e Bill with little delay, and
"without any serious opposition."[99] The votes against it were one and
three on two divisions[100] respectively. A minority of sixty-nine
supported, against the Government, a clause for extending the measure to
seats in Parliament. That clause, lost by a majority of ninety-four,
might apparently have been carried, but for "Dublin Castle," by an even
larger majority.

I shall not here examine the interesting question, whether the mission
of Lord Fitzwilliam was wholly due to the action of those Whig statesmen
who were friendly to the war, but disinclined to a junction with Mr.
Pitt except on condition of a fundamental change in the administration
of Ireland. Nor shall I dwell upon his sudden, swift, and disastrous
recall. But I purpose here to invite attention to the most remarkable
fact in the whole history of the Irish Parliament. When the Viceroy's
doom was known, when the return to the policy and party of ascendency
lay darkly lowering in the immediate future, this diminutive and tainted
Irish Parliament, with a chivalry rare even in the noblest histories,
made what can hardly be called less than a bold attempt to arrest the
policy of retrogression adopted by the Government in London. Lord
Fitzwilliam was the declared friend of Roman Catholic Emancipation,
which was certain to be followed by reform; and he had struck a
death-blow at bigotry and monopoly in the person of their heads, Mr.
Beresford and Mr. Cooke. The Bill of Emancipation was introduced on the
12th of February,[101] with only three dissentient voices. On the 14th,
when the London Cabinet had declared dissent from the proceedings of
their Viceroy without recalling him, Sir L. Parsons at once moved an
address, imploring him to continue among them, and only postponed it at
the friendly request of Mr. Ponsonby.[102] On the 2nd of March, when the
recall was a fact, the House voted that Lord Fitzwilliam merited "the
thanks of that House, and the confidence of the people."[103] On the 5th
the Duke of Leinster moved, and the House of Peers carried, a similar
resolution.[104]

At this epoch I pause. Here there opens a new and disastrous drama of
disgrace to England and misery to Ireland. This is the point at which we
may best learn the second and the greatest lesson taught by the history
of Ireland in the eighteenth century. It is this, that, awful as is the
force of bigotry, hidden under the mask of religion, but fighting for
pl