But I do
not so well discover the reasons that could induce them, at the first
feeble dawning of life in this country, to do all in their power to cast
a cloud over it, and to prevent the least hope of our effecting the
necessary reformations which are aimed at in our Constitution and in our
national economy.
But, it seems, I was silent at the passing the resolutions. Why, what
had I to say? If I had thought them too much, I should have been accused
of an endeavor to inflame England. If I should represent them as too
little, I should have been charged with a design of fomenting the
discontents of Ireland into actual rebellion. The Treasury bench
represented that the affair was a matter of state: they represented it
truly. I therefore only asked whether they knew these propositions to be
such as would satisfy Ireland; for if they were so, they would satisfy
me. This did not indicate that I thought them too ample. In this our
silence (however dishonorable to Parliament) there was one
advantage,--that the whole passed, as far as it is gone, with complete
unanimity, and so quickly that there was no time left to excite any
opposition to it out of doors.
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