I will not revert to the full explanation which I have already given you on this subject. Not denying that my first letter might be capable of the construction which you put upon it, I would ask you whether it be usual, after a construction has been from the first moment explicitly disavowed, to persist that it is the right one? It being, however, the construction to which you adhere, I must assume, as you laid the letter before his Majesty, that you advised his Majesty upon it, and that his Majesty is therefore under the same misapprehension as yourself of what I meant; the more especially as I have no means of knowing whether my subsequent letters have been laid before his Majesty.

It was for the purpose of setting right any erroneous impression on the royal mind that I sought to be admitted, as soon as possible, into his Majesty's presence.

I was then, as I am still, most anxious to assure his Majesty that nothing could have been further from my intention than that the letter in question should have been at all submitted to his Majesty; to make known to his Majesty the circumstances and feelings under which it had been written; to point out to him that I had taken the precaution (usual between ministers, in matters of a delicate and confidential nature, when it is wished to keep the subject as much as possible confined to the respective parties) of marking the letter "private and confidential;" that I understood that this letter, so marked specially to guard its object, had been, without previous communication of any sort with me in respect to the transaction, referred to but not explained in the letter itself, laid before his Majesty as conveying to the foot of the throne my positive resignation.

I should further have had to state to his Majesty the great pain and concern which I felt at finding that a paper should have been submitted to his Majesty, and described to him as conveying my resignation of the seals in a form so unusual, and with a restriction so unbecoming towards my sovereign, as is implied in the words "private and confidential;" that in a necessity so painful (had I felt such a necessity) as that of asking his Majesty's permission to withdraw from his service, my first anxiety would have been to lay my reasons in a respectful, but direct, communication from myself at his Majesty's feet; but that, most certainly, in whatever mode conveyed, the uppermost feeling of my heart would have been to have accompanied it with those expressions of dutiful attachment and respectful gratitude which I owe to his Majesty for the many and uniform proofs of confidence and kindness with which he has been graciously pleased to honour me since I have held the seals of the Colonial Department.

If I had been afforded an opportunity of thus relieving myself from the painful position in which I stand towards his Majesty, I should then have entreated of his Majesty's goodness and sense of justice to permit a letter so improper for me to have written (if it could have been in my contemplation that it would have been laid before his Majesty as an act of resignation) to be withdrawn. Neither should I have concealed from his Majesty my regret, considering the trouble which has unfortunately occurred both to his Majesty and his government, that I had not taken a different mode of doing what, for the reasons fully stated in my letter of the 21st, I found myself bound in honour to do; so as to have prevented, perhaps, the misconception arising out of my letter written immediately after the debate.

I have now stated to you frankly, and without reserve, the substance of all that I was anxious to submit to the King. I have done so, in the full confidence that you will do me the favour to lay this statement before his Majesty; and that I may be allowed to implore of his Majesty, that he will do me the justice to believe that of all who have a right to prefer a claim to be admitted to his royal presence I am the last who, in a matter relating to myself, would press that claim in a manner unpleasant to his Majesty's wishes or inclinations. I bow to them with respectful deference, still retaining, however, a confidence, founded in the rectitude of my intentions, that in being removed from his Majesty's service, I may be allowed the consolation of knowing that I have not been debarred from the privilege of my office in consequence of my having incurred his Majesty's personal displeasure.

Believe me, my dear Duke, yours very sincerely,

W. HUSKISSON.

The Right Hon. W. Huskisson to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. Downing Street, half-past nine p.m., 25th May, 1828.

MY DEAR DUKE, Lord Dudley has just sent me, unopened, my letter to you, which I forwarded to Apsley House about five o'clock this afternoon.

This letter was written as soon as I was given to understand by Lord Dudley, who called here after an interview with you this morning, that his Majesty had not signified any intention of granting me the honour of an audience. No other mode, therefore, remaining open to me of conveying my sentiments to the King, I addressed myself to you for the purpose of bringing before his Majesty, in the shape of a written communication, what I am prevented from stating to his Majesty in person.

I feel confident that you will not deny me this favour, and you will be satisfied by the contents of my letter (which I now return) that, in writing it, nothing was further from my intention than to attempt to intrude myself between you and the arrangements which upon my removal from office (for such I have considered the result of our correspondence since your letter of the 21st) you have received his Majesty's instructions to make.

Your letter communicating this fact reached me about half-past seven this evening. I thank you for the information, and for the kind manner in which you advert to any feeble assistance which I may have been able to give to your administration, as well as for the expression of the concern with which you have advised his Majesty to place my office in other hands.

Believe me, my dear Duke, ever yours most sincerely,

W. HUSKISSON.

Viscount Palmerston to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. MY DEAR DUKE, Stanhope Street, 25th May, 1828. The contingency to which I alluded in the conversation which you allowed me to have with you on Tuesday last having now occurred, I feel VOL. IV. 2 H

compelled, with extreme regret, to request that you will submit to the King the humble tender of my resignation of the office of Secretary-at-War; and I have also to beg that in so doing, you will lay at the feet of his Majesty my most humble and grateful acknowledgments of the many marks of kind condescension with which his Majesty has been graciously pleased to honour me during the period that I have enjoyed the high distinction of being in his Majesty's service.

London, 26th May, 1828.

[901.] MY DEAR LORD PALMERSTON, I have received your letter of the 25th instant, which I have laid before his Majesty; having already stated to him the purport of the conversation which I had with you on the 20th instant. His Majesty very much regrets the loss of your services; as I do, I assure you, the loss of your assistance.

Believe me, &c.,

[ 902.]

WELLINGTON.

To the Right Hon. William Huskisson.

MY DEAR HUSKISSON,
London, 26th May, 1828.
I have received your letter of yesterday, accompanied by
another letter from you dated also yesterday, which I had
returned to Lord Dudley, under the impression that I ought not
to open it without your previous consent, under the circum-
stances that existed at the time I received it.

I have laid both before the King.

In answer, I have only to repeat that I considered your letter of the 20th as a formal tender of the resignation of your office, and that the circumstance of its being marked "private and confidential" did not alter the character of the letter or relieve me from the painful duty of communicating its contents to his Majesty, as I did in person.

Your subsequent letters did not, according to my understanding of them, convey any disavowal of your intention to tender your resignation. I laid them before his Majesty and my answers to them, and I communicated to Lord Dudley that I had done so.

The King informed me, I think on Wednesday the 21st, that you had desired to have an audience of his Majesty; and that he intended to receive you on the day but one after. I did not consider it my duty to advise his Majesty to receive you at an earlier period.

It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that your letter to me of the 20th was entirely your own act, and wholly unexpected by me. If the letter was written hastily and inconsiderately, surely the natural course was for you to withdraw it altogether; and thus relieve me from the position in which, without any fault of mine, it had placed me; compelling me either to accept the resignation which it tendered, or to solicit you to continue to hold your office.

This latter step was, in my opinion, calculated to do me personally, and the King's government, great disservice; and it appeared to me that the only mode by which we could be extricated from the difficulty in which your letter had placed us, was, that the withdrawal of your letter should be your own spontaneous act, and that it should be adopted without delay.

The interference of his Majesty pending our correspondence would not only have placed his Majesty in a situation in which he ought not to be placed in such a question, but it would have subjected me to the imputation that that interference had taken place on my suggestion or with my concurrence.

I did not consider it my duty to advise his Majesty to interfere in any manner whatever.

His Majesty informed me this day that he had written to you this morning, appointing an audience in the course of the day. Believe me ever yours most sincerely,

WELLINGTON.

The Right Hon. William Lamb to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington.
MY DEAR DUKE,
Whitehall, 26th May, 1828.

The removal of Mr. Huskisson from his Majesty's councils, with the other changes to which this event must necessarily lead, make so essential an alteration in the character and constitution of the administration, and present a state of circumstances so entirely different from that which existed in the month of January last, when the present government was formed, that I feel it necessary to resign the office which I at present hold into your hands, and to give you the earliest intimation of that intention

in order that I may be replaced with the least possible delay and inconvenience to the public service.

I have only further to request, that in laying the substance of this communication before his Majesty, you will also be good enough to lay at his Majesty's feet the expression on my part of that duty, devotion, and gratitude, which I owe to his royal person, and that you will yourself accept the declaration of my high respect, as well as of my sincere regard and esteem; and

I remain, my dear Duke, yours faithfully and sincerely,

WM. LAMB.

[ 903. ]

To the Right Hon. William Lamb.

26th May, 1828.

MY DEAR SIR,
I have received your letter of this day, and I admit that the
loss of Mr. Huskisson's services to the government is calculated
to make an impression upon you; but I wish that you had
waited to see what arrangement would be made in consequence
of his retirement from office before you had pronounced upon
the character of the government, as this arrangement might
have conciliated your future confidence.

However, I have considered it my duty to lay your resignation before the King, who has desired me to express his concern that he should lose your services; and I beg leave to add the expression of mine that these unfortunate circumstances should have deprived me of your assistance.

You will probably have heard of the difficulties in which the government has been placed in the course of the last week by a step taken on Tuesday last by Mr. Huskisson. But I will send you all the correspondence, which will enable you to form your own judgment on a case which has ended by depriving the government of Mr. Huskisson's assistance.

Mr. Lamb has, in consequence, sent me his resignation of his office, and I will immediately write you respecting his