We have seen how keen a contest was excited in the English Parliament by the deranged condition of the King's health in 1788, and the necessity which consequently arose for the appointment of a Regency.

Grattan was in London at the time, where he had contracted a personal intimacy with Fox, and had been presented by him to the Prince of Wales, whose graciousness of manner, and profession of adherence to the Whig system of politics, secured his attachment to that party.

Grattan was easily indoctrinated by Fox with his theory of the indefeasible claim of the Prince to the Regency as his birthright, and is understood to have promised that the Irish Parliament should adopt that view.

The case was one which seemed unprovided for.

There was no question but that the law enacted that the sovereign of England should also be the sovereign of Ireland.