t, and he
said warmly to Windham, a friend of the measure, that he regarded all
supporters of it as "personally indisposed" to him. Waxing hotter in the
course of the function, he declared in a loud voice to Dundas: "What is
this that the young Lord [Castlereagh] has brought over, which they are
going to throw at my head? Lord C. came over with the plan in
September.... I shall reckon any man my personal enemy who proposes any
such measure. The most Jacobinical thing I ever heard of."

This extraordinary outburst naturally led Ministers to confer together
on the morrow; and they requested Grenville to prepare a paper
explaining the proposed changes in the form of oath for members of
Parliament and officials. Grenville declined this task, which Pitt
himself then undertook. This question, I may note, was far more
difficult than outsiders could understand. Castlereagh's interviews with
Pitt in September, and now again in January, had only recently brought
Ministers near to an agreement, a fact which fully accounts for the
delay in drafting the proposals in a form suitable for the King's
inspection.[580] On that day George took another step betokening
irrevocable opposition. He begged Addington to see Pitt and convince him
of the danger of the measure. The King confessed that he could scarcely
keep his temper in speaking about it; for it portended the destruction
of the Established Church and the end of all order in civil life.
Addington therefore paid a visit to Pitt, who cannot have been well
pleased to see him acting as a tool of the King. The interview, however,
seems to have been friendly, and it inspired Addington with the
complacent hope that he had dissuaded Pitt. Possibly he or Auckland
alarmed Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, and set the bishops in
motion. Other persons working to this end were the Earl of Clare and the
Irish Primate. The latter took a prominent part in arousing the fears of
the King. Cooke wrote: "The Primate was a great card, was much consulted
by the King, for ever with him, or in correspondence with him.... The
Archbishop of Canterbury was at first so nervous that for ten or twelve
nights he could not sleep, and our Primate was daily with him,
encouraging him."[581]

It is uncertain how far Pitt was aware of the many adverse influences
playing upon the King; for his papers on this topic are unusually
scanty. On the 30th he sent a draft of his proposals to Loughborough, a
sign that he wou