tively take place at the period fixed by your lordship, I consented to remain in office.

That on Wednesday the 6th of September, finding that nothing had been done towards preparing lord Castlereagh for the arrange ment; and that the execution of it would be attended with difficulties of which I had not before been apprized, I desired the duke of Portland to lay my resignation before the king.

Your lordship will therefore perceive,

That up to the 8th of June, so far from being in possession of any "promise for lord Castlereagh's removal," and from his continuance in office being made thereby "dependent upon my pleasure:" -no decision whatever had, to my knowledge been taken up to that time; no proposal had been made to me by the duke of Portland, in any way affecting lord Castlereagh'spolitical situation; and no intimation had been given to me whether my own resignation would be finally accepted or declined;

That the arrangement which was in contemplation from the 8th of June to the 5th of July, in no degree affected, and was never intended to affect," the conduct of the expedition to the Scheldt;"

That lord Castlereagh's "removal from the War Department" was first determined upon as part of the plan of which your lordship's resignation was the basis;

That his "removal from the administration" was not at any time "demanded" by me:

And, lastly, that I did employ the tender of my own resignation, not to "enforce decision," only (as ford Castlereagh's letter supposes),

but equally to "enforce disclo sure;" and that in fact I did ultimately resign, rather than "enforce" the intended change, under circumstances so different from those which I had been authorized to expect.

It cannot be expected that I should labour very anxiously to refute the charge of my having "supposed" your lordship and others "to

to be lord Castlereagh's friends;" and having, under that impression, deferred to your opinion and “authority," in a matter affecting lord Castlereagh's interests and feelings.

That your lordship, in particular, as well from near connection as from an active and anxious partiality, was entitled to consultation, and to deference on such an occasion;-is a persuasion which I felt in common, as I believe, with every member of the government; and which not even lord Castlereagh's disclaimer has induced me to re

nounce.

I should not have been surprised, nor should I have thought myself entitled to take the smallest offence, if your lordship had, instead of concurring in the expediency of a change in lord Castlereagh's department, protested against it, and had recommended to the duke of Portland to advise the king to accept my resignation: and it was perfectly known by the duke of Portland, and I am confident, not unknown by your lordship, that at any moment from the beginning of these discussions to the end, I was not only ready but desirous to terminate them by resigning.

But when the opinion of the expediency of a change in the war department, had been adopted by

"As it may be inferred, from a statement which has appeared in the public papers, that lord Camden withheld from lord Castlereagh a communication which he had been desired to make to him, it is necessary that it should be understood, that however Mr. Canning might have conceived the communication alluded to, to have been made to lord Camden, it was never stated to lord Camden, that the communication was made at the desire of Mr. Canning; and, so far from lord Camden having been authorized to make the communication to lord Castlereagh, he was absolutely restricted from so doing.

"As it may also be inferred that lord Camden was expected to prepare lord Castlereagh's mind for any proposed change, it is necessary that it should be understood, that lord Camden never engaged to communicate to lord Castlereagh any circumstances respecting it, before the termination of the ex pedition.

Morning Chronicle, Oct. 19th.

This statement appears to me to have been much misunderstood. It has been construed, as if your lordship had meant to aver that what you were restricted from doing and what you had not engaged to do, were one and the same thing;whereas your lordship's statement, in point of fact, contains two distinct propositions, and refers to two separate periods of time.

The period during which your lordship states yourself to have been "absolutely restricted" from making a communication to lord Castlereagh, extends from the 28th of April on which day the first communication was made by the duke of Portland to your lordship, to the time at which the proposed arrangement, for the new distribution of the business of the war department was superseded by your lordships tender of your resignation.

The period during which your lordship states yourself "not to have engaged" to make a communication to lord Castlereagh, extends from the time of the tender of your lordship's resignation, to the termination of the expedition to the Scheldt.

It ought, however, to be observed, that during the first of these two periods, from the 28th of April to the 12th of July,-the na ture of the communication to be made to lord Castlereagh, and the nature of the restriction imposed upon your lordship, were entirely changed.

Previously to the 8th of Junethe communication which your lordship would have had to make to lord Castlereagh, was simply that I had represented the expediency of a change either in his department

or

or in mine; and that no decision whatever had yet been taken upon this representation.

With respect to this communication, it does not appear that the restriction upon your lordship was absolute and indefinite.-But I knew nothing of its existence.

Subsequently to the 8th of June, the communication to be made to lord Castlereagh was, that an arrangement was in contemplation for a new distribution of the business of the war department.

With respect to this communication, not only was the restriction upon your lordship not indefinitely continued; but your lordship actually received on the 28th of June an injunction to make this communication to lord Castlereagh at a period distinctly specified, viz. the sailing of the expedition. And this injunction was only superseded by a voluntary act of your lordship's -your tender of your own resignation on the 12th of July as the basis of another arrangement.

During the whole of the period, from the 28th of April to the 12th of July, the concealment practised towards lord Castlereagh was either without my knowledge and contrary to my belief, or it was against my earnest remonstrances. It was without my knowledge and contrary to my belief, up to the week in which parliament rose; and from that time forth it was against my earnest remonstrances.

Even when I learnt in June, that the communication had not been made by your lordship to lord Castlereagh, I did not learn that you had been prevented from making it by any absolute restriction.

It was not till the month of July, in the course of the discussions

which took place from the 13th to the 20th of that month respecting the proposal for postponing the new arrangement to be founded on your lordship's resignation, and for leaving to your lordship's discretion the time of disclosure to lord Castlereagh, that I learnt that the silence which you had hitherto observed towards him, had been imposed upon your lordship by the injunction of the duke of Portland. I did not till then know with whom the concealment hitherto practised had originated; I frankly own that I thought it had originated with your lordship; I was anxious above all things that it should not be ever suspected that it had originated with me; or that I had been a consenting party to it, or even (till a late period) conscious of its exist

ence.

In my correspondence with the duke of Portland at this period, therefore, at the same time that I resisted the new delay then proposed, I disclaimed any concurrence in the concealment which had been hitherto practised and requested" that it might be remembered hereafter, whenever that concealment should be alleged against me, as an act of injustice to lord Castlereagh, that it did not originate in my suggestion, that so far from desiring it, I had conceived (however erroneously) your lordship to be the sure channel of communication to lord Castlereagh; and that up to a very late period I had believed such communication to have been actually made."

The duke of Portland, in answer, acknowledged my repeated remonstrances against the concealment; stating himself at the same time not to have been aware that I

had

had any time believed the communication to have been actually made; but assuring me "that he should be at all times ready to avow that the concealment had originated with himself (the duke of Portland); that he had enjoined it to all those with whom he had communicated, from motives which he was at all times ready to justify; and that he was desirous of taking whatever blame might have been, or might at any time be, incurred by it, upon himself."

This, as I have said, was my first knowledge of any restriction whatever upon your lordship's communication to lord Castlereagh.

If I am asked why I believed your lordship to have actually made the communication, I answer, because it was natural that you should make it; because the expectation of your making it was the motive which induced me to desire (and I did desire) that the communication should be made to your lordship; because the manner in which you first received that communication (as reported to me by the duke of Portland) tended to confirm the belief that your lordship was the fit channel of communication to lord Castlereagh; and because I knew not of the existence of any impediment to your pursuing what appeared to me (and does still appear to me) the natural and obvious course to be pursued upon such an

occasion.

If it be objected, that I ought not to have been contented with presuming the disclosure to have been made, but ought to have diligently ascertained that it was so; -first, I answer-that no person naturally sets about ascertaining that of which he entertains no VOL. LI.

doubt;-and, secondly, I answerthat the moment that my suspicion of the fact was excited, I did set about ascertaining the truth; and that upon ascertaining it, I did remonstrate in the strongest manner against the concealment ;-and en forced that remonstrance by the tender of my own resignation.

It was on the 26th or 27th of June (five ar six days after parliament rose) that I discovered my suspicion to be founded.-On the 27th I remonstrated.-On the 28th I tendered my resignation.-And in the course of the same day, your lordship (as I have already stated) received an injunction to make the communication as soon as the expedition should have sailed.

The second of the two periods to which your lordship's statement refers, begins from the 12th of July, the day of the tender of your lordship's resignation.

It does not appear, nor does your lordship's statement aver, that at any time during the second period, the restriction which had been originally imposed upon your lordship was renewed; or that any other existed, except that which your lordship had imposed upon yourself, and which was therefore no longer binding upon your lordship than while you might yourself be willing that it should bind you.

Of the extent to which this selfimposed restriction appears to have gone, I had not any suspicion. I knew indeed that your lordship had stipulated to keep the time of the disclosure to lord Castlereagh in your own hands; but subsequently to my being made acquainted with that stipulation, I had received the 2 M

assurances,

assurances, which I have already described, on behalf of "Lord Castlereagh's friends;" and had relied upon those assurances.

It was not till the 6th of September that I learnt that those assurances had not been carried into effect. It was not till the 19th of September that I learnt that your lordship had been no party to them. Then indeed I learnt that your lordship had not only "not engaged" to make the communication previously to the "issue of the expedition being known here"-but that in July you had stated to one of our colleagues," (not the duke of Portland)" who was urging an earlier communication," that the "time of communication, so far as you were concerned, was for you to decide; but that no one had a right to say you did not perform that part in the transaction in which you were concerned, if you did not open your lips to lord Castlereagh before the issue of the expedition was known here."

This information I received from your lordship, in a letter dated the 19th of September. It was then perfectly new to me.

I leave your lordship to judge what must have been my surprise, when, after receiving from your lordship, on the evening of the 19th of September, this frank avowal of the real origin of the concealment maintained, during this latter and most important period, towards lord Castlereagh, I received on the following morning lord Castlereagh's letter of the same date, making me responsible for that concealment.

I have not to trouble your lordship with any farther observations.

Sir,-My letter of the 4th Aug. informed their lordships of the proposal I had made to lieut.-gen. sir John Stuart, that the islands of Zante, Cephalonia, &c. should be seized on before the French could turn their regard from the defence of Naples, to strengthen other points, and in which letter I inclosed to you a copy of the instructions I had sent to rear-admiral Martin, to be delivered to captain Spranger, of the Warrior, whom I had selected to command the naval part of the expedition. The change which at that time had taken place in the state of the armies in the North, required the lieut.-general's consideration, whether an adequate

force