In subsequent debates, the following sentiments were uttered by the leading Whig statesmen of the day:  ‘The treatment of Ireland,’ said Mr. Fox, ’was such as to harrow up the soul.  It was shocking to think that a nation of brothers was thus to be trampled on like the most remote colony of conquered strangers....  The Irish people have been scourged by the iron hand of oppression, and subjected to the horrors of military execution, and are now in a situation too dreadful for the mind to contemplate without dismay.  After the inhuman dragooning and horrible executions, the recital of which makes the blood run cold—­after so much military cruelty, not in one, but in almost every part of the country—­is it possible for this administration to procure unanimity in Ireland?’ On March 22, 1798, the Duke of Bedford moved an address to the king, asking him to change his ministers, and alluding to the state of Ireland, as it was before the breaking out of the Rebellion.  He said:  ’Were I to enter into a detail of the atrocities which have been committed in Ireland, the picture would appal the stoutest heart.  It could be proved that the most shocking cruelties have been perpetrated; but what could be expected if men kept in strict discipline were all at once allowed to give loose to their fury and their passions?’

Lord Holland was persuaded that his majesty’s ministers could not tranquillise Ireland even by conciliation.  ’How could they conciliate whose concessions are always known to be the concessions of weakness and of fear, and who never granted to the Irish—­the most generous people upon earth,—­anything without a struggle or resistance?’ Lord William Russell, in June following, said:  ’A man’s loyalty was to be estimated by the desire he testified to imbrue his hands in his brother’s blood.’  Sheridan asked:  ’After being betrayed, duped, insulted—­disappointed in their dearest hopes, and again thrown into the hands of the rulers they detested and despised, was it impossible they should feel emotions of indignation?  The struggle is not one of partial disaffection, but it is a contest between the people and the Government.’  Mr. Tierney said:  ’It was certain the people were in arms against the Government, nor was it easy to conceive how—­having been scourged, burnt, and massacred—­they could have any other feeling than aversion to that Government.’

Every motion on the subject in both houses was rejected by overwhelming majorities.  So little impression did the reports of the appalling facts which were of daily occurrence in Ireland make upon that Tory Government, that the speeches of ministers read exactly like the speeches of Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Hardy, Lord Mayo, and Mr. Warren, in the past session.  Lord Grenville, the home secretary, professed the most profound respect for the independence of the Irish parliament, and he could not think of interfering in the least with its privileges, however the empire might suffer from its excesses.  ’The motion