CHAP. VII.]

DEBATE ON THE RECALL.

205

He

Leeds, and Guildford, and opposed by Lords Mansfield, Coventry, Carnarvon, Westmoreland, Townsend, and Grenville, who asserted that it was the inherent prerogative of the Crown to remove all public officers, and that his Majesty was not called on to assign any reasons. Lord Westmoreland declared that the concession of the Catholic question was contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and the Revolution, and that the coronation oath was a bar that could not be got over. admitted that he had taken the part of Mr. Beresford, and exerted himself against Lord Fitzwilliam to the utmost of his power. Lord Fitzwilliam asserted unequivocally, that he was fully authorised to complete the work of 1793, namely, Catholic emancipation. He challenged contradiction on this point, and added, emphatically, "for having connected myself with Mr. Grattan, I am dismissed; for it was obviously on that account chiefly that I incurred the hostility of the English minister!!" The motion was rejected by 100 to 25. A spirited protest was entered on the journals by Lords Ponsonby and Fitzwilliam; it details the entire proceeding of the Government. The sixth and fifteenth reasons assigned are so remarkable, that they are worthy of being introduced.

DISSENTIENT: 6th. Because it appeared in the course of the debate, without any attempt to contradict it, that the Earl aforesaid (Fitzwilliam), did actively and effectually promote the service of the Crown, and the public interest in Ireland, by encouraging through all fitting means, and discouraging by none, the zeal and affection to his Majesty of his Parliament of Ireland; by obtaining without delay, and with great unanimity, a vote of more than forty thousand men, by which the internal force of that king

but his house was so closely watched, that he was afraid to stir. Lord Moira was second to Lord Fitzwilliam. The parties met near Kensington, when a peace officer entered the ground and stopped all further proceedings.

206

PROTEST OF LORDS

[CHAP. VII.

dom was more than doubled; and by obtaining also a vote of two hundred thousand pounds for the better manning the navy of Great Britain-the first vote of the kind in the present war, and double, to the sole example of the supply of the same kind, voted in the Irish Parliament in the year 1782, as an acknowledgment of the vast and important concessions in legislation, commerce, and judicature, then made by the Parliament of Great Britain; both these supplies for the service of Great Britain were moved by Mr. Grattan ;

CONFIDENCE IN WHOM HAS BEEN IMPUTED AS BLAME

TO EARL FITZWILLIAM; though in the debate, nothing was alleged to show that this distinguished person, called to his confidence and councils, had ever, during Lord Fitzwilliam's Government, made any other use of the estimation in which he is held in his country, than to perform this, and other similar services to his Majesty's Government, and to reconcile the minds of his fellow-subjects of that kingdom to bear the burdens brought on these services with cheerfulness, and to co-operate with alacrity and unanimity in every means of giving them their full effect.

DISSENTIENT: 15th. Because it is offered in proof, that the late Lord-lieutenant was diligent in the search, and prompt in the communication to Ministers of every information on the subject. That he soon found, that all hope of putting off the question was impracticable;-that he had reason to think the present time, for carrying the principle of the acts of 1792 and 1793 to their full object, to be, of all others, most favourable ;-that he found the relief to be ardently desired by the Catholics; to be asked for by very many Protestants, and to be cheerfully acquiesced in by almost all-that this circumstance removed the difficulties, on which the postponing the question could alone be desired;-that he found the delays had created much suspicion and uneasiness amongst the Catholic petitioners, who were numerous almost beyond all example; that he found a bill on those petitions would infallibly and speedily be brought into Parliament, and that many members were desirous to introduce it; and, if this were the case, the measure might come into hands with which neither he nor the King's ministers had any connection, which would leave with Government only the disagreeable part of altering or of modifying, if any alteration or modification had been thought necessary by the British Government, depriving

CHAP. VII.] PONSONBY AND FITZWILLIAM.

207

His Majesty thereby of the whole grace and effect of what was done that in this unpleasant situation he sent for Mr. Grattan, and desired him, as a person in his confidence, and who would act on the occasion according to what he and the Ministers, in their prudence, might suggest ;-that Mr. Grattan did consent, and did, at his desire, move for leave to bring in a bill for the further relief of the Roman Catholics;-that the motion for leave was received with little discussion, and without any division ;-that no bill on the subject was, in fact, brought in, and that Ministry were informed, that none would be brought in without their knowledge; nor until of late, and after Lord Fitzwilliam's departure, was such a thing attempted;-that the then Lord-lieutenant communicated largely all his ideas on the subject that whilst the proposed bill was not yetintroduced into the House of Commons, and whilst he was obeying their instructions, with regard to informations and opinions, he was suddenly removed with the strongest marks of displeasure and disgrace;-that in this state of things, no sufficient reason appears to exist, in this measure, any more than in the business of arrangements, for the unusual and alarming step of disgracing a Lordlieutenant in the middle of a session of Parliament, in which the business of His Majesty and of the whole empire (as far as that kingdom would operate in it) was carried on with unusual unanimity and success, and with a very great concurrence without doors of all orders and descriptions of men. It is a step for which, on the debate, nothing was said to make it appear justifiable, and to render an inquiry concerning it unnecessary.

PONSONBY.
FITZWILLIAM.

In the House of Commons, a motion similar to that in the Lords was made by Mr. Jekyll, Mr. Fox, and Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grey spoke highly in favour of Lord Fitzwilliam, and complained of the ill treatment practised towards Ireland. Mr. Pitt declined any explanation, pleaded official secrecy, and the right of the King to remove or dismiss whom he pleased. No sufficient arguments were advanced against the Irish, nothing to justify or even palliate his con

208

LETTER OF LD. FITZWILLIAM

[CHAP. VII. duct; and his sole protection against a people he had thus injured and insulted, was his accustomed majority-188 to 49 being against the

motion.

LORD FITZWILLIAM TO MR. GRATTAN.

London, 25th April, 1795. DEAR GRATTAN, -The illness of Milton at Billing has prevented me writing to you: whilst I remained there, I could have nothing worth troubling you with. The scene now begins to open here. I went on Wednesday to the levee. Very little was said to me; only a few questions about my son's health; however, I thought the manner gracious, as the King, upon seeing me, passed by some people to come directly to me. After the levee was over, I demanded my audience in the closet; I opened the subject by stating myself, as a person in a state of crimination by the recall which his ministers had recommended to his Majesty to send for my return; that this could not have been recommended without implying misconduct; it was peculiarly, therefore, my duty to give to his Majesty the best account I was able of the circumstances of my administration, that he might recollect the perilous and difficult moment in which I received the government. A fleet of the enemy, of thirty-six sail of the line, came hovering upon our coast, and no strength on the part of his Majesty's fleet to protect us ;-we were open to invasion;-that an invasion would have occurred at that period, in an unfortunate moment, from the unfortunate circumstance of the great mass of the lower orders being disaffected notoriously, and supposed ready to flock to the standard of an invader ;that I had judged it necessary, without loss of time, to make such arrangements as I conceived would tend to give satisfaction to the public:-that this was to be done, not only by calling to my councils persons in which the public reposed real confidence, but to make it manifest at the same time, that the whole system of government, which was so odious, was no longer to be pursued, by the removal of particular persons;that his Majesty's service had incontrovertibly profited by the arrangements;-that the proof that it had, was to be found, first, in the grants and measures of Parliament, and next in the universal concurrence which those acts of his Parliament met with amongst every description of his subjects;-that the Catholic Question being a measure upon

CHAP. VII. HIS AUDIENCE WITH THE KING.

209

which the opinions of his Cabinet were known to me, as upon its principle there rested of discretion nothing but the time. That his Majesty was now enabled to form his own judgment upon the justness of my decision, by the universal approbation with which the emancipation of the Catholics was received on the part of his Protestant subjects. That if it might be supposed that my partiality for the measure might give it a sanction, his Protestant subjects would not venture to approach the Houses of Parliament, or the Castle, with petitions against it, during the supposed authority of my administration; there had existed a subsequent period, when that authority was publicly set at naught; and, therefore, no such reason could be said to exist then; but their silence in the last period, was as complete, as in the first, save only a petition to his Majesty from the corrupt corporation of Dublin,-a proof of the power and authority of my opponents, since the active and effective men of that body work only for their daily pay. They must have been paid for their petition; the enemy, therefore, had been active, but without success, in any other instance whatever. But the approbation of the Protestants rested not upon the presumption of a negative; it was proved by the affirmative sentiments expressed in a variety of their addresses to me, sometimes by most unequivocal allusions, oftentimes in most direct terms. I stated proudly the claim I conceived I had to his approbation and favour, by providing in the manner I had done for the exigencies of his service, and still more by having reconciled to his Government the affections of his people, which I feared had been alienated under former administrations. That I trusted such would be the opinion of his Majesty when the circumstances of the case were more fully laid before him, and when he was enabled by his own insight into its merits, to form his own judgment upon it.

I desired his permission to leave in his hands a memorial which I had drawn up in a succinct manner for his consideration. If it was his desire, or if I had his permission, I would hereafter enter more fully upon the subject, and into a greater detail upon the different parts of my administration; in the meanwhile I threw myself upon his justice for permitting me to vindicate a character that had been publicly attacked, in as public a manner as the attack had been made, and in such manner as should appear to me most suitable to my purpose. He was very gracious