Your countrymen seem to be completely absurd on the subject of the Union. I shall not, however, be sorry that the rejection of it should be their own act and deed. A day may come when they will wish for it without being able to obtain it.

Are you not amused by the impudence of the miscreants of the Directory, who, after dilating on their own 'generosity and moderation," accuse the King of Sardinia of "a train of crimes against the French Republic"? They, of course, are preparing to rob and murder him; and yet I hope and believe that the day of just punishment is approaching.

MY DEAR BERESFORD,-It is chiefly to express my concern at your severe illness that I write to-night. We almost despair of seeing you again here before you avail yourself of your convalescence to move homewards. I will contrive to go up to you in Stanhope Street before you set off, if you cannot come to Eden Farm, but these ladies will not thank me for this arrangement. I know little of the political world since we parted, for we see nobody, and I have never stirred from home, except for one morning to Downing Street, on the 15th. I am to

pass two or three hours, by appointment, to-morrow morning at Holwood. In the meantime, I do not quite agree with you that it is decided to persevere in the measure of the Union. Perhaps, with all respect to the intemperate nonsense which they are talking in Dublin, it may be thought right here to offer the point without prejudice to a fair discussion, and I own that my wish is that it may be done, whatever may be the result.

I learn from Mr. Pitt, as well as from the newspapers, that Mr. Tierney has been so kind as to force forward an honourable mention of me. It is a strange pity for a man of Tierney's understanding to have exposed himself to the opprobrium of being convicted in the opinion of the whole House of an insinuation not only impertinent but in direct opposition of the fact; his insinuation was, that a person who had resigned a large pension for a considerable office had availed himself of the interval to give the declaration of his income, and consequently had paid less than a tenth. Now I am the only person who quitted a considerable pension for an office, but there was not, and there will not be, any interval between the two, and I have paid not only a tenth but a fifth of my whole income, stating it even beyond the truth at 40007. nett, above all deductions allowed by the Act. Mr. Pitt happened by good fortune to know the fact, because I had settled the calculation and minute with

a The Right Hon. George Tierney; M.P. for Southwark 1796; again 1802; for Bandon 1806; for Appleby 1813; for Knaresborough 1818, 1820, and 1826; appointed Treasurer of the Navy 1803; President of the Board of Control 1806; Master of the Mint 1827; married Miss Robarts; died 1830.

him in February before I forwarded it to the Bank, but otherwise the anonymous calumny might have had the effect of raising a few idle conjectures; as it was, the attack discredited the accuser, and gave credit to the accused. We are expecting with impatience the arrival of three Hamburgh mails. The weather abominable. Believe me, my dear Beresford, very affectionately yours,

AUCKLAND.

LORD AUCKLAND TO MR. BERESFORD.

Eden Farm, 27th Dec., 1798.

MY DEAR BERESFORD,-I have written an instructive and urgent letter this evening to Messrs. Abel, for the purpose of procuring the very best possible Chateau Margeaux claret for your venerable friend Colonel Barré.

Your account of Ireland is not exhilarating in the midst of this unamiable weather, but the new preparations for revolt seem to have no connection with the fermentation respecting Union, except that they furnish new arguments either for connecting your distracted country more intimately with England, or, if she has the perversity to choose to remain in a state of misery to herself and of risk and burden to England, at least to check that system of liberality and fostering protection which tended to increase Irish capital and prosperity and give extended means of mischief.

God knows what may be the result of your Jacobin

VOL. II.

excesses, but as to the Union question I am, upon the coolest and most unprejudiced reflection, satisfied that we ought to bring it forward, and manage it in the discussion with moderation, liberality, and unchangeable good temper.

Mr. Pitt has requested me, if you should be well enough to come to this place for a couple of days before you set off, to carry you for a morning to Holwood, where, however, he will not be till next week. Thursday and Friday I am likely to be in town to attend the Income Bill.

My dear Beresford, I am yours affectionately,

On

AUCKLAND.

MR. BERESFORD TO LORD AUCKLAND.

Dublin, 24th Jan., 1799.

MY DEAR AUCKLAND,-I wrote you two or three lines from my bed last night, merely to say that we were defeated to all intents and purposes.

I all along thought that Government were deceived in their numbers, and that this business was likely to end like the Irish Propositions. When the division came, the numbers were 106 and 105-many deserters on the side of Government, and the greatest violence on the part of Opposition. I never was witness to such a scene; you would have thought that you were in a Polish diet. Direct treason spoken, resistance to the law declared, encouraged, and recommended. I never heard such vulgarity and barbarism. I cannot bring myself to repeat what was said or done.

The result was that, with a majority of one, it was impossible to proceed, and Castlereagh was obliged to say that he would not press the measure while the disposition of the House was such. Mr. Ponsonby pressed him to declare how far he meant to relinquish the measure, but Sir J. Parnell interfered, and stated that in Lord Castlereagh's situation it was impossible for him to answer such a question. This pacified for the moment, but I fear that the Speaker has persuaded them to insist on a total relinquishment of the measure, and to oppose the Address on the Report until such a declaration is made. What will be done I know not; the House is now sitting: I am very unable to go there, but though relapsed, I have desired them to send for me if I can be of any use.

a

It is said that the Opposition have received some reinforcements since the division. Sir John and Mr. Blackwood are arrived and with them. Conolly and I are ill.

b

Our second division, that for the Address, after the rejection of the Amendment, was 107 to 105. Two, therefore, taken from ours, and two added to theirs, would make them 107, and us 105. But I trust that

a Sir John Blackwood, second Baronet, son of Sir Robert Blackwood and Joyce Leeson; born 1721; M.P. for Bangor 1768; for Killeleagh 1776 and 1783; for Bangor 1790; for Killeleagh 1797; married, 1751, Dorcas Stevenson, created Baroness Dufferin; died 1799, within a month after this debate.

b Mr. Blackwood, his eldest son, afterwards James, Lord Dufferin; born 1755; M.P. for Killeleagh 1790 and 1797; M.P. in Imperial Parliament, 1807, for Helston; 1812, for Aldborough; married, 1801, the Hon. Anne Foster, daughter of the Speaker; died 1836.