294 LOUGHBOROUGH'S ADVICE TO THE KING. CH. XLI. on the 9th of October, probably the next meeting of the ministers after the memorable Cabinet of the 13th of September, Pitt gave Lord Liverpool to understand that he was against the measure. * Shortly before the opening of Parliament, the King asked the Chancellor whether anything was in contemplation? and Loughborough replied, nothing but a Tithe Bill, which he was himself preparing, and a scheme for pensioning the Catholic and Dissenting clergy.† About the same time Loughborough drew up an elaborate paper, in which all the arguments against the Catholic claims were summed up with great ability, but not containing a word either for or against the one objection, which the King considered insuperable-his Coronation Oath. This paper appears to have been laid before His Majesty on the 13th of December. On the 20th of January, the Archbishop of Canterbury, instigated probably by his brother-in-law, Lord Auckland, obtained an audience of the King to warn him against the measure of Catholic emancipation, which his ministers were about to bring forward. A few days after this interview, the King brought the matter to a crisis, by his conversation with Dundas at the levee. On the 31st of January, Pitt addressed a letter to His Majesty, announcing that a majority of the Cabinet, including himself, were of opinion, that the admission of the Catholics and Dissenters to offices, and of the Catholics, as well as Dissenters, to Parliament, would, under certain conditions, be highly advisable, with a view to the tranquillity and improvement of Ireland, and to the general interest of the United Kingdom. *So Lord Liverpool told General Harcourt on the 1st of March following.-LADY HARCOURT'S MS. Diary. The old lord complained that his colleagues had been accustomed to pay little attention to him. Lord Loughborough's defence of his conduct.-LORD CAMPBELL'S Lives of the Chancellors, vol. vi. PELLEW's Life of Lord Sidmouth, Appendix, vol. i. LADY HARCOURT'S MS. Diary. 1801. PITT'S ADVICE TO THE KING. 295 The minister then proceeded to recite the various reasons which had determined him in this opinion. He declared that opinion to be unalterable; and he concluded by distinctly intimating that his continuance in office must depend on His Majesty's consent to the proposed measures. The next day the King answered this letter. He said that, according to his view, the Coro- The King's nation Oath absolutely precluded him reply to Pitt. from entertaining any proposition inconsistent with the maintenance of the Protestant establishment, which expressly disqualified Papists from holding any employment in the State. He added that Mr. Pitt's proposition was not only one of this character, but that it tended to the overthrow of the whole fabric. The King, unwilling, however, to part with his minister, proposed what he seemed to consider a compromise; namely, that if Mr. Pitt would refrain from pressing the question, His Majesty would say nothing more against the pretensions of his Catholic subjects. Pitt's reply was an absolute tender of his resignation, which the King could no longer Pitt's offer refuse to accept. to resign. Pitt has been censured for committing himself to the policy of Catholic emancipation, knowing as he did, in common with every other man engaged in public life, the strong repugnance of the King to any material concession of the Catholic claims. And he was supposed by some to have failed in his duty to the King, in withholding from His Majesty all information as to the measures which the Government contemplated proposing to Parliament with reference to this important question. But I do not understand that the minister is under any obligation, either of duty or of courtesy, to confer with the Sovereign on any question of policy which may be under the consideration of the Cabinet. In former times, when the council deliberated in the presence of the 296 DIFFICULTIES AS TO THE CH. XLI. Sovereign, he was the chief of his ministers; but the modern system of parliamentary Government, which involves the absolute and exclusive responsibility of the ministers of the Crown, is incompatible with the participation of the Sovereign in the counsels of the Cabinet. If he disapproves of its policy, he has an appeal to the great council of the nation, and ultimately to the nation itself. But he cannot also have a voice in the policy against which he has the power of appeal. Mr. Pitt was therefore under no obligation to take the King's pleasure, with reference to any measure which he proposed to lay before Parliament, until the counsels of his Cabinet were fully matured. It is another question, whether Mr. Pitt, knowing as he did, since 1795, the King's strong repugnance to the Catholic claims, should have committed himself irretrievably to the policy of concession, without taking any pains to ascertain how far it was probable that this obstacle might be overcome. But Pitt's conduct in this respect also seems to be free from blame. He had undertaken, on the part of the Government, to carry forward a measure for the relief of the Catholics; he had not undertaken to do so immediately, or even to make the measure a capital question but he did bring it forward without delay; and when he found an insurmountable obstacle in the highest quarter, he took the step which public duty and personal honour dictated. He resigned his office, and voluntarily surrendered power, such as no minister of this country had ever possessed. It was said at the time, and was believed by many who were not influenced by envy or detraction, that Pitt had either sought for a pretext, or willingly availed himself of a fair excuse to retire from a situation, which his failing health and the disappointment of his war policy had rendered irksome. But the real causes of great events are seldom accurately known or understood at the time when they take 1801. POWER OF THE CABINET. 297 place. At the distance of more than half a century, every person who thinks it worth while to inquire can learn more about the fall of Pitt's administration than was accessible to any but the best contemporary information. It is probable that Pitt quitted office for the reason publicly assigned, and for no other; and that, far from wishing to retire, he gave up power with as much reluctance as Sir Robert Walpole or the Duke of Newcastle. There is every reason to believe that, had Pitt been left to himself, he would have postponed the Catholic question to a more propitious opportunity. After the Cabinet of the 13th of September, the discussion of the subject was never formally resumed, and Lord Castlereagh was instructed to inform the head of the Irish Government, that in consequence of the adverse opinion of the highest law authority, the Cabinet did not think themselves warranted, in His Majesty's absence, and without information as to the opinions entertained in other quarters, in coming to a final decision on a business of such moment.* The further consideration of the subject appears to have been thenceforth confined to Pitt, Grenville, and Dundas. But the arguments urged by Grenville were unanswerable. 1. The Government were committed to the measure. 2. It was necessary to complete the scheme of Legislative Union. 3. It was of pressing necessity in the view of a descent on Ireland by the French. 4. The measure would certainly be proposed by the Opposition in Parliament, if Government hesitated. Lastly, the public expression of his opinion by the King had precipitated the time of action. The business of the session was to commence on the 2nd of February. On the previous day, Pitt wrote to the King the letter above mentioned, which was drawn up in concert with Grenville.† * Lord Castlereagh's letter to Mr. Pitt, 1st January, 1801. + Lord Grenville to Marquis of Buckingham, 2nd February. 298 THE KING'S MESSAGE TO PITT. CH. XLI. The reports of the spies and sycophants who had access to the King, were, to a certain extent, corroborated by what he had learned from Grenville and Dundas. Attempt of Addington to dissuade Pitt from resigning. His Majesty had therefore anticipated the formal communication which he expected to receive from Pitt. On the 29th of January, he wrote to the Speaker, stating that he had been informed of Lord Castlereagh's intention to bring forward a measure to render Roman Catholics eligible to Parliament, and to office; and that this measure was, according to their own admissions to himself, favoured by Grenville and Dundas, and, as he had been credibly assured, by Pitt. His Majesty, therefore, desired the Speaker to see Mr. Pitt, and to dissuade him, if possible, from a proceeding to which the King could never consent. In obedience to these commands, Addington hurried off to Pitt's house; and the result of his interview appears to have encouraged a hope which he conveyed to the King the same day, that the great minister would yield. But Addington must either have misunderstood Pitt's language and demeanour, or, which is more probable, Pitt was not disposed to accept Addington as the medium of communication with the King; for at the very moment of Addington's visit,* he must have had in his pocket the draft of the letter, which, on the day following, he sent to Courts and Cabinets of George the Third, vol. iii. p. 128. Grenville was as little inclined as Pitt, at that time, to shrink from the responsibilities of office. Writing to Lord Buckingham, on the 2nd of February, he says, 'There could be no doubt of the line we were to follow in this unpleasant and unhappy state of things. I could heartily wish that the necessity of the thing itself had not brought the point to issue pre cisely at the present moment. My sense of the public difficulties is certainly much less than that which the public itself entertains; but still there is difficulty enough to make one wish not to quit one's post; but there seems to be no alternative, and so I flatter myself you will think.' -Ibid. * 31st January.-Lord Sidmouth's Life by DEAN PELLEW, vol. i. p. 287. |