~~ 1829.) The Dublin Public Dinner to Lord Morpeth. 7 
_ the semblance of a constitution. What is the state of Spain, the best 
beloved of the Church ?—abject slavery ; what of Portugal ?—abject 
_ slavery; what of Austria?—abject slavery ; what of Italy P—abject 
slavery. If we sicken at this sluggish degradation of man, let us turn to 
. the Protestant States for our revival. From England, the great head of 
title, that palladium of her prosperity, of her intellectual eminence, and 
_ Protestanism—and long may she retain that most glorious and most saving 
of her resistless empire—we see every Protestant state free in almost 
__ the exact proportion of its purification from popery ; in some a complete 
_ representative legislature, in some an imperfect one ; but in all, liberty 
on a larger or smaller scale. The seed is there, and the plant flourishes 
the more, the more it is sheltered from the blighting breath that never 
_ blew from Rome but to cover with clouds and death the rising hopes of 
nations. 
This is the true test. The popish advocate shows only a conscious- 
ness of chicane, when he leads us back through the wilderness of the 
centuries before the Reformation. We bid him place himself in the field 
of the present hour, and where our vision is not to be retarded by the 
subterfuges which chicane finds in the broken ground and obscure ruins 
of the past. On this clear field we bid him place his example. To 
which popish kingdom of the present day—even in this day of clamours 
for more than liberty, will he point in illustration? Which of those 
cowled skeletons of power, with the crown trembling on their heads, 
and the shroud wrapping their limbs, will he summon to give testimony 
to the freedom of popish vassalage? Or which of them, if it dared to 
_ utter a voice, would not tell him that the bondage of superstition has been 
the true weight which has held them back in the advance of national 
vigour and virtue; that it has filled their members with disease, and 
bowed them down to a weakness that not all the old popular homage or 
popular ignorance can save from ruin on the first shock of nations ? 
Mr. O’Connel spoke but little at the dinner ; but the relaxation of his 
customary labours on these occasions, may well be forgiven for the acti- 
_ vity of his declamation since. Mr. O’Connel may have persuaded him- 
_ self, as he certainly wishes to persuade others, that he is the depository 
_ of the intentions of the Cabinet for the ensuing session. We entirely 
doubt this initiation into the business of a British Privy Councillor. He 
ought to be satisfied with his privilege of saving five shillings a day in 
postage, and thinking himself a member of Parliament. 
___ But if Mr. O’Connel have not the advantage of being the Duke of 
_ Wellington’s confidential adviser on the occasion, we have the advan- 
tage of knowing the decision of Mr. O’Connell’s own privy council. At 
his mock election at Clare, he delivered the following manifesto of the 
moderate, safe, and constitutional demands, whose concession can alone 
satisfy popery. ‘The speech begins with patriotic remorse for the little 
intrigue which he had attempted to carry on in London for the sake of 
is suffering country, and a silk gown, and of which the detection had 
auch hurt his conscience :— 
« Mr. Sheriff:—I admit that I was wrong on the part of the 
honey. I like sentimentality, but I like consistency more. Mr. Gore 
arraigned me, and he was right, with respect to the forty shilling free- 
holders. I went to London at the time the Catholic Association was 
suppressed ; and seeing the fell disposition of the government, I did every 
thing to conciliate them. I went to London at a great pecuniary 
