The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-22 00:00:00

much for that as for the principle of prottqgfriFE—_
rteitrien of the majority of the people of t tit'do ttirYM:4ll7
at d he did think that if it had been so contrary as it
was represented to be to the sentiments of the
peel le of England, tbey would have had annual and
repeated meetings at Exeter-hall to express the feelings
of the people against it. The grant, he must confess,
derived in his opinion great importance from the
way in which her Majesty's Government had acted in
making the grant. Their mode of proceeding evi-
dently' showed that there was to be a new policy
pursued with respect to religion. Sir R. Inglis, and the
Gentlemen who had acted with him, had endeavoured to
fasten on her Majesty's Government last night,
a disregard of the wishes of the people ; but
he had found that the dislike of the people
of this country was rather to the source from
which the means e-ere to be derived, than to the
purpose to which those means were to be applied.
lie had himself presented many petitions against this
13111, but there was not one which did not dwell on •
that particular point It seemed to him that there
could be no -grounds whatever for the objections
raiaed by the Honourable Colonel who had just
sat duwr, and the Right Honourable Baronet the
Member for Oxford, and by the Recorder for the City
of London. They at least were not opposed to ecclest-
eaxsttienai,lietriticlemow;ments They would have no of to
provided those extensions were made to
the church to 'ivhich they belonged.—(hear, hear.)
It did not seem to him, therefore, that that principle
was fouticled on religious grounds. lie could not under-
stand how Hon. Members could imagine that Ireland
could he governedesuccesfully by the system of exclud •
ing from the benefits of State provisions six millions of
people, ought of a population of eight millions He had
we heard the Hon. Gentleman state by what other sys-
tem leelard could be governed than that of concession,
The lion. Member who had just spoken had said that
concession after concession had been made, aid yet
there was no benefit derive d. Was he (Lord H. Vane)
to think that the Hon. Geeth man desired to govern Ire-
land lily force ? He would like to know whether that
had not In en tried—whetheri had not been unsuccessful,
tied whether on account of its non-success the Govern-
ment had been obliged to adopt the principle of con-
cession which hai been so long recommended to them ?
There was one argument which he had heard, that cer-
mite parties, rather than consent to this measure, would
eencede repeal ; and they gave this reason, that they
could never agree to endow a religion from which they
so widely differed. But they should remember that
while the doctrines of Roman Catholicism remained the
principles of the great majority of the people of Ireland,
this was the only mode by which justice could be ren-
dered an injured, and conciliation made to an exasperated,
people. Deeming the proposition expedient, because it
was just, he should give the Government, in their
attempt to accomplish it, his most sincere and ,cordial
support.—(Cheers.)
Mr. COLQUHOUN would abstain from treating the
question in a religious or polemical point of view, as it
had already been discussed in that form so- ably, by the
Wght Hon. Baronet the Member for the University of
Oxford. last night, although the dense anal most legi-
mate feeling of the country decidedly was opposed to it
on those grounds. But he would rather treat it as a
question of State policy, and follow the Noble Lord who
preceded him, in considering it in that light. The rea-
son why this petition had not been signed by more than
nine clergymen was, because, as the Bishop of Cashel
had stated to him, it had not been sent to him in time,
before the nine clergymen who had signed it had un-
guardedly put it in the newspapers.—(Laughter.) He
could not see that there was anything very ludicrous in
that. His correspondent fiirther stated that he had got
another petition, signed in Dublin by over 260 Protestant
clergymen, and that, in fact, the Protestant clergymen of
Ireland were unanimously against it. If his Right Hon.
Friend understood the position of Ireland as well as his
friend the Recorder did, he would not be surprised at
the Protestant clergy not coming forward uponoccasions
of this kind, because they dreaded being denounced by
the Roman Catholic priests. He had received two letters,
one of which was from.the Rev. Mr. Pool, who lived in
the CounteeTipperary, and the writer stated that in his
parish there were eight Protestants upon whom mur-
derous assaults had been committed ; for of these bad
fallen victims, and two had been mutilated for life.
This showed the state of alarm in which the Rev. Gen-
tleman lived. The other gentleman, whose letter be
held in his hand, was a clergyman of the name of
O'Grady, who lived near Castlecary. He stated that
he and another clergyman had been attacked on
their way to church. He said he knew of nothing that
he had done to give offence, except that he had been
the means of converting two Roman Catholic families.—
(Hear, hear, from Mr. Sergeant Murphy.) Did the
Hon. Gentleman mean by that cheer that the people of
Ireland were in such a state of vassalage that they dared
not change their religion if they pleased ?—(Cheers.)
He would now briefly state his objections to this mea-
sure. When the Conservative party were in Opposition,
the House must well re-collect the position which they
task with respect to Irish affairs. If that party wished
to maintain a character for consistency, they ought to
adhere to those principles which they maintained when
in Opposition. However strong the feeling of the lower
classes of Protestants in Ireland against the Catholics,
he thought that the feeline; amongst the better classes
had been much modified. As far as the Roman Catho-
lics were concerned, he believed that the better party
then in Ireland had a desire- to put a stop to that agita-
tion which was at present existing in that coun-
try, and which prevented the introduction of
capital into Ireland. If the Government would
act on a straightforward principle, they would have a
strong Roman Catholic party upon their side. The Go-
vernment, however, seem inclined to conciliate the par-
ties which were now agitating Ireland. One party had
a powerful organ called the Nation. Its articles were
full of vigour, fire, and animation, and he had read them
with touch pleasure. a, they were so eell written,
that it almost made one wish to be a rebel to write such
fiery language and to read such writing. This party,
therefore, was a dangerous one, and it was most dan-
gerous to attempt to admit its claims. What had been the
conduct of the Government in dealing with these parties
in Ireland ? They brought in the Bequests Act last
session, and no objection was to be raised to that mea-
sure. It had, however, been denounced by a large party
in Ire-land ; but it was applauded by the Young Ireland
party, or the party represented by the Action. Mr.
O'Connell, in Conciliation Hall, had said, that before he
could give it his support he must have the imprimatur
of the Catholic clergy. The Nation contended that no
reference was to be made to the clergy. Iu this, how-
ever, the two parties were cordially agreed, namely,
in the wish for the severance of England from Ireland.
The Irish part of her Majesty's Government was not so
strong as the English part of the Government, while it
ought to have been the strongest. The Nation, or re-
publican party in Ireland, said this, and agitation of
course sprang up. There was the agitation of the
O'Connell party, and the agitation of the Nation party,
both parties having one object—the severance of the
two countries. Such was the state of the north of Ire-
land at the time of the monster meetings that the Under-
Secretary for Ireland had declared his conviction that
the peace of those districts was seriously threatened. A.
circumstance had been reported to him (the Under-
Secretary) that a Roman Catholic and a Protestant who
had been previously walking together in feelings of
perfect amity, had then separated in jealous defiance;
each went out at night armed, having
his house bar-
ricaded, and lived in distrust, if not hatred, towards the
other. His Hon. Friend, Mr. Lucas, had felt that
if the Irish Protestants rose in the north, the Roman
Catholics in the south would be equally exaspe-
rated, and the peace of the country be endan-
heenisyoubgehtfoltioorwepdowbeyrsthtoo
prevent a crisis w
gered. In the t emergency
ocuyld
most fatal consequences. He had applied for powers,
but to whom ? Was it to the military ? Was it to the
constabulary ? No, he entrusted the safety of Ireland to
ecn
the Protestant Church, and to the clergy of that coun-
try.—(Hear, hear) He besought them to use all their
influence over the naturally irritated feelings of their
flocks ; they bad, to their honour, adopted that course ;
and to them, he feared not to avow, was owing the pre-
servation of the peace of Ireland.—(Cheers.) If such
had been the course of the Protestant Church in Ireland,
what had been the conduct of that House towards it ?
(Hear, hear.) Why, when that Church approached the
Government with a request—not asking for sordid emo-
lument, nor for increased revenues, but asking for secu-
rity throughout the country, urging truly, "You have put
down our Protestant associations, put down also repeal
organisation; you have put down our Orange lodges, put
down their monster meetings." And when they asked
for a- grant to their schools, as was accorded the
English Dissenters, not wishing to put down the system
of national education, though fro its principles they
conscientiously differed, but asking the House to give
them, for the instruction of their 100,000 Protestant
children the same as they freely bestowed on the 35,000
Roman Catholic children, what was the Right Hon.
Baronet's reply?—;Cheers.) When the request was
preferred by the meekest prelate on either Bench, dig-
nified by noble blood, but better by Christian charity,
ay
INwleowwmofhiar6otl:asthrrotieeotolrni
aoillaiu,ndfdt
treated
bid:
its
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iniaoddt
aneitw3f:h:aetnelt
orsa
sheeppeiantvrrrfficiecooleouilpitnadtay)
ltset.hrae_eseietdl
na;etl:ido(n incivility.—(Hear.)
mightear ge.
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ya
almost
Andprayer now,
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Theßu t
article scoffing
and spurning it as a sop, and that was the feeling of the
of quoting jiigginass, %alinoraautthheorßitieg• hth laido ns
p.
(Teruo n eetqwu
aalslys op fl omn.
nd.
important section it represented—(Hear, hear)—and
But if they wanted a proof
of the working of such a sys-
tem as the one now proposed, they had only to look at
France, where the Monarch had been obliged to entreat
the leader of the Opposition to extricate him from th e
difficulties which the Roman Catholic establishments
had entailed. If such were the danger attending a sys-
tem in a country where the Bishops and clergy of the
Roman Catholic Church were nominated by the Go-
vernment, and therefore fettered by the obliga•
tions, and kept in submission to the yoke
of their supporters, what was to be expecte' d
from establishments held under no controul ?
The Parliament here had no such hold on the. Church etf
Ireland, they possessed no veto in the nomination of
their bishops, they could not degrade fur misconduct,
nor punish fur resistance. Yet, with all these advan-
tages on the side of France, what was its position ? The
Right Hon. Baronet, in 1838, in adopting the views a
the Member ter Selkirkshire, who, to his honour, had
course than another Member, who had preferred
place
to
preferred principle to place, a somewhat more creditable
not of Popery—for
hear")—had talked 'of the progress,
n from even escaping
that word had been sacredly guarded
• either principle or reason—(Laud cries of Hear,
Roman Catholics
Catholics, but of that section. of the
' • Europe, who wished to subordinate civil
government ecclesiastical rule.—(Hear, hear.)
the lips of the Right Bon, Baronet—norßoomf the Roman
government to
lie would ask him whether, after the recent experience
of France, reduced to such straits as that country was
by the ultra-montane party—whether, after such ex..