The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-04 00:00:00

one object, so in this measure he had but one object—
the interest of both countries.—(Cheers.) And he
trusted that, as he would in return meet the thankfulness
of the one, so in future tranquillity, 'e hen clamour passed
away, he would meet with honourable appreciation
from the other.—(Loud cheers.) He attached great
value to the measure for many reasons—not only
on account of the liberality of the largess con-
ferred, but also because it substituted a perma-
nent legislative endowment for an annual Par-
liamentary donation, and thus avoided what all
concurred in considering was desirable to avoid—the
periodical recurrence of theological disputation.—(Hear,
hear.) This would give, to use an Irish phrase, " fixity
of tenure to Maynooth," and he would state his opinion,
as reference had been made to the ulterior measures that
might be in contemplation by the Right Hon. Gentle-
man, at the hazard of occasioning dissertation and
criticism in Ireland—that, though they might not
attempt to take the Roman Catholic clergy under their
care, they ought to take the Catholic worship under
their protection.—(Cheers.) He thought that an
honourable distinction, without any degradation to any
party, between the Church and State could be effected
—a relation in return for which they should
expect, on the part of the Roman Catholic clergy,
no ignominious complaisance.—(Hear, hear.) He was
satisfied that the Roman Catholic clergy would reject
any stipend periodically paid at the Castle, at the plea-
sure of the Government—(Hear, hear.); but there could
be no objection raised against building Roman Catholic
places of worship, and glebe houses for the Roman Ca-
tholic clergy, without requiring from them any condi-
tions for the favours conferred upon them, thus making
them independent, giving them a true conservative
interest—he used the word in its general etymology
—in maintaining the institutions of the country,
and they would reap the benefit of the result.—
(Loud cheers.) Ile would not go into the history of
the origin of the grant to Maynooth ; but every
person knew that Edmund Burke, to whom
his Honourable Friend behind him had alluded,
was the man who suggested that Maynooth should be
established.—(Hear. hear.) He saw that French prin-
ciples and French morals should not be amongst the
imports of Ireland. He perceived that a French educa-
tion and a French fraternisation would be the con-
ductors between France, and the Gallo-Hibernian
establishment in Ireland would not be for the benefit of
the State.—(Cheers.) That was the origin of Maynooth,
and the Right Hon. Baronet was only carrying out the
principle of Edmund Burke. It was said that the mo-
dern Catholic priest was inferior to the old one ; but
Farquhar, the Irish dramatist, who was well acquainted
with his countrymen, drew a portrait of one, in
which the peculiarity of the Irish priest was drawn. It
should be recollected that the Irish priest was strug-
gling for Catholic emancipation against tithes, for mu-
nicipal reform, for the Registration Bill—for God's
sake let them have the Registration Bill in the spirit
in which this measure was enacted, if they wanted it
to be final.—(Cheers.) Let them give an interest—
an interest he would say to the Roman Catholic clergy,
and a perfect reconcilement would take place.—(llear.)
So much had been said about a contract, and its exist-
ence was demonstrated with so much clearness, that it
was hardly necessary for him to say a word upon the
subject.—(Hear.) The Learned Recorder for London
had indeed denied it—but his Court was not
a Court of equity, and though he spoke against the
Ministers, he accompanied his observation with a recom-
mendation for mercy. But this was a measure which
was not to be viewed in a small forensic, or scholastic
spirit, but in a spirit of equity and justice. What was
the objection to it? 9,0001. was already annually de-
voted to the purpose. The country had already under-
gone great change since this grant was made, and in
considering the policy of the measure before the House
they should recollect that a'greatpetamorphose had taken
place, and that no country had, in so short a
time, undergone so great a change, social, moral,
and political. When Maynooth was founded there
were only three millions of Catholics, now there were
seven. When Maynooth was founded there were only
two Catholics at the bar, now there had been a Catholic
Chief Baron, a Catholic Master of the Rolls, and four
Catholic Attorneys-General. When Maynooth was
founded there was no Catholic member of any corpora-
tion, now Catholics had a preponderance in corporate
bodies. When Maynooth was founded few Roman Ca-
tholics were educated, now the great bulk of the people
were receiving education. And when men were taught
to read, and write, and count, they would soon learn to
think ; and if the whole body of the people were en the
advance, ought the Catholic clergy to remain stationary?
A great revolution was taking place, and with it the
great Catholic Church must be carried on. Will this
measure benefit you ? Yes, because it will benefit us ;
for whatever benefits you confer upon us, you will reap
the benefits of. An establishment would be founded
where genius would be allured by legitimate remunera-
tion, and all those odious habits which parsimony caused
at Maynooth, would be done away with. If they edu-
cated the priesthood in a proper manner, and placed in
every district a gentleman in mind, as well as a scholar
in education, whose disposition had undergone a process
of refinement, they would do much for the country. The
objects of this measure had been gone through, and its
utility demonstrated. The Right Hon. Gentleman the
Recorder for London had talked about the profanit) of
educating laymen and clergymen in the same seminary.
He differed from the Right lion. Gentleman. In every
country on the continent the Roman Catholic clergy
were educated in ecclesiastical seminaries quite distinct
from the laity. Their ascetic habits—their habits of su-
bordination—their absence of all sensual indulgence,
indispensable to the formation of the Catholic priest,
could not be had in a mixed seminary of this sort. In
Trinity College, Dublin, he was satisfied at least that
four years out of the time of the course was not passed
in a manner the best adapted as a preparation
for the confessional. The priesthood of Ireland
were now moral. This could not be denied. They
were not only pure, but unsuspected. Some peo•
ple said that Maynooth presented nothing but rusticity,
where every individual brought his quota of contami•
nation. That was a mistake. He did not wish to see

the sons of the Catholic aristocracy entering the
Church. The duties of the Irish priesthood were such,
that men trained in habits of luxury would not be very
fit to perform them; and besides, they should remember
that some of the greatest ornaments of the Church were
men humbly born. Nature, as well as fortune, conferred
a nobility. Before the Reformation the mighty plebeians
stood up, and in the presence of the Norman Conqueror,
with the crozier turned aside the lance.—(Cheers.) Was
not that a circumstance that redounded great credit to
the Protestant Church, that men of the humblest birth
might be raised to the bench of Bishops, and take
a seat in the House of Lords—a Wolsey taking
precedence of an Earl Marshal of England.
With respect to the cost, there was great economy—great
housewifery. They did not complain of the expense of
the State prosecutions, nor of the expense of maintaining
a great military force there or a large constabulary.
They should educate a moral police, of which they would
soon find the benefit. Something had been said about
idolatry. It was inconsistent with their consciences to
propagate an untruth, but was it inconsistent with their
consciences to make an annual grant for the
maintenance of Catholicity in the colonies?—(Hear.)
26,0001. in the estimation of those Gentlemen was a venial
sin, but 9,0001. for Maynooth was a mortal sin.—
(Laughter.) Such was the casuistry of Kent.—(Re-
newed laughter.) When they saw the Catholic religion
subsisting as it had done since the establishment of Chris
tianity, resuscitated in countries where it was supposed
to be extinct,' traversing the whole world, immortal and
immutable, it was not with feelings of resentment, but
with feelings of love that he had listened to the speech of
the Hon. Member for Kent. There was no reason for
these attacks on the Catholics. He would not enter into
any argument with those baneful allies of darkness, who
with that horrid sophistication which rendered men
the plague among their species, because theh, and
t ene-
mies of human hope, the obliterators of light,
the messengers of despair. The Roman Catholic
Church had been represented as a failure couplet, but he
would assert, for the honour of that Church, that its
mighty influence had for ages been actively at work in
the amelioration of manners, the exaltation of intellect,
and the promotion of that refining principle which freed
mankind from the debasing influence of this lower earth,
and left them to follow the natural elevation of their
higher nature. In this respect, at least, the Catholic
Church had borne salutary fruit. Was there any man
who dared to say that the condition of the country had
not been improved by the exertions of the Roman
Catholic priesthood? With these facts before them, ho
did not think that any Government had the right to
ground public legislation on the convictions for personal
theology, and he believed that to act upon this prin-
ciple would be to degrade those lofty maxims of policy
on which an empire like this ought to be governed. If
they would look at the position in which the country
was placed, they would find a sufficient answer to all the
objections which had been urged in the consideration of
this question, and so great did he deem the position of
the Prime Minister of England, that he thought that all
that was little and insignificant might well be disre-
garded, and nothing but what was great, noble, and large
ought to enter into his contemplation. If they would
but look at the British empire they would see an
island contiguous to their own, in which they would find
every principle developed which was ennobling to human
nature—a country whose history was full of deeds of
lofty heroism and determined principle. They would
find Spencer, Burke, Grattan, and a host of others,
whose names would live while the world endured. They
would see a country filled with chivalrous men, whose
heart beat with sympathies as deep, as generous, as
active as their own. They would see a country rich in
resources and teeming with fertility, and whose manifold
advantages must prove of inestimable advantage to the
whole empire. They would see such a spectacle as
would elevate their ideas of all that was great
an exalted, and the aspirations of which
were worthy respect, if ever anything was worthy of
consideration and respect. He would there assert
that the policy of Government ought not to be
directed by personal religious predilection. Let Eng-
land do justice to Ireland, and Ireland would have to
appreciate the justice of England, and he trusted that
the great Minister who had brought in this measure of
kindness and conciliation might turn with a disdainful
smile from those who professed to found all their appro-
bation on motives of mere political expediency. Let not
the maxims ofGovernment be founded on the principles of
a small philosophy, and he would advise the Right Hon.
Baronet to fling the seals of office to the winds, rather
than not proceed in the path of honour and justice to
that hourne which was the consummation of his bright-
est hopes—(Loud cheering.)
Mr. DUNCOMBE said that he should oppose this
grant on three grounds—first, on its permanency ; se-
cond, on the sources from whence it was to be
derived ; and third, the purposes to which it was to be
applied. On the same principle that he had opposed
church rates, should be vote against this grant.
They first of all plundered the Irish Roman Catholics
of their revenues, and then by way of reprisal they
took it out, of' the pockets of the English people,