grew more mystical: the curtains were drawn closer round the cabinet; the chief justice who drew the bill, after the task had been indignantly refused by the attorney-general, Sir Charles Wetherell; was merged in a darkness so profound, that it has never left him since. The master of the mint's right hand did not know what his left was doing. The chancellor of the exchequer made sermons, or speeches like sermons, of triple the usual length and sanctity. The home secretary itinerated the country, with a smile and a speech for every village, and panegyrised steamengines and the constitution. The premier himself was so unconscious of what was passing, that he wrote the following billet, evidently as a matter of familiar intercourse, to an Irish friend, who had expressed some curiosity to know the news of London:

"MY DEAR SIR,-I have received your letter of the 4th instant; and I assure you, you do me justice in believing that I am sincerely anxious to witness the settlement of the Roman Catholic question, which, by benefiting the state, would confer a benefit on every individual belonging to it.

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But I confess I see no prospect of such a settlement. Party has been mixed up with the consideration of the question to such a degree, and such violence pervades every discussion of

it, that it is impossible to expect to prevail on men to consider it dispassionately.

If we could bury it in oblivion for a short time, and employ that time diligently in the consideration of its difficulties on all sides (for they are very great), I should not despair of seeing a satisfactory remedy.

"London, Dec. 11, 1828.

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Believe me, my dear Sir,
"WELLINGTON."

This letter was addressed to Dr. Curtis, the head of the Irish Roman Catholic priesthood : and, transmitted to such hands, it, of course, came instantly before the public. The Irish laughed at the style, and said that in "burying matters in oblivion for a time," and "employing the same time in considering them," they recognised their countryman. But the English, who overlook those things in a military premier; universally regarded the billet as precisely of the same class with those which the Whigs had written whenever they had a hope of power; the easy, official form of getting rid of the claimants altogether.

In six weeks from the date of this unsuspecting letter, the measure was proclaimed with all pomp and ceremonial in the king's speech! So brief is oblivion, and so blind is sagacity.

But the people had a sagacity of their own, that saw further than the simple optics of the cabinet. In the midst of the minister's pro

spects of eternal conciliation, of amity treading on perpetual flowers, and national friendship taming down the wild passions and rugged jealousies of the people, like another Cybele, scattering oil and wine from a chariot drawn by lions; while the home secretary revelled in poetic raptures, and even the premier relaxed the rigidity of the ministerial brow; while Scylla "Chid her barking waves into attention,

And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause;"

the people declared that the evil day had been only precipitated; that the Irish demagogues, instead of receiving the measure as a pledge of peace, would turn it into an immediate instrument of turbulence; that they would see nothing in it but a proof that clamour, aggression, and intimidation, were the true weapons for their cause, and that the more they asked, and the more insolently they asked it, the surer they were to succeed. Ministers were told-" Popery never required any thing but power, and never made any other use of it than to perplex and crush the Protestant. If you give that power; if you send the Roman Catholic back to Ireland, not the petitioner that he came, but the conqueror, clothed in the spoils of the constitution ; if you put the cup into his hand, out of which the first drop thrown on the ashes of rebellion. will blaze up into inextinguishable flame; you

will have to thank only yourselves for the deepest hazards that ever tried the empire."

The prediction was scoffed at; and now, within a twelvemonth, we have a demand for "the repeal of the Union," which would end in a separation of the countries; a summons openly issued for a popish parliament; and the proposed organisation of a national army on the model of the volunteers of 1782! We have a startled proclamation of the Irish lord lieutenant, declaring that designs dangerous to the public peace are on foot, and threatening the vengeance of the law on this "conciliated" people. We have an answering proclamation from the Catholic " agitators," declaring that the Irish government thinks itself justified in trampling on the people; that

want of a domestic and national legislature in Ireland will find means to make itself known! and that those means will be irresistible!" So much for military legislation !

The whole of Europe looked with the keenest anxiety to the discussion of the Catholic question; and its continental results are felt already. All the minor Protestant states, which relied on England as their protectress, were alarmed by finding that her legislature had changed its character. All the popish states triumphantly regarded the measure as an approach to their system. But the example of a parliament, submissive to the extent of "breaking in upon the free con

stitution," of which the empire had boasted for one hundred and thirty years; chiefly caught the tastes of the French king, who instantly resolved upon making the experiment of a submissive parliament; finding the old one stubborn, cashiered it; to procure a new one for his purpose, would have cashiered the constitution; was defeated in the attempt; and has now bequeathed the tremendous evidence of popular strength to the partisans of revolution throughout the world. And those are but the first results of the " great healing measure" of Catholic Emancipation!

1830. The life of George the Fourth was now hastening to its close. He had lost his brother, the Duke of York,* to whom he had been peculiarly attached, and whose death was sincerely mourned by both king and people. For some years his majesty had been affected by complaints which must have embittered even royal enjoyments. He had frequent returns of the gout, and it was subsequently ascertained that the valves of the heart were partially ossified; yet a remarkable strength of constitution sustained him: to the last, his manners were courtly, his conversation was animated, and his recollection of persons and circumstances singularly quick and interesting. But the severe winter of 1829, by depriving him

* 5th January, 1827.

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