It might have the additional disadvantage of placing in opposition several respectable individuals, who are now gradually softening on the measure of Union, in the awkward predicament of appearing to give up the cause by joining in any proceeding against Lord Downshire; and your Grace will feel how injurious it must be, were any persons of respectability found even to palliate a conduct so pregnant with public danger.

Lord Cornwallis is strongly impressed with a sense of the decisive support his Government has received from your Grace on this important occasion; and I can venture to assure your Grace that, however much the event is in itself to be lamented, it has gone further to establish the authority of Government, and to confirm the attachment of our supporters, than any circumstance that has occurred in the course of the struggle. I have the honour to remain, &c.,

CASTLEREAGH.

The Duke of Portland to Lord Cornwallis.

Whitehall, February 17, 1800. My Lord-I had the honour of receiving last night, by the Express, your Excellency's despatches of the 10th, 11th, and 12th, with their several enclosures, and the same conveyance has this morning brought me yours of the 14th. Although the object I had in view, and the advantages which I conceive the cause of Government might derive from the unjustifiable course which had been pursued by Lord Downshire, made me so particularly anxious that no part of the proceeding against him should be liable to exception, and induced me consequently to suggest to your Excellency the greatest attention and caution in every stage of it, the power and instructions I sent you on Wednesday will satisfy you of the complete and perfect confidence with which his Majesty relies on your judgment, and of his determination to give you the most full and unqualified support, and will, at the same time convince you, better than

any thing else I can say, of the regret I feel at your having taken the very unnecessary trouble of entering into the long detail I had the honour of receiving from you this morning. I cannot, however, conclude this subject, without assuring you that, although my views and my habits might have led me not to pursue exactly the same course which your Excellency has taken, they would have brought me precisely to the same point, and that neither I nor any of his Majesty's servants would hesitate in concurring with you, that Lord Downshire's continuance in the command of his regiment or his other public situations would have been incompatible with the existence of your administration.'

Lord Downshire's fall was his own act, and it was necessary to make the example: your Excellency will lament that necessity as sincerely as those who are most intimately connected with him; but, at the same time, you will be entitled to the comfort of thinking that nothing has been omitted on your part to prevent it, and that, notwithstanding your lenity and forbearance, the dignity of Government has been duly sustained and its character preserved in a manner that must be highly gratifying to its best and truest friends.

I very sincerely congratulate your Excellency on the general concurrence with which the Army Estimates were voted, and on your triumphant success in the House of Lords. With such a leader as the Chancellor, and so respectable and able a body of supporters, the most sanguine hopes are sure of being fulfilled; and if talents and abilities can ensure the success of a good cause, no apprehension can be entertained that the discussion in the House of Commons will have a different issue. I have the honour, &c.,

PORTLAND.

1 Lord Downshire was removed from the command of the Downshire Militia, from the Governorship of the County, from the office of Registrar in the Court of Chancery, and his name was erased from the list of the Privy Council.

VOL. III.

R

William Rogers, Esq., to Lord Castlereagh.

Lisburn, February 19, 1800. My Lord-It gives me pain to draw your Lordship's attention one moment from the important concerns you are engaged in at this juncture; but, as I find my tenants in the County of Down have been imposed upon by certain persons carrying false messages from me, to induce them to sign a Petition against the Union, I take the liberty to say they did it totally without my knowledge or approbation; and, as I must ever have an ambition to appear consistent to those I respect, I trust your Lordship will have the goodness to excuse me for this intrusion. I have the honour to be, &c.,

WILLIAM ROGERS.

Lord Camden to Lord Castlereagh.

Arlington Street, February 20, 1800.

Dear Castlereagh-I have just received the account, by express, that the first Resolution, that "there shall be a Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland" has been carried, after the preliminary debate and division which has taken place.

I think I may now venture to congratulate you upon seeing your way, in a great degree, in this most important measure; and, although I doubt not you will have infinite difficulty in some of the details, I hope and believe you have not had to complain of the want of the expression of satisfaction from this side of the water, since the Duke of Portland's silence on the first communication. The fact is, that your despatches came just as the second letter from Buonaparte arrived; and the consideration of the manner in which that business should be taken up in Parliament certainly did prevent the Ministers from paying as much attention as they ought to the services. of those who were exerting them elsewhere.

I hope you have quite recovered from your influenza, although you have scarcely had the fair advantage of one day's

relaxation.

As I trust the principle of the measure is secured, which I never ventured to think till the account of the last division

arrived, I beg you to offer my congratulations to Lord Cornwallis upon this event.

Believe me, &c.,

Private.

CAMDEN.

The Duke of Portland to the Lord-Lieutenant.

Whitehall, Thursday, February 20, 1800. My dear Lord-Although I have but a very few moments to spare, I cannot let the post go out without carrying my congratulations to your Excellency on the eventful and happy decision which the House of Commons came to on Tuesday morning, on the great leading article of the Union, the ultimate success of which, it appears, we are sufficiently authorized to look to with that degree of confidence which disposes one to calculate the time that may be necessary for its accomplishment, and indulge the expectation of receiving the articles from you, so as to admit of our concurrence in them before our adjournment for the Easter holidays. Excepting the articles which respect the representation and the commercial concerns, there are none which can occupy much of the time of Parliament; and I trust the event of Tuesday, and the sentiments which, I observe, have been avowed by Mr. J. C. Beresford, will secure you against unnecessary delay.

It is a most mortifying consideration that so glorious and happy a day as Tuesday promises to prove should have been stained by a circumstance so much to be lamented as the accident that happened to Mr. Corry. I am willing to hope that, by the manner in which you express yourself with respect to the consequences of his wound, there is no ground for serious apprehension; but, considering the circumstances, one cannot look but with satisfaction at the dissolution of the Assembly, by which such an event was suffered to take place.

The Earl of Carysfort to Lord Castlereagh.

Mountjoy Square, February 25, 1800. My dear Lord-I am under an absolute necessity of going to England by the next packet, and therefore enclose a blank proxy, which I have executed, and will beg the favour of you. to dispose of as you think fit. I shall hold myself in readiness to return, the moment I receive a summons from your Lordship, and intend, at any rate, to be present there when the Resolutions' return from England and the Bill is brought in.

I cannot help observing to you, that I have been hearing very general disapprobation of that part of the propositions which goes to empower the King to keep up the Peerage to the numbers at which it shall stand when the Union takes place. It must be owned that it bears very hard upon the interests and feelings of the present Peers; and, as any advantage to result from it to the public is not easily. discernible, it appears to many a wanton insult, as well as a cruel injury. I cannot, indeed, persuade myself that the English Government have fully reflected upon the subject. The situation of the bulk of the Peerage would be sufficiently humiliating, even if the proportion between the numbers who are to sit, and those who are to be left out of Parliament, were to remain as at present; but the balance will not only be turned against them by a very numerous creation, previous to the Union taking place, but, in some degree, by the extinction, from time to time, of those Peerages, the possessors of which are at present Peers of Great Britain.

Might not some such plan as this be adopted, and diminish the present discontent, without materially affecting the patronage, which is all that I can find concerned in the business, of the English Ministry?—That the Crown should retain the power of creating new Peers to the amount of two-thirds of

1 John Joshua, second Baron and first Earl of the Irish Peerage: created an English Baron of the same name in 1801.