ad of
blaming me for acting as I have done, he would see that, if I had acted
otherwise, I should have been highly blameable. When the question had
been decided--when I received the permission, so as to be enabled to
make the declaration--on not having made which, alone the accusation of
surprise can be founded--the opening of the session was so near, that it
was impossible to make known what had occurred earlier, or in any other
manner than by the speech from the Throne.

[Footnote 10: Lord Longford had accused him of concealment.]

_February 10, 1829._

* * * * *

_The Emancipation Bill not the result of Fear._

He would positively reject the charge which had been so positively made,
that those measures had been suggested to his Majesty's ministers, or
that their minds had been at all influenced by the fear of anything that
would occur in this or any other country. He totally denied the truth of
such an assertion. There never was a period during the last twenty years
in which, looking to the circumstances and relations of this country,
there was a more total absence of all cause for fear than the present;
and whatever might be the consequences of this measure, he would
maintain, that the period at which it was introduced, showed
sufficiently that its introduction did not proceed from fear; and that
such was the fact, he was ready to prove to any man upon the clearest
possible evidence. But, though these measures had not been suggested by
fear nor by intimidation, it would be found, when they were brought
forward, that they were founded upon the clear and decided opinion, that
this question ought to be settled, and that considerable sacrifices had
been made by himself and his colleagues in this, and in the other House
of Parliament, with a view to the final adjustment of it. In doing so,
he begged the noble Lord on the cross bench to believe, that not the
least considerable or the least disagreeable sacrifice on his part, was
the necessity imposed on him of differing from the noble lord on this
subject. But he would not talk of his own sacrifices--they were
trifling, when compared with the sacrifices which had been made by some
of his noble friends near him, and by his right honourable friend in
another place. He could not conceive a greater sacrifice than must have
been made by his right honourable friend, to bring his mind to the
determination of carrying this measure. It was obvio