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keep mens minds in a continual state of irritationand they think that, by pertinacity they will get more and more. I am persuaded, the best mode in any country, but more particularly in Ireland, is, to pursue a steady and uniform system of policy.

"We ought to defend the Church. When in 1660, the Monarchy was restored, the Church was a grand instrument towards the Restoration; and in 1688, the Church powerfully contributed to the Revolution.

"With these sentiments, thinking that if we do grant the Catholics more indulgence, thinking that the speech of the Noble Baron goes to the abrogation, not only of the Catholic, but of the Corporation, Settlement, and all the Test Laws; not thinking that the Noble Lord has established any one position in his speech; believing, that in the circumstances of Europe, and the world, at this time, it would be peculiarly unfortunate and unpropitious, if the demands of the Catholics were yielded, I, my Lords, cannot but be most decidedly inimical to the present motion. Some Noble Lords may differ from me as to the general policy of the measure, applied to other times; to such I will only say, that whilst I must think it a measure bad for any times, yet in these times it would, I am sure, prove most ruinous to our internal repose and external tranquillity.

"As the laws established by our Constitution, as the institutions in Church and State, as a Protestant King, Protestant Counsellors, Protestant Parliament, Protestant Judges, and Protestant Corporations, have hitherto best upheld our State, been the props and bulwarks of our Constitution and our liberties, and promise us the highest security to be derived for human conventions, establishments, and laws, from human system; as our system of government is, as now existing, acknowledged the first in the world, I must not only oppose the motion of the Noble Baron, but I call upon your Lordships to cling to that system which has secured our safety, the perma nency of our institutions, the purity of our laws, the G 2 prosperity

prosperity of our nation, the liberties of the people, and the prerogatives of the Sovereign. My Lords, I do not fear the result of your vote; I feel assured that your Lordships will this night seal the triumph, not of disaffection and discontent, but the solid ascendency of the principles of the most glorious Constitution of Government that has ever appeared among mankind. With these impressions, my Lords, I need not add, that I will heartily oppose the Petition now before you,"

His Royal Highness the DUKE of CUMBERLAND." My Lords, I feel it in a most particular degree my bounden duty, on this occasion, to declare, in the very first instance, my opinion, and to give my most decided opposition to the motion before the House, and to urge every resistance in my power to a measure, the objects of which are directly subversive to all those principles which placed the House of Brunswick upon the Throne of these Realms. I fully agree with the Noble Secretary of State, that the Act of Settlement, and all those Acts on which the liberties of this nation, and the title of my Family to the Throne depend, must be abrogated and annulled before the Petition on your table can with any shew of reason or common sense be entertained. Let us, my Lords, consider most maturely the question before us. Is it not whether we shall give to the Roman Catholics all the great places of power and trust in the State? Was it not to oppose such a principle that caused the Revolution? nay, my Lords, was not the opposition to that principle the very life and soul of that Revolution? Can it be possible then that your Lordships will for a moment so far entertain a Petition of this nature as to go into a Committee upon it, in order to deliberate on the propriety of its adoption? But I trust your Lordships will never agree to a measure which must inflict the deepest wound on the crown and the country, and put every thing dear to us in immediate hazard by so rash an

experiment. Let us remember, my Lords, the chief principle which caused the Revolution, namely, the impossibility of agreement between Protestants and Catholics in a mutual participation of political power? Are you not convinced by the experience, not only of this country, but of every state in Europe, that Protestants and Catholics cannot agree in the joint administration of political power so divided? The object of the Catholics now is, to obtain political power, to reverse all those laws upon which is founded the security of our Constitution in Church and State; and to renew all those scenes of confusion and of blood that have stained this land, at various times, from the Reformation down to the reign of James II. who, for his attempt to revive Popery, and to transfer power and influence into the hands of the Catholics, was driven from the Throne, which event led to the establishment of those principles, the violation of which, by granting what is now demanded, would render it impossible for the constitutional connexion between the King and his subjects any longer to exist. Beside, my Lords, are we not to consider that the temper of the times, and a very great portion of the sentiments of the country are against it. Have you not upon your table Peutions. from the Cities of London and Dublin, from several Counties, and highly respectable Corporations, and Communities, throughout the nation, against it? Are we not aware of the sentiments of the whole country on this subject? And will you consent in opposition to that general sense, to admit Roman Catholics to seats in Parliament, to his Majesty's Counsels, to the chief command of your fleets and armies, to the highest seats of judicature, and throw open to them all the Corporations, upon teris much more free than to a very great portion of our Protestant fellow-subjects? But I will ask one question, my Lords, which I think will put an end to the discussion. Do the Petitioners acknowledge the supremacy of the King in ecclesiastical as

well

well as civil affairs, as by law established? No. Then where is the safeguard to your established religion? Or, will your Lordships agree to dispense from this acknowledgment the Catholic, in claiming to enjoy all the places of power, trust, and emolument in the State, to which every Protestant is indispensibly bound? Are we, my Lords, to destroy, by any rash innovation, those laws and landmarks, wisely instituted by our ancestors for the permanent security of our Constitution? My Lords, to every privilege and indulgence consistent with those laws, I am perfectly willing to admit the Catholics. But to any measure having a tendency to unhinge those principles, or risk in any degree the safety of our Constitution in Church or State, I can not, I dare not, I will not consent. I am bound to maintain, to the last moment of my existence, the principles of that Constitution in Church and State, which placed my Family on the Throne, and without trespassing on your Lordship's attention, I shall sit down delaring my decided negative to the motion of the Noble Baron.

Earl SPENCER." My Lords, after the very able, and in my mind, irresistible arguments urged this night by my Noble Friend who brought forward this motion, I shall not think it necessary to trespass many minutes upon your Lordships attention. The Noble Secretary of State who rose to reply to my Noble Friend thought proper to attribute to him expressions and intentions which my Noble Friend so instantly and effectually contradicted, that it is wholly unnecessary for me to vindicate him on those points. But I beg to assure your Lordships, that if I thought, either the motion brought forward by my Noble Friend, or the speech by which he has so eloquently supported that motion, could have in the most distant degree the tendency attributed by the Noble Secretary, of injuring the safety of Church and State, as established by law in this realm, or shaking the Throne of the illustrious

lustrious House of Brunswick, I would have been one of the foremost and most strenuous to resist it. I perfectly agree, my Lords, with the Noble Secretary of State in the principle he recommended, that the subject should be discussed with candour and moderation; but having laid down a principle so very commendable, I own I was sorry to find the Noble Secretary himself the first to depart from it, to attack with so much heat and violence the speech of my Noble Friend, and to depart from that calmness and moderation which had so peculiarly characterized the whole of his speech. My Lords, for my own part, I entirely disclaim any wish to introduce intemperance into this discussion. The Noble Lord has arraigned the intention of the Petitioners of a wish to obtain power only for purposes subversive to the Constitution: but, my Lords, from my own knowledge of some of the persons who have signed that petition, I am convinced the Noble Secretary has gone much farther than any thing in the known respectability of their characters can be found to justify. The Noble Secretary has talked of allegiance acknowledged by the Roman Catholics to a foreign power. I know not where the Noble Secretary has found this argument, but it is entirely new to me. I know not where he has found the Catholics avowing any temporal allegiance to the Pope, or any other foreign power. They consider him, indeed, as their Spiritual Chief; but they acknowledge to him no temporal superiority or allegiance whatever. The Catholics have solemnly disavowed, upon oath, all those mischievous tenets charged upon them by the Noble Lord. They have pledged themselves by the most solemn oaths left to bind the veracity of man, and by every test you have required of them, in the firmest allegiance to his Majesty and the established Constitution of these realms; and unless they are to be believed upon their oaths, I know of no security for public justice, for life, or property, in this, or any other

state,

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