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principles. This same John Keogh, had distributed several thousands of Payne's pamphlet through the country, and they were circulated by the petitioners. But the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry abhorred those abominations. No imputation could be laid at their door upon this head, and therefore he hoped that all reflections would rest where they ought, upon the scum of the earth. Shame and disgrace! are such men the representatives of the catholics of Ireland? No. The Roman Catholics are not involved in their misconduct. Their sentiments are not to be collected from a meeting composed of turbulent men, shop-keepers and shop-lifters, and for this reason he trusted that the house would not go into the committee on the petition. In the year 84, he recollected another committee like the present, it was the tarring and feathering committee, which was as much the representative of the Roman Catholics, as that which now affected to speak for them."

These objections of incompetency, thus virulently urged, could not be overlooked, unless the pursuit of emancipation was relinquished. A mode was immediately adopted, whereby the sentiments of every individual of the Catholic body throughout Ireland should be ascertained, and unequivocally declared. The general committee, and the gentlemen who had withdrawn themselves from it, mutually regretted their division, which they saw used by their opponents as a pretext for withholding the elective franchise, and an equal participation of the benefits of the trial by jury.

A reconciliation was effected; and all former differences of opinion, it was agreed, should be buried in oblivion on both sides. The necessary unanimity being attained, it was determined, that delegates should be chosen in such a manner as that it should be evident they were nominated by the people. For this purpose, meetings were directed to be held in each parish throughout Ireland, for the appointment of one or two of the most respectable persons in each as electors. These electors, so appointed, were to choose from one to four of their own residents, as delegates to the general committee from each county. In addition to these, associate delegates for each county, residents of Dublin, were to be chosen, in order to keep up a regular correspondence with their colleagues in the country, and to inform the county through them, of all proceedings in the general committee, at such times as the county delegates should be absent.

The first great business, which was to engage their attention, the general committee declared to be, "An humble application to our gracious sovereign, submitting to him their loyalty and attachment, their obedience to the laws, a true statement of their situation, and of the laws which operated against them; and humbly beseeching that they may be restored to the elective franchise, and an equal participation in the benefits of the trial by jury. "We have the FIRST AUTHORITY for asserting, (they also stated,) that this application will have infinite weight with our gracious sovereign and with parliament, if our friends are

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qualified to declare, that it is the universal wish of every Catholic in the nation."

The agitation which the appearance of this plan immediately produced, was most extraordinary. Wherever their adversaries were sufficiently strong, corporate or county meetings were held to reprobate the plan, and to resist the so-stiled exorbitant pretensions of the Catholics; but if defeat, or even formidable resistance was dreaded, similar resolutions were entered into by the grand juries. These breathed no common opposition. In general, they charged the committee with the intention of overawing the legislature; they drew a line of circumvallation round the protestant ascendancy, and pledged those who adopted them, as solemnly as could be done by words, to resist with their lives and fortunes every attempt to regain a right within its limits. The grand jury of the county of Louth, with the Speaker of the House of Commons at their head, declared, that "the allowing Roman Catholics the right of voting for members to serve in parliament, or admitting them to any participation in the govern-. ment of the kingdom, was incompatible with the safety of the Protestant establishment, the continuance of the succession to the crown in the illustrious House of Hanover, and finally tended to shake, if not destroy, their connexion with Great Britain, on the continuance and inseparability of which depended the happiness and prosperity of the kingdom; that they would oppose every attempt towards such a dangerous innovation, and that they would support with their lives and for

tunes the present constitution, and the settlement of the throne on his Majesty's Protestant House.” The freeholders of the county of Limerick, stimulated by the lord chancellor, charged the Catholics with intending to intimidate the legislature, to force a repeal of the penal laws, and to create a popish democracy for their government and direction in pursuit of whatever objects might be holden out to them by turbulent and seditious men. The grand jury of the county of Cork denominated the plan "an unconstitutional proceeding, of the most alarming, dangerous and seditious tendency; an attempt to overawe parliament," &c. The corporation of Dublin went still further; for, alluding to the possibility of government's finally acceding to the Catholic claims, it expressly said, that "the Protestants of Ireland would not be compelled, by any authority whatever, to abandon that political situation, which their forefathers won with their swords, and which is therefore their birthright:" and to this threatened resistance against the constituted authorities, it solemnly pledged the lives and fortunes of its members. That no doubt might be entertained as to the extent of what it was determined at all hazards to maintain, it gave a definition of protestant ascendancy in these words: "A protestant king of Ireland, a protestant parliament, a protestant hierarchy, protestant electors and government, the benches of justice, the army and the revenue, through all their branches and details, protestant; and this system supported by a connexion with the pro

testant realm of England." What gave to those resolutions a still more important appearance was, that they seemed to be made with the immediate sanction of government; as the most confidential servants of the crown, and even its ministers, stepped forward to give them countenance and support in their respective counties. This authoritative interference on the part of persons high in the administration of the country, against a plan, calculated to ascertain an universal wish, formed a very striking and suspicious contrast with the assertion of the committee, that it had the first authority to declare an application would have infinite weight, if it appeared to be the wish of every Catholic in the nation. An assurance possibly given under the idea, that compliance with the requisite would be impracticable.

The charge of illegality, repeated from various quarters, determined the committee to submit the plan itself to the opinion of two eminent lawyers, the Hon. Simon Butler and Beresford Burston, Esq., whose answers, being entirely favourable, were printed, and universally dispersed throughout the country. The legality of the measure was no longer expressly questioned; the elections tranquilly proceeded, and the Catholic Convention assembled on the 2d of December, 1792.

Meanwhile the Catholics of the city of Dublin, convened by public notice, replied in a very dignified stile to the different corporations, county and grand jury resolutions. Eight gentlemen, Messrs. Randall M'Donald, John Keogh, Hugh Hamill, Edward Byrne, Thomas Ryan, Thomas

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