Reports continue of doubts about the Household Troops; probably some mere inventions, and others exaggerated; but the mischief of these reports is incalculable, because they promote distrust and suspicion on the one side, and agitation and restlessness on the other; and if one wished to create the evil, there could be no readier way than by the unremitted discussions which prevail everywhere upon this subject. The 71st and 85th Light Infantry regiments, now under Sir J. Byng, are ordered up to Uxbridge and to the neighbourhood of London; I trust, therefore, and indeed I hear, that in Byng's district things are tolerably quiet; but if the Q---- goes to Manchester, as she threatens, the two regiments will perhaps have to march back again. What you hear about Canning is true. He attends no Cabinets, and is going to Italy. The Q---- is sending what she calls her _Commissioners_ to Milan. There are among them, as I hear, two respectable lawyers. The Attorney-General said two days ago that the prosecutor's case would take a month. I am glad to hear you have good accounts from every part of the Bucks Yeomanry. Everything looks too fearful to allow me the expression of anything but the most heartfelt regret, that on a question which in three weeks may decide upon the fate of the country, there should be a single Grenville found among those whom we may have to fear and (dreadful to think) to resist! I shall return with you to town, for if there is danger where my brother and you are, there will I be. LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. Malvern Wells, July 24, 1820. You will, perhaps, have heard from my brother, to whom I wrote the day I knew it, of the very handsome and kind manner in which the Divinity Professorship at Oxford has been offered to Hodgson through me, and I am sure it will have given you pleasure both on his account and mine. Lord Liverpool could hardly have found a more delicate or a more effectual way of gratifying me, and I must say he has done so very much indeed. The appointment is, in all other respects, one that must do him credit, and I trust it may lead to still further prospects for Hodgson. It has long been a matter of deep mortification to me to think how much Hodgson's universally acknowledged merits had been put by on the account of the part he had taken in my support, and I delight now in thinking that he will ultimately not be a loser by that circumstance. We shall, of course, meet on the 17th, if indeed that day is adhered to; but, after so many delays, one hardly knows how to reckon on any fixed time for this unpleasant business.