Lord Liverpool positively asserts that he has neither directly nor indirectly pensioned Cobbett. I really think the Duke of Wellington not a little indebted to him for forcing the Whigs to declare county meetings a farce. Ever affectionately yours, C. W. W. [103] The late Lord Raglan. East India Office, Wednesday. Reginald Heber has, after much hesitation, to-day accepted the Bishopric of Calcutta; I grieve at losing him, but believe that the appointment will be most extensively beneficial. Our Brighton detachment reports the K---- to have been in excellent humour and spirits, and the general health good, but so lame as to occasion considerable doubt whether he may recover the use of his feet, which are much contracted. THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. East India Office, Jan. 20, 1823. MY DEAR B----, I see the changes have at length got into the newspapers. I am only astonished that the secret has been preserved longer than any similar one which I recollect, as it has been in agitation ever since Canning came into office, and the hope of assisting it by inducing Van to take my office was one of the considerations most strongly urged upon me at the close of our discussion relative to the Speakership. For the best possible reason I cannot tell you our finance plans, but I trust that considerable reduction of taxes must form a part of them, agreeably to Liverpool's assurances. In the course of two or three days I shall know more. Robinson[104] will be a decided improvement on poor Van, both in manner and popularity with the House, but as to measures, Liverpool must of course give the orders, and he obey. Still he is a man of sense and judgment, though perhaps deficient in energy, and if (as I am told) Huskisson will draw well with him, it really is the best appointment, both ostensibly and in fact, that we have materials for. Lord F. Somerset's instructions are decidedly to act under A'Court's orders, and only to make those communications from the D---- of W---- to Alava and other individuals, which could not with any propriety be conveyed through the accredited Minister, and which would in truth excite all the clamour against interference in the internal affairs of Spain, which we most desire to avoid. With respect to the question of sugars, I am very far from having formed any definite opinion, and am disposed to go into the Committee which Van last year pledged himself to grant, with a most impartial spirit. The bias of my mind certainly is to believe that by no means in our power can the ruin of the old sugar islands be averted, and that the present plan only sacrifices the East Indies to the new ones, which in their turn will be obliged to give way to the S. American Continent.