Here, it must be confessed, was a great effort of liberality, in opposition to old opinions. The occasion was worthy of the exertion; and the consequences justified and rewarded it. Exclusive of all moral duty, it was of so great moment to the national prosperity to involve in its interests, to attach, to naturalize in their native country so great a body of its inhabitants, to make them a part of the nation, without whom we could not be a nation at all.

However, sir, considering the nature of man, the obstinacy of old opinions, and the usual acrimony of religious dissension, I must say, that so signal a triumph over rooted prejudices, disclosed such a growing confidence, such an amicable sympathy, such a relenting of heart, in the predominant powers of the state towards the Roman Catholicks of the country, as ought to conciliate their affection, engage their gratitude, and confirm their attachment to the state.

And when I say, speaking from a sense of moral obligation, that such conduct of the legislature ought to have produced this effect; I say, with confidence and assurance, from the authority of experience, that it has produced those effects. It has stamped those sentiments with a deep impression on the minds of our catholick brethren; I mean on the minds of those who are sufficiently enlightened to judge of the relations of political society, or feel the force of moral obligation.

If I were not of that opinion, confirmed and deci ded as it is into conviction, I would not at this moment stand up as their advocate for another concession. For, I must take the liberty to say, what it is my duty to say as a member of parliament, what it is my duty to observe as a common citizen, what it is the duty of every person to know and to conform to, "that the state is paramount, and all men who live under its protection, live under its control, 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. This is 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 we have lately heard so much, they do not belong to political society; they belong to that state of nature which is so accurately described by Mr. Hobbs, and so ardently recommended by Mr. Paine; a state where, indeed, the race is to the swift, and the battle to the strong; where possession is property, and strength is right; a state superiour to the conditions of society, the restrictions of covenant, or the bondage of law.

In a society protected by laws, and blessed with a constitution, those laws and that constitution ascertain the rights of man.

Therefore, sir, I must freely confess, that notwithstanding my prepossessions in favour of the Roman Catholicks, which I shall always be proud to acknow. ledge, as they are justified by their conduct; though I can number some of them among my ancestors; though I love many of them as my friends, and em. brace all of them as my countrymen, I was yet for some time checked in my ardour, and interrupted in the progress, of my services to them, by reading of late 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 Catholick 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 friends, and could not get them new ones, if they would choose their friends from amongst those who are friends to the constitution. What was the import? They were exhortations to the people never to be satisfied at any concession, till the state itself was conceded; not only that, but till a new constitution

should be made for their present accommodation, and future entertainment; they were precautions against publick tranquillity; they were invitations to disorder, 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 Catholick, 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 principle was to divide man from man, and whose politicks, to seperate 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. Was there a man who felt the blessings of regulated rights, and settled government; who knew the value of peace and the comforts of property? Was there a man who preferred order to outrage, and happiness to speculation; or who looked at the growing prosperity of the country, whose mind must not have revolted at the tendency of such doctrines; or who must not have felt an accumulated concern and disappointment, if he could for a moment suppose that they had originated with our Catholick brethren? that they were the growth of that soil which we had so lately and so liberally cultivated?

But common sense and common justice required of us to trace those opinions to their source.

If the Roman Catholicks embraced those sentiments, the state could not embrace them; if they were misled by rash councils to engage in confedecies of perpetual requisition; if they were not to be satisfied at any concession, whilst any thing remained to be conceded. In that case common sense must suggest to us, that we should not by any new concession unite more power with their discontent; for

however sincerely we may and ought to wish that they should enjoy every comfort and happiness the state can afford them, yet we cannot go so far, as to alter or make a new constitution for their accommodation; we cannot, even for them, hazard the blessings of an established free government, that has been the growth and the wisdom ages, and finally ratified and settled for above a hundred years; we are not so daring as to commit to the chance of every rash experiment.

If the Roman Catholicks could have been so far perverted, as to have addressed the legislature in these high tones of requisition, they would have assaulted that constitution they affected to reverence; they would have made their advances to parliament as besiegers, not petitioners; and parliament would have been bound, in its own defence, to repulse them, to resist their applications. If you were, in that case, to concede or capitulate, you would surrender the constitution in your charge, you would violate your trust, you would betray the state, and be responsible for the anarchy that would rush in upon you. But I have the happiness now to assert from authority, what I have long learned from experience," that not a sentiment of this tendency is entertained by the Catholick body; none such belong to them; they renounce them; they utterly disclaim them. There is not a class of his majesty's subjects more attached than they are to the monarchy and hereditary succession; more obedient to the laws, or more devoted to the king and constitution, as by law established.

These principles they testify by their conduct at all times; at times very different from the present, when the laws were less indulgent, when they had fewer pledges to bind them to their country: when property and the titles of land did not appear, as they now do, irrevocably fixed; at times when hostile fleets and armies were on your coast, and when even the king on the throne, by some may not have been suppo

sed to stand, as he does now, without a rival in their affections.

They now come forward by solemn declaration to reassert those principles at the foot of the throne; to vindicate them from all possible misconception or misrepresentation; they approach you by the ways of the constitution, and with the words of the constitution without asserting a claim of their own, or presuming to dictate to the authority of parliament. "They desire a further repeal of the laws affecting them; they express gratitude for past favours, confiding in your liberality and benevolence, that your future ones will be as extensive as to your consideration of the general welfare shall seem expedient; disclaiming every thing that can directly or indirectly tend to interrupt the publick tranquillity and subjection to the laws; they give you their past as a pledge of their future good conduct;" and, give me leave to say, the constitutional language they express, is a fur. ther pledge of the constitutional principles they feel.

With such a testimony, I address you in favour of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland; with a declaration of this import in my hand, subscribed by a host, as to national authority; persons of high distinction, ancient family, great character, enlightened education, ample fortune, and extensive influence in the country; men of general intercourse and knowledge, palitical, professional, and mercantile; men too, who, themselves and their ancestors, have made ample sacrifices to a sanctimonious observance of their vows. Without affecting or entertaining any disrespect for any other orders or classes of the people, I must say, it is from persons of the description which I have given, that national opinion and professional principle are best to be collected; not from a few deluded people in the South; not from a few dissatisfied people in the North, nor yet from any strange and incongruous. connexion that may be fabricated between both; nay, if by some wonderful rotation these two extremities should ever happen to meet; if by some monstrous convulsion the two poles, if I may say so, far as they