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1804.

his continental allies by his system of foreign policy and by that of his home system he had upbraided, disappointed and revetted Ireland in irretrievable degradation through the union. The Irish Catholics, whom he had most insidiously fed with prospects of emancipation, anticipated in his return to place, the efficient power of carrying that object, for which he professed to have abandoned his official situation. They now practically resorted to the benefit of having so many characters of eminence pledged not to embark in the service of Government, except on the terms of Catholic privileges being obtained. Frequent Catholic meetings were holden in Dublin, in which the general sense of the body for petitioning Parliament for their total emancipation, was unanimously resolved. Mr. Pitt dreaded nothing so much, as to have the sincerity of his pledges brought under discussion. As Lord Fingall from his rank in life and more from the amiable qualities of his mind, was known to possess the confidence of many of his Catholic countrymen, Sir Evan Nepean was directed through his Lordship to attempt every means to hold back the petition. He was invited to dinner, frequently closeted at the Castle, and more sedulously courted, than on any former occasion. However his Lordship may have been personally disposed to hold back, few or none of the body could be induced to postpone their petition.

* Vide Mr. Pitt's and Lord Cornwallis' Pledges to Dr. Troy and Lord Fingall, Vol. I.

encourage

between the

King and
Prince.

Some time after his majesty's return from Wey- 1804. mouth, the conciliatory meeting with the Prince Ministers of Wales, which had been intended before the the coolness Royal departure from London, took place. The Earl of Moira and Mr. Fox eminently interested and exerted themselves in bringing it to the desired conclusion. Several circumstances bespoke in his Majesty's servants at that time a systematic'disposition not to admit his Royal Highness to that unreserved confidence and communication between the Sovereign and the Heir apparent, which the unchecked workings of parental tenderness and filial duty and affection would have naturally produced, and which it was the study of every loyal subject and friend to the family to promote, One of the most unequivocal symptoms of that unamiable and mischievous propensity in the Ministers, was an attempt to set up the harsh claim of a legal right in the crown to deprive his Royal Highness of the ' care and education of his only child the Princess Charlotte of Wales. Although the attempt ultimately failed, yet the advice to set up the claim was attended with much unpleasant discussion and negociation, and could only have been bottomed in revolting suspicion, mistrust and disregard for her Royal parent.

damping

lics expec

Mr. Pitt was not insensible of the rising expec- Mears of tations of the Irish Catholics, that their emanci- the Camopation was to be the sure effect of his return to tations. power. In proportion to the failure of the Minister's continental plans, did the Catholic body of Ireland feel their own weight in the Imperial scale:

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nor could they divine, that men should again find their way to the cabinet, and be entrusted with the reins of Government, without efficient power to carry a measure, which they had publicly proclaimed to be of indispensable necessity, and vital importance to the safety of Ireland, and consequently of the British empire. The aggrandizement of Napoleon had been the unvarying result of Mr. Pitt's most prominent exertions to crush him. He was quietly and solemnly crowned Emperor of the French at Paris by Pope Pius the VIIth a circumstance, which Mr. Pitt with his usual craft attempted to convert into an engine of obloquy to the Catholie body, and an opportune and plausible objection to their petition, which in spite of his secret manoeuvres, through Sir Evan Nepean, he now foresaw would be brought forward. The Government papers industriously published, and severely commented upon a' "memorial said to have been written by Dr. M'Nevin at Paris addressed to the Irish officers of the several continental Powers, particularly to those in the Austrian service, encouraging them to join in the then intended attempts to liberate Ireland from the bondage and thraldom of England: and promising to give them timely notice of the sailing of the expeditions: holding' out ample rewards to those, - who should attend to the call, and threats to the families of those, who should neglect it. They asserted, that several of these members, with lists of the officers, to whom they were addressed, were in the hands of Government." With the like view of indisposing the public to the Irish question,

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which then was in the mouth of every
every politician,
they likewise published the papal allocution, ad-
dressed by his Holiness to a secret consistory, at
Rome, on the 29th of October 1804, imme-
diately before his departure for Paris to per-
form the ceremony of the Imperial coronation,
It referred to the gratitude due to Napoleon.
for having re-established the Catholic religion:
in France by the concordat; since which he
had put forth all his authority to cause it to
be freely professed and publicly exercised through-
out that renowned nation, and had again re-
cently shewn his mind most anxious for the pros-
perity of that religion. It also contained confi-
dent assurances that a personal interview with the
Emperor would be for the good of the, Catholic
Church, which is the only ark of salvation. Upon
the publication of this Papal allocution, and the
ceremony of the coronation at Paris, all the writers
of periodical and other publications in the
pay or
service of government* vied with each other in

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Amongst these stood conspicuous an anonymous zealot of no mean calibre, as a scholar and writer. He obviously suppressed his name from the public, because he hazarded asser. tions, which brought before e knew to be false and groundless." He the public, for the purposes of the party and his particular patron, the old ribaldry of Dr. Dujgenan, and the bigotted tales of Sir Richard Musgrave, compressed into a more portable size, and adapted to more refined palates by a spirited and nervous diction, and bottomed, as the title purported, on an event, which it was then the fashionable policy of the court to execrate and decry.

24

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The pamphlet was intituled, "A letter to Dr. Troy, titular Archbishop of Dublin, on the coronation of Bonaparte by "Pope Pius the Seventh 4 deed without a name: Shakespeare

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1804.

1904 their zealous efforts to represent the imminent danger to the state, which this close connection be

"by Melancthon." At the close of his letter, he says he so subscribes himself, " to assume the name of the mildest of the re"formers, who laboured most strenuously to soothe the animosi ties between the Protestants and Catholics, and compose their "differences." More appropriately would the writer of that letter have assumed the name, by which he subscribed it from the literal meaning of the Greek words, of which it is composed, (Mas black and x dirt) from the sable tint of falsehood and misrepresentation, which pervades the whole. When Melancthon quoted (p. 57.) Dr. Troy's pastoral letter, that the church is infallible in her doctrinal decisions and canons on points of faith and morals, and therefore that the Catholics are obliged to adhere implicitly to such decrees and canons of the church assembled in general council and confirmed by the Pope as rules of faith, he full well knew both from his early education and maturer expe. rience, that such ever had been the Roman Catholic doctrine: he equally knew the tenor of the oath, which the clergy and laity of the Catholic body of his countrymen had generally taken: he' must therefore have made assertions, which he knew to be false and groundless, when he said, "These general councils inculcate as a "religious duty the deposition and murder of heretical sovereigns, the nullity of oaths of allegiance to such, and the extirpation "of heretics.". And when he denounced to Dr. Troy, whom he addressed as the depository of the Papal power, the accre“dited agent exercising the Papal authority in the face of the "laws of the United kingdom," that "never, never shall that "unhappy country know peace, while you and your brethren

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preach to the great body of Catholics the doctrine of the Pope's "unlimited supremacy and of implicit obedience to the see of "Rome, as you now preach it" Well indeed is he entitled to the meed of conciliation "as the mildest of reformers, who la"boured most strenuously to soothe the animosities between the

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protestants and catholics," (p. 86.) who on the eve of a legis-' lative decision upon the vital question of emancipating the catholic population of Ireland, did not hesitate to declare, (p. 44.) That it is to the deadly mixture of popery drugged and em"poisoned with such satanic perseverance, and so incessantly

infused into the consciences and the hearts, and the very life

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