§ The following Report of Mr. Dawson's Speech in the House of Commons oh the 14th of February, on Mr. Goulburn's Motion for leave to bring in a "Bill to amend certain Acts relating to Unlawful Societies in Ireland" will be found more correct than the one given at p. 357.
§ Mr. Dawson said, that, after the long discussion which the motion of his right hon. friend had undergone, he thought it neither decorous nor necessary to detain the House very long with the expression of his opinion; he was anxious, however, to explain the reasons of his vote, and he should endeavour to do so as concisely as possible, by avoiding an unnecessary allusion to the general question of Catholic emancipation. In the many eloquent speeches which had preceded him, at least one half of the time had been consumed in discussing, not the conduct or effect of the Catholic Association, but the merits of the Catholic question, and in the same proportion that reason and argument have been wanting to support the opposition to his right hon. friend's motion, so appeals to the passions, and the powers of imagination, have been applied to excite the feelings and divert the judgment from its proper subject. He should abstain, therefore, from following such examples, and should confine himself to this observation with respect to the Catholic question, that every passing event, and every proceeding of the Catholics, confirmed him still more strongly in the opinion which he had always maintained. That a further concession to their claims is incompatible with the safety of our constitution.
§ With respect to the question before the House, it seems to him that no man who understands the Irish character, that no man who has read the history of Ireland with common attention, that no man who has watched the progress of events in that country for the last thirty years, can conscientiously stand up and support associasions of any kind whatsoever. From the earliest period associations have been the curse of Ireland. In no country has the division of the inhabitants been so marked, so decided, so indelible, as in Ireland. The division between the Irish and the English has descended, under various denominations, through seven centuries; 1376 party has followed party, faction has followed faction, and the whole history of the country, which unfortunately presents one continued series of blood, massacre, and misery, is an ample illustration of the danger of ungovernable parties; besides the character of an Irishman, is of all others, the least suited for such a trial. Rash and impetuous in his passions, he obeys only the impulse of the moment; his natural susceptibility lays him open to the power of any demagogue who makes the strongest appeal to his imagination; his actions follow the impulse of this feeling, and if reflection comes at all, it is only from the bitter fruit of disappointment and defeat. It is to him, therefore, a source of the greatest satisfaction, that it has been resolved to check this evil by putting down all kinds of associations; all kinds, because, though the Catholic Association was the most dangerous, the most mischievous, and the most unconstitutional, which has ever been begot in that country, yet the cure will be incomplete unless the spirit of Association be rooted out altogether. Let any man consider for a moment the character of popular assemblies in Ireland, and, with but one exception, he will find the result invariably the same, namely, ruin and destruction to the actors, disgrace and infamy to the country. The only exception to this miserable catalogue, is the Convention of the volunteers in 1782. That assembly, without doubt, accomplished great and glorious deeds, and deserves the gratitude of every friend of his country, and of liberty; but the national restlessness was nearly breaking forth even in this assembly, and a civil war between the volunteers and the parliament was prevented only by the firmness and prudence of lord Charlemont, who determined to withdraw himself from the convention after it had obtained the first object for which it was constituted. The convention followed his prudent advice, and 1377 it dissolved itself just at the critical time when the volunteers on one side, and the government on the other, were prepared for a contest to decide the question of parliamentary reform. But with this exception, the history of every popular assembly in Ireland is tragical and disgraceful. What was the result of the Catholic Committee in 1793? What was the result of the Society of United Irishmen in 1796 and 7? A most bloody rebellion; a rebellion that laid waste the country from the north to the south, ruined thousands of families, and reduced the kingdom to the lowest state of misery and degradation. What was the result of the Catholic Board in 1812 and 1813; almost a continued interruption of the public tranquillity from that time to this. The most violent exasperation of one party against the other. The consequent effects of that exasperation, a servile war, robbery, murder, and assassination, accompanied with the necessary preventions, namely, Peace Preservation acts, Suspension of the Habeas Corpus, Constabulary acts and Insurrection acts. This, Sir, is the history of all popular assemblies in Ireland; but he should leave the catalogue unfinished, if, in the list of popular assemblies, he omitted to mention the name of the Irish parliament. Let any man look at the extraordinary acts of this body of the collective wisdom of the country, 24 or 25 folio volumes of statutes, in which human ingenuity seems stretched to the utmost point to find out what is not suited to the circumstances of the country, to multiply law upon law without care for their present execution, without foresight for their future effect. Look at the constant character of these legislators, corrupt and venal jobbers, the ready tools of every minister, ready to sell themselves and their country to the highest bidder; but, Sir, thank God, this parliament is annihilated, and better days have already begun to dawn upon Ireland from its connection with this country. It seemed, therefore, upon a general principle, that no man who is a friend to the peace or character of his country, can object to a law which puts down political associations of every kind whatsoever. The motives which bind these Associations together, can make no difference in the decision of the legislature, all must be put down to ensure the tranquillity of the country; and though be should always maintain that there is the greatest difference be- 1378 tween the principles and conduct of the Orangemen and the Catholics, yet he would never become the advocate of compelling one party to submit, and allowing the other party to escape from the operation of a general law, which was necessary for the peace of the country. If he could be so blind to the principles of common justice, he could not be insensible to this plain truth, that one association begets another, and that the strongest argument against the existence of Orange Lodges arises from the encouragement which they afford to the continuance of the Catholic Association. He thought, therefore, that he acted consistently in voting for a law which puts down, not only the turbulent and seditious efforts of the Catholic Association to disturb the peace of the country, but which prevents the misguided loyalty of the Protestant from any exuberant display of its devotion; but he could not admire the consistency of the hon. gentlemen opposite, who vote for the immediate annihilation of every Orange lodge, without the proof of any charge except the oath of secresy, and yet oppose the extinction of the Catholic Association, whose acts no man yet has been bold enough to justify. The complacency and levity with which this inconsistent conduct is justified, is almost ridiculous. Who can forget the parade and pomp with which the hon. and learned gentleman, the member for Calne (Mr. Abercromby), introduced his motion to put down Orange lodges? Who can forget the violent speeches, and the opprobrious epithets which were used against every person connected with the Orange party? Who can forget the shouts of triumph which followed the discovery of the hon. member for Waterford (sir J. Newport) that the members of an Orange lodge subscribed three-pence each to buy pens and paper, in order to record the proceedings of the evening? But, Sir, these arguments were successful, and every well-wisher of his country consented to join in crushing the Orange lodges. But, what is their conduct now? In the speech from the throne, a distinct recommendation is given to heal the evils of Ireland by pulling down all kinds of associations. It is distinctly proved, that the Catholic Association has assumed a form inconsistent with the principles of the constitution; that it usurps the functions of government; that it exasperates party hatred; that it interferes with the 1379 administration of justice; that it calumniates the character of every respectable man in the country; that it paralyzes the magistracy; that it keeps the people, through the instrumentality of the priests, in a state of servile vassalage, ready to obey their orders however dangerous; and that it levies a tax upon the people, to be converted to their own mischievous purposes, no matter what they are. All this is proved; is as evident as the sun at noon day; and yet the hon. gentlemen refuse to check the career of this dangerous association. They still continue to hurl their anathemas against Orange lodges, when, in fact, there are no Orange lodges in existence; at least he would state for the satisfaction of the hon. member for Wicklow, who seems to think Derry the focus of all Orangeism, that there are no Orange lodges in that city; they still continue to laud the peaceable, mild, and tranquillizing conduct of the leaders of the Catholic Association, and to condemn lord O'Neil for not abandoning his political principles. They justify Mr. O'Connell and others for driving their country almost into a state of rebellion by their inflammatory speeches; but they can find no excuse for lord O'Neil's continuing stedfast to the principles of his family. Can any man blame lord O'Neil for seeking protection in the times of peril through which we have passed? Can any man blame him for wishing to know who are his friends, and who are his foes? His father found himself deceived in the appeal which he made to the humanity of a neighbouring dependant. He found kindness forgotten, and all the kindly feelings of nature destroyed by the poison of political hatred; and can we, or ought we, to blame the son who seeks only to know those to whom he can trust?
But his objection to the Catholic Association was founded upon much stronger reasons than upon an objection in principle to associations. It appeared to him to be the most dangerous and most mischievous body which has ever been sufered to exist in Ireland. Its proceedings, the speeches of its members, the agency of the priests, all unite to make it the most dangerous engine to work upon the passions of such a susceptible people as the Irish. It commands a paid press to circulate its poison through every part of the country, it has orators who stick at no falsehood to alienate the people from their confidence in every established institution 1380 of the country, it has associated in its labours the priesthood, who have amply repaid the expectations of the Association, by their undisguised expressions of hostility to the constitution of the empire, and by their unceasing efforts to instil the same hatred into the ignorant and infatuated peasantry. Now, Sir, many hon. gentlemen have said, that they see no harm in the proceedings of the Association, and that the speeches of their leaders, like all violent harangues, are soon forgotten. But, Sir, the Catholic Association takes care that the effect of their speeches shall not be confined to those who hear them; the auditors perhaps know their leaders too well to be much affected by their orations; but when these speeches are sent down to every little village in the country, when every institution in church and state, when the highest characters both in England and Ireland are held up to public odium, when the ecclesiastical bench, the judicial bench, the magistracy, the parliament, the laws of the land are calumniated and misrepresented, when rebels who have suffered from the offended laws of their country receive public thanks, when the people are encouraged to unite in one general system to pull down every establishment in the kingdom, these speeches are not to be judged by the character of the speakers, but by the effects which they produce upon a credulous and ignorant people. It will hardly be believed to what an extent this violence has been carried; and as be had no means of judging of the intentions of the gentlemen who deliver their sentiments in the Catholic Association but by their speeches, as he had no means of ascertaining the object of the Association but by its proceedings, he should endeavour to explain the impression which is made upon his mind by a few extracts from them.
§ What says the Finance report which was published in the early part of the last year, before the rent became as successful as it is at present, and 50,000 copies of which were circulated through the country:
§ "It exhorts the people to wait in the sullen silence of discontent for a more favourable opportunity and better organized resources, to prove to Britain and the world that we are men, and deserve to be free."—This language is plain enough, it breathes the spirit of disaffection, and of 1381 disappointment at not having the power to carry these designs into execution. But what says Mr. O'Connell a short time afterwards, when the rent became more abundant, and when the means were daily accumulating of arming and organizing the peasantry; he says, "He would not press the introduction of the claim of arming the Roman Catholics, for if he did, it might be supposed that they were going to proclaim war at once." Now, Sir, this sounds very ridiculous in this House, but I should like to ask what is the effect produced upon the mind of a Catholic peasant in Kerry by this language? Does it not prepare him, aye and every Catholic peasant in Ireland, to expect that some great design is in agitation, and does it not prepare him to put into execution another favourite exclamation of the same gentleman, "Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not, who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." This may be called figurative language, the exuberance of eloquence, of a heated imagination, and so forth; but the Catholic peasant sees in it good practical matter, and would not be sorry to have it brought to the test of experience. He could read many other passages in the same strain, but it is enough that such sentiments are uttered, and circulated with assiduity among the people, to convince any one that the assembly from which they emanate is most dangerous and unconstitutional.
§ And what, Sir, is the language of the Association in reviewing the conduct of such members of either House of parliament, as venture to express any sentiment unfavourable to the Catholics; all courtesy, all moderation is abandoned, and the liberty of speaking our thoughts is represented as the highest crime against the majority of the Catholic people; one gentleman (Mr. Shiell), says, that "if the British legislature require the degradation of a whole people for the enjoyment of its advantages, that it is the asylum of intolerance," and so on. When lord Redesdale states in the House of Lords that he shall freely give his opinion upon the Catholic question, and shall not be deterred by the fact, that his assassination was preached from the altar by a priest in Dublin, the Association immediately decree that the assertion is calumnious, and not only calumnious, but an assassinating calumny. His royal highness the duke of York exposed him- 1382 self also to the assaults of the Catholic Association, by his observations on the Catholic claims. He is represented in a report from the Association, which was to be circulated throughout the country, as an enemy to the Irish people; and when one gentleman wished to have the expression softened, Mr. O'Connell refused, declared that it was just, and that the heir apparent ought not to forget that there was once a duke of York who lost his crown and kingdom. Another orator observed, "that by the public expression of their sentiments, the duke of York might be induced to alter his opinion, as far as related to the Catholics of Ireland, but that his was a life of no service."
§ This, Sir, is the tone in which they speak of the parliament; these are the sentiments which they circulate through every part of the country; he allowed, indeed, that such assertions are contemptible, but is it safe, is it just, to allow a slanderous faction to disseminate their poison among a deluded and credulous peasantry?
§ The same hostility pursues every member of the Established Church, wherever an effort has been made to counteract the objections of the Catholic Association. The archbishops, bishops, and clergy of all descriptions, are involved in a general anathema; they are held up to accusation, as plunderers by the Catholic Association, and they are denounced as usurpers by the Roman Catholic clergy. Every act of kindness, of charity, of duty, performed by the Protestant clergy towards the poor of their districts, has been forgotten since the establishment of the Catholic Association. During the severe season of distress in the West of Ireland, in the year 1822, the archbishop of Tuam, who with true charity exerted himself for the relief of the poor, received the following address from Dr. Kelly, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the diocese:—
§ "Resolved, That the judicious, efficient and unwearied exertions of his grace the archbishop of Tuam, in the causes of charity, call forth our warmest sentiments of admiration, and we now beg to offer him the humble tribute of our sincere gratitude, hoping that his benignity of character, and his active and well-directed beneficence (qualities worthy of our emulation), may long continue to shed their influence over us.
§ OLIVER KELLY."
§ At this time, there was no Catholic 1383 Association; but last year under the baneful influence of their body, which infects and poisons every thing that comes in contact with it, the Roman Catholic clergy of the same diocese published an atrocious and infamous resolution, accusing the archbishop of having introduced a party of military, with drawn swords, for the purpose of intimidating, and perhaps massacreing the Roman Catholic clergyman, insiduously invited to a meeting.
§ But, Sir, not satisfied with every indignity that can he offered personally to the highest dignitaries of the Church; the leader of the Association, at its very last meeting, gave to a people, already through the agency of their priests worked up to the highest state of fanatical hatred against the members of the Established Church, the humane hint of massacreing them by wholesale. At the last meeting, Mr. O'Connell said, "Scotland did not exhibit the patience and self-control of Ireland, nor patiently suffer herself to be trampled on, while her oppressors rode by in triumph. She hewed down with the sword of the Lord the archbishops and bishops, and when the force of the British arms became too strong for her people, they retired to their mountains, and after renovating their vigour they returned to carry desolation to the very dwelling of their assailants."
§ Now, Sir, does such language as this require any comment? To whom is it addressed? not to the Association, but to the Roman Catholic peasantry, the most ignorant, the most deluded peasantry in the world, and unfortunately the most ready tools for any work of blood.
§ The same observations apply to those who are intrusted with the administration of justice. The chancellor, the judges, the magistrates, all come in for their share of abuse. There is an exception, indeed, in favour of those who are known to entertain opinions favourable to the Catholic cause; but the honest and conscientious assertion of an adverse opinion, no matter how amiable in private and how pure in public life the individual may be, is sufficient to have him represented by the Catholic press, in every cabin in Ireland, as a tyrant and a despot. In speaking of the chancellor of Ireland, Mr. O'Connell says that "the chancellorship of lord Manners, and the Attorney-generalship of Mr. Saurin, tended to degrade the dignity and sully the independence of a bar, 1384 which had given a tone to the public feeling of Ireland." Sir, the bar of Ireland rejects the hypocritical compliment; the dignified characters who have adorned it, the judges Burton, Jebb, Bush and Penne-father, find more honour in being associated with such men as lord Manners and Mr. Saurin, than in all the hypocritical cant of the Catholic Association.
§ Again, Sir, what is their language respecting the magistracy? that "the administration of justice in Ireland is corrupted at its very source; that a simple despotism weighs with an equality of pressure upon every class of the community; that the sense of masterdom mingles itself in the ordinary familiarities of life, and that the administration of justice is partial, vindictive, and unjust." Sir, if any one of these assertions were true, the laws would afford an ample remedy to the party aggrieved. But redress is not the object of the Catholic Association; it is more to their purpose to instil these dangerous falsehoods into the minds of the peasantry, and to prepare them, by undermining their confidence in every establishment, for deeds of aggression whenever they shall be proposed.
§ But, Sir, besides the speeches of the leaders, we may infer, from the proceedings of the Association, what great respect is entertained for the laws of the country. On the 24th of November, a Mr. Devereux and Mr. Hamilton Rowan were both admitted as members of the Association, and the announcement of their names was received with thunders of applause. The reason of this enthusiastic admiration is curious enough. Mr. Devereux was announced to be the almost only surviving delegate to the Catholic committee in 1793, and he was admitted immediately by Mr. O'Connell, as a matter of course, in that capacity: in other words, he was admitted because he belonged to an assembly which was declared to be illegal, and which was put down by law. The case of Mr. Hamilton Rowan was more notorious: and here he begged to express his regret at being obliged to renew the recollection of events long passed, and which certainly would have been buried in oblivion, so far as he was concerned, except for the indiscretion of the individuals themselves: they, not he, must be responsible for raking up the records of ancient and troublesome times. But Mr. Hamilton Rowan has made himself too notorious to be passed over in silence; he was secretary 1385 to the Society of United Irishmen; was actually convicted of sedition, and whilst in prison he was attainted of high treason. His associate in treason, the Rev. Mr. Jackson, was tried and convicted, hut put an end to his life in prison. Mr. Rowan was more fortunate; for he escaped from prison, and suffered exile for many years from Ireland. After a long lapse, he was allowed to return to his native home by the indulgence of the government; and the best reward he can make for this clemency, is by becoming a member of an Association as dangerous and unconstitutionalas that of the United Irishmen; and what is still more remarkable, and tending to show the spirit of the Catholic Association, the accession of this attainted traitor is received with thunders of applause; and in the address presented to him, direct allusion is made to those circumstances of his life in which he plotted against the peace and laws of his country, as deserving of the applause and gratitude of his Roman Catholic fellow countrymen.
§ Now it is impossible to mark proceedings of this kind, without contemplating the result of these transactions. Why is every violent sentiment applauded? why is every dangerous man received as an useful ally? why is such publicity given to these mischievous sentiments? The object is plain; it is to alienate the people from their attachment to their rulers, to disgust them with the laws, and to prepare them for the overthrow of the Protestant religion.
§ But much as he condemned the existence of the Catholic Association, he thought it would be comparatively innocent in its operation, if it was not for the agency of the Roman Catholic priesthood. To the conduct of the priesthood he attributed most part of the evils which had desolated Ireland for so long a period: he regretted to be obliged to make this avowal, but these were times when the truth must be told, and when a delicate forbearance may prove an everlasting injury to the country. It was his misfortune to differ entirely from his right hon. friend below him, the Attorney-general for Ireland, in his opinion of the priesthood. In their conduct during the last five or six years, he had seen very little to approve of, but a great deal to condemn; and he could view their alliance with the Catholic association in no other light than as the first step towards the attainment of their grand object, the overthrow of the Protestant 1386 church, and the ascendancy of the Catholic religion in Ireland. Their prelates could no longer refrain from expressing their anticipation of this long-wished-for feast. Dr. Curtis, the titular primate of Ireland, informs the archbishop of Dublin, that he is an usurper, that he holds his archiepiscopal chair by sufferance, and that he is no more entitled to it, than he is to the dukedom of Leeds. Dr. Doyle says, in his letter to Mr. Robertson, a member of this House, "that the whole body of the Catholics is impatient, that disaffection must be working within them, that the ministers of the establishment are and will be detested, that if a rebellion were raging from Carrickfergus to Cape Clear, no sentence of excommunication would be fulminated by a Catholic prelate, and that the Catholics possessed of property in Ireland will not render any efficient services to the government, should eventful times occur; that from such men the government has only to expect defiance, and open hostility." Another priest, a Mr. L'Estrange, declares, "it ought not to be expected that the Catholic clergy, who have a divine right, were bound to meet men not dignified with the same exalted character: perhaps all the gentlemen present [this was uttered in the Catholic Association] were not aware, that they, the Roman Catholic clergy, deny any character whatever to the bishops, or other clergy of the Protestant church."
§ This is the denunciation of the Catholic clergy; it is fulminated from the altar, it is reported to the Association, it is read in every cabin in Ireland, as a useful lesson to the rising generation to cultivate obedience and resignation to the established laws of the country. But it is said that we are indebted for the present tranquillity to the Catholic clergy: he really believed so, but he believed also, that we are indebted for the late disorders to the same persons. He recollected in a trial which took place in the county of Cork, before Mr. Blacker, who presided as king's counsel under the Insurrection act, that Mr. Blacker asked a Catholic priest if he was aware of the disturbed state of his parish. The priest, with considerable reluctance, confessed that he was aware of it; and being pressed by Mr. Blacker, he allowed that no plot could be in agitation without his knowledge, and moreover, that every priest in Ireland must be aware of what was going on, if he did his duty. He recollected 1387 also that a priest of the name of O'Sullivan saw a man murdered before his face, and refused to give evidence against the murderer, because, if he did so, he would lose his influence with his parishioners; he thought himself justified, therefore, in saying, that the priests contributed to the continuance of the disorders which prevailed during the last four years, by not coming forward to co-operate with the gentry of the country for their extinction. If the tranquillity of Ireland is now owing to their exhortations, the disturbances of 1820, of 1821, of 1822, and 1823, were owing to their want of exhortation. The influence of the priest over the Irish peasant is well known. By the terrors of the church he can frighten him into good or evil habits, and the extraordinary and fanatical devotion of the wretched peasant, in giving the miserable pittance which he had destined to cover his own nakedness, or to feed his starving children, to give it, at the orders of the priest, to the Catholic Association, is a strong proof how much good might be effected by them, if the inclination was as strong to do good as it is to do evil.
§ In a letter from Mr. Duggan, the parish priest of Kilrush, published in the proceedings of the Catholic Association, he says, "Many of them (his parishioners) have sworn to appropriate the whole of the corn-crop to the payment of the rent, no matter what other creditors may be justly entitled to, or even the wants of nature may imperiously demand." Who but a person of the most perverted understanding could encourage such a practice; what clergyman of real morality would recommend the withholding of a just payment, in order to provide for some undefined object; what man of real morality would recommend robbery to encourage sedition. Another priest, a Mr. Kelly of 1388 Mallow, advises his parishioners to contribute largely, because money is the sinew of war, and because the Catholic rent will supply the Association with those sinews, whenever the proper occasion shall present itself. Hundreds of examples of a similar kind might be adduced, to shew the disposition of the Catholic priesthood; and in every public occurrence the mischiefs of their disastrous influence might be traced. Who is it that is employed to sow distrust between the clergyman and his parishioners;— the priests. Who is it that bursts without remorse all the ties of connexion between the landlord and the tenant?—the priest. Who leads on contending parties at elections, and in addition to political animosity, throws on the fuel of religious hatred; who impedes the course of education, and blasts the efforts of the most benevolent individuals for the civilization of their tenantry?—It is the priest. In every situation, in every character, the priest appears as a foe, unless the object to be obtained conduces to the advancement of his own power; and what is the object of the priesthood in thus standing aloof from any intermixture with the Protestants?—It is to establish their own church upon the ruins of the Protestant establishment; this is his dream by night, and his thought by day; for this he leagues himself with the Catholic Association; for this he employs his influence over the people, to devote their money and their persons to the command of that imperious body. If such a state of things is suffered to exist, there can be but one result, a contest between the two parties; and, unless the government is supported by parliament, to extinguish the Association, the Association, with the priesthood, will soon extinguish the government [hear, hear!].