the late Government, three years ago, by the people of Ireland, a
resistance by no means amounting to rebellion, a resistance
rarely amounting to any crime defined by the law, but a
resistance nevertheless which is quite sufficient to obstruct the
course of justice, to disturb the pursuits of industry, and to
prevent the accumulation of wealth. And is not this a danger
which we ought to fear? And is not this a danger which we are
bound, by all means in our power, to avert? And who are those
who taunt us for yielding to intimidation? Who are those who
affect to speak with contempt of associations, and agitators, and
public meetings? Even the very persons who, scarce two years
ago, gave up to associations, and agitators, and public meetings,
their boasted Protestant Constitution, proclaiming all the time
that they saw the evils of Catholic Emancipation as strongly as
ever. Surely, surely, the note of defiance which is now so
loudly sounded in our ears, proceeds with a peculiarly bad grace
from men whose highest glory it is that they abased themselves to
the dust before a people whom their policy had driven to madness,
from men the proudest moment of whose lives was that in which
they appeared in the character of persecutors scared into
toleration. Do they mean to indemnify themselves for the
humiliation of quailing before the people of Ireland by trampling
on the people of England? If so, they deceive themselves. The
case of Ireland, though a strong one, was by no means so strong a
case as that with which we have now to deal. The Government, in
its struggle with the Catholics of Ireland, had Great Britain at
its back. Whom will it have at its back in the struggle with the
Reformers of Great Britain? I know only two ways in which
societies can permanently be governed, by public opinion, and by
the sword. A Government having at its command the armies, the