302 WAR AGAINST [1816. 



successes and treaties which afford no real relief, the 

 discontent which is now only heard in murmurs may 

 assume a more active, and, I would fain hope, a more 

 useful character. You have said nothing of your opin- 

 ion of Key's plea on the capitulation. I thought at 

 first that it was subject to some doubt, but a doubt 

 could with propriety and justice be decided only in his 

 favour. Since that I have formed a clearer opinion upon 

 it; and the evidence of Davoust and Guilleminet, given 

 under circumstances of such peril to themselves and 

 capable of contradiction, if it could have been contra- 

 dicted, by other persons equally parties to the conven- 

 tion seems to me quite conclusive. For Ney himself 

 I can feel no respect after his repeated changes and 

 desertions, though I may think, perhaps, his last deser- 

 tion of Bonaparte more disgraceful than that for which 

 he has suffered; but his conduct at his trial and exe- 

 cution must inspire, in spite of all such recollections, a 

 strong interest in his favour, when connected with the 

 manifest breach of faith and the injustice of which he 

 has been the victim. 



" Do you know anything of Carnot ? I hope he will 

 come here, though I suppose they would not let him 

 remain. That Alien Act ought really now to be done 

 away with; no necessity for it can be pleaded ; and it 

 can only exist as a most dangerous engine of power, 

 liable always to the greatest temptations to abuse. 



" I feel deeply for poor Jack Townshend ; he was 

 quite wrapped up in his son ; and from all I hear, the 

 case, I fear, is utterly hopeless. 



" What an unmerciful bore I have inflicted on you ! 

 Ever yours, GREY." 



