therefore certainly have no desire to
stay, and, I should think, would very probably desire to quit at
the close of this session, if the dread of foreign invasion is at
that time not very urgent.

But if it is, what officer have we to oppose to the domestic and
external enemies whom we should in such case have to meet? In a
situation requiring above all others the mixture of civil and
military talents, to a degree that the Duke of Marlborough scarce
possessed them, and for which we must provide by sending some old
woman in a red riband that has not a grain of either.

You see it is easy enough to start difficulties, but I do not think
myself quite so ready at expedients as I wish I was. This is, I
believe, a case where nothing is to be done just now, but to remain
quite steady, announcing an unalterable purpose of carrying this
great measure, and a fixed persuasion that we must succeed in it.
And as to all the rest, if Paddy will set fire to his own house, we
must try to put it out if we can, and if we cannot, we must keep
the engine ready to play upon our own.

I rejoice that you took the determination, both of not speaking or
attending this question in the Irish House of Lords, and of giving
your proxy to the Chancellor, which was at once showing him a mark
of attention and confidence, which he well deserves, and
manifesting your own sentiments in the only way at all consistent
with your situation. A little more than two months will now close
your pilgrimage, from which you will return with the satisfaction
of having done a great deal of good, though not quite all that you
might have done if others had done their part.

God bless you.

You will see in to-day's papers the fate of the poor King of
Naples. The infatuation of the Emperor is like nothing but that of
an Irish Orangeman.

Towards the end of January, Mr. Thomas Grenville again left England on
his mission; but his second departure proved even more unfortunate and
disastrous than the first. The vessel in which he had sailed was
supposed to have made the Elbe, and to have been lost in the ice. The
distressing tidings, or rather the terrible apprehensions caused by the
absence of any authentic or reliable intelligence, were immediately
forwarded to Lord Buckingham. For several days this state of dreadful
sus