GENERAL HISTORY. 



[119 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Mr. Canning's Motion for a future Consideration of the Catholic Ques- 

 tion— the same (>}/ AJarqitis Wellesley — Bill for explaining and iin- 

 proviiig the Toleration Act — Lord Holland's Motion respecting In- 

 formations Ex-Oj/icio — Mr. Sheridan's on the Attorney-tJeneral of 

 Ireland — Bill to prevent the Escape of French Prisoners — Conver- 

 sation on Overtures from the French Emperor — Prince Regent's 

 Speech on the Prorogation of Parliament. 



■Vj OTWITHSTANDING the re- 



X^ peated failures of the at- 

 tempts ill parliament to procure a 

 concession of the claims of the 

 Irish Catholics to an equal partici- 

 pation in the rights and prerojja- 

 tives of their fellow citizens, the 

 advocates of their cause, probably 

 imputing the opposition in part to 

 circumstances of temporary irrita- 

 tion, resolve. i not to give up the 

 contest, but to appeal, as it were, 

 from the heat of the inomenr, to a 

 future period of calmness and so- 

 briety, lu pursuance of this idea, 

 Mr. Canning, on June '22, rose in 

 the House of Commons to make a 

 motion on tlie subject. He beyan 

 his Sfieech with alluding to a cir- 

 cumstancewhich misiht be regarded 

 as embarrassing to an advocate of 

 the Catholics, but which he con- 

 sidered as only one symptom of the 

 habitual irritation of the public 

 mind in Ireland, and an additional 

 motive for an immediate con>ider- 

 aiion of the question in the pro[)er 

 place ; this was, the receiut on that 

 morning of the resolutions of the 

 aggregate meeting of Irish Catho- 

 lics at Dublin. He shewed that 

 the warmth of these resolutions 



was not to preclude a temperate 

 discussion of a great political ques- 

 tion, but rather to inculcate the 

 propriety of dropping the recollec- 

 tions of all that had passed in 

 former debates, and considering 

 the subject as if now presented for 

 the first time. He then laid down 

 three principles on which, in his 

 Opinion, the whole matter rested. 

 1. He would assume as a general 

 rule, that citizens of the same 

 state, living under the same go- 

 vernment are entitled, prima facie, 

 to equal political rigiits and privi- 

 leges. 2. ihat it is at all times 

 desirable to create and maintain 

 tlie most pei-fect identity oi i'lterest 

 and fei ling among all the members 

 of the same community, y. That 

 wliere theie exi>ts in any commu- 

 nity a great permanent cause of 

 political discontent, which agitates 

 rae.i's minds without having any 

 tendency to subside of itself, it be- 

 comes the duty of the supreme 

 power in the state to determine in 

 what mode it may most advantage- 

 ously be set at rest. 



The right honour<ible gentleman 

 then went on to enlarge upon these 

 several heads, with the force and 



eloquence 



