guage is the
more extraordinary, because the opinion of the world in general,
I might say of almost every man in London, is directly the
reverse. Either, therefore, Lord Shelburne is (not a dissembler,
but) the most abandoned and direct liar upon the face of the
earth, or he is deceived himself, too grossly to be imagined, or
the whole world besides is deceived. Which of these is the case,
time will show, and that only; but I cannot bring myself to
imagine that the first is. That he wishes you should believe him
secure, I can easily imagine, and that he wishes it very
strongly; but that he should therefore be induced to pledge
himself to so direct a falsehood, which he must know it was my
business to repeat to you, and yours to act upon, and which the
event of a few weeks must demonstrate to be false if it is so,
exceeds my utmost power of belief. That the Duke of Richmond
thinks as Lord Shelburne has expressed himself to me, is, I
apprehend, most probable, from the very strong compliments he
paid him and the flattering language he held to him in the House
of Lords on Friday. But this is mere conjecture. What is
certain, on the other hand, is that the explanation given by him
in the House of Lords of the American treaty does not tally with
that of Pitt, Townshend and Conway in the House of Commons, to
which nevertheless the three last have positively pledged their
faith and honour, that the Cabinet has been postponed because
Lord Shelburne was afraid to meet them, and that the report of
the day is that Lord Shelburne was outvoted there upon the
question of Gibraltar.

After we had gone over a great deal of conversation on these
subjects for above an hour and a half, he said that we seemed to
agree about all the points on which we had touched. I then
mentioned the two main objects--the Dissolution, and the Bill of
Satisfaction. To the dissolution, he said he imagined no
difficulty would be made to-day in the Cabinet which was to be
held; as to the other point, he saw much more objection. It cut
up the principle on which our stand had been made. People were
not ripe in England to go into the whole question again. The
moment a bill of that sort was proposed in the House of Commons,
every man would have to give his opinion on the effect of the
repeal, on the legal question