orders for your conduct, in order to show you only did what you were desired.

A message was sent to Parliament from the King, stating the discoveries generally, and that the papers were seized of the several societies, and that they would be laid before Parliament; this is to be taken into consideration in a day or two.

There is an account, which is universally credited, that the French are beaten out of Austrian Flanders and pursued to Lisle with great loss; and it is also reported that Beaulieu has driven them out of the Duchy of Luxembourg with greater slaughter than has been in any other instance; no official account of either, but the former is believed.

Marcellanges and Ligondes go to-morrow to Lord Moira, he will soon sail; I believe he has 20,000 men under him. M. is in his family, but will take nothing, expecting to be joined by Count d'Artois; Ligondes is to have a commission in the cavalry. I like them both, they have good hearts.

Yours ever,

J. B.

MR. MARCUS BERESFORD TO MR. BERESFORD.

Merrion Square, May 20th, 1794.

DEAR FATHER,-I received yours of the 16th this day, and am astonished you had not, at the time of writing it, received any letter of a later date from hence than the 8th. I am very anxious to hear from you after you shall have received my letters of the 11th and 12th.

VOL. II.

Ꭰ

Whatever impression Mr. Douglas may feel with respect to my negotiation with Tone, I have not taken upon myself to act a forward part, or in any instance exceeded the instructions I received from Lord Westmoreland, and S. Hamilton; and notwithstanding the latter may have the effrontery to assert that he concluded no bargain with Tone, he desired the Attorney-General to communicate to me that they had determined to conclude with Tone, and let him off on the terms upon which I, in the last conference, stated he would gladly accept. The Attorney desired he would tell him in express terms the message he was to deliver to me, which he accordingly did, and sent me also the same message through the Chancellor, which I conveyed to Tone by Burrowes, not having had an opportunity of seeing him myself. The confidential paper he put into my hands I have not communicated to any person but you; in this country no one, not even Wolfe or Fitz Gibbon, has seen it, so that I am not committed, nor have I involved Tone or rendered his situation worse by any act of mine; and that he perfectly understands. Lord W. and S. H. may retract if they please, but they do not state the fact if they say they did not authorise me to conclude an agreement with Tone. By my directions, he has withdrawn himself from town, to avoid the importunity of the Roman Catholics, who wish him to write for them, and the attendance on the trial of the printers of the "Northern Star," which he was to have attended. He is near Naas, and will come up whenever I send for him. I cannot think Rowan has left the kingdom; the only place from which he was confidently stated to have sailed

was Skerries, and I had the strictest inquiry made through Thorne, the Monaghans, and all the smugglers thereabouts, and am certain he did not sail from thence or its neighbourhood. I am very glad you wrote to Dusseldorff to have the money disposed of as you did; it was the mode of all others in which I wished it. I received a letter from Ligondes, which I have not yet had time to answer, but hope I can do so next post, and send you at the same time the clause I alluded to. All at Abbeville well. There is no news here, except a dreadful fight between the militia and Scotchmen as they are called in Cavan, and the defenders at Ballina, in which two of the former, and about seventy of the defenders, were killed. The Swifture has brought into Cork the Atalanta, a French 38-gun frigate.

M. B.

MR. BERESFORD TO LORD AUCKLAND.

Abbeville, 15th July, 1794.

MY DEAR AUCKLAND,-I am uneasy at not having heard from you since your last melancholy one. Let me hear how you and lady A. are.

We are miserable here at the bad news that we have every day. Where it is to end I cannot see; I begin to join Lady Auckland, and do nothing but croak. What are your new arrangements? I do not hear your name mentioned, which I do not like. I do not believe our newspaper accounts of our new Lord-Lieutenant, because I did not understand that he was a particular friend of Mr. Pitt's, and I therefore concluded it would be Lord

Camden. How Mr. Pitt should send any one here that he cannot depend upon I do not understand, nor can I believe that he will; neither do I see what he can do for Lord Westmoreland, so that I begin to speculate that the new arrangements of the Cabinet may keep things here as they are.

Yours ever affectionately,

J. B.

LORD AUCKLAND TO MR. BERESFORD.

Beckenham, July 27th, 1794.

MY DEAR BERESFORD,-I have received your two letters of the 15th and 20th instants. Lady Auckland has not yet recovered her natural cheerfulness, which received a severe shock by our late loss; but we now see friends, and are making short excursions. As to public matters, I do not know where to begin, and indeed it is painful to me to write about them. When I left the Continent last summer, we were at the high tide of our fortunes; ever since, we have plunged through a long career of

a John Jeffreys Pratt, second Earl Camden, son of Charles, first Earl, and Elizabeth Jeffreys; born 1759; M.P. for Bath 1780, 1784, 1790; succeeded his father 1794; appointed, 1780, Teller of the Exchequer, the large emoluments of which office he voluntarily relinquished during the latter period of his life to the service of the State; 1782, 1783, till 1786, Lord of the Admiralty; 1786, a Lord of the Treasury; 1793, a Lord of Trade and Plantation; 1795, appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, till 1798; 1804, Colonial Secretary; 1805, Lord President of the Council; again 1807 till 1812; created Marquis Camden 1812; married, 1785, Frances Molesworth; died 1840.

disgraces, disappointments, and distresses, to which I could reconcile my philosophy if I saw any resting-place, or any prospect of returning tranquillity and safety. In a word, I no longer look for our salvation either to councils or to armies, but am driven to the last resource of the human mind, a reliance on Providence to extricate us somehow or other.

As to the late ministerial arrangements, I speak of them with some reluctance, because I may be supposed to be a disappointed man-and indeed it is so far true that I had reason to believe a different arrangement was in view, in which my name made a part; but if Mr. Pitt felt that the calamities of the times required this change (for such it is) in his Administration, there was nothing more to be said. I can freely confide to you my persuasion that he has made a bad move on his political chess-board: I believe that Dundas was the only person of his old friends materially consulted on the occasion. He will find that he has destroyed the weight of a party which was material to be preserved, and which will now become at least insignificant; and he will also find that he has gained nothing in point of talents and efficiency; and lastly, that he is in a decided minority in his own Cabinet. I understood that when this Coalition was formed, Ireland was offered to the Portland party, together with the other offices which were accepted; and I have heard (which I mention in great confidence) that an apology was made to Lord Camden, to whom Ireland had before been destined. Lord Spencer and the Duke of Devonshire, and Lord

a

George Spencer, second Earl Spencer, son of John, first