that a landlord in Ireland had been told by his tenants that they could not vote for him because their priest had denounced him from the altar. They knew very well that when it was attempted to reinforce the strength of the Protestant constituency in the registration courts, some revising or assistant barrister from the Castle of Dublin was easily found to baffle it, and thus were they forced on to their last resource and refuge -to a committee of that House.

Now was this a petition which had the downfall of the Catholics for its object? For his part, he thought that the facts which had been brought before the notice of the Intimidation Committee perfectly justified the use of the epithets which had been employed in the original circular or manifesto of Mr. Spottiswoode. He should not trouble the House at any length. He did not affect to be insensible to the difficulty of his position, and he should be very glad to receive indulgence even from the honourable members opposite. If, however, honourable gentlemen did not wish to hear him, he would sit down without a murmur. He should confine himself to an attempt to bring back the subject to the point which was really at issue. He could not comprehend why a considerable body of Her Majesty's subjects respectable not only for their numbers, but for their independence and integrity, should be held up to scorn and odium by the honourable and learned member for Dublin, for the commission of an act the legality of which he had not presumed to question, of the propriety of which they were as competent judges as that honourable and learned member, and of which, after what he had himself confessed, the honourable and learned member ought to be the last to question the delicacy.

He had examined the list of contributors, as well as the honourable and learned member for Dublin, and with a more than ordinary degree of interest, arising from the fact that the town which he represented had contributed a larger proportion of the fund than any part of England, and he did not find that the subscribers principally consisted of members of the aristocracy. With very few exceptions they were to be found among the middle classes-men of moderate opinions and of a temperate

tone of mind-men, in fact, who seldom stepped out of the sphere of their private virtues-men, as honourable gentlemen who had examined these lists must know, who seldom partook of the excitement created by the conflict of parties, and were rarely inflamed by the passions which agitated the political world. He must say that he thought it a very strange thing that so large a body of individuals, many of whom were constitutional Reformers, many of whom, until very lately, supported Her Majesty's Government-he must repeat, that he considered that it would be very hard, very unjust, very impolitic to appoint a committee of inquiry, which would be equivalent to a verdict against those individuals, without first inquiring what were the feelings which induced them to pursue the line of conduct which they had adopted. He would remind the House that those individuals, many of whom supported the Reform Bill, might have entertained hopes in reference to the working of that measure which, like the hopes cherished by some honourable gentlemen opposite, might have been disappointed. They might have entertained an expectation that nomination would be at an end, that the stain of boroughmongering would be wiped out, and that not a remnant of the system would remain in a Reformed Parliament. But when they found that the stain of boroughmongering assumed a deeper and a darker hue, that seats were openly bought and sold, and that a system of intimidation was organised, compared with which the riots which even under the old system exhibited the more flagrant features of electoral operations, were peaceable -when they found that this was the case, they perhaps thought that it was time to bring matters to a head.

He had but one more observation to make, and he confessed he was rather anxious to make that observation, as it would give him the first opportunity which had been afforded him of saying something with respect to Her Majesty's Government. He wished he could induce the House to give him five minutes. It was not much. He stood there to-night not formally, but in some degree virtually, as the representative of a considerable number of members of Parliament. Now, why smile? Why envy him? Why not let him enjoy

that reflection, if only for one night? Did they forget that band of 158 new members, that ingenuous and inexperienced band, to whose unsophisticated minds the right honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer addressed himself early in the session in those dulcet tones of winning pathos which had proved so effective? He knew that considerable misconception existed in the minds of many of that class of members on the Opposition side of the House in reference to the conduct of Her Majesty's Government with respect to elections. He would not taunt the noble lord opposite with the opinions which were avowed by his immediate followers, but certain views were entertained and certain calculations were made with respect to those elections about the time when the bell of our cathedral announced the death of our monarch. We had all then heard of the projects said to be entertained by the Government, and a little accurate information on the subject would be very acceptable, particularly to the new members on the Opposition side of the House.

It was, however,

We had been told that reaction was a discovery that only awoke derision, that the grave of Toryism was dug, and that the funeral obsequies of Toryism might be celebrated without any fear of its resuscitation, that the much-vilified Peel Parliament was blown to the winds, when Mr. Hudson rushed into the chambers of the Vatican. He did not impute these sanguine views to the noble lord himself, for he had subsequently favoured the public with a manifesto, from which it would appear that Toryism could not be so easily defeated. vaunted that there would be a majority of 100, which upon great occasions might be expanded to 125 or 130. That was the question. They wished to know the simple fact whether, with that majority in the distance, they then thought of an alteration in the Grenville Act, and whether it was then supposed that impartial tribunals might be obtained for the trial of election petitions. If honourable gentlemen thought this fair, he would submit. He would not do so to others; that was all. Nothing was so easy as to laugh. He wished, before he sat down, to show the House clearly their position. When they remembered, that in spite of the support of the honourable and

learned member for Dublin and his well-disciplined band of patriots, there was a little shyness exhibited by former supporters of Her Majesty's Government; when they recollected thenew loves' and the old loves,' in which so much of passion and recrimination was mixed up between the noble Tityrus of the Treasury bench and the learned Daphne of Liskeardnotwithstanding the amantium ira had resulted, as he had always expected, in the amoris integratio-notwithstanding that political duel had been fought, in which more than one shot was interchanged, but in which recourse was had to the secure arbitrament of blank cartridges-notwithstanding emancipated Ireland and enslaved England, the noble lord might wave in one hand the keys of St. Peter, and in the other-(the shouts that followed drowned the conclusion of the sentence). 'Let them see the philosophical prejudices of man.' He would certainly gladly hear a cheer, even though it came from the lips of a political opponent. He was not at all surprised at the reception which he had experienced. He had begun several times many things, and he had often succeeded at last. He would sit down now, but the time would come when they would hear him. (The impatience of the House would not allow the honourable member to finish his speech, and during the greater part of the time the honourable member was on his legs, he was so much interrupted that it was impossible to hear what the honourable member said.)-HANSARD.

ARMS BILL (IRELAND). August 9, 1843.

[On April 29, in consequence of the disturbed state of Ireland resulting from the Repeal movement, leave was given to bring in a Bill on the above subject; and on August 9, on the third reading, Mr. Disraeli, after remarking that Sir Robert Peel had changed front so completely on his Irish policy that his followers must now shift for themselves, and were released from all obligations to support him, went on to give an historical sketch of the relations of the Tory party to Ireland. In this assertion of independence he was joined by Lord John Manners, Mr. Smyth, Mr. B. Cochrane, and others, and it may be interesting at this distance of time to recall the impression produced upon the public mind by this first open declaration of hostility to Sir R. Peel's Government. The following extract is from a leading article in the Morning Chronicle' of August 11:Amid all the false-heartedness of public men, and all the duplicity which has poisoned public spirit, it is cheering to remark, from the conduct of the young men on the Tory Benches, that there is, in the eloquent words of the member for Shrewsbury, some hope " that the time will come when a party will be formed in this country on the principle of justice to Ireland-justice, not by quailing before agitation, not by adopting in despair the first quack remedy offered on either side, but by really putting an end to that misery which long misgovernment had produced-that misery which was the real cause of all the evil of Ireland, and which until it was put an end to, would not cease to be the bane of England and the opprobrium of Europe."'

The next is from the Times' of August 17:

'It appears that some honourable members who have come lately into notice, and, we will add, into favourable notice-so far at least as honourable character and talent is concerned-choose to combine with a general declared support of the administration, opposition to it upon certain particular subjects. Lord John Manners, Mr. Smyth, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Cochrane, and others, animadverted during the late debate upon the policy of ministers, and on Tuesday night Mr.

1 Cf. Introduction to Speech, June 17, 1844.