1819 July 9

To Erskine

ult o

Lett. 7. Whigs AntiReformists

§.2. 1. Desire impossible

1

This Volunteer association – this Convention which was the head and fruit of it – this approved and irreproachable bond of union, peace, good will good morals and good government which had continued such during an uninterrupted course of no fewer than five years – wherefore was he this Earl this seat-holder /was he/ so anxious, so determined, and even by such methods, to annihilate it? In the determination by which he is thus designated, behold the answer /cause/. Must it be particularized? is it not already sufficiently manifest /visible/? But if any such there be, there is surely a case in which if from the indication of the cause any thing can be done, it must be made so plain that he who runs may read it: and of those whose situation forced them to run past it, how few are they, who during the run would not rather fall flat and prostrate {to the ground} rather than not keep their eyes closed against it as they passed.

Yes My Lord, in the eyes of that seat-holding Member of the House of Lords – of that Member of the House of Lords called the House of Lords who to one seat in that House of Lords added two seats in that other House of Lords called the House of Commons, the value of the mass of private and particular interest so composed was so much greater than that of his share in the universal interest, that treachery such as has been seen was not too great a price to pay for the difference between the two values

Such, by the report of his panegyrist was the Earl of Charlemont: and not to speak of other senses /meanings/ in every sense that has any bearing upon this subject, among the best of your noble army of Whigs where will you find my Lord, than this Earl of Charlemont? In one sense the first, in another sense he was the last of the Whigs of Ireland. “Whiggism” says M r Wakefield (Ireland II. 319) is a subject (now A o 1812) never agitated in the course of a canvas: it expired with the late Lord Charlemont.