ry, and secretary of
state for the foreign department. The transaction in my case was,
therefore, not unprecedented; and I must also say, that when the noble
viscount thought proper to blame me, as he did, he was bound to show
that my conduct, in that respect, had been attended with some evil or
inconvenient result. Now, it does not appear that it has been attended
with any such result. The fact is, that during the whole of the time
that I held the two offices. I cautiously avoided taking any step which
might be productive of subsequent embarrassment or inconvenience, and
when my right honourable friend took possession of his office, I can
undertake to say that he did not find himself compromised by any such
act.

_February_ 24,1835.

* * * * *

_Lord Londonderry's appointment to the Embassy at St. Petersburgh._

My lords, having learned that it would not be disagreeable to my noble
friend to be employed in the public service, I did concur in the
recommendation, or rather, my lords, I did recommend to my right
honourable friend, Sir Robert Peel, that my noble friend should be
appointed ambassador to the court of St. Petersburgh. I made this
recommendation, founded as it was on my own personal knowledge of my
noble friend for many years past,--on the many great and important
military services he has performed, and on the fitness he has proved
himself to possess for such an appointment in those various diplomatic
employments he has filled during a long period of time; more
particularly at the court of Vienna, where for a period of nine years,
he performed most important services to the entire satisfaction of the
ministers who employed him, up to the last moment of his employment. He
returned from the discharge of that office, my lords, with the strongest
testimony of the approbation of the then secretary of state for foreign
affairs. I was aware, my lords, of the peculiar talents of my noble
friend in certain respects, for this particular office, and of his
consequent fitness for this very description of diplomatic employment,
especially on account of his being a military officer of high rank in
the service of this country, and of distinguished reputation in the
Russian army. I knew the peculiar advantages that must attach to an
individual conducting such an embassy on that account. Under these
circumstances, I was justified, my lords, in recommending my noble
friend, and I was glad to