The life and letters of George William Frederick, fourth earl of Clarendon, K.G., G.C.B.

  • Maxwell, Herbert, Sir, 1845-1937.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life and letters of George William Frederick, fourth earl of Clarendon, K.G., G.C.B. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.

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    Right Hon. J. C. Villiers, M.P.,to Charles Bagot, M.P} Lisbon, 9^^ April 1809.—If we can but raise a sufficient army, everything will succeed ; but the situation is critical beyond imagination ; general statements of it, such as a dispatch admits of, give no adequate idea or picture, however true and well founded. Worse than Corunna on the one hand, and the com- plete Hberation and disposal of the Peninsula on the other— depend upon our having such an army from England as we may have almost immediately, aided by Portuguese, whose numbers and conduct depend only upon how many we can arm and how far we can officer them with British officers. . . . It is my decided opinion that Wellesley would almost double any reinforcement. To enforce his views, Villiers sent home his private secretary, Colonel Bayley, to lay them before Castlereagh and Canning. His choice of an emissary does not seem to have been felicitous. Right Hon. George Canning to the same. 2Qth May 1809.—Have you written to ViUiers upon his pre- posterous conduct in sending this young gentleman over here as a hving despatch ? I am satisfied that if I were to lay this communication before the King I should receive orders to recall him instantly. How far you can venture to hint to the Great V. this view of the subject, you can judge. But I begin to feel my letter was not plain enough, for this letter of Col. B.'s exceeds in impertinence anything I ever read. Villiers resigned his appointment in 1810. In January 1791 he had married Maria Eleanor, second daughter and co-heir of Admiral the Hon. John Forbes (brother of the fourth Earl of Granard) by his wife Lady Mary Capel, fourth daughter of William, third Earl of Essex. Succeeding his brother as third Earl of Clarendon in 1824, he died on 22nd December 1838, leaving no issue, his only child, Lady Mary Harriet, having died unmarried in 1835. The Hon. George William Villiers, third son of the first Earl of Clarendon, was born on 23rd November 1759, and married on 17th April 1798 Maria Theresa,* only daughter ^ Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.