hat the consequence which I state is not overstrained.

I can, without affectation, assure you, that though I am not
indifferent either to the recollection of what we have already
done, or to the prospects which are now before us; yet that I could
perfectly well make up my mind to a different line of life, and
that I am confident I possess sufficient resources within myself to
reconcile myself to such a step, provided it were taken for an
object which I felt to be _tanti_. And such I certainly do consider
the object of marking to you, and to the world, and of discharging,
in a manner satisfactory to my own feelings, my gratitude and
affectionate attachment to you, in an instance where I entirely
agree with you in thinking you ill-treated, at a time when you had
deserved best.

It remains, therefore, for _you_ to consider what step it may be
best for you to take under all the present circumstances. Even if
your mind should ultimately lean to the idea of resigning, I should
certainly strongly press you not to carry this idea into effect
till you have closed your session in Ireland; and in this advice,
at least, I am certainly disinterested, because my situation would,
in the interim, be more disagreeable and embarrassing than it could
be under _any_ other circumstances. But I am _sure_ that if you
were to quit _immediately_, as you now talk of doing, you never
could induce any one to believe that this step was not taken with a
view to escape from present difficulties, instead of being intended
to mark your sense of personal ill-treatment; and that when the
impression of the present moment upon your feelings was over, you
never would forgive yourself for having concluded the transactions
of this winter by such a termination.

I have only to add that I am not indifferent, and that I am
persuaded you are not, to the public consequences of our conduct.
It is one of the circumstances which are necessarily attendant
upon a public situation and a public line of life, that a person
who is engaged in it cannot act even in those points which most
nearly concern himself without producing consequences which are
often of great public importance. It will certainly not be a
pleasant reflection to me to have materially contributed to the
overthrow of that sys