Having assisted Melbourne, through an informal understanding (the Lichfield House Compact), to a government majority, in 1835 O'Connell suggested he might be willing to give up the project of an Irish parliament altogether. He declared his willingness to "test" the Union: The people of Ireland are ready to become a portion of the empire, provided they be made so in reality and not in name alone; they are ready to become a kind of West Britons if made so in benefits and in justice, but if not, we are Irishmen again. Underscoring the qualifying clause"if not we are Irishmen again"historian J.C. Beckett proposes that the change was less than it may have appeared. Under the pressure of a choice between "effectual union or no union", O'Connell was seeking to maximise the scope of shorter-term, interim, reforms.
Having assisted Melbourne, through an informal understanding (the Lichfield House Compact), to a government majority, in 1835 O'Connell suggested he might be willing to give up the project of an Irish parliament altogether He declared his willingness to "test" the Union: The people of Ireland are ready to become a portion of the empire provided they be made so in reality and not in name alone; they are ready to become a kind of West Britons if made so in benefits and in justice, but if not, we are Irishmen again. Underscoring the qualifying clause"if not we are Irishmen again"historian J.C. Beckett proposes that the change was less than it may have appeared. Under the pressure of a choice between "effectual union or no union", O'Connell was seeking to maximise the scope of shorter-term interim, reforms.