said that as the preliminaries
were expected soon, it would come with better grace then. But,
continued he, if we wait till then, I am afraid it may not come
at all. To this I answered, that this was exactly my idea, but
in the meantime, was it not fit you should know on what ground
you stood? He said so; and (he went on) see where we should be
in that case. The Lord-Lieutenant would not stay an hour. Here
he stopped, as waiting my answer. I immediately said, most
certainly not. And then the person who succeeds him will be to
wait on you. You know better than I do the situation of things
and men. Tell me to whom I am to apply. To the Duke of
Portland's people?--to the old Court and Lord Shannon?--to Hood
and his set? I went on a good deal more in the same strain, and
ended with saying that he could not be astonished, or even at
all surprised, that every day should increase your impatience.
This was to prepare him for your peremptory despatch, which, if
my subsequent letters have not stopped, I shall now most
certainly deliver. He told me that on Wednesday he should see
most of his colleagues, and he should then hope to have some
answer to give me.

I threw out one idea to him, which I said proceeded entirely
from myself: and therefore, if he mentioned it at all, it should
be as a thing to be proposed to you, and not as one coming from
you. It was that, as it would probably be thought right that the
matter should be discussed in a Committee of the whole House as
a foundation for bringing in the Bill, such terms might be used
in the resolutions of that Committee as should obviate the
difficulty which was made upon the idea of the preamble's
referring to past rights. I then mentioned in general words my
idea for those resolutions, but did not give them to him in
writing. I have since reduced them to writing, and enclose them
to you for your ideas upon them. I mean to-morrow to read them
to Townshend, in order to explain my idea fully, but not to
leave them with him. The first resolution is copied almost
verbatim from the addresses. If you turn to them, you will see
what I have omitted, and that I have inserted nothing but what I
thought absolutely necessary, in order not to clog the
resolution, and render it thereby less perspicuous.

Pray let me have your ideas on this