496 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1827. 



attributable only to the present ministers, and those 

 who have kept them in their situations. 



" The King has played his cards and pursued his 

 purpose with great ability and firmness, and with a 

 perfect perception of the characters of those with 

 whom he has had to deal; and he has accordingly 

 formed the most submissive and subservient Adminis- 

 tration this country has seen for near a century and 

 a half. 



" It would be idle to indulge the hope of any im- 

 portant change in the nature and character of the 

 Government under the present ministry, considering 

 the terms upon which they took office, and upon 

 which they now submit to hold it after their expe- 

 rience of the last eight months. 



" With respect to your remark in the first of these 

 two letters respecting the ex-ministers, I can only say 

 that I have as little opportunity of knowing their 

 intentions or expectations as I have of the arrange- 

 ments or intrigues of their successors ; but as far as 

 Grey's name is concerned, you, who know his opinions 

 and purposes from his own full explanation of them 

 as well as I do, must have been able to contradict any 

 rumours affecting him, which you know could only 

 proceed from wilful misrepresentation. 



" I agree with you that the Address can hardly be 

 so framed as not to make debate and disagreement on 

 the first day unavoidable ; and my doubt only arose 

 from feeling the awkwardness of such debate in the 

 absence of the leaders of the ministers ; and it did not 

 appear to me impossible to adopt the course usually 

 followed at the opening of a new Parliament, and 

 allow time by adjournment, either by command or 



