On this question the Irish and British factions joined battle.

Reasons of no great weight were adduced on both sides; for neither party ventured to speak out.

The point really in issue was whether the King should be in Irish or in British hands.

If he remained at Dublin, it would be scarcely possible for him to withhold his assent from any bill presented to him by the Parliament which he had summoned to meet there.

He would be forced to plunder, perhaps to attaint, innocent Protestant gentlemen and clergymen by hundreds; and he would thus do irreparable mischief to his cause on the other side of Saint George's Channel.