_Lord Castlereagh_ who had previously admitted to the authenticity of the document moved for, after adducing, from the result of the preceding union of these sovereigns, arguments against regarding them with suspicion, informed the hon. gentlemen, that instead of any secrecy in their proceedings on the present occasion, the emperor of Russia had communicated to him a draft of the proposed treaty, he believed, before it had been communicated to the other sovereigns; and that after its signature a joint-letter had been addressed by them to the Prince Regent, stating the grounds on which it had been concluded, and anxiously desiring his accession to it: that his Royal Highness in reply had expressed his satisfaction at the nature of the treaty, and his assurance that the British Government would not be the one least disposed to act up to its principles. His lordship then went into a panegyric of the emperor of Russia, and finally characterised the motion as wholly unnecessary and of dangerous tendency if the confederacy could be shaken by attempts to degrade the sovereigns of Europe by unfounded imputations. On a division of the House, the motion was rejected by a majority of 104 to 30. The public opinion concerning this extraordinary treaty seems to have corresponded with that expressed by the hon. _Mr. Bennet_ in his speech: "that the only motive which the noble lord could have for refusing its production was, that he was ashamed of it and of our allies." THE STATE OF IRELAND (1816). =Source.=--_The Political Life of Sir Robert Peel_, by Thomas Doubleday. London, 1856. Vol. I. pp. 169-172. In the course of a debate on the army estimates in February, 1816, the Irish Secretary entered into the following extraordinary details on the employment of the soldiery in Ireland in the suppression of illicit distillation, as well as of insurrectionary movements in the wilder districts of Ireland: