1827.] - The Catholics of Ireland. 9 



fo:- his spiritual director; in which case much of the circuit of informa- 

 tion is spared, and the communication with the foreign court is direct 

 and ready: and, secondly, that, subject merely to the understood and 

 admitted obligation of" confession," we do not see how any Catholic could 

 conscientiously take the Privy Council oath or any tether oath by which 

 he would swear never to " confess " or, in other words, to "disclose" 

 any thing of that which shall pass in his hearing to any human creature ! 



We know perfectly well that this is not a line of argument likely to be 

 popular ; and that politicians always make the most impression when they 

 look at only one side of the subject. Indeed it is curious to see how 

 completely the convenience of that course, in public affairs, is recog- 

 nized, by the very parties who would shrink, with the greatest horror, from 

 it, in any matter of private inquiry. The noble and learned Lord who 

 occupies the woolsack, and who is understood, of all men in the country, 

 to have made up his mind the most irreversibly against the claims of the 

 Catholics, is proverbial and perhaps honourably so for the difficulty 

 which he finds in making up his mind, in the most trifling claims of 

 individual right. If our speculations are to tend, however even 

 remotely to any practical or profitable purpose, that object can only 

 hope to be advanced by our exhibiting, not merely the arguments on 

 one side of the case, but a balance of the difficulties or advantages 

 attendant upon both ; and therefore, on the one hand, while we are 

 favourable to the conceding nearly all the material eligibilities demanded 

 by the Catholics ; on the other, we are bound to say, that there are some 

 which we should refuse to yield them. And, moreover, disposed as we 

 are for the safety and benefit of Ireland, to go to the very farthest 

 point that we dare, in favour of the Catholic body, yet it would be dis- 

 guising the difficulty of our case if we were not distinctly to avow,, that 

 we look for very little of that sudden advantage to Ireland, from such a 

 course, which some of the more thorough-going advocates of emanci- 

 pation so confidently anticipate. 



Now we should be ready, were it in our power, to grant to the Catho- 

 lics, immediately, their admission to the House of Commons and to the 

 House of Peers ; their elective franchise in England ; and full corporate 

 rights in Ireland. We would allow them to claim silk gowns at the bar ; 

 and all the Judgeships, except the highest in Chancery, and those of 

 the Ecclesiastical courts ; and, in short, give them every material privi- 

 lege which they claim, excepting only the rights of sitting in the Privy 

 Council ; of being chosen to the highest active offices of State, and to the 

 first commands in the army and navy. And yet we have no belief that, 

 if all this were done to-morrow, Ireland would at once be materially 

 benefited or even that the factious clamour, which makes the thought 

 of that country so loathsome to the souls of all people in this, would be 

 likely to cease. 



We are quite at a loss to understand how any immediate benefit, in 

 the way of " conciliation," can be expected to accrue from the granting 

 to one fierce and irascible body, that power, which another body, nearly 

 as fierce and unmanageable, has for years been striving, life and soul, 

 to keep from them. For any relief expected to the worn-out ears of 

 the people of England ! Out of the "Emancipation" itself, on the 

 contrary, new matter in profusion for trading orators to make ha- 

 rangues about, would arise. Something and this would not be a trifle 

 would have to be sakl in the way of triumph, for what had been 



M.M. New Series. VOL. III. No. 13.* C 



