hcoming.
Cornwallis and Castlereagh were aware of the need of extreme caution in
making overtures to the leading Catholics; and they afterwards denied
that they gave a distinct pledge. Nevertheless, some of their agents
induced the Catholics of the south and west of Ireland, to act in a
"highly useful" manner, which averted an otherwise dangerous opposition.
Castlereagh explained this to Pitt early in January;[587] and the
scrupulous Minister must have considered these promises as a debt of
honour. That some of the leading Irish Catholics viewed them in the same
light appears in an account of a representative meeting held at Ryan's
house in Marlborough Street, Dublin, on 27th October 1804. Ryan then set
forth the condition of his co-religionists at the time of the Union, and
referred to the stipulations made to them by Government. Others,
including Lord Fingall and a barrister, Scully, followed; and after two
more meetings, they resolved to petition Pitt, who had by that time
returned to office, it being known that he was at heart favourable to
their claims.[588] But in his speech of 14th May 1805 on this topic, he
said, "I did not make a distinct pledge. On the contrary, I believe the
line of argument I took was, that if it should be thought right to give
what the Catholics required, it might be given with more safety to the
Empire."[589]

What the stipulations were is not clear; for with this exception the
Irish Records are disappointingly silent. But it is clear that Canning
finally came to consider them binding on an honourable man. In his great
speech on Catholic Emancipation in March 1827, while admitting that Pitt
in 1800 made no definite promise to the Catholics, he added these
notable words: "The Catholics were made to believe, and that belief was
a powerful inducement to them to lend their aid towards the
accomplishment of the measure [the Union] that in the Imperial
Parliament the question which so nearly concerned them would be more
favourably entertained.... There is no tribunal, however solemn, before
which I am not prepared to depose to my firm belief in the sincerity of
Mr. Pitt's wishes and intentions to carry it." This passage once for all
refutes the charges of insincerity which certain of Canning's
biographers have brought against Pitt.

Light is thrown on this topic by notes of Bishop Tomline. Pitt consulted
his former tutor at this crisis; for on 6th February he wrote warning
him of his approachi