"[140]
The Scotch Estates, therefore, had absolutely regarded the possible
separation of the two kingdoms as a contingency which might become not
undesirable; and, though it was too ticklish an argument to bring
forward, it may very possibly have occurred to Pitt that a similar vote
of the Irish Parliament was not impossible. The claim which Grattan,
following Fox, had set up on behalf of the Prince of Wales, was one of
an indefeasible right to the Regency; and, as far as right by
inheritance went, his claim to the crown, if, or whenever, a vacancy
should occur, was far less disputable. But, as has been mentioned in the
last chapter, a question had already been raised whether his Royal
Highness had not forfeited his right to the succession, and it was quite
possible that that question might be renewed. The fact of the Prince's
marriage to a Roman Catholic was by this time generally accepted as
certain; the birth of the Princess Charlotte gave greater importance to
the circumstance than it seemed to have while the Prince remained
childless; and, if the performance of the marriage ceremony should be
legally proved, and the English law courts should pronounce that the
legal invalidity of the marriage did not protect the Prince from the
penalty of forfeiture, it was highly probable that the Irish Parliament
would take a different view--would refuse, in spite of the Bill of
Rights, to regard marriage with a Roman Catholic as a disqualification,
but would recognize the Prince of Wales as King of Ireland.
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