The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-20 00:00:00

a permanent state of disease, it was more a state of paroxysm.
Ireland is always combustible, but she is not always on fire.—
(Hear, hear.) y When the Right Hon. Baronet opposite (Sir
R. Peel) came before the public as a candidate for the high
official situation which he now holds, be announced himself
under the type of a physician, and used, if I recollect
rightly, several metaphors drawn from medical science ; and to
follow out the same metaphor, I shall say that I think Ireland is
not in a hopeless condition. I admit that it is a patient that
has a bad habit upon it, but what I say is this, that
its malady is one which, had it been properly treated,
might have been kept off, and the patient might again regain its
usual health ; but as the treatment, on the contrary, has been
one of continual irritation, what other could be the result but
to produce paroxysm after paroxysm, each more violent than
the last, and seeming likely, unless some decisive step is
adopted, to end in terrible consequences? It is, I conclude,
impossible to deny that the administration of Lord Melbourne
was an administration popular with the great body of the
Catholic population of Ireland.—(Cheers.) It is, I believe,
impossible to doubt that the two Viceroys who were sent to
Ireland by that Administration had a greater share of the
affections of the great body of the Irish people than any
Viceroys since the time of William the Third.—(Cheers.) We
know that, during his administration, great perils threat-
ened the empire in other parts ; hut we know that
to Ireland the Government could always look with
confidence. —( Loud cheers.) When designing men had
raised disturbances in England, which threatened insurrec-
tion, troops could be spared from Ireland.—( Loud cheers. )
When an insurrection broke out in one of our colonies—an in-
-1 surrection of a very peculiar kind—an insurrectien with which
1 we might have supposed the Irish Catholics would have sym-
pathised, seeing that it was the insurrection of a Catholic po-
pulation against the conquering -English people, the Irish Ca-
tholics remained faithful—( Loud cheers)—in all things to the
general Government of the empire.—( Continued cheering. )
Ireland was able to spare troops for Canada.—(lmmense
cheering.) No person, I believe, doubts that if, in
in 1840, by some fatal mischance, a foreign army had
dropped upon the shores of Munster—no one doubts
but that they would have met with as good a reception—that
they would have been as firmly met as if they had landed on the
shores of Kent or of Norfolk-( Hear, hear)—by a determi-
nation on the part of the whole population to support the
throne of Queen Victoria.—( Hear, hear.) And under what
circumstances, and by what means has this great change
been produced? Not by any great legislative boon con-
ferred upon the Irish people by the Government—( Cheers)
—for although they have the inclination, they have not the
power against a strong minority in this House, and a strong
majority in the other House of Parliament, to carry any
such legislative measures.—( Cheers. ) It was effected
merely by the executive Administration—(Cheers)—crossed
and thwarted at every turn, having against it the
whole of the Established Church, and the greater part
of the landed gentry of this country.—( Cheers. )
Yet with such an Opposition they managed to conciliate the af-
fections of the great body of the Irish people, and I cannot help
thinking that if during those six years that Administration had
been as strong in Parliamentary support as the present Ad-
ministration—if it had been able fully and effectually to ex-
tend to Ireland the benefits of the Lritish Constitution, the
effects of such legislation would have been such as to make all
the friends of Ireland rejoice.—(Loud cheers ) But during
those six years an Opposition, powerful in numbers, was ranged
against the Government.—(Cheers.) Those Lords-Lieutenant
who were more popular in Ireland than any Lord-Lieutenant
who had preceded them—were assailed as no other Viceroys had
even been assailed—(Cheers)—and assailed too for those very
portions of their administration—which were the chief modes
of conciliating the people of Ireland.—( Loud cheers.) Every
Legislative Act without exception, which was intended by the
Government for the benefit of Ireland, and which was popular
with the Irish people, was rejected.—(Cheers.) When Catho-
lic gentlemen of high abilities and of stainless character, were
placed in situations which were much below their merits, their
appointment was hailed with the greatest satisfaction by their
fellow- countrymen—( Cheers)---and no wonder that they were
so after 150 years of persecution, during which, doubtless, elo-
quence as fervid and abilities as great as those of my Right
Honourable and Learned Friend the Member for
Dungarvon, had withered in utter obscurity under the
influence of penal and disabling laws.—(Loud cheers. )
During that century and a half of persecution no Irish Ca-
tholic had risen to honour, except by deserting his country ;
and when at last a Catholic was sworn of the Queen's counsel,
a Catholic was seated at the Board of Admiralty, the great
Tory party set up such a yell of dislike as Lord George
Gordon drew from the great mob of his followers. We have
seen some specimens of that eloquence revived; but the
leaders of the party, even at that time, seldom joined in the
cry, though I could mention instances, and one eminent in-
stance, to the contrary.--( Hear, hear.) The leaders of the
party were content, as far as I can recollect, with listening to
it, with enjoying it, with profiting by it.—(lronical cheers
from the Opposition.) It was not necessary that they should
do more.__( Renewed cheers.) " Are they not aliens?" was
the phrase of an eminent person.—(Loud cheers from the Op-
position.) " Minions of Popery," was the epithet of another.
—( Hear, hear.) While the Catholic priesthood, which is re-
garded with the greatest reverence and love in Irelanddo
we not remember that they were called " a demon priesthood,"
" priests of Baal," " false prophets of Jezebel," feeding at her
board ?—(Cheers. ) But not content with insult, not content
with throwing out and mutilating every measure which would
have been beneficial to Ireland, the Opposition of that day as-
sumed the offensive—they determined to bring in a legislative
measure for the purpose of depriving Ireland of every benefit
which she had derived from the Reform Bill. They brought
in an Act which they called an Act of Registration.
They themselves now admit that it would have been an act of
disfranchisement. I take the description of that Act from
their own lips. They admit now that a new light has
broken in upon them. Has a single new fact been brought
forward, which has not been urged twenty, thirty, or forty
times over in this House. In point of fact, they do not find
themselves at liberty to ruin the country, except when they
are out of place and want to get into it.—(Cheering from the
Opposition, and ironical cheers from the Ministerial benches.)
Well, Sir, in place they are ; it was very fitting that such ser-
vice should have its reward, and it had its reward.—(Cheers
and laughter.) Several causes undoubtedly concurred to place
them in the situation which they occupy, but I believe the
principal cause to have been the discontent which they excited
in England against the Irish policy of their predecessors. In
' their eagerness for victory, they called up a spirit of great
power--a spirit much more easily evoked than laid—the spirit
of religious intolerance.--(Cheers.) It placed them in their
situations, and then their punishment began.—( Cheers and
laughter.) It was pleasant, indeed, very Pleasant to get all
the advantage of the sermons of the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, and
of the speeches of the Rev. Hugh Stowell ; it was very plea-
sant to have their own cause represented by High Churchmen,
and by Low Churchmen, and by Dissenters, as the cause of the
Gospel struggling against that spurious liberalism which made
no difference between religions truth and religious falsehood.
It was very pleasant to hear that their political foes were
the slaves of Antichrist, and were marked with the sign of the
Beast. All this was very pleasant at that time, but when they
had attained power, they found that there were about eight
millions of Catholics in Ireland, whom, either by themselves or
their agents, they had been insulting and degrading. What
was the necessary result? I give them credit for not wishing
to do the smallest harm beyond what was necessary for over-
throwing the late Administration.—( Cheers.) They regret
that they cannot find a sufficient number of Conservative Ca-
tholics whom they would be justified in promoting at the
Irish bar, and they express a similar feeling with respect to
gentlemen in this House. But what I wish to know is this—
why are all the Roman Catholics in the empire their enemies?
Who ever heard of such a thing before ? Here you have about
eight millions of people, of all sorts, characters, and professions,
peers, lawyers, merchants, peasants—men belonging to every
rank in society.—(Hear, hear.) At their head is the Premier
Duke of the Empire—(Hear, hear)—the hereditary Earl
Marshal—the heir of the Fitzallans and the Mowbrays—
(Cheers)—while, on the other hand, you may go down into
the lowest ranks of Roman Catholics, and find enmity exist-
ing, such as hardly ever before was heard of.-4 Hear, hear.)
If, indeed, there was something in the Roman Catholic religion
peculiarly opposed to the general system of the
polities adopted by the Honourable Gentlemen opposite
I could understand the thing, but that subject was ably
touched upon in my Noble Friend's opening speech.—( Hear.)
Is it the fact that the Catholic theologian is peculiarly likely
to ally himself with the cause of civil liberty ? Quite the con-
trary. Of all forms of Christianity the Catholic religion is
that which attaches the greatest importance to antiquity and
authority, which rests most on the grounds of prescription, and
which, even by its rites, its vestments, and its language, would
seem bound up with Conservative politics.—(Cheers.) Was
there a single Catholic in the army of Fairfax—(Cheers)—and
how many hundreds of Catholic gentlemen came forward on
behalf of Charles the First ?—( Cheers.) When a reward was
put upon the head of Charles the Second did any Catholic be-
tray him ?—(Cheers.) When, at the close of the last century,
attacks were made by republicans upon the old monarchies,
who stood by the monarchy ? The Catholics.—(Cheers.) It
was so in La Vendt;e—(Cheers)—it was so in Spain.—( Cheers. )
It was the greatest mistake that was ever made for Govern-
ment to set itself against the great body of the Catholics.
All those who were acquainted with Mr. Pitt, and those who
are acquainted with Mr. Burke's writings, from which Mr.
Pitt derived his opinions, know that both Mr. Pitt and Mr.
Burke regarded the Catholics as friendly to monarchy.—
(Cheers.) Nothing except madness in a Government can
possibly account for this peculiarity.—( Cheers.) The dis-
ciples of Mr. Pitt, while they professed to keep his
birthday, seemed little. aware of the views which he took on
that subject.—( Cheers.) Now see in what does all this
end. You are forced to bestow your patronage on your
friends—you cannot give it to the Catholics—an antipathy
to your Government is excited—your appointments neces-
sarily go on, and will go on, as far as I can
see, increasing that antipathy, unless Parliament
adopt some final and decisive remedy.—( Hear, hear. )
The Emancipation Act, as far as respects all the favours of the
Crown, is as much a nullity as regards the Catholics of Ireland
as if it never had been passed at all. Of all the boons which
the Right Hon. Baronet promised to bestow upon them in 1829,
they have only received one, and that would not have been
continued to them if the Tory party had carried the Irish
Registration Bill. All that follows is no wonder. The
wounded national spirit, the wounded religious spirit, starts up
and shows itself in a hundred forms, some of which I deplore,
some of which I deeply condemn, but none of which can excite
my amazement, none of which seems to me to be anything
except the national effect of gross mis-government, acting on
strong sensibility. You refuse to admit the Roman Catholic
into the communion of the Constitution, and you wonder that
he finds himself on a narrow stage. Turn wherever he
he finds every high place filled, every office in the
hands whom he considers, and not without reason,
as his enemies. What more natural than that people
in such a situation should array against the regular con-
stitutional authorities, the strong defence of their own opi-
nions ? They remember—it would ,be strange if they did not
remember—what their efforts, under the same guidance,
extorted in 1829, and they are determined to try whether
a similar effort may not be equally successful now.
These, then, are your difficulties, and, in my opinion, they
are difficulties of your own making. Well, then, having made
them, let it be remembered that after all, difficulties are the
tests of great statesmen. Eminent men have sometimes brought
themselves into difficulties, and have admirably retrieved their
error by the manner in which they overcame them.—( Hear. )
1 Let us then see, how, with regard to your difficulties, you mean
to act. First, with respect to legislation. The legislation
which we had last session for the evils of Ireland, was all com-
prised in an Arms Bill—( Hear, hear)—not a measure of con-
ciliation, not worth naming as a measure of coercion ; but
simply a measure of petty annoyance.—( Hear, hear.) It was
a measure which, as far as I could ju tge, satitfi 'd neither side
of the House. We called out for boons for Ireland, and many,
Hon. Gentlemen opposite called for more stringent mea-
sures.—( Hear. Indeed, if I recollect rightly, one Noble and
Learned Lord bestowed the aid of his counsel on the Govern-
ment by recommending an Irish Coercion Bill, but the
only legislative measure passed was the Arms Bill.
Then, as regards the measures of the Executive
Administration, of the manner iu which they have dealt with
this agitation. I merely mention them to protest, in the
strongest manner, against the statement of the Noble Lord,
that amongst reasonable men there cannot be two opinions
about the Clontarf proclamation ; for that the Government had
done everything which it was possible to do to prevent a breach
of the peace.—( Hear, hear.) I say that, from the statement
of the Government, it appears that in the meeting of Friday
the resolution was formed; and could you not have takenupa
pen, and have written three lines, to say that the Government
apprehended a breach of the peace, and therefore that all good
subjects should avoid going to the meeting ?—( Hear, hear.) Is
that a composition which required the weighing of sentences—