ice, Lord Temple expected full justice
would be done to him. That he did not receive it, however, and that his
proud and sensitive temper resented the neglect, will be evident from
the following letter, which closes the correspondence for the year.

LORD TEMPLE TO MR. PITT.

Stowe, Dec. 29th, Half-past One.

Dear Sir,

I am sorry that you should have had the trouble of acknowledging
at so late a period a letter which was indeed very interesting
to me, but to which I have not even expected any answer for the
last eight weeks; and I perfectly agree with you, "that it would
be of little use to enter in[to] particulars" respecting the
considerations so immediately affecting my credit, a[nd?]
honour, which we certainly view so differently. If any
communication had been wished for from me upon these points,
upon which it was known by Mr. Grenville and by you that I was
not indifferent, I should have thought it my duty of friendship
to have stated my reasons for being confident that the new Irish
arrangements cannot be useful, upon the same principles as have
been thought (by you) sufficient to bury former distinctions of
party in this country: I have already stated to you my reasons
for considering the recal of Mr. Ponsonby and of his friends to
power and confidence in Ireland as a most dangerous measure, and
as a departure from a system to which His Majesty's Government
was pledged, not only with your approbation, but with your
strong and decided opinion. I have likewise stated the reasons
why I consider such a measure, unaccompanied with any mark to me
of the King's approbation of my conduct, as the strongest
disavowal of my Government in Ireland, and (not to use harsh
expressions) as the most personal offence to me. In that point
of view I know that it has been almost universally considered in
Ireland; because the natural intemperance of those to whom I
feel myself sacrificed has not been controlled by any proof of
the interest which it had been supposed you would have felt
naturally in whatever so nearly concerned me. And with these
impressions, I felt strongly the kindness of my brother, Mr.
Grenville, who endeavoured to calm those feelings, and to
suggest various marks of favour (if you should approve them)
which did not appear to him precluded by any difficulties of
whi