honourable gentleman is so prominent a member. Had they acted as they
should have done when they were placed in power, the state of that
wretched country would be now widely different from what it is. Lord
Normanby's jail deliveries, and the arrangements of his law-officers in
regard to the formation of the juries, laid the foundation of the system
of terror. Convicted malefactors were enlarged by "the gracious
Viceroy," and the guilty received effectual protection from their
accomplices in crime, who were admitted to the jury-box by his patriotic
officials--the laws were rendered inoperative, and combination spread,
and outrages multiplied. When the Conservative government were placed in
power, the well-disposed expected that crime would have received a
check; and the turbulent and seditious were prepared to submit to the
blow, had it been immediately and fearlessly dealt them; but the
opportunity was allowed to pass. The disaffected recovered from their
temporary panic--atrocities became again the order of the day, and the
assailed submitted in silence, because they saw no hope of obtaining
redress. The Ministers permitted monster processions, after they had
suppressed monster meetings. The friends of order and of the British
constitution were disheartened and discountenanced; and, as a necessary
consequence, the opinions of the agitators gained ground. Their
organization became complete, and their power irresistible.

The uncalled-for contest in which the Peel administration have chosen to
engage with the agricultural interest of England, has added to the
mischief. Their unexampled political tergiversation has deprived them of
the support of almost all their former adherents; and now, when they see
the evil consequences of the vacillating policy which they have pursued
with regard to Ireland, and are desirous of repressing the enormities
which they have permitted to accumulate around them, their mouthpiece is
obliged to recount a mass of horrors sufficient to curdle the blood of
the most unfeeling, without daring to give utterance to one burst of
honest indignation, lest by doing so he should deprive his government of
the only assistance by means of which they can hope to accomplish their
free-trade projects; and with a full knowledge that neither life nor
property are secure in Ireland, they are compelled to succumb to the
threats of their temporary allies, and virtually to abandon even the
emasculated measure whic