The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-29 00:00:00

^onstructive crime, find its way amongst us ; b It, thank
God, it is not to England that I am driven exclusively
to refer for a solitary example of the aversion of twelve
honest men t.) prosecutions for conspiracy. You remem-
ber the prosecution of Forbes, and of Handwich, and
other Orangemen of an inferior class, under Lord Wel-
lesley's adminstration; they were guilty of a riot in the
theatre, but ,they were charged with having entered into
a great political confederacy to upset Lord Wellesley's
Government, and to associate him with the" exports of
Ireland." The Protestant feeling of Ireland rose—ad-
dresses were poured in from almost every district in
the country, remonstrating against a proceeding which
was represented ai hostile to the liberties of the country,
and a great stretch of the prerogative of the Crown.
The jury did their duty, and refused to convict the tra-
versers. I recollect that the Irish Catholics at that
time, heated by feelings of partisanship, were rash
enough to wish for a conviction. Fatal mistake ! A
precedent would have been created, which would soon
have been converted into practice against themselves.

self upon a similar occasion. The hour for intimidation
was passel. Sir Walter Scott, after detailing in-
stances of the violence of Whi' she], and describing
the rest of the Dean's letters, says —" Thus victoriously
terminated the first grand struggle for the independence
of Ireland. The eyes of the kingdom were now moved
with one consent, upon the man by whose unbending for-
titude and pre-eminent talent this triumph was accom-
plished. The Draper's head became the sign ; liis por-
trait was engraved, worn upon handkerchiefs, struck
upon medals, and displayed in every possible manner as
the Liberator of Ireland. Well might that epithet
"grand," be applied to the first grand struggle of the
people of Ireland by that immortal Scotchman, who was
himse!f so "grand of soul," and who, of mental loftiness,
as well as of the magnificence of external nature, had a
perception so fine; and well might our own Grattan, who
was so great and so good, in referring to his own achieve-
ment, in 1782, addresses to the spirit of Swift, and to
the spirit of Molyneux, his enthusiastic invocation. And
may not I, in such a cause as this, offer up my prayer,
that of the spirit by which the soul of Henry Grattan was
itself influenced, every remnant in the bosoms of my
countrymen may not be extinguished. A prosecution
was not instituted against the great conspirators of 1782.
The English Minister had been taught in the struggles
between England and her colonies a lesson from ad-
versity, that schoolmistress, the only one from whom
Ministers ever learn anything—who charges so much
blood, so much gold, and such torrents of tears, for her
instructions. In reading the history of that time, and
in tracing the gradual descent of England from the tone
of despotic dictation to the reluctant acknowledg-
ment of disaster, and to the ignominious confession
of defeat, how many painful considerations are
presented to us ! If in time—if the English Mi-
nister in time had listened to the eloquent warnings of
Chatham, or to the still more oracular admonitions of
Edmund Burke, what a world of woe would have been
avoided ! By some fatality, English was first demented,
and then was lost. Her repentance followed her per-
dition. The colonies were lost ; but Ireland was saved
by the timely recognition of the great principle on which
her independence was founded. No Attorney-General
was found bold enough to prosecute Flood and Grattan
for a conspiracy. With what scorn would twelve Irish-
men have repudiated the presumptuous functionary by
whom such an enterprise should huve been attempted.
Irishmen then felt that they had a country ; they acted
under the influence of that instinct of nationality,
which, for His providential purposes, the author of nature
has implanted in us. We were then a nation—we
were not broken into fragments by those dissensions by
which we are at once enfeebled and degraded. If we
were eight millions of Protestants (and, Heaven forgive
me, there are moments when, looking at the wrongs
done to my country, I have been betrayed into the
guilty desire that we all were) ; but if we were eight
millions of Protestants, should we be used as we are ?
Should we see every office of dignity and emolument in
this country filled by the natives of the sister island ?
Should we see the just expenditure requisite for the im-
provement of our country denied ? .Should we see the
quit and crown rents of Ireland applied to the improve-
ment of Charing-cross or of Windsor Castle ? Should
we submit to the odious distinctions between English-
men and Irishmen introduced into almost every Act
of legislation ? Should we bear with an Arms Bill,
by which the Bill of, Rights is set at nought ?
Should we brook the misapplication of a poor law ?
Should we allow the Parliament to proceed as if we had
not a voice in the legislature? Should we submit to our
present inadequate representation? Should we allow a
new tariff to be introduced, without giving us the
slightest equivalent for the manifest less we have sus-
tained ? And should we not peremptorily require that
cdrvst
eehoi
distinctions
tnte Imperialdsnit
borocfycyuft rsioauel
distinctionsnahpl
sn t
powerful,
t eer:
co
operating
es then
snt wouldinestdtahi
saetbfl
yroyo ruaboaresue:
interests
sdiannen otg detestable
tl
oseu wretchedranoobdub
onlyer
e
to a colonial dependency,
e
h
repugnant to the genuine spirit of Christianity, and thesub-
stitute ar
paifn
urr But
tmuaceon it
and,tsoni
from
awoteroennooa
re
a af Irish should hold a
business periodicali
n t
h metro-
polis s e s
fur the charities of religion the rancorous anti-
pathies of sect ; but because they practically reduce us
make the union a name, con-
vert a nation into an appurtenance, make us the footstool
of the Minister, the scorn of England, and the commise-
ration of the world. Ireland is the only country in
Europe in which abominable distinctions between Pro-
testant and Catholic are permitted to continue. In Ger-
many, where Luther translated the' Scriptures ; in
France, where Calvin wrote the Institutes ; aye, in the
land of the Dragonades and the St. Bartholomews ; in
the land from whence the forefathers of one of the judi-
cial functionaries of this Court, and the first Ministerial
officer of the Court, were barbarously driven—the mu-
tual wrongs done by Catholic and Protestant are for-
given and forgotten, while we, madmen that we are,
arrayed by that fell fanaticism which, driven from
every other country in Europe, has found a refuge
here, precipitate ourselves upon each other in those
encounters of sectarian ferocity in which our
country, bleeding and lacerated, is trodden under foot,
and our island, which might be the noblest in the world,
is miserably degraded, and her national resources un-
developed by those who counteract the designs of nature
and who become conspirators against the Providence of
God. To the prosperity of our country, architecture
has left us its magnificent attestation. This temple de-
dicated to justice, stands among the witnesses, silent and
solemn, of the glory of Ireland, to which I may appeal.
It is seen from afar off. It rises high above the smoke
and din of this populous city; it is the type of that moral
elevation, over every contaminating influence, to which
every man who is engaged in the sacred administration
of justice can ascend. The penal laws were enacted by
slaves and relaxed by freemen. The Protestants of Ire-
land had been contented to kneel to England upon the
Catholic's neck. They rose to a nobler attitude,
and we were permitted to get up. In 1782,
the Protestants of Ireland, who had acquired
political rights, communicated civil privileges to
their fellow-subjects. In 1793 they granted us the elec-
tive franchise—a word of illustrious etymology. There
can be no doubt that the final adjustment of the Catho-
lic question upon terms satisfactory to both parties
would have been effected, and without putting the coun-
try to that process of fearful agitation through which it
has passed, if the rebellion of 1798, so repeatedly, and
with a sincerity so unaffected, denounced by Mr. O'Con-
nell, had not marred the hopes of the country and essen-
tially contributed to the Union. Mr. Pitt borrowed his
plan of the Union-from that great soldier to whom the
gentry of this country are under obligations so essential.
It must be acknowledged, however, that they make up
the zeal of their loyalty for the republican origin of
their estates. Oliver Cromwell first advised the
Union. He returned 400 members for England, 30
for Scotland, and as many for this country ; a re-
port of the debates in that singular assembly was pre-
served by Thomas Burton, who kept a diary, and is
stated in that book which I hold in my hand to have
been a member in the Parliaments of Oliver and
Richard Cromwell, from 1656 to 1659. It was published
a few years%ago frOm a- MR in the British Museuni:
The members from Ireland were English Soldiers, who
had acquired estates in Ireland: Yon would suppOSe
that they were cordially welcomed by their English as-
sociates, for they were Englishmen, bred and born ; and
they had very materially contributed to the tranquilisation
of Ireland. I hope I use the most delicate and least offen-
sive term. I acknowledge that I had anticipated as much
before I read the book. What was my surprise when I
found that these deputies from Ireland were considered to
be in some sort contaminated by the air which they had
breathed in this country, and that they were most un-
courteously treated by the English Members. A gen-
tleman whose name ought to be Copley, says, "These
men are foreigners." The following is the speech :
" Mr. Gewen said, it is not for the honour of the Eng-
lish nation for foreigners to come and have power in
this nation. They are but provinces at best.' Doctor
Clarges says, on behalf of Ireland, page 114, " They
(the Irish) were united with you, and have always had
an equal right with you. He that was King of I,:ngland,
was King of Ireland or Lord. If you have not a right
to sit here, you must in justice let them have a Parlia-
ment at home. How safe that will be, I question. Those
that sit for them are not Irish teagues; but faithful per-
sons." Mr. Gewea again observes—"lt were better
both for England and for Ireland that they had Parlia-
ments of their own. It is neither safe, just, nor honour-
able to admit them. Let them rather have a Parlia-
ment of their own." Mr. Antic observes—" If you speak
as to the convenience in relation to England, much more
is to be said why those who serve for Scotland should sit
here. It is one continent, and elections are easilier de-
termined ; but Ireland differs. It is much fitter for
them to have Parliaments of their own. That was the
old constitution. It will be difficult to change it, and
dangerous for Ireland. They are under an impossibility
of redress Their grievances can never

Gentlemen, we are living in the midsi'of strong political
vicissitude. God forbid that I should even live to see
the time—(for I hate to see ascendancy of every kind)
—God forbid that I should ever live to see the time, or
that our children should- ever live to see the time, when
there shall be found Catholic Judges at a trial at bar
upon that bench, and the entire of the Government bar
who shall be engaged in a public prosecution, shall be
Roman Catholics ; and when a Catholic crown solici-
tor shall strike eleven Protestants from the special
jury list, and leave twelve Roman Catholics in that box. I.
re-assert it, and exclaim again, in all the sincerity
of my heart, that I pray that such a spectacle never
shall be exhibited in this the first criminal court in
the land. I know full well the tendency of power
to abuse. We have witnessed strange things, and strange
things we may yet behold. It is the duty, the
solemn duty—it is the interest, the paramount interest—
of every one of us, before and above everything else, to
secure the great principles of liberty—in which we all
have an equal concern—from invasion, and to guard
against the creation of a precedent which may enable
some future Attorney-General to convert the Queen's
Bench into a Star Chamber, and commit a further inroad
upon the principles of the Constitution. Gentlemen of
the Jury, it is my intention to show you that my client
is not guilty of any of the conspiracies charged in the
indictment ; and in doing so I shall have occasion to
advert to th several proceedings that have been adopted
by the Government, and the evidence that has been laid
before you. But before I proceed to that head of the
division which I have traced out for myself, I shall show
the jury what the objeA of my client really was. I shall
show you that that object was a legal one, and that it
was by legal means that he endeavoured to attain it.
The Attorney-General, in a speech of considerable length,
but not longer than the greatness of the occasion amply
justified, adverted to a great number of diversified topics,
quoted the speeches of Sir Robert Peel and of
Lord John Russell. He adverted to the report of the
secret committee of the House of Lords in 1797, and he
referred to the great era of Irish parliamentary inde-
pendence, 1782. That he should have been so multifa-
rious and discursive, I do nut complain. In a case of
this incalculable importance, we should look for light
wherever it can be found. I shall go somewhat farther
than the year 1782; but do not imagine that I mean to
enter into any lengthened narration or elaborate expa-
tiation. Long tracts of time may be swiftly traversed.
I do not think that any writer has given a more accu-
rate, or more interesting account of the first struggle of
Ireland for the assertion of equal rights than Sir Walter
Scott. He was a Tory. He was bred and born, per-
haps, in some disrelish for Ireland; but when he came
amongst us, his opinions underwent a material altera-
tion. The man who could speak of Scotland in those
noble lines, which were cited in the course of this
trial, with so much passionate attachment, made a just
allowance for those wlo felt for the land of
their birth the same just emotion. In his life
of Swift, he says, Molyneux, the friend of Locke, and
of liberty published in 1698, " The case of
Ireland being bound by acts of Parliament in England
stated," in which he showed with great force, that the
right of legislation, of which England made so oppres-
sive a use, was neither justifiable by the plea of con-
quest, purchase, or precedent, and was only submitted
to from incapacity of effectual resistance. The temper
of the English House of Commons did not brook these
remonstrance.. It was unanimously voted that these
bold and pernicious assertions were calculated to shake
the subordination and dependence of Ireland, as ignited
and annexed for ever to the Crown of England, and the
vote of the House was followed by an address to the
Queen, complaining that although the woollen trade
was the staple manufacture of England, over which her
legislation was accustomed to watch with the utmost
care, yet Ireland, which was dependent upon and pro-
tected by England, not contented with the linen manufac-
ture, the liberty whereof was indulged to her, presumed
also to apply her credit and capital to the weaving of her
own wool and woollen cloths, to the great detriment
of England. Not a voice was raised in the British
House of Commons to contradict maxims equally impo-
litic and tyrannical. In acting upon these commercial
restrictions, wrong was heaped upon wrong, and insult
was added to injury—with this advantage on the side to
the aggressors, that they could intimidate the people of
Ireland into silence by raising, to drown every com-
plainant, the cry of "rebel, and Jacobite." When Swift
came to Ireland in 1714 he at first devoted himself to
literary occupation ; but at length his indignation was
aroused by the monstrous wrongs which were inflicted
upon his country. He was so excited by the injustice
which he abhorred that he could not forbear from ex-
claiming to his friend Delany, " Do not the villanies of
men eat into your flesh ?" In 1720 he published a pro-
posal for the use of Irish manufactures, and was charged
with having endeavoured to create hostility between dif-
ferent classes of his Majesty's subjects, one of the
Charges preferred in this very indictment. At that time
the judges were dependent upon the Crown. They did not
possess that " fixity of tenure" which is a security
for their public virtue. They are now no longer
thank God, " tenants at will." They may be mistaken—
they may be blinded by strong emotions—but corrupt
they cannot be. The circumstances detailed in the fol-
lowing passage in the life of Swift could not by possibi-
lity occur in modern times. " The storm which Swift
had driven was not long in bursting. It was intimated to
Lord Chief Justice Whitshed by a person in great of-
fice" (this, if I remember right, was the expression used
by Mr. Ross, in reference to a great unknown, who sent
him here) "that Swift's pamphlet was published for the
purpose of setting the two kingdoms at variance ; and it
was recommended that the printer should be prosecuted
with the uttermost rigour. Whitshed was not a person
to neglect such a hint, and the arguments of Govern-
ment were so successful that the grand juries of the
county and city presented the Dean's pamphlet as a
seditious, factious, and virulent libel. Waters, the

printer, was seized and forced to give great bail ;
but, upon his trial, the jury, though some pains had
been bestowed in selecting them, brought him in not
guilty • and it was not until they were worn out by the
Lord Chief Justice, who detained them eleven hours,
and sent them nine times to reconsider their verdict, that
they; at length; reluctantly left the matter in his hands,
by a special verdict ' but . the measures of Whitsheal
were too violent to be of service to the Government ;
men's minds revolted against his iniquitous conduct."
Sir Walter Scott then proceeded to give an account of

the famous Draper's letters. After speaking of the first
three, Sir Walter Scott says, "It was now obvious. from
the temper of Ireland, that the true point of difference
between the two countries, might safely be brought
before the public." In the Draper's fourth letter, ac-
cordingly, Swift boldly treated of the Royal prerogative
by the almost exclusive employment of natives of Eng-
land, in places of trust and emolument in Ireland ; of the
dependence of that kingdom upon England, and the
power assumed, contrary to truth, reason, and justice, of
binding her by the laws of a Parliament in which she had
no representation." And, gentlemen, is it a question
too bold of me to ask, whether if Ireland have no
effective representrition—if the wishes and feelings of
the representatives of Ireland upon Irish questions are
held of no account—if the Irish representation is utterly
merged in the English, and the Minister does not, by a
judicious policy, endeavour to counteract it—as he
might, in the opinion of many men, at least effectually
do—is not the practical result exactly the same as if
Ireland had not a single representative in Parliament ?
Gentlemen, Swift addressed the people of Ireland upon
this great topic, in language as strong as any that
Daniel O'Connell has employed. "The remedy," he
says. "is wholly in your own hands. . . . By the
laws of God, of nations, and of your country, you are,
and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in
England." " This tract," says Sir Walter Scott, " pressed
at once upon the real merits of the question at issue.
and the alarm was instantly taken by the English Go-
vernment, the necessity of supporting whose domination
devolved upon Carteret, who was just landed, and ac-
cordingly a proclamation was issued offering 300/. re-
ward for the discovery of the author of the Draper's
fourth letter, described as a wicked and malicious
pamphlet, containing several seditious and scandalous
passages, highly reflecting upon his Majesty and his
Ministers, and tending to alienate the affections of his
good subjects in England and Ireland from each other."
Sir Walter, after mentioning one or two interesting
anecdotes, says—" When the bill against the printer of
the Draper's letters was about to be presented to the
grand jury, Swift addressed to that body a paper en-
tiled' Seasonable Advice,' exhorting them to remember
the story of the Leyone mode by which the
wolves were placed with the sheep on con-
dition of parting with their shepherds and
mastiffs, after which they ravished the flock, at pleasure.
A few spirited verses, addressed to the citizens at large.
and enforcing similar topics, are subscribed by the
Draper's initials, and are, doubtless, Swift's own com-
position, alluding to the charge that he had gone too far
in leaving the discussion of Wood's projects to treat of
the alleged dependence of Ireland. He concludes in
these lines—

be redressed. Elections can never be intermixed.
Though they were but a province, there were courts of
justice and parliaments as free as here
pray that they may have soon to hear their grievances
in their own nation, seeing that they cannot have them
heard here." Sir Thomas Stanley observes—" I am
not to speak for Ireland, but for the English in Ire-
land The members for Ireland and
the electors are all Englishmen, who naturally claim to
have votes in making laws by which they must be go-
verned ; they have fought your battles, obtained and pre-
served your interests, designed by the famous Long Par-
liament, obtained by blood, and sought fur by prayer
solemnly.' You may ask of me, wherefore is it I make
these references ? I answer, because the institutions of a
country may change the Government—may, in its form,
undergo essential modifications ; but the basis of the
national character, like its language, remains the same and
to this very day thereprevailsin the feelings of English-
men towards this country what I have ventured to call
elsewhere the instinct of domination. Towards

" If, then, oppression has not quite subdued
At one your prudence and your gratitude—
If you yourselves conspire not your undoing—
And don't deserve, and won't bring down your ruin—
If yet to virtue you have some pretence— -
If yet you are not lost to common sense,
Assist your patriots in your own defence;
That stupid cant, ' he went too far,' despise,
And know that to be brave is to be wise ;
Think how 11:i struggled for your liberty,
And give him freedom while yourselveS are free."
At the same time was circulated the memorable and apt
quotation from Scripture, by a Quaker (I don't know,
gentlemen, whether his name was Robinson, but it ought
to have been)—" And the people said unto Saul, shall
Jonathan die who bath wrought thy great salvation in
Israel. God forbid ! As the Lord liveth there shall
not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he bath
wrought with God this cla so the people rescued
Jonathan and he died not." Thus admonished by
verse, law, anti Scripture, the grand jury assembled.
It was in vain: that the Lord Chief Justice Whitshed,
who had denounced the Dean's former tract as seditious,
exerted him-
and procured a verdict against the prisoner,

the Protestants of Ireland, when the Papists were
ground to powder, the very same feeling prevailed,
of which we see manifestations to this hour. The
question is not one between Catholic and Protestant;
but the question is between the greater country and the
smaller, which the greater country endeavours to keep
under an ignominious control. Many of the men who
voted for the Union lived to repent it ; and Lord Clare
himself, when designated as a plebeian peer by a great
Whig patrician, lamented the mistake he had committed.
The Union was carried by corruption and by fear.
The shrieks of the rebellion still echoes in the nation's
ear. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and martial
law had been proclaimed. The country was in a state
of siege—the Minister had a rod of steel for the people,
and a purse of countless gold for the senator. .He ap-
peared with a crop of Cadmus to the one, and like the
shower of Dance to the other ; but in the midst of that
parliamentary profligacy, at which even Sir Robert
Walpole would have been astonished, the genius of the
country remained incorruptible—Grattan, Curran, and
tbrighther e sat l
iogfh
ttuhpoos en
this, famousth o
hi line.
gnh,
ewho s
tpas m
re
part
namesfoeusr
hciasstto
rsyo,
never fora moment. yielded to a sordid or ignoble impulse.
All the distinguished men of the bar were faithful to their
country. Sir Jonah Barrington, in his history of the Rise

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING, JANUARY 29, 1844.

and Fall of the Irish Nation, has quoted the speeches of I been disgraced by the necessity that existed for holding two
the most eminent men of our profession ; amongst which Special Commissions of death, and had been degraeel by
those of Mr. Goold, who argued the question of right one rebellion—and, to crown all, we were at length insulted
1 with equal eloquence and subtlety, Mr. Joy, Mr. Plan- by being told of our growing prosperity. This was not the
ken, Mr. Bushe, and Saurin are conspicuous. Lord Plun- painting of imagination—it borrowed nothing from fancy.
ket denied the right of Parliament to destroy itself. Mr. It was, alas ! the plain representation of the facts that had
occurred—the picture in sober colours of the real state of
Saurin appealed to the authority of Mr. . Locke. The same
must
sQilkltited country. There was not a man present but
course was taken by Mr. Bushe, whom we have lost so
the
triiore miserye eenxristed than he had described.,
lately—Bushe, whom it was impossible for those by whom Such beingewsat teni yearei%:,ifeetldietUaniotnimit
the noblest eloquence was justly prized, not to admire— would not be difficult historytO convince
whom it was impossible for those by whom the purest all those calamities had sprung from any unprejudiced
Imeasure.n Irelandnt
worth was justly estimated not to reverence; and whom it was favoured by Providence with a fertile soil, an excellent
was impossible for those by whom a most .generous and situation for commerce, intersected by navigable rivers, in-
exalted- nature could be appreciated not to love. The dented at every side with safe and commodious harbours,
Attorney-General has stated that the opinions of these emi- blessed with a fruitful soil, and with a vigorous, hardy,
nent persons, delivered at the time of the Union, oughtt
generous, and brave population ; how did it happen, then,
that the noble qualities of the Irish people were perverted—
to be held in no account. lam not surprised that tha
observation should be applied by him to Lord Plunket, that the order of Providence was disturbed, and its bless-
when I recollect he so recently quoted one of his Lordship's ii
it gs
was t worselie ensino neglected? The fatal cause was obviouss—
aphorisms, when he was endeavouring to induce the low from that accursedn.liat
mthoseurdeeplorable
prophesied.eecsoulßdeffoorl-
Court to break through all its rules, in order to assist the Act of Unionpassed, it had beenwas proved that
him
him in the eagerness of his pursuit., All the finesse of the tradeof the country and its credit must fail as capital
form was to be thrown down in order to accelerate the was drawn from it—that turbulence and violence would in-
career of her Majesty's Attorney-General. But what crease when the gentry were removed to reside in another
reason will he give for not attaching any value to country—that the taxes should increase in the same proper-
the authority of Mr. Saurin. He said Mr. Saurin tion as the people became unable tospay them ! But neither
expressed his opinions in mere debate. So that the the arguments nor the prophetic fears have ended with
our present
trils. It has also been demonstrated, that as
most important priniciples solemnly laid down in par-
liamentary debate are to be regarded as little better rant:. asTtenatueren continuest'
t ms o long mustanc theoe-
evilsexp e raieeenicmlenof
than mere forensic usseveration. I can now account for facts which we have now had, leave no doubt of the truth
some speeches which I heard in the House of Commons of what has been asserted respecting the future; but, if
regarding the education question. I think, however, there be any still incredulous, he can only be of those who
that if such doctrines be propounded in the House of will not submit their reason to authority. To such persons
Commons itself, they would be listened to with surprise. the authority of Mr. Foster, his Majesty's Chancellor of
You have heard, gentlemen, in the course of this trial, the Exchequer for Ireland, would probably be conclusive,
something of the morality of war, and also something of and Mr. Foster has assured us that final ruin to our country
the morality of rebellion, which the Right Hon. Gen- must be the consequence of the Union. I will not dwell,
Mr. Sheriff, on the miseries ()1 country; I am disgusted
tlema,n was pleased to substitute as a synonyme for
war ; but of the morality of Parliament, I trust you will not
th Lhee
to trust
t
myselfshewith Union
the has produced,
Ilan
ofd Itlllto
not form an estimate from the specimen presented to accumulatieon rnof sorrow that must overwEelm the
attend
opinions by her Majesty's Attorney-General. But these if the Union be not repealed. I beg to call the atten-
opinions were expressed before the Act of Parliament tion of the meeting to another part of the subject. The
was passed. Surely the truth of great principles does Union, Sir, was a violation of our national and inherent
not depend upon an Act of Parliament. They are not for rights ; a flagrant injustice. The representatives whom we
an age, but for all time. They are immutable and MI- had elected for the short period of eight years had no
perishable. They are immortal as the mind of man, authority to dispose of their country for ever. It cannot be
incapable of decomposition or decay. The question pretended that any direct or express authority to that effect
was given to them, and the nature of their delegation ex-
before you is not whether these principles are well or eludes all idea of their having any such by implication. They
ill-founded, but you must take the fact of their having were the servants of the nation, empowered to consult for its
been expressed into your consideration, where you have good; not its masters to traffic and dispose of it • at their
to determine the intent of the men upon whose motives fantasy, or for their profit. I deny that the nation itself had
you have to adjudicate. The great authority to which a right to barter its independence, or to commit political
the traversers appeal giVes them a -right to a political suicide; but when our servants destroyed our existence as
toleration upon your part, andshould induceyou to think a nation, they added to the baseness of assassination all the
that, even if they were led astray, they were led astray guilt of high treason. The reasoning upon which those
by the authority of men with whom surely it is no dis- opinions are founded is sufficiently obvious. They require no
credit to coincide. But whatever we may think of the sanction from the authority of any name ; neither do I pre-
abstract validity of the union, you must bear in mind that s
tend to. give them any weight by declaring them to be con-
Mr. O'Connell has again and again stated that the Union ze net:ll°lu, 1
Si conviction omnyd3ia"
intilebt
,niifoituadwtu,atlerteh;orritiT to
:inluce
being law must, as long as it remains law, be submitted and a crime for its basis, I appeal toj -that of hiss gal Ilecsiii 1?,
to ; and all his positions regarding the validity of the present Attorney-General, Mr. Saurin, who in his place in
union have no other object than the constitutional in- the Irish Parliament, pledged his character as a lawyer and
citement of the people to adopt the most effectual means a statesman, that the Union must be a violation of every
through which the law itself may be repealed or modi- moral principle, and that it was a mere question of prudence
fled. The union was a bargain and sale. As a sale it whether it should not be resisted by force. I also appeal
was profligate, and the bargain was a bad one ; for better to the opinions of the late Lord High Chancellor of Ireland,
Mr. George Ponsonby, of the present Solicitor-General, Mr.
terms might have been obtained, and may be still ob-
tained .
, you do not become the auxiliaries of the Bushe, and of that splendid lawyer, Mr. Plunket. The
Union' was therefore a manifest injustice; and it con-
testants were suppressed. Not a single English member muststbe still criminal, unless it shall be ludicrously said that
was abstracted, and there can be no doubt we stood crime, like wine, improves by old age, and that time mollifies
in such a relation towards the English members, injustice into innocence. You may smile at the supposition,
that wo were completely nullified in the House but in sober sadness you must be convinced that we daily
of Commons. But, gentlemen, one could perhaps suffer injustice; that every succeeding day adds only
be reconciled to the terms of the union, bad as they another sin to the catalogue of British vice ; and that if the
Were, if the results of the union had been beneficial Union continues it will only make the crime hereditary,
to this country. We are told by some that our menu- and injustice perpetual. We have been robbed, my
factures and our agriculturalproduce have greatly aug-
countrymen, most foully robbed, of our birthright, of
per-
our
; but a hat is the condition of the great bulk of our independence ; may it not be
fully to ask how this consummation of evpermittedi us mourn-
the people of the country, which is, after all, the con- fectany ed ? for it was not in disastrous battle that pour
sideration which, with Christian statesmen, ought to liberties were struck down; no foreign invader had de-
weigh the most. The greater happiness of the greater spoiled the land; we have not forfeited our country by any
number is a Benthamite antithesis ; but there is a great crimes ; neither did we lose it by any domestic insurrection;
.deal of Christianity condensed in it. When travellers no, the rebellion was completely put down before the Union-
from France, from Germany, from America, arrive in was accomplished; the Irish militia and the Irish yeomanry
this country, and contemplate the frightful spectacle had put it down. How, then, have we become enslaved?
presented by the misery of tne people, althougn pre-
aAelacs ! England, that ought to have been to us a sister
viously prepared by descriptions of the national miser, 1,.
and bredlern
Engnglnand, whom we had loved, and fought
la dovhom we have protected, and whom
they stand aghast at what they see, but what they could we do protect—England, at a period when, out. of 100,000
not have imagined. Why is this ? How does this seamen in her service, 70,000 were Irish —England gland ;tole
state of things arise in a country which Bacon, and upon us like a thief in the night, and robbed us of
which Spenser, notwithstanding their masterdom the precious gem of our liberty, she stole from us ' that
over the English language, seem to be at a loss for which not enriched her, but made us poor indeed.' Re-
language sufficiently glowing to describe ? If we look at flect, then, my friends, on the means employed to effect this
other countries, and find the people in a miserable con- disastrous measure. Ido not speak of the meaner instru-
dition, we attribute the fault to the Government. Are ments of bribery and corruption. We all know that every-
thing was, put up. to sale—nothing profane or sacred was
we in Ireland to attribute it to the soil, to the climate, or
omitted in the Union mart. Offices in the revenue, corn-
to some evil genius who exercises a sinister influence
mends in the army and navy, the sacred ermine of justice,
over our destinies ? The fault, as it appears to me, and the holy altars of God, were all profaned and polluted
is entirely in that system of policy which has been as the rewards of Union services. By a vote in favour of
pursued by the Imperial Parliament, for which, on this the Union, ignorance, incapacity, and profligacy obtained
account. the union is to be condemned. Let me see, certain promotion ; and our ill-fated, but beloved country, was
gentlemen, whether I can make out my case. I shall degraded to her utmost limits before she was transfixed in sla-
go through the leading facts with great celerity ; but very. But Ido not intend to detain you in contemplation of '
in such a case as this I should not apprehend the im- those vulgar means of Parliamentary success, they are within '
putation of being wantonly prolix. Your time is, in- the daily routine of official management ; neither will I direct
your attention to the frightful recollection of that avowed
deed, most valuable, but the interests at stake are fines- your
which is now part of history, that the rebellion itself
timably precious ; and time will be scarce noted by you
wee fomented and encouraged in order to facilitate the Union.
when you bear in mind that the effects of your verdict Even the rebellion was an accidental and a secondary cause
will be felt when generations have passed away—when _the real cause of the Union lay deeper, but is quite ob-
every heart that now throbs in this great assembly shall vious—it is to be found at once in the religious dissensions
have ceased to palpitate—when the contentions by which which the enemies of Ireland have created, and continued,
we were once agitated shall touch us no further; and all and seek to perpetuate among themselves, by telling us off,
of us, Catholic and Protestant, Whig and Tory, Radical and.separating us into wretched sections and miserable sub-
and Repealer, and Conservative:shell have been gathered divisions; they separated the Protestant from the Catholic,
where all at last shall go down in peace together. The and the Presbyterians from both ; they revived every anti-
first measures adopted in the Imperial Parliament were a
quated cause of domestic animosity, and invented new pre-
continuation of martial law, an extended suspension of tlieexdtsaonfdraTuur ;
tbetdit,usabtove a1i1,07 countrymen, they be
the Habeas Corpus Act. Mr. Pitt was honestly anxious to repeat c'that assertion until we et
came to
t ando
believetlej7 coitn.tutheed
to carry Catholic emancipation, and to make at the same succeeded in producing all the madness of party and reli-
timey a provision for the Roman Catholic clergy. You may pious distinctions, and whilst we were lost in the stupor of
—some of you mar—perhaps, think that Catholic insanity, they plundered us of our country, and left us to
emancipation ought never 'to have been car- recover at our leisure from the horrid delusion into which
rued ; but if it was to be carried, how much we had been so artfully conducted. Such, then, were the
wiser would it have been to have settled means by which the Union was effectuated. It has stripped
it forty-four years ago, and without putting the country , us of commercet andewealth—it has degraded us, and deprived
through that ordeal of excitement through which the Im- us,
nameno en!), of
of our eeeurt statir as a nation, but even of
perial Parliament, by the procrastination ofjustice, forced t
foreigners make ournlZ.s, for are governed by foreign r
Members
it to pass ? Mr. Pitt, by. transferring the Catholic ques- who nominally represent Irelandl'-er e i
nthe Vint drsed,
ailed the
Lion from the Irish to the Imperial Parliament, destroyed Imperial Parliament, were they really 'non; lrepresentatives,t
his own administration, and furnished a proof that, in what influence could they, although unbought and
place of being able to place Ireland under the protection unanimous, have over the 558 English and Scotch
of his own genius, he placed it under the control of the Members? But what is the fact? Why that out of
strong religious prejudices of the English people. Mr. the hundred, such as they are, that sit for this country,
Pitt returned to the first place in the Ministry, with- more than one-fifth know nothing of us, and are unknown
out, however, being able to make any stipulations for to us. What, for example, do we know of Andrew Strahan,
the fulfilment of his own engagements, or the realise- printer to the King? What can Henry Martin, barrister-
tion of the policy which be felt to be indispensable at-paw,
o f us may,
for the rights and liberties of Irishmen? Some
for the peace of Ireland. The Roman Catholic Peeled
teaTre,apderahars,for our misfortunes, have
Stheeveenns,cebniu-t
question was brought forward in 1805, and was lost in an P
who knows anythin verboseef
onepamphlet
e,
one of Jam es
Hughan,one Gackin,
Imperial House of Commons. Mr. Pitt died after the or of a dozen more whose names I could mention, only be-
battle of Austerlitz, and was succeeded by the Whigs. cause I have discovered ofspeaking to
them for the purpose
They proposed a measure, which the Tories, who drove you about them ; what sympathy can we in our sufferings
them out on the "No Popery " cry, carried in 1816, and expect from those men ? What solicitude for our interests?
then introduced the new doctrine, that the usefulness of What are they to Ireland or Ireland to them? No, Mr.
public measures is to be tried far best upon the princi- Sheriff, we are not represented ; we have no effectual share
ples on which they were founded, than by the parties ii.intliie legislation ; the thing is a mere mockery. Neither is
by Whom Alley, .warp accomplished. The expulsion of the Imperial unloPe'rilal Parliament competent to legislate for us; it is
the. Whigs from office in .1806, may, in your judgment,
Englanwdlealdy a machine to legislate with discernment for
have been a foitiinate roceeding • but fortunate or un- additional einncel but : with respect to Ireinntldit 'lists It .the
have that arise from want of.
interest
fortunate, it furnishes another ' f that the Govern-
proof and total i, gnorance. Sir, when I talk of the utter ignorance
ment of Ireland had been made over, not so much to in Irish affairs of the Members of the Imperial Parliament, I
the Parliament as to the great mass of the people do not exaggerate or mis-state ; the Ministers themselves are
by whom that Parliament is held under control. in absolute darkness with respect to this country. I under-
The Tories found in the portfolio of the Whigs two take to demonstrate it. Sir, they have presumed to speak of
measures—a draft-bill for Catholic Emancipation, the growing prosperity of Ireland; I know them to be vile
which the Duke of Wellington, then Sir Arthur Welles and Profligate; I cannot be suspected of flattering them;
ley, the Secretary for Ireland, flung into the fire ; and yet,
dad thee "audaecTt aret,ol.do not believe that they could haveb
an Arma Bill, to which clauses have been recently added,
; sookeusby his irlajestlyn,sega in
xtheeespieeenchhasdupgesedktnewa
which even Mr. Shaw declared were e wantonly severe' that; ih tact, Ireland was- in/§4lc)tr ands increasingypoverty.
You may conceive that an Arms Bill, with all its moles- Sir the content to take their information from apen-
tations, pen-
tations, may be required ; but it is beyond question that, gice s ~.-1 :
henchman, a beat styled Sir Francis D'lvernois,
in the year 1819, when England was on the verge of a who eel pee of the pamPlitetis which it his trade to write,
rebellion, no such Bill was ever propounded by the Bri- has Owed by excellent sales of vulgar arithmetic, that
tisb, Ministry; and granting, for a moment, for the sake mouarnuffestiutres are. flourishing; °dr commerce extending, and
of argument, that some such Bill is reuisite, how scan-
y. consummate. When you detect the Ministers
for almostthemselves in such gross ignoraisce as, upon such authority,
half must a country have been governed . to place ,an'ia It' &Lee d. it . 'll of Rights be . isu mg hoo as were in the mouth of
half a century, if this outrage upon the Bill our revered ti.verei ' what think fitness of
the Insur- .
required ! Having passed the Arms Bill and
.„,..
,r‘a
im_ nine minor imps of legislation to make laws for Ireland? In-.
rection Act, its appropriate adjunct, the Imperial r deed, the recent plans of taxation sufficiently evince how la ooth.
in-
ment, proceeded to reduce the allowance to Ah_
Ytnhat it Orel .littrie" aehiatuiParliament is to legislate for
There is but one opinion regarding Maynoot
conceive that ean Irish Parliament, it is impossible to
should be totally suppressed, or largely and munificently
o ressive and they would have adopted taxes at once
endowed, and that an education should be given to theo Pshitowlege&eininous to the country, and
, an Irish Parliament, ac-
Roman Catholic clergy such as a body exercising such .
%alined with the statel
objects,
country,ol and individually
vast influence ought to receive. There are some who interested to taxmeri r
think that it were better that the Catholic clergy were
season of distress,Pneollffiectilty inwraYsing have,n e
cee even 1 n this 1 -
educated in France. I do.not wish to see a gallo-Hiber- plies. The loyalty and good sense of the Irish nation would
nian Church in Ireland. Parisian manners may be re- aid them; and we should not now perceive taxation unpro-
quired as the test of Irish morality, and I own that I ductive of money, but abundantly fertile in discontent. There
am too much attached to my sovereign, and to the con- is another subject that peculiarly requires the attention of
flexion of my country with England, to desire that the Legislature; but it is one which can be managed only by
these conductors of French ambition, that these instru- a resident and domestic Parliament—it includes everything
ments of French intrigue, should be located in every that relates to those strange and portentous disturbances
parochial subdivision of the country. State to an Eng- which, from time to time, affright and desolate the fairest
lisp Conservative—point out to him the importance of districts of the island. It is a delicate, difficult. subject, and
opening a career for intellectual exertion, h
y holding one that would require the most minute knowledge of
out prizes to genius at Maynooth , and he will say, it is the causes that produce those disturbances, and would
demand all the
all true. But the English Government are unable to • • •
individual safety was connected with the discovery
-why ? Because the rel. •
carry the measure.
jections to the people of England
.are in the way. An- extent of evil that may be dreaded from the outrages I al-
other of the results of the Legislative Union: In 1810, a lude to, if our country shall continue in the hands of foreign
decade since the Union had elapsed, the country was in empirics and pretenders; but it is clear to demonstration,
a miserable condition—its destitution, its degradation, that, no man can be attached to his king and country who
were universally felt, and by none more than the Pro- does not avow the necessity of submitting the control of this
testants of Dublin. A requisition was addressed to the Political question to the only competent tribunal—an Irish
High Sheriff of the city, signed by men of the greatest Parliament. The ills of this awful moment are confined to
• domestic complaints and calamities. The great enemy
weight and consideration amongst us. A meeting our of the world extends his influence and his
of the liberty
was called, Sir James Riddle was m the chair. At that power from the Frozen Ocean to the Straits of Gib-
meeting
Mr. O'Connell attended. He had in 1800 raltar. He threatens us with invasion from the thousand
made his first speech against the Union, and in 1810 he ports of his vast empire; how is it possible to resist him
came forward to denounce that measure. The speech with an impoverished, divided, and dispirited empire. If
delivered by him on that occasion was precisely then you are loyal to your excellent Monarch—if you are
similar to those numerous end most powerful harangues attached to the last relic of political freedom, can you he-
which have been read to you. He is represented in 1844 sitate to join in endeavouring to procure the remedy for
by her Majesty's Attorney-General as influenced by the all your calamities—the sure protection
the against all the
unworthy most guilty and the most motives. The pee- IJ on
threats of your enemy—the Repeal of in .Yes,
restore to Irishmen their country, and you may defy the
ple are to be arrayed together, in order that at a signal invader's force ; give -back to Ireland her hardy and brave
they suay rise ; and that a sanguinary republic should population, and you have nothing to dread from foreign power.
be established, of which Daniel O'Connell is to be the It is useless to detain the meeting longer in detailing the
head : a view somewhat inconsistent with the magni- miseries that the Union has produced, or in pointing out
ficent coronation, which, however, degenerated into the the necessity that exists for its repeal. I have never met
puff of a hat-maker at Mullaghmast. If these are the any man who did deplore this fatal measure which has des-
objects in 1844, what were , the objects in 1810 ? The poiled his country ; nor do I believe there is a single indi-
same arguments, the same topics of declamation, the vidual in the island who could be found even to pretend ap-
same vehement adjurations, are employed. Gentlemen of probation of that measure. I would be glad to see the face
the Jury, I will read that speech to you :..._ of the man, or rather of the beast, who could dare to say
Mr. O'Connell declared that he offered himself to the
he thought the Union wise or good—for the being who could
" meeting with unfeigned diffidence. He was unable to do say so must be devoid of all the feelings that distinguish
humanity. With the knowledge that suchwere the •
justice to his feelings, on the great national subject on which meats of the universal Irish nation, how does it happen that
they had met. He felt too much of personal anxiety to allow the Union has •
lasted for ten years? The solution of the
him to arrange in anything like order, the many topics is easy—the Union continued only because we
which rushed upon his mind, now that after ten years of question
despaired of its repeal. Upon this despair alone has it
silence and torpor, Irishmen again began .to recollect their continued—yet what could be more absurd than such de-
enslaved country. It was a melancholy period, those ten s air? If the Irish sentiment be but once known—if
years, a period in which Ireland saw her artificers starved the voice of six millions be raised from Cape Clear
—her tradesmen begging—her merchants become bankrupts to the Giant's Causeway—if the ' men most re k mar -
—her gentry banished—her nobility degraded. within
able for th • •King and . their loyalty to their attachment to
that period domestic turbulence broke from day to day into a
open violence and murder. Religious dissensions were ag-
constitutional liberty, will come forward as the
gravated and embittered. Credit and commerce were anni- leaders of the public voice, the nation would, in an hour,
grow too great- for the chains that now shackle you, and
hilated—taxation augmented in amount and in vexation. -
Besides the " hangings off the Union must be repealed without commotion and without " of the ordinary assizes, we had
difficulty.- -Let the most timid amongst us compare the pre-

sent probability of repealing the Union with the prosr ect that
in the year 1795 existed of that measure being ever brought
about. Who in 1795 thought an Union possible? Pitt
dared to attempt it, and he succeeded. It only requires the re-
solution to attempt its repeal. In fact, it requires only to enter-
tain the hope of repealing it, to make it impossible that the
Union should continue ; but that pleasing hope could never
exist, whilst the infernal disFonsions on the score of religion
were -kept up. The Protestant alone could not expect to
liberate his country—the Roman Catholic alone could not do
it—neither could the .Presbyterians—but amalgamate the
three into the Irishman, and the Union is repealed. Learn
discretion from your enemies—they have crushed your
country by fomenting religious discord, serve her by aban-
doning it for ever. Let each man give up his share of the
mischief, let each man forsake every feeling of rancour.
Yet, I say not this to barter with you, my countrymen, I
require no equivalent, from you ; whatever coarse you shall
take, my mind is fixed' ; I trample under foot the Catholic
claims, if they can interfere with the repeal ; I abandon
all wish for emancipation if it delays the repeal. Nay,
were Mr. Perceval to-morrow to offer me the repeal of the
Union upon the terms of re-enacting the penal code, I de-
clare from my heart and in the presence of my God,
that I would most cheerfully embrace his offer. Let us,
then, my beloved countrymen, sacrifice our wicked and
groundless animosities on the altar of our country; let that
spirit which heretofore emanating from Dungannon spread
all over the island, and gave light and liberty to the land,
be again cherished amongst us—let us rally round to the
standard of old Ireland, and wo shall easily procure the
greatest of political blessings, an Irish King, an Irish House
of Lords, and an Irish House of Commons."

Gentlemen of the Jury, I entreat you to take
this speech into your box—to compare it with- the
speeches read on behalf of the Crown, and by that com-
parison to determine the course which you ought to take
when the liberty of your fellow-subject is to depend
upon your judgment. At that aggregate meeting, in-
cluding so large a portion of the Protestant inhabitants
of this town, with the High Sheriff of the Dublin
Corporation in the chair, a series of resolutions was
passed against the union. It was determined that peti-
tions should be presented to Parliament, and that they
should be entrusted to Sir Robert Shaw a'd to Mr.
-Grattan. Sir Robert Shaw, in his answer, stated, that
he had supported the union in Parliament, and that his
opinions upon the subject were unaltered. The follow-
, ing is the answer of Mr. Grattan, and that answer at"-
' fords a proof of the falsehood of an allegation often
made, that a great change of opinion bad taken place in
the mind of that illustrious man with respect to the Le•
gislative Union :
" Gentlemen—l have the:honour to receive an address
presented by your Committee, and an expression of their
wishes that I should present certain petitions and support
the repeal of an Act entitled the Act of Union ; and your
Committee adds, that it speaks with the authority of my
constituents, the freemen and freeholders of the city of
Dublin. I beg to assure your Committee, and through them
my much-beloved and much-respected constituents, that I
shall accede to their proposition. I shall present their pe-
tition, and shall support the repeal of the Act of the Union,
with that decided attachment to our connection with Great
Britain, and to that harmony between the two countries,
without which the connection cannot last. I do not impair
either, as I apprehend, when I assure you I shall support
the repeal of the Act of the Union. You will please to ob-
serve, that a proposition of that sort, in Parliament; to be
either prudent or possible, must wait till it is called for and
backed by the nation. When proposed I shall then—as at
all times I hope I shall—prove myself an Irishman, and
that Irishman whose first and last passion was his native
country. " HENRY GRATTAN."
" Backed by the nation!" Mark that phrase. It ocurs
again and again in the speeches of Mr. O'Connell. Mr.
O'Connell again and again declares, that unless backed
by the nation nothing can be accomplished by him. And
if it be a crime to apply all the resources of his intel-
lect, with an indefatigable energy and an indomitable
perseverance, to the attainment of the just means de-
scribed by Mr. Grattan in the phrase, "backed by the
nation," then is the son of Daniel O'Connell guilty.
But it will be stronger, indeed, if, in the opinion of
twelve men of plain sense and of sound feeling, it should
be deemed a crime to seek the attainment of Repeal by
the only instrumentality by which Mr. Grattan said it
could be effected. What is the meaning of " backed
by the nation?" What is the nation? We say, the
Irish Catholics. The enormous majority of the peo-
ple are the nation. We say the Irish Protestants,
who have the property of the country at large, being in
the exclusive enjoyment of great intellectual advantages,
and who are united, organised, and determined, are the
Irish nation. The Irish Catholics and the Irish Protest.
ants are both in the wrong. Neither constitute the Irish
nation. Both do. And it was the sustainment of both
that Mr. Grattan considered to be indispensable to make
the proposition in Parliament either prudent or pos-
sible. That just object—the combination of all
classes and of all part'es in this country—Mr.
O'Connell has laboured to attain. You may think
that he has laboured, and with labour in vain,
to attain it ; but you cannot consider it criminal
to toil for its accomplishment • and if you conceive that
was his object, and the object of his son—or ifyou have a
reasonable doubt upon the subject, you are bound to
acquit him. In 1812 Mr. Perceval lost his life, and
efforts were made to construct a Cabinet favourable to
emancipation : the project failed, and a State prosecu-
tion against the Catholic board was resolved on. Mr.
Burrowes was the counsel for the defendants, and at the
outset of his speech he boldly adverted to the fact that
not a single Roman Catholic was upon the jury. He
said " that the exclusion of Roman Catholics from the
jury was calculated to bring the administration of the
law into disrepute ; and he expressed his solemn, and I
believe sincere, conviction, that the Protestant jury
which he addressed resented the office which had been.
assigned to them, and were indignant at a selection from
which so many inferences might be derived. It might at
first appear likely that a Protestant jury would take an
address so bold in bad part; but they gave Mr. Burrowes
credit for his manly frankness, and they acquitted the
traversers. The Crown resorted to a second prosecu-
tion; means more effectual were adopted, and a conviction
was obtained. Mr. Saurin did not deny that the R.,-
man Catholics had been excluded. He was of opinion
that Protestant ascendency should everywhere prevail,
and not least in those public tribunals, which are armed
with so much authority, and exercise so much influ-
ence over the fortunes of the State. I did not blame
Mr. Sarnia. He acted, in all likelihood, conscien-
tiously, and whatever were his faults, duplicity was
certainly not amongst the number. I saw him in the
height of his power and in his fall : he was meek in
his prosperity, and in his adverse fortune he was serene.
The lustre of adversity shone in his smile; for his faults,
such as they were, his home, an almost inevitable inherit-
ance of antipathy, furnishes an excuse. How much
more commendable was his conduct and the conduct of
the Government of the day, than if they had been pro-
fuse of professions they never meant to realise, and had
offered an insult to the understanding as well as a gross
wrong to the rights of the Irish people ; and yet I shall
not be surprised if, notwithstanding all that has hap-
pened, the same cant of impartiality shall be persevered
in, and that we shall hear the same protestations of
solicitude to make no distinction between Catholics
and Protestants in all departments, but more es-
pecially in the administration of the law. The screen
falls—" the little French milliner" is disclosed—
"by all that is horrible, Lady Teazle ;" yet
'Joseph preserves his self-possession, and deals in senti-
ment to the last. But if, after all that has befallen, my
Lord Eliot shall continue to deal in sentimentality in
the House of Commons, the exclamation of Sir Peter
Teazle, " Oh, damn your sentiment I" will break in
upon him on every side. The Government, .as I told
you, in 1812 succeeded in their State prosecution. What
good for the country was effected by it ? Was the Ca-
tholicquestion put down, or did a verdict facilitate the
Government of Mr. Peel, who was soon after appointed
Secretary for Ireland ? He was an Irish Member. You
are surprised at the intimation. He was returned for
the borough of Cashel, where a very small, but a very
discriminating constituency, under the influence of some
very weighty arguments, though they had never seen
him, and, I believe, he had never seen the chapel of
St. Cormack, were made sensible of his surpassing
merits. It has been remarked, that young statesmen
who are destined to operate upon England are first sent
to dissect upon this country. Mr. Peel had.a fine hand
and admirable instruments, and ho certainly gave proof
. that he would give the least possible pain in any ampu-
tations which he might afterwards have to perform. Ile
was decorous—he avoided the language of wanton in-
sult ; endeavoured to give us the advantages of a united
despotism, and " dwelt in decencies for ever." Yet, was
his Irish government, and he must have felt it, an utter
failure—he must have seen, even then, the irresistible
arguments in favour of Catholic Emancipation ; but he
had not the moral intrepidity to break from his party, and
to do at once what he was compelled to do afterwards.
The Insurrection Act was renewed, the disturbances of
the country were not diminished, and Ireland continued
to reap the bitter fruits of Imperial legislation. A new
policy was tried.after Mr. Peel had proceeded to Eng-
land, and the notable expedient was adopted of counte-
racting the Secretary with the Lord Lieutenant, and the
Lord Lieutenant with the Secretary. We had Grant
against Talbot, and Wellesley against Goulburn. It is
almost unnecessary to say, that a Government carried
on upon such a principle was incapable of good. The
Roman Catholics of Ireland had been led from time to
time to entertain the hope that something would be done
for their relief. Their eyes were opened at last by
the disingenuous dealing of George IV., who only
sipothered his laughter with the handkerchief with
which he affected to dry his eyes ; and Daniel O'Connell,
feeling that liberty could never be achieved by going
ttrough the miserable routine of supplication, founded
tie celebrated Society, by which results so great were
almost immediately produced—the Catholic Association
wis created by him. He constructed a gigantic engine
by which public opinion was to be worked—he formed
the smallest wheels of his complicated machinery, and
by put it into motion by that continuous current of _elo-
quence which gushed with an abundance so astonish-
nig as if from a hot well from his soul. A vast or-
gAnisation of the Catholic millions was accomplished :
the Catholic aristocracy the middle classes— the
entire of the clergy were enrolled in this celebrated
confederacy. The Government became alarmed, and
in 1825 a Bill was brought in for the suppression of
this famous league. Mr. O'Connell proceeded to
London and tendered the most extensive concessions to
the Government. An offer was made to associate the
Catholic Church with the State. If the Catholic ques-
tion had been adjusted in 1825, and upon the terms pro-
posed, it is obvious that the fearful agitation that dis-
turbed the country during the four succeeding years would
have been avoided. Not only were the offers rejected, but
the Bill for the suppression of the Catholic Associa-
tion was carried. It was, however, laughed to scorn,
and proved utterly powerless and inoperative. The
energy of Mr. O'Connell now redoubled. The peasan
try were taught to feel that the elective franchise was
not a trust vested in the tenant for the benefit of the
landlord. A great agrarian revolt took place, accom-
panied, beyond all doubt, with great evils, for
which, however, those by whom justice was so long
delayed are to be held responsible ; the Berestords Were
overthrown in Waterford ; in Louth the Forstreerscierec:
ceived a mortal gash, and at length the grea:,C1a
tion gave demonstration of a zuoral power, whose exist-
- - -

ence had scarcely been conjectured. I remsmbetto have
seen the late Lord Fitzgerald—an accomplished, an en-
DA man-1 mking with astonishment at the vast
and living mass which he beheld from a window of re
room in the Court-house, where that extraordinary
c,mtest was carried. There were sixty thousand men
beneath him—solser, silent, fierce. He saw that some •
I thing far more important than his return to Parliament
was at stake. Catholic emancipation was accomplisht d.
And here I shall put two questions—the first is this :
Do you think that up to the 13th of April, 1829'..
the day on which the R:.)yal assent was git en to the,
Catholic Relief Bill, the system of Government, insti-
tuted and carried on, under the auspices of an Imperial
Parliament, was so wise, so just, so salutary, so fraught
with advantages to this country—so conducive to its
tranquillisation and to the development of its rates
resources—that for nine and twenty years the 'anima
ought to have been regarded as a great legislative
blessing to this country ? The second question I
shall put to you is this—Does it not occur to you
that if the present indictment for a conspiracy can be
sustained, an indictment for a conspiracy might
have been just as reasonably preferred against the
men who had associated themselves for the attainment
of Catholic emancipation ? There is not a count in
this indictment which, by the substitution of " Catholic
emancipation" for " R, peal," might not have been made
applicable to the great struggle of the Irish Catholics in
1828 and 1829. Money was collected by the Catholic
Association. In America, and more especially in Ca-
nada, strong sympathy for Catholic Ireland was ex-
pressed. In the Chamber of Deputies, M. Chautesu-
briand adverted to the state of Ireland in the language
of minacious intimation. Enormous assemblages were
held in the south of Ireland ; but more especially in the
county of Kilkenny. Speeches were delivered by
Mr. O'Connell, and by others, fully as inflammatory
as any which have been read to you. Yes ;
what would have been thought of an indictment for
a conspiracy against Mr. O'Connell, against the Even-
ing Post, the Freeman's Journal, the Morning Register,
Dr. Doyle, and my friend Tom Steele, who was at that
time, as he is now, a knight-errant against oppression
in every form? Would it not have been deemed a
monstrous thing to have read a very exciting article in
three Roman Catholic newspapers, against the men by
whom perhaps they never had been perused ? Such
a thing was never thought of. There were, indeed, pro-
secutions. The individual who now addresses you was
prosecuted for a speech on the expedition of Wolfe
Tone. The bills were found ; but Mr. Canning
declared in the Cabinet that there was not a single
line in the speech, which, if spoke n in the 'reuse
of Commons would have justified a call for order,
and he denounced the prosecution as utterly
unjust. The prosecution was accordingly abandoned.
But, gentlemen, if I had been prosecuted for a conspi-
racy, and held responsible not for my own speeches, but
for those of others, in hew different and how helpless a
position should I have been placed? Have a care how
you make a preced nt in favour of such an indictment.
Ditr;ng the last nine months, the Attorney-General had
ample opportunities, if his own statement be well founded,
of instituting prosecutions against individuals for
what they themselves had written or done. In this
proceeding, %hose tardiness indicates its intent,
you will not. I feel confident, become his auxiliaries.
A Coercion Bill, if the repeal of the union is to be put
down, would be preferable, for it operates as a tempo-
rary suspension of liberty; but the eff. es of a verdict
are permanently deleterious. The doctrire of conspi-
racy may be applied to every c nnbination of every kind.
It is directed against the Repeal Association to-day ;it
may be levelled aga;nst the Anti-Corn-law League to. mor-
row. In one word, every political society, no matter
how diversified their objects, or how different their
constitution, is within its reach. The Catholic question
having been considered, the Tories were put out by a
conspiracy formed amongst themselves. The Whigs
came in, and the Reform Bill is carried—how ? A.
hundred and fifty thousand men assemble at Birming-
ham, and threaten to advance on London • a resolu-
tionnot to pay taxes is pass d and applauded by Lord
Fitzwilliam. Lord John Russell and Lord Althorp
become the correspondents of the Birmingh.:m union.
Cumber is reduced to ashes ; Bristol is set on fire ; the
Peers resist, and the Whig Cabinet with one voice ex-
claims "Swamp the House of Lords!" And who are
the men—the bold, audacious men—conspirators, in-
deed, who embark in an enterprise so fearful, and which
Could be only accomplished by such fearful means ?
You will answer Lord Grey ?—Yes. Lord J. Russell ?
—To be sure. Lord Althorp ?—No doubt about it.
But is our list exhausted ? Do you remember Mr.
Hatchell asking Mr. ROSS " Pray, Mr. Ross, have you
any acquaintance with Sir :Tames Graham ?” It is not
wonderful that the Attorney-General should have
started up and thrown down his buckler over the Se-
cretary of the Home Department. Sir James Graham
has Ireland under his control. From the Home-office
this prosecution directly emanates. Gamblers denounce
vice—drunkards denounce debauch—against immorali-
ties let wenchors revile. When Graham complains of agi-
tation his change of opinion may, for aught I know,
be serious ; nor have I from motives of par.
tisanship the slightest desire, especially behind
his back, to assail him ; I will even go so
far, for the sake of argument, as to admit that
his conversion may have been disinterest: d ; but I do
say, that he is, of all men, the last, under whose auspices
a prosecution of this character ought to be carried on.
The Reform Bill becomes the law of the land—the Par-
, Eminent is dissolved, and a new Parliament is summoned
and called together under the Reform Bit—and the
very first measure adopted in that reformed Parliament
is a Coercion Bill for Ireland. The Attorney-General
read a speech of Lord John Russell's in favour of co-
ercion. Ile omitted to read the numerous speeches sub-
sequently made by that noble person, in which his
mistake with re -pect to Ireland is honourably con-
fessed. Gentlemen, I shall not go through the events
of the last ten years in detail. It is sufficient to point
out, to you the various questions by which this unfor-
tunate country has been successively convulsed. The
church question—the tithe question—the Municipal
Bill—the Registration Bill—these queetiona with
their diversified ramifications, hare not left us one mo-
ment's rest. Cabinets have been destroyed by them.
The greatest parties in the State have fought for them. Ire-
land has supplied the fatal field for the encounter of con-
tending parties. No single measure for the substantial and
permanent amelioration of the country has been adopted;
and here we are, at the opening of a new session of Parlia-
ment, with a poor-rate on our estates, a depreciating tariff in
our markets, and a State prosecution in her Majesty's Court
of Queen's Bench. Such, gentlemen, are the results of the
system of policy adopted in that Imperial Parliament, whose
wisdom and whose beneficence have been made the
theme for such lavish panegyric. Gentlemen, I do not
know your political opinions. I do not know that
there is any one man among you favourable to
the repeal of the union ; but if every . one of
you are fearful of that measure becoming ulti-
mately the occasion of a dismemberment of the empire,
still its discusssion may not be useless. If the councils of
the State were governed by no other considerations then
those which were founded upon obvious justice; or if mea-
sures were to be carried by syllogisms, and Government was
a mere matter of dialectics, then all great assemblages of the
people should, of course be deprecated, and every exciting
adjuration addressed to the passions of the people should be
strenuously reproved. But it is not by ratiocination that a
redress 2f grievances can be obtained. The agitator must
sometimes follow the example of the diplomatist, who asks for
what is impossible, in order that what is possible may be ob-
tained. It must strike the least observant, that when the Go-
vernment complained most vehemently of demagogue audacity
their resentment is the precursor of their concessions. Take, as
an example, the Landlord and Tenant Commission, which
there are some Conservatives think will disturb the founda-
tions of property, and against which Lord Brougham ad-
dressed his admonitory deprecation to Sir Robert Peel. For
my own part, I think it may lead to results greater than
were contemplated; for it appears to me to have been
chiefly intended as a means of diverting public attention
from the consideration of the other great grievances of
the country. The main source of all these grievances
I am convinced, is to be found in the colonial policy
pursued to this country. The Union never has been
carried into effect. If it had, Ireland would not be
a miserable dependeut in the great imperial famil.
The Attorney-General expressed great indignation at the
motto at Mullaglimast—" Nine millions of people cannot
be dragged at the tail of any nation on earth." That sen-
timent is taken from a paragraph in the Morning Chronicle
newspaper, and I have no hesitation in saving that I at once
adopt it. To mere numbers, without intelligence, organisa-
tion, or public spirit, I for one attach no value. But a great
development of the moral prowess of Ireland has taken
place. Instruction is universally diffused. The element's of
literature, through which political sentiment is in-
directly circulated, are taught by the State. Ireland has, ;
if I may so speak, undergone a species of transformation.
By one who had seen her half a century ago, she would be
scarcely recognised. The simultaneous, the miraculous
abandonment of those habits to which Irishmen were once .
fatally addicted, at the exhortation of an huinble friar, is a
strong indication of what might be done by a good Govern-
ment with so fine a people. Without saying that the tem-
perance niovement affords a proof of the facility with which
the national enthusiasm can be organised and directed. I
think it is one among the many circumstances which should
induce us to think that we have come to such a pass in this
country, that some great measures for its security and for its.
happiness are required. I perceive the great literary organs
of the IVliig party has recently suggested many bold men-,
sures, which it represents as necessary for Ireland. There
arc numerous difficulties connected with sonic of the propo-
sitions to which I refer; but there is one which I consider,
to be as practicable as it is plain and just. It is recommended.
that the Imperial Parliament should sit at certain intervals
in this great city. I cannot see any sound objection in the
Imperial Parliament assembling now, in the month of Oc-
tober, for the discharge of Irish business alone, and that all
imperial questions should be reserved until the London
session commenced, as it now does, in the month of
February. The public department's, it is true, are all
located in London ; but during the Irish session a refer-
ence to those departments would not be required. Such a
session might be inconvenient to English Members ; but the
Repeal agitation and a state prosecution, like the present, are
attended with inconveniences far greater than any whirls
English Members, in crossing the Irish Channel, would en-
counter. The advantages which would accrue from the
realisation of this project are of no ordinary kind. The
intercourse of the two countries would be augmented to such
an extent, their feelings would be identified. National pre-
judices would be reciprocally laid aside. An English domes.
tication would take place. Instead of lending money upon
Irish mortgages, Englishmen would bring funds to Ireland
' and live upon them. Flue absentee drain would be diminished.
' The value of property would be very nearly doubled. Great
public works would be undertaken, and the great natural en-.
Mesmients of the country would be turned to account. nil
L city would appear in renovated splendour. Your terce!4
; would be shaken by the roll of the gorgeous equipages in
which the first nobles of the country would
senate house, from which the money changer shouldlsd blaze with
hq
driven. The mansions of the aristocracy .would of thi
be boneto
that useful luxury which ministers to the gratificationf
f would not deem the seat of her Parli.T.
affluent, and to the
The Sovereign hersel
• re,idoneo. The frippery of the vice.
employment and the comforts o the poor.
ment unworthy of lice
We should look upon royalty
should behold the
' itself, and not upon the tinsel „. we
regal court
all the pomp
Queen o not upon time tinsel image: we shioumltl behold tie
dasmd, co; v'lr.eel,ti:lajn:;d"ao'feS•cot and, in
• her imperial regality, with a diadem—the finest diadem ita
the world—glittering upon her brow, while her court.
tenarice beamed with the expression of that sentiment
which becomes the throned monarch better than the crown,
We should see her accompanied by the Prince of whom it is
t _