upon, and
without taking any notice of the necessity of the previous
arrangement for Lord W. This led to intercourse upon the subject,
and it is only since that time that we have found ourselves
apprized of all the difficulties of the subject, and of the extent
of the misunderstanding which prevails respecting it.

It appears that Lord F. has (on whatever grounds) announced to his
friends in Ireland his immediate destination for that country, in
such a manner as makes him now think that his appointment cannot
even be postponed without discredit to himself, and that he cannot
any longer continue in the King's service in any other situation
than that of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

If this difficulty stood alone, it would be sufficiently great. The
principle on which Pitt had always acted in forming this junction,
and the justification which he has used to those of his friends who
disapproved or doubted about the measure, was, that he sacrificed
to it the situation of none of the former Government, or its
supporters; but that he used such openings as presented themselves,
and such as he could create without removals, for the purpose of
bringing into the public service a large and respectable
description of persons, actuated by the same view as himself of the
present state and circumstances of the country. Yet it hardly seems
possible that, without breaking in upon this principle, Lord F.
could now be appointed. I am, however, persuaded that if this had
been the only difficulty, some expedient would have been found to
remove it, though it is not easy to say what that expedient could
have been. But certainly for such an object as the maintenance of a
system on which the fate of the country seems so much to rest,
great sacrifices would and ought to have been made.

But it now appears that the reports which had reached us were in a
very great degree, if not indeed wholly, founded in the real truth
of what had happened. There is, I fear, no reason to doubt that
some of the very expressions I have mentioned have actually been
used, and that Lord F. has pledged himself too far to recede, with
respect to a total new system, both of men and measures. The first
point of this system goes to no less than the dismission of the
Chancellor, who was, as I und