Volume 2 — DUEL OF CANNING AND CASTLEREAGH (1809). Source.—Diary of Lord Colchester, 1861. Vol. ii., p. 209.
Reading edition
Letter from Mr. Perceval.
Downing Street, Sept. 20th, 1809.
Dear Mr. Speaker,
I have had so much to say that I have no time to say it; but I might have found time to have thanked you for your kind and ready answer to my former letter.
You have judged me perfectly right. If you had asked my advice I could not have been so dishonest as not to have given it for the decision you have made. Castlereagh and Canning have been fighting. Thank God Canning is not severely hurt, and Castlereagh is not touched. Terrible, all this, for public impression. What we are to do is not finally settled. It must end in an attempt to form an united Government with our opponents. But it is a bitter pill to swallow for more than one.
When I can tell you anything positive, and can get a moment to tell it, I will.
Yours very truly, Sp. Perceval.