32

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XXV.

J7U0.

Questionof theIrish for-feitures 5disputebetweenthe

Houses.

tiling ever dropped but gall and poison, went so far asto say: “My Lord Somers is a man of eminent merit,of merit so eminent that, if he had made a slip, wemight well overlook it.” At a late hour the questionwas put; and the motion was rejected by a majority offifty in a house of four hundred and nineteen members.It was long since there had been so large an attendanceat a division.

The ignominious failure of the attacks on Somers andBurnet seemed to prove that the assembly was cominground to a better temper. But the temper of a Houseof Commons left without the guidance of a ministry isnever to be trusted. “Nobody can tell today,” said anexperienced politician of that time, “what the majoritymay take it into their heads to do tomorrow.” Alreadya storm was gathering in which the Constitution itselfwas in danger of perishing, and from which none of thethree branches of the legislature escaped without seriousdamage.

The question of the Irish forfeitures had been raised;

■ and about that question the minds of men, both withinand without the walls of Parliament, were in a strangelyexcitable state. Candid and intelligent men, whateverveneration they may feel for the memory of William,must find it impossible to deny that, in his eagernessto enrich and aggrandise his personal friends, he toooften forgot what was due to his own reputation and tothe public interest. It is true that in giving away the