uring the Vacation
pains may be taken with the House of Commons so as to give us a fair
majority, and if the Catholics act steadily we should be able to carry
the point. I could wish that Mr. Pitt would suffer some person of
ability to prepare all the necessary Bills, and to fill up every detail;
so that the measure might be seen in its complete stage. I despair of
this being done, tho' obviously right; for Ministers never will act till
they are forced, and I do not wonder at it."[562]

Again, all the energy was on the side of the Opposition. On 11th April
Foster passed the whole subject in review in a speech of four hours'
duration. In order to weaken one of the strongest of Pitt's arguments,
he proposed that in case of a Regency, the Regent, who was chosen at
Westminster, should necessarily be Regent at Dublin. This proposal of
course implied the dependence of the Irish Parliament on that of Great
Britain; but, as invalidating one of the chief pleas for Union, Foster
pressed it home. He also charged Pitt with endeavouring to wring a large
sum of money every year from Ireland. The speech made a deep impression.
The only way of deadening its influence and stopping the Regency Bill
was to postpone it until August and summarily to close the session on
1st June. The meanness of this device is a tribute to the power of
Foster and the mediocrity of the officials of Dublin Castle.

Meanwhile the naval situation had cleared up, so far as concerns
Ireland. On 25th April Admiral Bruix, with a powerful fleet, slipped out
from Brest by night past Lord Bridport's blockading force. For some days
panic reigned in London, and it is significant that Bridport took
especial measures to guard the coasts of Ireland, thus enabling the
French to get clear away to the Mediterranean. With bolder tactics they
should have been able to reduce the new British possession, Minorca, or
annihilate the small force blockading Malta. The relief felt at Dublin
Castle, on hearing of Bruix' southward voyage, appears in Beresford's
letter of 15th May, in which he refers to the revival of loyalty and the
terrible number of hangings by courts martial: "We consider ourselves as
safe from the French for this year; but I am in great anxiety for my
friend St. Vincent. What steps will be taken against those damned dogs
in the Mediterranean?... I expect that the French going to the
Mediterranean, instead of coming to the assistance of their friends
here, will have