Star.
London, England, 1811-03-08 00:00:00

that the sole oh}ett 4-olloonotiog was to &ono 8
neraioa • and therefbee ad notice*** oatett.. doll*
prr-cieeengs by the -Government. -This committee
was established in July ; it adjourned to October i
from October it adjourtred to November, during which
month it met two or three times for the purpose of draw.
w.
ingupthepetition, and then dissolved itself. It was
true that the Lord Lieutenant might have called the
law advisers of the Crown to his Council in order to as-
certain whether the proceedings of this meeting were
strictly Isgal—hut he did not do so, for this simple
reasoe—thet belch. it 'his duty not to interfere with
the Catholics &along as they professed to be engaged
merely in preparing their petitions for Parliament,
and as long as what they did did not endanger the
public peace. So much for the Committee of 1809.
He was sorry to say that the Committee of 1810 had
conducted itself in a very different manner. It com-
menced much in the same manner, by a general
meeting of the Catholics, by which the Committee of
1809 was re-established, and the same resolutions
were passed as those which had been agreed to in the
preceding year. An aggregate meeting of the Ca
tholics was afterwards summoned to meet on tits l
td
of November. This was one of the first points to
which he wished particularly to call the attention of
the House. On the 2clof November, 1810, this ge-
neral meeting of the Catholic Body took place. There
existed in it a..great difference of opinion with respect
to the propriety of presenting a petition, and a debate
wascarried on with extreme violence. Several speeches
were made by Mr. Keogh and others, of which he
would not say' any thing ; but there was one argu-
ment used on the occasion by Mr. Peter Finnerty,
(who was at that time in Ireland, for the purpose of
collecting affidavits in justification of a libel on a
Noble Lord), the tendency of which needed no com-
ment. The manner is which it was alleged the Eng-
lish nation were misled with respect to Ireland, had been
previously dwelt on with great heat, and much said of
the stupidity and vulgarity oftheEnglish. Mr. Finnerty,
in the course of a very long speech, reasoned against
the arguments of those who had been abusing the
English nation, contending that it was the English
Government, and not the English nation that was,
celpable ; that every honest Irishman knew what were)
the princiPles of the Irish Government ; and that the
tnglfilf`GOO*fitniott.was just as bad as the Irish Go:
venuetntt. After this Mr. Finnerty proceeded to re-
commend saitition.notoinly for Catholic Emancipa-
tion, botimco.Reforrn in-Verliament, and for a Re-
peal of the I.lp_ion. All this ..yrooKhave been onim.
pertain fint for what followed. - The ,speech of Mr.
Pniterty'violerfeeived with -the loudest applause, and
rewarded IOY- an unanimotis'Vote of Thanks. Still,
lumeoeraoetioas as this ifioceeding was, the Lord
Lieutenant did not consider it sufficiently .serious to.
require the interferenct&-cd-Government. The same
Meeting,' after theorem of thanks ;to hire-Finnerty,
resolved,3lust., the,Cetholic committee (that Corn.
=Owe which had been tippoilited ,by the aggregate j
meeting for the sole phrpose of framing the petittons
to- Parliament) should have the sale Management of
all Catholic -affairs I All this was very well known at
the Castle, but at the same time it was felt, that though
it was extremely imprudent conduct, it yet involved no
dange r to the State. The Lord Lieutenant, therefore, and.
those by whoth he was advised, took upon themselves
thereoponsibilityoflooking over the whole transaction.
—What happened afterwards ? On the Roth of No-
vember, the Committee roes again, Lord Fingal ie.
the Chair ; and when it was proposed by Mr. _Coon
man, to vote their thank* to lord Doncitighmore;
Lord I'ing-al rose, and said, that although he heartily
approved of the resolution, he wished to be informed
whether' it was competent to the Committee to do any
thing but prepare the :Catholic Petition ? The clues-
tion was replied to by Istr. O'Connel, who reminded
the Committee that the last General Meeting had re-
newed ill doubt on the subject, by their resolutions,,
empowering the Comrtiittee to conduct all the Ca-
tholic affairs. [Mr. Pole read the proceedings of
this Meeting of the Committee from The Dubfin
Evesing Po4l 4; observing, that their debotes were re
gularly reported and published in the Irish,Newspa-
pers.) The consequence was, that this remark of
Mr. O'Connel'S according etactty with' the iertie of
the Committee, Mr. Gorman's two Risolittioni Weft'
put and carried unanimously. . Still the. Lord Lieu•
tenant remained firm to his purpose-oa purpe*
which his Honourable Friend opposite ( Mr. Grat-
tan) had so leiely Characterised as the most wise po-
licy, which 2mald• be pursued in Ireland, namely—to
conciliate as long is coocitiation was possible, and to
prevent as far as could, be prevented insinuations of
an opposite disposition. On the. Ist of December
this Committee went further—. One of the Members
called their. Atlcnticm -in language do inflammatory,
that he woohtapoprepeat it, to some o horrid grit*.
antes," as he termed them, which a Cacho/Sr soldier
had sustained; desiring them, as the guardians of the
rights of she. Catholics, to take up his cause ; and
proposing that a laubscription should be raised for
the pitrtsiase itifiptcfleciiting the biLrots, however high
their ranit,"by`'wheeettis. soldiers had been oppressed.
NOw What was the.fait on which all this was founded ?
-o:On 'the 14th of August, Dr. Troy wrote a letter
tif the thief 'Secretary fpc 4tland, stetiog, that he
onderstoodie Cathelic io4ier of the name of Spence
had been ,veey unjustly aid very severely sentenced,
which-sentence he bad commuted for fbreign service.
The Chief Secretary test this letter to 'the °Ullman-
der of the Foriehowhei imMediately inotiirei into the
fact.- Mulehe refiilt wee; that there was reason to be-
lieve thelentence was a hold utte. The whole of it was,
therefore remitted.; the- soldier wa* brought back to
13'lond, opal discharged entirely from the service.—
l
,eet.Pn the Ist of December the Catholic Committee
took obis. -business up, having adjourned for seven
days, diseussed it agaiii, and; then determined in the
most violent langoege (lenge! , iodeed, of such
a nature, that be •scarcely flour Goeetoment wet
justifiable in having refraioed. 7 rots prosecuting the,
printer by whom it was published), that it should be
stated to the whole people of Ireland that in COPSe•.
cluenee Of the txertionsag the COl:puha*, tlyt whole of
the Catholic soldie-rslad luitllusuce done them, and
might now freely worship their-Maker according to
their owistritnal. Tints inferring that all tenderness,
kindness, atid justice, did lot proceed from the Govern-,
mint, but emanated :felon the Catholic Committee;
nnd holding themselves alp as the proper and exclu-
sive objects of the affection of the people. (11:ter., Ater.)'
Even this howevenAidoice not the indignati9a of
the Lord -Lieutenterriehliblelt al be hbfffelt on a
ittmec •ecatkon Vis 4 fiirliko;p4 was priferAVA. ce
1.• , „.. , . .I.

_ ?

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the eltpletrasett of tilette. - Ott the 2thoikloatiihae
the Petitiowoveroesiridi from the Sub. Committee,
was read in the Catholic Committee; and acknowe.
!edged as the petition of the Catholics of Ireland ;
Ithe Committee at the same time voting thanks to his.l
Honourable Friend opposite, in the name and by the
authority of the Catholic's in Ireland: After this, it
was to be presumed, if the Committee were consti-.
tubed solely to prepare the petition, that its labours
were terminated. And here he would observe,
that the violent proceedings of the Committee had
alienated most of the respectable Members. Lord
Ftrench. and others of a similar description, ab-
stained from giving their attendance- It was not
against such men that any measure of Government
need he taken. Never had it entered into the con-
templation of the Government of Ireland to take any
steps against the Catholic Body, but only against an
assembly which they knew to be illegal ;—and
that not until a period when, he believed in his
Conscience, if the measures !resorted to had not
been adopted, a rebellion would have been the con-
sequence. (Hear, hear, hear.) Feeling that after
this occurrence, the Catholic Committee had nothing 1
Ito do but stmply to determine whether their petition ;
rshould be conveyed by one or three individuals, the
1
Irish Government thought that as bad as the proceed-
ings had been, mischievous as the publication of the 1
debates of the Committee had proved, and great as
was the ferment occasioned in Dublin by the presence
if the Catholic Parliament (as it had been emphati.
adly termed), the evil must by atul by cease; and that
it was much better, if possible, to allow it to arrive I
at a termination without any interference on their i
Part. But the Committee did not stop here. About
the middle of December, they appointed a Committee
of Grievances. This Catholic Committee, originally
constituted for the sole purpose of preparing a peti-1
tion to Parliament, appointed a Sub-committee to exa-i
mine into all the grievances which the Catholics of
'lreland suffered, and into all the indignities and in-
halts to which they were in consequence liable. At
One of the meetings of the Committee, a member
read a letter from Doctor Troy, Archbishop of Dub-
)in, respecting some shocking circumstances that had
occurred in consequence of alledged bigotry in the
management of the Foundling Hospital of Dublin;
which letter was referred to the consideration of the
Committee. It would be necessary for him to explain
the nature of !hit Foundling Hospital. It was an in-
stitution established by Act of Parliament, and receiv-
ing annually large Parliamentary grants. About two
hundred were maintained in the Hospital itself, and
about four or five thousand in the adjacent country.
The Governors were among the most respectable ;
pay, he might say, were the most respectable indivi-
Uaials in Ireland—and there was not a public institu•
• n in that country, which VIll• conducted in a way
re creditable to those who had the management of
)t. All children, without exception, who were brought
.o this Institution; were taken in, and with each some
name or label, by which it might afterwards be recog-
nised by those be whom it belonged. These names or
labels were entered in a secret book, and the chil-
dren were distinguished by numbers. They were edu-
cated in the most exemplary manner ; and (as might
be naturally supposed) were brought up as Protes-
Itants, and if apprenticed, apprenticed to Protestant
Masters. However, when any person, whether Catho-
lic or Protestant,. claimed a child, thit child was in-
stantly delivered to him on his stating the name or
mark entered into del secret book. He had not seen
Dr..Ttoy's letter, to which he alluded, but he under-
stood that it accused the Managers of this Institution
of an endeavour to gain proselytes to Protestantism,
by contriving that.no Catholic should ever recover his
child, and that it narrated a shocking circumstance
which had occurred in consequence of this bigntry,
namely, the marriage of a brother and sister, who were
ignorant of their mutual relation. This circumstance
was warmly taken up by the Committee of Grievances,
and a discussion took place which he would not detail.
—ln the mean while, the Catholic Cbmmittee coati-
' nued to meet from week to week, sometimes twice a
week; they adopted, as nearly as they could, all the.
I forms of the Commons ; their debates were attended
'by shoes-hand writers, and were published at length
in some of the Irjt.h newspapers. About the begin-
ning of January, ode of the Members of the Commit-
tee of Grievances hated to the Catholic Committee, that
theCommiwe of Grievances had nearly prepared their
Report, consisting of 300 folio pages. It was proposed
to print this Report, to circulate it among the Members,
and throughout Ireland, and to lay a copy of it on
' the table of the House'of Commons, though how this
'last object was to be accomplished, he (Mr. Pole)
professed himself at a loss to conceive. He would
ask every Member of that House whether he did not
think that such proceedings were calculated to cause
a. great sensation in Ireland ?--(Hear, hear, hew.)—
Those who were disaffe&ed became strengthened in
their disaffection ; those who were loyalaregan to ima-
gine that the Government wanted spirit to exert itself.
In fact, nothing could have justified the Lord Lieute-
nant, and those who had the honour to advise him, in
their abstinence, but the expectation which theynatu-
' rally entertained, that every meeting of the Commit-
'tee would be the last.
It was true, that in a debate which took place to-
Wards the end of December, some symptoms ap-
peared of the intention of these Gentlemen to increase
their number Out the Honourable and Learned Gen-
tleman was in an error it he conceived that that inten-
tioti was inknifested in the decided manner which it
afterviards assumed. In December a resolution was
agreed to, desiring the Secretary of the Committee
to correspond with some Gentlemen in the country
who • were friendly to their views, but not a word
wee said about any election. Afterwards a guarded
resolution. was adopted, stating that an augmentation
of the number of the Committee was desirable, and
that the management of that augmentation should
be vested in a Sub-Committee. Still, however, not
a word of the Circular Letter until the 19th of
January. On the 0.3 d of January the Irish Government
(became possessed of the fact, that such a letter had
'betn written by the Secretary of the Catholic Com.
mittee, and that several answers had beep received 1
thereto ; but of the nature of the letter, and of the
answers, they were wholly ignorant. To shew, how-
ever, what was the nature of the augmentation sug-
gested in December, he would state ( what he thought
in candour the Honourable and Learned Gentleman
might , lave stated) the opinion of one of the Members,
who declared that when to the 36 representatives of
parishes, 10 members should be added from each

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