He had,
he said, found himself compelled to renounce his happy allegiance to
the First Lord of the Treasury, and to quit the pleasant company in
which, humble as had been his place, he had been allowed to sit and
act, by his unfortunate conviction in this great subject. He had been
told, he said, that it was a misfortune in itself for one so young as
he to have convictions. But his Irish birth and Irish connection had
brought this misfortune of his country so closely home to him that he
had found the task of extricating himself from it to be impossible.
Of what further he said, speaking on that terribly unintelligible
subject, a tenant-right proposed for Irish farmers, no English reader
will desire to know much. Irish subjects in the House of Commons
are interesting or are dull, are debated before a crowded audience
composed of all who are leaders in the great world of London, or
before empty benches, in accordance with the importance of the moment
and the character of the debate. For us now it is enough to know that
to our hero was accorded that attention which orators love,--which
will almost make an orator if it can be assured. A full House with a
promise of big type on the next morning would wake to eloquence the
propounder of a Canadian grievance, or the mover of an Indian budget.
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