Page:Abolition of the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.djvu/15

11 intrigue;—that it offered constant opportunity and facilities for the attempt to pervert its authority and its favours to factious or to corrupt objects;—and that however pure and honest might be the intentions of an Irish Lord-Lieutenant, it was impossible for him to avoid, or to extinguish, those attempts;—and, indeed, scarcely in his power to escape their contamination. Such strictures have been at all times of frequent occurrence. No reference need be given to prove them. They are to be found, as the commentators say, "passim"—and will rise at once to the recollection of every man who has given them a thought. But there is another fault which has been often, and apparently with justice, found with the presence of a local Irish Government; and it is this—that it has tended to implant, and subsequently to foster continually in the Irish character, that disposition to rely in almost every possible case of difficulty on the direct interference of the Executive, rather than on the general and individual exertions and resources of the community itself,—which has exercised so baneful an influence in many respects on the interests of that country. It may be hoped, indeed, that one of the compensations to be derived from the disastrous history of the last few years in Ireland, is that they have to some extent effected an alteration of habits and views in this particular; but there can be nothing of this kind alleged such as to supersede the utility of any arrangements which may tend in the