he Act of Union.

Few orators have displayed greater powers of clear reason and
convincing logic than Plunket. It may be admitted that he seldom rose
to great heights of eloquence, but tradition credits his delivery with a
quality of dignity amounting almost to majesty. The gift of oratory
consists in how things are said as much as in what things are said, and
the voice, gesture, and manner of Plunket were commanding and
magnificent.

When Attorney-General in Ireland, in 1823, in a speech prosecuting the
leaders of the riot known as "the Bottle Riot," Plunket uttered the
following fine tribute to the character of William the Third:--

"Perhaps, my lords, there is not to be found in the annals of
history a character more truly great than that of William the
Third. Perhaps no person has ever appeared on the theatre of the
world who has conferred more essential or more lasting benefits on
mankind; on these countries, certainly none. When I look at the
abstract merits of his character, I contemplate him with
admiration and reverence. Lord of a petty principality--destitute
of all resources but those with which nature had endowed
him--regarded with jealousy and envy by those whose battles he
fought; thwarted in all his counsels; embarrassed in all his
movements; deserted in his most critical enterprises--he continued
to mould all those discordant materials, to govern all these
warring interests, and merely by the force of his genius, the
ascendancy of his integrity, and the immovable firmness and
constancy of his nature, to combine them into an indissoluble
alliance against the schemes of despotism and universal
domination of the most powerful monarch in Europe, seconded by the
ablest generals, at the head of the bravest and best disciplined
armies in the world, and wielding, without check or control, the
unlimited resources of his empire. He was not a consummate
general; military men will point out his errors; in that respect
Fortune did not favour him, save by throwing the lustre of
adversity over all his virtues. He sustained defeat after defeat,
but always rose _adversa rerum immersabilis unda_. Looking merely
at his shining qualities and achievements, I admire him as I do a
Scipio, a Regulus, a Fabius; a model of tranquil courage,
undeviating probity, and armed with a resoluteness and constancy
in the caus