And what was still more lamentable, he supported them in renewing in a modified form the very Coercion Act for the introduction of which he designated them as "_base, bloody and brutal_." But other elements were secretly sapping the influences for which he made these sacrifices.

The storm of disaffection, a long while gathering among open foes and disappointed retainers, was about to burst on the devoted heads of the Whigs.

With their accustomed fickleness and treachery of character they prepared to sacrifice, for the sake of power, the man whom they conciliated and deceived in the same hope of retaining it.

If he foresaw that this would be the result of his experiment, never was augury more fully realised.

Whatever may be the exact engagements of the Whigs, he was able to allege that not one was fulfilled, while he was in a position to prove that he more than kept his own: unless indeed, it could be assumed that for the few places obtained by his friends, and others, some of them honourable men, he surrendered the lofty and nearly impregnable position he occupied in 1834, and which, in one sense at least, he never afterwards attained.
From whatever cause, his influence over the Whigs visibly declined, and his counsels no longer swayed their Irish policy.