ld persevere with them. On the morrow George again
summoned Addington to the palace, and adjured him to form a Ministry.
This offer preceded the arrival of any intimation from Pitt of his
desire to resign if his advice were rejected. Addington for his part
begged to be excused; whereupon the King exclaimed: "Lay your hand upon
your heart and ask yourself where I am to turn for support if _you_ do
not stand by me."[582] Meanwhile Pitt was inditing his famous letter of
31st January, to the King, of which this summary must suffice:

Pitt has heard with deep regret of the opposition displayed by
His Majesty to the proposals of Catholic Emancipation, which are
approved by the majority of the Cabinet and regarded as a
natural sequel to the Act of Union. The admission of Catholics
and Dissenters to certain offices, and of Catholics to
Parliament, now involves little or no danger to the Established
Church or to the Protestant interest, as the Catholics disclaim
the obnoxious tenets once held by them. A form of oath can be
devised to exclude those Dissenters who may have designs against
the constitution either in Church or State. The Irish Catholic
clergy may be attached to the Government by making their
maintenance partly dependent on the State. These changes would
adapt the constitution to present needs. Pitt therefore
earnestly commends the measure to the consideration of His
Majesty. Meanwhile no steps will be taken in the matter; but, if
on examination the measure should not be approved, Pitt will beg
to be allowed to resign, though in such a way as to occasion the
least possible difficulty. Finally he takes the liberty "of most
respectfully, but explicitly, submitting to Your Majesty the
indispensable necessity of effectually discountenancing, in the
whole of the interval, all attempts to make use of Your
Majesty's name, or to influence the opinion of any individual on
any part of the subject."

In the last sentence Pitt administered a telling and dignified rebuke
for the outrageous behaviour of the King at the _levee_. A reply came on
the morrow, couched in pompously ungrammatical terms, which sufficiently
refute the rumour that it was composed by that polished talker,
Loughborough. George declared that his Oath bound him to support the
Established Church; that State officials must be in active communion
with that Church. He ther