Government. They should never be without an organ to convey their sentiments, and to attend to their interests. The watchman should be always on the tower. If, however, 1 am an advocate for a Committee, I am an advocate for one, that will fairly represent us, that will feel and speak the sentiments of the great mass of the inhabitants of Ireland-not certainly, for one made up of the shreds of the thirty-six addressers of Dublin, and of the wreck of the delegation of 1792, for so I understand that it is intended to compose it; and that to this inadequate and inefficient Committee is to be entrusted a power, never yet confided to a subordinate body, of presenting or witholding your Petition, according to their discretion or caprice. And who is the Gentleman, that in opposition to your determination is to come forward with this proposition? Is he a man, open, honest, candid; whose conduct never required explanation, who never slipped out of the ranks for the purpose of secret intrigue, where corruption meets its object in the dark, and who never sought for vindication from concealment? Let the members of the Convention of 1792, reply to these questions. He was their brother Delegate and they know him.

You too, Gentlemen, are not unacquainted with him; you heard him in public, you witnessed his exertions against the Petition, in William-street, which it was the wish of our friends to defeat, but which in spite of his or their exertions, went forward to detect their machinations, and to unravel their intrigues. He is one of your Committee, he was elected with the rest, at the last General Meeting, but he never attended your sittings-holding himself at a distance, he patronized and prompted the proposal of some of those questions, the bare discussion of which has clouded your popularity, and after having played the tempter, he was the first to accuse and condemn you. But how unjustly: when it is known, that the discussion, which you could not prevent, was your only crime, and that these measnres met your decided disapprobation and rejection. You have courted his assistance, annd forgetting what you owed to yourselves, and to the dignity of the Catholic body, you proposed to send a deputation to him. But what was the result? He promised indeed, but he did not condescend to join in your deliberations, although from the first moment Vol. III.

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of your meeting he never ceased to decry you, and to draw into contempt and suspicion all your proceedings. He then is to make this suspicious proposition, at the Meeting this day, which though it came from integrity itself, ought to meet your decided rejection. For let me ask you, Gentlemen, what is your object in the appointment of a Committee? Is it not to collect, as far as it can be done, the common sentiment of the Catholics of Ireland? Is it not, that when we next renew our applications to Parliament, the universal voice of the great mass of the inhabitants of Ireland, may speak our wrongs to the great Council of the Nation, in language not to be misunderstood, and in such a tone, that not only England, but the surrounding nations may receive the detail of our sufferings; that, in fact, the doors may be thrown open, and the secrets of our prison house may be revealed to the eyes, and to the sympathy of Europe. Can this be done in the way, and by the Committee, which it is intended to propose? I appeal to you, Gentlemen, whether ten Members of the survivors of 1792, ever attended your Meetings; and they yet were appointed on the last year, a constituentt part of your body. Nay, 1 will ask, if any one of them has been a constant attendant. Time, which destroys the life, chills the faculties, and impairs the energies of mind and body. Two thirds of the Delegation of 1792 are dead, and the rest, with a few exceptions, are either absent from their country, or enfeebled by age, having become incapable of taking part with your proceedings. Of those you cannot expect an attendance. Your own experience has shewn you, that such an expectation would be vain. Of whom then are your Committee to consist, in case the plan proposed should be adopted? Of a part only of the thirty-six persons appointed by the parishes of Dublin, to draw up an address to the Duke of Bedford. Some even of those are dead, and it is notorious, that immediately after their appointment the Philippics, and every day reiterated invective of the individual, who is this day to make the proposition for a new Committee, drove from aniongst them whatever was most respectable and venerable, and that they have never since returned. The thirty six will then be reduced to one third at most of their number, and it is to those men, to twelve or fourteen persons, that we will be called upon to confide the important trust of sending

forward or withholding our Petition. We all know the sway, which the intended proposer of this measure has already obtained over the minds of many of these individuals, and we have all heard and believe, that a situation worth 5 or 6000 pounds a year, was offered for the postponement of our Petition for one year only. Here then is a fine field for the profitable exertion of influence.

Suppose the country brought into that situation, which we all deprecate; suppose us threatened with an invasion, or the enemy on the coast, what would not a terror-struck Minister give to keep back or silence the complaints of the Catholics of Ireland? But let me ask, Gentlemen, will those twelve or fourteen individuals, respectable, I will allow, honest and fair in their intentions, but like the rest of mankind, open to the practices of superior ingenuity, will they, I say, assume to themselves, the name and act as the Committee of the Catholic Body, and if they do, will the Counties, will the South and the West of Ireland, be satisfied to be so represented? Will not such a nomination become the source of division and destruction? And I will again ask, is that man to be trusted, are his intentions fair, can he have the interests of the Catholics at heart, who could think of, much less propose the adoption of such a measure? For, propose he will-I know it to be his intention-I have it from his own lips. He will go forward unless this letter, or the strong expression of public feeling, should this day, beat him from his purpose. But even in that case, you will not find him at a nonplus.» He will hold himself prepared to take up new ground, according to what he shall be able to collect of the temper of the meeting. Should that be adverse to him, he will push at his object, namely, the keeping back of all future petition, by playing over again the part, which he acted last year. He will propose some strong and declamatory resolution in favour of reform or some other popular measure, the repeal of the Union perhaps, and after ringing over the changes against the barbarity of orangemen, or the bells of Enniscorthy, and hinting at the proximity of redress from a quarter not to be named, he will move in the enthusiasm of the moment, against the appointment of the Committee. But, suppose him to be successful in his first and favourite measure, what are we to expect? Is there

an object, that such a man, with such a Committee would not be able to effect. I hold not his talents lightly, they are considerable. He possesses great powers of persuasion. In intrigue, management and finesse, he stands unrivalled. He is all things to all men with the democrat, he can hint at inexpressible things: with the aristocrat, his opinions are for order, security of property, and submission to the laws with the timid he can tremble, and with the bold and the youthful, he can assume the brow and the part of Sportacus. Having to do with such a Machiavel in politics, I would have you, Gentlemen, consider, whether the sole management of your affairs whether the great trust, which has been confided to you, is now concentrated in his hands. For, be assured, that there is nothing more certain, than that such will be the case; should he succeed, I beg of you to recollect, who the individual is, who has undertaken this grand stroke of politics. I again refer you to the Delegates of 92; ask those, who were present when the accusation was brought against him in Back-lane -consult the scetches of Irish History, printed in New York. There you will find how that Emancipation, which was intended for us by a trembling Court, came to be dwindled down into the petty privileges of the Bar, of voting at Elections, and the high distinction of shedding our blood, for British interests, without the hope of preferrment or of adequate reward. Let the the thirty-six themselves explain, if they can, how it happened, that they never undertook to lay the Catholic claims before Parliament, when it is notorious, that they were elected in the room of those, against whom the public voice was raised, for the supposed intention only, of postponing that measure; let them tell us, why all their exertions were confined to the sending up a grovelling and slavish address to the Duke of Bedford, into which not an expression was allowed to enter, conveying even an hope of Emancipation; let them say, how it happened, that the good spirit, which certainly existed amongst them was made to evaporate; and why, under insinuations, which they cannot forget, of the illegahty of their proceedings they were suddenly and unaccountably dissolved. But above all, Gentlemen, I entreat, that you will ask this Catholic Nestor, this Father of the Catholic Cause, as he has been whimsi cally called by the ever changing and changeable barrister,

why he has for years back endeavoured to withhold from Parliament the detail of Catholic sufferings; how it happened that in this he coincided with the views of Mr. Perceval, Mr. Ponsonby, and Mr. Grattan; is the nature of his mysterious connnection with these two latter Gentlemen, the cause of their frequent visits at his house, which, considering the persons, cannot be supposed to arise from ordinary acquaintance, friendship, or family relationship-Let him be asked those questions publickly and openly at the meeting this day, and if they be answered to your satisfaction, you will have my consent to go forward and support every measure, that he may propose.

CATHOLICUS IPSE.

Mr. Keogh retorned the Meeting and the Mover his sincere acknowledgements for this unequivocal proof of their kind, and affectionate confidence. He observed, that the author, by declining to come forward, had proved what he (Mr. Keogh) had first advanced, that he knew his assertions to be false; and the respectable Meeting, whom he had the honor to address, would now perceive to what lengths a cowardly scoundrel my be tempted to go to gratify a spirit of malignity. But he was resolved not to avail himself of what might be considered as the effect of their partiality, the approbation they had unanimously expressed of his conduct, but would now, compelled as he was by this anonimous scribler, produce, in his own vindication, a detail of facts, which he would otherwise have carried with him to the grave.

A charge made by this writer (said Mr. Keogh) is, that while emancipation was intended by a trembling Court, through my means, the great measure dwindled down to the petty privileges of admission to the Bar, to the Army, and to the Elective Franchise. Such is the assertion of Catholicus Ipse, in answer to which I assert, that every syllable of that assertion is false; and to prove my allegation, I have only to call the attention of this Meeting to the condition of the Catholic Body both at and before the period alluded to, which I shall do, and in the presence of many gentlemen, whose testimony, if required, will corroborate the truth of my statement.

In the year 1791, twelve Catholic citizens obtained an audience of the then Secretary to the Viceregal Government,