The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-28 00:00:00

CATHOLIC MEETING at MANCHESTER.

On Tuesday evening a Meeting of persons pro-
fessing the Roman Catholic Religion, was held in
the Mechanics' Institution, for the purpose of con-
sidering the propriety of petitioning Parliament for
the Repeal of the Laws affecting that body. The
Meeting was called for seven o'clock, andleiythg aili:vatles
top be d
past thatel hour,and the s
thegallery,trsand
in wfiieitthe me
passages leading to it,
a veryss e s
were literally crammed; the greater part composed
respec-
otarhmlee
spchrainnikelsi
ng and
of
personsoperati‘' operatives,
tbutl:
e Ilwithpr la
Tilos. BoonntAN, jun. Esq. was unanimonsly
called to the Chair.
The Rev. Mr. CROOKE, (a Roman Catholic
Priest) came forward to propose the first Resolu-
tion. He said the proposition- was simply, that an
inalienable right which every man ought toposses3,
was the right of worshipping his God according to
his own conscience, without any curtailment of his
civil rights.
Mr. GREENOUGH seconded the Resolution, which
was carried unanimously.
The Rev. H. GieLow (a Roman Catholic Priest)
proposed the second Resolution, nearly as follows :
When I came to the meeting 1 did not intend to
take any part in it, but since I came a Resolution
has been thrust into my hand. The Resolution
maintains the loyalty of the Roman Catholics to the
House of Brunswick. With respect to our allegi-
ance to the Pope, I say it is entirely and purely
confined to religion--to spiritual concerns. (Ap-
plause.) It has nothing to do with civil matters.
The Pope may appoint fast days; days of abstinence,
he may make alterations in the discipline of the
Church, but he has nothing to do with civil rights,
with the making of laws, with declarations of war,
or indeed with any thing civil; and if ever the Pope
should step out of the pale of the Church, if he
should interfere with our civil rights, the Catholics
would meet him sword in hand. (Applause.) Were
the Pope to send his Roman legions to invade our
shores, and were he to effect a landing, though he
were backed by all his foreign Bishops and all their
power, we should consider it our duty to command
you--to Command all our congregations to arms,
to march forward and meet him in the field.—
(Loud and continued cheers.) We should command
you to gird on your swords and meet him; and if he
should present himself at the heed of his troops, and
fall by the hands of a Catholic, we would raise a
monument to the man that laid him low. (Tre-
mendous cheering.) SuCh is the nature of our alle-
giance to the Pope. But we are supposed to be
naturally disloyal : indeed, every means have been
taken to render us so. Only look at the late war.
During that period were there not thousands and
tens of thousands of Catholics led to Catholic coun-
tries to fight -against Catholic armies ? That was
the time for.them to show their disloyalty, when by
joining the enemy they could have driven the British
lines back into the ocean. But no sooner were they
ordered to advance than they rushed on like lioas ;,
and even the Duke of Wellington had declared that
there were not in his army braver or-better soldiers
than the Catholics. (Applause.) This conduct
belies the accusation of our disloyalty. They say
we are disloyal, and yet they intrust all that is dear
to them to our loyalty !
The Reverend Gentleman sat down amidst loud
cheering. • •
Mr. THOMAS TURNER seconded the motion, which
was carried unanimously.
Mr. ROBINSON proposed, and Mr. COUPE second-
ed, the third Resolution, which was also passed
unanimously.
Mr. RosSON, after some observations on the mis-
chiefs produced by the oppressive laws against the
Catholics, prleeeded to state that a number of opu-
lent individuals have formed a society in this coun-
try, with a view of investing capital in Ireland; in
the establishment of manufactures, in the redemp-
tion of land, and, thereby, to extend the foreign and
domestic trade of that country—an undertaking pro.
fitable as it is patriotic, if steadily, patiently, and
systematically followed up. The gentlemen who
compose the society are persons who, from their
wealth, can (to use a mercantile phrase) afford to lie
out of such capital as they subscribe, for an indefi-
nite period. The individuals who have thus deter-
mined to act, are, to a man, Protestants. I received
my retainer to proceed to Ireland at the termination
of the Autumn circuit, and was selected from the cir-
cumstance of its being known to some that I had
received part of my education in commercial pursuits
at Liverpool, as a preparation for the study of com-
mercial law, in the practice whereof in that town,
I commenced my legal career. I feel bound also to
state, that the share of professional support I have
hitherto received has emanated, exclusively, from
members of the Established Church, and of
the Presbyterian and Methodist communities.—
I was sent to Ireland by my opulent and patriotic
clients, as their Counsel, to represent, when and
how I should in my discretion think fit, the senti-
ments with which they were impressed, viz, that
until tranquillity were assured--and it could not, in
their judgment, be otherwise assured than by the
concession of equal political rights—they had passed
a resolution, subject to be modified by my repro,
not to embark a single guinea, though fully prepared
to invest large sums, until that consummation so
devoutly to be wished. My report, after travelling
nearly over the whole island, has fully confirmed
them in their original determination. I have stated
to many leading Irish Protestants—to those in
particular who are incurably hostile to the en-
franchisement of their Catholic fellow-subjects,
that my clients considered the political relief of
the Catholic population a condition precedent to
any effectual amelioration of the state of Ire-
land—that the existing differences were so many
obstacles to the safe employment of the capital
they were anxious to invest—that every part of the
British empire ought to be open to every British
subject wherein to embark his wealth,
and carry on
his lawful business—that the penal code, which had
begun by degrading the Irish Catholic, had at
length involved in its serpent coil, the Protestant
and his best interests, by lessening the value of the •
land wherewith the Irish Protestant is so largely en-
dowed, and deterring the English Protestant capita-
list from settling in a country (and thus strengthen-
ing Protestant interests) which offered advantages
beyond any other to the merchant, the manufac-
turer, and the agriculturist. Such were the senti-
ments and opinions I was commissioned to express.
I had the opportunity of calmly and privately stating
them to many men unhappily wedded to a system of
misrule, calculated only, by perpetuating dissension,
to let foreign nations into the secret of the weakness
of the right arm of England. The same, in sub-
' stance, I had also the honour of urging at the two
great Provincial Meetings in Leinster, holden at
Kilkenny and Mullingar. But, if the Ascendancy
Party are slow to take the advice of Englishmen of
their own creed sincerely inclined to assist, with
mind and means, in the great work of the rege-
neration of their country, let them listen to the
statement of an independent and able Protestant
of the North, who dwells among them, and who has
unanswerably shown that their system, so far from
maintaining, as they fondly think, their, (hiding pe wer,
is actually driving into voluntary exile the Pro.
testant yeomanry, the artisan, and small trader, the
sinews of their own body. I quote the writer $
words :—" Emigration has gone on increasing In a
fearful ratio. The roads to Belfast au, every day,
literally crowded with people going into voluntary
exile. I have just seen a procession of emigrants
going down High street to the quay, in grotiv. that
would require the pen of Scott and the pencil of
Wilkie to describe and delineate, My friends in the
North require not to be told of what religious per-
suasion the great majority of those persons tire who
annually quit Ireland for North Ameriw and should
the stranger in Ireland, as lie lingers on his way
some spring or autumn evening, be attracted by a
spectacle which will recal to his mind the beautiful
description of Goldsmith, while the melancholy
notes of music fall upon his ear, as they breathe
forth the farewell of the emigrants to those they
leave behind them—let him stop tQ pontemplate the

f bothjlin
give
n ,:
;
group that follows the heavy laden waggon, as it
winds slowly up the hill; and when the parting is
over; when, amidst tears and sobs, not alone the
tears that flow from the warm heart of youth,
and the sighs that burst from the breast of
woman, but tears that scald the furrowed cheek
of age, and sobs that shake the frame of manhood,
let the stranger, I say, make enquiry into the little
stories of the wanderers, and he will find, in nine
eases out of ten, that those who are going into
voluntary exile are Protestants." Thus it is, that
the unnatural system that has too long prevailed in
Ireland, has made that unhappy country in its pre-
sent state, no longer worth living in, even to the
Protestant—who happens to possess a little capital
and skill ; that capital and skill he can carry to a
better market, to a land of real liberty, where par-
tisan'Magistrates and religious discord are unknown;
where every citizen, without distinction of sect or
creed, is eligible, and, if duly qualified by talents and
knowledge, may aspire to the highest offices in the
by turns the victims of-this rottenness
ri
:she
andtie d ;1e diseaset
o State. Thus it is that Protestant and Catholic. are
the State, drawing influential individuals
creeds from their private affairs to act as mediators
betwirritationeenoafst contendingite heinjured
rtendessto to
theparties,and
dark vapour
of the dungeon, and ease to the throbbing; of
a broken heart;"---like the female Samaritans, the
Beguines, following the march of two mighty ad-
verse hosts, to dress the wounded and comfort the
dying after the conflict, these great and good men
yet maintain the peace of Ireland. But they are as-
sisted by those whom I heard a Minister of the
Crown declare to be the " unpaid police of Ireland"
—men who pass their lives, day and night, in the
never-ending performance of their sacred duties—in
offering up the public sacrifice, preaching the word
to the faithful, instructing little ones, carrying the
alms of the church into the hiding-places of the Iln-
fortunne, turning the desolate cabins, where the
potatoe-pot and last blanket have been sold to liqui-
date rent, already paid to a middleman, into public
asylums for age, and indigence, and disease; tra-
versing, with their blistered and venerable feet, the
depths of the valleys and the sharp summits of the
mountains, to dispense knowledge and the comforts
of religion among the innocent inhabitants of rich
but uncultivated plains, watered by noble streams,
running to waste, and terminating, as they roll their
majestic waters to the ocean, in most safe,
most commodious, but shipless harbours !
yes, the virtuous course pursued by the ca-
lumniated priest to preserve the morality of his
flock, and iusulcate obedience to the laws, has
been adopted by an illustrious Irishman, to keep
alive the patriotism of the people, the chieftain of
his clan, who has quitted his native mountains to
assert his country's liberties. In the midst of a
wild and romantic country, of vast extent, the pa-
trimony of his house, I saw him give the little leisure
snatched to repair the ravages of continual labour ;
aye, even during the casual pauses of sport in a
mountain hunt, I saw him seated on a rock, admi-
nistering justice to his grateful tenantry, who fol-
lowed him in crowds, anti referred all their litigation
and disagreement to tile pure equity of his decisions.
I saw those against whom he decided, convinced of
its propriety, leave him with blessings. What a
contrast does not the conduct of O'Connell (cheers)
furnish to the present race of our enemies; who,
when asked to concede rights purely civil, dwell only
upon what they call the errors of our religious sys-
tem. Without enlarged views as citizens of the in-
terests of their country, and with minds clouded with
the odium theoltigieunt, they become peculiarly dis-
qualified to legislate on the question of conces-
sion of civil privileges. In truth, these men live
in a territory of their own; see every thing
by :preposterous rule, are inaccessible to argu-
ment. They resemble, as Lord Plunkett observ-
ed of them, wrecks lying high and dry, bilged
and stranded, around which tho returning tide of
argument, though it flow twice a day, would flow in
vain. Another mighty intellect, Lord Bacon, de-
scribes similar persons in his time, who were in the
habit of arguing, approVing a little, asserting a great
deal, and then jumping to a conclusion. After some
further observations on the conduct of the Brung.
wickers, Mr. Rossetti said, it remains for the Mini-
sters of the Crown to consider, independently of
every motive of justice and sound policy which has
been reiterated, from year to year, by every man de-
serving the name of Statesman, whether it be wise
to persevere in a system whose ramified mischiefs
have begun to neutralize the efforts of commercial
enterprise, and check the investment of capital in a
country, above all others, calculated to yield a sure
return—whether it be wise in the Noble Duke at
the head of his Majesty's Government to pursue a
course which must inevitably tend to, place a power.
ful moneyed interest, in addition to all he has now
to struggle with, in constitutional opposition to his
meastires ? The !seemed Gentleman concluded his
speech amidst the most tremendous cheering we
ever heard, and which lasted for some minutes. He
then read the resolution, and proposed three cheers
for old Ireland. We should think the Irishmen
must have mistaken his meaning, for they gave
nearer forty than three cheers.
Mr. LED: seconded the Resolution, which was
carried' with great enthusiasm.
Mr. JOHN BOOTH:HAN proposed a vote of thanks
to the gentlemen who had signed the counter-de-
claration to the 13runswickers, in last week's papers'.
Mr. GRAY seconded the motion.
The Rev. Mr. MARROCKS read the petition, which
was nearly a transcript of the Resolutions just pa‘;sed,
and moved its adoption.
Mr. PATRICK SPENCE, the soldier who some time
ago obtained some notoriety by a speech in defence
of his religion, delivered at a meeting at Liverpool,
seconded the motion.
Mr. Rossos moved, and Mr. DELAIYNEY seconded,
a Resolution, that the petition should be sent to Lord
Stanley, to be presented by him to the House of
Commons, and that to the House of Lords by his
revered father, the Earl of Derby.
The Chairman having left the Chair, it was sakes,
by the Rev. Mr. Crooke, when the thanks of the
meeting were given by acclamation to Mr. Booth-
man, for his gentlemanly and conciliating conduct in
the Chair.
Mr. BOOTHMAN returned thanks.
The Meeting, after giving three cheers for Old
Ireland, and three for Daniel O'Connell and the
Catholic Association, broke up at a quarter before
ten o'clock.
The following were the resolutions passed at the
Meeting :
" That it is the inalienable right of every man to
worship God according to the dictates of a sincere
conscie
• nee without being subjected to the curtail-
ment of civil privileges.
,‘ That the loyalty of the Catholic Body has been
unimpeachable through many years of persecution,
and that they now yield to no class of his Majesty's
subjects in devoted attachment to the House of
Brunswick.
"That the continued and exclusive debasement of
one-third of the gross population of these kingdoms
has pradueed a state of society which every good
Chnistian and loyal subject must deplore; that,
whilst it severs the endearing ties of society, it de-
stroys the most effective energies of the empire,
whether of peace or of war • and that these evils
must increase so long as the 'Roman Catholic Body
are singled out as objects of degradation.
" The concessions of our claims would allay the
spirit of just discontent that pervades the Irish
people and their brethren in Great Britain, and tend
to remove both the cause of absenteeism, and en-
courage the introduction of British wealth and skill,
anti industry into Ireland--whereby not only em•
ployment would be given to the starving paputolon
of that much.injured country, but large returns made
to England herself, by multiplying the agricultural
productions of Ireland, and increasing the consump-
tion of British manufactures ; thus mutually opening
new sources of opulence, and strength, and great.
nest to the empire at loge."