straight but serpentine. The project of breaking it up, on account of one question, might not be difficult; that of forming a new one from the different benches of that House would be found not quite so easy. No doubt a competent ministry might be selected from the benches opposite; but if the learned gentleman could have the satisfaction of ousting him, he would not, in all probability, have the satisfaction of succeeding him, (cheers, and laughter.) All he desired of the House was, to consider rightly the terms which were objected to in the address. The King stated in the speech, that associations existed in Ireland, for whose conduct it was recommended to consider of an adequate remedy. The House replied, by promising that it would do so. What less could the House do? unless, taking the learned gentleman's description of the Catholic Association, as a body possessing the whole authority in Ireland,-enjoying undivided allegiance, exercising all the powers of government, issuing the only commands which were effectually obeyed, and levying revenues; unless they were prepared to say, that a power thus formidable ought to exist,-to sit beside the government, or to tower above it,-they could not refuse their assurance to the crown, that they would take an early opportunity of considering the means of putting down so enormous an evil. The learned gentleman seemed to treat lightly all those measures which a liberal policy had adopted for the advantage of trade, and the recognition of the new states. The learned gentleman was not an unfrequent speaker in that House, and, when he favoured them, he was not remarkable for conciseness,-mixing up with the matter of debate dissertations de omni scibili. As, in the course of his Parliamentary life, the learned gentleman had proposed and supported every species and

degree of innovation which could be practised in a settled government, it was not very easy for ministers to do anything in the affair of South America, or any other, without seeming to borrow something from the learned gentleman. Their views might be shut up, by circumstances which they must consult though he need not, as among ice in a northern winter. In time the thawing came; but break away in what direction they would, to the left or right, it was all alike; "Oho!” said the learned gentleman, "I was there before you; you could not have thought of that now if I had not given you a hint." In the reign of Queen Anne, there was a sage and grave critic of the name of Dennis, who got it into his head that he wrote all the good plays that were acted at that time. At last a tragedy came forth, with a most imposing storm of hail and thunder. At the first peal," That's my thunder," said Dennis, (loud laughter); so, with the learned gentleman, there was no noise or stir for the good of mankind, in any part of the globe, but he instantly claimed it for his thunder. One thing he had, however, kindly thrown overboard, which was to be divided between government and his learned friend, (Sir J. M'Intosh). He wished to hear from that learned member, to what degree he claimed South America for his thunder? (laughter). The learned gentleman was very cautious in his praise. If he piqued himself upon anything in the South American negotiations, it was upon the subject of time. As to the propriety of admitting states, which had successfully shaken off their dependence on the mother country, to the rights of nations, there could be no dispute. There were two ways, however, of proceeding, either recklessly and with a hurried course, by which the object might be soon reached, and almost as soon lost; or by a course so strictly

guarded, that no principle was violated, and no offence given to other powers. The three states with which government had to deal, were Buenos Ayres, Colombia, and Mexico. As to Buenos Ayres, his learned friend knew well, that it comprised thirteen or fourteen small and separate states, which were not till lately collected into a federal union. So soon as it was known that a consolidation had taken place, the treaty with Buenos Ayres was signed. Next, as to Colombia. As late as 1822, Puerto Cabello was held for the King of Spain. It was only since that time that Colombia could have been admitted amongst the independent states. Some time after that, however, -he spoke it not as imputing blame, -Colombia chose to risk her whole force, and a great part of her treasure, in a distant war with Spain in Peru. Had that enterprise proved disastrous, it would have ended in re-establishing the royal authority. The danger was now at an end. The case of Mexico was still more striking. Not nine months ago, an adventurer, who had wielded the sceptre of Mexico, left these shores to return thither and resume his abdicated throne. In neither of these cases could the time of nego tiation have been anticipated even by a few weeks. He would say to the learned gentleman, that the credit of the measure might be his, or it might be that of his learned friend, (Sir J. M'Intosh); but he would claim for himself the merit of selecting the time, and of devising the mode in which the object was effected. He trusted, that by this plain conduct, this temperate, tardy policy, if they pleased so to call it, the country had avoided all the dangers which otherwise would have accompanied the recognition. He did not pretend to conceal, that, by this step, we had hurt many feelings,-run counter to many interests,-shocked many prejudices,-excited many re

grets, much anger, and indignation; but still he hoped that these feelings would evaporate in words, and that we should have gained our object, and still remain at peace with all the world, (cheers). There were one or two points in the speech on which it would be proper that he should say a few words. He alluded more particularly to the treaty with the United States of America relative to the slave trade. At the beginning of the last session of Parliament, a proposal was received from the United States, to carry into effect a measure for putting an end to the slave-trade, by giving to each power the right of mutual search. The treaty was drawn up by the ministers of the United States; and, in the course of the negotiation, some alterations were made here. By the constitution of the United States, the right of ratification was placed, not in the executive power, but in the executive power and the senate. This country, therefore, had no right to complain, when a treaty, regularly negotiated and signed by his Majesty, was refused by the American authorities, unless alterations were made in it by the United States. But the singularity of the case was this,—that the alteration proposed by the United States had no reference to the alteration introduced by the British cabinet," but was an alteration in their original draft. By the original treaty, the Americans were to be permitted to search our ships in the West Indies, and we in return were to search their ships off the coast of America. They withdrew the clause which empowered us to search their ships. The mutual right of search was thus destroyed; and it was impossible for this government, either as a question of policy, or as a matter of justice to the West India proprietors, to allow such an alteration; for it would have been a tacit admission that our slave-laws were

evaded by the colonies, but that the American slave-laws were not so evaded. Under these circumstances, we proposed to cancel that treaty, and to send a minister for the purpose of forming a new one, which should be drawn up verbatim as the treaty originally stood. The whole discussion had been carried on in a spirit of the most perfect amity, and, he believed, the personal feelings of the executive government of the United States were in favour of the arrangement. The House adjourned.

FRIDAY, Feb. 4.

In the House of Commons, on the question, that the report on the address be brought up, Mr Hobhouse, alluding to the augmentation of the army hinted at in the royal speech, was desirous to know what had occurred to render such augmentation at all necessary. Ireland was confessed ly tranquil; and we were at peace with all the world excepting the Burmese, whose hostility, in the honourable gentleman's opinion, was too contemptible to justify the intended measure. The honourable gentleman concluded a long desultory dissertation upon the state of our relations with foreign powers, by joining in the general congratulations on the improvement of trade and agriculture, and the liberal changes that had been made in the commercial policy of the country.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer observed in reply, that when the subject should be brought before the House, he would be able to prove, that the increase of the army was dictated by the soundest policy, and was liable to none of the objections that had been offered to it.

Sir John Newport, in a long speech, defended the Catholic Association for its usefulness in preserving the tranquillity of the country-to which fact he bore emphatic testimony; and censured, by anticipation, any measure that might be brought forward for suppressing it.

He was replied to by Mr Peel.

Mr C. H. Hutchinson, Sir H. Parnell, and other members, avouched their belief, that the proceedings of the Association had the concurrence of the Catholics of both Ireland and England; that, as the organ of the Catholic body, its existence had become necessary; and that to put it down legislatively would be both unjust and unconstitutional. "The sentiment," said Mr M. Fitzgerald, "which now actuates the Catholic people of Ireland for the first time, is one and undivided."

The views of these different Irish members were enforced by Mr Denman.

to.

At length the address was agreed

As the mischievous nature of this Association, though alluded to in rather vague phraseology, formed so prominent a feature in the royal speech; as the national dangers to be apprehended from it were great and imminent; and as the danger with which the Association itself was now threatened would, in all probability, produce no little ferment in the minds of the Irish people; it was of obvious importance to lose no time in bringing the question between the government and it-the question which of the two should thenceforth have the real supremacy in Ireland-to a solemn and final parliamentary decision. But, be it observed, that though the hideous and alarming power which the Association had acquired served as the immediate motive to the great impelling cause of the measure which ministers had resolved to adopt, there can be no questioning the sincerity of their declarations, that that measure was intended to put down in Ireland all politico-religious combinations whatever. They were, doubtless, particularly solicitous, that the bolts to be forged within the walls of Parliament, might, when launched, strike on the forehead this Catholic Association, as the mightiest criminal; but they no less designed that they should be impartially employed against all similar bodies which had incurred,

or might incur, the ban of the Legislature. The general censure, therefore, introduced by them in the royal speech, of associations in Ireland, which had "adopted proceedings irreconcilable with the spirit of the Constitution, by exciting alarm and by exasperating animosities," was not so insidious or hypocritical as it has been charitably represented to be by some of the Opposition.

We do not design to speculate here, at any length, upon the causes which have rent the Irish nation with most sanguinary and implacable feuds, and reduced the greater mass of that nation to a state of barbarism unparalleled in Europe out of the Turkish dominions. It may be sufficient, for our present purpose, to observe, that the English conquest, and the suppression of repeated revolts, followed up by sweeping confiscations of property, had the natural and inevitable effect of forming two distinct and mutually inimical castes; and that distinction was greatly widened by the legislative establishment of a new religion, to which the majority of the dominant, though smaller caste, acceded, but which nearly the whole of the other caste rejected with abhorrence. Differences of religious opinions, it is true, do not, in countries where all the various sects enjoy an equality of privileges, necessarily pro

duce any embitterment of feeling; but, in Ireland, at least since the submission of the Irish to the revolutionary government of William and Mary, all political power whatever had been virtually monopolized by the dominant or Protestant caste; and thus politics and religion, by mutual action and re-action, had excited and exasperated mutual religious and political antipathies in both parties. The Protestant caste, no matter how great may be the poverty of some composing it, partakes, out and out, of the nature of nobility. The Catholics are the degraded caste they are the Helots of the Commonwealth. They have long been sensible of, and acknowledge their degradation. They address every Protestant by the designation of Master, though they would not apply it to one of themselves in a similar situation of life. "He is dressed as fine as a Protestant," is a common remark among them.

The Protestants have not always borne their faculties so meekly as justice and policy might have demanded. They have too uniformly indulged towards their less fortunate countrymen, in feelings which their anomalous position in the state was but too apt to engender-feelings of insolent pride, made drunk with the possession of power and other distinctions, at the same time mortified to the core by a sense of the insignificance of their own real inherent strength, as relative to that of the Catholics. They are aware, that however much the Catholics may have appeared to be tamed to the yoke, there are certain unextinguishable feelings of the human heart; and that every occasional tumultuous heaving of the Catholic body proceeded from the explosive force of their pent-up discontents, and probably their ambitious hopes. Still, protected by the power of England, they could entertain no very serious dread of the power of the

Catholics; but, in the generous and liberal spirit of the age, which calls aloud (whether justly or not we are not now considering) for Catholic emancipation; in the decline of their own influence, and in the falling off from their cause, since the question of emancipation was first agitated, of many of their own party, which has reduced them to the condition of a faction, they foresee the inevitable downfall of their political importance to avert which, if possible, is now their sole endeavour.

The state of things that prevailed in Ireland, as we have described, was sure to beget secret and mysterious Associations, for purposes of intimidation, if not of positive violence; but it is remarkable that, of all the Associations with whose names the Irish annals abound, the first one of a purely political character was established by the Protestant Ascendancy men, about the year 1795. That Association was an Orange Lodge, (which has since prodigiously multiplied itself;) and an Association better calculated to excite heartburnings and perpetuate discord the wicked ingenuity of faction never devised. Of the avowed objects of the Orangemen our readers cannot be ignorant. Suffice it to say, that on certain days, black and accursed in the Calendar of the Irish Catholics, their custom was to parade about with their anti-popish insignia; resort with them, armed with muskets, to fairs and wakes, and omit no favourable opportunity whatever of provoking a conflict-in short, they have been the cause of most of the bloodshed which has taken place in Ireland, since the suppression of the last rebellion. So insolent and embarrassing to the government itself had the Orange faction become, that at length it was found necessary by the Legislature to clip its wings, but without extracting its sting altogether; but previously to that, another pest had appeared as a