committee of the whole house to consider of
the address to his majesty. Mr. Stanley replied in a speech of caustic
severity, which the agitators of Ireland have never forgotten or
forgiven. He argued that coercion was necessary; that crime could not
be put down in Ireland but by the strong arm of the law. Colonel Davis
considered Mr. Stanley's speech as an insult to Ireland, and as proving
that he was totally unfit for office. He was opposed to the repeal of
the union; but unless justice were dealt out to Ireland by measures
of relief being proposed, he would vote against the coercive policy
contemplated by government. Mr. Roebuck expressed himself to the same
effect: he would not join with ministers in doing what must produce a
civil war in Ireland: if they did not take care, they would find the
people rise up in such terrible array that they would not know where to
turn. Lord Althorp declared that it was the intention of ministers to
remove every grievance they possibly could; but, he asked, was it not
a grievance that, in Ireland, life and property were not secure--that
murder, burglary, and arson should exist in every part of that country?
If it was their duty to remove grievances, ought they not to remove this
grievance also? The debate was continued by adjournment on the three
following days; the general strain of the arguments adduced coinciding
with those expressed on the first day of the debate. The opposition
to the address was chiefly conducted by Irish members, although
they received likewise the support of Messrs. Hume, Cobbett, Bulwer,
Tennyson, and Clay. Mr. Bulwer told ministers that the independent
representatives of the people in that house, three hundred in number,
were allied to no old party, and attached to no superstitious observance
of Whig names; and that these members could not, night after night, hear
grievances stated by the Irish members, which, received no other answers
except demands for soldiery, without dropping off in serious defection
from the ministerial majority. Mr. Tennyson said, that he had no doubt
of the good intention of ministers; but he could not approve of their
conduct in pressing the house to adopt the address. At the same time
he could not support the amendment of Mr. O'Connell, and he therefore
proposed another to this effect:--"That the house should declare its
readiness to sanction such measures for restoring social order in
Ireland, as might appear, on mature deliberatio