On his return to London, George IV. told me that Lord Londonderry had gone to show him the scheme of instructions which he had drawn up for himself and which he was to follow at the Congress. George IV. took up the manuscript, the better to weigh its terms, and began to read it aloud. He noticed that Lord Londonderry was not listening to him and that he was turning his eyes round the ceiling of the closet: "What's the matter, my lord?" asked the King. "It's that insufferable John[215], sir, who is at the door; he will not go away, though I am always telling him." The King, astonished, folded up the manuscript and said: "You are ill, my lord; go home; get yourself bled." Lord Londonderry went out and went to buy the pen-knife with which he cut his throat. On the 15th, I continued my reports to M. de Montmorency: "Messengers have been sent in every direction, to the watering-places, to the sea-side, to the country-houses, to fetch the absent ministers. At the time of the accident none of them were in London. They are expected to-day or to-morrow; they will hold a Council, but they cannot decide anything, for in the last result the King will appoint their new colleague, and the King is in Edinburgh. It is unlikely that His Britannic Majesty will hasten to make a choice in the midst of the celebrations. The death of the Marquess of Londonderry is a serious matter for England: he was not loved, but he was feared; the Radicals hated him, but they were afraid of him. Singularly courageous, he overawed the Opposition, which did not dare to insult him too much in Parliament or in the newspapers. His imperturbable coolness, his profound indifference for men and things, his instinct for despotism and his secret contempt for constitutional liberties made him a minister well-fitted to contend successfully with the tendencies of the century. His defects became good qualities at a time when exaggeration and democracy threaten the world. "I have the honour to be, etc." "LONDON, 15 _August_ 1822. "MONSIEUR LE VICOMTE, "Further intelligence confirms what I had the honour to tell you touching the death of the Marquess of Londonderry, in my ordinary dispatch of the day before yesterday, No. 49. Only, the fatal instrument with which the unfortunate minister cut his jugular vein was a pen-knife, and not a razor as I told you. The coroner's report, which you will read in the newspapers, will inform you fully. This inquest held on the corpse of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, as though on the body of a murderer, adds something still more terrible to this event