between parties, afford respective rallying-
points, and secure a formidable and united opposition if the
Tories come in; and one cannot regard without the greatest
apprehension the prospect of a systematic determined hostility on
the part of the Irish masses towards this country with the
certainty almost that the ground on which the battle will be
fought will be that of maintaining the Irish Church. This is in
point of fact the interest which the Tory or English party
regard. Ireland is denied her share in representation, hers is
made an exceptional case, because she is under Catholic
influence, and because that Catholic influence will, they
suspect, if ever it is strong enough, exert its strength in
overturning the English Church. I do not think anybody of sense
and information believes that the Irish Catholic clergy or laity
have any disinclination to British connexion, except so far as
they are in their own eyes degraded or injured by it. There
exists, and there ever will exist, that one deep feeling,
constantly kept burning in the minds of the laity by the undying
zeal of the clergy, that Catholic Ireland is insulted and
impoverished by the vast Protestant ecclesiastical establishment,
that in the most important, the most heart-stirring of all
interests, an interest at once temporal and spiritual, they are
stripped of those equal and essential rights which are possessed
by England and Scotland. I have never doubted that sooner or
later this contest would arise, and that the end of it will be,
however long in coming, the downfall of the Church of England in
Ireland, as fall it ought.[9]

[9] [This prediction was fulfilled in 1868. But the measure
was not followed by that cessation of discord which Mr.
Greville hopefully anticipated from it.]

February 27th, 1841 {p.376}

The debate lasted four nights on Morpeth's Bill, and Ministers
got a majority of five, both sides bringing down the sick and the
dying without remorse. A close division and parties nicely
balanced, extinguish all feelings of humanity. The best speeches
were Charles Buller's, Sheil's, Follett's, Peel's, and John
Russell's. It is supposed this will bolster them up for the
Session, but something still depends on Stanley's Bill.

[Page Head: SETTLEMENT OF THE EASTERN QUESTION.]

Foreign affairs have assumed a better aspect. A negotiation is
going on _here_ for the purpose of inviting France to join the
alliance, and