GENERAL HISTORY. 



[29 



thereof, as the same are respec- 

 tively by law established." 



The Right Hon. Charles Abbott 

 (theSpeaker) then rose to take the 

 earliest opportunity of entering his 

 warning protest against the course 

 hitherto pursued, and also against 

 the measure now proposed. He 

 said, three plans had been proposed 

 relative to the object in question. 

 The first was for unlimited and 

 unconditional concession as urged 

 by the Irish Roman Catholics in 

 their petition ; but this had found 

 few advocates in the House, and 

 had been abandoned by the right 

 hon. mover of the question, aswell 

 as by his eloquent supporter, Mr. 

 Plunkett. The second was for 

 qualified concessions, with some 

 legislative control over the Ro- 

 man Catholic clergy ; which was 

 apparently that of the mover, and 

 undoubtedly that of Mr. Canning : 

 but this was resisted by the Roman 

 Catholics themselves, who call it 

 persecution, and inadmissible con- 

 trol. This plan is also acknow- 

 ledged to involve a repeal of the 

 Corporation and Test acts. The 

 third, that of lord Castlereagh, 

 was for bringing the Roman Ca- 

 tholics within the reach of politi- 

 cal power with safety to the Pro- 

 testant establishment, by obtaining 

 the concurrence of the head of the 

 Roman Catholic church to such 

 arrangements as shall be satisfac- 

 tory to both parties. This, how- 

 ever, is admitted at the present 

 time to be wholly impracticable. 

 Having stated these plans, the 

 right hon, member proceeded to 

 object to the measure now pro- 

 posed. It began, he said, with a 

 •weeping repeal of all known secu- 

 rities, upon the faith of other secu- 

 riUes as yet unknown. Some of 



the suggested securities he then 

 considered and objected to ; and 

 he spoke of the ill consequences 

 that might result from abill framed 

 upon such grounds, even if lying 

 over to another session, by exag- 

 gerating the hopes of the Roman 

 Catholics, and dissatisfying the 

 established church. He did not 

 wish, however, that mattersshould 

 remain on the present footing, 

 and there were certain important 

 changes to which he could agree. 

 The first of these was the admis- 

 sion of Roman Catholic military 

 officers to a larger share of the 

 honours of their profession, which 

 he would extend to all ranks of 

 command, except the very highest 

 at home. He would likewise give 

 the Roman Catholic soldier a legal 

 right to his own religious worship 

 in England as well as in Ireland ; 

 he would take away the necessity 

 of English Roman Catholics marry- 

 ing in Protestant churches ; and 

 would give full protection to Ca- 

 tholic worship from disturbance. 

 He then adverted to some other 

 matters of regulation ; and con- 

 , eluded with saying that he must 

 give his decisive negative to the 

 sweeping principles of the propo- 

 sition now laid before them. 



Mr. Ponsonbi/said, that the right 

 hon. gentleman seemed entirely to 

 have misunderstood the nature of 

 the resolution, which proposed 

 nothing subversive of the establish- 

 ment, but coupled the measures 

 for the relief of the Roman Ca- 

 tholics with others for its security; 

 and in coming to the details, it 

 would be in the power of any gen- 

 tleman dissatisfied with such secu- 

 rities to superadd others. Hemade 

 several remarks on thelast speaker's 

 idea of giving honours to the Ro- 



