436 POLITICS. [1826. 



good, either by originating or supporting measures for 

 the common weal. Whatever glimpses of prosperity 

 might appear in England, Ireland was always in the 

 background to darken the horizon. Catholic Emanci- 

 pation appeared as far off as ever ; for although Can- 

 ning, opposing the repeal of the Test and Corporation 

 Acts, still had the Catholic question much at heart, 

 he, as a member of the Liverpool Cabinet, either could 

 not or would not move in it, and emancipation ap- 

 peared to be hopeless. 



I had for many years been convinced that the best 

 if not only hope of having that question carried, was 

 the union between Canning and the leading Whigs. 

 I was persuaded that such an union would do much to 

 disunite and finally to break up the Tory party. I 

 felt this strongly on public grounds, and I felt it not- 

 withstanding the many well-founded objections I had 

 ever avowed to Canning as a public man. I vainly 

 attempted to bring Lord Grey to my way of think- 

 ing. But his aversion on political grounds to Can- 

 ning was insurmountable. This dislike was, as he 

 himself used to call it, "rooted." In the course of 

 a very long and unusually intimate friendship, the 

 arguments I used, and the decided part I took, to pro- 

 mote a junction with Canning, was the cause of the 

 only serious difference I ever had with Grey : if we 

 were separated for a time, the coolness did not last ; 

 for Grey, with his usual fairness and candour, gave 

 me credit for the perfectly unselfish motives which 

 had actuated me ; and not very long after the Can- 

 ning Government was formed, we were as firm friends 

 as ever. After the Queen's death, from time to time 

 there was an expectation that the Government, from 



