own, and the real obstacle to emancipation was not the feelings of
the people, but the policy of the Government. The Bar may be considered
on most subjects a very fair exponent of the educated opinion of the
nation; and Wolf Tone observed, in 1792, that it was almost unanimous in
favour of the Catholics; and it is not without importance, as showing
the tendencies of the rising generation, that a large body of the
students of Dublin University in 1795 presented an address to Grattan,
thanking him for his labours in the cause. The Roman Catholics were
rapidly gaining the public opinion of Ireland, when the Union arrayed
against them another public opinion which was deeply prejudiced against
their faith, and almost entirely removed from their influence. Compare
the twenty years before the Union with the twenty years that followed
it, and the change is sufficiently manifest. There can scarcely be a
question that if Lord Fitzwilliam had remained in office the Irish
Parliament would readily have given emancipation. In the United
Parliament for many years it was obstinately rejected, and if O'Connell
had never arisen it would probably never have been granted unqualified
by the veto. In 1828 when the question was brought forward in
Parliament, sixty-one out of ninety-three Irish members, forty-five out
of sixty-one Irish county members, voted in its favour. Year after year
Grattan and Plunket brought forward the case of their fellow-countrymen
with an eloquence and a perseverance worthy of their great cause; but
year after year they were defeated. It was not till the great tribune
had arisen, till he had moulded his co-religionists into one compact and
threatening mass, and had brought the country to the verge of
revolution, that the tardy boon was conceded. Eloquence and argument
proved alike unavailing when unaccompanied by menace, and Catholic
Emancipation was confessedly granted because to withhold it would be to
produce a rebellion."[34]

Many people will think that this is a sufficiently weighty condemnation
of the Union, but what follows is a still graver reflection on that
untoward measure.

"In truth the harmonious co-operation of Ireland with England depends
much less upon the framework of the institutions of the former country
than upon the dispositions of its people and upon the classes who guide
its political life. With a warm and loyal attachment to the connection
pervading the nation, the largest amount of self-