CHAP. II.]

LORD KENMARE'S ADDRESS.

45

Clare's violent conduct, the corporation and grand jury addresses, in 1792.

his late conduct, in procuring, by his own exertions and those of his emissaries, certain insidious and servile addresses, calculated to divide the Catholics of Ireland, and eventually to defeat their just applications for relief from the grievous oppressions under which they have so long laboured.

Resolved therefore, and in compliance with the wishes of a most respectable number of the Catholic people, communicated to us by their delegates, that Lord Kenmare be, and is hereby struck off the list of the sub-committee appointed to make applications to the legislature in their name for a further repeal of the penal laws.

Signed by Order,

RICHARD M'CORMICK, Sec. Resolved, That an address be presented to the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, to request his Excellency to certify to his Majesty the ardent, zealous, and loyal attachment of the Roman Catholics of this kingdom to his Majesty's person and Government, and to lay before his Majesty the motives which have induced us to withhold our signatures from a certain paper, purporting to be an address to the Lord-lieutenant, with resolutions annexed, and presented to his Excellency by Lord Kenmare, on the 27th of December, and also to explain at large to his Majesty the circumstances of that whole transaction.

That it is the opinion of this committee, that many or most of the persons who signed the said address, being ignorant of several collateral and antecedent circumstances, could not possibly apprehend the real drift and object thereof, and consequently that the said address was surreptitiously obtained.

That the said address (under pretence of satisfying unfounded alarms, and a supposed uneasiness in the public mind, which had no real existence) was fabricated for the purpose of throwing imputations of faction and turbulence on this committee, for refusing to disavow a publication in which this committee were not concerned, and principles of sedition which that publication did not contain, and with which the Roman Catholics of this kingdom never have been tainted.

That the said address, replete with ambiguous expressions, was also intended, obliquely and insidiously, to convey an opinion that this committee was not composed of the men of property and respectable gentlemen of our persuasion, but of low and factious persons, not really representing the consequence, or speaking the voice of the Roman Catholics of this kingdom.

That the said implications, both equally false, are highly prejudicial to the interests of the Roman Catholics, and to the community at large, as rendering it difficult to ascertain with whom, or on what principles to deal with the Roman Catholics, from the uncertainty of knowing who is, or who is not entitled to speak their voice.

That the said address was likewise the vehicle of another design of a still more dangerous tendency, viz. to convey a false impression to the nation, to the parliament, and to the king himself, concerning the true state, the real wants, the temper and dispositions of this great body of his Majesty's subjects; things most necessary to be known, and duly attended to by every wise government.

That this desperate and complicated stratagem was still far

46 RESOLUTIONS OF CATHOLIC COMMITTEE. [CHAP. II.

The benefit that the Catholics derived from these proceedings was purely accidental; but

ther aggravated by laying a trap for the loyalty of our body, and coming forward under cover of an address to his Majesty, which being the natural channel of communication between king and people, ought ever to be preserved sacred and inviolate from all fraud and deceit.

That another object of the promoters of the said address was to form divisions, and to disseminate discord among the Roman Catholics, in order to obstruct their emancipation; a project which has for some time past been carried on with great art and industry, which has more particularly appeared in an attempt to seduce the Roman Catholic clergy from the laity, and to set them at variance; which, by converting the ministers of the gospel into instruments of oppression, tends to vitiate the purest source of confidence, to weaken the closest bonds of society, and to endanger the very being of religion in the minds of the people.

That the devices concealed in the said address, and many other proceedings of a similar nature, only render it more incumbent on the committee to continue its exertions to procure the repeal of laws, which gratify but do not allay, the animosity of our adversaries, and which, instead of co-operation, procure us enemies, even in the companions of our afflictions.

That though the Roman Catholics of this kingdom labour under many severe restrictions, they are not, and never were, deprived of all their rights.

That it is not only the undoubted right, but also the bounden duty, of all the subjects of this realm, by petition to parliament, both to point out their own particular grievances, and also to offer their opinions to the legislature, concerning the interests and general policy of the kingdom, whenever they shall in their conscientious judgment think it necessary.

That the proper mode be adopted to call the attention of parliament to the grievances of the Roman Catholics, and to point out the measure and extent to which it is expedient and necessary to relieve them from the restrictions and disqualifications under which they labour.

That it is declared by a statute passed in the 17th and 18th of his present Majesty, as follows: viz. "It must add not only to the cultivation and improvement of this kingdom, but to the prosperity and strength of all his Majesty's dominions, that his subjects of all denominations should enjoy the blessings of our free constitution."

That notwithstanding the aforesaid declaration, the Roman Catholics of this kingdom, neither having, nor being by law capable to acquire, any right, privilege, or franchise, elective or representative, are wholly excluded and separated out of and from the high court of parliament, to have any knights or burgesses within the said court, and forasmuch as the said Roman Catholics have always hitherto been bound by the acts and statutes made in the same court, they have oftentimes sustained manifold losses and damages, and have been grieved with acts and statutes made within the said court, as well as derogatory to their liberties and privileges, as prejudicial to the politic government and maintenance of the common weal."

That an humble and dutiful representation be made to parlia

47

CHAP. II. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT, 1792. they derived another and substantial benefit from the prudence and wisdom of their friends. The Opposition, finding they had not influence enough to carry in Parliament any measure, determined not to take up the Catholic as a party question. Mr. Grattan's uniform opinion, both in the Irish and the Imperial Parliament, was that it should not be made an opposition question; and thus the Catholics, though apparently left unbefriended, had nevertheless every reason to be thankful, inasmuch as by this judicious management, they got on their side two powerful auxiliaries Mr. Hobart, who was one of the Government, and Sir Hercules Langrishe, who was not a decided oppositionist.

The Parliamentary session commenced on the 19th of January 1792. The speech from the throne, stated that the country had made great progress in trade, manufactures, and industry, but mentioned nothing whatever with regard to the Catholics. Mr. Grattan appears to have made almost a valedictory speech, nearly foretelling the fate of the Parliament and the Constitution. He

recapitulated the errors committed by the Government, and summed up their offences in a masterly manner. His statement affords a correct picture of the mode in which Ireland has always been governed except in 1782, when she may be said to have governed herself.

"Your present ministers made two attempts on your liberties; the first failed, and the second has succeeded: you remember the first, you remember the propositions: the people of Ireland would not consent to be governed by the British Parliament. An expedient was devised ;-let the Irish Parliament govern the people of Ireland, and Britain govern the Irish Parliament.

ment, that in conformity to the above cited declaration, that their capital grievance, the cause of every other, be alleviated or finally done away.

Signed by order, RICHARD M'CORMICK, Sec.

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MR. GRATTAN'S SPEECH.

[CHAP. II. "The second attempt was modelling of the Parliament in 1789; fifteen new salaries, with several of new pensions to the members thereof, were created at once, and added to the old overgrown Parliamentary influence of the Crown. In other words, the expenditure of the interest of half a million to buy the House of Commons, the sale of the peerage, and the purchase of seats in the Commons, the formation of a stock-purse by the minister to monopolize boroughs, and buy up representation. This new practice, whereby the minister of the Crown becomes the common boroughbroker of the kingdom, constitutes an offence so multitudinous, and in all its parts so criminal, as to call for radical reformation and exemplary punishment."

He stated what a number of measures had been proposed by the opposition, and lost. The Place Bill, the Pension Bill, the Responsibility Bill, the Barren Land Bill (which had been pronounced by the Attorney-general to have been the best bill ever brought into Parliament); he condemned the proceedings in the case of the fiats, and the excessive bail required by the judges, which he considered most injurious to the civil liberty of the subject. He complained of the Commissioners of Revenue for not encouraging the breweries, and discouraging the consumption of whiskey.

In rejecting both the Place and Pension Bill, the ministerial language, he said, was this :

"It is true, they are the laws of England, but they are not fit for the meridian of Ireland. This is much more than asserting that Ireland should not be free,-it is asserting that England should be free, and that Ireland should not; you may put the question of servitude in such a shape as to disgust the pride of a Cappadocian. The lot of Ireland, according to this reasoning, becomes particular degradation. We bear misfortunes patiently, because they are the portion of man; but if they were the inheritance of you and of me only, if the imperfection of the dispensations, ordinances, and degrees of nature were visited on one tribe of the human species,-if Providence had spoken, like the ministers of our country, 'these blessings are very well for others, but they are too good for your meridian,' I fear that the tribe so cast off would turn to execration;-and till Providence shall

CHAP. II.] DISMISSAL OF LORD CHARLEMONT.

49

mark its divine displeasure by inflicting some visible opprobrious distinction on the people of Ireland, confirming the argument of their minister, and denoting its intention to degrade us, I must to such logic remain a disbeliever. It was once in this country, 'equal fate and equal freedom,' the still is now changed a little,-equal fate, i. e. equal fall, but inferior freedom-inferior freedom and superior profligacy."

Mr. Grattan then alluded to the case of Lord Charlemont, whose character is drawn in beautiful colours. For years past he had been Governor of the county of Armagh; but Lord Westmoreland, dissatisfied with the popular part he took, had joined Lord Gosford in the commission, in consequence of which Lord Charlemont resigned.

"We see with astonishment, and in it we blush for the abortive efforts of national spirit, the mortifying insignificance of public opinions, and the degrading contempt into which the people of your country have fallen. We see your old General, who led you to your constitution, marched off, dismissed by your ministry as unfit to be trusted with the government of a county,-the cockade of government struck from his hat. That man, whose accomplishments gave a grace to your cause, and whose patriotism gave a credit to your nobles,-whom the rabble itself could not see without veneration, as if they beheld something not only good, but sacred, the man who, drooping and faint when you began your struggles, forgot his infirmity, and found in the recovery of your Constitution a vital principle added to his own; the man, who, smit with the eternal love of fame and freedom, carried the people's standard till he planted it on the citadel of freedom;-see him dismissed from Government for those very virtues, and by that very ministry for whose continuance you are to thank the King;see him overwhelmed at once with the adoration of his country, and the displeasure of her Ministers. The history of nations is oftentimes a farce. What is the history of that nation, that, having at the hazard of everything dear in a free Constitution, obtained its mistress, banishes the champion, and commits the honour of the lady to the care of the ravisher? There was a time when the vault of liberty could hardly contain the flight of your pinion; some of you went forth like a giant rejoicing in his strength; and you stand like elves at the door of your own Pandemonium.