He
defended the course his father had taken in not giving immediate
opposition to the Whigs, as several excellent measures might be expected
from them; besides, if they were driven from power they must be
succeeded again by the Tories, and although he was far from becoming the
defender of the Whigs, still they were better than the Tories; "if the
antecedents of the Whigs were bad, the antecedents of the Tories," said
he, "were most criminally bad." With regard to the graver question, the
chief cause of difference in the Association, the Peace Resolutions, he
said, "My honorable friend [Smith O'Brien] has deeply regretted the
resolutions that have passed here this day fortnight. He says he would
have come up here to modify them, if he were aware that they were about
to be brought forward. There may have been, unfortunately, a form
wanting; and I regret that any form of the Association should have been
wanting in any proceeding that he complains of. There may have been a
want of the form of giving notice; but perhaps this may have been an
excuse for the want of that notice--namely, that the resolutions of this
day fortnight were proposed by the founder of this Association, as
simply and entirely the literal and the sole reiteration of the
resolutions upon which he founded this Association.
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