1829.)] The Conversazione. 597 
Sir George M. . He would have told you, if so interrogated, that 
“ existing circumstances” justified his present course ; and referred you 
to Canning’s own declarations in Parliament, as a proof that his former 
one was without reproach, in the estimation of Canning himself. 
Mr. M——d. Yes; and he might have done so honestly, in what 
regards the latter case. Some letters passed between Mr. Peel and Mr. 
Canning, on that occasion, which, I dare say, ARE STILL IN EXISTENCE. 
Mr. Peel’s reasons, why, in his own judgment, he could not continue to 
hold the office of Home Secretary, under a Premier whose policy was 
favorable to the Catholic Claims, (even though that policy was never 
separated from guards and securities, ) carried a reluctant conviction to the 
mind of Mr. Canning. He did, indeed, think, the scruples of his Right 
Hon. friend, were somewhat too refined ; a little too nicely weighed ; but 
they appeared to spring from such a pure and delicate sense of public 
honor and official duty, that they commanded his respect and acquies- 
cence. They were confined, however, EXCLUSIVELY to the view taken 
by Mr. Peel, of the peculiar relations which subsisted between the go- 
vernment of Ireland and the Home Secretary ; and had it not been that 
Mr. Peel happened to entertain a remarkable predilection, just at that 
time, for the situation of Home Secretary, preferring it to any other, ex- 
cept, perhaps, that of First Lord of the Treasury ; had it not been for 
this singular attachment to the onty office he knew he could not hold, 
consistently with his previous declaration, he admitted there was nothing 
in Mr. Canning’s politics touching the Catholic Question, which ought 
to be a bar to his acceptance of office as Foreign or Colonial Secretary ; 
or as Chancellor of the Exchequer. But all his affections had taken root 
in Whitehall ; he could not reconcile himself to the thought of being 
transplanted. It was natural, therefore, that Mr. Canning should honor 
his motives, and bear public testimony to their apparent purity. _Good 
Heavens! Had Canning lived to witness this same Robert Peel, this 
squeamish Home Secretary of 1827, bring in a bill, as the apostate Home 
Secretary of 1829, to concede, without guard or protection, the WHOLE 
of the Catholic Claims—had he lived to hear the prostitute arguments, 
by which he endeavoured to brazen out his apostacy ; the draggle-tailed 
morality, in which he bedizened his conviction, how deep, how unutter- 
able, would have been his contempt for the man—or, if not unutterable, 
how withering the indignant scorn with which he would have laid bare 
the rottenness of his principles. | 
Mr. D. The plain fact of the matter is, that though, from obvious 
causes, Mr. Peel’s dereliction stands pre-eminently conspicuous, there 
has been a frightful competition among our public men for the crown of 
infamy. As to Peel, if he has ever read, and remembers, or should he 
hereafter read and reflect, he would find little difficulty, I apprehend, ~ 
in applying some of the caustic invectives which the pen of Sir Charles 
Hanbury Williams heaped upon a renegade of his day, (William Pulte- 
ney, First Earl of Bath,) whose political guilt, after all, was not a tythe 
of that of the late member for Oxford. Take the following stanzas for 
example, from “ Britannia’s Ghost.” 
While Robert, seeking lost repose, 
His downy pillow prest, 
Fresh horrors in his soul arose. 
And further banished rest. 
