of things in Church and State in both kingdoms. The
following extracts from the letters which he received from Cooke and
Lees are typical. On 4th October Lees writes: "I am afraid Lord
Cornwallis is not devil enough to deal with the devils he has to contend
with in this country.... The profligacy of the murderous malignant
disposition of Paddy soars too high for his humane and merciful
principles at this crisis." Cooke was less flowery but equally emphatic:
"If," he wrote on 22nd October, "your Union is to be Protestant, we have
100,000 Protestants who are connected by Orange Lodges, and they might
be made a great instrument.... Our robberies and murders continue; and
the depredations of the mountain rebels increase."[538]

Nevertheless Cornwallis held on his way. In the period 22nd August 1798
to the end of February 1799, he reprieved as many as 41 rebels out of
131 on whom sentence of death had been passed, and he commuted to
banishment heavy sentences passed on 78 others. It is clear, then, that,
despite the efforts of Buckingham and the officials of Dublin Castle,
Pitt continued to uphold a policy of clemency. But it is equally clear
that the reliance of Irish malcontents on French aid, the persistent
efforts of the Brest squadron to send that aid, and the savage reprisals
demanded, and when possible enforced, by the loyal minority of Irishmen,
brought about a situation in which Ireland could not stand alone.[539]

Preliminary inquiries respecting the Act of Union were set on foot, and
the results were summarized in Memoranda of the summer and autumn of
1798. One of them, comprised among the Pelham manuscripts, is annotated
by Pitt. The compiler thus referred to the question of Catholic
Emancipation: "Catholics to be eligible to all offices, civil and
military, taking the present oath. Such as shall take the Oath of
Supremacy in the Bill of Rights may sit in Parliament without
subscribing the Abjuration. Corporation offices to be Protestant." On
this Pitt wrote the following note: "The first part seems
unexceptionable, and is exactly what I wish ... but if this oath is
sufficient for office, why require a different one for Parliament? And
why are Corporation offices to be exclusively Protestant, when those of
the State may be Catholic?"[540] Well might Pitt ask these questions,
for the whole system of exclusion by religious tests was condemned so
soon as admission to Parliament ceased to depend on them. Other
Memor