But,

cipation as a claim of right and justice, and as that measure, with out which all other measures to render Ireland contented and tranquil must be ineffectual. when it was proposed to the House instead of the measure now before them, the question was, "Can we have it?" He thought not. But those who opposed the proposition now under discussion, turned round and said, "Because we cannot have that measure, do not put down the mischief, the existence of which we admit." This appeared to him to be bad reasoning. The question, then, arose," By whose fault was it that we could not have emancipation?" Let that question be examined, and let those by whose fault itarose give the answer: but, whether or not they could name those with whom the fault lay, still there were circumstances which made it necessary to resort to the present measure, as the only one which could immediately give an effectual check to a great growing evil.

The remainder of Mr. Plunkett's speech was employed chiefly in repelling the charges of inconsistency and of desertion of his party, which had been brought against him, on account of his acceptance of office under a ministry which did not make Catholic eman cipation a cabinet question.

He was answered by Mr. Tierney, who ridiculed the account which Mr. Plunkett had given of the Catholic Association. Among other alarming assertions, he said, the right hon. and learned gentleman had stated, that they had an army of 30,000 men; armed with nothing but a little leather bag in their van; and a slate, in order to register their collections. And this army was headed by no less than 2,500 priests! If the right hon.

gentleman meant to insinuate that these 30,000 collectors, and 2,500 priests, applied their collections to an improper purpose, why did he not say so at once? Or, if he meant to state that they collected subscriptions in Ireland to such an enormous amount as to be absolutely dangerous and alarming, why did he not speak out, and plainly tell the House so? But, what was the fact? Was there any such enormous amount so collected? No: here was, at best, a miserable subscription obtained by pence, raised upon all the counties of Ireland. It was the general contribution furnished by the whole country; and yet it amounted to no more than the paltry sum of 10,000l. But, did the right hon. gentleman really think, that if he could get his bill passed into a law, and put down this Catholic Association, he could at the same time stop this collection? Why; that collection was at present confided to, or principally made by, priests. Well! priests might be prohibited by a law from collecting this rent for the Association; but it was very well known, that the Catholic priests of Ireland collected monies among their flocks for other purposes besides those of the rent. And, was it possible to find out, if the Roman Catholic population still continued their weekly subscriptions of three-halfpence each for ordinary purposes, what became of the other halfpenny? Then, the only difference which the bill could make as to that matter, would be, to convert that, which was at present an open and avowed contribution for a declared purpose, into a secret and a clandestine proceeding. By passing the bill, the House would be compelling the Irish Catholics to resort to this

secrecy, in furthering what that bill would declare to be an illegal object. And what could be more impolitic and foolish, than thus to compel men, who now acted in the face of day for the attainment of a given object, to work in the dark to conceal their operations, though it was evident and certain that they would still tend to the same point. Mr. Tierney then commented at great length on Mr. Plunkett's defence of his acceptance of office, and on the pusillanimity of those ministers, who, though friendly to Catholic emancipation, allowed their colleagues to prevent its being carried. He did not conclude till half-past one o'clock, when Mr. Brougham moved "That the debate be now adjourned." Upon this the House divided: the Ayes were 70; the Noes 252. A second division took place on the motion, "That this House do now adjourn:" Ayes 76; Noes 231. The minority declaring their resolution to persist in dividing the House, it was agreed that the debate should be further adjourned till Monday the 14th of February.

On the third night of the debate, Mr. George Lamb, Mr. Carew, Mr. Spring Rice, sir James Mackintosh, and Dr. Lushington opposed the measure: the defence of it was undertaken by Mr. Dawson, Mr. Brownlow, Mr. North, and the chancellor of the Exchequer. There was little of novelty either in the topics which were enforced, or in the form in which they were brought forward. Mr. North's speech was the best of those which were made in this stage of the debate. That the Association, though not elected, did affect to represent the people of Ireland, was, he contended, be

yond all douot. If Mr. O'Connell were told, that the Association was not duly elected, that there was no polling, no show of hands in the choice of its members, he would answer, "I care not for those forms or shadows of election. If you doubt whether we are really the representatives of the Irish Catholics, ask the priests, who support us; ask the peasantry. who contribute to our treasury; ask the peers who are enrolled amongst our members, and they will answer you, that we are, virtually and actually, their representatives." Was not, then, this Association really and bona fide acting as the representatives of the Irish Catholic people? And, was it to be tolerated, that such a body should enact rules, and levy contributions on the country? The amount of the Catholic rent, as far as money was concerned, was nothing; but, considered as an index of the public mind, it was of vast importance. The establishment of such a tax was a positive mischief; for it led the people to look up to other authorities, besides the constituted authorities of the land: it loosened their confidence in the established institutions of the country, and, by that very proceeding, taught them to place it in a new source of power, which it at once created and fostered. Nor was that all. Every man who paid this tax was pledged to every object of the Catholic Association; he was with it "for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer ;" he was wedded to it for life, and was thus inseparably linked to all its fortunes. But, a still greater mischief remained untold-the meetings at which this Catholic rent was levied. The Catholic Association in Dublin was comparatively harm

less; but the Catholic rent meetings, which were minor associations in the country, on the same principle, were pregnant with incalculable mischief. There the people were harangued from their altars, and in their chapels, by the minor members of the Catholic persuasion -men as devoid of caution as of education, who were not, like their leaders in Dublin, controlled by the censure of the press, nor influenced by the force of public opinion. From the Association at Dublin there flowed a stream of seditious and turbulent matter into the country, from which it returned back to the Association in a thousand currents, full of every thing mean, narrow, and illiberal. Thus there was a perpetual interchange between two streams of bitter waters, which flowing, one from the Association at Dublin, and the other from the rent-meetings in the country, formed a whirlpool of prejudice in which peace and good order were certain to suffer shipwreck. The rent-meetings in the country, he repeated, were far more detrimental than the Cathoiic Association in Dublin. The leaders in the first had nothing to control them, and sought notoriety by means of seditious violence; in the latter, there was a power, before which even O'Connell, dictator though he was, bent and trembled. -“ Divisum imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet." Those who wielded it were at once his ministers and his masters, and governed him, even at the moment they professed to honour and obey him.

It had been observed, upon a former evening, that one of the evils of the Catholic Association was, that as all the members of it had the same objects, no discussion was ever produced in it. The

observation, Mr. North said, was a just one, but had not, in his opinion, been pushed to its full extent. For, what was the consequences of all the speakers being thus on one side? Why, that as no man could obtain credit by ingenuity of reply or liveliness of debate, each man was obliged to establish his reputation by going beyond his associates in violence of language, so that the only emulation which was excited was an emulation of violence. This emulation, too, was not confined to mere emulation between the speakers at the Catholic Association, but produced similar emulation between the rent-meetings in various parts of the country. By this system, what was violent yesterday, came to be considered as temperate today; and what to-day was considered as the extreme verge of violence, would to-morrow be considered as too vapid for the palate of the public. A call for stimulants would thus be excited, which it required no great sagacity to predict would inevitably be provided. It was the nature of such associations to generate violence: they could not remain stationary: with them "non progredi est regredi." Their objects were daily varying. No man could say that he knew them. Mr. O'Connell himself, lord of the ascendant as he was in that Association, could not explain them; for the people would not be content to-morrow with that with which they were contented to-day; and thus the Catholic Association of next year, if it be not suppressed, would be even a greater nuisance than it was at present.

On the fourth night of the debate, the bill was opposed by sir Robert Wilson, sir John Newport;

Mr. Robertson, and lord Althorp, and was supported by Mr. Lockhart, Mr. Grenfell, and Mr. W. Lamb. Sir Francis Burdett then made a very animated speech in favour of the Catholics: and he was followed by Mr. Canning, whose eloquence on this occasion manifested a calm, and temperate, and persuasive beauty, more seductive and alluring than some of his more brilliant efforts. The matters which he was to discuss he divided into four parts: the first, the immediate subject of debate, the unconstitutional Associations of Ireland; the second, the Catholic Question; the third, the conduct of government; and the fourth, his own personal conduct, in relation to that much agitated question.

The king's speech, said Mr. Canning, asserts the existence in Ireland of Associations whose proceedings are inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution; and are calculated to propagate alarm, and to exasperate animosities throughout that part of the United Kingdom; and to retard thereby the progress of national improvement. The question, therefore, which the House has to decide, is properly this: Whether, having received from the throne a description of the evil attending the existence of such Associations, and having, in reply to that communication, pledged ourselves to consider of the means of remedying it, we shall now proceed-not to adopt (for that would be matter of subsequent deliberation), but-to take into consideration the means which the responsible advisers of the Crown have proposed to the House for that purpose; or whether we shall turn round to the throne and say-"We have on deliberation completely satisfied ourselves that

his majesty has been deceived by false information; and that the description applied in his majesty's speech to the Associations in Ireland is altogether incorrect."

Is it possible, then, that any man, looking at the Catholic Association, at the means, the power, the preponderance of which that Association is acknowledged, nay, is vaunted-to be in possession-at the authority which it has arrogated, and at the acts which it has done-can seriously think of giving stability and permanence to its existence? Self-elected-self-con

structed-self-assembled-self-adjourned-acknowledging no superior-tolerating no equal-interfering in all stages with the administration of justice-denouncing publicly before trial individuals against whom it institutes prosecutions-and rejudging and condemning those whom the law has acquitted-menacing the free press with punishment, and openly declaring its intention to corrupt that part of it which it cannot intimidate; and lastly, for these and other purposes, levying contributions on the people of Ireland-is this an Association, which, from its mere form and attributes (without any reference whatever to religious persuasion), the House of Commons can be prepared to establish by a vote, declaring it to be not inconsistent with the spirit of the constitution? Ireland is sharing in the general prosperity. The indications of that prosperity, and the extension of it to Ireland, are known to every person throughout the country. But does that circumstance disprove the malignity of an evil, which retards the increase of that prosperity, by rendering its continuance doubtful?

which puts to hazard present

tranquillity, and disheartens confidence for the future?-which, by setting neighbour against neighbour, and arousing the prejudices of one class of inhabitants against those of the other, diverts the minds of both from profitable occupations, and discourages advancement in all the arts of peace-in agriculture, in manufactures, in commerce-in every thing which civilizes and dignifies social life? The tide of English wealth has been lately setting in strongly towards Ireland. The alarm occasioned by this Association acts at present as an obstacle to turn that tide, and to frighten from the Irish shores the industry, enterprise, and capital of England. Is it not, then, the duty of parliament to endeavour to remove this obstacle -to restore things to the course which nature and opportunity were opening; and to encourage and improve in Ireland the capacity to receive that full measure of prosperity, which will raise her, by no slow degrees, to her proper rank in the scale of nations? Therefore, without saying one word of the Catholic religion, or of the religious composition of the Association, or of its character, whether imputed or assumed, of a representative of the Irish people, there is ground enough to apprehend so much mischief from the mere existence of this Association, as will justify the House in saying, that it shall exist no longer.

"When I speak," continued Mr. Canning, "of the representative character of the Catholic Association, I do not mean to assert that it has ever affirmed itself to be the representative of the people of Ireland. No such thing; it is too wise in its generation to hazard so impolitic a declaration. If it had VOL. LXVII.

done so, it would have been unnecessary to argue the present question; for no new act of parliament would, in that case, have been requisite to enable the law to deal with it. But, although the Catholic Association has not openly assumed this representative character, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact, that such a character has been attributed to it by others: and if notoriety be, as undoubtedly it is, a ground upon which legislation may be founded, the repeated statements which have been made in this House during the present debate, that this Association is, and is held to be, the virtual representative of the people of Ireland, call upon the House to consider whether such an Association can co-exist with the House of Commons. Can there, I ask, co-exist in this kingdom, without imminent hazard to its peace, an assembly constituted as the House of Commons is, and another assembly invested with a representative character, as complete as that of the House of Commons itself, though not conferred by the same process? Does not the very proposition that such is the character, and such the attributes of the Catholic Association, even if not actually true at the present time, warn us at least, what the Association, if unchecked, may become? And if the Catholic Association, with the full strength and maturity of the representative character, could not (as assuredly it could not) co-exist with the House of Commons; shall we not check the Association in time, before it has acquired that strength and maturity?"

Mr. Canning next expressed his strong conviction of the justice and expediency of removing the disqualifications of the Catholics; but [D]