146 THE PRINCESS OF WALES [1812. 



" Your success in the summer as well as in the winter 

 theatres has been so great that I should have no hesi- 

 tation in offering you an engagement. Your individual 

 attraction would be great, but as Creevey has offered 

 himself for low comedy, I think that by taking you 

 both I should do wonders for the theatre. I have 

 before me a letter just received from the old manager, 

 who is living in retirement at Isleworth, away from 

 the profligate capital, recovering his health and spirits 

 in seclusion from an ungrateful world ; his society the 

 late King of France and the Princes of the Blood ; 

 and he says his Majesty is a better Whig than any of 

 us. 



" He further tells me that Mr Fitzgerald is Chan- 

 cellor of Irish Exchequer, and Mr Peel Secretary for 

 Ireland. 



" Moreover, he says he could tell me a great deal 

 more, and that he means to write every day. 



" He had told me before that Canning was off, and 

 his negotiation ended, because he was stout about the 

 Catholic question, and that it had nothing to do with 

 the lead in the House of Commons. He now tells me 

 he was wrong in the point ; that our point, I suppose, 

 was the point ; but I suppose, also, Canning is all on 

 again, and that he will be the minister of the House 

 of Commons somehow. 



" Pray tell me, what I always forgot to ask you, 

 who communicated to you all the civil speeches re- 

 ported to have been made by Canning of me. It is 

 mere matter of curiosity, but I should like to know 

 how true the report. 



" I am indeed uneasy about America. If the war 

 shall die in its birth, go no further than the Declara- 



