§ Mr. Villiers Stuartsaid:—I rise for the purpose of presenting petitions from sundry bodies of Irish Catholics. The first, on the part of the Catholic bishop and clergy of the diocese of Waterford, and the rest from various parishes in that county, praying to be emancipated from the political disabilities to which they are now subjected. I should not venture to accompany the presentation of these memorials with any remarks at length, if it had not been the wish of many of my constituents, whose names are attached to them, that I should press the consideration of this question upon the House, in as strong a manner as possible. I cannot help feeling that I, who am a very young member of society and of this House, should offer some apology in rising to address it on a subject of such vast importance as that contained in the prayer of the petitions I now hold in my hand; but the very importance of the question, connected as it intimately is with the well-being, bound up as it is with the dearest interests, of those whom I have the honour to represent, will, I trust and believe, be accepted as no trivial excuse for my coming forward on this occasion.— Sir, I have not the presumption to request attention to my own opinions, merely as those of the individual who has the honour to address the House. I am aware, that, if what I say shall be considered to have any claim at all upon its consideration, it must arise from the sanction of those who have deputed me to speak their prayers, and from the circumstance of those prayers being offered up by the petitioners, in common with nearly the entire nation to which they belong; and, Sir, in making this assertion, I would not wish to be understood as putting forward any exaggerated statement of facts. In Water-ford, with which I am more particularly connected, Catholics are to Protestants as twenty-three to one; in the province of Minister, of which that county forms a part, the proportion is still more favourable to them; and in the two provinces of Leinster and Connaught, it is, perhaps, scarcely less so; and these calculations, founded as they are upon a census taken with the closest investigation and most accurate research, bear me out in the assertion, that nothing less than the prayers 418 of a nation are offered up in support of those measures which the House is called upon to sanction by its approbation; and if to this numerical preponderance you add the weight and influence of a vast proportion of landed property in the hands of Irish Protestant proprietors, it must, I think, be conceded, that few questions ever came to the consideration of the House, backed by so powerful and mighty an advocacy as does that which now, on the part of the petitioners, claim the decision of the legislature in its behalf. A favourite topic of those opposed to the claims of the Catholics, has hitherto been the apathy with which these have been regarded by all but, as it was stated, a faction belonging to the Roman Catholic persuasion; and the indifference with which, excepting a few among the higher classes, the subject of their disabilities has been treated by the great proportion of those who have laboured under the pressure of them. The day is past, the hour is gone for ever, when such an allegation as this could be resorted to as an argument against concession. Aye, if it were matter of doubt on the minds of any before the dissolution of the late parliament, the event of the general election must have flashed conviction on the minds of all how deeply interested are the feelings of every class of Roman Catholics in the question of their emancipation; and how false, how utterly false, have been the charges of indifference, under which those in the humbler grades of society have laboured. The Catholics have shewn they know their rights, and knowing dare assert them. They have given ample proof, that the love of liberty and those rights is with them superior to the considerations which commonly influence men in their humble walks of life; they, even the lowliest of them, have, for the sake of emancipation from the political disabilities under which they labour, been content to incur the weight of their landlord's heaviest displeasure; they have dared to brook his anger, and the poverty and oppression incident to it: they have confronted, undismayed, disease and famine; but turned indignantly away from the bribe which, perhaps, might have saved them from the ravages of both. Such has been the conduct of, such the noble refutation given by, the peasantry of Ireland—the much calumniated forty-shilling freeholders—to the slanders of their enemies, when an opportunity offered to 419 prove the charge of apathy unfounded. What, however, has their bearing been, but a corroboration of the evidence taken before the committee appointed to inquire into Irish affairs? Had we it not on the authority of all those examined on that occasion, that there is but one and the same feeling pervading every class of Roman Catholics, from the highest to the lowest in degree—a sense of injury and dissatisfaction arising from their disabilities? I am willing to allow, that these are not felt as an immediately operating grievance by all equally; yet the consciousness of their existence tends to increase the weight and influence of those who, feeling them more acutely, are inclined to predispose their fellow-subjects to disturbance, or to suspect the administration of justice, on which alone a government can found any claim to respect or obedience on the part of the governed. The Catholics feel themselves a degraded and oppressed class, when compared with others of the king's subjects—that they are looked down upon by those in power; and they withdraw from the government their confidence accordingly. They are willing to see the Protestant church protected and secure in its immunities; but cannot understand how their admission to the political honours and advantages of the State can be considered as incompatible with this object. Their disabilities produce actually a morbid sense of self abasement, a consciousness of degradation and inferiority, which has the worst effect upon the morals of the people. They feel like men who, as it were, have lost their caste; and how can it be otherwise, when they see a privileged order set over them? Take a Catholic, for instance; let his rank, his talents, his property, be what they will, he is perforce to content himself with taking a passive rather than an active part in the legislation of his country. If he be mild and meek of disposition, it is just possible he may continue, without repining, to pass his life in dull contented obscurity; but if he be made, as most men are, of somewhat a more stern and inflammable disposition, can he see himself looked down upon by the more favoured part of the community, with whom he has little or no interest? Should he be in any profession, shall he find a limit set to his honest ambition—the honours not attendant on the toil? Shall he hear his oath proclaimed a lie, and his loyalty and religion slighted. 420 and afford matter of wonder to any that he should writhe under the sting of such accumulated indignity and insult? Because we cannot make men Protestants, shall we make them rebels? I appeal, Sir, to human sympathy and human feelings, whether the mind of a man of ordinary sensibility must not become in the highest degree susceptible of insurrectionary contagion; whether the distinction created by law must not uphold and perpetuate the recollection of old times and old wrongs? Owing to the penal code is it that the fanatic murders of a former century loses nothing, in the minds of the Irish, of their original greatness by a long tradition. Owing to the penal code is it that they still cherish a sore remembrance of the obstacles thrown in the way of hearing mass, when they were obliged to resort to bogs, caves and morasses, for the purpose of worshipping the Deity after their own manner; and when their bold avowal of their religious tenets was a crime of greater magnitude, in the eye of the law, than the disguise of prevarication and falsehood under which the priests were obliged to cloak their sacred calling. Refuse, Sir, to the Irish their privileges, and the spirit of the Catholic church will continue to increase, and at length prevail over that of the nation. Grant them to them, and they will thenceforward, I am convinced, become animated by a British rather than a Catholic feeling. The votes of the Irish representatives alone are sufficient to convince them that, but for the Union with England, long ere this they must have been emancipated; and is it wise, is it prudent, I would ask, to give the Irish cause to hate the link which binds them to us? But, unhappily, Ireland has ever been fated to find in England a false and haughty mistress; let the broken Treaty of Limerick, the iron reign of a past, and the wily inducements to which, at the commencement of the present century, the Union owed, and owed alone, its success, attest the fact. It should be borne in mind, however, that both oppression and treachery fail to attain their objects, when the first ceases to hold in subjection, and the last to deceive those on whose account such means have been resorted to. Persecution is known to act in direct opposition to the wishes of the persecutors. Persecution, in queen Mary's time, did more towards establishing, on a firm and. solid basis, the Protes- 421 tant religion, than did all the Edicts, promulgated for its support, in the life-time of her father, Henry. Without persecution, the church of Scotland had not gained a victory over that of England; and without persecution, the Catholic church would scarcely, in the mighty flood of its monopoly, have absorbed the affections of the Irish, nearly unrivalled, to itself. It has been observed, and well observed, that the Catholic is, de facto, the substantive, and the Protestant but the adjective, religion of Ireland; and most true it is, that that only can become really efficient as the established religion of a country, which has obtained possession of the hearts and affections of that country's population. Years of blood, discord, and rebellion were the consequences of our attempting to do in Scotland what we are now endeavouring to bring about in Ireland. Scotland had chosen Presbyterian ism as best suited to the feelings, opinions, and prejudices of its population; and we were, accordingly, obliged to yield to that majority's predilections; since when, peace and prosperity have become the characteristics of a country, which, before, was torn by disorder and anarchy; from being one of the most disturbed, it has become one of the most peaceful portions of the British empire. If, then, Sir, a positive good results from allowing to take their course, unmolested, the religious opinions and prejudices of the majorities in two portions of the United Kingdom, I should be glad to learn why the principle is lost sight of in the case of the third? In a word, why that which is deemed sound policy in England and Scotland, is not acted upon in the instance of Ireland? But we are told Catholicism embraces doctrines totally incompatible with the spirit of the British constitution; and this allegation is founded, as I learn, upon the following charges brought against the Roman Catholic church: first, it is matter of accusation against Catholics, that they are guilty of impiety in usurping, through absolution, the power of forgiving sins; secondly, that they promote vice, in granting, by means of indulgencies, an anticipated pardon for sins to come; thirdly, that they do not feel themselves bound by the sacred obligations of an oath, should the pope choose to dispense with the observance of it; fourthly, that they divide their allegiance between a temporal and a 422 spiritual sovereign; fifthly, it is said they hold the principle that it is lawful to break faith with heretics. Such are, if I am not mistaken, the ground, at least the ostensible one, on which a party in this country ground their hostility to the claims of the Catholics. Having now put the question into a somewhat tangible form, and classed under five separate heads the principal arguments of its opponents, I will now proceed to examine how these will be found to bear upon the merits of the question at issue, and I am bound in candour to confess, that if these tenets, which have been imputed to the Catholics, were cherished by them as such, no one would feel more anxious than I should to prevent from a participation in the honours and advantages of the State, men who could hold doctrines so contrary to the dictates of Christianity, so totally incompatible with the very existence of civilized society; but how stands the case? These opinions which have been imputed to Catholics, as part and parcel of their creed, turn out to be the mere fabrications of artful and designing men; cobwebs spun for the purpose of enveloping the brains of those who have not force to break through the entanglement of them; the real fact is, these doctrines, at the present day, are as little characteristic of the church of Rome, as of that of England. On what authority do I make this assertion? Not on my own—not on that of two, three, or four obscure individuals; no dubious testimony will it, I trust, be thought I call in support of what I advance, when I summon as witnesses in my behalf, the whole Catholic hierarchy of these kingdoms; and can it be supposed that a body of men, devoted as they are to a high and sacred calling, many of whom are now hovering on the very verge of the grave, most of them having passed long lives in the service of their God, and all of them enjoying reputations untainted by the slightest breath of calumny, towards whoso spiritual guidance are turned with reverence and affection the regards of eight millions of our fellow Christians—can it be supposed, I ask, for an instant, that a body of men so circumstanced, would unite in subscribing their names, attested by that holy and venerated symbol of their religion, the cross, to a falsified statement of their creed—a creed which teaches them not less than our own, that truth is the first attribute of the Deity whom they worship, 423 and whose word they are sworn to teach and to obey, in full hope, that none are to be found so besotted by bigotry, so wedded to religious prejudices? I shall, bestow a few moments consideration on the substance of the statements as published by authority of the Catholic prelates, in vindication of their calumniated religion. Firstly, then, as I have stated, they are charged with impiety, in usurping, through absolution, the power of forgiving sins. What is their answer to this? That no actual sin can be for given at the will of any pope, priest, or individual whatsoever, without a sincere sorrow for having offended God, a determination to avoid future errors, and to atone for past transgressions — he who, without these necessary dispositions, receives absolution, only incurs the additional guilt of hypocrisy and profanation. Secondly, it is stated, they promote vice in granting indulgencies as an anticipated pardon for sins to come. Why, they declare an indulgence is no pardon for sin at all; it only remits, on repentance of the sinner, the whole or some part of the temporal punishment with which the church had in the first instance thought fit to visit the offence. With regard to the third charge, that Catholics do not feel themselves bound by the sacred obligations of an oath, should the pope choose to dispense with their observance of it, they state, they cannot sufficiently express their surprise and abhorrence of such an accusation, since they believe no power in any pope, priest, or individual, or body of men whatever, can make it lawful for a Catholic to confirm any falsehood by oath, or absolve himself from any oath by-which he may have either ratified his allegiance to his sovereign, or any obligation of duty or justice to third persons; he who takes an oath, is bound to observe it in the obvious meaning of the words, or in the known meaning of him to whom it is sworn. For the fourth charge, that they divide their allegiance between a temporal and a spiritual sovereign: they feel indignant at the imputation; in the sovereign and the State, they believe and declare, are vested the regulation and direction of temporal affairs; they only bow to the guidance of the pope in spiritual matters, according to the divine command of "render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are God's," Fifthly, 424 they disclaim holding the principle, that it is lawful to break faith with heretics; they believe and declare, that every Catholic, as well by the laws of nature as those of revealed religion, is bound to observe the duties of fidelity and justice to all men, without distinction of nation or religion. Having now endeavoured to explain those points of Catholic doctrine, which are most frequently misrepresented or misunderstood, and the substance of the statement by which the Catholic prelates have rebutted and falsified the charges levelled against their religion, I trust I am not too sanguine in believing, that justice will, ere long, be done to the principles of the Catholics—that it will at length be conceded, no opinions flow from them incompatible with their duties as Christians, or as British subjects: and I now beseech the legislature, but more especially his majesty's government, upon the members of which the settlement of this question must mainly depend, to pause ere they withhold their consent to the prayers of these petitioners; I would remind them that we may now chance to be upon the very verge of war; a war, which, if once kindled, would, in the idea of the right hon. Secretary for Foreign Affairs, partake of the most tremendous character of any, perhaps, which ever took place in Europe; for, as the right hon. gentleman had stated, it would, in all likelihood, become a war of conflicting opinion. Where is that country, I should be glad to know, which would suffer more from the operation of such a war than would Great Britain, as regards her Irish interests? I would remind his majesty's government, too, that a system of persecution and oppression has been followed up with regard to Ireland for four centuries past; that the annals of the country may literally be traced in blood, have been marked by a greater degree of atrocity and barbarism than can be discovered in the history of any other country in Europe during the same period; that civilization has crawled a slow and intimidated progress, while poverty and disaffection have strode over the nation's prostrate energies; and I would ask if such are, and history tells us they have been, the deadly effects of a four hundred years' experiment, whether it might not be as well to try if a contrary system would not have a contrary effect. If the mild attentions of a sister for the future 425 might effect what the harsh dominion of a mistress has hitherto failed to do, what enables us to rule the seventy or eighty millions of our Indian territories, with comparatively more ease than the seven or eight millions? Why are the Catholics of Canada, divided as they are from us by the broad Atlantic, more amenable to our laws, more contented with the government than the inhabitants of a country whose shores approach within but a few short miles of our own? Why, but because in Asia and America we can condescend and find it for advantage to court and consult the public opinion; because we go to war with it in Ireland, in Ireland it goes to war with our government. Since, then, opposition fails, let us try concession; since persecution begets only disaffection and discontent, let us adopt a milder system: in a word, let us place the Catholics upon the same footing as ourselves; let us allow them to participate with us in the advantages and honours of the state; let us give them an interest in its welfare, and I feel convinced, as I stand here, that they will be found among its subjects some of the most loyal, amongst its defenders some of the most faithful.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.