ich had
been taken down (contrary to his desire) in writing, and which he
was compelled to sign upon the rack; his signature was written in
faint and trembling characters, and his strength had evidently
failed in the middle, for he had only written 'Guido.' There is a
distinct admission in the Plot papers in Garnett's own hand that
he came to a knowledge of the Plot otherwise than by the
Sacrament of Confession, which oversets Lingard; a paragraph by
which it is clear that the Pope knew of it; and a curious paper
in which, having sworn that he had never written certain letters,
which letters were produced when he was taxed with the false
oath, Garnett boldly justifies himself, and says that they ought
not to have questioned him on the subject, having the letters in
their hands, and that he had a right to deny what he believed
they could not prove--a very remarkable exposition of the tenets
of his order and the doctrines of equivocation.

[29] [The substance of these papers has since been published
by the late David Jardine, Esq., in his excellent
'Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot.' (Murray, London,
1857.) Some of the particulars here referred to by Mr.
Greville are not strictly accurate, or at least have
not been confirmed by subsequent investigation. It is
not probable that the letter to Lord Mounteagle was
written by Mrs. Abington or by Mrs. Vaux, nor is it at
all certain that either of these ladies had any
knowledge of the Plot. Mr. Jardine ascribes the letter
to Tresham ('Narrative,' &c., p. 83). Garnett's
admissions are printed in Jardine's Appendix. His
knowledge of the Plot was derived from Greenway, a
priest to whom Catesby had revealed it in confession.
The Pope was probably not privy to the Plot. The
celebrated 'Treatise on Equivocation' was found in
Tresham's desk. The identical copy with Garnett's notes
is still in the Bodleian; it was reprinted in 1851.]

When I came away from the State Paper Office I met George Dawson,
and we had a long conversation about Irish affairs, from which I
gathered what is to be done. The Catholic question is to be
conceded, the elective franchise altered, and the Association
suppressed. This latter is, I take it, to be a preliminary
measure, and I suspect the Duke went to the King on Monday with
the res