.
Pitt would certainly not hear of it, after his second peremptory
refusal of the Treasury; T. Pitt as certainly not, after his
refusal, for the second time, together with the comment afforded
by a very long conversation which I had with him yesterday
morning upon the subject; Jemmy has not health, and still less
spirits, for so very arduous an undertaking; and as for myself,
even if equal in other respects, which I very unaffectedly know
I am not, still I am much too young, and too little versed in
the navigation of that tempestuous sea, to venture out in such a
hurricane as this. Indeed, upon the whole, I think the King
seemed more to wish that you should know he had entertained, and
been inclined to the idea, than to desire to press it upon you,
at a moment when it appears so very impracticable.

I said nothing in my last letter upon the subject which you
mentioned to me respecting yourself, as I had no opportunity of
dropping any hint of it to the King, when I saw him to deliver
your letter. To-night, I certainly had that opportunity, and
would as certainly have made use of it, but that I was never
certain, till the last moment of the conversation, whether it
would have ended by desiring me to state the offer to you as one
now actually made, or as one wished to have been so if
circumstances had allowed it. If it had been the former, a much
better field would have been opened for the application: as it
is, I will certainly throw out the idea, if I can find any
opportunity of doing it when he delivers me his answer to you.

I shall be impatient to hear your observations upon this
interesting conversation. I certainly did not mean to take upon
me to answer on your behalf in the negative, nor do I think I
was so understood; but the objection which I started, in order
that I might learn if any solution could be found, appeared to
him, having no such solution to offer, as it does to me, seeing
none such which can be offered, totally and absolutely
insurmountable.

In the meantime, the idea of his resolution not to give way, has
most seriously alarmed me. I wish I may prove a false prophet,
but I solemnly protest to God that I am afraid of the most fatal
consequences. In a week's time, there will not be in the
Treasury a farthing of money to defray the ordinary and curr