The Cumberland Pacquet 25 Feb 1812 Prince Regent's Letter

Prince Regent's Letter

The Cumberland Pacquet - 25 Feb 1812

LETTER of the PRINCE REGENT, AND LORDS GREY AND GRENVILLE'S REPLY. (COPY.) "My dearest Brother, "As the Restrictions on the Royal Authority will shortly expire, when I must make my arrangements for the future administration of the powers with which I am invested, I think it right to communicate to you those sentiments which I was withheld from expressing at an early period of the Session, by my earnest desire that the expected motion on the Affairs of Ireland might undergo the deliberate discussion of Parliament, unmixed with any other consideration. "I think it hardly necessary to call your recollection to the recent circumstances under which I assumed the Authority delegated to me by Parliament. At a moment of unexampled difficulty and danger, I was called upon to make a selection of persons to whom I should entrust the function of the Executive Government. "My sense of duty to our Royal Father solely decided that choice, and every private feeling gave way to considerations which admitted of no doubt or hesitation. I trust I acted in that respect as the genuine representative of the August Person whose functions I was appointed to discharge; and I have the satisfaction of knowing, that such was the opinion of persons for whose judgment and honourable principles I entertain the highest respect. "In various instances, as you well know, where the law of the last Session left me at full liberty, I have waved any personal gratification, in order that his Majesty might resume, on his restoration to health, every power and prerogative belonging to the Crown. I certainly am the last person in the kingdom to whom it can be permitted to despair of our Royal Father's recovery. "A new era is now arrived, and I cannot but reflect with satisfaction on the events which have distinguished the short period of my restricted Regency. Instead of suffering in the loss of any of her possessions, by the gigantic force which has been employed against them, Great Britain has added most important acquisitions to her empire; the national faith has been preserved inviolate towards our Allies; and if character is strength applied to a nation, the increased and increasing reputation of his Majesty's arms will shew to the Nations of the Continent, how much they may still achieve when animated by a glorious spirit of resistance to a foreign yoke. In the critical situation of the war in the Peninsula, I shall be most anxious to avoid every measure which can lead my Allies to suppose that I mean to depart from the present system. -- Perseverance alone can achieve the great object in question, and I cannot withhold my approbation from those who have honourably distinguished themselves in support of it. I have no predelection to indulge, no resentments to gratify, no objects to attain, but such as are common to the whole Empire. If such is the leading principle of my conduct, and I can appeal to the past as the evidence of what the future will be, I flatter myself I shall meet with the support of Parliament, and of a candid and enlightened nation. "Having made this communication of my sentiments, in this new and extraordinary crisis of our affairs, I cannot conclude without expressing the gratification I should feel, if some of those persons with whom the early habits of my public life were formed, would strengthen my hands, and constitute a part of my Government. With such support, and aided by a vigorous and united Administration, formed on the most liberal basis, I shall look with additional confidence to a prosperous issue of the most arduous contest in which Great Britain was ever engaged. "You are authorised to communicate these sentiments to Lord GREY, who, I have no doubt, will make them known to Lord GRENVILLE. "I am, always, &c. GEORGE, P. R. "Carlton House, Feb. 13, 1812. "P. S. I shall send a copy of this letter immediately to Mr. PERCEVAL." ---------------------------------- "February 15, 1812. "SIR, -- We beg leave most humbly to express to your Royal Highness our dutiful acknowledgments for the gracious and condescending manner in which you have had the goodness to communicate to us the letter of his Royal Highness the PRINCE REGENT, on the subject of the arrangements to be now made for the future Administration of the public affairs; and we take the liberty of availing ourselves of your gracious permission to address to your Royal Highness in this form what has occurred to us in consequence of that communication. "The Prince Regent, after expressing to your Royal Highness in that letter his sentiments on various public matters, has, in the concluding paragraph, condescended to intimate his wish that some of those persons with whom the early habits of his public life were formed, would strengthen his Royal Highness's hands, and constitute a part of his Government; and his Royal Highness is pleased to add, that with such support, aided by a vigorous and united Administration, formed on the most liberal basis, he would look with additional confidence to a prosperous issue of the most arduous contest in which Great Britain has ever been engaged. On the other parts of his Royal Highness's letter we do not presume to offer any observations; but in the concluding paragraph, in so far as we may venture to suppose ourselves included in the gracious wish which it expresses, we owe it, in obedience and duty to his Royal Highness, to explain ourselves with frankness and sincerity. "We beg leave most earnestly to assure his Royal Highness, that no sacrifices, except those of honour and duty, could appear to us too great to be made, for the purpose of healing the divisions of our country, and uniting both its Government and people. All personal exclusion we entirely disclaim; we rest on public measures; and it is on this ground alone that we must express, without reserve, the impossibility of our uniting with the present Government. Our differences of opinion are too many and too important to admit of such an union. His Royal Highness will, we are confident, do us the justice to remember, that we have twice already acted on this impression; in 1809, on the proposition then made to us under his Majesty's authority; and last year, when his Royal Highness was pleased to require our advice respecting the formation of a new Government. The reasons which we then humbly submitted to him are strengthened by the increasing dangers of the times; nor has there, down to this moment, appeared even any approximation towards such an agreement of opinion on the public interests, as can alone form a basis for the honourable union of parties previously opposed to each other. Into the detail of those differences we are unwilling to enter; they embrace almost all the leading features of the present policy of the Empire; but his Royal Highness has, himself, been pleased to advert to the late deliberations of Parliament on the affairs of Ireland. This is a subject above all others, important in itself, and connected with the most pressing dangers. "Far from concurring in the sentiments which his Majesty's Ministers have, on that occasion, so recently expressed, we entertain opinions directly opposite; we are firmly persuaded of the necessity of a total change in the present system of the country -- and of the immediate repeal of those civil disabilities under which so large a proportion of his Majesty's subjects still labour on account of their religious opinions. To recommend to Parliament this repeal, is the first advice which it would be our duty to offer to his Royal Highness, could we, even for the shortest time, make ourselves responsible for any further delay in the prospect of a measure, without which we could entertain no hope of rendering ourselves useful to his Royal Highness, or the country. We have only further to beg your Royal Highness to lay before his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, the expression of our humble duty, and the sincere and respectful assurance of our earnest wishes for whatever may best promote the ease, honour, and advantage of his Royal Highness's government, and the success of his endeavour for the public welfare. "We have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) GREY. . GRENVILLE." "To his Royal Highness the Duke of York."

 

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