Excerpt from Memoirs of the Right Honourable William, Second Viscount Melbourne, Vol. 2 of 2

With the overwhelming majority of the 30th of April against a dissolution of the Union, the triumphs of the Grey administration came to an end. They had been many and signal, the firstfruits of an influence almost unbounded which had been won by the achievement of Reform, and the exercise of which seemed to be irresistible, while those who mainly contributed to that achievement held together. But the time had come when this cohesion was to cease, and the power it gave to melt away. In home, foreign, and colonial affairs the policy of the Government had been reconstructive and successful, in those of Ireland alone it was unfortunately sterile and abortive, because vainly antagonistic to national feeling. Provoking anarchic schemes, and paralysed in turn by their agitation, it was driven to resort to measures of exclusion and repression which could not permanently be maintained or defended.

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