g, the
obligation will lay upon Lord Northington and not upon Bulkeley.
Lord Clermont called upon me yesterday. He put in his claim to
the Order, to which I gave the answer of non-residence. He said
that he was always over in the Parliamentary winter, and had a
house and establishment both in Dublin and in the country. I
promised to write to you upon it, but gave him little
encouragement, nor indeed did he press it much. Townshend tells
me the King makes no difficulty about the _cordon bleu_, which
of course you will magnify as infinitely more honourable, &c.,
&c.
The Post-Office here have been making a strange jumble, and have
drawn up a most extravagant Act, God knows why, which they sent
to Lord Clermont; I enclose it to you, with my answer to him. We
shall be devilishly pressed in the House of Commons about our
settlement, as the argument of war is at an end; and yet I doubt
whether the people here have either leisure or knowledge
sufficient even to talk about it yet. The latter I am sure I
have not; and even if I had, I should not think it wise to set
the head of every Irish projector here and with you, perfectly
afloat. In the meantime it will be matter of some difficulty to
parry it.
Did I state to you in my account of the debate, Percival's
question about the Act of Henry VIII., under which offences
committed in the King's dominions beyond seas are triable in
England? I rather think the answer will be, both to that and to
what I think Lord Beauchamp will probably move, namely, a repeal
of all English Acts, as far as they affect Ireland; that they
fall to the ground themselves, except where confirmed by Irish
Acts; but that if they were repealed, a question might arise how
far even those would continue in force, according to Yelverton's
Bill.
Ever yours,
W. W. G.
P.S.--Yesterday, after making eighteen post-captains the day
before, and after having attended the Cabinet in which the
preliminaries were signed, Lord Keppel resigned the Admiralty.
There are two ideas upon this; one is that he had always
intended it as soon as peace was concluded, the other that he
disapproved the articles. I think they are very consistent, and
that if he had the first intention, he would take care to lay a
groundwork for future opposition by refusing his concu
|