cipation bill, he affects no essential
change of conviction. He rests his case entirely on the public danger of
leaving the question "unsettled" after the disclosures of the Clare
election, and argues calmly, as the agitators had been arguing for
nearly thirty years, that no settlement was practicable short of
complete, though not unconditional, surrender. There is no pretence of
consistency. All the constitutional, political, and religious objections
to civil equality between protestants and catholics in Ireland remained
unanswered and unabated. Indeed the increasing power and defiant tone of
the catholic demagogues might well have appeared a crowning reason for
refusing them seats in parliament. Peel, however, had adopted, and
pressed upon Wellington, the delusive opinion of Anglesey that by
"taking them from the Association and placing them in the house of
commons" they might be reduced to comparative impotence. He lamented, it
is true, the premature announcement of a new policy by Dawson, and he
had submitted his own resignation to the duke in the belief, apparently
sincere, that he could render better service in an independent position.
But he seems not to have felt the least scruple in urging the duke to
break all his pledges to his protestant supporters, and conciliate the
followers of O'Connell. Nor did his advice fall on unwilling ears.
Trained in a vocation where private conscience is subordinate to
military duty, where enemies must sometimes be welcomed as allies if it
may further the plan of campaign, and where a masterly retreat is as
honourable as a victory, Wellington did not shrink from undertaking the
part of an opportunist minister. He had always regarded himself as a
servant of the crown and the nation, rather than as a party leader, and
he saw no personal difficulty in adopting any political measure as the
less of two evils. Having once satisfied himself that civil war in
Ireland was the only alternative to emancipation, he abandoned
resistance to it as he would have abandoned a hopeless siege, and called
upon his tory followers to change their front with him.

Notice had been given of a resolution to be moved by Peel on March 5,
preparing the way for the catholic relief bill, when the king raised
fresh obstacles to its progress. As the day drew near, George,
encouraged by the Duke of Cumberland, grew very excited. He had violent
interviews with his ministers, and finally on March 3 he informed
Welli