a very great effect upon the people of this country,
who, as soon as they find that they have been made fools of will
endeavour to get out of the scrape they are in." On 1st June Cooke
writes "secretly" to Auckland, expressing regret that Pitt ever attacked
Foster, whose opposition is most weighty. The Cabinet lost the measure
by want of good management in 1798: and the same is now the case.
Nothing has been done to win over Lord Downshire with his eight votes,
or Lords Donegal and De Clifford, who had half as many. He even asks
whether Pitt will think it worth while to spend three months' work on
the Union now that the French had gone to the Mediterranean.[563] The
question reveals the prevalence of the belief that Pitt paid little
attention to Irish affairs. Probably it arose from his stiffness of
manner and his execrable habit of leaving letters unanswered. This
defect had become incurable, witness the complaint of Wilberforce to
Addington--"You know how difficult, I may say next to impossible, it is
to extort a line from Pitt."[564]

In July the return of Bruix with the Cadiz fleet into the Atlantic
renewed the fears of Irish loyalists and the hopes of the malcontents.
The combined fleet managed to enter Brest on 13th August 1799; and its
presence there was a continual source of unsettlement to Ireland,
preparations for revolt being kept up in several parts. A large British
force was therefore kept in Ireland, not for the purpose of forcing
through the Union, as Pitt's enemies averred, but in order to guard
against invasion and rebellion. Though reinforcements arrived,
Cornwallis complained that he had not enough troops. On 24th July 1799
he informed the Duke of Portland that he had only 45,000 regular
infantry, a number sufficient to preserve order but totally inadequate
to repel an invasion in force. Thus the facts of the case are, that
French threats to tear Ireland from Great Britain kept up the
threatening ferment and necessitated the presence of a considerable
military force; but they also led Pitt to insist on the Union as a means
of thwarting all separatist efforts whether from without or from within.
It is clear, however, that Pitt and Earl Spencer trusted to Bridport's
powerful squadron to intercept any large expedition of the enemy. The
blow then preparing against the Dutch was in part intended to ensure the
safety of the British Isles.

Meanwhile at Westminster the cause of the Union met with almost
un