Star.
London, England, 1807-03-27 00:00:00

I•

anfrrzr upon the point referred to in the qqueflioti•
This queliion having been communicated to Irlinilie►c.
by Mr. Elliot, a fecond d:fpaich was drawn lip,
removing Mr,. Elliot's dcuht and authrriling, him to
give a decided anfwer to Mr. O'Connot's Tien: n:
This fecond difpatch was laid before his Maj• tiy, and
his Msjelly was ,pleaftd to return it Without a.:y
objeaion rr comment whatever. It wa, therefore
immediately forwarded to Ireland. H..wever, upon
the point ;-ome differences of opinicin did mile. Doubts
were entertained, •ic is but fair to fay, by fume
Members of the Cabinet, as to the extent of this
meafure (a cry of how, later, from the Miniflerial fee).
I Rate the fafts as they recurred. M% objet is to
(tate
.the cafe literally as it arofe. The Cabinet Mini-
frets I. have alluded to, declared that they were not,
in the tura infla: cc,aw Arc of the full extent of the mea-
Cure, and to that event they flrongiy ex preffed their
oLjetlion ; but the &patch had been crevioufly
tianfmitted to the Duke of Bedford.

" It has been.hated by fame pet lons who have
animadverted upon this tranfaSion, that Minilters
were not warranted in bringirg forward a public
meafure previoufly obtaining the cnnient of
his Majetty. Bnt this extravagant propofition karcely
dere, ves ferious notice. According to any rational
publication on the tulajeLq, :he duty of a Minitter ap.
pears to be tivo-fold. He may ad in a double cepa.
city upon different occafions—namely, as a Miniller,
and as an individual Member of Parliament. There
was no Minitler who had not abed fooccafiorially—r
If indeed it were culpa!ale to purfue the courte fume
extravagant 'niters now mantain, Mr. Pitt's con-
dud upon the Slave Trade and Parliamentary Re-
form would have been highly cenfurable—for that dif.
tlnguithed fleet-man, in both thele inflances, brougiii.
forward the prrpofilors as an individual Member
Parliament. The conlitutional which,ln con!
cutrence with my collzagues, I take between the duty
of a Minifter.in the one cafe and the other, is this--
that when a Minister brings forward any motion ai
a meafure of Goveinment Which has undergone any
difct.flion in the Cabinet, he viola.es his ditty, unfelt
fuch meafure (hall have received the fanCtion of that
authority. I raculd of courfe feel myfelt very cul-
pable, if I attempted to b.ing forward any meAlirc
in Patliament as a minifterial meafure, unlefs I had
pri:vionfly fobmitted that meafure to the cnntideratirm
of the King, and obtained his Majefly's confent to its
adoption. It was therefore I laid before his Majefly
all the particulars with reprd to the meafore ielpzet4
ing the Catholics, and Waited to obtain his Majesty's
approbation before I attempted to fubmit the ccnfi-
ckration of that meafure to this Houk,
_

11.-

" The fecond difpatch which I have Dated to
have been feat to the Duke of Bedford on the t ath of
February was drawn up by me, in confeqUencc f the
indifpofition of Lord Spencer ; and in .his 1:1 he
recolldled, Mr. Elliot was authorized t give adeci-
ded anfwer to Mr. O'Connor. That difpatch I len..
to Windfor on Monday, for his Majelty'. approbari,
and on the Tuefday foilowing it was teturned,wur
any objection or comment whatever, as I e a!, ; •F
Rated. But what roved more 6‘tindly to ;!.; 1%11
my mind with an opini ,n of hL, lkl'Atoty's cr aol
quiefcence in the mealu. e is tlil• . • hoonc
of teeing him in the T 1 __toiooty
expreffed not even a hint lov ds !.• r
immediately forwarded the difpate', I had wi
the Duke of Bedford, and on tue folloo in. I;y aired
in this Houle my intetoicn to propof cl !life its 'he
Mutiny Bill, to anfwcr the putp,f, wi,:ch I had too.
derftood his Majetty to have Ai't,t lone
further confideration hosvever, it was faggenc I that
in point of form it would not be corral to ingr sit
fuch a elatife on the Md. iny 8.11. In c ofeottseioe of
this fuggeltiin it wits dererrcined to ntak: this claufe
the fobjed of a feparate Pill. 0:1 the Wedn.fday
foil:ruing the adoption of this detezmina; ion, Eftei
the Bill wai brroo,ht in and read a fit a titre, I at-
tended at St. James's, and after fore converfati,ol
with his Nl,,jAty about my nom office. his MThily
alked me shat was the hu:lncf, in the H -,t.fe Coat
evening? I anfwered, aroorg otl er thiogs, a moti .n
for the fec:ond reading of this Bill, whil:l had been
made a feparate Bill. 'mentioning Oie cor nierati .ns
have [laced to the iloofe. HisMajelly irked, whe-
ther the Bill was the lime as the ad of the hitt' Par.
liament ? I flared the difference to be what 1 comsitu
nicated to his Majeriy Tome days before in tho shidatch
addteffed to the Duke of Bedford, and reocated the
realons which appeared to rne to julliry that dit-
ference ; and here I mull acknowledge that his Ma-
jetty did exprefs his difapprobation of the creafute
(hear, tear !en the Bencics.). G. r.,1-men
may rely that I (hall frankly (late all the 14,1 s ; but
although his blajelly did Ili exprefs his difapplo,'l,tti it,
(till I did not conceive the cs.nfent whistirawn he had
originally given to the introduaion of this measure,
and I was very naturally the lef, it dine I to
think Co from this circumtlance, that Lora Goers-
vale had an audience of his Majefly after I kit him,
and his Majefly mentioned Too one word upon the
iubje& to my Nrible Friend. Up ,n the f. !horn%
day alto I Caw his Majehy, but heard nothing for:her .
of his nbjetlion, nor did for the whole of tiie week,
although I bad frequent opportunities of hearing from,
and Come converfatiens ssith the Kirg. In confe-
quence of an unfortunate event which occurred in
my family, I was for fume days Aden( from hairier*
and this Houle, and that abfence produced a poll.
ponement of the order for the fecond reading of this
Bill. During this period I had not (pen hip M;jefly;
but I underflood that he had commt..nicated to Lord
Grenville his decided objedion to the.meafure rest red
to, and that his Majctty conceived the extent of it
to be far beyond that to which he had oriiinally
given his affent. From that circomftance I was
led to fofped that I had mifunderitood his Majefly
I accordingly demanded an audience, in order to
tile my endeavours for the purpofe of fatisfying
his Majetty's mind upon the fubjed, but my en.
deavours had n..t the effect of removing his Ma-
objections, and I had the regret to find that I
had Mifunderflobd his Majefty, or that he had corn.
pletely mifunder Rood me. However, from an)anxious
with to avoid giving any pain to his Mojclty's feel-
ings, I endeavbured, in concerr with my Colleagues,
fo to modify the Bill as to reconcile it to his Majefty's
willies. But after a, good deal of deliberation, we
hound that it could not be fo modified as to obviate
his objections, without deftroying the vital canoe of
the meafure—without doing away that which wonldbe
tatisfadory to the Catholics, or likely to produce any
of the important confequences which we bad in view
upon its original introdtglion; we therefore propoCed