figtree, safe and unenvied'." This was written, let it be remembered, in the interval between the period in which the Roman Catholics first obtained security for the exercise of their religion, and that, in which their appetite was first whetted by a taste M for political power. I will continue to quote Dr. Butler: he is speaking of the insurrection in the south, the Whiteboy system, &c., and he says that "when the first troubles broke out in the south, the most active exertions in their power were used by the Roman Catholic Clergy to bring back their deluded flock to a sense of duty, order, and obedience. We exhorted them in the name of our religion: we threatened with the fear of punishment from that Almighty whom their wickedness might provoke. We argued upon the impolicy-and pointed out the ingratitude of irritating a Legislature, whose power to depress us had been so manifestly evinced in the very privileges it had opened to us 2" Compare this with the language of Dr. Doyle in 1825, not writing under the initials J. K. L. but in his own avowed character: the passage has been often quoted, once already by myself on a former occasion; but I again intreat the attention of the House to it. "If a rebellion were raging from Cape Clear to Carrickfergus, not a priest would denounce it from the altar." There is a strange Butler, p. 14. See a similar passage by the late Dr. Milner, in the Appendix, p. 168. * Butler, p. 29. 'Dr. Doyle's Letter to Mr. Robertson, in Letters on the Reunion of the Churches, p. 4. and wonderful difference between the language of the Roman Catholic Bishop, who forty years ago considered that the secure exercise of his religion, the freedom of his property, and the personal privileges restored to him, were inestimable advantages, and the language of the Roman Catholic Bishop of the present day, who wishes to raise his creed to political power. So much for the declarations of the Roman Catholic Prelates: I will not, however, confine myself to such evidence. I will place before you the declarations of the Laity; and I call upon you to mark the difference between the language of the addresses of the Roman Catholics thirty years ago, and the language of the petitions presented at present. I have endeavoured to find some place which sent addresses at both periods, in order to contrast the difference in their language, but I have not been able to find exactly any such; but I will compare an address from two places in the county of Wexford, in 1797, with the general address of that county in 1827. The people of Moyacomb and Barragh, 1561 in number, assembled at Clonegal Chapel, in the county of Wexford, declare as follows:-" We, the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the parishes of Moyacomb and Barragh, think it incumbent upon us at this crisis of internal disturbance publicly to declare our unalterable attachment to his sacred Majesty King George III. and that most excellent Constitution which his mild and paternal reign has restored to us. : Loyalty has ever been the distinguished trait of the Catholic body; superadded to this we have now a common interest to defend his Majesty, in admitting us to the Constitution, has bestowed on us an invaluable heritage and we solemnly promise at this altar, in the presence of Almighty God, that we will cling to him, and defend him and that heritage which he has conferred on us, if need be with our blood." 2 Now the language of the last petition which I can find " of the body of the same county," is that the parties are "excluded from the free Constitution of these realms;" they, the Roman Catholics, who thirty years ago declared that they had a common interest in it with ourselves, and professed their gratitude to their Sovereign for bestowing on them so invaluable an heritage 3. They have learnt 66 1 On the subject of the condition of the Roman Catholics at that period, I add a few lines from the work of a friend, whose name I do not think it fair to quote, as, since writing them, he has changed the opinions which they express:" Is there a single burthen which either is or can be imposed upon them, without equally affecting all the members of the community? Where then is the insufferable grievance? Why, merely this; one in twenty thousand of them cannot have the full gratification of his ambition." Since that day, the army and navy, to their highest ranks, besides other advantages, have been opened to the Roman Catholics. Journals, 1824, p. 446. "Gratitude soon wears out," as Wolfe Tone says, speaking of the feelings of his Roman Catholic clients in respect to the by experience," said some other petitioners last year from two parishes close to Clonegal, that "the exclusion of seven millions from their rights and privileges, has been the source of perpetual discord and discontent 1." I have now placed before you a singular contrast between the Roman Catholic as he was before you gave him a draught of political power, and as he was in the first hour of enjoying it; and, on the other hand, the Roman Catholic as he is, now that, having obtained what then appeared his object, he asks, dissatisfied, for more. I ask you to tell me what you have gained in the loyalty, and good order, and affectionate submission of your Roman Catholic subjects, by all your concessions? Are you authorised by your experience of the past, to expect that your future concessions, if you yield more to their claims, will be attended by more favourable results? My honourable and learned friend, the Solicitor General for Ireland, described in very forcible language the difficulty,and no one can overrate the difficulty-of our concessions of 1793, while he was pointing out to them other and higher objects, i. 187—“ When Mr. Secretary Hobart pressed the Roman Catholics of that day to say that they were satisfied, those who were willing to say so argued that the Minister did not say the Catholics were to acquiesce for ever under the measures intended, but only that the public mind should not be irritated; that every accession of strength enabled them the better to secure the remainder," &c.-Wolfe Tone, i. 93. 1 Votes, 1827, p. 632. present position: but I contend that the difficulty will be increased, not ten-fold but a hundredfold, by any further concessions. The claims of the Roman Catholics in the beginning were humble and obscure; they are now shrouded in clouds and darkness; and it is hardly possible to say to what extent they aspire: Parva metu primo: mox sese attollit in auras 66 They have well I correct myself: this is not strictly the case; they have looked down from their cloud, and have shewn their fronts openly, and told us at once what it is which they demand. They demand open, absolute, unqualified emancipation. followed the hint of Wolfe Tone, my advice has been for the Catholics to rise at every refusal in their demands like the ancient Sybil, which they seem determined to do." I might quote many daring declarations from the volume which I hold in my hand, entitled the Speeches of D. O'Connell, Esq. and Richard Shiel, Esq., just published; and which, on first looking at it, I thought must have been compiled by a Protestant, for I could not conceive that any Roman Catholic would have formed an armoury, from which so many weapons could be drawn against himself. In this, I find, I was mistaken and the volume may be received as a genuine Roman Catholic work. Vol. i. p. 205. |