1829. The first result in England was undoubtedly unfavourable to the Catholics; the popular triumph was attributed to the agency of the priests, who undoubtedly took a prominent part in the contest. But the fact was, that the priests were urged forward by the people, not the people by the priests. The Roman clergy in Ireland are paid by the voluntary contributions of the people, and the priest who embraces an unpopular cause, is sure to suffer in purse and power. During the very struggle we have described, a priest of the county of Waterford, supposed to be in the interest of the Beresfords, had come to a remote part of the county to raise the annual contribution. He was in the habit of bringing back from £50 to £60, but on this occasion his collection did not amount to three shillings. This was a hint too significant to be mistaken, and it was not lost either on him or on his clerical brethren. In fact, where the priest joined the popular cause, he obtained unbounded influence; but wherever he seceded, he was regarded as a traitor to his country and a renegade to his God. With such a reward held out for agitation, and such a penalty affixed on acquiescence, it would, indeed, be strange, if the Irish priests had been able to resist the temptation of becoming violent politicians. The revolt against the landlords in the county of Waterford, was provoked by the landlords themselves. The whole matter was fully explained in a few eloquent words by Mr. Villiers. Stuart in the House of Commons, and we trust we may be excused a little anticipation, if we quote his words. "I wish to see a tenantry grateful for the kindnesses of a protecting landlord; but there are limits to gratitude as to generosity and other virtues. A nation cannot be generous with her honour, a woman with her virtue, or a freeholder with his franchise. I will ask, would not a freeholder be unworthy of the exercise of that franchise which the constitution gives him, if he would vote for a candidate who, even by his own

avowal, is ready to brand him as a traitor to his king, a perjurer to his country, and an idolater to his God

Was ever voter in such humour woo'd?

Was ever voter in such humour won?"

The Irish landlords felt their defeat severely, and commenced a system of vindictive retaliation, by ejecting without mercy all the tenants who had proved refractory. On the other hand, the Association organized "a new rent" for the protection of the forty-shilling freeholders, which soon amounted to a large sum; and it was not obscurely intimated that the Catholics, who were the creditors of Protestant landlords, would foreclose the mortgages of those who indulged in the luxury of persecutions. It was soon obvious that the landlords would have the worst in the struggle; convinced of the fact themselves, they desisted one by one, and even employed the priests in many cases to make amicable arrangements for them with their own tenants.

Such was the condition of Ireland when a new parliament was about to be assembled, to decide on the destinies of the empire; and it must be confessed, that the condition of that country was already such as not to allow the question of "how it was to be governed" any longer open in the cabinet. Every one saw that the policy of coercion, or the policy of conciliation, should be speedily and steadily adopted, and that a cabinet of neutrality could not by possibility protract its existence for more than a session.

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CHAPTER XIII.

DISSOLUTION OF THE LIVERPOOL MINISTRY.

THE new parliament assembled on the 14th of November, 1826, to confirm the new duties which had been fixed on the import of corn by the order in council, and to grant ministers an indemnity for having exceeded their powers. Peel was apparently stronger than he had been in the preceding parliament, for the Catholic cause had receded to a greater extent in England than it been advanced in Ireland. But he was really weaker; his supposed adhesion to the party of Lord Eldon was distasteful to many of the ministerialists, and was still more odious out of doors, where the chancellor was regarded as the great obstacle to every kind of improvement. An opportunity was afforded Canning of asserting the most liberal principles of foreign policy, and he embraced it with a zeal and success which at once raised him above any chance of finding a competitor for popularity and power amongst living statesmen.

John IV., king of Portugal, dying in March, 1826, the succession devolved on his son, Don Pedro, emperor of Brazil. By the constitution of Brazil, it was provided that it should never again be governed by the same monarch as Portugal; Don Pedro therefore resigned his European crown to his infant daughter, and appointed a regency to govern during her minority. At the same time he remodelled the old constitution of Portugal, and gave that country a representative government. The Queen Dowager and Don Pedro's

brother Miguel, excluded from the council of the regency, formed a conspiracy against the constitution, in which they were supported by the bigoted portion of the priesthood, by most of the monastic orders, and by some of the military. A revolt was at length openly raised, and Don Miguel was proclaimed "absolute king." "absolute king." This rebellion was secretly favoured by the restored despotic government of Spain; the followers of Don Miguel, when driven across the frontiers by the constitutional troops, were not only protected by the Spanish authorities, but were organized, armed, and equipped, with the knowledge, and partly at the expense, of the Spanish government, and sent forth to invade Portugal. As Britain. was bound by treaties to defend Portugal when attacked from without, and as this invasion was, to all political intents, an invasion by Spain, the Portuguese ambassador in London, about the beginning of December, made a formal application to the British government for the military assistance guaranteed by treaties. On the 11th of December, utterly unexpected by the nation, Lord Bathurst in one house, and Mr. Canning in the other, presented a message from the king, announcing that Portugal had been invaded, and calling upon parliament to support him in maintaining "the safety and independence of Portugal, the oldest ally of Great Britain."

On the following evening, Mr. Canning in proposing an answer to the message, delivered the most powerful speech ever made in the House of Commons; the effect of which was deeply felt from one end of Europe to the other, for it announced that the empire of the Holy Alliance was no more. Mr. Canning began by giving a historical summary of the connection between England and Portugal, and pointing out the nature of the obligations which the several treaties between the two countries imposed on each. Having shown that Great Britain was bound to assist Portugal in case of an invasion, he next showed that such a case had arisen from

the interference of Spain. To the charge of delay having intervened between the determination of giving assistance to Portugal, and the carrying of that determination into effect, he replied " On Sunday the 3rd of this month (December), we received from the Portuguese ambassador, a direct and formal demand of assistance against a hostile aggression from Spain. Our answer was—that although rumours had reached us through France, his majesty's government had not that accurate information, that precise and official intelligence of facts, on which they could properly found an application to parliament. It was only on last Friday night that this precise intelligence was received. On Saturday, his majesty's confidential servants came to a decision. On Sunday, that decision received the sanction of his majesty. On Monday, it was communicated to both houses of parliament—and this day, sir, at the hour in which I have the honour of addressing you, the troops are on their march for embarkation."

In reference to the Portuguese constitution, he gave utterance to the following manly and liberal sentiments. "As to the merits, sir, of the new constitution of Portugal, I have neither the intention nor the right to offer any opinion. Personally I may have formed one, but as an English minister all I have to say is, 'May God prosper this attempt at the establishment of constitutional liberty in Portugal! and may that nation be found fit to enjoy and to cherish its new-born privileges, as it has often proved itself capable of discharging its duties amongst the nations of the world.'

"I, sir, am neither the champion nor the critic of the Portuguese constitution; but it is admitted on all hands to have proceeded from a legitimate source-a consideration which has mainly reconciled continental Europe to its establishment; and to us, as Englishmen, it is recommended by the ready acceptance it has met with from all orders of the Portuguese people. To that constitution, therefore, thus unquestioned in