w of no one fact,
opinion, or conjecture, that could be of the least use to you, or
could even satisfy your curiosity, that I have not regularly
communicated to you as it arose.

You seem to have mistaken some expression in one of my letters, and
to have understood that the proposition itself relating to the
Regency was to have been brought forward on Thursday last. You will
since have seen, that the preliminary steps require so much time,
that it must still be Monday, or more probably Wednesday next,
before anything can be moved. But you say that you have received no
communication of the extent or wording of that plan, so as to
consider its legal or political effect towards Ireland. On this, I
can only say, that long before the outlines of that plan were
finally settled, even, I believe, in Mr. Pitt's mind, certainly
long before they were at all agreed upon by the Cabinet, I
communicated them to you distinctly, and at length. There has since
been no variation in these. With respect to the precise wording of
the plan, I do not know that this is yet decided upon; nor do I
suppose it can be so, till within a few hours of its being moved.
But as to any legal effect which it can have upon Ireland, I have
certainly failed in what I intended to do, if I have not stated to
you a clear opinion, that no measure taken in Parliament here can
possibly affect Ireland any otherwise than as a precedent, which
every Irishman must think himself bound to follow, who does not
wish to separate the two countries. It surely could not be your
wish, nor would it be desirable, to attempt to pledge any Irishman
one step beyond that general proposition, that whatever is done by
the authority of the British Parliament as to England, must be done
in Ireland by the authority of the Irish Parliament; but that the
latter will grossly betray the interests of their own country, if
they do not adopt the English measure, whatever that may ultimately
be. I trust that we shall be able to carry the measure here, such
as I stated to you long ago, some time before your Parliament
meets; but if it should fail, and any different form be
established, I hope we should be the last men in the two countries
to wish to disunite them on this ground.

I cannot but repeat, that the expressions