Star.
London, England, 1827-03-06 00:00:00

_to,' 6 of Roman Catholics from Parliament and tber'
_to,'
which he had alluded. The Roman Catholics
"""nott been united by the demagogues of Ireland,
by any desire the great majority • hid for a
al of the disabilities which were imposed on
betayby the Constitution, but they were united by
that priesthood who ap-
esthooti—(Cheers).—by
she
iPeriii is a oew character, as political leaders—(Cheers)
peered their flocks to unite for the restoration of
;ore Church, which they called the Roman Church,
few the overwhelming of the Protestant Church—
(es' ).—The Priests nded eir flocks of te
rpggles of their ancestors,teMi and ofth the • ancient glory
ojaipternacy of their Church. Not content with that,
Iy/ calumniated the Ministers of the Protestant Esta•
rent, and called upon the Catholics to unite, and,
their exertions, to give success and fresh honour to
*only pure Church, meaning thereby the Roman. Ca.
halt cbareb—(Hear.)—That was no exaggerated.pic•
ire of what had transpired within the last few months.
Deanne spirit of enthity to the Protestant Church
oich had predominated of old, had been revived in
its vigour: It was that spirit in the priesthood
'esch had been the cause of all the wars and discon-
tets in Ireland from the time of Elisabeth up to the
root day. In Elizabeth's reign thousands of lives and
hillions of money had been expended to protect the
noestant E.tablishrnent. It was true that at first,
• at the peevnt moment, the Roman Catholics did
serepenly protest that the restoration of their religion
to sapremacy was the desire which animated them
through the intrigues of the Priests, but in the reigp
of James the Second such *as avowedly their object,
and for two years Ireland enjoyed all the blessings
which Popery could bestow. The Protestant Church
was pillaged„ and Protestants were treated with scorn
rod deprived of their rights. After a century the
sane system was strenuously attempted to be renewed,
and he maintained that the Priests had been the real
agitators and cause of all the wars and miseries of
Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) And he would ask, was the
recollection of those struggles lost to the people ?
Ant certainly not. If ignorance deprived them of the
rover of consulting records, tradition had rendered them
familiar with many ; and if tradition was too weak to
bring them acquainted with all that had transpired,'
there were the demagogues to sound the glory of olden
times in their ears ; and if that were not sufficient, the
?rests were ready to enforce the doctrines of the politi-
cal leaders, and to commemorate the battles which had
been waged in favour of their Church. IE any person
doubted the character of the discontents and wars which

had occurred during and subsequent to the Reign of,
Elisabeth, let them consult even the Roman Catholic
writers on the subject; and if any one doubted that
the real desire of the Catholics was at present to render,,
their Church triumphant, and to restore it to its,
former splendour, let him look to what was at that
moment passing in Ireland. Let them look to the
proceedings of the Roman Catholic Association, which
had taught its disciples, even in that House, to call
England a haughty Mistress. Let them look to the
proceedings of that Association which gloried in the
misfortunes of England, and hailed with delight the
probability of a war ;—(Hear, hear)—who designated
the Establi,hed•Church as a curse to Ireland, and had
the audacity to misrepreient every act for the improve.
tent of that Church—(Cheers). Nor had the Priests
stopped there, for they had endeavoured to instil into
the mind of every Catholic that Emancipation would
be worthless without a perfect restoration of the Roman
Catholic Church. Thus had the whole society of
Ireland been frightfully disorganised. The Protestant
meetings had been interrupted, an effort had been
made to exclude the Bible, and the ties between land-
lord and tenant had been broken asunder by the inter-
meddling of an arrogant Priesthood. The course of
justice had been impeded ; the Protestant Judge,
Juryman, prosecutor, and witness, had been persecu-
ted, reviled, and held up to derision, merely because
they were Protestants. But the worst grievance of all
was, that a new class of political combatants had
sprung up. The Catholic Clergy had appeared in the
political arena, and had had recourse to every means
within their power to excite the people to discontent.
A more dangerous body could not be conceived. It
was unknown to the Constitution; it was altogether
irresponsible ; and it assumed a power against which
the laws had not provided, and which threatened tol,
banish even the hope of peace and happiness—(Hear).,
The effect of the conduct of that body had indeed been
dreadful. The landlord could no longer repose tong-'
deuce in the tenant, but be was compelled, like Shylock,
to demand the tenor of his bond." He had no

option left him—his own protection compelled him
to have recourse to harsh measures, as the only,
means of checking the influence of such a body.
The intrigues of the Priests deprived the landlord of
the right he had in the elective franchise of his tenant
(Cheers from the Opposition). Hon. Gentlemen should
remember that the elective franchise was not held in
Ireland as in England. It did not arise from possess-
ing a fee simple to property of a certain nature, but
it was derived from the landlord, who gave it
.to his
tenad, by asaferring on him a certain lease. He
►herefore maintained that the landlord had a claim
upon the tenant in the exercise of his franchise.—
(Cheers from the Opposition.) His interest was similar
to that of a proprietor of property in a close borough in
England.—(Hear, hear.) lie war ready to admit that
the system was a bad one, he did net with to (Wend
it, bat bad as it was, it would be infinitely worse
should the influence be taken out of the hands of the
landlords and consigned to those of the Priests.—
(Cheers.) The consequence of the interference of the
Priests had been most lamentable. There had in num-
berless instances been a total cessation of all kindly
feeling between landlord and tenant; the landlord had
been obliged, for the protection of his own interests,
to put the full severity of the law in force, and the
consequence was, that whole families were wandering
about the roads in.a state of wretched destitution. The
tenant had been held up by the demagogues as a mar-
tyr and a victim, as a patriot who had cast away even
his home rather than desert the cause of his country,
end rather than submit to what was termed oppressiet
But than such a statement nothing could be more falls-
elms. It was true that the Priests had almost in every,
instance succeeded in alienating the tenant from the in-'
retests of his landlord; but by what means had their suc-
cess been accomplished? Why, by threats and by delu-
sions. By exhortations uttered at the altars, by fearful
threats of excommunication, of a total deprivation of
the right of confession, of a peremptory denial of ab.
Solution, even of the Sacrament, and what appeared to
the ikolan Catholic still woe se, even of extreme unction.
Noe did the Priests deal in threat; and exhortations
only, but they actually did refuse the Sacrament,• and,
car are unction to some poor creatures who had con.

'tinned true to the interests and wishes of the landlords.
Thus it was that the Roman Catholic Priests abused
the influence of their functions; and thus it %vs; that
the unfortunate peasantry were compelled, through
spiritual terrors, to break their promises. And did be
then say too much when he stated that it was not a
wish—a desire for emancipation which had actuated
the conduct of a great number of the Irish electors at
the last election?--(Hear. hear.) This was no idle state.

ment ; he held documents in, his hand which would

fully bear him out; and he had been induced to col-
lect those documents from what he had himself wit•

sesred in the county of Waterford. Soch was the
nature of the papers he had alluded to, that he should
neglect his duty to his country, and to act in accord-
ance with his conscientious feeling, if he did not. read
some of them; and if any one asked why they had not
been produced before the House, he would answer, that
the House could afford no remedy for the grievance they
complained of. Even had a Committee been appointed
to.examine into them, and a new election for the county
had been the result; still that coarse had been thought
unadvisable, as it would only make existing wounds
the wider, by causing a repetition of the same monstrous
interference. In the first place, to skew the real feelings
of the tenants towards their landlords, previous to the
violent interference of the Priests, be would read an ad.
dress which had been sent to The Marquis of Waterford.
—Ube Hon. Gentleman then read an address, which
was couched is the most respectful, even affectionate
terms, and alluding to the wishes of the Priests, expressed
a determination to consult the wishes of their most kind

and indulgent landlord at the ensuing election.] That
address was signed by 510 tenants, and he would ask the
House if a more kindly document could be conceived ?
What was the result? Why, the greater part *of the
tenants who had signed it voted in direct opposition to the
wishes of their landlord--(Cheers, and laughter from
the Opposition.)—But did they do so from their own
wish ? No, the denunciations and threats of the Pt iests
had mastered them. They looked with terror at the
thought of being excommunicated from that Church in
which they had been brought up. They trembled at a
denial of confession, absolution, the sacrament, and ex-

treme unction. But many of those very men threw
themselves on their knees when they saw their landlord,
implored his pardon, and stated the way in which they
had been compelled to break their promise, and to repay
his kindness with ingratitude, as they thought, for reli.
gion's sake. He would unfold to the House some of the
practices by which the Priests had succeeded in their
ads; and having done so, he would askthe House if the
restoration of such a religion was to be hoped for in a
free country ? He held in his band sixteen affidavits
upon the bubject, and he would read some to.the House.
—[The Hon. Member then read a variety of affidavits,
which, among other things, stated, that, in many in-
stances, the Priests hail, from the altars, denounced ven-
geance against all who should not vete for Mr. V.Stuart,
and should not oppose the Devil and Orangeman Lord
G. Beresford ; that the Sacrament, Confession, and.
Extreme Unction, had been, in several eases, refused,
because the applicants voted for Lord G. Beresford ;
that the Priests had termed the gates of Lord Beres-
ford's house, the gates of hell, and forbade any one
to enter them ; that a Priest bad declared from
the pulpit, that unless his auditory turned to Got, and
voted for Mr. Stuart, he (the Priest) would not quit
them until they were in helq--He should not, hare,
read so much of these documents had be OA whiled
to spew that his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Plunkett) was
altogether mistaken when he uttered so great a calumny
as he did against the Protestant Clergy, as to say that
their conduct had been as blameable at the last elec-
tion as was that of the Roman Catholic Priesthood.
Another affidavit stated, that a Priest, from the altar,
called Lord George Beresford 4,a second devil V' while
another one stated that the deponent was actually
excluded from trading, in consequence of his having
voted for Lord George. Again, another stated that a
'Priest, when in the pulpit, said he would send
any one to the devil who should vote for Lord G.
Beresford, that •he had directions to do so from the

Bishop, aid that he would rigidly put them in force.
The most extraordinary affidavit, however, stated,
that the deponent was an exciseman, that he had
Occasion for a certificate of his baptism, that the
Priest repeatedly refused him in consequence of the
vote he had given, that k was only by the payment
of ss. that he could procure the certificate; and that
he was afterwards refused the sacrament from the same
reason that be bad been refused the certificate. He re-
peated that he had read these documents to shew how
entirely unfounded and unjust was the comparison made
by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Plunkett)—Hear, bear).
$e had thus performed his duty to his country, and he
'should conclude by expressing it to be his firm centric-
tion the Roman Catholic religion was unchanged; that
the struggle of the Priests was not for political power;
that they cared nothing for political power, compared
to the restoration of their Church to its ancient supre-
macy ; and that while the Roman Catholic religion
continued as it then was, and ever had been, no further
concessions could be granted to its professors without
endangering the safety of the British Constitution—
The Roman Catholic Priesthood were looking for Ca-
tholic supremacy in Ireland; and unless the evil should be
carefully. guarded against, the Protestants would be put
down, and a Roman Catholic supremacy established.—
(Cheers.)
Mr. S. RICE had never before addressed the Heuse
oa the question, but so. many Petitions had been en-
trusted to his charge, that he felt called upon not to
give it a silent vote. The Hon. Baronet who had pro-
posed the Resolution, had most justly asked those who
were opposed to further concessions, by what means they
proposed to pacify Ireland? To that question the Hon.
Member who had just sat down had given an indirect
answer. He had hinted, but appeared afraid to speak it
openly, that force should be bad recourse to. That the
Roman Catholics should be suppressed and subdued,
but he (Mr. Rice) would tell the House, that if such
a system were unhappily resolved on, nothing short of
the utter extirpation of the Roman Catholics would
pacify Ireland. The facts stated with respect to the
election for the County of Waterford would, if true,
afford sufficient ground for setting aside the election.
But the witnes,es shrunk from examination, or rather
from Cross-examination ; and at last his lion. Friend
was reluctantly compelled to adopt ideas adverse to the
Roman Catholic faith upon the written affidavits of
Roman Catholics, who, by the whole tenor of his speech,
were not to be believed upon their oath. He was in
possession of wl,ole folio volumes of affidavits, and
would have the House to receive as sterling, what he
himself described as a fictitious paper currency. But,
admitting the witnesses to be good, what a teartul-scen,
did they present regarding the forty shilling freeholde s !
The threat of taking from them all the comforts of life