the honour to write to your Lordship
about the 20th or 25th of September, thanking you for your
letter of the 20th of July, and telling you (what I can say with
truth) that I prize it more than all my other possessions upon
earth. I did not know, when I wrote that letter, that it would
be opened and read, else I should have declared my sentiments
more freely; but as I am almost certain that this one will be
opened, I shall be more full.

Know all men, therefore, by these presents, openers of letters,
and others, that I am more attached to your Lordship than to
all the rest of the world; not because you gave me a place of
L400 a year at the Barrack Board, but because I think you
have more sense, honour, and firmness, than all the Viceroys I
have ever seen in Ireland put together.

A month elapsed before Lord Temple answered this letter, unwilling to
trust his reply to the post, and waiting all that time for an
opportunity to send it by a "safe hand." His explanation of the delay
furnishes additional proof of the inquisition to which his
correspondence was exposed.

I should long since (he observes) have acknowledged your very
kind letter to me, if I had not delayed it partly with the
inclination of sending you an answer by a safe hand, and partly
from the exceeding anxious state of public business, which has
wholly engrossed my attention. It appears from your state[ment]
of the letters which you have received, that one, written about
the beginning of October, never reached you.

That Lord Temple's letters should have been secretly inspected by a
hostile Administration is intelligible, if we can admit such a
proceeding to be consistent with the honour of public men or
reconcilable with the obligations of the public service; but it is
impossible to comprehend upon what ground of expediency or from what
motives of jealousy or distrust, so flagrant a breach of confidence was
committed towards him by the subordinates (for it is difficult to
believe it could have been officially sanctioned by Ministers
themselves) of a Cabinet under which he held so responsible a situation
as that of the Vice-royalty of Ireland. The fact, nevertheless, admits
of no doubt, and throws a strong light on the sinister means which were
adopted in those days for the "management" of the executive.

The share which Lord Temple took in public affairs after his r