Page images
PDF
EPUB

1

of traitors, it was not the principle of law, but its omission, that had not described by any express provisionary statute that patricide, of which these men in intention, and in substance were guilty. They had adopted a practice, which decided the fate of their parliamentary constitution. In vain should they boast of its blessings, and of its three estates, the king, lords, and commons; when the king sold one estate to buy the other, and so contaminated both. The minister had sent one set of men packing into the peers, and another into the commons; the first he called the hereditary council, the latter the grand council of the nation, and both, that once great and august institution, the parliament. Such a condition puts the constitution of Ireland not below a republic, but any other form of genuine and healthy government; it was not mixed monarchy with parts happily tempered, and so forth; the cant of grave and superannuated addresses; but a rank, and vile, and simple, and absolute government; rendered so by means that made every part of it vicious and abominable; the executive who devoured the whole, and the other two parts, which were thus extinguished: of such a constitution the component parts were debauched by one another. The monarch was made to prostitute the prerogative by the sale of honours; the lords by the purchase: and the commons prostituted their nature by being the offspring not of the people but of a traffic; and prostituted themselves again by the sale of their votes and persons.

He allowed the British constitution to be the best; and arraigned this mode as the worst, because practically and essentially the opposite of that British constitution. The British minister had given an account of the British constitution, which he wished to extend to the Irish constitution: "Aristocracy," says he, "reflects lustre on the crown, and lends support and effect to democracy; while democracy gives vigour and energy to both; and the sovereignty crowns the constitution with dignity and authority.....Aristocracy is the poise," says he; "give an infusion of nobility." The minister here can answer him: he who sold the aristocracy and bought the democracy? he best understands in practice what is this infusion of nobility: he who has infused poison into this aristocratic and this democratic division of power, and has crowned the whole with corruption: he well knows all this, as far as Ireland is concerned to be the theatric representation; and that the constitution of the country is exactly the reverse of those scenes and farces which are acted on the public stages, of imposture and hypocrisy.

By this trade of parliament the king was absolute: his will was signified by both houses of parliament, who were then as much an instrument in his hand as a bayonet in the hands of a regiment.

Like a regiment they had their adjutant, who sent to the infirmary for the old, and to the brothel for the young; and men thus carted as it were into that house to vote for the minister, were called the representatives of the people.

Mr. Grattan then with an astonishing power of eloquence travelled over, once more, the whole ground which he had taken each of the three last sessions, but with new point and redintegrated vigour. The chancellor of the Exchequer answered, that he was not surprised, that the right honourable gentleman, for want of other matter, should recapitulate the accumulated invective of many sessions; he should be extremely surprised, indeed, if this invective, so often refuted, should make any impression upon the house. If the right honourable gentleman supposed he should follow him through all that maze of charges, of propositions, of malt duties, of police, of India trade, and all that strange incongruous jumble, calculated to poison the public mind, he would request to be excused: they had been already refuted, and if they were brought forward in the course of the session, they would be refuted again. When the right honourable gentleman imputed to government, crimes that would disgrace an individual, a government conscious of its integrity, must disregard the imputation; but when he lightly charged parliament, he lowered parliament in the eyes of the public, and did a positive injury to the country Since 1779, which he fixed as the commencement of depravity, the parliament of Ireland had done more for the benefit of the kingdom, than all the antecedent parliaments from the days of Henry II. In that space, the country had advanced to a degree of prosperity unhoped for, even by the most sanguine; yet that was the very period the right honourable gentleman thought fit to depreciate, by which he might do an evil that certainly he did not intend.*

On the 25th of January, 1792, Sir H. Langrishe rose, according to notice, to bring forward some resolutions in favour of the

[ocr errors]

* Several other gentlemen spoke on the side of government; amongst the most forward were Mr. Sheridan and Sir Henry Cavendish: the latter was very personal against Mr. Grattan, for the violence and intemperance of his language, and a disorderly extra dissertation on the measures of the lord lieutenant; which brought up Mr. Grattan in reply; who spoke thus: (12 P. D. p. 23) "It seems the right honourable baronet is ignorant of the only subject he is supposed to be acquainted with, order. He talks of scurrilous language; "his language and epithets return on himself: but a man's language is of little "moment; it is his conduct that is essential. What shall we say of the con"duct of that man, who voted in one session for a pension bill and against it in "the next; of that man, who voted for a place bill in one session and voted "against it in the next; of that man, who voted for a committee to proceed to"wards impeachment against the present ministry for the selling peerages, and "the very next sessions votes for thanks to that very ministry: what does fe think of such an apostate?"

Catholics of that kingdom. He prefaced his motion by a warm and able, though very guarded speech.* It was then ten years since the cause of the Roman Catholics particularly engaged the attention of parliament; since they took their last review of those laws which the passions and prejudices, perhaps the pressure, of an intemperate season had entailed upon them.

The present times and circumstances invited them to resume that duty. The good offices they owed one to another; the indulgence due to fellow subjects, recommended and endeared by the unimpeachable conduct of a century, the consideration they owed to the national prosperity, all united in calling their attention to the revision of that subject, at a time when the public mind was becoming more enlightened, and prejudices and jealousy were every day yielding to confidence and affection. With satisfaction he considered, amongst the few honours of his humble life, that of being almost the first member of the Irish parliament, who ventured to state the imprudence and immorality of the Popery laws, as a system of jurisprudence subversive of integrity, and as a scheme of government, which, whilst by its severity it alienated the body of the people, by its impolicy forbid them to vest in the state any hostage for their fidelity.

The agitation of truth must ever make an impression. Suc ceeding times became more enlightened, and religious animosity gave way to moral justice and political wisdom.

In the year 1774, the legislature first gratified the Roman Catholics with an opportunity of testifying their allegiance, by framing an oath for them, competent to that test, without involving any article of religious faith, or speculative opinion.

Four years afterwards (in 1778) the legislature, wisely confid ing in their oaths, rewarded their loyalty by some substantial concession.

The act in their favour then passed, truly recites in the preamble," that from their uniform peaceable behaviour for a long "series of years, it appears reasonable and expedient to relax "several of their incapacities and disabilities."

Accordingly, it allowed them "to take leases of land for nine "hundred and ninety-nine years, and at any rent; to enjoy all such estates that should be left or transferred to them, and to "dispose of the same by will or otherwise; and that they should "be deviseable and transferable, as in the case of other people."

* It is an irrefragable proof of the falsity of Lord Clare's position, that the question was left in the hands of every individual, who chose to take possession of it, as an engine of popularity or power Sir Hercules said, he had communicated with as many members of parliament as he could, (consequently with his own friends) and Mr. Secretary Hobart seconded the motion.

[blocks in formation]

The abominable usurpation of the child against the father was abolished; and to these concessions, the conditions annexed were: taking the oath of 1774; and that the law should not extend to converts relapsing, or to Protestants becoming Papists, or educating their children in the Popish religion. he legislature naturally considering, that some suspicion attached on frequent versatility of faith, and on those who professed a religion themselves, which they would not transmit to their posterity.

Four years after that (in 1782) the spirit of toleration further extended itself, and sound policy gained a further ascendancy in favour of the Roman Catholics. That system of severity, which a few years before was thought prudence, began to look something like injustice; and what prejudice had adopted as preservation, moderation began to view as little short of oppression.

In 1782, the capacity of acquiring land by purchase (which in 1778 was granted under a fiction) was given direct and entire.

"The acquisition by purchase, grant, limitation, descent, or "devise, by will or otherwise descendable, as the lands of Pro"testants," was communicated to the Roman Catholics: some of their disabilities, as to education, were removed: the severe law was repealed, that compelled the Papists to declare on oath when, and where, and by whom they heard mass celebrated: the unequal attachment of their properties to make reprisals for common robberies, was discontinued: their horses were no more to be exposed as public plunder; and the preposterous, but offensive prohibition, whereby persons professing the Popish religion were forbidden to reside in certain cities, was repealed: they were allowed the full rights of property; the free exercise of religion; and to appoint guardians to their own children.

These were great efforts of liberality, in opposition to old opinions, and the usual acrimony of religious dissention, and a signal triumph over rooted prejudices. It disclosed such a growing confidence, such an amicable sympathy, such a relenting of heart, in the predominate powers of the state towards the Roman Catholics of the country, as ought to conciliate their affection, engage their gratitude, and confirm their attachment to the state. And in fact, such conduct of the legislature (he spoke with confidence and assurance, from the authority of experience) had produced those effects.

If he were not of that opinion, he would not stand as their advocate for another concession. For as the state is paramount, and all men who live under its protection, live under its controul, and are amenable to its superiority, if they approach the legislature, they must approach it by the avenues the constitution has marked out; if they apply to parliament, it must be by petition, not representation or remonstrance; if they would have benefits,

they must solicit them as favours, and accept them as concessions. That was not only the constitution of Ireland, but the constitution of every settled government in the known world.

As to the natural rights of man (of which they had lately heard so much) they did not belong to political society; they belonged to that state of nature which had been so accurately described by Mr. Hobbs, and so ardently recommended by Mr. Paine; a state where, indeed, the race was to the swift, and the battle to the strong; where possession was property, and strength was right; a state superior to the conditions of society, the restrictions of covenant, or the bondage of law.

Therefore he freely confessed, that notwithstanding his prepossessions in favour of the Roman Catholics, he was yet for some time checked in his ardour, and interrupted in the progress of his services to them, by reading lately a multitude of publications and paragraphs in the newspapers, and other prints, circulated gratis, and communicated to every body, with every degree of industry, purporting to convey the sentiments of the Catholic body of Ireland.

If these were their sentiments, they were such as could not recommend them to the further favour of the state; they were such as must alienate their old, and could not get them new friends, if they would chuse their friends from amongst those, who were friends to the constitution. What was the import? They were exhortations to the people never to be satisfied at any concession, until the state itself was conceded; not only that, but, until a new constitution should be made for their present accommodation, and future entertainment; they were precautions against public tranquillity; they were invitations to disorders, and covenants to discontent; they were ostentations of strength, rather than solicitations for favours; rather appeals to the powers of the people, than applications to the authority of the state; they involved the relief of the Catholic, with the revolution of the government, and were dissertations for democracy, rather than arguments for toleration; they seemed the projects of some bold theorists, whose principles were to divide man from man, and whose politics were to separate Great Britain from Ireland; they seemed to be the effusions of some rash philosopher, ignorant of our system, who would set loose and adrift the little planet we inhabit, and commit it to the vortex of a vain and exploded philosophy; to range the universe without attraction, connexion, or relation to any greater or other body.

If the Roman Catholics embraced those sentiments, the state could not embrace them: if they were misled by rash counsels to engage in confederacies of perpetual requisition; if they were not to be satisfied at any concession, whilst any thing remained

« PreviousContinue »