David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ I have seen the honourable and learned gentleman thin the House with such incredible expedition, that the benches, which but a few minutes before were crowded, have become almost entirely deserted. The reading of the Riot Act does not more effectually disperse a mob than the honourable member does the legislators of the Lower House. ”

“ He and his eldest son long sat in Parliament in order to support their party, at the expense to the former of eighteen contested elections and four Parliamentary petitions. He and his family were persons of remarkable personal piety; and in those days, being Irish Episcopal Protestants, they believed it to be a religious duty to be Conservatives or Tories. It was otherwise in the days of the Earl of Galway, a Protestant and a Christian as eminent as any modern worthy. ”

“ In those days elections were as expensive as they have been since, and election petitions (i.e., petitions to the House of Commons against the validity of a specified election) were much more expensive than now. ”