while in doing so, it had deprived itself of support in every quarter. It abandoned its functions, and became a das tardly passive instrument in the hands of the Catholics. The latter obtained the principal part of the physical, moral, political, and official power in Ireland, and they rendered the remainder neutral and motionless.

The fruits of the system have reached maturity, and we must now show what they are. We present, in the first place, the description of the state of Ireland given by Mr G. R. Dawson, in the speech which has attracted so much notice. Mr Dawson gave it in the character of a friend to the gene ral body of the Catholics.

"The state of Ireland is an anomaly in the history of civilized na tions-it has no parallel in ancient or modern history, and being contrary to the character of all civil institutions, it must terminate in general anarchy and confusion. It is true, that we have a Government, to which an outward obedience is shown, which is responsible to Parliament, and answerable to God, for the manner of administering its functions; but it is equally true, that an immense majority of the people look up, not to the legitimate Government, but to an irresponsible, and to a self-constituted Association, for the administration of the affairs of the country. The peace of Ireland depends not upon the Govern ment of the King, but upon the dictation of the Catholic Association. It has defied the Government, and trampled upon the law of the land; and it is beyond contradiction, that the same power which banished a Cabinet Minister from the representation of his country, because he was a Minister of the King, can maintain or disturb the peace of the country, just as it suits its caprice or ambition. The same danger impends over every institution established by law. The Church enjoys its dignity, and the clergy enjoy their revenues by the law of the land; but we know not how soon it may please the Catholic Association to issue its anathemas against the payment of tithes, and what man is hardy enough to say, that the Catholic people will disobey its mandates? It depends upon the Catholic Association, no man can deny it, whether the clergy are to receive their incomes or not. The condition of the landlords is not more

consoling-already they have been robbed of their influence over their tenantry-already they are become but mere ciphers on their estates, nay, in many places they are worse than ciphers-they have been forced to become the tools of their domineering masters, the Catholic priesthood; and it depends upon a single breath, a single resolution of the Catholic Association, whether the landlords are to be robbed of their rents or not. So perfect a system of organization was never yet achieved by any other body, not possessing the legitimate powers of Government. It is powerful, it is arrogant, it derides, and it has triumphed over the enactments of the legislature, and is filling its coffers from the voluntary contributions of the people.

"The Catholic Association, by se curing the voluntary contributions of the people, consolidates to itself a power, from which it may supply the sinews of war, or undermine, by endless litigation and persecution, the established institutions of the country.. Such is the power of this new phenomenon, and, I will ask any man, has it been slow to exercise its influence? In every place where the Catholic population predominates, it is all-powerful and irresistible. It has subdued two-thirds of Ireland by its denunciations, more completely than Oliver Cromwell or King William ever subdued the country by the sword. The aristocracy, the clergy, and the gentry, are all prostrate before it. In those devoted regions a perfect abandonment of all the dignity and influence belonging to station and rank, seems to have taken place; or if a struggle be made, as in Clare, it is only to insure the triumph of this daring autocrat. In those parts of Ireland where the Protestant and Catholic population is pretty equally divided, the same influence is felt, if not in so aggravated a degree, at least so mischievously, that comfort and security are alike uncertain. Amongst the two classes we see distrust and suspicion-a perfect alienation from each other in sentiment and habit, and an ill-suppressed desire to measure each other's strength by open warfare. The institutions of society are reviled, the predominance of authority is lost, the confidence of the people in the impartiality of the courts of justice is im

paired, the magistracy is condemned or supported, according as it is supposed to lean to the Orangeman or the Roman Catholic, and even trade and barter are regulated by the same unhappy distinctions of religious feeling.

"The result will be a state of society far worse than rebellion-it will be a revolution; a revolution not effected by the sword, but by undermining the institutions of the country, and involving every establishment, civil, political, and religious."

Such is the picture drawn by Mr Dawson, an Irish member of Parliament, a member of the Ministry, and the brother-in-law of Mr Peel. Of the conduct displayed by this gentle man, which has been so severely and powerfully animadverted on in many quarters, we will say nothing; if it be true that the offender has seen the evil of his ways, we will not embitter his hour of repentance. The following fact, however, we must notice. Mr Dawson was understood to declare himself in favour of the Catholics, and from his connexions and official station, his declaration was at the moment looked on as evidence that even the Duke of Wellington and Mr Peel had resolved on apostacy. Nevertheless, it was met not only by the independent, but by those of a different character-by the humble and the exalted-by all who were, by friendship, interest, patronage, and family-connexions, bound to the Ministry-with a unanimous and glorious burst of determined dissent and virtuous indignation. It could not call into being a single turncoat, or soften the tone of a single opponent of the Catholics. This conduct, so honourable to the Irish Protestants, and more especially to the exalted and powerful part of them, has given us unspeakable pleasure. Such a revelation of inflexible principle and intrepid independence will, we are sure, have the most wholesome operation in high places. Every man who, since the present Ministry was formed, has carefully read the speeches delivered in the House of Commons by the Anti-Catholic members of it, must have remarked, that more than one of those members have, on different occasions, with much ostentation, and when it was wholly uncalled for, laboured to identify themselves with the Liberals, and to separate themselves

from that part of the country to which, as public men, they owe every thing. On such Ministers, overwhelming proofs like this, supplied by the Irish Protestants, that the country will not. be led by them, and that when they abandon the paths of honour and consistency, they must sink into their original insignificance, will have very beneficial effects. No public men at present are to be blindly trusted. Nothing but such proofs can save the Constitution and the Empire.

How Mr Dawson, as a member of the Ministry, could have the hardihood to give such a picture to the world, we cannot conjecture. It forms › the most grave and appalling charge against the Ministry that could be conceived. Ireland was in this state, and yet the Government, of which he forms a part, suffered the last session of Parliament to pass away, without making any attempt to provide a remedy. If any man wish for decisive matter of impeachment against both past Cabinets and the present one, he will find it in the speech of Mr Dawson. Well was the wormwood question put by Mr Schoales-" Will the honourable gentleman permit me to ask him, why is it that the Catholic Association is the governing power of the country?"

The assertion, that the subscriptions of the people were voluntary ones, was loudly dissented from by Mr Dawson's auditors. Mr Barre Beresford, in refutation of it, said, "So far is the tax which is now levied upon the people from being a voluntary contribution, that it is extorted from them by force; and I have it from the mouths of the people themselves, that they have been compelled to pay the rent, whilst the bludgeons of three or four ruffians were flourishing over their heads. Many of my own tenantry have been ordered out of the chapel for not paying it." That the subscriptions are to a very great extent compulsory ones, is unquestionable.

With this exception, Mr Dawson's description agrees generally with that which all sides give of the state of Ireland. That the Catholics possess the power which he ascribes to themthat they abuse it as he states-that they have stripped the Aristocracy of its influence-that they trample upon the laws, and place themselves above the Government-and that they will speedily involve Ireland in horrors,

are matters of which they boast, and which they have proved to be truth by conclusive evidence. We need add but little to his statements. At the late Clare election, a member of the Cabinet who votes in favour of the Catho lies, and who carries his notions touch ing what they call their rights, quite as far as they can desire, was deprived of his seat by them solely because he was a member of the Ministry; and one of their own body, even the notorious O'Connell, was elected. They now declare that no candidate shall be elected by them, no matter how anxious he may be for the removal of the disabilities, if he will not pledge him self to oppose constantly the present Ministry. The Catholic Association, through the priesthood, monopolizes the elective franchise, dictates to the Irish Members, arrays the tenants against the landlord, prohibits the Catholic from dealing in trade with the Protestants, taxes the people, involves law and right in ruinous liti gation, derides and usurps the functions of the Government, destroys all security of life and property, persecutes and oppresses the Protestants in the most grievous manner, and fills Ireland with sedition, convulsion, discord, and frenzy, and keeps it in hourly danger of rebellion. It has wholly suspended the operation of the Constitution, practically annulled all laws, save such as do not interfere with its proceedings, and deposed the Government to the farthest point called for by its guilty interests.

We must now examine the reasons which the Catholics plead in justification of their conduct. They say, that they act as they are acting only to obtain their rights, and that their claims involve nothing beyond what they have a right to. This is very natural. Men who display such conduct are capable of asserting any thing. If O'Connell and his gang were openly labouring to possess themselves of both the possessions of the Church and the estate of every Irish Protestant, they would, with equal effrontery, declare that they had a right to do so. If this doctrine of right were advanced by none but themselves, we should' deem it unworthy of refutation; but it is advanced by other people, whose assertions are entitled to somewhat more notice. Passing by other Protestants of rank and respectability, there are come high in office, who speak as ig

"rights"

norantly and foolishly of the " of the Catholics, as even O'Connell himself. It is greatly to be regretted that members of the Cabinet and the Irish Government will not either make themselves acquainted with political rights, or be silent respecting them.

It is not necessary for us to plead the stale truism, that in society the in dividual must surrender so much of his abstract rights, as may be called for by the weal of the whole. How far this is acted on, is before the eyes of all. The owner of building-ground is compelled in many cases to build on it according to prescribed rules the publican is prohibited from doing business after a certain hour of the night-the maltster is prohibited from making malt in any other than a certain manner. In these, and innume rable similar cases, the abstract rights of the individual are sacrificed to the community, though it is often produc tive of great injury to himself. The sacrifice is not made equally by all; but while it presses very heavily on some individuals, it scarcely touches others. It is demonstrable, that without such sacrifice, neither social and constitutional right, nor society itself, could exist.

On this point, Catholic and Protestant are on an equality. The sacrifice of abstract right is the same to both.

In so far as regards what are in re ality rights, the Catholics have no thing to claim; they possess all that is possessed by Protestants. The whole which they can complain of is, they are excluded from certain public trusts; they are restricted from becoming public functionaries of certain de scriptions. Nothing could be more preposterous than to confound eligibility to fill a public office, with individual right. Public functionaries have to act, not for the individual, but for the society; therefore it is clear, on every principle of right, that it be longs exclusively to the society to decide who shall, and who shall not, act as its functionaries. It is essential, on the score of every thing which can be called right, that the society should have the ability to exclude all men from its offices, who, in its judgment, would, from incompetency or dangerous principle, pervert official power into the means of working its own injury. A footman out of place may, with the same justice, complain that he is robbed of his rights, because a

master whom he wishes to serve, will not employ him; as O'Connell may, because the society will not employ him. The doctrine, that the Catho lics have a right to fill high public of fices, independently of the will of the community, is utterly subversive of the rights of the community. It is flatly opposed to the constitution and all free government. It practically maintains that the nation at large has no right to regulate its form of government, make its laws, and select its rulers. This is the real character of this doctrine, even though it be promulgated by Cabinet Ministers and Lord Lieutenants of Ireland.

In conformity with what we have stated, the society which the population of this country forms, excludes very many individuals from its offices. Its leading grounds of exclusion are incompetency and dangerous principle. On account of incompetency, it excludes a vast number of Protest ants from the office of elector, and an infinitely greater number from that of Member of Parliament. Exclusion runs through the whole of its offices, from the highest to the lowest. The Protestants are, in a greater or smaller degree, and in some cases almost wholly, excluded from filling the offices of the King, the Member of the House of Lords, the Member of the House of Commons, the Magistrate, the Juryman, the Parish Officer, &c. That the society should both possess and exercise this right of exclusion, is above question. Without such right, there could be no qualification; and public offices would only exist to Scourge both the society and the individual. It would be as wise to argue that the individual should select servants and agents without any regard to qualification, as that the society should.

Some of these exclusions affect both Protestants and Catholics alike; others favour the Catholics; the Irish ones enioy privileges in regard to the elective franchise, which are denied to British Protestants: a few affect the Catholics more than the Protestants: while the former are admissible to a considerable number of public offices on the same qualifications as the late ter, they are excluded, on account of their religion, from a small number, which properly qualified Protestants are permitted to fill.

This exclusion is railed against, be cause it is made on the ground of religion. It is argued in some quarters, that there ought to be no religious tests in the admission to public offi ces. If this be true, it must of necessity be true, that religion is a mere matter of abstract belief, having no effect on the political conduct of men ; and that the members of one reli gion must be as faithful and valuable public servants, as those of another. The fallacy of the doctrine is unwor thy farther illustration. If the members of any religion would be likely to subvert the constitution and liberties of the country, or to use official power as the means of filling it with convulsion and evil, common reason prescribes that they ought to be strictly excluded from office. The Catho lics were not excluded from the throne, the cabinet, and the legislature, from speculative fears; they were excluded, because, when they were suffered to hold these offices, they did, on account of their religion, labour to subvert the constitution, and fill the country with calamities. By this fact alone, the principle of exclusion on the score of religion, is rendered wholly unassailable. Even in days of frenzied ignorance and folly like these, it is matter of amazement that the mon➡ strous doctrine-men ought to be suffered to abuse public trusts into the instruments of bringing every conceivable evil upon the community, when they do it for the sake of their religion-can find any to utter or believe it.

What we have said is a sufficient reply to the preposterous plea, that exclusion on account of religion is persecution. If the Catholics are persecuted on account of their religion, the millions of Protestants who are denied the elective franchise, are persecuted on account of their poverty, and the millions more who are prohibited from entering Parliament for want of estates. Exclusion on the score of religion is no more persecution, than exclusion on any other ground. The charge of injustice and persecution might be brought with exactly as much truth against the laws which prohibit robbery and murder, as against those which restrict the members of any religion from plunging the empire into convulsion and ruin.

Having shewn that the State has a

clear right to exclude the Catholics from its offices, if it cannot admit them without danger to itself, we will now inquire how far they are justified in declaiming against the exclusion.

If the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism were, in so far as concerns civil government, merely a nominal one, their declamations might be thought reasonable. They have only to prove that it is so, to obtain what they profess to claim; for the State avows itself to be willing to grant the same privileges to all on the same conditions. They are charged with dividing their allegiance; what is their reply? It is-they are attached to his Majesty and his Royal House; and though they acknowledge foreign jurisdiction, it reaches only matters of religion.

This leaves the charge wholly unanswered. It is, not that they are disaffected to his Majesty personally, or that they wish to change the dynasty, but that they deny the right of the Crown to that sovereign authority with which the constitution has invest ed it-that while they acknowledge themselves to be in some things the subjects of the King, they in others refuse obedience to him, and avow themselves to be the subjects of a foreign power-and that they deny some of the fundamental principles of the constitution, and withhold allegiance on vital points from the government, which it has appointed. In reply to this, professions of attachment to the King's person and family, are not of the smallest value. The confession of the Catholics that they are bound to obey the Pope in matters of religion, is a confession that they divide their allegiance.

But then they maintain, that it does not reach civil government. As they merely assert this, without attempting to prove it, we must examine the mat

ter.

The appointment of the Heads of the Catholic Church rests exclusively in the Pope of Rome, and by these in struments of his own selecting, the inferior clergy are selected. Practically, the whole priesthood is appointed by the Pope. By the baleful discip line of the Catholic religion, the layman is made almost throughout the slave of the priest. At this moment the Catholics of Ireland form a gigantic combination, which has for its de

clared object a vital political change in the constitution,-this combination is likely to involve Ireland in civil war, and it at present fills it with convulsion and evil,-the bishops and priests form its essence, they tax their flocks to supply it with funds, and compel them, by tyranny which cannot be resisted, to become its members,-they openly enable it to monopolize the elective franchise, and to exclude every candidate from the House of Commons who will not pledge himself to oppose the King's government, and they destroy the freedom of election, the political influence of the Aristocracy, and all other legitimate political influence. In addition to the change we have mentioned, this combination openly contemplates other great political changes. It advocates the spoliation and overthrow of the Church, the repeal of the Union, Parliamentary Reform, &c. As we have intimated, it is through the bishops and priests that it possesses money, numbers, union, power, and existence.

Are we to be told that the conduct and objects of this combination are things purely religious, and having nothing to do with politics and civil government? Will the Whigs, after they have again and again declared to the Protestant clergy, that the admission of the Catholics to power is a political question, now eat in their words, and pronounce it a religious one? Are the practical destruction of popular election, the binding down of members of the legislature to oppose the Government in all things, and the inciting of the population to violate the law, matters strictly spiritual, and with which the sovereign authority has no right to interfere? The Whigs and other Emancipationists are so far sunk in factious falsehood and profligacy, that they will probably reply in the affirmative; but such will not be the reply of the country.

If the Government possessed the right of appointment, and the autho rity in the Catholic Church, which it possesses in the Established one; or, in other words, if the Catholic would render that allegiance to the Government which the Protestant renders, all this could not take place. The Catholic clergy would not be suffered to exercise the despotism which they now exercise; neither would they abuse their influence, as they now abuse it.