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172 my duty and of my honour. I may possibly be mistaken, though my conviction is strongly otherwise, and I should indeed be wanting to both, if before I entered upon such a situation, I did not state to you my opinion upon those parts of the system which have been opened to me, and upon the means proposed to carry them into execution. If your Lordship had allowed me to consult with some of those who must bear the greatest share in it, I should then have either verified my opinions, or from being convinced, should have changed them. But since I am not at liberty to do this, I must entreat you in the meantime, to inform yourself how this will be received by the principal persons you mean to confide in, and to ask the cool opinion of neutral and indifferent people. If they concur with me, I am confident you will not desire me to give a more positive or final answer with regard to the part I am to bear, in a system which could not then be formed in the manner it is proposed. For, if the public in general, a great part of the nobility, and some of the leading persons in the House of Commons should be indisposed to this appointment, your Lordship must see that my saying I am ready to bear any part, could be of no service whatever. But if it shall appear that what I have said on this occasion is not well founded, and that the most essential of these difficulties do not occur, I shall be glad that I have been mistaken, and the conviction that I have been so must necessarily alter my sentiments upon this subject, and you will then certainly find me, as you always have done, desirous and happy to devote myself to the service of my King and my country, thinking it the greatest honour that can befall me if I could do it with any degree of success in that high and important situation to which the King's goodness and your Lordship's friendship has destined me.

"Upon the whole, whether I bear any part in this transaction or not, which perhaps may be of little consequence to the public welfare, yet, let me beseech your Lordship, from your affection and duty to the King, and from what you owe to yourself and to your country, to