existed unbroken. It might be imagined what mis-statements the learned member was accustomed to make to his countrymen, when he could venture to make such assertions in the face of the House of Commons. This was a party motion; and in order to make it impossible that the Government should agree with it, in which case the noble mover must have proposed something for the welfare of Ireland, the motion had been mixed with a censure upon the Ministers themselves. The noble lord seemed to have been solving a question in political fluxions, how to combine the maximum of crimination against the Government with the minimum of inconvenient engagement to himself. He might have been a little less acrimonious, considering the sort of house he lived in-he might have thrown fewer stones. The example was one which he himself would not imitate. With reference to Lord John Russell's attack on the Lord Chancellor, he vindicated that eminent nobleman and the selection of him for his high office; repeated Lord Lyndhurst's own explanation, and rebuked the conduct of Lord John Russell and the Whigs to Lord Plunket, an Irishman of the very highest qualifications, whom, only six weeks before they left office, they, the advocates of the exclusive claims of Irishmen to judicial office, had removed from the Great Seal of Ireland to gratify the vanity of a Scotchman. Lord John Russell had endeavoured to make him (Sir R. Peel) responsible for what Mr. Bradshaw had said at an election dinner about Roman Catholic appointments; but really this was pushing the doctrine of conspiracy somewhat further than the Go

vernment itself had ever carried it. He read the instructions which he had given to the Lord Lieutenant, directing him to include in his patronage such Roman Catholics as had not taken part in political agitation. Those instructions had been acted upon at the first opportunity, in the instance of Serjeant Howley, and the reward of the Government had been a torrent of abuse from the Liberal party. The Government had taken office in September, 1841, and until March, 1843, they had maintained in Ireland the smallest force which, except on one or two occasions, had ever been stationed there; they had reduced the Whig establishment by 2,400 men. In March, 1843, the agitation began. The Government had done nothing to provoke this; but it did not suit the views of some persons that the Government should be successful. The period was peculiarly favourable to the movement, because the Poor-law of the late Ministers was then coming into operation and galling all the poorer occupiers; it was also a period of agricultural depression; and there was, moreover, an alarm on the subject of the Tariff. The Government was charged with allowing the meetings to proceed for the purpose of entrapping the agitators. He solemnly denied that purpose. They had not thought it wise-nay, he thought it could be seldom wise to apply to Parliament for extraordinary powers, the effect of which was generally to impair the credit and efficacy of the ordinary law. The Whigs had taken a different course, they had applied for a Coercion Bill; and he himself, instead of making a Lichfield House compact with the opponents of that

measure, to turn out the Whig Government, had given his support to the Bill. He read some of the provisions of that measure, which created new offences, and made them triable by court-martial. He had instructed the Lord Lieutenant, if any meeting should be announced, with respect to which there should be affidavits from free and voluntary deponents, stating it to be of such a character as to endanger the public peace, that a proclamation should be issued to forbid such meeting; that if necessary, the ground should be pre-occupied; and that in the last resort, it should be dispersed. Notice had not been wanting. The dismissal of the magistrates, and the Queen's Speech on the prorogation, had been sufficient warnings. For a while the Government had abstained from directly interfering, not without some hope that the agitation might subside. But the meetings became more dangerous; the day selected for one of them was the anniversary of the Irish rebellion; the scenes of others were those of events associated with national exasperation. The Clontarf meeting had these distinguishing features-that it was attended with military array, that it was convened in military language, and that troops of "Repeal Cavalry" were summoned to attend it. The law advisers of the Crown were of opinion that these circumstances distinguished that from the previous meetings, and rendered it of itself illegal. The Government then decided to issue the proclamation, to occupy the ground, and to appeal to the law. He justified that appeal, and denied all intention of disrespect to the Roman Catholics. He read evidence of

the excitement then prevailing throughout Ireland, manifested even in the night by signal fires upon the hills of many counties; and asked whether these things were for the purpose of petition. The Government had had no alternative but to call upon the law. A conviction was obtained, without bloodshed-without collision; and then the Government were assailed by a powerful party, and arraigned, sometimes for too great forbearance, and sometimes for too great vigour. If they had taken any different course, this House would have rung with far other tauntstaunts for premature interference, or for a cowardly disposition to spare the powerful and pursue the weak. It remained for him to deal with a much more important subject-the future policy of Government in Ireland. He wondered it had not occurred to Mr. O'Connell, that if wealth and intelligence were of any importance in a constituency, the extensive pauperism, which he had mentioned as amounting to seventy per cent. on the whole agricultural population, ought to be a strong argument against the extension of franchise demanded. Sir Robert then proceeded to explain and vindicate the course which had been taken with respect to the Landlord and Tenant Commission.

As to the franchise, he admitted that there ought to be, not identity between the two countries, which was impossible, but substan tial equality. That was the principle which we ought to endeavour to establish throughout Irish af fairs. Now as to the Church. The Legislature had given to the Protestants at the Union an assurance for the preservation of their Establishment; and as far as na

tional compact could have force, that Establishment was protected. As authorities for this protection, he cited Mr. Burke, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Plunket, and Sir J. Newport. He would not say that the compact must bind the Parliament in all possible circumstances, but he held that it ought not to be lightly disturbed. But there was a still higher ground-that of the welfare of Ireland herself. There must be some Church Establishment in that country, and it could not be Roman Catholic, because the Roman Catholics refused to accept endowments in connexion with the State. What then could be more unreasonable than to take from a Church which submitted itself to the State five-sixths of its property, for the purpose of transferring that proportion to a Church which refused any such connexion? He could conceive nothing more likely to raise a spirit of the widest discord. His determination, therefore, was to uphold the Protestant Church in its full integrity, not excluding such reforms as might improve its usefulness. He proposed to give facilities for the endowments of private benefactors to the Roman Catholic Church; and to increase very largely the grant for public education. He referred with emotion to the sacrifices which he had made for Ireland, when in order to carry the Relief Bill, and, as he had hoped, to insure her tranquillity, he had risked private friendships and political connexions, and forfeited the cherished representation of that University where his earliest ambition had been gratified. He hoped that if party did not mar the endeavour, Ireland might yet be governed by the ordinary law.

Sir R. Peel concluded with an animated peroration, with which he closed his long and very impressive speech, amidst the vociferous cheering of his supporters.-He said, "I have a firm conviction, that if there were a calm and tranquillity in Ireland, there is no part of the British empire that would make such rapid progress in improvement. There are facilities for improvement, and opportunities for it, which will make the advance of Ireland more rapid than the advance of any other country. I will conclude, then, by expressing my sincere and earnest hope, that this agitation, and all the evil consequences of it, may be permitted to subside; and hereafter, in whatever capacity I may be, I should consider that the happiest day of my life when I could see the beloved Sovereign of these realms fulfilling the fondest wishes of her heart-pos sessing a feeling of affection towards all her people, but mingling that affection with sympathy and tenderness towards Ireland: I should hail the dawning of that auspicious day when she could alight, like some benignant spirit, on the shores of Ireland, and lay the foundations of a temple of Peace-when she could, in accents which proceeded from the heart, spoken to the heart, rather than to the ear-call upon her Irish subjects of all classes and of all denominations, Protestants and Roman Catholics, Saxon and Celt, to forget the difference of creed and of race, and to hallow that temple of Peace which she should then found with sacrifices still holier than those by which the temples of old were hallowed-by the sacrifice of those evil passions that dishonour our common faith,

and prevent the union of heart and hand in defence of our common country.”

Lord John Russell, in reply, noticed some of the chief attacks on his motion by the leading members of the Government. He went into some particulars respecting the retirement of Lord Plunket, who first desired to withdraw from his office, and though

he subsequently revoked that wish, his resignation was not forced from him. Lord John Russell

then vindicated his own views respecting the Church, and other topics that had been adverted to, On a division the numbers were

for the motion, 225; against it 334; majority for the Ministers, 99.