his saying that "If I can't shake this off, I must quit the country at once, for I will not stay here to go home like Sherbrooke with one side dead". I fear too that the mind has had a great share in producing his present deplorable condition[.] For he took a great dislike from the first to Calcutta & its Society & habits; and I am convinced he carried with him & still retains a deep rankling sense of the cruel injustice done him by the Gov^t which instead of supporting & defending him for his upright firm and manly discharge of his duty has meanly sacrificed his reputation & character. I wish to God he was safe back on the Banks of the Esk, where I have seen how much he was respected esteemed & beloved by men whose esteem was worth having.

I have seen the coarse and bitter attacks, to which you allude, on heSir James Kempt[.] He was only beginning to come in for his share; and the ingratitude of the party is doubly great towards him, who had done all […] to please them[.] You may depend upon it that Sir J.K whose sagacity wa in matters relating to himself was one of his most striking qualities, saw & calculated from the first, to a nicety, how long a system of concession & temporizing policy would last keep things quiet; and took his measures accordingly to quit the Government after a certain time?time[.] The consequences of that system will remain to be felt by his Successor[.] I am more & more happy that I have nothing further to do with political or public matters than my duty in Council imposes on me[.] I would not

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