[239] He was placed in confinement by the French, into whose hands he had fallen, and at the same time a valuable collection of antiquities which he was about to despatch to England was confiscated. [240] On January 22 a message was presented to both Houses of Parliament from the King suggesting that their immediate attention should be directed to measures for obtaining a closer and more satisfactory connection between the kingdoms of England and Ireland. A few days after, a proposal for a Union was laid before the Irish Parliament, but was rejected, Pitt, in the debate in the House of Commons on the 31st, stated that he thought it proper to unfold his proposed scheme, though he was fully aware that there was no chance of its adoption unless the Irish Parliament were willing to alter their present views. [241] On January 22. ‘The banner of party is furled, but it is not beaten down. I trust that it will again be displayed and that it will assemble round it the steady friends to true liberty, hostile alike to despotic rule, and to wild innovation.’ [242] James Hare (1749–1804), son of an apothecary at Winchester, and grandson of Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester. He was brought up at Eton and Oxford, and there became intimately acquainted with Charles James Fox and many others of the Whig circle. He married, in 1774, Hannah, only daughter and heiress of Sir Abraham Hume. He sat in Parliament for many years, but only once addressed the House. He was sent as Minister-Plenipotentiary to Poland, 1779–82. [243] Hon. William Lamb (1779–1848), afterwards Prime Minister, son of Peniston, first Viscount Melbourne, whom he succeeded in the titles in 1819. [244] Imitations in verse of two satires of Juvenal, which were entitled _Secession_ and _The Yeoman_. The subject of the latter, which was addressed to Lord Wycombe, was the excesses of the military in Ireland. [245] Lord Minto mentions him in Paris, in a letter dated 1793. ‘Fish Crawfurd, with whom Madame du Deffand, being blind, was in love, was of the party the other day’ (_Life and Letters of Sir G. Elliot_). [246] The Right Hon. Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), second son of George Grenville and brother of Lord Grenville. He was sent on an embassy to Berlin in order to persuade the King to join England against the French. He left Yarmouth on January 29 in the _Proserpine_ frigate, but in attempting to ascend the Elbe the ill-fated vessel was driven ashore. Abandoning the ship the passengers and crew escaped across the ice to Cuxhaven with only the clothes in which they stood. An interesting account of their hardships is given in the _Annual Register_ for 1846. The delay proved fatal to the object of Mr. Grenville’s mission, for Sieyès arrived in time to persuade Frederick William to remain neutral. [247] By Madame de la Fayette. [248] François le Vaillant (1753–1824), author of _Voyage dans l’intérieur de l’Afrique par le Cap de Bonne Espérance_, and _Second Voyage_, &c.