The Sun.
London, England, 1808-05-26 00:00:00

„ • • , :1 '
thee r t.
tieman', 'cioeo'rWetioing !crape?. en 'raft()
that I 'by his ie leriel;d;
had tak,..11- opporttutity reeon-tottrdi,.,g
similar' toile 'ter thi,se who should i,eet:eed
Now it very:possible, toil, 'Altr.ough the
nal mover of a proiApOin might laudably chough •
be. diOde: are to W, ge and rannei-, douse
of his opinion by It ,in 'he was t011,46d,
that moderatiob prouliced ito Jostitt7
ably ;try nether shanie 01 • rep'roacli. would :lot be'
rore High' blur. Gentleman ex-
pressed his why! Iliat-•his lion. Friend tvOtild-
not wish t: at' this boon to the Cat holiecs.stionid be
wrong from a reluctant Pathan-tent. Trde : ~hut`
who made it a reluctant R-utittnielo ? Hi Hon::
Friend' hoped to finch! a :4,,ittiog Paillannibt.- •Fri •
reply to the iti lit Honourable Geoileinau's
Merit, that the question had been already -
ed and settled, nth! that nothing hail since hap-
pelted That could eleinge,the ihe House
on the subject, be w-tild Observe that that sOltement
was unfoutided. .Cloinges its opiolion took place
daily, as truth and reason became inure merit lest, and
at no. distant period lie hoped that 'flit e changes •
would' produce ,the &feat so desirable: The four
millions of Cethelies- li, Ireland were et present
a dead weight, an undigesiible mass in the 'stomach
of the Country, poisoning all its efforts. Was it
meant to pursue towards them the old system of
.policy, by which,for thelast two htindted years at-
tempts had been made to wear them down into
simiticancy. Let this systenr`bd tried by the rule
of three. If in two centuries the Irish Catholics are
.brought to four milliolis, how many centurieS will it
take to extirpate them _entirely had heard o
philosophers mho pretended to ascertain the age ofi
the world by the ditTerent decompositions of granite j
this which be had mentioned would be a much more
tedious calculation. Adverting to the comparlsoti
so well made by his. Hon. Friend,beiween the twd
kinds of danger of which it was necessary to,choo4 : .
one,. 'he of served:that he should unquestiowbly pre-
ler the remote too the immediate. De should pre-
fer the dad& uheertitin if not chimerical, of giving
to the Cat holics a power which might ultimately in-
vest them with eeirsiderable inflhence in fille
to the terrible dangdr which the retu.al of their
just claims roust ie his apprehension inevitably' -et:-
casion. No Man was mom illiug than to
allow the propriety of an alliaSee properly .uuderstund
between the titircti anti Snite ; but he w ished the
House to cons der, if the State could exist without
the Church, how much less theChurth count
without the State. He wa4 anxio,ua that the -ob-
ject should he 'discussed--convinced as he was that
the friends of catholic Emancipation must ultimate-
ly triumph over every obstacic which was thrown
in their way.
Lord Powsurroe could never give his concurs
renee to a measure Meth sooner or later .wouid,en•
danger the Prott;si:hit ESiablislinwnt, by placing.
power In the itat4l:ol.l lioNe, OM: of whose principal'
objects it was to .nifect converts to their own persers..
siun. Het 11(1,4'08,, u must inspoitile to tiring tor-
ward, at Such, a Crisis as the present, a measure
which he kne;.v to tie generally oulioxious, and hi
should the•eture vote against clad motion. , .
Lord MiuroN was conunmeed that the more the
bos)j a was eiseussed, the sooner would the people
at this Oxintry be disposed to aecede to the claim*
of their Irish orethren. God forbid that the Re-
volution should be identified with the proserlption of
the Catholics. If It were so, the admiration with
which he had always.regarded that transaction was a
most mistaken. admiration. If we looked to the
history of those times, we should find that the laws
against the.Catholie, as well as Protestaufthssenteri;
originated nut. in religious, but iu political motives.
Bolero the Revolution the laws passed against the , •
Catholics were evidently' intended, not so much to
prevent the introducition of the Catholic religion,
as to prevent the accession of James 11. This W-aa
the real cause 'of the Test A. If, this .cause nu
longer existed ; if by the nature of thingti it had
passed away, then we ought to allow these restritAive
regulations to pass away also. Ni!, one body imd
right to exclude another from a fair participation
rights and privileges, unless with the apprehensii4,
,ot some immediate and imminent .danger. l'o gra/iti
the Catholics their claima,- would be to remove the
danger by which the empire was at present threaten-
ed. It would make them contented ; it ',theft:teat
appeared to hint to be a most extraordinary policy in,
the present state of
.the world to prefer leaving theta,
discontented.
Mr. FITZURRALD should consider himself as guilty
of a great dereliction of duty-if he a:At:naval from
reprobating the hoPelicy, not to say the indecehey
of refusing, to the Catholics the privileges which they
claimed, without, in the first place, discussing huis.
Mr that claim was justifiable. • The Rigne lionoura-
ble Gentleman hoped this would not bd made a parte
queition. It he Were desirous of trutkitsg it so, tie
should encourage the silence of the Treasury litmch,
and send back to the peopleot Ireland their Petition
loaded with the contumely' of being unworthy dis-
cussion. But, perhaps, by their-silence, Ministers
meant to imply, that although they had not ettphy
citly declared the reasons which indirced then, to
deny the Catholic claims, to the House those reasons
would be suflidietnly Constitutivnidly
speaking as a.,4epreseutative of the people In. Paha-
mum, he icoew- nothing. of these reasetis; he only.
kuew, Miuisters were by a kind of (*Dimino
alloWed ,to it iu.:that House, at least they were re-
sponsible to that +lobe for their conduct,': and for
the advice which. they gave while in office Ha
would offer, ea-Qom:l,oy as he could, time- reasons
which induced him to vote for the motion of his Ho-
nourable Friend. , At the time of the Umorehe wigs
one of ,the most zealous supporters of that meistire,
conceiving that he entrusted his country to the care
of liberal, and 'enlightened men ; and' joiniaa, its'
opinion that those measures, .which it would Tie dan-
gerous to propose :in a Separate legislature,' might
with safety be conceded when the Parliaments of the
two Countries” were united; 'Nbthingbuti, this- part*'
suasion could have induced, biro, and many-ni bees,
to lend their aid to the completioh of that objei ;
and it was fairly to be'thettue interred-, that the' Was
sores of concession 10'Whith'ile had atittded
follow; and he believed that .the Great Mau 0)6
was at that time in power, h:ld too enlarged eintind
to mean any titceptiot. on' the **ed. 4.tvertitig
to the hiitury-91 this Country he sliewee, by a ie.
ference to the-Narions periods of
.that history, -th,a,
the restri;iionson the Catteties had-been occasioned
by political-end not hy rcligiot s atotivco. 'lie re.