measure. cile and did satisfy: accordingly you will find, that the Irish Catholics in 1779 and 1780, 1781 and 1782, were active and unanimous to repel the Invasion threatened at that time, when the French rode triumphant in the Channel, and Ireland was abandoned to the care of 6,000 regulars, and was only defended from Invasion by the spirit and loyalty of the Catholics, in harmony and in arms with their Protestant brethren. The repeal of a principal part of the Penal Code in 1793 did not reconcile and did not satisfy; it was, because the Irish Government of that time was an enemy to the Repeal and to the Catholics, and prevented the good effects of that That Government, in the summer of 1792, had sent instructions, (I know the fact to be so,) to the Grand Juries, to enter into Resolutions against the claims of the Catholics. Their leading Minister opposed himself at one of the County Meetings, and took a memorable post of hostility and publicity. When the Petition of the Catholics was recommended in the King's Speech of 1793, one of the wisest ever made from the throne, I remember Ministers at first took no notice of that recommendation-and that I had the honour of moving that clause in the Address which refers to that passage in the Speech; but the Irish Minister answered the King, and with unmeasured severity attacked the Petitioners. When the Bill, introduced in consequence of His Majesty's recommendation, was in progress, the same Minister with as unmeasured severity attacked the Bill, and repeated his severity against the Catholics, who, it was said, so long as they adhered to their religious opinions, never could be loyal-but would ever hate His Majesty and the Government. The Catholics, in this instance, obtained from the English Ministry what they failed to obtain from their own Government. The fact was, that the Irish Government was then engaged in party contests, from which the English was free-so that the Irish Catholics found the hostility from Go vernment worse than from the Law. When the same same bill of reconciliation, in consequence of the recommendation and reference of the Petition, was in its passage, the Irish Government attempted to hang the leading men among the petitioners; and accordingly Mr. Bird and Mr. Hamil were, by their orders, indicted for a capital offence. I think it was Defenderism; and so little ground was there for the charge, that those men were triumphantly acquitted, and the witnesses of the Crown so flagrantly perjured, that the Judge, I have heard, recommended a prosecution. These were the causes why the repeal of 1793 did not satisfy; and, in addition to these, because the Irish Government took care that the Catholics should receive no benefit, therefore opposing these with their known partisans and dependants in the Corporation of Dublin, when they sought for the freedom of the city, seldom giving any office (there are very few instances in which they got a more deadly and more active enemy than before they had experienced in the Law). I refer to the Speeches delivered and published at the time by the Ministers and Servants of the Irish Government, and persisted in, and delivered since; and there you will see an attack on all the proceedings of the Irish, from the time of their Addresses for free trade, such as were glorious, as well as those that were intemperate, without discrimination or moderation; there you will see the Irish Ministry engaged in a wretched squabble with the Catholic Committee, and that Catholic Committee replying on that Ministry, and degrading it more than it had degraded itself; and you will further perceive the Members of that Ministry urging their charges against the Members of that Committee, to disqualify other Catholics who were not of the Committee, but who opposed it ;so that by their measures against the one part of the Catholics, and their inyective against the other, they take care to alienate, as far as in them lay, the whole body. The fact is, the project of conciliation in 1793, recommended in the Speech from the Throne, was defeated by the Irish Cabinet, which was was at that time on that subject in opposition; and being incensed at the British Cabinet for the countenance afforded to the Catholics, punished the latter, and sowed those seeds which afterwards, in conjunction with other causes, produced the Rebellion. "I have now gone through so much of the argument as affects the past and the present, and as connected with the question: with regard to the future, you must consider that you are now repealing the Penal Code that has subsisted for hundreds of years, and the habits that have grown up with it. But let us not deceive ourselves, or others, by promises over sanguine or expectations too eager for immediate and complete effect from the repeal of this code. You cannot at once remove habits of such long standing: the operation, however, like the progress of the plough, though slow and silent, will be certain and effectual; will gradually produce the full harvest it promises, and stop the mouth of clamour with its own words. "I now leave the Learned Member, and proceed to discuss the differences remaining that discrimi nate His Majesty's subjects of the Protestant and Catholic persuasion. I consider the Catholic religion, abstracted from the Court of Rome, a practicable religion with regard to public safety. I cannot suppose there is any thing in the climate of the country, or the physical constitution of its inhabitants, by which an Irish Roman Catholic must be of necessity disloyal; unless, as the Learned Doctor seems to think, the Roman Catholics are cursed by the Book of Revelations by the Father and by the Mother. No-a bad system of policy is the source of those faults ascribed to the Catholics. Man is fallibleGod is not. If I see a man healthy upon a certain diet, I presume the same regimen will agree equally well with another. So, the same policy which made you a great people will do the same for Ireland. It has been said that their request, if granted, would only give the Catholics a few seats in this House and access to a few places. But this is every thing to the Catholics it gives them an equality of right; it : gives them the whole Parliament of 658 Membersby thus creating a common interest with every Member of this House-for the force of each part constitutes the force of the whole body. "Before we consider how far we differ, it is necessary to examine how far we agree; we acknowledge the same God, the same Redeemer, the same consequences of redemption, the same Bible, and the same Testament. Agreeing in these, we cannot, as far as respects religion, quarrel about the remainder; because their merits as Christians must, in our opinion, outweigh their demerits as Catholics, and reduce our religious distinctions to a difference about the Eucharist, the Mass, and the Virgin Mary; matters which may form a difference of opinion, but not a division of interests. The infidel, under these circumstances, would consider us as the same religionists, just as the French would consider you, and cut. you down as the same community. See whether we are not agreed a little further, and united by statute as well as religion: the preambles of three acts declare the Catholics to be loyal subjects; the act of 1778 declares that they have been so for a series of years; the same act declares that they should be admitted into the blessings of the constitution: the act of 1793 goes further, and admits them into a participation of those blessings.-Oh but then they are not to have political power!-And yet, surely, civil rights imply political power. Thus is the principle of identification between the two sects established by the law of the land, and thus are the Catholics by that law proclaimed to be innocent, the calumniators of the Catholics guilty, and the restrictions condemned. Let us consider their situation under these laws: Professedly and in principle admitted to every thing, except seats in Parliament, and certain offices of state; they are in fact excluded from every thing, under the circumstances of praying for every thing: L* the the few places they enjoy make no exception. But if, after granting so much, we quarrel here, we must be guilty of the greatest imprudence—they pay their proportion to the navy, and contribute one-third to its numbers, and have not a commission; they contribute to the expenses of the army, and to one-third of its numbers, and have not a commission: if you injure these, the Catholic part of your army and navy, you injure yourselves, and you do a great injury to the Catholic understanding, by preventing that growth and expansion of intellect and talent which the temptation of attaining the highest station in either must create. By the distinction you place him under a great disadvantage, and subject him to insult from his inferiors in merit. You also do an injury to morals, by laying a foundation for hatred and jealousy between individuals of the same community. You do an injury to the peace of the country by persecution, and encouraging the little man of blood to raise himself into power and consequence by harassing and vexing his countrymen. And shall I now be asked, How are the Catholics affected by this? or be told that the Catholic bedy would not be served by the removal of this? But I ask, How would the Protestant body be affected, if only removed from the state, the parliament, the navy, and the army? In addition to this, I am to add the many minor injuries done to the Catholics, in ways that must be felt, and cannot be calculated: the inestimable injury done to the Catholic mind, by precluding it from the objects of ambition, and to the Catholic spirit, by exposing it to taunts and insults, you cannot be at a loss for; as, for instance, such as are uttered by the vilest of the Protestants against the first of the Catholics. I am to add the mischief done to the morals of the country, by setting up a false standard of merit, by which men without religion, moral or political integrity, shall obtain, |