That his royal highness had signified his pleasure, that Lord Wellesley should conduct the formation of the administration in all its branches, and should be first commissioner of the treasury; and that Lord Moira, Lord Erskine, and Mr Canning, should be members of the cabinet.

That it was probable, that a cabinet, formed on an enlarged basis, must be extended to the number of twelve or thirteen members: that the prince regent wished Lords Grey and Grenville, on the part of their friends, to recommend for his royal highness's approbation, the names of four persons, (if the cabinet should consist of twelve) and of five persons, (if the cabinet should consist of thirteen) to be appointed by his royal highness to fill such stations in his councils as might hereafter be arranged.

That his royal highness left the selection of the names to Lords Grey and Grenville without any exception or personal exclusion.

That in completing the new arrangement, the prince regent has granted to Lord Wellesley entire liberty to propose for his royal highness's approbation, the names of any persons now occupying stations in his royal highness's councils, or of any other persons.

That if the proposition made to Lords Grey and Grenville, should be accepted as the outline of an arrangement, all other matters would be discussed with the most anxious solicitude to promote harmony and general accommodation. WELLESley.

ing for Lord Grenville, and have communicated to him, since his arrival, the proposal made to me yesterday by your lordship.

We have felt the necessity of a further communication with our friends, and this, I fear, will make it impossible for us to send our final answer to the minute which I had the honour of receiving from your lordship yesterday evening, till a late hour tonight, or early to-morrow morning.

To obviate, however, as far as I can, any inconvenience which might arise from this delay, I think it right to state to your lordship, that the feeling which I yesterday expressed to you, as to the nature of the proposal which you were authorised by the prince regent to make to Lord Grenville and me, has been confirmed by subsequent reflection, as well as by the opinion of Lord Grenville, and, indeed, of every person with whom I have hitherto had an opportunity of consulting.

I have the honour to be, with the highest regard, my lord, your lordship's very faithful, humble servant, GREY.

No. 19.

Letters from Lords Grey and Grenville to Lord Wellesley.

Camelford House, June 3d, 1812. My Lord,-We have considered with the most serious attention the minute which we have had the honour to receive from your lordship; and we have communicated it to such of our friends as we have had the opportunity of consulting.

On the occasion of a proposal made to us under the authority of his royal highness the prince regent, we wish to renew, in the most solemn manner, the declaration of our unfeigned de

sire to have facilitated, as far as was in our power, the means of giving effect to the late vote of the House of Commons, and of averting the imminent and unparalleled dangers of the country. No sense of the public distress and difficulty-no personal feelings of whatever description, would have prevented us under such circumstances, from accepting, with dutiful submission, any situations in which we could have hoped to serve his royal highness usefully and honourably; but it appears to us, on the most dispassionate reflection, that the proposal stated by your lordship cannot justify any such expectation.

We are invited, not to discuss with your lordship, or with any other public men, according to the usual practice in such cases, the various and important considerations, both of measures and of arrangements, which belong to the formation of a new government, in all its branches, but to recommend to his royal highness a number limited by previous stipulation, of persons willing to be included in a cabinet, of which the outlines are already definitely arranged.

To this proposal we could not accede without the sacrifice of the very object which the House of Commons has recommended-the formation of a strong and efficient administration.

We enter not into the examination of the relative proportions, or of the particular arrangements which it has been judged necessary thus previous ly to establish. It is to the principle of disunion and jealousy that we object to the supposed balance of contending interests, in a cabinet so measured out by preliminary stipulation. The times imperiously require an administration united in principle, and strong in mutual reliance: possessing also the confidence of the crown, and

assured of its support in those healing measures which the public safety requires; and which are necessary to secure to the government, the opinion and affections of the people.

No such hope is presented to us by this project, which appears to us equally new in practice, and objectionable in principle. It tends, as we think, to establish, within the cabinet itself, a system of counteraction inconsistent with the prosecution of any uniform and beneficial course of policy.

We must, therefore, request permission to decline all participation in a government constituted upon such principles: satisfied, as we are, that the certain loss of character which must arise from it to ourselves, could be productive only of disunion and weakness in the administration of the public interests.

We have the honour to be, with great respect, &c. (Signed) (Signed)

No. 20.

GREY. GRENVILLE.

Explanatory Letter from Lord Moira to Lord Grey, June 3d, on the subject of Lord Wellesley's Minute, No: 17.

June 3, 1812.

My dear Lord,The answer which you and Lord Grenville have returned to the proposal made by Lord Wellesley seems to throw an oblique imputation upon me; therefore I entreat your re-consideration of your statement as far as it may convey that impeachment of a procedure in which I was involved. You represent the propositiou for an ar rangement submitted to you as one calculated to found a cabinet u pon a principle of counteraction. W hen

the most material of the public objects which were to be the immediate ground of that cabinet's exertion had been previously understood between the parties, I own it is difficult for me to comprehend what principle of counteraction could be introduced. If there be any ambiguity which does not strike me, in Lord Wellesley's last paper, surely the construction ought to be sought in the antecedent communication; and I think the basis on which that communication had announced the intended cabinet to stand was perfectly clear. With regard to the indication of certain individuals, I can assert that it was a measure adopted through the highest spirit of fairness to you and your friends.

:

Mr Canning's name was mentioned, because Lord Wellesley would have declined office without him; and it was a frankness to apprize you of it and Lord Erskine's and mine were stated with a view of shewing, that Lord Wellesley, so far from having any jealousy to maintain a preponderance in the cabinet, actually left a majority to those who had been accustomed to concur upon most public questions; and he specified Lord Erskine and myself, that you might see the number submitted for your exclusive nomination was not narrowed by the necessity of advertence to us. The choice of an additional member of the cabinet left to you, must prove how undistinguishable we consider our interests and your's, when this was referred to your consideration as a mere matter of convenience, the embarrassment of a numerous cabinet being well known. The reference to members of the late cabinet, or other persons, was always to be coupled with the established point that they were such as could concur

in the principles laid down as the foundation for the projected ministry: and the statement was principally dictated by the wish to shew, that no system of exclusion could interfere with the arrangements which the public service might demand. On the selection of those persons, I aver the opinions of you, Lord Grenville, and the others whom you might bring forward as members of the cabinet, were to operate as fully as our own, and this was to be the case also with regard to subordinate offices. The expression that this was left to be proposed by Lord Wellesley, was intended to prove that his royal highness did not, even in the most indirect manner, suggest any one of those individuals.

It is really impossible that the spirit of fairness can have been carried further than has been the intention in this negociation. I therefore lament most deeply that an arrangement so important for the interests of the country should go off upon points which I cannot but think wide of the substance of the case. (Signed

MOIRA.

No. 21. Lord Wellesley to Lord Moira, approving Lord Moira's Letter (No. 20.) to Lord Grey, of the 3d June.

Apsley-house, June 3d, 1812. My dear Lord,-I return the copy of your lordship's letter to Lord Grey. This communication to Lord Grey is most useful, and the substance of it is admirably judicious, clear, and correct.

My declaration, this day, in the House of Lords, was indispensably necessary to my public and private honour; both of which would have been involved, if I had not, in full

Portman Square, 4th June, 1812. My dear Lord,-Being obliged to go immediately from the House of Lords to a dinner party, and afterwards to a meeting at Lord Grenville's, which occupied me till a late hour, it was not in my power to answer your letter last night.

You must be too well aware of my personal feelings towards you, of my esteem for your character, and of my confidence in your honour, to entertain any opinion respecting your con duct inconsistent with those sentiments. Nothing, therefore, could be more remote from my intention-and I am desired by Lord Grenville, to whom I have shewn your letter, to give you the same assurance on his part-than to cast any imputation whatever on you, as to the part you have borne in the proceedings which have lately taken place for the formation of a new administration. We know with how sincere an anxiety for the honour of the prince, and for the public interest, you have laboured to effect that object.

Whatsoever objections we may feel, therefore, to the proposal which has been made to us, we beg they may be understood as having no reference whatever to any part of your conduct. That proposal was made to us in a formal and authorised communication from Lord Wellesley, both personally to me, and afterwards in a written minute. It appeared to

us to be founded on a principle to which we could not assent, consistently with our honour, and with a due sense of public duty. The grounds of this opinion have been distinctly stated in our joint letter to Lord Wellesley: nor can they be altered by a private explanation: which, though it might lessen some obvious objections to a part of the detail, still leaves the general character of the proceeding unchanged. Nothing could be more painful to me than to enter into any thing like a controversial discussion with you; in which I could only repeat more at large the same feelings and opinions which, in concurrence with Lord Grenville, I have already expressed in our formal

answer.

I beg only to assure you, before I conclude, that I have felt very sensibly, and shall always have a pleasure in acknowledging, your personal kindness to me in the course of this transaction. I am, with every sentiment of true respect and attention, my dear lord, your's most faithfully, GREY.

No. 23. Lord Wellesley's Reply to the Letter (No. 19,) from Lords Grey and Grenville, of the 3d of June.

Apsley-house, June 3d, 1812.

My Lords,-I received the letter, by which I was honoured from your lordships this morning, with the most sincere regret; and I have discharged the painful duty of submitting it to his royal highness the prince regent. It would have afforded me some consolation, if the continuance of the authority confided to me by his royal highness had enabled me, under his royal highness's commands, to of fer to your lordships a full and candid explanation of those points in my

minute of the 1st of June, which your lordships appear to me to have entirely misapprehended. But as his royal highness has been pleased to intimate to me his pleasure, that the formation of a new administration should be entrusted to other hands, I have requested permission to decline all further concern in this transaction.

I remain, however, extremely anxious to submit to your lordships some explanatory observations respecting the communications which I have had the honour to make to you; and I trust that your lordships will indulge me with that advantage, although I can no longer address you under the sanction of the prince regent's authority.

I have the honour to be, with great respect, my lords, your most faithful and obedient servant, (Signed)

WELLESLEY.

which 1 deeply lament, under a sanguine hope, that additional explanations, sanctioned by authority, might have removed the existing obstacles to an amicable arrangement.

Lord Moira has sent me a copy of his letter (No. 20.) to your lordship of yesterday's date; and as it contains an accurate, clear, and candid statement of the real objects of the proposal which I conveyed to you, it appears to me to have furnished you with as full an explanation as can be given in an unauthorised paper. Under these circumstances, it might be deemed superfluous trouble to your lordship and to Lord Grenville, to solicit your attention to a private letter from me; although I should be most happy if any opportunity were afforded of renewing a conciliatory intercourse, under the commands of the prince regent, with a view to attain the object of our recent communications. I have the honour to be, with great respect, my lord, your lordship's most faithful and humble servant, WELLESLEY.

No. 25.

Lord Grey's Reply to Lord Wellesley's Letter, No. 24.

·Portman Square, June 4th, 1812. My Lord, I have had the honour of receiving your lordship's letter of this day's date.

As Lord Moira has communicated to your lordship the copy of his letter to me, I take it for granted that you have in the same manner been put in possession of my answer, which contains all that I can say with respect to the explanation of the proposal made by your lordship to Lord Grenville and myself.

I was perfectly aware, that Lord Moira's letter could in no degree be