till some future occasion. He refused to be the person to run the risque of such a determination; he refused to be the person to raise a flame in the country, that nothing short of arms would be able to keep down. He then alluded to Mr. Pitt's letter; appealed to his knowledge of the situation of a lord lieutenant in that kingdom; and left him to determine, whether, if he were not to be supported, he ought not to be removed. Shortly after came two official letters from the duke of Portland, dated the 16th, in which he entered into a long detail of the various points of view in which the cabinet wished to have the question of the Catholics considered; on the same day with these came a private letter of his own dated the 18th. In this his grace dwells most particularly on the necessity of the cabinet having information submitted to them on all these points of view and a detailed plan of all the additional advantages intended to be conceded to the Catholics. He observed, that if the consideration of that great question could be deferred till peace was re-established, he should not have a doubt but that it would be attended with advantages, which, perhaps, are not to be hoped for in any other supposable case: but he added, "that it was surely going too far, to infer "from any thing he had said, that he was desired to undertake "the task of deferring it to that period. If the cabinet were to "accede, what they desired was, to be justified in that accession "by a free and impartial investigation of facts, of circumstances "and of opinions, in which, as of reason, his lordship's would "have the most decisive weight; and as he had expressed a wish "to have the mode considered in England whilst it was still within "his reach, to have it limited or modified before the bill was in"troduced, and before the plan was known to the Catholics, he "wished to have that plan and the heads of the bill transmitted "for consideration."

At the moment of his grace's writing this letter, there was not a fact, a circumstance," or an "opinion" that could have been transmitted to him, of which he was not in possession. He acknowledged, and often referred to lord Fitzwilliam's letter of the 10th of February, in which he had the plan, the oath, on which the whole depended, on which every thing that regarded the constitution, the ecclesiastical establishment, and the settlement of property rested. He had the primate's opinion, and some ideas that his grace had suggested. The very day after he had written that letter, which pressed for more information, his grace assisted at the cabinet meeting, that unanimously concurred in the necessity of recalling the lord lieutenant: and in a letter of the 21st he summed up all the reasons, why that measure was deemed necessary, without one dissenting voice, for the very preservation of the empire. "Can any thing be more self-evi

dent, or, in order to account for the real causes of my recall, did it require that this letter should be accompanied, as it was, by one from Mr. Pitt of the same date, accepting in fact, the alternative I proposed to him, and declaring himself fully prepared for the event, however he might lament it. It is true indeed, that, for the very first time, he mentions the Catholic business, and declares his concurrence in the general desire of the cabinet to prevent any further progress being made in Mr. Grattan's bill, till they should receive and consider the information, which they thought it their duty to call for. Would you not have supposed from this, that to decide on my government, Mr. Pitt meant to wait till he received farther information from me, respecting the important question of the Catholics? No such thing. By the dereliction of all my friends, and by the prospect of my falling alone, he was prepared to throw out this as a matter, on which to amuse his colleagues at the moment, and the public at a future period: while to myself, without allowing a moment's farther deliberation, he boldly and peremptorily pronounces on what I had determined to be the point to decide on my government. "On the subject of arrangements, he felt bound to adhere to his "sentiments, not only with respect to Mr. Beresford, but to the "line of conduct adopted in so many instances towards the "former supporters of government. By these sentiments, he "must at all events be guided, from a regard to the king's service "and to his own honour, however sincerely he might lament the 66 consequences which must arise from the present situation."

"Need I add any comment on this letter? Need I observe to you, that the measure of the Roman Catholics, on which it is now asserted my administration was determined, is here reserved for future consideration, whilst the subject of arrangements is finally and peremptorily decided. At all events, and independent of every other consideration, his own honour obliges him not to give way on that subject, and however he laments it, he acquiesces in what I had stated to him must be the consequences of such a decision on his part.

"Let my friends therefore, my dear Carlisle, no longer suffer the Catholic question to be mentioned, as entering, in the most distant degree, into the causes of my recall."

That letter of the duke of Portland's was accompanied by one also from Mr. Pitt, which accepted, in fact, of the alternative proposed by lord Fitzwilliam, and declared he was fully prepared for the event, however he might lament it. In that letter he mentioned, for the first time, the subject of the Catholic business, and declared his concurrence in the general desire of the cabinet to prevent any further progress being made in Mr. Grattan's bill, till they should receive and consider the informa

tion, which they thought it their duty to call for. This language upon the Catholic question seems to purport that Mr. Pitt rather adopted the sentiments of others, than spoke his own. But his language upon the dismissals imported directly the reverse. From the purport of this letter and other circumstances, earl Fitzwilliam was induced to believe, and he published his conviction, that the Catholic question entered for nothing into the real cause of his recall, but that it was solely owing to the dismissal of Mr. Beresford.* Notwithstanding the facts and letters, by

* In confirmation of these conclusions of lord Fitzwilliam, a very strong chain of facts leads every unbiassed man to attribute the extraordinary recall of that viceroy from his government to the preponderancy of Mr. Beresford's interest with the premier, not indeed immediate and personal, but indirect and relative through those who were well known to possess the strongest influence upon the mind of that minister. Mr. Beresford had been, as his friends termed him, the faithful servant (as his enemies denominated him, the servile tool) of every successive chief governor from lord Townsend to that period. The nature of that gentleman's situation in Ireland did not require any personal communications with the head of the British ministry: consequently his merits could only have been known through the organs of those to whom he so closely adhered. These were the persons, through whom, according to lord Fitz william, the intelligence of Mr. Beresford's dismissal was indirectly conveyed to Mr. Pitt by Mr. Beresford himself; through them those later favourable impressions were worked into the minister's mind, which at last brought it to such peremptory decision against the dismissals, whilst it remained open to information and consultation upon the Catholic question. "Therefore," said lord Fitzwilliam, "let my friends no longer suffer the Catholic question to be men"tioned, as entering in the most distant degree into the causes of my recall. "Let them listen no longer to that terrifying enumeration of evils and mise"ries to result to the empire from a measure, which my enemies assert to "have considered either as originating with myself exclusively, or as hurried "on by me rashly and precipitately, or without consent or consultation. You "have seen when the dread of these miseries was first conceived, and when "the complaint of this want of consultation was first brought forward. Had "Mr. Beresford never been dismissed, we never should have heard of them, ❝ and I should have remained. But so remaining, I should have been disgraced. Indeed, disgraced by the failure of all the measures which I had planned for the public welfare, and loaded with all the odium which that gentleman, and his connexions have entailed upon government, to which I "had succeeded." Thus in the British House of Peers, lord Westmoreland first set out in praise of Mr. Beresford, whose influence was that of an active and able man, who was zealous in the service of his king and the preservation of the peace and tranquillity of his country: faithful, vigilant and indefatigable in his services: a man of unblemished reputation, who had conducted himself in his high office with so much honour and fidelity. The marquis Townsend wished for nothing more earnestly than an opportunity of meeting any inviduous charges against Mr. Beresford. The marquis of Buckingham bore the strongest testimony to the loyalty and attachment of Mr. Beresford to his majesty, and felt himself called upon by justice and gratitude to declare, that during his administration of that country he found him a man of high honour and correct integrity. Lord Auckland concurred in that testimony to the character of Mr. Beresford, who had been twenty-five years in the service of the public. It was evident from the forward and strained eulogies which these noble lords delivered of Mr. Beresford's worth and virtue, that they made a common cause with him, that they considered his disgrace as the condemnation of their administra tion, and his dismissal as the immediate and exclusive cause of earl Fitzwilliam's

*

which that transaction has been supported and denied by men of the first respectability, the public mind has never been decided upon the subject. The solemn assertions of a nobleman of the most distinguished probity and veracity are in one scale: the contradictions of a whole set of cabinet ministers, backed by a majority in both houses of parliament, are in the other: the reader will give the preponderancy. Thus properly ended the short-lived administration of earl Fitzwilliam: from which commenced a government of rigour and coercion, the consequences of which will appear in the series of future detail.

The professed plan of the new administration was little calculated to gratify the feelings of those, who had so long concurred in the support of systems diametrically the reverse. On the 17th of February, Mr. Graydon recapitulated the duty of the house in watching with scrutinous vigilance the expenditure of the public money, and the adoption of every practical measure of retrenchment, at a crisis so arduous as the present, when the country was called on for a greater supply than ever was known at any former period.

He professed his determination to bring forward, with permis sion of the house, a strict inquiry into every branch of the public expense. For the present, he should begin by moving, that a committee be appointed to inquire into the expenditures of the rev nae established for twenty years past, the number of additional officers appointed in each year, with the names of the persons, and salary annexed to each office.

The chancellor of the exchequer said, he should not resist the motion, unless it had for its object the censure of the revenue board.

recall. The following part of lord Fitzwilliam's speech in the House of Lords developes much of this mysterious transaction: it was not then replied to, and has never since been answered. "If he had before conceived that the Catholic question was not the genuine cause of his recall, he was now convinced of the fact. The noble earl had returned from Ireland according to his own account, only with the intention to govern it more securely. He had declared that he had, even before his return, Mr. Pitt's promise, that his friends should not be removed from their situations, and he had no sooner set his foot in England, than he had procured these promises to be renewed, and had taken care to embarrass the new arrangement of the administration. To this in so many words, did his own account of the conference with ministers tend. And it certainly was most perfectly true, that the noble earl had taken all the measures in his power to embarrass the future administration in Ireland; for what other purpose could the granting a reversion for two lives of a place of 23001. a year to lord Fitzgibbon serve? He had not been two days in Ireland before he discovered what the noble earl now owned to be the case, before he was convinced of his intention to embarrass the king's government, and that a very perfect system had been formed with the ministers at home for accomplishing that end. That which he had sensibly felt in Ireland was now avowed in England, and it seemed there was no hesitation in acknowledging the course which had been previously arranged."

Mr. Grattan avowed vigilance over the public expenditures, and retrenchment of expenses, as principal objects of the present administration, more especially in the revenue department, where, he was convinced, great abuses had existed. As the honourable member had moved the inquiry, he should have his concurrence and support, and every aid consistent with the variety of his avocations.

Sir Lawrence Parsons wished the measure had been suffered to come from administration, as most likely, in that case, to be efficient.

Mr. Mason professed himself ready to contribute his aid most cheerfully to the inquiry proposed by the honourable member, and he could answer to the same purpose for the commissioners of the revenue.

Mr. Graydon's motion was carried (being only opposed by the single negative of colonel Blaquiere, and the committee was appointed to sit on the morrow.

The resolutions of the cabinet were not instantly followed up by a recall the fact was confidentially known to many, though publicly avowed by none. The same parliamentary conduct was pursued, as if no such change were in agitation. On the 17th of February* Mr. Grattan, after a few observations on the inadequacy of the police establishment to the protection of the citi zens, and the enormity of its expenses, moved the house to come to the following resolution, "that the present police is an experiment found to be inadequate for the protection of the "citizens, and exorbitant in its expense; and it is therefore "expedient that it be put down by act of parliament, and an in"stitution for the establishment of a parochial watch instituted "in its stead."

Mr. Marcus Beresford dissented from this resolution, as going to contradict what the house had so often resolved to be otherwise, and in as much as the police had proved infinitely superior to any establishment for the same purpose.

The question was put and carried in the affirmative without a division. Petitions continued to flow in daily from different bodies of the Catholics: but nothing worthy of particular notice occurred till the 26th of the month, at which time the recall of the viceroy was spoken of as a certainty. On that day sir Lawrence Parsons, who with Mr. Duquery had hitherto stood alone in opposition to the government upon the question of war, rose and said,† that with the deepest concern he noticed a prevailing rumour, that their viceroy was about to retire from the high station which he filled. He hoped it was false: for that nobleman's public and private virtues not only endeared him to all † 15 Par. Deb. 133.

* 15 Par. Deb, 121.