[ 388 ] [APRIL, 



THE CATHOLIC RESOLUTIONS. 



THE Catholic Question has been brought on ; and has met with the fate 

 which we anticipated, two months since (if it did come on) it must meet 

 with. Sir Francis Burdett's " Resolutions "' were negatived in the House 

 of Commons, on Tuesday, the 6th of March, by a majority of four : being 

 a division worse by thirty-one votes for the Catholics than that which they 

 obtained last year, when a majority of twenty-seven voted in their favour. 

 We confess that we are not very sorry for this result, although we wish 

 heartily well to the removal of Catholic disabilities. A majority of four 

 or live votes or even of ten or fifteen the other way, would have pro- 

 duced no practical advantage : the question would certainly have been 

 lost (upon such a division) in the House of Lords. And it is possible that 

 this unequivocal demonstration of the mischief, which their conduct during 

 the last year has produced to their cause in the minds of the people of 

 England, may open the eyes of the reasonable part of the Catholic com- 

 munity to the real nature of the course which they are pursuing. Men 

 will be men sometimes, in despite of philosophy ; and the Irish people may 

 rely upon it, that England will not be bullied. It serves very little to 

 dispute about what ought to happen in any case, when every day's prac- 

 tice, and mere common-sense, are sufficient to shew us what inevitably 

 will happen in it ; and the number of persons in any country whose 

 politics are proof against all provocation, will be small. The Duke of 

 York, their great supposed " enemy," is dead ; and the Earl of Liver- 

 pool, their other great " enemy," is (politically) removed ; and where 

 are the claims of the Catholics with all this accession of advantage but 

 cut and rejected more determinately than ever, by almost three people 

 out of four throughout Great- Britain ? 



The truth is, that the existing administration of the Catholic interests 

 as regards Ireland is of a character which will not do. Mr. Shiel and 

 Mr. O'Connell, and the minor speculators who are employed by or hang 

 about them, delude themselves very abundantly ; but they can have no 

 hope to delude any body else. They may believe that the parade-speeches 

 which half-a-dozen orators give them yearly in the House of Commons, 

 are evidence that the voice of the country is in their favour : but, if they 

 have any such belief as this, they are most wretchedly mistaken. What 

 title do they imagine they have, in fact, to any support from dispassionate 

 people ? what step have they ever taken on behalf of the Catholic claims 

 which has not tended to bring those claims into ridicule or aversion ? If 

 they really meant to serve that cause, what but insanity could lead them to 

 connect themselves with Cobbett a man notoriously obnoxious to every 

 party in the legislature ; and whose utmost exertions with all his talents 

 were unable to procure him a seat in the legislature himself? Mr. 

 O'Connell institutes an order of ' Liberators " for Ireland ! gives his knight- 

 hood a uniform, and makes his grandson (of a month old) a member, or 

 grand master, of the party ! this may pass for business in Ireland; but 

 it would hardly escape being taken for burlesque any where else. Mr. 

 Shiel makes a speech to the Catholics of Mullengar, in which the suffer- 

 ings of the Duke of York as he lay upon his death-bed are made, 

 laboriously, a subject for triumph and ridicule ! Is this the way to con- 

 ciliate the good-will or to rouse the anger, disgust, and indignation of 

 the people of England ? We will not dwell upon the continued language 

 of insult and menace, that has been poured forth from the Catholic Asso- 



