ct or indirect, to the Roman catholics.
This pledge they properly declined, and accepted the consequence by
resignation. Spencer was present at the meeting which arrived at this
conclusion and concurred in the decision of his colleagues.[33]

A new administration was formed by Portland, as nominal head, but with
Perceval as its real leader and chancellor of the exchequer, Canning as
foreign secretary, Hawkesbury as home secretary, and Castlereagh as
minister for war and the colonies. Camden, Eldon, Westmorland, and
Chatham resumed the offices they had held before the death of Pitt,
Mulgrave became first lord of the admiralty, and Earl Bathurst president
of the board of trade. In this government, too, Sir Arthur Wellesley,
the future Duke of Wellington, who had returned in 1805 from a brilliant
military career in India, held office outside the cabinet as chief
secretary for Ireland. Spencer Perceval was a half-brother of the Earl
of Egmont and brother of Lord Arden. He enjoyed a large practice at the
bar and had made his mark as a parliamentary debater when filling the
offices, first of solicitor-general, and then of attorney-general under
Addington. He had held the latter office again under Pitt. Not the least
source of his influence was his steady and determined opposition to the
Roman catholic claims.

[Pageheading: _NON-INTERVENTION._]

After a short but animated debate on the important constitutional
question raised by the circumstances of the change of ministers,
parliament was again dissolved on April 27. The king's speech in closing
the session was virtually a personal appeal to his people, and a
majority was returned in favour of the new ministry. This result may be
said to mark the last triumph of George III. in maintaining the
principle of personal government. "A just and enlightened toleration"
was announced as the substitute for catholic relief. Still, a certain
revival of independent popular opinion may be traced in the return of
Sir Francis Burdett and Lord Cochrane for Westminster. It was not until
June 22 that parliament assembled, and the engrossing interest of
foreign events left but little room for discussions on home-policy. A
motion by Whitbread, however, bore fruit in a bill for establishing
parochial schools, which Eldon successfully opposed in the house of
lords, mainly on the ground that it would take popular education out of
the hands of the clergy. The same not unnatural apathy about home
a