ground but that of his open and avowed enmity, to civil government, as now settled in this land." Mr. Justice Blackstone is much more explicit-" If a time shall ever arrive, when all fears of the Pretender shall have vanished, and the civil influence of the Pope shall have become feeble and despicable, not only in England, but in every kingdom in Europe, then will be the time to remove these rigorous edicts against the Catholics, at least till their civil principles shall again call on the magistrate to renew them." Thus far, then, divinity and law. My third authority is archdeacon Paley, in his Moral Philosophy, treating of "Religious Establishments and of Toleration." "It should be remembered, that, as the connexion between Popery and Jacobitism, which is the sole cause of suspicion, and the sole justification of those severe and jealous laws, was accidental in its origin, so probably it will be temporary in its duration; and these restrictions ought not to continue one day longer than some visible danger renders them necessary for the preservation of public tranquillity. The measure certainly cannot be defended at all, except where the suspected union between certain obnoxious principles in politics and certain tenets in religion is nearly universal. In which case it makes little difference whether the test be religious or political: and the state is somewhat better secured by the one than by the other." Thus, Sir, the Roman Catholic, without the bad grace of claiming his enfranchisement as a right, refers you to these authorities; he points to divinity, to law, and to ethics, and in the view, at least of Hoadley, Blackstone, and Paley, he proves to you that it is a right.

Sir, these laws are laws enacted against conscience. If, by dint of them, you induce the Roman Catholic to conform, you weaken in him the conscientious principle, and leave him a worse man than you found him. If you fail to induce him to conform, you bring, as far as he is concerned, the conscientious principle to act against yourselves. But God has so ordained it, that, generally speaking, conscience is too strong for your laws. You have failed in the encounter. It is a principle, that you cannot control if you ought, and you ought not if you could. Nor ought you to make the tenets of your established church an engine of political torture to those whose pious, sincere, honest, and avowed opinions forbid their

conformity. An engine, like the bed of Procrustes, of torture to those who cannot dilate their opinions to your proscribed extent, or contract them within your prescribed limits. Thus it is, Sir, that these tests operate everywhere within the wide range of the British islands. But in Great Britain you find this petition signed by a large portion of a small but deserving population. Do not mock their prayer by saying they pray for what is not worth having, do not insult their invariable truth and honour by telling them you doubt their professions. They meet you on your own terms, and call upon you to try their sincerity: only do not insult their Cross, do not insult their relics, do not insult the private and innocent altars of their ancient worship, and they offer you all. They offer you their allegiance, they offer you the services of their lives on your own terms. You say they will deceive you;-they ask you to give them their trial.

Sir, the Roman Catholics of your empire would scarcely deserve what they ask, did they not strongly feel and strongly urge this upon your humanity and justice. Were they really content under this abridgement of rights, I should not think of them as I do. I should think them scarcely worthy of civil liberty. But now their petition, their cause, is in your hands. Do not throw it back upon a disappointed and despairing population, to make it again a subject of mortification, discontent, and division. Above all, allow me to implore it of you, do not make securities again a subject of negotiation between yourselves and the Roman Catholics. For parliament, before it can treat with petitioners, must descend to a level with the body it treats with, or raise them to an undue elevation, from which alone they can make terms with parliament. Do not consult Catholic boards, or Catholic authorities, but consult your own wisdom and justice, and act upon your own authority for your own securities. But, in the mean while, if their should be a few who struggle rather intemperately, when struggling, be it remembered, for no less than civil right and political existence, let not the possible intemperance of a few be visited on all. It is not liberality, it is not justice, it is not truth. On the other hand, let the few miserable bigots, if such there be, the fiery champions in the nineteenth century of the intolerance and bigotry of the six

let them answer to their sect, to their country, to their God, for all that they have preached, have written, and have acted. But, in the name of truth and justice, try your own countrymen by their own declarations and by their own conduct. These entitle them to a far different measure of consideration. Remember, that if this night you are to resolve upon taking into your consideration the interests in Ireland, of the majority, by millions, of the people; in England, you are to pronounce upon the destinies of the Howards, the Talbots, the Arundels, and the Cliffords; men, whose ancestors were the founders of your greatness, and fame, and freedom; men, whose hearts are now bursting with the hope, long, too long, deferred, of being enabled one day to serve their country, uninsulted by your tests and unshackled by your restrictions; of being one day enabled to share the full benefits of that constitution, of which, let it never be forgotten, it was their forefathers who laid the corner stone.

Let us act in the spirit of men well aware of the great and touching appeal on which we are this night to decide. Let us act in the spirit, words cannot describe it better, of those with which I will place, Sir, this petition in your hands. They are the words of the preamble of a wise and good law, the act of the twentysecond of the late king in Ireland, which says, "that it must tend to the prosperity and strength of his majesty's dominions, that his subjects of all denominations should enjoy the full benefits of a free constitution, and be bound to each other by mutual ties of interest and affection." And, by the blessed issue of a wise and healing spirit like this, let us this night do what yet remains for the honour and justice of England,-for the happiness and security of Ireland,-and for the peace and union of both.

Lord Glenorchy trusted, that the House would no longer deny the privilege of exercising the rights afforded by the constitution, to a numerous class of the people, merely because they did not hold the same religious opinions as themselves.

Lord Nugent said, there was one circumstance connected with the first signatures to this petition which, he was quite sure, would speak to the feelings of the House. There were now but four of the baronies remaining, the holders of which signed Magna Charta. The rest were

four baronies that had survived the lapse of ages were Roman Catholics, were debarred from their seats in parliament, and had signed the petition just read.

Mr. Plunkett said, he held in his hand a Petition signed by some thousands of Roman Catholics in Ireland. From the means he possessed of knowing the people of that country and the opinions entertained by them, he could say that the petition contained the sentiments of the great body of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. A similar petition had been presented to that House the year before last. On that occasion the prayers of the petitioners had come forward to that House with all the eloquence, with all the experience, with all the authority of the late Mr. Grattan. In now undertaking the duty devolved on him, he felt his heart melted with the public sorrow and private regret with which he had followed to his grave that great man, by whose confidence he had been honoured, by whose wisdom he had been enlightened, by whose example he had been guided. After the unrivalled eloquence with which he had been lamented in that House, and the distinguished honours with which the justice and liberality of Englishmen had accompanied his remains to the tomb-for at his death, as during his life, he had been the bond of union between the two countries after these tributes to his virtues, he would not disturb the solemnity of his obsequies by his feeble praise and unavailing sorrow." Yet he could not avoid to mention his name when presenting this petition. The subject was one on which his departed friend had deeply meditated; it had taken early and entire possession of his mind, and held that possession to the last hour of his life; he would have willingly laid down his life in advocating the rights and liberties which he believed to be due to the Roman Catholic subjects of the king, and beneficial to the whole empire. It had been his deliberate conviction, that there could be no sympathy of feeling between the two countries, until this question should be set at rest. He had always been alive to the desire of fame, and showed in the various actions of his life, that love of the approbation and esteem of the wise which clung to every aspiration of a good man, while on earth. But never man had treated with more absolute disdain the hollow and faithless popularity which is obtained by

subserviency, and preserved by dereliction of principle. He had never, therefore, urged the great measure which he had so cordially espoused, but on terms by which it could be reconciled to the Protestant interests of the country. In following his departed friend's steps, he was actuated by the same spirit. In that spirit he now moved for leave to bring up this petition. The several petitions were ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed.

Mr.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS.] Plunkett then rose. He said, that it now remained for him to discharge his duty, by bringing under the consideration of the House the subject of the petitions which the House had just heard, and on behalf of the Protestants and Roman Catholics of Ireland, to call the attention of the House to the relative state of both; a state which, on the one hand, justified an imputation of harshness and oppression, and, on the other, excited a feeling of that injustice and oppression, which, if it were suffered to continue, must in its consequences prove equally dangerous to the party which oppressed, and to the party which suffered. His object was, to attain an end of public good by doing an act of public justice. It was such an act of justice, as, he was persuaded, would lay the foundation of ultimate concord, for concord was the necessary consequence of justice. He believed it would be received with the warmest feelings of gratitude and satisfaction, though this was in his judgment an inferior and secondary consideration. To suppose that he brought forward this question, merely as a palliative to allay temporary discontents, and to get rid of accidental ill-humours, would be not only greatly to undervalue the measure, but wholly to misconceive its bearing. The Roman Catholics of Ireland had nobly disentitled themselves to the supposition of its being a measure to allay discontent. Determined as they were to persevere in their efforts to obtain redress of grievances and restoration of rights, they were equally determined never to seek them but as the result of wisdom and justice in the legislature, in which they knew that they could not be ultimately disappointed. That there did exist among them an eager desire for immediate redress, and instant restoration to the freedom which their fellow-subjects possessed, he should be ashamed to deny. That there was felt by them that sickness VOL. IV.

of the heart which arose from hope deferred, and which called urgently for a remedy to be administered, he did not deny. But he was not so sick and silly a zealot as to believe, that the immediate effect of the measure which he urged would be to remove every feeling of uneasiness excited by a long course of irritation and injustice. No measure which he could propose, or the legislature could adopt, would operate as a charm. By applying an instant remedy the discontent would not instantly cease. The waves were heard to roll for some time after the tempest had ceased. But these were not the questions for parliament to inquire into. It was their duty to consider whether any injury had been done to any portion of our fellow-subjects; whether any grievances had given rise to discontent, and if so, to remedy them; whether any injuries had been done, and if so, to endeavour, by their removal, to obliterate the remembrance of them? If long continued injuries had produced discontent, the more was their shame, and the more regret would be felt by every honourable mind, that no attempt had been made to remove them. The longer any institution of society, pressing heavily upon the interests and rights of the community, was suffered to exist, the deeper it struck; and if it was found that such an institution pressed not merely upon individuals, not merely upon bodies of men, but upon the greater part of the population of a most important part of the empire, the evil became so crying and unjust as to impose upon them the absolute necessity of taking immediate steps for its removal.

Before he proceeded to the main argument, he wished to call the attention of the House to some loose and general objections which had, from time to time, been made to the measure, on the ground of its being imperfect in some of its details. It was said, for instance, that the Catholics were not aggrieved to the extent to which they complained; that the plan which had been proposed was inconsistent or dangerous; objections were taken to some of the offices proposed to be left open, and to some of the oaths proposed to be retained; and it was urged, that the friends of the measure were not themselves agreed as to the nature of the conditions or securities which should accompany the measure, or whether any conditions or securities should accompany it at all. This was, in his judgment, not a fair, not a manly, 3 Q

not a candid manner of meeting the question, Was the question itself fit to be entertained? Did justice plead for it? Did the constitution sanction it? Did policy demand it? If it were contended, that it ought to be rejected because it was impolitic or because it was uncalled for by the demands of justice, he should then understand the argument; but objections, grounded upon the particular form and mode of the question were neither fair, nor manly, nor just. If he shewed that a great public grievance existed, and that a great public good would be effected by applying a remedy to it; if he shewed this, and any man told him that be admitted his principles, but would not agree to his plan because there was something weak in its details, he would ask such an individual, whether it was fair or manly thus to shelter himself in the privileges of neutrality? Would it not be more manly and consistent to come forward and suggest something better-instead of wrapping himself up in the immunities of neutrality? If the measure were not bad, it must necessarily be good. We come forward, with no theoretical speculations-no innovation upon the constitution-no untried experimentsno attack upon existing establishments we come forward under the constitution itself, on the part of millions of his majesty's loyal subjects, humbly petitioning parliament that they may be admitted to enjoy those privileges which their ancestors enjoyed, and supposed that they had bequeathed as an indefeasible inheritance to their posterity. Such were the claims of his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects -claims which were founded upon, and recognised by, the true spirit of the British constitution, and which ought, if opposed at all, to be fairly met, and not by an attempt to crush the plan submitted to the House, merely on the ground of objections to some of its details.

What he meant to propose was, a committee for the purpose of adjusting the difficulties of those details. He apprehended that no person was prepared to say that there was no practicable plan, no possible method, of reconciling the claims of the Catholics with those difficulties, and with the interest of the Protestant portion of the community. Still less could any man wish that there should be any insurmountable obstacle to the attainment of so desirable an object. If there were any man capable of harbouring such a

wish, he would not condescend to argue with him. He, himself, entertained very. confident expectations that such a plan was practicable-an expectation that was not a little increased by the recollection, that within the last few years a majority of that House had agreed to a committee, and that very lately a majority of that House had come to a resolution, by which the measure might have been carried, had it not been for the gross indiscretion of those who called themselves the friends of the Catholics. If such was the disposition of parliament at a time when the political horizon was threatened with storms, which the nation had happily weathered-if they were willing to make such concession at a period of great public danger and dismay, surely no objection could now be made to the measure on the score of apprehension. It could not be forgotten by any generous and grateful mind, that no portion of our countrymen had more distinguished themselves, or more to that happy issue, which had restor-.. ed peace and tranquillity to the country,.. than his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects. They had fought the battles of the country, and shed their blood in its cause, with a prodigality which proved them worthy of the privileges from which they were unjustly excluded. He did not anticipate, then, any thing like hostility; certainly nothing of rancour, in the discussion of this question. Something of prejudice, he feared, he should have to encounter. When he said prejudice, he did not mean to use that word in a harsh sense; if prejudices existed, they sprung from an origin so noble, and connected themselves with feelings so immediately growing out of the struggles which had been made in this country for civil and political freedom, that they deserved to be called by a better name. If prejudices were entertained, he was persuaded that they were such prejudices as were accessible to argument, and which, if not assaulted by violence,.. would yield to the voice of reason. He, believed that even in the minds of those who opposed the measure, some latent, anxiety existed to adopt it, and that they opposed it only in obedience to what they conceived an imperious and paramount. duty. It could not be doubted that there was a growing feeling in its favour, both in that House and in the country, and therefore he was satisfied that he was not... likely to be encountered by any thing, more than that fair and reasonable oppo