from which every other national evil must necessarily proceed. It does not, however, escape the attention of your humble petitioners, that this exclusion may originally have been intended for the better maintenance of the constitution and religion of the state; but they respectfully submit to the consideration of your Majesty whether, on the extinction of the causes which required such guarantee, these restrictions on the liberty of the subject should not also be repealed. And it is the further conviction of your Majesty's humble petitioners that these causes have long since so disappeared-and this opinion is grounded on the policy of other states, in reference to this country-the cessation of all external menace or attack; the suppression of all pretensions to the throne of these realms, and the increasing liberality and enlightened feeling of every class and persuasion in the present times. Your petitioners are therefore satisfied, that the removal of the disabilities under which their Catholic fellow-subjects still labour, so far from being attended with any peril to the institutions of these realms, would, on the contrary, by a removal of all just ground of complaint, most eminently tend to coalesce all sects and orders in the country, in united exertions for their common support; and thus, by "benefiting the state, would confer a benefit upon every individual belonging to it.” And in this belief your petitioners are more fully confirmed, by the gracious message of your Majesty's royal Father to his Irish parliament in 1793, in which he was pleased to recommend such measures as might be most likely to strengthen the general union and sentiment amongst all descriptions of his Majesty's subjects, in support of the established constitution; and in which his Majesty was further pleased to point out the relief of his Catholic subjects of Ireland, from the disqualifications by which they were affected, as the means best calculated to ensure this desirable result. And your petitioners gratefully remember, that your Majesty has professed, on more than one occasion, towards your faithful people of Ireland, a favour and affection not inferior to that evinced by your royal Father. May we then implore your Majesty, graciously to interpose the noblest exercise of your royal prerogative in their behalf? may we implore you to allow the inhabitants of this distracted but generous country to dedicate their undivided energies-now exerted chiefly against each other-to the augmenting the resources, the ennobling the character, and elevating the glory and prosperity, of their native land? And may your Majesty be pleased, with the least possible delay, to recommend to your parliament to take into their most serious consideration, the alarming and wretched state of this portion of your Majesty's dominions, with a view to such final and conciliatory adjustment as may be conducive to the peace and strength of the united kingdom, to the stability of our national institutions, and to the general concord of your Majesty's loyal subjects; so may your Majesty more fully reign in the hearts of a grateful people, and transmit your crown with additional lustre to posterity. A petition to the Houses of Lords and Commons, conveying similar sentiments, &c. was also adopted by the meeting. An address from the same petitioners to the Marquess of Anglesey was likewise proposed and adopted, declaratory of "those principles of civil and religious freedom which are the bond of their union, and were the guide of his Lordship's counsels," and which now induced them to join "the voice of a multitudinous people, uplifted to mourn an event, whose painful interest has been able (words of no light import) for a season to suspend the universal discordance, to unite all orders in one common sentiment of sorrow, and to show that the passions which have disturbed our judgments have not yet softened our hearts." Marquess of Anglesey's Answer. Uxbridge House, April 14th, 1829. My Lord Duke-My Lords and Gentlemen, I have received, with the highest gratification, the address with which you have been pleased to honour me, on my retirement from the government of Ireland. When it reached me, the happy measure, which it was your object to promote, was already under the consideration of the legislature; and I, therefore, deferred offering my acknowledgments for your personal kindness to me, in the hope that I should soon be enabled to add to them, as I now most joyfully do, my sincere congratulations upon the accomplishment of the great good which you desired for your country. To the parental solicitude of his Majesty for the general happiness of his people, to the sound counsel of his ministers, and, finally, to the liberality and wisdom of parliament, the empire is indebted for this glorious act of true policy, grace, and justice. The whole British constitution is now, for the first time, extended to the whole people of Ireland. As they enjoy the same liberties, so may they derive the same benefits from it-the same peace, prosperity, and happiness, which it has so long conferred upon Great Britain. To secure those blessings to Ireland, it is only necessary that her people act in the spirit which brought you so auspiciously together; and that they should continue to practise that forbearance and good-will towards each other, which distinguished their conduct through the whole of the late proceedings in Ireland, and which so mainly contributed to bring them the desired result. Allow me, in conclusion, to assure you, that I shall ever feel the sincerest devotion to the interests of Ireland, and the deepest gratitude for all the kindness I have experienced from her. I have the honour to be, ANGLESEY. To his Grace the Duke of Leinster, &c. No. XXXII. Formation of the Society of the Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty. Royal Hotel, College Green, Dublin, Wednesday, 21st January, 1829--William Sharman Crawford, Esquire, in the chair; It was unanimously Resolved, That in pursuance of the twentieth resolution, agreed to at the meeting of the Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty, held yesterday, we recommend that a committee of forty persons, twenty Protestants and twenty Catholics, be now appointed, and be selected from the list of nobility and gentry of both persuasions, who concurred in those proceedings, for the purpose of considering the most effectual means for establishing a permanent junction of Catholics and Protestants, in order to insure a continuance of their exertions for the success of the cause in which we are all engaged, "the religious peace of Ireland." Resolved, That the following noblemen and gentlemen, together with the chairman, be the members of the committee. The Duke of Leinster Lord Riversdale Lord Rossmore Rt. Hon. Sir John Newport Charles D.O. Jephson, Esq. M.P. Janies Sinclair, Esq. John D. La Touche, Esq. |