ABSTRACT
Lord Fitzwilliam seems to have omitted no possible mode of defence, since he has even revealed the secrets of his sovereign, and disclosed the confidential correspondence of the cabinet. Had such a disclosure justified his Lordship, it would even then be difficult to excuse it; but as it palpably condemns him, he is in every light unpardonable. After such a direct and formal disavowal of the authority of his Majesty’s ministers, his continuance in the administration would have been a dissolution of the unity of government. He was therefore unanimously recalled, as his Lordship states from the Duke of Portland’s dispatch, “for the preservation of the empire”. When Lord Fitzwilliam received the address of the Catholics, he gave the most encouraging answer to their hopes, and the most decided approbation of his minister.
