ty was too formidable to be damped or disappointed, and lord Fitzwilliam judged, that to defer the consideration of their demands could not be attempted without danger. Mr. Grattan possessed the unlimited confidence of the Catholics, and of the lord lieutenant.* On the 24th of January, Mr. Grattan presented a petition of the Catholics of the city of Dublin, whose names are thereunto subscribed, on behalf of themselves and others his

"ate, and whose councils, we trust, will be directed to unite the whole body "of his majesty's faithful subjects in the support of the honour of his crown, "and the safety and prosperity of all his dominions."

To this Address his Excellency was pleased to return the following answer: "THIS cordial address, justifying with such promptitude and alacrity the confidence which his majesty reposes in the spirit and loyalty of his faithful commons of Ireland, is of so salutary and animating a tendency, reflects such high honour on the national character, and gives so happy an earnest of the cheerfulness, vigour, and extent of the national exertion "at this arduous and trying crisis, that it calls for more than ordinary ex"pressions of satisfaction and acknowledgment.

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"Such sentiments, communicating themselves from one kingdom to the other; "such conformity in attachment to the constitution, and in affection for the best and most beloved of sovereigns, a spirit so firm and persevering in the support "of a cause which they consider as common to both; and a determination so "fixed and unshaken, to stand or fall together, must be as encouraging to "the friends as formidable to the enemies of the British name and empire. Standing on this ground, we have nothing to dread. The disturbers of the 76 peace of Europe will see that, bound indissolubly together in interests, in principles, and in affection, Great Britain and Ireland disregard their "menaces, and are determined, under Providence, to check the course of "their exterminating ambition.

"If any thing could be wanting to complete my satisfaction at this happy "and auspicious commencement of my administration, I should find it in the "flattering terms in which you express your approbation of my principles and past conduct, and in the generous confidence, with which you anticipate "future benefits to be derived to this kingdom from my loyalty to my sove'દ reign, and my inviolable attachment to the rights and liberties of the people. "The stake which I have in your country you naturally conclude onght to "bind me in a peculiar manner to its interests; but such considerations are "languid and cold indeed, when compared with the ardent desire I feel to "recommend myself in this new connexion which I have formed with you, to "the approbation, the esteem, and the affection of the whole of Ireland."

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* Of this matter, lord Fitzwilliam gave the following account:-" When I "had fully satisfied myself, by every information that I could gain, that this "was the real state of the affair; and when I found that any attempt of mine to stop it for the present would be useless, it gave me great satisfaction to find that the business had been put into the hands of my friend, Mr. Grattan, by the Catholics, as it gave me an opportunity of knowing every thing that was intended, and of consulting upon it with the cabinet in London, previous "to its being publicly known. When once the Catholics had positively de"cided to bring forward this question, even if I had not had previous consul"tation with my colleagues on the business, under such circumstances I "should have thought it right and expedient to gain credit and strength to the "administration, by yielding to the general wish; but the fact is, that while "I was following my own opinions and inclinations, I was following their di"rections, and I strictly complied with them; when finding that the general "disposition was not to be resisted, I resolved to give the measure a handsome "and cordial support on the part of government. The happy effects of this "determination I fully experienced."

majesty's Catholic subjects; that in pursuance of his majesty's most gracious and paternal recommendation of the situation of his Catholic subjects of that kingdom to the wisdom and liberality of his parliament, which was, in the course of the session of 1793, pleased to remove many of the disabilities, pains and penalties under which the Catholics of Ireland had so long laboured, by a repeal of divers severe and oppressive laws peculiarly affecting that body; that while the petitioners felt the deepest and most lively sense of the wisdom and goodness of parliament, manifested in the repeal of the said penal and restrictive statutes, they could not, in justice to themselves, refrain from most humbly submitting, that the Catholics of Ireland had been, and still were, in a number and variety of instances, prevented from enjoying the full benefits of the constitution of their country, by the existence of certain disabilities and restraints which the petitioners then did, with all humility and deference, presume to hope, on every principle, as well of expediency as of justice, it would no longer be thought necessary to retain; that the petitioners did most humbly presume to suggest to the wisdom of the house, that the most effectual mode to unite in sentiment all his majesty's subjects of Ireland in support of their most excellent constitution, agreeably to his gracious and paternal wish, would be to extend to them its blessings, by the abolition of those incapacities and disqualifications, of which the petitioners presumed most humbly to complain; and therefore praying the house to take the situation of the petitioners into consideration, their loyalty to their sovereign, their respect to the legislature, and dutiful and obedient submission to the laws, they would be pleased to restore them to a full enjoyment of the blessings of their most excellent constitution, by a repeal of all the penal and restrictive laws then affecting the Catholics of Ireland. The petition was ordered to lie on the table.

On the same day Mr. Vandeleur presented a petition much to the same effect, from the Catholics of the county of Clare; and soon after the table was laden with similar petitions from every distinct body of Catholics throughout the realm. Of the intermediate proceedings between the presentation of the first Catholic petition, and the motion for bringing in the Catholic bill, we have the following authentic account from the only source from which it could be procured.* On the 12th of February 1794, Mr. Grattan moved for leave to bring in the bill, which was given with only the three dissentient voices of Dr. Duigenan, Mr. Ogle, and colonel Blaquiere. That nobleman observing that

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it had been objected to him, that the bill had been brought in precipitately, assured his noble correspondent that that was not the fact. "Leave to bring in a bill has certainly been moved "for by Mr. Grattan, but not a line of the bill itself ever produ"ced. There appeared a rising impatience among the Catho"lics after the delivery of their petitions, which made me apprehend that the measure might be transferred from the hands "of Mr. Grattan to those of another, with whom I might have "no connexion, and consequently, over whom I could have no "hopes of control, or to have communication, however much I "might wish it. There was no want of candidates for this ho66 nour: there were enough greedy to seize upon it. I therefore "desired Mr. Grattan to take possession of the business, that I 66 might be sure of myself having control over the management "of the bill. By this means, the plan and extent of the measure " is now known only to the British cabinet, to whom I have sub“mitted it, and it remains a profound secret to every Roman Ca"tholic and to every Protestant, except to the very few of the lat66 ter description, to whom I have thought proper to confide it. "Of these the primate was the first; and ministers are already "possessed of his opinions on the subject; they are equally in 66 possession of every information respecting men's minds and 66 tempers, which I am able to give: with respect to the merits "of the case, abstracted from the local circumstances, surely it "would be presumption in me to dictate to them: I have repre"sented clearly and distinctly my own opinions, but they are ca"pable of deciding and judging for themselves: in the way I "have managed, they have an opportunity of doing it before "the bill is introduced; so that if they do not agree with Mr. "Grattan's, (in which I heartily concur) and if they do not come “ up to the extent claimed and expected by the Catholics, they “have had time, previous to the introduction of the bill, to sug66 gest any expedients, modifications, or limitations, they may "think proper to introduce; thus, by my management, govern"ment will do this without incurring the odium of narrowing an "original proposition, and defeating hopes once realized. Thus, "then, I made myself master, as well of the time of bringing "the measure forward, as for consulting on the points to be con"ceded: for, as to resisting altogether, I should have belied 66 my own conviction, and betrayed my situation, if I did not "represent, as I have repeatedly done, that it would not only de"feat every hope I had formed for the general security and de"fence of the country, but be attended with the certainty of the "most alarming and fatal consequences."

On the 14th of February, lord Milton informed the house that he was commanded by his excellency to communicate to

them his majesty's gracious answer to their address. The only material paragraph of it noticed, that the favourable sentiments which they had expressed of the earl Fitzwilliam, could not but be pleasing to his majesty, as they confirmed those impressions which recommended him to his majesty's choice for the chief government of Ireland. This confirmation of the royal choice of the viceroy, was singularly received and commented upon in Dublin, having been communicated to the House of Commons on the very day which brought tidings that the British minister was adverse to the important measure which the lord lieutenant was thus publicly pursuing. The joy and exultation expressed by the Catholics on the occasion of leave for bringing in their bill, exceeded any similar instance in that country; but it was suddenly damped by, this inexplicable intelligence, and their high mounted expectations fell into desponding gloom.

It has generally been the bane of Ireland, that its government has been seldom carried on upon those open principles of the constitution which never fail to insure the happiness of the governed. Nothing could more emphatically demonstrate the apprehensions of earl Fitzwilliam, that Mr. Beresford was filling situation greater than that of the lord lieutenant, than the issue of this contest for power. A regular correspondence was carried on, as was natural between the lord lieutenant and the British cabinet upon the subject of the delicate, arduous, and important matters, which were to be carried on in Ireland. Not only had earl Fitzwilliam been permitted to quit this country with a plenitude of power and discretion over the Catholic question, but he had acted for above a month upon it in Ireland without even an oblique reference to any difference of opinion in the British cabinet from him upon the subject of the Catholic question. The dismissal of Mr. Beresford had, indeed, been productive of very alarming effects in that quarter. It appears, however, from a letter of Mr. Wyndham's to lord Milton, written on the 2d of February, that the duke of Portland was at that time unacquainted with the alarm, which the intelligence of that transaction, conveyed indirectly to Mr. Pitt by Mr. Beresford himself, had occasioned. On the 9th of February, and not before, Mr. Pitt wrote to earl Fitzwilliam to expostulate on the dismissal of Mr. Beresford: and also on the negociation with Messrs. Wolfe and Toler: that formed the whole matter of his letter, and to that alone he confined his remonstrances: so far was he from finding any fault with the measures hitherto pursued, and which he well knew, that he concluded his letter by apologizing for interrupting his attention from the many important considerations of a different nature, to which all their minds ought to be directed. On the preceding day, the duke of Portland, for the first time,

in a letter to earl Fitzwilliam, touched on the subject of Catho lic emancipation, and then bringing it into play as a question of any doubt or difficulty in the British cabinet: and in that letter, as if it had never been the subject of any former consultation, plan, or arrangement whatever, he wrote of enabling the king's ministers to form their judgment as to the policy, expediency, safety and necessity of that measure. Then, as if he had never heard from his excellency upon the subject, he cautioned him against committing himself by engagements, or even by encouraging language, (so minute was his grace) to give any countenance to the immediate adoption of the measure. Then, for the first time it appeared to have been discovered, that the deferring would not be an expediency, or a thing to be desired for the present; "but the means of doing a greater service to the British "empire, than it had been capable of receiving since the revolu❝tion, or at least since the union." The duke of Portland, in consequence of the discussion of the question in the cabinet on the 7th of February, then felt it his duty to exhort the lord lieutenant to use those efforts which he had on the 8th of January expressed his intention of trying, though doubtful of success: but every hope of which, he had expressly assured his grace in a letter of the 15th of January, he had relinquished, when he warned them of the necessity of giving way, and earnestly called upon them for peremptory directions, which, if he should not receive, he would acquiesce. Efforts, which they knew, from the whole series of his correspondence, it was impossible even to attempt without evident and certain danger. Advanced as matters were in Ireland, it appears mysterious that Mr. Pitt, had he been averse from that prominent measure of Catholic emancipation, should have written to earl Fitzwilliam two days after the discussion of it in the cabinet without any allusion to it whatever, excepting such as rather imported his and his colleagues' co-ope ration in the measure, than their reprobation of it.

On the 14th of February, that is, two days after Mr. Grattan had obtained leave to bring in the Catholic bill, earl Fitzwillam received Mr. Pitt's letter of the 9th, and the duke of Portland's of the 8th, and on that same day his excellency wrote answers to each of them. That to Mr. Pitt contained a full discussion and justification of his dismissals. But that to the duke of Portland was calculated to bring the business to the real point at issue between them, and to leave him no subterfuge. It testified his excellency's surprise, that after such an interval of time, and after the various details, transmitted to him, advising him of the hourly increasing necessity of bringing forward the Catholic question, and the impolicy and dangers of resisting, or even hesitating about it, he then should be pressed for the first time, to defer the question