ESSAY XII.

ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.

THE accession of the Prince Regent was welcomed with indecent and triumphant joy by the more intemperate of the Irish Catholics. During the administration of the Talents, he had privately been pledged by the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Ponsonby, the then Viceroy and Chancellor of Ireland, to grant them their demands; and the consequence of this flagrant misconduct in the King's ministers now began to be felt. The Roman Catholics, without waiting for the natural demise of the King, and setting aside all consideration of the chance of his recovery,. ..a chance which at this time appeared probable to all, except those who wished that it might never occur,..thought the pledge, which had been so unconstitutionally and inexcusably given, would now be redeemed, and that their claims would be granted if they brought them forward in force. Some of their most honourable and most moderate men came forward on this occasion, actuated by the hope which seemed to present itself of promoting the interests of their religion, and hurried on by the zeal of the young, the violence of the hotheaded, and the arts of the disaffected.

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One effect could not fail to be produced; that of inflaming a people who stood in no need of stimulants. The licence of the press in Ireland, as in France in the earlier days of the revolution, was carried to the most perilous excess; an excess which might appear incompatible, not merely with the security, but with the very existence of government, if allowance were not made for the vehemence of the Irish character, and for the current style of Irish Eloquence, originating indeed in Burke, but worsened by Mr Grattan, and still farther vitiated by Mr Curran. The Irish patriots, as they called themselves, said, in their journals, that they had neither time nor inclination to comment upon foreign events; the politics of Russia and the fate of Spain had no claim upon their consideration, when the rights of the Irish were openly invaded, when oppression was stalking abroad in the semblance of law, when another link had been added to the galling chain of Catholic slavery. The 'instructions of the British minister,' they said, 'to the official creature of his will, are not known by the letter, but their spirit pervades the land: the written instrument rests putrescent in the ' cabinet, but the effluvia strikes upon the offended sense at every turning; the effect is alternately deteriorating and maddening: now it sinks the 'noble spirit of Ireland to a state of nerveless 'despondency; again it raises it to all the energy of 'despair.' The measures of the British govern'ment,' they complained, were such as would 'índuce a belief that they were intended to oppress, degrade, and insult Ireland. Her people are taxed

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beyond their means, steeped to the chin in misery, "excluded from political power, and interrupted in 'the exercise of a public right; lowered to the base ' rank of bondsmen, threatened with fine and im⚫prisonment, should they presume to look for free'dom; aliens in their native land, and slaves under a free constitution: at home, loyal, yet insulted, 'patient, though disgraced; abroad, dauntless, yet ⚫ the road to high reward shut against them; boldly seeking danger, though in the awful hour of death denied the consolations of their church.' 'Let 'the people,' they said, 'rely upon the prince, whose heel would bruise the serpent's head, though it ' might now brandish its poisonous tongue against 'the liberty of the subject. Two reasons might be assigned why he had not yet interfered: perhaps ' he had not power; and even if he had, it was not 'the interest of Ireland that he should exact it: but - the Irish might rely with implicit faith upon his intentions, for his royal highness knew that the 'people of Ireland alone could preserve his family 'from the ordinary fate of German princes.' 'The mass of the people of England,' they continued, are imperious, because they are opulent, and illiberal, because they are unenlightened. Their 'prejudices must be humoured; for it should be recollected that the people of England have been what the people of Ireland never were, atrocious regicides. The prince stands in awe of this turbu'lent people, and he cannot do an act of justice, in 'facilitating the admission of the Catholics into the constitution, without endangering his inheritance. Here then his forbearance is only an act of common prudence, because he must shew to the people

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of England, before he can interfere on behalf of the people of Ireland, that the Irish Catholics are ⚫determined not to relinquish their right. He only permits, in this instance, his father's subjects to be ⚫driven to the extremity of despair, because he thus affords them an opportunity of proving that they are in earnest: for four millions of Irishmen, in earnest, present a most formidable sight to the 'people of England.' In this manner was it attempted to deceive the loyal Catholics, by persuading them that the more violent their proceedings, the better would they accord with the secret wishes of the prince regent! A hint also was thrown out, with characteristic imprudence, where no hint was needed. What,' said they, are the probable consequences of keeping the 'people of Ireland in a state of disquietude? Does "not the discontent of the people abstract the ⚫ attention of the enemy, and afford a strong induce'ment to the French ruler to make that country the seat of war? and in that case, what security 'would the Irish Protestant gentlemen have for their large estates, if they alone had to oppose the · foe, while the feelings of the majority of the people were alienated, or even, at the best, only neutralized? Will the Protestant landholder,' they asked,' when he reads and considers the title-deeds of his estates, suffer a British minister to make the experiment of leaving the Irish gentlemen with the aid of a few British regiments of militia to defend their property, while their effective Catholic neighbours are insulted and discontented, and deprived of the right to petition in a peaceable ⚫ mode for complete freedom and common justice ?'

The conclusion of these diatribes expressed in no equivocal terms the opinions and wishes of the writer. It is vain,' said he,' to look for justice; "the different factions, who brand each other with infamy, are allied by intermarriage, and they seek "not justice, but the spoils of their country. The "discarded ministers, who traffic in seats of parlia"ment, who caused the death of eleven thousand "men in the pestilential marshes of Walcheren, live "to insult the people whom they impoverished and reduced nearly to national ruin. They are not "brought to the block, for the justice of the law * seems to have, in the eyes of the ministry, only a "sword or a gibbet for the famished peasant convicted of felony !'

The English anarchists faithfully co-operated' with their Irish brethren; they gave a wider circulation to these inflammatory declamations, by copying them in their journals, unaccompanied by any qualifying comment or hint of disapprobation," and the most violent and mischievous passages were carefully forced into notice by Italic types. One told us, that nations who were ill-treated were apt to consult their passions before their " reason; but that if to do so was absurd on their 'part, it was still more absurd to provoke them to "do so; thus implying that it was the duty of government to submit to any intemperate and exasperated faction, who were likely to become rebellious if their demands were refused. And another, referring to the Convention Act, said, that "it might become a question whether in any case *such a measure ought to be adopted, because it * might be contended that the system, to support

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