I should have immediately answered it.

I am very sensible of the candour with which you have declared
your intentions of supporting me, and of your exertions to
induce Counsellor Curran to act with you in that line of
conduct. The offer of the seat, on his part, is handsome; as is
likewise your refusal of it.

I am much honoured by the confidence which you have shown me on
this occasion, and have the honour to be,

Sir,
Your very obedient and faithful humble servant,
N.B.

Richard Longfield, Esq.

The arrangement for the establishment of Arthur Wellesley as one of the
aide-de-camps to Lord Buckingham, alluded to in a recent letter from
Lord Mornington, suffered an interruption on the threshold from a
proposal made by Sir George Yonge, then Secretary at War, for reducing
the gentlemen holding those appointments to half-pay. Lord Mornington,
who was still in England, resented the proposal indignantly, and brought
the affair under the notice of the Lord-Lieutenant. He writes on the 8th
of January,

Sir George Yonge had retreated into Devonshire before I received
your letter; but I have ventured to disturb his retirement by an
epistle of four sides of paper, to which I could not yet have
received an answer. I cannot conceive what he can mean by this
man[oe]uvre, because I cannot see any advantage to him in the
reduction of any, or of all your aide-de-camps to half-pay; and
I am clearly of opinion, that there is no argument which can be
drawn in favour of the reduction of any, which will not equally
apply to all. I do not exactly understand, by the papers which I
received from you, what was the nature of his proposal with
respect to the 9th and 10th companies. I have threatened, that
my brother shall join his regiment in India. This business is
now very unfortunate to Arthur, as his men are now all raised,
and he has concluded an agreement for an exchange, which only
waits the mighty fiat of the Secretary at War. I fear he must
wait for the decision of that great character; for I think under
the present circumstances he cannot safely leave England.
However, I hope the Secretary will deign to temper his grandeur
with a little common sense in the course of a few days, and then
I will consign your aide-de-camp to you by the first mail-coach.

Lord Mornington, however, had no necessity t