Star.
London, England, 1812-02-04 00:00:00

In his nets, out-set of sulnitittilg x jastiOeition tet Ire
Visit Geveritnient tie the honourable House; he would
stop ifd saY, that every aft had been made use of to
confound the grand Catholic Question with the ptte
ceedings of his Grace the Lord Lieutenant ; teat his
Grace had nothing to du with it, he maintained the
laws of the land, and administered justice, and in.
deed he found sufficient employment in pert* .1-ming
that to preserve him from meddling with other iu y.
Yet, notwithstanding, no act had been left um: ied to
compel the people to believe, that his Grace was en-
deavouring to turn aside the claims of the Cathol c
body. With regard to the circular let:er which had
occasioned so much wit to be spent by many of the
Hon. Gentlemen at his expence, it was issaed i 3 his
(Mr. W. Pole's) name, and was framed nat by him,
but by the Crown Lawyeas ; the knowledge t f its au-
thenticity, and the official pnreose c'n which it was
employed, he thought might have sufEci .ntly Sc:ceaeil
it from those. satiric tl attacks so lavishly besneved
upon it. How had it happened, that during the ds.
cession on the Catholic question last year, the con-
duct of the Irish Government had never been once
mentioned, not even the most for tend aniorgst
the Gentlemen on the oppesite side ever ques-
tioned the propriety of their behaviour on the
principles of law, but so far the contrary, that towards
the close of the Session, the conduct of the It ish Go.
vernment received the express sanction of the Perlia-
ment. Ile returned to Ireland, and expressed to the
Government what he had ben given to understand
was the sense of the Protestant Representatives, that
they entirely approved of the manner in which the
Government was carried on, and that no: one word
had passed concerning any wrong constructinn they
might have put upon the Convention Ac. The Right
Hotiouraole Gentleman, in adverting to the revorel
of the Catholic Ccmrainee in 1810, observed, that
he was apprlied that the Calinlic Committee meant
to act much in the same manner tett they had
acted before ; and he stated up et that occesion,
that the Government was mast anxious to neat
the whole Catholic Body with as much leeity la
the administration of the law as possible; and u
long as they did not commit any tneawlul a.t,
no steps whatever would be t iken against them.
But Gentlemen were mistaken when they supposed
that the Convention Act was enacted sully against
the Catholics, it applied equally to all descriptions of
unlawful assemblies, and if a law at all, was a law
equally applicable to all classes c f people. When it
was recollected that in these debates of the Catholic
Committees they introduced the very topics that were
calculated to inflame the minds of the people ; the
factious Newspapers of the day teemed with intim.
matory speeches; and in the Debates last year, there
was one instance of a person who felt he was going too
far, and called out to the Note-taker, " Don't take
this, it ought not to be published." The Note-taker
replied, " He thought so too, and had already shut
up his book." It was said the Irish Government
had interfered most improperly, but what was the
fact ? The Catholic Committee were Leung to augment
thtir numbers by adding Peers' eleest sons, all the ,
Catholic Baronets, all the Catholic Clergy, and ten
Delegates from each county. And what did Lord
French himself tell them ?—that they were going to
erect themselves into a Perliammt. It was then
thought expedient by the Lord Lieutenant and his
advisers to take some step, and they proceeded to
stole the mischief by net allowing the Committee to
meet, and the letter so much commented upon was not
meant es a prevention to the evil. But the Irish Govern-
ment was accused of noisiness, folly, intemperance,
and intolerance. They had, however, the authority
or Parliament for contending that tl-:ey had not put a
wrong counrtiction upon the law; and being at such
a distance from this country, the Executive Govern.
ment of Ireland fele the necessity of acting upon that
construction. He then proceeded to detail the pro•
ceedings of the Catholic Committee in 1809 and
181(1, who, under the pretence of .:dvancing their
Petition to Parliament, hid actually formed a par.
li anent of their own, consisting of 477 members, and
if allowed to act, must hsve annulled the Gover► ..
ment altogether—and if such a Convention, so as•
s?mbled, had been allowed to sit in the city of Dub-
lin, it would be impossible for any menneer of the
Government to be responsible for the consequences.
They represented themselves as the representatives of
four millions of 'the people. They stated they had
50,000 emong them qualiried to sit in Parlienaent.
They stated their eligibility so hold all the offices of
State, nay even to the Lord Lieutenant himself.—
Under these circumstances, the Lord Lieutenant sent
a dispatch to the Government here, stating his opi.
nion, in the mean time he was advised by the Law
Officers of the Crown, that these meetings were in
direct contravention of the Convention Act—and the
IrisliGovernment were accused of being extremely re.-
miss in not communicating to the Catholics, and tak-
ing them by surprise, but to skew the contrary, he
detailed the various considerations between the Lord
Lieutenant, the Chancellor, himself, and Lord Vingal,
in all of which the latter was assured by them, the pro.
ceeding of the Catholic Committee was unlawful—
Upon the general question of the claims of the Ca.
tholics, he stated, that while lie had the honour to
hold a situation under the Irish Government, he had
carefully abstained from entering into any discussion
of the subject ; although he had always given his vote
against the prayer of their petition ; but feeling him•
self new called upon to declare his sentiments, he ad.
spitted he never yet had heard any statement of their
claims, from vihich he could form even a plausible
bop teat any thing could be done for that body with-
out endangering the Church and State ; and at pre.
sent he felt that the Catholics had adopted a line of
conduct, which, in his judgment, remiered it impos.
s ble tor Parliament toalter their condi:ion, mules 10. g.
as they retained that temper and teem which they new
assumed, it would be impassible to ameliorate then.
condition. While the present tone and temper of the
Catholics continued, he could not see how any cone
cession could be made. It there should be any abate-
ment in these, he was free to say, that lie would will.
ingly acquiesce in some modified concession; but he
must say, that they never could be placed no a foot.
lug of perfect equality with the Protestants.
Mr. SHERIDAN rose at that late Lour (rico
o'clock) because he had been observed, and peen.
Early looked at by the Right Honourable Getdeman
in the course of his speech. On one occasion site
Right Honourable Gentleman even seemed to think it
strange, that he (Mr. Sheridan) should differ frogs
him. it was not in one particular point that he die.