the actual vacancies at any period; and, when the numbers shall be reduced to 100, over and above those who are or shall be Peers of the United Kingdom, then of creating, from time to time, as many as may be necessary to keep up the Peerage to that point. I throw this out for your consideration, as it is certainly desirable not only to prevent opposition, but to carry the business through as much to everybody's satisfaction as you can. I shall certainly support what is already proposed, if choose to adhere to it. I take with me blank proxies, to be executed by Lords Buckingham and Mountnorris, and think they will certainly be returned to this kingdom before the day appointed for the further proceedings of the Lords. you I remain, with great regard, &c. Lord Camden to Lord Castlereagh. CARYSFORT. [No date. Indorsed March, 1800.] Dear Castlereagh-I have received your and Lord Londonderry's letters, and you will probably hear to-night from Charles his determination, which, I doubt not, will be to depart very speedily for Dublin. From the accounts which arrived on the day of his first receiving his father's letter, it appeared as if opposition upon the detail was withdrawn in some degree, and I therefore did not combat his wish to stay here till he could hear again from you. I confess I do not think you are prudent in deferring the article relative to the representation, for it is a most important one, and if your argument is founded that the Opposition think frequent divisions tend to cement your party, surely it would be politic to pledge them as early as possible upon that measure. Most sincerely yours, CAMDEN. I will write to you respecting continental circumstances in a post or two. Mr. King to Lord Castlereagh. Private and Secret. Whitehall, March 6, 1800. My dear Lord-The Duke of Portland's letter to the LordLieutenant, which accompanies this, is an answer of yours to me of the 3rd inst. I have nothing further, therefore, to add on that subject. And, lest Mr. Pitt should not be able to fulfil his intention of writing to you to-day on the subject of muslins, &c., the Duke of Portland has taken this opportunity of adding a short letter to his Excellency on that point also, which, I trust, will be sufficient to answer your purpose until you hear more at large from Mr. Pitt. Many of our merchants are sending out vessels to Sicily and the Barbary States for grain. To encourage this trade, and to facilitate the procuring of cargoes, I enclose you a copy of our circular letter to all our consuls to the Barbary States. Should the French or the combined fleets venture to leave Brest, I think the disposition of our naval force here will afford security to Ireland, as well as to our more distant possessions, supposing either one or the other of them to be threatened: for we have now about 24 sail off Brest, and at least 14 in Torbay. At the same time, I conceive it would be bad policy, in every sense, to consider Ireland in any other light than as the point which is threatened. It is, therefore, I believe, proposed to send 2000 of the Guards immediately to Ireland, to be followed by other 2000, and, in return, to withdraw about 2000 of the regular battalions now with you, which will leave you an excess over present numbers of 2000 men. Ever, my dear Lord, &c., J. KING. The Duke of Portland to Lord Cornwallis. Whitehall, March 6, 1800. My Lord-I lose no time in acquainting your Excellency, in consequence of the letter to Mr. King, received yesterday from Lord Castlereagh, containing a brief statement of the result of the proceedings of the Corn Committee, and an intimation of their opinion, that the deficiency may be in some measure supplied by the importation of rice and Indian corn from North America, that no objection will be made to the proposal of giving a conditional bounty of 10 per cent. on the importation of those articles into Ireland, if it should continue to be thought a necessary or desirable measure by the Government of the country. But, as it appears, by the evidence which has been given to the Committee of the House of Commons, which has been sitting here on the same subject, that the price which rice bears at present in this is full 30 per cent. higher than in any other country, it should seem very doubtful whether any material advantage would be derived from any premium which could be offered by the Irish Parliament for the importation of it. By the information I have given your Excellency of the price which that commodity bears in our markets, you will be able to judge whether the intention of the Committee of the Irish House of Commons is likely to be attended with any effect, and if it should, as I have said before, your Excellency is fully authorized to sanction the experiment. As the Report, however, of our Committee will be published, and as I shall take care that copies of it shall be immediately sent to your Excellency by express, you will probably judge it to be most expedient to defer any determination upon this or any other part of this important subject, until you have had an opportunity of considering all the information which has been collected respecting it on this side of the water, and of availing yourself of the observations and sentiments of the Committee, which, as you may naturally suppose, was composed of persons the most eminent for their knowledge and experience in agriculture and commerce, as well as for their talents and abilities in all other respects. I have the honour, &c., The Duke of Portland to Lord Cornwallis. Whitehall, Thursday, March 6, 1800. My dear Lord-As Mr. Pitt hopes he shall be able to write to Lord Castlereagh on the subject of the duties on cotton in the course of this day or to-morrow at farthest, I have no other object in writing to you, than to relieve you from any anxiety which the suspense you may have been in with regard to them may have occasioned, by informing you that it will be left to your Excellency to make the best bargain you can for this country, in conceding this point to the wishes of the Irish; but, at the same time, you will take occasion to observe to them that, if there should be any article in which our manufacturers should think it necessary to insist upon a similar species of protection to this which is now required for the cotton manufactories of Ireland, the Irish will not be considered as having any right to complain if the British manufacturer should be treated with the same sort of indulgence. It is, however, certainly to be wished that cases of this kind should occur as seldom as possible in the course of this arrangement. But I cannot help adding, such is the importance of its accomplishment, that it is not a consideration of a little more or a little less duty that can prevent it, or even be suffered to retard its progress. I am, &c., Lord Auckland to Lord Castlereagh. Private and Confidential. PORTLAND. Palace Yard, March 6, 1800. My dear Lord-I had this morning a full conversation with Mr. Pitt respecting your wish (if it should become material) to consent to a gradual lowering of the duties on cottons. Lord Liverpool, with whom I had talked upon that point a few days ago, seemed to think that such a concession would hurt the principle of the whole commercial arrangement. Mr. Pitt, who has had occasion to advert more fully and more correctly to the subject, promised that he would write to you to-day, but I have reason to believe that he is much occupied. His opinion decidedly is that, if your consent to the gradual lowering of the duties either on the cottons "or on any other article," so as to bring them to the protecting duty within the space of ten years, (or any other short period) would really facilitate the business, you should take such a step on your own judgment and responsibility; and he authorized me to assure you that it should have his full avowal and support. In truth, I think that your cotton manufacturers (I do not know whether they are numerous) may have more ground for alarm from a sudden lowering of the duties, than has been sufficient in many cases to create much clamour: it is also possible that, in some branches of trade, we may (though with less reason) be urged to give some reciprocal indulgence to some class of our manufacturers. Already, some of our woollen people in Yorkshire are sending up strong remonstrances against our opening the export of wool. We continue without any continental communications, and six Hamburgh mails are due. I therefore do not know any news beyond the occurrences of the day stated in the public papers. The reduction in the consumption of bread is becoming very general. Believe me, &c., Lord Auckland to Lord Castlereagh. AUCKLAND. Friday. My dear Lord-Mr. Pitt is well to-day, and has no doubt that the Fourth Article may go through the Committee of the Commons to-day, though he expects a considerable debate. I think it probable that the Lords will take the Eighth Article to-day, but I have not yet heard from Lord Grenville. Mr. Peel' has had a long conference with me this morning: the cotton manufacturers are greatly discontented with your continuing, for so long a period, the prohibitory duties on their 1 Afterwards created a baronet, father of the present Sir Robert Peel. |