s little need to notice the hasty and spiteful comments of Lord
Malmesbury, that Pitt was playing a selfishly criminal game by
resigning, with the evident aim of showing his own strength and being
called back to office on his own terms.[593] The Malmesbury Diaries at
this point consist chiefly of hearsays, which can readily be refuted.
But this calumny spread widely, and Fox finally barbed it with the hint
that the substitution of Addington for Pitt was "a notorious juggle,"
the former being obviously a dummy to be knocked down when it suited
Pitt to come back fancy-free about the Catholics. Fortunately, the
correspondence of statesmen often supplies antidotes to the venomous
gibes of bystanders; and a case in point is a phrase in Grenville's
letter of 13th February to Minto: "There was no alternative except that
of taking this step [resignation] or of agreeing to the disguise or
dereliction of one's opinion on one of the most important questions in
the whole range of our domestic policy."[594]

Pitt has been sharply censured for his excessive scrupulousness in
resigning at so serious a crisis. But the verdict must depend on three
main issues, the importance of the question at stake, that of the
services rendered by the Irish Catholics, and the nature of the promises
made to them. Now, no one will deny that in the days when France was
striving to effect the independence of Ireland--for Bonaparte was
thought to be pressing on the war with that aim in view[595]--the
question of the Union stood paramount. It was the most important problem
confronting Parliament since the Union with Scotland in 1707; and the
difficulties encountered were greater than those raised by the Scots.
The services of the Irish Catholics to the cause of the Union are not
easy to assess; but Castlereagh, a cool judge, rated them high. In such
a case a man of sensitive conscience will deem himself bound to those
who, in reliance on his sense of honour, acted in a way that ensured the
success of his measure. Above all, in so tangled a situation the final
decision will depend on the character of the statesman. Walpole would
have waived aside the debt of honour. Pitt resolved to discharge it.

It is scarcely necessary to notice another slander, that Pitt resigned
because, in his inability to procure peace from France, he intended to
put Addington in office merely for that purpose, to be ousted when it
was fulfilled. No evidence is forthcoming in support