en place in this house on former occasions. I have
heard persons, charged with the highest employments of government,
insisting upon the rights of this people to assemble for the expression
of their sentiments, declaiming against any restriction on that right,
and preaching upon this doctrine without restricting it in the manner
declared by law--namely, that these assemblies must not be in numbers
sufficient to create alarm. It was but very lately that a great officer
of state, travelling about the country, made a speech to the same
purport at Liverpool, and stated those opinions in the most unreserved
manner, at the very moment when men were assembling by torch-light
meetings. We have heard for a number of years past of the extraordinary
tranquillity of Ireland, and as often as I have listened to the phrase,
I have protested against it; but there is a gentleman, high in the
confidence of government, who goes about devising new modes of agitation
every day. That gentleman ought to have a special copy of the speech
sent to him! One time he talks of raising 2,000,000 of men--at another
time of a fund of 20,000 l. sterling, which is deposited in his private
bank, and ultimately to be deposited in his private pocket. In order to
further his new schemes of agitation, that gentleman has declared his
intention of raising 60,000 fighting men for her majesty, though he has
never, that I am aware of, been employed as a recruiting officer.
Sometimes these boasts do not turn out to be true; but if not 60,000
persons, there may be 6,000, or some force of that description, which
would be a serious inconvenience to the government.

_February 5, 1839._

* * * * *

_Folly of carrying on war with a peace establishment._

This country is at war--at war in two quarters of the world--at war in
America and at war in Asia; and what I say is this, that when a country
is at war, I understand that the fleet of that country should be put
upon a war establishment; whereas, these returns are made on a peace
establishment--nay, I believe on one much lower,--on a reduced peace
establishment; and yet we are pretending to carry on war in two
countries of the world with such means! I warned your lordships a year
and a half ago--indeed nearly two years ago, against any such attempt. I
believe that we have been feeling the inconvenience of such an attempt
from that period up to the present time, and I only hope and trust