1828.] [ 623 ] 



CATHOLIC RESOLUTIONS : THE TREATY OF LIMERICK. 



THE question of Catholic Emancipation has been discussed in the 

 House of Commons since our last ; and the motion for a Committee 

 having been carried, the subject is now pending in the House of Peers. 

 Of the result of such a question in that house, after the experience we 

 have had, it is not possible to be very sanguine : but there is one fact as 

 to which our opinion is decided that the question stands, of the two, 

 a better chance to be carried under the administration of the Duke of Wel- 

 lington, than it did under that of Mr. Canning. It is not our purpose, 

 at this moment, to enter into an examination of the course of the noble 

 duke's ministry even as far as it has gone ; farther than to profess, that, 

 constantly as we have maintained his claims to far more than mere military 

 genius against those by whom his capacity for business was denied, 

 that which he has done in the short time which he has been in office, 

 has far outgone our expectation : but, of this we feel convinced, that 

 if the Catholics have some difficulties, from the duke's known distaste 

 to their cause, to struggle against now, which they would not have had 

 to meet twelve months ago, on the other hand, they are relieved from 

 the operation of a host of unseen influences which, silently, but effec- 

 tively, worked against them ; and which were far more likely than frank 

 and open opposition, to retard the object for which they were contend- 

 ing. 



As regards the Duke of Wellington, the Catholics stand in this 

 position They have to convince him or, at least, they had to do so 

 that it is expedient to acquiesce in the whole or any portion of their 

 claims : but, having once convinced him, they have a minister that dares to 

 act 011 their behalf such a minister as, we are afraid, it was impossible 

 they ever could have had in the person of Mr. Canning. We gave Mr. 

 Canning, we trust, as a statesman, his due. At the time when he came 

 into power, we defended any course were glad to witness any coalition 

 that seemed likely to rid the country of that species of rule, which 

 ruinously (however conscientiously) equally for right or wrong, refused 

 to join in the spirit, or mark the changing necessities, of the time. 

 But we ever believed that we will admit against his better will he was 

 a minister (circumstances made him such) be those powers what they 

 might for " the powers that be." His talents were such as have left 

 little so great behind them. Forcible alike, for objects of mark and value 

 as for purposes of display; more forcible, indeed, as it always seemed to us, 

 when applied distinctly to the former. But, like the minister in Sir Walter 

 Scott's novel, that was " neither flesh, nor fish, nor gude red herring/* 

 the strongest party, or that which for the moment seemed the strongest, 

 " was sure to have lang kale/' The fact was Mr. Canning was a " trad- 

 ing statesman." He was in place, or he was nothing. He never stood 

 we doubt if ever he could have stood secure, as first minister of this 

 country. His office was always notoriously of too much value to him. 

 It w r as all that gave him influence standing fortune every thing, 

 indeed, but that reputation for talent, which, under all reverses, 

 he must have retained. In a word, he never stood in the position of a 

 prime minister, who could hold his place in defiance of powerful oppo- 

 sition ; for he never could have made his opponents see, that the 

 moment he could no longer hold office with satisfaction he could 

 afford without a scruple, to resign it. 



From these restraints whatever was the extent of their pressure in 

 the case of Mr. Canning the Duke of Wellington stands wholly free. 



