The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-12 00:00:00

Mr. ROEBUCK said he presented himself to the House
with great distrust of his own powers to express the reasons
which would influence his vote. It appeared to him that
all grand considerations of the questions before the House
were merged in feelings of party ad personality. —( Great
cheering.) It was said that it was something to be praised by
a person himself deserving of praise.—( Cheers. ) The Hon.
Gentleman who had last addressed the House had stated that
his opposition was constitutional, and he had chosen for his
model the Hon. Member for Montrose.—(Laughter.) But
he would ask the House was this the time for such displays as
the House had been favoured with ? Was this an occasion for
the display of merely personal and party feeling?
Not only was the quiet of Ireland concerned in the grant, but
the quiet and good-will, and well-being of the people of Eng-
land, andeven, without exaggeration, he might say the quiet
and peace of the world at large. It was because he viewed it
in this light that he wished to ask the indulgence of the House
for a few moments while he addressed himself to the immediate
question before them. If that question had come now before
the House for the first time, it would have probably assumed
a different aspect; but he was not going then to
allude to any party question. He mast, however, allude
to the past and present circumstances of the two
countries. When he looked to the state of Ireland, and the
condition of its people, and the circumstances under which
they now came to this vote, it did appear to him that it be-
hoved them to set their fellow-countrymen and their conri-
tuents an example. He was prepared to say, no matter what
might be the consequences of his doing so, that, looking at
this grant as it was new proposed, he was ready to vote for it,
more particularly as it came from the Government. But he
would go a step further, and say, that if the Right Hon. Ba.
ronet had brought the grant forward for the first time, he
would have seconded his motion. But it was a purely Pro-
testant Parliament in Ireland that first proposed the grant to
Maynooth, and a purely Protestant Parliament afterwards re-
newed the vote. But fie wanted the House to see and acknow-
ledge the circumstances under which the grant was originally
made. It was first made by a purely Protestant Parliament,
in 1795, and at a time, too, when Protestants held in great
fear their Roman Catholic brethren —at a time when
a Roman Catholic was looked upon as an emissary
from a Jacobite club at Paris. —( Hear, Hear.) In
the hour of their tribulation and fear, their Protestant Parlia-
ment applied to the Roman Catholic body for assistance, and
they conferred this grant upon them. Time went on
and parties changed. Napoleon established Catholicism
in France to preserve peace, but it was plain he had a design
upon England, and Ireland was required to send her peasants
and her good and valliant soldiers to assist in a fight which was
going on between England and France. In 1808 the princi-
ple of the grant was again mooted and discussed in a Protes-
tant Parliament, and they added to the grant. The grant thus
renewed was continued until the time of the Reform Act.
Now, it might be said that all this was the doing of an aristo-
cratic Government—a Government which, it was notorious,
had consulted its own convenience and its own peculiar designs
and motives, and not right. But after 1832, the Parliament
represented the great body of the Dissenting popu-
lation of the country, and from that time up to
the present the grant had been continued if not sanctioned.
What he said there, he wish‘d to say to his conatitnenta and
the people at large, and be wcWd tell them, that having
sanctioned the grant for twelve years, it was not right for them
now to turn round, and tell them they were breaking through
the principles of the Established Church. If the princi,,le in
a religious point of view was good to the extent of 9,0001.,
it was equally good to the extent of 28.0001., and it was too
hard for them to turn round now, and e ill upon Parliament to
recede from that which they had hitherto sanctioned.
He wished it was only just to say of the Irish Catholic clergy
that they were ready to endure all the penalties of poverty
for the sake of their flocks—that they would carry their faith
from one end of the globe to the ether, and would cheerfully
bear the burden with their fellow county) men. The present
condition of Maynooth could not be continued—they must
either increase the grant to Maynooth or abolish it altogether.
He regretted the Right Hon. Baronet had not brought for-
ward a more comprehensive scheme—a great plan of acade-
mical education, making Maynooth such as Oxford and Cam-
bridge were, giving it the power of conferring degrees, and
conferring on it all the immunities and privileges of an English
University. The Right Hon. Gentleman in doing so might not
have incurred more odium than be had by this measure, whilst
he would have done ten times as much good. Two classes of
persons opposed the grant, but they were of very different
descriptions. They used arguments of a very different sort.
One class he could understand, but the other he could not.
He could very well appreciate the opposition of those who were
against all church establishments, and aho advocated the
voluntary system. They contended that the monster grievance
of Ireland was the Established Church. Now, although
giving every credit to the sincerity of the motives of these
gentlemen, he must say that he did not agree with them. He
viewed it as a contribution towards the teaching of the teachers
of the Irish people. But what argument had the other class
of persons who opposed it to advance ? They did not
object to the teaching of Mahometans and Brahmins,
but they objected to the payment of Roman
Catholic priests. They consented to the endowment of the
Roman Catholic priesthood in Ireland, in Malta, and in
several other of the colonies, but they objected to it in Ireland
because they wished to maintain a religious ascendancy there.
The Right Hon. Gentleman opposite upon one occasion said
" that concession had reached its limits." He hoped that the
Hon. Gentleman had profited by the lesson which experience
had taught him. He considered this as the first great step to-
wards concession. All the great parties of the country are
embarked in the same vessels, and in the same course, to
make all necessary concessions to the people of Ireland.
He wanted the people of Ireland to believe that this
country was endeavouring to do justice to that unfortunate
country. He did not expect any great result at first—he did
not hope that peace would be established in that country im-
mediately, yet he did hope that ultimately all these benefits would
be realised, and he hoped that the leaders of the Irish people would
in consequence find that they had no longer a pliant people at
their command that they could use for purposes of their own
personal ambition. He looked upon this measure as the
greatest act of the present time. It was of the greatest con-
sequence not to the people of Ireland only, but to the people of
England. Let them refuse this measure and they would insult
the people of Ireland. They had been told that night that the
religion of Ireland was one of superstition—that the people
were steeped in heresy—that their religion was not only super-
stitious, but was, in itself, an immoral superstition, and that
they might as well endow a college of thieves and adulterers as
endow a college of the Catholic Church. If they insulted the
people of Ireland, that people would recollect it. It was on
that ground that he should support the grant proposed by the
Right Hon. Baronet. Allow this grant, and the people of
Ireland would no longer become the tools of design-
ing demagogues, who wished to forward their ow n
personal and pecuniary interests, and to minister to
their own ambition. He was told that the objection to this
grant was, that at the College of Maynooth the teaching
was that of error ; and, therefore, it was nut expedient to
support it ; but he thought a sufficient answer could be found
to such an argument.
After some further discussion the debate was adjourned till
Monday.
The other orders of the day were then disposed of, and the
House adjourned till Monday.