; and the country is
called upon to decide a disputed point, and Parliament to legislate, on
evidence[4] to which no private individual would pay the slightest
attention, merely because it has been adopted and sanctioned by the
report of a government commission.

To explain the anomaly which the condition of Ireland presents to our
consideration, has often been attempted without success, chiefly because
we allow our feeling to overcome our judgment. We there see a people
holding the most fertile lands on infinitely cheaper terms than ground
of a much inferior quality is rented at in the other portions of the
kingdom, relieved by special enactments from almost all the local
burdens which press upon their fellow-subjects, and freed from
participation to a most incredible extent in the general taxation of the
country, enjoying the exclusive advantage of an easy access to the best
markets in the world; and yet, with all those advantages, we find them
in a continual state of destitution, a disgrace to our reputation, and
a drain upon our resources.[5]

In his opposition to the Life Preservation Bill, Mr O'Connell exhibited
his usual extent of craft, with more than his habitual amount of
exaggeration. With that cunning for which he is so remarkable, he kept
aloof from all topics which could bring his own political conduct before
the House, while there were no bounds, no limits, to his assertions. He
appealed to evidence taken before commissions which sat some twenty
years ago, to account for the present state of Ireland; while he
studiously avoided quoting that which was more recently taken before
Lord Devon's--contenting himself with adopting the oft-quoted
description of the sufferings of the peasantry, which is contained in
the report, and which has so often before been successfully pressed into
his service. Now his reason for pursuing this course was simply because
the passages on which he relied, were _opinions_ given by persons
supposed to be well informed as to the then condition of the country.
They were generalities, and therefore their errors were even at the time
difficult of detection, and are now wholly so; but the evidence taken
before Lord Devon's committee contained special accusations, which were
widely promulgated, and which, when they came to be substantiated, were
proved to be utterly groundless. And this merit at least is due to those
commissioners, that they gave each party an opportunity of being heard