ended, in spite of the aspersions of
all its enemies, by the intelligence, the religion, the loyalty of the
country; and if the honest zeal, nay, even the cherished prejudices of
the people, swell its train, thank God for the accession. Here, sir,
that cause, like those wasting tapers, may be melting away: there it
burns unextinguishably. It lives abroad, though this house, which is
its cradle, may be now preparing its grave. To their representatives the
people committed their dearest birthright, the Protestant constitution,
and have not deserted it, whoever has. If it must perish, I call God
to witness that the people are guiltless. Let it, then, expire in this
spot, the place of its birth, the scene of its long triumphs, betrayed,
deserted in the house of its pretended friends, who while they smile are
preparing to smite; let it here, while it receives blow after blow from
those who have hitherto been its associates and supporters, fold itself
up in its mantle, and, hiding its sorrow and disgrace, fall when it
feels the last stab at its heart from the hand of one whom it had armed
in its defence, and advanced to its highest honours."

Mr. R. Grant on the other side contended that it was in vain to speak of
applying to the evils of Ireland such cures as it was supposed might be
found in the establishment of poor-laws, or the compulsory residence
of the absentees: even if the expediency of these measures was assumed,
this was not the proper time for their application: the question at
present was, how existing discontent might be allayed, how the raging
pestilence might be stopped. It was only after that had been done, that
preventives could rationally be suggested, and it was only by removing
the grievances of which Ireland complained, that that object could be
effected. Although the evils of Ireland, he said, had been traced to
many causes these causes themselves, even where they existed, were but
the effects of the political distinctions founded on the difference of
the religious creeds. The house had been told, for instance, to seek for
the source of these evils in the local oppressions practised in Ireland,
rather than in the general restrictive laws. Of local oppression, no
doubt, plenty had always existed, but it had existed merely because the
adherents of one creed were armed with power to oppress the believers in
another faith, who were vested with no power. The same mischiefs, it
was said, existed before the Ref