1766. GRAFTON PAPERS. 357 the consideration of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Gower alone can bring that about. To sum up all in two words: Faction will not shake the Closet nor gain the public. I wait the issue without the possibility of any change in my sentiments. Give me leave, my dear Lord, under these considerations to decline taking any step, but that of advising the King to fill up the offices as they shall become vacant by the most eligible who will accept them. I depend on the Duke of Bedford's rectitude and wisdom; and I have every good to expect from Lord Gower's knowledge of things, his discernment, and his excellent sound understanding. I fear your Grace may think me fool-hardy and presuming. Indeed, my Lord, the Closet is firm, and there is nothing to fear. I am ever, &c. CHATHAM. EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. MY DEAR LORD, (London), December 7. 1766. I GRIEVE most heartily at the report of the meeting last night. If the inquiry is to be contracted within the ideas of Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer ** and of Mr. Dyson, the whole becomes a farce and the Ministry a ridiculous phantom. Mr. Beckford will move his Questions (waiving for the present the Bonds and Transfers), and upon the issue of Tuesday must turn the decision of the present system, whether to stand or make way for another scene of political revolution. Mr. Dyson's behaviour cannot be acquiesced in. Mr. C. Townshend's fluctuations and incurable weaknesses cannot comport with his remaining in that critical office. Your Grace will not, I trust, wonder at the pain I feel for the King's service and personal ease, as well as for the redemption of a nation within reach of being saved at once by a kind of gift from Heaven; and all marred and thrown away by fatal weaknesses, co-operating with the most glaring factions. What possible objection fit to be listened to can be made to the bringing the revenues in India before the House? I hope Mr. Beckford will walk out of the House, and leave the name of an inquiry to amuse the credulous * On East India affairs. ** Mr. Charles Townshend. in other hands, in case this question be not fully supported and carried. For my own part I shall wash my hands of the whole business after that event. Pardon the zeal, my Lord, of a man in earnest for the King and for the community, and believe me in all events with the utmost respect and attachment, &c. CHATHAM. EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. Bath, January 10. 1767. MY DEAR LORD, Ir is with very real concern that I learn from the honour of your Grace's letter you had brought back from the country the indisposition which troubles you but too often, and I feel myself more particularly obliged to your Grace for having the goodness to write to me under so painful a circumstance. Though I trust this will find your Grace in perfect health, I will not detain you with a long letter, as I propose setting out for London in a day or two, and shall principally mean at present to express my best thanks to your Grace for the communications you have done me the honour to give me with regard to East India affairs. I wish, my dear Lord, I could see cause to express any thanks to the good Chairman and Deputy Chairman for their communication to your Grace. I will say but a few words upon their captious and preposterous paper. The points on which the Committee are of opinion it is requisite and necessary to treat entirely pass by the great objects of Parliamentary inquiry and national justice, and to render the disingenuity of the proceedings more gross all this is (according to the words of the reference) "in pursuance of the resolution of the General Court!" On this self-evident state of the thing I am forced to declare I have no hopes from the transaction. My only hope centres in the justice of Parliament, where the question of right can alone be decided, and which cannot upon any colourable pretence be in the Company. The temper and turn of your Grace's answer upon this occasion may be more discreet than such a one as, I confess, I should have made in like circumstances, for I should have desired the gentlemen to dispense me from receiving a resolution of the Committee not admissible as the opening of a treaty, because taking no notice of the revenues in question. 1767. GRAFTON PAPERS. 359 I hope soon to be at your Grace's orders in town, though I see not the least use I can be of in this matter, possibly rather in the way of others from whom I have the misfortune to differ toto cœlo upon these matters. With regard to Mr. Ch. Price, I beg leave to defer that consideration till we meet, only suggesting to your Grace at present that whatever shall be resolved, the agreement had better be specific, and must have the King's approbation. Allow me to beg the favour of your Grace to tell Mr. Townshend I apprehend my account will not have passed soon enough for his view; no time shall be lost. I am ever, my dear Lord, &c. CHATHAM. EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. Bath, February 9.* 1767. MY DEAR LORD, I HAVE very many thanks to return your Grace for the honour of your obliging letter, accompanying the proposal from the Committee of the East India Directors. If my wishes to be, where I might be, of a little use, were not what they are, your Grace's kind exhortations, and those of the Lords you mention, would be effectual spurs to me to quicken my motions. I can venture to assure your Grace that the same duty and devotion to the King which animated me to attempt, and sperare contra spem, still prompts me to struggle under bodily infirmities, and equally incurable disadvantages which certain infelicities of the age throw upon public business. As soon as I can recover strength enough I will set out, but I cannot imagine the least utility in my lying short by the way, or being confined to my bed the moment I reach London. In the mean time reports about my absence seem quite immaterial; those of my not being satisfied with certain notions, and with a conduct consequential to them, from the beginning of the East India inquiry to this hour, I should be sorry to remove; on the contrary, I would * There is another letter to the Duke of Grafton printed in the Chatham Correspondence (vol. iii. p. 199.), from the rough draft to which the editor has from conjecture assigned the same date as this, February 9. 1767. But some circumstance unknown to me must have misled him. That letter, as derived from the original sent, is contained in the Grafton Memoirs, and bears the date of January 23. 1767, undoubtedly the true one. have this clearly understood, but instead of this dissatisfaction being a cause of prolonging my absence, it would most certainly accelerate my return. My present state will hardly allow me to hope I can be in town before the 18th, nor can I see the importance of a week more or less. I now come to the papers of the 6th of February from the Committee of Directors. I shall not enter into the merits of the proposal. Parliament is the only place where I will declare my final judgment upon the whole matter, if ever I have an opportunity to do it. As a servant of the Crown I have no right or authority to do more than simply to advise that the demands and the offers of the Company should be laid before Parliament; referring the whole determination to the wisdom of that place. But though I abstain for the present from entering into the merits of the above paper I must take notice of the manner of this transaction. The paper begins by asserting that the Committee have already offered to the consideration of Administration several articles in which their commerce seems to require new regulations and present relief. This refers (most ingenuously) to a paper put into your Grace's hands upon your return to town, to show respect, and only for communication to your Grace, requiring no answer. Well then, to take these gentlemen at their word, and according to their own sense of the thing, these articles requiring regulation and present relief cannot possibly be withheld from Parliament, and must in due time be laid there. Next I come to the notable attempt to render the proposal relating to the revenues only an idea, and authorized by their constituents. The transaction too to be a secret. Was ever anything so puerile and ridiculous as this State artifice? Who can abet these gentlemen in so captious and offensive a proceeding? I cannot talk seriously upon such a farce of negotiation. I sum up all I have to offer upon this affair; I beg to acquit myself by submitting, as my clear opinion, that Parliament is entitled to be informed what steps have been taken by the Directors in consequence of the resolution of the General Court, and that the servants of the Crown are indispensably bound in duty, not to suppress any, but to lay them in due time, even uncalled for, before the House. Besides their general duty, it is become still more incumbent, if possible, from the proceedings of the 1767. GRAFTON PAPERS. 361 Committee of Inquiry being stopped, with regard to printing the papers, by a formal declaration of an expected proposal. Thus much I think necessary to say with regard to the secrecy of this strange business. Now, my dear Lord, give me leave to beg your Grace's forgiveness for this diffuse, prolix letter; the matter fills my mind and heart; the manner of proceeding of the Committee is insidious; the proposal deserves no other observation than that it is enormous and unconscionable, even to effrontery. Thus, my Lord, your Grace sees I can declare to the Duke of Grafton a direct opinion out of Parliament. As to the poor cunning of these pedlars in negotiation, I am much mistaken if they are not already taken in their own snare; for they have done enough to lead by-and-by to the denouement in Parliament with more advantage to the friends of the public against the advocates of the Alley. I am ever, &c. CHATHAM. EARL OF CHATHAM TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. Bond Street, Wednesday (March 4. 1767). LORD Chatham has the honour to agree entirely with the Duke of Grafton and other servants of the Crown, that a meeting of Cabinet should be had upon the East India business, the capital object of the public upon which Lord Chatham will stand or fall. Report, not rumour, is unjust indeed if Mr. Townshend did not give up the inquiry yesterday, and clearly convey his opinion not to call for more lights, or at least not to lay open the whole. If this be the writer hereof and the Chancellor of the Exchequer aforesaid cannot remain in office together; or Mr. C. Townshend must amend his proceeding. Duty to the King and zeal for the salvation of the whole will not allow of any departure from this resolution. So, If to-morrow night should be agreeable to the Duke of Grafton, Lord Chatham desires the favour of his Grace to appoint the meeting at his Grace's house at seven in the evening, being the house from which firmness, candour, and salvation is to be hoped, if anywhere, in these factious |