Of the one hundred and five members returned from Ireland, sixty-six
voted--thirty-nine with Lord George Bentinck, and twenty-seven against
him. There were Liberals and Tories at both sides. The noble proposer of
the Irish Railway Scheme proclaimed--and, no doubt, intended--that it
should not be regarded as a party question. After his very effective
speech on introducing it, the common opinion was that it would be
carried. It was popular in the House and out of it. Everybody in England
and in Ireland was sick of spending money on unprofitable work. Lord
John Russell saw but one way of defeating the measure, and that was to
make it a party question; and so he made it one. We find some of the
most decided Irish Tories voting for the Bill, whilst many Whigs and
professing patriots voted against it.[212] For some days before the
division it was known the Bill would be defeated, but few, if any,
thought the majority against it would have been so large. After his
seven or eight months of hard work, in preparing and maturing his
Railway Scheme, its rejection touched Lord George keenly; but his lofty
spirit would not stoop to manifest his feelings.

He had, however, the gratification to see himself vindicated, not to say
avenged, a few weeks afterwards. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
great opponent and decrier of Lord George's Bill, actually brought in a
Railway Bill himself of a similar character. Politicians, in their
statements, are ever watchful to leave themselves loopholes for
retreat. The Prime Minister, in the discussion on Lord George's Bill,
"would not say that money should not be given, under any circumstances,
to make railways in Ireland, but," in his opinion, "it should be in a
different state of the country." What difference there was between the
state of Ireland on the 16th of February, 1847, when the Government
opposed and defeated an Irish Railway Bill, and on the 26th of April, of
the same year, when the Government brought in a Railway Bill of their
own, no one but the Government could see. It is not even a fair
statement of the case to name the 26th of April, the day on which the
Chancellor of the Exchequer brought in the Government Bill, because that
Bill must have been some time in preparation--probably in preparation
when they were opposing the generous and manly scheme of Lord George
Bentinck. Yet, with his little proposal for a loan of L620,000 to Irish
railways, he had the face to go down and t