o something of this sort, in the
_improbable event_ of a continuation of the war. If that should
have been his aim, I have at least the consolation to reflect
that I made none but a _very_ general answer to that part of his
conversation to which I allude, and which I stated to you at
length in a former letter.

At the same time, I must freely own that I have been duped upon
the subject of peace; not so much by their assurances, strong as
those have been, and often as they have been repeated, as by the
opinion which I then held, and which I have not much altered
now, that a peace was absolutely necessary to their system of
government. However, be all this as it may, I think you are in a
situation to _voir venir_, and to rest upon your oars in full
confidence that you are now completely master of your own
ground, whether you are to be left to carry on the Government of
Ireland upon those principles on which you have begun it, and on
which alone we know it can be carried on with success, or
whether the system is to be altered, and committed, of course,
to other hands; in which there is no doubt but that the
ill-success and confusion that must follow will justify your
predictions to such a degree, and place your character in such a
light, as would almost make it an event to be wished for by you,
if it was not so fatal to the interests of both countries.

And this brings me to another point, in which I am very happy to
feel myself justified and confirmed by your instructions in that
line of conduct which I had fully resolved to adopt. I mean the
holding out the most peremptory refusal to making either you or
myself at all a party to postponing the business beyond the
21st, except in the single instance of their having some
proposition to bring forward then, about their negotiations, of
such a nature as to make the reason obvious to the mind of every
man in Ireland, as well as in England. In such a case I will
acquiesce, because I think I cannot in decency avoid it, under
the delay of one day only. In every other case which can be
supposed, I will claim a right to state to the House that the
delay is neither consented to by you, nor arises from you; but
is in your idea most pernicious. Surely, my own character and
honour, as well as your's, demand this from me.

I am sick