The Sun.
London, England, 1812-02-01 00:00:00

1:•nd %-onld alone be a sufneient ground for adopt-
er; tire motion of his Noble Friend.. But the most
lie Tole inducement to the motion existed in the
,e,eeeral condo& of the Irish Government, and parti-
eel :rly in their conduel during the last year. He
appealed to the
,Noble Marquis and to the Noble
Earl who spoke early in the debate, whether it was
lair to accuse the•Catholies of an attempt to form a
Convention• Net) the View of thereby obtaining their
objects; and whether they thought a Convention
for a general, or a delegation for a particular pur-
pose, ought to be treated in the same-manner ? If
the spirit of the Convention Act was not meant to
operate against a delegation, then the Irish Govern-
ment was unjustifiable in the course which they had
persued. Let Noble Lords refer to the history of the
Convention Att. They would find, that in te9g, a
year before the Ael was brought itito the Irish Par-
l:ament, there existed a delegation in DeWitt for the
purpose of representing the Irish Catholics, which •
delegation negociated with the Irish Government,
and also with the English Governments—Was it
creditable that the same Government which had
so recently found a delegation useful for the 'pur-
poses of negociatirm, would pass 2 Bill to over-
turn the whole system ? In the debate on the
Bill, in the Irish Parliament, not one of those who
spoke contended that it referred to Catholic dele-
gation. Nay, whee the Attorney-General Wolfe,
afterwards Lord Kil warden,- was questioned on the
inebiea, he said, God forbid! that it would prevent any
delegation, where there was a preconceived purpose.
It etei.;s a considerable time indeed before the Govern-
ment of Ireland discoVered, 'or 'nutlet, thought they
discovered, that delegation was within the meaning
of the Convention A&. 'The Cathol;c Committee
• sat unmolestedly as delegates, from May, I 809,
to February 1811. h was contended that at
length their excessive violence rendered inter-
ference necessary; and yet that very moment
When interference was deemed necessary, the
Catholic Committee were endeavouring to pro-
cure from the country an accession of members of
such a charatier as would give additional respeela-
bility to their body. After the circular letter of the
Chief Secretary, calling on the Magistrates to disperse
what that letter termed an allegal assembly., the Ca-
tholic Committee were again allowed to meet, in Fe-
bruary, in March, and in June, without any inter
ference on the part of that Government by which it
bad been announced as illegal.. At length the procla-
mation was issued. No sooner had that taken place
than there came out what a Nebie.Eart had been
pleased to call a. counter-proclamation, from Earl
Fingal. This counter-proclamation, as it was
termed, was merely a declaration on the part of
the Catholic Committee, that. their conduet was
Conformable to law ; that they would therefore
persevere in that conduct, and that the Proelama-
Con was not applicable to them, since they were
trot persons going to disturb the peace of the State.
On their Proclamation, however, Government acted,
arid let the mode be attended to. Whatever diffe-
rence might exist among Noble Lords on the other
parts of the subject, he was sure they would all agree,
that it Government thought it necessary tone, at
feast they ought to have acted in a manner strielly
conformable to justice. What did- they do ? A
warrant was issued under a Proclamation. By
whom. was that warrant signed ? By the Chief.
Justice of the Court of sings Bench ; before
stehom the prisoners, apprehended by the warrant,
must necessarily be tried, and who was only one
of 3000 M,g,istrates, any one of w'eom might
have signed the warrant to which the Lord Chief
Justice thought proper to affix his name. He dis-
claitned the least intention of throwing any imputa-
tion on the Lord Chief Justice in this transac-
tion, but referred for support in his opinion of the
impropriety to a pamphlet published under the au-
!fierily of the Chief Secretary himself, in Which the
Rt. Hon. Gent: at-ter vindicating the circular letter,
observed, that he had consulted Lord C. Manners
arid the Attorney-General, but that he bad not con-
sulted Lord Chief Justice Downs, because if any of ,
the individuals implicated had been brought to trial,
Lord Chief Justice Downs most have presided
in the Court, and that he (the Chief Secretary)
di chained any step which might cast a stain on
the purity of a Court of Justice. Yet,, strange
as it was, this very Chief Secretary had the
itsformations Icelged before this very Chief Jus-
tice, end procured the warrant to be signed by him !
they were manifestly introduced into the warrant
for the sole purpose of giving to that Ad a meaning,
which, if allowed, most have been fatal to the pri-
soners. Without going further into detail, he was
convinced that the conduct of the Irish Govern-
ment, through the w hole of the transaction, was ;
s •cli as to call for the fullest and most serious in-
quiry. A great change had of late taken place in
the sentiments of the people of both Itelarid and
England on the subjeat of the Catholic Claims.—
E.en in England there was at present • a much
stronger disposition than formerly to admit•those
charms. In Ireland a still stronger disposition of
that nature existed. Those very Protestants' in Ire-
land, who had entertained the most unfavourable
view of the objects of the Catholics, were unable to
resi-t tee impression prodtteed by a more 'intimate
knowle4,e of their virtues. It was a general and a
grower-1g wish among the Protestants, that their
Catholic brethren should be admitted to a pat (kip-
that of equal rights. He trusted that while the
Irish Protestants thus cast oil all prejudices. against
the Catholics, the English Protestants would nut
remain blind to' their value, nor continue to refuse
those advantages which would be derived, on corn-
muuicating to the Catholics a warm interest in the
wedare of the Empire. The law, as it at present
stood, did not exclude from the enjoyment of rights
the abandoned and unprincipled Atheist, or the
ignorant and confirmed bigot; but it excluded that
honourable class of society,: who, having rerounced
every Audrine -dangerous to the State, were too
coriscieutious to rencenceahe religion of their fore-
fathers.
Lord Cansroa-r argued at- considerable length
in favour of the motion.
Lord WESTMOR.LAND said, that he had too much
personal respect for the Nettle Earl in whew the
motion originated, and for the Noble Lords by
whom it bad been supported, to suppose they had
been actuated by any but a laudable motive. He
Lad ro-doubt that it was their intention to conciliate
the feelinga of the Catholics ; but by some strange
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