Star.
London, England, 1805-05-11 00:00:00

parture from the principles of toleration lhould be
charged. No part of fuch a teem could have ob-
tained the approbation of that illuftricus Monarch.
Itt the fubfequent reigns, an opinion was maintained,
that a Roman Catholic mull ever be the irrecon-
cileable enemy of Protellant Eflablifbments and
Proteftant Governments, both in ,England and in
Ireland : that no alteration of circumltances, no ac-
quifition of benefits, no lapfe of time, could ever ex-
tinguilh in his heart the implacable feeds of animo•
Pity, which the bare profeffion of his religions faith
had implanted there. How incapable fuch a doc-
trine moil be of fupport, from fair argument, every
thinking man mull perceive; it will not bear it for a
moment ; yet, upon fuch a principle, the fyflem of
condua towards the Catholics teems to have been
founded. The confequence was, to exclude the
Intl Catholic from all (hare in the 'privileges of his
Protellant fellow-tubjeds. Thus all influence was
to be taken from him, becaufe it might lead to the
poffeffion of power, and all acquifition of property,
becaufe it led to influence. Even the favour of to-
leration was denied him, and the rites, of domellic
life were forbidden; not even the intermarriage of
the King's fubjeds was allowed, where one of the
parties chanced to be a Roman Catholic. In fhort,
the fyttem teemed to have for its objet, to drive the
whole body of the Roman Catholics out of the Wand,
or to reduce thofe who remained upon it to a fet of
wretched, degraded, ignorant, illiterate peafantry :
and as a great man once Paid, If the objed was a
wife and good one, undoubtedly no tyllem was ever
better calculated to produce its end.' They were
kept poor and inconfiderable : they were perfecuted,
degraded, and excluded : they were, by every mode,
alierated from the conflitntion ; and in proportion as
they were alienated, their feelings were exafperated,
and their hearts embittered. I hate, my Lords, the
fituation in, which his pretest Majefty found three or
four millions of his fubjeds. What has been done in
the cootie of this reign, and what a linking contrail
does it offer to the injullice and impolicy of the for-
mer fyftem ? By wife and gradual meafures, the bet-
ter perhaps becaufe they have been gradual, you have
reverted the whole of the fyflem. It is hardly to be
credited, that within the preterit reign it fhould have
been found neceffary to pats an Ad to enable the
King's fubjefts to intermarry. A full toleration has
followed, and the privileges of education, with the
repeal of many molt odious meafutes, which were ori-
ginally patted to coned evils, not by making Ca-
tholics good Proteßants, but by making them bad
members of families: They have likewife received
an intend in the land, by affording them a partici.
pation in the foil. They art alto now allowed to
(hare in the increafing benefits nf trade : they have
gained the eleftive franchife, and a large (hare of the
the executive offices of the country, with the ex-
ception of Tome of the higher. and of feats in the
Legiflature. All this you have done, and by de.
grees you have teen the wealth and the refonrces
of Leland increafed greatly. Few countries, if
any, have, in fo tort a time, made fo rapid a pro.
seek in opulence, in commerce, and, in what is fo
important, in civilization. Great encouragement

I ha; alfo been given to agriculture, and in fo doing
the wealth of the nation has been much augmented.
You were not fo ignorant as not to know that this
amelioration would foon (hew itfclf in the lower and
in the middle claffes of fociety, and it is no (mall con-
rotation to know, that you have railed np a middle
clafs of fociety in that country, a clafs that till lately
hardly excited there. As they rote in wealth they
naturally increated in attachment to the country, and
in that importance which you profeired to with. At
Lit you extended all thofe &kith privileges except
thole now folicited. You gave them eligibility to
offices, with a few exceptions. Here then a Rand
was made for a time. Not becaufe it was right to
fay, here we will take our Rand, and go no fur-
ther," for the fyllem of conceffion was gradual, and
the mode and terms of the conceffions never applied
that nothing more Ihould ever be granted. It was
necefrary fo to grant, as to make the conceffions
compatible with that harmony which was defirable
on all hands in the cafe of fuch large conceffions,
which were made without unfeemly hefitation and
grudging, and in a manner tending to conciliate thofe
to Whom the boon was given. There were confithr-
ations of great weight which rendered it doubtful
whether we could give all that might be wanted in
the high Parliament, without fomething, perhaps,
very like a convulfion in the country. 'the popular
part of the liith Legislature did not rife by accident,
as in this country, till it became a reprefentation of
the various intereffs of the nation ; but a large part
of it was exprefsly framed for the purpore of making
the Legiflature entirely Proteßant, and of excluding
three-fourths of the country. Many reafons, indeed,
appeared, againit endeavouring to adopt this mea-
fore in the kith Parliament ; but thefe reafons, I am
happy to fay, are now entirely done away, by the
falutary operation of the wife arrangement for the
ditiribution of the Reprefentatives of Ireland in the
United Parliament: and it Ihould be remembered
that in proportion as you give additional influence to
the Catholics of Ireland now, you give the lame to
'the great body of Proteßants throughout the Empire.
The Union not only removed thefe difficulties ; it did
more, which your Lordthips, I am fore, will bear
in mind. It excited ardent hopes in the perrons of
The frith Catholics. On this fubjed I (peat from a
knowledge of the fads. There was no pofitive obli-
gation nor authorifed promife, on the part of Go.
versiment, in the event of the Union, to the Catho-
lics ; but it is no leis true, that the whole of the ar-
gument and reafoning of thofe who fupported that
meafure, in and out of doors, went to prove, that
this important fultjed would be better conlidered here
than in the Irilh Parliament. And. one great con.
fideration in favour of the Union was, the profpcd it
held out of a mode of dctlroying thole religous ani.
morales and that party fpirit, which had been the
causes of to many great calamities. It was from
the nature of the rubjed Well that the bilk Catholics

• were judified in their expedations of this meaffire ; at
lead, this affurance was given them, that the United
Parliament would undoubtedly receive their petition,
and attentively confider the whole circumstances of
their cafe. It is this pledge, my Lords, that I now
call upon you to redeem. Ido net mean at prefent
to propofe any particular meafure, though I-(hall not
refrain from Rating what I think ought in policy and
juffice to be done : but Falk of your Lorelfhips in
candour and fairnefs, to hear them with patience,
and to remember that the diffufion of equal rights and
equal privileges, under the fame Conditivion, is the
moll effeduil mode of fecuring equal affedion and
equal attachment to the Government and the country.
The motion I than fubmit is, that this Houle do re-
folve itfelf into a Committee to confider the Petition,
which I think cannot be oppofed, milers by thofe
who are willing to give a full negative to the whole
of the matter under confederation. I mud fay, that
with refped to the different parts of the Petition, I
think it is highly expedient to grant the whole, if you
mean to difcharge that duty which the Union has
impofed upon you, and to provide for the real and
ellential Union of all die inhabitants of this Kingdom,
it, bonds of afferlion and loyalty, and a refulution to
defend the King and Conttitutional intereft of the
country, againit all enemies, external and interal.
quellion is in a certain degree to be placed
on the ground of erpedieney, and not' of right.—
When the fafety of the whole requires it, it 4 in the
privilege of the whole to provide difabilities. But the
quedion is, whether there is any neceility for the con-
tinuance of thofe rellraints on four or five millions of
the King's fubjeds, from the benefits of the Contlitu-
tion of the Country ? I might only date, that on the
eternal principles of judice, if there be any fuch ne.
ceffity apparent, thole who would continue thefe re-
ttraints, ought to thew their reaforis. If it be our
pride and happinefs to be judged by equal law:, let
thee who would limit and curtail that equality, ex-
plain the grounds of their rellridion. This principle
I ventured to Hate on a former occafion, and though
fome were inclined to difpute it, they could get no
farther in their oopofition than to deny it : indeed it
feems to be impuffiole for any man, who has the right
ufe of his underttanding, to deny its application, in
inch a Conditution as ours. I fubmit my motion
now, Rating, that no fuels neceffity exitts, waiting
for an anfwer, and ready, thould it be neceffary, to
offer my poor thoughts in reply. But really, my
Lords, I am ready even to take the proof upon my-
felf. I take the Britilh Conti Itution to he founded
on equal laws. It acknowledge; fonae diffinetions and
privileges, it is ti'ue—but where there is a redraint on
four millions of perfons, there mud abfolo tap appear
fome manila and palpable ground of expediency or
neceffity for its continuance. The Catholics come
before you, retrained from feats in Parliament, from
various high offices in the date, and in profeflions,
from ferving as fheriffs, and with fame qualifica:ions
from corporations. The quetlion is, what fhould in-
duce you to retain there refirietions ? One reafon that
I have heard I fhould be unwilling to impute to any
perfon; but I have keard or read lomewhere, that no
Catholic can be a good fubjed. Thus let me ark your
Lordlbips, if this be true, how can they he fit fur all
that mat's of offices for which their eligibility has been
acceded to them, with the exception of about thirty.
To all military rank below that of generals ; to all
revenue offices, except tour or five ; or to (wear al.
legiance at the table of a court of judice ? No man
lhould have agreed to their admiffion, mod, lefs
have propofed to admit them into courts °fluffier,
who held fuch opinions of them. But endeavours
have adually been ufed to perfuade the public, that
no Catholic can be a true and loyal fuljcd. I have
heard of tome old molly forgotten records, from
which old dos9rines have been picked out, which are
drawn forth againli the folemn and pofitive declara-
tions of living men, Paying, what they profefs, and dd.
claiming what has been objected to them. In fad,
laying to the Roman Catholics, s I know your reli-
gion better than yourfelf. If you deny the perfect:-
tion of beretica, I tell you that yr ur religion enjoir
it. If you difclaim the violation of faith with heretics,
I tell you that it is a do&rine of your church. If you
fay you do not believe in the cifpenfing power of the
Pope, I fay you do believe i• I' I fhould think, my
Lords, it is enough to take a =l.'s own fenfe of the
obligations of his own religion, and his own tells and
declarations, on thole fubjeds 'which have been dif-
puted, aryl not your own opinion on fume obfolete
opinions which they deny. I know not where pule-
cution is to end, if you try, and condemn and punifh
men not for being guilty,but for opinions which they
do not hold. If it be true that you have altually dil-
covered by the Council of Lateran or of Conitance,
or by fome old decretal or canon, that a Catholic can-
not be trutled, it mull apply to all modes, and to
every view of the future, and lead to a et-tirade, to
drive all thofe irreconcileable enemies of the Protef-
taut Government out of the country they inhabit.—
How am I to argue the point, that the whole body
of the Catholics is not difloyal ? By referring to the
repeated Ads of the Prote dant Legiflature of Ireland!
I know of no mode to exhibit mathematical, or arid.
ly logical proofs of the Rebellion in Ireland not hav-
ing been what is termed a Catholic Rebellion. There
had been two feparate rebellions in Ireland before.
Look at the Ads of Parliament,
sand you will find
that the demeanour of the Catholics is charaderized
for the loyalty of the body, notwithdanding the con-
Tolled Rate of the times. Noble Lords cannot forget 4
the period of the American war, When the navy of
the enemy triumphed in the Channel ; when Ireland
was threatened with invafion ; I fpeak in the bearing 4
of individual witneffes, of thole who have been
Lord 'Lieutenants, and Secretaries to Lord Lieu-
tenants.
At that critical time the Catholic Body
was not confidered to be difeffedad to the Pro-
tedant Government, but were thought fit to be en-
trulted with arms for the defence of their country.
The next thing I (hall notice is what is notorious to
every man who has heard of the Rebellion, that the
confpiracy was framed and carded on by perfous