eneral
question; you have no reason, however, as far as I can understand
it, to complain of a want of communication, for it was Canning's
_move_, and his alone. James Stanhope told me this morning he was
coming into Parliament immediately; I think he said it was
Houldsworth's seat, but am not quite sure. The Agricultural Report
is to be made to-day, and Lord Londonderry gives notice for a
motion upon it, I suppose to bring in a Bill after the holidays. We
shall get through the Miscellaneous Estimates to-day, and shall
have advanced altogether most extremely in Parliamentary business,
much beyond the usual proceedings, so as to secure the House being
up in time, provided no unforeseen events occur.

Ever most faithfully yours,

W. H. F.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

April 3, 1822.

MY DEAR B----,

If I felt that any one vote was likely to be lost to the general
Catholic question in the event of the success of Canning's motion,
I should be very much disposed to agree in your view of the
impolicy of agitating it. But if there be a reasonable probability
(as we have been told) that there are those who, adverse to a
measure of general concession, would accede to this, I should
anticipate a directly opposite result to what you expect. Supposing
the Bill to be carried, or even to meet with an increased support
in the House of Lords, upon neither of which points am I myself
very sanguine, it could not fail to be a stepping-stone to further
success. Independent of the immediate gain of six votes when they
are most wanted, there are many who, having once voted for a motion
of concession, though not intending to proceed further, would feel
themselves drawn in, and perceive that they cannot maintain that if
it be safe for a Roman Catholic to exercise the functions of the
Peerage, he must necessarily overturn the Constitution if elected
to the House of Commons or appointed a justice of the peace. Our
adversaries are perfectly right when they say that no breach can be
made in the present system without necessarily entailing the fall
of the whole of it.

I have, however, already told you that in my own opinion, this is
so generally felt that there will be scarcely any difference in the
division upon the particular and the general question. T