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been disposed to exert themselves in support of the Union. They had not then sitting, a rival Parliament, or Association, the resolutions of which might have been accepted by their brethren throughout the island.

"In the last place, Mr. Plowden, one of their own Church, and no mean authority on the subject, says distinctly, that though they 'generally gave all the weight they could command to Mr. Pitt's proposition for the Union,'-' though the predominant interest of the Catholics was certainly in favour of the Union, no public act of the body ever passed upon it: many Catholics in Dublin entered into very spirited and judicious resolutions against that fatal measure, and several of the most independent and best informed Catholics individually opposed it. Of all the King's subjects, the Irish Catholics had eminently the most reason to oppose the Union by which they lost their own consequence' :-(Plowden's Ireland, since the Union, vol. ii. p. 120.) If, therefore, any pledge had been given, it does not fully appear, that the condition on which only by the argument, it is assumed to be binding, was, on their part, fulfilled.

"But no pledge was or could be given, except by individuals; and no pledge was given, even individually, by many whose names are quoted on these occasions. The late Lord Auckland, referring, in his speech on the Roman Catholic Question in 1805, to the Union, in the arrange

ment of which measure, he states himself to have been much engaged, distinctly declares that if the concessions were in the contemplation of the government, they were industriously concealed from him and others of their associates.(Parl. Debates, 13th May, 1805, p. 826.) Above all, in 1805, Mr. Pitt, has distinctly denied that any pledge was given by him.-(Parl. Debates, 14th May 1805, p. 1015.)

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"The utmost that can be made out is briefly this, that Mr. Pitt was not directly and in words, and to the Roman Catholics, but by conviction, and to his own conscience, pledged to bring forward his measure for their relief. That measure he found that he could not bring forward with the authority of government; and therefore he resigned his office, and thus redeemed his pledge.' Let no man accuse Mr. Pitt of breach of faith to the Roman Catholics: every expectation which they were entitled to form, as raised by him, he realized at a cost to himself, greater almost than any mind except his own could measure. What greater object could there have been to a mind like Mr. Pitt's, than to have closed the war which he had commenced? What greater object could any man at any time have resigned, than power was to a mind like that of Mr. Pitt? Yet his favourite projects of foreign policy, and his own unrivalled station he resigned, when he found himself unable to carry into

execution his wishes in favour of the Irish Roman Catholics.

"And, on another branch of this subject, let it always be recollected, that in taking office again, without stipulating for any measure in favour of the Roman Catholics, he violated no pledge to them. The paper in which Lord Cornwallis used the word pledge, as applied to the members of government retiring in 1801, was an unsigned, undated paper, hastily given by me,' says Lord Cornwallis to Dr. Troy, 'to be circulated amongst his friends, with the view of preventing any immediate disturbances or other bad effects, that might be apprehended from the accounts that had just arrived from England; and if I used the word pledged,* I could only mean that, in my opinion, the ministers, by resigning their offices, gave a pledge of their being friends to the measure of Catholic Emancipation; for I can assure you that I never received authority, directly or indirectly, from any member of administration who resigned his office at that time, to give a pledge that he would not embark again in the service of government, except on the terms of the Catholic privileges being obtained.'

"Admitting, however, that there was a pledge, all that can be said is, though the illustration is familiar, that the government of 1801 finding

* The word is used.-Plowden's Ireland since the Union, vol. I. p. 46.

themselves unable to carry on their engagements, threw every thing up, and took the benefit of the insolvent act: but when they returned to the world, they were at liberty,-assuming again that there had been a pledge,-to consider that pledge redeemed, and a new account opened.

"After all, I am surprised at the doctrine, and still more at the quarter from which it comes, as if the opinions or even the pledges of a minister, were to be binding not only upon himself and his colleagues, but upon his Sovereign and upon Parliament. Admitting to the utmost, for the sake of argument, the positiveness and solemnity of every pledge assumed to have been given by Mr. Pitt to the Irish Catholics, the pledges were for his best exertions, and could not have been for the success of them."

VI.

That, as far as regards the admission of Papists to political power, no valid argument can be drawn from the examples of other states.

"Nor (says the Quarterly Review) is the argument more tenable which affirms that we

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ought to deal with the British and Irish Catholics as Austria and Russia deal with those of their subjects who hold any other form of Christian faith than that of their respective church establishments. The case is not similar, what is demanded here not being employment in the state, (which, with very few limitations, they already possess,) but legislative power,--which, in Austria and Russia is not exercised by deliberative assemblies. If it be rejoined that this also is conceded to the Protestants in France, and secured to them by Charter, neither will that case apply, for upon the slightest consideration it must be apparent that the circumstances of the two nations are widely different. The Protestants in France are an inconsiderable body, and with so little zeal for proselyting, that no efforts for that purpose appear to have been made by them during the revolutionary years, or under the Imperial government, when the attempt might have been made, certainly with safety, and perhaps at one time to the satisfaction of the Emperor. The privileges which the charter allows them were obtained, not by their own influence or efforts, but by the liberal party, comprising the Buonapartists and the revolutionists of every grade, as well as the friends of just and regulated liberty. Moreover, as Dr. Phelan has well observed, there are two important differences, which must always be kept in mind.

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