ty. This move implied a complete change of system at Dublin,
Grattan and the Ponsonbys having declared for the admission of Roman
Catholics to the then exclusively Protestant Parliament. True, this
reform seemed a natural sequel to Pitt's action in according to British
Catholics the right of public worship and of the construction of schools
(1791). Further, in 1792, he urged Westmorland to favour the repeal of
the remaining penal laws against Irish Catholics; but the Dublin
Parliament decisively rejected the proposal. Nevertheless, in 1793 he
induced Westmorland to support the extension of the franchise to
Romanists, a measure which seemed to foreshadow their admission to
Parliament itself. There is little doubt that Pitt, who then expected
the war to be short, intended to set the crown to this emancipating
policy; for even in the dark times that followed he uttered not a word
which implied permanent hostility to the claims of Catholics. His
attitude was that of one who awaited a fit opportunity for satisfying
them.

Unfortunately, the overtures of Fitzwilliam to Grattan and the Ponsonbys
became known at Dublin, with results most humiliating for Westmorland.
The exultation of the Ponsonbys and the Opposition aroused the hopes of
Catholics and the resentment of the more extreme Protestants. Chief
among the champions of the existing order was the Irish Lord Chancellor,
Baron Fitzgibbon, afterwards Earl of Clare. A man of keen intellect and
indomitable will, he swayed the House of Lords, the Irish Bar, and the
Viceregal councils. It was he who had urged severe measures against the
new and powerful organization, the United Irishmen, started in Ulster by
Wolfe Tone, which aimed at banding together men of both religions in a
solid national phalanx. Scarcely less influential than Fitzgibbon was
Beresford, the chief of the Revenue Department, whose family connections
and control of patronage were so extensive as to earn him the name of
the King of Ireland. Like Fitzgibbon he bitterly opposed any further
concession to Catholics; and it was therefore believed that the
dismissal of these two men was a needful preliminary to the passing of
that important measure. Rumours of sweeping changes began to fly about,
especially when Grattan came to London, and had interviews with the Lord
Chancellor. The frequent shifts whereby the Scottish Presbyterian,
Wedderburn, became the reactionary Lord Loughborough were notorious; and
it is one of