mass of authentic evidence ranging
over a long term of years, that Irish outrage was the consequence of
physical misery, and that the social evils of that country could not be
successfully encountered by political remedies. To complete the picture,
it concluded with a panegyric of Ulster and a patriotic quotation from
Lord Clare.

Lord John Russell, who, as an experienced parliamentary leader, had
already made more than one effort to extricate the Whigs from the
consequences of the hearty support given to the government measures in
the other House by Lords Lansdowne and Clanricarde, and even by Lord
Grey, ventured to-night even to say that if he should agree that the
House would do well to assent to the first reading of this bill, he
thought he was bound to state also that in the future stages of it, he
should have 'objections to offer, going to the foundations of some of
its principal provisions.'

His speech was curious, as perhaps the last considerable manifesto of
Whig delusion respecting Ireland. Coercion Bills might be occasionally
necessary; no doubt of it; Lord Grey had once a Coercion Bill, and Lord
John Russell had voted for it; but then remedial measures ought to be
introduced with coercive ones: the evil should be repressed, but also
cured. Thus, Lord Althorp, when the government introduced their great
Coercion Bill, introduced also a measure which, besides making a great
reform in the Protestant Church of Ireland, exempted the whole Catholic
community of Ireland from the payment of church cess, which had
previously been felt as a very great grievance. On another day Lord
Althorp declared his intention of pressing through Parliament a Jury
Bill, which had been brought into the House the previous session, but
which was allowed to drop in the House of Lords.

Again, there was another declaration which Lord Althorp had made, which,
somehow or other, seemed to have been forgotten; it was a declaration
with respect to the municipal corporations of Ireland. Lord Althorp said
it was exceedingly desirable that the institutions of the two countries
should be assimilated as much as possible; and that, as a general rule,
the corporate bodies of Ireland should be the same as England. Mr.
O'Connell had said on that occasion that there was no greater grievance
in Ireland than the existence of corporations in their then shape. Lord
John contrasted this language of Lord Althorp, 'simple, plain, emphatic,
and decided,' w