Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/355

Rh must be owing to some accident of supposing his Grace to be in the country, which sometimes happened, as they were in general very punctual, but I am vastly happy that no real evil has happened to the King's affairs or those of the public, which I had the care of in that quarter of the world, but that it had been reduced in the main to some degree of order and obedience also to Parliamentary authority, from a very different state in which I found it; a degree of success which I could not attribute to my own ability but to good luck alone. As to the rest I cannot help observing frankly to his Grace, that had I been where his Grace is, and he Secretary, and supposing me to have the same opinion with his Grace, that I should most certainly have chosen to have communicated it frankly to the person whom it regarded, rather than to those several other persons whom his Grace mentioned, or at least have avowed and communicated it at the same time. I will not detain your Grace longer at present, but will be ready to talk further to your Grace whenever you think proper and whenever you please.

The Duke of Grafton answered:

At this second interview Shelburne said: