Page images
PDF
EPUB

in compliment to the feelings of a noble earl, (Camden) long supposed not to be a fixture in the government, might have wished to have afforded him an opportunity of escaping from the head of the council board, before the day of retributive justice.

nisterial power. A Petition, notwithstanding all this, from a representative body of the Catholics, elected by all the Catholics of Ireland, sitting in the metropolis for many days, found its way to the foot of the throne, although the two noble earls, who then administered the Irish government, would not suffer it to pass through the regular official channel. The memorable session of 1793, opened with a speech from the throne, delivered by the noble earl in the blue ribband, strongly recommending to the parliament the Catholic Claims, and the elective franchise, unlimited and entire, and all the valuable concessions of the act of 1793, restored to the Catholics, by a Bill, introduced into parliament by the other noble earl, and backed by all the influence of his Majesty's government.

Against the question which I now offer to your lordships' notice, no noble lord is pledged, by either of these his former votes, nor by any feeling such as I have described. From my present proposition, no one need withhold his assent, who is not a devoted and pledged friend to intolerance and exclusion, on their own intrinsic merits. Simple and uncomplicated, in all its native dignity and importance, the cause of your Catholic fellow subjects now approaches your lordships. And the known removal of that obstacle, which has so long stood in the way of its accomplishment, leaves every man at liberty to take up the question now, on its own peculiar grounds. And though there should be some little deviation from former opinions and former votes, no one need be ashamed of such a change of sentiment, or of turning, however late, out of the road, in which he has been travelling too long, into that path, which leads to national conciliation, and national strength.

But, from the experience of some of your lordships, and the history of the progress of this question in the sister country, this House cannot be unprepared, for changes of opinions somewhat sudden, in those who are now at the head of the Regent's councils. Let me remind a noble earl, (the earl of Buckinghamshire) who has been lately added to the confidential servants of the government, and the noble earl (the earl of Westmoreland) in the blue ribband, of whose administration in Ireland he had made a part, of the proceedings in that kingdom in 1792, and 1793, compared or rather contrasted with each other. The rejection of the petition of the Catholics, in the House of Commons of Ireland, in 1792, for only a limited elective franchise, by the noble earl, at the head of a triumphant majority, pledges of lives and fortunes, for the perpetual exclusion of the Catholics, by every corporation throughout the kingdom, great and small, in which the ever obsequious corporation of the city of Dublin took the lead, but, unfortunately for the public, did not stand then, as it does now, the solitary example of intolerance, the miserable object of mi

The obsequious Commons of Ireland, among whom, in the preceding year, forty-five were only found, who did not pledge themselves against the grant of any further concessions to their Catholic countrymen, now and for ever, inspired on the sudden with extraordinary sentiments of kindness and liberality; the intolerance of the petty corporations abashed and put down, and by the timely and discreet recantation of the Irish parliament, and the wisdom and firmness of a noble viscount (Melville) now no more, then the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and to whose memory, for this just and merciful act of his administration, I shall always look as to that of a great public benefactor, the important conciliation of 1793, accomplished, without a struggle.

So much for pledges, so much for consistency, so much for that infuriate religious phrenzy, which outstrips and insults reason; which is not the child of our understanding, but the offspring of our worst passions; which is not real, but affected; which is provoked, and excited, but not natural; which hypocrisy assumes, and interest deposes; which a tender heart could not feel, and an honest one would not practise.

But every former relaxation of the penal code, in favour of the Irish Catholics, from 1778, when their situation first engaged the attention of parliament, to the period of the great concessions of 1793, was in every instance, the measure of the ministers of the crown, recommended on the last memorable occasion, by the king's representative, in his speech from the

throne. And it was particularly fit and becoming, that so signal an instance of justice and mercy to his suffering subjects, should proceed from the gracious and immediate interposition of the common father of all his people. For in what other character could the sovereign power exhibit itself, with such appropriate grace and dignity? And so deeply is that feeling impressed upon my mind, that I should accept, with some mixture, almost of regret, as the mere triumph of the political struggle of contending parties, the important object for which I am now contending for my Catholic countrymen; if the unhappy circumstances of the present moment, did not lead me now nearly to despair of its accomplishment at any time, as the measure of unenforced liberality.

of Wales, and before he had assumed the exercise of the executive functions—

Lord Kenyon called the noble lord to order. He thought it highly disorderly to allude to the opinions of any person exercising the royal functions of the realm, or to conjecture what they were; as it was quite unparliamentary, to attempt to influence the deliberations of that House, by stating the opinions of the Prince Regent.

The Earl of Donoughmore. If the noble lord's patience in hearing me had not been overcome, by his excessive zeal to preserve order, he might have learned, by this time, that I had no intention of saying what he has supposed me to have said. Had the noble lord heard me out, he would have found, that I was speaking merely to a point of history, to what history records, to have been, at a certain period, the poli

Wales; to that, as such, I contend I have a right to speak; and I must beg leave of the noble lord to add, that such unseasonable interruptions are not the best means to preserve order, and that all similar attempts to obstruct my humble efforts in this good cause, shall prove as impotent as the preMy Catholic countrymen have not placed their interests in such hands, as will permit them to be thwarted and put down, by interruptions so unseasonable, improper, and disorderly.

sent.

Lord Kenyon appealed to the House, whether, in his view of the noble earl's argument, he was not justified in calling him to order. If, under that impression, he had unseasonably interrupted the noble lord, he regretted it. He had merely acted from a sense of his parliamentary duty, without intending any thing personal to the noble earl.

But, why was not this question already put at rest, and the good work of conciliating Ireland at least begun, by the gracioustical sentiments of the then Prince of reccommendation from the throne, of the Catholic Claims, as an early act of the Regent's unlimited government? For the last twelve years, the accomplishment of that healing measure had been rendered, perhaps, impossible, by those conscientious scruples, which were known to have existed in the mind of a certain illustrious individual; though the moment, at which the existence of such an obstacle was announced to the public for the first time, was assuredly not the most appropriate and satisfactory; under all the circumstances of the case. It was not, till after the ministers in both countries, and amongst the rest a noble viscount, who sits in the other House, had given to the Catholics the strongest grounds of being assured, at least of the early and favourable consideration of their claims, in the imperial legislature, and that they had accomplished the measure of union by such effectual aid, that they discovered, or at least communicated to those whose services they no longer needed, that they could not perform their part of this so strongly implied contract. It is, however, matter of public notoriety, that such an obstruction has now entirely ceased to exist. To whatever I or any other person may conceive to be the actual opinions of the Prince Regent, at the present moment, on this or on any other public question, I know it would not be parliamentary for me to allude in this place, But, if I may be permitted to argue, from what the opinions of the same illustrious person were known to have been, as prince (VOL. XXII.)

The Earl of Donoughmore. I admit that the interruption of the noble lord would have been perfectly just and seasonable, if I could have so entirely forgotten myself, as to have introduced the name of the Prince Regent, to influence the proceedings of this House. But what was the true statement of my argument? I had been reminding your lordships, that every former concession to the Catholics, had been the professed measure of the minister, and in the instance of 1793, recommended to parliament in the speech from the throne. I had been explaining to your lordships, why, in deference to the scruples entertained in a certain quarter, such a recommendation could not have been rea(2 L)

515]
sonably expected, during the last ten
years, and I was naturally proceeding to
enquire, why, since such obstructions were
now entirely removed, no message had
yet come down to this House, from the
Prince Regent, respecting the Catholic
Claims. Was this to be characterized, as
an attempt to influence your lordships'
deliberations, by the use of the name of
the Prince Regent? My argument had an
The object
aspect directly the reverse.
of my complaint was, and I thought it
matter of serious regret, that the Regent
had not, in this instance, exercised the le-
gitimate authority of the third estate, by
recommending a measure of such pressing
importance to the consideration of par-
liament, and with which the former sen-
timents of his royal highness the Prince
of Wales, were known to have been so
Must I then be
completely in unison.
compelled to lament, the voluntary sa-
crifice of these acknowledged and avowed
feelings, to the assumed scruples, and po-
litical religion of his Royal Highness's
ministers? And is the public to be insulted
still with the same ridiculous mummery?
The convenient consciences of the minis-
ters, and of their sovereign, continually
changing places, and alternately giving
way to each other, with the greatest mu-
tual politeness, between the principal
actors in this disgusting scene, and nothing
appearing to be forgotten, but the interests
of the people.

your lordships, whether it was not absurd
to charge those with whom he acted, with
refusing to discuss the subject matter of
the Catholic Petitions? Was not the House,
argued the noble and learned lord, then
engaged in that very discussion, into which
we complain that we have not been per-
mitted to enter? But the noble lord must
have been perfectly aware, that it was im-
possible to give to any measure a due par-
liamentary consideration, excepting in a
For what arguments
committee only.
can it require, to convince any reasoning
mind that no great measure can be dis-
And above
cussed with a view to any practicable re-
sult, except in a committee.
all others, the case of his Majesty's Ca-
tholic subjects; split, as it is, into so many
subdivisions, by the various heads of pro-
scription, to which they are still exposed;
and branching out, as it does, into so many
complicated relations, of individual in-
terests and public security. To refuse
to a subject, so extensively complicated
in its several relations, so deeply interest-
ing to the public weal in its important
results, a grave discussion in a Committee
of the whole House, is to say, in effect,
that you will not discuss the subject at all
for any practical result; it is to shut your
ears against the Catholic grievances alto-
gether and for ever; it is to turn from the
bar of this House unheard, four-fifths of
the population of the sister country, who
claim at your lordships' hands the restitu-
tion of their own constitutional rights;
and the other Protestant million of the
constituency of the same state, who de-
mand a free and complete admission, for
their Catholic fellow subjects, into the con-
stitution of their country.

On behalf of the Petitioners, I do not call upon your lordships to come at once to the immediate grant of any further concession, to the immediate repeal of any of the still existing disabilities. The object of the motion, with which I shall conclude, is for enquiry only. Can any man be prepared to say, that in the long list of exclusions by which the Catholics still continue to be kept, in a state of marked and degraded contradistinction to the rest of their fellow subjects, there is not one, from which they may with perfect safety to the state, from which they ought to be relieved? Is it possible, that there can be any one noble lord in this House, who is now prepared, at once and without the decency of some little previous consideration, to pass sentence of perpetual exclusion against them; from every constitutional privilege, to the enjoyment of which they have not been admitted already.

But the noble lord on the woolsack, in resisting, on a former occasion, a motion somewhat similar to the present, asked

Having at all times, whenever it has fallen to my lot to address your lordships upon this subject, put the question on the strong ground of constitutional right, I will not now degrade its magnitude and importance, by condescending to enter into a detailed consideration of the particular impolicy and mischief of each existing disability; nor now be driven to argue every separate head of exclusion as a distinct grievance in itself, on its own peculiar constitutional demerits.

It is the principle of exclusion against which I raise my voice-that principle which would draw a line of perpetual demarcation between the citizens of the same common-wealth, the subjects of the same King-which would brand upon the foreheads of our Catholic countrymen

the foul imputation of unassured fidelity to the parent state-would claim for the Protestant part of the community the British constitution as their exclusive inheritance -and cut up by the roots every prospect of uniting those conflicting interests, by that complete and useful adjustment, which can be expected to stand on no foundation Jess assured than this; the enjoyment of the same constitutional privileges; the acknowledgment of the same constitutional rights.

Placing my argument on such high ground, I will not fritter its consequence away by endeavouring to shew, by a regular train of proofs, why the same man, to whom, as colonel, the command of a regiment is now confided, may not be safely trusted, as a general officer, with the conmand of a brigade; why those, who are already spread over the face of the whole country, as justices of the peace, and who, at the quarter sessions, in every one of the thirty-two counties, administer the functions of civil and criminal jurisdiction, so extensively, may not preside in the superior courts, as judges of the land; and why those who are already admitted into the elective franchise, should not themselves be eligible to the trust of representing others?

On the act of 1793 I take my stand, containing, as it does, a long catalogue of grievous disabilities: I produce it to your lordships as sufficient evidence, to prove the case of my Catholic countrymen, in the existence of those exclusions from constitutional privileges; the removal of which is the ground of their present appeal to the wisdom and justice of this House.

I produce the same statute to your lordships, as a most important document, in favour of the Petitioners' claims, in another point of view: inasmuch as, by the great importance of the privileges which it restores, it enacts the most authentic proof of the conviction of the legislature, that that class of persons, on whom it had conferred already so great a portion of political power, were worthy of perfect and complete confidence, as assured members of the Protestant state.

On that foundation, so ably and so broadly laid, in the statesman-like and weighty argument of a noble marquis (Wellesley) on a late occasion, I lay the corner-stone of my argument. I say with him, that every restraint, excluding a particular description of the subjects of any

state from the enjoyment of advantages possessed by the community, is in itself a positive evil.

Having thus shown the existence of the mischief, and established the title of the Petitioners to the enjoyment of these their common rights, from the intrinsic evidence of the statute of exclusion itself, I have fairly thrown it upon his Majesty's ministers to come forward, and exhibit to this House their apprehended dangers; and to shew to your lordships, if they can, that the removal of these exclusions would be attended with some great constitutional evil; that the continuance of them, at the present day, is rendered indispensable by some over-powering state necessity.

But here the advocates for perpetual exclusion interpose their never-failing objection, and ask us, with astonishment and dismay, whether we are really prepared to entrust the Catholics with political power? Surely, my lords, this argument has long since gone by; the question has been decided against their own objection, by the act of his Majesty's ministers of 1793.

For will any man affect to doubt, that the Catholics are in possession already of great political power? Is it not obvious that they are the electors of a great proportion, perhaps of the majority, of the Irish representatives? They are already admitted into the state, by the possession of the elective franchise; against the grant of which lord Clare, their great opponent, had argued, as the certain and necessary forerunner of seats in parliament. They have therefore thus acquired already, an irresistible claim to the restoration of that, the most important of all their present exclusions, from the evidence of the act of 1793, and the argument of as able, and as persevering an opponent, as the Catholic claims had ever to encounter, in any place, or at any time.

With respect then to those dangers which were still said to exist, as obstacles to the removal of the still existing disabilities, with respect to the additional securities which some still called for as indispensable, for the safety of the state, before that consummation of the justice of parliament, so devoutly to be wished for, could take place, it is only necessary for me, to desire your lordships to read the statute of his Majesty's ministers of 1793, as the title of the Catholics to the great constitutional privileges, to which they were then restored, as the firm foundation

on which they built their future hopes, as establishing the principle of legitimate claim on the one hand, and just concession on the other. For what did that statute say, in terms the most explicit? These are the tests of your fidelity to the constitution, this is the touchstone, by which your religion is to be tried, as it affects the Protestant state; take certain oaths, and disavow certain feelings imputed to your church, and we will heap upon you important advantages now, with an intention hereafter, of admitting you to a full participation of all those rights and privileges, of which you will thus have proved yourselves to be worthy.

of that population has been represented by a noble viscount, (lord Castlereagh) a member of the same House, and another of the ministers, fas more influenced by their priests than by the law, or any other authority or consideration whatsoever.

Permit me now to ask your lordships un der what circumstances it is, as relating to the disposal of the public money, that the ministers dole it out for the education of the Catholic priesthood, with so reluctant and so grudging a hand, in times of an unexampled waste and profusion, when the sum of 13,000l. is granted at the same time, in the shape of stipends, to the members of the Irish Protestant Dissenters; certainly an excellent and much deserving body of men, but whose congregations scarcely comprize one-tenth of the popu

and when, in the pure spirit of proselytism, which we are not disposed to pardon in any sect of Christians, with the exception only of our national church, for the education in the Protestant charter schools, and in the principles of that religion, of a mere handful of the children of Catholic parents, is apportioned the enormous annual sum of 41,000l.

But what is the language, and the conduct, and the conciliation of the ministers of the present day?-For these, I will first direct your lordships' attention to the pro-lation of that part of the United Kingdom; ceedings of the other House of Parliament. The funds of the establishment at Maynooth, the only and exclusive source, as your lordships know, of education for the ministers of the Irish Catholic church, having been found inadequate to effectuate this, the avowed object of its institution, an application was made, and repeatedly pressed upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, year after year, for such small So much for the spirit of conciliation addition to the annual grant, as should towards the Catholic part of the commu> make it commensurate to the original pur-nity, which has so strongly marked the poses for which it was intended. What was the mighty sum required? An addition only of 4,000l. to the usual yearly grant! and that for affording the benefit of moral and religious education to the whole Catholic priesthood. But in what manner did the ministers receive, and answer this just and reasonable suggestion? With a blank, unqualified negative; and, as if to sharpen the edge of this disappointment, in itself sufficiently marked and goading, the scruples of the conscientious Secretary of State for the Home Department, are called into activity; and the Catholic insulted by the lamentations of the right hon. gentleman, that the college of Maynooth had ever existed at all, as an establishment supported by the state! Indeed, so much in hostility were the feelings of ministers here declared to be to all his Majesty's Catholic subjects, that it was matter of deep regret to this pure and upright servant of the crown, that the benefits of the education were ever, even in part, afforded to the members of that religion; the professors of which compose four-fifths of the whole population of the state, and where the conduct

proceedings of the other House of Parliament. Now we will look a little nearer home, and see what the spirit of conciliation has been in your lordships' House. In the printed report of a late debate, on the motion of a noble baron for the removal of the Regent's ministers, one of them, another noble baron, (lord Mulgrave) is made to ask, whether the Catholics did not say, that they would be satisfied with the concessions of 1793, and yet they come again, continues the noble baron, like the beggar in Gil Blas, asking alms, with a pistol pointed to your breast.

As this is put interrogatively, and not in the shape of an assertion, I have a right, without offence to the noble speaker, to whom it is attributed, as my own know. ledge of the fact sufficiently enables me to do, to meet his lordship's question, with a direct and unqualified negative; neither did the Catholics themselves, nor any friend of theirs, condescend to enter into so unworthy a compromise on their behalf. On the contrary, during the pro gress of the noble earl's Bill in 1793, he will remember that further concessions were moved to be added to it by way of

« PreviousContinue »