still more, if the attempt to obtain them on the part of those from whom they were withheld was punished by penal statutes

the legislature ought not to be surprised, that discontent and disorder were the consequences. If they still resolved to withhold from the Catholics the light and warmth of the sun of the British constitu tion, they must not be surprised that in their despair they sought the assistance of those wandering lights, which fitfully and partially illumined the atmosphere in which they lived. Let their lordships consider, to what manner of nation it was that they were asked to apply this rigorous and unnecessary restriction. It was a nation which he hardly felt himself able to describe, and to which he should therefore apply the words of a writer, who was not less famed for the force and beauty of his prose writings than for the inimitable excellence of his poetry-Milton, inspeak

words used were "levy and receive." must arise from the interchanges of sentiThese two words, the meaning of which ments, the communication of wealth, bewere wholly different, were coupled to- tween the nation in thraldom and the gether, if not with an insidious intent, at nation which was free. The very bleleast so as to produce an unfair effect. mishes and defects-the very excesses to To levy money in any way but by the au- which the enjoyment of liberty sometimes thority of parliament was unquestionably led, would be loud and convincing exhorillegal; but this the Catholic Association tations to those who were without their had not done, and had not attempted to fair share of its blessings, never to cease do. To prevent money from being re- struggling for them until they were obceived, while one party was willing to pay tained. Their very obedience to the laws and the other to receive, was wholly be- would teach them that the reward of that yond the authority of parliament. He obedience was the enjoyment of the rights would ask, whether by any stretch of of which it was the purchase. If the enhuman ingenuity, by any species of in-joyment of those rights were withheldquisition more searching and more rigorous than had been invented in the most bigotted country that the world ever yet contained, an accurate account could be extorted of every shilling that had been received, from whom it had been received, and to what purposes it had been applied? -He would not detain their lordships by going into a consideration of the various means by which the provisions of the bill before them could be evaded. It was enough that it was obvious, that it could be so evaded. The bill, to be effectual, must take away from the Catholics the disposition or the power to do as they bad hitherto done; and since it was in every way impossible for the authority of the legislature to effect this, the matter which it affected to remedy would be worse after it had passed than it had been before. The evil was deeply and firmly fixed; its root was in the state of society in Ireland. Everybody knew that whole nations and com-ing of the English nation, and addressing munities might be held under an arbitrary domination-that the influence of power might wither and extinguish all the feeling and desires which tended to exalt and improve human nature-that men might be held in a state of servitude, and even reconciled to the loss of all their civil rights and privileges. This might be done-this had been done: but what arbitrary power could not do was, to keep a nation (and the Catholics of Ireland might, with reference to their numbers, be called a nation) in a state of deprivation of their natural rights, while they were intermixed with another people who were in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of civil liberty. All the ingenuity of the most learned lawyers-all the penal statutes which might be heaped upon the table of the House-could not shut the door against the influence of such freedom, could not intercept the feelings which

its rulers, said, "Lords and Commons of England! consider what nation it is whereof ye are the governors: a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit; acute to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point, the highest that human capacity can soar to." Such a nation did he (lord L.) think Ireland was. He besought the House to remember, that over this nation there was exerted that most tremendous engine of modern times the press, a-power which, like electricity, roused the latent fire which ex isted in every part of the national economy, woke every sympathy of human nature to the keen enjoyment of the advantages which existed for the universal good of society. The people of Ireland were invited to participate in all the enterprises which England undertook; they were invited to participate in the advantages of

in those who were their real friends. He believed the bill could not succeed in the object which it had in view, for the grounds he had stated; and that it would never be called into action, because it would be evaded, or rendered unnecessary. In this belief, he concluded what he had to say. Having stated his objections to the bill, he should not oppose it in its future stages with so much pertinacity as he should otherwise have felt it his duty to display: and he sat down in the fervent hope, that the measure to which he had alluded, might have the effect of restoring peace and tranquillity to Ireland.

the extensive commerce which was one of the chief distinctions of England amongst the other nations of the world, and in all the hopes of higher and more noble things to which that commerce gave birth; they were invited to enter the army and the navy, and they were taught to imbibe a love of honour, and to seek for its reward; they were invited to become the possessors of landed property-(in a few days he should take occasion to show the House to what extent they had accepted this invitation)-and, consequently, to encourage a wish to cultivate those honourable relations, and to obtain that distinc tion, to which the possession of landed property naturally led them to look, and which would alone enable them to make to their country a fit return for those honours. After these feelings had been excited-after these hopes had been encouraged-did their lordships think that, by penal acts of parliament, they could stifle the discontent which disappointment had engendered, or cure the sickness which was the consequence of hopes delayed? It was not by making, but by repealing, penal statutes, that they could hope to effect such a purpose. Such instruments were wholly unequal and unfitted for the purpose

"The elements

Of which your swords are temper'd, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with be-mocked-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters."

They must remove the necessity for such meetings as that against which the bill was levelled. That alone would extinguish the mischief, and annihilate the necessity of attempting to put down discontents. Since this bill had been laid upon their lordships' table, he entertained additional hopes that those discontents would be for ever composed. A circumstance had occurred within the last eightand-forty hours, which, if he knew any thing of the Catholic body, must teach them the policy of suspending, for a time at least, the angry feelings which they, not without reason, entertained. They had now much to hope for. He conscientiously believed, that in this, as well as in the other House of parliament, there were many persons who had voted, or who were about to vote, for the bill before them, but who were nevertheless as warm friends to their cause, as any persons in this world. This he wished the Catholics to be convinced of; and he wished them, moreover, to place their full confidence VOL. XII.

The Earl of Harrowby said, he could not collect, from what had fallen from the noble marquis, that the Catholic Association ought not, in his opinion, to be put down. The whole of his arguments went no further than to shew, that the measure about to be enforced was not calculated to produce the intended effect. Now, his objection to the Association was, that it tended to keep up perpetual irritation; that it had the effect of raising blister after blister, until the whole body became one mass of ulceration. It had been said, that the Catholic Rent had not been collected compulsorily, but was a free gift on the part of the people. To this his answer was, that the voice of the priest in collecting that rent was equally, if not more powerful, than the voice of the taxgatherer. He was the more anxious to give his support to this bill, because he felt, that, the moment the Catholic Association was declared by parliament to be illegal, it would discontinue its operations. That Association had existed for eighteen months. Government were told, that they ought not to interfere hastily for its suppression, but wait for time and circumstances before they put it down. They had waited; and it was not until imperiously called upon, that they now interfered for its suppression. The noble marquis contended, that other measures might be introduced which would effectually remove the discontent of the Roman Catholics. That might be true; but still it was no reason against the suppression of the Catholic Association. If that Association were allowed to take its course, who could doubt that it would be met by another Association ?-who could doubt, in the state of alarm, whether real or imaginary, in which a portion of the people of that country were, that that would 3 M

of Ireland, praying inquiry into the institution, objects, signs, oaths, and passwords of the Orange Lodges of Ireland. The Orangemen were most anxious for inquiry, in order that they might relieve themselves from the malignant libels of interested parties. They were ready to make a disclosure of every thing connect. ed with the existence of the societies, before the committee now sitting on the state of Ireland, as they had, in fact, nothing to conceal. He also made some remarks, on certain charges brought by Mr. O'Connell against the Orange Associa tions. One of these charges was with regard to the 68th psalm, verse 23, "That

thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." It was imputed, that this text was used as a sign by the Orangemen, when the fact was, all that Orangemen had to do with the 68th psalm was the question, "Where do you come from, and where are you going to?" and the answer, "I am going to the high hill of Bashan." He did not apprehend, that, after the bill now before parliament should have passed, Orange Societies would continue in Ireland.

take place which his majesty's government had been so anxious to prevent; namely, an open contest between the two parties? He was of opinion, that this bill ought to pass, as he conceived it necessary, under existing circumstances, to the tranquillity of Ireland. When he advocated the cause of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, he did so, not because he looked to their interests alone, but from a conviction that, in doing so, he was equally advocating the cause of his fellow Protestants in Ireland: and, as they were about to enter on the discussion of that great question, he was most anxious to approach it with every possible advantage in its favour. Therefore it was, that he had tortured his in-thy foot may be dipped in the blood of vention, in order to produce some palliation of what he could not help calling the deliberate resolutions to which the Catholic Association had come, and which, he was sorry to say, had been productive of serious injury to the cause of the Roman Catholics generally. He wished to tell those who doubted the loyalty and good disposition of the Roman Catholics, that however ill-advised they might have been; whatever steps might have been taken to lead them into tracks which they would, in cooler moments shudder to approach, they were ready, the moment the voice of parliament was pronounced, to obey it, and to give up, not their claims or their petitions, but those meetings of the Catholic Association, which the legislature had found it necessary to suppress. He, and those noble lords who with him supported the claims of the Roman Catholics, were anxious that they should shew their obedience to the law. He wished that their admission to a participation in the legislature of the country should be softened and smoothed down, instead of having the appearance of being forcibly and violently obtained. It was because he entertained this feeling -it was because he was sincere in his wish to emancipate the Roman Catholics -that he gave his decided support to this

bill.

The House then divided on the second reading of the bill: Contents 146; Notcontents 44; Majority 102.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Thursday, March 3.

Lord Althorp remarked, that part of the information of which Mr. O'Connell had spoken, had turned out to be correct; and it was certainly singular, that the right psalm, though not perhaps the right verse, had been pitched upon.

Mr. Hutchinson said, that if the Orange Lodges had been maligned as to their motives, the fault was attributable to themselves, since they had refused to make any disclosures.

Mr. Abercromby expressed the great gratification he felt at hearing that Orange Societies were extinct in Ireland. He was glad also that they had now no objection to the investigation of all their secret oaths and signs, and he hoped that the committee on the state of Ireland would enter into the subject. He was certainly surprised at this change, because he could not forget, that, two years ago, when he brought forward his motion, they had done all in their power to conceal what they now volunteered to disclose.

Mr. Secretary Peel said, he felt the utmost satisfaction at the intimation, that there was to be a complete end to Orange Societies in Ireland, He most cordially. UNLAWFUL SOCIETIES IN IRELAND-joined in the exhortation that these assoORANGE LODGES.] Mr. Brownlow pre-ciations should yield to the repeated sented a petition from certain Protestants sense of parliament, and obey what would

soon, in all probability, become the law | of the land. The petitioners referred to the testimony he had borne to their loyalty, in 1814. He was willing to bear the same testimony now. Indeed, no complimentary expressions he could use, would be stronger than those employed by the hon. baronet, the member for Westminster, in the late discussions on the Catholic claims. But no loyalty, on the part of the members of the lodges, could compensate for the evil of their existence. With regard to certain members of the Orange Associations, he was able to assert, that, although in public employments, they had continued to belong to them, for the sake of exercising a beneficial influence over the rest of the members, at once to dissolve all connexion.

Mr. Brownlow observed, that, by saying the Orange Societies no longer existed, he meant to indicate to the House that, as soon as the bill now before the other House passed into a law, the Orange Associations would submit to that law.

Ordered to lie on the table.