to subvert it," afforded a degree of consolation
which, not having witnessed, you can hardly credit, so great was
the apprehension upon the subject.

The newspapers will have informed you of our proceedings upon that
day; I shall, therefore, only add that I am still doubtful of the
event of the Bill, but am inclined to believe we shall carry it. I
hear that, if the Ponsonbys are satisfied that there will be a
majority in favour of it, they will concur; if they think they can
throw it out, they will oppose. Should we carry the Bill, the
gentlemen of the Roman Catholics will be highly gratified, and the
rabble bullied--both circumstances which will tend very much to the
future quiet of the country.

I am informed that Mr. R. Burke and his employers have quarrelled,
and that Ireland may soon hope to be relieved from his gracious
superintendence. I am sure I heartily wish it, for he has
contrived, by his impudence, folly, and misrepresentations, to
awake animosities between the Protestants and Catholics that had
slept for fifty years, and that a reasonable man might have hoped
would have slept for ever. I see no ground to apprehend tumult of
any kind. The Catholics, I think, dare not stir; and the United
Irishmen, with Napper Tandy at their head, are sinking into
nothing. Napper, and indeed his friend Grattan, have totally lost
their influence in the Corporation.

The Duke of Leinster had committed himself very far indeed upon the
subject of franchise, and is now retreating through his Corporation
of Athy, who have addressed their representatives, Colonel Arthur
Ormsby and Mr. Falkiner, to support the Protestant ascendancy.

I am told that the northern people do not much object to our Bill.
Any one step further would have been totally impracticable, and
would have produced a confusion that no man could have foreseen the
consequence of.

My best compliments to Lady Buckingham.

Believe me ever, my dear Lord, with every respect and gratitude,
affectionately yours,

R. HOBART.

Amidst the arrivals of foreign news, which every day created new
excitements in the political circles, a movement was beginning to be
felt in the Cabinet which was shortly to produce an important change in
the Administration. The eccentricities of the Chancellor had on several