Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/89

 his eloquence as an orator, for he was no orator, but from his transparent honesty and liberal principles. When Lord Grey had obtained from the King sufficient security for carrying the Reform Bill, Lord Althorp said, 'I feel a full assurance that we can carry the Reform Bill in its integrity. I cannot give you the grounds of that assurance, but I trust the House has sufficient confidence in me to accept my word.' When Lord Althorp arrived at the words 'confidence in me,' there was such a shout in the House of Commons, as I never heard before or since. If, then, we can find a man with the brilliant oratory of Canning, and the sterling honesty of Althorp, it is to such a man that the destiny of this country and the prospects of Ireland ought to be consigned. The University of Oxford, overflowing with bigotry, might indeed reject such a man, but I feel persuaded the great county of Lancaster would never fail him, nor would the country at large cease to celebrate his pure and immortal fame.

What, then, is required to solve this great question of the Irish Church? Is it anything so difficult as to be unattainable? Far from it. Two steps only are required.

The first is a resolution of the House of Commons, affirming the ecclesiastical equality asked for as a boon to Ireland by the most eminent of the Roman Catholic laymen; the other, an address to the Crown, praying for measures to give effect to that resolution. No Ministers of the Crown would advise the Queen to refuse her consideration to this resolution, or try to