try
encountered that contest, and kept possession of their church; and
during another century it was maintained through much opposition, and
under difficulties of all descriptions. At the period of the union, the
parliament--who had the power to consent to the union, or to refuse
their consent--stipulated that the Protestant church in Ireland should
be maintained, and maintained on the same footing as the Protestant
church of England in this country. The parliament had, under the
auspices of the king of this country, the power of either making or not
making that compact. Your lordships entered into that compact with the
parliament of Ireland, and I entreat you never to lose sight of the
fact. I entreat you not to suffer yourselves to be prevailed upon to
make any alteration in, or to depart in the slightest degree from, the
terms of that compact, so long as you intend to maintain the union
between this country and Ireland. It is the foundation upon which the
union rests,--it is a compact which you have entered into with the
parliament of Ireland, and from which you cannot depart without being
guilty of a breach of faith, worse than those which have been referred
to in other countries,--worse than those pecuniary breaches of faith
which have been alluded to in the course of the discussion which took
place in your lordships' house this evening upon another subject. I
entreat you to listen to none of those petitions or speeches which tend
to the injury or the destruction of the church in Ireland. Do what may
be necessary,--do what it may be proper to do, in order to render that
church more beneficial to the people of that country; but I entreat you
to adhere strictly, in spirit and according to the letter, to the
compact you have made, and not permit it to be supposed in any quarter
whatever that you entertain the most distant intention of departing, in
the slightest degree, from that arrangement.

_March 18, 1844._

* * * * *

_The recall of the Governor-General of India, by the Court of Directors,
an act of gross indiscretion._

My lords, I conceive that this right (of recalling the governor-general
of India) is one which the court of directors are bound to exercise with
due discretion; as all bodies and all individuals ought to do, when they
possess extraordinary powers under the provisions of the law. In such
cases, my lords, they are hound to exercise that power with the utmost
disc