What say you in the South to the Administration? Will it be possible for them to go on? 'Tis strongly reported here that Milnes refused being Chancellor of the Exchequer. True it is that a King's Messenger was sent to him, and I believe that something which he declined was offered to him, but surely not that great office. I live in dread of the United _Talents_ being called in! Lord Wellesley and Lord Melville might enable them to go on, but without them they will never do. I am still willing to hope that Peace is not signed and that Bonaparte may be ill. The true story of the offer which was made to Pemberton Milnes was afterwards thus recorded by John Stanhope:-- Soon after he left Cambridge, Milnes made a bet of £300 to £500 with Kit Wilson, then a great character on the Turf--indeed for a long time Father of the Turf--that before seven years were over he should be Chancellor of the Exchequer. I do not mention this from mere rumour, for I heard Mr Wilson himself tell the story at dinner at Wentworth House, adding that the bet was drawn before the seven years were over. As will be seen by his letter to me, he was actually offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer at five-and-twenty,--not perhaps exactly in the view in which he originally intended, as that place has now for years been considered as attached to the position of the Prime Minister, but still with a place in the Cabinet. _Robert Pemberton Milnes to Walter Spencer-Stanhope._ _October 23rd, 1809._ My Dear Sir, As I feel as strongly as I can the kind expressions of friendship that we have interchanged, and as I flatter myself on this occasion you may find an interest in what perhaps may be thought a leading event in my life, I sit down to send you a line informing you of my having reached London, having received a letter from Perceval which would have made it personally disrespectful to him had I declined coming. On my arrival here, and after he had submitted in great detail the history of the Cabinet discussions, he closed by no less an offer than saying he had the King's orders to propose to me the situation either of Chancellor of the Exchequer or Secretary of War,--the latter without a seat in the Cabinet, if I wished to lessen the responsibility.