Extract of a letter : [Burlington House, London] to Mr. Canning, 1809 July 18.

Concerning the responsibility for communicating with Lord Castlereagh; saying "...I shall be always ready to avow it's having originated with me, and whatever Blame may have been or be to be incurred, to take the whole of it, & to acknowledge the Remonstrances you have repeatedly made against it. But I must own to you, that I neither knew, nor did I imagine, that to a late Period, or indeed at any time since the measure of Lord Castlereagh's Removal has been in agitation, you have believed that the Communication of it had been actually made to Him. From whom indeed could it be necessary to conceal it when once made known to him? as far, I mean, as the Harmony of the Administration was concerned? but it is not my intention or wish to discuss the Propriety of the Reserve that has been observed. I will only say, that, it having been a condition required by me of every person to whom I communicated what had passed between you and me, at, and subsequent to, our Conversations at Bulstrode, and the King having permitted me to lay my Reasons for that Concealment before him, and having been pleased to sanction it by requiring it to be observed by those to whom He had occasion to mention the Subject, it did not occur to me that it would have been supposed that it had been departed from in the case of Lord Castlereagh himself. But it happens that it has not been so, and, in that respect my mind is at rest. - and as I am wiling to take upon myself all the Blame that may be to be incurred, I hope no further uneasiness will arise to you from that Consideration."