o wield the civil, judicial, and military powers of the
state. If Mr. Peel and other converts, it was said, thought they could
no longer resist, because they had not a majority in the house
of commons, why did they refuse to accept a majority? Why was not
parliament dissolved? Such a course, it was argued, was right at
any time, when a measure strongly affecting the constitution was
contemplated; and it was peculiarly necessary in the present instance,
when the country had been deceived into a security, of which those who
had practised the deception were now seeking to take advantage. The
Marquis of Blandford even maintained, that if the house sanctioned the
present audacious invasion of the constitution, it would break the trust
reposed in it by the people of England, who were taken by surprise by
the unexpected announcement made by ministers. Was it right, he asked,
for the government to persist in measures to which public feeling was so
strongly opposed? Constituted as the house was then, it did not
express the just alarms of the people for the safety of the Protestant
institutions of the country. As regards the securities proposed by
ministers, they were treated with contempt. Viscount Corry said, that
he had in vain looked for them: with the exception of the forty-shilling
franchise being raised to ten pounds, there was no attempt at
securities; and even that was a half measure.

The motion was supported by Sir. G. Murray, colonial secretary, and
by Messrs. Grant, North, and Iiuskisson. These members repeated and
enforced the positions that the pacification of Ireland was necessary
to the safety of the empire; and that without emancipation pacification
could not be effected. All classes in Ireland, it was argued, had
identified themselves with the question, and Ireland had hence fallen
into a state in which it was impossible for it to remain: it must either
advance or recede; for all the ties which held society together had been
loosened or broken. It was conceded that a certain state of things,
not deserving the name of society, might be maintained by means of the
sword; but such a frame of society, it was added, could have no analogy
whatever to the British constitution. The only intimidation to which
ministers could be accused of yielding, was the fear of continuing
such a state of affairs, and aggravating all its evils by gradual
accumulation, instead of restoring mutual good-will and the peaceful
empire of the