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Mr. Long to Mr. Pitt.

Bromley Hill,

April 3, 1803.

Dear Pitt,

I am anxious to give you some account of what passed between Addington and myself upon my return, reserving details upon the whole subject till we meet. He seemed extremely anxious that you should not consider a pending negotiation as any obstacle to coming forward at the present moment, but it is hardly necessary to say what he stated upon this subject, because he has since altered his opinion, and rather thinks the fit time would be when the negotiation is brought to a point either way, which (in conjunction with Lord Hawkesbury, Lord Castlereagh, and your brother) he is satisfied will be determined before you meet at Bromley Hill. Upon the whole question of arrangement he seemed disposed to adopt what you had authorized me to state, not as anything settled, but as a general idea upon the subject, but at the same time expressed great difficulties about Lord Hobart (none about Lord Pelham). He ended this part of the subject by saying that of course you were the best judge of those persons who had claims upon you, but that he trusted you would not decide anything upon this point (if the thing proceeded to that length) without also considering the fair pretensions of those who had claims upon him. I instanced Bragge, Smyth, Lord C. Spencer, and Wickham, as persons accidentally placed in the situations they held, and whom it might be necessary to call upon to give way: he admitted the justice of what I said upon all these persons, and of the possible necessary arrangement respecting them, but added that he believed the last particularly agreeable to the Chancellor of Ireland and the Lord Lieutenant, and also well qualified for his office. With respect to Lord Grenville, he thought it impossible to admit him or any of his friends at the present moment without a marked degradation of himself and his colleagues, but that he could not mean to proscribe them, or to preclude you from taking whatever assistance you thought right at any future time. I then mentioned Canning and Rose: he said the first had been personally offensive to him; but upon my submitting to him whether he could justify the suffering even personal offence to stand in the way of what he had taken so much pains to convince me was a necessary public arrangement, he seemed very much softened upon this point, and with respect to Rose he stated no objection. There was no difficulty in leaving the vacancies at the Treasury, provided something else was done for Broderick, for whom he had pledged himself to provide. He then showed me a letter from Lord St. Vincent, requesting, on account of his state of health, that he would find him a successor as soon as he conveniently could, and expressed a wish to send the papers which referred to the points upon which you desired information. It is very probable you may want further information upon these subjects, which of course you can have at Bromley Hill.

I saw Lord Castlereagh the next day: very anxious that you should be induced to come into the proposal, even during negotiation, if, contrary to all appearances, it should be protracted. He argued the cases of war, of peace, and of protracted negotiation very ably, as each affording sufficient grounds for your placing yourself at the head of the Government. If we were led into war, no person could conduct it with effect but yourself. You could prevent the negotiation spinning out to a disadvantageous length; and in peace, the state of parties was the ground upon which he urged the necessity of your taking the Government. Neither he nor Lord Hawkesbury concealed from me the necessity for a change. Lord H. was of opinion Lord Grenville could not possibly come in under this arrangement, but seemed to think there would not be any difficulty at a future period. … I have made some endeavours to obtain the opinion of the City: as far as I have been able to ascertain it, it is uniform—a very strong wish that you should take the lead in Government, but an almost equally strong opinion that Grenville should be no part of it. Thornton gave me some strong grounds for supposing this was the general opinion upon both points; but as I know how often people give their own opinion as the public opinion, only for the purpose of strengthening it, I receive a public opinion with some caution. At the same time I have heard the [same] from so many quarters, that I believe it is not mistaken; and there is one point at least in which I think you will concur with me—that pending the negotiation it would be extremely prejudicial to yourself to take office with Grenville; for if it ended in war, his influence would be supposed to have occasioned it; and things are certainly in that state in which it is the general wish that we should at least give ourselves every fair chance of preserving peace. …

I have only had time to scribble this as fast as I could since Huskisson told me he was going to Walmer. I hope you will find it intelligible.

Ever yours,

C. L.