The Government of the United States has detected the conspiracy which has long been gathering to break off the Northern from the Southern States, and so to make the Allegany Mountains the boundary. Mr. Burr,[253] who killed General Hamilton, is the head of it, and orders have been given to arrest him. General Wilkinson with the army is in the South and declared for Burr. [Illustration: _J. Hoppner Pinscit, 1798_ _Emery Walker Ph.sc._ _John, Viscount Boringdon_ (_afterwards Earl of Morley_)] [Sidenote: BURR’S CONSPIRACY] Burr laid the whole plot open to our Minister, and asked the assistance of England; Merry transmitted the communication to Ld. Mulgrave,[254] who, as usual, returned no answer. Ld. Grenville calls the American a _Mob Government_, and one too weak to carry its own measures into effect. The Scotch Peers elections have gone well; Ld. Melville was cruelly disappointed, he expected to carry four, and only carried Ld. Aberdeen. Kinnaird behaved imprudently and foolishly; however, Ld. Lauderdale’s dexterity and activity carried him through. Till the very moment before the election, Lord Melville reckoned upon carrying _four_. Deliberations in the Cabinet upon an attack on Mexico; Ld. Grenville sent to Ld. H. Sr. Arthur Wellesley’s plan.[255] Sir Arthur Wellesley appears to have obtained all his information with respect to the accessible points for attacking S. America, New Spain, from a Mr. Frazier. _18th December._--Lauderdale entertains no doubt whatever that the note so very offensive in its language to him was written, and also that it was written by the Emperor himself; and, moreover, that the Ministers, to avoid a severe reprimand from him for having ventured to suppress it, have thus impudently ventured to publish it officially. The other speculation is that the order for the publication of the correspondence was sent from Berlin, and the clerks published _all_, _brouillons_ included. This is the most probable. The melancholy year of 1806 died with another loss: the D. of Richmond[256] died at Goodwood of suppressed gout and a liver complaint, discovered only after death.