Gospel forbids a voter to pronounce a public lie; and the constitution declares that a vote is the property of the freeholder, not of the landlord. It must, however, be confessed, that these laudable opinions were in many cases most intemperately stated. The insults offered to the priesthood in the Beresford addresses would have roused the indignation of a far less sensitive body; and acting under this irritation, too many of the priests were carried far beyond the bounds of sacerdotal propriety in their energetic denunciations.

With respect to the affidavits, we happen to know something of the way in which they were got up. A reward for compliance, and a threat of ejectment in case of refusal, were means of making men swear almost anything, in a country where ejectment included the immediate loss of all the labours of a life, and a sentence of absolute starvation pronounced on an entire family. Knowing the unscrupulous. means, and the still more unscrupulous agents, employed, we are only surprised that the statements of the affidavits were not much more aggravated. One specimen of the absurdities centained in these affidavits will suffice." And this deponent further saith, that the said priest swore that he would kick the damned soul of the said deponent, so that it should fly round hell like a blue-bottle fly round a treacle-barrel; and which the said deponent verily believes the said priest would have done, had he not been prevented."

Mr. Dawson strongly denounced the opposition made by the priests to the imaginary progress of the "New Reformation;" but in this he had been anticipated by Mr. Henry Maxwell, the member for Cavan, who read a letter from the celebrated Roman Catholic Bishop Doyle to Lord Farnham, which stated in effect, "that the established church of Ireland must fall, sooner or later, and that the concession of the Catholic claims would facilitate this desirable object; that the established religion was an incubus on the nation; that it

resembled the worship of Juggernaut; and that it derived no weight or strength whatever, from merit, from reason, or from justice."

Sir William Plunkett replied to this charge in the following pointed terms-"The honourable member for Cavan will excuse me if for a moment I call the attention of the House to the charge which he has brought against the great body of the Catholic clergy. The honourable member, as an illustration of his argument, stated that he would select what had been written by Dr. Doyle, under the signature of I.K.L. Now the House, I hope, will do me the justice to believe, that I condemn, as much as any man can condemn, some of the sentiments and expressions of I.K.L., so derogatory to the Established church; and I am sorry that an individual, possessing so much learning and talent as Dr. Doyle is admitted to be possessed of, should have used such language, and adopted such expressions, as he has done in speaking of the Establishment. The House can recollect the electrical effect that was produced when the honourable member for Cavan stated that Dr. Doyle had compared the Protestant religion to the superstition of the idolaters who worshipped the idol of Juggernaut. Dr. Doyle, however, had not the merit of supplying either the language or the sentiment, whether it was good or censurable. The fact was, I.K.L. found that memorable passage in a speech which appeared in a public newspaper. That speech was delivered by Lord Farnham, at a Reformation mecting a meeting, the object of which was to convert the great body of the Roman Catholics by mild and gentle argument, without the least taint of acrimony or violence. I am quite unable to do justice to this celebrated speech; but I would call the attention of the House to one passage of it, to show from whence I.K.L. borrowed the idea which has excited so much surprise. The Speaker, after declaring that Popery and Slavery were twin-sisters,' and

introducing some other expressions equally applicable to both, went on to say, 'It is because I wish to behold my fellowcountrymen alike enjoying all the blessings of freedom, that I desire to see them liberated from a system far more galling than that which would bow them down to worship before the idol of Juggernaut. Not only the sentiment, but the metaphor of I.K.L. is here embodied; and in a few words, an attack is made against the whole body of the Roman Catholic priests. It does not appear that any particular marks of approbation were bestowed on the letters of I.K.L. by the Roman Catholics, but when the passage which I have just read was delivered, 'it was received with loud cheers by the whole body assembled at the meeting.' Ladies and gentlemen, clerics and laics, all burst forth into loud plaudits, which of course were received with much satisfaction by the noble lord, who was the Peter-the-Hermit of this crusade. Such is the manner in which it is attempted to disseminate the mild doctrines of Christianity, not by calm and sober reasoning, but by a sweeping attack on the alleged idolatry of the Roman Catholics. These are the means adopted for conciliating and converting the Catholics, so that the question of Catholic Emancipation should be lost, as the favourers of this New Reformation stated, in the great and glorious triumph of general Protestantism. Is it, I ask, in human naturedoes it comport with the feelings of any body of men, who sincerely believe in the religious doctrines which they profess -patiently to bear such charges-tamely to sit down under such language as this? When they are thus vituperatedwhen their religion is thus reviled-arc they to remain silent? Are they not justified in repelling the attack? When that unhandsome, that unseemly metaphor was directed against their religion, have they not a right to use it in their turn? The letter of I.K.L. is, in fact, addressed to Lord Farnham, and naturally enough he recurs to that favourite expression,

over George IV., and her known partiality for Canning, he zealously exerted himself to keep alive the anger which the king deeply felt for Canning's refusal to join in the persecution of the unhappy Queen Caroline. His death left Canning as powerful in the closet as he was in the cabinet; and before Eldon could take measures to retrieve his position, the sudden illness of Lord Liverpool brought on a ministerial crisis, which took all parties unawares.

On the 17th of February, Lord Liverpool, apparently in as good health and spirits as he had ever enjoyed, moved the increase of the parliamentary grant to the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. On the morning of the 18th, after breakfast, he was found by his servant on the floor, in a violent apoplectic fit, quite senseless. "This," says Lord Eldon to his daughter, "is a most tremendous blow, under present circumstances, to the public, and its effects upon individuals must be important. Heaven knows who will succeed him. Peel went down to Brighton to inform the king of the event; at the time I write, he is not returned. If other things made it certain that he would otherwise succeed him, I should suppose Canning's health would not let him undertake the labour of the situation. But ambition will attempt anything." The last sentence is an amusing specimen of self-ignorance; Lord Eldon forgot he was himself attempting to fill an office, for which he had been long since incapacitated by age and infirmities.

While the possibility of Lord Liverpool's recovery seemed doubtful, the remaining ministers conducted the business of the country according to the usual routine. Peel made a further and important advance in the reformation of the criminal code, and Canning introduced his plan for alleviating the stringent operation of the corn-laws. But the most significant of the parliamentary events of this period, was Peel's very eloquent defence of Lord Eldon, when the administration of justice in the Court of Chancery was assailed by Mr.

Brougham and others, and the sullen silence which Canning maintained on the occasion.

Previous to this crisis, the Catholic question had been brought before the House of Commons by Sir Francis Burdett. It could hardly have been discussed under more unfavourable circumstances: the interference of the priests at the late election in Ireland had been viewed with great suspicion by those who had learned from history to dread the union of sacerdotal with political power; and this sentiment was very influential with the Protestant Dissenters, who had previously been disposed to combine with the Catholics; the braggart and vulgar violence of some agitators in the Catholic Association had disgusted many who thought that a political question, however important, might be discussed without any outrage of common decency or common sense; but above all, that most monstrous of delusions, the imaginary "New Reformation," was at its height; and people were to be found. outside Bedlam, and in great numbers too, both in England and in Ireland, who believed that the tyrannical influence of the priests alone prevented the Irish Catholics from coming over in a body to the Protestant church. What possible connection there was between this imaginary movement, and the question of emancipation, it would be difficult to discover; but through the length and breadth of England was heard the same cry-"The concession of emancipation at the present moment will stop the progress of the blessed Reformation, which has commenced vigorously, and is going on prosperously; and this Reformation will settle every difficulty, for it will bring the Irish Catholics at once within the pale of the English church, and the English constitution." So often is "the wish the father to the thought," that this argument was not without influence on the minds of many of the Protestant supporters of emancipation; though it did not change their opinions, it abated their zeal; and the writer