Duke should be
Prime Minister. This so offended Canning, believing that it was a
measure of the party and done with the Duke's consent, that he
resolved not to utter a word to the Duke on the subject, and so
ended the hopes of their agreement.

It does not appear, however, as if anything could have been done,
for Canning was bent upon being Prime Minister; and I asked
Arbuthnot to what the Duke would have consented, and he said,
'Not to that,' that after the transaction with the Whigs he could
not have felt sufficient confidence in Canning to agree to his
being Prime Minister. (If he distrusted Canning he ought to have
refused to act with him at all, not merely objected to his being
Prime Minister, but the ground of his objection was shifted.)
Originally the King could not bear Canning, and he was only
persuaded by the Duke to take him into the Cabinet. Afterwards he
was so offended at the influence he acquired there, and
particularly with that which he had got over the mind of Lord
Liverpool, that he one day sent for Arbuthnot and desired him to
tell Lord Liverpool that he could not endure to see Canning make
a puppet of him, and he would rather he was Prime Minister at
once than have all the power without the name by governing him
(Lord Liverpool) as he pleased, and that unless he could shake
off this influence he was determined not to let him continue at
the head of the Government, and, moreover, he must find some
means of getting rid of Canning altogether. This Arbuthnot wrote
to Lord Liverpool, who wrote an answer couched in terms of
indignation, saying he by no means coveted his situation, that he
was sure his colleagues would resent any indignity offered to
him, and that the King had better take care what he was about,
and not, by producing disunion in the Government, incur the risk
of making the end of his reign as disastrous as the beginning of
it had been prosperous.

Not very long after Canning got into favour, and in this
way:--Harriet Wilson at the time of her connexion with Lord
Ponsonby got hold of some of Lady Conyingham's letters to him,
and she wrote to Ponsonby, threatening, unless he gave her a
large sum, to come to England and publish everything she could.
This produced dismay among all the parties, and they wanted to
get Ponsonby away and to silence the woman. In this dilemma
Knighton advised the King to have recourse to Canning, who saw
the opening to favour, jumped at it, and instantly offe