dissolution of the present Government, I confess I did not think that I was an individual of sufficient importance to justify me in taking a step that might lead to such consequences. I will candidly acknowledge that I had not sufficient courage to take a step that might produce that risk. I therefore resolved to do that which I hope was not dishonourable. I resolved to compromise my opinion on this point, albeit that opinion was a strong and decided one, and to abstain from taking a line of conduct that might injure a Government of the principles of which I in the main most cordially approved. My noble friend has observed that it was only on Thursday last he was aware of the full extent to which I had gone in my communication to the hon. and learned Gentleman opposite. I admit, that I ought to have communicated to my noble friend what had passed on that occasion. But be it borne in mind that so full and so entire was the conviction in my mind, not merely that the conversation which had taken place between the hon. and learned Gentleman and myself would go no further, but that the clauses in question were sure to be abandoned, that the importance of doing anything more than merely to inform my noble friend that a conversation of the kind had taken place had never once been present to my mind. I shall not detain the House further than to express my desire-my most earnest anxiety--that the House may feel that in the course which I have unfortunately taken I have been actuated by no other desire than to promote the peace of a country which has ever since my earliest entrance into public life, had my warmest and sincerest sympathies, and for which, be it borne in mind, I was at the time in some degree responsible. Mr. O'Connell said, that the statements which had been just made had been received by the House in the manner that the candid statement of an hon. Gentleman ought, and if any person was to blame for the course which the right hon. Gentleman had taken--a course dictated by his desire to obtain tranquillity for his unfortunate country-if any person, he repeated, was to blame, he would infinitely prefer that a double share of the blame should be thrown upon him, than that any should be cast upon the right hon. Gentleman. He was now convinced, indeed it was impossible that he should not be, that the right hon. Gentleman had acted with the most perfect good faith towards him, and that the right hon. Gentleman entertained at the time an honest and sincere conviction of the truth of every word that dropped from him. Indeed, he considered the right hon. Gentleman utterly incapable of any thing else. He did not rise to vindicate himself on this occasion, but he was sure that every one who heard him would recollect that his unfortunate countrymen had reposed in him the most unlimited confidence for the last thirty years, and that he should be the most abject of human beings if he had one thought that was not absorbed in the wish to promote their liberties and advance their interests. He would ask hon. Gen tlemen before they condemned him to recollect that if England or Scotland had been placed in the situation Ireland was, whether their first anxiety would not be to maintain that portion of the empire with which they were connected upon a footing of equality as regarded its rights and privileges with the rest, and if he had one duty greater than another to discharge, it was to see that Ireland should be their coequal in political privileges and constitutional rights. He was deeply convinced that the right hon. Gentleman and the noble Lord were perfectly right in deeming the renewal of the clauses of the Coercion Bill that had been alluded to as utterly unnecessary for preserving the peace of Ireland. He had acted upon the suggestion then given to him in the course he had pursued. He took no merit to himself for it, but he would have been wrong if he had said a word, or if he had written a line, from which occasion might have been taken, should any agrarian disturbance have taken place, to taunt the noble Lord and the right hou. Gentleman with excesses which it would be said his conduct had produced. To preserve the country from that danger was the object he had contemplated. He was not to be considered as a private individual in such a case; he did not act as such. When confidence was reposed in him he felt that he was bound not to mention names. He did not mention names, but then the House would recollect that he had to act with others, and to get others to act with him,-that he had to manage others; but that he would state that in that management he did not utter a word, or give a hint to any person of the quarter from which he had received the intimation in question. He had merely stated, in vindication of the conduct he then pursued, that the information he had received might be confidently relied upon. If, finding himself deceived in point of fact (though not intentionally), he had acted as he had done, he conceived he was fully justified. But he did not rise to vindicate himself. If there was blame to be cast upon any individual, he would be content to receive a double share of it. He was as anxious as any man could be for the maintenance of an administration upon liberal principles such as those professed by the four Cabinet Ministers who had been alluded to. They had his entire confidence, and he believed, that they had the confidence of the country. He thought that the strongest Administration that ever was formed in this country could be formed upon the principles which those Ministers entertained, in conjunction with colleagues who would combine with them in the same sentiments, and who would give to the country the full benefit and advantage of that measure of reform with which their names would be eternally associated. Mr. Hume said, that he would only address a few words to the House. There was no man in the House that could be more seriously sorry at what had occurred, and at hearing the statement of the noble Lord and the right hon. Gentleman. He alluded especially to the statement of the noble Lord, that he had withdrawn from the Government of the country. Though he (Mr. Hume) had been as zealous as any man in supporting the Administration of Lord Grey, he must say, that he had been principally actuated in doing so by the confidence which he had in the noble Lord. It was, therefore, with extreme regret that he had heard, that the noble Lord had been placed in a situation in which he was compelled to resign his office rather than to sacrifice his principles. He regretted, he repeated, to find that the noble Lord and others of his colleagues in whom he and the country could place confidence had been obliged to secede from the Administration. Lord Althorp said, that in his first address to the House, he had merely referred to his own case, and to the course which his right hon. friends had taken in conjunction with him in regard to the Coercion Bill; but he ought to have stated, what he believed Lord Grey had already stated, or was at that moment stating in the other House that in consequence of his own retirement from office, the Administration was at an end. Mr. Hume said, that it was impossible that any Administration could be formed otherwise than on those liberal principles which the noble Lord opposite entertained. Attempts might be made, but he was much mistaken in the feelings, both of this House and of the country, if he did not think it was utterly impossible at the present moment to saddle upon the country a Tory Administration. He could not but again express his regret for the situation in which the country was placed. All business was postponed. END OF VOL. XXIV.-THIRD SERIES, AND OF FOURTH VOL. OF SESS. 1834. GENERAL INDEXES ΤΟ VOL. XXI., XXII., XXIII., XXIV., (THIRD SERIES) SESSION 1834. OF HANSARD'S PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES. (A.) S.U BJECTS OF DEBATE S. No I. HOUSE OF LORDS.-N° 11. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Corporations, Municipal (see Address), xxi. Hertford Borough, xxii. 1284 Holland (see Address) 2 X Portugal (see Address).-Treaty with, xxiv. Warwick Borough, xxii. 355.-xxiii. 103,778, 170 No II. DEBATES-COMMONS. ABORIGINAL Tribes, xxiv: 1061 All-Hallows, Parish of, xxi. 560 Allotment System, xxi. 789 Bishops, Motion to exclude them from the Bode, Baron de, xxiii. 397, 1248 Althorp, Lord, Dispute of with Mr. Sheil, xxi. Budget, xxi. 360 119, 146, 150 Army Estimates, xxi. 963, 1002, 1367 Assessed Taxes Petition, xxi. 264.-Resolu- Bath, Order of, xxii. 872, 949 Beer, Sale of, xxii. 1159.-Bill to amend the Burgess, Mr., Case of, xxi. 961 Business of the House, xxiv. 425, 1294 Cabriolets, xxii. 153 Call of the Ilouse, xxii. 78 Capital Punishments, xxii. 719,-xxiv. 434 |