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CHAP. II.

Catholic Association-Mr. Goulburn's Notice of Motion-Lord Lansdown's Motion-Motion for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the Acts relating to unlawful Societies in Ireland-First Night's Debate ; Speeches of Mr. Goulburn, Sir Henry Parnell, Mr. Peel, and Mr. Denman-Second Night's Debate; Speeches of Mr. Plunkett and Mr. Tierney-Third Night's Debate; Mr. North's Speech-Fourth Night's Debate; Mr. Canning's Speech-Proceedings of the English Catholics Deputation from the Catholic Association-Petition of the Catholic Association-Motion that the Association should be heard by their Witnesses and Counsel-Progress of the Bill in the House of Commons-The Bill passes through the various stages in the House of Lords-Provisions of the Bill-Subsequent Proceedings of the Catholics-Plan of a new Catholic Association.

FROM

ROM the tenor of the discussion on the address, it was apparent that the restraints intended to be imposed on the Roman Catholic Association, would be the first object of contention between the two parties. No time was lost in commencing the struggle. On the second day of the session Mr. Goulburn gave notice, that he would, on the 10th of February, move for leave to bring in a bill to amend certain acts relating to unlawful societies in Ireland. Mr. Brougham pressed for a fortnight's delay; and, this not being conceded to him, he moved that the House should be called over on that day fortnight.

On the 8th of February, a preliminary discussion on the subject of the Roman Catholic Association was excited by a motion of lord Lansdown for the production of any despatches which had been received from the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, relating to political and religious societies existing in that country, their origin, progress, and VOL. LXVII.

consequences. Lord Liverpool answered, that if it were intended that the measure about to be brought forward should rest on official information, or upon any principle of confidence in his majesty's government, there would be fair ground for calling for inquiry or information. But the measure would not be founded on any official information, nor on any principle of confidence in government, nor, indeed, upon any circumstances which might not be equally as well known to any one of their lordships as to his majesty's ministers. It was the boast of the Catholic Association, that all their proceedings were public, and that every thing they did, was done in the face of day. If their lordships should think fit to adopt any measure affecting the Association, they would adopt it on facts which were admitted by the Association, and which no member of it would deny. deny. Besides, the motion was unprecedented, and had reference to a measure of which the House [C]

at present knew nothing. Lord Grosvenor, lord Holland, and lord Caernarvon supported lord Lansdown. Lord Bathurst spoke on the other side.

The motion was rejected by a majority of 42 to 20.

On Thursday the 10th of February, Mr. Goulburn, pursuant to his notice, moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the acts relating to unlawful societies in Ireland. There were two subsisting acts directed against these associations: the first enacted by the Irish parliament in the year 1793, commonly called the Convention act; and the other was that which had been passed in 1823 against Orange societies, and Orange processions. The act of 1793 prohibited all assemblies for the appointment or election of deputies, or which assumed in any manner the right of representing the people of that country. The Catholic Association contrived to evade both laws; and the object of the proposed enactments was, to put a stop to the mischievous operations of that body. To shew the necessity of the interference of parliament, Mr. Goulburn entered into an examination of the character, constitution, and conduct of the Association. The Catholic Association began to act in 1823; and in its first report declared, that its object was confined to the furtherance of the question of the Roman Catholic claims. Whether its object was still limited to that question, or whether, as was avowed in their debates, it embraced reform in parliament, and eventual separation from England, was for the present a question of no importance; for it mattered not that the object was inoffensive, if the means of carrying that object into effect were incom

patible with good government. The Association, though a public body, had this peculiarity-that all the members were of one mind. There was no competition of opinion: no opposing voice was heard. Every speech was previously arranged, and every decision was unanimous. Under different circumstances the fickleness of the multitude might operate as a check to the probable evil results of such an association; but this self-elected body was under no control, and continued to act without resorting elsewhere for extraneous advice, or receiving any fresh accession of authority from the people. Unfortunately, those whose duty it was to impart religious consolation, not only encouraged, but assumed a part of its powers. Next, in upholding that Association were to be found men of disappointed ambition and considerable talents, who exerted themselves in exciting the public feeling against the government; and in inflaming the population against the laws, and against what they described to be a prodigal and cor rupt administration of them. The surviving members of the committee of 1793-that very committee against which the Convention act was passed, were now enlisted with the Association; and there were found also in its ranks men, who had been the familiar friends of those traitors of old times-the Tones, Russells, and Emmetts, who had been put down only by military force. It was no doubt true that, in the Association, were to be found also a great proportion of the Roman Catholic gentry and aristocracy but such a connection was not altogether voluntary on their part; and a great number of that class were as much alarmed at the proceedings of the Association

as its most determined opponents in that House; though either from a want of firmness of character, or a reluctance to lose the confidence of the people, they had been led to swell its triumph. The Association condescended most strictly to imitate the forms of parliament. They appointed their committees of grievances, of education, and of finance. They had almost copied verbatim the sessional orders of that House. In one point, indeed, they abstained from imitationthey had not appointed a speaker; probably because in an assembly, in which there existed such an universal ardour for speech-making, no candidate could be found who would pledge himself to be perpetually silent. It had been also the practice of the Association, from time to time, to convene aggregate meetings, as they were called, of the Roman Catholic body of Ireland; and these meetings were convoked in such a manner as to seem contra-distinguished to the Catholic Association, though in truth they were composed principally of the very persons who belonged to that body.

After considering the constitution of the Association, Mr. Goulburn next directed his attention to specific parts of its proceedings. By virtue of an order emanating from the Association, large sums of money were collected from the people under the name of the Catholic rent. The particular amount to be raised was not stated: that was left to depend on the liberality of the contributors, and on the exertions of those by whom the subscription was to be collected. The mandate of the Catholic Association was, however, issued to the priest of every parish in Ireland, calling upon him, in distinct terms,

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to use every means in his power to produce a large contribution. Besides furnishing him with the necessary instructions for this purpose, he was supplied with books to enrol the various contributions; and his ready acquiescence was secured, not only by the political ascendancy which the Association would naturally have over him, but by the subordination which, as a minister, he owed to his bishop. the receipt of this mandate, the priest announced its contents from the altar of his chapel, as well as the names of the individuals on whom he fixed for payment; which individuals were, according to the duty imposed upon him, to have no option on the subject. Cases however were not rare, in which, the mandate of the Association having been issued, and some hesitation in its execution having been manifested on the part of the priest, he received a censure from the Association; and others had occurred, in which, having forborne to execute the orders sent to him, he had been held up to the congregation of his chapel as unworthy of their confidence and attachment. The instructions to the priest went still further: he was directed to enter, in the books which were sent him, the names of the individuals who contributed to the fund: there was another book in which the refusals to

contribute were also to be recorded. Every man who dared to refuse, whether Roman Catholic or not, whatever might be the wants or necessities which prevented him, was comprehended in this register. But the Association went a step further. As the gentry were of different persuasions, it was obvious that some of them would consider themselves bound to oppose the collectio

the Catholic rent, and to advise the peasantry, who were in penury, and unable to provide for their families, against this unnecessary expense. What was the consequence of this? The Catholic Association actually wrote letters to the priests of the parishes, holding up the individuals who thus acted, to reprobation and scorn.

In showing to what uses the money thus collected was applied, Mr. Goulburn expatiated chiefly on the interference of the Association with the course of justice; and, without dwelling on the evils which arose in minor courts from this cause, he called the attention of the House to what had taken place before the higher tribunals. About the end of last July, a statement was made that a most brutal and wanton murder had been perpetrated by a Protestant on a Roman Catholic; and a letter was published in some of the Irish papers, calling on the Catholic Association to interfere. The subject having been brought before the Association, Mr. J. D. Mullen moved for the appointment of a committee to investigate the circumstances of the case; with authority to adopt such measures as circumstances might require. On Saturday, the 31st of July, the report of the committee was read, detailing the supposed circumstanccs, and stating that those circumstances called for the interference of the Association! Mr. Cavanagh was in consequence appointed by the Association to conduct the prosecution. Here, then, was a man charged with murder going to trial with a declaration from the body representing the whole Catholic population, that they had investigated the facts, and that the result was, their con

viction that the murder had been committed, and that the individual so charged ought to be prosecuted by the Association. But, let the proceeding be pursued further. When the trial came on, a host of evidence swore to the infliction of a great many wounds on the deceased, and to the manifestation of the most horrid cruelty. Witness after witness declared upon oath, that the prisoner jumped on the throat of the deceased, kicked him in the spine, broke his ribs, &c. What was the fact? The surgeons who had examined the body, and who were brought forward by the prosecution, proved to the satisfaction of the court, that there was not a word of truth in all this previous evidence, and that the body had suffered no such violence. It appeared, that the deceased person died in consequence of an accidental fall over a short post, which broke one of the small vertebræ of the back; and eventually the prisoner was acquitted. When the verdict of not guilty was pronounced, the judge even considered it his duty to address the prisoner to the following effect:-"I do not think it would be right to discharge you without expressing my entire satisfaction at your conduct. It is in evidence that you endeavoured to preserve the peace from being disturbed, and your efforts entitle you to great approbation." Yet this individual, not only innocent, but meritorious, had been denounced a fortnight before by the Association as having, he being an Orangeman, murdered a Roman Catholic.

In January last, it was announced to the Catholic Association, by one of their agents, that a private in the 25th regiment had been discovered in the act of seducing se

veral Catholics to take an oath, the obligation of which was, to kill all the Protestants, all the soldiers, and all the Orangemen ; his object being, of course, to lay informations against them after having thus inveigled them. The Association issued a declaration, that the soldier was evidently a ruffian, who deserved the punishment of transportation, but that, unless the Association sent down an agent, the fellow might escape; and this declaration was read by the priests in all the chapels. The Catholic Association accordingly employed an agent to prosecute the soldier: and in the meantime, search was actually made for his wife, and for other branches of his family, in order to compel them to leave the country. The case came on before a bench of magistrates consisting of no fewer than forty-three individuals. The evidence, however, adduced on the part of the prosecution, developed so much inconsistency and contradiction, that the forty-three magistrates decided unanimously, that there was no foundation for the charge. The Association engaged in a similar transaction with reference to a member of the police, the object of which was to render that body odious. In short, the whole tendency of their proceedings was to excite, in any case in which Catholics and Protestants were concerned, all the acrimony of party feeling.

Mr. Goulburn proceeded next to consider the conduct and exertions of the Catholic Association in the month of December last. In that month, they put forth a document entitled Address of the Catholic Association to the People of Ireland," which concluded with this memorable pas

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sage: "In the name, then, of common sense, which forbids you to seek foolish resources; by the hate you bear the Orangemen, who are your natural enemies; by the confidence you repose in the Catholic Association, who are your natural and zealous friends; by the respect and affection you entertain for your clergy, who alone visit with comfort your beds of sickness and desolation by all these powerful motives, and still more by the affectionate reverence you bear for the gracious monarch, who deigns to think of your sufferings with a view to your relief; and, above all, and infinitely beyond all, in the name of religion, and of the living God, we conjure you to abstain from all secret and illegal societies, and Whiteboydisturbances and outrages."

This address, so anti-christian in its language and sentiments, was ordered to be sent into the different parishes in the country, and read by each priest from the altar. This was very generally done; and, if any argument were wanted to prove the extent and power of the Association, it was furnished by the fact, that they found a ready acquiescence on the parts of a great proportion of the Roman Catholic clergy in thus denouncing their Protestant brethren. In this way, the declaration was given to the Catholic people, and it was left to produce its natural effects on the minds of the ignorant and illiterate. Was it to be wondered at, that a society so formed, and so acting, should create anxiety and alarm? Was it possible that his majesty's government could avoid calling upon parliament to prevent the danger likely to arise from such proceedings?

With reference to other societies

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