t. I
have only to add, that I have well considered the alternative to
which I may be driven, and must again remind your Lordship, that
in no contingency do I consider myself responsible for any one
of the consequences which may be the result of the public
inattention to this Government, under which this high and
important office has been left unfilled from the formation of
the new Government till the 24th ult., and under which the same
interregnum is, in your Lordship's despatch of that date, held
out for six weeks longer.

And I am the more particularly anxious for this answer, from the
heartfelt concern with which I wait for the notification of His
Majesty's sense of those assurances of attachment and dutiful
respect, which makes me solicitous that no part of my conduct
may be liable to misconstruction: to his wisdom I submit those
considerations, which touch so nearly the interests of this
kingdom, and to his justice, with all humility, those which are
personal to myself.

I have the honour to be,
N. T.

While this letter was on its way to London, it was crossed by Lord
North's answer to the despatch of the 24th, containing, in detail, the
defence of the Government on the numerous points pressed upon their
attention by the Lord-Lieutenant.

LORD NORTH TO LORD TEMPLE.

Whitehall, May 5th, 1733.

My Lord,

The anxiety which your Excellency felt in writing your letter of
the 24th of last month, cannot, I will venture to affirm,
possibly exceed my surprise at receiving it. Having, during the
very little time that I have been in office, made it my object
to return the most speedy answers to all your Excellency's
letters, and having had the good fortune in every instance to
convey the most favourable return all to your Excellency's
wishes and commands, you may well suppose that I must have been
much struck at reading your complaints of ill-treatment,
indelicacy, or something (whatever it may be) that deserves a
harsher name. If, in the course of my life, it had not been
frequently my lot to see very great offence taken upon very
slight causes, the terms of your Excellency's letter would have
given me more uneasiness. But, upon a calm and dispassionate
review of your complaints, and of the conduct of His Majesty's
servants, I can, by no means, either in their