1 the progress of the human mind out of doors, in consequence of the powerful eloquence, argument, and policy, elicited by those discussions which your friends now have, for the first time, found out, would be precipitate. Now let us see what has been produced within 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 a people who did not think those privileges worth the solicitation? Then rose your Agitators, as they are called by those bigots who are trembling at the effect of their arguments on the community, and who, of course, take every opportunity of calumniating them. Ever since that your cause has been advancing. Take the numerical proportions in the House of Commons on each subsequent discussion. In 1805, the first time your question was discussed in the Imperial legislature, and it was then aided by the powerful eloquence of Fox,---there was majority against even taking your claims into consideration, of no less a number than 212. It was an appalling 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 remarkable, that the first successful exertion was made in your favour by an English member,---your enemies fled the field, and you had the triumphant majority to support you of 129. Now is not this demonstration? What becomes now of those who say discussion has not been of use to you? But I need not have resorted to the arithmetical calculation. Discussion must be useful when the principle is equitable. Men become ashamed of combating with axioms. Truth is omnipotent, and must prevail; it forces its way with the fire and the precision of the morning sun-beam. Vapours may surround, prejudices may impede the infancy of its progress; but the very resistance that would check, only condenses and concentrates it, until at length it goes forth in the fulness of its meridian, all life, and light, and lustre---the whole amphitheatre of Nature glowing in its smile, and her minutest objects gilt and glittering in the grandeur of its eternity. You lived for centuries on the vegetable diet and eloquent silence of this Pythagorean policy; and the consequence was, when you thought yourselves mightily dignified, and mightily interesting, the whole world was laughing at your philosophy, and sending its aliens to take possession of your birth right. "For foreign eyes blooms bright Ambition's morn ; "The only Aliens—in their native Land.' I have given you a good reason for pressing your discussion, by having shown you that discussion has always gained you proselytes. But is it the time? says Mr. Grattan. Yes, Sir, it is the time--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. Now, I say, while England is in power---now is the peculiar time. Now, England, I challenge you to show, whether the boons you conceded have been the result of your love, or wrung from your necessities. Now all her fears are gone---all her hopes are gratified---Europe is free---the Bourbon, the exile of her hospitality, is restored. Napoleon is no longer lord of the ascendant---her Catholic alliances have refuted the foul aspersions on your faith---Catholic Ireland has upreared her banner on the field of blood, and nobly proved how she kept faith with heretics"---the Sovereign Pontiff, an ally and a friend, has at last returned to his Christian capital, wreathed with the trophies of a triumphant martyrdom--you yourselves have chased away the phantom of a foreign influence; and, from the priest to the peasant, there is not a Catholic in the land who is not trampling on the rescript of Italian audacity. Merciful God! if this be not the time, can we ever hope to find one more expedient? But, oh! there will never be a time with Bigotry !---she has no head, and cannot think---she has no heart, and cannot feel---when she moves, it is in wrath---when she pauses, it is amid ruin---her prayers are curses--her God is a demon---her communion is death---her vengeance is éternity-her decalogue is written in the blood of her victims; and if she stoops for a moment from her internal flight, it is upon some kindred rock, to whet her vulture-fang for keener rapine, and replume her wing for a more sanguinary desolation! (Loud bursts of enthusiastic applause.) I appeal from this infernal, grave-stalled fury---I appeal to the sense, to the good policy, to the gratitude of England; and I make my appeal, peculiarly at this moment, when the Illustrious Potentates of Europe are met together in the British capital, to commemorate the great festival of Universal Peace and Universal Emancipation. Let me hope, that, by our deliverance, the great work will be consummated in their presence; or, should it not, the warriors of the North will at least carry to their homes the story of our fortitude, and our unmerited misfortunes. But (turning to Mr. CURRAN, who appeared much agitated)---to borrow a phrase from that paragon of Irishmen---No, Curran, do not be afraid that I shall depreciate you by my adoration! I cannot rise into the region where you soar; re and, even if I could, the fate of Icarus forewarns me not to touch upon the orb whose refulgence would consume me. Contemplating such a man, to be just, I must be silent; for panegyric is poverty, and eloquence is wordless. In his phrases, I shall endeavour to " deem myself from the infidelity of this despair." I will try to hope, that when the whole world is rejoicing in peace---when the rocks of Norway and the swamps of Holland are elate with liberty; the poor country, through the prowess of whose hero this event has been achieved, will not be suffered to sit down in the solitude of her sorrows! Forbid it, policy! forbid it, justice! forbid it, gratitude! forbid it, GOD! I invoke the genius of the British Constitntion-I invoke the angel of the Christian Gospel-I invoke the bright form of that blessed Liberty, which is walking abroad among the nations of the universe, not to forget the land where saints have worshipped, sages loved, and heroes fought for her; where the hand of beauty will weave her garland; where the heart of valour will bend before her shrine! Oh! it is a great, a good, a grand, a glorious consummation! it is worthy of concessions---you will make them. I would rejoice to see you conciliate even the ungenerous prejudices of the English People. But there is one sacrifice you should never make:---Oh! do not, for any temporal boon, betray the great principles which are to purchase you an eternity. Here, from your sanctuary---here, from the endangered altars of your faith, in the name of that GOD, for the freedom of whose worship we are so nobly struggling, let no unholy hand profane the sacred ark of your religion! For my part, I approach your church---the ancient church of Ireland, with the mingled emotions of a patriot and a Christian. Whilst it awfully forewarns me of a better world, it proudly reminds me of a better day; and rises on my vision like some majestic monument amid the desert of antiquity, just in its proportions, sublime in its associations, and only the more magnificent from the ruins by which it is surrounded. Oh, do not sacrifice it! PETITION REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING SPEECH, AT THE REQUEST OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND, To the Honourable the COMMONS of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled: The humble Petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, whose names are undersigned on behalf of themselves, and others, professing the Roman Catholic Religion, SHEWETH, THAT We the Roman Catholic People of Ireland, again approach the legislature with a statement of the grievances under which we labour, and of which we most respectfully, but at the same time most firmly, solicit the effectual redress. Our wrongs are so notorious, 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 sufferings and our submission, Privations have been answered only by petition, indignities by remonstrance, injuries by forgiveness. It has been a misfortune to B * have suffered for the sake of our religion; but it has also been a pride to have borne the best testimony to the purity of our doctrine, by the meekness of our endurance. We have sustained the power which spurned 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 effusion of our young blood, the triumphant ARK of BRITISH LIBERTY. We approach, then, with confidence, an enlightened legislature; in the name of Nature, we ask our rights as men; in the name of the Constitution, we ask our privileges as subjects; in the name of GOD, we ask the sacred protection of unpersecuted piety as Christians. Are securities required of us? We offer them---the best securities 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 Sovereign; we acknowledge nò civil pre-eminence, save that of our constitution; and, for our lavish and voluntary expenditure, we only ask a reci procity of benefits. Separating, as we do, our civil rights from our spiritual duties, we humbly desire that they may not be confounded. We "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar'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 aggrandisement: its hopes, its powers, and its pretensions, are of another world; and, when we raise our hands most humbly 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 gospel 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 religious liberty, or restrict the free enjoyment of the sacred rights of conscience, within these realms. And your Petitioners will ever pray. THE END. SPEECH OF CHARLES PHILLIPS, Esq. IN THE CASE OF OMULLAN v. MKORKILL, DELIVERED AT THE COURT-HOUSE, Galway. MY LORD AND GENTLEMEN, I AM instructed as of Counsel for the Plaintiff, to state to you the circumstances in which this action has originated. It is a source to me, I will confess it, of much personal embarrassment. Feebly, indeed, can I attempt to convey to you the feelings with which a perusal of this brief has affected 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 that 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 with some agonizing recital; there is no frightful form of vice, 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 debasement, occasions often arise for the redemption 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 occasion; gladly do I invoke you to the generous participation: yet, Gentlemen, though you must prepare to hear much that degrades our nature, much that distracts our country-though all |