el proceeded next to discuss the plan which was supposed
to be unknown, in doing which he discovered the true objection of the
Irish members to it, namely, that the Protestant church of Ireland was
still to be preserved. Other Irish members urged the same objections;
and added, that if every thing else in the supposed plan were right, it
was wrong to pay the arrears to the clergy, and then ask repayment by
coercive measures. Lord Ebrington, who had been on the committee, and
concurred in its report, now sided with the Irish members. Sir Robert
Peel said that the discussion on the anticipated propositions was
foreign to the question before the house. The question was, whether the
propositions should be explained now, or after the house had gone into
a committee. Pie thought that the latter was the course most conformable
to the practice of the house; and by supporting a motion to that
effect, no member pledged himself in the least to the proposition of the
government. Lord Althorp and Mr. Stanley complained of the course the
Irish members had taken in commenting on propositions of which they knew
nothing; and on a division the amendment of the Irish members was lost
by an overwhelming majority.

The committee was delayed till the 18th, on which day Mr. Stanley moved
a series of resolutions similar to those which had been agreed to by the
lords. The first of these resolutions was, "That it appears to the house
that in several parts of Ireland, an organised and systematic opposition
has been made to the payment of tithes, by which the law has been
rendered unavailing, and many of the clergy of the established church
have been reduced to great distress." Mr. Stanley entered at great
length into the evidence which proved both parts of this resolution. It
was quite clear from the evidence that a system of opposition had been
established in Ireland to the payment of tithes, which could not be
overcome by ordinary means. Every plan had been adopted by which
the operations of the law might be traversed. Tithe-proctors and
process-servants were violently assailed; impediments were interposed to
prevent the seizure and sale of cattle; and, in a word, every system
of determined and organised opposition was manifested that could be
displayed by a whole population acting as one man against the payment
of a claim legally due. Having proved the truth of the first resolution,
Mr. Stanley proceeded to the second, which provided means of r