On the 1st of January, 1788, Lord Buckingham transmitted to the Ministers a copy of the speech he proposed for the opening of the Irish Parliament on the 17th. He threw himself at once into the labours of his Government, which, judging from the multitude of topics that pressed upon his time, and the conscientious consideration he bestowed upon them, were onerous and absorbing. His correspondence of this period is very voluminous, and embraces in detail an infinite variety of subjects. The universal reliance which was placed in his justice and toleration, drew upon him petitions and complaints from all manner of people. Sometimes advice upon the state of the nation was volunteered from an obscure student, who, looking out upon the great world through the "loopholes of retreat," imagined he had discovered a panacea for all public evils; sometimes the claim, real or imaginary, of individuals upon the patronage of Government were urged with vehemence, or humility, according to the temperament of the claimant, but in most cases, with the sanguine eagerness of the national character; in one instance, a retired Quaker, animated by the best intentions, suggests a project for protecting the mail-coaches against robbers, by sending them to their destination under an escort of dragoons; and in another, a citizen begs the personal interference of the Lord-Lieutenant concerning a cheat which was put upon a poor country-boy, who had been buying some second-hand article at an old furniture shop in Dublin. To all the applications, of every kind, that were addressed to him, Lord Buckingham paid scrupulous attention, bringing to the discharge of the most trivial duties of his station the same diligence and earnestness he bestowed on the most important.