It was resolved to return to the old methods, the methods that had always proved effective when dealing with the Irish aristocracy and ruling class. Castlereagh was given a free hand, and places, pelf, and peerages were promised with reckless lavishness. There was a rush to be first in the field of favours, but Castlereagh was so ready to promise anything that the bribed became suspicious. The English Government in Ireland had a reputation for treachery that was not undeserved, and the place and peerage seekers went {208} to Cornwallis to seek endorsement of Castlereagh's offers. The viceroy gave his personal guarantee that they would be fulfilled, and, satisfied with this, the ready-made majority went to the Commons, and with a force numbering one hundred and fifty-three persons overwhelmed the opposition of eighty-eight. Many of the latter had refused heavy bribes; as many had endangered their political lives. The Union accomplished, the Duke of Portland endeavoured to postpone, with an ultimate view to cancellation, the bestowal of the promised peerages and the payment of the monetary bribes, and only the threatened resignation of Cornwallis brought about the fulfilment of the Government's side of the bargain. [Sidenote: Society after the Union] The new nobility were received with derision in England and Ireland, and the wits of the day satirized them unmercifully. There is a story told of John Philpot Curran, who had gained the admiration of the patriotic party by his fearless advocacy of the '98 rebels in the law courts. The famous wit was accosted by one of the new peers outside the defunct Irish Parliament in College Green with the query as to the intention of the Government with regard to the empty building, adding, 'For my part, I hate even the sight of it.' 'I do not wonder,' retorted Curran, 'I never yet heard of a murderer who was not afraid of a ghost.' Curran had been a bitter opponent of the Union, and had proved himself incorruptible.