that Mr. Peel could have appraised heroism at such a price. Let Mr. Peel argue the matter as he will, his web of sophistry will be without avail. He cannot get over the plain and most discreditable fact, that he paid for the lives of eleven soldiers at a less rate than £3 a head. It is idle for him to allege that a certain quantity of the public money was allocated to the occasion, and that Kirwan got his share. Had he possessed one touch of generous sentiment, he would have thrown open his coffers, and flung a handful of his inglorious gold to the man whose courageous humanity was beyond all praise. Kirwan is to this day unremunerated; and if I may venture to speak of myself, I may with justice say, that I have done more for him than Mr. Peel. I repeat it, Mr. Peel is not a high-minded, nor is he a fair-minded man. Contrast his former declarations with his present conduct. He stated in the House of Commons, that it was his anxious desire that the Catholic Question should be decided by the unbiased will of the legislature, and that, so far from endeavouring to excite, he would do all in his power to subdue the popular passions. How has he fulfilled this undertaking? He despatches his brother-in-law, his mere utensil, the creature of his smile, his political dependant, to this unfortunate country, in order that he may inflame the ferocious passions of an Orange mob. My friend, Mr. Conway, has placed his conduct in so strong a light that it is enough for me to refer to his admirable observations upon those barbarous festivities. I scarcely blame Mr. Dawson; he is but the emissary, the apostle of Mr. Peel, and is despatched by him for the purpose of exciting discord in the country, at the hazard of producing a re-enactment o. those scenes in which the North of Ireland has been drenched with blood. It is thus that his Majesty's injunctions are obeyed by his ministers, and that the precept of peace, of charity, and of love, is exemplified by Mr. Peel.

VOTE OF THANKS TO THE BISHOP OF WATERFORD.

SPEECH IN MOVING A VOTE OF THANKS TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF WATERFORD.

I RISE to move a vote of thanks to Dr. Kelly, the Catholic Bishop of Waterford. His praise may be expressed with as much brevity as force; he has commenced the census of the Irish people-he has thus held out a noble example of the most useful kind of public virtue-he is an essentially practical man. There is an efficiency and an operativeness in his patriotism, which is peculiarly deserving of panegyric. The learned, pious, and energetic prelate did not allow himself to be swayed by any petty fears, or miserable solicitudes. He did not ask whether the counting of his flock was consistent with the rules of cold prudence and nice calculation. He did not stop to inquire how far the fastidious pleasure of the government should be consulted upon this momentous

measure. He did not hold out a wavering balance and allow a noble opportunity to escape in its adjustment. The only question which Doctor Kelly asked was put to his own heart-he simply asked, "Will it serve my country?"-and you have the answer in the result. But it was to be expected that this great undertaking should commence with a Bishop of Waterford; and when we recollect that Hussey and Power were the predecessors of the enlightened and intrepid man to whom their crozier has been so appropriately transmitted, it will not be matter of surprise that he has acted a lofty and patriotic part. They were his models, and he has improved upon them. Dr. Hussey, the first of those remarkable men, was conspicuous at a period when great talents and great determination of character were required. He was the friend of Edmund Burke, who addressed to him one of the most admirable of his letters. The phrenetical fear of Jacobinism, which amounted to disease in the mind of Burke, did not extinguish all love of liberty in the heart of that celebrated person; and, whatever might have been his distaste for the abstract rights of man, he looked with horror upon the oppressors of that land, in place of which he had adopted what he calls his better and more comprehensive, but which, I verily believe, could not have been his dearer country. It was on the eve of the troubles of Ireland that he wrote the letter to Doctor Hussey, in which his anxiety for Emancipation is so emphatically and so unaffectedly expressed, and it was about the same period that Doctor Hussey addressed his celebrated pastoral admonition to his flock, which contains so much wise injunction and so much intrepid truth. Cumberland has given in his memoirs a sketch of the character of Doctor Hussey, with whom he was well acquainted at the court of Spain. He represents him as an able but ambitious person. The conduct of Doctor Hussey, when raised to the See of Waterford, justifies the encomium upon his talents, while it refutes the satire upon his morals-there was nothing servile, timorous, or compromising in his demeanour. He stood forward in the worst of times, with a stern and fearless aspect, and although he felt that every head on which the mitre was placed might be laid down upon the block of martyrdom, bated nothing of the loftiness of piety, and the attitude of courageous magnanimity which became a Christian pontiff. He addressed himself to the Pro-Consul of Ireland, with the boldness of an apostle, and claimed the franchises of a citizen. He it was who did not fear to proclaim that great truth, which it required more courage than inspiration to announce. He was the first to trace the progress of that mighty spirit, the rapid and headlong course of which he daringly pointed out. Well did he anticipate all the events which followed, and it may be added, that he prophesied the scenes which are passing before us, when he exclaimed

"The rock is loosened from the mountain's brow."

Has not the rock been loosened, and is it not from the brow of the mountain? Have not the people become acquainted with their rights? Have not great passions and great desires been put into motion? Has not the rock been loosened from the mountain's brow? and is it not

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rolling and bounding with accelerated velocity, and sweeping every impediment before it? Where will it rest in its course, and in what gulf will it lie at last? This is an interrogatory to which no man of our time will live perhaps to give a reply. Our children, and the children of our oppressors, will read it in the history of this unfortunate land, and God grant that its pages may not be written in blood. The intrepid ecclesiastic of whom I have been speaking was succeeded by a man of a gentler mood of mind, but not a less elevated and patriotic spirit. As you enter that magnificent house of worship which the Roman Catholics of Waterford have raised to the honour of God, you behold a plain marble slab, on which a beautiful inscription has been graventhe epitaph is not remarkable for any peculiar felicity of monumental expression-it is not conspicuous for any funeral epigram; but it contains a simple and most eloquent fact, to the bare statement of which all its panegyric is confined, for it intimates that "the marble was raised to commemorate the Christian virtue of Doctor Power, by the Catholic, the Protestant, and the Presbyterian inhabitants of his diocese." The day on which the remains of that truly good and benevolent man were laid in the earth was a remarkable one-there was not a single Protestant of respectability who did not join the procession which followed his relics to the grave. That amiable and excellent person, whose life was an illustration of his precepts, was succeeded by a gentleman, of whom it is unnecessary to say more than that he was characterised by a spirit of political complaisance which arose from the imbecility of his intellect, more than from any vices of his heart. Upon his death it was found necessary to fill the See which he had left vacant with a man of a very opposite cast of mind. The clergy of Waterford looked round for an ecclesiastic who was fitted to the time. They wanted a man of high talents and acquirements, of a firm, decided, and manly character, with a bold and inflexible spirit, and something of a republican simplicity of mind. And where did they seek him? These lovers of despotism by religion, these necessary slaves, these men who are deemed insensible to the love of liberty, and incapable of its enjoyment, these Popish priests-looked out into the democracy of America, and selected for their prelate a bishop of the United States. It was among the forests that mark the boundaries of the United States, it was in the midst of the Savannas-in the midst of poverty and of privation, and surrounded with every hardship, that Doctor Kelly had evinced the qualifications of a truly Christian pastor. He had not, when far away from his country, lost his affection for the land that gave him birth, and his anxiety to do that service to Ireland which he has proved that it is in the power of every bishop to confer, induced him to accept the honourable tender which was made to him by the clergy of his native diocese. He came, and what more need I do than appeal for the results of his coming to the simple fact upon which I rest the resolution in which the gratitude of the Irish people is expressed? It did befit a man who lived in a free country, in a land of manly spirits and fearless minds, to put into accomplishment a measure which belongs to the spirit of genuine citizenship, and which enumerates the people for the

purpose of giving assertion and extension to their rights. To such a man great praise is due, and, believe me, he will not stop here. He will teach the power and efficiency of a simultaneous but pacific assemblage of seven millions of people, and I may conjecture what he will do, by what he has already achieved. He will not be slow in adopting that fine suggestion, that the cry for liberty should be mingled with the voice of prayer, and that from the altars of God an invocation should be offered, to touch our rulers with the spirit of justice, to illuminate their minds, and awaken in them a sense of the perils of the empire. And let it not be said that it is unmeet to do so. If we call for the rain from heaven, or ask for the shining of the sun; if for grass and corn we are permitted to submit our orisons, who will say that for the great harvest of long and golden prosperity, for the maturing of those events of which the seeds have been already deeply sown-who will say that for these great objects it is unfit that we should offer up our prayers? But let me not deviate into matter which affords too wide a field for present expatiation. The office of gratitude is more pleasurable than the indulgence of even the most sanguine expectation of future good; and I shall therefore conclude by moving the following resolution:-"That the Right Rev. Doctor Kelly, the Catholic Bishop of Waterford, by commencing the Catholic census in his diocese, has conferred a great obligation upon his country, and deserves its thanks.”

PRAYER FOR EMANCIPATION.

SPEECH ON MR. O'CONNELL'S MOTION, THAT A PRAYER BE OFFERED UP IN EVERY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL FOR EMANCIPATION.

I AM of opinion that a prayer for liberty should be incorporated with the liturgy of the Catholic Church. It is idle to insist that such a measure should originate with the bishops. I have no doubt that we shall have their individual assent to the proposition, although they may not deem it judicious to recommend it in their corporate capacity. It is enough that they should permit the utterance of the prayer, without enjoining its adoption. The spirit which actuates the great body of the clergy will induce them to act in conformity with our suggestion; and there is not a prelate in the land who would so far deviate from the course which has been hitherto pursued by the head of our church, as to issue an injunction against the use of so just, so reasonable, and so consistent an orison. Let us not at least anticipate any episcopal veto upon this great expedient. The Roman Catholic hierarchy are united with us in political sentiment. There is not one among them who does not personally applaud our conduct, although they do not deem it accordant with their spiritual character to take a visible and eutward participation in our proceedings. The fact, that they have selected the period of our sittings for their own session, affords proof

of their desire that the two great assemblies which represent the wishes of the Irish people-should be convened and act together.They are virtually in correspondence with the Association; and have transmitted to us in an almost official shape the resolutions passed by their body. I therefore dismiss the argument pressed on the other side, that we are interfering with their legitimate province. But it is said that political matter should not be blended with religious practices, and that the call for freedom is not an object of prayer. I hold the Catholic Litany in my hand. It was given me by a Catholic priest on entering this room-let us examine the contents of the Litany as it stands, and determine how far the addition of the proposed prayer is in conformity with the character of the established supplication. I find in the first place a prayer for the preservation "of the fruits of the earth." Our physical wants have thus become the objects of our spiritual aspirations. But I may be called on to show, that political matter is already introduced into the Litany. I accept the challenge; "vouchsafe to give peace and true concord to Christian Kings and Princes." In other words, "preserve the Holy Alliance." But I should not upon such an occasion indulge in the spirit of sarcastic jest. What follows is much better; "vouchsafe to grant peace and unity to all Christian people." This is truly a noble and exalted desire; and its use amongst us evinces how little we are swayed by views of a narrow and sectarian character. We do not pray for peace and unity among all Catholic people. We do not limit our wishes to the benefit of those who coincide with us in our religious tenets: we implore the Almighty to grant peace and unity, (those paramount and surpassing blessings) to all the nations by whom a belief in the Divine Redeemer of mankind is professed. But, Mr. Chairman, I am arguing this question with too much minuteness and formality, and treating it as if it really stood in need of an inductive series of reasoning, when the propriety and the consistency of such a prayer are matters so obvious, that argument seems to be wasted upon them. I shall take a bolder ground, and one more fitted to the time, and becoming the closing hours of the political existence of this body. I care not whether there be a prayer in the Litany for concord or unityI care not whether there be in the appendix to the liturgy, a prayer against earthquakes, tempests, famine, and pestilence. But abandoning all reliance upon authority, and putting form and precedent aside, I ask of this great assembly, whether it be an offence against religion to call upon the Almighty to save us or our children from the horrors of a political convulsion, to which the system pursued in its regard is precipitating this unfortunate country? I have spoken boldly and abruptly. It is not matter for hints and inuendoes. I speak without fear, because I cannot justly incur reproach; and I am myself as much disposed as any one of those who are inclined to attribute to me motives as preposterous as they are wicked, to deprecate the frightful calamities, which, if a change of policy be not adopted, will fall at last upon this country. Let it be understood. I am not alluding to events that will happen in our time. It is not likely that