ers was found
in Lord Grey, who announced his want of confidence in the ministry. ile
gave, his lordship said, all due credit to those members of his party
who coalesced with that ministry for disinterestedness, but he could see
nothing in it which called for his support. It was said to be formed on
the principle of Lord Liverpool's government. That principle consisted
in the exclusion of the Catholic question: was the Catholic question
then not to be made a cabinet measure? If so, his determination was
taken; it would prevent him from giving support to the government. His
lordship then reviewed the whole political career of Mr. Canning, and
expressed himself opposed to every part of it; attacking with peculiar
severity the noted declaration of the premier of calling the republics
of the new world into existence. It was true, he said, that Mr.
Canning was called a friend of civil and religious liberty, and that
he supported Catholic emancipation, at the same time he proclaimed his
opposition to a repeal of the test and corporation acts. He would not
dwell on his known opposition to parliamentary reform; that question
had not been so uniformly supported, nor had public opinion been so
expressed in its favour as that any one should make it a _sine qua non_
in joining an administration; but he could not conceal from himself the
fact, that within a few years numerous laws had been passed hostile
to civil liberty, every one of which had received the right honourable
gentleman's dissent. Unless he could retrace his steps, and erase some
that remained in the statute-book, no confidence ought to be reposed in
him as a friend to civil liberty. His lordship added, that he differed
from the known opponents of government on most questions as widely as
the poles were asunder; but neither could he join those who supported
it: the only course, therefore, left him was to pursue the same
principles which he professed through life. When the measures of
government agreed with those principles he would support them; when
repugnant, they should have his opposition.

OPINIONS OF HIS MAJESTY ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.

{GEORGE IV. 1827--1828}

The question of Catholic emancipation was soon set at rest for the
present. In an interview which the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Bishop of London had with his majesty, soon after Mr. Canning's
elevation, he stated "that he was as firmly fixed as his father had
been, in opposition to the pr