68] ANNUAL REGISTER, I8I2. 



lords disclaim personal animosity, 

 he would not contradict them in 

 an unparliamentary way ; but he 

 thought he had sufficiently proved 

 that he did not deserve the rebuke 

 he had experienced. 



Lord Harrowby tlien, in justifi- 

 cation of the feelings of himself and 

 his friends, referred to a statement 

 which appeared in the newspapers, 

 after they had offered to form an 

 ndministration with the marquis, in 

 which he accused his late col- 

 leagues in the cabinet of incapacity 

 to originate any measures for the 

 welfare of the country, and assert- 

 ed that for the whole of the two 

 years in which he had been ia 

 office, perpetual differences of opi- 

 nion had existed between him and 

 the other members of the cabinet. 



Lord VVellesley expressly denied 

 having been a party to that publi- 

 cation, which had given him the 

 most sensible uneasiness. He then 

 went on to other explanations, 

 which as merely personal, it 

 would be useless to particularize. 

 They concluded with a solemn de- 

 claration that he knew nothing of 

 the publication alluded to till l.e 

 eaw it in a newspaper. 



Earl Grey then took part in the 

 discussion, in order to explain to 

 the house the grounds upon which 

 himself and his noble friend had 

 declined being inchided in the pro- 

 posed uew administration. After 

 mentioning their conviction that, 

 in the cabinet, the principles and 

 measures to which they were 

 pledged would have been decidedly 

 over-ruled, he said, that in his in- 

 tercourse with the noble marquis 

 and his noble friend (Lord Moira) 

 he had discovered nothing but an 

 earnest desire to conciliate, and 

 tiiat he was persuaded they were 

 not themselves aware of the secret 



management of which they were 

 the instruments 



This insinuation called up Lord 

 Moira ; who was much offended 

 with being told that he was a dupe 

 in the negociation. He asserted 

 that there was not the slightest 

 reservation on the most insignifi- 

 cant point ; that the powers given 

 to him were complete and ample, 

 and whenever limitttd, tiiey were 

 so only by his own sense of what 

 was due to the public ; and he 

 called upon the noble earl for a 

 more satisfactory explanation of 

 his meaning. 



Earl Grey, in reply, said that he 

 had constantly remarked an un- 

 willingness to come to the point, 

 not on the part of tiie noble 

 eail or maiquls, but on the part of 

 the individual who was to give 

 effect to the negociation conducted 

 by them. AN'hat was the history 

 of these transactions.'' The noble 

 marquis in the first instance made 

 the jiroposal to them which he 

 had staled to the House. Was 

 their answer to be termed a 

 rejection .'' For a whole week 

 they had no communication with 

 him, and the next intimation 

 they received from him was that 

 his commission was suspended. 

 That interval was em])loyed, not 

 to introduce them into the coun- 

 cils of the Prince, but to attempt to 

 connect the noble marquis with 

 some noble lords on the other side 

 of the House to their exclusion. 

 The next step was a renewal of 

 the proposition with full powers, 

 though the noble marquis had pre- 

 viously in vain solicited authority 

 to explain what he imagined to 

 have been misconceived. Lord 

 Moira tlien, with the frankness 

 which characterizes him, com- 

 menced his negociation, and was 



met 



