ences would be, that
as they had dwindled, dwindled before, they would dwindle, dwindle
again. There was no stock of good luck which such conduct would not run
out. It was clear what was coming: the Tories must return to power. How
long they would stay there was another question; but their return was
a phasis, a phenomenon which ministers had rendered it inevitable to
go through. Mr. O'Connell eschewed the doctrines of Mr. Roebuck and
Colonel Thompson. It was his duty, he said, in the name of the people
of Ireland, to protest against his majesty's government being blamed for
not doing more. Government had the confidence and the affections of the
people; and whatever might be the opinions of others, he, for one, hoped
that they would long continue to occupy their present situations. Lord
John Russell, in reply, disclaimed any community of sentiment with Mr.
Roebuck in the constitutional views he had broached, either in reference
to church or state. He was decidedly opposed to the voluntary system,
and to the abolition of the house of lords. As for the doctrine of the
honourable member for Bath, that men of moderation and compromise never
succeed in establishing anything good or useful, his lordship said it
was, on the contrary, his decided conviction that to the moderation and
mediation between violent or extreme opinions on both sides, which
had been exercised by Lord Somers, and the great Whig leaders at the
Revolution, the country was indebted for all her subsequent prosperity.
In reference to Mr. Roebuck's reproach against ministers for not having
conciliated the dissenters and popular favour generally by adopting the
voluntary principle in church matters, his lordship said that such a
course would not have that effect: his own opinion was not in favour of
the voluntary system, and he believed that the people of this country
were, like himself, still attached to the established church. The
opposition, properly so called, took no part in this discussion, and Mr.
Roebuck's motion was negatived without a division. The discussion proved
one great fact, namely, that between the extremes of opposition, the
Whigs might for a long period maintain their places on the treasury
benches; but at the same time they could not but feel embarrassment in
a position which left them dependent on their opponents, now on the
Radicals and now on the Tories. Had it been possible for the two to have
united on any great question, the Whig minis