their consent,
undoubtedly it was not a thing to be offered where there was the
least chance of a refusal. He then said that he would take upon
him to sound Lord Courtown; and that, as he was his
brother-in-law, he would throw out to him that a thing of the
sort was in agitation; and that if Lord Courtown should like it,
he believed that _he, Townshend_, would have interest enough to
_procure it for him_. It was impossible for me to tell
Townshend, or even to give him to understand what nevertheless
certainly ought to have occurred to him, that it would but ill
answer your purpose, whatever it was, in recommending Lord
Courtown, that the merit of it should be ascribed to him.

I had nothing, therefore, left but to drop the conversation, and
to write to you, as I now do, immediately on my return home, to
suggest to you whether it would not be worth your while, without
affecting to know anything of this, to write to Lord Courtown to
offer it, and perhaps to Townshend, to make a great merit with
him of the recommendation of his brother-in-law, as the only
non-resident Knight. The sooner you send in the list and plan,
&c., &c., undoubtedly the better.

Your names appear to me all unexceptionable, except possibly
Lord Bechoe, who you know will give some trouble to the heralds
to make out whether his father, who was a grazier, ever had a
father of his own. But he is a man of great fortune, and a
steady friend of Government, and I should think might pass. Lord
Nugent's refusal leaves a vacancy. I own I should be inclined to
Lord Mountgarret as the senior Viscount, which would show that
it was not to be exclusively confined to Earls, at the same time
that no other person could pretend the same claims with so old a
peer, the senior Viscount, and the first man in rank of so great
a family. Besides, this might detach Butler, of the county
Kilkenny, from Flood; and it is surely a great object to cut him
off from all hopes of the county, as that would give him an
appearance of popularity, &c., &c. Unless you do something of
this sort, shall you not apprehend affronting the lower orders
of the peerage? If Lord Kinsale was not what he is, I should
wish for him on the same account, but that is impossible. Pray
consider the other well, for it strikes me as important.

I return you t