text:  Three times within the last twelve months have the Government been thrown upon their energies of attack and defence; three times have they been summoned to the most trying exercise of skill--vigilantly to parry and seasonably to strike: _first_ when their duty was to watch and to arrest agitation; _secondly_ when their duty was by process of law to crush agitation; _thirdly_ when their duty was to explain and justify before Parliament whatsoever they had done through the two former stages