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either house of parliament should not be included. This motion was carried by a majority of four, and the advocates of the measure immediately threw it up in disgust, declaring that such relief as did not include admission to the legislature was unworthy of Romish acceptance'. In subsequent years the question of relief was repeatedly brought forward, but without success. The obstacles to it in the throne were by no means removed, although a deep feeling of religion had been very far from so conspicuous there as in former years, under George III. Towards the close of autumn, 1809, that exemplary sovereign sank into an insanity from which he never recovered. His eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, then called to the regency, acted as if bound by a nice sense of honour to use that delegated authority for the furtherance of such objects as his venerable parent would approve, in case of restoration to reason. He proved also himself, on succeeding to the crown in 1820, averse from the admission of Romanists to political power. His next brother also, Frederick, Duke of York, whose manly bearing upon all occasions, and exemplary diligence as commander-in-chief, rendered him popular, in spite of some immoral follies at one time, was entirely against farther concession to the Romanists. His anxiety upon this subject reached even to the approach of death, and he wished his brother to be apprised of it, if painfully pressed to give way. Most of the Tory party likewise, a great majority of the people, and nearly all the clergy, remained of opinion, notwithstanding the arguments and importunities perseveringly urged by the Whigs and Romanists, that adherents to the papacy could not safely be trusted with political power, in a state essentially protestant. But so incessant was the clamour for relief, that all men became weary of resistance, and heard impatiently of every fresh exertion to stir the catholic ques

tion.

§ 10. As the elective franchise, however, had been conceded to Romanists in Ireland, in 1793, although it continued closed against them in England, they would not allow themselves to want strenuous advocates in the House of Commons. The Irish priesthood of their church, emerging from the extreme

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depression under which it had long been kept, had now taken a prominent part in politics. On the other hand, the influence of Irish protestantism had materially declined within the last few years. The union, by contracting the number of government situations, was the cause of removal to many protestant families the low prices of agricultural produce which followed upon the peace of 1814, were another such cause, and the operation of this was very wide. The well-conditioned yeoman could not endure the alteration in his circumstances which thus came upon him. He put up to sale such of his property as was convertible into money, and emigrated to America. In his place came a Romish neighbour, who had been habituated to a far lower degree of artificial comfort. Thus the papal priesthood was acquiring every day a more extensive field. The extraordinary power, however, obtained by Irish Romanism, was chiefly attributable to the Catholic Association, an organised society, which soon wielded the populace at its will. This formidable body levied contributions, called catholic rent, on the whole Romish community, a considerable portion of them coming, in very small sums, from the peasantry, although perhaps the poorest in Europe. The alleged purpose of this collection was the promotion of catholic emancipation by every means accessible to money. The magnitude of the instrument thus provided may be estimated from the fact, that in the single month of November, 1824, the sum collected was 30077. 10s. 4d. Of the contributors, very many were far from volunteers; but denunciations of the priests from their altars, and intimidating importunities of active neighbours, allowed no Romanist any choice. The result of such a powerful engine was the rapid spread of a violent agitation all over Ireland. Until 1823 the great body of Irish Romanists had thought little about political disabilities, but when the Catholic Association had once thoroughly taken possession of the country, the whole Romish population became wild upon every mention of emancipation, and it was the word that oftenest met the ear. Yet a great degree of misapprehension commonly prevailed as to the object in view. Some of the people supposed it to be, the restoration

• Evidence of Daniel O'Connell, Esq. before the House of Commons,

March 1, 1825. Eridence on the State of Ireland. Lond. 1825, p. 170.

of the forfeited estates; others, the legal establishment of the Romish religion. At length, the association assumed so completely the tone of a menacing independent legislature, levying money at its will for purposes of its own, that in 1825 an act of parliament was passed for suppressing it. Ostensibly this act was obeyed, but a new association was immediately formed, in such a manner as to evade the law. During the parliamentary sessions of this and the preceding years, numerous witnesses from Ireland had been examined before committees of the two houses, with a view of throwing some light upon the violent agitation that convulsed that country. Most of these drew flattering pictures of the profound satisfaction, and consequent tranquillity to be expected from emancipation; although they generally were so cautious as to deny that this concession alone would still the strife of which Britain had become so weary. These light reservations were, however, little noticed by the customary advocates of emancipation. They constantly spoke of that measure as a complete remedy for all the ills of Ireland, and such a view of it daily gained ground.

§ 11. In 1828 catholic emancipation was nevertheless again unsuccessful in parliament, but gained indirectly an important. step by the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. Numerous petitions were presented against them, and on the 26th of February, Lord John Russell made a motion for their repeal. Practically they had long fallen into desuetude, the annual indemnity act screening protestant dissenters from their operation. It was, however, argued, that laws bearing a character of needless intolerance ought not to be allowed even to slumber in the statute-book, and besides, that enough of their spirit was left untouched by the annual indemnity, to make them still convertible into engines of oppression. That

"No catholic clergyman has the slightest disposition to derange that establishment." (the protestant.)"Not the slightest." (Evidence of the Rev. M. Collins, June 9, 1824. Ibid. 58.) "If we were freed from the disabilities under which we labour, we have no mind, and no thought, and no will, but that which would lead us to incorporate ourselves fully and essentially with this great kingdom; for it

would be our greatest pride to share in the glories, and the riches of England."- "If the question, commonly called catholic emancipation, were carried, are you of opinion that religious differences would cease to agitate the public mind in Ireland?—I am very confident they would." Evidence of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Doyle, March 16, 1825. Ibid. 383, 393.

act did not really render a dissenter eligible to corporate offices; it only exempted him from penalties, in case he should not have taken the sacramental test. An action against him for this neglect could still only by accident miscarry, and even if it did, would leave him liable to the costs. It was obviously improper that any such liability should continue, and there was very little disposition to wish it in the public mind. Persons who were as averse as ever from the concessions desired by Romanists, felt no objection to those now sought by dissenters. They considered the Romish doctrines as inextricably mixed up with politics, and therefore intolerable in parties legislating for a protestant state. Dissenting doctrines were viewed as mere modifications of religious opinion, for which no man was responsible to civil society, but only to God and his own soul. Hence the repeal sought occasioned very little opposition in parliament, and very little notice in the country. It was not, however, deemed proper to weaken the ecclesiastical institutions of the nation by this concession. The act stated, that "the protestant episcopal church of England and Ireland, and the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof, and the protestant presbyterian church of Scotland, and the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof, are by the laws of this realm severally established, permanently and inviolably." Hence it did not leave corporate officers at liberty to use any power that might come from their several situations, injuriously to the religious establishment of the country. They were to make a solemn declaration, that no power arising from their corporate capacities should be turned to the detriment of the church establishment'.

§ 12. During the autumn of 1828, rumours were afloat of an intention in the government to concede the Romish claims.

1 The following is the declaration prescribed by the act: "I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, upon the true faith of a christian, that I will never exercise any power, authority, or influence which I may possess by virtue of the office of to injure or weaken the protestant church as it is by law established in England, or to disturb the said church, or the bishops

and clergy of the said church, in the possession of any rights or privileges to which such church, or the said bishops and clergy, are, or may be, by law entitled."-Act for repealing so much of several Acts as imposes the necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a Qualification for certain Offices and Employments. 9th May, 1828.

The Great Captain, Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington, a man whose straightforward integrity, and deep insight into human nature, are hardly below his unsurpassed strategic superiority, was then first lord of the treasury. He had said in parliament, that he would give the catholic question full consideration. Hitherto he had viewed it under a sense of individual responsibility. He should now view it as responsible for the chief direction of public affairs. Nevertheless, his vote contributed to the majority of forty-five, by which the measure was lost in the House of Lords, in the session of 1828, and his speech deprecated concession. It was, therefore, considered by such as approved of the Romish disabilities, that he was one of the last men to surrender this long-contested question, and that his announcement of an intention to give it a statesmanlike consideration, merely expressed the honest purpose of a comprehensive mind to search carefully for some plan, whereby moderate Romanists might be shamed out of agitation, and protestant apprehensions might be effectively allayed. His principal co-adjutor, too, in the ministry, Mr. Peel, afterwards on his father's death Sir Robert Peel, a statesman whose future eminence was clearly foreseen by the best judges when a youth at college, and whose whole subsequent life had been an unbroken course of judicious application, senatorial distinction, and moral propriety, had invariably been an uncompromising opponent of the Romish claims. It was, consequently, supposed in most quarters that unqualified concession was never to be expected from him any more than from his illustrious chief. When, however, parliament was opened by commission on the 5th of February, 1829, the king's speech, delivered by the lord chancellor, after adverting to the Catholic Association, and requiring powers for its suppression, went on to say, "His majesty recommends, that, when this essential object shall have been accomplished, you should take into your deliberate consideration the whole state of Ireland, and that you should review the laws which impose civil disabilities on his majesty's Roman catholic subjects. You will consider whether the removal of those disabilities can be effected consistently with the full and perfect security of our establishments in Church and State, with the maintenance of the re

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