STATE PAPERS. 



331 



port, and aided by a vigorous and 

 united administration, formed on 

 the most liberal basis, I shall look 

 with additional confidence to a 

 prosperous issue of the most ardu- 

 ous contest in which Great Britain 

 was ever engaged. You are autho- 

 rised to communicate these senti- 

 ments to Lord Grey, who, I have 

 no doubt, will make them known 

 to Lord Grenville. 



1 am always, dearest Frederick 

 your affectionate brother. 



(Signed) George P. R. 



Carllon-house, Feb. 13, 1812. 



P.S. I shall send a copy of this 

 letter immediately to Mr. Perceval. 



Letter from Lords Grey and 

 Grenville. 



February 15, 1812. 



Sir, — Webeg leave most humbly 

 to express to your Royal Highness 

 our dutiful acknowledjyments for 

 the gracious and condescendmg 

 manner in which you have had the 

 goodness to communicate to us the 

 letter of his Royal Highness the 

 Prince Regent on the subject of 

 the arrangements to be now made 

 for the future administration of the 

 public affairs ; and we take the 

 liberty of availing ourselves of your 

 gracious permission to address to 

 your Royal Highness in this form 

 what has occurred to us in conse- 

 quence of that communication. 



The Prince Regent, after ex- 

 pressing to your Royal Highness in 

 that letter his i-eiitiments on various 

 public matters, has, in the con- 

 cluding par;igraph, condescended 

 to intimate his wish that " some 

 of those persons with whom the 

 early habits of his public life were 

 formed would strengthen his Royal 

 Highness's hands, and constitute a 

 part of his govtrnmeut :" and his 



Royal Highness is pleased to add, 

 " that with such support, aided by 

 a vigorous and united administra- 

 tion, formed on the most liberal 

 basis, he would look with addi- 

 tional confidence to a prosperous 

 issue of the most arduous contest 

 in which Great Britain has ever 

 been engaged." 



On the other parts of his Royal 

 Highness's letter we do not presume 

 to offer any observations ; but on 

 the concluding paragraph, in so far 

 as we may venture to suppose our- 

 selves included in the gracious wish 

 which it expresses, we owe it, in 

 obedience and duty to his Royal 

 Highness, to explain ourselves with 

 frankness and sincerity. 



We beg leave most earnestly to 

 assure his Royal Highness, that no 

 sacrifices, except those of honour 

 and duty, could appear to us too 

 great to be made, for the purpose 

 of healing the divisions of our 

 country, and uniting both its go- 

 vernment and its people. All per- 

 sonal exclusion we entirely dis- 

 claim : we rest on public measures ; 

 and it is on this sround alone that 

 we must express, without reserve, 

 the impossibility of our uniting 

 with the present government. Our 

 differences of opinion are too many 

 and too important to admit of such 

 an union. His Royal Highness 

 will, we are confident, do us the 

 justice to remember, that we have 

 twice already acted on this impres- 

 sion ; in 1809, on the proposition 

 then made to us under his Majesty's 

 authority ; and last year, when his 

 Roj'al Highness was pleased to re- 

 quire our advice respecting the for- 

 mation of a new government. The 

 reasons which wethen humbly sub- 

 mitted to him are strengthened by 

 the increasing dangers of the 

 times ; nor has there, down to this 



moment, 



