The Sun.
London, England, 1829-03-04 00:00:00

the word " willing" hut whether he had or not, the word
4- ready" struck him to have been need'. in a tone as if the
will were not wantime,-..when he heard men calmly talk-
ing of such differences hetween his Mejesty'saubjecre as
created civil discord, and tended, perhaps., *-civil war, he
naked who could say that there tors not ground for fear
( He ir, hear. )—That the Monde Duke at the head of the Go-
vernment should he ace:Teed-de to the wise and steteentin-
like fear of not coshing the country into a diner from
which even lee might not lie able to mate it tree Mit Only
justifiable but praiseworthy. in the presence or the Right
n. Gentleman opposite tThlr. Peelt t'ras less inclined
to see any thing in his praise, then lie should otherwise
be ; but not leaving had an opportunity before of alluding
in terats of just praise to his manly avowal of the change
lad taken e..-ice in his mind on the great question,
lie would state that his silence on that subject hitherto
should be atteihuted to any motive rather then to a diein
clination to join most heartily in all the panegyrics of the
most enthueiastic of t to nelmirete.,—(Cheers.)
!.Ir. MOORE. said, that it would appe'ar as if this peti-
tion teas the resn!t of a kind of national conventieena.a-as if
there had beta a general meeting of tho Catholics and
Pretestanno of Ireland. But what arould the House say
'.when he infie toed them that Ore meeting from which the
petition emanated had been called for the express purpose,
Ara for that alone, of giving its sanction to certain reso-
lutions which had been already agreed tee. to proof of
tine Ire might mention, that when t gentleman who at-
tended the meeting rose to otTer his opinions against the
petitem, he was called tm order by the chairman, who
'stated that they amternbleil only to give (Trent to the
resole, wh;cle bad been before agreed to., 'that reso-
lution was the Protestant declaration, and he believed
that tie Noble Lords and Gentlemen whose names were
at the head of the list, haul signed it willingly enough,
but he could net attribute the same motives to the
whole of the 2,000 persons whose names appeared to
it. Thole other parties were inliteenced by mo-
tives which he would explain, 43r he would state
Luna. It s--,s well known to the How-arable Member for
Armagh (atm Brownlow) that the Catholic Associa-
tion had exercised a coercive power over public opinion in
Ireland, if indeed that could be called public opinion which
wee expresses( under the despotism which that body exer-
cised over its fellow-eubjecta. In that body, it was known
that notice had been given of a non-intercourse resolution,
which was to have the effect of preventing the deeling of
Proteetants with Catholics, anti it woe worthy of remark
that this notice mule its appearance &limit the time of
ere Protestant declaration. That declaration was sent
through the country, and the notice of motion in the Ca-
tholic Association had equal publicity; the consequence
'vas, that every Protestant who kept a shop, and depended
in any degree or. the euetorn of his Catholic Fdiow-sulijects,
was threatened with the loss of that ciustom and the starva-
tion of his family, if he refused to sign. When this was
considered, it should net be wondered that 2,000 Denies
heel lama obtained to the declaration. But when the public
-press expressed the anti-Christian feeling in which such a
reeolutien originated, some persons interrered who ehouid
have intetfered two months before, end then the resolution
was given up, and it wes trade a matter of charity to re
frail from pressiag it. He could state a fact in illustra-
tion of the Ilse which hail been made of that declaration
with respect to signatures. " A friend of mine (continized
the Hon. Member), a silk-manufacturer of Dublin, who
was a Protestant, called into the shop of a mercer in that
city, Viliimen Ge..tholie, whom he was in the habit of
supplying with silk. The Protestant declaration, as it was
called, was lying on the counter, and the mercer said
Wit nu sign this ?' Mr friend sail that he hail hitherto
ke;at himself from interfering in politics, and he did not
wish to sign. Then,' said the mercer, •if von do not,
you cannot have onr custom.' My friend, who was a man
of independent enirit, was indignant at this threat, anal re-
-plied, Ma'am,' says he—(Loud laughter)—iny friend was
.addressing himself to the lady of the house, who was in the
shop at the time, and who was the epokeernaster on the
micasion--4 Ma'am,' says he—(a. laugh)—' I hare several
Catholics in my employment, and what would 3on think of
me if 1 wire to discherge them on recount of our difference
s.i relicien ? I have too much Protestant feeling to tike
such n course; and, iron. the sauce feeling, I will not allow
she threat you hold cut to influence me in w hat iny conscience
aloes no: approve.' My friend left the shop, arid some silks
which he had sent as patterns for an order about to be
given, were next day sent home.—(Hear.)—So much for
the means resorted to to obtain signatures to the Protestant
declaration."
Mr. JAMES GRATTAN would first notice the anec-
dote which the Hon. Member for Dublin had introduced
by tray of 411 enlivener into his speech ; and would merely
say, that the Dublin silk-mercer had told him (Mr." J.
Grattan) a very different story from that which he appeared
to have told in the lion. Member. All that lie could con-
dude from the story was, that the individual who awl ad.
.meseed the wife tea the ,ilk-mercer in the manner just de-
tail.,l to the muse, w. a Vet y uogellen, person indeed.—
(A langh.)—But lerting the story pa,s for as much as it
was worth, what dill it prove ?—the dreadful condition of
society in Ireland.—(Hear.)—The Noble Duke at the
head of his Majesty's Government, and the Right Hon.
Gentleman opposite, if they had nut come forwerd to
check it, would have grossly :I:gimled every interest that
was connected with the peace of that country. As he hail
not addreeeed the House before this eeeeitni, he would avail
himself of the present. opportunity to state, that if ever
there was an occasion ore which it was incumbent for Irish
gentlemen to come forward with a declaration of their sen-
timents, it was when a petition signed by the most in-
tluentiat persons in Ireland, in respect of education, intelli-
gence, and property, was presented to the notice of Bathe-
merit. That petition had originated in the following cir-
cumstance :—The lion. Member for Dublin, in establish-
ing the Brunswick Clubs in Ireland, kid given com-
mencement to this Association. We were surrounded in
the country by small clubs, often consisting of nut more
than half a dozen in lividuals—of whom the parson was
generally one—which led to a very considerable annoyance
of such of us as opposed them. To get rid of this an-
noy ince we thought it our duty to hare a public meeting
in Dublin, and in that meeting we determined to follow
the principle adopted in the Brunswick Clubs, of which
the Hon. Member for Dublin has the credit of being the
original promoter—that is, we determined to have no in-
dividual amongst us who was opposed to the object of
our meeting. We only followed the example which the
Honourable and Learned Member had himself set.—
Many foul and false miluninies had been propagated against
the Catholic Association ; but this was not the time for
either examining or refuting them. Ile would content
himself with saying, that it was mainly owing to the exer-
tions of that Association that the Catholic question had
been brought into its present favourable condition.

Mr. TRANT should like to ask whether the Castle
of Dublin had not duo-en its weight into one of the
scales at the time when the meeting, at which this petition
was agreed upon, was convened? He would advise the
Right lion. Member for Liverpool to recollect a saying of
our late venerable Monarch, which had new become a
matter of history. On a question, on which it was re-
commended
to our late Sovereign to change his principles,
because he could not find Ministers who would govern
upon those principles, his Majesty said—" Rather than
desert those principles, I will go to Charing-cross, and
take the first nine or ten men that I meet there with good
coats on their backs, as my Ministers. I will then throw
myself before the country, and will try whether the country
will, in such circumstances, desert ittoSovereign."—(Cries
of ":hear," and a laugh, during which three or four stran-
gers in the gallery excited the notice of the Messengers of
the House by their violent clapping, of their hands.)—lt
was absurd to say that a Government could not be framed
out of the tanks of those who opposed further concessions
to the Roman Catholics. The. Eight Honourable Member
for Liverpool was guilty of great inconsistency in saying
so, for it was only the other night that he had volun-
teered a compliment to an Honourable Member near
hint, and had told him in direct words that he had proved
himself qualified for a seat in the Cabinet by the speech
which he had then delivered. There were other gentle-
men equally well qualified for such situation'. lie was
speakina of The younger Members of the Howe—not of
stupid grey-headed Members Like himself (hear, and a
laugh) ; and he maintained, that if the country would only
evince its determination to adopt the princ:ple of what was
called Protestant ascendancy, it would soon find able men
enough to govern it up'm that principle.—(Hear, hear.)—
Here he would call upon the House to look back at certain
events, which, though he had not witnessed them, had
become matter of history within their own recollections.
He thought that he recollected something of a time when
al administration, which called itself " All the Talents,"
declared, without any reserve, that Catholic Emancipa-
tion should be granted, and when it thought—if it did not
say as mach—that it was impossible to make up any Cal&
set that was not determined to grunt it. Batt then,
as he heard, fur he was test thousand miles from Eng-
land, an indisildnal, of the rinse of Percival,
coax holy sr other, contrive to form a Cabinet of emi-
nent statesmen opposed to Catholic Emancipation. He
hail likewise heard that the Talents said that all the states-
men who formed that Cabinet were so stupid, that it was
cute Impossible for them to carry on the Government for
a year. Yet, u far as he had been able to observe whilst
he resided at such a distance from England, that Cabinet,
even after the bead of it had been snatched away by a pre-
utature fate, had carried on the government on his prin-
ciples for sixteen or seventeen years; and on the same prin-