if a complete plan was presented
to him as the policy adopted by the cabinet. The risk was great, for in
1795 George, as we have seen, held that to consent to emancipation would
be a breach of his coronation oath, and so lately as the autumn of 1799
he told Dundas that he hoped the government was "not pledged to anything
in favour of the Roman catholics". Loughborough, the chancellor, saw an
opportunity for ingratiating himself by betraying the prime minister.
When he received Pitt's letter summoning him to the cabinet meeting on
the catholic question, he was with the king at Weymouth, where George
often resided in the summer since his recovery in 1789. He showed the
king Pitt's letter, excited him against emancipation, and furnished him
with arguments. Lord Auckland, the postmaster-general, who was allied
with the chief Irish anti-catholics, was his cousin, and, probably at
Auckland's suggestion, the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh wrote to
the king to strengthen him against emancipation. When the cabinet met,
Loughborough agreed to the commutation of tithe, but objected to any
further concession, and the matter was adjourned.

Pitt again brought it before the cabinet in January, 1801. The king's
feelings were then generally known, and the Duke of Portland and Lords
Westmorland and Liverpool more or less decidedly joined Loughborough in
opposing emancipation. On the 28th George attacked Dundas on the subject
at a levee: "I shall," he said, "reckon any man my personal enemy who
proposes such a measure". He requested Addington, the speaker, to
remonstrate with Pitt. On the 31st Pitt wrote him a long letter setting
forth the general grounds of his desire for emancipation, by the
substitution of a political oath for the sacramental test, and for a
provision for the catholic clergy, adding that if the king refused his
consent, he must resign office. George, after taking counsel with
Addington, replied that he was bound by his coronation oath to refuse
his consent, and proposed that both he and Pitt should say no more on
the subject. In answer Pitt wrote on February 3 that he must resign
office as soon as a new ministry could be formed. George, who was
incapable of appreciating his splendid services, and showed later that
he must often have chafed under his control, invited Addington, a dull
man after his own heart, to form a ministry. He consented, and on the
5th the king accepted Pitt's resignation. Dundas, Grenville,