The measure which is supposed to gratify Ireland satisfies at most a majority of Irishmen.

This may be enough for a Parliamentary tactician, it is not enough for a far-seeing statesman or a man of plain common sense.

When we are told a minority are filled with discontent, we must ask who constitute the minority.

When we find that the minority consists of men of all descriptions and of all creeds, that they represent the education, the respectability, the worth, and the wealth of Ireland, we must be filled with alarm.

Wealth, no doubt, is no certain sign of virtue, any more than poverty can be identified with vice; a rich man may be a scoundrel, and a poor man may be an honour to the human race, but the world would be much worse constituted than it is, if the possession of a competence were not connected with honesty, energy, adherence to duty, and every other civic virtue.