“We should like to argue this matter with a regular Tory Lord, whose members vote steadily against the Catholic question.  ’I wonder that mere fear does not make you give up the Catholic question!  Do you mean to put this fine place in danger—­the venison—­the pictures—­the pheasants—­the cellars—­the hot-house and the grapery?  Should you like to see six or seven thousand French or Americans landed in Ireland, and aided by a universal insurrection of the Catholics?  Is it worth your while to run the risk of their success?  What evil from the possible encroachment of Catholics, by civil exertions, can equal the danger of such a position as this?  How can a man of your carriages, and horses, and hounds, think of putting your high fortune in such a predicament, and crying out, like a schoolboy or a chaplain, ’Oh, we shall beat them! we shall put the rascals down!’ No Popery, I admit to your Lordship, is a very convenient cry at an election, and has answered your end; but do not push the matter too far.  To bring on a civil war for No Popery, is a very foolish proceeding in a man who has two courses and a remove!  As you value your side-board of plate, your broad riband, your pier-glasses—­if obsequious domestics and large rooms are dear to you—­if you love ease and flattery, titles and coats of arms—­if the labour of the French cook, the dedication of the expecting poet, can move you—­if you hope for a long life of side-dishes—­if you are not insensible to the periodical arrival of the turtle-fleets—­emancipate the Catholics!  Do it for your ease, do it for your indolence, do it for your safety—­emancipate and eat, emancipate and drink—­emancipate, and preserve the rent-roll and the family estate!”

In conclusion he gives a word of warning first to his Roman Catholic clients, imploring them to be patient as well as firm; and then to the various sections of the “No Popery” party in England—­

“To the Base.—­Sweet children of turpitude, beware! the old antipopery people are fast perishing away.  Take heed that you are not surprised by an emancipating king, or an emancipating administration.  Leave a locus poenitentiae!—­prepare a place for retreat—­get ready your equivocations and denials.  The dreadful day may yet come, when liberality may lead to place and power.  We understand these matters here.  It is safest to be moderately base—­to be flexible in shame, and to be always ready for what is generous, good, and just, when any thing is to be gained by virtue,”

The suggested prophecy had not long to wait for its fulfilment.  In the summer of 1828, William Vesey Fitzgerald, a great landowner in County Clare, and one of the Members for that county, accepted office in the Government as President of the Board of Trade, thereby vacating his seat.  Lord Beaconsfield shall tell the remainder of the story.  “An Irish lawyer, a professional agitator, himself a Roman Catholic and therefore ineligible, announced himself as a candidate in opposition to the new minister, and on the day of election thirty thousand peasants, setting at defiance all the landowners of the county, returned O’Connell at the head of the poll, and placed among not the least memorable of historical events—­the Clare Election."[92]