1830.] Proceedings of the British Parliament. 375 



is a masterpiece of manly indignation. Under the appearance of 

 merely stating the doubts of party men, he brands the perverted and 

 worldly principles of the time with indelible scorn. 



" The jury had added to one of their verdicts a recommendation to 

 mercy, on account of the agitation of the times ; and who living recol- 

 lected times of such vehement agitation ? There was the Prime 

 Minister of the country on the one side, declaring that the Bill for the 

 relief of the Roman Catholics was necessary to its salvation. On the 

 other side uprose the Primate and Metropolitan Bishop, and declared 

 it would be its destruction. Then the Chancellor on the Woolsack was 

 to be heard declaring, that the country must stand stock-still if the Bill 

 was not carried ; and on the other side, an Ex-Chancellor followed him, 

 and predicted the ruin of the country, if it was granted. One part of 

 the Right Reverend Bench of Bishops prophesied the overthrow of the 

 Protestant Constitution ; another assured us of the additional securities 

 to its stability which it was about to receive. A Chief Justice of Ire- 

 land said the connexion of England with Ireland would be infallibly 

 shaken if the Catholics were refused a participation in the rights of the 

 Legislature ; an English Chief Justice assured us that it would tend to 

 the overthrow of all Protestant Institutions. Then the Secretary of 

 the Home Department, and the leader, as he called himself, of the Pro- 

 testant interest, who, not more than nine months before, had declared, 

 with great solemnity of tone and manner, that there was no possibility 

 of forming a cabinet unless under the principle of a division of opinion 

 on the Catholic Question was the first to come down to the House, 

 and declare that that measure could, in his opinion, no longer be 

 resisted ; while a noble viceroy and a great commander, whose leg was 

 chopped off at Waterloo, had the further ill luck to see the Vice- 

 regal stool chopped from under him in Dublin. (Laughter.) All these 

 things were symptoms of the agitation of the times ; all the bonds of 

 society were loosened ; all ancient institutions were overturned ; all 

 friendships were affected." 



But as if for the most complete commentary on this power- 

 ful animadversion, who should start up, but Sir Francis Burdett, 

 and to defend whom ? The Attorney-General ! Those who have 

 only heard of the baronet's name, will exclaim, can such things 

 be ? Sir Francis Burdett, the furious assailant of all Attorney-Generals 

 since his first possession of a seat ; Sir Francis, the man of the mob, 

 the Member for Westminster, the writer of the Manchester letter ; Sir 

 Francis, of the Tower, of his Majesty's jail of Newgate ; of the " Siege 

 of Piccadilly !" But we, who have seen, in late years, a little more of 

 human nature, and of Sir Francis, felt no surprise whatever to hear these 

 his recorded words. " I did not expect a most grievous charge 

 would be brought against my learned friend, and sorry I should have 

 been, had my conscience compelled me to vote against him ! But I am in 

 no such unpleasant situation ! If the thunder of the prologue had been 

 equalled by the subsequent parts of the acts of this drama, it would, 

 indeed, have appeared by the vote we must have come to that this 

 House did cast blame upon my learned friend ; but I feel the greatest 

 satisfaction in knowing that we shall be compelled to do no such thing. 

 The motion, indeed, Sir, appears to me not meant for any other pur- 

 pose than to purge the bosom of the learned gentleman of the perilous 

 stuff that weighs upon his breast/' 



