528 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



or in mine ; and that no decision 

 whatever had yet been taken upon 

 this representation. 



With respect to this communica- 

 tion, it does not appear that the 

 restriction upon your lordship was 

 absolute and indefinite. — But I 

 knew nothing of its existence. 



Subsequently to the 8th of June, 

 the communication to be made to 

 lord Castlereagh was, that an ar- 

 rangement was in contemplation 

 for a new distribution of the busi- 

 ness of the war department. 



With respect to this communica- 

 tion, not only was the restriction 

 upon your lordship not indefinitely 

 continued ; but your lordship actu- 

 ally received on the 28th of June 

 an injunction to make this commu- 

 nication to lord Castlereagh at a 

 period distinctly specified, viz. the 

 sailing of the expedition. And this 

 injunction was only superseded by 

 a voluntary act of your lordship's 

 — your tender of your own resigna- 

 tion on the 12th of July as the ba- 

 sis of another arrangement. 



During the whole of the period, 

 from the 2Sth of April to the 12th 

 of July, the concealment practised 

 towards lord Castlereagh was ei- 

 ther without my knowledge and 

 contrary to my belief, or it was 

 against my earnest remonstrances. 



It was without my knowledge 

 and contrary to my belief, up to 

 the week in which parliament rose; 

 and from that time forth it was 

 against my earnest remonstrances. 



Even when I learnt in June, that 

 the communication had not been 

 made by your lordship to lord 

 Castlereagh, I did not learn that 

 you had been prevented from mak- 

 ing it by any absolute restriction. 



It was not till the month of July, 

 in the course of the discussions 



which took place from the 13th icf 

 the 20th of that month respecting 

 the proposal for postponing the 

 new arrangement to be founded on 

 your lordship's resignation, and for 

 leaving to your lordship's discretion 

 the time of disclosure to lord Cas- 

 tlereagh, that I learnt that the si- 

 lence which you had hitherto ob- 

 served towards him, had been im- 

 posed upon your lordship by the 

 injunction of the duke of Portland. 

 I did not till then know with whom 

 the concealment hitherto practised 

 had originated ; I frankly own that 

 I thought it had originated with 

 your lordship ; I was anxious above 

 all things that it should not be ever 

 suspected that it had originated 

 with me ; or that I had been a con- 

 senting party to it, or even (till a 

 late period) conscious of its exist- 

 ence. 



In my correspondence with the 

 duke of Portland at this period, 

 therefore, at the same time that I 

 resisted the new delay then pro- 

 posed, I disclaimed any concur- 

 rence in the concealment which had' 

 been hitherto practised — and re- 

 quested " that it might be remem- 

 bered hereafter, whenever that con- 

 cealment should be'alleged against 

 me, as an act of injustice to lord 

 Castlereagh, that it did not origi- 

 nate in my suggestion, that so far 

 from desiring it, I had conceived 

 (however erroneously) your lord- 

 ship to be the sure channel of com- 

 munication to lord Castlereagh ; 

 and that up to a very late period I 

 had believed such communication 

 to have been actually made." 



The duke of Portland, in an- 

 swer, acknowledged my repeated 

 remonstrances against the conceal- 

 ment ; stating himself at the same 

 time not to have been aware that I 



had 



