In the length of observation, to which he has gone, upon the resolutions of the Catholic prelates of 26th February last, I think it entirely unnecessary for me to follow the noble earl-first, because I do not see how it applies as an argument against going into a committee now, to discuss the claims of the Catholics-and secondly, because these objections have been already completely refuted by a learned and eloquent baron (lord Erskine), who has only found it necessary for that purpose, to call your lordships' attention to those parts of the same resolutions, which must either have escaped the attention of the noble earl, or which he has not thought it fitting to bring under your observation.

The noble earl opposes my motion, for referring these petitions to a commitee, the object of which must avowedly be to enter into all the necessary details; and what are the grounds of his objections? Those very details which he will not allow to me the only parliamentary opportunity of discussing. And what is the line of argument which the noble earl has pursued, in speaking against the principle of the measure which I have been urging? He supposes himself to be already in that committee, into which he will not allow the House to enter; and he gives us a plan of his own for the relief of the Catholics, whom he thus puts himself forward to resist, the first and indispensable preliminary step to their obtaining relief of any kind.

But I am told by the noble earl, and also by the noble lord on the woolsack, that I have not informed the House, what the objects of my motion are, or the purposes for which I have called upon the House to refer these petitions to a Committee. I cannot help expressing my astonishment at such an objection as this I distinctly stated in opening the case of the petitioners, that I complained on behalf of his Majesty's Catholic subjects of common rights withheld-equal privileges denied unequal restrictions imposed. And I called upon your lordships to go into a Committee, for the purpose of removing that injurious system of legislation, by which, the Catholics are still oppressed

VOL. XVII.

In answer to the argument, which I had drawn from the circumstances attending the measure of 1793, the noble secretary of state has urged, that the Catholics appear to have specifically stated all their demands at that time-that they had received from parliament more than they had themselves desired-that they were not satisfied yet and the very year after claimed all that they now require. The noble secretary of state is entirely mistaken, in considering this a correct statement of the fact. If the Irish administration had taken up their petition, as they ought to have done, at the period to which I have alluded, they would have been satisfied with receiving at that time, the restitution of a portion only of the elective franchise. But the Catholics were never so wanting to the justice of their own cause, as to have stated at any time-or any friend of theirs in their name—that they were willing to enter into an unworthy compromise, and, in order to be restored to the enjoyment of the rest, to make a disgraceful barter of any part of those constitutional privileges, of which they claim an equal enjoyment with every other member of the state. Neither was it in the next year, as the noble secretary of state appears to imagine, that any new claim was made on behalf of the Catholics. Whatever was claimed, in addition to those privileges which the act of 1793 restores, was not the consequence of any application on their part-the proposition came, in the shape of an amendment of that act during its progress, unsolicited by themselves-from those of their parliamentary friends, who were of opinion and justlythat the moment was arrived, for a complete and final settlement of all their claims-and for their full participation in every privilege of the constitution.

The noble secretary of state has contended, in answer to what has been said 2 F

by some of the noble lords who have supported my motion, that no pledge was given to the Catholics at the time of the Union. If the noble earl means to deny any specific engagement as having been entered into with the Catholics, on the part of the government, at that time, the noble earl is perfectly correct. I will not do the noble marquis (lord Cornwallis), who is now no more, the injustice to claim any such engagement on his part, on behalf of the Catholics. But will the noble secretary of state deny, that during the whole course of the progress of that important measure, every means were resorted to, to procure their valuable, and indeed necessary support; by endeavouring to impress upon their minds, the accomplishment of the measure of Union, as the certain forerunner of their own complete emancipation? Does not the noble secretary of state recollect, that the question was so argued, by the principal friends of the government, in both Houses of Parliament? No man can forget the speech of the right hon. gent. (Mr. Pitt), now no more, which holds out assurances, to which the Catholics must have looked up with expectations most confident-and the entire disappointment of which-even in the course of his own parliamentary conduct-undoubtedly does not form the most gratifying feature, in the review of the political life of that great man? Will the noble secretary of state deny, that the measure of Union-unsuccessful in the first session of parliament, succeeded ultimately in consequence of their support? The first favourable turn, which question experienced after its first rejection, was marked by the approbation of an important southern county (Tipperary), of an address which I had the honor of proposing to the King, declaring their acquiescence in the propriety of the measure. But what was the principal, and almost the only feature in this address, carried, as it was, greatly by the means of Catholic support? Catholic emancipation to which the addressers look forward, as the certain consequence of the Union. But treaty-making has never been the forte of my unfortunate Countrymen. From the articles of Limerick to the Union compact, have they not had too much reason to feel and to

complain, that they have never negotiated with this country, without having been deceived?

But the noble secretary of state, after

having descanted for a long time on the great unreasonableness of the Irish Catholics, in not agreeing to concede the veto, and that of their prelates, in declaring that they do not see the necessity of the domestic arrangement, about which the other noble earl (Clancarty) told us so much-comes back again to the old position, which I always feared the noble earl would never abandon-and says candidly at last, that he will stand upon the oath of supremacy. But the noble secretary of state took another favourite position in 1805, from which I am apprehensive it will be equally difficult to dislodge him. He then told your lordships that he would take his stand at the Union-which he would consider as final and conclusive, as to the situation of the Catholic-and that such as he found it at that period, it must remain-then and for ever.-A fearful denunciation by his Majesty's principal secretary of state, against four millions of faithful subjects! and a parliamentary notice to them, by the authority of one of the ministers of the crown, to begin to despair, from that very period, which another of his Majesty's servants a great man now no more-held up to their sanguine hopes, as the happy æra, at which all their brightest prospects were to have commenced!

The noble secretary of state has told us, however, that things must remain as they are. What, my lords, four-fifths of the hardy population of that country whose cause I am pleading, deprived of the dearest privileges of their birth-right! Pointed out, by the finger of the legislature, as just objects of suspicion to their fellow-subjects! Admitted already into the fortress of the state-in all their numbers and known energy of character-you tell them they are not to be trustedwhilst you are forced to rely upon their fidelity, for the preservation of all your dearest interests.

But I tell the noble secretary of state, that things cannot remain as they are. The Irish Catholic millions will not, and as little for the interest of their country as for their own, ought they to be satisfied to remain, in the state of political annihilation which the noble secretary of state has thought fit to pronounce as their irrevocable doom. My countrymen are a people sufficiently susceptible of strong feelings-and too prone to act upon the sudden pressure of irritation. The cir-. cumstances of America-once a British

colony, now an independent state-cannot have passed them by unheeded-and I trust that Britain, acquiring wisdom from dear-bought experience, will not fail to profit by the example.

On what grounds is it then, that the noble secretary of state, and the noble lord upon the wool-sack, have chosen to rest their objections, against the claims of his Majesty's Catholic subjects? On the old cant of the Corporation and Test acts, the Act of Settlement, and the Revolution of 1688. But before the noble lords had adverted again to this, the eternal topic of declamation-I think it would have been reasonable at least, that they should have attempted some sort of reply to those arguments, which I thought I had urged with some force, against that very line of objection, on which both these noble lords appear still, and entirely to rely. But they seem to have satisfied themselves with repeating their former assertions, without condescending to offer one argument in their support; leaving what I have had the honor to urge to your lordships, on this part of the subject, which I will not presume to call unanswerable certainly as yet unanswered in this House.

But the noble lord on the woolsack has said, that the Catholics had no ground of any sort for complaint-that they had had a complete toleration for a century and a half. What my lords, a complete toleration! When such was the state of political wretchedness and degradation, to which the penal code had reduced that suffering class of his Majesty's subjects, that the first relaxation is always reckoned from the statute of 1774; by which the Catholic obtains, as a peculiar grace, the privilege of being permitted to declare his allegiance to the King. Of this first duty of the citizen to the state, the law conceived his Majesty's Catholic subjects incapable, till that act was passed; and the government appears to have acted from a full conviction of the truth of such a proposition, in withholding in the case of that unhappy class of men; for so long a period of time; the performance of the reciprocal duty, which was due on the part of the state; that of protection.

But my noble and eloquent friend (lord Holland) has made it unnecessary for me to dwell any longer upon this extraordinary assumption of the noble and learned lord, which my noble friend has effectually combatted with his own appropriate force and feeling.

Of the effects of the disqualifying code, you have already had a long and a melancholy experience. Has it succeeded in any one of those objects which it professed to have had in view? Has it not alienated from the government the affections and the confidence of the people? sufficiently operative in the insecurity of one essential part of his Majesty's dominions, and in the comparative weakness of the whole British empire.-But it has converted the great bulk of the population to the religion of the state.

By the unabated persecutions of more than a century, you endeavoured to extirpate the Ronan Catholic religion; sagacious and successful legislators, in your crusade against the liberty of conscience and the opinions of a people! what remnant has survived your system of pains and penalties? four millions of Christians! to glorify God after the manner of their forefathers; for the preservation, almost miraculous, which he has vouchsafed to extend to their church and to themselves -an eternal monument of unshaken fidelity on the one hand, and of the weakness and the vanity of human presumption on the other!

Do you feel no compunctious visitings, for the evils which you have inflicted, and continued from generation to generationand are you not prepared to make restitution? That branch of the religion of Christ, which you have not been able to put down, will you not recognise, respect, and cherish? It has gone through the fiery trial of privations and disabilities; and is worthy, from its sufferings and its constancy;-to stand, as an acknowledged sister by the side of the established church.

If popery be still formidable, let it be chained; chain it to the British constitution; the links will bind us all to the state and to each other.-Do you still continue to view your Catholic fellow-subjects with apprehension and distrust? secure them -not by disabilities and discouragements, which sour the temper, and break the spirits of men-but secure them by cords of interest, by ties of affection-Shew them, that you feel your dearest interest and theirs embarked in the same bottom-and you will be sure to find them, actuated with an equal zeal to defend those bless-. ings, which we enjoy as members of this free state-because they will then possess an equal interest in them with ourselves.

But we are told, that the Catholics are already in possession of all that was interesting to the Catholic community; that

this is the question of their aristocracy; and that the people feel, that they have nothing embarked in the event of the contest-but their ears are closed against such arguments as these, which tend only to weaken and to disunite. I tell them they are all interested alike-from the peer to the peasant-Give the enemies of their emancipation, but the principle of one exclusion, upon which to take their stand -and the whole fabric of their liberties will totter to its foundation.

It is not therefore so much for the value of what remains to be given-which to the Protestants is nothing, as against the principle of the exception-which may be every thing to the Catholic. It is not only, that their property and their talents may not be excluded, from that parliament to which they have regained their constitutional privilege of becoming electors-It is not only, that their ancient nobility may not be thrust from the seats of their forefathers-It is not the admission into the few excepted offices of the state, for which they are contending at the present moment-it is for the security of all their acquisitions of the last thirty years -they are contending against the spirit of exclusion-which if they are not enabled to resist, with reason and with effect, in its fullest extent-they are entitled to no political capacity whatsoever-but must be content to hold, even those rights which they are now permitted to enjoy, as mere tenants at will on the precarious courtesy of a Protestant legislature. That spirit of exclusion, which must be melted down in the acknowledged justice of their claims, opening wide the arms of the constitution to embrace all the members of the state or it will rise against them in some more questionable shape-and the same principle may convulse the state in less propitious times than these-by a vain attempt to reclaim the acquisitions of 1793, which would now withhold the remnant of privilege which is left.

To the Protestant, I would urge what he has given already, as the surest earnest to the Catholic of that which remains behind to him I would say, that the concession of 1793, which gave the Catholic the franchise, has insured all he now claims, as included in the same political equity as a link of the same great national chain-and therefore it is that I support their complete emancipation now -as the necessary consequence of the privileges of 1793-to crown that system

of justice and of liberality, which had nearly united us into one people-to strengthen the Protestant cause, by quieting the Catholic mind-to shut up, till time shall be no more, every angry discussion-to make every man, verily and indeed, a neighbour to his fellow citizenand to secure to the state the allegiance of every member of the community, by giving to all, those motives of action which influence all mankind-their own interest and happiness.

Their lordships then divided, when there appearedContents Proxies

Non-Contents Proxies

Majority against going into a Committee

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Wednesday, June 6.

36

32

-68

92

62

-154

86

[COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY.] The House resolved into a Committee of Supply.

Mr. Secretary Ryder moved the grant suspended on a former day, at the instance of Mr. Whitbread, for 1,0344. to Mr. Read, the Bow-street magistrate, for the expence of extra constables on the late occasion of sir F. Burdett's commitment to the Tower.

Mr. Whitbread said the return made to the House of the particulars of this charge were by no means satisfactory. It appeared that the magistrates had been extremely dilatory in calling out the constables.

Mr. Ryder said, the reports were regularly made to him, and he had every reason to believe the special constables were all at their respective posts.

Mr, Whitbread did not know what reports were made to the right hon. secretary, but he knew what reports were made to himself. He had been much fatigued, and went to bed. And about ten o'clock his servant came and told him the mob was breaking sir J. Anstruther's windows, so that it was evident there were no constables at all to prevent such proceedings, and when the House was now called upon to vote 1,0341. for special constables, he could not agree to it.

Sir J. Newport instanced the breaking of lord Castlereagh's windows by the mob a few minutes after; and opposed the mo