ungrateful or refractory, means would easily be found to get rid of him. If we allow the minister to appoint our bishop, it would follow that the minister would soon procure a law to authorize him to cashier the bishop, when necessary, as well as to make him. It would indeed follow, from the principle, that the minister was to regulate the loyalty of the bishop. If he was to prevent a disloyal priest from being a bishop, surely he ought to have the power to turn off a man who had obtained a mitre by pretending to be loyal, and who afterwards proved disloyal. Every person who granted the first, must admit the fair and obvious necessity of the second. And if, in addition to all his other influence, this authority were given to the minister and his dependents, where would the torrent of corruption be stayed, or where could resistance against any future plan for the establishment of arbitrary power be hoped for? As an I do, therefore, deprecate the veto, as an Irishman. ardent and enthusiastic lover of liberty, I detest it, and would. oppose it at every peril. In both capacities, as Catholics and as Irishmen, we will ever resist it; and, placing on our banners the sacred words "religion" and "liberty," wage an eternal war against the open enemies and insidious foes of both. (Hear, hear, hear!-great applause.) The veto is defeated, and for ever; but the question then arises, whether we shall ever be emancipated without it? I have been asked this question; my reply has been: we shall not, perhaps-probably we shall. But if we are not, we shall, at all events, have preserved our religion and our honour. If we continue in an unjust inferiority of political station, we shall, at least, remain sincere Catholics and faithful Irishmen. We may not be able "to command success ;" but we will have done more 66 we will have deserved it." We have refuted every calumny; we have practically disproved every objection; we have shown how powerless the Pope is to alter, without the assent of our bishops, the discipline of the Church. And we now exhibit the determination, which we have always avowed, to resist any measures originating in Rome, of a political tendency or aspect. I know of no foreign prince whom, in temporal matters, the Catholics of Ireland would more decidedly resist, than the Pope; and this whilst they respected and recognised his spiritual authority. (Hear, hear, hear.) But we will-we must succeed. If there be an over-ruling Providence in heaven-if there be justice or wisdom on earth, we ought to expect success. disastrous battle. Our rights were not won from us in any field of fight. No; our ancestors surrendered upon capitula tion. A large army-many fortresses-a country devoted to them-foreign assistance at hand; all these our ancestors surrendered, on the faith of a solemn treaty, which stipulated, in return, for Ireland, "liberty of conscience." The treaty was ratified-it passed the great seal of England; it was observed -yes, it was observed by English fidelity-just seven weeks. Our claim of contract has not been worn out by time. The obligation on England is not barred by a century of injustice and oppression. Our liberties were not lost in any It has been attributed to the bigotry of the Catholics of Brabant and Flanders, that they have rejected the new constitution of the Netherlands, because it favoured religious liberty. Absurd calumny! They were, it is known, attached to the government of Napoleon, who established universal liberty of conscience; but there were many and many Irish colleges and convents in Brabant and Flanders. The inhabitants had been practically informed of the breach of faith-of the violation of solemn treaty by the first Prince of Orange who reigned over Catholic Ireland. What was so natural as that they should entertain fears lest a breach of faith, a violation of treaty should signalize the first prince of that same House of Orange that was to reign over Catholic Brabant. We are not, I repeat it, overthrown in battle. Our oppres sion originated in injustice. It has not been justified by any subsequent crime or delinquency on our parts. For a century and a half of sufferings, we have exhibited a fidelity unaltered and unalterable. Our allegiance to the state has been equalled only by our attachment to the faith of our fathers. But we now present the extraordinary spectacle of men at one and the same time the reproach of the justice, and the refuge and succour in danger, of the British empire. Let the hardiest of our opponents say what that empire would now be but for the Catholics of Ireland. Thus do the Catholics urge their claims. They complain of original injustice; they insist on present merits; they require the aid of, and they place their emancipation on, the great prineiple of the universal right of liberty of conscience; they call on England to behold a prelacy promoted from their superior merits, and rendering illustrious their superior station by the unobtrusive but continued exertion of all the labours and all the vir, tues that could ornament and dignify episcopacy. (Great and long-continued applause.) They call on England to behold a priesthood having no other motives but their sense of religion; seeking no other reward but the approbation of their own consciences; learned, pious, and humle; always active in the discharge of their duties; teaching the young, comforting the old, instructing the ignorant, restraining the vicious, encouraging the good, discountenancing and terrifying the criminal-visiting the hovel of poverty, soothing the pangs of sickness and of sorrow, showing the path to heaven and themselves leading the way. (Repeated bursts of applause.) They call on England to behold a people faithful even under persecution grateful for a pittance of justice-cheerful under oppressive taxation-foremost in every battle, and giving an earnest of their allegiance and attachment to a government which they could love, by their attachment to the religion which they revere -proving, by their exclusion and sufferings, their practical reverence for the obligation of an oath and by their anxiety to be admitted into the full enjoyment of the constitution, how powerfully they appreciate the enjoyment of civil liberty. Such a people as this distinguishing at one and the same time spiritual authority, which is not of this world, from temporal power, which belongs to it-giving to GOD the things which are God's, but preserving to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's-such a nation as this, prelates, priests and people, demand, with manly firmness, but with decent respect, their birthright—LIBERTY, their honest earning that which they maintain with their money, and sustain with their blood-the CONSTITUTION. : Such are the persons who require emancipation; such is the nature of their claim. Shall I be told, then, by interested bigotry, that the people of England cannot, in conscience, grant our demands? Conscience, indeed! Oh, let the English conscience consult justice, and we shall soon be free. But the objection is futile and ridiculous. Why, there are now upwards of five hundred different sects in England, and our demands favour every one, except the Established Church; for all we ask is liberty and conscience. We do not ask-we would not take peculiar privileges or individual advantages; we ask that religion should be left between man and his Creator, and that conscience should be free. Let me, however, read for you the extract of and liberality, where Ireland is unconcerned. British forces conquered the King of Candy English conscience the 2nd of March last, signed between the British officers, the representatives of our King, on the one part, and the principal Candians, on the other. It is the charter by which the sovereignty of the state is vested in the crown; it has been accepted and confirmed by the Prince Regent, and is now law in the island of Ceylon. The fifth article of this treaty is in these words : "The religion of ВооDHо, which is professed by the chiefs and by the inhabitants of these provinces, IS DECLARED INVIOLABLE, and its rites, ministers, and places of worship are to be MAINTAINED AND PROTECTED. There are inviolability, maintenance, and protection, for the state religion of Boodhoo, and English conscience is not shocked. Here is the Mirth Avater, or incarnation of Vishnou, protected by the British government, maintained in all its attributes, and declared inviolable; we shall have learned dissertations, printed at the British expense, showing his powers and glory; proving him to be the Godanna of one district, and the Fohi of the Chinese; and perhaps a controversy may arise again, whether he be not the identical Woden whom one class of the mongrel ancestry of England worshipped. Mark, too, that there is here no veto--no nomination by the crown talked of. The emancipation of the Candians is full and unqualified and then we are told that conscience will prevent the full and unqualified emancipation of Catholic and unchristian irishmen. Believe me, however, that your emancipation is not remote or uncertain. The history of the world is not over. A fortnight might place an Alexander on the throne of Napoleon: and as his power is already overwhelming, I rejoice that he is of the Greek Church, lest we should be put on our securities as to him. No; the history of the world is not over. It is true that legitimacy and autocracy, and all other invasions on popular rights and free choice, are for a season triumphant, The title of deliverer has become synonymous with a partitioner and plunderer. Royal declarations are only public demonstrations. of the pretences which cover purposes of guile of another description. But the spirit, the genius of liberty survives. Man cannot, with the knowledge he has acquired, and the examples he beholds, continue in slavery. The people cannot, even in despotic states, be despised; but in a free state, like that of England, five millions cannot continue in thraldom. Who does not perceive how fast our multitudes increase-how rapidly our streng h accumulates ? See within the last twenty years how we have risen from a horde of helots to a nation. Even the union, which destroyed our country, increased our importance and our numbers. England wants us, and may easily gain us. Let her act as she has done by the Candians; let her leave inviolate the religion which the chiefs and the people of Ireland possess; and we will, in return, support her by our unbroken strength, and sustain her with our young blood, in every distress and through every peril! Mr. O'Connell sat down cheered by most rapturous applause. On Wednesday, the 8th of September, Mr. O'Connell moved-at a meeting of the "Catholic Association," as it was called-for a committee of seven to go round the different parishes to collect su scriptions towards defraying the expenses of the deputation about to proceed to Rome on the "securities" question. Mr. O'Connell himself, with Messrs. Mahon, M'Donnell, Evans, and Lyons, were appointe to draw up a remonstrance to his Holiness the Pope. The clorical deputation consisted of His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Murray, the Right Rev Dr. Murphy (late Bishop of Cork), and Archdeacon Blake, the last named being now the much respected and beloved Bishop of Dromore. On the 14th September appeared a letter from the Right Rev. Dr. Milner (in answer to Mr. O'Connell's allusions to him in a speech we have given some pages back), repeating his disclaimers of vetoistical inclinations. The following remonstrance to the Pope was drawn up by Mr. O'Connell and adopted by the Catholic body: "TO HIS HOLINESS POPE PIUS VII. "THE HUMBLE ADDRESS AND REMONSTRANCE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND. "MOST HOLY FATHER-We, the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, most humbly approach your Holiness, imploring for five millions of faithful children, the apostolical benediction. "We desire, Most Holy Father, to address, your Holiness in respectful and unreserved terms; that so your Holiness may be perfectly informed of our fears, our desires, and our determinations. "We deem it unnecessary, Most Holy Father, to remind the Sovereign Pontiff of our Church, of our peculiar claims to his protection and support; for we cannot, for a moment, imagine that your Holiness is unmindful of the constancy and devotion manifested towards the Holy See by the Roman Catholics of Ireland, in despite of the most sanguinary and unrelenting persecution that ever aggrieved a Christian people. "We cannot, however, abstain from reminding our Most Holy Father, that although the persecution which we and our ancestors endured, was notoriously and avowedly inflicted upon |