he
Fox-North Administration, he did not long share the misfortunes of his
colleagues, for he alone of his colleagues contrived not to offend
either the King or Pitt. This sleekness had its reward. The perversities
of Thurlow having led to his fall in 1792, Loughborough became Lord
Chancellor. His sage counsels heightened his reputation; and in October
1794 Pitt assigned to him the delicate task of seeing Earl Fitzwilliam
and Grattan in order to smooth over the difficulties attending the union
with the Old Whigs. At his house in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury, occurred
some of the conferences which ensured Fitzwilliam's acceptance of the
Irish Viceroyalty. Loughborough urged Pitt to do all in his power to
prevent a rupture with the Portland Whigs or the Irish people. Counsels
of conciliation then flowed from his lips and were treasured up. In
fact, Pitt seems to have felt no suspicion of him despite his
courtier-like ways and his constant attendance on the King. For
Loughborough, like Dundas, had outlived the evil reputation of an
earlier time. The Marquis of Buckingham, writing to Grenville on an
awkward episode affecting Lord Berkeley, advised him to consult
Loughborough as a man of discretion and undoubted private honour.[573]

Neither Pitt nor Grenville knew that Loughborough had played them false
in 1795. The man who urged them to send Fitzwilliam to Dublin with the
olive-branch soon tendered to George III official advice of an exactly
opposite tenour, namely, that assent to Catholic Emancipation would
involve a violation of the Coronation Oath. A day or two later he stated
to Rose that he had given to the King wholly different counsels, to the
effect that the Coronation Oath did not apply to the question at issue,
which referred to a legislative enactment, not to an act of the King in
his executive capacity.[574] Two other legal authorities unequivocally
declared for this view of the case.

Whether in the autumn and winter of 1800 Loughborough's secret counsels
had much effect on the King may be doubted; for George, in his letter of
6th February 1795 to Pitt, declared Catholic Emancipation to be "beyond
the decision of any Cabinet of Ministers." As for the Church
Establishment, it was essential to every State, and must be maintained
intact. When George had once framed a resolve, it was hopeless to try to
change it. Moreover, during the debates on the Union, early in 1799, he
remarked to Dundas at Court that he hoped t