nishment the encomiums bestowed in the course of this debate upon that abominable code so disgraceful to its institutors and so degrading to the country. Tranquillity, indeed, it might have preserved, but it was the tranquillity of a gaol, maintained amidst the clank of chains, and the terrors of the executioner. Under that code, persecution found its way not only into every rank in public society, but into the recesses of private families. The son was excited against the father, the brother against his brother, the husband against his wife, and the neighbour against his neighbour: the march of the human mind was retrogade and not progressive; every feeling of nature was perverted; and while liberality was in the mouths, persecution was in the hearts of those who framed that abominable code-a code from which every liberal mind and generous heart recedes at this day with horror. "I cannot conceive, my Lords, how the State is to be endangered because a few Catholic peers and gentlemen should obtain seats in Parliament, more especially after you have granted the elective franchise to the Catholic multitude in its fullest extent; or because Catholics of wealth, talents and education should, at the discretion of their Sovereign, be appointed to fill offices in the State; as I have always conceived it a wise maxim that the independence of property, and the power of place should go together; as little can I conceive why a man's religious faith should preclude him from political confidence, or why it should prevent men who believe in or reject the doctrine of Transubstantiation, from thinking alike upon other subjects. As to the danger apprehended from the Catholic Bishops in Ireland being under the influence of a Pope, who is a slave of the destinies of Bonaparte, whether that Pope be a prisoner at Paris, or in chains at Rome, I have no fears from the exercise of any influence that degraded, insulted, and oppressed Pontiff could be supposed to exert over the Ca tholic Bishops or community in Ireland; nor can I suppose it possible for any such influence to induce the people of Ireland to prefer the arbitrary domination of a tyrant to the enjoyment of that free and unparalelled Constitution which it is their earnest wish and hope one day to participate. 66 My Lords, in the debate of the other night, I was astonished to hear a Noble and Learned Lord, who holds a high official situation in that country, make use of some assertions respecting its Catholic inhabitants, which I never have heard in the Parliament of Ireland, even in its worst days of asperity, and which I cannot now pass over in silence. Every thing which,falls from that Noble Lord, sanctioned by the gravity of his character, and the credit due to his high situation, will, no doubt, have much weight in this House; but I solemnly declare, that, born and educated, as I was, in Ireland, and spending the greater part of my life amongst the people whom that Noble Lord has thought proper to asperse, I never recollect to have heard, even from the most bitter and prejudiced of their enemies, any thing like the assertions that Noble Lord has thought proper to make. It is possible that in my infancy I may have heard such tales of horror from my nurse, but never before, I pledge my honour, from any grave or sedate man; therefore I challenge the Noble and Learned Lord to illustrate his assertions by stating in what families, or in what places, those criminal dispositions of Catholics towards Protestants, have been found to exist? The Noble Lord has attempted to panegyrise the pœnal code as the only means of maintaining perfect tranquillity in Ireland; but the quiet procured by that code was not peace, but a repose of desolation; under which the best energies of the country were paralized; under which the Protestant gave up his liberty to secure his tranquillity, and the Catholic abandoned his country to find honour and renown in every country to which he went; whilst his na tive land lost for ever, the advantages of his talents and his valour. Catholicity, which has been this night so much the object of abuse has been the belief of the most extensive and enlighted nations in Europe, and of the most illustrious characters that ever did honour to the name of man. It has been said that, no reliance is to be placed upon the oath of a Catholic; but, I ask, what is it that stands between them and the fullest enjoyment of all the blessings of the Constitution they now wish, but their sanctimonious scruples on the sacred obligations of an oath, which, if they lightly disregarded, they would take without hesitation? Believe me, there are dangers in the refusal of this measures, which no man can calculate, but which your compliance would completely obviate; and, therefore, it is amply worth experiment. Abandon, I adjure you, my Lords, all prejudices and distrusts in the Catholics; confide, as you safely may, in their loyalty; unite them under the same Constitution with their Protestant fellow-subjects, and you may set at defiance the power of France over the rest of Europe. What you must one day give of necessity, it is more wise to give now, liberally, than run any risque from further delay. A new æra has occurred in Europe, under which, every man should learn to sacrifice his prejudices to his experience. Menaced as we are, on all sides, by a formidable and ever vigilant enemy, it is our best policy to consolidate our strength, by uniting all our population, in that quarter of the empire, where we are the most vulnerable. Inhabited by a brave, hardy, and intelligent race of men, Ireland has been long rising in wealth and strength, even under all the restrictions that have depressed, and the acrimony and delusion that have irritated and divided her people. It is the only country in the world where it was thought necessary to shut out from the blessings of the Constitution, three-fourths of its population, and where the Parliament has uniformly uniformly acted not for, but against the people. I voted for the Union under a persuasion, that the measure would immediately tend to ameliorate the situation of the country. I know that I differed materially on this ground, from many wise and experienced men. It was, however, my honest opinion, and I acted under its impulse. If I was mistaken in that opinion, it will leave me much cause to lament, that I was one of those who supported it, and, by so doing, surrendered the Legislation, and signed the degradation of my country. I did entertain the hope that the full Emancipation of so great a body of loyal subjects would have been one of the first measures adopted after the establishment of that Union. But, if the contrary is to be the case, and this Emancipation is for ever to be refused, then, indeed, may it be termed, an Union by Act of Parliament, but not an Union of interests or attachments between the countries. I ask pardon for trespassing so long on the time and attention of the House. But I cannot sit down without adverting again to the speech of a Noble and learned Lord who has thought proper to make assertions so extraordinary that I must again call upon him to explain to this House, the grounds of those imputations he has thrown on the Catholic Hierarchy of Ireland. The Noble Lord has said that their influence upon their flocks has been the sole cause of turbulence and insurrection in that country; that they tyrannize over those flocks, and that their community are anxiously desirous for their abolition; from whence the Noble Lord has derived his authority, I am wholly at a loss to account, but I do trust there is no Noble Lord in this House, beside himself, who knows any thing of Ireland, that will believe one word of those imputations. If what the Noble Lord says, were true, then, indeed, would the British Empire be in danger, and therefore, I do again call upon the Noble Lord to state, specifically, upon what he founds his assertions. The Noble Lord has said too, that no child of a Protestant can get employment even in the menial servitude of a Protestant family, and that no Protestant can find a safe residence in the greater part of that country, except in a garrison town. I call upon the Noble Lord to retract an assertion so unfounded; and I call upon every Noble Lord in this House, from that kingdom, to rise in his place and vindicate from the aspersions of the Noble Lord his calumniated and insulted country. ALE. Lord REDESDALE." The Noble Lord who just sat down has called on me in so pointed a manner, that I trust I may be allowed the indulgence of a few words in answer; and notwithstanding the warmth in which the Noble Lord has commented upon what I have said on a former night, I am not to be intimidated from declaring my sentiments on this or any other subject. I did not say, as the Noble Lord has stated, that no Protestant servant could obtain employment in Ireland; but I do say, it is with the utmost difficulty that such a servant can obtain employment-(No! No! from the opposite side of the House.)-I say, my Lords, it happens to me, from my official knowledge in the superintendance of several public charitable institutions in Dublin, that the children of poor Protestants educated under those charities, cannot be apprenticed as servants to Protestant families, because Catholic servants will not live in the same families with them, and they are therefore, of necessity, bound apprentices to handicraft trades, on account of this resistance by Popish servants, who combine against them. My Lords, I did say, that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in Ireland was the cause of all the discontents that have arisen amongst their community, and agitated that country; and I said it, because the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is in direct and open rebellion against the law of the country, which forbids to any sect the assumption of episcopai or other high ecclesiastical dignities, except the esta |