prosperity. This bill wishes, that every man may have some property on board the bark, and that no man may stand an indifferent spectator, whether she sinks or swims. This bill has for its object, the bringing into action, nay, I may say into life, two millions of men, who, in fact, have been dead to society, who have been an absolute burden, and a clog on the industry of their native country. But above all, these heads of a bill look to this great and truly patriotic object--that of making us a people-a great, a powerful people-by uniting the sons of Ireland in one common interest, and in one common cause, for her prosperity. It is an established maxim, that the riches and consequence of a country consist in the number of its inhabitants. And yet, I am sorry to say, that Ireland, at this day, proves the truism of the maxim, by being an exception to the rule: for the Roman catholics of Ireland, in number about two millions, so far from adding either to the riches, or to the consequence of this country, are a burden and a dead weight on its industry, and must inevitably continue so, so long as the popery laws remain unrepealed.

Ireland, from its situation, should be as flourishing and as happy a country as any under the sun. Ireland is surrounded by fruitful coasts she possesses the safest barbours-she enjoys a temperate climate, and is blessed in the fertility of her soil-and yet Ireland is, at this day, as far behind other nations, as to arts and industry, as she is beyond them in point of natural advantages.

It may be asked, why Ireland, with all those natural advantages, should be so far behind other nations in arts and industry? The answer is obvious the popery laws are still alive! Those laws, which render torpid and useless to this country, two millions of its inhabitants. The wealth of a country must ever be in proportion to the skill and industry of its inhabitants: the sure way to make men industrious is, to let them enjoy the fruits of their industry. As industry increases, manufactures must necessarily flourish; therefore, the great object of the legislature should be, to excite industry by employing the people; not to continue laws, which render the bulk of the people a burden to the state.

The obvious interest of Ireland, at this hour, is to grant to religious dissenters, their civil privileges, which may annex them to the civil government; not to continue persecuting laws, which must necessarily estrange them from it. I would not be understood to say, that the poperylaws, when made, were not necessary to the protection of its civil constitution; but, this I will say, that the motives which then induced the necessity of those laws, have long since ceased to exist. These laws have outlived their time, and, in my opinion, a longer continuation of them, circumstanced as this country now particularly stands, must be its inevitable ruin.

It will not be denied, I believe, that the conduct of the Roman Catholics of this country, for a series of years, has been that of obedience to the laws, and attachment to the established

government. Why then continue, unnecessarily, those penal laws, which absolutely involve two thirds of our fellow-subjects-which deprive them of the rights of men, and cut them off from any benefit of a free constitution? Can any laws be more unwise, than those, which restrain the Roman Catholics, not from evil, but absolutely from doing good-laws, which absolutely prohibit industry, by tying up the hands of two millions of men from co-operating with the public, in the public service?

I will suppose, merely for argument, that the Roman Catholics are not so well attached to us from principle as could be wished, will any gentleman then say, that a continuation of those popery-laws will be a probable mode of winning the affections, or insuring the attachments of this unfortunate class of people-unfortunate indeed, when doomed to vassalage in a country of freedom, and treated as aliens in their native land?

The wisest man, who, I believe, has ever written on the subject of legislation, (I mean Baron Montesquieu) treating on the very subject now before us, that of penal laws as to religion, says, that penal laws as to religion, have never produced any other effect than that of making the objects of them more persevering: says he, "The sure way to win the zealots in any religion is, to court them by favours-by the conveniencies of life-by hopes of fortune. It is an established rule as to the changing of religion, that the invitations to the change must ever be more strong than the penalties."

Have not the very laws we are now discussing, proved the wisdom of his judgment? Can it be presumed, that these popery-laws (if unrepealed) can produce other, or more salutary effects for the time to come, than they have produced for near a century past-that of misery to individuals, and impotency to the state.

Since, then, the iron hand of penal law has proved ineffectual, why not endeavour to wed the Roman catholic to us from motives of self-interest. The happiness of every state depends upon the common interest of the subject, not on uniformity of opinion as to this or that religion. If Roman catholics are permitted to purchase lands, they must necessarily become sincere supporters of the established government. They then become wedded to it, by the strongest of all ties, that of self-interest. The security of self-interest is the support of every government. Will it be argued, that the greater the stake a man has to lose by the subversion of that government under which he lives, the more he is to be suspected as an enemy to it? Or that the less a man is interested in the welfare of the state, the more he is to be confided in? Surely this is too absurd a doctrine to be entertained for an instant. A Roman Catholic, by purchasing lands, enters into security for his good conduct. He (if I may use the expression) enters into a kind of recognizance for his loyalty to the state.

By permitting Roman catholics to purchase, you annex their loyalty to the soil; by that means it becomes stable and permanent; whereas,

at present, the property of Roman catholics is totally personal; it is a kind of fugitive property, which may almost instantly be transferred from one country to another. If sound policy and good sense have not heretofore told us to repeal those laws, the present times, the very critical situation of the British empire, furnish a decisive reason for repealing them at this day. England has wisely repealed her popery laws.

In this liberal and enlightened age, when almost all the powers of Europe have resigned religious policy to public interest-when toleration, the darling child of benevolence and of wisdom, has been adopted in the place of per secution, that dreary offspring of blind prejudice and hoary bigotry when reason has re-assumed her throne-shall Ireland alone continue enveloped under that dark cloud of deep-rooted prejudice and baseless apprehension? Shall she alone be blind to her own interest, while all Europe hang out a lure to the Roman catholics of this country to emigrate to depopulate their native land? Shall we sit dormant and inactive, while the remedy is within our reach? There is no man who will voluntarily banish himself from his native country. Every man, who has the feelings of man, must have a natural affection for that country which gave him birth. Nothing but cruelty and oppression can oblige him to part it he is wedded to it by every tie of affec tion, by every tie of connexion.

But if the present heads of a bill shall be rejected, can any man hesitate to say, that every