e seems
thoroughly determined not to yield, and I am sure no consideration will
induce him to agree to any other arrangement." Had it depended solely on
the disposition of the King, the difference would never have been
adjusted, and Lord Buckingham, stung by these repeated indignities,
might have thrown up his Government at a conjuncture when his retirement
must have plunged the country into anarchy. How seriously this step was
contemplated by him and Mr. Grenville will appear from the following
correspondence:

MR. W. W. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Whitehall, April 7th, 1789.
MY DEAR BROTHER,

I have just received your letter of the 3rd, and though I have
nothing new to say to you upon the point of Captain Taylor, he not
having yet sent his answer, I cannot help writing a few lines, lest
you think the subject is out of my mind. With respect to the
promotions of peerage, the fault, if there is any, is mine; because
I felt, and still continue to feel, that under the present
circumstances, and till this business of Taylor is settled, the
other _ought_ to be postponed; nor can I imagine any real
inconvenience to arise from it. I am, however, by no means sanguine
in my expectations of the event of this business. I have already
expressed to you my sense of the King's treatment of you in this
instance, and my determination to abide by any measures that you
may think it right to take in this situation. I cannot, however, in
justice to you or to myself, avoid saying, that I most sincerely
wish you to consider well the step which you are about to take; and
that not only with a reference to your _present_ situation or to
your _immediate_ feelings, but with a view to the interpretation
which the public will put upon it, and with a view to any future
political object of ours. With respect to the latter, I am
persuaded you must see that it is impossible for you to resign the
Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland at this time, and on this ground,
without making up your mind at the same moment finally to renounce
all ideas of our taking any part hereafter as public men in this
country. If you will consider what our situation would be, after
such a step, with the King, with the Prince, with Pitt's friends,
and with Fox, and lastly with the public at large, you will, I am
sure, think t