argument,
could strengthen the conviction of the great majority of the house--a
conviction that lay deeper than any argument could reach--that they
would on no account consent to dismember the British empire. There were
convictions connected with the feelings of the heart as well as with the
faculties of the mind. Mr. Canning had said, "Repeal the union! re-enact
the heptarchy!" The security of the empire depended on the maintenance
of that union; without it England would be reduced to the condition of
a fourth-rate power in Europe, and Ireland to the desolation of a
wilderness. On a division the amendment was carried by the triumphant
majority of five hundred and twenty-three against thirty-eight; the
minority, with one exception only, consisting of Irish members. On the
30th of April the commons, in a conference, communicated their
address to the lords, who, in one spirit, unanimously concurred in
its sentiments, and ordered the blank, which was purposely left, to be
filled up with the words, "lords spiritual and temporal." It was then
presented to the king as the joint address of both houses; and his
majesty, in reply, expressed the great satisfaction with which he had
received the solemn and united declaration of both houses to maintain
the union inviolate.

DIVISIONS IN THE CABINET.

In opposing the repeal of the union, ministers carried along with them
the sense and feeling of the people; that was a question on which no
man differed from them except O'Connell and his followers. Questions,
however, connected with the Irish church stood in a different light.

The agitators supported the repeal as a measure tending not more
to perpetuate their own domination, than to secure the ruin of the
Protestant establishment. Many, also, who resisted repeal, still
demanded changes and curtailments in that establishment, they
considering it the principal cause of all the turbulence and misery
afflicting Ireland. There were others again who disliked it, not because
it was a Protestant, but because it was a religious establishment; and
such men inveighed against what they termed an unhallowed connection
between church and state, and the practical injustice of compelling
persons of one belief to support the institutions of a different creed.
This party was ready to attack, not only the revenues, but the very
existence of the Irish church, as the first step towards the destruction
of that of England. Union in the cabinet, c