464 POLITICS. [1809. 



and of my answer and Lord Grenville's. You may 

 keep them, as I have other copies. 



" I agree entirely in all the opinions you express of 

 one of the ex-ministers. Holland is not acquainted 

 with them, and I hope will be on his guard against 

 such intrigues as you describe. 



" I have thought the line taken by the ' Morning 

 Chronicle ' in some instances rather impolitic. I can 

 see no advantage to be derived from sparing one more 

 than another, either of the ministers who stay in or 

 of those who go out ; and as to the grounds of the 

 quarrel, I think it impossible for any man possessed 

 of honourable feelings to deny that Castlereagh was 

 greatly injured by the conduct of his colleague. 



" I am inclined to believe that Perceval was foolish 

 enough not to be aware of the certain rejection of his 

 proposal, and that he made it in the hope and expecta- 

 tion that it might lead to negotiation at least, which, 

 if unsuccessful, might furnish him with a successful 

 appeal against us to the public. His courage in tak- 

 ing upon himself the Government at such a time and 

 under such circumstances, I confess, surprises me; but 

 I am not one of those who think it must be destroyed 

 at the meeting of Parliament, and who doubt whether 

 it can last even till that time. It is not weaker than 

 Addington's appeared to be; and there is neither a 

 powerful and united party under a Fox in the opposi- 

 tion, nor the secret intriguers in correspondence with 

 a Pitt in the ministry. 



" I expect Sydney Smith here in a few days. 



