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have relation to the ordinary situation of the country, and not to a case so completely out of all contemplation at that time, as the probable or projected invasion of this kingdom by a foreign force sufficient to bring its safety into question. When the king is pleased to tell me, "that, should the enemy land, he shall think it his duty to set an example in defence of the country;" that is, to expose the only life which, for the public welfare, ought not to be hazarded, I respect and admire the principles which dictate that resolution; and as my heart glows with the same sentiments, I wish to partake in the same danger, that is, with dignity and effect. Whenever his majesty appears as king, he acts and commands; you are commander in chief; others of my family are high in military station; and even by the last brevet a considerable number of junior officers are put over me. In all these arrangements the prince of Wales alone, whose interest in the event yields to none but that of the king, is disregarded, omitted; his services rejected: so that, in fact, he has no post or station whatsoever, in a contest on which the fate of the crown and the kingdom may depend.

I do not, my dear brother, wonder, that, in the hurry of your present occupation, these considerations should have been overlooked. They are now in your view, and I think cannot fail to make a due impression.

As to the rest, with every degree of esteem possible for your judgement of what is due to a soldier's honour, I must be the guardian of mine to the utmost of my power, &c. &c. (Signed) G. P.

His Royal Highness the
Duke of York.

Horse Guards, Oct. 11.

My Dear Brother,

I have this moment, upon my arrival in town, found your letter, and lose no time in answering that part of it which appears to me highly necessary should be clearly understood.

Indeed, my dear brother, you must give me leave to repeat to you, that, upon the fullest consideration, I perfectly recollect your having yourself told me at Carltonhouse, in the year 1793, on the day on which you was informed of his majesty's having acquiesced in your request of being appointed to the command of the 10th regiment of light dragoons, of which sir William Pitt was then colonel, the message and condition which was delivered to you from his majesty; and which his majesty repeated to me, in the year 1795, as mentioned in my letter of Thursday last. And I have the fullest reason to know, that there are others, to whom, at that time, you mentioned the same circumstance; nor have I the least recollection of your having denied it to me, when I delivered to you the king's answer; as I should certainly have felt it incumbent upon me to recal to your memory what you had told me yourself in the year 1793.

No conversation whatever passed between us, as you justly remark, in the year 1796, when sir William Pitt was promoted to the king's dragoon guards, which was done in consequence of what was arranged in 1795, upon your first appointment to the 10th light dragoons; and I conceive, that your mentioning in your letter my having stated a conversation to have passed between us in 1798, must have arisen from some misapprehension, as I

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do not find that year ever adverted to in my letter.

I have thought it due to us both, my dear brother, thus fully to reply to those parts of your letter in which you appear to have mistaken mine; but, as I am totally unac quainted with the correspondence which has taken place upon this subject, I must decline entering any further into it.

I remain ever, my dear Brother, with the greatest truth, Your most affectionate Brother, (Signed) FREDERICK.

certainly knew it, as you well knew in 1795, and possibly before.-We were then engaged in war, therefore I could not think of resigning my regiment, if under other circumstances I had been disposed to do so; but, in truth, my rank in the nation made military rank, in ordinary times, a matter of little consequence, except to my own private feelings. This sentiment I conveyed to you in my letter of the second, saying expressly that mere idle inactive rank was in no sort my object; but upon the prospect of an emergency, when the king was to take the field, and the spirit of every Briton was roused to exerBrighton, Oct. 22, 1803. tion, the place which I occupy in the nation made it indispensable to My Dear Brother, demand a post correspondent to that place, and to the public expectation. This sentiment I have the happiness to be assured, in a letter on this occasion, made a strong impression upon the mind, and com"manded the respect and admiration of one very high in government.

His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales.

By my replying to your letter of the 6th instant, which contained no sort of answer to mine of the second, we have fallen into a very frivolous altercation upon a topic which is quite foreign to the present purpose. Indeed, the whole importance of it lies in a seeming contradiction in the statement of a fact, which is unpleasant even upon the idlest occasion.

I meant to assert, that no previous condition to forego all pretensions to ulterior rank, under any circumstances, had been imposed upon me, or even submitted to me, in any shape whatsoever, on my first coming into the service; and with as much confidence as can be used in maintaining a negative, I repeat that assertion.

When I first became acquainted with his majesty's purpose to withhold from me further advancement, it is impossible to recollect; but that it was so early as the year 1793, I do not remember; and, if your expressions were less positive, Í should add, nor believe: but I

The only purpose of this letter, my dear brother, is to explain, since that is necessary, that my former ones meant not to give you the trouble of interceding as my advocate for mere rank in the army. Urging further my other more important claims upon government, would be vainly addressed to any person, who can really think that a former refusal of mere rank, under circumstances so widely different, or the most express waving of such pretensions, if that had been the case, furnishes the slightest colour for the answer I have received to the tenders I have now made of my services.

Your department, my dear brother, was meant, if I must repeat it, simply as a channel to convey that tender to government, and to ob

tain either their attention to it, or
an open avowal of their refusal, &c.
(Signed) G.P.

To His Royal Highness the
Duke of York.

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be reduced to the necessity of further explanation on the subject which it was my earnest wish to have closed, and which was of so clear and distinct a nature, as, in my humble judgement, to have pre

Horse Guards, Oct. 13. cluded the possibility of either, doubt or misunderstanding. Dear Brother, I have received your letter this morning, and am sorry to find that you think that I have misconceived the meaning of your first letter, the whole tenor of which, and the military promotion which gave rise to it, led me naturally to suppose your desire was, that I should ap. ply to his majesty, in my official capacity, to give you military rank, to which might be attached the idea of subsequent command.

That I found myself under the necessity of declining, in obedience to his majesty's pointed orders, as I explained to you in my letter of the 16th instant. But, from your letter of to day, I am to understand that your object is not military rank, but that a post should be allotted to you, upon the present emergency, suitable to your situation in the state. This I conceive to be purely a political consideration, and as such totally out of my department; and as I have most carefully avoided, at all times, and under all circumstances, ever interfering in any political points, I must hope that you will not call upon me to deviate from the principles by which I have been invariably governed.

Believe me, my dear Brother,
Your most affectionate Brother,
(Signed) FREDERICK.
His Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales.

Carlton-House, Oct. 14.

My Dear Brother,

Surely there must some strange fatality obscure my language in statement, or leave me somewhat deficient in the powers of explanation, when it can lead your mind, my dear brother, to such a palpable misconstruction (for far be it from me to fancy it wilful) of my meaning, as to suppose for a moment I had unconnected my object with efficient military rank, and transferred it entirely to the view of a to tell me "my object is not milipolitical station, when you venture be allotted to me, upon the present tary rank, but that a post should ation in the state."-Upon what emergency, suitable to my situ ground you can hazard such an assertion, or upon what principles you can draw such an inference, I am utterly at a loss to determine; for I defy the most skilful logician, in torturing the English lan guage, to apply with fairness such a construction to any word or phrase of mine, contained in any

one of the letters I have ever written on this, to me, most interesting subject.

I call upon you to re-peruse the: correspondence. In my letter of the 2d instant, I told you unequivo cally that I hoped you knew me too well to imagine that idle inactive rank was in my view; and that sentiment, I beg you carefully to observe, I have in no instance whatever for one single moment relinquished or departed from.

Giving, as I did, all the consiIt cannot but be painful to me to derations of my heart to the deli

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cacy and difficulties of your situation, nothing could have been more repugnant to my thoughts, or to my disposition, than to have imposed upon you, my dear brother, either in your capacity as commander-in-chief, or in the near relationship which subsists between us, the task, much less the expectation, of causing you to risk any displeasure from his majesty, by disobeying in any degree his commands, although they were even to militate against myself. But with the impulse of my feelings towards you, and quickly conceiving what friendship and affection may be capable of, I did not, I own, think it entirely impossible that you might, considering the magnitude and importance which the object carries with it, have officially advanced my wishes, as a matter of propriety, to military rank and subsequent command, through his majesty's ministers, for that direct purpose; especially when the honour of my character and my future fame in life were so deeply involved in the consideration. For, I must here emphatically again repeat, "that idle inactive rank was never in my view; and that military rank, with its consequent command, was NEVER out of it.".

Feeling how useless, as well as ungracious, controversy is, upon every occasion, and knowing how fatally it operates on human friendship, I must entreat that our correspondence on this subject shall cease here; for nothing could be more distressing to me, than to prolong a topic, on which it is now clear to me, my dear brother, that you and I can never agree, &c. &c. (Signed) G. P.

His Royal Highness the
Duke of York.

Copy of a Letter from the Right Hon. Henry Addington.

Dated Richmond Park, Oct. 23,1803.

SIR,

In consequence of some intelligence which has reached me, I am impelled by a sense of duty to your royal highness, and to the public, to express an earnest and anxious hope that you may be induced to postpone your return to Brighton until I shall have had an opportu nity of making further inquiries, and of stating the result of them to your royal highness.

I have the honour to be, with the utmost deference and respect, Sir, Your Royal Highness's faithful

And most humble Servant, (Signed) HENRY ADDINGTON. The Prince of Wales.

SIR,

ANSWER.

Carlton-House, Oct. 24. By your grounding your letter to me upon intelligence which has just reached you, I apprehend that you allude to information which leads you to expect some immediate attempt from the enemy. My wish to accommodate myself to any thing which you represent as material to the public service, would of course make me desirous to comply with your request; but if there be reason to imagine that invasion will take place directly, I am bound by the king's precise order, and by that honest zeal which is not allowed any fitter sphere for its action, to hasten instantly to my regiment. If I learn that my construction of the word intelligence be right, I must deem it neces sary to repair to Brighton immediately, &c. &c.

G. P.

(Signed) Right Hon, Henry Addington. OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL NOTICES AND CIRCULAR LETTERS. Official Notice to Officers on HalfPay.

War-Office, 12th March, 1803. All officers on the half-pay of the land forces, resident in Great Britain and Ireland, who are not serving in the militia, or who do not hold offices under government, are hereby required immediately to transmit to the inspecting field officers of the recruiting districts, within which they respectively reside, an account in writing of their age, past services, and present place of abode, in order that their services may be called for as circumstances shall render it expedient and such as think themselves, from age or infirmities, unfit for further service, even in this country, are to accompany their reports with sufficient vouchers of their inability, and the causes thereof. Such officers on half-pay as are serving in the militia, or are otherwise employed under government (officers of the yeomanry and volunteer corps excepted, whose reports are to be made to the inspecting field officers of districts as above-mentioned), are to transmit similar accounts to the secretary at war, specifying also the nature of the public situations which they possess.

The inspecting field officers of districts will make returns to the secretary at war of the names of the officers who shall report themselves in pursuance of the above notice. And every officer who shall neglect to make his report, either to a district field officer, or to the secretary at war, according to the circumstances of his situation, within one month from the

date hereof, will be considered as otherwise provided for, or dead; and his name will be struck off the half-pay dist accordingly. By his majesty's command, C. YORKE.

Downing-street, March, 1803.
My Lord,

I have the honour to transmit to

your lordship herewith his majes ty's warrant, directing your lordship to draw out and embody the militia of the county of

; and I have received his majesty's commands to desire that your lordship will take the necessary steps for carrying this measure into execution with the least pos sible delay.

I am further to desire that your lordship will cause the earliest communication of the day and place which may be appointed for the assembling of the militia of the county of to be made to the secretary at war, in order that directions may be given for the issue of the pay of the men, and that such other arrangements may be made, on this occasion, as more immediately belong to his department.

I conclude that the intimation conveyed in the secretary of war's circular letter of the 6th of November last, to the several commanding officers of militia, respecting the arms and accoutrements for the different corps, has been duly attended to; but, in case the number necessary for the militia should be incomplete, immediate application must be made to the board of ordnance for the quantity of arms, and to the war office respecting the accoutrements that are still deficient.

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