nville to join it,
promising an immediate consideration of the Catholic claims with a
view to a conciliatory settlement; while, on the other hand, attempts
were made to retain the services of the leading members of Perceval's
Ministry. But the Whig leaders refused to take part in a coalition
Ministry, in which they would probably be outvoted, and the former
Cabinet was reconstructed, under the leadership of Lord Liverpool, but
on the principle of leaving the Catholic question an open one.
Liverpool himself was opposed to concession, but his opposition was by
no means of the unqualified kind which had been shown by Perceval; and
a large proportion of his colleagues, including Castlereagh, who led
the House of Commons, were in favour of Catholic emancipation. If
Canning had consented to join the Ministry, Lord Wellesley would
probably have been Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland, and under these
circumstances the Catholic side could scarcely have failed to acquire
a decisive preponderance. If, on the other hand, Castlereagh had
followed the example of Canning, and refused to take part in a
Ministry which declined to settle the Catholic question, or if the
Whigs had consented to co-operate with Canning, the settlement of this
great question could scarcely have been deferred. Unfortunately, none
of these things happened. Castlereagh remained the leader of the
House. Canning refused to follow his leadership, and two years later
accepted the embassy to Lisbon. The Whig leaders stood aloof from all
Ministerial combinations. The Duke of Richmond, who was violently
anti-Catholic, continued to be Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; the post of
Chief Secretary was given to Peel, and Ireland was destined to undergo
fifteen more years of demoralising and disorganising agitation before
the Catholic question was settled.

Canning, however, as an independent member, brought forward a
resolution pledging the House to an early consideration of the laws
affecting his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, with a view to their
final conciliatory adjustment, and the conditions of the question had
so profoundly changed that it was carried by a majority of 129; while
a similar motion by Lord Wellesley in the House of Lords was met by
the previous question, which was carried by a majority of only one.

Peel, though he had come into Parliament as a special follower of
Perceval, had not yet pledged himself decisively against the
Catholics. He had voted silently a