"never thought that it would have been wise or "prudent to have thrown down rudely or "abruptly the guards and fences of the constitu❝tion; but I did think, that if the system I have “alluded to had been deemed proper to be "adopted, it ought to have been accompanied "with those checks and guards," (namely, the checks and guards to which he had just alluded,) "and every regulation that could have given "additional respect and influence to the Esta"blished Church, to the support and protection "of the Protestant interests, and to the encou"ragement of every measure which could tend "to propagate and spread the example of the "Protestant religion"-pointing, without doubt, by this general language, at the provision for additional churches and glebe houses in Ireland, which is mentioned by Lord Grenville: * a mea

* "The plans, which were then in contemplation, included, "in the first place, measures of considerable benefit to the "Established Church; calculated to promote both its honour " and its advantages, and to render it far more adequate than "it now can be to the purposes for which it is provided. A "short statement will convince your Lordships what ample "occasion this matter alone affords for the exercise of your "wisdom and liberality. It appears that two thousand four "hundred parishes in Ireland, are now consolidated into "little more one thousand one hundred benefices; of which "reduced number more than a tenth are absolutely without "churches, and not four hundred have glebe houses," &c.Letter I. page 8.

sure in no way affecting the question between Catholics and Protestants.

It is clear, therefore, that the only securities, in the way of enactment, with which Mr. Pitt attempted to allay the fears and satisfy the conscience of his sovereign, or which he at any subsequent time contemplated, (for your extracts are from the last speech he made in parliament on the subject,) were the extension of the existing oaths to the new concessions—the exaction of a test against jacobinism from Catholic preachers and teachers, a test which was to be equally demanded from the same classes of Protestant dissenters, and from one of the same classes of persons attached to the Establishmentand a project for gradually making the Popish clergy dependant on the state for a part of their provision, and subjecting them to superintendance and control. In Mr. Canning's jocose phrase, which you are so anxious to perpetuate, Mr. Pitt was evidently no great security grinder." Why was he satisfied with these meagre securities? Was he less anxious than you are for the safety or the honour of our Protestant Establishments? Most assuredly not. But his comprehensive mind did not conceive, that the "high and palmy state"* from which you so pathetically lament their fall, depended on· the maintenance of two or three trumpery sta* Letter I. p. 17.

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tutes, or the balancing of some equally trumpery oaths. If these were the real safeguards of our establishments they would indeed be in a state of peril. But Mr. Pitt's confidence was built on another foundation. "For myself I am on "full consideration convinced, that the admis"sion of the Catholics and Dissenters to offices, "and of the Catholics to Parliament, could

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never give any such weight either in office or "in Parliament, either to Catholics or Dissen"ters, as could give them any new means, if

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they were so disposed, of attacking the Es"tablishment."* Why was he so convinced? Because he knew that there was a fund of determined Protestant feeling in this country, which even if every member returned to Parliament for an Irish seat should be a Catholic, would render the body perfectly impotent for mischief. He knew that if the Catholic body in Parliament ever gave grounds for suspicion, that they were endeavouring to subvert the Protestant ascendancy; nay, even if, in the language of his day, they were "suspecté d'etre suspects," the political and religious differences between Protestants would all be cast aside; Whig would join hands with Tory, the theoretic Republican with the supporter of monarchy, Dissenter with Churchman, to overwhelm such an aggression. If such was his opinion when we were engaged

in a destructive war; when the head of the Catholic church was under the influence of our bitterest enemy; when, in his own language, it was feared that a large body of our own countrymen entertained principles dangerous to the constitution: a fortiori, would he have thought so now, when we are at peace with all the world; when an opposition can hardly be raised in Parliament; (I speak with reference to several years last past, and not to the present young administration;) and when disaffection to the government is unknown. He would not have thought that, because we had no battles to fight abroad, we might employ our force in oppressing at home. That is not the way in which he would have sought to give "full effect to the "great object of the Union-that of tranquil“lizing Ireland, and attaching it to this country."

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The securities on which Mr. Pitt relied were not the sort of things to which you attach so much importance, and from which you imagine that our Protestant Establishment derive so much honour; and, therefore, having offered to the consideration of his sovereign one ground of security drawn from the weakness of the Catholic body, he proceeds to another drawn from their improved principles: "Those principles formerly held by the Catholics, which made *Letters, p. 33.

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"them considered as politically dangerous, have "been for a course of time gradually declining, "and among the higher orders particularly have " ceased to prevail.”*

The only clauses of Mr. Pitt's argument to his Sovereign to which I have not alluded, are those in which with admirable simplicity he sets forth the difference between "the political circum"stance under which the exclusive laws ori

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ginated," and those which at present exist"That the grounds, on which the laws of exclu"sion now remaining were founded, have long "been removed, and are, since the Union, re"moved;" and, "That the political circum"stances under which the exclusive laws originated, arising either from the conflicting

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power of hostile and nearly balanced sects, "from the apprehension of a Popish queen or "successor, a disputed succession and a foreign "pretender, and a division in Europe between "Catholic and Protestant powers, are no longer 66 applicable to the present state of things."

I have thus endeavoured to give a fair view of that great man's sentiments on the subject of securities. I have built on his own deliberately written words, and have only called in the aid of his or Lord Grenville's reported speeches, when they are confirmatory or explanatory of his + Letters, &c. &c. p. 30.

* Letter I. P. 16.

↑ Id. p. 31.

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