From that moment the Catholic Question began to lose ground.

But, Sir, the lost ground may yet be recovered. With a view to that recovery, I have already said we must quiet, in this country, the apprehensions entertained for the safety of the Protestant Church Establishment. With a view to that recovery, we must put down, in Ireland, faction, of whatever description; we must put down all unconstitutional associations, but, foremost, this Catholic Association, for which alone a stand has been made. I conjure the House therefore to entertain and to pass this bill; first, for the suppression of an association of which no government, worthy the name of a government could tolerate the existence; and, secondly, for the advancement of the great question to which that association has endeavoured to ally itself, an alliance of which the Catholic Question must be disencumbered before it can have fair play.

SIR F. BURDETT moved the order of the day, for resuming the adjourned debate on the Amendment proposed to be made to the question, " That the bill be now read a second time;" which Amendment was, to leave out the word "now," and at the end of the question to add the words, upon this day six months."

MR. SECRETARY CANNING rose, amidst general cries from all sides of the House, and spoke to the following effect:

Often as it has fallen to my lot to address the House on this important question, I cannot approach the consideration of it on this occasion without feelings of the deepest anxiety. And yet it must be confessed, that the subject now presents itself under appearances unusually cheering. Whether the opinion of this country be not, in fact, as strongly opposed to concession to the Roman Catholics as I believed it to be at the beginning of the session, or that the abatement of the causes which at that particular period existed

(I refer of course to the proceedings at the Catholic Association) have proportionably diminished that opposition, I gladly admit that the number of petitions presented to this House is not such as to indicate that vehement and stirring hostility with which the Catholic Question has been heretofore assailed. This circumstance is of itself highly, and to me, I confess, unexpectedly satisfactory.

It is an additional satisfaction, that among the petitions which have been presented to the House, there is, in many of them, amidst all the sincerity and zeal with which they are laudably distinguished, a manifest ignorance, both of the state of the existing laws respecting the Catholics, and of the precise objects to which the present bill is directed. This ignorance-this want of accurate knowledge as to matters of law-is no disparagement to any man, nor is it stated by me in that intent. I state it merely as a cheering circumstance, because prejudices, founded on error and misapprehension, will, in honest and ingenuous minds, give way when that error is removed. I feel, Sir, as strongly as any man, the duty of throwing open the doors of Parliament to the petitions of the people. The opinions of the country, whatever they may be, are entitled to the most respectful and attentive consideration. But, after such consideration, it is the duty of the

House to proceed firmly upon its own judg

ment.

With respect, therefore, to all British subjectsbut especially to that class of them who conceive themselves more particularly interested on the present occasion-who are placed in advance, as it were, as guardians of the religious institutions of the country-with respect to the clergy of England, I not only admit their right to make known their opinions to Parliament, but I should think them wanting in their duty if they did not come forward with the fair and candid expression of those opinions. Even in the petitions, however, from that most respectable body, I have found some erroneous apprehensions as to the real state of the law as it stands at present, with respect to Roman Catholics. I repeat, that I impute no blame to the individuals who have acted under these erroneous apprehensions. They share those apprehensions with many other persons-with some of the members of this House-who have not the like excuse of constant professional avocations to justify their want of accurate information upon topics not within their daily occupation. But the fact is as I have described it and the description applies peculiarly to one petition (to which I will call the attention of the House, without mentioning the place from whence it comes), which grounds its whole opposition to the bill now pending, upon an entire mistake as to the

purpose which is meant to be effected by it. These petitioners pray that this House "will not extend to the Roman Catholics those privileges and immunities which are withholden from other classes of dissenters." Now, if I were called upon to declare what my object is in supporting this bill, I would say, that it is, to place the Catholic dissenters precisely on the same footing as the other dissenters; and I contend, therefore, that, so far as that object is concerned, this petition, and the other petitions of which it is a specimen, do not militate against the bill before the House. Protestant dissenters have voices in the legislature. They have facilities of access to seats in this House, of which Roman Catholics are altogether deprived; and I know of no privileges not enjoyed by any description of dissenters which would be enjoyed by Roman Catholics, if this bill were to pass into a law.

It is a gross and palpable mistake, therefore, in these petitioners, to suppose that any privileges and immunities are intended to be communicated by this bill to the Roman Catholic dissenters, which are withholden from dissenters of other denominations. And the prayer of their petitions, therefore, being preferred in error, is to be met with explanation, not with compliance.

Sir, this bill does not tend, as is imagined by the petitioners, to equalize all religions in the state; but to equalize all the dissenting sects of