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the vehemence of Mr. Brougham, disapproved of the conduct of the duke of York; not upon the ground that his sentiments and opinions were wrong, but because his avowed expression of them was imprudent. The bulk of the nation, however, were of a contrary opinion; and concurring in the principles to which his royal highness had declared his adherence, they naturally applauded his manly avowal.

On the 10th of May, the third reading of the Catholic bill was moved; and, after a debate in which Mr. C. Grant, Mr. Horace Twiss, Mr. Huskisson, and Mr. Brougham took the principal part on the one side, and the Solicitorgeneral and Mr. Peel on the other, it was passed by a majority of 21, the Ayes being 248, and the Noes

227.

On the 11th of May, the bill was carried up to the House of Lords, and read a first time. On the 17th of the same month, lord Donoughmore moved the second reading, and was supported by lord Camden, lord Darnley, the bishop of Norwich, lord Lansdowne, lord Harrowby, and lord Fitzwilliam. Lord Colchester, lord Longford, the bishop of Llandaff, the bishop of Chester, lord Liverpool, and the Lord Chancellor opposed the measure. The debate, though protracted till half-past five in the morning, presented little novelty. On the one side, the alleged right of the Catholics to political equality, the innoxiousness of their religious creed, the necessity of concession for the sake of the tranquillity of Ireland, were the topics insisted upon. On the other hand, it was contended (and particularly with great strength both of language

and of argument, by the two learned prelates), that, with respect both to the nature of the religion in its political consequences, and to the inconsistency of admitting Catholic elements of power into a Protestant constitution, the reasons for excluding Catholics ought to be as operative now as they had been at any former period. The most remarkable circumstance in the debate was, the vehemence with which the prime minister expressed his and that vehemence, which in itdecided conviction on the subject: self formed a contrast to his habitually mild and gentle tone, excited

the more observation in conseof a rumour that he was now inquence of the previous circulation clined to recede from the opinions which he had hitherto entertained

lord Liverpool, maintained, that The noble lords opposite, said it was fitting to grant the concessions demanded; because the Catholics of this country and Ireland, were entitled to enjoy equal civil rights and immunities with their Protestant brethren: and upon that broad principle he was at issue with them He admitted that all subjects in a free state were entitled to the enjoyment of equal rights upon equal conditions; but, then the qualification of that principle in the case of the Catholics was clear-the Catholics, who demanded these equal rights, did not afford equal conditions. The difference was this-the Protestant gave an entire allegiance to his sovereign; the Catholic a divided one. The service of the former was complete ; that of the latter only qualified; and, unless it could be proved that the man who worked for half a day, was entitled to as much wages as the man who worked the

whole day, or, in other words, that the half was equal to the whole, he could not admit that the Roman Catholic, whose allegiance was divided between a spiritual and a temporal master, was entitled to the enjoyment of the same civil rights and privileges as the Protestant, whose allegiance was undivided, and who acknowledged but one ruler.

He cared not for the speculative dogmas of the Roman Catholic church, such as the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the invocation of saints: but he could not be indifferent to the power which the pope still held over the great body of the Roman Catholics. It had indeed been the policy of the advocates of the Catholics to maintain that this power was extinct; but the very evidence before their lordships proved the extraordinary influence which was even at that day exercised by the pope of Rome. The presentation to vacant sees in the Roman Catholic church in Ireland was vested in the pope at that moment-he exercised an absolute and uncontrolled power of appointing whom he pleased to vacant bishopricks. He might yield occasionally to the recommendation of others, but the strict right of nomination he reserved to himself. That he had occasionally yielded to the representation of others had been fully proved by the evidence of Dr. Doyle, who had stated before their lordships' committee, that James the 2nd, his son, and grandson, had, for a succession of years, recommended to the vacant Irish bishopricks, and that the pope had invariably attended to their recommendations. If, therefore, the king of France, or the king of Spain, or any of the members of VOL. LXVII.

that bugbear of the noble lords opposite, the holy alliance, were now to recommend to the pope, who could say that he would not listen to their recommendation ? Would any one then affirm, that a people so circumstanced were entitled to a community of civil rights and privileges with the Protestants?

He knew it had been said, that the progress of education, and the march of civilization, had wrought wonders amongst the Catholics; and, looking to the present aspect of the times, it might, perhaps, appear to superficial observers, that little danger was to be apprehended. But he would

remind their lordships, that the horizon was often the clearest and most serene when the tempest was nearest. At what period did the established church appear to be in a more flourishing condition, than at the Restoration of Charles 2nd? And yet, within twenty years afterwards, the greatest revolution took place in the condition of that church, and it was next to a miracle that it was not overwhelmed, by the machinations of a popish prince, in one common ruin with the state and constitution of this country. It was not to the pope, as pope, that he objected; it was to the principle of the existence of such a power as that in the pope, and to the temporal and practical power of the Catholic priesthood, extending over all the relations of private life, and penetrating into every domestic scene.

Their lordships held-the bill held-that a Protestant succession was the foundation of our constitutional system: but if this measure should pass, the Protestant succession would not be worth a farthing. Much had been said of rights-indefeasible and natural [F]

rights. The state was Protestant essentially, the Crown was to be Protestant, and the successors to the throne must adhere to the same faith. But, were they to be the only persons so limited? He would speak of a king's rights here in the same sense, and no other, as that in which he would argue concerning the rights of a peasant. Was it not hard upon the king and the heir to the throne, that they must be bound to the Protestant faith, while the chief justice, the ministers, and the secretaries of state, might be Roman Catholics? Why was this? Where was the danger in having a popish king or a popish chancellor; if all the other executive officers might acknowledge the pope? There was less danger in a popish chancellor, who might be removed at pleasure, than in a popish chief justice, who would hold the administration of the criminal law in his control, and could be removed only by a peculiar process of law in case of his dereliction of duty. It was said that the privy council might be increased by the admission of Roman Catholies, and that it was unjust and cruel to exclude Catholics from such an appointment of trust and honour; in short, that a Catholic might be prime minister, and have the whole patronage of the church and state at his disposal. As long, however, as the system of the constitution was Protestant, it was essential to maintain a Protestant throne, and a Protestant administration of the public affairs; but if the bill were to pass, Great Britain would be no longer a Protestant state. The evil he apprehended from the passing of such a bill would not be immediate; but it would be inevitable, and would come upon the country in a man

ner little expected. Neither could he bring himself to view it as a measure of peace and conciliation. Whatever it might do in this respect in the first instance, its natural and final tendency would be to increase dissensions, and to create discord, even where discord did not previously exist. He intreated their lordships to consider the aspect of the times in which they lived. It was their fate to hear doctrines openly promulgated, which were as novel as they were mischievous. The people were now taught in publications to consider queen Mary as having been a wise and virtuous queen, and that the world had gained nothing whatever by the Reformation. Nay, more than this it was now promulgated, that James 2nd was a wise and virtuous prince; and that he fell in the glorious cause of religious toleration. Could the House be aware of these facts, and not see that a great and powerful engine was at work to effect the object of re-establishing the Catholic religion throughout these kingdoms? And, if once established, should we not revert to a state of ignorance, with all its barbarous and direful consequences? House consider what had been the result of those laws, what had been the effects of that fundamental principle of the British constitution, which they were now called upon to alter with such an unsparing hand. For the last hundred and thirty years, the country had enjoyed a state of religious peace, a blessing that had arisen out of the wisdom of our laws. But, what had been the state of the country for the hundred and thirty years immediately preceding that period? England had been the scene of the most san

Let the

guinary religious contentions. The blessings of the latter period were to be attributed solely to the nature of those laws, which granted toleration to all religious creeds, at the same time that they maintained a just, a reasonable, and a moderate superiority in favour of the established church. Their lordships were now called upon to put Protestants and Catholics on the same footing; and if they consented to do this, certain he was, that the consequence would be religious dissension, and not religious peace. The present system had the experience of its good results to recommend it; and he preferred it, therefore, to the experiment proposed in the present bill, or to any other that he had yet heard suggested.

Upon a division, the numbers were, Contents, present 84; proxies 46-130: Not Contents, present 113; proxies 65-178: so that there was against the bill a majority of 48.

List of the Majority and Minority.
MAJORITY.-Present.

DUKES.

Beaufort

The two auxiliary measures, which followed in the train of the hill for the relief of the Roman Catholics, and were intended to facilitate its progress, require only a very brief notice.

The one was a bill for regulating the exercise of the elective franchise in Ireland; and it proceeded upon the principle of raising the qualification of a voter to a freehold of 10l. annual value. It was introduced by Mr. Littleton on the 22nd of April; and on the 26th of that month, it was read a second time, 233 voting for it, and 185 against it. Its opponents were of a very mixed description: for Mr. Brougham, Mr. Denman, and Mr. Lambton, with several others of a similar mode of thinking, resisted it as an unjustifiable disfranchisement of a vast body of the electors of Ireland, and on this question were found voting with Mr. Peel and the high Tory members; while sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Plunkett were seen in