470,586 -- -------- Total...................................10,999,434 Ireland.....................................

5,396,436 So that the proportion of population in Great Britain, as compared with that of Ireland, only exceeded two to one by an insignificant fraction.] [Footnote 145: See his letter to the King, dated January 31, 1801, quoted by Lord Stanhope in the appendix to vol.iii.of his "Life of Pitt," p.

25.] [Footnote 146: Mr.Fox, called on by Mr.Alexander to explain his expressions (in the debate relative to Mr.Pitt's funeral), by which he had declared his disapprobation of the Union, and his concurrence in opinion with Mr.O'Hara that it ought to be rescinded.

Mr.Fox repeated his disapprobation, but disclaimed ever having expressed an opinion or entertained a thought of proposing its repeal, that being now impracticable, though he regretted its ever having been effected .-- _Diary of Lord Colchester_, February 17, 1806, ii., 39.] [Footnote 147: It may be remarked that in another respect also political critics have pronounced the Union defective.

Archbishop Whately, whose long tenure of office in Ireland, as well as the acuteness and candor which he brought to bear on every subject he discussed, entitle his opinions to most respectful consideration, held this view very strongly.
In several conversations which he held with Mr.W.N.Senior, in 1858 and 1862, he condemned the retention of the Lord-lieutenancy as "a half measure," which, however unavoidable at the time when "no ship could be certain of getting from Holyhead to Dublin in less than three weeks," he pronounced "inconsistent with the fusion of the two peoples, which was the object of the Union," and wholly indefeasible "in an age of steam-vessels and telegraphs." And, besides its theoretical inconsistency, he insisted that it produced many great and practical mischiefs, among which he placed in the front "the keeping up in people's minds the notion of a separate kingdom; the affording a hotbed of faction and intrigue; the presenting an image of Majesty so faint and so feeble as to be laughed at and scorned.