d States on
this subject;" stating at the same time his sense of its importance, and
the suspicions he entertained of the ambitious project of the American
government in respect to it. Lord Palmerston admitted the importance
of the subject, and its claim on the anxious attention both of the
government and the public; but he resisted the production of the papers
moved for, and on a division the motion was rejected by a majority of
forty-one to twenty-eight.

MOTION ON THE STATE OF THE NATION.

{WILLIAM IV. 1836--1837}

At this time the state of public affairs was such as to induce Mr.
Roebuck to bring the subject before parliament. On the 9th of June, when
the order of the day had been moved for the second reading of the Irish
tithe bill, Mr. Roebuck moved an amendment that the house should resolve
itself into a committee for considering the state of the nation. He
made some observations upon the extraordinary position in which the
representatives of the people were placed. Two bills had been sent to
the other house of parliament, but they were told that the house of
lords would not take them into consideration until something had been
done by that house to please them. He contended that there was no
government in the country: ministers were no longer in the position in
which they were at the beginning of the session. They stated then that
they would place their existence as ministers on the fate of the Irish
corporation bill. What had become of that bill? It was laid on the shelf
till the lords knew what that house was about. The other house virtually
said, "If you do not what we like, we will not pass your bill." What
good could be got from playing over the farce of discussing the Irish
tithe bill? Did they not know that if it passed that house, defeat
awaited it elsewhere. Ministers, in fact, were useless for good
purposes; and as far as the people were concerned, they were
mischievous. Mr. Roebuck's motion was seconded by Colonel Thompson, who
said that ministers had started with a large stock of popular energy in
their favour; but, in their fear of the boiler bursting, they had let
the fire go out. Like Spanish generals, they had always one eye in
their own camp, and the other in the enemy's; and all their efforts were
paralysed by their fear of being too successful. Their situation had
become desperate: if any event in the chapter of human accidents should
fall out to give them a reprieve, the only consequ