would not join Canning in consequence of his views on the subject; and again when Wellington and Peel, having opposed Canning almost to the death, themselves accepted the responsibility of flying in the face of all their own antecedents and all the traditions and convictions of their party, and of passing the very Act which they had deserted their old colleague for promoting. Even on the business, which perhaps of all others has most vitally affected the material welfare and progress of the English people, the effect of Irish influence was felt. The repeal of the corn laws would probably have been a question of a very short time under any circumstances; but it was the occurrence of the Irish famine which hurried Sir Robert Peel to the determination to adopt a course which, whilst conferring untold benefits upon his country, broke up his party and closed his own official career. On the other side, divisions on an Irish Church measure destroyed the ministry of Grenville after the death of Fox, and fatally weakened that of Lord Grey in 1834, and the first direct blow given to Mr. Gladstone's first administration was given by its failure to deal with Irish university education. The consequences in ordinary times of the action of Irish representatives on the relative strength of English parties, especially after emancipation and reform had introduced new elements into the representation, will be manifested in the whole future course of our Parliamentary history.
When the Imperial Parliament first met, there was nothing to indicate that any great change would result from the introduction of the hundred Irish members, for, on Grey's moving an amendment to the address, he was defeated by 245 to 63, the same kind of division to which he had been used in the old English House. In the Ministry it was soon found that serious complications existed. Much has been written about the character of the pledge which Pitt gave, or authorized others to give in his name, as to the admission of Roman Catholics to Parliament as a condition of the vote of the Irish legislature for the Act of Union. The one thing certain is, that the minister felt himself bound in honour, whatever he
