AND TEE DUKES OF RICHMOND. 143 



to beware of the principle involved in tlie question 

 before they consented to limit the elective franchise 

 in Ireland." 



Upon the opening of Parliament on the 4th of 

 February, 1830, the prevailing distress in the country 

 was referred to in the Eoyal speech, and the Houses 

 were urged to consider the best measures to be adopted 

 for its removal. The language of the speech, temperate 

 though it was, called down on the Duke of Wellington 

 nearly as much asperity of language as was bestowed 

 on Sir Robert Peel during the Free Trade Movement. 



The Duke of Richmond asked with warmth of 

 feeling : " Were their Lordships then to tell the 

 labourer and manufacturer that they must starve ? 

 Were they to tell the yeomanry that there was no 

 remedy for them but patience? That was not the 

 language to hold out to them in their distress. He 

 should not, however, shrink from the performance of 

 his duty, although he might be exposed to the serious 

 charge by so doing of assaulting (he believed that 

 was the word) the Administration." 



The next subject brought forward in the House, in 

 which his Grace took an active interest, was a motion 

 submitted by Earl Stanhope, respecting the state of 

 the nation ; upon which his Grace said he never 

 heard a more convincing speech than that of the 

 noble Lord, by whom the motion was brought 

 forward. The Duke, whilst remarking upon the 



