suspense, Dundas came to call upon Orde. "I asked him," the latter wrote to Shelburne, "if he could inform me either from himself or from Mr. Pitt of your Lordship's motions, as I did imagine that they had written to you, and communicated the real state of affairs, more especially what concerned the probable turn of conduct intended to be held in such circumstances. He told me, that Mr. Pitt had talked with him about writing to your Lordship; nay, that he had written a letter, which however he afterwards burned, as finding it extremely awkward to express himself as he could wish, to you; being afraid of seeming to call upon you to assist in forming a plan of Administration, at the head of which he was himself to be placed, when he considered the situation your Lordship had held, and under which he had had the honour to be employed. He had therefore thought it best to trust to the effect which accounts sent by your habitual correspondents might have upon your inclination and opinion, and not to run the risk of acting or seeming to act an indelicate part. I observed in my answer, that this appeared to me a very false delicacy, as he did not decline to take the step of moving into your Lordship's situation, and ought to have recollected the very earnest pains you have taken, when he before had hesitated, to persuade him for the King's sake and the country's to obey the call of his friends.[1] I could not help adding by-the-bye, that I thought his opening then a much more favourable one than that offered at present. I could not however pretend to judge of what ought to have been done, as I knew nothing of what had passed between you since the breaking up of your Administration, and was also ignorant of your expectations or feelings about his writing or not writing; that I could only ruminate on my own conceptions of propriety, when I called to mind the manner in which your Lordship had brought Mr. Pitt forward, and had often with pleasure listened to his declarations of attachment to you. I could not help reminding my friend Mr. Dundas himself
- ↑ See supra, p. 253.
