Star.
London, England, 1813-03-02 00:00:00

--"T

$ Be*mpg, *teen of the proceedings to which il
have adverted. Sir, there was a time which would
supply a precedent far moderate persons who did not
wish to be involved in proceedings of this nature. if
say there were moderate enough to wish to escape
beech them. In 1791, when the Catholics disgraced
drasselves by similar violence*, several Nollemen
aid Gentlemen withdrew from the body and resolve
to lay a mad, but by no means degrading Address.
at the foot of the Throne. They preferred claims—
did not demand rights: they did not point out what
they would have, but left every thing to the car..
dour of the Legislature. Will the House, aware
as they are of this, believe me when I say that
among the names of those who countenanced the
proceedings of so opposite a nature, a notion et
which I have endeavoured to convey to them, are
to be found those of Fingal, Gormacttown Km
mare. Goold, and Troy ? But to revert to the plat,
of the Right Honourable Gentleman, he is willing tc
exclude Catholics from the Throne, though he cnn.
tends for the necessity of admitting them into the
other two branches of the Legislature. Now, Sir, I
protest I cannot see more expediency in the one excle •
sion than the other. A. Catholic, according to the
system of the Right Hon. Gentleman, cannot be
King of Great Brirain, but he can become Lord
Chancellor, and in that capacity, keeper of the con.
science of a Protestant Sovereign ; he might become
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and have the disposal
of livings in the Established Church. I am aware
of the answer that will be made to all this ; it will be
contended, that there will be no obligation on the
Crown to appoint Catholics to those offices, Sir, i
say, that if the Catholic is systematically excluded
from them when he might hold them by law, there
will be somethipg invidious in his exclusion which
cannot exist in the present state of things • the
Crown will be subjected to obloquy which would be
well avoided. The Right Honograble Gentleman
exultingly asked who fought at Cressy and Agin,
court, were they not Catholics ? Sir, they certainly
were so. but who commanded in those celebrated
actions ? WAS it not 4 Catholic Monarch ? And
would not therefore the argument involved in the
question of the Right Hon. Gentleman go to the ad-
mission of a Catholic to the throne as well as to in-
ferior oftees ? Might he not appeal to the reign of 4
Sovereign SP glorious for England, and ask, was Ed-
ward 111. a monarch who was unfit to fill the throne;
The Right Hon. Member then went on to admit
that the grievances under which the Catholics labou-
red were not many. but again insisted on the incon-
gruity of having Catholic servants employed by a
Protestant Sovereign. He assumed that no argui
merit could be drawn in favour of Catholics from
the state of Canada, when the Crown held the nomi-
nation of the Catholic Bishops, which. was refused in
Ireland, and stated that when Catherine of Russia had
admitted to the formation of a Catholic Bishopric in
her territories, she had, with much jealousy, reserved
to herself the nomination of the person who was to
fill the see; and contended, that any further concession
would be counter to the principles of the Revolution.
/He admitted that Papists were not excluded froni
Parliament in 1688 ; but assumed, that the Irish Par.
liament having passed an Act, in 1697, excluding
any Protestant who should marry a female of that
persuasion, thereby virtually acknowledged the autho,
rity of an English Act, passed in 1692, by which they
were excluded. The Irish Catholics, he said, if they
were represented by persons of their own body, could
not have abler advocates than they had. Nu Catholic
]Member for Waterford could be more zealous in their
cause, than the Honourable Baronet opposite (Sir
John Newport) ; nor could any Catholic kepresen.
tative for Tipperary be louder than the Honourable
General (Mathew)—(.l laugh)—whose disapproba-
tion of the Irish Government was, in his apprehen-
sion, the highest compliment they could receive."
The Right Hon. Secretary having then insisted on
the reluctance of the Catholics to admit of a dome.
tic nomination of Catholic Bishops, concluded with
expressing his opinion, that the Petition; on the Table
preferred by Protestants, howevei lightly they might
be treated, clearly sheered that they never would be
contented if the claims of the Catholics were ac-
quiesced in,
The Hon. Mr. WARD observed+ that a reply to
the arguments of those who opposed the Catholic
Claims seemed almost unnecessary for two reasons ;
the first because those arguments had been so often
urged and answered; the second, because owing. to
the rapid and salutary progress of public opinion.
they had lost the greater part of the bold which they
formerly appeared-lo have on the judgment of Pare
liament. Unquestionably, the comparative situation
of the Catholic cause twenty years ago, and at ;he
present period, was a most satisfactory subject aeon.
templation. Twenty years the claims of the Ca-
tholics were not only rejected by • the Irish Pedlar
merit, but were alledged to be too absurd to be enter-
tained for a single moment. Since that times the
prejudice against them had been graduilly dissipa•
ting • and he trusted, that the moment was now ar?
rived, when the good sense of the Legislature would
induce them to consent to their final and concil;atory
adjustment. So favourable indeed had become the
public feeling towards the Catholics, that the question
now was, not whether emancipation should be gran-
ted, hut how long it should be delayed ? for the
Anti-tatholic must be ill read in the signs of the
times, who could flatter himself with the hope of a
permanent and successful resistance. It was a sub-
ject, the popularity of which bad increased in every
Session of every succeeding Parliament, until, at
length, in the last year, and chat too under extrinsic
circumstances of a most unfavourable nature, tl;ti
grand principle of the necessity of emancipation we
established by a large and triumphant majority. It
was indeed a principle, which had received the sanc-
tion of almost all the great men that this country had
produced, It had received the sanction of a Burke
and a Fox. It received the sanction of the greater
part of the illustrious statesmen who still survived.—
If it were a question to be determined by authority
alone scepticism itself would be confounded by the
dazzling lustre of those splendid names that were
arranged in its support. But it was not in the ranks
of the great and enlightened alone that the most
friendly dispositions had evinced themselves toward
the Catholic cause. It was generally popularq even
among that class of society by which it had heretofore
1
been encountered by the most violent and fanaticel
opposition. An Hon. Gentleman had, in an earl
Part (lithe dibaw,arpearld disrositd to coli&hten th