of the Bill of Rights: and if an
alteration of its words were a breaking in upon the constitution, then
had the constitution been often broken in upon. He called upon the
house to consider the altered position of affairs in Ireland since the
annunciation of this measure had been made; and warned it that if the
bill was rejected, it would be attended with consequences fatal to the
repose of the empire. He added, "I am well aware that the fate of this
measure cannot now be altered: if it succeed, the credit will redound
to others; if it fail, the responsibility will devolve upon me, and upon
those with whom I have acted. These chances, with the loss of private
friendship, and the alienation of public confidence, I must have
foreseen and calculated before I ventured to recommend these measures. I
assure the house that, in conducting them, I have met with the severest
blow which it has ever been my lot to experience in my life; but I am
convinced that the time will come, though I may not live perhaps to see
it, when full justice will be done by men of all parties to the motives
on which I have acted; when this question will be fully settled, and
when others will see that I had no other alternative than to act as I
have acted. They will then admit that the course which I have followed,
and which I am still prepared to follow, whatever imputation it may
expose me to, is the only course which is necessary for the diminution
of the undue, illegitimate, and dangerous power of the Roman
Catholics, and for the maintenance and security of the Protestant
religion."

The result of the division on this great question was three hundred
and fifty-three for the second reading of the bill, and one hundred and
eighty against it. The success of the bill in the commons was therefore
certain; and it passed the committee in three days. During its progress
in the committee several amendments were moved by the opponents of
the bill, but they were all rejected; and on the 31st of March it was
carried up to the lords by Mr. Peel, with an unusually large escort
of members. It was immediately read a first time; and the Duke of
Wellington then moved that it should be read a second time on the 2nd
of April. This motion was opposed by Lord Bexley and the Earl of
Malmesbury, as too precipitate, urging that on all former occasions
a longer time had been allowed for consideration, and that breathless
haste was the conduct of men called upon to decide as a