it to Bedford, it is not very astonishing if some confusion was the consequence. Meanwhile an angry correspondence ensued, in which every one appealed to his neighbour. "I write to you," says Shelburne to Bute, "merely on what I have heard of the Duke of Bedford's conversation yesterday, and to tell you, what you may suppose, that I am exceedingly sorry if any part of it tended to a want of the tenderest sense of the many favours he and his friends have received from you: many of which coming through my hands and with my knowledge, I should be sorry you did not think I did full justice to your intentions, and that I and those I have any influence over are of a different opinion. I protest I am, and I hope by what I have heard, Mr. Pitt is. But I own I am anxious to confirm you in it, that you should be as kind as possible in the beginning to Lord Temple, which is a point that must come about sooner or later, and I wish it to come from you, and in the beginning. …[1]
"I ought to tell you I have seen Lord Gower and showed him the paragraph of the letter relative to the Duke of Bedford's conversation. And I have the pleasure to tell you, notwithstanding what has passed on all sides since, he did not pretend to say those were the expressions made use of. He argued indeed as to the meaning of others, which were exactly those so often repeated and allowed of, by your Lordship."[2]
At the same time he wrote to Calcraft as follows:
"I send you in very great confidence the enclosed language of the Duke of Bedford to the King. I therefore beseech you to see Rigby immediately, and to send me such an account of that matter, stating whatever may have passed from you tending to this or from Rigby to the Duke of Bedford, as will justify me; for God knows how very opposite it was to any instructions of mine or to any ideas I always understood of yours as well as mine, to make any mention of Lord Bute's name in the transaction, much less his retiring from the King's presence in any event. You'll not let the enclosed out of your hands, till
