Lalor Sheil was appointed Master of the Mint; Mr. Thomas
Wyse was made one of the Secretaries of the Board of Control, and Mr.
Redington was sent to Dublin Castle as Under-Secretary. A popular Irish
nobleman, the Earl of Bessborough, accepted the post of Lord Lieutenant;
the Chief Secretaryship was given to an English gentleman, Mr.
Labouchere--a name which at first sounded strangely enough in Irish
ears, but which soon became as familiar to them as the tritest O or Mac
in the country.

There appeared to be in the public mind not only a pre-disposition to
allow the new Government to come in peaceably, but even a desire to
sustain and strengthen it was pretty generally manifested. All those
members who had to seek re-election on account of having accepted
office, were triumphantly returned. Their speeches and addresses to the
various constituencies were, of course, looked to with much interest, as
likely to indicate, or in some way foreshadow their future measures; but
they were much more inclined to be reticent than communicative. Lord
John himself, in his address to the citizens of London, dealt in those
vague generalities under which politicians are accustomed to veil their
intentions, or their want of definite plans. He told them they might
feel assured that he would not desert in office the principles to which
he had adhered when they were less in favour than at the time he was
addressing them. He rejoiced at the removal of commercial restraints,
and those that yet remained, he hoped to see removed without anything
that could be called a conflict. These words were intended chiefly for
the English mind,--his choicest specimen of the political generality he
reserved for Ireland. "Our recent discussions," he writes, "have laid
bare the misery, the discontent, and outrages of Ireland; they are too
clearly authenticated to be denied--too extensive to be treated by any
but the most comprehensive measures." No doubt the miseries of poor
Ireland were laid bare enough; whatever other charges she had to bring
against her English governors, she had not the shadow of a complaint to
make on the score of inquiry,--of the laying-bare system. Countless
volumes of blue books, ponderous with Irish grievances, lay dusty and
moth-eaten on the shelves of Government offices for years; comprehensive
measures to be founded on them were on the lips of statesmen in power,
and expectant statesmen, who were climbing to it--but that was all.