Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/351

 1846.] Sir Robert Peel's Administration. 337 the present state of the temporalities of the Irish Church, the division showing for, 179 ; against, 274. The business of the session was at an end by the 9th of August, but the prorogation was delayed, in order that the House of Lords might have an opportunity of trying the appeal which had been made from the decision of the court in Dublin, in the case of O'Connell and his companions. The trial had been long and wearisome. It began on the 2nd of November, 1843, and it was not until the loth of February following that the verdict was returned. O'Connell was found guilty on all the eleven counts. The Rev. Mr. Tierney escaped lightly, but the other prisoners were found guilty on nearly all the counts. Another delay took place, and it was the 3<Dth of May before sentence was delivered. O'Connell was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of ^2000, and bound over to keep the peace for seven years. In the cases of the other prisoners the fine was only ^50, and the term of imprisonment nine months, but all were bound over to keep the peace for the same term. It was against these verdicts that an appeal was made to the House of Lords, and Parliament was kept together until the case could be heard. On the 4th of September judgment was delivered, the decision of the court below being reversed, and the prisoners released. Four law lords only voted in the case, Lords Denman, Cottenham, and Campbell being for the acquittal, and Lord Brougham, strangely enough, voting against it. On the next day Parliament was prorogued. Soon afterwards, on the 7th 'of October, Lord Stanley was called to the House of Peers by the title of Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe, an event of no little consequence to his party, affecting, as it eventually did, the leadership of the pro- tectionists in the Commons. The session of 1845 commenced on the 4th of February. The royal speech congratulated Parliament on the improved conditipn of the country. The contemporary chronicler says, " The harvest of the preceding autumn had been a productive one, trade was brisk, the manufacturing classes well employed, z