Mr. Clinch - Dr. Dromgoole Dr. Troy, Catholic arch- bishop of Dublin-Surviving members-Proceedings of the Committee Proclamation to disperse it under the Con- Consequences of the proclamation, and dissolution of the Committee-New plan-Fourth General Committee, or As- sociation, under the name of Board-Proceedings of the Catholics-Continuance of the Veto question-Divisions— General secession of the aristocracy-Injurious effects-- Universal inertness of the Catholic body-Causes thereof -Difficulty of sustaining public excitement-Arrival of the King-His -Continued despondency of the Catholics-Means of rous- ing them-Defects of former plans-How to be remedied— Union of all parties-New plan projected by Mr. O'Con- nell, aided by Mr. Sheil-Difficulties to encounter: sur- mounted--Establishment of the Fifth General Committee, or late Catholic Association-Immediate advantages-Sup- and People-Measures of the Association-Establishment on an extensive scale of a new Catholic fund-Rapid pro- gress-Sanguine hopes-Relief bill of 1825-Preliminary and collateral measures-Relief bill and Freehold and Pen- sion bill rejected-The Suppression Association bill, com- Disappointment and indignation of the Catholics-Public meetings--The Algerine act evaded-The Association, with a slight change of name, continues its sittings-Government declines to interfere-Principle of this forbearance-Ad- vantages resulting from the attempted suppression-Four- teen days' meeting-Provincial meetings-Census of the Catholic population-Important and extensive influence of these measures on the aristocracy, the clergy, and the peo- ple-General union and consolidation of Catholic opinion and Catholic strength-General Election of 1826—Elec- tion of Waterford-of Louth-of Cavan, &c.-Remark- INTRODUCTION. THE late Bill suppressing the Association of the Catholics of Ireland passed both Houses almost unanimously. Various motives produced a similarity of action seldom witnessed within their walls. One party was guided by a blind hostility to every thing Catholic; another, by a natural apprehension of the movements of a body, whose orbit and elements were not to be accurately measured by any of the known laws of our constitution; a third, by a desire to save the Catholics, from even the possibility of their own indiscretion, and a just anxiety to remove, from the path which ministers had traced out to themselves, every obstacle even of a secondary nature which could tend to embarrass the progress of A their measures. To these, too, in the minds at least of the ministers, might have been superadded, the very important inducement of suppressing, in the enactment which was to suppress the Catholic Association, other associations of a far less constitutional character, and of a tendency to every true interest of society, infinitely more perilous. One portion of this intention has been amply fulfilled; the Association, which was ostensibly in view, has outrun, in its anxiety for pacification, even the government itself, and dissolved, by its own voluntary declaration, long before the hand of the legislature could possibly have reached it. Whether the government will now, with a wise impartiality, bring its power to bear on the only bodies on whom it can at present bear, the Brunswick Clubs of Ireland, or will limit its exertions to a task which scarcely required so great an outlay of legislation, will soon, it is to be hoped, no longer be a matter of mere conjecture. If the measure which has been proposed possess any real magic, it lies only in its perfect justice. A suspicion in the mind of a confiding and generous population at such a moment, would prove fatal. fatal. One camp |