The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-02-28 00:00:00

' the French General—" Retrain to your King, for we have
elected oars." The treaty was signed, wan ratified be Royalty—
and that very treaty now remains in the Tcwer of London, a record
of If sh fidelity, anti, I hope I shall not be accused of bigotry when
I add, of shame. I came to England for the purpose of
presenting a petition at the Bar of the Etiglish House of Cow-
-1 Moue, ,to give to my country the benefit of this treaty. It wan
' tseaehery to break it ; it is crime to continue to break it
(hews hear, hear); but that treaty was violated by degrees.
Even a Goteenment of Ireland could rot then plunge into guilt
suddenly. It was violated, when it was safe to violate it, when the
yin-dries df the Duke of Marlborough had placed England on the
" pinnacle of glory," as it was then called, and as it is called now.
14 hen the Britlish Ministry wire secure from foreign foes, they
turned their attention and their kindliness ti wards Ireland, and they
ensued that penal code which was the subject of the brilliant pie.'
ture of the Grattan over whom we still weep, and which was de-
scribed by Montemuieu as " traced in letters of blood ;" a
code which divided the husband from the wife--a code which
set the son egainst clip parent--• code which stript of pro-
perty every man who had
,attained it—a code which reversed the
command that a husband should Ise united to his wife—a code
which reversed the sacred commandment that was delivered by the
Almighty in thunder, that the sem should hannur the father and
the mother; far it rewarded the child dr moment he dared to violate
the commands of God. lam not an leish Agitator, but I hope it
will not be imputed to meal a crime that I charge England with this
atrocity—an atrocity that was perpetrated wider the English Go-
vernment. I am, however, ready to forgive it ; I have forgiven it ;
and I sin at this moment ready to en-operate with England—yes,
ready to co-operate with her in sincer:ty of heart, in order to pre-
vent my country from being any longat trampled on, in order to
free it from those false calumnies which have been hurled against it
by those who shrink from a statement of facts, and from the pub.
lication of truth. Year after year, during the reign, of the two
first Princes of the House of Brunswick, new fetters were forged
for my country. The Goulbtirns of the day went over to Ireland,
where no noxious reptile can have existence, but where vnnemous
bipeds thrive and fatten ; and they were followed by penal enact.
meats after enactments, until a third reign commenced, and opened
to the Irish Catholics a prospect of better times. The memory of
George is entitled to the eternal gratitude of Ireland. Oyer
his declining years the Irish wept the tear of grateful affection, and
over his grave they still hang with the fond recollection they have
of a father and a friend. George 111. ascended the Throne of
Great Britain, and then, for the first time, a Catholic Association
was formed. Not by that name certainly—but then
" The rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
It was called the Catholic Committee, and it was, like the present
Catholic Association, exposed to the greatest dangers from the false
friends of the day, who said. •` Oh, we are anxious for the success
of your cause, but, for God's sake, put down your Catholic Com-
mittee!" In enmity I consider there are three degrees: the positive,
the comparative, and the snperlative. Our avowed enemies are the
positive, our bitter enemies the comparative, and our fen friends
the superlative. But on the secession of George the Third to the
Throne, the Catholics had actually the audacity to congratulate
their Sovereign on the event ; and they said, in their address on
that occasion, that after a lapse of more than half a century since
an English-born man had ascended the English throne, it was with
most heartfelt pleasure they welcomed his Majesty to it, for it gave
them a kind of promise, that a Sovereign, whose birth, whose educa-
tion, and whose feelings were genuine English, would not keep
from them their rights. This larguage was actually construed into
misprision of treason, and those who drew up the address narrowly
escaped confinement in the prisons of Dublin for professing their
loyalty and attachment to their beloved Sovereign—a crime which
it was hardly possible to forgive. I. do not niean to enter into the
discussion of American rights, but surely every man will rejoice, as
I do rejoice, that there are ten millions of men preserving and im-
proving English institutions on the other side of the Atlantic,—
where freemen might find a resting.plree,—where the foot might
stand firmly.—when they might defy the principles of the tyran-
nical Holy Alliance, and laugh to scorn their Cossacks, and their
Croats, and their other hundred slavee,—where the unnatural sys-
tem of warfare that was founded on civil and religious differences
had for ever ceased to exist—and wove the mind delights to dwell
upon these blessings with satisfaction and triumph. America re-
sisted oppression the moment that oppression was offered ; but
even with respect to that country, n hill of pair.s and penalties was
not enacted without an inquiry into the reasons for such enactment.
The Americans applied to be beard at the bar of the floffite of Com-
mons, and I will do the then Administration of George the Third
the justice to say, that before they struck they heard. I am not
employed by my countrymen to threaten, nor am 1 disposed so to
do: I came over to this country as the implorer of a favour, and
not as a threatener ;—I came for the purpose of conciliating, and I
came to solicit to be heard at the Bar of the English House of
Commons in behalf of seven millions of my countrymen—for they
are seven millions—and the English House of Commons refused to
hear me. Well, America became a powerful enemy, and the ban-
ner of England fell before her undisciplined legion. ; France
joined her, and the chivalry of that country. aided by the romantic
La Fayette, passed over to the New World. The war corn.
menced—the war in which any thing but victory crowned the
British arms. The Catholic Committee was then sitting, and how
did they meet the necessity that then existed ? They said " you
want men to carry on this war ; here are the Irish people for you,
choose from among them." flow was this proposition met? It
was met by this insulting answer "We will not accept your offer,
because you refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance." The Committee
replied, that they did not refuse to take any oath that did not inter-
fere with their religious tenets, and that they ought not to be re.
quirts! to take any oath that Sid. They seated their readiness to
take all oaths that did not trench on their belief, and particularly
all oaths that could in any way testify their allegiance to their
Sovereign. There lived at that time a Protestant Irish Bishop,
resembling in virtue the venerable Bishop of Norwich, whom I
yesterday heard preach, and who is the model of what a Christian
Prelate should be : I care rot to what communion he may belong,
no matter whether he be Protestant of Catholic; show me such a
man as the Bishop of Norwich, and I will show you a Priest of
God—a Priest fit to be charged with a mission of peace and loving
kindness to his fellow men. The Irish Bishop, of whom I have
spoken, the Bishop of Deny, the Earl ofßristowe, rose in his seat in I
the House of Lords, and stated, that he was instructed to declare to
their Lordships the perfect willingness of the Roman Catholics of
Ireland to take the Oath of Allegiance. This was denied ; it was
asserted that they would not take it, and all the ribaldry of
the back benches was called forth to prevent the Noble and
Verrerable Bishop from proceeding in the task he had undertaken.
He met them, and rebutted the charge against the Catholics. He
said he would bring them to the test, and would immediately intro-
duce into the Dottie an Act of Parliatnent, merely to enable the
Catholics to take the Oath of Allegiance, and to receive nothing
for it. This Act was brought in, and the Catholics got nothing by
it—it was no benefit to them. Oh I yes, fam in error; it was the
beat of all benefits—it enabled us to meet and rebut the calumnies
that had been uttered against us. The ancestor of the Noble Lord
Lord Killeen) who has just addressed you was at that period at the
bead of the Irish Nobility, and the idol of the Irish people. The
station he then occupied has been well filled ever since. and I hope
it will continue so. That Nobleman, accompanied by crowds of the
Irish people, immediately went to the Court-house of Trim, and
there took the Oath of Allegiance. His exaniple was followed by
thousands of his countrymen. Those oaths we have since kept,
and, by God's help, we will ever keep them. This was the first
service effected by the Catholic Committee. At that period there
were many weights pressing upon the British Parliament—America
lin particular—A menca was on the very eve of being lost, and Ireland
might have shaken off' her yoke—for tt then was a yoke. The
Bri-
tish Parliament then passed the Act of 1778: and If England lost
Atnerica, England, by this Act, preserved Ireland. Now mark
the effects that followed this conduct. England was immediately
enabled to dispense with her military establishment in Ireland—a
brave and efficient yeomanry supplied their place, and preserved
the peace of the country ; and from Cape Clear to the Giant's
I Causeway, there was not a single soldier to be found. Ireland was
never in so tranquil a state, nor was the attachment of Ireland to
England ever so great. For the concessions that were then made,
I Ireland was indebted to the exertions of the Catholic Committee—
the names of the Plunkett', the O'Connors, the Currys, and the
81•Dertuotts, were enrolled among them—names, which, though
they may have faded from English memory, I shall never forget.
Those men were at the head of the Catholics at that period, and to
that Catholic Committee England was indebted for her preservation,
because, by their means, she was enabled to bring her whole force
into the held, and to stop the progress of that revolutionary lava
which was fast pouring over Europe. The Committee pursued
their course, and the Act of 1782 followed that of 1778, but not un.
tit this country was threatened in the most fearful manner by the
combined fleets of France, Spain, and Holland, which swept her
Channel with a broom at the mast.head, and appeared like the meteor
which bore with it destruction. At that period the second concession
was made ; and what did Ireland do on the occasion ? pier first act
was to vote 32,1100 seamen to man the British fleet, one thousand
for every county in Ireland. The flag of England again rose tri-
umphant, and front my heart I hope that it will never sink till na-
ture has decayed, and man's existence has for ever ceased. The
Catholic Committee continued their exertions, and were sitting
when the French Revolution commenced, when commenced the
reign of the Jacobins. In using that word, I mean to refer to
those who subverted the altar to reach the throne, and who left both
bathed with the blood of their victims. The French armies had
already broken into the Netherlands, and were proceeding further
in their course, when the good sense of England awoke :—to her sons
liberty is always dear—it is their birthright and their charter, but
they know how to distinguish between the name and the thing, and
they in this instance made that propitious choice, to which the
present comparatively free and flourishing state of Europe is per-
haps attributable. The Catholic Committee did then step forward,
did then endeavour to set things in their real light, and they suc-
ceeded in showing the people, how preferable was a real and sub-
stantial liberty to that ephemeral and intoxicating draught of
licentiousness which was then poisoning France. Conventions were
not then illegal in Ireland, and the delegates of 1792 were elected ;
those delegates met together, but not for traitorous objects; they
met for the purpose of arresting treason. The delegates then can e
to this country, and came under better auspices than we have done,
but they did not come with greater sincerity or more heartfelt de-
votion to the cause they were defending. They appealed to the
Sovereign on his throne, and the intellects of George 111, were
then in their greatest vigour ; he received them, heard their peti-
tion, and recommended their claims to the consideration of Parlia-
ment. The Catholic Association commenced its exertions at a
period when Oeangeism spread its baneful influence over Ireland.
I would have proved, it' I had been allowed to prove, at the bar of
the House of Commons, the nature of those Orange Insti-
tutions. At the time of the formation of the Catholic Asso-
ciation, those Orangemen filled every responsible office in the
country :—in the Post.office—the Castle—the Castormhouse—
the magistracy—the bench—in some instances, the grand juries—the