but let him, or the rest of his corps, talk what
language they will, it will, translated into plain
English, signify nothing but a repetition of the
old system ; nor can it be thought that by send-
ing for Lord Chatham, they mean any thing else
than to patch a shred or two, of one or more
of the other parties, upon the old Bute garment,
since their last piecing is worn out. If they had
been dissatisfied with the last botching of Lord
Chatham, they would not have thought again of
the same workman. Perhaps, for that reason,
(if any thing of the kind is worth a second
thought,) it might be as well not to suggest any
thing of our dislike of that person to any one of
the sacred band : as their opinion of our disunion
will rather fortify the court in its resolution of
employing him in the formation of another of
their expedient administrations. Indeed, as far
as I can guess at their designs, by the discourses
of last winter, or the beginning of summer, (for
lately I have heard nothing,) they had no one
point at heart but the perpetual exclusion of
your lordship, and your whole system. Therefore,
any look towards courts or courtiers, their liking
or their displeasure, can be no plan for us. I
am infinitely pleased with the resolution in Derby-
shire ; not so much for the addition of the voice



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 205

of that county, but as its silence would, and indeed
did, look like a renunciation of the conduct held
in other places. I have no kind of doubt of a suffi-
cient majority in Lancashire against all the interest
and all the efforts of Lord Strange. The diffi-
culty will be in the caRing of the meeting : but I
should think that half-a-dozen principal gentlemen
would be sufficient; and the trading and manufactur-
ing towns would do the rest. Besides, I take it for
granted, that our friends, Sir F. Standish and
Sir Peter Lyster, would exert themselves. I see,
by the paper, that something is likely to be stirred
in Lincolnshire. Your lordship, no doubt, recol-
lects how necessary the co-operation of Lord
Scarborough and Lord Monson will be, to the
success of a petition there. Nothing, as yet, of
Nottingham ; Cumberland likewise sleeps. Is
it not most certain, that the latter county might
be easily brought into a petition on the Duke of
Portland's giving it his countenance ?

Since I began this letter, which was two or
three days ago, I have done something, not
wholly to displease myself, in the beginning of the
pamphlet. It was necessary to change it wholly
from the manner in which you saw it ; and I
think the change has not been for the worse.
Unluckily, I am broke off from it for about a
week. Lord Verney seems a little hurt that I
have not been to see him. I shall go to him to-



206 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

morrow, and stay till Saturday. While I am
there, I propose to pay a visit at Stowe. Not
coming directly from Yorkshire, it will have no
appearance of a political advance : and not shun-
ning the visit, will not look as if a hostile air was
meant to be preserved, if the conversation should
veer, as it must, towards politics. This is the
line I intend to preserve to the best of my power.
There has been much talk of the chancellor 5 ;
his opinions, dispositions, going out, or staying in ;
but for my part, I look upon it all in the usual
strain, of distressing the ministers into some bar-
gain advantageous to him; or in the style of
Lord Chatham's politics, to keep hovering in air,
over all parties, and to souse down where the
prey may prove best. It is thought Wilmot 6
will be chosen to succeed him, if they cannot
make up matters among themselves ; and I think
they have it in their power to make it worth his
while to accept. I long to hear how they go on
in Ireland, and imagine I shall soon have a good
account : if I should learn any thing satisfactory,
your lordship shall have it in a short time. Stuart
will, I hope, succeed in his little pursuit. He has
been a great attender on that society ; but if he

s Lord Camden.

6 Sir John Eardley Wilmot, chief justice of the common
pleas.



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 207

had never set his foot within their doors, he has
but too much abilities for their paltry business.
I heard, accidentally, a report which gave me
much concern, of your lordship being ill, and
confined to your bed ; but being informed it was
nothing more than a boil, and knowing what
good effects such eruptions have on your health,
I was at length rather pleased. I beg leave
to present my respects to Lady Rockingham.
Believe me, my dear lord, with the greatest truth
and affection,

Your ever obedient and obliged humble servant,

EDM. BURKE.

I have just received George Grenville's speech,
which I send to your lordship. It is not yet
published.



EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF
ROCKINGHAM.

Beconsfield, November 6, 1769.

MY DEAR LORD,

Will. Burke and I spent the best part of last
week with Lord Verney, and in a manner
much to our satisfaction. We paid a morning
visit to Stowe, where we found Lord Temple
alone. We passed about three hours in the



208 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

gardens. I was prepared to find .them grand and
extensive, but insipid ; however, it turned out
otherwise. I thought many parts very interest-
ing, and the whole as well managed as one could
expect, from grounds which had been improved
upon two very different ideas ; and where the
revolution of taste had signalized itself upon the
same objects. Be they what they may, it was
impossible that the gardens or gardening should
engross us entirely during our walk. We had a
great deal of political conversation. He was in
good humour, and his manner was fair and open.
Without seeming offended, the turn of his dis-
course indicated at times that he had heard of
your lordship, and your friends, expressing a dis-
relish to their junto, though he did not speak out
upon it so clearly, as to make me quite satisfied
that this was his meaning. He said that as we
had got to see one another, and to act together,
he hoped there would be no retrospect, no charge,
and no recrimination. That we had done each
other a thousand acts of unkindness ; let us make
amends by a thousand acts of friendship. He
was of opinion that, let what would happen, the
great point for us, and the country, would be,
to get rid of the present administration, which
could only be effected by the appearance of union
and confidence. He said, and he repeated it,
that, to be sure, there was no treaty, expressed or



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 209

implied, to bind the parties in honour to one ano-
ther, or to any measure, except the establishment
of the rights of the freeholders. In every thing else,
we were both free : " we were both free to play
the fool as much as we pleased, mark that." He said
these last words with a. good deal of emphasis.
Lord Chatham, he told us, was exceedingly
animated against the ministry. He was uneasy
that the meeting of parliament was postponed;
lest a fit of the gout should intervene, though no
moderate fit should keep him from the House of
Peers on the first day of the session. His opi-
nion is, that the affair of the Middlesex election
should be taken up in that house, as well as the
House of Commons. I can draw no certain in-
ference from the last part of our discourse with
Lord Temple, as it was rather in a matter of
general speculation, than the business of the day.
We talked of the court system, and their scheme
of having dependent administrations. I spoke of
this as the reigning evil ; and particularly men-
tioned the favourite idea, of a king's making a
separate party for himself. He said this latter
did not seem so bad a thing, if Lord Bute had
not spoiled it. I said I thought it was mis-
chievous, whether Lord Bute had a hand in it or
not, and equally so. He contented himself with
repeating his observation, as I did by repeating
mine, and we said no more upon this subject.
VOL. i. p



210 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

On the whole, I was glad to find that we under-
stood one another thoroughly, on the nature and
extent of our coalition ; which once being mutually
explained, will not render it necessary to say
any thing upon it publicly, so as to give an advan-
tage against us to the common enemy. I forgot
to mention any thing to your lordship on the
revolution in the India House 7 . Indeed, I do

7 The large territorial revenue obtained by the East India
Company, as the fruits of the victories and treaties of Clive,
attracted particularly the attention of the British government,
in the Grafton and Chatham administration of 1766, when
many projects were set on foot, (not always upon the most
equitable principles,) for diverting into the English exchequer
a large portion of that profuse stream of wealth which was
expected to flow from the east into the company's coffers.
These projects were, as was natural, opposed by the court of
directors and proprietors of India stock, aided by a con-
siderable party in the House of Commons, who regarded the
claims of the government as violations of the company's
charter, or as gross extortion. Mr. Burke, soon after obtain-
ing a seat in parliament, distinguished himself by the vigour
and ability with which he defended the company's rights ;
and in taking this side of the question, to which he was held
by an innate hatred of oppression in whatever shape it
appeared, he found it necessary to inform himself minutely
and accurately upon all matters connected with the com-
pany's affairs in India. Gradually extending his researches,
he acquired that vast, profound, and comprehensive knowledge
of the political and social history of India, past and present,
which he displayed in what he considered the most important
labour of his life, the impeachment of Warren Hastings.



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 211

not wonder that I should, the misfortunes which
my friends have met with there, make it a sub-
ject on which I do not like to turn my thoughts.
Sullivan has gone over to the court. When I
was told this, I said to my informer, as I do to
your lordship, that I could not blame him. His
consequence in the India House is much more
material to him than his rank in parliament ;
and as the whole opposition, in a manner, dis-
claimed and persecuted him, what tie bound him

The designs of the government on the treasures of the com-
pany necessarily creating many opponents to ministers in the
court of directors and amongst the proprietors, led to a con-
nexion between them and the opposition in parliament. The
success of ministers in procuring the defection from the com-
pany's cause of Mr. Sullivan and others of their body, is the
subject of Mr. Burke's regret in this letter. It will be found
subsequently, that the directors were not unmindful of the
exertions he made to protect the company from spoliation
and wrong. Those exertions, indeed, in which he was joined
by many of the ablest men of the Rockingham and Grenville
party, were but too frequently unavailing. The company was
forced, in 1767, to agree to pay a subsidy of 400,000 a year
to government, as long as the annual dividend on India stock
exceeded six per cent. ; and this extortion was followed up by
other oppressive measures which are mentioned hereafter.

The three gentlemen named in this letter, Mr. Sullivan,
Mr. Dempster, and Sir George Colebrooke, were East India
directors. Mr. Sullivan appeared to have been in communi-
cation with Lord Chatham early in the year 1767.

p 2



212 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

from disclaiming them, and looking for support
wherever he could find it ? How he has arranged
with Lord Shelburne, with whom he was gene-
rally supposed in connexion, I know not ; but
nobody else had any claim upon him. Neither
Lord Olive's conduct in the Grenville administra-
tion, nor the attachment he has chosen since,
put him one bit higher with me ; indeed, he has
not so much to be said in his favour. As to Sir
George Colebrooke, he is just what I always
thought him. He has shown himself even an enemy
to poor Thibet Bourke; but in the present cir-
cumstances, his conduct is natural to people of
his constitution, and we must submit to it. I
turn rather to a better subject, which this brings
to my mind. It is Dempster's conduct on the
occasion. He thought, as I do, about Sullivan's
coalition. He told him that it should make no
difference in his line in the India House; that
there he would as firmly stand by him, as he
would continue to oppose his new friends in par-
liament; that his political connexion was with
your lordship only, and would always be so,
but that if Mr. Sullivan should find that course
of conduct prejudicial to his interests in Leaden-
hall-street, that he would, at an hour's notice,
disqualify for the directorship. This was what I
expected from Dempster, in an affair like this ;



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 213

not to sacrifice one duty to another, but to keep
both if possible, if not, to put it out of his power
to violate the principal.

When I got home I returned to my business,
which I did not quite neglect whilst I was at
Lord Verney's. I find I must either speak very
broad, or weaken the matter, and render it vulgar
and ineffectual. I find some difficulties as I pro-
ceed ; for what appear to me self-evident pro-
positions, the conduct and pretences of people
oblige one formally to prove; and this seems to
me, and to others, a dull and needless labour.
However, a good deal of it will be soon ready,
and you may dispose of it as you please. It will,
I am afraid, be long. On my coming home I
found, by woful experience, that one of the news-
printers has got a country-house at Beconsfield.
The old man that milks my cows and the old
dairy-maid had married, and he has made a
flaming paragraph of it. I suppose I shall be the
subject of news enough, if this be the case. But
I have sent a formal message, to beg myself off in
the particular of my family here. I do not hear
a word of news worth your notice. The speech I
inclosed to you in my last 8 , is to be the subject of
some animadversions from Wilkes. This, I am
told, is a half-secret. I am sorry, just now, that

8 A printed speech of Mr. George Grenville.



2J4 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

he should abuse him; for if it be well done, the
ministry will triumph; if ill, Wilkes will lower
himself, which will please them no less ; besides,
it may be thought that he is encouraged by me, or
some of your lordship's friends. Will, takes this
to town, whither he goes to correct the sheets of
Dowdeswell's pamphlet. I have, I believe, tired
you ; and so shall take my leave, by assuring you
that I am, with the most cordial attachment,

My dear lord,

Your ever obliged and obedient
humble servant,

EDM. BURKE.

I hope the Lord Cavendishes have taken care
to secure a full meeting at Derby. It will be
very awkward if they should have neglected this
essential step. Dowdeswell has desired me to go
to Yorkshire with him on the 13th. I foresee,
that if I do, this business of mine will come to
nothing, so I think I must decline it, for I really
think something of the sort wanting ; besides, we
are to present the petition on Friday se'nnight.
Your lordship will be so good as to present Mrs.
Burke's and my respects to Lady Rockingham.



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 215

EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF
ROCKINGHAM.

Fludyer-street, November 14, 1769.

MY DEAR LORD,

I came to town, a day or two ago, in order to
attend our county petition ; but a violent de-
fluxion having fallen on Lord Verney's eyes,
which has sentenced him to some medical opera-
tions, we are obliged to postpone the presenting
it until some day next week ; it will be Wednes-
day, I believe. On my way to town, I saw a
person who has connexions with the Pitt family.
He entertained me with an account of the present
state of Lord Chatham's politics : violent, as be-
fore, against the ministry; determined to come
out on the first day of the session ; fixed upon
three grand points Corsica for foreign affairs,
America for home policy, the right of election as
a constitutional principle ; that it was necessary
that an administration should be formed in which
the people might have some confidence ; that it
ought to be formed upon whig principles ; that the
Rockinghams and Cavendishes, and such ancient
whig families, who had ever been true to their
principles, and consistent in their conduct, ought
to take the lead in such an administration. While
I was thinking on all this, I got home, and found
that Lord Temple had been here, and left word



216 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

that he wished to see me. When I called upon
him yesterday, I found that he desired only to
settle matters about the presentment of the peti-
tion. However, this matter was dispatched in a
few moments, and he entered much more largely
into politics. He expressed the most earnest de-
sire of the union of all the parties into one,
wished that all memory of past animosities might
be worn away, and stated very strongly, and, as I
since found, very truly, the hopes which the court
built on the supposed impossibility of such an
union. J told him that I believed no union could
be formed of any effect or credit, which was not
compacted upon this great principle, " that the
king's men should be utterly destroyed as a
corps," to which he assented very heartily. He
seemed very solicitous that your lordship should
come to town early; and laid open some parti-
culars for a plan of opposition in the next session,
so like our own general lines, that I think it un-
necessary to trouble your lordship with them. At
Stowe our conversation was guarded and cold ;
here it was otherwise, upon his part ; on mine, I
was nearly as reserved as before ; not that I
could, or did, other than express my wishes for a
proper union, provided it were honourable and
safe for all parties; neither did I disagree with
him in opinion, that a great deal of the effect of
our opposition depended upon it, as well as the



EIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 217

formation of a proper system, whenever you should
be called upon to compose it. Afterwards I saw
Keppel, who has received a much more direct
message from Lord Chatham than the former :
the substance is nearly the same with my informa-
tion, containing a strong declaration of his reso-
lution never to act but with your lordship and
your system, with many high praises of both. I
shall tell you no more, because I take it for
granted that Keppel will give you a distinct
account of the whole.

I cannot now send the rest of my pamphlet.
It is not in order, nor quite finished even in the
scheme ; but I wish that, if you approve what is
done, you may send it back ; for it ought not now
to have a moment's delay. Many rumours of war
here ; but I know not well how they are founded.
My hearty regards to Mr. Dowdeswell. I hope he
likes the manner in which his book is printed.
I shall order a parcel to be sent down and charged
to your lordship, that they may be fully dispersed
in the north ; for I am convinced that men want
arguments, to reconcile their minds to what is
done, as well as motives, originally to act right.
With the most real affection and attachment,

My lord,

Your ever obliged and obedient
humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.



218 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE



EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE MARQUIS OF
ROCKINGHAM.

Beconsfield, Tuesday, December 5, 1769.

MY DEAR LORD,

I wait, with some impatience, the return of the
papers, with your observations and corrections. If
ever, they ought to appear as soon as possible 9 .
I am drawing to a conclusion, but I do not send this
manuscript ; partly, because it is not yet arranged
to my mind ; partly, because I expect soon to see
your lordship in London. Your friends wish it very
generally and warmly. They stand in a situation
which happens, just now, to be rather awkward.
Not that we are come so near a crisis, as some
people imagine ; very far from it, in my opinion.
However, as your coming to town speedily can
advance your own former determination but by a
very few days, would it not be better that you
were a little nearer to the centre, in order the
more readily to collect your friends ; and, in the
mean time, to give them the tone which they ought
to hold, at a time when it is not easy to say
any thing which may not have a construction not
pleasant to us upon the one side or the other, and

9 " Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,"
appeared early in 1770.



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 219

when an affected silence may be as bad as an
imprudent declaration? As to the Greuvilles, I
am now satisfied that they have hitherto laboured,
by every method, to give the world an impression
that our junction is complete, and that the basis
of it is their superiority in the arrangement. This
appeared to me so much past all doubt, when I was
in town, (from a story with which it is too long
to trouble you now,) that I thought it necessary
to be very explicit upon that subject, let the con-
sequences be what they would ; guarding, how-
ever, against any thing that should express any
enmity towards these allies. I do by no means
think that Lord Chatham goes with them as en-
tirely as they think, or will make himself so sub-
servient to the aggrandizement of their family, as
they wish him to be. Not that I rely much on
this speculation of my own, as perhaps I could
not explain quite clearly the principles which lead
me to it. I saw the Duke of Richmond. He is,
I am sorry to say it, far from well. His opinion
and affections are as they used to be ; and his con-
versation, I believe, without the least disguise.
He has so much aversion to the Grenvilles, and,
unknown to himself, is biassed so much towards
Conway, that I do not think his judgment so dis-
engaged upon that point as upon any other. How-
ever, I gave him a very full detail of all that came
to my knowledge since his departure ; so that the



220 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

whole is pretty well before him, towards forming
an opinion when you come to town, and bringing
him to you from Goodwood.

I hope the Yorkshire petition is in forwardness,
and will now be presented. Calcraft gave me the
inclosed names, wishing that I would get some
friends to forward their petition. That man's ap-
pearing in a cause, though unlucky to it, does not
discredit it entirely. The only effect it has, is
that which I have long seen, with infinite grief,
from the coldness and dilatoriness of many of our
friends in their manner of acting. Bold men take
the lead to which others are entitled, and they
soon come to a power not natural to them, by the
remissness of those who neither know how to be
effectual friends or dangerous enemies, or active
champions in a good cause. They complain of the
unnatural growth of such people, and they are the
cause of it. When the gentlemen of the county
of Kent abandoned the rights of their dependents
and adherents, the freeholders of their county, it
was but natural that they should abandon them,
and look for protectors wherever they could find
them. However, I send your lordship the list of
the names, to forward this business as you think
best. I hope in God this last illness does not
continue. Much hangs upon your life and health.
I heartily wish well to both on that account.
Will you permit me to say, that I wish it from



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 221

motives of a more personal regard and affection,
which is very much due and very real. Present
my most humble respects to Lady Rockingham,
and believe me ever,

My dear lord,

Your most attached and obedient
humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.



REV. DR. LELAND TO EDMUND BURKE, ESQ.
Mount Gallagher, March 22, 1770.

MY DEAREST NED,

I don't often trouble you, for I know you are
generally too busy, or too dissipated, to write or
read idle letters. Let this be some excuse for my
present epistle, the purpose of which is, of all
others, the most provokingly impertinent ; for it
is to censure and to advise you. You think too
meanly of this place and people. Without doors,
all are, to a man, your favourers and admirers;
within, you have a great party. If you think an
Irish reputation totally immaterial, your opponents
are more flattering to us. Mr. Rigby and his
friends wrote over their accounts of a squabble
between you and him, about the affair of that
Welsh borough of Lord Verney's, and have tricked



222 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

it out in such colours as they chose. At our levee
last Sunday I was accosted by so many mysterious
faces, to ask if there were any letters from you,