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

Lion. Yes, Protestants and Catholics, you must
combine, unite, coalesce, amalgamate together ; you
must present the appearance of one mighty growth,
one gigantic body actuated, by one common soul. I
do not say to the Protestant join an assembly deno-
minated the Catholic Association; perhaps the
name may carry.with it some disagreeable reflections.
A name is nothing; such obstacles as these can
easily be removed; but I say that until this national
sacrament takes place, until you are wedded and
knit together, nothing great, nothing of moment,
can be done. (Great cheering.) Do you object to
the violence of the Catholic body and the intempe-
rance of its leaders ? Protestants, they are not
more so than you would be in their situation. If
the state shut her doors against you—if, not contest
with this, she opened them only to those who swore
to a flagrant insult on your creed, how would you
feel ? If the grossest falsehoods, refuted a thousand
times, were urged, day after day, against you, and
made the grounds for continuing your degradation—
if you were distanced in your prcifessions by men un-
worthy to loose the latchet Of your shoes, merely be-
cause they knelt at an altar different from yours—if
promises were made to you only to be broken-
hopes were held out only to disappoint—would you
be moderate ?—would you be temperate ? Protes-
tants ! I hope, I believe you would not. (Loud
and continued cheering.) And when a Catholic,
sickened by expectations that never are fulfilled, and
frenzied by wrongs that cannot be endured, breaks
forth into the language of intemperance, repays insult
by insult, and hurls back on his calumniator the
burning expressions of resentment, I say, it is only
human nature asserting her own dignity, and I pre-
sume, not to blame that dispenSation of Provi-
dence, which has placed in every an's breast, Ca-
tholic as well as Protestant, a princTple that spurns at
insult and revolts against oppression. The violence of
the Association is the cant of the day. When an
Orangeman speaks of it, I take up the speeches of his
chosen leaders and his clergy, and I stop his mouth
on the subject of intemperance, (loud cheers) and
I tell him, that the deadly hatred, which he and
every enemy to the country and the cause, bears to
that body, and to its leaders, proves to me with more
titan mathematical certainty, the utility of the one
and the virtue of the other; and when a false friend
to the Catholic (and they are many and influential)
(Hear, hear,) speaks to me of this violence, 1
either turn from him with contempt, or I tell him

that this is his excuse for his non-exertion in the
cause he pretends to support. (Hear.) And let
me observe, speaking on the subject of their false.
friends, who stand by ready to join whatever side
obtains the upper hand—ready to cheer on an
exterminating, or applaud the wise policy of an
emancipating Government—that one most im-
portant advantage, which I anticipate from the
meeting of this day, and the consequences
likely to flow from it, is this, that it will teach the
Catholics who are really with them, and who are
really against them (cheers) that while it inspirits
the Protestant to greater exertion, it would separate
the false friends of the Catholics from the true, that
it will winnow the chaff from the wheat, that it will
divide the light from the darkness. " (Loud cheers.)
But when a Protestant, such as whom I now ad-
dress, honest, uptight men, who think what they
profess, who are sincerely anxious for the cause and
determined to use their best exertions in its behalf,
when such a man speaks of and objects to the vio-
lence.of the Association, I apply to his objections the
remarks of Chatham, when he spoke of the wars

that hurled Charles Stuart from his throne,
and rooted liberty in the soil of Britain
" There was violence," said he, " there was in-
temperance, but let no man persuade you that it
was not the cause of tyranny on one side, and of
liberty en the other." So in the ca'e before us
there may be viols rice, there may he intemperance,
there may be want of moderation, there may be
each and all of these; but let no man persuade you
that it is not the cause of tyranny on: one side, and
liberty on the other: (Cheers.) Protestants and
Catholics ! you have a great task to perform, you
have to beat down monopoly, intolerance, and
wrong; you have to plant in this distempered laud
the healing principle of religious freedom, that prin-
ciple which has marshalled tinder its banner, all the
virtue, the talent, the wisdom of the laud, what\
Pitt, the stay of England, gave up place and pen-
sion to support—what Grattan, the strength of
Ireland, lived and died in asserting--what Burke, I
what Fox, what Canning, what all those mighty
men, who from their watch-tower in the skies,
held forth the naming lamp of their own bright ex-
ample, struggled to-
attain as the only hope of salva-
tion for Ireland. With such an object in view, with
the same enemy to overcome, will you waste your
strength by dividing your forces ; Protestant forget
the intemperance and the violence of the Catholic, as
he invariably forgets and forgives your intolerance,
when you want him to fight your battles, and to
gain your victories (cheers.) Remember the posi-
tion of the cause; the Catholic must be exterminated
or must be set free, there is no middle course now,

greatly emancipate or fundamentally destroy.'i
Should madness so beset the councils of the Cabi-
net, as to resolve upon the latter course, should the
Orange yeomen be let loose, will you stand tatnely
by and see the Catholic cut down, for asking
for those rights that alone give interest to
life, for demanding what you have declared
to be his birthright and inheritance ? Should
you do so, the very declaration you have
signed, the very resolutions you are passing,
will be the damning evidence of your false-hearted-
ness and pusillanimity (loud cheers). Protestants
prevent the possibility of such a tremendous occur-
rence as this. Unite with the Catholics ; present
the glorious front of a united people to the resistance
of bigotry and oppression. No minister, however
mad, will shut his ears to your claims when your
voices blend together in demanding them. Protes-
tants and Catholics, if you would not plunge the
country in civil war, and all the curses that follow
in its train ; if you would not transmit the sword as
an inheritance to your children, struggle, agitate,
cry out for relief, kneel down before the legislature
together—tell them that you are one people, one
vast fraternity, bound together by the ties of one
common wrong; tell them that what degrades one
degrades all; that which injures .pne injures all;
that wh'at enslaves one enslaves all ; tell them that
the Irish Protestant can never be flee until the Irish
Catholic ceases to be a slave (tremendous applause
for several minutes).
Mr. BROWNLOW, M.P., rose to move the next
resolution, and was received with the most raptu-
rous applause. After thanking the meeting for the
kindness evinced towards Wm, he remarked, in very
complimentary terms, on the eloquent and valuable
speech of the learned gentleman who had preceded
him, and after which it might be expected that the
meeting would be unwilling to listen to anything
that he could offer. lam delighted, continued Mr.
Brownlow, to find myself amongst such an assembly
of Catholics and Protestants as are here congre-
gated. I believe I have violated the form of state
precedency by naming the Catholics first; but the
wrongs of that injured portion of the community
press heavily upon my heart, and my tongue first
gives utterance to their name. (Cries of hear, and
cheers.) What measure for the benefit of Ireland
can be carried into effect until this all-absorbing
question is settled ? We have heard of certain
plans of retrenchment ; but how can they be made
available while Ireland is in her present state, while
it is deemed necessary to keep here a larger military
force than is required for the subjugation of one hun-
dred millions of Hindoos, and the army in India is
paid out of the pockets of the Company. (Hear.)
It is the most anxious desire of my heart that equal
laws should be established in the land—and never
can we— never should we relax, in our united efforts,
while this formidable and national question is unset-
tled. (Cheers.) It never can be buried—and it is
an inconsiderate folly to talk of the premature inter-
ment of a political cause, the living advocates of
which are hourly increasing in numbers, in intelli-
gence, and determination. (Cheers.) Like blood
it shall rise and call to Heaven for justice. Various
interpretntions have been put on the recent letter of