y receive that letter even before this, as I think I
shall avail myself of Bernard's offer to be the carrier of it. I
have written this in the same free and unreserved manner in
which I am happy to think our correspondence has ever been
carried on; I am not, however, without uneasiness as to the
impression which it may make on your mind. I feel the
peculiarity of my situation, and the possibility of your
thinking that I am biassed by my own personal objects, to lay
less stress upon points affecting your honour than I should
otherwise do. I have, however, relied on your entertaining a
more favourable opinion of me. If I do not grossly flatter
myself, I am capable of forming an opinion unbiassed by the
considerations to which I allude; especially on points where my
own honour, or that which I value as dearly as my own, is
concerned. I have examined my own heart, and can say, with
confidence, that it is not from personal motives that I speak,
when I say that you lay upon these points a degree of weight far
beyond what they deserve. If you were in a situation of
inferiority or dependance, a watchful attention to everything of
this sort would be necessary, and therefore commendable;
because, without that, you could not preserve the degree of
respect and consideration which is essential to carrying on the
duties of your office. In your actual situation, it is surely
not doing justice to yourself to talk of being disgraced by such
circumstances as these, or to imagine that your consequence can
be lessened or impaired by them. With respect to the thing
itself, I believe that it never happened to the most absolute
Minister that ever governed this country to feel it in his power
to exclude all personal interference from the Crown in the
nomination to offices. I am sure it is not a matter of policy to
any Minister to wish it; and a very little reflection will
convince you that such at least is not the system of the present
Government, or of the present times. How, then, are you
disgraced, because a single instance of this nature occurs
within what are understood to be the limits of your patronage?
But you will say this may be repeated, and I shall lose the
means of carrying on the Government. My answer is, that you will
act in Ireland as you would act here in any of the situations of