weakness, he paid them their
price. Cornwallis murmured at having to negotiate and job with "the most
corrupt people under heaven"; but he did his share of the work.
Castlereagh, personally not less honourable, who had much of it to do,
did it without compunction, for it was, he said, "to buy out and secure
to the crown for ever the fee-simple of Irish corruption, which has so
long enfeebled the powers of the government and endangered the
connection". It was essential to the welfare both of Great Britain and
Ireland that the union should be effected, and that it should be
effected without delay; and it could not have been effected by any other
means than those which Pitt adopted. It was better by giving these
greedy politicians their price to put an end to a system maintained by
perpetual corruption, worked in the interests of an ascendant minority,
distrusted by the mass of the people, incapable of affording the country
the blessings of domestic peace, and dangerous to the security of the
empire.

The Irish parliament began its last session on January 15, 1800, and the
address was hotly debated. Grattan, who had not appeared there since
1797, spoke with extraordinary eloquence in support of an amendment on
the side of legislative independence. Though the vacant seats were not
nearly all filled up, the amendment was rejected by 138 votes to 96. The
anti-unionists were furious; they raised a fund of L100,000, paid or
promised, for the purpose of out-buying the ministers, bought some
seats, and paid and offered bribes. The catholics, the yeomanry, and
the Orangemen were urged to combine to withstand the union. Some rioting
took place in Dublin, but there was no serious outbreak; for the Orange
grand lodge kept the society quiet, and the mass of the people, except
when excited by agitation, regarded the question with indifference. A
fierce struggle ensued in parliament, and it was not until March 28 that
the articles of union were carried and sent to England. They were
debated at some length in both houses of the English parliament, but
were carried by large majorities. They were next presented in the Irish
parliament in the form of a bill. It was vehemently opposed. In the
debate on the commitment, on May 26, Grattan delivered an oration
against it, splendid in diction and inflammatory in tone, and was
answered by Castlereagh who spoke, as indeed he spoke throughout these
debates, with conspicuous dignity and moderation.