the bishops, so as to give them effective means, both of suspension and deprivation, in all cases, both of improper life and manners, and of remissness in the execution of certain stated duties which they are to be required to exact from all their parochial clergy. To enable them, from the chapters in their dioceses, at their own choice, to augment the number of their archdeacons or visitants, under whatever name may best suit the old constitutional forms of our Church. To require them, or in their absence, the archdeacon, or other proper person, to hold fixed and invariable annual visitations; at which, calling, if necessary, to their assistance a certain number of their beneficed or dignified clergy, they should receive the reports of their archdeacons and other visitants, and should at such visitation, or at furthest at the next visitation, proceed by sentence either of suspension or deprivation against all persons who should appear on such reports to be of scandalous life or conversation, or to have published irreligious, immoral, or seditious books, or to have been remiss in the performance of such stated duties as above. Lastly, to compel the bishops to return these reports, and their proceedings thereon at their visitations, to their metropolitans, by whom they should be annually laid before the King, with their observations thereon.

As to parochial residence, the idea would be to require that no person shall on any pretence be non-resident on his living, without appointing a curate to be there constantly resident in his room. And to charge on the consolidated fund a sum sufficient to make up every living throughout the kingdom to the amount of £70 per annum, with the single exception of such parishes as, being adjacent to each other, it might be fit to conjoin for this purpose, by the act of proper commissioners to act with the bishop, &c.

When, therefore, the living fell short of £70, the parson would receive the difference from the public, but would be compelled to personal and constant residence, (and some provision might be made for the residence and maintenance of his curate in the single case of absence with the bishop's licence, from extreme necessity of sickness). When the living amounted to £70 or upwards, he would have the choice, as at present, of residing, or finding some legal excuse for non-residence; but in the latter case he would be obliged to provide a curate constantly resident. And in both cases proper certificates of residence would be required to be produced to the visitants.

The hardship, whatever it was, which this regulation would bring on the body of the clergy at large (I do not speak of particular cases), would be amply compensated by the addition which the Legislature would thus make to the smaller livings; and the expense of this last measure would be much more than compensated to the public, by the benefit which must arise from the constant residence of a clergyman in every parish throughout the kingdom.

By what I have called stated duties above, I mean, that from these resident clergymen, who would no longer have the plea of other duty to perform, I would certainly exact, by enumeration, many points of their duty (evening service, catechism, visitation of sick, and other points), which are now growing, or grown into disuse.

You would much oblige me by your ideas on these points. On the first I have been told that it is no more, or little more, than the law as it now exists. All I can say is, that I am sure it is not the practice as it now exists; and that this is not the only case where it has been found to be highly useful to re-enact, with small variation, the existing law, in order to call the attention and excite the zeal, both of those who are to execute the law, and of those who are to obey it.

You are not, I am very certain, one of those extremely profound politicians who have, among other happy discoveries of this age, found out that the religion of the people has no influence on its morals, or its morals on the prosperity and good government of the State. You will not, therefore, think that an attention to this subject is either unbecoming Government and Parliament, or is ill suited to such a moment as the present.

God bless you, my dear brother.

Ever most affectionately yours,

G.

THE END