February, by 226 against 96. The debate on both occasions was long and animated; but the topics urged on either side were merely a repetition of those which had been previously brought forward.

On the 1st of March the bill was read a first time in the House of Lords. On the 4th of that month lord Caernarvon presented a petition similar to that which Mr. Brougham had been entrusted with in the other House, and moved that the petitioners should be heard by themselves or their counsel. The motion was opposed by lord Liverpool and the lord chancellor. The bill, said the noble and learned lord, proceeded to legislate upon a general principle; and the rule was, that no man could be heard upon petition, unless in cases where his own particular interests were affected. If he was asked, whether there were not exceptions to this rule, he would say that he believed there were many but it was always at the discretion of parliament, whether they would preserve the rule, or act on the exception. Cases might be adduced, in which bills, on the demand of extraordinary exigency, had passed in the course of one day, which would subject the parties to the greatest possible punishment. This was a departure from the usual practice of the constitution; but it would be easy to suppose a situation, in which much danger would result from allowing the process of deliberation to go on, and the measure itself might come too late to remedy the evil against which it was directed. If the general measure applied to the proceedings of the Roman Catholic Association, it would put an end to them. If it did not apply, they might go on. Acting upon the general rule,

he would say that it was necessary the bill should pass without hearing the petitioners. If it affected them, it could do so only because they had done what they ought not to do.

The motion was supported by lord Grey and lord Holland, and was negatived by 69 to 23.

On the same evening the second reading of the bill was carried; the Contents being 146; the Non-contents 44. The debate was between lord Liverpool and lord Harrowby on the one side, and the duke of Sussex, the marquis of Lansdown, and lord Grosvenor on the other.

On the 7th of March, the bill was read a third time, and passed without a division. On the 9th of March it received the royal assent.

By the first section of this act, every society or other body of persons acting for redress of grievances in church or state, or for the purpose or under the pretence of carrying on or assisting in the prosecution or defence of causes civil or criminal, renewing its meetings for more than fourteen days, or collecting or receiving money, is declared unlawful. One clause enacts, "That any society, committee, or other body of persons in Ireland, assuming, or in any manner or by any means or contrivance exercising the power of acting, for

the

purposes or under the pretences aforesaid, or any of them, which society, committee, or other body of persons, or the members thereof, or any of them, shall appoint, authorize, employ, or make use of any committee, or other select body, or any member or members of such committee, or other select body, or any president, secretary, delegate, agent, or other officer or member theretofore, within the space of six calendar months next preceding,

appointed, authorized, employed, or used by any society, committee, or other body of persons, which would have been an unlawful combination and confederacy if the meetings or proceedings thereof had been continued or renewed by adjournment or otherwise, for a longer term than fourteen days from its first meeting, shall be deemed an unlawful combination and confederacy within the meaning of this act, and the meetings thereof shall be unlawful assemblies." All persons offending are deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be punished by fine and imprisonment. Persons knowingly permitting any meeting of such unlawful assemblies in their houses, are, for the first offence, to forfeit the sum of five pounds, and for a second offence, to be deemed guilty of an unlawful combination and confederacy in breach of this act. The act was to commence ten days after it should be passed, and was to continue two years in force.

The Catholic Association did not attempt to resist the law, and expired without a struggle. But after the close of the session of parliament, an aggregate meeting of the Catholics appointed a committee of 21 persons to consider, whether there could be framed, without any violation of the existing law, a permanent body, to assist in the conducting or management of such portion of Catholic affairs as it might be by law permitted to have managed, without resorting to the too frequent holding of aggregate meetings, and, in particular, without in any way infringing on the recent statute.

On the 13th of July, lord Killeen presented the report of the committee to another aggregate meeting. This report proposed the

plan of a new Catholic Association in the following thirteen articles:

"1. As it is desirable that the proposed New Catholic Association should combine Irishmen of all religious persuasions, it is expressly declared that no persons professing any of the forms of religious faith allowed or tolerated by law shall be excluded therefrom; but, on the contrary, Christians of all denominations are invited to become members thereof.

"2. No member of the New Catholic Association shall be required to take any oath, or make any declaration whatsoever.

"3. To avoid the possibility of its being alleged, even by means of any perverse interpretation of the act of 6th George IV., cap. 4, that the new Catholic Association can come within the provisions thereof, it is expressly declared that the new Catholic Association shall not assume, or in any manner, or by any means or contrivance, exercise the power of acting for the purpose or under the pretence of procuring the redress of grievances in church or state, or the alteration of any matters by law established in church or state, or for the purpose or under the pretence of carrying on or assisting in the prosecution or defence of causes, civil or criminal.

"4. That the New Catholic Association shall not be composed of different divisions, or of different parts, acting in any manner separate or distinct from each other; and that there shall be no separate or distinct secretary or delegate, or other officer, elected or appointed by or for any particular part, or authorized to act for any particular part; neither shall the new Catholic Association communicate or correspond; neither shall its constitution contain any pro

vision for communication or correspondence, with any other society, committee, or body of persons; neither shall it in any respect act in any manner inconsistently with the said statute of the 6th George IV. cap. 4.

"5. The New Catholic Association can and may be formed merely for the purposes of public and private charity, and such other purposes as are not prohibited by the said statute of the 6th Geo. IV. cap. 4.

"6. The first purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, that of promoting public peace and tranquillity, as well as private harmony and concord, amongst all classes of his majesty's subjects throughout Ireland.

"7. The second purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, the encouragement and extension of a liberal, enlightened, and religious system of education, founded on the basis of Christian charity and perfect fair dealing.

"8. The third purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, that of ascertaining the number of the population of Ireland, and the relative proportions which the professors of the various Christian persuasions bear the one to the other; and in particular to ascertain the number of children of each persuasion in a course of education.

"9. The fourth purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, to devise the means of erecting suitable Catholic churches for the celebration of divine worship, and to procure and establish Catholic burial-grounds, wherein the Catholic dead may be interred without being liable to any species of contumely or insult.

10. The fifth purpose of the New

Catholic Association is, and shall be, to promote all improvements in science, and in Irish agriculture, to encourage the consumption of Irish manufactures, and the extension of Irish commerce.

"11. The sixth purpose of the New Catholic Association is, and shall be, to encourage, as much as possible, a liberal and enlightened press, to circulate works calculated to promote just principles, and mutual toleration and kindness, and to vindicate the principles of the Catholics against the unjust and slanderous attacks daily made upon them.

"12. The seventh purpose of the New Catholic Association will be, to prepare a detailed statement of the various charges made against the Catholics, in the petitions presented to parliament during the recent sessions, and to publish authentic refutations of such charges in the places where they respectively originated.

"13. That every person who shall think fit, on or before a day to be named, to pay the sum of 17., on this admission, shall be a member of the New Catholic Association; and after that day, each person paying 17. and procuring one member to propose and another to second him, shall also be a member."

A subsequent part of the report stated, that, as the New Catholic Association could not interfere in any way to procure redress from parliament, or the courts of law, it was incumbent on the Catholics to adopt other means, altogether unconnected with the New Association, of preparing and presenting petitions to parliament, and also for preventing and punishing acts of individual oppression and of party violence. For this purpose the committee gave the following suggestions:

"The petitions to parliament must of course be altogether unconnected with the New Catholic

Association, and must originate with, and be conducted by, general or aggregate meetings, which, as the law now stands, may be continued by adjournment for fourteen days, and no longer.

"It is obvious that it would be impossible to arrange all the petitions necessary to be presented to parliament during the ensuing sessions in the space of 14 days.

"It is deemed advisable to have a petition presented from every parish in Ireland.

"The country should be therefore taken separately by counties. There can, in point of law, be 14 days given to each county separately and distinctly, but the business of petitioning for such county must be conducted by general or aggregate meetings, unconnected with the New Catholic Association, and such general or aggregate meetings can continue to sit for the petitions of each county during fourteen days, according to the provisions of the statute.

"Thus the New Catholic Association will have to attend to details in Catholic affairs, consistent with the duration of our present grievances, and with an acquiescence in our present sufferings.

"The separate or aggregate meetings must and will seek for the redress of grievances, and the alteration of those matters in church and state by which we are oppressed.

"The Committee," said the report, "further beg leave to suggest, that in the management of the future petitions of the Catholics of Ireland, care be taken to have our claims for relief brought before parliament, and kept free from any

extraneous matter, or any details on subjects of any other description, we being convinced that the simple and single object of obtaining unconditional and unqualified relief from our disabilities, should be solely attended to as well by the Catholics themselves, as by their friends in parliament."

The report was received with clamorous applause, and was approved unanimously. The language of some of the speakers was violent in the extreme. Mr. O'Gorman, who had not the excuse of eloquence for his vehemence, in returning thanks for his appointment to the office of secretary, observed, that his majesty's ministers were not lying on a bed of roses. Independently of their internal dissensions, which he hoped God Almighty would increase, their finances were in rather a ticklish situation; England was beginning to get uneasy, and a cloud appeared to be gathering in the North, which there was no knowing how soon it might burst, for Russia had thirteen hundred thousand men in arms. All these cheering prospects, he added, were sufficient to inspire Irishmen with hope. They, who call upon Catholics by the hate they bear to Protestants, to be peaceable,. show a consistent spirit, in regarding the anticipated misfortunes of England and of Europe as cheering prospects for them. But it is melancholy to think that men like lord Gormanstown and lord Killeen should submit to be insulted by language, which is not treasonable only because it is so vague as to be almost without meaning; and still more melancholy is it, that any numerous assembly of men of education, should be so devoid of patriotism as to lend to such language even a momentary applause.

INR

N all the discussions on the Roman Catholic Association, the advocates of the ministerial measure had carefully separated the question of the conduct of that body from the general question of the Roman Catholic claims. Indeed one of the heaviest grounds of complaint in the minds of many against the Association was, that its intemperance was injurious to the very interests which it was intended to support. The Catholic cause, therefore, was in no degree involved in or prejudiced by the condemnation pronounced on Mr. O'Connell and his associates. On the contrary, it was now deemed to be in a fairer road to success than it had been for several years. The ranks of its friends had been augmented by various deserters from the adverse parliamentary array, among whom perhaps Mr. Brownlow was the most distinguished. But it had acquired a still better ground of hope in the increased and increasing influence and popularity of Mr. Canning, and those other

members of the cabinet who were pledged to its support.

The question was brought forward in the present session under a form very different from any which it had previously assumed. It was made the subject of three distinct measures. One of these was to remove the Catholic disabilities; another was to establish a species of connection between the Catholic ecclesiastics and the state, by making a public provision for the clergy of that church; and the third, in order to prevent the Protestants from being overpowered in elections by the overwhelming majority of the Catholic population, proposed to raise considerably the yearly value of the freehold to which the elective franchise was annexed.

On the 1st of March, sir F. Burdett presented the general petition of the Roman Catholics, and moved, in an eloquent and temperate speech, for the appointment of a committee of the whole House, to consider of the state of the laws