1805. Mr. Alex ander. whole of that establishment, which they possessed before the Reformation. It was natural: and if he lived in a Catholic country, he should wish and do all he could to establish there his own religion. He strongly insisted, that the motion went directly to infringe the 5th article of the Union. He descanted upon the plenitude of the toleration enjoyed by the Catholics: and asserted, that every other Dissenter from the Established Church was excluded equally with the Roman Catholic *. He remarked the indisposition of the House to listen to him which he was not surprized at: for he was conscious, that after the blaze of Mr. Grattan's eloquence, every thing which fell from him must appear vapid and uninteresting. Had he been in the Irish Parliament, he never would have con. sented to grant the elective franchise, nor the establishment of Maynooth for educating the Catholic clergy. Mr. Alexander, though not insensible to the powers of Mr. Grattan's eloquence, would not be awed out of the duty he owed his own conscience, the Crown, and his country: But he could not forget, that he often witnessed those talents employed successfully in beating down the laws and constitution of his country. Upon a general burst of indignation at hearing such an assertion, Mr. Alexander explained; by not attributing the effects It is impossible to conceive that Mr. Percival could then have been ignorant, that Protestant Dissenters always were admissible to Parliament: and that in Ireland the sacramental test had been long abolished in their favour. produced by his eloquence to any intention in Mr. Grattan: but he had painted the physical powers of the country and their imaginary grievances in such glowing colouring, that the people thought they had just motives for rising, and strength to accomplish their object. And that Hon. Member's conduct and sentiments prevented his taking any share in putting down that rebellion; or manifesting any active loyalty, or exposing himself as other gentlemen did to common exertions, common inconveniencies and common dangers. He felt it therefore his duty on the present occasion to withstand all impressions made upon his mind by the talents and reputation of Mr. Grattan. He spoke at great length, travelled over the old field of doctrinal objections, minutely detailed the effects of excommunication, and maintained that papestry was at that hour more formidable in Ireland, than it ever had been. Upon frequent importunate cries for the question, the House adjourned at three o'clock. 1805. On the 14th of May, Mr. Wm. Smith opened Mr. Wm. the adjourned debate: he rested his arguments in Smith. favour of the motion upon the abstract rights of religious freedom of conscience, the political justice and necessity of the measure, and the flagrant and malicious falsity of the calumnies uttered in that debate against the Catholic body. In answer to all the attempts to impeach their loyalty and shake their credibility on oath, he held in his hand a book containing a list of 2000 Catholics, who refused to take an oath prescribed for them to Go 1805. Mr. Lee. vernment, which they could not reconcile to their consciencies and preferred every species of penal proscription and exclusion, to which the refusal exposed them. An irrefragable proof of their conscientious veracity. Mr. Lee thought the application ill timed, though he should vote for the motion: as he would for the repeal of the test to the Dissenters in England, should any Member move for it. He conceived, that the Pope by appointing the Catholic Bishops in Ireland, possessed more power there, than he did in other Catholic countries, where the Sovereigns appointed their Bishops. That he conceived was maintaining à supremacy, which of right belonged only to his Majesty. He had sanguine hopes, that if the prayer of the petition were granted, the Roman Catholics would cheerfully give up that point, as well as make whatever other reasonable sacrifices the circumstances of the case might be thought to require: for he must maintain, that they could have no right to seats in Parliament, whilst they continued to take their Bishops from the hand of any foreign power*. He exposed the vulgar error, under which Dr. Duigenan had spoken of certain maps being preserved by the Catholics, by which they could trace the boundaries of the estates once possessed by their * The reader is here reminded of the note, p. 100, and referred to what is said hereafter upon the question of the veto. That spiritual supremacy of the Pope was the only difference in the national religion introduced by the Reformation of Henry VIII and those were the only true Roman Catholics of this country, who did not give into that Reformation. ancestors, in the expectation of an opportunity of 1805. Scott. Sir Wm. Scott strongly opposed the motion, Sir Wm. which went to infringe the fundamental maxims of our glorious constitution. A Protestant King surrounded by Catholic Ministers would be a solecism in fact as well as in law for there must be a perpetual contradiction between the duties of the one and the other. It was an important function of the great officers of State to attend with zeal and vigilance to the protection of our Church establishment, but that obligation could not be discharged by those, who deemed it to be absurd, pernicious, profane and fanatical. He adverted to Mr. Grattan's intimation of the danger of a separation of the Sister islands, if that motion were rejected. Mr. Grattan in explanation said. If the Parliament assented to the calumny propagated, that the Catholics were traitors to their King and country, it would lay the foundation of such a separation. It was not the rejection of the petition, 1 1805. Dr. Law Pence. Mr. Foster. but the adoption of the calumny, to which he had adverted. Dr. Lawrence said, he most conscientiously voted for the motion, and confided, that the decision of the House would be worthy its liberality and honorable to the character of the Parliament and of the country. In a very luminous speech he entered into a minute refutation of the arguments, and exposed all the distorted, garbled and false quotations of Dr. Duigenan, both from the ancient councils and authors, and from the modern works of Catholic writers*. . He was induced to advert particularly to those points in Dr. Duigenan's speech, because from the nature of his professional pursuits he had occasion to attend to such subjects, and it was unlikely, that other gentlemen should be familiar with them. Mr. Foster could not give a silent vote consistently with his former conduct in Ireland. Political power was the sole object of the petitioners: for in every thing else, they were upon a par with all their fellow subjects. They had heretofore coupled Parliamentary Reform and Catholic Emancipation as the two watch words, which ended in rebellion. Should some score Catholics by the vote of that night find their way into the Imperial Parliament, and afterwards feeling their inferiority in an assembly of 658 Members, they would rapidly augment their strength by new political recruits, and endeavour by a repeal of the Union to * Particularly Dr. Milner, Dr. Troy, and Mr. Plowden. |