114 THK MINISTRY AND THE PARLIAMENT. 



of corruption that nothing but its annihilation can meet the exigency 

 of the case. 



Even the sham reform, if we must give it the name of reform, 

 which ministers and the parliament have operated on the church of 

 Ireland, has been forcibly wrested from them. It was from stern ne- 

 cessity, not from choice or from principle, that they consented to it. 

 It was only brought forward as a set-off' against their Coercion Bill. 

 Without something of the kind they knew that a measure so unpopu- 

 lar as the Bill of Coercion could never be enforced in Ireland, except 

 at the hazard of a general insurrection. How congenial the latter 

 measure was to the minds of ministers, and how reluctant they were 

 to interfere, even in the slightest degree, with the abominations of the 

 church, may be inferred from the celerity with which the former 

 passed both houses, compared with the snail-like pace at which the 

 latter was suffered to move its slow length into a law. 



Other proofs, confirmatory of the same fact, are at hand. The 

 despotic measure lost none of its harsher features in its transit through 

 parliament. The little there was of good in the Church Reform Bill, 

 when first propounded, was extracted before it accomplished its pas- 

 sage through the lower house. 



Next came the Slave Emancipation Bill. The people, from one end 

 of the country to the other, demanded the abolition of colonial sla- 

 very. They loudly proclaimed in the ears of ministers and the par- 

 liament, that a system, alike disgraceful to the country and revolting 

 to humanity, should no longer be tolerated in William the Fourth's 

 dominions. To evade the question by putting it off till another ses- 

 sion, would most certainly have been to ministers the loss of office, 

 and to many honourable members, whenever another election should 

 take place, the loss of their seats. Both parties saw this : for both 

 are remarkably quick-sighted whenever their own interests are im- 

 mediately concerned. Hence a bill must be brought in with the 

 professed view of abolishing slavery. At first sight, the bill seemed 

 passably good ; but, in proportion as it became better understood, its 

 commendable qualities disappeared. What was sufficient to awaken 

 the country's suspicions as to its real character, was the way in which 

 it was received by the planters. Supposing, before the development of 

 the measure, that it would be, not only what justice, humanity, and 

 the unanimous voice of the people of Great Britain demanded that it 

 should, but what their own consciences we mean such of them as had 

 consciences whispered that it ought, they were in an agony of 

 terror at the forthcoming bill, and, accordingly, were one and all 

 most exemplary in hurling their anathemas at the heads of ministers. 

 The measure was brought forward when, all of a sudden, their 

 sorrow was turned into joy ; their visions of ruin into bright pros- 

 pects of prosperity ; and, as a natural consequence, their rancorous 

 abuse of ministers gave place to the language of friendship and ful- 

 some adulation. They lost no time in announcing their willingness 

 to co-operate most cordially with the Grey Administration, in carry- 

 ing the provisions of the measure into effect. And well they might ; 

 for, in addition to the boon as it was called, and as in truth it might 

 be called, of 20 000 OOO/., which is more than the actual value of all 



