d unquestionably
be highly flattering to me, at my time of life, and in my rank,
&c. The patronage annexed to it is so considerable as to be a
real object, in a political point of view, to any person engaged
in a public line of life, where the acquisition of friends is
always an important point. Add to this, the opportunity of
distinguishing oneself in a department entirely separate from
all others, and the temptation is certainly very great. But I
feel two material, and as they now strike me, insuperable
objections. First, I think it is not prudent for a person who
has already been put forward beyond what many people think his
pretensions entitle him to, and who has still much way to make
for himself, to incur the risk of shocking and revolting the
feelings of almost every one, but those who are most partial to
him, by accepting a situation for which he must be thought so
little qualified, and which will be judged so much above his
rank, either in point of general situation in the country, or
with respect to any official situation in which he has yet been
engaged. Besides this, I am unwilling--after having been
endeavouring for four or five years to qualify myself, in some
degree, for almost any other line of public service--that my
first ostensible _debut_ should be in one where I should have
the first A B C to learn.

It is on these grounds that I have discouraged the idea when
Pitt threw it out to me, and I think they have had weight with
him. I have no doubt, that as far as respects my own interest
only, they are well founded; and that it will be infinitely more
advantageous to me to go on as I now am, waiting for such events
as may happen to open to me other objects, which I could accept
with less hazard. The same considerations operate, also, with a
view to the general interests of the system of Government in
which I am embarked. If I could essentially serve that, even at
a greater personal hazard than this, I should certainly feel
myself bound to do it. But the very same circumstances which
would make my appointment hurtful to my own character in the
present moment, would make it prejudicial to the general credit
of Pitt's Government; and the consequences of any failure would
hardly be more injurious to myself, personally, than to the
Administration of which I