Things had, however, come to such a Crisis in Ireland, that their lordships must have to decide on the grand question, during the present session.

They had now come to a Crisis in Ireland; and he was afraid that, in a short time, the supply of provisions would be altogether exhausted.

The hon. Gentleman expressed his regret that large sums of money had been expended in works of a particular character; now he (Lord John Russell) thought that the hon. Gentleman did not attach sufficient value to the recent expenditure of large sums of money in the present Crisis in Ireland, so as to enable the people to earn sufficient to enable them to obtain the means of subsistence.

In meeting the present Crisis in Ireland, he would not rely upon the free emigration now going on.

He felt all the difficulty of the present Crisis in Ireland, and that he would be a bold man indeed who would confidently affirm that he had found its solution; but some remedy had been proposed by those who, with him (Mr. Shaw), waited upon the noble Lord; and even though that should not turn out to be perfectly effectual, he thought that they had at least shown that the remedy proposed by the noble Lord would, at all events, be not only ineffectual, but fraught with the most disastrous consequences; and it would be but very unsatisfactory reasoning of a physician, treating a case of great difficulty and danger, to say to those in consultation with him, "Now, if you will not at once prescribe a medicine which you will undertake shall cure the patient, then you cannot fairly object to my administering a dose of poison to him".

I think I may be justified in all these succeeding discussions, notwithstanding that general approval of the policy of the Government, to enforce the principles of my noble Friend, and to say that the result of the Session tends in a remarkable degree to confirm the discretion and policy of the views taken by the noble Lord, with respect to the course to be taken by this country in relation to, I hope I may say, the recent Crisis in Ireland.

To him (the Earl of Ellenborough) it appeared an Act most inadequate to meet the difficulties of the Crisis in Ireland.

There are certain parties, all of whom profess to have conscientious views, and you protect them in those views; but there is one party who are to remain behind, and they are to be disregarded; and in alluding to that party, I need not now dwell on their faithful loyalty and manly moderation at the present Crisis in Ireland; I speak of the loyalty of the Protestants of Ireland—that faithful body of whose value and importance in Ireland, to England and British connexion, the noble Lord at the head of the Government cannot but be conscious—is that body of men which comprehends so many of the bishops, the clergy, and the laity of the Established Church in Ireland—are they to be neglected?

And if it be any degradation, or if it be any humiliation to a Government to receive from an opposite quarter, or to receive from a Member of the House with whom they are entirely unconnected, suggestions and developments of plans of the highest importance, which we are ready to adopt, I am quite ready to submit to that degradation, and to suffer that humiliation; and if I can receive from any person any addition to the plan the 424 right hon. Baronet suggested, I am quite willing to bear the taunts which may be thrown on us—that in this great calamity—in this great peril and Crisis of Ireland, we have been forced to act upon the suggestions of others, and that not from our own wisdom, but from the borrowed plans of others, we have devised a remedy.

He could not think that in these days of enlightenment it was their intention to rely upon brute force; his own reliance, in this hour of the Crisis of Ireland, and, perhaps, also of England—his reliance was, as he had said, upon the native virtue of Englishmen; and he implored the Englishmen in that House, for the sake of their own country and of Ireland, to demand before it was too late, before blood had been shed, and passion had taken the place of reason, and before the demon of vengeance had been raised, to do something that would give a new direction to thought, by convincing the people that they might expect justice from this united Parliament.

The Prime Minister said— "We have heard something lately of the Crisis of Ireland.

Oh, here it is, and now what does the right hon. Gentleman say in it— "We have heard something lately of the Crisis in Ireland.

We have heard something lately of the Crisis of Ireland.

We are told that there is a Crisis in Ireland, and the hon. Member for Birmingham (Mr. Bright) the other night, with, I must say, one of those characteristics which he invariably displays, but in an agreeable manner, that of misrepresentation, said that I denied that there was anything critical in the state of Ireland, and that Ireland was, so far as my opinion was concerned, in a perfectly satisfactory state.

I made none that I regret, or did not make advisedly; and I do believe most solemnly, so far as the policy which is the consequence of the alleged Crisis in Ireland is concerned and can influence us, it is one that will bring about a crisis in England—["Oh"!

Furthermore, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that there is a real Crisis in Ireland; a crisis to my mind the more grave and the more serious for the very reason that Ireland has been improving for many years in its condition; for the very reason that the Legislature of this country has shown so much anxious care to make the union with Ireland a real and hearty union.

It was not thought of at the beginning of the Session; it was forced upon the attention of the Chief Secretary, not by the Crisis in Ireland, but by the appearance on the Order Book of the Bill of the hon. Member for Mayo (Mr. O'Connor Power).

That Bill, the extraordinary Crisis in Ireland, the extraordinary condition of the House of Commons, the best ever elected, that awful failure of Liberal hopes, was a conspicuous illustration of what was termed the irony of fate.

There is no doubt that in one one sense the Land Act tended to accelerate a Crisis in Ireland.

The Crisis in Ireland, Sir, comes next November.

In 1880 there was an agrarian Crisis in Ireland of a far more acute description than anything which has been proved to exist at the present time.

The Crisis in Ireland at the present time was, in his humble judgment, quite as serious as that of 1880.

We are face to face with an important Crisis in Ireland.

But the Amendment, although ingeniously general in its terms, at least contains two valuable admissions—first, that, after all, the Land Question is the one question which is causing the present Crisis in Ireland; and, secondly, the further admission that a good deal has been done, even by the landlords themselves, to remedy the defects of the Land Laws.

The very telegrams which my hon. Friend read in proposing his Amendment to the Motion now before the House must convince you that we are in the midst of a great agrarian Crisis in Ireland, and that unless something is done in the shape of the Bill which, is down for second reading next Wednesday, that crisis will daily increase 1814 in gravity.

In 1886 he opposed the Bill of the hon. Member for Cork on the ground that there was really no particular Crisis in Ireland at all, and that the farmers were very well off.

The matter has, in my opinion, really reached a Crisis in Ireland, for, in consequence of the series of so-called remedial measures that have been applied in Ireland to the landed gentry, persons desiring to fill the High Shrievalty are getting to be within a very narrow circuit, and it is extremely hard to find anybody who will serve the office at all.

] It was that there was a Crisis in Ireland, owing to the fall in the price of produce, and that the tenants could not pay their rents.

There has not been a financial Crisis in Ireland for fifty years.

The result was a rebellion, and, at the worst moment of the War, we had to divert our mind to methods of dealing with the Crisis in Ireland.

We would have been talking about defence in the UK, because the Crisis in Ireland was so bad, with guns being run in huge numbers into the island by those on both sides of the argument.

Given that Chancellor Merkel's comments have caused such turbulence in the bond market in the past week, I welcome the measured and respectful terms in which the Financial Secretary and the Government have addressed the Crisis in Ireland.

We are taking the right steps to secure our fiscal position, bearing in mind that the Crisis in Ireland is around banking, not the fiscal position.

The Crisis in Ireland is around the banking sector, not the fiscal position.

Does not the Crisis in Ireland and across Europe underline how right the Government have been to take the tough but necessary action to save us from bankruptcy?

He said that in the current constitutional and financial Crisis in Ireland, it is reasonable that its Parliament should be able to call what he described as an early general election rather than an immediate one.

It is understandable-he is still feeling a bit dizzy after the economic Crisis in Ireland, on which they are modelling Scottish independence.

Finally, does not the Crisis in Ireland remind us all that the economic crisis was global and that the Government, with their full responsibility for the economy and the welfare of the British people, must recognise that the solutions lie only within a global framework and not in one pursued alone?

Just in case the elephant in the room was sitting there not doing anything much, the Chancellor of Germany, Mrs Merkel, decided to stick it very hard in the behind with a sharp stick when she started referring to "haircuts" in respect of the Crisis in Ireland.

The Irish people will have to pay that back instead of the European Central Bank suffering the losses it deserves for causing this Crisis in Ireland and for having very unwisely extended credit.