* * * * *

Believe me, my dear Lord,
Sincerely and affectionately yours,
W. PITT.

Lord Buckingham, acting on the discretion thus confided to him, resolved
to decline accepting or transmitting the Address. This determination,
which threw the whole responsibility of the measure upon those with whom
it originated, afforded the highest satisfaction in England. Letters
from Lord Mornington, Lord Sydney, and others, abound in admiration of
the firmness of Lord Buckingham's conduct.

As had been anticipated, the Address was voted in both Houses of
Parliament, and laid before Lord Buckingham for transmission to His
Royal Highness. His Lordship at once declined to receive it; and in a
short and explicit answer, rested his refusal on the obligations imposed
upon him by his duty and his oath, adding that he did not feel warranted
in forwarding to His Royal Highness an Address, purporting to invest him
with powers to take upon him the government of the realm before he
should be enabled by law to do so. This answer, which had received the
full approbation of Mr. Pitt, by whom it had been communicated to the
Cabinet, was, as might have been expected, deeply resented by the
Opposition, whose hostility to the Government had been all along
assuming that shape of combination in which it now appeared without
disguise.

Frustrated in their desire of transmitting this Address through the
channel of the Lord-Lieutenant, they passed a resolution appointing
ambassadors of their own to lay it before His Royal Highness. The
persons nominated to undertake this extraordinary commission were, the
Duke of Leinster, the Earl of Charlemont, Mr. Conolly, Mr. O'Neill, Mr.
Ponsonby, and Mr. Stewart. Nor did they stop here. It was necessary to
avenge the indignity that had been put upon them; and a resolution,
declaring the conduct of Lord Buckingham unwarrantable and
unconstitutional, was accordingly moved by Mr. Grattan, and carried.
That a resolution still stronger than this, going to the preposterous
length of declaring the commission of the Lord-Lieutenant actually void
by the will of the Irish Parliament, was at one moment contemplated,
would appear from a passage in a letter of Mr. Grenville's, dated the
18th of February.

I am a little alarmed by one part of your letter, in which you talk
of a resolution of the two Houses being passed for avoiding your
commission, and of you