was yet sufficiently secure to admit of
my accepting the offer made to me consistently with my good wishes
for him. Mr. Dundas then informed me, that he knew the intention of
the Directors was to propose the pension to the Court of
Proprietors in May; and he added, that if at that time the pension
should fail in either court, he would himself move it in
Parliament, and charge it upon the revenues of Ceylon, or take some
other effectual means of securing it. He also said, that there
would be no objection to calling Lord Hobart to the House of Peers
within a very short time, probably even before Lord Cornwallis's
departure.

Here again I must observe, that Mr. Dundas offers a personal
pledge in favour of Lord Hobart, which neither you nor I, nor any
of Lord Hobart's friends ever had required, and which we could not
on any fair grounds have demanded. When Mr. Dundas had thus stated
to me the situation of Lord Hobart in terms so perfectly
satisfactory, and affording such undeniable proofs of his sincere
wish to serve him under all possible contingencies, I entered into
a variety of points relating to my own views (which I will state to
you when we meet); and the conversation ended without my final
acceptance of the proposal made to me. In a day or two afterwards I
saw Mr. Sullivan, and communicated to him what had passed between
me and Mr. Dundas relative to Lord Hobart. I had then the
satisfaction to learn from Mr. Sullivan, that he also had seen Mr.
Dundas, from whom he had received the very same assurances, which
Mr. Dundas had given to me in relation to Lord Hobart's pension and
peerage; and Mr. Sullivan further stated, that Mr. Dundas had
desired that those assurances might be communicated to Lord
Guilford. I then asked Mr. Sullivan whether, under all the
circumstances of the case, he thought that my acceptance of the
Government of Madras, with the reversion of the Government-General
after Lord Cornwallis, could be in any degree injurious to Lord
Hobart's interest or honour? Mr. Sullivan answered, certainly it
could not; and added, that he and Lord Guilford were now perfectly
satisfied with the footing on which Mr. Dundas had placed the
credit and welfare of Lord Hobart.

Having seen Lord Cornwallis, and at length made up my mind to
un