had undertaken this task. For a long period those who stood in his situation had to ask their lordships to support the Crown in an anxious, doubtful, and protracted struggle, and in which success itself was purchased by severe sacrifices; and sometimes even to apologise for measures which, until the causes of them were fully understood, were of a nature not only to make us despond of the event of the war, but even to shake the public confidence in the wisdom of those by whom it was conducted. At a later period, and after a series of astonishing successes terminated in a triumphant peace, it was their equally difficult and still more irksome task, to entreat their lordships to set an example of patience under those embarrassments, agricultural and commercial, in which they so largely shared; and which, from whatever cause they flowed, so long obstructed the benefits of restored tranquillity, and were the more severely felt, because it was impossible to foresee them in their full extent and duration. These were tasks which required both confidence and ability. He had no such sacrifices to ask; no such hard lessons to teach. After more than thirty years of effort and endurance, it was his good fortune to ask their lordships to carry to the foot of the Throne their unmixed, and, he hoped, their unanimous congratulation, upon a state of prosperity, such as he believed was unequalled in this country, and had never been surpassed in any country and in any age. Peace, indeed, had crowned England with glory, and secured to her the highest place among the nations of the world; but still there remained that long period of exhaustion and derangement; and it was only now that, refreshed as it were from the toils of victory, she enjoyed the full reward of all she had acted, and of all she had suffered. His majesty's government, his parliament, and his people, now reaped, in honour and in repose, all that they had sown in courage, in constancy, and in wisdom. If there were any persons and probably there were many among those who surrounded him, whose attention, like his own, had at an early period of life been first awakened by the storm of the French Revolution; who had afterwards watched with anxiety that great struggle, which we so long maintained with all Europe, under the dominion, and impelled by the genius of a warrior and statesman, who had since shared in those sufferings which long clouded the triumph of a victorious nation; he must look at our present situation with delight and amazement. Still more striking must be the contrast to those, still livelier must be their satisfaction, themselves the actors in this great scene, who, having guided our civil and military affairs, and been answerable for measures of a high and intrepid policy in these times of trial, had contributed to this result by their counsels and by their arms. And all this had been accomplished with unbroken faith and with unaltered institutions; or, if any deviation from our free constitution had been forced upon us by the union of foreign and domestic danger, still, as soon as that pressure was withdrawn, it returned with elastic power to its better form, and we enjoyed under it all the happiness and all the liberty that was ever possessed by our forefathers. This was a prosperity extending to all orders, all professions, and all districts, enhanced and invigorated by the flourishing state of all those arts which ministered to human comfort, and by those inventions by which man seemed to have obtained mastery over nature by the application of her own powers; and which, if any one had ventured to foretel only a few years ago, would have appeared altogether incredible, but which, now realized, though not yet perfected, presented to us fresh prospects, and a more astonishing career. world, too, which had first been opened to us by the genius of a great man, but afterwards closed for centuries by a barbarous and absurd policy, was, as it were, re-discovered in our days. The last remnant of that veil which concealed it from the observation and intercourse of mankind had just been torn away; and we saw it abounding, not only in those metals which first allured the avarice of greedy adventurers, but in those more precious productions which sustain life and animate industry, and cheering the mind of the philosopher and the statesman with boundless possibilities of reciprocal advantage in civilisation and in commerce. He remembered that a great historian and statesman, after describing what appeared to him (and what, according to the imperfect nature of those times, undoubtedly was) a period of great prosperity, still complained, that there was wanting what he called a proper sense and acknowledgment of those blessings. That, of the want of which lord Clarendon had com That noble viscount said, he fully concurred in the latter part of the Speech from the Throne, which alluded to the benefits which had arisen from the removal of commercial restrictions, and recommended that the principle should be persevered in. In every case in which the principle had been acted upon, the effects had been highly beneficial. He should mention only one instance, which he was more disposed to notice as it had its origin plained, was not wanting to us: the people for the removal of the restrictions on the still doubtful betwixt the parties, Whig sentiments and opinions which belonged and Protestant England did not behave to other times, and which have not very with entire moderation and forbearance long ceased to be correct; and because towards Popish and Jacobite Ireland; but they entertain what I believe to be an illthis harshness ceased with the contest that founded, but what I am sure is a sincere, gave it birth; and whatever may be said alarm for their church and religion-things of the period before the Union, certain it dear to them on their own account, and is, that, since that event, Ireland has at- doubly dear because their final establishtracted the constant attention of parliament was connected and coeval with that ment, and that every institution has been cherished, that every object has been promoted, that could advance its interest or gratify its just pride. Ireland has been treated not merely with justice, but with indulgence, partiality, and favour, as if we were sensible that a long arrear of kindness was due to her from days of dissention and disaster. But then comes the Catholic question, which may probably be considered as an exception to this rule. On an occasion of this sort, I am naturally desirous to avoid controverted topics; and yet Ireland enters for so much in the state of the empire, and the Catholic question enters for so much in the state of Ireland, that I cannot help declaring my opinion upon a subject that so much divides your lordships, though I have the misfortune to differ from the majority of those whom I address. My lords, I have always thought, and I still think, that the fixed and tranquil settlement of Ireland depends upon this great concession being made-not that it is everything -not that it is an unmixed good-but because it is indispensable, and, I believe, sooner or later, inevitable. But I am far from agreeing with those who think that the delay of this concession is to be considered as an act of wilful injustice on those by whom it is withheld. Nor can I condemn those statesmen, who, though they think it ought to be carried, do not consider it their duty to dissolve the administration of which they form a part, in order to establish another for that especial purpose, The fact is, that this is too great a change, and shocks too many inveterate habits and opinions to be carried with less delay and resistance than it has actually experienced; and the Catholics every where labour under great error, and do great injustice to their opponents, if they allow themselves to be persuaded, that in refusing to them that boon of which they are so naturally and anxiously desirous, their Protestant fellow-subjects are under the influence of a merely hostile and exclusive spirit. It is from no such base and cruel motive, but because they are guided by of our civil liberties. The Catholics are suffering, unjustly if you please, but naturally, for the faults of their ancestors. If in the days of Roman Catholic persecution or Roman Catholic power, any friend to toleration had been arguing with some minister or prince of that persuasion, he would naturally have said "Consider what may happen hereafter: you are now a majority: you now stand upon the vantage ground-but if you once lose that superiority-if ever power should pass into the hands of those heretics whom you endeavour to destroy with fire and sword-then will your pride, then will your cruelties, then will those maxims so formidable to the civil magistrate, be remembered to the disadvantage of your posterity, and to the terror of succeeding generations. What any reasonable man might have foretold is now accomplishing; men do remember these cruelties: men do remember these maxims; and the terror and aversion of them endure, when, as I trust, there is no longer any danger of their being revived and acted upon. My lords, I believe it is a prejudice that stands in the way of Catholic emancipation; but it is a natural, a warrantable prejudice, and one that can only yield to mild and gentle means. It is therefore with infinite mortification that I see so much in the language and conduct of the Roman Catholics themselves that is calculated to keep alive the remembrance of old times-to fix upon their church the charge of being semper eadem in its most odious sense-and to strengthen the arguments and embitter the feelings of those who are determined, at all hazards, to resist their claims. Their language has become menacing, and their conduct treads upon the utmost verge of the law; provoking the hostility of their enemies, and terrifying their friends. And yet they do well to remember, that the body by which they are opposed-though I trust it is to be softened and convincedis not to be intimidated; and that if (a thing which I mention only to deprecate) the contest were ever to be carried on by other weapons than those of reason and argument, that in the dreadful calamity that would involve our common country, they would bear the greatest share. There is only one way in which this measure can be beneficially accomplished-only one way in which I desire to see it brought about-and that is, by the well-earned and cordial consent of the Protestants of this empire. Any thing like menace or hostility-any attempt to set up a state within a state-to establish a separate revenue and independent resources-only serves to delay the event to an indefinite period. It tends to bring the whole question to the calamitous issue-who is the strongest? Now, my lords, the Protestant interest of Ireland, though less numerically than the Catholics, is infinitely superior in wealth, power, and intelligence. It may however, be said, that they would perhaps be aided by foreign arms, as they had formerly been, and with such aid I admit it is possible the Catholics might prevail against an undoubted superiority of domestic force in Ireland ; but it is not likely that they could also prevail against the power of this country; and if they did, what would the consequences be? What they desire, naturally and reasonably as I think, is admission into the state-participation of privilege-an equality of civil rights. And what would they then at tain? They would enter by violence into a broken and dismembered state: they would participate in half-extinguished liberty and anxious independence, and be admitted to a complete equality of wretchedness and degradation under a foreign yoke. It is better to wait for a share in a prosperous, rather than triumph in rebellion and treason over a ruined, country. From small beginnings they had once acquired, by moderation and perseverance, almost an equality of votes in their favour in both houses of parliament; and though I am inclined to believe that in this instance parliament had outrun the sense of the country, yet the omen was favorable; and I have no doubt but that, in a short time, the public would have followed its natural guides. What effect ought to be produced by what is now going on, I can hardly venture to say; but what effect will be produced, I well know. They have already lost all those that wavered; and they may ere long shake those that are still firm. It is only by reverting to another line of conduct, that they can justify the cordial co-operation of their friends, or conciliate opponents, too strong to be overcome except by the entire subversion of the state itself. They should keep in mind that this is no country for rapid changes-that even our liberties were of slow growth. If they will but compare their own condition with what it was forty years ago, they will see ample reason to be content with the past, and sanguine as to the future. There are now living-perhaps there are present-persons who had grown up to manhood before their claims in their actual extent had ever been heard of, and before any statesman would have ventured to espouse them had they been advanced. Yet, my lords, much as I disapprove of their conduct, still I would entreat your lordships not to be diverted by a just indignation at these extravagant proceedings, from the true and permanent state of the question. You will probably feel it to be your duty to concur in some measure to curb this licentious spirit; but that done, I would entreat you to consider anxiously, whether the state of the Catholics be one that can continue; I do not mean for one year, or for two, during the lieutenantcy of this noble lord, or during the administration of the other; but whether our policy is sound and consistent; and whether, if the admission of the Catholics to the stations from which they are still excluded, be an evil, it is not a less evil than their discontent in good times, and their possible disaffection in bad ones.-The noble viscount then adverted to that part of his majesty's Speech which relates to foreign relations. He was happy, he said, to find it stated, that his majesty continued to receive the strongest assurances, not only from his allics, but generally from all the govern ments of Europe, of their amicable and friendly dispositions. This general peace rested on the secure foundation of strength united with moderation. The only contest which existed in Europe was, not between governments, but parties. There were two great parties-one desiring to restore the ancient order of things, and the other constantly striving after some new order. That party which wished to restore the ancient order of things, were not contented with that order which existed before the revolution, but they wanted something more despotic; such as had been adopted by mankind in an uncivilized age. This party did not like our constitution. They were vexed with it, and naturally looked on our national good faith that was due to a friend and institutions as a pregnant and dangerous ally, and with all the delicacy that was source of principles which they always due to a friend and ally in distress. We dreaded, and wished to repress. The have disdained to run a race of popularity other party were desirous of destroying with other nations, in order to secure to every thing which existed, and the only ourselves any exclusive advantage; and remedy they could find for all the evils of we refrained from this step, as long as any mankind, was the sweeping away all the hope of accommodation betwixt the parinstitutions which had long been held in ties remained. But, when that hope had veneration. They were, while they boast- completely vanished, it would have been ed of their attachment to freedom, ex- absurd to risk the advantage of an extremely narrow and illiberal; and however tended intercourse with that vast contithey might differ among themselves, they nent, either out of tenderness to the prewere all actuated by a bitter hatred to- judices of an obstinate and misguided wards this country. They were not sin- people, who seem to unite the most incere in their love of liberty, of which they vincible pertinacity as to ends with the talked so much, for they had crouched most supine negligence and incapacity as down before Buonaparte, had worshipped to the means, or out of respect to the high him, and had endeavoured to reduce Eng-political notions of other European cabiland to an imperial province. They were nets. I do not understand that we take the enemies of all the principles of na- this step from preference to any political tional liberty or national independence; creed, or as a mark of approbation to any and the institutions of this country they particular form of government. The coabove all things abhorred. They resem-lonies are republican. They might have bled their predecessors, the Jacobins, but been monarchical-they might have been with less sincerity. These men were, in- aristocratical-they might have been imdeed, worse than Jacobins. When they perial, like the Brazils. With that we were subdued by their opponents, they have nothing to do. But we find them called out loudly for liberty, by which independent. We know by experience they only meant power. They now com- that they are all able and willing to mainplained, that this country did not do that tain what are called the accustomed rewhich would prove its injury, if not its lations of amity with foreign powers, and destruction. They threatened, and would we acknowledge them to be so. Indeed, willingly carry their threats into execu- my lords, if we were challenged to go tion; but they knew that we possessed critically into the matter, it might be ample means of resisting aggression. Eng- easily maintained, that the independence land had, for a considerable time, been of Old Spain is much more questionable connected with the great powers of the than that of her colonies; and that if we continent for various purposes, one of were in want of a minister to go to Mexico, which was, to resist the overwhelming one might be spared from Madrid. In power of France; but now that a regular Mexico the domestic government is susorder of things was established, it was our tained by a domestic force: no man dare duty to consider our true interests, and hold up his finger against it; if he does, not to lend ourselves to any party in he mounts the scaffold next day. But France, or any where else, whether its Spain is garrisoned by 20,000 Frenchmen, object was, to establish despotism, or to who now protect the government, but who resist all law and regular government.- may oppress it or supersede it, if they In alluding to the South American states, please; and who may march, as they have the noble viscount observed, that an at- marched, without resistance, from the foot tempt had been made to institute a com- of the Pyrenees to the rock of Gibraltar. parison between our conduct to Spain in A comparison has been drawn, I must the present instance, and that of the allies say absurdly, between the situation of to us during the contest with our North Spain and her colonies, and the situation American colonies. Now, nothing could of this country and our colonies, during be more unjust, in point of fact and rea- the American war. I will not enter into soning, than that comparison. The French the question of that war, I will not say ultras complained, that we had not acted whether the conduct of this country was towards Spain with the same forbearance right or wrong; but at least we had fleets which was formerly shown to us. We and armies to support our pretensions. have acted towards Spain with all the We had a powerful king, and that king |