delay after the
year 1825? I beg to know from that noble and learned Lord how long the
system of agitation existed in Ireland both before and after the year
1825? Why, my Lords, it has existed ever since the commencement of the
discussion of the Roman Catholic Question--that is to say, ever since
the days of the restrictive regency. From that period to the present
moment, there has been nothing but agitation, except during parts of the
years 1829 and 1830. Agitation commenced in Ireland upon the conclusion
of events in Paris, and in Brussels. Those events occasioned such
agitations and discussions as obliged the noble Duke, who was then at
the head of the Government in Ireland, to carry into execution the
Proclamation Act. Then came a change in the administration, and the
noble Earl assumed the reigns of power. He immediately chose for the
Lord Lieutenant (Lord Wellesley) a nobleman for whom I entertain great
respect but who certainly was nearly the last person who ought to have
been selected for that office. After the Roman Catholic Question was
settled, what ought the government to have done? Most certainly they
ought to have done everything in their power to conciliate--whom? The
Protestants of Ireland. Everything had already been granted to the Roman
Catholics which they could possibly require; and the object of the
government ought to have been to conciliate the Protestants. But,
instead of that, the noble Earl sends over to that country, as Lord
Lieutenant, the noble Marquis, who was the very last person that ought
to have been appointed; because, when holding that situation previously,
and on receiving information that his Majesty's government entertained
views favourable to the emancipation of the Catholics, he did,
immediately, before his departure for Ireland, issue a sort of
proclamation to the people that agitation should be continued for the
purpose of obtaining the desired boon.

_July_ 19, 1833.

* * * * *

_Irish Agitation Characterized_.

Now, my Lords, in order to enable your Lordships to understand what
this "agitation" is, I beg leave just to describe it to your Lordships.
It is, first of all, founded upon a conspiracy of priests and demagogues
to obtain their purpose--whether justifiable or not, is not the
question--by force and menace, and by the use of terror and of mobs,
wherever that terror and those mobs can be used to produce an effect
upon his Majesty's Gov