Bresented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, PRINTEES TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from JOHN MENZIES & Co., ROSE STREET, EDINBURGH, and HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., LIMITED, 104, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. [C.-9470.] Price 3s. 1d. 1899. INTRODUCTION TO VOLUMES II. AND III. . AFTER the publication of Volume II., containing Lord Grenville's correspondence from the beginning of 1791 to the end of 1794, a second inspection of the portfolios at Dropmore brought to light other papers of great interest relating to the periods embraced by Volumes I. and II. These papers are now printed as addenda to Volume III. The earliest of them are confidential letters from Pitt, Sir James Harris, and William Eden, to Grenville, and the replies of the last-named, during and after his missions to the Hague and Paris in 1787. Besides affording valuable information in regard to the internal factions of the Dutch Republic, which involved Prussia and Great Britain as supporters of the House of Orange, and France as the ally of the Burgher party or Patriots, in sharp collision and almost in war, they bring into contrast the methods and characters of Harris and Eden, representing rival schools of English diplomacy; and they show clearly the unbounded trust already reposed by Pitt in Grenville's ability and judgment, in situations of great responsibility for which previous training had not specially fitted him. While Pitt sought by negotiation to obtain the concessions required from France, the Duke of Brunswick cut the knot of the difficulty by marching into the Provinces at the head of a Prussian army, and restoring the supremacy of the Prince of Orange. In April 1788, Harris signed a treaty at the Hague renewing the political alliance that had existed between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic from the English Revolution of 1688 until 1780. In the following June, he induced the King of Prussia to join the maritime powers in forming a Triple Alliance for mutual defence and the preservation of peace. For these services George III., on Pitt's recommendation, raised him to the House of Peers as Lord Malmesbury. As appears from his letter to Grenville, dated December 27, 1787, Harris had aimed at making union between the English and Dutch nations firm and cordial by coming to an agreement in regard to conflicting claims of maritime right and commercial interest which formed a . a 94090. a 2 perpetual cause of dissension. "Affection," he wrote, "wili "follow complaisance, gentle usage, and not too rough and " unqualified an exercise of our influence. The reverse of this "lost us the Republic." But the British Government demanded advantages which the Dutch would not grant. Later on, William Eden, who had been rewarded for his diplomatic labours at Paris by an Irish barony, with the title of Auckland, and succeeded Malmesbury as ambassador at the Hague, resumed the unfinished work of conciliation on which the stability of the Anglo-Dutch alliance in a great measure depended. His letters to Grenville, now Secretary of State for the Home Department, in 1790 and the earlier months of 1791, indicate clearly that although the Duke of Leeds held the office of Foreign Secretary, Grenville was Pitt's chief confidant and counsellor in matters affecting the external interests of the monarchy. Lord Grenville's correspondence, however, for the first four months of 1791 is chiefly concerned with the business of the Home Department; the administration of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies. The Quebec Government Bill, to which some reference is made, possesses historical interest as initiating the system of colonial self-government; and as affording occasion for the heated.debate on the French Revolution in the course of which Burke renounced the friendship of Fox. Mr. Mitford's Bill, removing some of the disabilities of English Catholics, passed with the assent of Ministers, but forms the subject of a characteristic letter of criticism from Lord Chancellor Thurlow2. Most of the letters at this time, however, are from or to Lord Westmorland, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. They are of little value except in so far as they illustrate the system by which' a narrow monopoly of power was maintained. The Lord Lieutenant set his face against an extension of the benefits of Mitford's Bill to Ireland. In several letters he complained bitterly of the political conduct of Mr. Robert Stewart, who soon rose to wider celebrity as Lord Castlereagh. Stewart's offence seems to have been an adherence to his hustings' pledges, as a member of the Opposition in the Irish House of Commons, in spite of the fact that before his election his father had obtained an Irish peerage through the influence of Lord Camden, a member of 3 II. pp. 28, 36. 1 III. p. 442. 2 II. p. 89. Pitt's Cabinet. Another incident may be noticed as a curious symptom of weakness in an administration which commanded large majorities in both Houses of Parliament. The case of Mr. Bruen, who, having as Deputy Quarter-Master-General of the British army in North America defrauded Government of an enormous sum, took refuge in Ireland, purchased large estates, and set the judgment of the English Court of Exchequer at defiance, had been brought to the attention of the Cabinet by Lord Buckingham.1 To protect the Crown from such depredations, Pitt, Grenville, and Lord FitzGibbon, the Irish Chancellor, drafted a Bill which, if accepted by the Irish Parliament, would put an end to the immunity Mr. Bruen enjoyed. But Lord Westmor⚫ land shrank from the responsibility of introducing the measure. Bruen had become a borough proprietor and returned himself to the House of Commons as a member of the opposition. And the Lord Lieutenant feared "the discredit of attempting to frame a law for the express purpose of catching an Irish patriot."2 Towards the end of April the king appointed Lord Grenville Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in succession to the Dake of Leeds. A brief summary of the events leading to this change will supply a key to the correspondence that followed it. After the formation of the Triple Alliance, the earlier throes of the Great Revolution disabled France for several years from any exertion outside the sphere of domestic politics. Great Britain, however, soon found herself involved in two serious disputes; one on her own behalf with Spain; the other, chiefly on behalf of Prussia, with the Empress Catherine II. of Russia. The first found a favourable issue in a treaty signed at Madrid in August 1790 by Mr. Fitzherbert, soon afterwards created Lord St. Helens, and Count Florida Blanca, the Spanish Prime Minister. The second had less fortunate results. Catherine had entered into a compact with the Emperor Joseph II. for a partition of European Turkey. Notwithstanding the remonstrances and proffered mediation of the Triple Alliance, the Austrian and Russian armies wrested several provinces from the Sultan in the campaigns of 1788 and 1789. Frederick William II., King of Prussia, however, was determined -not to suffer the aggrandizement of his powerful neighbours unless fully compensated by an equivalent addition to his own |