Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/173

Rh the misery to which a people are doomed who have shown me every mark of gratitude and affection, and the ultimate danger to which the convulsions in Ireland will expose the British Empire, are a severe alloy to my prospects of future enjoyment.'

On the 25th of May Lord Hardwicke had arrived at Dublin and succeeded Cornwallis. On the 28th Cornwallis was at Holyhead. On the 30th he writes from Shrewsbury that the roads and the weather were so bad that he cannot think of attempting to perform the journey between that town and London in two days. His Irish administration had been to him a sore trial. His return to England was a release and not a triumph. He had expressed a wish to retire from his situation, and the Ministry had taken him at his word. Still followed by correspondents in Ireland who claimed the fulfilment of alleged promises and worried for recommendations to Lord Hardwicke, Cornwallis was glad to get to Culford and to enjoy the society of his son, his daughter-in-law, and their two children. Here his time was taken up with letters about Indian taxation, which he says was loosely mentioned in Minutes and papers written at the time of the Permanent Settlement. 'It (the imposition of other taxes) must be exercised with great prudence and discretion, and must not be left to the capricious will of the Governor. It has the disadvantage of novelty, which is a very serious one in a country so bigoted to old habits.' His repose was soon dis-