average more than L300 a year. The
Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam reckoned the total number of parish
priests and curates at 1,800, of whom 1,400 were seculars and 400
regulars. The benefices numbered 1,200; each required the services of
two priests. The destruction of the seminaries in France and the poverty
of the Irish made it impossible to supply or support 2,400 clergy. Other
papers follow for and against Catholic Emancipation. See also
"Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, _ad fin._

[593] "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 3, 8, 9, 14.

[594] "Dropmore P.," vi, 445. Mulgrave, who knew Pitt well, was
convinced of his sincerity in resigning. His letter of 9th February 1801
(quoted by R. Plumer Ward, "Memoirs," i, 44) refutes the insinuations of
Sorel (vi, 101) that Pitt resigned because he could not make peace with
France.

[595] "Castlereagh Corresp.," iii, 285.

[596] "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 286.

[597] Pretyman MSS.

[598] G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 313, 330; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i,
244.

[599] "Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 31, 32.

[600] G. Rose, "Diaries," i, 360; Stanhope, iii, 304, 305.

[601] "Cornwallis Corresp.," iii, 343-9.

[602] _Ibid._, iii, 346; "Lord Colchester's Diaries," i, 243. The writer
in the "Edinburgh Review" for 1858, who censured Pitt, failed to notice
the entire change in the political situation brought about by the King's
acute malady.

[603] Pretyman MSS.

[604] Bagot, "Canning and his Friends," i, 180.

[605] "Castlereagh Corresp.," iv, 14.

CHAPTER XXI

PITT AND HIS FRIENDS (1794-1805)

Nothing could be more playful, and at the same time more
instructive, than Pitt's conversation on a variety of topics
while sitting in the library at Cirencester. You never would
have guessed that the man before you was Prime Minister of the
country, and one of the greatest that ever filled that
situation. His style and manner were quite those of an
accomplished idler.--"Malmesbury Diaries," iv, 34.

The conflict of parties and interests is apt to thin the circle of a
statesman's friends; and in that age of relentless strife the denuding
forces worked havoc. Only he who possesses truly lovable qualities can
pass through such a time with comparatively little loss; and such was
the lot of Pitt. True, his circle was somewhat diminished. The
opposition of Bankes had been at times so sharp as to lessen their
intimacy; and the reputation of Steele ha