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\

IRISH ELOQUENCK

SPEECHES

CELEBRATED IRISH ORATORS

PHILIPS, CURRAN AND GRATTAN

TO WnCH V AIWIKP

THE POWERFUL APPEAL

ov

ROBERT EMMETT,

AT THE GLOBE OF HIS TUAL FOR HIGH TREASON.

SELECTED BY A MEMBER OF THE BAR.

PHILADELPmAt EDWARD C. BIDDLE, 3 MINOR STREET.

1840.

PRIirrKO BT T. K. tt, p. O. COLUXS, raiLA.

SPEECHES

or

CHARLES PHILLIPS, Esq.

DELIVERED AT THE BAR,

AMDOW

▼ABIOUB PUBUC OCCASIONS IN IRELAND AND ENGLAND.

*0 mnOH IS ADDID

A LETTER TO GEORGE IV.

EDITED B7HIBI8EIJ*.

FOLLOWING SPEECHES

ABBy BT FEEMSSBIONf DBDIOAIXB>TO

WILLIAM ROSCOE,

THM MOST 8IK0SRB RSSFEOT

AXD AFIBOnOK OP THBIR

AUTHOR.

CONTENTa

PuETAGi, bf Mr. Unity 5

SpeodiddiTwed at ft Poblk Diniiv giv« to Mr. FEnhf bf te

die Town and CoDD^orSligD #**9

SpeedideUveredfttanAgsragBtsMeeliiigoftliaRaiiMnCMlio^ - .SO

Speftdi 40liTerad at ft Diimer ghran oq Dinaa bland, in tha Laka of KiOanasr, on Air. Fhillipa*! haaldi beiiig giTen, together VfUh ihat of Mr. Piqme, a young Ame- liean - 31

Speech deUverad at an aggregafea Bleating of ifae RadnanCatlioIia of the c^^ citjr of Dofalin •..- 86

Petition raleiied to in the preeedta^ Syndic dsm by Bfr. FhiDipiatdia nqnaat of the BoaaanCatboiica of Inlaid 68

The AddreM to H. R. H. the Frtneaai of Walaa, drawn fay Mg» Wttipa at the re- qneatofdie Roman Ga&dKca of Iiehnd M

Cfpeechde]iTeredbyBfr.FhillipBatapablieduiner ghrantohni fay the I^iaada of Civfl and ReligkHia libaity, in I^Terpoil • --K

Speech of Bfr. Fhillipa in the caae of GoduJe ▼. Steme, deUvered in the Comt of Conunon Fleaa, DidiUn ..••••.....66

Speech of Bfr. Fhillqpa in the caaa of OBinDan ▼. M'Koridll, delirerad at the Ooon^ ConthooM, Galway •• 83

Speediindiecaaaof Conna^blonT.DilloQdaltviMedin the Connty Ooathoaae of Riwfrotit''*'i .••*.••••••••. 100

Speech of Bfr. Fhillipa in the caae of Crnghton T.Townaandtdelivend In the Cooit

of Common Fleaa, DnUin ••••. ••••. no

SpeediinthecaaeofBlalMT.WiIkina,deUvendintheCoftntyConitlMNiBe,Galway ISl

A ChaiBcter of Napoleon Boonapaite, down to the period ofhii Exile to Elba -13*

Speech of Mr. Fhillipa in the caae of Bkowne v. Blake, 6r crim. con. deliverad in Dublin, on the 9tfa July, 1817. 138

Speech of Mr. Fhillipa at a meeting of the gaodemen, deigy, fieehoUen, and other inhahiianti of the Coqnty of Sligo, tar the porpoae of taking mto oonaideration an Addieai of Condolenoe to the King on the Death of hii Royal talher, and of Coo- gratnlatkmtohiflBfaio^oahbAcocaBontodie'nuane 153

SpeediofBfr..FhillipadeliTaradatthaAnnnaiMeeiin«of theBritiihaiid Fonign Audliaiy BiUe Sode^, London 1S9

LatterofBfr.FhillipBtoGeoigeiy.Oct6bar6di,1880. . • • . . 166

4

PREFACE:

BY JOHtf FOOAT, ESQ.

Tmi Spethw <f Rmlmw ar> now to the liwt dme qfltoed to ifae wodd in an andwn" tic ftnn. 80 te «i Ui •ttrtfa— hsve been hidneitD dsYoioptd, hit admiral^ and Uicy are iimiineiiUe» mint addnt* that die taitofttii voIqim ia an aduMnniedged relereiiee» to which fntnra crilioim maj fidriy lanM, and fioaaii^ch his fiienda moat deduce anf title wyehthe'apaakBrnagr ha^e oteaied ta ttie^haiaeier of an oiatar.

The iuleiaaiicf hie wpalaliBn impoae ae nee writy of denying maiqr of thoie imper> lectionB which have been imputed to theae prodactkan. The valne of aU human eiet» fioa ik tamauaA^B : ^"f*^ neriliTe eieellanee ia hdl A flaltariaa deaianatioo* even of dm beatfiwductaof inJurtiy andoBod*

There ii^ perimpi, bnt one way by which we could avoid all |wiMe defeot^ and that iik fay avoiding aUpoanMeesartion. The ve^ flalidioitt^ and die very imQharitiU% nay too oAen be met widi, hi the daaa of die uidoleat; and the mn of talent is gen- eadly moat EbOid hi his Censaie, whole mdostiy 1m given hon least tide to pfaiae. ThaadeActsaad detoaodon are aa the spots and abadowwhiGfafOfneoemity, adhere and attaehto every dkveetofhottiaiabletoiL Were it pomiUe fcr die fiiends of Bfr. FhiUtps to sajset diose deftcm which eeidd dH up die nwaaoieof aaavoidableimpeilhotioniandat the same dne inflict least ii||aiyon his raputsdon, donbtlem diay would praftr die blen^ irfhas and erran tmtoial to yoMl^ eoaKBant to gaoiUik and ooBsiitent with an obvious and nady eoffvaedon. To diia dbaeriptiokw wa apprehend, may bo ladneed all the emm diet have beed imputed tkrangfa a syatsm of widit sprBading and unweaiied criticisBi»aiBnMK ted by that envy vndi which indolence too oft ragafdii ite sueeass of mdostiy and mient. and sufasidiBsd by power In Iti siragg^ to leprem dm mpiftilkttand impenanoe of ^ linig yimngnmBtVvhom it had inch good reaaon both to hate and iear. Foritwouldbe Ignotanoe not to know, and kiiowing,it wouldbaaflbetadon to conceal* that his poiidcal prin- dpiea wem a dmvrback on his lepQtstian } and that thedispnato of Ibtoe speedwe haaiieeB a discoonmble (aoafdy for dm ptomotiun of placemen and the pMeorement of place.

This aystsm of depradatioa thus poweifblly wielded, even to the date of die present publication, foiled not in its energy, though it has in its dgOct; nay, nme; it baa succeeded in procuring tbt hhn dm Iwwiedcial results of a multiplying reaction To bonow the ea- pasBBon of an eminwit oknsie, "the xaye of their indignaliOtt ooUected npsn him, served m illumiae, but eouldnot oonaome ^ and doubdem, this hostility may have promoted this foct^ that dmrnatorialaof dnk wlnme are at this mosmnt read in all die langw^ea of Etfrope; and vfhatover be the ptopuitiunef dwirnmrititothcirftnlts, they ate mdihaly to escape the attention of postari^.

T%e mdependent reader, whom thii book toay introdnce to a flnt or aure correct ao* quaintanoe vvidi hii ehiqutaee, viiU therefore be dispooM to paotect his mmd against these illifaemlproposBeasibns thus atdvely Effused, on dm double oonsiderBtion diatsomede- foOtiam esmndal to auch and aoamch iaboavanddrntsome deduction may juady be «» oounied for by dm motives of the syatsm whosb v'oes he expoeed. The same rsader, if he had not dm opportunity of hearing ihees speechsB delivered by dm amfaor, vrill tnaha in hie fovonr anodmr daduedon for u difiemt reaadn.

1*

ji PREFACE.

HkB giwt&lfaer of ancMnt doqiMnoe ivw •ocailQiiied to mj, diat aelioo ivw the fin^ and Moood, and last qiiaU^ of an ofaior. Tliiaivaa tha dietom of a aapfeaM andwiitf . UwaianeiaggeiatioaiiotmtliataiidiDg;liiittlia obaerratioii mart contain ranch tradi to pennit tnch enggeralioo ; and whilat we alkvw Aat da&YOiy m not evaiy thiqg, it win be allowed diat it ii nmdi of the efifect of oialaiy.

Natore hai been boontiliii tothe ralgect of theae lemaiki in the mefol aoddentof a pnpnmpmng exterior ; an inteieidng figoie, an anhnated countenance, and a demeaBoor devoid ofaffcrtatinn, and dirtingniahed by a modeat aetfpoHeaaon, give him the fiiToor- aUe opinion of hii andience, even befixe he hai addwed tfaeoL Hia eager, liveif, and apaifcling eye melli or kindlea in palhoa or milignatinn ; hii voice, bf ili eotn|— i, aweet nea, and Tariety, erer andible and ■eldom loud, never honied, inailiealate, or indiMinet, aecorea to hii andience eveiy word that he ntten, and laeaervea him fiom the painful appearmoe of flObrt

HitmemoiyianotleM fiuthMinthe conveyance of hia meaning, than fail voice: im- likeFoz, in diia leaped, he never wanti a won! ; unlike Bodie, he never pntenda to want one $ and unlike Grattan, he never either wanti or recalli one.

EBa deliveiy is fieed fiom every thing fintulio— ii aimple and elegant, impranve and ■noere ; and if we add die cireamatance of hii yoodi to hii odier external qnafificalioni^ none of hia oontemponiriea in thia vooatkn can praCend lo an equal combination of theae

IC tiien, action be a great part of the eOaet of oratory, die reader who haa not heard him, ii exdoded fiom that conndeniion, ao important to a right opinion, and on which hia excellence iannqueationed

Tlie ableet and aeveieat of all the critica who have amaflad him, (we aHiide of conna to the Edmboigh ReviewJ in their critumm on Guthrie and Siame, have paid him an involontDy and unprecedented compKment He ia the only individual in theae coun- tricB to whom diia literaiy work has devoted an entira aitide on a single apeech; and when itia recollected diat die baaia of diia criddnn waa an unandioriaed aiid ineonect poblication of a aingle fiirenaic exertion in the ordittuy routiBe of a piofiarinnBl Imiaiwy it ia veiy queatiooable whether audi a pnUicatian aflbrded a juat and proportionato gioond-work fir ao much general oiliciBi, or a fiir criterion of die alleged speaket'a geneial merita. Tliia criticiam auma up its olgectkma, and oondodea ili ramarlDi, by tiw ftOowing commending obaervatkm^— that a more atrict contral over hia finey would oooatitnte a remedy fir hia defida.

Exnberance of ftncy ia certainly a defect but it ia evidence of an altribnto aaaential to anontor. There are Aw men vridiontaoaie judgment, but there are many men widioat any imagination ; die latter dam never did, mid never can produce an onlor. Widiont imaginatkxi, the speaker sinks to die mere diy aiguer, the matteroflact nan, the cakii- Jator, or syllogist, or sophirt; the deeler in figures; the compiler officii; die mBson,bot not die architect of the pfle; fir die didato of die imagination ia the ioqnaiion of oratory, winch imparti to matter animation and aouL

Oratoiy ai die great art of peranarinn ; ili pnrpoae ia to give, in a pardenlar iwtanfif, a certain diredkn to human action. Hieficultiea of the orator are judgment and i don : and reaaon and efciquence, the pndud of theae iacultiea, moat work on ment and feelings of his audience, fir the attainment of hia end. Hm qwaker who nddreaaea the judgment alone, may be aigumentative, but never can be eloquent: fir aigument instrads witfaont interesting, and eloquence interests widiout convincing; but oratory ii neidier; it is die co^pooid of bodi ; it conjoins the feeling and opimons of men; It speaks to the pawinns dirou^ iha mind, and to the mind, through the pHMOu; and leads iw andience to iw just purpose by the combined and poweiiol agency of human laaaon and human fieliitg; Hie componenta of thia combination wiU vaiy, of comae, in proportkm to the nnmber and aagacity of the aodiloiywhidi the speaker addremea. With judges it is to be hoped diat die paaaiooi wiU be vreek ; widi public Msemblies it is to be hoped diat reasoning will be strong; butaidmogh the fanaginalkw may, in the ffaiC

FKEFACEL vii

beiiiMmiiloy6d,in11ienoanditcuiiiotbediipeoipdwidi; ftr if th* tdvooiife of YiitM sfoids to xJdr— Ilia ftdingp of • milled ■■rnnhly, whodior it be « jniy or « political meeting, he haoppiecQriqr that thoiffedinft and ftair bad feding^ii^ Into action agaimt him; beoaxraiidentohiBanaBiif IheatraogaitQf hi8W6a|nDi,andb7 • apecieB of inational gieneion^ oootriYeo to inaiin hia ovm daftat in the oonffict Td JDiiea and pnblie awambliai akna, dm IbUownigBpaacbeahaTa beenaddiemed; and it ia fay aaoarfaimQg their aOactoathaBa aawm^liea or jariae, that die merit of die anitMn rimild in joaiioe be maaannd.

But there eeeme a fonaial and pnTalant mietake among our critioB on ihia judgment They eeam to think dial the taete of dm indindnal ia thaatandaid bf which the Tafaie of onkMy dioold ba decided. We do not oonaider oraloiy a mete matter of taete; itia • gJTen meanafcr die procmamant of agiran and; and dm fifnem of itimeane to the attain- ment of iti end Aould be in chief dm meaeme of iti mari;-^of duefitnemaoooemoai^ to ba tha aridenea. The preadwr ivfao can malt hie oongiagation Into tean^ and excel adian in hie eUngi^ to convert the aopaiflnitiae of die opolent into a traaeniy 6r dm wietehedf— dm edvocata who procoraa tha laigaet oompeneatiaa fiom jnrifla on their oadia 6r huofiea iriiich diey toys— dm man who» like Bfr. FhiDipe, can be aocueed ^ ever any man waa eo aocueed except hiniaelf)by gmve lawyen and befixe gmve jiidge% cf havfaig proooied a Teidiet fiom twelve eagackme and moet laepacmhle apadal jaron^ by faerinetinn ; of havii^ by tha faerinafinn of hia eloqnenoe, blinded them to dmt dn^ wbidith^ were awom to obeerre i dmmanwhocanbeaccneedofthieonoath, and dm feeninefinn of wfaoea apaaking le made a groond woric, dwoc^ an anenocamfol one, lor aatting aeide e verdict)— he may be wrong and ignorant in hie etody and practice of ontoty; bat with all hie anon and ignomce, it moat be admitted, that he haa in eonm manner etnmbled on the ehorteat way tat attaining dm and of oretovy— dmt ie^ giving dm moet ftroefid diiectiaft to hmnan action and detamunatioa in parficnlar inetanoea Hie eloqnenoa may ba a novelQr, bat it ie beyond example encceeaftd; and ifti eoooem andimvalty may be anodiar explaiwtkm fcr the hoetility that amafla. It may be matter cf taata^ hot it certainly woold not be matter of judgment or pmdenoe in Bfr. FhilKpe to depait fiom a oooiae vdiich haa proved moet encceeeful, and which haa pwicured fiir lum within the laet year a laiger number of readem thraoi^ the worid* than ever in dm aama tune laaorted to the prodoctKoe of any man of thaea ooantriee. Hie yoadi caniaa with it not only much excuee, bat mnch promiee of fatore improvement; and doubdeae he will not naglect to qiply the firoile of etody and the liable of experience to eech aue- eeeding exertkxL Bat hie manner ie hie own* and avoyman'e own manner ie hie beet manner; and eo long ae it woriv with thie mmiampled eocoam, he Aoold be efciw to adopt the euggaetione of hie enemiee, although he dmnld be eedakoe in adoptiag all kgi- tnnate improvement To that vaiy eiabannce of imaginaTinn, we do not heeitata to aaeribe landi of hie eoooem; whikl; dwredira, he eoneente to control i^ let him be care* IhllaethedipfaMwiogi: noriitheetaangthof thieiacal^anaigoinent,aldioaghithea beannmde an aigomant againet the elra^ith of hie reaaoning powen ; fiirletaeetrip thaee epeedma cf every things wheeb derivatioa coold be by any conetructionf aerigned tohieimoy; let na apply thie rule to hia jirfidal and political exertkme formetancato dm epeech on Golhiie end Sterne, and the late one to die gendemen of liverpooU-let dmir topice be trendated into plain, dull language, and then we wooU aek. wbmt coUac- tion of topke coaU be naira jodickmi^ baCteranai^gad, or deaead In a more locid and conea- eodve order by the moet diaaanrnvriedom of the aagaelaigner at the barf lethereiiol abondanfia toealii^ the judgment; even if then were nothing to ewqr the leelingi^off gratify tha inmginatinnf How prepoelerou^ then, the futile endeavour to nndervaloe the eolidi^ ofthegnmnd-woric, by wididmvring aflention to dm baaoty of dm ornament; or to mamtrin dm defloiancy of etaangdi In the faaea, merely bacanea there ^>peam eo modi eplendoar in the etractura.

Unaided fay the advantagm of firtona or alhaneab under the flnwn of pdilical power* maaA ihrn jfiinmrted dnfrafitwi* tif tanfimmiml JMlmiir *««*<iw<«»* *»* iiinfrieii nf that taVnnT

i

•ill FBEFACaSi

wfaidi he datfawifiBa ha God to tfn hoBmUpWad ■apowir»«id|MO»c<iBnqf hiiflWitBW — 4lui jpinMiing and IngU/pAid ymug vmB rawUicoiuw '** r gfrffN mrwigg ^y^ to iwpw] in dMcaactMft AHBiiwnranltfeidinKtBd Ufbln^dieuyimdtoiliitf «wB;aiid in ifae puhlie i— jMy aipwiBg lur mnu$fi ■■■< lint bar ijghn nmq% ^mrjw-iBn^iling on ooRoirtMi htWrsd hf Ui minlijr hpImbm4 bfr •

githariny hnrwiiM fa hh nuMb nmi niiMdi §k hs yw pi

A SPEECH

DEUVERED AT A PUBLIC DINNER GIVEN

TO MR- FINLAY

B7THE JROBIAN CATHDUCS OF THE TOWN AND COUmT OF SUGO /

I THINK, Sir, you will agree with me, that the most experien- ced speaker might justly tremhle in addressing you, after the display you have just witnessed. What, then, must I feel, who never hefore addressed a public audience 7 However, it would be but an unworthy affectation in me, were I to conceal from you, the emotions with which I am agitated by this kindness. The exaggerated estimate which other countries have made of the few services so young a man could render, has, I hope, in- spired me with the sentiments it ought ; but herCf I do confess to you, I feel no ordinary sensation — ^here, where every object springs some new association, and the loveliest objects, mellowed as they are by time, rise paintedon the eye of memory — ^here, where the light of heaven first blessed my infant view, and nature breathed into my infant heart, that ardour for my country which nothing but death can chiU — ^here, where the scenes of my child- hood remind me how innocent I was, and the grave of my fathers admonish me, how pure I should continue — ^here, standing as I do amongst my fairest, fondest, earliest sympathies — such a welcome, operating, not merely as an affectionate tribute, but as a moral testimony, does indeed quite oppress and overwhelm me.

Oh I believe me, warm is the heart that feels, and willing is the tongue that speaks ; and still, I cannot, by shaping it to my rudely inexpressive phrase, shock the sensibility of a gratitude too full to be suppressed, and yet (how far !) too eloquent for language.

If any circumstance could add to the pleasure of this day, it is that which I feel in introducing to the friends of my youth, the

B 9

10 SPEECH AT SLIGO.

friend of my adoption; though perhaps I am committing one i ' our imputed blunders, when I speak of introducing one whose patriotism has already rendered him familiar to every heart in Ireland ; a man, who, conquering every disadvantage, and spurn- ing every difficulty, has poured around our misfortunes the splendour of an intellect, that at once irradiates and consumes them. For the services he has rendered to his country, from my heart I thank him ; and, for myself, I ofier him a personal, it may be a selfish, tribute for saving me, by his presence this night, from an impotent attempt at his panegyric. Indeed, gentlemen, you can have little idea of what he has to endure, who in these times, advocates your cause. Every calumny which the venal and the vulgar, and the vile, are lavishing upon you, is visited with ex- aggeration upon us. We are called traitors, because we would rally round the crown an unanimous people. We are called apostates, because we will not persecute Christianity. We are branded as separatists, because of our endeavours to annihilate the fetters that, instead of binding, clog the connection. To these may be added, the frowns of power, the envy of dulneas, the mean malice of exposed self-interest, and, it may be, in des- pite of all natural aflection, even the discountenance of kindred I — WeU he it so,—

Far tbee, fmir Freedom, wdoome all the pait. Far thee, m j ooontry, welcome, even the last .'

I am not Earned to confess to you, that there was a day when I was bigotted as the blackest; but I thank the Being who gifted me with a mind not quite impervious to conviction, and I thank you, who afibrded such convincing testimonies of my error. I saw you enduring with patience the roost unmerited assaults, bowing before the insults of revived anniversaries ; in private life, exemplary ; in public, unoffending ; in the hour of peace, assert- ing your loyalty ; in the hour of danger^ proving it Even when an invading enemy victoriously penetrated into the very heart of our country, I saw the banner of your allegiance beaming refu- tatkm on your slanderers ; was it a wonder then, that I seized m j prejudices, and with a blush burned them on the altar of my country !

The great question of Catholic, shall I not rather say, of Irish emancipation, has now assumed that national aspect which im- periously challenges the scrutiny of every one. While it was

SPEECH AT SUGO 11

shrouded in the mantle of religious mystery, with the temple (or its sanctuary, and the pontiff for its sentinel, the vulgar eye might shrink and the vulgar spirit shudder. But now it has come forth visible and tangible for the inspection of the laity ; and I soleom ly protest, dressed as it has been in the double haberdashery of the English minister and the Italian prelate, I know not whether to laugh at its appearance, or to loathe its pretensions — to shudder at the deformity of its original creation, or smile at the grotesqueness of its foreign decorations. Only just admire this far-famed security bill, — this motley compound of oaths and penalties, which, under the name of emancipation, would drag your prelates with a halter about their necks to the vulgar scru- tiny of every village tyrant, in order to enrich a few political traders, and distil through some state alembic fbe miserabie rinsings of an ignorant, a decaying, and degenerate aristocracy ! Only just admire it I Originally engendered hjaarjriends the op- position, widi a cuckoo insidiousness they swindled it into the nest of the treasury ravens, and when it had been fairly hatched with the beak of the one, and the nakedness of the other, they sent it for its feathers toMoirsEioNEUR Quakaittotti, who has obligingly transmitted it with the hunger of its p&rent, the rapacity of its nurse, and the coxcombry o( Ub plumassieTf to be baptized by the bishopsvand received cBjtiogro/ojue ammo by the people of freland I! Oh, thou sublimely ridiculous Quarantotti I Oh, thou superlative coxcomb of the conclave ! what an estimate hast thou formed of the MiiTD of Ireland I Yet why dunild I Uame this wretched scribe of the Propaganda! He had every right to speculate aft he did; all the chances of die calculation were m his fevour. Uncommon must be the people, over whom centuries of op- pression have revolved in vain! Strange must be the mind, which is not subdued by suffering ! Sublime the spirit which is not debased by servitudel God, I give thee thanks I — ^he knew not Irslavd. Bent — ^broken — manacled as she had been, she will not bow to the mandate of an Italian slave, transmitted through an English vicar. For my own part, as an Iridi Pro- testant, I trample to the earth this audacious and desperate ex- periment of authority ; and for you, as Catholics, the time is come to give that calumny the lie, which represents you as sub- lervient to a foreign influence* That influence, indeed, seems

12 SPEECH AT SLIGO.

not quite so unbending as it suited the purposes of bigotry to rep- present it, and appears now not to have conceded more, onlj because more was not demanded. The theology of the questiim is not for me to argue, it cannot be in better hands than in those of your bishops; and I can have no doubt that when they bring their rank, their learning, their talents, their piety, and their patriotism to this sublime deliberation, they will consult the dig- nity of that venerable fabric which has stood for ages, splendid and inunutable ; which time could not crumble, nor persecutions shake, nor revolutions change ; which has stood amongst us, like some stupendous and majestic Appenine, the earth rocking at its feet, and the heavens roaring round its head^ firmly balanced on the base of its eternity; the relic of what was; the solemn and sublime memento of what kust be !

la this my opinion as a professed member of the church of Eng- land? Undoubtedly it is. As an LusmiAir, I feel my liberties interwoven, and the best aflections of my heart as it were enjSjred with those of my Catholic countrymen ; and as a PROTESTAirr, convinced of the purity of my own faith, would I not debase it by postponing the powers of reason to the suspicicos instrumentality of this world's conversioo? No ; surrendering as I do, with a proud contempt, all the degrading advantages with which an ec- clesiastical usurpation would invest me ; so I will not interfere with a blasphemous intrusion between any man and his Maker. I hold it a criminal and accursed sacrilege, to rob even a beggar of a single motive for his devotion : and I hold it an equal insult to my own faith, to ofier me any boon for its profession. Thb pretended emancipation-bill passing into a law, would, in mj mind, strike not a blow at this sect or that sect, but at the very vitality ^ C!hristianity itself. I am thoroughly convinced that the antichristian connection between church and state, which it was suited to increase, has done more mischief to the Gospel interest, than all the ravings of infidelity since the crucifixion. The sublime Creator of our blessed creed never meant it to be the channel of a courtly influence, or the source of a corrupt ascendancy. He sent it amongst us to heal, not to irritate ; to associate, not to seclude ; to collect together, like the baptismal dove, every creed and clime and colour in the universe, beneath the spotless wing of its protection. The union-of church and

SPEECH AT SLIGa , 13

and state only converts good Christians into bad statesmen, and political knaves into pretended Christians. It is at best but a foul and adulterous connection, polluting the purity of heaven with the abomination of earth, and hanging the tatters of a po- Utical piety upon the cross of an insulted Saviour. Religioit, Holt Rsligiov, ought not, in the words of its Founder, to be " led into temptation.*' The hand that holds her chalice should be pure, and the priests of her temple should be spotless as the vest- ments of their ministry. Rank only degrades, wealth only im- poverishes, ornaments but disfigure her. I would have her pure, unpensioned, unstipendary; she should rob the earth of nothing but its sorrows: a divine arch of promise, her extremities should rest on the horizon, and her span embrace the universe ; but her only sustenance should be the tears that were exhaled and em- bellished by the sun-beam. Such is my idea of what religion ought to be. What would this bill make it? A mendicant of the Castle, a menial at the levee, its manual the red book, its liturgy the pension list, its gospel the will of the minister! Methinks I see the stalled and fatted victim of its creation, cring- ing with a brute suppliancy through the venal mob of ministerial flatterers, crouching to the ephemeral idol of the day ; and, like the devotee^ sacrifice of ancient heathenism, glorying in the gar- land that only decorates him for death 1 I will read to you the opinions of a celebrated Irishman, on the suggestion in his day, of a bill similar to that now proposed for our oppression. He was a man who added to the pride not merely of his country, but of his species — a man who robed the very soul of inspiration in the splendours of a pure and overpowering eloquence. I allude to Mr. Burke — an authority at least to which the sticklers for establishments can ofifer no objection. "Before I had written thus far,'* says he, in his letter on the penal laws, ** I heard of a scheme for giving the Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At first I could scarcely credit it ; for I believe it is the first time that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any country. Never were the members of one religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. It is a great deal to suppose that the present Castle would nomi- nate bishops for the Roman church in Ireland, with a religious re* gard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare not do it. But suppose them to be as well inclinedi as I know that I

2

14 SPEECH AT 8LIGO.

am, to clothe Catholics all kinds of justice, I declare I would not, if it were in mj power, take that patronage on myself. I know I ought not to do it I belong to another community ; and it would be an intolerable usurpation in me, where I conferred no benefit, or even if I did confer temporal advantages. How can the Lord Lieutenant form the least judgment on their merits, so as to decide which of die popish priests is fit to be a bishop 1 It

cannot be. The idea is ridiculous. He will hand them over te

*

Lords-Lieutenant of counties, justices of the peace, and others, who, for the purpose of vexing and turning into derision this miserable people, wiU pick out the worst and most obnoxious tbey can find amongst the clergy to govern the rest Whoever is com- plained against by his-brother, will be considered as persecuted; whoever is censured by his superior, will be looked upon as op- pressed ; whoever is careless in his opinions, loose in his morals, will be called a liberal man, and will be supposed to have incurred hatred because he was not a bigot. Informers, tale-bearers, per- verse and obstinate men, flatterers, who turn their back upon their flock, and court the Protestant gentlemen of their countTy, will be the objects of preferment ; and then I run no risk in fore- telling, that whatever order, quiet, and morality you have in the country, will be lost'^ Now, let me ask you,is it to such characters M those described by Burke, that you would delegate the in- fluence imputed to your priesthood? Believe me, you would soon see them transferring their devotion from the Cross to the Castle ; wearing their sacred vestments but as a masquerade ap- pendage,and, under the degraded passport of the Almighty's name, sharing the pleasures of the court, and the spoils of the people. When I say this I am bound to add, and I do so from many proud and pleasing recollections, that I think the impression on the Catholic cl^^ of the present day would be late, and would be delible. But it is human nature. Rare are the instances in which a contact with the court has not been the beginning of corruption. The man of God is peculiarly disconnected with it It directly violates his special mandate, who took his birth from the manger^ and his disciples from the fishing-boa t Judas was the first who re- ceived the money of power, and it ended in the disgrace of his creed and the death of his master. If I was a Catholic, I would

r^culiarly deprecate any interference with my priesthood. Indeed, do not think, in any one respect in which we should wish to

SPEECH AT SUGO. 15

riew the del^ates of the Ahnighty, that, making fair allowances for human infinraty, they could be amended. The catholic clergy of Ireland are rare examples of the doctrines they incul- cate. Pious in their habits, almost primitive in their manners they have no care but their flock — ^no study but their Gospel It is not in the gaudy ring of courtly dissipation that you will find the MfTRRATs, the CoapiKOBRS, and the Moylauds of the pre- sent day — ^not at the levee, or the lounge, or the election-riot No ; you will find them wherever good is to be done, or evil to be corrected — rearing their mitres in the van of misery^ consoling the captive, reforming the convict, enriching the orphan ; omof ments of this world, and emblems of a better : preaching their God through the practice of every virtue ; monitors at the con- fessional, apostles in the pulpit, saints at the death-Jbed, holding the sacred water to the lip of sin, or pouring the redeeming unc- tion on the agonies of despair. Oh, I would hold him little better than the Promethean robber, who would turn the fire of their eternal altar into the impure and perishable mass of this world's preferment. Better by &r that tiie days of ancient barbarism should revive — ^better ttiat your religion should again take refuge^ among the fastnesses of the mountain, and the solitude of the cavern — better that the rack of a murderous bigotry should agaia terminate the miserieaof your priesthood, and that the gate of freedom should be only open to them through &e gate of martyr- dom, than they should gild their missals with the wages of a court, and expect their ecclesiastical promotion, not from their superior piety, but their comparative prostitution. But why this interfer- ence with your principles of conscience T Why is it that they will not erect your liberties save on the ruin of your temples? Why is it that in the day of peace they demand securities from <i people who in the day of danger constituted their strength ? When were they denied every security that was reasonable 1 Was it ia 1776, when a cloud of enemies, hovering on our coast, saw every heart a shield^ and every hill a fortress? Did they want securities in Catholio Spain t Were they denied securities in CathoUc Portugal ? What is their security to-day in Catholic Canada 1 Return — return to us our own glorious WEixuroxoir, and tell incredukus England what was her security amid the lines of Torres Yedras, or on the summit of Barrossa 1 Rise, libelled martyrs of the Peninsula ! — ^rise from your ** gory bed,** and give

16 SPEECH AT SUGG.

security for your childless parents ! No, there is not a Catholic family in Ireland, that for the glory of great Britain is not weep- ing over a child's, a brother's, or a parent's grave, and yet still she clamours for securities ! Oh, Prejudice ! where is thy reason ! Oh, Bigotry I where is thy blush ! If ever there was an opportu- nity for Ei^land to combine gratitude with justice, and dignity with safety, it is the present. Now, when Irish blood has crim- soned the cross upon her naval flag, and an Irish hero strikes the harp to victory upon the summit of the Pyrenees. England — England 1 do not hesitate. This hour of triumph may be but the hour of trial ; another season may see the splendid panorama of European vassalage, arrayed by your ruthless enemy, and glit- tering beneath the ruins of another capitol — ^perhaps of Londok. Who can say it? A few months since, Moscow stood assplendid, as secure. Fair rose the mom on the patriarchal city — the em* press of her nation, the queen of commerce, the sanctuary of strangers ; her thousand spires pierced the very heavens, and her domes of gold reflected back the sun-beams. The spoiler came ; he marked her for his victim; and, as if his very glance was des- tiny, even before the night-fall, with all her pomp, and wealth, and happiness, she withered from the world I A heap of ashes told where once stood Moscow ! Merciful God, if this lord of de- solation, heading his locust l^ons, were to invade our country ; though I do not ask what would be your determination ; though, in the language of our young enthusiast, I am sure you would oppose him with " a sword in one hand, and a torch in the other ;" still I do ask with fearlessness, upon what single principle of po- licy or of justice, could the advocates for your exclusion solicit your assistance— could they expect you to support a constitution from whose benefits you were debarred t With what front could they ask you to recover an ascendency, which, in point of iact^ was but re-establishing your bondage ?

It has been said that there is a faction in Ireland ready to join this despot — " a French party,** as Mr. Grattan thought it decent, even in the very senate house, to promulgate. Sir, I speak the universal voice of Ireland when I say, she spurns the imputation. There is no " French party," here, but there is — and it would be strange if there was not — there is an Irish party — ^men who cannot bear to see their country taunted with the mockery of a constitution — ^men who will be content with no

SPEECH AT SUGO. 17

connection £hat refuses them a community of benefits whOe it imposes a community of privations — ^men who, sooner than see this land polluted by the footsteps of a slave, would wish the ocean-wave became its sepulchre, and that the orb of heaven forgot where it existed. It has been said too, (and when we were to be calumniated, what has not been said 1) that Irishmen are neither fit for freedom or grateful for favours. In the first place, I deny that to be a favour which is a right ; and in the next place, I utterly deny that a system of conciliation has ever been adopted with respect to Ireland Try them, and, my life on it, they wiQ be found grateful I think I know my cotmtrymen ; they cannot help being grateful for a benefit ; and tiiere is no country on the earth where one would be conferred with more characteristic benevolence. They are, emphatically, the school-boys of the heart — a people of sympathy ; their acts spring instinctively from their passions ; by nature ardent, by instinct brave, by in- heritance generous. The children of impulse, they cannot avoid their virtues ; and to be other than noble, they must not only be unnatural but unnationaL Put my panegyric to the test. Enter the hovel of the Irish peasant. I do not say you will find the frugality of the Scotch, the comfort of the English, or the fan- tastic decorations of the French cottager ; but I do say, within those wretched bazaars of mud and misery, you will find sensibi- lity the most affecting, politeness the most natural, hospitality the most grateful, merit the most unconscious ; their look is eloquence, their smile is love, their retort is wit, their remark is wisdom — not a wisdom borrowed from the dead, but that with which nature herself has Inspired them ; an acute observance of the passing scene, and a deep inoght into the motives of its agent. Try to deceive them, and see with what shrewdness they will de- tect ; try to outwit them, and see with what humour they will elude ; attack them with argument, and you will stand amazed at the strength of their expression, the rapidity of their ideas, and the energy of their gesture. In diort, (rod seems to have formed our country like our people ; he has thrown round the one its wild* magnificent, decorated rudeness ; he has infused into the other the simplicity of genius and the seeds of virtue : he says audibly to us, " Give them cultivation.'*

This is the way. Gentlemen, in which I have always looked upon your question — ^not as a party, or a sectarian, or a Catholic,

c a*

18 SPBECH AT SliGC

but as an Irish question. Is it possible that any man can seriondj believe the paralyzing five millions of such a people as I hare been describings can be a benefit to the empire I Is there any man who deserves the name not of a statesman but of a rational being, who can think it politic to rob such a multitude of all the energies of an honourable ambition 1 Look to Protestant Ireland, shooting over the empire those rays of genius, and those diunderbojts of war, that have at once embellished and preserved it. I speak not of a former era. I refer not for my example to the day just passed, when our Burks, our Barrys, and our Gold- smiths, exiled by this system from their native shore, wreathed ^ '^ immortal shamrock'* round the brow of painting, poetry, and eloquence 1 But now, even while I speak, who leads the Bri- tish senate t A Protestant Irishman ! Who guides the British arms? A Protestant Irishman 1 And why, why is Catholic Ireland, with her quintuple populaticm, stationary and silent? Have physical causes neutralized its enei^es t Has the religion of Christ stupe- fied its intellect? Has the God of mankind become the partizan of a monopoly,and put an interdict on its advancement 7 Stranger, do not ask the bigotted and pampered renegade who has an in- terest in deceiving you; but open the penal statutes, and weep tears of blood over the reason. Come — come yourself, and see this unhappy people ; see the Irishman, the only alien in Ireland, in rags and wretchedness, staining the sweetest scenery ever eye reposed on, persecuted by the extorting middleman of some ab- sentee landlcHrd, plundered by the lay-proctor of some rapacious and unsympathizing incumbent, bearing through life but insults and injustice, and bereaved even of any hope in death by the heart-rending reflection that he leaves his children to bear, like their lather, an abominable bondage T Is it the fact 7 Let any who doubts it walk out into your streets, and see the ccmsequen- ces of such a system ; see it rearing up crowds in a kind of ap- prenticedbip to the prison, absolutely permitted by their parents, from utter despair, to lisp the alphabet and learn the rudiments of profligacy? For my part, never did I meet one of these youthful assemblages without feeling within me a melancholy emoticKL How often have I thought, within that little circle of neglected triflers who seem to have been born in caprice and bred in orphanage, there may exist some mind formed of the finest mould, and wrought for immortality ; a soul swelling with

SPEECH AT SUGG. 10

the energies and stamped with the patent of the Deity, which, under proper culture might perhaps bless, adorn, immortalize, or ennoble empires; some Ciicginnatus, in whose breast the des* tinies of a nation may lie dormant ; some Milton, ** pregnant with celestial fire ;" some Currait, who, when thrones were crum- bled and dynasties forgotten, might stand the landmark of his country's genius, rearing himself amid r^al ruins and national dissolution, a mental pyramid in the solitude of time, beneath whose shade things might moulder, and round whose summit eternity must play. £ven in such a circle the young Dehos- THsiTBS might have once been found, and Homer, the disgrace and glory of his age, have sung neglected 1 Have not other natioips witnessed those things, and who shall say that nature has pecu- liarly degraded the intellect of Ireland ? Oh, my countrymen, let us hope that under better auspices and a sounder policy, the ig* norance that thinks so may meet its refutation. Let us turn from the bUght and ruin of this wintry day to the fond anticipa- tion of a happier period, when our prostrate land shall stand erect among the nations^ fearless and unfettered ; her brow^ bloom- ing with the wreath of science, and her path strewed with the offerings^f art ; the breathof heaven blessing her flag, the ex- tremities of earth acknowledging her name, her fields waving with the fruits of agriculture, her ports alive with the contribu- tions of commerce, and her temples vocal with unrestricted piety. Such is the ambition of the true patriot ; such are the views for which we are calumniated ! Oh, divine ambition I Oh, delightful calumny ! Happy he who shaU see thee accomplished ! Happy he who through every peril toils for thy attainment 1 Proceed, friend of Ireland and partaker of her wrongs, proceed undaunted to this glorious consummation. Fortune will not gild, power will not ennoble thee : but thou shalt be rich in the love and titled by the blessings of ihy country ; thy path shall be illumined by the public qre, thy labours enlightened by the public gratitude; and oh, remembei^-emid the impediments with which corrup- tion will oppose, and the dejection with which disappointments may depress you — ^remember you are acquiring a name to be cherished by the future generations of earth, long after it has been enroUed amongst the inheritors of heaven.

A SPEECH

DELIVERED AT AN AGGREGATE MEETING OF THE ROICAN

C ATHOUCB OF CORK.

It is with do small degree of seIf-coDgratuIatio& fhat I at length find myself in a province which every glance of the eye, and every throb of the heart, telk me is truly Irish ; and that con- gratulation is not a little enhanced by finding that you receive me not quite as a stranger. Indeed, if to respect the Christian without regard to his creed, if to love the country but the more for its calamities, if to hate oppression though it foe robed in power, if to venerate integrity though it pine under persecution, gives a man any claim to your recognition, then, indeed, I am not a stranger amongst you. There is a bond at union between brethren, however distant; there is a sympathy between the virtuous, however separated; there is a heaven-bom inftinct by which the associates of the heart become at once acquainted, and kindred natures, as it were by magic, see in the face of a stranger, the features of a friend. Thus it is, that, though we never met, you hail in me the sweet associaticai, and I feel my- self amongst you even as if I were in the home of my nativity. But this my knowledge of you was not left to chance ; nor was it left to the records of your charity, the memorials of your pa- triotism, your municipal magnificence, or your commercial splen- dour ; it came to me hallowed by the accents of that tongue on which Ireland has so often hung virith ec^cy, heightened by the eloquence and endeared by the rincerity of, I hope, our mutual friend. Let me congratulate him on having become in some de- gree naturalized in a province, where the spirit of the elder day seems to have lingered ; and let me congratulate you on the ac- quisition of a man who is at once the zealous advocate of your cause, and a practical instance of the injustice of your oppres- aons. Surely, surely if merit had fair play, if splendid talents, if inde&tigable industry, if gKMit research, if unsuUied principle,

20

SPEECH AT CORK. ffl

if a heart full of the finest affections, if a nund matured in every iDtanly accomplishment, in short, if every nohle, public qualityi mellowed and reflected in the pure mirror of domestic virtue, could entitle a subject to distinction in a state, Mr. O'Connel should be distinguished ; but, it is his crime to be a Catholic, and his curse to be an Irishman. Simpleton I he prefers his conscience to a place, and the love of his country to a participation in her plun« der I Indeed he will never rise. If he joined the bigots of my sect, he might be a sergeant ; if he joined theinfidels of your sect, he might enjoy a pension, and there is no knowing whether some Orange-corporator, at an Orange^anniversary, might not modestly yield him the precedence of giving ** the glorious and immortal memory." Oh, yes; he might be privileged to get drunk in gratitude to the man who colonized ignorance in his native land, and left to his creed the l^acy of legalized persecution. Nor would he stand alone, no matter what might be the measure of his disgrace, or the d^;ree of his dereliction. You wiU know there are many of your own community who would leave him at the distance-post In contemplating their recreancy, I should be almost tempted to smile at the exhibition of their pretensions, if there was not a kind of moral melancholy intermingled, that changed satire into pity, and ridicule into contempt For my part, I behold them in tibe apathy of their servitude, as I would some miserable maniac in the cont^itment of his captivity. Poor creature ! when all that raised him from the brute is levelled, and his glorious intellect is mouldering in ruins, you may see him with his song of triumph, and his crown of straw, a fancied free- man amid the clanking of his chains, and an imaginary monarch beneath the inflictions of his keeper ! Merciful God ! is it not almost an argument for the sceptic and the disbeliever, when we see the human shape almost without an aspiration of the human soul, separated by no boundary from the beasts that perish — ^be- holding with indifference the captivity of their country, the per- secution of their creed, and the helpless, hopeless destiny of their children ? But they have nor creed nor consciences, nor country ; their god is gold, their gospel is a contract, their church a coun- ting-house, their ^characters a conmiodity ; they never pray but for the opportunities of corruption, and hold their oHisciences, as they do their government-debentures, at a price proportioned to the misfortunes of their country. But let us turn from these men-

ftt SFEBCB AT CORK.

dicants of disgrace : though Ireland is docnned to the stain ot* their birth, her mind need not be sullied by their contemplation. I torn from them with pleasure to the contemplation of your cause^ which, as far argument can aflfect it, stands on a sublime and q>lendid elevation* Every obstacle has vanished into air ; every favourable circumstance has hardened into adamant The Pope, whom childhood was taught to lisp as the enemy of religion, and age shuddered at as a prescriptive calamity, has by his example put the princes of CSiristendom to shame. Tins day of miracles, in which the human heart has been strung to its extremest point of energy ; this day, to which posterity will look f<Mr instances of eveiy crime and every virtue, holds not in its page of wonders a more sublime phenomenon, than that calumniated pontiff Placed at the very pinnacle of human devation, surrounded by the pomp of the Vatican and the splendours of the court, pouring the man* dates of Christ from the throne of the Cjesars, nations were his subjects, kings were his companions, religion was his handmaid ; he went forth gorgeous with die accumulated dignity of ages, every knee bending, and every eye blessii^ the prince of one worid, and the prophet of another. Have we not seen him in ^oae moment, Ins crown crumbled, his sceptre a reed, his throne a shadow, his home a dungeon ! But if we have. Catholics^ it was obly to 9bovf how inestimable is human virtue compared with human grandeur; it was only to show those whose faith was failing, and whose fears were strengthening, that the simplicity of the patriarchs, the piety of the saints, and the patience of the martyrs, had not wholly vanished. Perhaps it was also ordained to show the bigot at home, as weU as the tyrant abroad, that though the person might be chained, and the motive calumnbted, religion was still strong enough to support her sons, and to con- found, if she could not reclaim, her enemies. No threats could awe, no promises could tempt, no sufierii^ could appal him ; mid the damps of his dungeon he dashed away the cup in which the pearl of his liberty was to be dissolved. Only reflect on the state of the world at that moment ? All around him was convulsed, the very foundations of the earth seemed givii^ way, the comet was let loose that, ''from its fieiy hair shook pestilence and death," the twilight was gathering, the tempest was roaring, the darkness was at hand; but he towered sublime, like the last mountain in the deluge — ^majestic, not less in his elevation than in his solitude, im*

SPEECH AT CORK. 88

mutable amid change, magi^cent amid ruin* tbe last remnrat of earth's beauty, the last resting-place of heaven's Ught V Thus have the terrors of the Vatican retreated ; thus has that cloud which hovered o'er your cause, brightened at once into a sgn of your faith, and an assurance of your victory. — ^Another obstacle, the omnipotence of Franob; I know it was a pretence, but it was made an obstacle. What has become of it T The spell of her invincibility destroyed, the qpirit of her armies broken, her im* mense boundary dismembered, and the lord of her empire become tbe exile of a rock. She allows fancy no fear, and bigotry no speciousness ; and, as if in the very operation of the change to point the purpose of your redemption, the hand that replanted the rejected lily was that <tf an Irish CaihoUc Perhaps it is not alsounworthy of remark, that the last day ctber triumph, and the first of her decline, was that on which her insatiable chieftain smote the hdly head of your religion. You will hardly suspect I am imbued with the follies of superstition; but when the man now unborn shall trace the stoiy of that eventful day, he wiU see the adopted child of fortune, bcrae oa the wings of vibtory from clime to clime, marking every movement with a triumph, and every pause with a crown, till time, space, and seasons, nay, even nature herself, seeming to vanish from before him — ^in the Mas- phemy of his ambition he sooote the apostle of his God, and dared to raise the everiasting C^oas amid his perishable trophies ! I am no fanatic : but is it not remarkable 7 May it not be one of those ogns which the Deity has sometimes given, in compassion to our infirmity T signs, which, in Aie punishment of one natbn, not unfre- quently denote the warning to another ; —

"Signs font bjr God to mark the will of Heaven t Signi, which bid nations weep and be forgiven.*'

The argument, however, is taken from the bigot; and those whose consciousness taught them to expect what your loyalty should have taught them to repel, can no longer oppose you from the terrors of invasion. Thus, then, tbe papal phantom and the French threat have vanished into nothing. — ^Another obstacle, the tenets of your creed. Has England still to learn them 7 I will tell her where. Let her ask Canada, the last plank of her American shipwreck. Let her ask Portugal, the first omen of her European splendour. Let her ask Spain, the most Catholic country in the universe, her Catholic friends^ her Catholic allies,

24 SPEECH AT CORK.

her rivals in the triumph, her reliance in the retreat, her last stay T^hen the world had deserted her. They must have told her od the field of blood, whether it was true that they **kept no faith vnih heretics.^ Alas, alas! how miserable a thing is bigotry, when every friend puts it to the blush, and every triumph but rebukes its weakness. If England continued still to accredit this calum- ny, I would direct her for conviction to the hero, for whose gift alone she owes us an eternity of gratitude; whom we have seen leading the van of universal emancipation, decking his wreath with the flowers of every so3, and filling his army with the soldiers of every sect ; before whose splendid dawn, every tear exhaling, and every vapour vanishing, the colours of the Eu- ropean world have revived, and the spirit of European fiberty (may no crime avert the omen I) seems to have arisen! Sup- pose he was a Catholic, could this have been t Suppose Catho- lics did not follow him, could Om have been t Did the Catholic Cortes inquire his faith when they gave him the supreme com- mand? Did the Regent of Portugal withhold from his creed the reward of his valour ? Did the Catholic soldier pause at Sala- manca to dispute upon polemics? Did the CathoUc chieftain prove upon Barrossa that he kept no faith with heretics ? or did the creed of Spain, the same with that of France, the oppodte of that of England, prevent their association in the field of liber- ty ? Oh, no, no, no ! the citizen of every clime, the friend of every colour, and the child of every creed, liberty walks abroad in the ubiquity of her benevolence : alike to her the varieties of faith and the vicissitudes of country ; she has no object but the hap- piness of man, no bounds but the extremities of creati(»L Yes, yes, it was reserved for Wellington to redeem his own country when he was r^enerating every other. It was reserved for him to show how vile were the aspersions on your creed, how gener- ous were the glowings of your gratitude. He was a Protestant, yet Catholics trusted him ; he was a Protestant, yet Catholics ad- vanced him 7 He is a Protestant Knight in Catholic Portugal ; be is a Protestant Duke in Catholic Spain ; he is a Protestant com- mander of Catholic armies : he is more ; he is the living proof of the Catholic's liberality, and the undeniable refutation of the Protestant's injustice. Gentlemen, as a Protestant, though I may blush for the bigotry of many of my creed who continue obsti- nate, in the teeth of this coniaction, still, were I a Catholici I

SPEBCH AT CORK. 95

dioold feel Ettle triumph in the victory. I should only hang my head at the distresses which this warfare occasioned to my coun- try. I should only think how long she had withered in the agony of her disunion ; how bng she had bent, fettered by slaves, cajoled by blockheads, and plundered by adventurers ; the proverb of the fool, the prey of the politician, the dupe of the designing, the experiment of the desperate ; straggling as it were between her own fanatical and in&tuated parties, those hell-engendered ser- pents which enfold her, like the Trojan seer, even at the wor- ship of her altars, and crush her to death in the very embraces of her children i It is time (is it not 7) that she should be extri- cated The act would be proud, the means would be Christian; mutual forbearance, mutual indulgence, mutual concession: I would say to the Protestant, * Concede ;' I would say to the Ca- tholic, * Forgive;* I would say to both, * Though you bend not at the same shrine, you have a common God, and a common coun- try; the one has commanded love, the other kneels to you for peace.' Thb hostility of her sects has been the disgrace, the pe- culiar £sgrace of Christianity. The Gentoo loves his cast ; so does the Mahometan; so does the Hindoo, whom England, out of the abundance of her charity, is about to teach her creed ;— I iiope she may not teach her practice. But Christianity — Chris- tianity alone, exhibits her thousand sects, each denouncing hii neighbour here, in the name of God; and damning hereafter, out of pure devotion i ^You're a heretic," says the Catholic: ''You're a Papist," says the Protestant ** I appeal to Saint Peter," ex- claims the Catholic : ** I appeal to Saint Athanasius," cries the Protestant : ^'and if it goes to damning, he*s as good at it as any aaint in the calendar." " You'll all be damned eternally," moans out the Metho^st ; ** Vm the elect 1" Thus it is, you see, each has his anathema, his accusation, and his retort ; and in the end Religion is the victim ! The victory of each is the overthrow of aU ; and Infidelity, laughing at the contest, writes the refutation of their creed in the blood of the combatants I I wonder if this refleetKm has ever struck any of those reverend dignitaries who rear their mitres against Catholic emancipation. Has it ever glanced across their Christian seal, if the story of our country ■hould have casuaUy reached the valleys of Hindostan, with what an Argument they are furnishing the heathen world against their iacred missionary ? In what terms could the Christian eccleaastic

D B

90 SFERCH AT COBK.

answer the Eastern Bramin, when he replied to his exhorta^ ti<His in language such as this? *^ Father, we have heard your doctrine ; it is splendid in theory, specious in promise^ sublime in prospect ; like the world to which it leads, it is rich in the mi- racles of light But, Father, we have heard that there are timet when its rays vanidi and leave your sphere in darkness, or when your only lustre arises from meteors of fire, and moons of blood ; we have heard of the verdant island which the Great Spirit has raised in the bosom of the waters with such a bloom of beauty, that the very wave she has usurped, worships the loveliness of her intrusion. The sovereign of our forests is not more generous in his anger than her sons ; the snow-flake, ere it falls on the mountain, is not purer than her daughters ; little inland seas re- flect the splendours of her landscape, and her valleys smile at the story of the serpent ! Father, is it true, that this isle of the sun, this people of the morning, find the fury of the ocean in your creed, and more than the venom of the viper in your policy ? Is it true, that for six hundred years her peasant has not tasted peace, nor her piety rested from persecution t Oh, Brama ! de* fend us from the God of the CSiristian ! Father, father, return to your brethren, retrace the waters ; we may live in ignorance^ but we live in love ; and we will not taste the tree that gives us evil when it gives us wisdom. The heart is our guide, nature ii our gospel ; in the imitation of our fathers we found our hope; and, if we err, on the virtue of our motives we rely for our re- demption." How would the missionaries ot the mitre answer himt How will they answer that idsulted Being of whose creed their conduct carries the refutation ?

But to what end do I argue with the Bigot 7 — a wretch, whom no philosophy can humanize, no charity soften, no religion reclaim^ no miracle convert : a monster, who, red with the fires of hell, and bending under the crimes <tf earth, erects his murderous di- vinity upon a throne of sculls, and would gladly feed, even with a brother's blood, the cannibal appetite of his rejected altar 1 His very interest cannot soften him into humanity. Surely if it could, no man would be found mad enough to advocate a system which cankers the very heart of society, and undermines the na- tural resources of government ; which takes away the strongest excitement to industry, by closing up every avenue to laudable ambition ; which administers to the vanity or the vice of a party.

8P££CH AT CORK. 27

^hen it should only study the advantage of a people ; and holds out the perquisites of state as an impious bounty on the persecu- tion of religion. — ^I have already shown that the power of the Pope, that the power of France, and that the' tenets of your creed, were but imaginary auxiliaries to this system. Another pretended obstacle has, however, been opposed to your emanci- pation. I allude to the danger arising from a foreign influence. What a triumphant answer can you give to that ! Methinks, as lately,Isee the assemblage of your hallowed hierarchy,surrounded by the priesthood, and foUowed by the people, waving aloft the crucifix of C3uist alike against the seductions of the court, and the commands of the conclave 1 Was it not a delightful, a heart- cheering spectacle, to see that holy band of brothers preferring the chance of martyrdom to the certainty of promotion, and postponing all the gratifications of worldly pride, to the severe but heaven-gaining glories of their poverty ? They acted honestly, and they acted wisely also ; for I say here, before the largest assembly I ever saw in any country — and I believe you are al- most all Catholics — ^I say here, that if the see of Rome presumed to impose any temporal mandate directly or indirectly on the Irish people, the Irish bishops should at once abandon it; or the flocks, one and all, would abjure and banish them both together. History aflbrds us too fatal an example of the perfidious, arrogant, and venal interference of a papal usurper of former days, in the temporal jurisdiction of this country ; an interference assumed without right, exercised without principle, and followed by ca- lamities apparently without end Thus, then, has every obstacle vanished : but it has done more— every obstacle has, as it were, by miracle, produced a powerful argument in your favour. How do I prove it 7 Follow me in my proofs, and you will see by what links the chain is united. The power of Napoleon was the grand and leading obstacle to your emancipation. That power led him to the menace of an Irish invasion. What did that prove? Only the sincerity of Irish allegiance. On the very threat, we poured forth our volunteers, our yeomen, and our militia ; and the coun- try became encircled with an armed and a loyal population. TbuB then the calunuiy of your disafikction vanished. — ^That power next led him to die invasion of Portugal What did it prove 1 Only the good faith of Catholic allegiance. Every field in the Peninsula saw the Catholic Portuguese hail the English

28 SFEECB AT COBK.

Protestant as a brother and a friend, joined in the same pride and the same peril. Thus, then, vanisbed the slander, that you could not keep faith with heretics^ — That power next led him to the imprisonment of the Pontifi^ so long suspected of being quite ready to sacrifice every thing to his interest and his dominion. What did that prove T The strength of his principles, the purity of his faith, the disinterestedness of his practice. It proved a life spent in the stuify of the saints* and ready to be closed by an imitation of the martyrs. Thus, also^ was. the head of your reli- gion vindicated to Europe^ — ^There remained behind but one inv> pediment — ^your liability to a foreign influence. Now mark I The Pontiff's captivity led to the transmission of Quarantotti's rescript ; and, on its arrival, from the priest to the peasant, there was not a Catholic in the land, who did not spurn the document of Italian audacity ! Thus, then, vanished also the phantom of a finneign influence 1 Is this conviction 1 Is not the hand of God in it? Oh yes I tor observe what f<rfk>wed. The very moment that power, which was the first and last leading argument against you, had, by its special operation, banished every obstacle ; that power itself, as it were by enchantment, evaporated at once ; and peace with Europe took away the last pretence for your ex- clusion. Peace with Europe ! alas, alas, there is no peace for Ireland : the universal pacification was but the signal for renewed hostility to us ; and the mockery of its preliminaries were tailed through our provinces by the knell of the curfew. I ask, is it not time that this hostility should cease ? K ever there was a day when it was necessary, that day undoubtedly exists no longer. The continent is triumphant, the Peninsula is free, France is our ally. The hapless house which gave birth to Jacobinism is extinct for ever. The Pope has been found not only not hostile, but complying. Indeed, if England would recollect the share you had in these sublime events, the veiy recollection should subsidize her into gratitude. But should she not — should she, with a base- ness monstrous and unparalleled, forget our services, she has still to study a tremendous lesson. The ancient order ct Europe, it is true, is restored, but what restored it T Coalition after coalitioa had crumbled away before the might of the conqueror ; crowns were but ephemeral ; monarchs only the tenants of an hour ; the descendants of Frederick dwindled into a vassal ; the heir of Peter shrunk into the recesses of his firozen desert; the successor of

SPEECH AT CORK. 90

Charles roamed a vagabond, not only throneless but houseless; every evening sun set upon a change ; every morning dawned ujKHi some new convulsion : in short, the whole political globe quivered as with an earthquake ; and who could tell what vene- rable oKmument was next to shiver beneath the splendid, fright- ful, and repoficless heavings of the French volcano t What gave Europe peace, and England safety, amid this palsy of her Princesf Was it not the Landwehr and the Landstrum and the Levy en Masse? Was it not the Psoplb? — ^that first and last, and best and noblest, as well as safest security of a virtuous government. It IB a glorious lesson ; she ought to study it in this hour of safety ; but should she not —

^Oh, wo b9 to the Prinoe who nilM bj ftai , When danger oomee opon him!**

She will adopt it I hope it from her wisdom ; I expect it from her policy ; I claim it from her justice ; I demand it from her gratitude. She must at length see that there is a gross mistake in the management of Ireland No wise man ever yet imagined injustice to be his interest ; and the minister who thinks he serves a state by upholding the most irritating and the most impious of all monopolies, will one day or other find himself miserably mis- taken. Thb system of persecution is not the way to govern this country ; at least to govern it with any happiness to itself, or ad- vantage to its rulers. Centuries have proved its total inefficiency ; and if it be continued for centuries, the proofs will be but multi- plied. Why, however, should I blame the English people, when I see our own representatives so shamefully negligent of our in- terest? The other day^ for instance, when Mr. Peele introduced, aye, and passed too, his three newly invented penal bills, to the necessity of which, every assizes in Ireland, and as honest a judge as ever dignified or redeemed the ermine, has given the refuta- tion ; why was it that no Irish member rose in his place to vin- dicate his country? Where were the nominal representatives of Ireland ? Where were the ren^ade revilers of the demagogue? Where were the noisy proclaimers of the board? What, was there not one voice to own the country ? Was the patriot of 1782 an assenting auditor? Were our hundred itineratUs mute and motionless — "quite chop-fallen?"* or is it only when Ireland is dandered, and her motives misrepresented, and hek* oppressions are basely and falsely denied, that their venal throats are ready

80 SPEECH AT CORK.

to echo the chonu of ministerial calumny T Oh, I should not have to ask those questions, if in the late contest for this city, you had prevailed, and sent HurcHiirsoir into Parliament ; he would have risen, though alonef as I have often seen him — ^richer not less in hereditary fame, than in personal accomplishments ; the orna- ment of Ireland as she is, the solitary remnant of what she wasL If slander dare asperse her, it would not have done so with im« punity. He would have encouraged the timid ; he would have shamed the recreant; and thoi^h he could not save us from chains, he would at least halve shielded us from calumny. Let me hope that his absence shaU be but of short duration, and ihat this city will earn an additional claim to the gratitude ct the country, by electing him her representative. I scarcely knew him but as a public man ; and considering the state to which we are reduced by the apostacy of some, and the ingratitude of others, and venality of more, — ^I say you should inscribe the con- duct of such a man in the manuals of your devotion, and in the primers of your children; but above all, you should act on it your- selves. Let me intreat of you, above all things to sacrifice any personal difierences among yourselves, for the great cause in which you are embarked. Remember the contest is for your children, your country, and your God ; and remember also, that the day of Irish union will be the natal day of Irish liberty. When your own Parliament (which I trust in heaven we may yet see again) voted you the right of franchise, and the right of purchase, it gave you, if you are not false to yourselves, a cer tainty of your emancipation. — ^My friends, farewell! This has been a most unexpected meeting to me ; it has been our first — it may be our last I can never ibi^et the enthusiasm of this re- ception. I am too much afiected by it to make professions ; but, believe me, no matter where I may be driven by the whim of my destiny, you shall find me one, in whom change of place shall create no change of principle ; one whose memory must perish ere he foi^ets his country ; whose heart must be cold when it beats not for her happiness.

A SPEECH

DEUVERED AT A DINNER GIVEN ON DINAS ISLAND,

IN THE LAKE OF KILLARNEY,

OV MR. PHILLIPS' HEALTH BBINO GIYElTy TOGETHER WITH THAT

or MR. PATITEy A TOUITO AMERICAIT.

It is not with the vain hope of retunuDg by words the kind- nesBes which have been literally showered on me during the short period of our acquaintance, that I now interrupt, for a moment, the flow of your festivity* Indeed, it is not necessary ; an Irishman needs no requital for his hospitality ; its generous im- pulse is the instinct of his nature, and the very consciousness of the act carries its recompense along with it But, Sir, there are sensations excited by an allurion in your toast, under the influence of which, silence would be impossible. To be associated with Mr* Payne must be, to any one who regards private virtues and personal accomplishments, a source of peculiar pride ; and that feeling is not a little enhanced in me by a recollection of the country to which we are indebted for his qualifications. Indeed, the mention of America has never failed to fill me with the 'most lively emotions. In my earliest infancy, that tender season when impressions, at once the most permanent and the most powerful, are likely to be excited, the story of her then recent struggle raised a throb in every heart that loved liberty, and wrung a re- luctant tribute even from discomfited oppression. I saw her spuming alike the luxuries that would enervate, and the l^ons tfiat would intimidate ; dashing from her lips the poisoned cup of European servitude, and, through all the vicisoitudes of her pro- tracted conflict, displaying a magnanimity that defied misfortune, and a moderation that gave new grace to victory. It was the first vision of my childhood ; it will descend with me to the grave. But if as a man, I venerate the mention of America, what must be

my feelings towards her as an Irishman. Never, oh never, while

31

82 SPEECH AT DINAS ISLAND.

memory remaiDS, can Ireland forget the home of her emigrant, and the asylum of her exiles No matter whether their sorrows sprrnig from the errors of enthusiasm, or the realities of sufiering — from fancy or infliction ; that must be reserved for the scrutiny of those whom the lapse of time shall acquit of partiality. It is for the men of other ages to investigate and record it : but surely it is for the men of every age to hail the hospitality that received the shelterless, and love the feeling that befriended the unfor- tunate. Search creation round, where can you find a country that presents so sublime a view, so interesting an anticipation t What noble institutions ! What a comprehensive policy ! What a wise equalization of every political advantage ! The oppress- ed of all countries, the martyrs of every creed, the innocent victim of despotic arrogance or superstitious phrenzy, may there find refuge ; his industiy encouraged, his piety respected, his am- bition animated ; with no restraint but those laws which are the same to all, and no distinction but that which his merit may originate. Who can deny that the existence of such a country presents a subject for human congratulation ! Who can deny, that its gigantic advancement ofiers a field for the most National conjecture I At the end of the very next century, if she pro- ceeds as she seems to promise, what a wondrous q>ectacle may she not exhibit! Who shall say for what purpose a mysterious Providence may not have designed her I Who shall say that when in its follies or its crimes, the old world may have interred all the pride of its power, and all the pomp of its civiIizati<Mi, human nature may not find its destined renovation in the new ! For myself, I have no doubt of it I have not the least doubt that when our temples and our trophies shall have mouldered into dust — ^when the glories of our name shall be but the l^end of tradition, and the light of our achievements only live in song; philosophy wiU rise agam in the sky of her Franklin, and glory rekindle at the urn of her Washington. .Is this the vision of ro- mantic fancy T Is it even improbable ? Is it half so improbable as the events, which, for the last twenty years have rolled like succesfflve tides over the surface of the European world, each erasing the impressions that preceded it ? Thousands upon thou* sands, Sir, I know there are, who will consider this supposition as wild and whimsical ; but they have dwelt with little reflection upcm the records of the past They have but ill observed the

SPEECH AT DINAS ISLAND. 83

never-ceasing progress of national rise and national ruin. They form their judgment on the deceitful stability of the present hour, never considering the innumerable monarchies and re- publics, in former days, apparently as permanent, their very existence become now the subjects of speculation — I had almost said of scepticism. I appeal to History 1 Tell me, thou reverend chronicler of the grave, can all the illuaons of ambition realized, can all the wealth of an universal commerce, can all the achieve* ments of successful heroism, or all the establishments of this world's wisdom, secure to empire the permanency of its posses- sions T Alas, Troy thought so once ; yet the land of Priam lives only in song ! Thebes thought so once, yet her hundred gates have crumbled, and her very tombs are but as the dust they were vainly intended to conunemorate ! So thought Palmyra — where b she T So thought Persepolis, and now —

** Yon wuto, where roaming lioni howl.

Yon able, where moans the grey-eyed owl.

Shows the prood Fenian*e great abode.

Where sceptered onoe, an earthly ffod.

His power-c!ad arm controlled each happier clime,

Where sports the warbling muse, and fimey soars sablima.^*'

So thought the countries of Demosthenes and the Spartan, yet Leonidas's is trampled by the timid slave, and Athens insulted by the servile, mindless, and enervate Ottoman! In his hurried march, Time has but looked at their imagined immortality, and all its vanities, from the palace to the tomb, have, with their rains, erased the very impression of his footsteps ! The days of their glory are as if tliey had never been ; and the island that was

ft

then a speck, rude and neglected in the barren ocean, now rivals the ubiqiuty of their commerce, the glory of their arms, the fame of their philosophy, the eloquence of their senate, and the inspiration of their bards I Who shall say, then, contemplating the past, that England, proud and potent as she appears, may not one day be what Athens is, and the young America yet soar to be what Athens was! Who shall say, when the European colunm shall have mouldered, and the night of barbarism obscured its very ruins, that that mighty continent may not emerge from the horizon, to rule, for its time, sovereign of the ascendant I

Such, sir, is the natural progress of human operations, and such the unsubstantial nK>ckery of human pride. But I should, perhaps, apologize for this digression. The tombs are, at best, a

E

34 SPEECH AT DINAS ISLANIX

cad although an isstractive subject At all events, they are ill suited to such an hour as this. I shall endeavour to atone for itf by turning to a theme which tombs cannot inum, or revolution alter. It is the custom of your board, and a noble one it is, to deck the cup of the gay with the garland of the great ; and surely, even in the eyes of its deity, his grape is not the less lovely when glowing beneath the foliage of the palm-tree and the myr- tle.— ^AUow me to add one flower to the chaplet, which, though it sprang in America, is no exotic Virtue planted it, and it is naturalized every where. I see you anticipate me — ^I see you concur with me, that it matters very little what immediate spot may be the birth-place of such a man as WASHnroToir. No peo- ple can claim, no country can appropriate him ; the boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his resi- dence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had his origin. U the heavens thundered and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared ; how bright in the brow of the firmament was the planet which it revealed to us ! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if nature was endeavouring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. In* dividual instances no doubt there were ; splendid exemplificatioDS of some single qualification. Gaesar was merciful, Scipio was continent, HannSial was patient ; but it was reserved for Wash* ington to blend them all in one, and like the lovely chef ttauvre of the Grecian artist, to exhibit in one gk>MC of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. As a General, he marshalled the peasant into a veteran, and sup- plied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehen- Ave system of general advantage ; an^ such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman he almost added the character of the sage I a conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood ; a revo- lutionist, he was free from any stain of treason ; for aggressioo commenced the contest, and his country called him to the com mand* — ^Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory ; etnmed it K he bad paused here, history might have doubted

SPEECH AT DINAS ISLAND. 35

whatstation to assign him, whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesitation. Who,like Washing- ton, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land he might be almost said to have created?

** How ■haU we rank thee upon glory*! page, Thoa more than aoldier, and just leas than sage ; All thou hast been reflecta leaa fiune on thee, Far leaa than all then haat forborne to be r

Such, Sir, is the testimonj of <»ie not to be accused of par- tiality in his estimate of America. Happy, proud America ! the lightnings of heaven yielded to your philosophy 1 The tempta- tions of eartb could not seduce your patriotism I

I have the honour, Sir, of proposing to you aa a toas<; Turn

mifOETAL XSMOET OT GSDRGH WAamSQTOBm

A SPEECH

DELIVERED AT AN AGGREGATE MEETING OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF THE COUNTY AND CITY OF DUBLIN.

Hayiito takeo, in the discussions on your question, such hum- ble share as was allotted to my station and capacity, I may be permitted to ofier my ardent congratulations at the proud pinnae cle on which it this day reposes. After having combated calum- nies the most atrocious, sophistries, the most plausible, and perilf the most appalling, that slander could inyent, or ingenuity devise, or power array against you, I at length behold the assembled rank and wealth and talent of the Catholic body offering to the l^islature that appeal which cannot be rejected, if there be a Power in heaven to redress injury, or a spirit on earth to ad- minister justice. No matter what may he the depreciations of faction or of bigotry ; this earth never presented a more ennobling spectacle than that of a christian country suffering for her religion with the patience of a martyr, and suing for her liberties with the expostulaticMis of a philosopher ; reclaiming the bad by her piety ; refuting the bigoted by her practice ; wielding the Apos- tle's weapons in the patriot's cause, and at length, laden with chains and with laurels, seeking from the country she had saved^ the ccMistitution she had shielded ! Little did I imagine, that in such a state oCjonr cause, we should be called together to coun* teract the impediments to its success, created not by its enemies^ but by those supposed to be its friends. It is a melancholy occa- sion ; but melancholy as it is^ it must be met, and met with the fortitude of men stru^ling in the sacred cause oC liberty. I do not allude to the proclamation of your Board ; of that Board I never was a member, bo I can speak impartially. It contained much talent, some learning, many virtues. It was valuable on that account ; but it was doubly valuable as being a vehicle for the individual sentiments of any Catholic, and for the a^regate sentiments of every Catholic. Those who seceded irom it, do not remember that> individually, they are nothing ; that as a body

SPEECH AT DUBLIN. . 87

they are every thing. It is not this Avealthy slave, or that titled sycophant, whom the bigots dread, or the parliament respects ! No, it is the body, the numbers, the rank, the property, the ge- nius, the perseverance, the education, but, above all, the Union of the Catholics. I am far from defending every measure of the Board — ^perhaps I condemn some of its measures even more than those who have seceded from it ; but is it a reason, if a general makes one mistake, that his followers are to desert him, especially when the contest is for all that is dear or valuable 7 No doubt the fioard had its errors. Show me the human institution which has not Let the man, then, who denounces it, prove himself superior to humanity, before he triumphs in his accusation. I am sorry for its suppression. When I consider the animals who are in office around us, the act does not surprise me ; but I confess, even from them, the manner did, and the time chosen did, most sensibly. I did not expect it on the very hour when the news of universal peace was first promulgated, and on the anniversary of the only British monarch's birth, who ever gave a boon to this distracted country.

You will excuse this digression, rendered in some degree neces- sary. I shall now confine myself exclusively to your resolution, which determines on the immediate presentation of your petition, and censures the neglect of any discussion on it by your advo- cates during the last session of Parliament. You have a right to demand most fully the reasons of any man who dissents from Mr. Grattan. I will give you mine explicitly. But I shall first state the reasons which he has given for the postponement of your questiiCHL I shall do so out of respect to him, if indeed it can be called req>ect to quote those sentiments, which on their very mention must excite your ridicule. Mr. Grattan presented your petition, and, on moving that it should lie where so many pre- ceding ones have lain, namely, on the table^ he declared it to be his intention to move for no discussion. Here, in the first place, I think Mr. Grattan wrong ; he got that petition, if not on the express, at least on the implied condition of having it immedi- ately discussed. There was not a man at the aggr^ate meeting at which it was adopted, who did not expect a discussion on the very first opportunity. Mr. Grattan, however, was angry at ^ suggestions." I do not think Mr. Grattan, of all men, had any right to be so angry at receiving that which every English mem- •

4

• I

88 SPEECH AT DUBLIN.

ber was willing to receive, and was actually receiving firom an j English corn-factor. Mr. Grattan was also angry at our ** vio- lence." Neither do I think he had any occasion to be so squeam* idi at what he calls our violence. There was a day, when Mr. Grattan would not have spumed our su^estions, and there was also a day when he was fifty-fold more intemperate than any of hk Oppressed countrymen, whom he now holds up to the English people as so unconstitutionally violent A pretty wtiy forsooth^ for your advocate to commence conciliating a foreign auditory in favour of your petition. Mr. Grattan, however, has fulfilled hit own prophecy, that ^ an oak of the forest is too old to be trans* planted at fifty," and our fears that an Irish native would soon loose its raciness in an EngliA atmosphere. ** It is not my in* tention," says he, ^ to move for a discussion at present Why t ** Great obstacles have been removed.** That's his first reason. « I am, however," says he, ** still ardebt" Ardent ! Why it srikes me to be a very novel kind of ardour, which toils till it has removed every impediment, and then pauses at the pwepect of its victory ! ** And I am of opinion," he continues, ** that any im- mediate discussicm would be the height of precipitation:" Hoii is, after having removed the impediments, he pauses in his path, de* clarilig he is ** ardent :" and after centuries of suflering, when you press for a discussion, he protests that he considerB you nkm* strously precipitate I Now is not that a fair translation? Why really if we did not know Mr. Grattan, we should be ahnort tempted to think that he was quoting from the ministry. With the exception of one or two plain, downright, sturdy, unblushing bigots, who opposed you because you were CSiristians, and de» dared they did so, this was the cant of every man who aflfected liberality. ** Oh, I declare," they say, ^ diey may not be can- nibals, though they are Catholics ; and 1 would be very glad to vote for them, but this is no time." ** Oh no," says Bragge Bathurst, '< it 's no time. What ! in time of war ! Why it looks like bullying us !" Very well : next comes the peace, and \diat say cur friends the opposition ? '< Oh 1 I declare peace is no tmCf it looks so like persuading us." For my part, serious as the sub* ject is, it afibcts me with the very same ridicule with which I see I have so unconsciously afiected you. I wUl tdi you a story of which it reminds me. It is told of the celebrated Charles Fox. Far be it from me, however, to mention that name with levity

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As he was a great man, I revere him ; as he was a good man, I love him. He had as wise a head as ever paused to deliberate ; he had as sweet a tongue as ever gave the words of wisdom ut- terance ; and he had a heart so stamped with the immediate impress of the Divinity, that its very errors might be traced to the excess of its benevolence. I had ahnost forgot the story. Fox was a man of genius— of course he was poor. Poverty is a reproach to no man ; to such a man as Fox, I think it was a pride : (orif he chose to traffic with his principles ; if he chose to gamble with his conscience, how easUy n[4ght he have been rich? I guessed your answer. It would be hard, indeed, if you did not believe that in England talents might find a purchaser, who have seen in Ireland how easily a blockhead may swindle himself into preferment Juvenal say^ that the greatest misfortune at- tendant on poverty is ridicule. Fox found out a greater — debt The Jews called on him ibr payment. ** Ah, ngr dear friends," says Fox, ^ I admit the principle; I owe you money, but what time is this, when I am going upon businesaJ* Just so our friends admit the principle ; they owe you emancipation, but war's no time. Well, the Jews departed just as you did. They returned to the chaise : " What : (cries Fox,) is this 9, (jme, when I am engaged on an appointment 1" What ! say our friends, is this a time when all the world 's at peace? The Jews departed; but the end of it was. Fox, with his secretary, Mr. Hare, who was as much in debt as he was, shut themselves up in garrison. The Jews used to surround his habitation at day-light, and poor Fox r^ularly put his head out of the window, with this questiony '*Gentlemen,areyou Jbx-hupting or ii£ire-hunting this morning?' His pleasantry mitigated the very Jews. ** Well, well. Fox, now you have always admitted the principle, but protested against the time — ^we will give you your own time, only just fix some final day for our repayment." — ** Ah, my dear Moses," replies Fox, ** now this is friendly. I will take you at your word ; I will fix' a day, and as it's to be ajinftl day, what would you think of the day o[ judgment F^* — ** That wiU be too busy a day with us."^— *< Well, well, in order to accommodate all parties, let us settle the day ajier,^ Thus it is, between the war inexpediency of Bragge Bathurst, and the peace inexpediency of Mr. Grattan, you may expect your emancipation-bill pretty much about the time that Fox settled for the pajrment of his creditors. Mr. Grattan, how-

40 SPEECH AT DUBLIN

ever, though he scorned to take your suggestions, took thesugg tions of your friends. " I have consulted,** says he, " my right honourable friends !*• Oh, ^M friends j all right honourable / Now this it is to trust the interest of a people into the hands of a party. You must know, in parliamentary parlance, these right honour- able friends mean a party. There are few men so contemptible, as not to have a party. The minister has his party. The oppo- sition have their party. The saints, for there are saints in the House of Commons, lucus a non lucendOf the saints have their party. Every one has his party. I had foi^otten — Ireland has no party. Such are the reasons, if reasons they can be called, which Mr. Grattan has given for the postponement of your ques- tion ; and I sincerely say, if they had come from any other man, I would not have condescended to have given them an answer. He is indeed reported to have said that he has others in reserve, which he did not think it necessary to detail If those which he reserved were like those he delivered, I do not dispute the pru- dence of keeping them to himself; but as we have not the gift of prophecy, it is not easy for us to answer them, until he shall deign to give them to his constituents.

Having dealt thus freely with the alleged reasons for the post- ponement, it is quite natural that you should require what my reasons are fen* urging the discussion. I shall give them candidly. They are at once so simple and explicit, it is quite impossible that the meanest capacity amongst you should not comprehend them. I would urge the instant discussion, because discussicm has always been of use to you ; because, upon every discussion you have gained converts out of doors ; and because, upon every discussion within the doors of parliament, your enemies have diminished, and your friends have increased. Now, is not that a strong reason for continuing your discussions ? This may be assertion. Aye, but I will prove it In order to convince you of the argument as referring to the country, I need but point to the state of the public mind now upon the subject, and that which existed in the memory of the youngest. I myself remem- ber the blackest and the basest universal denunciations against jour creed, and the vilest anathemas against any man who would grant you an iota JSTow, every man aflfects to be liberal, and the only question with some, is the time of the concession ; with others, the extent of the concessions ; with many, the nature of the se-

SPEECH AT DUBLIN. 41

Cnrities you should afibrd ; whilst a great multitude, in which I am proud to class myself, think that your emancipation should be immediate, universal, and unrestricted. Such has been the pro- gress of the human mind out ofdoorsj in consequence of the pow- erful eloquence, argument, and policy elicited by those discussions which your friends now have, for the first time, found out to be precipitate. Now let us see what has been the eflect produced vntkin the doors of Parliament For twenty years you were silent, and of course you were neglected. The consequence was most natural. Why should Parliament grant privileges to men who did not think those privileges worth, the solicitation Y Then rose your agitators^ as they are called by those bigots who are trem- bling at the efiect of their argimients on the community, and who, as a matter of course, take every opportunity of calumni- ating them. Ever since that period your cause has been advan- cing. Take the numerical proportions in the House of Commons on each subsequent discussion. In 1805, the first time it was brought forward in the Imperial legislature, and it was then aided by the powerful eloquence of Fox, there was a majority against even taking your claims into consideration, of no less a number than 212. It was an appaiUng omen. In 1808, however, on the next discussion, that majority was diminished to 163, In 1810 it decreased to 104. In 1811 it dwindled to 64, and at length in 1812, on the motion of Mr. Canning, and it ,is not a little re- markable that the first successful exertion in your favour was made by an English member, your enemies fled the field, and you had the triumphant majority to support you of 129 1 Now, is this not demonstration T What becomes now of those who say fiscussion has not been of use to you : but I need not have re- sorted to arithmetical calculation. Men become ashamed of combating with axioms. Truth is omnipotent, and must prevail; it forces its way with the fire and the prccinon of the morning 0un-beam. Yapours may impede the infancy of its progress; but the rery resistance that would check only condenses and concentrates it, until at length it goes forth in the fullness of its meridian, all life and sight and lustre, the minutest objects visible in its refulgence. You lived for centuries on the vegetable diet and eloquent dlence of this Pythagorean policy ; and the conse- quence was, when you thought yourselves mightily dignified, and mightily interesting, the whole world was laughing at your phi-

F 4«

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losophy, and sending its aliens to take possession of your birfb- right I have given you a good reason for urging your discusaon, by having shown you that discussion has always gained you pro- selytes. But is it the time ? says Mr. Grattan. Yes, Sir, it is the tme^ peculiarly the time, unless indeed the great question of Irish liberty is to be reserved as a weapon in the hands of a party to wield against the weakness of the British minister. But why should I delude you by talking about time I Oh I there will never be a time with Bigotry ! She has no head, and cannot think ; the has no heart, and cannot feel; when she moves, it is in wrath ; when ■he pausesy it is amid ruin ; her prayers are curses, her eommunioD is death, her vengeance is eternity, her decalogue is written in the blood of her victims; and if she stoops for a moment from her infernal fl%ht, it is upon some kindred rock to whet her vul- ture fang for keener rapine, and replurae her wing for a more sanguinary desolation 1 I appeal from this infernal, grare-stalled fury, I appeal to the good sense, io the policy, io the gratitude of England ; and I make nsy appeal peculiarly at this Hxxment, when all the illustrious potentates of Europe are asseoobled to- gether in the Britidi capital, to bold the great festival of univer- sal peace and umversal emancipation. Perhaps when France, flushed with success, fired by ambition, and infuriated by enmity^ lier avowed aim and universal conquest, her means the confede- rated resources of the ContiDent, her guide the greatest military genius a nation fertile in prodigies has produced — a man who seemed bom to invest what had been regular, to defile what had been venerable, to crush what had been established, and to create^ as if by a magic impulse, a fairy world, peopled by the paupen he had commanded into kings, and based by the thrones he had crumbled in his caprices — ^perhaps when such a power, so led, so organised, and so incited, was in its noon of triumph, the timid might tremble even at the charge that would save, <»* the con- cessicm that would strengthen. — ^But now, — ^her allies faithless^ her conquests despoiled, her territory dismembered, her legions defeated, her leader dethroned, and her reigning prince our ally by treaty, our debtor by gratitude, and our alienable friend by every solemn obligation of civilized society, — the objection is our strength, and the obstacle our battlement Perhaps when the Pope was in the power of our enemy, however slender the pre- text, bigotry might have rested on it The inference was false

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S8 to Ireland, and it was ungenerous as to Rome. The Irish Catholic* firm in Us faith, bows to the Pootiff^s spiritual supre- nacjf but he would spurn the Pontiff's temporal interference. If, with the sfNTit of an earthly domination, he were to issue to* morrow his despotic mandate. Catholic Ireland witb one voice would answer him: ** Sire, we bow with reverence to your spi* ritual mission : the descendant of Saint Peter, we freely acknow ledge you the head of our church, and the organ of our creed : but, Sre, if we have a church, we cannot forget that we also have a countiy ; and when you attempt to convert your mitre into a crown, and your croader into a sceptre, you degrade the majesty of your hij^ delegation, and grossly miscalculate upon our acquiescence. No foreign power shall regulate theallegiaace which we owe to our sovereign ; it was the fault of our &ther» that one Pope fofged our fetters; it will be our own, if we allow &em to be riveted by another.'' Such would be the answer of universal Ireland; such was her answer to the audacioas menial, who dared to dictate her unconditional submission to an act of Parliament which emancipated by penalties, and redressed by insult But, Sir, it never would have entered into the conteni'- plation of Hie Pope to have assumed such an authority. His character was a sufficient shield against the imputation, and his policy must have taught him, that, in grasping at the shadow of a temporal power, he should but ride the reality of his ecclesias- tical supremacy. Thus was PEurliament doubly guarded against a foreign usurpation. The people upon whom it was to act de<- precate its authority, and the power to which it was imputed ahbors its ambition ; the Pope would not exert it if he could, and the people would not obey it if he did Just precisely upon the same foundation rested the aspersions which were cast upon* your creed. How did eiqperience justify Ihem t Did Lord WeU lington find that religious faith made any difference amid the thunder of the battle T Did the Spanish soldier desert hb colours because his General believed- not in the real presence? Did the brave Portuguese neglect his orders to negotiate about mysteries? Or what comparison did the hero draw between the policy of England and the pietj of Spain, when at one moment he led the heterodox legions to victory, and the very next was obliged to fly from his own native flag, waving defiance on the walls of Boigos, where the Irish exile planted and sustained it t What

44 SPEECH AT DUBLIN.

must he have felt when in a foreign land he was obliged to coa>- mand brother against brother, to raise the swcHrd of blood, and drown the cries of nature with the artillery of death T What were the sensations of our hapless exiles, when they recognized the features of their long-lost country ? when they heard the accents of the tongue they loved, or caught the cadence of the simple melody which once lulled them to sleep within a mother's arms, and cheered the darling circle they must behold no more T Al^ how the poor banished heart delights in the memory that 801^ associates 1 He heard it in happier days» when the parents he adored, the maid he loved, the friends of his soul, and the green fields of hb infancy were round him ; when his labours were illumined with the sun-shine of the heart, and his humble hut was a palace — ^for it was home. His soul is full, his eye suC> fused, he bends from the battlements to catch the cadence, when his death-shot, sped by a brother's hand, lays him in his grav&— > the victim of a code calling itself Christian 1 Who shall say, heart-rending as it is, this picture is from fancy 7 Has it not (X> curred in Spain 7 May it not, at this instant, be acting in Ame- rica 7 Is there any country in the universe in which these brave exiles of a barbarous bigotry are not to be found refuting the calumnies that banished and rewarding the hospitality that re- ceived them 7 Yet £ngland, enlightened England, who sees them in every field of the old world and the new, defending the various flags of every faith, supports the injustice of her exclusive con- stitution, by branding upon them the ungenerous accusation of an exclusive creed ! England, the ally of Catholic Portugal, the ally of Catholic Spain, the ally of Catholic France, the Friend of the Pope ! England, who seated a Catholic bigot in Madrid i who convoyed a Catholic Braganza to the Brazils I who en- throned a Catholic Bourbon in Paris ! who guaranteed a Catholic establishment in Canada! who gave a constitution to Catholic Hanover ! England, who searches the globe for Catholic griev- ances to redress, and Catholic Princes to restore, will not trust the Catholic at home, who spends his blood and treasure in her service! Is this generous 7 Is this consistent 7 I8itjust7 Is it even politic 7 Is it the act of a wise country to fetter the ener- gies of an entire population 7 Is it the act of a Christian country todo it in the name of God 7 Is it politic in a government to de- grade part of the body by which it is supported, or pious to make

SPEECH AT DUBLIN. 15

Peoviden OB a party to their degradation ? There are societies in England for discountenancing vice ; there are Christian asso- ciations for distributing the Bible ; there are voluntary missions for converting the heathen : but Ireland, the seat of their govern- menty the stay of their empire, their associate by all the ties of nature and of interest, how has she benefited by the gospel of which they boast ? Has the sweet spirit of Christianity appeared on our plains in the character of her precepts, breathing the air and robed in the beauties of the world to which she would lead us ; with no argument but love, no look but peace, no wealth but piety ; her creed comprehensive as the arch of heaven, and her charities bounded but by the circle of creation 1 Or, has she been let loose amongst us, in form of fury, and in act of demon, her heart festered with the fires of hell, her hands clotted with the gore of earth, withering alike in her repose and in her pro- gress, her path apparent by the print of blood, and her pause denoted by the expanse of desolation T Gospel of Heaven 1 is this thy herald ? God of the universe ! is this thy hand-maid? Qiristian of the ascendancy ! how would you answer the disbe- lieving infidel, if he asked you, should he estimate the Christian doctrine by the Christian practice; if he dwelt upon those pe- riods when the human victim writhed upon the altar of the peaceful Jesus, and the cross, crimsoned with his blood, became little better than a stake to the sacrifice of his votaries ; if he pointed to Ireland, where the word of peace was the war-whoop of destruction ; where the son was bribed against the father, and the plunder of the parent's property was made a bounty on the recantation of the parent's creed ; where the march of the hu- man mind was stayed in his name who had inspired it with reason, and any effort to liberate a fellow-creature from his intellectual bondage was sure to be recompensed by the dungeon or the 8caffi>ld; where ignorance was so long a legislative command, and piety legislative crime ; where religion was placed as a barrier between the sexes, and the intercourse of nature was pronounced felony by law; where God's worship was an act of stealth, and his ministers sought amongst the savages of the woods that sanctuary which a nominal civilization had denied them ; where at this instant conscience is made to blast every hope of genius, and every energy of ambition ; and the Catholic who would rise to any staticm of trust, must, in the face of his country, deny the

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fidtb of his fathers ; where the preferments of earth are only to- be.obtamed by the forfeiture of Heaven ?

** Unpriied are her ■oiw till thej l«am to betimj, Undistin^iiiahM tbej live if they shame not their urea; And the torch that would light them to dignity's waj, Host be oaoi^ fiom the pik where their conatfy expiiea J**

How, let me ask, how would the Qiristian zealot dnx>p beneath lliis catalogue of CSurktian qualifications T But, thus it ifl» when sectarians difier on account of mysteries; in the heat and acri- mony of the causeless contest, religion, the glory of one world, and the guide of another, driftsfrom the qplendid circle in which she shone, in the cometi'maze of uncertainty and erron The code, against which you petition, is a. vile compound of impiety lUid. impolicy : impety^ because it debases ia the name of God; inqpcdicy^ because it disqualifies under pretence of govenunent If we are to argue firom the services of Protestant Ireland, to the losses- sustained by the bondage of CathoUc Ireland, and I do not. see why we should not, the state which continues such a qrstem* is guilty of little less than a political suicide. It matters little wbere the Protestant Irishman has been employed ; whether with Burke, wielding die senate with lus eloquence ; with Castlereagh, guiding the cabins with his counsels; with Barry, eniiching the aria by his pencil; with Swift, adorning literature by his genius; vaitik Goldsmith or with Moore, softening the heart by their melo- dy; or with WelUngton^ chaining victory at his car, hemay boUty challenge the competition of the world. Oppressed and impover- ished as our country is, every muse has cheered, every art adom- edt and every conquest crowned her. Phmdered, she was not poor, for her character enriched; attainted, she was not titleless, for her services ennobled; literally outlawed into eminence, and ftttered into fame, the fields of her exile were immortalized by her deeds, and the links of her chain became decorated by her laurels. Is this fancy, oris it fact ? Is there a department in die state in which Irish genius does not possess a predominance T Is therea conquest which it does not achieve, or a dignity which it does not adomt At this instant, is therea country in the world to which England has not deputed an Irishman as her representative t She has sent Lord Moira to India, Sir Gore Ousely to Ispahan, Lord Stuart to Vienna, Lord Gastlereagh to Congress, Sir Henry Wel- lesly to Madrid, Mr. Canning to Lisbon, Lord Strangford to the Brazils, Lord Clancarty to Holland, Lord Wellington to Paria—

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aU Irishmen ! Whether it results from accident or from merit, can there be a more cutting sarcasm on the policy of England ! b it not directly saying to her, ** here is a coantry from one fiftti of whose people you depute the agents of your most angust dele- gation,* the remaining four fifths of which by your odious bigotry, you incapacitate from any station of office or of trust !" It is adding all that is weak in impolicy to all that is wicked in ingra* titude. What is her apok)gy t Will she pretend that the Deity imitates her injustice, and incapacitates the intellect as she has done the creed? After making Providence a pretence for her code, will she also make it a party to her crime, and arraign the imiVersal spirit of partiality in his dispensations 1 Is Ae not con*- tent with Him as a Protestant God, unless He also consents to be* come a Cath<Ac demon 1 But, if the charge were true ; if the Irish Catholic were imbruted and debased, Ireland's conviction

•

would be England's crime, and your answer to the bigots charge should be the bigot's conduct. What, then I is this die result of six centuries of your government ?' Is this the connection which you called a benefit to Ireland? Have your protecting laws so debased litem, that the very privilege of reason is worthless in their possession? Shame 1 oh, shame ! to the government where the people are barbarous? The day is not distant when they made the education of a Catholic a crime ; and yet they arraign die Catholic for ignorance ! The day is not <ystant when they jnroclatmed the celebration of the CkthoKc worship a felony, and yet they complain that the Gathdic is not moral 1 What folly 1 Is it to be expected that the people are to emerge in a moment from the stupor of a protracted degradation ? There is not per'- haps to be traced upon the map of national misfortune, a spot so truly and so tediously deplorable as Ireland. Other lands, no doubt, have had their calamities. To the horrors of revolution, the miseries of despotism, the scourges of anarchy, they have in their turns been subject But it has been only in their turns ; the visita<- tions of wo, though severe, have not been eternal ; the hour of pro^ bation, or of punishment, has passed away ; and the tempest, after having emptied the vial of its wrath, has given place to the serenity of the calm and of the sunshine. — Has this been the case with respect to our miserable country? Is there, save in the visionary world of tradition — Is there in the progress, either ^f record or recollection, one verdant spot in the desert of our

48 SPEECH AT DUBLIN.

annals, tirhere patriotism can find repose, or philanthropy re* freshment ? Ob, indeed, posterity will pause with wonder on the melancholy page which shall portray the story of a people amongst whom the policy of man, has waged an eternal warfare with the providence of God, blighting into deformity all that was beauteous, and into famine all that was abundant. I repeat^ how- ever, the chaise to be false. The Catholic mind in Ireland has made advances scarcely to be hoped in the short interval of its partial emancipation. But what encouragement has the Catholic parent to educate his offipring? Suppose he sends his son, the hope of his pride, and the wealth of his heart, into the army ; the child justifies his parental anticipaticm ; he is moral in his habits, he is strict in his discipline, he is daring in the field, and temperate at the board, and patient in the camp ; the first in the charge, and the last in the retreat ; with a hand to achieve, and a head to guide, and temper to conciliate ; he combines the skill of Welling- ton with the clemency of Caesar and the courage of Turenne— • yet he can neyer rise— he is a Caiholic / — ^Take another instance. Suppose him at the bar. He has spent his nights at the lamp, and his days in the forum ; the rose has withered from his cheek mid the drudgery of form ; the spirit has fainted in his heart mid the analysis of crime ; he has foregone the pleasures of his youth and the associates of his heart, and all the fairy enchantments in which fancy may have wrapped him. Alas ! for what 7 Though genius flashed firom his eye, and eloquence rolled from his lips; diough he spoke with the tongue of TuUy, and argued with the learning of Coke, and thought with the purity of Fletcher, he can never rise— he is a Catholic! Merciful Godl what a state of society is this, in which thy worship is interposed as a dis* qualification upon thy Providence ! Behold, in a word, the efiects of the code against which you petition ; it didieartens exertion, it disqualifies merit, it debilitates the state, it degrades the God- head, it disobeys Christianity, it makes religion an article of traf- fic, and its founder a mcmopoly ; and for ages it has reduced a country, blessed with every beauty of nature, and every bounty of Providence, to a state unparalleled under any constitution pro- fessing to be free, or any government pretending to be civilized To justify this enormity, there is now no argument Now b the time to concede with dignity that which was never denied without injustice. Who can tell how soon we may require all the

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ceal of our united population to secure our very existaice 7 Who can argue upon the continuance of this calm 7 Have we not seen the labour of ages overthrown, and the whim of a day erected on its ruins; establishments the most solid, withering at a word, and visions the most whimsical realized at a wish 7 crowns crumbled, discords confederated, kings become vagabonds, and vagabonds made kings at the capricious phrenzy of a village ad- venturer 7 Have we not seen the whole political and moral world shaking as witn an e&rtbquake, and shapes the most fan^ tastic and formidable and frightful, heaved into life by the quiver- ings of the convulsion 7 The storm has passed over us ; England has survived it ; if she is wise, her present prosperity will be but (he handmaid to her justice ; if she is pious, the peril she has es- caped will be but tibe herald of her expiation. Thus much, have I said in the way of argument to the enemies of your ques- tion* Let me ofier an humble opinion to its friends. The first and almost the sole request which an advocate would make to you is, to remain united ; rely on it, a divided assault can never over- come a consolidated resistance. I allow that an educated aris- tocracy, are as a head to the people, without which they cannot think : but then the people are as hands to the aristocracy, with« out which it cannot act Concede, then, a little to even each other's prejudices ; recollect that individual sacrifice is universal strength ; and can there be a nobler altar than the altar of your country 7 This same spirit of conciliation should be extended even to your enemies. If England will not consider that a brow of suspicion is but a bad accompaniment to an act of grace ; if she will not allow that Idndness may make those fnends whom even oppression could not make foes ; if she will not con- fess that the best security she can have from Ireland is by giving Ireland an interest in her constitution; still, since her power is the shield of her prejudices, you should concede where you can- not conquer ; it is wisdom to yield, when it has become hopelen to combat

There is but mie concession which I would never advise, and which, were I a Catholic, I would never make. You will per-* ceive that I allude to any interference with your clergy. That was the crime of Mr. Grattan's security biU. It m^de the patronage of your religion the ransom for your liberties, ^nd bought the fitvour of the crown by the surrender of the church.

6 5

00 SPEEXJH AT DUBUN.

It is a vidous principle ; it is the cause of all your sorrows. If there had not been a state-establishment, there would not hare been a Catholic bondage. By that incestuous conspiracy be- tween the altar and the throne, infidelity has achieved a more extended dominion than by all the sophisms of her philosophy, or all the terrors of her persecution* It makes God's apostle a court-appendage, and God himself a court-purveyor ; it carves the cross into a chair of state, where, with grace on his brow, and gold in his hand, the little perishable puppet of this world's vanity makes Omnipotence a menial to its power, and Eternity a pan- der to its profits. Be not a party to it As you have spumed the temporal interference of the Pope, resist the spiritual juris- diction of the crown. As I do not think that you, on the one band, could surrender the patronage of your religion to the King without the roost unconscientious compromise, so, on the other band, I do not think the King could ever conscientiously recdve it Suppose he receives it ; if he exercises it for the advantage of your church, he directly violates the coronation-oatb, which binds him to the exclusive interest of the C3iurch of England ; and if he does not intend to exerdse it fi>r your advantage, to what purpose does he require from you its surr^idert But what pretence has England for Ais interference with your religion ? It was the refigion of her most glorious era ; it was the religicn of her most ennobled patriots ; it was the reli^on of the wisdom that framed her constitution ; it was the religion of the valour that achieved it; it would have been to this day the religion of her em- pire, had it not been for the lawless lust of a murderous adulterer. What right has she to suspect your church t When her thousand sects were brandishing the fragments of Aeir faith against each other, and Christ saw his garment without a seam, a piece of patch-work for every mountebank who figured in the pantomime ; when her Babel temple rocked at every breath of her Priestleys and her Paynes, Ireland, proof against the menace of her power, wajs proof also against the perUous impiety of her example. But if as Cathcriics you should guard it, the palladium of your creed, Bot less as Irishmen should you prize it, the relic of your country. Deluge after deluge has desolated her provinces. The monuments of art which escaped the barbarism of one invader, fell beneath the st31 more savage civilization of another. Akme, amid the solitude^ your temple stood like some majestic monument amid the desert

SPIXCH AT DUBLIN. M

et antiquity* just in its proportions, sublime in its asBociaticmSy rich in the virtue of its saints, cemented bj the blood of its mar- tyrs, pouring forth fair ages the unbroken series of its venerable lderarchy,and only the more magnificent from the ruins by which it was surrounded. Oh ! do not for any temporal boon betray the great principles which are to purchase you an eternity ! Here, from your very sanctuary, — here, with my hand on the endangered altars of your faith, in the name of that God, for the freedom of whose worship we are so nobly struggling — ^I conjure you, let no unholy hand profane the sacr^ ark of your reli^n ; preserve it inviolate ; its light is ** light from heaven ;** follow it through all the perilsof your journey ; and, like the fiery pillar of the captive Israel, it will cheer the desert of your bondage, and to the land (^ your liberation J

PETITION

REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING SPEECH

DRAWN BY MR. PHILLIPS,

AT THE REQUEST OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELANB

To the Honourable the Commons of the Uniied Ktngdom of Greai Britain and Ireland, in Parliament auembled:

The humble Petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, whose Names are undersigned on behalf of themselves, and others, pro* fessing the Roman Catholic Reli^on, — Showsth,

That we, the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, again ap» proach the legislature with a statement of the'grievances under which we labour, and of which we most respectfuUy, but at the same time most firmly solicit the effectual redress. Our wrongs are so notcnrious, and so numerous, that their minute detail is quite unnecessary, and would indeed be impossible, were it deemed expedient Ages of persecution on the one hand, and of patience on the other, sufficiently attest our sufierings and our submission. Priyations have been answered oiily by petition^ indignities by remonstrance, injuries by forgiveness. It has been a misfortune to have sufiered for the sake of our religion ; but it has also been a pride to have home the best testimony to the purity of our doctrine, by the meekness <^ our endurance.

We have sustained the power which q>umed us ; we have nerved the arm which smote us; we have lavished our strength, our talent, and our treasures, and buoyed up, on the prodigal efiufflcm of our young blood, the triumphant Aax or Britisb Liberty.

We approach, then, with confidence, an ^lUghtened legisla* ture : in the name of Nature, we ask our rights as men ; in the name of the Constitution, we ask our privileges as subjecta^ ia

PETITION. 68

the name of God, we ask the sacred protecti(M[i of unpenecuted piety as Chri8tiaii8.

Are securitiea required of us? We ofier them — the best se- curities a throne can have — the affections of a people. We offer faith that was never violated, hearts that were never corrupted, valour that never crouched. Every hour of peril has proved our allegiance, and every field of Europe exhibits its example.

We abjure all temporal authority, except that of our Sove- reign ; we acknowledge no civil pre-eminence, save that of our constitution ; and, for our lavish and voluntary expenditure, we only ask a reciprocity of benefits.

Separating, as we do, our civil rights from our spiritual duties, we humbly desire that they may not be confounded. We ^' ren- der unto Cassar the things that are Casaar's," but we must also ** render unto God the things that are God's." Our church could not descend to claim a state-authority, nor do we ask for it a state-aggrandizement : — its hopes, its powers, and its pretensions, are of another world ; and, when we raise our hands most hum- bly to the state, our prayer is not, that the fetters may be transferred to the hands which are raised for us to Heaven. We would not erect a splendid shrine, even to Liberty, on the ruins of the Temple.

In behalf, then, of five millions of a brave and loyal people, we call upon the legislature to annihilate the odious bondage which bows down the mental, physical, and moral energies of Ireland ; and, in the name of that Go^l which breathes charity towards all, we seek freedom of conscience for all the inhabitants of the British empire.

May it therefore please this honourable House to abolish all penal and disabling laws, which in any manner infringe reHgious liberty, or restrict the free enjoyment of the sacred rights of conscience, within these realms.

And your petitioners will ever pray.

6*

THE

ADDRESS

TO H. IL H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES;

JUUWN BY B£R. roiLLIFS^ AT THE REQUEST OF THE ROMAN

CATHOLICS OF HIELANP.

Mboj ii please Your Royal ISghnee$f

Wm^ the Roman Oitliolic people of Ireland, beg leave to oflfer our unfeigned oongratulations on your ppovidential escape fFom the conspiracy which so lately ^idangered both your life and honour — a conspiracy, unmanly in its motives, unnatural in id object, and unworthy in its meaos — a conspiracy, combining so monstrous an union of turpitude and treason, timt it is difficult to say, whether royalty would hare suflered more from its suc- cess, than human nature has from its conception. Our allegiance is not less shocked at the infernal spirit which would suDy the diadem, by breathing on its most precious ornament, the virtue of its wearer, than our best feelings are at the inhosjntable base- ness, which would betray the innocence of a female in a landof strangersl

Deem it not disrespectful, iUustrious Lady, that, from a people proverbially ardent in the cause of the defenceless, the shout of virtuous congratulation should receive a feeble edio. Our harp has long been unused to tones of gladness, and our hills but £Euntly answer the unusual accent Your heart, however, can appreciate the silence inflicted by suffering; and ours, alas, teeb but too acutely that the commiseration is sincere which flows from sympathy.

Let us hope that, when congratulating virtue in your royal

person, on her signal triumph over the perjured, the profligate,

and the corrupt, we may also rejoice in ttie completion of its

consequences. Let us hope that the society of your only child

again solaces your dignified retirement; and that, to the misfor*

64

ADDRESa S5

tone of being a widowed wife, is not added the pang of being a childless mother !

But if, Madam, our hopes are not fuIfiUed; if, indeed, the cry of an indignant and unanimous people is disregarded ; console yourself with the reflection, that, though your exiled daughter may not hear the precepts of virtue from your lips, she may at least study the practice of it in your example.

A SPEECH

DELIVERED BY MR. PHILLIPS^

AT A PUBUC DINNER GIVEN TO HIM BT THE FRIENDS OF CIVIL AND

REUGIOUS LIBERTY IN LIVERFOOI.

Believe me, Mr. Cbairmaiiy I feel too sensibly the high and unmerited compliment you have paid me, to attempt any other return than the simple expressiim of my gratitude ; to be just» I must be silent; but though the tongue is mute, my heart is much more than eloquent The kindness of friendship, the tes- timmiy of any class, however humble, carries with it no trifling gratificatlcm : but, stranger as I am, to be so distinguished in this great city, whose wealth is its least recommendation; the empo- rium of commerce, liberality, and public spirit ; the birth-place of talent ; the residence of integrity ; the field where freedom seems to have rallied the last allies of her cause, as if, with the noble consciousness that, though patriotism could not wreathe the laurel round her brow, genius should at least raise it over her ashes ; to be so distinguished, Sir, and in such a place, does, I confess, inspire me with a vanity which even a sense of my un- importance cannot entirely rilence. Indeed, sir, the ministerial critics of Liverpool were right I have no claim to this enthusi- astic welcome. But I cannot look upon this testimonial so much as a tribute to myself, as an omen to that country with whose fortunes the dearest sympathies of my soul are intertwined Oh yes, I do foresee when she shall hear with what courtsey her most pretentionless advocate has been treated — ^how the same wind that wafb her the intelligence, will revive that flame within her, which the blood of ages has not been able to extinguish. It may be a delusive hope, but I am glad to grasp at any phantom that flits across the solitude of that country's desolation. On this subject you can scarcely be ignorant, for you have an Irishman resident amongst you, w£om I am proud to call my friend ; whose fidelity to Ireland no absence can diminish ; who has at once the

56

SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL. 57

honesty to be candid, and the talent to be convincing. I need scarcely say I allude to Mr. Casey. I knew, sir, the statue was too striking to require a name upon the pedestal. Alas^ Ireland has little now to console her, except the consciousness of having produced such men. It would be a reasonable adulation in me to deceive you. Six centuries of base misgovemment, of cause* less, ruthleK, and ungrateAil persecution, have now reduced that country to a crisis, at which I know not whether the friend of humanity has most cause to grieve or rejoice ; because I am not sure that the same feeling which prompts the tear at hu* man sufierings, ought not to triumph in that increased infliction which may at length tire them out of endurance. I trust in God a change of system may in time anticipate the results of despe- ration ; but you may quite depend on it, a period is approaching when, if penalty does not pause in the pursuit, patience will turn AoTt on the pursuer. Can yon wonder at it t Contemplate Ire* land during any given period of England's rule, and what a pic- ture does she exhibit ! Behold her created in all the prodigality of nature^ with a soil that anticipates the husbandman's desires; with harbours courting the commerce of the world ; with rivers capable of the most eflbctive navigation ; with the ore of every metal struggling tiirough her surface ; with a pe(q>le, brave, ge^ nerous, and intellectual, hterafly forcing their way through the disahSities of their own country into the highest stations of every other, and well rewarding the policy that promotes them, by aduefvemeDts the most heroic, and allegiance without a blemish. How have the succesave governments of England demeaned themselves to a nation, coring such an accumulation of moral and political advantages I See it in the state of Ireland at this instant ; in the universal bankruptcy that overwhelms her ; in the loss of her trade; in the anaihilatk>n of her manufactures; in the deluge of her debt ; m the divisions of her people; in all the loathsome <^rations of an odious, monc^ioliznig, hypocri- tical fanaticism on the one hand, wrestling with the untiring but natural reprisals of an irritated population <oa the other ! It required no common ingenuity to reduce such a country to such a ratuation. But it has been done ; man has conquered the bene- ficence of the Deity ; bis harpy touch has changed the viands to comiptieii ; and that land, which you might have possessed in health and wealth and vigour, to support you m yomr homr of

H

.66 SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL.

needy now writhes in the agonies of death, unable even to lift the Bhit>ud with which famine and fatuity try to encumber her convulsion. This is what I see a pensioned press denominates tranquillity. Oh, wo to the land threatened with such tranquil- lity ; soUiudifiem faciuntf pacem appellant ; it is not yet the tran- quillity of solitude ; it is not yet the tranquillity of death ; but if you would know what it is, go forth in the alence of creation, when every wind is hushed, and every echo mute, and all nature seems to listen in dumb and terrified and breathless expectation; go forth in such an hour, and see the terrible tranquillity by which you are surrounded ! How could it be otherwise; when for ages upon ages invention has fatigued itself with expedients for irritation ; when, as I have read with horrw in the progress of my l^al studies, the homicide of a '' mere Lrishman'' was considered justifiable ; and when his ignorance was the <Higin of all his crimes, his education was prohibited (y Adi of ParKa* ment /-—when the people were worm-eaten by the odious vermin which a church and state adultery had spawned ; when a bad heart and brainless head where the fangs by which every fo- reign adventurer and domestic traitor (isistened upon office ; when the property of the native was but an invitation to plunder, and his non-acquiescence the signal ibr confiscation ; when religion itself was made the odious pretence for every persecuticKi, and the fires of hell were alternately kindled with the cross, and quenched in the blood of its defenceless followers ! I speak of times that are passed : but can their recollections, can their con* sequences be so readily eradicated. Why, however, should I refer to periods that are distant ? Behold, at this instant, five millions of her people disqualified on account of their faith, and that by a country professing fireedom I and that under a govern- ment calling itself christian ! You (when I say you, of course I mean, not the high-minded people of England, but the men who misgovern us both) seem to have taken out a roving commissioii in search of grievances abroad, while you overlook the calamities at your own door, and of your own infliction. You traverse the ocean to emancipate the African ; you cross the line to convert the Hindoo; you hurl your thunder against the savage A^erine; but your own brethren at home, who speak the same tongue, acknowledge the same King, and kneel to the same God, cannot get (Hie visit firom your Uinerani humanity/ Ob, such a system

SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL. S9

is almost too abominable for a name ; it is a monster of impietj, impoUcy, ingratitude, and injustice I The pagan nations of an- tiquitf scarcely acted on such barbarous principles. Look to ancient Rome, with her sword in one hand and her constitution in the other, healing the injuries of conquest with the embrace of broth^hood, and wisely converting the captive into the citi- zen. Look to her great enemy, the glorious Carthaginian, at the foot of the Alps, ranging his prisoners round him, and ty the politic option of captivity or arms, recruiting his legions with the very men whom he had literally conquered into gratitude ! They laid their foundations deep in the human heart, and their success was proportionate to their policy. You complain of the violence of the Irish Catholic : can you wonder he is violent 7 It is the consequence of your own infliction-—

"^The flesh will qniver where the pincers tesr^ Hm blood wiU follow where the knife is driTen.**

Your friendship has been to him worse than hostility ; he feels its embrace but by the pressure of his fetters 1 I am only amazed he is not more violent He fills your exchequer, he fights your battles, he feeds your clergy from whom he derives no benefit, he shares your burdens, he shares your perils, he shares every thing except your privileges: can you wonder he is violent f No matter what his merit, no matter what his claims, no matter what his services ; he sees himself a nominal subject, and a real sfeive ; and his children, the heirs, perhaps of his toils, perhaps of his talents, certainly of his disqualifications— <:an you wonder he is violent F He sees every pretended obstacle to his eman- cipation vanished; Catholic Europe your ally, the Bourbon on the throne, the Emperor a captive, the Pope a fiiend, the aspersions on his faith disproved by his aUegiance to you tigainst, alternately, every Catholic potentate in Christendom, and he feels himself branded with hereditary degradation — can you wondeTf then, thai he is violent f He petitioned humbly; hu tameness was construed into a proof of apathy. He petitioned boldly ; his remonstrance was considered as an impudent auda- city. He petitioned in peace ; he was toM it was nd the time. He petitioned in war ; he was told it was not the time. A strange interval, a prodigy m politics, a pause between peace and war, which appeared to be just made for him, arose ; I allude to the period between the retreat of Louis and the restoration of Bo-

eO SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL.

naparte ; be petitioned then, and he was told it was not the time. Oh, shame ! shame ! shame ! I hope he will petition no more to a parliament so equivocating. However, I am not bottj they did so equivocate, because I think they have suggested one com- mon remedy for the grieveances of both countries, and that re* medy is, a Rei^ohii or that Fabliamsitt. Without that, I plainly see, there is-no hope for Ireland, there is no salvation for Eng- land ; diey will act towards you as they have done towards us ; they will admit your reasoning, they will admire your eloquence, and they will prove their sincerity by a strict perseverance in ihe impolicy you have exposed, and the profligacy you ha,ve de* precated. Look to England at this moment To what a state have they not reduced her t Over this vast island, ton whose wealth the winds of Heaven seemed to blow, covered as die once was with the gorgeous mantle of successful agriculture, all studded over with the gems of art and manufacture, there is now scarce an object but industry in rags, and patience in de* spair : the merchant without a ledger, the fields without a hiur- vest^ the Aofs without a customer, the Exchange deserted, and ihe Gazette crowded, form the most heart4rending comments on that nefarious qrstem, in support of which, peers and cc»itractor8» rtock-jobbers and sinecurists^ in short, the whole trained, collar^ ed, pampered, and rapacious pack ef ministerial beagles, have be^i, (dft half a century, in the most clamorous and discoidant vproar 1 During all this misery how are the pilots of ihe state wnployed ? Why, in feedmg the bloated mammoth of sinecure I m weighing the farthings of some underling's salary ! in preparing Ireland for a garrison, and England fer a poor-bouse ! in the structure of Chinese palaces I the decoration ef dragoons, and tiie erection of public buildings I Oh, it's easily seen we have a saint in the Exchequer ( he has studied Scripture to some purpose I the famishing people cry out for brtadf and the scrip- tural minister gives them stonef! Such has been the result of the blessed Pitt system, which amid oceans of blood, and eight hundred millions expenditure, has left you, after all your victories^ a triunq»hant dupe, a trophied bankrupt I have heard before ef states ruined by die visitaUons of Providence, devastated by famine, wasted by fire, overcome by enemies ; but never imtil now did I see a state like England, impoverished by her spoils, and conquered by her successes 1 She has fought the fi^t of Enroll

SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL. 61

she has purchased all its cainaUe blood; she has subadized all its dependencies in their own cause ; she has conquered by sea, she has conquered by land ; she has got peace, and, of course, or the Pitt apostles would not have made peace, she has got her ** in* demnity for the past, and security for the future ;** and here she is» after aU her vanity and all her victories, surrounded by deso*- lation, like one of the pyramids of Egypt ; amid the grandeur of the desert, full of magnificence and death, at once a trophy and a tomb I

The heart of any reflecting man must bum within him, when be thinks that the war, thus sanguinary in its operations, and omfessedly ruinous in its expenditure, was even still more odious, in its principle ! It was a war avowedly undertaken for the purpose of forcing France out of her undoubted right of choosing her own monarch ; a war which uprooted Ae very foundations, of the EngUsh constitution ; which libelled the most glorious era in our national annals ; which declared tyranny eternal, and an^ nounced to the people, amid the thunder of artillery, that, no matter how aggrieved, their only allowable attitude was that of supplication ; which, when it told tite French reJCbrmer of 1798, fliat his defeat was just, told tiie BritiA reformer of 1688, his triumph was treason, and exhibited to history, the terrific farce of a ^ince of the House of Brunswick, the creature of the Revo- lution, 0FFBRI9O A HI^JfAlT HiSGATOMB UFOIf THB GRAVE OF JaMSS'

THB SsooiTD ! What else have you done 7 You have succeeded indeed in dethroning Napoleon, and you have dethroned a mon^ arch, who, with all his imputed crimes and vices, shed a splendour around royalty, too povrerful for the feeUe vision of legitimacy even to bear. He had many Csuilts; I do not seek to palliate them. He deserted his principles ; I rejoice that he has suffered. But still let us be generous even in our enmities. How grand was his march I How magnificent his destiny I Say what we will, Sir, he will be the land-mark of our times in the eye of posterity. The goal of other men's speed was his starting-post ; crovrAs were* bis play-things, thrones his footstool ; he strode from victory to victory ; his path was ^' a plane of continued elevations." Sur- passing the boast of the too ccmfident Roman, he but stamped upon the earth, and not only armed men, but states and dynas^ ties, and arts and sciences, all that mind could ima^e, or Indus*

^ produce, started up, the creation of enchantment He has

6

68 SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL.

« fallen — as the late Mr. Whitebread said, ** you made him and he

unmade himselT' — ^his own ambition was his glorious conqueror. He attempted, with a sublime audacity, to grasp the fires of Heaven, and his heathen retribution has been the vulture and the rock I I do not ask what you have gained by it; because, in place of gaining any thing, you are infinitely worse than when you commenced the contest I But what have you d<Hie for Eu- rope ? What have you achieved for man 1 Have morals been ameliorated? Has liberty been strengthened? Has any one im- provement in politics or philosophy been produced ? Let us see how. You have restored to Portugal a prince of whom we know nothing, except that, when his dominions were invaded, his peo- ple distracted, his crown in danger, and all that could interest the highest enei^es of man at issue, he left his cause to be com^ bated by foreign bayonets, and fled, with a dastard precipitation, to the shameful security of a distant hemisphere. You have re* stored to Spain a wretch of even worse than proverbial princely ingratitude ; who filled his dungeons, and fed his rack with the faeroFc renmant that braved war, and famine, and massacre beneath his banners; who rewarded patriotism with the prison, fidelity with the t(H*ture, heroism with the scaffold, and piety with the inquisition : whose royalty was published by the signa- ture of his death-warrants, and whose religion evaporated in the embroidering of petticoats for the Blessed Virgin ! You have forced upon France a family to whom misfortune could teach no mercy, or experience wisdom; vindictive in prosperity, servile in defeat, timid in the field, vacillating in the cabinet ; suspicion amongst themselves, discontent amongst their followers ; their memories tenacious but of the punishments they had provoked ; their piety active but in subserviency to. their priesthood; and their power passive but in the subjugation of their people ! Such are the dynasties you have conferred on Europe. Li the very act, that of enthroning three individuals of the same family, you have com- mitted in politics a capital error. But Providence has counter- mined the ruin you were preparing ; and whilst the impolicy prevents the chance, their impotency precludes the danger of a coalition. As to the rest of Europe, how has it been ameliorated T What solitary benefit have the " deliverers" conferred ? They have partitioned the states of the feeble to feed the rapacity of the powerful ; and after having alternately adored and deserted

f

SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL. 63

Napoleon, they have wreaked their vengeance on the nohle, hut unfortunate fidelity that spumed their example. Do you want proofs; look to Saxony, look to Genoa, look io Norway, but, above all, to Poland 1 that speaking monument of regal mur« der and legitimate robbery —

O ! bloodiest picture in the book of tim»— Sarmatia fell — unwept — ^without a crime !

Here was an opportunity to recompense that brave, herdc, gen- erous, martyred, and devoted people ; here was an opportunity to convince Jacobinism that crowns and crimes were not, of course, co-existent, and that the highway rapacity of one genera- tion might be atoned by the penitential retribution of another ! Look to Italy ; parcelled out to temporizing Austria — the land of the muse, the historian, and the hero ; the scene of every classic recollection ; the sacred fane of antiquity, where Uie genius of the world weeps and worships, and the spirits of the past start into life at the inspiring pilgrimage of some kindred Roscoe. You do yourselves honour by this noble, this natural en- thusiasm. Long may you enjoy the pleasure of possessing — never can you lose the pride of having produced the scholar without pedantry, the patriot without reproach, the Christian without superstition, the man without a blemish t It is a subject I could dwell on with delight for ever. How painful our transiticm to the disgusting path of the deliverers. Look to Prussia, after fruitless toU and wreathless triumphs, mocked with the promise of a visionary constitution. Look to France, chained and plunder* ed, weeping over the tomb of her hopes and her heroes. Look to England, eaten by the cancer of an incurable debt, exhausted by poor rates, supporting a civil list of near a million and a half, annual amount, guarded by a standing army of 149,000 «nen, misrepresented by a House of Commons, ninety of whose mem- bers in places and penaons derive 200,000/. in yearly emoluments from the minister, mocked with a military peace, and girt with the fortifications of a war-establishment I Shades of heroic mil- lions these are thy achievemaits ! Mohster or Legitimacy, this is thy consummation! The past is out of power, it is high time to provide against the future. Retrenchment and reform are now become not only expedient for our prosperity, but necessary to our very exist^cc. Can any man of sense say that the present

M SPEECH AT LIVEBPOOJL

syBtem should continue 7 What ! when war and peace have al- ternately thrown every family in the empire into mourning and poverty, shall the fattened tax^therer extort the starving manufacturer's last shilling, to swell the unmerited and enormous sinecure of some wealthy pauper 1 Shall a borough*mongering faction convert what is misnamed the National Representation into a mere instrument for raising the supplies which are to gorge its own venality ? Shall the mock dignitaries of Wlugism and Toryism lead their himgry retainers to contest the profits of an alternate ascendency over the prostrate interest of a too generous people? These are questions Which I hiudi to ask, which I shudder to think must be either answered by the par- liament or the people. Let our rulers prudently avert the inter- rogation. We Uve in times when the slightest remoastrance should command attention, when the minutest speck that merely dots the edge of the political horizon^ may be the car of the ap- proaching spirit of the storm I Oh ! they are times whose omen no fancied security can avert ; times of the most awful and por- tentous admonition. Establishments the most solid, thrones the most ancient, coalitioDs the most powerful, have crumbled be- fixre our eyes; and the creature of a moment robed, and crowned, and sceptred, raised hk fairy creation on tfadr ruins ! The warmng has been given ; may it not have been given in vain 1

I feel, Sir, that the magnitude of the tc^ics I have touched, and the imminency of tiie perils which seem to surround u& have led me far beyond the limits of a convivial meeting, see I have my apology in your indulgence — but I cannot pre- vail on myself to trespass farther. Accept, again, Gentlemen, my 9iof t grateful acknowledgements. Never, never, can I fo> get this day: in private life it shall be the companion of my Kditude: and if, in the caprices of that fortune which will at times degrade the high and dignify the humble, I diouM here- after be called to any station of respondbility, I think I may at least fearlessly promise the friends who thus crowd around me, that no act of mine shall ever raise a blush at the recollection of their early encouragement I hope, however, the benefit of this day will not be ocmfined to the humble individual you have 80 honoured ; I hope it will cheer on the young aspirants after

SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL. 66

virtuous fame in both our countries, bj proving to them, that however, for the moment, envy, or ignorance, or corruption^ may depreciate them, there is a reward in store for the man who thinks with integrity and acts with decision. Gentlemei^ you will add to the obligations you have already conferred, by delegatii^ to m^ the honour of proposing to you the health of a man, whose virtues adorn, and whose talents powerfully advo- cate our cause ; I mean the health of your worthy Chairman^ Mr. Shsphbrd.

6«

SPEECH OF MR. PHILLIPS

til IBB CAM m

I

GUTHRIE V. 8TERNE, DELIVERED IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DUBLIN.

Mt Lord aitd GsirTLBifEir, — ^In thk case I am coniiseLibr the plaintifi^ who has deputed me, with the kind conceaooD of my much more efficient colleagues, to d« tail to you the story of his misfortunes. In the 'course of a long friendship which has exist- ed between us, originating in mutual pursuits, and cemented by our mutual attachments, nerer, until this instant, did I feel any thing but pleasure in the claims which it created, or the duty which it imposed. In selecting me, however, from this bright array of learning and of eloquence, I cannot help being pained at the kindness of a partiality which Ibrgets its interest in the exercise of its afiection, and confides the task of practised wisr dom to the uncertain guidance of youth and inexperience. He has thought, perhaps, that truth needed no set phrase of q)eech ; that misfortune should not veil the furrows which its tears had burned ; or hide, under the decorations of an artful drapery, the heart-rent heavings with which its bosom throbbed. He has surely thought that, by contrasting mine with the powerful talents selected by his antagonist, he was giving you a proof that the appeal he made was to your reason, not to your feelings — to the integrity of your hearts, not the exasperation of your passions. Happily, however, for him, happily for you, happily for the coun- try, happily for the profession, on subjects such as this, the expe rience of the oldest amongst us is but slender ; deeds such as this are not indigenous to an Irish soil, or naturalized beneath an Irish climate. We hear of them, indeed, as we do of the earth- quakes that convulse, or the pestilence that infects less favoured regions ; but the record of the calamity is only read with the

generous scepticism of innocence, or an involuntary thanksgiving

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QUTHRIE V. ST£RNE. 67

to tbe Providence that has preserved us. No matter how we may have graduated in the scale of nations, no matter with what wreath we may have been adorned, or what UesslngB we may have been denied ; no matter what may have been our feuds, our follies or our misfortunes ; it has at least been universally GODceded» that our hearths were the home of Ae domestic vir- tues, and that love, honour, and conjugal fidelity, were the dear and indisputable deities of our houselio)d 1 around the fire-side of the Irish hovel^ lvoq[»itality circumscribed its sacred circle ; and a provision to punisht created a suspicion of the possibility of its violatioo^ Butof all the ties that ixMrnd— of all the bounties that blessed her— -Ireland most obeyed, most loved, mostreverenced the nuptial contract She saw it the gift of Qeaven, the charm of earth, the joy of the present, the pomise of the future, the in- nocence of enjoymfHit, the chatty of passion, the sacrament of love ; the slender curtain that shades the sanctuary of her mar* riage-bed, haa in its purity the splendour of the mountain-snow, and for its protection the texture of the mountain^damant Gentlemen, that national sanctuary has been iavaded; that venerable divinity has been violated; and its tenderest pledges torn firom their shrine, hy the polluted rapine of a landless, heart- less, prayerless, remorseless adulterer ! To you — religion defiled, morals insulted, ktw despised, public order foully violated, and individual happiness wantonly wounded, make their melancholy appeal You will hear the filets with as much patience a^ in- dignation will allow.-^I will myself ask of you to adjudge them with as nuich meniy as justice will admit

The Plaintiff in this case is J<«m Gurmun ; *by birth, by edu- cation, by pETofesBioni and better than all, by practice and by principles, a gentkman. Believe me, it is not from the common- place of advocacy, or from the blind partiality of firiend^p that I say of him, Uiat whether considering the virtues that adorn life, or the hlandishmpints that endear it, he has few supe- riors. Surely, if a spirit that disdained dishonour, if a heart that knew not guile, if a life above reproach, and a character bey(Xid suspicion, could have been a security against misfortunes, his lot must have been happiness. I q>eak in the presence of that pro- fession to which be was an ornament, and with whose members hb manhood has been familiar; and I say of him, with a con- fidence that defies refutation, that, whether vre conuder him in

06 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

his private or his public statioDy as a man or a la^er, there never breathed that being less capable of exciting enmity to- wards himself, or of ofiering, even by implication, an ofience to others. If he had a fault, it was, that, above crime, he was above suspicion ; and to that noblest error of a noble nature he has fallen a victim* Having qient his youth in the cultivation of a mind which must have one day led lum to eminence, he be- came a member of the profession by which I am surrounded. Possessing, as he did, a moderate independence, and looking for- ward to the most flattering proqiects, it was natural for him to select amcMigst the other sex, some friend who should adorn his fortunes, and deceive his toils. He found such a friend, or thought he found her, in the person of Miss Warren, the only daughter of an eminent solicitor* Young, beautiful, and accomplished, she was '* adorned with all that earth or heaven could bestow to make her amiable." Virtue never found a fairer temple ; beauty never veiled a purer sanctuary ; the graces of her mind retained the admiration which her beauty had attracted ; and the eye, which her charms fired, became subdued and chastened in the modesty of their association. She was in the dawn ct life, with all its fragrance round her, and yet so pure, that even the blush which sought to hide her lustre, but disclosed the vestal deity that burned beneath it No wonder an adorii^ husband antici- pated all the joys this world could give him ; no wonder that the parental eye, which beamed upon their union, saw, in the perspective, an old age of happiness, and a posterity of honour. Methinks I see them at the sacred altar, joining those hands which Heaven commanded none should separate, repaid for many a pang of anxious nurture by the sweet smile of filial piety ; and in the holy rapture of the rite, worshiping the power that blessed their children, and gave them to hope their names should live hereafter. It was virtue's vision ! None but fiends could envy it Year after year confirmed the anticipaticHi ; four lovely children blessed their union. Nor was their love the sum* mer passion of proq>erity ; misfortune proved, afflictions chas- tened it Before the mandate of that mysterious Power, which will at times despcnl the paths of innocence, to decorate the cha- riot of triumphant villany, my client had to bow in ulent res^- naticm. He owed his adversity to the benevolence of his spirit ; he *' went security for friends ;" those friends deceived him, and

GUTHRIE V. STERNE. 00

he was obliged to seek in other lands, that safe a^lum which his own denied him. He was glad to accept an offer of profes* sional business in Scotland during his temporary embarrassment. With a conjugal devotion^ Mrs. Guthrie accompanied him ; and in her smile the soil of a stranger was a home, the sorrows of adversity were dear to him. — ^During their residence in Scotland, a period of about a year, you will find they lived as they had done in Ireland, and as they continued to do until this calamitous occurrence, in a state c( uninterrupted happiness. You shall hear, most satisfactorily, that their domestic life was unsullied and'undisturbed. Happy at home, happy in a husband's love, happy in her parents' fondness, happy in the children she had nursed, Mrs. Guthrie carried into every circle — and there was no circle in which her society was not courted — that cheerful- ness which never was a companion of guilt, or a stranger to in- nocence. My client saw her the pride of his family, the favour- ite of Ins friends, — at once the organ and ornament of his hap- piness. His ambition awoke. Ins industry redoubled ; and that fortune, which though for a season it may frown, never totally abandons probity and virtue, had begun to smile on him. He was beginning to rise in the ranks of his competitors, and rising with Such a character, that emulation itself rather rejoiced than envied. It was at this crisis, in this, the no(»i of his happiness, and day-spring of his fortune, that, to the ruin 6f both, the De- fendant became acquainted with his family. With the serpent's wile, and the serpent's wickedness, he stole into the Eden of do- mestic life, poisoning all that was pure, polluting all that was lovely, defying God, destroying man ; a demon in the disguise of virtue, a herald of hell in the paradise of innocence. His name. Gentlemen, is William Peter Baker Duvstanvillb Sterns; one would think he had epithets enough, without adding tc^ them the title of Adulterer. Of his character I know but little, and I am sorry I know so much. If I am instructed rightly, he is one of those vain and vapid coxcombs, whose vices tinge the frivolity of their follies with something of a more odious character than ridicule — ^with just head enough to contrive crime, but not heart enough to feel for its ccmsequences ; one ol those fashionable insects, that folly has painted, and fortune plumed, for the annoyance of our atmosphere ; dangerous alike in their torpidity and their animation ; infesting where they fly.

70 BPESXM m THK CASE OF

and poifloning where they repose. It was through the introduc- tion of Mr. FalloD, the son of a most respectable lady, then resi- dent in Temple-^eet, and a near relative of Mr. Guthrie, that the defendant and this unfortunate woman first became acquaint- ed : to such an introduction the shadow of a suspciofi could not possibly attach. Occupied himself in his professkxial pursuits^ my client had Uttle leisure for the am^usement of society; how-, ever, to the protection of Mrs. Fallon, her soii» and daughters, moving in the first circles, unstained by any possible imputa^ tion, he Without hesitation intrusted all that was dear to him. Jf o Buspidon could be awakened as to any man to whom such a female as Mrs. Fallon permitted an intimacy with her daughters: while at her house then, and at the parties which it originated^ the defendant and Mrs. Quthrie had frequent opportunities of meeting* Who could have suspected, that, under the very roof of virtue, in the presence of a venerable and respected matroot and of that iqnocent family, whom she had roared up in the sun- shine of her example, the most abandcmed profligate could have pbtted bis iniquities ! Who would not ratiier suppose, that, ia the rebuke of such a presence, guilt would have torn away the garland from its brow, and blushed itself into virtue. But the depravity of this man was of no common dye ; the asylum of innocence was selected only as the sanctuary of Us crimes ; and the pure and the spotless chosen as his associates, because they would be more unsuspected subsidiaries to his wickedness. Nor were his manner and his language less suited than his society to the concealment of his objects. If you believed himself, the sight of suffering afiected his nerves ; the bare mention of immo- rality smote upon his conscience ; an intercourse with the conti-* nental courts had refined his mind into a painful sensibility to the barbarisms of Ireland T and yet an internal tenderness U>> wards his native land so irresistibly impelled him to improve it by his residence, that he was a hapless victim to the excess of his feelings ! — ^the exquiaiteness of his polish \ — and the excellence of his patriotism I His English estates, he said, amounted to about 10,000/. a year; and he retained in Ireland only a trifling dOOOL ox>re, as a kind of trust for the necessities of its inhabitants I-* In short, according to his own description, he was in reljgi<m a saint, and in morals a stdc — a sort of wandering philanthropist 1 makii^ like the StemCf who, he confessed* had tiie honour of hit

GUTUJUE T. CTiatNE. 71

name and his couectioD, a Seniimenial Jcnttney in search of ob- jects over whom his heart ought weep, and his sensibility expand itself! How happy it is, that, of the philosophic profligate only retaining the vices and the name, his radiness has led to the arrest of crimest which be had all his turpitude to commit, with- <Ait any of his talents to embellish.

It was by arts sudi as I have allnded to—by pretending the most strict morality, the most sensitive honour, the most high and undeviatiag prindples of virtue, — that the defendant banished evety suspicion ef his designs. As far as appearances went, he Was e^cactly what he described luHisdf. ISs pretensions to mo- rals he supported by the most reserved and respectful behaviour: Us hand was lavidi in the distribution of his charities ; and a splendid equipage, a numerous retinue, a system of the most profuse and prodigal expenditure, left no doubt as to the reality of his fortune. Thus circumstanced, he found an ea^ admit- tance to the house of Mrs. Fallon, and there he had many <q>por^ tuntties of seeing Mrs. Gutlirie ; for between his family and that of so respectable a relative as Mrs. Fallon, my client had nrach anxiety to increase the connection. They visited together some of tiie public amusements; they partook of some of the fetes in the neigbbouiiiood of the metropolis; but upon every occasion Mrs. Guthrie was accompanied by her own mother, and by the respectable females of Mrs. Fallon's &mily. I say upon every occasion : and I challenge them to produce one single instance <^ tiiose mnocent excursions, iqxm which die slanders of an inter- ested cahunny have been let loose, in which this unfortunate Jady was not matronised by her female relatives, and those some of the most ^tless characters in society. Between Mr. Guthrie and the defendant, the acquaintance was but slight Upon one occanon akme they dined together ; it was at the bouse of the plaintifiT's father-in-law ; and that you may have some illustraticD of the defendant's character, I shall briefly instance his conduct at this dinner. On being introduced to Mr. Warren, he apolo- gized for any deficiency of etiquette in his visit, declaring that he bad been seriously occupied in arranging the afiairs of his la- mented father, who, though tenant for life, had contracted debts to an enormous amount. He had already paid upwards of 10,000/. which honouf and not law compelled him to discharge; asi sweet soul! he could not bear that any one should suffer un-

IS SPEECH IN THE CASE 01

justly by his family ! His sabsequent conduct was quite con- sistent with this hypocriticai preamble: at dinner, he sat at a dis- tance from Mrs. Guthrie ; expatiated to her husband upon mat* ters of morality ; entering into a high-flown panegyric oa the virtues of domestic life, and the comSartBcf connubial happiness. In shorty had there been any idea <^ jealousy, his manner would have banished it ; and the mind must have been wcnrse than scep- tical, which would refuse its credence to his surface mcNrality. Gracious God! when the heart once admits guilt as its associate, how every natural emotion flies before it ! Surely, surely, here was a scene to reclaim, if it were possible, this remorseless defend- ant Admitted to her father's table under die shield of hospital- ity, he saw a youi^ and lovely female surrounded by her parents^ her husband, and her children; the prop of those parents' age; the idol of that husband's love; the anchor of those children's helplessness ; the sacred orb of their domestic circle ; giving their smile its l%ht, and their bliss its being ; robbed of whose beams, the little lucid world of their home must become chill, uncheered, and odourless for ever. He saw them happy, be saw them uni- ted ; blessed with peace, and purity, and proforion ; throbbing with sympathy and throned in love ; depicting the innocence of infancy, and the joys of manhood before the venerable eye of age, as if to soften the farewell of one world by the pure and pictured anticipation of a better. Yet, even there, hid in the very sun-beam of that happiness, the demon of its destined desolation lurked. Just Heaven ! of what materials was that heart composed, which could meditate coolly on the murder of such enjoyments— which innocence could not soften, nor peace propitiate, nor hospitality appease ; but which, in the very beam and bosom of its benefac- tiiMi, wanned and excited itself into a more vigorous ven<Mn? Was there no sympathy in the scene 1 Was there no ranorse at the crime f Was thero no horror at its consequences t

** Were hononr, Tirtue, oonscienoe, all exiled !

Wae there no pity, no relenting roth.

To thow their perents fondling o*er their child.

Then peint the rained pair, and their distraction wild r* Bumn.

No I no! He was at that instant planning their destruction; and even within four short days he deliberately reduced those parents to diildlessness, that husband to widowhood, those smiling infants to anticipate orphanage, and that peaceful, hospitable, confidii^;

GUTHRIE V. STERNE. ' 78

family, to helpless, bopeless, irremediable ruin ! — Upon the first day of the ensuing July, Mr. Guthrie was to dine with the Connaught bar, at the hotel of Portobeila It is a custom, I am told, with the gentlemen of that association, to dine to- gether previous to the circuit ; of course my client could not have decorously absented himself. Mrs. Guthrie appeared a , little feverish, and he requested that, on his retiring, she would compose herself to rest ; she promised him she would ; and when he departed, somewhat abruptly, to put some letters in the post- office, she exclaimed, *' Wh^t ! John, are you going to leave me thus V* He returned, and she kissed him. They seldom parted, even for any time, without that token of affection. I am thus minute, gentlemen, that you may see, up to the last moment, what little cause the husband had for suspicion, and how impossible it was for him to foresee a perfidy, which nothing short of infatua- tion could have produced. He proceeded to his companions with no other r^ret than that necessity, for a moment, forced him from a home, which the smile of afiection had never ceased to endear to him. After a day, however, passed, as such a day might have been supposed to pass, in the flow of soul, and the philosophy of pleasure, he returned home to share his happiness with her, without whom no happiness ever had been perfect. Alas ! he was never to behold her more ! Imagine, if you can, the phrenzy of his astonishment, in being informed by Mrs. Por- ter, the daughter of the former landlady, that about two hours before, she had attended Mrs. Guthrie to a confectioner's shop, that a carriage had drawn up at the comer of the street, into which a gentleman, whom she realized to be a Mr. Sterne, had handed her, and they instantly departed. I must tell you, there is every reason to believe, that this woman was the confidant of the conspiracy. What a pity that the object of that guilty confidence had not something of humanity ; that as a female, she did not feel for the character of her sex ; that, as a mother, she did not mourn over the sorrows of a helpless family ! What pangs might she not have spared 7

My client could hear no more ; even at the dead of night he rushed into the street, as if in its own dark hour he could dis- cover guilt's recesses. In vain did he awake the peaceful family of the horror-struck Mrs. Fallon ; in vain, with the parents of the miserable fugitive^ did he mingle the tears of an impotent di»-

K 7

74 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

traction ; in vain, a miserable maniac, did he traverse the sOent streets of the metropolis, afirighting virtue from its slumber with the spectre of its own ruin. I will not harrow you with its heart- rending recital But imagine you see him, when the day had dawned, returning wretched to his deserted dwelling, seeing in every chamber a memorial of his loss, and hearii^ every tongue- less object eloquent of his woe. Imagine you see him, in the reverie of his grief, trying to persuade himself it was all a viaoo, and awakened only to the horrid truth by his helpless children asking far thar mother!

Gentlemen, this is not a picture of the fancy ; it Uteralfy oc« curred; there is s(»nething less of romance in the reflection which his children awakened in the mind of their afflicted father; he ordered that they should be immediately habited in nKMiming. How rati<Mial sometimes are the ravings of insanity I For all the purposes of maternal life, poor innocents, they have no mother! her tongue no more can teach, her hand no more can tend them: for them there is not ** speculation in her ^es ;" to them her life is something worse than death ; as if the awful grave had yawned her forth, die moves before them shrouded all in 8in» the guilty burden of its peaceleas sepulchre. Better, far better, their little feet had followed in her funeral, than the hour which taught bar value, should reveal her vice, — mourmng her loss, they might have blessed her memory ; and shame need not have rolled iti fires into the fimntain of their sorrow.

As soon as his reason had become sufficiently collected, Mr Guthrie pursued the fugitives ; he traced them successively to Kildare, to Carlow, Waterford, Milfordhaven, on through Wales and finally to Dfracombe, in Devonshire, where the clue was k»t 1 am glad that, in this route and restlessness of their guilt, as th« crime they perpetrated was foreign to our soil, they did not mak« that soil the scene of its habitation. I will not follow them through this joyless JQumey, nor brand by my record the uncon^ scious scene of its pollution. But phikMophy never taught, thr pulpit never enforced, a more imperative morality than the ifcin • erary of that accursed tour promulgates. Oh! if therebeamaii? or matron in this island, balancing between the alternative of virtue and of crime, trembling between the hell of Ae seduces and the adulterer, and the heaven of the parental and the nup- tial home, let her pause upon this one, out ot^e many horrore I

GUTHRIE T. STERNK 75

could depict, — and be converted. I will give you the relation in tbe very words of my brief; I cannot improve upon the simplicity of the recital :

^ On the 7th of July they arrived at ItfiUbrd; the captain of the packet dined with them, and was astonished at the magnificence of her dress.** (Poor wretch ! she was decked and adorned for the sacrifice!) The next day they dined alone. Towards evening, the housemaid, passing near their chamber, heard Mr. Sterne BCoUHngf and apparently beaHng her ! In a short time after, Mrs. Giithrie rushed out of her chamber into the dra wig-room, and throwing herself in agony upoa the sofii, she exclaimed. Oh! vAat an unhappy vordch I am ! — I left mg home^ where I zoos happy^ too happy^ seduced by a man who has deceived me, — Jify poor BUSBAVD t my dear CHiLDREir 1 Oh ! ifihey wouid even let my little Weluam Hoe with me! — it tootddhe seme consolation to my broksv

HSUftTl

** Alas! nor chlidien mora ean ihd bfllioUI» Nor firiendi, nor Mcred home.**

Wen might she lament over her fallen fortunes 1 well ought she mourn over the memory of days when the sun of heaven seemed to rise but for her happiness ! well might she recall the home she had endeared, the children she had nursed, the hapless husband, of whose life she was the pulse I But one short week before, this earth could not reveal a lovelier vision : — ^Virtue blessed, afiection followed, beauty beamed on her; the light of every eye, the charm of every heart, she moved along in cloudless chastity, cheered by the song of love, and circled by the splen- dours she created ! Behold her now, the loathsome refuse of an adulterous bed ; festering in the very infection of her crime ; the scoff and scorn of their unmanly, merciless, inhuman author ! But thus it ever is with the votaries of guilt ; the birtiii of their crime is the death of their enjoyment ; and the wretch who flings his ofiering on its altar, falls an immediate victim to the flame of his devotion. I am glad it is so ; it is a wise, retributive dispensation; it bears the stamp of a preventive Providence. I rejoice it is so, in the present instance, first, because this prema- ture infliction must insure repentance in the wretdied suflerer: and next, because, as this adulterous fiend has rather acted on the suggestions of his nature than his shape, by rebelling against the finest impulse of man, he has made himself an outlaw from the sympathies of humanity. — ^Why should he expect that charity

76 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

from jou, which he would not spare even to the misfbrtanes fae had inflicted T For the honour of the fcurm in which he is dis- guised, I am willing to hope he was so blinded by his vice, that he did not see the full extent of those m]sfortane& If he had feelings capable of being touched^ it is not to the faded victim of her own weakness, and of his wickedness, that I would direct them. There is something in her crime which affiights charitj from its commiseration.

But, Gentlemen, there is one, over whom [nty may mourn, — for he is wretched ; and mourn without a blush, — ^for he is guilt- less. How shall I depict to you the deserted husband 1 To every other object in this catalogue of calamity there is one stain at- tached which checks compassion. — But here— oh 1 if ever there was a man amiable^ it was that man— oh ! if ever there was a husband fond, it was that husband. His hope, hi» joy, Ins ambi- tion was domestic, his toils were forgotten in the afiections of his home ; and amid every adverse variety of fortune, hope pointed to his children, — and he was comforted. By this vile act that hope is blasted, that bouse is a desert, those children are parentless! In vain do they look to their surviving parent : his heart is broken^ his mind is in ruins : bis very form is fading from the earth. He had one consolation^ an aged mother, on whose life the renmant of his fortunes hung, and on whose protection of his children his remaining prospects rested; even that is over ; she could not sur^ vive his shame, she never raised her head, she became hearsed in his misfortune ; — ^he has followed her funeral. If this be not the climax of human misery, tell me in what does human misery con- nst ? Wife, parent, fortune, prospects, happiness, — aD gone at once^ — and gone for ever! I^^rmy part, when I contemplate this, I do not wonder at the impression it has produced on him i I do not wonder at the faded form, the dejected air, the emaciated coun- tenance, and all the ruinous and mouldering trophies, by which misery has marked its triumph over youth, and health, and hap- piness T I know, that in the hordes of what is called fashionable life, there is a sect of philosophers, wonderfully patient of their fel- low-creatures" sufierings ; men too insensible to feel for any one» or too selfish to feel for others. I trust there is not one amongst you who can even hear of such calamities without affliction; or if there be, I pray that he may never know their import by expe- rience ; that having, in the wilderness of this world, but one dear

GUTHRIE y. STERNR 77

darling object, without whose partidpatioD, bliss would be joyless, and in whose sympathies sorrow has found a charm; whose smile has cheered his toil, whose love has pillowed his misfortunes, whose angel-spirit, guiding him through danger, and darkness, and despair, amid the world's frown and the friend's perfidy, was more than friend, and world, and all to him ! God forbid, that by a villain's wile, or a villain's wickedness, he should be taught how to appreciate the wo of others in the dismal solitude of his own. Oh, no 1 1 feel that I address myself to human beings, who, know- ing the value of what the world is worth, are capable of appre- ciating all that makes it dear to us.

Observe, however, — ^lest this crime should want a^ravation— observe, I beseech you, the period of its accomplishment. My client was not so young as that the elasticity of his spirit could rebound and bear him above the pressure of the misfortune ; nor was he withered by age into a comparative insensibility ; but just at that temperate interval of manhood, when passion had ceased to play, and reason begins to operate ; when love, gratified, left him nothing to desire ; and fidelity, long tried, left him nothing to apprehend : he was just, too, at that period of his professional career, when, hb patient industry having ccmquered the ascent, he was able to look around him firom the height on which he rested. For this, welcome had been the day of tumult, and the pale midnight lamp succeeding; welcome had been the drudgery of form ; welcome the analysis of crime ; welcome the sneer of eavjf and the scorn of dulness, and all the spurns which ** patient merit of the unworthy takes." For this he had encountered, per- haps, the generous rivalry of genius, perhaps the biting blasts of poverty, perhaps the efforts of that deadly slander, which, coiling round the cradle of lus young ambition, might have sought to crush him in its envenomed foldings.

** Ah ! who can tell how hard it U to dimb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines aArl Ah ! who can tell how manj a soal sublime Hath felt the inflnenoe of malignant star. And waged with fortune an eternal war T*

Can such an injury as this admit of justification 7 I think the learned counsel will concede it cannot But it may be palliated*. Let us see how. — Perhaps the defendant was young and thought- less; perhaps unmerited prosperity raised him above the pressure of misfortune, and the wild impulses of impetuous passion impel-

7»

78 SP£ECH IN THE CASE OF

led him to a purpose at which his experience would. have shod* dered. Quite the contrary. The noon of manhnn^ has almost passed over him : and a youth, spent in the recesses of a debtor's prison, made him familiar with every form of human misery : he saw what misfortune was ; — ^it did not teach him pity : he saw the efiects of guilt ; — he spumed the admonition. — Perhap$ in the solitude of a single life, he had never known the social blessed* nesB of marriage ; — ^he has a wife and children t or, if she be not his wife, she is the victim of his crime, and adds another to the calender of his seduction. Certain it is, he has little children^ who think themselves Intimate; will his advocates defend him, by proclaiming their bastardy? Certain it is, there is a wretched female, his own cousin too, who thinks herself his wife ; will they protect him, by proclaiming he has only deceived her into being his prostitute ? — Perhape his crime, as in the celebrated case oC AnDonf, immortalized by Lord £rBkine,may have found its origia in parental cruelty ; it might perhaps have been that in their spring of life, when fancy waved her feiry wand aroimd them, till all above was sunshine, and all beneath was flowers ; when* to their clear and charmed visbn this ample world was but a weedlesa garden, where every tint spoke Nature's loveliness, and every sound breathed Heaven's melody, and every breeze was but em* bodied fragrance ; it might have been that, in this ckwdless bc&* day. Love wove his roseate bondage round them, till their young hearts so grew together, a separate existence ceased, and life itself became a sweet identity ; it might have been that, envious ef this paradise, some worse than demon tore them from each other to pin^ for years in absence, and at length to perish in a palliated impiety. Oh ! Gentlemen, in such a case. Justice her- self, with her uplifted sword, would call on Mercy to preserve the victim. There was no such palliation >— the period of their acquaintance was little more than sufficient for the maturity of their crime ; and they dare not libel Love by shielding under its soft and sacred name the loathsome revels of an adulterous de- pravity. — It might have 6een, the husband's cruelty lefl a too easy inroad for seduction. Will they dare assert it? Ah! too well they know he would not let ** the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly." Monstrous as it is, I have heard, indeed, that they mean to rest upon an opposite palliation : I have heard it ru- moured, that they mean to rest the wife's infidelity upon tho

GUTHRIE ▼. STERNE. 79

husband's fondness. I know that guilt, in its conception mean, and in its commission tremulous, is, in its exposure, desperate and audacious. I know that, in the fugitive panic of its retreat it will stop to fling its Parthian poisons upon the justice that pur- sues it But I do hope, had and abandoned, and hopeless as their cause is, — I do hope, for the name of human nature, that I have been deceived in the rumours of this unnatural defence. Merci- ful God 1 is it in the presence of this venerable Court, is it in the hearing of this virtuous jury, is it in the zenith of an enlightened age, that I am to be told, because female tenderness was not watched with worse than Spanish vigilance, and harassed with worse than eastern severity ; because the marriage-contract is not converted into the curse of incarceration ; because woman is allowed the dignity of a human soul, and man does not d^rade himself into a human monster; because the vow of endearment is not made the vehicle of deception^ and the altar's pledge is not beamie the passport of a barbarous perjury; and that too in a land of courage and chivalry, where the female form has been held as a patent direct from the Divinity, bearing in its chaste and charmed helplessness the assurance of its strength, and die amulet of its protection : am I to be told, that the demon adul* terer is therefore not only to perpetrate his crimes, but to vindi- cate himself through the very virtues he has vidated ? I can* not believe it; I dismiss the supposition ; it is most '* monstrous, foul, and unnatural." Suppose tibat the plaintiff pursued a dif* ferent principle ; suppose, that his conduct had been the reverse of what it was; suppose, that in place of being kind, he had been cruel to this deluded female ; that he had been her tyrant, not her protector ; her jailor, not her husband ; what then mi^t have beai the defence of tiie adulterer 7 Might he not then say, and say with speciousness. ** True, I seduced her into crime, but it was to save her from cruelty ; true, she is my aduUeress^ because he was her despdt.^ Happily, Gentlemen, he can say no such thing. I hfltve heard it said, too, during the ten months of calumny, for which, by ev^ species of legal delay, they have procrastinated ibis trial, that next to the impeachment of the husband's ten- derness, they -mean to rely on what they libd as the levity of their unhappy victim ! I know not by what right any man, but above all, a married man, presumes to scrutinise into the con- duct oi a married female. I know not, G^itlemen, how you

80 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

would feel, under the consciousness that every coxcomb was at liberty to estimate the warmth, or the coolness of your wives, by the barometer of his vanity, that he might ascertain precisely the prudence of his invasion on their virtue. But I do know, that such a defence, coming from such a quarter, would not at all surprise me. Poor — ^unfortunate — ^fallen female! How can she expect mercy from her destroyer? How can she expect that he will revere the characters he was careless of preserving ? How can she suppose that, after having made her peace the pander to his appetite, he will not make her reputation the victim of his avarice ? Such a defence is quite to be expected : knowing him, it will not surprise me ; if I know you, it will not avail him.

Having now shown you, that a crime almost unprecedented in this country, is clothed in every aggravation, and robbed of every palliative, it is natural you should inquire, what was the motive for its commission 7 What do you think it was ? Provi- dentially— miraculously, I should have said, for you never could have divined — the Defendant has himself disclosed it What do you think it was. Gentlemen 7 Ambition! But a few days be- fore this criminality, in answer to a friend, who rebuked him for the almost princely expenditure of his habits — ^* Oh,** says he, ««never mind ; Sterne must do something by which Sterne may be known !** I had heard, indeed, that ambition was a vice, but then a vice so equivocal, it verged on virtue; that it was the as- piration of a spirit, sometimes perhaps appalling, always magnifi- cent ; that though its grasp might be fate, and its flight might be famine, still it reposed on earth's pinnacle, and played in heavep's li^tnings ; that though it might fall in ruins, it arose in fire, and was withal so splendid, that even the horrors of that &11 became immerged and mitigated in the beauties of that aberration I But here is an ambition . — ^base and barbarous and illegitimate, with all the grossness of the vice, with none of the grandeur of the vir- tue ; a mean, muffled, dastard incendiary, who, in the silence oi sleep and the shades of midnight, steals his Ephesian torch into the fane, which it was virtue to adore, and worse than sacril^e to have violated 1

Gentlemen, my part is done ; yours is about to commence. You have heard this crime — ^its origin, its progress, its aggravations, its novelty amongst us. Go and tell your children and your coun- try, whether or not it is to be made a precedent Oh! bow

UUTHRIE V. STERNfi. 81

awful is jour responability ! I do not doubt that you will discharge yourselves of it as becomes your characters. I am sure, indeed, that you will mourn with me over the almost solitary defect in our otherwise matchless system of jurisprudence, which leaves the perpetrators of such an injury as this, subject to no amerce- ment but that of money. I think you will lament the failure of the great Cicero of our age, to bring such an o&nce within the cognizance of a criminal jurisdiction ; it was a subject suited to his le^ative mind, worthy of his feeling heart, wortiiy of his immortal eloquence. I cannot, my Lord, even remotely allude to Lord Erskinef without gratifying myself by saying of him, that» by the rare union of all that was learned in law with all that was lucid in eloquence, by the singular combination of all that was pure in morals with aU that was profound in wisdom ; he has stamped upon every action of his life the blended authority of a gr^at mind' and an unquestionable conviction^ I think. Gentlemen, you will regret the failure of such a man in such an object The merciless murderer may have naanlioess to plead; the highway robber may have want to palliate ; yet they both are objects of crinpnal infliction : but the murderer of connubial bliss, who commits his crime in secrecy; — ^the robber of domestic joys, whose very wealth, as in thb case, may be his instrument ; — ^he is sufiered to calculate on the infernal £une which a superfluous and unfelt expenditure may purchase. The law, however, is so, and we must only adopt the remedy it aflbrds us. In your adjudication of that remedy, I do not ask too much, when I ask the full extent of your capability; how poor, even so, is the wretched remuneration for an injury which nothing can repair,— for a loss which nothing can-aHeviate ? Do you think that a mine could recompense my client for the forfeiture of her who was dearer than life to him ?

*^Oh, hU the been but tna, Thoafh beA^en had made him sock aaoUiar world. Of one entire and perfect ehrTeoUto He*d not eachange her fiir it !**

I put it to any of you, what would you take to stand in his mtua-

tion? What would you take to have your prospects blasted, your

profession despoiled, your peace ruined, your bed profaned, your

parents heart-broken, your children parentless ? Believe, Gen<>

tlemen, if it were not for those children, he would not come here

to day to seek such remuneration ; if it were not that, by your

rerdict, you may prevent those little innocent defrauded wretches

L

62 GUTHRIE ▼. STERNE.

•

from becoming wandering be^ars, as well as orphans on the face of this earth* Oh, I know I need not ask th^ verdict from jour mercy; I need not extort it from your compasuon; I will receive it from your justice. I do conjure you, not as fathers, but as hus- bands : — ^not as husbands but as citizens : — ^not as citizens, but as men : — ^not as men, but as Christians :-7-by all your obligationsi public, private, moral, and religious ; by the hearth profaned ; by the home desolated ; by the canonsof the living God foully spumed ; — save, oh ! save your fire-sides from the contagion, your country from the crime, and perhaps thousands, yet unborn, from the shame, and sin, and sorrow of this example !

SPEECH OF MR. PHILLIPS

Sf THX 0A8I OV

O'MULLAN V. BTKORKILL. DELIVERED IN THE OOUKTT COmiT-HOUSE, GALWAY.

Mf Lords and Gentlemenf

I AM iDstructed, as of counsel for the Plaintifl^ to state to you the circumstances in which this action has originated It is a source to me, I will confess it» o{ much personal embarrassment Fee- bly, indeed, can I attempt to convey to you, the feelings with which a perusal of this brief has afiected'me; painful to you must be my inefficient transcript — ^painful to all who have the common feelings of country or of kind, must be this calamitous compendium of all that degrades our individual nature, and of all tiiat has, for many an age of sorrow, perpetuated a curse upon our national character. It is, perhaps, the misery of this profession, that every hour our vision may be blasted by some withering crime, and our hearts wrung vnth some agonizing re- cital ; there is no frightful form of vice, or no disgusting phantom of infirmity, which guilt does not array in spectral train before us. Horrible is the assemblage ! humiliating the application ! but thank God, even amid those very scenes of disgrace and of de- basement, occasions oft arise for the redemptiim of our dignity ; occasions, on which the virtues breathed into us, by heavenly inspiration, walk abroad in the divinity of their exertion ; before whose beam the wintry robe falls from the form of virtue, and all the midnight images of horror vanish into nothing. Joyfully and piously do I recognise such an occluion ; gladly do I invoke you to the generous participation ; yes. Gentlemen, though you nrost prepare to hear much that d^rades our nature, much that distracts our country — ^though all that oppression could devise against poor— though all that persecution could inflict upon the feeble — ^though all that vice could wield against the piou»— *

88

84 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

though all that the venom of a venal turpitude could pour upon the patriot, must with their alternate apparition afflict, affright, and humiliate you, still do I hope, that over this charnel-house of crime— over this very sepulchre, where CMTuption sits en- throned upon the merit it has murdered, that voice is at length about to be heard, at which the martyred victim will arise to vindicate the ways of Providence, and prove that even in its worst adversity there is a might and inunortality in virtue.

The Piaintifl^ Gentlemen, you have heard, is flie Rev. Gome- lius O'Mullan ; he is a clei^yman of the church of Rome, and became invested with that venemble appellation, so &r back as September, 1804. It is b title which you know, in this country, no rank ennobles, no treasure enriches, no establishmeBt supports; its poBseasor stands undisguised by any rag of this world's de- coration, resting all temporal, all eternal hope upon his to9, his talents, his attainments, and his jMety — doubtless, after all, the highest honours, as weU as the most imperishable treasures of the man of God. Year after year passed over my client, and each anniversary cnly gave him an additional title to these qua^ lifications. His precept was but flie handmaid to his practice; the sceptic heard him, and was convinced ; the ignorant attended him, and were taught; he smoothed the death-bed of too heed- less wealth; he rocked the cradle of the infant charity; oh, no wonder be walked in the sunshine of the public eye, no wonder he tdled through the pressure of the public benediction. This is not an idle declamation; such was the result his ministry produced, that within five years from the date of its commence- ment, nearly 2000/. of voluntary subscription enlarged the tem- ple where sueh precepts were taught, and such piety exemplified. Such was the situation of Mr. CVMullan, when a dissolution of parliament took place, and an unexpected contest for the repre- sentation of Derry, threw that county into unusual coimnotion. One of the candidates was of the Ponsonby family — a family devoted to the interests, and dear to the heart of Ireland ; he naturally thovgfat that his parliamentary conduct entitled him to the vote of every Catholic in the land; and so it did, not only of every Cathdic but of every CShristian who preferred the dif- fiision of Ihe Gospel to the ascendancy of a sect, and loved the principles of the constitution better than the pretensions of a party. Perhaps you will think with me, that there is a scHrt of

0>MULLAN T. ITKORKUX. S^

jMsthumous interest thrown about that eventi when I tell you, that the candidate an that occasion was the lamented Hero over whose tomb the tears, not only of Ireland, but of Europe, have been so lately shed ; he who, mid the blossoms of the world's chivalry, died conquering a deathless name upon the field of Waterloo. He applied to Mr. O'Mullan for his interest, and that interest was cheerfully given, the conciuronce of his bishop having been previously obtained. Mr. Ponsonby succeed^; and a dipner, to which all parties were invited, and from which all party spirit was expected to absent itself w^ given to coa^ menx^rate one common triunqph — the purity and the privileges of election. In other countries, ^such an expectation might b^ natural ; the exerciae of a noble constitutional privilege, the triumph of a great pqpular cause, might pot unaptly expand it- self in the intercourse of the board, and iinite all hfe^trts in the natural bond of festive conunemoration. But, alas, Gentlement in tbis unhappy land, such ha« been the result, whether of our laults, our follies, or our misfortunes, that a detestable disuniw converts the very balm of the bowl into j^k"^ commissioning its vile and happy offipring, to turn even our fc;^tlvity into fiaimine* My client was at this dinner ; it was not to be endured that ta Catholic should pollute with his presenile the civic festivities of the (oya/ Londonderry i ^ch an intrusioPt evep the acknowledged sanctity of his character could not excuse.; it becaine necessary to insult him. There is a tos^t, which, perhaps, jfew in thi^ united country are in the habit of hearing, but it is the invariable watchword of the Orange orgies ; it is briefly entitled ** The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great and gpod Kipg William." I have no doubt the siippUcity of your understandings is puzzled how to discover any offence in the commemoration of the Revolution Hero. The loyalists of Derry are more wise in their generation. There, whi^ sofpe Bacchanalia^ bigots wish to avert the intrusive visitatiops of their own .memory, they commence by violating the memory of King Wil)ifi^m»* Those

* This loya! toast, handed down by Orange tradition, is literally as fellows,— we giTe it for the edification of the sister island.

** The gkrioiis^ pfeos^ and immodal mBmm'y of the gnat jad good KingWUliMa^ who savod na from Pope and Popery, James and slavery,, braas money t^xid wooden ahoes,; here is bad luck to the Pope, and a hempen rope to all Papists .**

It is drank kneeling, if they tannot stand, nine times nine, amid various mys-

teriea which none hat the elect caa eomprehend.

o

86 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

who happen to have shoes or sOver in their fraternity — ^no very nsaal occurrence — thank His Majesty that the shoes are not wooden, and that the mlver is not brass, a commodity, by the bye, of which any legacy would have been quite superfluous. The Pope comes in £:v a pious benediction ; and the toast concludes with a patriotic wish^ for all his persuadon, by the consummation of which there can be no doub^ the hempen manufactures of this country wduld experience a very considerable consumption. Such, Gentlemen, is the enlightened, and liberal, and social sen- timent of which the first sentence, all that is usually given, forms the sv^estion. I must not omit that it is generaUy taken stand- ing, always providing it be in the power of the company. This toast was pointedly given to insult Mr. O'Mullan. Ifoturally averse to any altercation, his most obvious course was to quit the company, and this he did immediately. He was, however, as immediately recalled by an intimatitm, that the Catholic question, and might its claims be considered justly and liberally, had been toasted as a peace-ofiering by Sir George Hill, the Qty Recorder. My client had no gall in his disposition ; he at once clasped to his heart the friendly overture, and in such phrase as his simplicity supplied, poured forth the gratitude of that heart to the liberal Recorder. Poor O'Mullan had the wisdom to imagine that the politician's compliment was the man's conviction, and that a table toast was the certain prelude to a parliamentary suffi-age. Despising all experience, he applied the adage, Calum non ammum mutant qui trans mare cwrrunt^ to the Irish patriot. I need not paint to you the consternation of Sir George, at sc unusual and so unparliamentary a construction. He indignantly disclaimed the intention imputed to him, denied and deprecated the unfashionable inference, and acting on the broad scale of an impartial policy, gave to one party the weight of his vote, and to the other, the (no doubt in his opinion) equally valuable ac- quisition of his eloquence ; by the way, no unusual compromise amiMigst modem politicians.

The proceedings of this dinner soon became public. Sir Geoi^ge you may be sure, was little in love with his notoriety. However* Gentlemen, the su£krings of the powerftd are seldom without sympathy ; if they receive not the solace of the disinterested and the sincere, they are at least sure to fiqd a substitute in the mi* serable professions of an interested hypocrisy. Who could ima«

0*MULLAN T. M*KOItSILL. 67

gine, that Sir George, of all men, waa to drink from the spring of Catholic consolation ? yet so it happened. Two men of that communion had the hardihood and the servilitj to frame an address to him, reflecting upon the pastor, who was its pride and its ornament This address, with the most obnoxious commenta- ries, was instantly published by the Derry Journalist, who from that hour, down to the period of his ruin, has never ceased to persecute my client, with all that the most deliberate falsehood could invent, and all that the most infuriate bigotry could perpe- trate. This journal, I may as well now describe to you : it is one of the numerous publications which the misfortunes of this un- happy land have generated, and which has grown into consider- able affluence by the sad contributions of the public calamity. There is not a provincial village in Ireland which some such official fiend does not infest, fabricating a gazette of fraud and falsehood, upon all who presume to advocate her interests, or uphold the ancient religion of her people ; — ^the worst foes of government, under pretence of giving it assistance; the deadliest enemies to the Irish name, under the mockery of supporting its character; the most licentious, irreligious, illiterate .banditti that ever polluted the fair fields of literature, under the spoliated banner of the press. Bloated with the public flpoil, and blooded in the chase of character, no abilities can arrest, no piety can awe ; no misfortune afiect, no benevolence conciliate them ; the repu- tation of the living, and the memory of the dead, are equally plundered in their desolating progress; even the awful sepulchre affi>rds not an asylum to their selected victim. Huiuir Hvevas ! they will rush into the sacred receptacle of death, gorging their ravenous and brutal rapine amid the memoriab of our last in- firmity ! Such is a too true picture of what, I hope unautho- risedly, misnames itself the ministerial press of Ireland. Amid that polluted press, it is for you to say, whether TTie Londonderry Journal stands on an infamous elevation. When this address was published in the name of the Gatholics, that calumniated body, as was naturally to be expected, became universally indignant

You may remember. Gentlemen, amongst the many expedients resorted to by Ireland, for the recovery of her rights, after she had knelt session after session at the bar of the legislature, co- vered with the wounds of glory, and praying redemption from the chains that rewarded them ; — ^you may remember, I say, amongst

88 SPEECH IN THE CASE OF

many vain expedients of sopplication and renMXistrance, her Ca- tholic populatiMi delegated a board to consult on their affitirs, and forward their petiticm. Of that body» fashionable as the topic has now become, far be it from me to speak with disreqpect It contained much talent, much integrity ; and it exhibited what must ever be to me an interesting spectacle — a great body of my fellow men, and fellow christians, claiming admission, into that constitution which their ancestors had achieved by their valour^ and to which they were entitled as their inheritance. This is no time, this is no place for the discussion of that question ; but since it does force itself incidentally upon me, I will say, that as on the cue hand, I cannot fancy a despotism more impious, or more inhuman, than the political abasement here, on account of that faith by which men hope to win a happy eternity hero- after ; so on the other, I cavkot taitct a vismsr nr rrs aspbct mobs

DIVIirB THAlr THE KTERVAL CBOSS, VKD WFTHTHS XARTTB's BLOOD, AlfD RADIAITT WITH TUB PILOHUc's BOFB. RBARBD BT THB PATRIOT AND THE CHRlSTIAir HAKI) H}OB IR THE VAR OF URIVBRSAL UBBRTT*

Of this board the two volunteer flamers of the address happened to be members. The body who deputed them, instantly assem- bled and declared tiieir delegation v<»d. Tou would suppose. Gentlemen, that after this decisive public brand of reprobation, those officious meddlers would have avoided its recurrence, by retiring from series for which nature and education had totally unfitted them* Far, however, irom acting under any sense of shame, those excluded outcasts even summoned a meeting to ap- peal from the sentence the public opinion had pronounced on them. The meeting assembled, and after almost the day's de* liberation on their conduct, the former sentence was unanimously confirmed. The men did not deem it prudent to attend them- selves ; but at a late hour, when the business was concluded, when the resolutions had passed, when the chair was vacated, when the multitude was disperong, they attempted, widi some Orange followers, to obtrude into the chapel, which in large ci- ties, such as Derry, is the usual place of meeting. An angry spirit arose among the people. Mr. O'MuUan, as was his duty, locked the doors to preserve the house of God from pro&natioii, and addressed the crowd in such terms as induced them to re- pair peaceably to their respective habitations. I need not paint to you the bitter emotions with which these deservedly disap-

O'MULLAN v. STKORKILL. 80

pointed men were agitated. All hell was at work within them, and a conspiracy was hatched against the peace of my clienti the vilest, the foulest, the most infernal that ever vice devised, or demons executed. Restrained from exciting a riot by his in- terference, they actually swore a riot against him, prosecuted him to conviction, worked on the decaying intellect of his bishop to desert him, and amid the savage war-whoop of this slanderous Journal, all along inflaming the public mind by libels the most atrocious, finally flung this poor, religious, unofiending priest, into a damp and desolate dungeon, where the very iron that bound, had nK)re of humanity than the despots that surrounded him. I am told, they triumph much in this conviction. I seek not to impugn the verdict of that jury ; I have no doubt they acted conscientiously. It weighs not with me that every member of my client's creed was carefully excluded from that jury — no doubt ihey acted conscientiously. It weighs not with me that every man impannelled on the trial of the priest, was exclusively Protestant, and that, too, in a city so prejudiced, that not long ago, by their Corporation law, no Catholic dare breathe the air of heaven within its walls — no doubt they acted consdenliously. It weighs not with me, that not three days previously, one of that jury was heard publicly to declare, he wished he could persecute the </