may pray and preach in stately loneliness?" On the 13th January last, Mr. O'Connell gave us the history of the progress of the designs of the Roman Catholics; it is in a speech to the Association:

to the Roman Catholic Chapel, to the Presbyterian Meetinghouse, to the Parish Church, to Schools, to the sick, to the blind I will not quote these passages in detail, because many of them occur in the Debates in Hansard, in 1826; but I cannot deny myself the gratification of extracting one beautiful passage from a beautiful book, the Life and Remains of the late Rev. Charles Wolfe, which I have since read it proves not merely the good feeling, to which I have already referred, as so frequently existing, but also the familiarity with which objects, totally different from those technically and legally belonging to a Church-rate in England, are in Ireland caught up by a cess under that specific name.

April 27, 1819.

:

"An event in my parish, that should not be omitted, is the Vestry. Some false and industrious reports had been spread respecting the object that I had in view, in raising money for the foundation of the school we had in contemplation; and a great number of the people came for the purpose of voting against us. You, who know me, may judge of my anxiety at the prospect of having to fight, where I came to preach peace and charity, and my apprehension of falling out with Presbyterians, whom I feel desirous of conciliating, and with whom I have been on the most friendly footing. At length the day arrived, when I made a speech, clearing away all misrepresentations, and stating the exertions I had made. I was seconded very ably by - ; and the consequence was a most cordial and unanimous grant of 140l. with ' long life to you, Mr. Wolfe, and long may you reign over us! The good feeling that reigned throughout the whole, really made up one of the most gratifying scenes I have witnessed for a long time."Remains of the Rev. C. Wolfe. 8vo. p. 153.

"Nineteen years ago, no allusion to the Protestant Establishment had been made in their petition Once Mr. Scully had made an allusion to it; he was met by the frown of lord Fingal; and Hay was nearly handling the inkstand." He goes on to say, that he was glad that they had not got emancipation sooner; meaning, I suppose, that they had now strength to seize other and higher objects. "The Established Church was burdensome to the people, and did them no kind of good. He would be content that they should go to the castle, and there receive what was thought fit; he protested against their going to the peasant's hut, and to taking, as had been on a former occasion stated, the blankets." At another meeting, he said, "the privilege of sitting in parliament was a privilege necessary to enable the Catholics to have a careful watch over the enormous expenditure of the Church Establishment." Is not this warning enough to us? Are these the men to whom it would be safe to intrust the care of our Protestant interests? Are these the men whom we would place in this House to legislate for the Church of England? It is said that these passages all refer to the Church of Ireland; that Dr. Doyle, in his evidence has expressly limited his observations to the Church of Ireland. Sir, there is no Church of Ireland': the Church of

I say this with all due deference to the authority of Lord Plunkett, whose Burial Bill of the Session 1824. 5 Geo. iv. c. 25. refers to "the officiating ministers of the Church of Ireland," and to "the rites of the Church of Ireland."

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Ireland ceased to exist at the Union; it is now for ever one with the Church of England: they form one undivided Establishment: any attack on the one is an attack on the other: and that part which is in Ireland cannot be pulled down or undermined, without shaking the English part to its foundation. Let not the Establishment in England fondly believe that the Church in Ireland can be destroyed, or even weakened, without a mortal injury to their own nearer interests: let not the people of England believe that a successful attack can be made upon the property of the Church, whether in England or in Ireland, without endangering the security of all other property. The injury to the Establishment in England, the danger to all other property, may be more or less remote; but whether near or distant, it is alike inevitable from the day when power is once in any quarter familiarized with spoliation. Let neither the Establishment nor the People of England believe that the Church of Rome has changed, or can change her policy or her principles; that she is, or ever can be favourable, or even indifferent to our institutions; and that she may now at length be safely entrusted with the legislative care of our religion. Unless the evidence, even of our own contemporary experience, be fallacious (I have pledged myself not to appeal to history), the See of Rome is at this day hostile, not merely to the dignity and supremacy of the Protestant Church in this empire, but to the toleration of any other Church any where else and the tes

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timony before the Committee upon which a change to the contrary is assumed, and upon which this great innovation in our constitution is demanded, is utterly insufficient to justify us in incurring even the slightest of those hazards, with which, in my judgment, that innovation would be followed.

The next point which I shall endeavour to prove is, that the object which is to be purchased with so much hazard, that object, which has been so long and so clamorously sought under the name of Catholic Emancipation, is of no value, comparatively, to the mass of those in whose name it is claimed. It is not easy to bring forward specific evidence from the people themselves to prove the fact; but, in the first place, look at their condition as described by almost every witness; and see, whether to the great mass of the people (and we are continually told of the six millions who are interested in the question,) the objects still withheld, seats in parliament, or on the bench, can be of any real value? In the next place, let the people be

'I quote from an able and original pamphlet, published anonymously last year, two passages, in which I entirely concur: "If I am to be told that, though not directly interested, they feel the political injustice done to their friends, I can only say, that the peasantry in Ireland possess a subtlety of reasoning, which with us is not found even in the higher classes. With us men feel a practical grievance, not a political anomaly. The inhabitants of Manchester and Birmingham submit to be deprived of a right which they see a petty Borough enjoy, without murmuring. If you want a riot, raise the price of provisions, or persuade them of the evils of machinery • : and I am

allowed to speak by those who, at different periods, for the last thirty-three years, have represented themselves to be the great friends of the people. What said Dr. M'Nevin, one of the Irish Directory in 1798 ? A noble lord who was examining him

satisfied, that if the Irish were left to themselves, it would not be the rights of legislation which would affect them, but the price of potatoes." Speaking of the demand in Ireland for the elective franchise granted in 1793, a demand founded on the unwillingness with which, it is alleged, a man submits "to see his neighbour in the enjoyment of a privilege of which he is deprived," he adds, "We find in Scotland, where precisely the same anomaly exists, men submit to it with exemplary patience; and though I have often heard the Scotch farmer murmur at the bad times, I never heard him express any anxiety about the elective franchise. He bears with wonderful meekness this intolerable oppression. These are not the subjects on which men feel interest; but it is easy, by dwelling on any topic, to make the multitude adopt the view we please; and if we assure them day by day that they are oppressed, they will end in believing us:" The Admission of Catholics into the Legislature inconsistent with Constitutional Principles.-Hatchards, Lond. p. 41-2. If it be said that this is written by a Scotsman; that he knows nothing of Ireland; that the Irishman is different from all other men; that the witnesses examined before the Committees in 1824-5, describe the common people to feel an intense interest in the question of Emancipation; I answer, that the witnesses whom I quoted in the House of Commons in proof of the contrary position, were themselves all Irish. I will add one more; a leader with Wolfe Tone, in 1793:- "If you lay down the Catholic Question, you must take up that of Reform. The remnants of the Popery Code are not enough to interest the people. Men will not exert themselves to make such a man a Judge, or such a man a Member of Parliament."-Dr. Ryan, in Memoirs of Wolfe Tone, I. 265.