The

lated, that the Catholics were to take no other oath than that of allegiance, and that nothing affecting their religious tenets should be mixed up in any oath to be taken by Catholics. moint, however, that Marlborough's victories gave additional strength to England, she proceeded to pass that penal code which a French writer so truly states should have been written in blood-(hear)—and is it that nations have statutes of limi tation against retribution for national injustice, or that England must continue to be unjust because she had committed a first injustice? The injustice of nations, however, was like the injustice of individuals; long continuance gave it no sanction ; and by no process could it be voted into equity.

Upon the violation of the Treaty of Limerick we found our claims for justice; and if we fail, we shall not blame ourselves for supineness, nor for an absence of the high spirit of freemen.

He had now to turn to a more grateful subject. He congratulated them on perfect unity among themselves. It is impossible they should not succeed. The Catholic clergy were all with them -the Catholic prelates approved of their proceedings-and the archbishops added their sanction; the Catholic aristocracy too were heartily joining them; so that laymen and ecclesiastics were both heart and hand in their favour. In fact, he had never seen matters so auspicious before. The rent was prosperous and triumphant; it had gone on progressively increasing from £100 per week to a regular £300. (Cheers.) First it was £100, then £150, next £180, then £230, and now as sure as the Saturday came it was £300. This week it amounted, from donations received since the meeting of the finance committee, to £350; yet, not onefiftieth of the country had been collected. (Reiterated cheers.)

The Catholic aristocracy, as he had said, had sent in their adhesion. Some of the oldest, perhaps the very oldest, nobility of the land were to be found amongst that aristocracy; they had retained their honours and their characters unsullied, while they preserved the faith of their fathers inviolate. Viscount Gormanstown, whose letter they had just heard read, was the oldest viscount in the country; his patent of nobility was dated so far back as 1430; his good example would be followed by others of the body. Lord Kenmare, it was more than probable, would send in his subscription in the course of the week; and he (Mr. O'Connell) had good reason to know, that his brother, the Honourable Captain Browne, had already determined to send donation. (Cheers.) And the English Catholics also had de. clared their adhesion. In fact, he (Mr. O'Connell) never per

ceived so ready an unanimity in the Catholic body. Formerly there was always somebody anxious to impeach their motives, or to find fault with some petty point of detail, but now all was unanimity.

Why had Ireland continued so degraded and so miserably poor throughout centuries? Because of the unnatural and fatal divisions amongst her children. Why have all her efforts hitherto been paralysed? Because even amongst those who ought most to have clung together, dissensions and miserable differences had prevailed. But, thank Heaven, all that is passing away. I am bound to say-and I say it with delight-that within my memory, or since I first embarked upon the sea of her distracted and stormy politics, now some twenty-four years ago, I never knew anything like the unanimity among the people of Ireland until the present moment. There were always some who, while others were ready to work, and did work, occupied themselves in impeaching the latter's motives, and assailing their characters. But now here we are presenting to our enemies the impenetrable front of unanimity and determination. (Great applause.)

No such auspicious moment have I ever read of in Irish history since the planting of the first British standard—that birthday of Ireland's misery and degradation. Now shall our application to the legislature be conveyed in a voice of thunder, whose roaring will force attention when asking for the rights of men and privileges of Christians. Sir, our pecuniary resources are of immense and powerful advantage in support of our struggle; because hitherto one of the arguments of our enemies was that the peasantry of Ireland were indifferent to Catholic Emancipation; and it was even stated in an official report of the day, that an United Irishman declared upon his examination—" that the people did not care the value of the ink in his pen" for Catholic Emancipation. But, Sir, that calumny on Ireland is triumphantly refuted by the pile of letters announcing the adoption of the Catholic rent, enthusiastically and cheerfully subscribed to by the poorest and inost miserable peasantry in the world.

Such trash shall not, Sir, deter us from forcing our claims upon those who can and will grant them-they shall not enjoy that short-lived tranquillity obtained at the sacrifice of a people's rights for a momentary expediency-we shall never cease petitoning, nor shall a week pass that our case shall not come before them in some shape, until justice.is obtained. (Cheers.)

Then, Sir, we have also in support of our righteous cause a considerable portion of the Irish press. We have the aid of that excellent paper, The Dublin Evening Post, and all the rest of the respectable press of Ireland in our favour, and as for such as are opposed to us, we have not much to dread from their hostility, whose sole claim upon public attention is, the effrontery and hardihood with which they put forth the most abominable falsehoods.

In England the press is disgracefully torpid, and it is oertainly singular that on looking into all English newspapers, we find some notice of every thing that occurs, and many others that never happen. We see nothing too petty or too ridiculous for minute detail-they spread out a boxing match between two blackguards-they devote columns to a miserable police case-they debate upon a race between two donkeys—you have some notice of every thing, save one alone. Here we are collecting thousands of pounds, and unless an Englishman of a rainy day chooses to take up an Irish paper, he knows nothing of how we are disposing of this money. I have often consi

dered upon this determined silence of the English press, and cannot account for it in any other way, than that at the commencement of our career we stated, that it would be wise to pay for the insertion of certain articles in the London papers, and perhaps, like the Dutch auctioneer, who holds his tongue to be paid for speaking, so the prospect of payment may have induced the London press to be silent until the money is forthcoming.

But, Sir, the importance of our proceedings and the interest which the world now takes in our cause, will force the subject upon that base press, and in obedience to the wishes of their readers, they must notice our proceedings.

Deeply, indeed, have the Catholics to regret the death of Mr. Perry, the late proprietor of the Morning Chronicle. If that gentleman were alive, or that a genius or spirit or principle like his prevailed in the direction of such a paper as the Morning Chronicle was, there would not have been such a paltry neglect of Irish affairs. But there is a portion of the English press that agrees with me, and I am proud to say I agree with it, and I offer the homage of admiration to one of the most powerful and most calumniated writers that ever lived. Had Cobbett been inclined to sell his services, is it too much to say that when the most disgusting carrion has been purchased in the market of corruption, what would they not have given for a writer liks Cobbett ? 2 c

VOL. II.

In this celebrated and gifted journalist we have a most powerful and gifted advocate, and for no other reason under heaven than because his manly and transcendant intellect is convinced of the necessity of doing justice to Ireland. When his principles refused yielding to the most alluring temptations, his conscience and his understanding submit to conviction, and what ne would not do for lucre, he undertakes for justice, and then it s needless to add that he always triumphs. Although we may be kept out of our parliament ourselves, let us hope that we shall have the happiness of seeing him in it,

The next topic, Sir, that I shall call your attention to is, the prospect of our succeeding. The condition of the Irish Catholics has forced itself upon the attention of the sovereigns of Europe. The present excellent gentleman who fills the throne of France, and a better man cannot be found, has declared himself indignant at our continued degradation. I have the best authority for saying so-the testimony of those who had served his family in the army, and to whom I have the honour of being nearly related. He has directly sanctioned, since his accession to the throne, the insertion in the French newspapers of various excellent articles upon the state of Ireland.

There had lately appeared in The Etoile an article which would resound from Missolonghi, the last refuge of the oppressed and patriot Greeks-(and oh! shame on England, and on the foreign policy of Mr. Canning, for she was the first openly to fly in the face of every thing sacred and noble, and to declare openly against them)-to the banks of the Missouri, where freedom had found her home. Against this article, the English press had, as usual, railed. But had they answered it? No. It was, however, only one of a series-and it was the duty of our own press to see that these articles should be diffused extenively over the world.

The press of France had challenged the press of England to the proof, but as yet that challenge had been unaccepted. The Etoile had proved that the English Dissenters, one-third of the population, were inadmissible by law to all offices of trust and power, while it demonstrated that in France the Dissenters from the Catholic Church, who did not amount to one-fiftieth part of the population, were not only tolerated but admissible to all offices of trust and power, were not only admissible but actually admitted. (Cheers.)

In Catholic France Protestants might be counsellors of state, king's ministers, generals in the army, or enjoy any office how

high or dignified soever, while in Protestant England the great majority of the people were unjustly and ungenerously excluded. But the character of England, like her credit, had been extended beyond her capital, and if she did not pay the great debt o liberality which she was in arrear, on demand, both credit and capital might be extinguished for ever. (Loud applause.)

Look at the numbers of the Catholics. In Ireland the Church of England was contemptible as compared with them in point of numbers. They exceeded the Presbyterians in a sixfold degree. They were three times as numerous as the various classes of Methodists, and fifty or sixty times as numerous as the Quakers. And yet this, the most numerous religious persuasion among he British subjects in Ireland, are excluded from the British constitution!

Let the intolerants and exclusionists of England look for an example of liberality in Catholic states and governments, where Protestants are not alone eligible, but fill offices of honourable trust and emolument. Spain and Portugal cannot be quoted as exceptions, because Protestantism does not exist at all there; and let it be recollected that the Catholic state of Maryland was the first government that proclaimed full and perfect toleration of religious principles, and the eligibility of Protestants to participate in all offices of the state; and it will be said that in England alone injustice is to reign perpetual!

I cannot, Sir, conceal from myself the pleasing anticipation and cheering hope to be derived from the known feelings and principles of the present Irish government. The pen and the tongue of Wellesley have enlightened the world through the medium of matchless eloquence in our cause, and he would have wielded the sword with equal readiness and success, were it necessary, in the cause of liberality and justice. When we have seen that every corner of Europe has been distinguished by some remarkable event produced by his splendid success as a statesman; and when we find that, in the evening of his life, he comes to devote the benefit of personal influence, and the advantage of successful experience to the amelioration of his native country it not only encourages our hopes, but imposes a duty upon us to assist in supporting that government in whose administration we have every just confidence. It is also of no small consequence to have in the Attorney-General of the day, a decided advocate of such tried fidelity and matchless powers. It is cheering that the sound of Attorney-General in Ireland no longer creates apprehension in the minds of those who take a concern