n, and points out the only paths that could be opened to
an honourable and creditable accommodation.

LORD GRENVILLE TO MR. THOMAS GRENVILLE.

Dover Street, Oct. 24th, 1794.
MY DEAREST BROTHER,

Since I wrote my last letter I have received yours, written the day
of your leaving Vienna, and I calculate that this will probably
find you at the Hague. Our situation, with respect to the point on
which I wrote to you so much at large, has been a little, and but a
little, improved by a conversation between the Duke of P. and Pitt.
Nothing having since passed, we conclude that there is a desire to
wait for the benefit of your opinion and Lord Spencer's upon this
difficult and distressing subject--a desire in which I need not say
we most heartily concur.

As far as anything can be concluded from a conversation which did
not lead to any decisive issue, I hope that we have been too easily
alarmed by Irish reports on the subject of a _new system_, and
that, probably in the imagination of those who have first given
rise to those reports, some loose and general expressions have been
construed into pointed and specific assurances. Be this however as
it may, it is certain that infinite mischief has already been done
by the prevalence of those reports, and both the settlement of the
points in discussion here, and the subsequent task of the future
Governor of Ireland, whoever he may be, have been rendered much
more difficult than they would have been if more reserve and
caution had been used. It is, however, useless to regret what is
past, and all our endeavours ought to be applied to remedy the
present evil. I most anxiously wait for the moment of talking over
with you the means of doing this, which I am confident every one
concerned joins in wishing, though all are obliged to confess the
difficulty of it.

Three points are to be considered--Has Lord F. still kept himself
sufficiently open with respect to his engagements with Grattan and
the Ponsonbys, as to be able to undertake the Irish Government with
honour and satisfaction to himself, without displacing the old
tenants of Government to make room for their opponents, and without
giving to the Ponsonbys in particular more influence and power than
belongs to their situation as one among several of the grea