endation, than that I should endeavour to
take any steps for inducing the King to withdraw his
interference in favour of a man for whom he felt personally
interested, and whom he had acquainted with his intentions in
his favour. It was very doubtful whether any endeavours of this
sort, from whatever quarter they came, could be successful after
he was so far engaged; and he could not fail to consider the
attempt in the most ungracious light, both with respect to you
and to every other person engaged in it. Add to this, that I did
not then know that you had any object in it, beyond the common
course of army patronage. With respect to what you mention of
the aggravation arising from the preference given in this
instance over your own nephew, and of its being publicly known
in Dublin that Colonel Nugent's name, and your wishes in his
behalf, had been previously stated to the King, I can positively
assure you that neither Pitt nor myself, nor even Fitzherbert,
as he has expressly told me, had any knowledge of your intention
to recommend Colonel Nugent till several days after this
transaction passed. Under these circumstances, I cannot still
help thinking that I acted right in not taking such steps as
must involve you, whether you wished or not, in a personal
contest of this nature with the King.

In the point which I did labour, I have failed; but from what
reason, or from what fatality, I am utterly at a loss to
conceive. It is certainly true that, both in the commission and
in the instructions to the Lord-Lieutenant, all military
promotions are expressly reserved to the King, and that they do
not fall in the line either of those offices which the
Lord-Lieutenant himself disposes of, or of those on which the
King declares his intention of waiting for the Lord-Lieutenant's
recommendation. But the practice and the understanding certainly
is, and it is so recognised in Lord Sydney's letter, that the
Lord-Lieutenant should recommend to all commissions below the
rank of Colonel. It is on this ground that I thought, and
continue to think, that the King's _wishes_ only ought to have
been intimated to you, and that your recommendation ought to
have preceded the appointment. I understood Fitzherbert, at the
time, that he had been assured by Lord Sydney that the thing
should be done