t every man to defer
something to his own. Nothing is more notorious than that I have the
misfortune of thinking that no one capital measure relative to political
arrangements, and still less that a new military plan for the defence of
either kingdom in this arduous war, has been taken upon any other
principle than such as must conduct us to inevitable ruin.

In the state of my mind, so discordant with the tone of ministers, and
still more discordant with the tone of opposition, you may judge what
degree of weight I am likely to have with either of the parties who
divide this kingdom,--even though I were endowed with strength of body,
or were possessed of any active situation in the government, which might
give success to my endeavors. But the fact is, since the day of my
unspeakable calamity, except in the attentions of a very few old and
compassionate friends, I am totally out of all social intercourse. My
health has gone down very rapidly; and I have been brought hither with
very faint hopes of life, and enfeebled to such a degree as those who
had known me some time ago could scarcely think credible. Since I came
hither, my sufferings have been greatly aggravated, and my little
strength still further reduced; so that, though I am told the symptoms
of my disorder begin to carry a more favorable aspect, I pass the far
larger part of the twenty-four hours, indeed almost the whole, either in
my bed or lying upon the couch from which I dictate this. Had you been
apprised of this circumstance, you could not have expected anything, as
you seem to do, from my active exertions. I could do nothing, if I was
still stronger, not even _si meus adforet Hector_.

There is no hope for the body of the people of Ireland, as long as those
who are in power with you shall make it the great object of their policy
to propagate an opinion on this side of the water that the mass of their
countrymen are not to be trusted by their government, and that the only
hold which England has upon Ireland consists in preserving a certain
very small number of gentlemen in full possession of a monopoly of that
kingdom. This system has disgusted many others besides Catholics and
Dissenters.

As to those who on your side are in the opposition to government, they
are composed of persons several of whom I love and revere. They have
been irritated by a treatment too much for the ordinary patience of
mankind to bear into the adoption of schemes which, however