hat General Ainslie should have Mackay's
regiment, by which means his lieutenant-colonelcy should be given
to Taylor, and so Nugent be appointed to Gwynne's; the other, that
the regiment should be given to Sir James Stewart Denham, which
would vacate his lieutenant-colonelcy for Nugent. A third was also
mentioned by the King, namely, the inducing Taylor, by the offer of
the Lieutenant-Governorship of Cowes, to exchange with Nugent. Any
one of these would, I flatter myself, answer your purpose; because
they would show the King's disposition to attend to your
recommendation, and that having been hampered by an actual
engagement to Taylor, he is now ready to accommodate his own
patronage in such a way as may, at the same time, provide for
Nugent. But what I think even better than all this, is the account
which Pitt gave me of the King's apparent manner of feeling on this
subject. I had, I confess, very much apprehended that, however
necessary it might be, in order to keep up your situation and
apparent weight with the King, to insist upon some such solution
for this business, yet that the doing this would leave a lasting
and most unfavourable impression on his mind, which might lead to a
renewal of this sort of contest on some future occasion. This
appears to be by no means the case, at present; and I am sure that
you will agree with me in thinking that although it might, in some
points of view, have been desirable that the whole arrangement
could have been concluded to-day, so as to put an end to all
appearance of suspense, yet that it would have been unwise, in this
state of things, to have pressed the King to this sort of
peremptory decision as to the mode of doing it, which he seemed
desirous of having an opportunity of revolving in his own mind.

It will now probably not be very long before whatever official
business you will have in this country, will pass through a medium
rather better disposed, and more attentive to you, than that of
your present correspondent; and if I do not grossly flatter myself,
a little attention on my part, to soothe the King's mind--which has
evidently been irritated on these points--will make all this sort
of business go smoothly, and to your satisfaction.

I am sorry not to have complied with your wish about the