ed by the Duke of Wellington, who treated the apprehended danger to
the Irish church as futile, considering that the throne would be filled
by a Protestant, and that the fundamental article of the union between
the two countries was the union of the two churches. Adverting to the
charge of inconsistency brought against himself and his colleagues,
his grace remarked:--"A different topic to which I wish to advert, is
a charge brought against several of my colleagues, and also against
myself, by the noble earl on the cross-bench, of a want of consistency
in our conduct. My lords, I admit that many of my colleagues, as well
as myself, did on former occasions vote against a measure of a similar
description to this; and, my lords, I must say that my colleagues and
myself felt, when we adopted this measure, that we should be sacrificing
ourselves and our popularity to that which we feel to be our duty to our
sovereign and our country. We knew very well that if we put ourselves
at the head of the Protestant cry of 'No Popery,' we should be much more
popular even than those who have excited against us that very cry. But
we felt that in so doing we should have left on the interests of the
country a burden, which must end in bearing them down; and further, that
we should have deserved the hate and execration of our countrymen. Then
I am accused, and by a noble and learned friend of mine, of having acted
with great secrecy respecting this measure. Now I beg to tell him that
he has done that to me, in the course of the discussion., which he
complains of others having done to him; in other words, he has, in the
language of a right honourable friend of his and mine, thrown a large
paving-stone instead of throwing a small pebble. I say, that if he
accuses me of acting with secrecy on this question, he does not deal
with me altogether fairly. He knows as well as I do how the cabinet was
constructed on this question; and I ask him, had I any right to say a
single word to any man whatsoever upon this measure, until the person
most interested in the kingdom upon it had given his consent to my
speaking out? Before he accused me of secrecy, and of improper secrecy,
too, he ought to have known the precise day upon which I received the
permission of the highest personage in the country, and had leave to
open my mouth upon this measure. There is another point also on which a
noble earl accused me of misconduct; and that is, that I did not at once