ch he put on
Pitt passes the bounds even of the immorality of a sick-room. The
illness began with a chill due to his own imprudence; but he used its
later developments to extort a promise which otherwise would never have
been forthcoming. Nothing but the crisis in the King's illness led Pitt
to waver. For at the end of February he authorized Castlereagh to send
to Cornwallis at Dublin a declaration intended to reassure the Irish
Catholics. It pointed out that the majority of the Cabinet had resigned
owing to the impossibility of carrying Catholic Emancipation at the
present juncture. He (Pitt) still resolved to do his utmost for the
success of that cause; and therefore begged them to refrain from any
conduct which would prejudice it in the future. Cornwallis delivered
this and another paper to the titular Archbishop of Dublin and Lord
Fingall for circulation among their friends and found that it produced
good results.[601] Far different, of course, was the effect produced on
those few who knew of Pitt's private promise to the King. They
contrasted it with the contrary promise to the Irish Catholics and drew
the most unfavourable inferences, forgetting that between 27th February
and 2nd March the King's illness had taken so dangerous a turn as
perhaps to justify the use of that political sedative.

While blaming Pitt for weakness in giving this pledge to the King, we
must remember that the prolongation of the reign of George III was the
first desire of all responsible statesmen. The intrigues of the Prince
of Wales and Fox for a Regency were again beginning; and thus there
loomed ahead an appalling vista of waste and demoralization. In these
circumstances Dundas and Cornwallis came to the conclusion that the
King's conscience must not again be troubled. Grenville seems to have
held firm on the Catholic Question.[602] But his colleagues now took an
opportunist view. Pitt had two or three interviews with the Prince of
Wales, late in February and early in March, and made it clear that the
Prince would be well advised to accept the Regency Bill drafted in 1789.
On the Prince asking whether this was the opinion of certain of Pitt's
colleagues, who then opposed that Bill as derogatory to his interests,
Pitt at once replied in the affirmative; and when the Prince further
objected to certain restrictions on the power of the Regent, Pitt
declared that no change would be acceptable. They parted courteously but
coolly; and we may b