Canning to Bagot. BRUTON STREET, Thursday morning, July 6, 1809. I was quite sure that there was some good reason for my unwillingness yesterday to give any order about the augmented Salaries without having the paper of the Establishment before me, and I have since recollected what it was. Somebody (and I am afraid a Bidwell)* has an allowance of £100 a year for summoning the Peerswhich of course is a perfect sinecure-the remnant of Lord Grenville's and Lord Hawkesbury's time, but quite unjustifiable and unaccountable at present. I certainly intended to abolish this article when I gave the augmented allowance. What is to be said for it in the House of Commons? What would be said to an allowance of £100 for writing Treasury Notes to the Members of the H. of Commons-and this is precisely the same duty-with the additional circumstance that such as it is, it is not done. We must expect the whole of this augmentation to be criticized, when Martin's resolutions or Mr. Bankes's reports come to be considered next session-and I can not defend this item. If it be Bidwell, he gets £300 addition and may well give up £200. If he had rather not, I cannot help it— he may choose. * Four generations of the Bidwell family held appointments under the Foreign Office from 1767 to 1873. This was Mr. Thomas Bidwell, Chief Clerk, who died in 1817, after fifty years' service ('Recollections of the Foreign Office,' Hertslet). At this time a vigorous campaign against abuses of expenditure of public money on pensions and sinecures was going on in the House of Commons. There are other letters from Canning asking for inquiries to be made on such matters. For example, an earlier letter tells Bagot to inquire at various offices whether one Charmbly has a pension, and what, and why, and where . . . not that this signifies one farthing to the case, but, as they are so busy collecting facts, I may as well have facts to put against them.' I cannot agree to the Mediterranean Convoy: because we know very well that a Convoy ordered for the 15th may very probably, more probably than not, be put off a fortnight-and then the passage is that of a snail-and the transport may after all find itself at Malta. The other proposal of sending the transport round to Falmouth to go with the ship of war (if there is a ship of war going) seems more reasonable. But if it loses that opportunity, what is to become of the transport? I wish you well through and pray let me hear when you are so. Canning to Bagot. BRUTON STREET, I wish you joy. It was very considerate of Mrs. Bagot to be brought to bed on a Monday. Let me have Horne's letter (and the little girl* if you can spare her) at the Cabinet-and then give yourself no further trouble about me to-day. Canning to Bagot. BRUTON STREET, July 22, 1809, 11 a.m. I want copies to be made of these two letters of Garay's† and also of my answer to them, which I will send down as soon as I receive it from Ross. These are to be sent in a letter to Frere-which I shall send down by a messenger whom I propose Emily, afterwards Maid of Honour to Queen Adelaide; married, 1837, George, ninth Earl of Winchilsea (see Creevey, vol. ii., p. 329). Canning and Wellesley were her godfathers (see letter, p. 338). † Martin di Garay, Spanish Minister at Seville. despatching to Wellesley* at Portsmouth-and by whom he wishes to receive all my Drafts to Villiers to read once more over, and return. The messenger will wait for them. I found a note from him last night -went and took leave of him—and obtained a positive promise that he would be off early this morning. I send you the Duke of Portland's last letter to show Hammond. Return it to me with the copy of my answer.† I shall not be at the Office (as you will judge from this note) this morning. Will you call on me at Lawrence's when you come away? Canning to Bagot. BRUTON STREET, July 23, 1809, § p. 12. Send me anything and everything 1. Brazilian, 2. Portuguese, 3. Apodacaish,§ that requires answer or consideration. In return I direct Green to send you a Tureen of Turtle, and a roll of paper which contains a map of the Schelte lent * Lord Wellesley, who arrived at Cadiz on August 1, was starting for Spain to supersede Frere as Ambassador to Ferdinand VII. and the Central Junta, which position Frere had held since the previous October. Wellesley remained there till March, 1810, when he was succeeded by his youngest brother, Sir Henry Wellesley, and came home to succeed Canning at the Foreign Office in Mr. Perceval's administration. † Canning a second time wrote to the Duke, on July 18, remonstrating on Castlereagh remaining at the War Office, and the Duke refused to inform the War Minister on the subject (see Walpole's 'Perceval,' vol. i., p. 358). Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., who exhibited his portrait of Canning in the Royal Academy in the following spring. It is now at Christ Church. § Admiral Don Juan de Apodaca, Envoy and Plenipotentiary from the King of Spain and the Junta to Great Britain. He and Canning were the signatories of the Treaty concluded with Spain on January 14, 1809. 1809] EFFECTIVE CENSORSHIP 315 to me by Lacodomon, he says the most accurate, and certainly the most formidable that I have yet seen. Shew it to Pole*-and if they have it not-lend it— but it must be returned. I have given Lacodomon the Moniteur's version of the King's speech-and the speech itself, to be translated by him with a Head and Notes. We will then print it in three columns and throw it upon the coast. I do not wish to have a messenger to-day-unless there are arrivals-Otherwise one to-morrow by eight o'clock, and another in the course of the day after post time. Perhaps the latter might bring Rose's† letter. I should at any rate be glad to have it, if not in time to do anything upon it at Claremount, to study in my way to Town on Tuesday morning. P.S. and N.B.-The Intelligence of the actual sailing of the Expedition I should consider as worth a messenger alone.‡ (Private.) Canning to Bagot. CLAREMOUNT, July 26, 1809. I certainly think it right that Lord Chatham should be apprized of the companion in arms whom he has in Mr. Finnerty.§ And I had actually begun writing to * Wellesley Pole, Secretary to the Admiralty, who was appointed Chief Secretary in Ireland in the new Administration under Mr. Perceval. + Right Hon. Sir George Rose, who had been a purser in the Navy and Keeper of the Exchequer Records; President of the Board of Trade, which office he held under Pitt, and, with the exception of his retirement under the Grenville Ministry, continued to hold till his death in 1818. He was also Treasurer of the Navy. The disastrous expedition up the Scheldt, under Lord Chatham, sailed on the 27th. § Bagot had written to Wellesley Pole at the Admiralty two days before that: 'Mr. Peter Finnerty, so well known by his violent and factious writings, and by his connexion with the editor of the Morning Chronicle, has quitted London, and is now actually on board him to inform him of the fact. But upon reflection I think the information ought to go to him through the other office-or through the Admiralty. Leveson, who has just gone from here, has promised to mention it to Lord Mulgrave. But as he left me with the impression that I should write to Lord Chatham, perhaps he may not give himself much trouble to execute the commission. At all events you had better see Robinson-and put him in possession. of the information-and of my opinion (if necessary) that it ought to be conveyed to Lord Chatham. Canning to Bagot. (Private and confidential.) GLOUCESTER LODGE,* I send you the draft to Lord Wellesley, with a note for Lord Castlereagh: to whom it is in the first instance to be forwarded. My feelings revolt a little against the familiarity of this note, which almost savours of hypocrisy (though certainly it is not so conceived or intended)-If you could see Robinson; and inculcate all that I say in my note, so that there should not appear to be any neglect or incivility in not writing one of H.M. ships (preparing to sail with the Expedition) in the capacity of private secretary to one of the Captains of the Fleet.' Finnerty appears to have been an early specimen of a war-correspondent for the Morning Chronicle, an opposition paper. Cyrus Redding, in his' Fifty Years' Recollections,' says all the world knew Peter,' and gives him an excellent character. He goes on to say that Lord Castlereagh had him brought back, and that he abused his lordship and the expedition, for which he got a year's imprisonment for libel. On coming out of prison the Minister met him in Pall Mall, and coolly greeted him and asked after his health, a matter which Finnerty described to a friend as being the greatest impudence he had ever seen, and proceeded to prophesy correctly the exact manner of Lord Castlereagh's tragic end, a prophecy that was subsequently recalled. Sir Home Popham appears to have been his naval friend. Gloucester Lodge, Old Brompton, built by Maria, Duchess of Gloucester, and called Oxford Lodge. After her death there in 1807, her daughter, Princess Sophia, called it Gloucester Lodge. It was pulled down in 1850, and its name perpetuated in Gloucester Road. Canning had now just bought it. |