RESIGNATION OF MR. PITT, ETC.
In bringing about the union of England and Ireland, Pitt had given assurances to the Irish Catholics of a complete participation in political privileges, as soon as that union should take place. This proposition was submitted to the cabinet-council, some of the members of which expressed their dissent to the measure. But its chief opposer was the king, who alleged that the coronation oath precluded his compliance with a scheme which might endanger the ecclesiastical establishment. Under these circumstances Pitt felt bound to retire from the administration; for although his majesty promised not to use his influence in obstructing the progress of the measure through parliament, it was manifest, that as he was known to be adverse to it, there would be no chance of success. On the resignation of Mr. Pitt, his majesty entrusted the formation of a new cabinet to Mr. Addington, who resigned his post for that purpose. On account of financial arrangements, however, and the difficulty of settling the new appointments, Mr. Pitt consented to remain at his post a little longer. His majesty a few days after was taken ill; and it appears that his indisposition was a return of his former malady, brought on by the Catholic question and the resignation of the premier. This caused him to remain at his post still longer, and then further delay was occasioned. On the 18th of February the house resolved itself into a committee of supply. The sum required was £42,197,000 of which Ireland was to pay £4,324,000, and England the remainder. To raise this, recourse was had to the old system: £25,000,000 was borrowed, and the rest was raised by taxes, some of which were newly imposed. Besides the money borrowed for England, it was found necessary to borrow about £2,500,000 for Ireland. These resolutions being agreed to, with some slight alterations, Pitt, on the 14th of March, resigned office; and he was accompanied in his resignation by Dunclas, Earl Spencer, Lord Grenville, and Windham; and other changes took place shortly after. In the lords, the reasons of their resignation were thuss given by Lord Grenville:—“We wished that the benefits of the union should be rendered as great and extensive as possible, by the removal of certain disabilities under which a great portion of the inhabitants of Ireland laboured. Imagining that this measure could only be effectual by coming from the executive government, we felt it our duty to propose it to those who direct his majesty’s councils: it was not deemed eligible, and we were unable to prevail. As our opinion of its policy remained unaltered, and we still think this measure alone capable of establishing the tranquillity and prosperity of the empire on a permanent basis, we consider ourselves bound to retire. Accordingly we have tendered to his majesty the resignation of our several employments, and he has been graciously pleased to dispense with our services.” By Pitt’s enemies it was said, that his delicacy about his pledged faith to the Irish, and his sense of the justice and expediency of granting Catholic emancipation were but pretexts; and that the real cause of his resignation was the tardy conviction that he had involved the country in a labyrinth from which he had not the power to extricate it—being too weak to carry on the war, and too proud to make peace with the French. These imaginings were not founded in justice. Pitt, up to the period of the union, had uniformly opposed Catholic emancipation; but he now thought conscientiously that it ought to be carried into effect, in order to make the union complete. As for being dismayed at the hostile array in the north or in any part of Europe, it does not appear at all probable. Almost the last words of Pitt before he resigned office were full of hope and confidence: “he was convinced,” he said, “that the British fleet would, with one blow, shatter the coalition of the north.” There is no reason, in truth, for doubting the word of Pitt that the question of Catholic emancipation was the real cause of his resignation. How far he was implicated in the question, and to what extent he stood pledged, is not fully known; but that was the rock on which Pitt’s ministry foundered their bark.