8 THE INFLUENCE OF GRENVILLE ON PITT’S FOREIGN POLICY. 
Pitt in the determination to make no compromise with the opposition 
and was particularly efficient in influencing his brother, Buckingham, 
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to conduct affairs there in such a man¬ 
ner as not to embarrass the English ministry.* The occupancy of the 
speakership was brief, for on June 5, 1789, Addington became Speaker, 
while Grenville took up the position and duties of Secretary of State 
for the Home Department.f He was now a full-fledged member of the 
Cabinet, with an important department of public business within his 
own personal control, yet Pitt still found occasion to use him in con¬ 
nection with foreign complications. In the Nootka Sound controversy 
with Spain it was Grenville who corresponded directly with Eden, now 
become Baron Auckland, who was the English minister at The Hague, 
with the view to obtaining information from the Dutch as to the readi¬ 
ness of Spain and France for war and to securing Dutch assistance 
under the terms of the Triple Alliance. J 
Grenville’s intimate knowledge of details of foreign policy and the 
great degree of confidence reposed in him are brought out even more 
clearly in connection with another episode relating to this controversy 
with Spain. France was bound by the Family Compact to support 
Spain if war took place. In order to prevent such support Pitt, using 
Italian diplomacy not customary with him, sent Hugh Elliot and Miles 
to propose secretly to Mirabeau an alliance with England. This nego¬ 
tiation was kept entirely out of the Foreign Office. Miles’s share in it 
apparently was not known either by Lord Gower, the English ambas¬ 
sador at Paris, or by the members of the Cabinet in England. All 
documents relating to it, whether in the letters of Elliot, Miles, or Pitt, 
were suppressed, and the sole source of information in regard to it is in 
the later statements of the persons interested. It is certain that Pitt 
merely used Elliot and Miles to avert French interference, and that 
Miles at least was ignorant that Pitt was not in earnest in the proposals 
* Buckingham was opposed to summoning the Irish Parliament for January, 1789, 
but yielded to Grenville’s advice, and later recalled a letter of resignation which 
Grenville, urging a reconsideration, had withheld. Dropmore, I, 411 ff. Gren¬ 
ville also influenced Buckingham to refuse to transmit to England the address 
of the Irish Parliament requesting the Prince of Wales to assume the regency of 
Ireland. Bernard to Grenville, Feb. 21, 1789. Ibid ., 417. 
t Grenville succeeded Sydney in the Home Department. The change had been 
decided on a year previous, but had been delayed by circumstances connected with 
Buckingham’s control of the county represented by Grenville in Parliament. Gren¬ 
ville’s letter of acceptance at this time exhibits him as still in a subordinate posi¬ 
tion : “In being allowed to look forward to this object at the beginning of the next 
session, I feel I am placed much beyond what I had any right or pretension to look 
to ; and that in the interim I shall only be desirous to give any assistance which 
may be in my power, on every occasion on which it can be of service.” Grenville 
to Pitt, June 11, 1788. Ibid., 335. 
t Auckland to Grenville, May 15 and June 8, 1790. Ibid., 585, 588. 
