The candour with which I met your Excellency on your arrival in this kingdom, received, I hope, your entire approbation. Under that idea, I hold myself obliged to the continuance of it.
Since my arrival in town, I have not been so happy as to make such an impression on Counsellor Curran as I wished to do, and in justice to your Excellency"s Administration, he ought to have received. After many exertions, in order to induce him to act as I intended to do, I received the enclosed letter. For my own satisfaction, and to continue the same candid confidence to your Excellency, I beg leave to submit it to your perusal. My heart claims this trouble from you, as my own justification. My head may err, but not intentionally. In reply, I have rejected the offer of the seat, begged to retain his personal regards, and left him to decide entirely on his political conduct as he should think proper.
As to Mr. Heatly, he is no longer my friend and pensioner: he ranges under Lord Shannon.
All I can now say is, that Major Vewell, Colonel Longfield and myself are ever ready to repose the utmost confidence in your Excellency"s Government: we will support your measures with firmness and decision, during your Administration in this kingdom.
I have the honour to be, With the highest respect and esteem, Your Excellency"s most devoted and obedient humble servant, Rd. Longfield.
MR. CURRAN TO MR. LONGFIELD.
Jan. 18th, 1788.
Dear Sir,
I sit down in compliance with your wish that I might explain my sentiments on the subject of our conversation yesterday, more fully than our situation would then permit.
When you first did me the honour of proposing to return me into Parliament, I thought myself bound to be explicit on the occasion, and I was so. I stated to you that the general acceptance of such an offer, might naturally be considered to imply a condition, on the person accepting it, of conforming in his Parliamentary conduct with yours. I also stated to you at large the reasons why I could not sit in the House of Commons under the slightest implication of any such restraint, and I was happy in finding you concur with me on that point, of which I was perfectly satisfied by the warmth with which you disclaimed any idea of your intending or wishing to restrain my freedom by any condition whatsoever. The motives you were pleased to a.s.sign for a conduct so very flattering and honourable to me, were an additional incentive to my wishing rather to decline the intended favour. I thought it beyond my merit, and I urged you to confer it upon some other gentleman. These same sentiments I repeated in many conversations I had with you on the subject; but your friendly partiality persevered and prevailed. I do not dwell on these facts from any supposition that you have forgotten them, which could not be consistent with the very honourable solicitude with which I know you have always borne testimony to them, and to my independence. But I recal them to show you that I also remember them, as forming the princ.i.p.al ground of the obligation to you, which I uniformly felt, and professed.
From that period to the present, we have concurred in sentiments and acted together. I now understand from you that you have engaged to support the present Administration. From what I have heard of His Excellency, and what I know of you, I cannot doubt that you have acted consistently with the public interest, and your own honour; but being an utter stranger to the principles or the measures which Administration may adopt, I feel that I could not, without hazarding the sacrifice of my principles or my character, follow your example in that point, however I respect it. I see clearly, that while we remain as at present, we shall both of us be exposed to that calumny, which you find has even already been put into motion against us. Were I to go to the House and vote as you may--for on any ordinary occasion I could not forget my regards for you so much as to vote against you--it would be relinquishing that independence which I have always a.s.serted. If I stayed away totally, I should be accused by my enemies, of violating an engagement that never existed, or I should be said by yours to cast upon you, and for such causes as they would not fail to invent, the heaviest of all censures, the tacit condemnation of a friend. And, however anxious each would be to do justice to the other, calumny would drown our voices, or malignity affect not to believe us. Thus circ.u.mstanced, I should, were that practicable, request you to rea.s.sume that seat, which I could no longer fill with honour to you, or safety to myself. Though this cannot be done directly, yet we may obtain the same end by an expedient tantamount in effect, and which I mentioned to you yesterday, that is by your permitting me to procure a return for a friend of yours for the remainder of this Parliament, or to give him such a sum as may enable him to procure it, when there shall be an opportunity.
Let me a.s.sure you, I am infinitely obliged by your manner of receiving this proposal, as it shows me that you are too well persuaded of my regard and respect for you to suppose it made with any, the remotest view of putting an end to our intimacy or friendship. On the contrary, I ask it as a favour, from that very friendship, and because I am anxious to preserve it inviolate. Neither am I afraid of being thought uneasy under a sense of obligation, or desirous of being freed from it by the paltry expedient of a partial compensation. I think you know me too well to suspect me of so sordid an idea, and on your vindication of me as to that, will I cordially rely. I cannot but add that I am happy in making this proposition at a time when the popularity of the Administration you have acceded to, must evince to you and to everybody, that my object is perfectly disinterested. The funds of opposition, if in fact such a thing exists, you will allow are too low at present to have much temptation for a purchaser.
Believe me, my dear Sir, with great truth and regard, your much obliged and affectionate humble servant,
John P. Curran.
THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM TO MR. LONGFIELD.
Dublin Castle, Jan. 23rd, 1788.
Sir,
Your letter, enclosing one from Mr. Curran, reached me at a moment when my attention was taken up with other business, else I should have immediately answered it.
I am very sensible of the candour with which you have declared your intentions of supporting me, and of your exertions to induce Counsellor Curran to act with you in that line of conduct. The offer of the seat, on his part, is handsome; as is likewise your refusal of it.
I am much honoured by the confidence which you have shown me on this occasion, and have the honour to be,
Sir, Your very obedient and faithful humble servant, N.B.
Richard Longfield, Esq.
The arrangement for the establishment of Arthur Wellesley as one of the aide-de-camps to Lord Buckingham, alluded to in a recent letter from Lord Mornington, suffered an interruption on the threshold from a proposal made by Sir George Yonge, then Secretary at War, for reducing the gentlemen holding those appointments to half-pay. Lord Mornington, who was still in England, resented the proposal indignantly, and brought the affair under the notice of the Lord-Lieutenant. He writes on the 8th of January,
Sir George Yonge had retreated into Devonshire before I received your letter; but I have ventured to disturb his retirement by an epistle of four sides of paper, to which I could not yet have received an answer. I cannot conceive what he can mean by this man[oe]uvre, because I cannot see any advantage to him in the reduction of any, or of all your aide-de-camps to half-pay; and I am clearly of opinion, that there is no argument which can be drawn in favour of the reduction of any, which will not equally apply to all. I do not exactly understand, by the papers which I received from you, what was the nature of his proposal with respect to the 9th and 10th companies. I have threatened, that my brother shall join his regiment in India. This business is now very unfortunate to Arthur, as his men are now all raised, and he has concluded an agreement for an exchange, which only waits the mighty fiat of the Secretary at War. I fear he must wait for the decision of that great character; for I think under the present circ.u.mstances he cannot safely leave England.
However, I hope the Secretary will deign to temper his grandeur with a little common sense in the course of a few days, and then I will consign your aide-de-camp to you by the first mail-coach.
Lord Mornington, however, had no necessity to carry out his threat of sending his brother to India. That service was reserved for a later day.
Sir George Yonge"s project appears to have been over-ruled, at least so far as Arthur Wellesley was concerned, and the young aide-de-camp was duly forwarded to his post of honour. In the month of April, Lord Mornington writes again to the Viceroy, thanking him for the kindness with which he has treated his _protege_.
My princ.i.p.al reason for intruding on you now, is to express my warm and hearty thanks for your great kindness to my brother, of which I have not only received the most pleasing accounts from himself, but have heard from various other quarters. You will easily be persuaded, that I must feel your goodness to him as the strongest and most grateful instance of your regard for me.
I must also do my brother the justice to a.s.sure you that he feels as he ought to do on this subject, and that you have warmly attached him to you. All his letters that I have seen, not only to me, but to many others totally unconnected with you, speak the most sincere language of grat.i.tude and affection for the reception you have given him. He also expresses great obligations to Lady Buckingham, whom I must beg you to thank in my name.
Mr. Grenville"s correspondence with his brother was now resumed with the same activity as before, ranging over every question of public moment affecting the foreign and domestic policy of the country. One of the topics which began to occupy a large s.p.a.ce in the public mind about the beginning of the year was the contemplated movement for the abolition of the Slave Trade. The abstract justice of the abolition, and the practical difficulties in the way of effecting it, were equally obvious to Mr. Grenville.
The business of the Slave Trade is referred to the Committee of Trade. It is a very extensive investigation, and by no means a pleasant subject of inquiry at such a board, because I take it the result will clearly be what one knew sufficiently without much inquiry--that on every principle of humanity, justice, or religion, the slave trade is unjustifiable, and that at the same time it is, in a commercial point of view, highly beneficial, though I believe not so much as those who are concerned in it pretend. On this view of the question I have certainly formed my opinion, that the duty of Parliament is that which would be the duty of each individual sitting there, namely, to sacrifice objects of advantage to principles of justice. It is, however, a great question, and of no little embarra.s.sment to Government, who run the risk of offending a numerous and powerful body of men. I am told that there is an idea of calling the county of Bucks together, to pet.i.tion as other counties have done. This will be very distressing to me, because, although my opinion is formed, it would not be very decent for me to declare it publicly, while an inquiry is pending at the Board of which I am a member.
The subject was new and startling at this time, and Lord Buckingham took alarm at the notion of a sudden and complete measure of abolition.
Having communicated his doubts to Mr. Grenville, the reply of the latter expresses a general concurrence in his views.
Our ideas do not seem very different as to the Slave Trade. I never entertained an idea that we could liberate the slaves actually in the Islands, except by some such gradual measure as you mention. But I am very sanguine in thinking that a law preventing the carrying any more slaves to the Islands in British ships (the only vessels that can legally trade there) may be pa.s.sed and enforced without considerable difficulty or danger.
Towards the end of January Lord Mornington writes:
We are all very eagerly engaged in considering a plan for the abolition of the Slave Trade, which is to be soon brought forward by Wilberforce. I hear that Burke is to prove slavery to be an excellent thing for negroes, and that there is a great distinction between an Indian Begum and an African Wowski.
That some of the supporters of the Administration did not consider Mr.
Wilberforce the fittest person to bring forward the question is frankly avowed in several of these letters. Sir William Young, a constant and lively correspondent, communicates his apprehensions on this point to Lord Buckingham. His letter is dated the 20th of February.
The French have offered our people of Liverpool (hearing that we are on the eve of surrendering our Slave Trade) no less than 5 per ton premium to carry on the trade between Africa and the French islands. When Wilberforce intends to come forward is not settled, nor what his precise motion. I cannot help feeling its absurdity _d"avance_, knowing my friend Wilberforce to be a mere utopian philanthropist on a subject which a little needs the practical politician.
On the 9th of May following, Mr. Pitt, taking the question into his own hands, moved a resolution pledging the House to the consideration of the Slave Trade in the ensuing session. Upon this, Sir William Young remarks:
The Slave Trade, obviously from the debate on Friday last, will be made an election tool to work at the Dissenters with, and gain the hurra" of the lower people. When Pitt shall come forward to unite humanity and justice with policy and the public necessities, and produce early next session some measures of legislation for the colonies, and of regulation in the trade, I foresee the clamour will be "What! regulate rapine and murder!
and legislate slavery in the British dominions!" and all of the measure, as to the abolition of the trade which is wisely put by, will be artfully taken up to discredit what is humanely done. And this is the mischief of leaving such business to the good and brilliant, but little-wise or solid Wilberforce, who did not know, that in a business of such extent as to the interests of the public, their feelings should not have been excited to go beyond the mode or degree of practicable remedy to the evil; that to give hopes of something is to render the full accomplishment more grateful; and that to antic.i.p.ate the most that can be done, is to render the doing less thankless, and as nothing. Adopting the strongest wishes for the full abolition of slavery and the Slave Trade, was it not folly in the extreme to throw out the idea of full abolition previous to investigation of how far it was possible to go, and where a stop of necessity must be made. Wilberforce hath everywhere canva.s.sed addresses for total abolition!
These pa.s.sages, collected from the Correspondence, possess some historical value from their immediate bearing upon the state and action of opinion, at the time when this question was originally introduced into Parliament. Wilberforce was confessedly not considered a practical politician, and his support was regarded by Pitt with apprehension. His sincerity was admitted by everybody, but there seems to have been a strange want of confidence in his judgment. By agitating the country for total abolition, before the public had had an opportunity of investigating the bearings of the question, he showed more zeal than discretion, and seriously embarra.s.sed the proceedings of the Minister.
Wilberforce had the best intentions in the world, but, like other politicians, sometimes erred in carrying them out.
Not the least charm of these letters is the insight they afford into the characters of the princ.i.p.al persons concerned in them; and the slightest pa.s.sages that a.s.sist us to a nearer view of men who occupied so large a s.p.a.ce in their own times, and whose actions enter into the history of the country, have a distinct attraction in this point of view.
Allusion has already been made to the sensitiveness of Lord Buckingham on personal points of form and etiquette, which sometimes disposed him to fancy discourtesy or indifference where none was really contemplated.