In my reply to Fox I said, that so far from any desertion, &c.,
&c., of the Duke of Portland's friends, all that was intended
was, in the expressive words of one of those gentlemen: that as
it was now necessary that Great Britain should speak again upon
the Irish subject, she should speak clearly and openly.
Those are not exactly his words; but they are in his letter to
the "Trala Vol." Pray find them; for I think they describe the
transaction well.
Rumours of resignations and changes, short as the term of the
Administration had been up to this time, were beginning to be bruited
abroad. As yet there was nothing certain: Pitt was firm, and Shelburne
mysterious as usual; but it could no longer be concealed that the
Cabinet, in addition to the dangers which threatened it from without,
was suffering in its influence from internal dissensions.