80;
the third reading by a majority of 320 to 142. The debates were
enlivened on the protestant side by a brilliant speech from Michael
Sadler, a tory friend of the working classes, returned by the Duke of
Newcastle for Newark, and a violent invective from Sir Charles
Wetherell, the attorney-general, who was thereupon dismissed from
office. Peel, who had borne the brunt of these attacks, replied on March
30, when the bill was sent up to the lords, and on April 2, the second
reading of it in the upper house was moved by Wellington. His candid
admission that he was driven to concession by the fear of civil war has
since become historical, and served as the watchword of many a lawless
agitation in Ireland. It was natural that most of the peers, and
especially of the spiritual peers, who took part in the discussion
should be opponents of the measure, but Lloyd, Bishop of Oxford, severed
himself from the rest of his order, and vigorous speeches were made in
support of it by Anglesey and Grey, neither of whom could be regarded as
friendly to Wellington's government.

[Pageheading: _ROYAL ASSENT TO THE BILL._]

Anglesey, who had been recently dismissed from the lord-lieutenancy of
Ireland, went beyond the duke in the use of purely military arguments;
Grey ventured to prophesy not only a future reign of peace in Ireland,
but an extension of protestantism, as the consequence of catholic
emancipation. The hopeless attempt of Lyndhurst to vindicate his own
consistency, and a forensic duel between Eldon and Plunket, who had been
raised to the peerage in 1827, relieved the monotony of the debate, but
probably did not influence a single vote. The old guard of the
anti-catholic party remained firm, but the mass of tory peers followed
their leader in his new policy, as they had followed him in his old, and
the relief bill was read a third time in the house of lords on the 10th,
by a majority of 104. Three days later it received the royal assent.
Lord Eldon had virtually encouraged the king to refuse this, at the last
moment, though he was too honest to accept the assurance of George IV.
that the bill was introduced without his authority. But the son of
George III. had not inherited his father's resolute character. After a
few childish threats of retiring to Hanover and leaving the Duke of
Clarence to make terms with the ministry, he abandoned further
resistance and capitulated to Wellington, as Wellington had capitulated
to O'Connell