e a long
answer, defending Lord Anglesey and his measures, but I do not
think he makes out a case for him, and if the Lord-Lieutenant
makes in the House of Lords the defence which he proposes to make
I think he will fail; but if he can keep Lord Plunket on his
side, who is now said to be very eager about him, he will do.
Plunket is under the influence of Blake, who keeps, as George
Villiers says, 'Lord Plunket's mind in his breeches' pocket.'
Lord Anglesey has behaved very well since the quarrel, declining
all honours and expressions of public feeling.

[Page Head: THE KING AND THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.]

January 12th, 1829 {p.153}

Lord Mount Charles came to me this morning and consulted me about
resigning his seat at the Treasury. He hates it and is perplexed
with all that has occurred between the Duke and Lord Anglesey. I
advised him to resign, feeling as he does about it. He told me
that he verily believed the King would go mad on the Catholic
question, his violence was so great about it. He is very angry
with him and his father for voting as they do, but they have
agreed never to discuss the matter at all, and his mother never
talks to the King about it. Whenever he does get on it there is
no stopping him. Mount Charles attributes the King's obstinacy to
his recollections of his father and the Duke of York and to the
influence of the Duke of Cumberland. He says that 'his father
would have laid his head on the block rather than yield, and that
he is equally ready to lay his head there in the same cause.' He
is furious with Lord Anglesey, but he will be very much afraid of
him when he sees him. Mount Charles was in the room when Lord
Anglesey took leave of the King on going to Ireland, and the King
said, 'God bless you, Anglesey! I know you are a true Protestant.'
Anglesey answered, 'Sir, I will not be considered either
Protestant or Catholic; I go to Ireland determined to act
impartially between them and without the least bias either one
way or the other.' Lord Anglesey dined with Mount Charles the day
before he went. The same morning he had been with the Duke and
Peel to receive their last instructions, and he came to dinner in
great delight with them, as they had told him they knew he would
govern Ireland with justice and impartiality, and they would give
him no instructions whatever. He showed me a letter from
Mr. Harcourt Lees full of invectives against the Duke and
lamentations at the recall, to show how t