his being less the organ of Government than the Government itself. Through life he was attached, like most other sound judging men, to the tie with England; for through that channel alone could the advancement of Ireland in commerce, knowledge, and the higher order of civilization be accomplished. Whether this attachment was disinterested has been doubted. In Ireland it is yet scarcely forgiven. It made him unpopular while living among her ephemeral and disloyal writers; and no pen of historical value has since appeared to balance merits against defects, and award fairly that approbation which there is little doubt is due to his energy at least, if not to his judgment.[1]
His early association with Malone probably ceased from dissimilarity of pursuits and change of abode. How it revived does not appear; but three communications were received from him during this year on the critical state of the country. Two were written in March. The first refers to a speech in the Lords in reply to Lord Moira, which “he is ashamed to say consumed three hours and a half in the delivery.” This he has been induced by Lord
- ↑ Rumour, indeed, says that no materials exist for the purpose; that his papers, in short, have been destroyed from delicacy to many reputations, which would be most seriously damaged by the exposure of written documents to the public eye. This story, if true, tells not against the Chancellor, but rather against his countrymen who could thus descend to solicit favours from one whom they probably afterwards maligned, because he would not or could not accomplish their wishes. But it is another proof of the correctness of his judgment, which, in accomplishing the Union, carried the influence of the Sectional—as we may call it—to the Imperial Parliament, and thus extinguished those sources of corruption almost inseparable from all local legislatures, particularly that of Ireland—if we may believe all her politicians.
