AND THE DUKES OF RICHMOND. 155 



Duke of Eichmond stated the motives that led to his 

 secession from office. He thought that, as a public 

 man, he was not at liberty to relieve himself from 

 the responsibility of office without fully explaining 

 to the public why he had separated, though with 

 feelings of the deepest regret, from colleagues with 

 whom he had cordially agreed on all those great and 

 liberal measures, which fortunately, as he believed, for 

 the country, they had carried into effect. But although 

 he had acted with them upon all other points with 

 the most cordial concurrence, he appealed to them 

 whether he had ever disguised his repugnance of any 

 abandonment of those principles which he thought 

 were involved in the appointment of this Commission. 

 The present was not the first time he had expressed 

 his opinion on the subject. 



" On the different debates upon the Catholic 

 question, he had fully and freely expressed his 

 opinion. He expressed his apprehension that the 

 establishment of a Catholic in room of a Protestant 

 Church was contemplated by those who were urging 

 changes, which he thought dangerous to the well- 

 being of the State. 



" He had no objection to an inquiry, if its object was 

 to correct, and not to destroy, and to extend the in- 

 fluence and the usefulness of the Protestant Church 

 in England and Ireland. He only quitted office from 

 a sense of duty, and no feeling of a personal nature 



