volunteer in this office, because there is no other to be found, declaring however that he very much disliked the employment both on account of the business and expense of it, and hoped, that he should have an early opportunity of giving it up in exchange for a more quiet one, and requiring less outgoings. The drum is beaten and the word given is, 'Die in the last Ditch.' The Cabinet consists of Mr. Pitt, Lord Thurlow, Lord Gower, Lord Carmarthen, Lord Sydney, Lord Howe and the Duke of Rutland (Privy Seal). Mr. Pitt told me that Lord Camden would not take any office. It is intended to recommend in the King's answer to the Address, an adjournment, during which the measures necessary to be adopted might be well considered, and especially a Bill for the regulation of India, which might be ready upon the meeting. Expectations are entertained that the adjournment will not be refused, which however I much doubt. It is however determined in case of disappointment, to let those who choose to sit, amuse themselves as they please till about the 20th January. In the meantime every possible exertion is to be made in order to collect a respectable force, reckoning much upon the numbers who have not yet committed themselves.
"I received a note from Mr. Pitt to call upon him to-day at three o'clock, and I found him just returned from the Queen's house, where the resolutions above mentioned were solemnly taken. I had now an opportunity of obeying as exactly as I possibly could remember the directions I received from your Lordship, and also of expressing very fully my reasons for the decision I had resolved upon. I told him, that the change of their plan in regard to the dissolution of Parliament furnished of itself a reason for my desiring to decline acceptance of a seat at the Treasury Board, as I could not justify the expense of a re-election. But I thought it incumbent upon me from every consideration of honour and candour to declare, that if I had wanted this reason, I should have desired to have excused myself from an engagement of
