Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/88

 Corpus Act without reluctance. Nor did the great Tory party consent to Catholic Emancipation, except from fear, or embrace Household Suffrage, until the railings of Hyde Park had been levelled to the ground, and sundry meetings had taken place, more remarkable for their numbers and their physical force than for argment [sic] or for eloquence. Such reproaches may induce us to regret past injustice, but must not deter our Parliament from doing justice—now late, indeed, but not too late. So that the old plan of governing Ireland by a corrupt cabal having been abandoned, and the will of the people of England being generally in favour of ecclesiastical equality in Ireland, we may hope that the Irish Church will not be much longer an obstacle to peace. But men also are required to effect this mighty and beneficial revolution. Mr. Canning, following on this subject the doctrines of Fox, said most truly, 'Away with the cant of measures, not men—the idle supposition, that it is the harness, and not the horses, that draws the chariot along.'

For the great task of pacifying Ireland, by just and righteous measures, a man is required, not affected with the weakness of age, but vigorous with the strength of manhood, having a seat in the House of Commons, and possessing its confidence.

Mr. Canning possessed that confidence from the power of his oratory, and the generosity of his foreign policy.

Lord Althorp possessed that confidence, not from