444 POLITICAL CAREER. 



speech was " very tiresome," and lasted nearly 

 three hours, " it was listened to with profound and 

 respectful interest from first to last." The 'Annual 

 Register ' for 1847 devotes ten columns to summar- 

 ising it, and its report concludes as follows : 



" The noble Lord then returned to his panegyric 

 on the character of the Irish people, eulogising 

 their patience under the most direful sufferings, 

 and saying that if by his measure he could fill 

 them with good beef and mutton, and their cottages 

 with fine wheat-flour and sound beer, and their 

 pockets with English gold to purchase the blankets 

 of Wiltshire, the fustians of Bradford, and the 

 cotton prints of Manchester, he, though a Saxon, 

 would answer with his head for their loyalty, and 

 would lead them, through their warm hearts and 

 sympathies, not to sever but to cement the union 

 of Ireland with England. The noble Lord con- 

 cluded a speech which had lasted more than two 

 and a half hours amid cheers from all sides of the 

 House." 1 



It must also be remembered that all the questions 

 with which Lord George dealt were of colossal mag- 

 nitude, and that he handled them with the grasp 



1 The speech referred to in this extract from the ' Annual Regis- 

 ter ' was heard from the gallery of the House of Commons by that 

 universal favourite, Dr William H. Russell, who was then a parlia- 

 mentary reporter. After listening to it with rapt attention, Dr 

 Russell repaired to the 'Times' office, and told Mr Delane, his 

 editor, that if ever Lord George Bentinck became Prime Minister, 

 the woes of Ireland (Dr Russell's native country) would soon be 

 redressed. ED. 



