ulties of a real _bona fide_
junction appear insuperable, and in anything short of that,
duplicity and dishonesty might give them advantages which,
though we should not certainly envy, yet we might have much
cause to lament. There is, however, one circumstance arising
from the present state of things which, if that should continue,
will, I think, afford a clear and distinct line for us to
follow. The King's illness being such as it is now described to
be, it is not only possible, but much the most probable event,
that he will at some period be restored to the use of his
reason, either permanently, or during intervals of considerable
length. Under this impression, it seems impossible for us for a
moment to entertain proposals which might involve us in
contradictory obligations, and our acceptance of which might be
not only injurious to the King's feelings, which we are so much
bound to consult, but even prejudicial to the state of his mind.
Suppose him to awake out of the sort of dream, in which he now
is, and to find that Pitt had, by his own consent and his own
act, brought into his Government those very men whom he was
pledged to him to keep at a distance from it; suppose the King's
aversion and dislike to those men, so justly founded as it is,
to remain in full force and vigour. What then is Pitt to do? Is
he to separate himself from people whom he has joined on the
promise of mutual good faith and confidence, or is he to abandon
the King in the very point to which he has pledged him, and on
which he has always received from him a full and unequivocal
support? Besides the difficulties in which Pitt would thus find
himself involved, must not the very idea of such a situation
striking the King's imagination at the first moments of his
recovery, and agitating him in the same manner as these very
situations have done before, drive him back into his former
state, and render all further hopes of recovery desperate and
impossible?

This consideration I think unanswerable, and have no doubt that
it will continue to be so felt. In the case, therefore, of a
Regency, all proposals of junction will instantly be negatived
as inconsistent with our duty to the King. In the case of a
demise, which there is to-day more reason to think probable than
there has been for several days pa