have told you before, but that I
was entirely occupied by professional business throughout yesterday
morning, and, besides, I wished to consult with Lord Grenville
(with whom I was engaged to dine yesterday) as to the policy of
some of the amendments you have suggested. Some are obviously
improvements on the face of them. The difficulty, as I foresaw,
arises as to the insertion of the additional words to express,
"That no one shall exercise the function of a bishop who shall not
have been approved by the King." We discussed this point fully last
night, and Lord Grenville is decidedly of opinion (and this he
desired me to mention to you, as from him) that if we venture upon
it we shall _shipwreck_ the whole measure. By having the negative
of the King to the nomination of any person whose loyalty and good
conduct may be suspected, we surely have, in substance and effect,
all the security which can be necessary for the protection of the
Protestant establishment; and it would be a sad pity to hazard a
measure which, to a certain extent, at least, is happily advanced,
for the sake of expressions, preferable certainly, but not
essential for our security. I have been with Plunket on the subject
this morning, and his view coincides with Lord Grenville's
entirely. He says it would be laid hold of immediately by the
enemies to the measure amongst the Catholics, and made the source
of much discontent and irritation, and that the rather because the
Bill has been transmitted to them in its present shape, as the
measure to be proposed on this branch of the subject. I should add,
that Plunket expressed the greatest anxiety to concur in any
suggestion which came from you.

You suggest the exclusion of Roman Catholics from the office of
Lord Chancellor of Ireland; but it does not seem to me--and, what
is of more consequence, it does not seem to Lord Grenville--that
the same reasons exist to exclude them from this office which may
be urged against their filling the office of Lord High Chancellor.
The Irish Chancellor has not, _virtute officii_, the disposal
of Church patronage, nor is he called upon to advise the King in
any way respecting it; and the same principle, therefore, which
might be applied to exclude them from this function, might be put
forward as a ground for their exclusion from the