352 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1846- being able to force them upon the attention of the Cabinet ministers, of whom they were the colleagues without being the equals. Gibson was vice-president of the Board of Trade, an office which had been offered to, and declined by, Villiers;* Ward was Secretary of the Admiralty; and Sheil Master of the Mint. Hobhouse, it is true, was in the Cabinet ; but he had served his apprenticeship to Whiggism, and had long ago forgotten that he had been a Radical. The case of Sheil was perhaps the most striking. On his accepting office, he seems, either by his own act or by that of his constituency, to have ceased to claim or have been allowed even the name of Radical. In Smith's book, which is founded on official and local information, Sheil, in the election of 1841, is marked as Radical; in that of 1846, consequent on his appointment, and in that of 1847, he is marked as a Whig.f It was not long before he justified the change of name. Peel's Government had been defeated on a Coercion Bill for Ireland, which Sheil had vehemently opposed, and against which Russell had also spoken. Immediately after the formation of the new Ministry, they announced that the renewal of the Irish Arms Act would be one of the first measures to be pressed forward during the session. This was a lamentable instance of the want of consistency and firmness of the Whigs, of their unwillingness or inability to insist, when in office, on the adoption of principles which they had supported when in opposition. It was the kind of policy which has caused a large part of our Irish difficulties, by making it impossible for the Irish people to trust to the promises of any English party strong enough to affect the constitution of the Government. On this occasion the Radicals were instant and strenuous in opposition, but Sheil was silent. The one thing which would have rendered his appointment to office important the exer- cise of a direct influence in the formation of the Irish policy was wanting, and his countrymen might be excused for believing that a place given to a patriot was, if not a bribe
- " Free Trade Speeches," vol i. p. Ixiii., note,
t " The Parliaments of England," vol. iii. p. 246.
