out.

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 torturers of '98, who, like retired butchers, feel the want of their old occupation, 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 ascendency are ferociously poured 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 anti-apostolic 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 Ireland know that if their clergy were endowed with the wealth of the establishment, they would become a profligate corporation, pampered with luxury, swelling with sacerdotal pride, and presenting in their lives a monstrous contrast with that simplicity and that poverty of which they are now as well the practicers 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. Monstrous 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 humility 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 solemnly and emphatically reiterate my asseveration that there is nothing which the Roman Catholic body would regard with more abhorrence 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 dependance 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 my 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 factions 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 ar

biters 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 the two islands that a real union, not depending upon acts of parliament, but upon mutual interest and affection, would be permanently establishedthat 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, than 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 theological 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 heretics to immortality, and sent them through fire to heaven. But the truth is, that both parties have, in the paroxysms of religious frenzy, 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 have 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 an office, nor interpose for the low-hearted purposes of oppression. I have heard since I came here that it is a familar 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 worst foes with which you have to contend are lodged in your own breasts-your prejudices are the most formidable of your antagonists, and to discomfit 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 yourselves, extend your dominion over that country by which you have been so long resisted, your empire over our feelings

will be securely established, you will make a permanent acquisition of the affections of Irishmen, and make our hearts your own.

A great portion of this speech was not uttered, in consequence of the loud uproar with which Mr. Sheil was almost incessantly assailed; but Mr. Sheil published it in the Times and Sun newspapers, and it attracted very general notice. The famous Jeremy Bentham was greatly struck by it, and wrote the following letter, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle of November 6, 1828. It was addressed by the great philosopher to Mr. Galloway, in reference to a public dinner which was afterwards given to Mr. Sheil at the London Tavern, at which Mr. Smith of Norwich presided.

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Queen-Square-Place, October 31, 1828. "MY DEAR GALLOWAY,-So masterly an union of logic and rhetoric as Mr. Sheil's speech, scarcely have I ever beheld. I have just received "the circular inviting my attendance at the dinner. You know I labour under complaints which prevent my stirring from home, cases of absolute necessity excepted. For years upon years it has been out of the question with me.

"The dinner good-printing and diffusion of the speech still better: this surely will not be omitted. In the Herald of this day are two or three abominable letters against Sheil. What say you to adding them, together with the exculpatory statement in the Sun, to the reprint of his speech? Might it not be of use in the way of contrast, and as an exemplification of impartiality, in particular, that signed 'Verus ?'

"Your's ever,

"JEREMY BENTHAM.

"To Alexander Galloway, Esq."

After this adventurous undertaking, Mr. Sheil returned to Ireland, and was cordially received by his countrymen, who conceived that good service had been rendered by him to the great cause in which he had been so strenuously engaged. But at the very time that the meeting at Penenden Heath was held, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel were giving way to the enormous pressure of the Catholic Association and its great leader, Mr. O'Connell, and alarmed at the organised disaffection of which Ireland had exhibited the evidence, had de