LES W. WYNN.

Bath, Dec. 12, 1821.

MY DEAR SIR,

I was prepared by Lord Londonderry for the letter which I have
received from you this morning, and he has, of course, communicated
to me the substance of the conversations which he has had with the
Marquis of Buckingham and yourself since my departure from London.

Agreeing, as I have every reason to hope we now do, in all the
other leading principles of Government, foreign and domestic, the
difference of opinion which unfortunately exists between us on what
is called the Roman Catholic question must be a matter of sincere
regret to me.

You will do me the justice, however, to believe that this
difference can only be founded on an opinion that the beneficial
consequences supposed by yourself and others to be likely to follow
the proposed alteration of our laws on this subject, would not in
fact result from it. But I think it material further to add, that
whether I may or may not be mistaken, I am fully persuaded that in
the state in which that question now is, and under all the
circumstances of the country, fewer public evils are likely to
arise from the adoption or rejection of the Catholic claims under a
Government of a mixed character, than might occur under one which
for brevity I designate as exclusively Protestant or exclusively
Catholic.

With a knowledge of the sentiments entertained by you and by those
immediately connected with you on this question, I could never have
ventured to have asked the King's permission to be the bearer of
the proposition which has been made to you, unless I had been
prepared to have it distinctly understood that you would be at full
liberty to support, to advocate, and even to originate, if you
should deem it necessary, any measure of which the removal of the
disabilities of the Roman Catholics might form a part, or the
whole; and you can certainly not be precluded from adopting
hereafter any line of conduct which, in the discharge of your
public duty, a consideration of what is due to this question,
combined of course with what is due to other great national
interests, may appear to you to require.

I trust that the explanation will prove satisfactory to you, and I
have only to say, with respect to the appointment of Mr. Goulburn,
that upon the principle upon which the Go