the subject of your lordship's proposition. I con-
fess, on the very first suggestion, I entered into it
with great good liking : but one condition always
attended my approbation ; that is, the unanimous,



366 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

cheerful, and zealous concurrence of all your lord-
ship's friends. If the plan were by them unani-
mously adopted, manfully avowed, and resolutely
adhered to, I do not entertain the slightest doubt
that it would come up to the most sanguine ex-
pectations. But I find so little concurrence, that
it seems to me the last degree of imprudence, in
such a diversity of opinion, to hazard a measure,
the whole effect of which depends upon unanimity.
I thought it a mark of confidence that was proper,
to show your lordship's letter to Lord G. Germain.
He argued much, and truly not without cogency
upon the subject. He looked upon a concurrence
even of your lordship's particular friends, in any
plan of non-attendance, as a thing absolutely im-
practicable. He did not think that we are strong
enough, either in numbers or popularity ; or that
there is enough of discontent among the people
without doors to give the measure any sort of
effect. He apprehends that we might rather run
the risk of being forgotten by the public, than of
exciting in them the spirit that we wish to raise.
Besides that, there are so many other persons in
opposition, not only unconnected, but extremely
adverse, who would not fail to take advantage of

O

our secession (however qualified) to succeed to
our situations, and to accuse us of having meanlv

O >

relinquished them, that we can never propose it
with any hope either of credit or advantage. He



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 367

was very sure, that neither of the Townshends,
the father or the son, would enter into it ; as con-
trary to the opinions of both, and to all the
feelings of the younger and more active of the
two. I told him that your lordship (as he might,
indeed, see by your letter) entertained the idea
only as a matter to be considered. The fact is,
Mr. Do wdes well's idea of absence does not go to
above a fortnight. Sir G. Savile is very doubtful ;
Sir Charles Saunders and Lord F. Cavendish dis-
approve. Your lordship's northern friends are
generally adverse, and none of them earnest for
it ; so that the proposition, as far as the sense of
your lordship's friends can be collected, is, upon
the whole, disliked. Lord George Germain seems
rather to approve of our course during the last
session, where we lay by until fair opportunity of
opposition offered; but that our attendance, though
inactive, ought to be regular, in order to show
that, though we may be silent, we are neverthe-
less vigilant. I am persuaded that we cannot
follow any plan of this kind in the approaching
session. They will, because they must, lay some-
thing immediately before us, and we must imme-
diately take our part in it. But nothing can be
done without your lordship's early appearance in
town, ten days at least before the meeting. This
wish and opinion of mine is always in subordina-



368 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

tion to the care of your lordship's health, which is,
and ought to be, our first consideration.

The ministers, I believe, have nothing very
precisely determined with relation to Indian
affairs. I am told, and I do not think it wholly
improbable from many circumstances, that Lord
North was against our meeting before Christmas,
but that Lord Mansfield urged on the early sum-
mons. Notwithstanding Lord North's procrasti-
nating disposition, he must do something with
regard to the company's insolvency. He must,
I think, accept of one, or other, of their proposi-
tions. Mr. Dowdeswell inclines to the scheme of
the company's receiving the debt from govern-
ment, as the most eligible measure, and is, by all
means, for keeping up the dividend. His reasons
are certainly cogent, but, as yet, we have the
matter very imperfectly before us.

I saw a letter to Sir Charles Saunders from
Sir Charles Knowles. He speaks of the conclu-
sion of peace between Turkey and Russia as
almost certain, and this will probably draw with
it some sort of pacification of Poland, and may
thereby ensure the continuance of peace in the
rest of Europe, for some time longer. I cannot
find that foreign affairs are intended to form any
part of our business at the meeting. If your
lordship gives me notice when you will be at



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 369

Harrowden, I shall be glad to wait upon you
there, but, indeed, I had much rather meet you in
London. I am, with my best respects to Lady
Rockingham,

My dear lord, ever your lordship's most

obliged and obedient humble servant,
EDM. BURKE.

I hear that Charles Fox's speedy coming into
the treasury is expected. This event would not,
I hope, prove sinister to a very just claim 4 ; and
would prevent much oppression to individuals,
and, I am quite certain, a very considerable loss
to the public.



THE DUKE OF RICHMOND TO EDMUND BURKE, ESQ.
Goodwood, November 15, 1772.

MY DEAR BURKE,

Your letter came very safely to me by the coach,
and, inclosed, I return Lord Rockingham's to you.
I entirely agree with you, that the measure of
secession should be entered into unanimously and
with spirit, otherwise it is worse than the most
tame inactivity ; and, therefore, as many of our

* This is an allusion to a claim, then before the board of
treasury, on the part of Mr. Burke's brother, to retain some
land purchased by him in Grenada, the right to which was
disputed by the crown.

VOL. I. B b



370 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

friends are against it, I shall give up my opinion ;
and I do it with the more ease, because, I confess,
I think our affairs are in so very bad a condition,
that we can expect no good to arise from any
measures we pursue, and, therefore, it becomes
a matter of more indifference whether what we
do is a little more or less wise. Now I am upon
this subject, I will mention a reflection that I
have made. You know I pass in the world for
very obstinate, wrong-headed, and tenacious of
my opinions. Now (as it is not uncommon in
such cases) I think I am the very reverse. I do
not mean to say that I always judge right, but I
do think, that upon some very material questions,
I did judge more right than those whose opinions
were followed ; and I do think, that far from
being tenacious, I do give up my opinion to that
of my friends much too often. Had my opinion
of taking administration by ourselves, when our
negotiation with Bedford House broke off in 1766,
(or 1767, I forget which year,) been followed,
things would have been very different from what
they are at present. The idea of seceding after
the Middlesex election was yours; but I agreed
in it much, and I am sure it was throwing all
away not to follow it. I fear it is too late now
to do any good. I don't think a secession now
would have much effect, but it is better than a
poor weak attendance, and a despicable opposi-



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 371

tion. By attending, we show our weakness and
our insignificancy. If we absented ourselves, and
still kept dining together and writing in the
papers, people might have a better opinion of our
weight. The novelty might have some effect ;
and ministers, left quite to themselves in parlia-
ment, might be embarrassed. But still, I submit.

Indeed, Burke, you are too unreasonable, to
desire me to be in town some time before the
meeting of parliament. You see how very despe-
rate I think the game is ; you know how little
weight my opinion is of with our friends in the
lump, (for I exclude particular friends,) and to
what purpose can I then meet them ? No, let me
enjoy myself here till the meeting ; and then, at
your desire, I will go to town and look about me
for a few days. You say the party is an object
of too much importance to be let go to pieces.
Indeed, Burke, you have more merit than any
man in keeping us together ; but I believe our
greatest bond is the pride of the individuals, which
unfortunately, though it keeps us from breaking,
hinders us from acting like men of sense. The
marquis manages us better than any man can, but
he will never make us what we ought to be ; the
thing is not practicable.

I entirely agree with his lordship in his ideas
about India affairs, and fear the intelligence you
got of the plan of government is but too well
B b 2



372 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

founded; at least I fear, they will not miss this
opportunity of getting a footing in the affairs of
the company. Alack ! alack ! all is very bad.
Adieu, ever most affectionately and sincerely yours,

RICHMOND, &c.



EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., TO THE DUKE OF
RICHMOND.

November 17, 1772.

MY DEAR LORD,

I am much obliged to your grace for your very
kind letter of the 15th, which I received by the
machine. Whatever others might have imagined,
I never thought your grace too tenacious of your
opinions. If you had rather leaned to that
extreme, I should not have esteemed you the less
for it. I have seen so many woful examples of
the effect of levity, both that which arises from
temper and that which is owing to interest, that
a small degree of obstinacy is a quality not very
odious in my eyes, whether it be complexional, or
from principle. When a man makes great sacri-
fices to his honest opinion, it is no wonder that he
should grow fond of it. I am sure that nothing
can hinder public spirit from being very suspicious,
except great consistency. Those who do not much
admire the security itself, nor perhaps the virtue



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 373

it secures, will represent it as a mask, and perhaps
the virtue as an obstinate and intractable disposi-
tion. Those who think in that manner of your
grace, form that opinion on your steady attach-
ment to your principles. They know nothing of
your compliance and practicability, in carrying on
business among your friends. I can bear witness
that it has always been full as much as was neces-
sary towards keeping a great system well com-
pacted together in all its parts. I have known
some good effects of that practicability. I agree,
too, that there have been instances where we may
now have reason to wish you had less facility.
After all, every political question that I have ever
known, has had so much of the pro and con in it,
that nothing but the success could decide which
proposition ought to have been adopted. People
in a constant minority can have no success, and
therefore, have not even that uncertain way of
solving any problem of political conduct. I believe
we have had more divisions among ourselves than
we ought to have had, and have made many
mistakes in our conduct, both as a body and as
individuals. Comparing our proceedings with any
abstract standard, we have been very faulty and
imperfect ; but if you try yourselves by a compa-
rison with any other existing body of men, I
believe you will find a more decent, regular, con-
sistent, and prudent series of proceeding among



374 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

yourselves, than among any of them, or all of
them put together. Have you in any place where
you have had an interest undone yourselves so
completely, as a certain party which was lately
in possession of the corporation of London ? a set
of gentlemen who cannot plead innocence and
simplicity as an excuse for their innumerable
blunders. In the House of Lords, have the chiefs
of you ever framed such injudicious motions, paid
so little attention to your mutual honour, or con-
trived to reconcile your proceedings at one time
to your declarations at another, with so little
finesse and dexterity as some persons of very high
name in this country? You have not, like them,
while they were miserably distracted among them-
selves, formed a thousand childish and mischievous
plots, to break to pieces the only people who could
possibly serve them, and in whom, if they had
common sense, they would, for their own sakes,
have placed great confidence, as well as have
endeavoured to acquire the like from them, by
every method of fair and conciliatory conduct. If
you turn from them to the factions that make what
is called administration, surely you are guiltless
of that tissue of absurdities by which govern-
ment, that by mere abuses can hardly be more
than odious, has been rendered the most con-
temptible thing in the world. Look at home,
one has much to complain of. Look abroad,



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 375

one has ten times more. So that on the whole,
I am inclined to think that the faults in your
body are no more than the ordinary frailties of
human nature ; some of them, too, inseparably
attached to the cause of all your strength and re-
putation. You are, in general, somewhat languid,
scrupulous, and unsystematic ; but men of high
birth and great property are rarely as enterprising
as others, and for reasons that are very natural.
Men of integrity are curious, sometimes too curi-
ous, in the choice of means ; and great bodies can
seldom be brought to system and discipline, except
by instruments that, while you are out of govern-
ment, you have not in your power. However, with
all these faults, it is better you should be rich, and
honest, and numerous, than needy and profligate,
and composed of a few desperate politicians; though
they have advantages in their own way, which you
must always want. It is with such reflections I
compose and comfort myself, in the occasional
dejections and vexations that I am subject to
like other men, and which your grace has seen
but too much of; and they will in my cool mo-
ments always put me at ease, and reconcile me to
every thing you do, as long as I can act in public,
whether I agree in opinion with the rest of you,
or not.

As to your grace's situation in the party and in
the world, it would be the greatest injustice to



376 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

Lord Rockingbam, not to say that he sees and
feels his obligations to you in their full extent,
and has often spoke, as he ought, of the unparal-
leled part you have acted. His nearest and oldest
friends are, much in the same degree, your own.
There can be but one opinion on your conduct and
abilities. With regard to others, your grace is
very sensible that you have not made your court
to the world, by forming yourself to a flattering
exterior ; but you put me in mind of Mr. Wilkes's
observation when he makes love, that he will
engage in such a pursuit against the handsomest
fellow in England, and only desires a month's
start of his rival on account of his face. Your
month is past ; and if your grace does not, every
one else does remark, how much you grow on the
public, by the exertion of real talent and substan-
tial virtue. You know you have already some
fruits of them, and you will gather in such fruits
every day, until your barns are full as they can
hold. One thing, and but one, I see against it,
which is, that your grace dissipates your mind
into too great a variety of minute pursuits, all of
which, from the natural vehemence of your tem-
per, you follow with almost equal passion. It is
wise, indeed, considering the many positive vexa-
tions, and the innumerable bitter disappointments
of pleasure in the world, to have as many resources
of satisfaction as possible within one's power.



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 377

Whenever we concentre the mind on one sole
object, that object and life itself must go together.
But though it is right to have reserves of em-
ployment, still some one object must be kept
principal ; greatly and eminently so ; and the
other masses and figures must preserve their due
subordination, to make out the grand composition
of an important life. Upon these sound principles,
which your grace would require in some of those
arts that you protect, your public business, with
all its discouragements and mortifications, ought
to be so much the principal figure with you, that
the rest, in comparison of it, should be next to
nothing ; and even in that principal figure of
public life, it will be necessary to avoid the exqui-
siteness of an over-attention to small parts ; and
to over-precision, and to a spirit of detail, which
acute understandings, and which, without great
care, all precise reasoners are apt to get into ; and
which gives, in some degree, a sort of hardness,
and what you connoisseurs call the dry manner, to
all our actions. Your grace has abundant reason
not to be discouraged from the great exhibition
that I wish to see you chiefly intent upon. In the
course of public business, by degrees, your grace
developes your true character. You would be in
a bad condition, if, with the doors shut after the
manner of the French, but on the principle of the
English constitution, you were to be tried only by



378 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

your peers. But this is not so ; business, by de-
grees, brings various kinds and descriptions of men
into contact with you ; and they all go off with
the best impressions, and communicate them to
the world. Why have I rambled thus far? Why,
truly, because it became an amusement to my
mind ; and that I see your grace wants some
amusement too. But is the indulgence of a lo-
quacious vein any amusement ? I will try by
going on further. J agree with your grace, that
our condition is very bad. It is certainly so. It
can be concealed, neither from friends nor enemies.
The time for secession is past, and no other such
opportunity is in prospect. It would have done,
I am persuaded ; but none of our friends are to
blame for this rejection of that idea. On the first
proposal, Lord Temple, Lord Lyttleton, and Lord
Camden showed such invincible repugnance to it,
that in your then situation it could not be thought
of; and it was impossible at that time to take a
separate walk from them. With regard to the
transaction of 1767, I do recollect that I, as well
as others, did, in some particulars, differ from your
grace's opinion. I think you will do me the jus-
tice to believe, that it was not out of any particular
regard to Bedford House. Indeed, independently
of my former observations, I saw clearly, during
the supper at Lord Rockingham's, the most un-
amiable dispositions ; a behaviour in some of them



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 379

that was scarcely polite ; and a reserve, which
wine, circulated briskly until the sunbeams drove
us from it, was not able to dispel, though these
people are not indeed candid, but naturally very
loose and careless talkers. But I thought I saw
too, that the whole treaty, on the part of the
Duke of Grafton and Lord Camden, and much
more another, was merely an imposition both on
you and on Con way ; principally meant to bring
the latter to act the part he did afterwards ; and
I can scarcely forbear being still of opinion, they
never meant to bring you in, except on terms
that, when they became explicit, you could neither
have accepted nor rejected, without great detri-
ment and disgrace to you. I conclude this, not
only from the closet disavowal in the middle of
your proceedings, but from a conversation with
General Conway, a few days after all was broke
off, in which he very frankly told me, that the
intention never was to bring in the whole even of
your body, but about half a dozen (I think) of
the principal people ; and to let you make way for
the rest as opportunities should offer. Constituted
as the remaining part of the ministry was, this
was a novel plan of power which would enable you
to serve your cause. Your grace, I dare say,
recollects that we did all, in effect and substance,
at last accede to your grace's opinion ; when, after
a long consultation, protracted to near two o'clock



380 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

in the morning, and after frequent messages back-
ward and forward, your grace at length carried
the ultimatum to General Conway, and never
received an answer from that day to this. On
the whole, I saw so little real intention towards
you at that time, either in the Duke of Grafton,
or Lord Camden, or General Conway, or in the
first mover, that I cannot, without great difficulty,
attribute our present condition to our rejection of
the proposals of the court ; for, in effect, if they
had been such as your grace thought them, the
treaty never could have broken off on account of
Bedford House, which had broken with you, and
that in a manner equally insolent and scandalous,
before that business concluded. Your grace re-
members well the character of the Duke of New-
castle, who always treated with his enemies, in
beginning by putting himself into their power, and
by offering more than they would think of asking ;
and whose jealousy, little short of phrensy, of
Lord Rockingham, about objects which he neither
would nor could have held, drove him headlong
into any snare his adversaries laid for him. Lord
Albemarle, too, had his attention to the Duke of
Bedford ; but I must say with as great, as just
suspicions of him and his, as with attachment to
you, on the total. Yet it was very necessary to
look to both these persons; and they, at least
one of them, and the most material, required no-



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 381

thing more than an empty compliment ; and this
the court knew, or might have known, as well as
we did. But whether I am mistaken or not, the
thing being passed, it only gives pain to attribute
our misfortunes to our faults, where circumstances
will not suffer our repentance to amend them.
Bad they are indeed ! but where things are despe-
rate with regard to power, they are not always
in a situation the most unfavourable to character.
Decorum, firmness, consistency, courage, patient,
manly perseverance, these are the virtues of
despair. They are worth something, surely; and
none has profited so much of that situation as
your grace, nor could you have shown of what
materials you are made in any other. Persons
in your station of life ought to have long views.
You people of great families and hereditary trusts
and fortunes, are not like such as I am, who,
whatever we may be, by the rapidity of our growth,
and even by the fruit we bear, and flatter our-
selves that, while we creep on the ground, we
belly into melons that are exquisite for size and
flavour, yet still are but annual plants, that perish
with our season, and leave no sort of traces
behind us. You, if you are what you ought to
be, are in my eye the great oaks that shade a
country, and perpetuate your benefits from gene-
ration to generation. The immediate power of a
Duke of Richmond, or a Marquis of Rockingham,



382 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE

is not so much of moment ; but if their conduct
and example hand down their principles to their
successors, then their houses become the public
repositories and offices of record for the con-
stitution; not like the Tower, or Rolls-chapel,
where it is searched for and sometimes in vain,
in rotten parchments under dripping and perish-
ing walls, but in full vigour, and acting with vital
energy and power, in the character of the lead-
ing men and natural interests of the country. It
has been remarked that there were two eminent
families at Rome, that for several ages were dis-
tinguished uniformly by opposite characters and
principles, the Claudian and Valerian. The for-
mer were high and haughty, but public-spirited,
firm, and active, and attached to the aristocracy.
The latter were popular in their tempers, man-
ners, and principles. So far the remark : but I
add that any one, who looks attentively to their
history, will see that the balance of that famous
constitution was kept up for some ages, by the
personal characters, dispositions, and traditionary
politics of certain families, as much as by any
thing in the laws and orders of the state ; so that
I do not look upon your time or lives lost, if,
in this sliding away from the genuine spirit of the
country, certain parties, if possible, if not the
heads of certain families, should make it their
business, by the whole course of their lives, prin-



RIGHT HON. EDMUND BURKE. 383

cipally by their example, to mould into the very
vital stamina of their descendants, those principles
which ought to be transmitted pure and unmixed
to posterity. Neither Lord Rockingham nor your
grace have children : however, you do not want
successors of your blood; nor, I trust, heirs of
your qualities and your virtues, and of the power
which sooner or later will be derived from them.
This T say to comfort myself, and possibly your
grace, in the present melancholy view of our
affairs. "Although the field is lost all is not
lost," to give you a line of your Milton, who has