rst, that
I had been commissioned to explain the grounds on which you had
wished to stand against further concessions, your reasons for
imagining it doubtful whether that ground could be maintained,
and your certain conviction that it could be done only by an
immediate dissolution of Parliament. The second point I said
was, that, by what had since happened, you apprehended that
something further was made necessary, and this was the more
evident from the manner in which every one had taken up the
business in Ireland.

These two points, of course, led us into a very wide field of
conversation. As to the dissolution, I said you certainly would
not press the Ministry for any more on the subject, than that,
even with a peace, and a remedy to the business of the King's
Bench, it should not be delayed beyond the end of January. The
great object, he said, was at all events not to meet till
October. My answer was, that to you, who were personally to meet
the difficulties of an earlier meeting, they certainly would
appear quite as strong as they could to him sitting at a
distance and speculating upon them. It was therefore by no means
a thing to be wished by you, but an evil which circumstances
might render necessary. This led me to a mention of several
causes of discontent which might arise or be sought for, and
which could only be prevented by the Irish Parliament; such as
an infringement, for instance, of the East India monopoly. We
went, at different periods of the conversation, a good deal into
this business. He threw out an idea, which he said had been
often mentioned, and for which a foundation was certainly laid
in the last resolution of the English Houses on Irish affairs,
if we chose to pursue it. This was the fixing, by a sort of
treaty, a commercial system between the two countries, and a
proportionable contribution to be paid by Ireland for the
general protection of the empire.

When I mentioned the objection to this, founded on the
impossibility that Ireland could in her present situation
contribute such a quota as would hereafter be even infinitely
too small for her share, he answered it by stating the
possibility of having a tax on some particular article or
description of articles applicable to this purpose, which might
be so fixed as to be small at presen