thousand Frenchmen should land upon our shores, what would be the result? Would the population of Ireland unite with the invader? If Protestants think that they would-if it be barely possible-if there be a risk of an event so terrible-if there are those who believe that in a week one hundred thousand men would start to arms-is it not actual frenzy to keep the national mind in such a state of frightful susceptibility, and to nurture the passions which may give birth to such a tremendous result? "Lead us not into temptation," is the daily prayer which I would address to the minister, and call upon him, with a vehement_reiteration to deliver us from this appalling evil. I doubt not that England might succeed in crushing the foreign invader and the intestine foe; but, as defeat would be terrible, victory would be scarcely less awful; the chariot of conquest should roll over heaps of massacre, and when tranquillity was restoreu. it would be solitude indeed. These events may not take place until the present generation shall have passed away. But is not that a mean and selfish consolation? Do not nature and the heart of man revolt against it? May not the graves in which we shall lie low, be soaked with our children's blood, and the knife of murder, and the grasp of dishonour, be laid on those to whom we have given that life which should be incalculably more precious than our own? Mothers of Ireland, hear this admonition, and clasp your children to your hearts. I feel that I am speaking in bold and impassioned language, but that language from being impassioned is not the less true. There is 'sk-no one can question it-there must be, then, some sound reason for continuing to incur it. The enemies of Emancipation, they who wish to incur this dreadful chance, reply—the Church must be supported. Suppose that the Church were placed in jeopardy, (and I make the hypothesis for the sake of argument) I put the matter thus; throw the mitres of thirty bishops into one side of the scale, and in the other the liberties of seven millions of people, and which would preponderate? Is it for the sake of the Church that Ireland is to remain distracted, ferocious, poor, ignorant, and oppressed? Is all this weight of national misery to be sustained, in order that some high-priest may continue to burlesque the apostles-that some ecclesiastic parvenu may continue to insult the people with his contumelious epigrams-that he may shoot his poisoned antithesis from behind the altar, through the golder vestment of Rome, and the simple surplice of Geneva, and set off a religion without a church, against a church without a religion? is it that he may rebuke the peers of England, as well as insult the Catholics of Ireland, and that dressed in a "brief authority," and a purple surtout, he may continue to perform his sacerdotal antics, and "make the angels weep,' -or is it that we may behold the "Castle if Indolence" turned into truth, and the voluptuous fancy of the poet embodied in a living exemplification of "A man of God Who has a roguish twinkle in his eye- Which, when observed, he sinks into his mew And straight 'gins recollect his piety anew ?" Inhabitants of Ossory, is it for these glorious purposes that the system is to be persevered in, which is fraught with so much frightful mischief and teems with public woe? I do not mean to quarrel with the wealth of the church. It is enormous. It is a bloated and dropsical mass; but it is to the votaries of Wesley, and not of St. Peter, that the operation of tapping is reserved. Whatever aversion I have to the church arises from its being raised as an obstacle to the liberties of my country. The Attorney-General has justly remarked, that, instead of endanger ing the stability of the established religion, and of the gorgeous insti tutions by which it is attended, Roman Catholic Emancipation would contribute materially to its permanence. It is because it is now opposed as a barrier to concession that we regard it with hostility; but if once it ceased to operate as an obstruction, we should, in all likelihood, submit in apathetic acquiescence to its abuses; we should look upon it as a state engine, and if it ceased to crush us, we should not desire to inter fere with its operations, or to diminish the power of the vast machine We should not be arrayed by individual interest against its influence, and whatever might be our abstract opinion respecting its general expediency, we should not regard it as we are now forced to do, as a means of personal wrong. I doubt not, indeed, that if the Catholic question were settled, individuals of our own body might be found who would be disposed to support, as an instrument of political influence, what they are now instigated by their sense of personal suffering to condemn But, Sir, I am deviating from the course that the resolution which I have seconded should suggest to me. Let me conclude, by stating to you with some abruptness, what, upon another occasion, I shall take an opportunity to enforce. Three great measures have, of late, been proposed, as expedients by which Emancipation may be advanced. The first is, a census of the Catholic people the second, a meeting for fourteen successive days, in Dublin, of the prelacy, the chief clergy, the aristocracy, the merchants, and the professional members of our body -the third, and most important, is, the simultaneous assembly of the Irish people upon the same day, in their respective parishes, to petition for redress. We shall require the co-operation of the clergy, in order to achieve these great ends. I have heard it said that they should not meddle in politics. Why? Do not the parsons meddle in politics? Do not the parsons excite the religious prejudices of the English people? Does not Bloomfield meddle in politics? He was once our friend, antil, finding that his head was not like Yorick's, and that a mitre might fit upon it-feeling the organ of episcopativeness in distinct and holy prominence, he betook himself to a more profitable course than the study of Greek tragedy, and set up as an orator against the Irish people. But let him pass-are not the parsons the most furious opponents of our cause? And, if they are, why should not the priests prove themselves its most strenuous advocates? Upon them rest our best hopes; they will not make an Iscariot sale of the liberties of their country to the Pharisees of the cabinet. They are unpurchased and unpurchaseable. Satisfied with the voluntary contributions of their tocks, they are con tented with their primitive poverty, and from the moral elevation or RESOLUTIONS ON THE PROSECUTION OF MR. O'CONNELL 441' which they are placed, look down with a lofty indifference upon the luxurious opulence of the Established priesthood. They will not abuse the legitimate influence which they possess, and assign it to the rulers of the land. They will not convert the temple of God into a profane and sordid mart. The blood of Christ shall not "drop for them in drachmas"-they will not make money of the mysteries of religionconvert eternal truth into a traffic-make the cross a ladder of ambition, and dig in Mount Calvary for gold. PESOLUTION ON THE PROSECUTION OF MR. O'CONNELL SPEECH IN MOVING A SERIES OF RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING THE PROSECUTION OF MR. O'CONNELL, BY MR. PLUNKETT. THE prosecution of Mr. O'Connell, and the issue of the legal enterprise, in which the provincial government of Ireland had so fantastically adventured, call for an intimation of our sentiments. I rise to propose the first of a series of resolutions, which I have drawn up with a view to suggest the feelings of the Irish people, rather than give them their full expression. I move the following resolution :— "Resolved-That the prosecution of Mr. O'Connell has excited the amazement of the English public, and is calculated to excite a stronger feeling than one of mere astonishment in the people of Ireland.” 66 Yes, Sir, England was amazed, and Ireland was more than astonished. If there is ground to congratulate Mr. O'Connell upon his victory, there is ground to congratulate Mr. Plunkett upon his defeat. His success would have been disastrous to his country and to himself. The blood of every honest man would have boiled in his veins at the success of this deplorable experiment. As it is, a feeling of regret is intermingled with the sentiment of displeasure. We lament that Mr. Plunkett should have given an election to his enemies, to make either a martyr of Mr. O'Connell, or a victim of himself. We survey this abortive proceeding with all its train of miserable result, "more in sorrow than in anger." We do not forget the ties of political cordiality which united Mr. Plunkett to the Roman Catholic body. We feel as if we had snatched a poniard from the grasp of an antagonist, and beholding in his face the lineaments of an early friend, instead of turning back the dagger upon his bosom, exclain, in the accents of mingled reproach and sorrow, "Is it thus that you requite us?" God forbid that we should indulge in the language of contumelious triumph at the failure of a measure which carries with it its own retribution. weapon which was pointed at our very existence with so deadly a level, has burst in Mr. Plunkett's hands-I hope it has not shattered them. It is enough for us that he has missed his aim-we cannot fail to recolect that there is in the detestation of our inveterate opponents, (we must not suffer ourselves to be deluded by them), a kind of redeeming The 442 RESOLUTIONS ON THE PROSECUTION OF MR. O'CONNELL virtue and instead of co-operating in their designs, we should abstain from the manifestation of any indignant feeling, and all indulgence in any ungenerous vaunt. For the sake of the country, and for the sake of the distinguished individual who is identified with its interests, and nolds so high and permanent a place in its regards, we rejoice at the failure of the preposterous prosecution But we are not drunk with an absurd and delirious joy. In these political saturnalia, we do not forget the ignominy of our condition. We remember that there is no substantial ground of exultation. It is but an ephemeral and transitory advantage. We are still the underlings of Orange domination. Our penalties and disqualifications are still upon us; and in lifting up our arms we feel the heaviness of the fetters which we cannot long sustair in the attitude of triumph. They draw us down again, and weigh uz to the earth. But we owe it, at the same time, to sound principle, and to the abstract dignity of truth, to record our condemnation of this marvellous proceeding. Gracious God! what motive could have prompted an undertaking so extravagant? When Mr. Plunkett read the words attributed to Mr. O'Connell, did he ask himself "what provocation is given to this man?-who is he?-and what am I?" Did he say to himself, "who am 1?" Did he say, "who is William Conyngham Plunkett?" I know not whether he administered that personal interrogatory to himself; but this I know, that if he did, this should have been the answer" I raised myself from a comparatively humble station, by the power of my own talents, to the first eminence in the State. my profession I am without an equal-in parliament I once had no superior-I have obtained great wealth, great fame, great dignity, and great patronage. When I was out of office I kindled the popular passions-I enlisted them on my side-I was fierce, virulent, and vituperative. The minister turned pale before me. At last I have won the object of my life. I am Attorney-General for Ireland-if I had been a Catholic, instead of an enfranchised Presbyterean, what would have been my fortunes ?" I can tell him :-he would have pined under the sense of degradation. He would have felt like a man with huge limbs where he could not stand erect-he would have felt his faculties "cribbed and cabined in," and how would he have endured his humiliation? --look at him and say! How would that lofty forehead have borne the brand of Popery? How would that high demeanour have borne the stoop of the slave? Would he have been tame, and abject, and servile, and sycophantic? No; he would have been the chief demagogue-the most angry, tumultuous, and violent tribune of the people In he would have superadded the honest gall of his own nature to the bitterness of political resentment-he would have given utterance to rdent feelings in burning words; and in all the foam of passion he would have gnawed the chain from which he could not break. And is this the man who prosecutes for words? If their condition were versed-if Mr. O'Connell were Attorney-General, and Mr. Plunkett were the great leader of the people-if "Anthony were Brutus, and Brutus Anthony," how would the public mind have been inflamed! What exciting matter would have been flung amongst the people RESOLUTIONS ON THE PROSECUTION OF Mr. O'connell. 4.13 What lava would have been poured out! "The very stones would rise and mutiny. Would to heaven that not only Mr. Plunkett, Eu every other Protestant who deplores our imprudence, in the spirit of fastidious patronage, would adopt the simple test of nature, and make our case his own, and he would confess, that if similarly situated, he would give vent to his emotions in purases as exasperated, and participate in the feelings which agitate the great and disfranchised community, to which it would be his misfortune to belong. There is no man! of ordinary candour, who will not rather intimate his wonder at the moderation, than his surprise at the imputed violence of Mr. O'Con nell; with fortune, rank, and abilities of the first class-enjoying preeminence in his profession, and the confidence of his country, he is shut out from honours accessible to persons whom nature intended to place infinitely behind, and whom their religion has advanced before him. If he were to adopt, or if his country, at his suggestion, were to assume the language which is prescribed to us, the people of England would not believe that we laboured under any substantial grievances. "I do not believe you," (said a celebrated advocate of antiquity, to a citizen, who stated to him a case of enormous wrong)-"I do not believe you." "Not believe me!" "No." "Whatnot believe me! I tell you, that my antagonist met me in the public way-seized me by the throatdung me to the earth, and"- "Hold," exclaimed Demosthenes, "your eye is on fire-your lip begins to quiver-your cheek is flushed with passion-your hand is clenched. I believe you now; when you first addressed me you were too calm-too cold-too measured; but now you speak, you look like one who had sustained a wrong!" And are we to speak, and act like men who had sustained no wrong? We! Six millions of what shall I say? Citizens? No! but of men who have been flagitiously spoliated of the rights and privileges of British subjects-who are cast into utter degradation and covered with disgrace and shame-upon whom scorn is vented and contumely discharged; we, who are the victims of legislative plunder-who have been robbed, with worse than Punic perfidy, of privileges which our ancestors had purchased at Limerick with their blood-which were secured by the faith of treaties, and consecrated with all the solemnities of a great national Compact-shall we speak like men who had sustained no wrongs?-We re upon our knees, but even in kneeling an attitude of dignity should be maintained. Shall we ask for the right of freemen in the language of slaves? May common sense-common feeling-common honourmay every generous principle implanted in our nature--may that God (I do not take his name in vain) may that Power that endowed us with high aspirations, and filled the soul of an with honourable emotion-who made the love of freedom an instinctive wish and unconquerable appetite-may the great Author of our being-the Creator of the human heart may God forbid it |