I have this instant received Mr. Pitt's letter accompanying the Paper of Considerations, which I undoubtedly should wish to keep; but not knowing whether Mr. Pitt has a fair copy of it, I have thought it safest to return.

Whatever can give vigour to the remains of the campaign, I shall certainly as a duty think it right not to withhold my consent; but I own, in my son's place, I should beg my being allowed to return home, if the command is given to Lord Cornwallis, though I should not object to the command being entrusted to General Clairfayt. From feeling this, I certainly will not write, but approve of Mr. Wyndham's going to the army, and shall be happy if my son views this in a different light than I should.

I will not delay the messenger, as I think no time ought to be lost in forming some fixed plan, and that the measure of sending Mr. Wyndham is every way advantageous.

George R.

(Private.) St. James's Square, Aug. 29th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,

The despatch which you will receive by this messenger, and the letter which Wyndham has promised to write to you from the British head-quarters, will explain to you the whole of the system which we have adopted, as affording the only hope of vigorous or successful exertion. The Austrian Government is already prepared for your proposal, respecting the giving to Lord Cornwallis the command of the whole combined force, as Count Starhemberg is apprized of it, having, indeed, himself in a great degree suggested the measure, on some general hints which I threw out to him, in order to try the ground. For the moment, the great point seems to be to bring them to acquiesce in the virtual command which his rank of Field-Marshal will give him over Clairfayt, and to send positive orders to the latter to that effect; and if there should be any difficulty in Clairfayt's submitting to this, then to let Clairfayt absent himself for the moment, and leave the Austrian troops under the command of some officer whose standing will occasion no difficulty in this respect. You will observe that, by virtual command, we mean precisely the same deference as the Duke of York has shown to the Prince of Coburg, not extending to any of the points of military etiquette by which command is usually rendered ostensible, but going to the effect of complying with his suggestions respecting the mode of executing the operations agreed upon in concert, when the instructions of his Court do not interfere with such suggestions. Before you receive this letter, Lord Cornwallis will probably be on the spot; and it is therefore urgent, to prevent the first beginnings of dissension, that no time should be lost in making the Austrians give their orders to Clairfayt. Knowing the delay of that Government, and the difficulty of getting them to adopt any decided line of conduct, we have thought it best to do the thing first, and afterwards to try to obtain their consent to it. If you succeed, or, indeed, in any case, it will be useful that you should write directly to Lord C. upon the subject, as that may save a week, at a time when a week's delay might be of the utmost importance.

With respect to the Duke of York, Wyndham will probably tell you in confidence how he succeeds in his negotiation. It certainly is a pretty strong instance of zeal and desire to facilitate whatever can promote the cause, when he undertakes a task of no less difficulty than the reconciling the mind of a young Prince to a supercession in his military command, and that too at the precise moment of moving forwards, after so mortifying a retreat. I am, however, not without hopes of his success; and, at all events, the moment was too critical to suffer any consideration to interfere with the only means of salvation that appeared practicable.

With respect to the languor of the Austrian Government, and the doubt whether even money will obtain from them decisive efforts, we have strongly felt the force of all that you have stated on that head. But we are inclined to flatter ourselves, that if we once obtain so large a force as is mentioned in my despatch, and can put that force, in addition to our own, under the absolute and supreme direction of such a man as Lord Cornwallis, we shall at least be able to say to ourselves, whatever be the result, that we have done everything that it was possible to do; and without trying this measure, I confess for one that I should not have that sentiment in my mind. I lament that we have thought ourselves obliged to bring forward the discussion of a precise barrier, and yet I do not see how it could be avoided. But the impression may be very bad on their minds, if we appear to be narrowing the benefits which they are to derive from exertion, instead of animating them by the hope of increased advantage. I have not dwelt on this point in my despatch, as you mention that you intended to write further upon it.

When the idea of transferring the subsidy was opened to me by Starhemberg, from Merey's instructions it was expressly stated, as a part of the plan, that the empire could be made to subsidize the Prussian troops; and this agrees with every information we receive on the subject, all which concur in stating the efforts of the empire, particularly in money, as being very far below what they could be brought to make by the joint exertions of Austria and Prussia. But on my pressing Starhemberg for further detail on this point, he has always avoided it, assuring me, whether truly or not, that he found no particulars respecting it among Merey's papers. You will see that in the despatch we make the whole dependent on a complete and bon fide execution of this point, and my language to him has always been of the same nature. But I confess that it is on this point that I feel the strongest apprehensions, and I much fear that Austria will both be disposed to evade it, and, in truth, unable to accomplish it. Should this be the case, the whole plan must be abandoned; and we should, I believe, in that event, be disposed to turn our subsidy to the object of raising other force, of whatever nature, so as, if possible, to form a separate British and Dutch army, destined to act under Lord Cornwallis, without the pretence or show of concert with either of the German Powers.

With respect to your remaining at Vienna, you will easily conceive, that having a project of this nature to propose, none of us thought we should give it its fair chance if we put it into other hands than those in which the business now is. We allow for your natural desire of quitting a scene which, God knows, must be mortifying enough to men who feel how much of the safety of Europe depends on the conduct of the Austrian Government, and who see how unfit that Government is to be trusted with the interests of the smallest corporation. But we are confident that as long as there may remain the hope of doing so much good as would, we trust, be done by the complete success of the present plan, you will not be unwilling to give your assistance to it.

With respect to what you mention about yourself, you know my wishes on the subject, but I certainly will not urge them beyond what you are disposed to do. The proposal Lord Fitzwilliam makes to you is, I fairly own, in my apprehension, one less eligible than that of Vienna; but I fear a nearer view of that Court has rather strengthened than diminished your indisposition to that situation. You know, as well as I do, all the dÉsagrÉmens belonging to the post of Irish Secretary; but it is certainly an important and honourable one, and such as to afford you ample room for showing yourself such as you are: more, perhaps, than many others which commonly rank higher in public estimation. My objection to it is the banishment, which obtains as much as in the foreign missions, and certainly to the most disagreeable of all countries. I do not know well how to make myself quite a disinterested adviser; but if I was to give you fairly the result of my thoughts upon it, I should still beg you to look at the foreign line, and if that must not be, I should then say yes to the question of Ireland.

Supposing that yes were decided, let me ask you whether your remaining some time longer at Vienna, so as finally to conclude, not the leading points only, but all the details of the arrangement now in question, and of the preparations for the active scene of next year, is wholly out of the question? It seems very clear that no arrangement will happen before that time which can change the Irish Government, and in the meanwhile you would be honourably and most usefully employed. I have, however, not hinted this idea to any individual, nor will I. If all this is wholly out of the question, I conclude that my reply to your answer to these despatches, will bring to Lord Spencer and you the King's permission to return to England.

It would be very satisfactory to you to see how well things are going on here, and how completely our hopes have been realized on the subject which employed so much of our time and thoughts this summer.

God bless you, my dearest brother.

(Private.) Vienna, Aug. 30th, 1794,
Dear Lord Fitzwilliam,

You will already have heard enough of our proceedings here to give you no considerable expectations of any great good to be done here; and if you happen to have been in London, and to have read a very tedious and long letter which I wrote on the 24th to the Duke of Portland, you will have seen there, more at large than it is necessary to repeat, the general view and impression of our minds as to the business with which we are charged; and the little ground which there appears to us for hoping that even by satisfying their pecuniary demands, we could depend upon such exertions being made in consequence, as the country would expect in return for expense of so great and heavy a scale. It is very true, to be sure, that in this as well as in many other cases, the difficulties present themselves something more readily than the remedies to them, yet upon the question of the subsidy, if we are right in our conception that it would not probably produce, either in degree or in shape, that energy and cordial co-operation which we are looking for, perhaps no difficulty could be much more serious than that of engaging ourselves at home in an expense, the disappointment of which might produce in the minds of the public an effect, both with respect to the war itself and with respect to the Government which supports it, of the most perilous description. It is very true that great objects must sometimes be pursued at great hazards, and nobody is more ready than I to acknowledge that a greater object cannot be found than the successful prosecution of this war; but the peculiar question of subsidy seems to me to apply chiefly to the mode of carrying on the war, and, I would hope, not to the entire decision of pursuing or abandoning it.

I will not again go over the same detail which I pursued in my letter to the Duke of Portland, but satisfy myself with recalling to your observation, that the Government here, in speaking of the exertions which they should be driven to the necessity of making, if the French should threaten the German empire, plainly admitted that they do still possess resources capable of being applied to such critical exigencies, and in this confession show pretty plainly that nothing but the necessity of the case will drive them to the use of those means. Is it not then probable that a much greater exertion may be made by that necessity existing in our refusal of subsidy, than will be made by such pecuniary assistance being given, as may relieve them from the necessity of making any exertion of their own?

If the immediate alarm on the side of Holland seems to be a considerable inducement to the grant of the subsidy, in order to interest Austria in that very important defence of which the Netherlands make so essential a part, it should not, on the other hand, escape notice, that all our observation on their language and views would lead us very much to doubt how far they would cordially concur in the defence of the Netherlands, even though they might consent to do so in the words of their contract; whatever value they may or may not themselves put upon the possession of the Low Countries, they always argue and act under the manifest persuasion, that the Maritime Powers are alone interested enough in this point to secure its being ultimately carried, and they give it pretty plainly to be understood, that they mean to depend upon us for that object. Under this view, they seem to me always disposed to consider the operations of the Austrian army in another campaign as likely to be concentered for efforts from the German frontier, by which means they will have a more collected force more immediately applying to the Imperial dominions, and better suited to the jealousies which they entertain of the King of Prussia, but certainly not best adapted to the defence of Holland, and the recovery of Brabant.

Perhaps I may be considered as carrying these suspicions too far, but I own I cannot help fearing too, that the suggestion made by them of mortgaging the Low Countries to us, is not as security for the money in question in this and the next campaign, is not a bon fide offer of their best security, but is considered by them as a fresh motive for interesting us in their possession of those territories, and as contributing the more to make that object our business, by either taking upon ourselves the whole defence of them, or, what they rather look to, by our purchasing the cession of them at the peace, by some of the acquisitions which Great Britain has made in the war: a measure which they may have the more hope for our concurrence in, if we have two millions lent out upon the security only of the Austrians regaining those territories at the peace.

Do not believe that these impressions are taken from any starving principle of economy, or from a too timid apprehension of the unpopularity of a subsidy in England; but be assured, that even if there should be no difficulty at home as to this demand being acquiesced in, I should retain the same doubts as to any expectation of proportionate advantages resulting from it, and should be inclined to believe that even if the whole amount of the subsidy was to be expended, it might be more advantageously used in the purchase of Hessians, Swiss, or any other such troops absolutely at our disposal, in addition to the Austrians, than in the proposed purchase of increased vigour and activity in the government and army of this country: you cannot buy what they have not to sell.

Sept. 14th, 1791.

The former part of this letter had already been written before I received yours of the 11th of August, which did not reach me till the 2nd instant. I am very sincerely rejoiced to find by it that you have made your decision for Ireland, because I believe that much good may be done there, by your taking that heavy load upon your shoulders; and although you are wanted enough both in London and Yorkshire, I am persuaded that for public objects you are still most wanted at Dublin. I am not enough acquainted with the interior there, to judge how far the means (as Government now stands) are competent to the end, or to what degree you may be able to supply all those links of connection between the two countries, which have latterly appeared to be very much worn away and broken through. I presume that it will be found easy enough to continue the same negative course of administration, and that it will be a work of great difficulty and delicacy for you to do all that you will think should be done; I am, therefore, from a strong persuasion of the arduousness of the task, well pleased to know that it is in such good hands.

With respect to my undertaking the office of Secretary, I am very far from being confident that I should be able to make myself, in that situation, as useful to you as it undoubtedly should be made. You know it is not the first moment in which I have expressed my doubts as to that employment, since it is twelve years ago that the same objections presented themselves to me; and if I still feel the weight of them, it is not from any disinclination to pull at my oar in the galley, or from any reluctance to take part in public measures at a time when I think, as you do, that everything is at stake; on the contrary, I confess that, all other considerations put apart, I shall be gratified in making myself actively one of a system with which the prosperity of the country will, I am persuaded, be to stand or fall; and I shall be best gratified by doing this in whatever shape it could be hoped that I should be serviceable. To foreign mission, I own I know not how to reconcile myself; and for Ireland, besides my own disinclination to it, I should have thought Pelham better suited, as I have often told you. But my own opinion upon this, as upon all other subjects, gives way to the better judgment of my friends; and if the Duke of Portland and you think, that in the present state of things, I should do best to go to Ireland, I cannot say that I will not try it; sure I am that your going there gives to the situation every advantage which I can receive in it, and that if my engaging in it could succeed, it is on every account as promising and gratifying to me with you, as the situation itself can be made. Thus, therefore, it stands, that my own inclination, if no difficulties stood in the way, would rather lead me to any such employment at home as I might be fit for, when any such offered itself; but no such destination being easily found, if the Duke of Portland and you think it any way desirable that I should go to Ireland, I will certainly undertake it, and do the best I can in it; trusting always, that if hereafter, when you are settled on your Irish throne, the chance of events should make any home-situation of business practicable for me, you would not object to any such arrangement if it could be found.

The long delay which has prevented my sending a messenger when I wrote the first sheet of this letter, has now so altered the events of the negotiation that it is hardly worth sending to you, except as a proof that want of opportunity, and not want of punctuality, has prevented my letter reaching you at an earlier period.

The loss of the fortresses, at a moment when they had been reluctantly induced here to make an effort to save them, is vexatious in the extreme. They threaten the vengeance of a court-martial on the officers who surrendered Valenciennes; but what will that avail towards recovering these great objects, which were equally material, both to the regaining of the Netherlands, and to their security when reconquered?

The hopeless inactivity of this Court is too long a theme to write upon, and will continue, I fear, to be a fertile source of uneasiness. It is shocking to foresee that their assistance may be as much wanted to save Holland as it was to save Valenciennes, and may likewise be retarded till it is equally ineffectual.

I expect to be in England towards the 12th or 15th of November.

Ever very faithfully and affectionately yours,
T. G.

Camp, Weymouth, Aug. 31st, 1794.
My dear Brother,

I have just received your letter of the 16th from Vienna, and am glad to find from it that you are as well as I wish you to be, and as sanguine as any one could wish who is less desponding than myself. I fear that very much of your difficulty is insuperable, for I have no idea that it is possible to induce the Imperial Government to exert themselves more for the recovery of Brabant than they did for the preservation of it. Various circumstances (some of which you have stated) co-operated to the scandalous dereliction of a country, which all former history proves to us might have been defended (even for a losing campaign) with one half of the allied force; and it is no part of my creed that the zeal or activity of the Austrian Ministry (even if they act with good faith) can replace us by the end of November where we were last year. But if it is to be proposed to us to add Austria to the list of powers subsidized, and to call upon Great Britain, the ally of the war, to consider herself as the only principal in it, I fear that the proposition will meet with every difficulty, and (if acceded to) with as little success as the subsidy paid to Prussia. You will then ask me for my solution of this difficulty; and I will fairly own that I see none, but in endeavouring to stimulate Austria, by showing them clearly that we will not take the whole upon our back; and that we can better keep the wolf out of our house, than they can out of theirs, if the war is to be defensive.

As to the military operations of the Prince of Saxe Coburg, I make no doubt that he has done very ill; indeed, it seems difficult to conceive that his groom could have done worse. But I fear that the ignorance or treachery of the German Generals goes much deeper than you imagine, for I do not recollect one instance in the course of this campaign—and perhaps not one in the last—in which they answered the expectation formed of them. Again, if we imagined that by protracting the war we might exhaust the enemy, though I might not agree as to the prospect of success, I could understand it as a system; but in that case, the war would have been defensive, and co-operation settled to that object, instead of abandoning the Duke of York to certain ruin, if the winds and the circumstances of this country had not permitted Lord Moira's army to arrive just (and only just) in time to cover their retreat, and communication. These points are all mysterious to us lookers-on, and perhaps not much more clear to you at Vienna. The only point clear and indisputable is, that we begun the campaign offensively in the south-west point without securing West Flanders; that we undertook by defensive positions to cover it; and notwithstanding the very slow progress of the French, which gave us full and ample time, it was lost for want of sufficient force on the western flank of our combined force, and for want of co-operation, either of defensive retreat, or of mutual support in a systematic evacuation of a country so very tenable. Now, if all this is proposed to be cured by changing the Commander, and by taking the Austrians into British pay, I fear that I shall be one of the first to cry out against such a measure, which cannot in the least tend to remove those difficulties, and will superinduce many others on the continent, and others more serious at home, to which you cannot be a stranger. If the object be to add to our force, we do not accomplish it by changing the Paymaster or Commander of the troops; but we may obtain a very considerable force under our immediate and actual command, by adding to the levies of French troops; or, in plain terms, by raising an immense French army in British pay, who would not be liable to be called off À la Prussienne to schemes of plunder, or possibly of home defence, in the moment in which they are the most wanted by us. I have taken some pains to get information on this subject; and I verily believe, that if we take the small remnant of the Prince of CondÉ's army into our pay, with him at the head of it as a foundation, we may in a very short time increase it to twenty-five, or perhaps thirty thousand men, which, added to our British, Hessian and Hanoverian army, would effectually support the Dutch in covering Holland, and would enable us to make a very serious diversion either in Normandy or in Poitou.

I have written upon this subject more at large than I at first intended, but it is very difficult to compress it; and having found it difficult to reconcile the conduct of Ministry in the management of this campaign to my own feelings, or the plan (so far as I understand it from common report) of reconquering Brabant for the Emperor by an Austrian army in British pay, or of assisting Holland by a force of the same nature on which the experience of two campaigns shows how little we can depend, I have not thought it fair to withhold these opinions from you, having stated them to my other brother as soon as I heard of your mission (and from public report of the objects of it) to Vienna. But be assured, my dear brother, that I do not feel the less warmly for your credit, and for the success of your negotiation (whatever it may be) as far as the question is personal to yourself. I have always seen, with very sincere regret, your talents useless to the public; and I am happy, on every account, that you have found an opportunity of showing them in co-operation with my brother William, who seemed so happy in this proof of your confidence and affection.

I feel, as I ought, your anxiety about the yeomanry. I have the satisfaction of hearing that they go on very well, but of course meeting very seldom, because of the harvest. Their numbers, however, increase; and are, as near as can be, as follows:

Most of them have got their swords, and have returned their pistols, which were most scandalously bad; they have got their appointments, and (except Young's troop) they come on very well. I am, however, tied by the leg to Weymouth, while the King is here, and cannot stir. He is in wonderful health; but very unruly as to the common precautions which ought to be taken, and which keep me in constant hot water, notwithstanding our incessant rains. Lord Howe passed Portland yesterday with thirty-three sail of the line, and three Portuguese ships; of which one ran foul of the 'Barfleur,' and stove in her bows so as to force her to return to Portsmouth. All the sea prisoners lately taken, say, that BarrÈre is determined to force the Brest fleet of thirty-five sail to sea. Sir J. B. Warren's last prisoners say, that they were brought from the interior to Brest, and embarked handcuffed; another account states, that sixteen thousand men have been sent to Brest en rÉquisition, since Lord Howe's action. Our line of battle is thirty-seven sail, including what is to join at Plymouth; from which deduct two ships not ready, and the 'Barfleur,' his number will be thirty-four. He will probably fall in with your friend, Lord Macartney, who is coming back with "the Emperor's copy of verses," and left St. Helena on the 6th of July with nineteen East India ships.

Adieu, my dear brother,
Ever most affectionately yours,
N. B.

Sept. 5th, 1794.

P.S.—This letter was begun five days ago, but I have been for the last four days confined, and very ill from an epidemic, which is running all over England. It is not confined to the army, and it has not been fatal, but very painful. I have got clear of it, but I have above forty men ill of it at this moment. Adieu.

(Private.) Vienna, Sept. 1st, 1794.
My dear Brother,

If M. de Thugut is waiting with impatience the result of M. de Merey's negotiation, you will easily believe that we have no less impatience to know your decisions upon that subject, though you will have seen that Lord Spencer and I have not been able to teach ourselves to wish that the pecuniary demands may, or ought to be, gratified by us. If they had confined themselves to asking only such a temporary assistance as might have given a more immediate spring to the vigorous movement which we are urging them to make, I should have been as little disposed as anybody could to withhold any practicable facilities of that description; but to the extent to which they steadily continue to point, I own I feel myself too little satisfied as to the equity of their claim upon us, and as to the probability of their acting fairly and manfully up to the great exertions which they ask from us, to entertain much disposition towards those demands.

They dwell certainly upon the difference which they state between loan and subsidy, and wish to prove to us that their offer of security upon the revenues of the Low Countries should, at least by us (who always insist on those territories remaining in the House of Austria), be accepted as a good and ample mortgage for the repayment of the sums which they want for this year and the next; but if it is true that they do not feel interested at heart in these possessions, or if they think us so earnest in our wishes on this subject, that they may safely throw the whole weight of it upon us, their offer of a hypothÈque on those possessions takes a much more suspicious character; nor is it, perhaps, an unreasonable jealousy on my part to apprehend that they may wish you to have a mortgage of two millions on the Netherlands, as an inducement to you hereafter to give up some of your French acquisitions in the West Indies, in order to recover for them a country, in which you will have a larger pecuniary stake, added to the ordinary course of political observations.

Much at least of Thugut's conversation would seem to tally with this view of the matter. It is observable that he perpetually recurs to its being a settled point, that de faÇon ou d'autre the Netherlands will be secured to Austria at the peace, and yet he never seems (in his view of the military operations to be pursued) to consider them as a main object of defence, and is so little disposed to make them so, that he expresses much reluctance at the idea proposed, of engaging Austria to furnish so large an army, to act in that country, which he thinks might be better employed elsewhere. Add to this, his remarking that England might be satisfied by the irrecoverable detriment done to the navy and commerce of France, and his contrasting the difference in point of acquisitions made by Great Britain, with the total failure on the side of Austria; and it is no great refinement to suspect the whole of this to lead to an expectation that we may better buy back the Netherlands for them, than put them to the expense of defending them or regaining them; and that we should have an additional motive for sacrificing some of our conquests to this object, if we have two millions of money mortgaged upon it.

Of the advantage which may be expected at home from adopting this shape of lending upon security, rather than of furnishing a direct subsidy, I do not well know how to judge; but unless the security could be shown to be in itself substantial, and of a nature to be easily got at by those to whom it was due, I should doubt whether the public at home would be better reconciled to it than to a direct and acknowledged subsidy. The very small proportion of effect produced by the large payments this year to the King of Prussia, will create much indisposition to the incurring of a similar expense again, unless it can be shown to promise, upon good probable grounds, a much better return than we have had; and, generally speaking, I cannot but fear that the mere difference in point of exertion which we can hope from this country, may not turn out to be worth the purchase-money in the estimation of the country at large, though I should hope they might easily acquiesce in a very considerable exertion, if a great manifest exertion of strength, fairly disposable to the course of the war, could be procured by pecuniary aids. What inducement there may be to this measure, from any apprehension of the Emperor's withdrawing from the war, is another part of the question, upon which I can form no more correct judgment than belongs to the observation of a very short residence here.

Lord Malmesbury hints to me a suspicion of a proposed concert between the Emperor and the King of Prussia, to compel the Maritime Powers to make peace, though he appears to give no great credit to it. Certain it is, that in the month which we have past here, one of the most striking features of the conversation, both of Ministers and individuals, has been a hatred and aversion to Prussia, by Thugut, too, particularly marked towards Lucchesini, of whom he never scruples to speak to us in terms of the most unqualified dislike; so that as far as can be collected from what we hear, there ought to be no ground to suspect any plan of intimate concert between his Court and Berlin.

It is possible, to be sure, that independently of any such concert, the Government here, if unassisted by money from us, might endeavour to withdraw from the prosecution of the war; but, as we have had no reason to expect any ultimate success to the propositions which we brought here, we have endeavoured, as much as possible, to learn what their conduct would be in failure of the proposed Convention, and to consider them in all that we have said as equally bound to continue in their co-operations with us according to the existing agreement, whether any new arrangement should succeed or not. To this view they have not only acceded always in distinct terms, when urged by us, but they have frequently stated this of their own accord, confining themselves only to the observation, that their means are limited, and will no longer allow of the exertions which they wish; but solemnly protesting against any present idea of peace, and always expressing their belief that Prussia is now desirous of peace being made, because, in the present situation of things, it might probably be made to the disadvantage of Austria. Unless, therefore, their opinions should be disguised to a degree which I cannot well believe, or should undergo an entire change, I do not see what ground there is to suspect in them any intention of abandoning the war, though I can entertain no great hopes of such a vigorous prosecution of it as we might wish and expect from them.

There is but one opinion as to the Emperor's inclinations on this subject, and if his personal character had steadiness enough to influence the Government, his disposition to the true principles of the war would be a great security to us; at present, however, it is of little or no avail; and it is much to be lamented in times like the present, that though there is no dislike entertained to him, there is not either the respect or consideration which ought to be attached to his situation, to make it tell with any of the effects one wishes to derive from it. With respect to his Ministers, you have seen too much of our remarks upon the striking features of their conduct, to make it necessary for me in every letter to repeat them. Thugut is certainly the only efficient Minister here: very diligent and laborious in his office, he seems to have acquired an influence here by being the only man of business about the Court; and with this recommendation has reached a situation which the nobility of the country are mortified to see him hold, because he has no pretensions to hereditary rank, and because they have been used to see that office for many years filled by Prince Kavnitz. What we, however, miss in him is, either the disposition or capacity to see the present great crisis of Europe upon the large scale on which it should be looked at by the leading Minister of this empire; instead of which, we see in all our discussions a cold, narrow, and contracted view of this subject, infinitely too languid and little for the object, and made peculiarly unfavourable to our propositions, by the disinclination which he certainly feels to concur heartily with us in the great interests attached to the Austrian possession of the Low Countries. We have, it is true, obtained from him assurances of concerting an immediate plan for the relief of Valenciennes; but even this has not been obtained without many discouraging tokens of that total want of manly energy and direct dealing, without which all co-operation must necessarily be languid and feeble: always taking merit for having sent the most distinct orders to try the relief of Valenciennes, yet never taking the obvious mode of satisfying us by communicating those orders to us; maintaining as an argument for the loan, that without it the army cannot move, yet at the same time resisting our objections of the delay of waiting for answers from M. de Merey, by stating this movement as being actually in great forwardness, and not depending upon the loan for its execution; acquiescing in the change of command urged by us, and yet ever since that event reminding us that in his opinion this very change may defeat the operation which we wished to assist by it; gratifying our impatience at one time by counting up the days to the probable time of the desired movement, and then again stating that Clairfayt's army may be weakened too much to attempt it by his detaching, perhaps considerably, towards the side of Treves; complaining that the Austrians had been prevented from sending Blankenstein's corps towards Flanders, as they wished, by the Prussians having engaged it in their line of defence, and yet refusing to us a corps much more inconsiderable, and not involved in the objection—I mean the corps of CondÉ—a corps, too, which, as I have before observed, from their own statement of their want of money, they should have been glad to have seen transferred to the pay of another country.

These, and many other such traits of inconsistency, I advert to only as being descriptive of the very unsatisfactory manner in which our business is discussed, always providing on their side apologies for future failures, instead of means of success, and projects of vigour and enterprize. Yet though the shortness of our possible residence here makes this inanimate character of the Government a bar to that immediate spirit and alacrity which, for the purposes of the present crisis, it was highly desirable to create here, so as to act upon instantaneously; much, I should suppose, may be done after our return, by any person of steadiness and activity, in the course of an established residence here, there being certainly fair grounds for the most intimate union between the two countries, and appearances enough of general inclination towards it, though traversed for the present by their hopes of fighting at our cost, and by the unfavourable turn of M. Thugut's mind upon the subject of the Netherlands. For this purpose, the sooner a regular Minister is appointed here the better; because though the opening of the subsequent campaign is at present distant enough, the dilatory habits of this Government make every moment more precious than it should be; and the points, both of the barrier and the Dutch indemnity, may be found longer in discussion than they were expected to be when I left London, particularly upon the former of those two subjects, on which the future possession of Dunkirk and Givet must, perhaps, be distinctly explained.

We have heard of Lord Malmesbury's intention to quit Frankfort on the 10th of September, and we have read the formal acceptance, signed by him, of the military concert of the 26th July; you will already have seen, in our despatch No. 5, our apprehensions of the inconvenience of placing Clairfayt's army in any state of dependance upon the Prussian line, as we are always afraid that the Prussians may, by a nominal concert upon this subject, become a real hindrance, and throw difficulties in the way of the proposed enterprise for the relief of Valenciennes. In this view, therefore, we had certainly rather have seen Lord Malmesbury remaining at least till the movement in question had actually been carried into effect; and the more so, as we have always kept their fears a little quiet here, by promising that Lord Malmesbury, at Frankfort, should look to and strictly watch the operations of Marshal Mollendorff's army. I take for granted, however, that you will provide as well as you can against the inconveniences which in this shape may arise, and we shall likewise mention it to Lord M.

Ever, my dear brother,
Most affectionately yours,
T. G.

(Private.) Vienna, Sept. 15th, 1794.
My dearest Brother,

You will receive enclosed with this a letter, which I had already written before the arrival of your last despatches, and which can only be useful by showing you all that occurred to me upon the former view of the subject. The conditions which are now attached to the two questions of loan and subsidy, appear certainly to be the best which could have been imagined for promising a fair use of the troops for which we are desired to pay, and would probably appear to the country to be so, besides really furnishing all the means which can be supplied to this great stake which we are compelled to play for. What has passed upon these propositions, you will have seen pretty amply in the public despatch, which is written so much at length as to require no great additional comment. It is manifest, that instead of complying with all the conditions proposed, they could not easily be brought to consent to any one of them. Upon the subject of command, there is a soreness which would be an insuperable bar to the idea of a large combined force (chiefly Austrian) acting under any English General; and yet there is so little hope of their acting vigorously under any other, that the choice lies between two extreme difficulties.

Under the pressure of your letter, which led us to imagine that Lord Cornwallis is actually gone to Flanders, we have done and said all that was in any shape likely to assist his situation there; at the same time, from Wyndham's letter, and from the fall of Valenciennes, it is possible that his journey may still have been delayed. Instead, therefore, of writing to him in Flanders, as you suggested, we have given a letter for him to Colonel Ross, who will find him either on this or the other side of the water, and will be best able to communicate to him whatever intelligence from hence it is material for him to know.

They do not talk heartily here of Clairfayt's co-operating, though they do not plainly refuse it; and I fear it is but too likely that they will satisfy their dignity by keeping their army entirely distinct from ours, a determination which may perhaps but too much assist the views of the French, if they really make a vigorous attack upon Holland. All that we could do by threats, entreaties, and remonstrances, on this very important point we have done, and will continue to repeat while we stay here.

Upon the subject of transferring the subsidy, I believe they are in earnest when they say it is out of their power to engage for any considerable subsidy from the empire to the King of Prussia; and if it is true that they are now under the necessity of ascertaining what are their means for the next campaign, it may be true that they cannot act upon the uncertain speculation of receiving so much from us as they could promise for the King of Prussia. I know not whether I am right, but I have thought once or twice that Thugut has spoken with some marks of dislike to-day to Comte Stahremberg, whom he appears to suspect of having broached this proposition at London; to prevent any confirmation of this suspicion, we have not in any manner quoted Comte Stahremberg in our conferences; and as I believe you are satisfied with him, I hope I misinterpret the word or two which Thugut dropped upon this matter.

We are come back again (upon the failure of our overtures) to the hearing of a reduced scale of military operations, an idea more like a haberdasher of small wares than the Minister of a great empire. What the supposed plan of this contracted war is to be, I never have been able to learn; and, indeed, it requires all the good temper one can muster to make so discouraging an inquiry.

Meanwhile, orders are said to be already issued for raising sixty thousand new recruits in the hereditary states of Austria, but no hopes are given of assistance from Hungary, where the harvest has been, in many places, uncommonly deficient.

We have done what we could to urge them to be active in Sardinia, now the French appear to be retiring; and though an invincible prejudice to that quarter prevents Thugut from doing all he might, yet he expresses a readiness to concur in an attack upon Nice, if the English fleet would co-operate, as soon as the equinoctial snows have fallen to guard the mountains of the Milanes.

There are, however, bad reports of Kosciusko declaring war against Austria, which will be both a reason and a pretext for suspending enterprise, if any would otherwise be undertaken. The Duc de Guiche has a project of collecting the Gardes du Corps, of which he says he thinks he could soon muster twelve hundred. He and the French here are grown very anxious about Comte d'Artois' journey to Rotterdam. We expect impatiently to hear from you of our return.

With respect to Vienna, Lord Spencer having considered this business as now come to a point, which requires some new shape and fresh regular negotiation, writes to request leave to return home, and only waits for it to set out immediately. In that request (after all the consideration which I can give to it) I feel that I must likewise beg to be included, so as to return with him at the same time. The line of foreign mission is one to which I own I cannot reconcile myself; it leads certainly to a claim for future competency, but it seems to me little likely to assist those views of honest ambition, which are certainly, though I hope to no improper degree, still more forward in my mind than those of emolument. In this view it was, that upon a former occasion of arrangement, I had declined the Hague, which certainly is the first of all the situations in that line, but which still has the objection of banishing from all connections, social as well as political, and of cutting across all other expectations except those of an invalid upon half-pay.

I believe I need not tell you, that upon the proposition which you suggest of my staying here only to make the detail of the new arrangements for next year, I certainly would not have refused it, if I had thought that I could more usefully transact that point for you; but I am really firmly persuaded, that the only chance of any good being done here, is by some active and intelligent man taking root here, and acquiring over these Ministers by the vigour and perseverance of his own mind, influence enough to supply the total want of it in theirs; but as this must be a work of some time, so it seems highly important that it should immediately be undertaken in that regular established shape in which alone it is likely to succeed, and to which I could very little contribute by protracting my departure two or three months beyond that of Lord Spencer; besides, too, that if Ireland is to be looked at, I have not much time to lose with a view to that subject. Certainly no man can be more sensible than I am to the dÉsagrÉmens of the Irish Secretaryship; and if the political arrangements which have taken place, had admitted of my occupying any situation of business at home, there is scarce any which I should not prefer to it. I am, however, very ready to confess, that at the present moment I do not see any such opening likely to be easily made; and, therefore, the question is as with respect to myself, whether, even with all my dislike to the situation, it may not be right that I should take it, and trust to the course of events to supply hereafter some other situation more eligible. What much inclines me to this is, that I shall be able to preserve a much nearer and closer connection with my family and friends, whom I shall at times have an opportunity of seeing, and that the business itself may become in one light highly interesting to me, if I see in it the means of making myself essentially useful upon a subject certainly not unimportant.

I am not without considerable apprehensions, as you know, with respect to the practicability of all that in theory one wishes to be done in that country; but of those difficulties, it is useless now to speak. Upon the whole, therefore, I have thought it best to accept of Lord Fitzwilliam's offer, and have accordingly written to say so.

I will not unnecessarily add to this letter, as I expect to see you so soon: we calculate that in about twenty-six days we shall receive from you our answer, with permission to return; and that we shall be enabled to set out between the 15th and 20th of October at latest. Happy, indeed, I am to find, by the conclusion of your letter, that everything is going on at home upon as good a footing as we could wish. Every day's experience confirms me in the conviction, that with the present arrangement of Government, the peace and prosperity of the country must stand and fall; and however threatening may be the prospect from without, as long as everything keeps so right within, I shall continue to be of good heart.

I am ashamed of having written so much about myself, or rather I should be so if I was not writing to you; but I have confidence in your kindness and affection.

God bless you, my dear brother.