492 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810. 



your letter, and I hasten to assure you that I did 

 not misunderstand the motive of your letter to Lord 

 Ponsonb} 7 . I understood your opinions, as then 

 expressed, to be confined to the question of taking 

 office without having the power conceded to you 

 proposing measures for the settlement of the Catholic 

 grievances the more enlarged view you may take of 

 the question is scarcely of less importance ; and it is 

 with extreme regret that I find myself obliged to 

 differ with you as to the policy of bringing forward 

 the Catholic claims under present circumstances. 

 The fundamental principle on which the question 

 itself rests, is in no degree affected by the resolutions 

 of the Prelacy, however much those resolutions may 

 be condemned ; and in conceding to the Catholic 

 population of Ireland what we have always main- 

 tained they have a justly substantial right to demand, 

 we do not preclude ourselves from guarding and 

 protecting the Established Church by every possible 

 security which its most zealous friends can require. 



" I cannot help thinking that if you refuse to bring 

 before Parliament, and support with all your power, 

 the petition of the Irish Catholics, you are throwing 

 away one of the few remaining means you have left 

 of saving the country in the very perilous crisis in 

 which we are placed. If you irritate the Catholics of 

 Ireland by refusing to bring forward their unanimous 

 petition, they will not stop to inquire into the causes 

 of that refusal ; but the great body of the Catholics 

 will look to France alone for that relief, which they 



