incentives to come forward in defence of the altar and the throne, the cause of their fathers and of their God. Sir, the abettors of this measure say triumphantly that the Bill will pass: the triumph is over their former selves-their present countrymen. Sir, we will contend the cause to the last. In this moral battle we stand at the Thermopyla of Protestantism, secure of immortality even in defeat; nor would it be a defeat but that some recreant Molian leads the enemies of the institutions of his country through secret passes to their melaucholy triumph. Exult then over the still faithful band who remain true to their principles and professions! Boast in your majority! Carry up your Bill to the other branch of the Legislature as in a triumphant procession! Tell us of the honours, the wealth, the influence, you muster in its train? These, Sir, may be there. But I tell you who will not, Sir. The people of England will not be there; they will not assist you to carry up this nefarious Bill; they stand aloof; and, despised and insulted, they pursue it through every stage of its progress, with curses not loud but deepbut with curses that may still deepen and wax louder, till, as they once did, on a like occasion, they break forth in those thunders which shook the very pillars and foundation of the throne. This Bill you will take up; but it will be received by a noble race, which has hitherto sent its heroes to the defence of the cause of England-of a sacred order who have gone to prison and to death for it. We fix our hopes on them; but even they, Sir, are not our last hope. We trust in our Monarch and our God! Sir, I have done. I am aware my feeble voice can have no influence. I am told none would, however powerful, against the phalanx united in hostility to the Protestant cause. Cemented aud influenced as it is, reason, entreaty, remonstrance, are unavailing. All I can do is done. I have laid this last offering upon the altar of my country, humble as it is. My life should be added, could the sacrifice be availing!- -a feeling which I partake with millions!"

HOUSE OF LORDS.
Tuesday, March 21st.

The Relief Bill was read a first time. Lord BEXLEY objected to the second reading on Thursday, on the score of want of precedent for such haste; and he was supported by Lords MALMESBURY, ELDON, FARNHAM, SIDMOUTH, LONGFORD, and WINCHILSEA. It was

answered by Lord HOLLAND, that the search for precedents had been partial; for the acts it was now proposed to repeal had been passed much more rapidly, and bills for suspending the habeas corpus had been passed in two or three days. It was determined that their Lordships should proceed.

Thursday, April 2nd.

The second reading of the Bill was moved by the Duke of WELLINGTON. His speech lasted above an hour in its general structure it resembled Mr. Peel's introductory statement to the House of Commons; but it was more concise, and the speaker had evidently made the best use of the debates in the other House, and a number of his points were extremely well put. The state of Ireland-the state of the Irish Churchthe state of public opinion-and the impossibility of devising any other remedy for present or future evils-formed his main grounds. The Duke reviewed the history of Ireland for the last two years. He argued, that there had been an organization of the people for the purposes of mischief; proofs of which organiza. tion had been afforded by the declarations of its framers and managers-by the effects of such organization on the elections of churchwardens-the election for Clare-the consequences of that election-the proceedings of a person who went, at the head of a body of men, into the North of Ireland-by the simultaneous proceedings of a variety of persons in the South of Ireland-by the events which ensued in other places-by the attack of a town by a body of men from Augher, who were driven out by the inhabitants with arms in their hands. The evils which had before existed were still further to be aggravated by the adoption of a measure for putting an end to all dealings of Roman Catholics with Protestants. Such a situation of affairs rendered the law almost powerless, and exposed the lives and properties of his Majesty's subjects to the greatest danger. Even the King's prerogative was clogged, for Ministers could not advise his Majesty to create a Peer, and thus incur the daugers incidental to the election of a member to fill the seat vacated by such creation. There was no law to reach this state of things, for there was no tangible resistance to the laws. Neither could new laws be obtained, owing to the divided opinion of Parliament.

"I am positively certain that this state of things, bordering upon civil war, with nearly all the evils of civil war, might have continued for a year and a

half, or for a considerable time louger, to the great injury and decay of the country; and that those who managed this state of things would prevent that resistance which would alone create or justify a civil war. They know as well as I do that they are not strong enough to wrestle with the King's Government they know that they would be the first victims of any attempt of that kiud; and knowing this, and being, as I believe them to be, able and sensible men, and being perfectly aware of the nature of the materials with which they are working, I say I do not doubt that this state of things might have continued for years, and your Lordships would never have had the opportunity of putting it down by force. But even if I were certain that we possessed any such means, I should certainly wish to avoid using them, if possible. My Lords, I have passed more of my life in war than most men, and I may say, in civil war; and if I could avoid by any sacrifice whatever —if I could avoid even for one month a civil war in a country to which I am attached, I would sacrifice my life to do it. (Loud cheering.) There is nothing which destroys the prosperity of a country to such a degree as civil war-in which the band of one man is raised against another-in which neighbour strikes at neighbour-in which a son is ranged against the father, the servant betrays his master, and the whole scene ends in confusion and devastation."

He asked for what all this enormous mass of evil was to be encountered?

"The cause for which all these evils are to be encountered is, we are told, the preservation of the principle of the constitution of 1688. The principle of the constitution of 1688 is, we are told, the permanent exclusion of the Roman Catholics from Parliament."

The Duke proceeded to argue very forcibly, and to adduce many proofs from history and the statutes, against this doctrine. He then came to the necessity of the measure before the House. He was aware that the Bill went further in concession than any previous scheme of relief; and the reason was, his know ledge of the consequences which followed the concessions of 1782 and 1793. long as any restriction is continued, concession not only increases demand, but gives increased power to enforce that demand."

"So

The Archbishop of CANTERBURY led the opposition. He was so hostile to the principle of the measure, that he Hoved an amendment that "the Bill be read a second time this day six months."

His Grace grounded his opposition to it upon the fact avowed by the heads of the Catholic clergy, that their religious prin ciples were not only unaltered but unalterable; that the Catholic clergy exercised a most dangerous influence over the temporal as well as spiritual concerns of their flocks; that little reliance was to be placed upon their gratitude, as was shewn by the manner in which they had abused the elective franchise, by the efforts they had made to raise taxes for improper purposes, by their making the places of public worship meeting-houses for faction. He hinted at the possibility of extinguishing the Church of England in the Colonies if the Colonial Department were in the hands of a Catholic Secretary of State. He was not dissatisfied with the securities.

The Archbishop of ARMAGH, the Primate of Ireland, seconded the amendment. He felt assured that the Bill would not tranquillize Ireland. The Catholics themselves did not contemplate the tranquillity of the country: the great mover of agitation is reported to have declared, that he had accepted the compromise of seven shillings and sixpence in the pound, in the present session, only that he might hereafter come forward and insist upon the payment of the balance of twelve and sixpence. The Bill would increase the power of doing mischief without lessening the inclination. It would not make the Church of Rome more tolerant, or induce the priesthood to consent to hold an inferior rank to a clergy the divinity of whose order they denied. His Grace was against exposing the Church to dayger upon the calculation of future facilities of defence.

The Bishop of OXFORD conceived the Bill to be called for and sanctioned by au evident necessity. His Majesty had recommended the measure; it was supported by all the Princes of the Blood, except the Duke of Cumberland; by a large majority of the other House of Parlia meut, and of the rising intellect of the country. The consequences of its rejection would be a civil war; and when the sword was sheathed, they would just be where they were.

The Duke of RICHMOND, the Bishop of SALISBURY, and Lord WINCHILSEA, considered the measure to be fraught wish peril to our civil and religious liberties.

Earl SOMERS was convinced that the Protestant religion, so far from being destroyed, would be secured and promoted beyond its present condition. They had given the Catholics power, and it was bad policy to deny them their rights.

The Earl of HAREWOOD thought the

Bill neither calculated to pacify Ireland nor to secure the Church. The ingenuity of man could scarcely have devised a measure less likely to accomplish their ends. It merely rewarded the Catholic Association.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE supported the Bill, in a fluent speech.

The Bishop of LONDON thought the Catholics had something beyond emancipation in their view. The Catholic clergy would not be benefited by the measure; and they would strive to obtain those ulterior objects. Strongly as he opposed the Bill, however, he concluded by say. ing,

"If this measure should pass into a law, of which scarcely a doubt exists, I will do all in my power to impress on the minds of the clergy with whom I am connected, the propriety of giving a cheerful acquiescence to the act of the Legislature-to urge them, in consequence of it, to a more vigilant attention to their duties, and to furnish, by their zeal, their learning, and energy, new bulwarks to the Church in place of those which have been removed."

The Marquis of SALISBURY and the Earl of ENNISKILLEN thought the Bill the death-warrant of the Church of Ireland.

The Earl of WICKLOW, on the other hand, considered the opposition to the Bill as the result of prejudice, and prejudice alone.

The debate was then adjourned to Friday, when the discussion was opened by the Archbishop of YORK, who in moderate language opposed the measure, because the securities did not appear to him at all sufficient to protect the Protestant Church of Ireland'; for he admitted that the measure would be attended with no danger to the Church of England. But with reference to the Established Church of Ireland there was nothing to prevent that conflict between the Church established by law and the Roman Catholic Church supported by numbers, which there was too much reason to fear would follow this system of yielding to the utmost the claims of the Catholics of Ireland.

The Bishop of DURHAM was more decided in the tone of his opposition, which partook more of a religious than a political character.

"The few observations," he said, "which I have ventured to submit to your Lordships are such as, a short time hence, might not he so patiently listened to in this House; for I fear the time is not distant when a Protestaut bishop may not have it in his power to deliver his sentiments in this House with the

same freedom which on this occasiou, as on former occasions, I have been permitted to enjoy."

The Duke of SUSSEX, along with much good temper and considerable tact as a debater (in a skirmish with Lord KENYON), exhibited a familiar acquaintance with some points of theology and of constitutional law.

On the oath of allegiance:

"It has been contended that the Roman Catholic, by virtue of his connexion with the Pope, is in a condition in which he finds his allegiance is necessarily divided. Give me leave to say, my Lords, that this term allegiance' is either very much misunderstood or very grossly misinterpreted. The term allegiance' is one of civil import only, and means a faithful adherence to all the civil duties owing by subjects to the laws, and to that anthority by which they are governed. Now, I take upon myself to say, on their behalf, that the English and Irish Roman Catholics are as ready to take this obligation, and have proved it under as trying circumstances, as any other portion of his Majesty's subjects."

On the oath of supremacy :

"If I understaud any thing of the oath of supremacy, it grants to the Crown full and complete predominancy in all ecclesiastical affairs and the temporal government of the Church; but it confers no spirituality and in these is contained nothing which the Roman Catholics feel any difficulty in conceding. I wish both parties to recollect, that the supremacy belonging to the Crown of England, and the supremacy of the first bishops of the Christian church, widely differ. The one confers, as I have already said, power over all the ecclesiastical affairs and temporal government of the church; and the other is strictly limited to matters of faith and doctrine, and can only be exercised by ecclesiastics. The King of England assumes no spiritual attributes which the Catholics feel bound to resist. In these they submit to the Pope, and no other."

But the great speech of the night was delivered by the LORD CHANCELLOR ; who addressed himself not only to every branch of the general question, but more particularly to a defence of his own character from the assaults of Sir Charles Wetherell, and the insinuations of Lord Eldon.

Towards the close he spoke of the church's securities.

"If I am asked after this, what do I consider the security which the Protestant religion possesses against the attacks and the hostility of Popery, I answer,

that I rely on the soundness of our faith -on the arguments by which that faith has been supported in all former times -and upon the power by which I know it can be supported in the present. I was brought up in the reverence of the doctrines of that church; and in the opinion, that no man of an enlightened understanding could attentively consider them without being fully convinced of their truth and their purity. In that faith I was brought up; to that faith, from conviction, I adhere; and I cannot suffer myself to indulge the slightest fear that, even supposing the Catholics and the Protestants to be placed under the same circumstances, there would be the slightest fear of the Catholic undermining or affecting the religiou of the Protestants. I appeal to the right reverend body I see before me as a proof of the truth of this assertion; and I appeal to the character of the clergy, with many of whom I am intimately connected, and to many of whom I owe great obligations, as a security for the integrity of the Protestant religion. I know and feel that the subject is exhausted. It admits of nothing new in argument or illustration; nor can I plead any thing but the vastness of the stake as an apology for intruding myself so long upon your Lordships' attention. We are called upon by every thing that is valuable to us as men, aud sacred to us as Christians, to carry forward this great measure for the maintenance and the security of civil and religious liberty; and I conjure you, at this the last hour, not to waste your time in trifling, or bestow grudgingly and with a bad grace, but to do your work manfully, aud to give liberally as well as quickly. Millions are looking to your Lordships' decision with hope and with fear. The peace and the prosperity, perhaps the safety, of the empire is in your hands: let me conjure you to adopt that course which the wisest and the most upright of our senators have advocated; and if I could hope that my name would be ever associated with theirs, even though the last and the lowest in the accomplishment of this great object, I should look upon all other honours as trifling in the compari(Loud cheers.)

son.' ""

The Earl of FALMOUTH opposed the Bill.

"Where were the securities? Did their Lordships ever behold a Bill, after so much promise, with so few securities, so naked, so devoid of every thing in the shape of security? It kept quite clear, he might say sacrilegiously so, of every

thing like security. He did not agree that the admission of some fifty Roman Catholic members into the Lower House would be quite so harmless as some would represent it. Let them recollect the result of a former division in that House; the question regarded church property in Ireland, and the object of it was to promote a different appropriation of it; for that motion 79 voted; now, had the fifty Roman Catholic members been in the House, they also would have voted for such motion, and thus it would have been supported by 129 members. He did not mean to say that 129 members would have carried the measure, though they might have done; but he could not hide from himself that 129 members, acting in a body, must become a formidable opposition. The Catholic Association was but a small minority to the rest of the kingdom; and yet that minority frightened a great portion of the Aristocracy, and overcame the noble Duke who was supposed the firmest Minister that ever held office. Again, supposing the King-a future King-had a Roman Catholic favourite, and appointed a Catholic Premier and Catholic Secretaries of State: might they not advise, and naturally enough, the Sovereign to make an addition to the Peerage, selecting the objects for such Royal favour from the Roman Catholic gentry? He repelled the idea of being thought a Reformer; but if this Bill passed, how would it affect Parliamentary Reform ? If there were any doubt as to its tendency, ought it not to be removed by the fact, that the Radicals to a man were charmed with this Bill? The Unitarians and Unbelievers of all sorts were charmed with it."

The Earl of MANSFIELD spoke at some length against the Bill, which was supported by Lord GODERICH and the Marquis of ANGLESEY, and the House adjourned to Saturday, when the debate was opened by the Earl of GUILFORD, who spoke against the Bill; Lord LILFORD supported it.

The Earl of WESTMORELAND, though he supported the measure, took blame to himself, and every member of Lord Liverpool's government for the last ten years, for its being now so imperiously necessary. He thus illustrated the state of parties in Ireland.

"He remembered a story in Erasmus ―a conversation between the Evil Spirit and Charon-in which the former tells the latter that he must get a newer and a larger boat, for so many souls would be coming over, in consequence of reli