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Roman Catholics should be guilty of excesses, the English Catholics and the Irish Protestants would unite against them.

Lord Farnham said, the fundamental cause of this measure was alleged to be the state of Ireland. He thought that the great danger to be apprehended from this measure threatened the Church of Ireland, though he was sorry to make use of that expression. The noble duke had spoken of the Church of Ireland as a church of the minority; but the only church established in Ireland was the united church, and that was a church of the majority. If the Church of Ireland was sacrificed to the Roman Catholics, the hierarchy of England might tremble in their sees. There was a great fallacy in the arguments of the noble and learned lord (Plunkett) in respect to what he conceived to be the tenets of the Roman Catholics. He (Lord Farnham) took it that the Catholics were sincere Catholics; that they professed a religion they believed; and he looked for their tenets, not in their individual creeds, but in the doctrines of the church itself, as expressed in decrees of councils.

The Duke of Wellington rose.-He did not intend to detain their lordships longer than was necessary to explain those points which required some explanation. A most reverend prelate had averred that the laws were not executed against the Catholic Association. He had endeavoured to find the means of proceeding against the Association; yet being of opinion that it was essential to the interests of the country to bring forward this measure, it would not have been his duty to refrain from so doing, whatever might have been the conduct of the Catholic Association. Another point to which it was necessary for him to refer, was the repeated assertion, that the measure was dangerous to the Church of Ireland. Was this danger apprehended from legislation, or from violence? If from legislation, their apprehension was clearly puerile; for it was impossible to suppose that the small number of persons which this measure would admit into parliament, could afford any ground for apprehending danger from legislation to the Church of England in Ireland. A fundamental article of the Union of the two countries was the union of the two churches. He thought the measure would give additional security to all the interests of the state.

land,-when I recollected the number of
men it took to watch one election which
took place in Ireland in the course of last
summer,-when I knew the consequences
which a dissolution would produce on the
return to the House of Commons, to say
nothing of collisions that might have led
to something little short of civil war,—I
should have been wanting in duty to my
sovereign and to my country, if I had
advised his majesty to dissolve his par--
liament."

On the division, the numbers were-
Contents, present............147
Proxies
Not Content, present
Proxies.

...

70-217

79 33-112

Majority in favour of the second read

ing of the bill.................

.... 105 The house sat in a committee on the bill, April 7 and 8; on both which days numerous amendments were proposed and negatived.

THE THIRD READING.-April 10. The Marquis of Camden expressed his approbation of the bill. As one of those who had always supported the claims of the Roman Catholics, and went out with the ministry in 1801 on the question, he could not give a silent vote on the measure.-Lord Granville assigned a similar reason for addressing the house, and praised the mode in which government had brought forward the question.-Lord Eldon said, "If near the close of my life, for it cannot last long, I were not convinced of the extreme peril to which the constitution of the country will be exposed by this bill, I would not again trouble you; but I am compelled to state the grounds of my opposition, and perhaps it may be the last time I shall ever address the house on any political question. In the discharge of my duty, I have now for twenty years resisted measures of this nature. Whatever 1 may think of the question, God forbid I should add to that agitation which, at its present height, affrights me. I shall go into retirement with the consciousness of having discharged my duty. So completely and thoroughly am I satisfied that I am not in error, that, so help me God, I would rather perish at this moment than give my consent to this measure. Sooner or "If my later it will overturn the aristocracy and the monarchy. From the moment that the bill passed, the state would no longer have a Protestant king and a Protestant parliament. When those dangers shall have arrived I shall have been consigned to the urn, the sepulchre, and mortality; but that they will arrive I have no more doubt than that I yet continue to exist. I solemnly declare, that I had rather not be living to-morrow morning, than on awaking to find that I had consented to a measure fraught with evils so imminent and so deadly, and of which had I not solemnly

noble and learned friend accuses me of acting with secresy on this question, he does not deal with me altogether fairly. He knows, as well as I do, how the cabinet was constructed on this question; and I ask him, had I any right to say a single word to any man whatsoever upon this measure until the most interested in the kingdom upon it had given his consent to my speaking out? A noble earl accused me of misconduct, that I did not at once dissolve the parliament. But when I knew the state of the elective franchise in Ire

expressed this, my humble but firm conviction, I should have been acting the part of a traitor to my country, my sove. reign, and my God."

The Earl of Harrowby drew a comparison between the state of public feeling during Mr. Pitt's administration and at the present time, and stated it as his firm belief that the measure in progress was the very one Mr. Pitt would have chosen, and the present moment the one he would have selected for its introduction. The doctrine that religious opinions ought to have nothing to do with political power, is to be found in the statutes. An argument against this measure, is the unchangeable nature of the Roman-Catholic tenets. But the question is, not whether Catholics will revoke what have been de. clared articles of faith, but whether they have not long ceased to be practically acted upon? Events shew how little the power of the pope is dreaded by those who have the power of resistance. We should inquire, in a question of command and obedience, not only whether A commands, as he used to do, but whether B obeys. It is said, that hereafter the Catholics will wish to repeal the Union. I have no doubt that there are, and will be, some who wish such an event to take place; but I cannot imagine that it will ever be the wish of an Irish proprietor, now that the Catholics have all the same rights and privileges as their fellow-subjects. Noble lords have said, that they were surprised at the measure coming from the quarter it has done; but who is so fit, so proper, to call upon others to sacrifice their opinions to the general good, as those who have already sacrificed their own on the altars of their country?

The Bishop of Norwich said, he regretted that Lord Eldon had mistaken the opinions of Locke and Bishop Hoadley; they were not friendly to the principle of exclusion on religious grounds. The Duke of Athol supported the measure: the Earl of Arlington opposed it, as an infringement of the constitution; and Lord Middleton, who had before opposed concessions, declared himself convinced by the arguments in favour of the bill.-The Duke of Newcastle observed, that the reasons stated for introducing the measure were so nugatory, such perfect trumpery, that he could not conceive how any person could think of justifying such a measure upon such grounds.-The Earl of Roden for eighteen years had invariably opposed what were called the Catholic claims, and saw no

reason to change his former opinions. A momentary calm might be produced by the measure, but it could not deprive the Roman-Catholic priests of that power which they now enjoyed and continued to exercise.--The Bishop of Lichfield spoke briefly in favour of the measure.-The Earl of Falmouth complained of the CHRIST. OBSERV. APP.

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rapidity with which it had been pressed forward.--The Duke of Cumberland said, that nothing had occurred in the progress of the measure to change that impression which he had originally entertained of it.--The Duke of Sussex thought it his duty once more to record his appro bation of the bill.-The Bishop of Bath and Wells and Lord Redesdale spoke shortly against it.-The Duke of Wellington said, there had been no prise. The numerous petitions presented, amounting to not less than ten thousand, was the strongest proof that there had been no surprise. He rejoiced that these petitions had been presented, as they shewed the sound Protestant feeling of the country. The house had never sat longer upon any bill; and never had any bill been more fully discussed. As the bill did no mischief, it could not require any securities and the introduction of securities would really have endangered the church. If the bill gave no securities, did it take any away? He could only say, and this was his consolation, that in the course of these proceedings he had not done an act or said a word which it was not his duty to do and to say.

Their lordships then divided, when there appeared

Contents-Present ......149

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Such is the outline of these memorable and eventful discussions. Never perhaps was more, or SO much, said and thought and written upon any legislative question, or with more warmth of spirit and desire of success in the contending parties. Numerous beyond precedent were the petitions to the king and both houses of the legislature, and the pamphlets and publications in every form which issued from the press on the occasion. Our account of the speeches in parliament is necessarily an abstract; for in full they would occupy volumes: but we have endeavoured to present a fair digest of the chief arguments on both sides; confining ourselves of necessity principally to the regular debates; though every inch of the ground was contested over and over again for many weeks during the presentation of petitions and in the discussions on the bill on the elective franchise. During the progress of 50

the measure, there was a general disruption of party ties; and in some instances even of personal friendships and family intercourse. The opposition in both houses supported government, while the usual supporters of government were divided; the members of the royal family were divided; and the episcopal bench were divided;-there being for the measure, the bishops of Chester, Derry, Kildare, Llandaff, Lichfield and Coventry, Oxford, Rochester, St. David's, and Winchester; and against it, the two Archbishops of England, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishops of Bath and Wells, Bristol, Carlisle, Chichester, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, London, Meath, Peterborough, Salisbury, St. Asaph, and Worcester. Many of these right reverend personages, on both sides, delivered their sentiments on the occasion. The bishops of Lichfield, Chester, and Winchester, as well as some other speakers in both houses, urged the measure on religious as well as merely political grounds, considering that it was requisite not only for the civil peace of Ireland, but for the promotion of true piety and the Protestant faith. We shall not argue the matter again on either side its good or evil cannot now be reversed; our hope, our belief still inclines to the opinion that it tends to the former; but much of its

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effect will depend upon the temper of Protestants; upon their zeal and piety and conciliating temper, and rejection of party spirit. Two things we believe, politically speaking, are clear: the one, that it was this measure alone, which prevented a rebellion in Ireland, for which twelve months since the populace seemed ripe, and which if subdued by British bayonets would have cost a fearful expenditure of treasure and blood; the other, that in consequence of it the Catholic priest and the political agitator have lost their strongest hold upon the minds of the people; so that the popular Mr. O'Connell himself has lost his boasted power, and has striven in vain to urge the people of Ireland to embrace his fond scheme for the repeal of the Union.

But the great question, after all, was, not the worldly policy, but the religious rectitude of the measure. And here we must appeal to what has already appeared in our pages; only warning our readers, in conclusion, to beware, whatever may be their sentiments on this question, that they sink not the Christian in the politician, or amuse themselves with discussing matters of state, while they forget their own higher and eternal interests as candidates for an eternal world. The caution may seem to come in hastily and abruptly: but no Christian will say that it is unnecessary.

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