divine and human, attributed to us? I leave you to answer those questions. and to give your answers, not only to the interrogatories which thus vehemently, and, I will own, indignantly I put to you, but to reply to those which must be administered to you, in your moments of meditation, by your own hearts. But, whatever be your purpose in the religious excitement which you are endeavouring to get up in this country, of this I am convinced, that the result of your expedients will correspond with their deserts, and that as we have prevailed over you before, we shall again and again discomfit you. Yes, we, the Irish millions, led on by men like those that plead the cause of those millions in this house, must (it is impossible that we should not) prevail; and I am convinced that the people of England, so far from being disposed to array themselves against us, despite any remains of the prejudices which are fast passing away in this country, feel that we are entitled to the same privileges, and extend to us their sympathies in this good and glorious

cause.

What is that cause? I shall rapidly tell you. You took away our parliament-you took from us that parliament which, like the House of Commons of this country, must have been under the control of the great majority of the people of Ireland, and would not, and could not, have withheld what you so long refused us. Is there a man here who doubts that if the Union had not been conceded, we should have extorted emancipation and reform from our own House of Commons? That House of Commons you bought, and paid for your bargain in gold; ay, and paid for it in the most palpable and sordid form in which gold can be paid down. But, while this transaction was pending, you told us that all distinctions should be abolished between us, and that we should become like unto yourselves. The great minister of the time, by whom that unexampled sale of our legislature was negotiated, held out equality with England as the splendid equivalent for the loss of our national representation; and, with classical references, elucidated the nobleness of the compact into which he had persuaded the depositants of the rights of their countrymen to enter. The act of Union was passed, and twentynine years elapsed before any effectual measure was taken to carry its real and substantial terms into effect. At last, our enfranchisement was won by our own energy and determination; and, when it was in progress, we received assurances that, in every respect, we should be placed on a footing with our fellow-citizens; and it was more specially announced to us, that to co porations, and to all offices connected with them, we should be at one admissible. Peuding this engagement, a bill is passed for the reform of the corporatio of this country; and in every important municipal locality in England, councillors are selected by the people as their representatives. This important measure having been carried here, the Irish people claim an extension of the same advantages; and ground their title on the Union, on Emancipation, on Reform, and on the great principle of perfect equality bet ween the two countries, on which the security of one country and the prosperity of both must depend. This demand, on the part of Ireland, is rejected; and that, which to England no one was bold enough to deny, from Ireland you

are determined, and you announce it, to withhold. Is this justice? You will say that it is, and I should be surprised if you did not say so. I should be surprised, indeed, if, while you are doing us wrong, you did Lot profess your solicitude to do us justice. From the day on which Strongbow set his foot upon the shore of Ireland, Englishmen were never wanting in protestations of their deep anxiety to do us justice :even Strafford, the deserter of the people's cause the renegade Wentworth, who gave evidence in Ireland of the spirit of instinctive tyranny which predominated in his character-even Strafford, while he trampled upon our rights, and trod upon the heart of the country, protested his solicitude to do justice to Ireland. What marvel is it, then, that gentlemen opposite should deal in such vehement protestations? There is, however, one man, of great abilities, not a member of this house, but whose talents and whose boldness have placed him in the topmost place in his party—who, disdaining all imposture, and thinking it the best course to appeal directly to the religious and national antipathies of the people of this country-abandoning all reserve, and flinging off the slender veil by which his political associates affect to cover, although they cannot hide, their motives-distinctly and audaciously tells the Irish people that they are not entitled to the same privileges as Englishmen; and pronounces them, in any particular which could enter his minute enumeration of the circumstances by which fellow-citizenship is created, in race, identity, and religion-to be aliens-to be aliens race to be aliens in country-to be aliens in religion.* Aliens! good God! was Arthur, Duke of Wellington, in the House of Lords, and did he not start up and exclaim, "Hold! I have seen the aliens do their duty?" The Duke of Wellington is not a man of an excitable temperAment. His mind is of a cast too martial to be easily moved; but notwithstanding his habitual inflexibility, I cannot help thinking that when he heard his Roman Catholic countrymen (for we are his countrymen) designated by a phrase as offensive as the abundant vocabulary of his eloquent confederate could supply-I cannot help thinking that he ought to have recollected the many fields of fight in which we have been contributors to his renown. "The battles, sieges, fortunes that he has passed," ought to have come back upon him. He ought to have remembered that, from the earliest achievement in which he displayed that military genius which has placed him foremost in the annals of modern warfare, down to that last and surpassing combat which has made his name imperishable-from Assaye to Waterloo-the Irish soldiers, with whom your armies are filled, were the inseparable auxiliaries to the glory with which his unparalleled successes have been crowned. Whose

Lord Lyndhurst was sitting under the gallery during Mr. Sheil's speech. Mr. Shei looked and shook his head indignantly at him at this part of his speech. The effect produced was remarkable. The whole house turned towards Lord Lyndhurst, and the shunts of the ministerialists, encountered by the vehement outcries of the Conservatives, continued for minutes.

The Times next morning observed: "A scene of the Corn Exchange character occurred in the course of Mr. Sheil's speech, when referring to the expressions said to have been used by Lord Lyndhurst with respect to aliens." The honourable member for Tippera y turned towards the benches alloted to the peers, where Lord Lyndhurst was sitting. This was the Signal for the most infuriate yelling trom the ministerial venches." Tumes, February 25, 15

were the arms that drove your bayonets at Vimiera through the phalanxes that never reeled in the shock of war before? What desperate valour climbed the steeps and filled the moats at Badajos? All his victories should have rushed and crowded back upon his memory-Vimiera, Badajos, Salamanca, Albuera, Toulouse, and, last of all, the greatestTell me, for you were there-I appeal to the gallant soldier before me (Sir Henry Hardinge,) from whose opinions I differ, but who bears, I know, a generous heart in an intrepid breast;-tell me, for you must needs remember on that day when the destinies of mankind were trembling in the balance-while death fell in showers-when the artillery of France was levelled with a precision of the most deadly science -when her legions, incited by the voice, and inspired by the example of their mighty leader, rushed again and again to the onset-tell me if, for an instant, when, to hesitate for an instant was to be lost, the "aliens" blenched? And when at length the moment for the last and decisive movement had arrived, and the valour which had so long been wisely checked, was at last let loose-when, with words familiar, but immortal, the great captain commanded the great assault-tell me, if Catholic Ireland, with less heroic valour than the natives of this your own glo rious country, precipitated herself upon the foe? The blood of England, Scotland, and of Ireland, flowed in the same stream, and drenched the same field. When the chill morning dawned, their dead lay cold and stark together ;—in the same deep pit their bodies were deposited-the green corn of spring is now breaking from their commingled dust-the dew falls from heaven upon their union in the grave. Partakers in every peril-in the glory shall we not be permitted to participate; and shall we be told, as a requital, that we are estranged from the noble country for whose salvation our life-blood was poured out?

CIVIL WAR IN SPAIN.

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL 18, 1837.

IF the learned member (Mr. Grove Price) had been born in Spain, he ought to have been returned to the Cortes, as representative of La Mancha! What a strange anomaly will enthusiasm produce in even an accomplished mind! Despite his habitual horror for Popery, I question whether he does not regard the Inquisition as a venerable Conservative institution; and whether, in the event of the triumph of Don Carlos, he would not gladly journey across the Pyrenees, in order to witness the burning of the Quadruple Treaty at an auto-da-fe.

The military and political character of the gallant member by whom this motion was brought forward gives it a peculiar interest. As a soldier, his opinions, when unbiassed, are of the highest value. And the part he plays as a politician is so conspicuous, that it is not unrea sonable to conjecture that this motion is part of a combined plan of operations, by which a very important position is to be carried by the gallant officer. But an additional interest is given to this question by the admixture of military with civil accomplishments. The motion was seconded by a profound, but unemployed diplomast, Sir T. Canning; an eminent negociator, once in the confidence of the Whigs, and now not undeserving Tory trust. There is a practical antithesis in the right honourable gentleman; for while for the Emperor Nicholas he has no strong personal relish, he is not without some propensity to the adoption of a Sclavonic policy at Madrid. I like to do justice; and I trust the right honourable gentleman will forgive me if I say, having heard him designate the noble lord (Lord Palmerston) as his "noble friend," I should think that the right honourable gentleman must have laboured under a very strong and painful sense of public duty, when he took a part so prominent in assailing the measures of his noble-and I believe he has foura him his faithful-friend. If that speech had been made under ordinary circumstances, perhaps no great consequence might have attached to it. But there is yet another view in which this motion is most important; it is an announcement of the policy intended to be pursued by the Tories upon their anticipated advent to power The right honourable member for Tamworth has recently intimated that he will, although with great reluctance, submit to the infliction of power; and he has also intimated that he would endeavour to manage a House of Commons better than Lord Melbourne (he says) can manage the House Peers-and give this house an opportunity of atoning for that parricidal blow by which his official existence was suddenly abridged. It is as well that we should be apprised that the victory of Conservatism in St. James's will be followed by the triumph of Carlism at Madrid.

I pass to the Quadruple Treaty. The decision of the house, upon this subject, must turn upon the general construction of the treaty, and the course pursued by the government. Let me examine both. What

standard shall we adopt in interpreting the treaty? Not a mere literal one-we are to consider the circumstances under which the treaty was entered into, its objects, and the means by which they are to be accomplished. What was the object of that Quadruple Alliance? The pacification of the Peninsula; the expulsion of Carlos from Spain, and of Miguel from Portugal; the securing free institutions to the one, and the permanent ejection of Carlos from the throne of the other. Any air man, who looks at the events which took place at that period, must come to this conclusion. It may be asked, what concern have we with Spain? I answer by asking, what concern has Russia with Spain? What have Austria and Prussia to do with Spain? And if despots feel their interests so deeply involved in the form of government which she assumes, shall it be said that the people of this country ought to be indifferent to the extension of the principles from which England derives her power and her virtue? But, putting considerations aside which may be regarded as vague and indefinite, look back a little at events which have happened within a few years, and we shall see how material it is to sustain British interests in the Peninsula, in order to countervail the great northern confederacy which is leagued against us. We shall see the consequences of neglecting liberty in Spain. In 1820 the constitution was proclaimed at the council of the Congress at Verona, it was determined by Russia that it should be crushed. In 1823, under the influence, and swayed by the councils, of the autocrat, the Duke d'Angouleme marched into Spain. It is notorious that he obtained possession of Spain as the trustee for Alexander, and was a mere instrument in the hands of the Czar. The ascendancy of Russia was estabfished, and she took advantage of her predominance over France: being sure that her dependant, bribed by the gift of Spain into acquiescence, would not join us, she fell on Turkey, crossed the Balkan, in 1829, extorted the Treaty of Adrianople, and laid the Sultan so utterly prostrate, that England, in 1830, could not lift him into independence and dignity again. This is the simple narrative of incidents of which we yet feel the results: the transactions in the East were, beyond doubt, influenced by our original supineness; and it is the duty of British ministers to endeavour to repair these errors, and to regain an influence through liberal institutions in the Peninsula.

Thus I account for the policy by which the Quadruple Treaty was dictated, and with a view to which it ought to be interpreted and enforced. Look now at the more immediate circumstances under which it was framed. Don Carlos and Don Miguel were both in Portugal in April, 1834. If Don Carlos should recover the throne of Spain, it was obvious that Don Miguel would recover that of Portugal. We were bound, under treaties, to protect Portugal, and thus the entire PeninFula was embraced in the treaty. Instead, then, of wasting time in cavils about particular passages in the treaty, let us see what was doing and what ought to have been done under the treaty. The Duke of Wellington gave it a complete ratification. He ordered 50,000 muskets to be sent to the Basque provinces. For what purpose? I call on the gentlemen opposite, who cry out so vehemently for justice to Navarre