Star. — London, England, 1803-12-07 00:00:00

.7""! 1- I /1 t tri 11 CORRESPON.DENC& BE? !VEEN MIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF WALES, THE DUKE OF YORK, AND MR. ADDINGTON, 4IN THE orFFrt OF BELITAKY SERVICE MADE BY ROYAI. MCI:NEL:S TUE PRINCE OF WALES. (Copy) " Carlton Houle, July 28, tBc3 " S:s—The fubje& en which I addrcfs you prelfes to heavily en my mind, and daily acquires fuch ad ditional importance, that notwithilanding my with to avoid any interference with the dilpofition made by his Majefly's Ministers, I find it impoffible to mit) hold or delay an explicit flatement of my feel irzs, to which I would dire your molt ferious con fideration. .‘' When it was officially communicated to Parlia• rnent that the avowed objed of the enemy was a Oefcent on our kingdoms, the queflion became is ob vious that the circumnances of the times required the voluntat y tender of peribnal fervices; when Par. hanent, in confequence of this reprefentation, agteed to extraordinary meaftues for the defence of there realms alone, it was evident the danger was not be licved dubious or remote. Animated by the fame Wm which pervaded the nation at large, confcious of the duties which I owed to his Majetly and the Country, I feized the earlicik opportunity to exprefs I rtty dc fire of undertaking the relpontibility of a mili tat command, I neither did, nor do prefume on fupp :fed talents as entitling me to fuch an appoint ment. lam aware Ido not porters the experience of aatial warfare ; at the fame time 1 cannot regard myfelf as totally unqualified or deficient in military fcience. 'lnce I have long made the fervice my parti cular Study. My chief pretentions were founded on a fence of thole advantages which my example might produce to the flute, by exciting the loyal energies of the nation, and a knowledge of thole expalations which the public had a right to form as to the perfo nal exertions of their Princes at a moment like the prefent. The more elevated my fituation, in fo much the efforts of zeal became neceffarily greater, and I confefs that if duty had not been fo paramount, a re fledion on the fplendid achievements of my predecef furs would have excited in me the fpirit of emulation; when, however, in addition to fuch recollediuns, the nature of the contell in which we are about to en gage was impreffed on my confideration, I &mid, in deed, have been devoid of every virtuous Sentiment if I felt no reludance in remaining a pat Eve fpedator of armaments, which have for their object the very exiftence of the Britifh Etnpire. " Thus was I influenced to ma':e my offer of fer vice, and I did imagine that his Majefly's Ministers would have attached to it more value. But when I find that, from tome unknown caufe, my appoint ment teems to remain fo long undetermined; when I feel myfelf expoled to the obloquy of being regard ed by the country as pang my time indifferent to the events which menace, and infenfible to the call of patriotifm, much more of glory, it then behoves pie to examine my rights, and to remind his MajJ ty's Milliners that the claim which I have advanced is arielly connitutional, and junified by precedent, and that in the prefent Situation of Europe, to deny Smy exercifing it is fatal to my own immediate ho nour and the Suture interefts of the Crown. " I can never forget that I have Solemn obligations Impofed on me by my birth, and that I Ibould ever thew myfelf format in contributing to the preferva lion of the country. The time is arrived whets I may prose myfelf fenlible of the ditties of my fituation, and of evincing my devotion to that Sovereign, who, by nature as wcli as public worth, commands my =loft affedionate attachment. repeat, that I Humid be lorry to embarrafs the Government at any time, moll particularly at fuch a crifis. But, flocs no event in my future life can compenfate me for the misfortune of not participat ing in the honours and dangers which await the brave men dcflined to oppofe an invading enemy, I cannot forego the earneft renewal of my application. All I {ohm is a more oflenfible fituation than that its which I am at prefent placed; for Situated as I am, as a men Colonel of a regiment, the Major General com manding the Brigade of which fuch a regiment mull form a part, would juftly exped and receive the full credit of pte-arrangement and fuccefsful enterprize. " I remain, Sir, very Sincerely, Yours, .4 R. H. Henry Addington, /cc. &c. !cc. (stare!) "O. P." " July a 6, 18c3. " A week has now elapfed Since the Prince of Wales tranfmitted to Mr. Addington a letter on a cubic& of the higheft importance ; though he cannot anticipate a refufal to lo reafonable a demand, he muft Still esprcfs fume forprize that a communication of Such a nature (hold have remained fo long un aufwercd. When the Prince of Wales defined to be placed in a fituation which might enable him to fliew to the people of England the example of zeal, fidelity and devotion to his Sovereign, he naturally thought that he was only fulfilling his appropriate duty, as the full fubjat of the realm in which as it has pleafed Prtoviotacx to caufe him to have been born, fo he is determined to maintain himfelf by all thofe ho nourable exertions which the exigencies of there cri tical times peculiarly demand. The motives of his conduct cannot be mil - conceived or mifreprerented.— He has, at a moment when every thing is at flake that is dear and (acre,' to him and to the nation, silted to be advaxced in military rank, becaufe he may have his birth-right to fight for, the throne of his Father to defend, the glory of the people of 'England to uphold, which is dearer to him than life, which has yet remained unfrillied tinder the Prince, of the Houk of Brunfwick, and which he auk will be tranfmitted pure and uncontaminated to the Weft Arimated by loch fentiments, he has lat!irally dented to Ix placed in a fituation where he ca-s a.tt according to the feelings of his heart and the the Lima •;f: confcience. .‘ 1:1 :1 , 7 the offxr, in again repeating h, the P. i ^: t.l ‘Vale! cos.fitfera that he has only perform • Ls duty to birmelf, to tie (late, to the King, to 4...:r0pe, w L a fe 11-c may be involved ni the io , z o f i;irg crittyll. If t:ii% loader of his 1 ., !, vices is rejened, • x if: ev...r 1 'T...1 Ole all Lis of have bccn• • n, fr, sod t. he ha been deprived of making • clett,txr t:re eirrtnd.tr.c , , ~f 'hr: cm pire, 114 own inclinati.ins, and his early and long at tention to military affa:rs, would have rendered fo particularly grateful to himfeif, and he truth, not entirely ufelefs to the public." ^ Downing ftreet, July 27,_18c3. " Upon receiving the letter with which Mr. Ad dington was hat week honoured by the Prince of Wales, he allured his Royal Highnefs that it thould be immediately laid before the King : this was ac• cordingly done, and the letter is lull in his Majefly's pacifism. A communication was afterwards made to his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales, in a mode and through a channel which Mr. Addington humbly hoped his Royal Highnefs would approve. Mr. A. however, now finds it to be incumbent on him, in confequence of the expeaation which has been expreffed by his Royal Highnefs, to (late, that his Majelly, on being informed of the fentiments and willies of the Prince of Wales, applauded in the flrongell manner the feelings by which his Royal Highnefs is aCluated, but referred neverthelefs to the aufwers which his Majefty had judged it neceffary to return to fimilar reprefentations—which, in obedi ence to the command: of his Royal Highnefs, had been laid before his Majefly upon former occafions." " Carlton Howe, July 28,1803. is The Prince of Waleshas received Mr.Addington's written communication of the lalt night. The Prince of Wales has only to obferve, that he requires Mr.A. to fohmit t his Majefly his laft note, dated the 16th of this month. " Downing•ltrect,July 28, 1803, half pall t t P. M. 6 , Mr. Addington is jolt honoured with the commands 9f the Prince of Wales, and will net fail to lay his Royal Ilghnefs's letter, dated 26th of this month, before t:.e King. " Downlurftreet, Auguft T. " Sta—ln obedience to thecommands of your Royal Highnefs, I laid before his Majefty the letter dated z6th July, with which your Royal Highnefs had ho noured me, aad I have it in command from his Ma jelly to acquaint your Royal Highnefs, that the King had referred Mr.Addington to the order he had before given him, with the addition—that the King's opinion being fixed, he defired that no further men tion Ihould be made to him upon the fubjet." ..-.- - . . " I have the honour to be, " With, Sir, " Every fentiment of refped and deference, " Your Royal Highnefs's molt obedient humble fervant, (Signed) a HENRY ADDINGTON." LETTER TO THE KING. Sic—A correfpondence has taken place between Mr. Addington and myfelf, on a fubjed which deeply involves my honour and character. The anfwers which I have received from that Gentleman, the communication which he has made to the Houle of Commons, leave me no hope but in an appeal to the jußice of your Majefty. I make that appeal with confidence, becaufe I feel that you are my natural advocate, and with the fanguine hope that the ears of an affeaionate father may (till be opened to the fupplications of a dutiful fon. " I afk to be allowed to difplay the bell energies of my charader ; to fhed the hit drop of my blood in fupport of your Majefty's perfon, crown, and dig. nity ; for this is not a war for empire, glory, or do. minion, but for exiltence. In this conceit, the loweft and humbleß of your Majelly's fubjeds have been called on—it would, therefore, little become me, who am their/t, and who Rand at the very footftool of the Throne, to remain a tame, an idle, and lifelefs fpedator of the mifchiefs which threaten us, uncnn. icious of the dangers which furround us, and indiffe rent to the confequences which may follow. Hano ver is loll—England is menaced with invafion—lre land is in rebellion—Europe is at the foot of France. At fuch a moment the Prince of Wales, yielding to none of your fervants in zeal and devotion—to none of your fubjeds in duty—to none of your children in tendernefs and affedion, prefumes to approach you, and again to repeat thole offers which he already made through your Majefty's Minifler. A feeling of honeft ambition ; a fettle of what I owe to myfelf and to my family ; and, above all, the fear of finking in the eftimation of that rgallant army, which may be the fupport of sour Majeßy's Crown and my belt hope hereafter, command me to perfevere, and to affure ybur Majelly, with all humility and refped, that, confcious of the julliee of my claim, no human power can ever induce me to relinquifh it. ' " Allow me to fay, Sir, that I am bound to adopt this line of conduit by every motive dear to me as a man, and (acted to me as a Prince. Ought I not to come forward in a moment of unexampled difficulty and danger ?Ought I not to (hare in the glory of vic tory, when I have every thing to lofe by defeat ? The high:ft places in Your Majelty's fervice are filled by the younger branches of the Royal Family ; to me alone no place is afligned. I am not thought wor. thy to be the Junior Major General of Your Army. —lf I could fubmit in hence to fuch indignities, I fltoold indeed deferve fuch treatment, and prove to the fatisfaCtion of your enemies, and my own, that I am entirc4y incapable of thole exertions, which my birth and the cir:umftances of the times peculiarly call for. Standing fo near the throne, when I am debafed, the caufe of royalty is wounded; I cannot fink in public opinion, without the partici. pation of Your Majelly in my degradation. There fore, every motive of private feeling, and of public duty, induce me to implore Your Majefly, to review your decifion, and to place me in that fituation, which my birth, the duties of my Ration, the exam ples of my predecellors, and the expedations of the people of England intitle me to claim. Should I be tfilappointed in the hope which I have formed, fhould this lift appeal to the juftice of my Sovereign, and the afieftion of my Father, fail of fuccefs, I (hall la ment in filent fubmillion his determination, but Eu rope, the world, and pofterity mull judge between its. I have done my duty ; my confcience acrpots me ; my realms tells me that I was petfedly jultified in the requeat v.hich I have made, became no realon sble arguments have ever been adduced in anfwer to my retentions. The precedents in billory arc in my favour, but if they were not, tae times in which we live, and efptrially the exigencies cf the prefent moment, terptoe o, to become an example to our iyaleitt y. other (Alice of relufal has or can be siligneci, etc( pc that it was Ilse will of Your Majefly. that will and pIeA,MC I bow wob every degree of humility and resignation ; but I can never ceafe In complain cf the lescrity which has I ..•ccig trercifccl again(} me, and of the injunice which T have fufrerecf, till I ceafe to exift. I have the honour to fubfcribe myfelf, with all riffible devotion, Your Majelly's moil dutiful and affeetionate Snn and Subje&, vßrighton, Aug. 6. (Signed) G . p.“ FROM THE KING. " MT DEAR SON, Windfor, 7th Anguß, 1803. " Though I applaud your zeal and your fpirit, of which. I ti ufl, no one can fuppofe any of my family wanting; yet confidering the repeated declarations I have made of my determination on your former ap plications to the fame put pole, I had flattered myfelf to have heard no farther on the (*ed. Should the implacable enemy In far fucceed as to Land, you will have an opportunity of (hewing your zeal ; t the head of your regiment. It will be the duty of every man to Rand forward on filch an occafion ; and I Mall certainly think it mine to let an example in defence of every thing that is dear to me and to my people. I ever remain, my dear Son, is Your moll affedionate Father, (Signed) 41 G. a• FROM THE PRINCE OF WALES TO THE ICING. Sin, Brighton, R2d Aug, ,Bc3. " I have delayed thus long in anfwer to the letter which your Majefty did me the honour to write, from a with to refer to a former eorrefpondence which took place between its in the year *798. Thole let ters were miflaid, and fume days elapfed before I could difcover them ; they have lance been found.— Allow me, then, Sir, to recal to your recolleEtion the expreffions you were gracioufly pleated to tile, and which I once before took the liberty of reminding you of, when I folicited foreign fervice upon my fill coming into the army. They were, Sir, that your Majefty did not then fee the opportunity for it ; but that if any thing was to arife at home, I ought to be firft and foremoft.' There cannot be a ftronger expreffion in the Engli(h language, or one more confonant to the feelings which animate my heart. In this I agree moll perfeely with your Majefty— " I ought to be frit and foremoil." It is the place which my birth afligns me—which Europe—which the Englith nation expel me to fill—and which the former affurances of your Maje ft y might naturally have led me to hope I ()mold occupy. After filch a declaration I could hardly expel to be told that my place was at the head of a regiment of Dragoons. " I underftand from your Majelly, that it is your intention, Sir, in purfuance of that noble example which you have ever !hewn during the courfe of your reign, to place yourfelf at the bead of the people of England. My next brother, the Duke of York, commands the army; the younger branches of my family are either Generals or Lieutenant Generals ; and I, who am the Prince of Wales, am to remain a Colonel of Dragoons. There is fomething fo humi liating in the contrail, that thole who are at a diftance woald either doubt the reality, or fuppofe that to be my fault which is only my misfortune. Who could imagine that I who am the °Weft Colonel in the fer vice, had afked for the rank of a General Officer in the Army of the King my father, and that it had been refufed me " I am lorry, much more than lorry, to be.obliged to break in upon your leifure, and to trefpafs thus a fecund time on the attention of your Majeßy. But I have, Sir, an intereft in my charader more valuable to me than the Throne, and dearer, far dearer, to me than life. lam called upon by that intereft to perfevere, and I pledge myfelf never to defift till I receive that farisfa&ion which the juftice of my claim leads me to ezped. In thefe unhappy times, the world, Sir, examines the conduit of Princes with a jealous, a fcrutinizing, a malignant eye. No man is more aware than I am of the exiftence of fuch a dif polition. and no man is therefore more determined to place himfelf above all fulpicion. In defiring to be placed in a forward lunation, I have performed one duty to the people of England ; I muft now perform another, and humbly fupplicate your Welty to af fign thole realons which have induced you to refute a requelt which appears to me and to the world fo rea fonable and fo rational. I mutt again repeat my concern that I am obliged to continue a correfpon dence which I fear is not fo grateful to your Majefty as I could with. I have examined my own heart—l am convinced of the juftice of my caufe—.-of the pu rity of my motives. Reafon and honour forbid me to yield : where no reafon is alledged I am juftified in the conclufion that none can be given. a In this candid expofition of the feelings which have agitated and depreffed my wounded mind, I hope no ezpreffion has efcaped me which can be con. limed to mean the Oighteft difrelped to your Majef ty. I molt fnlemnly difavow any fuch intention; but the circumftances of the times—the danger of invafion—the appeal which has been made to all your fubjetts, oblige me to recoiled what I owe to mine own honour and to my own character, and to Rate to your Majefty with plainnefs, truth, and candour, but with all the fubmillion of a fubjea, and the duty of an affeEtionate ton, the injuries under which I la• boor, and which it is in the power of your Majefly alone at one moment to redrefs. It is with fenti ments of the profoundeft veneration and raped that I have the honour to fubfcribe myfelf, a Your Majefty's molt dutiful, " Molt ob:dient Son and Subjed. a. p." " MT MAT 111011111, Bright" On. 2, tBO3. " By the lalt night's Gazette, which I have this moment received, I perceive that an extenfive pro motion has taken plate in the army. wherein my pre. tenfions are not noticed, a circumftanee which, what ever may have happened upon other occafions, it is impoffible for me to pals by, at this momentous cri- Its, without obfcrvition. " My (binding in the army, according to the moll ordinary routine of promotion, had it been fdlowed up, would have placed me either at the bottom of the lid of Generals, or at the head of the lid of Lieute nant-Generals. When the younger branches of my Family arc promoted to thelighellmilitary fituations, my birth, according to the didinetions ufually con ferred on ;t, fhould have placed me first on that lid. I hope you know me ton well, to imagine that idle inaftive rank is in my view; much leis, o the di reCtion and patronage of the military department an objeA which fobs my place in the date, or my incli nations; but, in a moment when the danger of the count' y is thought by Governinent fo urgent as to call forth the energy of every arm in its defence, I cannot hut feel myfelf degraded, both as a prince and a fol die', if lam net allowed to take a forward and didin guilLed part in 0; defence of that empil e and rrown, of the glory, prorperity, and even exiftence of that people, in all which mine is the greateßgake. "Tobe told I may difplay this zealfolely andfimply at the head of my Regiment, is a degrading mockery. " If that be the only fituation allotted me, I (hall certainly do my duty, as others will, but the confider. ations to which I have already alluded entitle me to expect, and bind me in every way to require, a fito. ation more correfpondent to the dignity of my own character and to the public epalittion. " It is for the fake of tendering Lily cervices in a way more formal and official than I have before purfued, that I addrefs this to you, my dear Brother, as the Commander in Chief, by whole counfels the Conflitti tion prefumes that the military department is admi. niftered. " If thole who have the honour to advife his Majef. ty on this occalion, foal! deem my pretentions, among thofe of all the Royal Family, to be the only ones ' fit to be rejected and difdained, I may at leaft hop(' as a debt of juftice and honour, to have it explained, that I am laid by in virtue of that judgment, and not in confequencs of any omiflion or want of energy ots my part. &c. &c. &e. (Signed) "c. r. w." " His Royal Higinicts e Duke ofl'oaK , &c. " MARKET BOOT UZI, " Hark Guards, Oa. 6, 1603. " Nothing but an extraordinary prefs of banters would have prevented me from acknowledging fooner your letter of the zd initant, which I received while at Oatlands on Monday evening. " I trult that you are too well acquainted with my affeaion for you, which has exiled fime our molt tender years, not to be aired of the fatisfaaion I ever have felt, and ever mull feel in forwarding when in my power every defire or objet of yours; and therefore will believe how much I mull regret the impoillbility there is, upon the prefent occafion, of my executing your wifhes of laying the reprefentation contained in your letter before his Majefty. " Suffer me, my deareß Brother, as the only an fwer that I can properly give you, to recal to your memory what pallid upon the fame fubjea loon after his Majefty was gracioufly pleaded to place me at the head of the army ; and I have no doubt that, with your ufual candour, you will yourfelf fee the abfolute necefrity of my declining it. • 44 In the year 1795, upon a general promotion taking place, at your instance I delivered a letter from you to his Majefty, urging your pretenfions to pro motion in the army ; to which his Majeßy was pleated to anfwer, that before ever he had appointed you to the command cd-the toth Light Dragoons, be hat caufed it to be fully explained to you what his fend- menu were with refpea to a Prince of Wales enter. • ing into the arm', and the public'grounds upon which he never could admit of your confidering it as a pro feffion, or of your being promoted in the fervice.— - And his Majefty, at the fame time, added hi: poftine command: and injunaker to me, never to mention this fubjea again to him, and to decline being the bearer • of any application of the fame nature should it be propofed to me ; which meffage I was of comic under, the neeeffity of delivering to you, and have conftandy made it the rule of my conduit ever fine, and indeed I have ever confidered it as one of the greateft proofs: of affeetion and confederation towards me, on the part of his Majelly, that he never allowed me to become a parry in this bufinefs. 44 Having thus Rated to you, fairly and candidly, what has paired. I mull truft you will fee that them can b.: no ground for the apprehenfion exprefred In the latter part of your letter, that any fur can attach to your chandler as an officer—particularly as I recol led your mentioning to me yourfelf, on the day on which you received the notification of your appoint ment to the loth Light Dragoons, the explanation and condition attached to it by his Majelly ; and therefore Purely you met be fatisfied that your not being ad. vanced in military rank proceeds entirely from his Majefty's fentiments refpe9ing the high rank you hold iit the State, and not from any impreifion un favourable to you. " Believe me ever, with the greatell truth, 44 Deareft Brother, 44 Your molt affeaionate Brother, (Signed) 44 vasosatcc." 4 . Ni, Royal Highneft the PRINCE Of WALIS. "MT DRAR IROT RIR, " Brigittaa, Oaaber 9, MI. „I have taken two days to confider the contents of your letter of the 6th Want, in order to be as ac curate as panic in my anfwer, which mull account to you for its being longer perhaps than I intended, or I could have wiffied. " I confide entirely in the perfonal kiadnefs and affection expreffed in your letter, and am, for that reafon, the more unwilling to trouble you again on a painful fubjea, in which you are not free to aB, as your inclination I am fore leads you. But, as it is not at all improbable, that every part of this tranf aftion may be publicly canvaffed hereafter, it is of the utmost importance to my honour, without which I can have no happinefs, that my conduit in it (ball be fairly reprefented, and carry:Hy underflood. When I made a tender of my fervices to his Majefty's Mi. Miters, it was with a ;oft and natural txpeaation, that my offer would have been accepted, in the way in which alone it could have been moll beneficial to my country, or creditable to myfelf : or, if that failed, that at lean. (in juilice to me) the relifons for a refufal would have been diflinaly Rated ; fo that the nation might be fatisfied, that nothing had been omitted on is t e part, and enabled to judge of the va lidity of the ri.afons affigned for (itch refuraL In the fiat inftance. I was referred to his Majefty's will and pleafure ; and now lam informed by letter, that before 44 He had appointed me to of the moth Light Dragoons, He had i fully explained to me, what his fentimi refpea to a Prince of Vales entering inn " It is impollible, my dear Brother, know all that paired between the Kit% I perfealy recollea the Ratement yin converfation you had with his Majel ftrialy cot refponds with that in your lei me. But, I muff, at the fame time, memory my pofitive denial at that doll dition or Ripulation having been made, coming into the army ; and I am in ; and complete documents, which prove whatever ere then propofed, at lea ever might have been the intention ' munications I have found it necefrary make, have ever difclaimed the exilic! conapoomile at any period, as nothing :merle to my nature, or more remote " As to the ronverfation you quoti the Wm it , 1, i• ez .: VA' e li. .1 IT) it acni neve Cr)rr 7113 y the you of a only cow fou , par t 0 l pet Cm thu wh 2RI Mb Clil 113 .7 0 be in 7in by your letter, „, o the command 1 ,4 caufed it to be ns, tents were with into the Army." i t :r, that 1 Ilsould fec ig and you; burr %tn. ou made of en ay, and whit th, letter now War pli recal to you fib me, of any con an le, upon my fir ha polka - ion of fu oc me that na term ta. al to me, wha C , 1; an d the con y fubfrquen••ly t is (Fence of fuch or g could be m as I from my min. Lc in 19 5 ("!'` MEM