told the Government that if they did not like to carry out the
measure, they ought to do what Mr. Pitt did in 1793, appoint a
commission--an unpaid commission--to carry it out. "Let them put me,"
said Lord George, "at the head of that commission, and I will be
responsible for carrying out the plan, without the loss of a shilling to
the country; if I fail, I am willing to accept the risk of impeachment.
I offer no quarter; it is most just that I should receive no quarter. I
offer myself to carry out the measure at the risk of impeachment,
without its costing the country a single shilling. I am quite willing to
be answerable for its success. It is a measure offered on no old party
grounds; it is a measure that rests on no religious prejudices; it
confiscates no property; it introduces no agrarian law; it will feed
the hungry and clothe the naked, by borrowing from the superfluities of
the rich. It is my honest and earnest prayer that it may be successful;
and, should it fail, I care not if it be the last time I address this or
any other mortal assembly."

Although the more usual course would have been for the House to divide
after Lord George's address, during which the call for a division was
heard more than once, the Prime Minister, as a mark of respect to the
House, he said, rose and made a speech, thus giving the Government the
last word. He did not intend to reply to the proposer of the Bill, but
he wished to give his view of the existing state of things. He did so.
It was charged with gloomy apprehensions. He agreed with Sir Robert
Peel, that the finances would not bear the strain a loan of L16,000,000
would put upon them.[210] Six hundred thousand persons were receiving
wages on the public works in Ireland, representing, he would say,
3,000,000 of the population. There were 100,000 in the Workhouses; and,
taking with these the thousands subsisting by private charity, there
were, he considered, three and a-half millions of the Irish people
living by alms. He repeated, once again (on the authority of some
important but nameless person, whom Lord George Bentinck called "the
great Unknown"), that only one-fourth of the money expended in making
railways went for unskilled labour. It was well into the small hours of
the morning before the division bell rung, after a three nights' debate.
In a house of 450, the Bill was supported by only 118 votes. A majority
of 214 for the Government left them secure in their places.[211]