t  Mr.  Urquhart,  who  remained  faithful  to  his  undertaking,  held  a
meeting  of  his  constituents,  and  with  the  Protestant  rector,  the  Presby-


THE    QENESAL   ELECTION   OF  1847.  429

The  tesult  of  the  elections  was  a  puzzle  almost  aa
mach  a8  it  was  a  miscarriage.  But  looking  back,  when
time  haa  made  these  transactions  historical,  they  present
DO  difficulty.  The  aphorism  of  the  philosopher  is  un-
changeably true,  that  the  thing  men  have  been  taught
to  believe  is  the  thing  they  will  do.  The  people  had
been  ta>aght  to  believe  in  evil  doctrines,  practices,  and
men,  and  this  election,  and  much  that  followed,  was
merely  their  belief  put  into  action.  In  many  of  the
doctrines  and  practices,  and  in  the  men  universally,  no
one  now  has  the  smallest  faith,  because  other  teaching
has  prevailed ;  but  had  we  known  human  nature  better,
we  would  not  have  hoped  to  transforn^  opinion  by  a
sadden  wrench.
After  such  a  result,  the  young  men  might  well
despair  of  the  country  in  that  generation.  But  if  they
had  some  natural  misgivings,  they  did  not  abandon
their  work  for  an  hour,  but  continued  to  do  their  duty
in  simple  good  faith,  like  soldiers  whom  nothing  but
death  could  discharge  from  their  fealty.
The  Irish  Council  reassembled  after  the  elections.
A  fow  of  tlie  new  members  of  Parliament,  half-a-dozen
barristers,  some  intelligent  Dublin  traders,  and  the
Young  Irclanders  were  its  working  force.  Lord  Clon-
eurry  suggested  that  the  food  grown  in  the  country
ought  to  be  retained  in  it,  and  Henry  Fitzgibbon  sup-
ported the  proposal.  If  the  corn  was  carried  away,  it
would  prove  impossible,  he  said,  to  save  the  people  from

tcriau  iniiiiM'T.  iiiiU  tlic  Catholic  iiricHt  around  him,  obtftiued  their  consent
to  [iropose  to  Parliament  iiu  (ht'ir  Dcliatfa  repeal  of  the  Union.
