the unblushing bigot only flourished from defeat, and fattened on re futation. What was the consequence? In the course of a contest, without parallel in its prodigies, the Spanish peninsula, the most rooted in its faith, perhaps the most prejudiced in its practice, became the threatre of action. Catholic Spain, waring against Catholic France,' fought by the side of protestant England. Catholic Spain, with all her imputed prejudices, gave a protestant the command of her armies; and he, who, in his own country, saw you denied any trust whatever for the crime of your creed, saw himself confided in by the zealots of that creed, with no reference but to the merit of his qualifications! Is there a protestant who must not blush at the contrast?"

But was the imputation true? Did Lord Wellington find that creed, made any difference amid the thunder of the battle? Did the Spanish soldier desert his station, because his general believed not in their religion? Did the brave Portuguese hesitate for a moment to debate, or decide on the policy of England and the piety of Spain, when at one moment he led heterodox legions in victory, and the very next was obliged to fly from his own native flag, waving defiance on the walls of Burgos, where the Irish exile planted and sustained it * What must he have felt when in a foreign land, he was obliged to command brother against brother to raise the sword of blood, and to drown the cries of nature with the artillery of death? What were the sensations of our hapless exiles, when they recognized the features of their long lost country; when they heard the accents of the tongue they loved, or caught the cadence of the simple melody which once soothed them into sleep beneath a mother's nurture, or cheered the darling exile they must behold no more? Alas! how the poor banished heart delights in the memory that song associated he heard it in happier days, when the parents he adored, the maid he loved, the friend of his soul, and the green fields of his infancy were round him-where his labours were illumined by the sunshine of the heart, and his humble hut was a palace, for it was home; his soul is full-his eyes suffused--he bends from the battlements to catch the cadence, when his death-shot, sped by the hand of a brother, lays him in a foreign grave, the victim of a code calling itself christian ! Who shall say, heart-rending as it is, this picture is from fancy? Has it not occurred in Spain? May it not this instant be acted in America ? Is there any country in the universe in which these brave exiles of a barbarous bigotry are not to be found, refuung the calumnies that banished, and rewarding the hospitality that received them? And yet England, who sees them in every field of the new world and the old, defending the various flags of every faith, supports the injustice of her exclusive constitution, by brand.ing upon them the ungenerous accusation of an exclusive creed--England, the ally of catholic Portugal--the ally of catholic France--the friend of the pope. England, who seated a catholic bigot in Madrid; who convoyed a catholic Braganza to the Brazils; who crowned the catholic Bourbon in Paris; who guaranteed the catholic establishment in Corsica and in Canada; who gave her constitution to catholic Hanover-England, who, one would imagine, took out a

* Burgos was garrisoned by the Irish legion in the French army.

+ War existed at this time between the United States, and Great Britain.

roving commission from Quarantoti,* in search of catholic grievances to redress, and catholic princes to restore, cannot trust the catholic at home, who spends his blood and treasure in her service!

Is this generous? Is this just? Is it politic? Is it the act of a wise country, to fetter the energies of a wise population? Is it the act of a christian country to do it in the name of God? Is it politic in a government to degrade the body by which it is supported, or pious to make Providence a party to their degradation? There are societies in England for distributing the bible; there are christian associations for discountenancing vice; there are volunteer missions for converting the heathens; the black of Guinea is visited by their philantrophy, and the plains of Hindoston are to be blessed with their religion. But Ireland, the scene of their government, the stay of their empire, their associate by all the affinities of nature and of interest, how has she benefited by the gospel of which they boast?Has the sweet spirit of christianity appeared in our plains, in the character of her precepts, breathing the air and robed in the beauties of the world to which she would lead us with no argument but love; no look but peace; no wealth out piety-her creed comprehensive as the arch of Heaven, and her charities bounded but by the circle of the creation? Or, has she been let loose amongst us, in the form of a fury, and in art a dæmon-her heart festering with the fires of hell, her hands clotted with the gore of earth--writhing alike in her repose andin her progress; her path apparent by the print of blood, and her pause denoted by the expanse of desolation ?-Gospel of heaven! is this thy herald?---God of the universe! is this thy handmaid ?---In" what language should the English missionary address the heathen; if he asked him should he estimate the christian's doctrine by the christian's practice ;---if he dwelt upon those periods when the human victim writhed upon the altar of the peaceful Jesus, and the cross crimsoned with his blood, became little better than a stake for the sacrifice of his votaries---if he pointed to Ireland, where the word of peace was the war whoop of destruction; where brother was bribed to war against brother, and the parent's property was a bounty on the recantation of the parent's creedt---where the march of the human mind was stayed in his name who has inspired it with reason, and any effort to liberate a fellow creature from his intellectual bondage, could only be recompensed by the dungeon or the scaffold--where ignorance was so long a legislative command---where religion was placed as a barrier between the sexes, and the intercourse of nature was pronounced felony by law; where God's worship was an act of stealth, and his minister sought among the savages of the woods that sanctuary which a nominal civilization had denied him; where at this instant, conscience is made to blast every hope of genius and every energy of ambition, and the catholic, who could rise to any station of trust, must, in the face of his country, deny the faith of his fathers; where the

PREFERMENTS OF EARTH ARE ONLY TO BE OBTAINED BY THE FOR FEITURE OF HEAVEN.

The Romish cardinal, the author of some recent declarations issued at Rome.

By an act of Queen Aan, the son of a catholic was authorised to dispossess Iris father of his estate, the son becoming a protestant.

13

"Unprised are her sons till they learn to betray,

Undistinguish'd they live if they shame not their sires;
And the torch that would light them to dignity's way,

Must be caught from the pile where their country expires!"

The code, against which you petition, is a vile compound of im piety and impolicy: impiety, because it debases in the name of God; impolicy, because it disqualifies under pretence of government. If we are to argue from the services of Protestant Ireland, to the losses sustained by the bondage of Catholic Ireland, and I do not see why we should not, the state which continues such a system is guilty of little less than a political suicide. It matters little where the Protes tant Irishman has been employed; whether with Burke wielding the senate with his eloquence, with Castlereagh guiding the cabinet by his counsels, with Barry enriching the arts by his pencil, with Swift adorning literature by his genius, with Goldsmith or with Moore softening the heart by their melody, or with Wellington chaining victory at his car, he may boldly challenge the competition of the world. Oppressed and impoverished as our country is, every muse has cheered, and every art adorned, and every conquest crowned her. Plundered, she was not poor, for her character enriched; attainted, she was not titleless, for her services ennobled; literally outlawed into eminence and fettered into fame, the fields of her exile were immor. talized by her deeds, and the links of her chain became decorated by her laurels. Is this fancy, or is it fact? Is there a department in the state in which Irish genius does not possess a predominance? Is there a conquest which it does not achieve, or a dignity which it does not adorn? At this instant, is there a country in the world to which England has not deputed an Irishman as her representative? She has sent Lord Moira to India, Sir Gore Ouseley to Ispahan, Lord Stuart to Vienna, Lord Castlereagh to Congress, Sir Henry Wellesley to Madrid, Mr. Canning to Lisbon, Lord Strangford to the Brazils, lord Clancarty to Holland, lord Wellington to Paris---all Irishmen! Whether it results from accident or from merit, can there be a more cutting sarcasm on the policy of England! Is it not directly saying to her, "Here is a country from one-fifth of whose people you depute the agents of your most august delegation, the remaining four-fifths of which, by your odious bigotry, you incapacitate from any station of office or of trust!" It is adding all that is weak in impolicy to all that is wicked in ingratitude. What is her apology? Will she pretend that the Deity imitates her injustice, and incapacitates the intellect as she has done the creed? After making Providence a pretence for her code, will she also make it a party to her crime, and arraign the universal spirit of partiality in his dispensations? Is she not content with Him as a Protestant God, unless He also consents to become a Catholic demon? But, if the charge were true, if the Irish Catholic were imbruted and debased, Ireland's conviction would be England's crime, and your answer to the bigot's charge should be the bigot's conduct. What, then! is this the result of six centuries of your government? Is this the connexion which you called a benefit to Ireland? Have your protecting laws so debased them, that the very privilege of reason is worthless in their possession? Shame! oh, shame! to the government where the people are barbarous !--The day is not distant when they made the education of a Catholic a

crime, and yet they arraign the Catholic for ignorance! The day is not distant when they proclaimed the celebration of the Catholic wor ship a felony, and yet they complain that the Catholic is not moral! What folly! Is it to be expected that the people are to emerge in a moment from the stupor of a protracted degradation? There is not perhaps to be traced upon the map of national misfortune a spot so truly and so tediously deplorable as Ireland. Other lands, no doubt, have had their calamities To the horrors of revolution, the miseries of despotism, the scourges of anarchy, they have in their turns been subject. But it has been only in their turns; the visitations of wo, though severe, have not been eternal; the hour of probation, or of punishment, has passed away; and the tempest, after having emp tied the vial of its wrath, has given place to the serenity of the calm and of the sunshine. Has this been the case with respect to our miserable country? Is there, save in the visionary world of tradition— is there in the progress, either of record or recollection, one verdant spot in the desert of our annals where patriotism can find repose or philanthrophy refreshment? Oh, indeed, posterity will pause with wonder on the melancholy page which shall portray the story of a people amongst whom the policy of man has waged an eternal warfare with the providence of God, blighting into deformity all that was beau teous, and into famine all that was abundant. I repeat, however, the charge to be false. The Catholic mind in Ireland has made advances scarcely to be hoped in the short interval of its partial emancipation. But what encouragement has the Catholic parent to educate his offspring? Suppose he sends his son, the hope of his pride and the wealth of his heart, into the army; the child justifies his parental anticipation; he is moral in his habits, he is strict in his discipline, he is daring in the field, and temperate at the board, and patient in the camp; the first in the charge, the last in the retreat; with an hand to achieve, and an head to guide, and a temper to conciliate; he combines the skill of Wellington with the clemency of Cæsar and the courage of Turenne-yet he can never rise he is a Catholic ! Take another instance. Suppose him at the bar. He has spent his nights at the lamp, and his days in the forum; the rose has withered from his cheek mid the drudgery of form; the spirit has fainted in his heart mid the analysis of crime; he has foregone the pleasures of his youth, and the associates of his heart, and all the fairy enchantments in which fancy may have wrapped him. Alas! for what?--Though genius flashed from his eye, and eloquence rolled from his lips; though he spoke with the tongue of Tully, and argued with the learning of Coke, and thought with the purity of Fletcher, he can never rise--he is a Catholic ! Merciful God! what a state of society is this in which thy worship is interposed as a disqualification upon thy Providence! Behold, in a word, the effects of the code against which you petition; it disheartens exertion, it disqualifies merit, it debilitates the state, it degrades the Godhead, it disobeys Christia nity, it makes religion an article of traffic, and its founder a monopoly; and for ages it has reduced a country, blessed with every beauty of nature and every bounty of Providence, to a state unparalleled under any constitution professing to be free, or any government pretending to be civilized To justify this enormity, there is now no garument. Now is the time to concede with dignity that which was

never denied without injustice. Who can tell how soon we may require all the zeal of our united population to secure our very existence ? Who can argue upon the continuance of this calm ?--Have we not seen the labour of ages overthrown, and the whim of a day erected on its ruins; establishments the most solid withering at a word, and visions the most whimsical realized at a wish; crowns crumbled, discords confederated, kings become vagabonds, and vagabonds made kings at the capricious phrenzy of a village adventurer? Have we not seen the whole political and moral world shaking as with an earthquake, and shapes the most fantastic and formidable and frightful heaved into life by the quiverings of the convulsion? The storm

has passed over us; England has survived it, if she is wise, her present prosperity will be but the handmaid to her justice; if she is pious, the peril she has escaped will be but the herald of her expi

alion.

There is but one concession which I would never advise, and which, were I a Catholic, I would never make. You will perceive that I allude to any interference with your clergy. That was the crime of Mr. Grattan's security bill. It made the patronage of your religion the ransom for your liberties, and bought the favour of the crown by the surrender of the church. It is a vicious principle, it is the cause of all your sorrows. If there had not been a state-establishment there would not have been a Catholic bondage. By that incestuous conspiracy, between the altar and the throne, infidelity has achieved a more extended dominion than by all the sophisms of her philosophy, or all the terrors of her persecution. It makes God's apostle a courtappendage, and God himself a court-purveyor; it carves the cross into a chair of state, where, with grace on his brow and gold in his hand, the little perishable puppet of this world's vanity makes Omnipotence a menial to its power, and Eternity a pander to its profits. Be not a party to it. As you have spurned the temporal interference of the Pope, resist the spiritual jurisdiction of the crown. As I do not think that you, on the one hand, could surrender the patronage of your religion to the King, without the most unconscientious compromise, so, on the other hand, I do not think the King could ever conscientiously receive it. Suppose he receives it; if he exercises it for the advantage of your church, he directly violates the coronation-oath which binds him to the exclusive interests of the Church of England; and if he does not intend to exercise it for your advantage, to what purpose does he require from you its surrender? But what pretence has England for this interference with your religion? It was the religion of her most glorious era, it was the religion of her most ennobled patriots, it was the religion of the wisdom that framed her constitution, it was the religion of the valour that achieved it, it would have been to this day the religion of her empire had it not been for the lawless lust of a murderous adulterer. iv hat right has she to suspect your church? When her thousand sects were brandishing the fragments of their faith against each other, and Christ saw his garment, without a seam, a piece of patchwork for every mountebank who figured in the pantomime; when her Babel temple rocked at every breath of her Priestleys and her Paynes, Ireland, proof against the menace of her power, was proof also against the peri