Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/45

 joint message from both Houses of the British Parliament, I told the Lords and Gentlemen sent on that occasion that I would with pleasure and without delay forward them to Ireland, but that, as individuals, I could not help acquainting them that my inclination to a union with Ireland was principally founded on a trust that the uniting the Established Churches of the two kingdoms would for ever shut the door to any further measures with respect to the Roman Catholics.

The sequel of this strange portion of history is well known. Mr. Addington, who became Prime Minister, fully shared the prejudices of the King. Neither Mr. Pitt, when he returned to power, nor Mr. Fox, and Lord Grenville, who on Mr. Pitt's death took the direction of public affairs, chose to disturb the settled, or rather the unsettled, mind of George the Third. Upon Lord Grenville's retirement from office, the bigotry of Mr. Perceval inflamed the intolerance of the country; and while George the Third was in possession of his faculties, there was no hope of such a measure as Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, and all the great statesmen of the time would have approved. During the ministry of Lord Liverpool, the Catholic disabilities were made an open question, and the Commons beheld for years the unedifying spectacle of the Home and Foreign Secretaries of State taking the lead on opposite sides upon a question which vitally concerned the peace and happiness of Ireland, and the stability of the Empire.

At length, in 1828, agitation in Ireland forced on a solution. O'Connell, the most powerful demagogue