'Connells and their class. Murder
and outrage stalked abroad, and whatever were the wrongs of Ireland,
incendiarism and assassination were not the means of redress upon which
brave men could look unmoved. That a country should fall into such a
state of crime was horrible; that the political leaders of any party
in it could be found to oppose measures so mild, and so little
ultra-constitutional, to put down these dreadful deeds, was still more
horrible. The speech of Mr. John O'Connell exposed himself and his
country to just ridicule. A party numbering millions of persons,
choosing as their principal leader a man so little qualified for the
task, or for any great political undertaking, could not but sink in its
relative importance. In spite of the opposition of a few Irish members,
the bill passed the commons almost unanimously. In the lords but little
opposition was offered. On the motion for going into committee on the
16th December, Lord Farnham brought under the notice of the house that
Major Mahon was murdered after he had been denounced from the altar
of the Roman Catholic chapel by a priest named M'Dermot, to whom Major
Mahon had offered no other offence than objecting to that gentleman and
his clerks constituting the relief committee of the district. The debate
was rendered still more remarkable by a frank and manly speech from Lord
Beaumont, a Roman Catholic peer, deprecating these altar denunciations,
which had so frequently been followed by the murder of the persons
denounced. Lord Beaumont expressed his astonishment that the bishops,
clergy, and laity of the Roman Catholic community did not bring their
moral influence to bear upon those priests who offended against the
laws of God and man in so flagrant a manner. This gave rise to severe
animadversions upon the whole body of Irish Roman Catholics for not
having acted as Lord Beaumont pointed out. Lord Stanley especially
adopted this line of remark, with the dextrous facility his lordship
possessed for turning every occurrence and every admission of an
opponent into an element of party attack. The measure was speedily
passed through the house of lords, and became law.

Notwithstanding these weary debates upon Irish affairs, the house of
commons was obliged to participate in another as acrimonious as any of
the former. Mr. Fergus O'Connor moved for a committee of inquiry into
the circumstances which led to the legislative union between Great
Britain and Ireland