The Sun.
London, England, 1829-01-23 00:00:00

timent, which appears to me applicable to the sub-
ject that has collected us together I lake it,"
said he, "to be a sacred truth, and written, as it
were, on the tablets of fate, that the Irish Protest-
ant can never be free, until the Irish Catholic ceases
to be a slave. (Cheers.) My Lord Duke, it must
strike upon the mind of every man that looks about
him, that things cannot go on as they are; it must
convince him of another fact, that the day of quiet
and repose is gone by, and the time of activity is
arrived (loud cheers); and I have no other apo-
logy for presuming to intrude on the attention of
this meeting, than my firm and grounded con.
viction, that the real enemy to Ireland is not so
much the Brunswick agitator, or the Popish agi-
tator, however sanguinary the one or intemperate the
other, but the traitor to the country, is the liberal
Protestant who remains quiescent, while the ele-
ments of destruction are fermenting about him
(loud cheers). My Lord Duke, we have two objects.
in view in assembling together—the first is to ad-
vance the liberty of the Catholic-ethe-second,and the
greatest, is to oppose the tyranny of the Protestant,
to set Protestant toleration against Protestant into-
lerance. The power of the Orange faction must be
broken, no terms can be kept with them now, the
last cord between vou and them is broken, they are
calling out fotrbloo'cl. They call upon the nation to
prolong their monopoly, to remain submissive to
their sway. I meet them on this ground and I ask,
Orange ascendancy what have you done for Ireland
(cheers) ? For 130 years you have held her govern-
ment in your hands—you have seized upon all the
good things—you have taken to yourself every
honour—every emolument—you call upon the nation
to prolong yretr charter—come forward. and Prove
your right to its'renewal—(cheers)--sestablish
claims to a continuation of your monopoly. What
have you done for Ireland? Look to the penal
code, the bloody record of your power. You framed
and passed, and executed a code of laws, in the
atrocious ferocity and unerring cruelty of which the
ingenuity of fiends might have equalled, but could not
have surpassed you. You held out a premium to re-
ligious apostacy, you set a bounty on filial disobe-
dience, you rent asunder the strongest ties of na-
ture, you set the father against the sou, blood
against blood (cheers) yoit dishonoured the parent,
you bastardised the child, you followed the Catholic
with the most scrupulous malignity, from his cradle
to his coffin. Nor was this sufficient ; the natural
lifetime of man was too contracted for the full de-
velopment of your system. You proscribed his
priest, you banished his schoolmaster, that is, you
stipped him of the religion of his fathers, and by de-
basing his mind, you incapacitated him from acquir-
ing another, so that you not only delivered him up
to persecution in this life, but as far as in-you lay,
you consigned him to destruction in that which was
to come. (Cheers.) Well, but you will say, this
was only one part of your policy, these laws were
necessary for the growth and spread of the Protes-
tant religion.- I take up the history of my country,
and I find your influence, like a wind from the de-
sert, blasting the wholesome produce of the land.
I turn over the annals of that Parliament which sou
constituted, and I see you for years crouching be-
neath a foreign yoke. I find you, Session after
Session, passim). Acts, confirming Statutes, that beg-
gard the manufacturer in your streets, silenced the
voice of commerce in your ports, fettered the limbs
of trade, and crushed the growing energies of the
land. You speak, perhaps of 178.1. You point out
the revolution then accomplished—the free trade—
the rights and all the splendour of that glorious
period. 1 turn to that bright spot in your political
life, and history informs me, that though the perse-
cuting laws still polluted; that statute-hook, yet that
the demon of persecution departed for a while—
that roused by superhuman eloquence, you waived for
a moment -your ascendancy, and. forgot in the
feelings of the patriot, the spirit of the intolerant;
and that to this temporary Geiation from your este-
' blished course, to -this momentary oblivion of your-
selves find your principles, is mainly to be attributed
whatever you achieved at that eventful crisis. But
history, speaking of that period, records another fact,
that the Catholics also forgot the animosity necessa-
rily engendered by a century of persecution, that
when a foreign enemy hung upon the shores they
were faithful to the country in which they were pro-
scribed—that though the Government, by a pan tial
relaxation of the penal code, bid for their assistance,
at least for their indifference, in the great contest
then subsisting between Irish liberty and British
tyranny, yet that they entered into no paltry condi-
tions, that they rallied round the standard of inde-
pendence, and lifted up their shackled arms in every
national effort. (Cheers.) That the Catholic and
Protestant volunteer were found, side by side, not
discussing the doctrines of controverted divinity, but
learning the lessons of constitutional freedom. What
could the Parliament of that day have achieved
What could Grattan, all great and glorious as be was,
have accomplished, unaided by the united efforts of
Catholic and Protestant? From this moral and physical
amalgamation of the people was derived that energy
which inspired the orator to plead, and the parliament
to declare the rights of the liberties of the country.
Well, Orange ascendancy ! doubtless you seized the
first moment of rewarding the Catholic for all that
he had done ; to a certainty you requited him amply
for all the services that so nobly and unconditionally
he gave you. You showered down upon him the
blessings of that Constitution, which, but for his exs
ertions you could never have obtained. You de-
monstrated to the world that the gratitude of the
Protestant could not be outdone by the fidelity of
the Catholic. Alas ! on this part of your conduct
history is silent; what you doled out in 1782 was the
result of terror, not the return of gratitude ; the
united fleets of Holland, France, and Spain were
riding triumphant in the channel. Years rolled on
without the slightest effort on your part to dis-
charge the heavy debt of gratitude. In 1791 so in-
tense was your intolerance, and so abject the condi-
tion of the Catholic, that not a single member
could be found of sufficient hardihood to present
his petition to the Legislature. In 1792 his petition
was presented, and thrown out by an overwhelming
majority. In 1793, but mark the giant form
of revolution stalked abroad—it. trampled on
thrones and sceptres,—it smote the ancient
principalities of the earth—it lifted its
against the British Constitution—England rushed_
forward to arrest its march—Catholic blood and'
sinew were in demand—(cheers)--concessions were
recommended from the throne ; Orange ascendancy,
how did you act then ? The very rights that not
twelve months before, you refused with scorn, you
agreed to with alaciity now--the claims that in 1792,
you rejected as destructive to the state, you carried
with acclamation in 1793, when driven to it by your
terror and the Minister's 'command. You gave w
cowardice and corruption, what you refused to gra-
titude and justice. Orange intolerants, your mean-
ness has recoiled. upon yourselves--you passed the
very measure that has already shaken your founda-
tion to its centre, and, ere long will shiver and pros.
trate your iniquitous ascendancy. Lord Fitzwilliam
arrived, he came with full power to give freedom
to the Catholic, and prosperity to the country.
Orange ascendancy, your baneful influence never
slept, the intrigues you carried on—the falsehoods
rout invented effected his recall, and gave a death-
Wow to the Few of Ireland. Your influence in
Parliament rejected the ;Bill of Reform--the Bill of
Emancipation—every measare that had for its object
time salvation of Ireland. When von did this-s-seLen
you took from the people all reliance on Govern-
ment--all confidence in Parliament--all hope of
Constitesinaal redress--and, above all, when you
accomplished the reeaii of the man in whom the
nation trusted, you sowed the seeds of rebellion
—the bloody harvest ripened in 1798. But why take
up the rime of this meeting by pursuing the ascen-
dancy in their desolating track ? Their history
since the Union is but a recapitolation of their
former crimes—their influence still continued to
palsy and paralyze Oa: land. I hurry to the pre-
sent time in which they have taken the new form of
Brunswick Clubs. The sentiments of their orators
—the motley character of their leaders I do not
condescend to discuss, There was one class, how-