sand? Try this fashion of government by a very obvious test, and make the case your own. If a few hundred thousand Presbyterians stood towards you in the relation in which the Irish Protestants stand towards the Catholics, would you endure it? Would you brook a system under which Episcopalians should be rendered incapable of holding Beats in the House of Commons, should be excluded from sheriffships and corporate offices, and from the bench of justice, and from all the higher offices in the administration of the law; and should be tried by none but Presbyterian juries, flushed with the insolence of power and infuriated with all the ferocity of passion? How would you brook the degradation which would arise from such a system, and the scorn and contumelies which would flow from it? Would you listen with patience to men who told you that there was no grievance in all this-that your complaints were groundless, and that the very right of murmuring ought to be taken away? Are Irishmen and Roman Catholics so differently constituted from yourselves, that they are to behold nothing but blessings in a system which you would look upon as an unendurable wrong? Protestants and Englishmen, however debased you may deem our country, believe me that we have enough of human nature left within us-we have enough of the spirit of manhood, all Irishmen as we are, to resent a usage of this kind. Its results are obvious. The nation is divided into two castes. The powerful and the privileged few are patricians in religion, and trample upon and despise the plebeian Christianity of the millions who are laid prostrate at their feet. Every Protestant thinks himself a Catholic's better; and every Protestant feels himself the member of a privileged corporation. Judges, sheriffs, crown counsel, crown attorneys, juries, are Protestants to a man. What confidence can a Catholic have in the administration of public justice? We have the authority of an eminent Irish judge, the late Mr. Fletcher, who declared that, in the North, the Protestants were uniformly acquitted, and the Catholics were as undeviatingly condemned. A body of armed Orangemen fall upon and put to death a defenceless Catholic; they are put upon their trial, and when they raise their eyes and look upon the jury, as they are commanded to do, they see twelve of their brethren in massacre empannelled for their trial; and, after this, I shall be told that all the evils of Catholic disqualification lie in the disappointed longing of some dozen gentlemen after the House of Commons! No; it is the bann, the opprobrium, the brand, the note and mark of dishonour, the scandalous partiality, the flagitious bias, the sacrilegious and perjured leaning, and the monstrous and hydraheaded injustice, that constitute the grand and essential evils o the country. And you think it wonderful that we should be indig nant at all this. You marvel, and are amazed that we are hurried into the use of rash and vehement phrases. Have we alone forgotten the dictates of charity ?-have our opponents been always distinguished by their meekness and forbearance?-have no exasperating expressions, no galling taunts, no ferocious menaces, ever escaped from them Look to the Brunswick orgies of Ireland, and behold not merely the *orturers of '98, who, like retired butchers, feel the want of their eld

sccupation, and long for the political shambles again, but to the ministers of the Gospel, by whom their libations to the moloch of faction, in the revelries of a sanguinary ascendancy are ferociously poured out. Make allowances for the excesses into which, with much provocation, we may be hurried, and pardon us when you recollect how, under the same circumstance, you would, in all likelihood, feel yourselves. Perhaps you will say, that while you are conscious that we have much to suffer, you owe it to your own safety to exclude us from power. We have power already the power to do mischief; give us that of doing good. Disarray us- -dissolve us-break up our confederacy—take from the law (the great conspirator) its combining and organizing quality, and we shall no longer be united by the bad chain of slavery, but by the natural bonds of allegiance and contentment. You fear our possible influence in the House of Commons. Don't you dread our actual influence beyond its precincts? Catholics out of the House of Commons: we should be citizens within it. It has been sometimes insisted that we aim at the political exaltation of our church upon the ruins of the establishment-that once emancipated we should proceed to strip your clergy, and to possess ourselves of the opulence of an antiapostolic and anti-scriptural establishment. Never was there a more unfounded imputation. The whole body of the Irish Catholics look upon a wealthy priesthood with abhorrence. They do not desire that their bishops should be invested with pontifical gorgeousness. When a bill was introduced in order to make a small, and no more than a decent provision for the Catholic clergy, did they not repudiate the offer, and prefer their honourable poverty, and the affections of the people, to the seductions of the crown? How did the people act? Although a provision for the priesthood would relieve them from a burden, did they not deprecate all connection with power: The Catholics of Ireand know that if their clergy were endowed with the wealth of the establishment, they would become a profligate corporation, pampered with luxury, swelling with sacredotal pride, and presenting in their lives a monstrous contrast with that simplicity and that poverty of which they are now as well the practisers as the teachers. They know that, in place of being, as they now are, the indefatigable instructors of the peasantry, their consolers in affliction, their resource in calamity, their preceptors and their models in religion, their visiters in sickness, and their companions at the bed of death; they would become equally insolent to the humble, and sycophantic to the great-flatterers at the noble's table and extortioners in the poor man's hovel; slaves in politics. and tyrants in demeanour, who from the porticoes of palaces would give their instructions in humility; who from the banquets of patricians would prescribe their lessons in abstinence; and from the primrose path of dalliance would point to the steep and thorny way to heaven. Montrous as the opulence of the establishment now is, the people of Ireland would rather see the wealth of Protestant bishops increased tenfold, and another million of acres added to their episcopal territories, than behold their pure and simple priesthood degraded from their illustrious umility, to that dishonourable and anti-Christian ostentation, which,

If it were once established, would be sure to characterize their church I speak the sentiments of the whole body of my countrymen, when I amnly and emphatically reiterate my asseveration that there is nning which the Roman Catholic body would regard with more abhorreuce than the transfer of the enormous and corrupting revenues of the establishment to a clergy who owe their virtues to their poverty, and the attachment of the people to their dignified dependence upon the people for their support. I should have done; and yet before I retire from your presence, indulge me so far as to permit me to press one remaining topic upon you. I have endeavoured to show you that you have mistaken the character and political principles of my religion; I have endeavoured to make you sensible of the miserable condition of iny country; to impress upon you the failure of all the means which have been hitherto tried to tranquillize that unhappy country, and the necessity of adopting some expedient to alleviate its evils. I have dwelt upon the concurrence of great authorities in favour of concession; the little danger that is to be apprehended from that concession, and the great benefit which would arise from religious peace in Ireland. I might enlarge upon those benefits, and show you that when faction: were reconciled, when the substantial causes of animosity were removed, the fierce passions which agitate the country would be laid at rest that English capital would, in all likelihood, flow into Ireland; that English habits would gradually arise; that a confidence in the administration of justice would grow up--that the people, instead of appealing to arms for redress, would look to the public tribunals as the only arbiters of right; and that the obstacles which now stand in the way of education would be removed--that the fierceness of polemics would be superseded by that charity which the Christian extends to all mankind;. that a reciprocal sentiment of kindness would take place between th two islands-that a real union, not depending upon acts of parlian ent, but upon mutual interest and affection, would be permanently establisheo that the empire would be consolidated, and all dangers from the enemies of Great Britain would disappear:-I might point out to you, what is obvious enough, that if Ireland be allowed to remain as it now is, at no distant period the natural foes of Great Britain may make that unfortunate country the field of some formidable enterprise :-I might draw a picture of the consequences which would arise if an enormous population were to be roused into a concurrent and simultaneous movement :-but I forbear from pressing such considerations upon you. because I had much rather rely upon your own lofty-mindedness, thau upon any terrible contingency:-I therefore put it to you, that independently of every consideration of expediency, it is unworthy of you to persevere in a system of practical religious intolerance, which Roman Catholic states, who hold to you a fine example in this regard at least, have abandoned. I have heard it said that the Catholic religion was a persecuting religion. It was; and so was every other religion that was ever invested with authority. How easily I could retort on you the charge of persecution-remind you that the early reformers, who set up a claim to liberty of conscience for themselves, did not indulge

others in a similar luxury--tell you that Calvin, having obtained a theoogical masterdom in Geneva, offered up the screams of Servetus to the God of mercy and of love; that even your own Cranmer, who was himself a martyr, had first inflicted what he afterwards suffered, and that this father of your church, whose hand was indeed a guilty one, had, even in the reign of Edward the Sixth, accelerated the progress of hcreties to immortality, and sent them through fire to heaven. But the truth is, that both parties have, in the paroxysms of religious freuy committed the most execrable crimes, and it might be difficult, if their misdeeds were to be weighed, to adjust the balance of atrocity between them. But Catholics and Protestants have changed, and with the alteration of time we ourselves have undergone a salutary reformation. Through the whole continent religious distinctions have begun to vanish, and freedom of conscience is almost universally established. It is deplorable that England should be almost the only country where such disqualifications are maintained. In France, where the religion of the state is that of Rome, all men are admissible to power, and no sort of sectarian distinction is instituted by the law. The third article of the French charter provides that every French citizen, no matter of what denomination, shall be capable of holding every office in the state. The Chamber of Deputies is filled with Protestants, who are elected by Roman Catholics; and Protestants have held places in the cabinet of France. In Hungary, in the year 1791, Protestants were placed by a Roman Catholic government on a perfect level with their fellow-citizens. In Bavaria the same principle of toleration was adopted. Thus the Catholics of Europe hav, given you an honourable example, and, while they have refuted the imputation of intolerance, have pronounced upon you a practical reproach. You are behind almost every nation in Europe. Protestant_Prussia has emancipated her Catholic subjects, and Silesia is free. In Germany the churches are used indiscriminately by Protestants and Catholics-the Lutheran service, in happy succession, follows the Catholic mass; or the Catholic mass follows the Lutheran service. Thus in every state in Europe the spirit of religious toleration has signally advanced, while here, in this noble island, which we are wont to consider the asylum of civil liberty, the genius of persecution has found a refuge. In England, and in England only, deprivations and dishonour are inflicted upon those whose conscience inhibits their conformity with the formulas of your worship; and a vast body of Englishmen in this one of your finest counties, are called upon to offer up a gratuitous invocation to the legislature to rivet the fetters of their Catholic fellow-subjects. Do not undertake so ungenerous ar office, nor interpose for the low-hearted purposes of oppression. I have heard since I came here that it is a familiar saying, that " the men of Kent have been never conquered." That you never will be vanquished in any encounter where men shall be arrayed in arms against you is my belief and my desire: but while in this regard you will always prove unconquered and unconquerable, there is one particular in which I hope that proof will be afforded that you can be subdued. Be no longer invincible, but let the victory be achieved by yourselves The wors

Lees with which you have to contend are lodged in your own breasts-four prejudices are the most formidable of your antagonists, and to discomit them will confer upon you a higher honour than if in the shouts of battle you put your enemies to flight. It is over your antipathies, national and religious, that a masterdom should be obtained by you, and you may rest assured that if you shall vanquish your animosities, and bring your passions into subjection, you will, in conquering your. elves, extend your dominion over that country by which you have been so long resisted, your empire over our feelings will be securely estab lished, you will make a permanent acquisition of the affections of Irishmen, and make our hearts your own.

THE "ELECT."

DESCRIPTION of a rotunda MEETING OF "THE ELECT," IN A SPEECH AT THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.

I RISE to second the resolution, "That we have read with indignation the calumnies of Mr. Butterworth upon the Catholic clergy." His assertion, that the priests gave a signal to the people at Carlow to drive their opponents from the field, is destitute of foundation. Enough of this canting bibliopolist, who would bind up the gospel of Christ and the statutes of Queen Anne together. Thank God his efforts, and those of the party whom he so fitly represents, are frustrated. A wiser spirit has begun to manifest itself in the House of Commons with regard to the education of the Irish people. Evidence has been afforded in the recent debates, and especially in the late discussion which was originated by Mr. Smith, that the Kildare-street Association will speedily be divested of that national trust, against the abuse of which we have so frequently, so vehemently, so justly, and I may now add, we have so successfully complained. Our remonstrances have been heard--a system of instruc tion, compatible with the ancient religion of the country, will in all like lihood, be speedily introduced. The account of the proceedings in the House of Commons, upon the presenting of a petition against the misfeasances of the Kildare-street Society, were calculated to afford a higher satisfaction in consequence of the manifestation of inveterate fanaticism, which, within these few days, has taken place in this city. I allude to the convocations which were held during the last week at the Rotunda One would be at first disposed to think that there was something inap. propriate in the localities selected for those fantastic exhibitions; but the truth is, that no spot could have been more felicitously chosen for the assemblage of the fair enthusiasts, who were called together for the purpose of imbibing the holy spirit of the powerful "teachers of the Word," than the very useful asylum which is dedicated to Lucina, and sacred to the ministry of the obstetric art. How apparently distinct, tut how substantially coincidert, are the uses to which the Rotunda is