seen
him, though the post is just going out.

The visit to Brighton relates, I believe, wholly to the Civil List,
on which the country gentlemen are to make their next serious
attack. I do not agree with you in your wish that the Government
should break up upon so very unpopular a question as that of the
Admiralty. I myself look at the minority on the salt tax with more
apprehension and concern than the majority on the Admiralty.

Ever yours,

C. W. W.

THE RIGHT HON. THOS. GRENVILLE TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

March 4, 1822.

MY DEAR DUKE,

The country gentlemen have so much deserted the Ministers in the
Admiralty questions, that it is not a propitious moment to ask
favours, while so much ill-humour mutually prevails. A great many
of these country gentlemen being sulky and discontented because the
price of corn will not sustain the rise they had made in their
rents, vent their spleen by opposing and thwarting the Government;
and some who were steady anti-reformers have suffered themselves to
be gulled by Cobbett into attributing the pressure of their rents
to an inadequate representation in Parliament, though it has no
more to do with their rents than with those of the Cham of Tartary.
Yet these blockheads all profess that they do not wish to change
the Government, though they are doing all that they can to
annihilate them. The danger is a pretty serious one, for, with the
connexion that Opposition holds with the Radicals, and the daily
pledges they give to the tenets of these people, it is probable
that the extensive changes that would immediately take place, would
have very much the effect of an entire revolution in the government
of the country. At sixty-seven this is less interesting to me than
it is to you and to your son, for whose sake I heartily wish I may
see this with exaggerated alarm.

Most affectionately yours,

T. G.

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

London, March 6, 1822.

MY DEAR DUKE,

Your letter of the 3rd followed me into Hampshire, from whence I
returned this day; and I assure you that I am much flattered by
your confidence.

You are quite right; the country gentlemen treat the Government
exceedingly ill. What I complain of is not the votes of individuals
upon the salt tax or the Lords of