§ MR. HUMEasked whether the Government had made arrangements for filling up the vacant office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland? It was important that it should be known as soon as possible what was intended to be done with regard to that office.
Lord J. RUSSELL, who evidently spoke under deep emotion, said: Perhaps the House will permit me, in answering that question, to express the grief which we, and the Sovereign we have the honour to serve, have felt at the melancholy loss the country has sustained, in the death of a nobleman, whose intimate knowledge of Ireland, whose clear judgment, whose conciliatory qualities were so well adapted to soften animosities which have long been the bane of that country, and to point the way to her future improvement. Sir, having said these few words with respect to the calamity that has occurred, I will tell the hon. Member who has asked this question, that Her Majesty's Ministers have thought it their duty to advise Her Majesty immediately to fill up the office of Lord Lieutenant, which has thus become vacant. Whatever may be the opinion of Her Majesty's Government with respect to the general nature of that office, with respect to the policy of maintaining it for any length of time as part of the Government in the United Kingdom, we are clearly and unanimously of opinion that the present circumstances of Ireland do not admit of such a change of authority as would be necessarily affected by the legislative measures which would have to be introduced on a change in the mode in which the Government of Ireland is administered. We have, therefore, thought it absolutely necessary to advise Her Majesty to fill up the office of Lord Lieutenant. I do not intend, during the present Session of Parliament, to introduce any measure by which an alteration may be made in the constitution of that authority. We have felt, in coming to this determination upon our own responsibility, that it was absolutely necessary for the present Government of Ireland.