Note 15 — Invasion Panics.
Reading edition
“The Duke of York is certainly in a bad way. All that we can do will be to acquit him of corruption; and indeed I doubt whether we shall be able to carry him so far as to acquit him of suspecting Mrs. Clarke’s practices and allowing them to go on. If we should succeed in both these objects, the question will then turn upon the point whether it is proper that a prince of the blood, who has manifested so much weakness as he has, and has led such a life (for that is material in these days), is a proper person to be intrusted with the duties of a responsible office.
“We shall be beat upon this question, I think. If we should carry it by a small majority, the duke will equally be obliged to resign his office, and most probably the consequence of such a victory must be that the government will be broken up.”—Sir A. Wellesley to the Duke of Richmond, 1809.