William Petty, 2nd Earl of Lansdowne

“ These points were insisted upon by Lord Lansdowne in the last speech he made in Parliament. "Let us first try," he said, "every possible way to obtain by conciliation the objects we are desirous of possessing; and if our efforts fail, let us then have recourse to arms. Let us profit by the example of the American war and take care that our discretion and prudence be not sacrificed to false glory." [43] The die was however cast. On April 29th, 1803, war was again declared, and on May the 12th, 1804, Pitt again became Prime Minister. ”

“ With the Opposition he refused to hold any communication. They made it a principle, he said, to oppose everything right or wrong, and thereby to stifle and mislead public opinion. Faction was however the weapon most natural to a party which, while professing to be more liberal than the Government, was in reality behind the time on all the great questions of the day.
Under these circumstances it was only natural that Lord Lansdowne should prefer the society he gathered around him at Bowood and the occupations of country life to the game of politics in London. ”

“ I find what is wanting among us on almost all plans is an honest executive, and I would rather see any one of these heads fairly tried, than the whole faintly attempted."
In order to assist the spread of correct views on this and other economic subjects, especially among the middle and manufacturing classes, which he said were sure to govern England in the long run, Lord Lansdowne at this period interested himself in the publication of an English translation of Condorcet's Life of Turgot. ”

“ The correspondence which had passed between Lord Shelburne, the Duke of Portland, and Lord Rockingham in 1782 relative to the affairs of Ireland, had been recently presented to Parliament, and with the resolution of the 17th May of that year had been quoted to prove that the work then done was not regarded by the authors of it as closing the chapter of the connection between England and Ireland. When accordingly Lord Lansdowne rose to speak on the 19th March, there was general attention. He began with a strong declaration in favour of the complete emancipation of the Roman Catholics. ”

“ The Government even thought of flying at higher game and of prosecuting the leaders of the Opposition. So feeble however had the Opposition become, that in the House of Commons their numbers frequently sunk as low as 30, and when on the 13th May 1797 the Duke of Bedford brought forward a motion for the dismissal of Ministers in the House of Lords which Lord Lansdowne supported in a vigorous speech, he was hardly able to muster a dozen votes to support it. A party so feeble was perhaps hardly worth prosecuting.
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. ”

“ Price he enlarges upon the necessity of more attention being given in education to modern as compared with ancient languages, and of shortening the length of the vacations of the English universities and of introducing public examinations. [10] Prejudices however like other mortals Lord Lansdowne had, and of one in particular, notwithstanding all his philosophy, he never could free his mind. ”

“ Lord Lansdowne wrote a short time after the death of Mirabeau, "which has been shown by the Assembly in their late proceedings, it may be expected that they may still find means of uniting all parties. No concessions can be too great provided they do not affect the great landmarks of the Revolution. ”

“ The events of the French Revolution had caused the friendship of Fox and Burke to be severed, and it was a complete divergence of opinion on these events which at this period also led to an estrangement between Barré and Lord Lansdowne. The blow to the latter was heavy, for it was the termination of a friendship which had lasted without interruption for more than thirty years. "I take it for granted," Lord Lansdowne wrote to Bentham, "you do not mean to give up Bowood for the summer. We reserve till then telling you all we think about the Colonel ”

“ II. p. 9) ; the full text of the conversation between Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Pitt in 1785 (Vol. II. pp. 294-298) , and between the Prince of Wales and Mr. Grey in 1798 (Vol. II. pp. 425-426) , did not appear in the first edition. Use has also been made of a Memorandum by the Abbé Morellet of some conversations in 1783 with Lord Shelburne, which was found subsequently to 1876 among the papers at Lansdowne House.
Among the documents in the Appendix will be found a paper by Lord Shelburne on Sepulchral Monuments, to which my attention was drawn by Mr. ”

“ It is similarly misquoted at p. 157, in the same order of council there reprinted, making it possible indeed that the date at p. 30 is the incorrect one. There can be no doubt, however, that the resolution is the same, whatever the date may be.
At p. 66, line 6, the word "summ" is "same" in the Lansdowne manuscript.
CHAPTER X.
Pages 80-102.
Dr. Petty is now urged forward; every one anxious to assist, who before had thwarted him; but another cry arises as soon as the parties begin to see their settlements, finding, probably, the country a wilderness. ”

“ Mirabeau relates that Lord Lansdowne told him that he wished convicted criminals could be examined with a view to a philosophical study of their characters. "We govern men," he said, "and we do not know them; we do not even endeavour to know them." [14] Lord Lansdowne wished to bring Romilly into Parliament, and spoke of him to Morellet as the successor of Dunning in his confidence. [15]
Of Mirabeau while at Bowood, Romilly has preserved a curious anecdote. "He was fond," he says, "of bitter controversies in conversation with celebrated men. ”

“ He had also in contemplation a bill to promote free commercial intercourse between England and the United States. When Pitt acceded to office in 1784, Shelburne, instead of receiving a place in the cabinet, was created marquess of Lansdowne. Though giving a general support to the policy of Pitt, he from this time ceased to take an active part in public affairs. ”

“ Rose all hostile to Shelburne on different grounds—Correspondence with Orde—Death of Oswald—Barr becomes blind—Jekyll succeeds Barré as member for Calne—Death of Lord Ashburton—The Duke of Rutland dissatisfied with the exclusion of Shelburne—He conveys his opinion to Pitt—Correspondence between Shelburne and Pitt—Shelburne becomes Marquess of Lansdowne—Interview between him and Pitt—The Satirists of the Rolliad on the situation—Influence of Jenkinson
. ”

“ The copy in the National Library of Ireland is a reissue dedicated to Petty's son Henry as Earl of Shelburne. It must have been published, therefore, after 1719, the date at which the earldom of Shelburne was created, and before 1751, when Shelburne died. ↑ The settlement of the Irish question by the fusion of Irish and English was a favourite notion of Petty's from 1655, when, in collaboration with Vincent Gookin, he is said to have opposed the segregation of the Irish by transplantation into Connaught, to the year of his death. Fitzmaurice, 31, 32, also Petty's Treatise of Ireland. ”

“ It was resolved to give the organization a more permanent and a more serious character. Petty was one of the promoters of the change which transformed the "Philosophical Club" into the Royal Society. He was one of the original Fellows, and was placed on the Council. [14] In 1661, April 11, he was knighted and was sent by Charles II to Ireland as Surveyor-General. [15] In the Irish Parliament, which met early in the summer, he sat as member for Enniscorthy. In August he was sent to England as one of the commissioners from that Parliament to watch over the interests of the English landowners. ”

“ During his lifetime he was blamed for insincerity and duplicity, and he incurred the deepest unpopularity, but the accusations came chiefly from those who were dissatisfied with his preference of principles to party, and if he had had a more unscrupulous regard to his personal ambition, his career as a statesman would have had more outward success. ”

“ A fatal blow was thereby struck, not only at the branch of industry most suitable to the Irish soil and climate, but also at the Irish carrying trade into England. There was a strong opposition to the Bill both in Parliament and in the Privy Council, but the majority were of opinion that 'in a point evidently for the benefit and advantage of England, Ireland ought not to be put into the scale, because it would be some inconvenience there,' and that 'some noblemen of that kingdom lived in a higher garb and made greater expenses than the noblemen of England ”

“ The death of the Lord Protector had reanimated the purely parliamentarian party of the army in England to an activity that boded no good to his sons. Petty was, throughout his life, a firm supporter of the family of Cromwell, and it was as Henry Cromwell's friend that he had been elected member for West Looe in Richard's parliament. It is not surprising, therefore, that the charges of bribery and breach of trust now preferred against him in the House of Commons by Sir Jerome Sanchey [23] should have appeared to the officers at Dublin as a blow struck at the Lord Deputy himself. ”

“ Sir William's hands appear at this time to have been full of business of all kinds. He was again urging upon the English Government the adoption of a plan for the improvement of the Irish revenue, a subject rarely out of his thoughts. To do justice to his plan it was absolutely necessary for him to be upon the spot, and he was therefore reluctant to leave England. Under these circumstances Lady Petty, who had become the mother of a second son, Henry, born October 22, 1675, undertook to remain in Ireland, and to supply her husband's place. ”

“ He devoted much time to literary work, and was the author of excellent biographies of the 1st marquess, of Sir William Petty (1895) , and of Lord Granville (1905) , under whom he had served at the foreign office. ”

“ He was again offered a peerage, but he declined it, unless it was accompanied by a seat at the Privy Council. 'There are both conveniencys and the contrary in being of the Council,' Lady Petty wrote to her connection, Edmund Waller, the poet, through whom a communication on the subject had been made from the Crown, 'for we designed that point as a public sign of His Majesty's heartiness in the other; for a bare Title without some trust might seem to the world a Body without soul or spirit. ”

“ The example was attractive, but James forgot that the circumstances were not the same.
Sir William had now begun reluctantly to realise how extreme was the danger, though he still obstinately hoped something from the good intentions of the King. Caution and a careful observation of the times were, he thought, for the moment the best policy. If necessary, though now an old man, he would try to begin life over again and seek to restore his fortunes. But for the first time in his life he began to lose hope about the prospect in Ireland, where all seemed in utter jeopardy. ”

“ Besides, many men are very good when well looked after, who left to themselves are capable of deviating gradually into every species of dishonesty. Sir William Petty was very well served, and left it among his advices to his sons, to continue to employ the same people, whom he had trained to the conduct of his affairs, and found honest and diligent in the management of them. ”

“ That disposing of Places thus aforehand, much abates mens endeavours, who are many times stirred up to deserve eminently in the Commonwealth, in hope of those preferments; and being thus granted away, there is nothing left in their Eye, for them to expect and aim at, which might nourish and quicken those good desires in them, besides Places there closely and covertly passed, the persons are not for the most part so able and fitted to the Duties thereof, as when there is choice made out of many publick pretenders, which commonly oc-|151|cur, when they actually fall void by Death. ”

“ This will be of great intelligence and safety to his Majesty; for on the one side he will clearly see into the true inward value all things, which formerly, albeit of very great worth, have from so great a distance slipt away here, as little understood by the Crown; as is acknowledged by those that obtain them; who generally, in these causes, sacrifice rather to their own Wit, than the Goodness and Bounty of Kings. And on the other side, nothing can pass to the disadvantage of the Crown ”

“ The Lord Deputy and Councill, in behalfe of the State, have noe interest to impose unprofitable or intangled lands uppon the adventurers, nor to withhold any priviledge or advantage allowed by the Act of Parliament; nor will their Lordshipps doe any thing against the Acts and ordinances of Parliament, even allthough it were for the States advantage, and allthough the adventurers could bee supposed to petition them unto itt.
6thly. That even the army of Ireland have not used any meanes to putt hardshipp uppon the adventurers ”

“ He represented the Marquis of Lansdowne ("Malagrida") as driving at full speed to St. James's Palace, heralded by the dove of peace, while Fox, Sheridan, etc., hang on behind and cry out, "Stop; stop; take us in." Pitt and Dundas are seen leaving the palace. The rumour gains in credibility from a Memorandum of the Marquis; but it is doubtful whether George ever thought seriously of giving up Pitt, still less of seeking support from the discredited and unpopular Lansdowne, whose views on the French Revolution were utterly opposed to those of the King. ”

“ I think myself now obliged to crave your Lordships pardon, for my too rude opposing your conjectures in favour of him about the time when Sir Jerome first fired his Morter-piece in the Parliament; and but affrighted (as I now believe) that great Assembly with an empty Bombo: nor is it less my duty, to assure your Lordship, that upon this experiment of your judgement, I will no more, by chawing the wholesome Pills you shall hereafter give me, endanger the bringing of them up without effect ”