with England was to be rendered real and effectual.
Sir Robert Peel had carried the first, and if no one as
yet ventured to propose the second, the third had been
a long time in operation. In 1795, Mr. Pitt had
established at Maynooth, in the county of Kildare, a
college for the special purpose of educating Catholic
priests; and since that period, under all Governments,
whether Whig or Tory, and in spite of the opposition
of the ultra-Protestants, Parliament had annually
voted, for the maintenance of this institution, a sum
of money not indeed very large, but important on ac-
count of the principle which it represented. On the
20th of September, 1841, scarcely three weeks after
the formation of the Conservative Cabinet, on the op-
position to this annual grant being renewed, Sir Robert
Peel had openly stated, 'I have voted for the grant
to Maynooth College for the last thirty years, whether
in or out of office, without feeling any violation
of religious. "scruples; and I consider it my duty to
make the proposal of the present grant.' The grant
was carried by ninety-nine votes to twenty-three, and
the persistent good-will of the Prime Minister towards
the Catholic clergy of Ireland was made evident at the
same time as the obstinate resistance he was destined
to encounter.

Judging by appearances, his position, in reference to
Irish questions, resembled that in which he stood with
regard to economic questions in England; in both
cases he was opposed by the two extreme parties -- in
the former, by the ultra-Protestants and the Catholic
masses -- in the latter, by the unyielding partisans of

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