Autograph letter signed : "Apsley House"[London], to George Canning, 1809 Dec. 8.

Apologizing for not having written sooner due to "the accumulated pressure of domestic and other business since my arrival. My anxious wish has been to manifest to you, what, I have ever felt & shall ever continue to feel, the strongest sentiments of regard & affection, & the most sincere desire to continue our political attachment. With these sentiments and with the further solicitude of contributing by every effort in my power to heal the late unhappy divisions, I should be desirous of avoiding all controversial correspondence or discussion & I should hope that it might ultimately prove more satisfactory to both of us, concurring in a common disposition of kindness & friendship, to rest assured of our mutual good intentions towards each other, than to enter into any very minute examination of points, which may bear an aspect of an unpleasant description; discussing, at length and in detail, the intent of his "Letters or papers from Seville" which "were never intended either to accuse you or to vindicate myself against any charge of inconsistency in accepting office;" saying "I am now convinced that you resigned because you found that you could not obtain the execution of the promise, which had been made to you, without conditions, which in your judgment, would have frustrated the beneficial effect of the whole arrangement. It is not necessary to discuss, whether in my judgment, those conditions appear to have the same tendency, which you apprehend. You were undoubtedly justified in acting upon your own view of the case at the moment, although I may not concur in the same view, or in the same apprehensions. But I must lament, what I never have attempted to condemn, in any offensive sense of the term. That my name was distinctly stated to you for the office of the First Lord of the Treasury was most clearly to be inferred from the Papers which I had received; I am now satisfied that (whatever may have been the general understanding on the subject of my name for that situation), my name was not directly proposed to you, & directly negatived by you. It is not requisite to discuss whether my name might have been the means of general conciliation. But here again, I must declare that I never attempted to make even your direct rejection of my name a matter of accusation against you in any other view, than as it might be deemed an erroneous pursuit of a principle, which you deemed indispensable to the public Service. I hope that we shall here terminate this discussion with mutual sentiments of cordiality & good will. With regard to my acceptance of Office, it was not possible for me to decline it, under any view which I have taken of recent events : I really did not suppose that any further communication to you on that point could have been necessary, as my Letter of the 30th of October (MA 855.8) stated, that I had actively accepted office;" reiterating his "undiminished regard and respect" for him and his wish to "to act with you in the common Cause, & to witness the restoration of your talents to the public Service.".