The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-06 00:00:00

his intentions, instead of praising his Grace and Mr.
Peel, as he did on Saturday night, have held them up as
perpetual warnings to deter from the ambition of
attempting to place the institutions of the coun-
try in harmony with the happiness and prosperity
of those who live under them. The Duke of Wellington
has done his duty to his country ; and he has even forced
from Lord Eldon the admission, that " lie believed, in his
conscience, that the Noble Duke had made that proposition
because he felt it to he his duty to the country ; and most
assuredly that the Noble Duke should make such a pro-
position, at some time or other, would have been no mat-
ter of surprise to him." What he himself would have
done, in similar circumstances, may be inferred from what
was stated of him by Earl Grey. He would have been
consistent in opposing improvement, till it was forced from
bins by an imperious necessity, at a less convenient time
for the country ; to say nothing of the evil and misery en-
dured, which might have been avoided. "In the
year 1807, I, then holding the office of one of his
Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, brought in a
Bill for the partial relief of the Catholics. Under the
provisions of that Bill concessions were made to Catho-
lics entering the army, similar to those which had already
received the sanction of the Parliament of Ireland.
Does'the Noble and Learned Lord (Eldon) recollect the
agitation and the fury which were excited against the
Gevernmeat by the announcement of that measure ?
Does he recollect the artifices which were then made use
of—(cheers)—to inflame the minds of the people, and to
impress them with the belief that the safety of the
State, and sanctity of the Throne and the Altar, would
be endangered by this concession ? Does he recollect
that it was declared if this oath was removed, and Ca
tholics admitted into the army, all would be gone—that
it would be the beginningeof a Revolution ?—(Hear,
hear.)—And, as a Noble Lord declared with some ap-
prehension the other evening, it was held both in
that House and out of it, that if you gave the Catho-
lics the power of the sword, it would be easy for them
to take all else they required—(Hear, Lear.)—Ths
Sovereign, too, by the same arts, or worked upon by
statements to which I do not wish to allude, was induced
to declare, that any assent to a proposition such as that
contained in the Bill would be a violation of his coronation
oath, and destructive of the liberties of the people, and the
result was, that the Administration, of which I was a
member, became the victim of the popular arts resorted to
for its destruction. Another Administration was formed,
and formed too upon the principle of the strictest exclu-
sion of the Roman Catholics—an Administration from
which a pledge was even exacted, that they never during
their political existence were to attempt the renewal of
that question which had produced the dismission of their
predecessors. I, my Lords, have, however, bad the sa-
tisfaction to find that when I, observing with fidelity my
oath as a Privy Councillor, to advise the Crown according
to the best of my judgment, refused to abandon that
course which I thought necessary to its safety; I say, I
have had the satisfaction to find those who profited by my
exclusion come down to the House and propose a measure
of precisely the same description as that which they had
denounced, and against which they had raised a cry of
danger and of destruction, very much like that by which
some persons now attempt to agitate this country.
—(Cheers.)—Those very :Ministers who declaimed
so virulently against any attempt to break in upon the
Act of William the Third, actually came down to this
House, and proposed to offer to the Catholics, not the
army, which was the object of the Bill of 1807, but the
navy as well as the army.; and that proposition passed
into a law, I believe, almost sub sitentio. By this mea-
sure, a manifest invasion of the unchangeable Act of
William 111., all ranks of the army and the navy were
open to the Roman Catholics, and a person of that per-
suasion may even now obtain the rank of Commander in
Chief.—(Hear, hear.)—l have taken the liberty to state
the course pursued with regard to this Act, because I think
it a matter of curiosity to know what was the course pur-
sued by Parliament in those times, which the Noble and
Learned Lord (Eldon), no doubt, considers the best and
the happiest times of the British Constitution.—(Hear,
bear, hear, and a laugh.")—We wonder how the
Noble and Learned Lord, after the recital of this chapter
in his history, could afterwards look any of their Lord-
ships in the face ! He would not have been surprised
if the Duke of Wellington should make such a proposition
some time or other, just as he himself at one time made
the proposition which at another time he had held up to
the execration of the country, and against which he em-
ployed the arts to which be has now bad recourse, and, to
his mortification, without success. If the straightforward
conduct of the Duke of Wellington be virtue, what is the
conduct which Earl Grey so faithfully pourtrayed ? His-
tory will be a slave indeed, if she do not render justice to
his Lordship. This old man has been what the world
calls astonishingly successful, and in a few years he will
be called on to answer what he has done of good or evil.
Instead of intriguing to defeat the magnanimous designs
of the Duke of Wellington—instead of striving by low
arts of popularity to raise a clatnour against his mea-
sure—instead of lying in wait to do all the mischief he
can to it in its passage through the Committee—it would
be well for him to meditate on the few concluding
words which fell from his Grace on Saturday night, that
he performed the services to his country, to which allu-
sion had been made, " under good repute and under bad
repute, and that he was never deterred from doing his
duty because the cry of the country happened to he
against him." His Grace's declaration of abhorrence of
civil war has, according to Earl Grey, " placed on his
head a crown of immortal glory." What then shall be
the portion of him, who, by intrigues, by base artifices,
by appeals to ignorance and prejudices, exposes a nation
to the hazard of that calamity? The Duke of Wel-
lington has, no doubt, in the proud reflection that he
has intended well to his country, a reward beyond all
price; but if the satisfaction of the good and the ♦irtu-
ous hereafter be in any manner derived from a knowledge
of the consequences of their labours, surely the crooked
and artful man, who, by unworthy means, seeks to destroy
honourable men, and to defeat noble plans for selfish ends,
will, in like manner, receive his punishment in the know-
ledge of the consequences of his deeds. It is true that
Lord Eldon should reflect on these things. The love of a
church does not necessarily mean a confidence in religion ;
but of the two the latter is of most importance. The
Duke of Wellington has gained far more than what he
could have gained from the clamour of the rabble. He is
a fortunate man in every sense of the word—and he de-
serves his fortune.—Morning Chronicle.