564 



demands ft-oni you her right of equal jus- 

 tice and equal laws. The petition I have 

 presented declares to you, and oifers to 

 prove (indeed it has already been proved 

 in tlic committee above stairs,) that nei- 

 ther justice nor law is administered with 

 equity and fairness in that unliappy conn- 

 try.- By Magna Charta it is provided 

 that justice sliall neither be sold or de- 

 nied, but in Ireland it is sold to the rich 

 and denied to the poor. In vain may 

 ■we attempt to disguise from ourselves the 

 fact, but we are now on the brmk of a 

 precipice. The state of things in Ireland 

 cannot remain any longer as they are; 



PoHtkal Affairs in June. V^y '* 



done for Ireland is to burtlien hrr wttb 

 penal laws. Providence has not been more 

 bountiful in the dispensation of blessings, 

 than you have been profuse in showering 

 down penal laws upon that devoted 

 land. And what have yon gained? You 

 have oppressed, compressed, and checked, 

 but you have not destroyed the evils- 

 yon have postponed, but not exterminated 

 the sources of calamity ; and now, like 

 the patient of some dreadful malady, we 

 look back on the last three or four weeks, 

 and wish for the recurrence of the earlier 

 stages of our disorder (cheers). It is idle 

 to think of chaining down a people ; and 



they must change for the better or worse, I repeat with Montesquieu, that the more 



and I pray -to God that some occasion 



may interpose for making that change a 



beneficial one. If yon neglect it, tho 



consequences will be most fearful. I may 



perhaps be wrong in my anticipations, I 



may take too gloomy a view, I may be 



too far persuaded by the language of this 



petition, but if I am wrong I am backed ciliate her, preferring the heafis of all 



by great authorities, I err in the spirit Ireland to the applause of orange lodges 



of the best laws of the legislature, I err (loud cheers). Nowhere can you find a 



with the greatest and most famous men richer harvest of gratitude than in Ireland ; 



of past times, and the most enlightened yon would have gratitude, aye even to 



you attempt it, the more certainly will 

 they burst tlieir fetters, and, rising up with 

 them in their hands, will daSh thcin upon 

 your own heads. Suppose that yon at- 

 tempt for once a new and untried coarse, 

 and instead of striving to scourge Ireland 

 into quiet, you should attempt to con- 



men of the present — I am wrong with 

 the unerring dispensations of Providence, 

 which declai^e, that if yon deny a people 

 their indestructible birth-right of justice 

 and protection, you must reap the fruits 

 in discord, rebellion, and rinn (cheers). 

 It is the maddest of all follies to goad on 

 six millions of people to desperation 

 (cheers). If the highest of all authorities 

 has declared that injustice will make a 

 wise man mad, what shall we say if that 

 injustice drives six millions of human 

 beings into madness? (cheers.) Let not 

 this petition be met by the flimsy eva- 

 sions (loud cheers)— by the flimsy eva- 

 sions with which it has been heretofore 

 met. At one time it was the terror of 

 Bonaparte, at another it was the horror 



devotion ; respect, aye even to enthusiasm 

 (loud cheers). You beheld a proof the 

 other day, when the Sovereign of this em- 

 pire approached her shores with promises 

 merely (loud cheers); what would be the 

 devotion of Ireland if the representatives 

 of the empire were to go there with per- 

 formance! This is a prospect in which I 

 scarcely dare indulge, and I shall content 

 myself with reiterating the demands of 

 the petitioners, Uo nut tell them their 

 complaints are chimerical, and, when they 

 offer to prove them, refuse all enquiry. To 

 do wrong is the common failing of all 

 governments, and to deny the wrong is 

 scarcely less common ; but to accom- 

 pany the wrong and the denial of it with 

 a refusal to allow inquiry, is the most in- 



of jacobinism, then the fear of breaking human of all mockeries (cheers). What- 



down a strong administration, and last of ever be the result, I have discharged my 



all a tender regaid for the scruples of a duty, (loud cheers). If you persevere in 



monarch. Bonaparte has nt last perish- the old comse, if yon persist in refusing 



ed beneath the insults and irivatious of redress or even examination, ! shall deeply 



solitude and confinement ;' that other deplore the disregard of what is due to 



monarch has also gone to his long home, 

 and his scruples have perished with him ; 

 and the fear of breaking down a strong 

 administration is now the most fertile of 

 all pleas. If this petition is to he oppo- 

 sed, let it be on other and hotter grounds, 

 and do not disgust the country by repeating 

 those stale ones which have been so otten 

 refuted. Still worse is it, after having 

 goaded a whole people to desperation, to 

 attempt to cure the evil without first 

 removing the cause. All that you have 



your own honour, to the welfare of Ireland, 

 and to the safety of the empire. I now 

 move, sir, that the petition from the Irish 

 Catholic Association be referred to the 

 grand conimittee on courts of jnstice. 

 (The honourable gentleman sat down 

 amidst loud cheering.) 



The impression on a modern House 

 of Commons was the rejection of his 

 motion, even to refer to a Committee, 

 by 139 to 5y. 



INCIDENTS, 



