of Parliament was destined
before long to prove irresistible. The case of the reformers was
emphasized by the widespread agricultural distress from which the
country had long been suffering. The inevitable reaction had set in,
too, after the spasmodic inflation of trade and commerce which had
accompanied the long period of war. Even if the governing system of
England had been as wise and humane as it was {23} unenlightened and
harsh, the condition of the country would, of itself, have favored
almost any demand for reform. As the Government system actually was,
only a national prosperity of universal and impossible sleekness could
have kept the people of England much longer indifferent to the
necessity for reform in almost every department of the political and
social system.

Meanwhile the new King was paying his round of State visits to Ireland,
to Hanover, and to Scotland. We have seen already how the royal
progress to Ireland was delayed by the inconvenient occurrence of the
Queen's death. George soon, however, felt it proper to put away all
affectation of grief, and to pay his visit to Ireland. Great hopes
were entertained there for the beneficent results of the royal visit.
George had been during his earlier days in political sympathy as well
as boon companionship with Fox and with Sheridan. Fox had always shown
himself a true friend to Ireland. The Irish national poet, Thomas
Moore, had, in one of his songs, described the Banshee as wailing over
the grave of him "on whose burning tongue truth, peace, and freedom
hung." It was fondly believed in Ireland that the King was returning
to the sympathies of his earlier days, and that his coming to the
island must bring blessings with it. Daniel O'Connell, the orator and
tribune of the Irish people, appears to have been thoroughly impressed
with the same hopes and the same conviction, and he brought on himself
some satirical lines from Byron in scorn of his credulity and his
confidence. We shall soon have occasion to see what return O'Connell
got for his loyalty and his devotion.

The last of the great Irish patriots of the past age, Henry Grattan,
had been buried in Westminster Abbey the year before George's visit to
Ireland. It was well that so pure-minded and austere a lover of his
country should have been spared the necessity of taking any part in the
ceremonials of welcome which attended the arrival of the new Sovereign
in Ireland. George undoubtedly r