The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-07 00:00:00

those for which the supporters of the Treaty of Limerick
now contended.—(hear.)
Mr. PEEL—" No ; what General Ginckle said, was,
that these propositions were contrary to the laws Of Eng-
land."

Mr. S. RICE—The establishment of Roman Catholic 1•
Priests, and of the Roman Catholic Religion, was, in fact,
the grand objection. For that he had the authority of the
Right Hon. Gentleman himself—the authority also of
Lord Liverpool-_that if such measure were to be enacted,
it would be a violation of the King's Coronation Oath.
It so happened, that about the lot of August, 1691, a let-
ter was addressed to the Irish Government by General
tinkle, representing how absolutely necessary it was for
the peace of Europe that the Irish war should be termi-
nated. In short, while there was in the leish army a
French party, anxious for the continuance of resistance,
there was in the English army an English patty, which wan
desirous that no terms should be made with the Irish, hop-
ing, in the event of their defeat, to benefit by the for-
feitures and confiscations that would, no doubt, ensue. The
Government, however, stepped in, and, by concluding the
Treaty, did that which no other party could. If the terms
of the Treaty were so objectionable, how did it happen that
for so roan;- yearn no complaint was made of them ? When,
in fact, did the first notice of them take place ? When
Sir Tohy Butler was heard in the House of Lords against
the passing of an Act which went to deprive the Catholics
of many of their best privileges—that Act which first took
away from the Romeo Catholics the elective franchise.
That Act was, therefore, a gross violation of the Treaty
of Limerick. Sir Toby Butler thought so, and on that
precise groomd had he argued against the 13th section
of the Bill, which took from the Catholics the elective
franchise. Therefore, instead of its being a new doctrine
in favour of the repeal of the Catholic disabilities, to refer
that Treaty, it was an old doctrine, a doctrine of lawyers,
brought forward within the walls of Parliament; and al-
though Parliament had rejected it—for fortunately the
speech of Sir Toby Butler remained, and showed that the
feeling existed among persons who were cotemporaries of
those who had been parties to the Treaty. The Right
lion. Gentleman asked why, if that Act had been a vio-
lation of the Treaty of Limerick, the Irish Catholics had
not appealed to the British Parliament. What ! Were
they to apply to that Parliament which had just declared
the Irish wool trade a nuisance, and had addressed the
King, requesting of him to discourage it ? Ile admitted,
that in the government of King William there were
to be found many distinguished names—among others
that of one, au ornament to the science any the lite-
rature of the country (Sir Isaac Newton), who was
the then Master of the Mint. (A laugh.) Many other•
most excellent persons held office under that Government—
but neutralised as that Government had been, he would
ask, was it not quite vain to say to us that we had not
justice at our side--because in King William's time no
appeal had been made ? He was sorry to have intruded
so much at length upon the patience of the House, but re-
presenting as be did that place in which the Treaty bad
been concluded—representing persons, every one of whom
knew that Treaty by heart—having also a sort of here-
ditary right to contend for the observance of that Treaty—
he should not have been doing justice to them and to him-
self, had he refrained front presenting himself to the no-
tice of the House on that occasion. (Here the Hon.
Gentleman referred to the situation of the Catholics iu
the reign of Charles 11., when the first attempt was made
to exclude Catholics front Parliament, and to the manage-
ment of the Duke of Ormond, who had, first by pro-
roguing, and afterwards by dissolving that Parliament,
got rid of the Bill, time heads of which declared its object
to be the exclusion of Catholics from Parliament, and the
Duke of York from the succession to the crown). In
fact—and a roost remarkable fact it was—that it was not
until 1782, that Catholics had been really disenabled to
sit in Parliament. From the moment the Irish Parlia-
ment had declared that the English Parliament had no
right or title to bind his Majesty's subjects of Ireland—
from that moment the right of England to impose an oath
respecting the admission of members into the House of
Commons ceased. lie wished there were a legal tribunal
before which the question was to be decided, and he
would gladly and with pleasure join issue upon the con-
struction of the Treaty of Limerick. If any Hon. Gen-
tleman still continued to doubt on the subject, he entrea-
ted of him to recollect the nature and the situation of the
parties to it. That the Irish were the weaker party
could not be doubted ; yet, although previous to the con-
clusion of the Treaty a reinforcement of 18,000
men arrived to their assistance from France, the Irish
refused to avail themselves of them, and remained
faithful to the preliminary artieles.—(Hear, hear,
hear.) At that very time too a Prelate, from the
pulpit, in Dublin, in a political sermon, declared that no
faith ought to be kept with the Irish. It was a principle,
uniformly recognized, that wherever in the construction of
the ternis of a Treaty any doubt arose, to interpret them in
favour of the weaker party ; and bearing that principle in
mind, and looking at the subject under all its circumstances,
he was quite sure those Members would come to a conclu-
sion different from that of the Right lion. Gentleman.
They bad now at the head of the Government a great mi-
litary character—a man conversant with sieges and with
treaties—and he (Mr. S. Rice) would ask, if this had been
a Treaty by which the Government of Spain was conveyed
to her legitimate rulers, would it not be recognised and
enforced by the aid of all the PoWers in Europe ?—( Hear.)
Mr. Secretary PEEL explained.
_

Mr. MOORE rose to express his 'dissent from the views
taken of the Treaty of Limerick by the lion. Gentleman
(Mr. S. Rice), and some others who had preceded him
in the debate. That the exercise of their religion was all
that was intended to he conceded to tip! Catholics by the
Treaties of Limerick and Galway, would appear from a
document, alluded to by au historian who was eye-witness
of the events (the Rev. George Storey), namely—the pro-
clamation of the Chief Justices, promising to such of the
rebels as should submit, " that they should not be prose-
cuted or disturbed on account of their religion." The
Hon. Member concluded by expressing his hope that the
Right Hon. Gentleman, in moving fur a copy of the Treaty
of Limerick, would tnave also for a copy of that Proela•
'nation of the Chief Justices.

Mr. A. DAWSON trusted that if any argument used
by him, or the speakers on his side of the question,
should raise a doubt in the minds of their opponents, the
House would give the benefit of those doubts to the
weaker party.
The motion was• then put to tke vote, and agreed to
without opposition.