party, nor do I now, yet, as I love that party very well, and am clear that you are better able to serve them than any man I know, I wish that things should be so kept as to leave you mutually very open to one another in all changes and contingencies; and I wish this the rather, because, in order to be very great, as I am anxious that you should be, (always presuming that you are disposed to make a good use of power,) you will certainly want some better support than merely that of the crown.  For I much doubt, whether, with all your parts, you are the man formed for acquiring real interior favor in this court, or in any; I therefore wish you a firm ground in the country; and I do not know so firm and so sound a bottom to build on as our party.—­Well, I have done with this matter; and you think I ought to have finished it long ago.  Now I turn to Ireland.

Observe, that I have not heard a word of any news relative to it, from thence or from London; so that I am only going to state to you my conjectures as to facts, and to speculate again on these conjectures.  I have a strong notion that the lateness of our meeting is owing to the previous arrangements intended in Ireland.  I suspect they mean that Ireland should take a sort of lead, and act an efficient part in this war, both with men and money.  It will sound well, when we meet, to tell us of the active zeal and loyalty of the people of Ireland, and contrast it with the rebellious spirit of America.  It will be a popular topic,—­the perfect confidence of Ireland in the power of the British Parliament.  From thence they will argue the little danger which any dependency of the crown has to apprehend from the enforcement of that authority.  It will be, too, somewhat flattering to the country gentlemen, who might otherwise begin to be sullen, to hold out that the burden is not wholly to rest upon them; and it will pique our pride to be told that Ireland has cheerfully stepped forward:  and when a dependant of this kingdom has already engaged itself in another year’s war, merely for our dignity, how can we, who are principals in the quarrel, hold off?  This scheme of policy seems to me so very obvious, and is likely to be of so much service to the present system, that I cannot conceive it possible they should neglect it, or something like it.  They have already put the people of Ireland to the proof.  Have they not borne the Earl of Buckinghamshire, the person who was employed to move the fiery committee in the House of Lords in order to stimulate the ministry to this war, who was in the chair, and who moved the resolutions?

It is within a few days of eleven years since I was in Ireland, and then after an absence of two.  Those who have been absent from any scene for even a much shorter time generally lose the true practical notion of the country, and of what may or may not be done in it.  When I knew Ireland, it was very different from the state of England, where government is a vast deal, the public something, but individuals