518 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



spect to his memory, or prejudice 

 to his fame. 



I have the honour to be, 



My lord, ' 

 Your lordship's most obe- 

 dient humble servant, 

 George Canning. 

 • • 



To the Earl of Camden, &;€. 8(C. 



My Lord — The statement, which 

 has been published in the newspa- 

 pers, in your lordship's name, has 

 decided a question on which I had 

 before been hesitating as to the ne- 

 cessity of an authentic detail of the 

 transactions (so far as 1 am con- 

 cerned in them or am acquainted 

 Vrfith them) to which that statement 

 refers. 



For that purpose, I think a di- 

 rect address to your lordship more 

 decorous, both towards your lord- 

 ship and for myself than an anony- 

 mous paragraph in a newspaper. 



It is with the most painful reluct- 

 ance that I recur to a subject which, 

 so far as it concerns lord Castle- 

 reagh and myself had been settled, 

 in a manner, which is usually, I be- 

 lieve, considered as final. 



Discussions of the causes of dis- 

 pute more commonly precede, than 

 follow, the extreme appeal to which 

 lord Castlereagii resorted : And 

 when, after mature consideration, 

 his lordship had determined to re- 

 sort to that appeal in the first in- 

 stance, I should have thought that 

 such a choice, deliberately made, 

 would have been felt by his friends 

 to be equally conclusive upon them 

 as upon himself. 



But your lordship needs not to be 

 informed, how assiduously ray cha- 

 racter has been assailed by writers 

 in the newspapers, espousing lord 



" See pages 



Castlereagh's quarrel, and supposed 

 (I trust, most injuriously) to be his 

 lordship's particular friends. 



The perversions and misrepre- 

 sentations of anonymous writers, 

 however, would not have extorted 

 from me any reply. But to them 

 succeeded the publication of lord 

 Castlereagh's letter to me of the 

 19th of September.* 



I entirely disbelieve that lord 

 Castlereagh, and I distinctly deny 

 that I myself had any knowledge of 

 this publication. 



But, by what means it matters 

 not, the letter is before the world ; 

 and though the course originally 

 chosen by lord Castlereagh pre- 

 cluded me from offering any ex- 

 planation to him, the course which 

 has since been adopted on his be- 

 half (though undoubtedly without 

 hisprivity)might perhaps have been 

 considered as rendering such an 

 explanation due to myself. It is, 

 however, only since your lordship's 

 publication that I have felt it to be 

 indispensably necessary. 



The statement on my behalf, 

 which has also found its way (with- 

 out my consent and against my 

 wish) into the public papers, was 

 written under a sense of delicacy 

 and restraint, as to the particulars 

 of the transaction, which from the 

 character of the transaction itself, 

 must always continue to prevail in a 

 great degree; but from which, un- 

 til Wednesday, the 11th of October, 

 the day on which I gave up the 

 seals, 1 had not an opportunity of 

 soliciting any dispensation. 



Of the indulgence which I then 

 mosthumbly solicited, I trust I shall 

 be able to avail myself sufficiently 

 for my own vindication, without lo- 

 sing 

 62 and 563. 



