Marquess of against the ecclesiastical canons

Westmeath.

dismissed him. He then appealed to Rome;
and a document called a rescript was sent out to
Dr. Crotty, the Roman Catholic prefect of Ire-
land, requiring him to be reinstated; and ulti-
mately he was ordered to be appointed to an
office which was equal to a perpetual curacy
in the English Church. Having applied to the
Vicar Apostolic of London for assistance, he
received an answer which was remarkable for
the peculiar expressions it contained. That per-
sonage condemned the course pursued by Dr.
Mulholland, in first going to law with a brother
clergyman, and afterwards presenting petitions
to Protestants on the subject, as a most dis-
graceful exhibition. Among the subsequent mea-
sures which he took for his own justification, he
applied to a great champion of public liberty to
take his cause
up
Mr. Daniel O'Connell. That
gentleman told Dr. Mulholland that it became
him to express his regret for the course he had
pursued, having caused great scandal to the
Catholic Church, by the controversy he had
created, and by endeavouring to enlist the ser-
vices of men in Parliament in hostility against
the dignitaries of his church. He told Dr. Mul-
holland, moreover, that the legislature had no
control over the Roman Catholic Church, and
that if he had suffered any wrong from another,
the criminal law was open to him. Although it
was asserted that Parliament had no right to

Westmeath.

interfere with the Catholic clergy, he would re- Marquess of mind their Lordships that the College of Maynooth was endowed by a parliamentary grant, and that the discipline and mode of education there adopted ought to be inquired into, seeing that there was every reason to believe that the institution seemed only intended to fit the students for a degree of submission and degradation that was totally incompatible with the genius of a free country. Could their Lordships doubt, then, that this was a case of oppression, and that many such cases occurred in consequence of the Roman Catholic priests refusing to lend themselves to that course of conduct which was now agitating that country? But what was the behaviour of those immaculate Right Reverends who thus endeavoured to coerce the inferior clergy to further their political views? He held in his hand a letter which had been addressed to a Noble Duke near him (the Duke of Wellington) through the public newspapers, on the subject of the resources of the established church, in which, after expatiating in a bombastic style on civil and religious freedom, and asserting that nothing could check its progress, the writer remarked, "Witness your impotent law against the Catholic bishops, who are assuming their ancient and hereditary titles. His Majesty's bishops may become possessed of all the favours that His Majesty, the fountain of wealth and honour, can give them; but they cannot make

R

Marquess of that happen which is not to be, nor deprive the Catholic bishops of their rights." The writer concluded by expressing his determination not to pay tithes, or any tax in support of the Church of England. So wrote John Tuam, as he signed himself. He would next direct the attention of their Lordships to the language used by some of the Roman Catholic clergy of the second order who were educated at the College of Maynooth. A priest, at an election which took place at Clonmell, thus addressed the electors respecting the candidate: "Havn't we brought him to ye? I hope you will keep him along with ye. We have brought you a man who will give his best aid and exertions in exterminating, root and branch, that abominable and dreadful nuisance, the Church." Hear the sentiments of another person of the same class: they were part of a sermon which he delivered in a Roman Catholic chapel :- "Who are those that will be saved? Those who possess the franchise, and use it for the public good—those who vote for the liberal candidate at the expected election—those who consider the public good, and not their own private interest -those who will support the man who will oppose that church which I may call a nuisance, for it is the cause of all the murders and massacres and slaughters that disgrace the present history of our country. Wo! wo! to the man that betrays his trust!" Such were the sentiments of men who had been educated at

the public expense
the legislature had protected and provided for.
The majority of Roman Catholic bishops were
members of that association in Ireland which had
been condemned both in that and in the other
House of Parliament. The second order of the
Roman Catholic priests were, for the most part,
the nominees of those bishops, who compelled
them to act with them in the political movements
that they deemed advisable to promote. Unless,
then, some inquiry were instituted into this state
of things, how could they indulge any hope of
seeing Ireland tranquillised? He did not intend
to make any motion on the subject, but he hoped
that an inquiry would be promoted; and if it
took place first in another place, perhaps it would
be better; because there were many persons in
that place who were interested in the question,
and who could state their views of it, and would
have an opportunity of showing upon what prin-
ciple the present plan of education at Maynooth
should be continued. The prayer of the petition
which he now presented to their Lordships was
for an inquiry into the case of the petitioner, not
merely with regard to his own particular state-
ment, but with reference to the actual condition
of the second order of the Roman Catholic
clergy. He hoped the Noble Viscount opposite
would turn his attention to the subject, and ex-
amine into the state of things at Maynooth, with
a view to ascertain whether it was not necessary

such were the men whom Marquess of

Westmeath.

August 5. 1839.

Colonel Per

ceval.

Viscount
Cole.

Mr. Redington.

iscount Castlereagh.

to take some steps to advance Christian piety,— but not Popery.

Petition laid on the table.

On

COMMITEE OF SUPPLY - MAYNOOTH. the proposal to grant 89281. for defraying the expenses of Maynooth,

Colonel Perceval regretted that government had not given the Irish Members an opportunity of expressing an opinion on this vote, by bringing forward the estimates at an earlier period, and he believed that the delay was purposely made; but at that late period of the session it was useless to take a division against the vote, although, if his friends chose to divide, they should have his vote.

Viscount Cole would certainly divide the House upon the question.

Mr. Redington said that the reason why the inquiry into this grant was not brought forward at an earlier period did not rest with Honourable Members on that (the ministerial) side of the House, but in a want of determination on the part of Honourable Members opposite; one of them, the Noble Lord the Member for Durham, having had a notice on the book for a long time.

Viscount Castlereagh believed that the opposition to this vote was daily increasing, and he could no longer be a silent instrument in sup

* Hansard's Parl. Deb., 3 S., vol. xlix. p. 1270. (Aug. 5. 1839.)