Notwithstanding all this, it is often gravely asserted, that the question of Emancipation regards only the upper ranks of the Catholics, and that to the lower orders it is an object of but little importance or concern!* Go, you, who entertain this sagacious opinion-go ask the poor Catholic, who sees himself excluded from the Vestry, where a few Protestants vote away his wretched means of subsistence, to provide for the building and repairs of their own church-where, though forbidden to have a voice in the election of a Churchwarden, he may be capriciously compelled to act as Church-warden himself +-ask the farmer, who is cited to the Bishop's court by a Reverend titheowner, and finds another Reverend tithe-owner on the bench to decide between them §-ask the Ca

Even the acute Author of "the Past and Present State of Ireland," asserts that, "expedient as Catholic Emancipation may be, it is only expedient."

Thus reversing to the poor man the hardship of his betters, who may elect, but cannot represent.

The danger of this little system of parochial tyranny is evident. Where the office of Church-warden is attended with profit or patronage, the Protestants keep it to themselves; but where it brings only trouble or expense, the burthen may be thrown upon the Catholic.

"Is it likely that a Clergyman, who must naturally feel a bias to the interests of the Clergy, as opposed to those of the laity, should be an impartial judge? Again, is it likely that a Tithe-owner, who holds Tithes in the very

tholic of the North, who, surrounded by armed Orangemen, is left wholly at their mercy by that Penal law, which forbids him to use arms for his self-defence; who, if found with weapons, may be transported, if found without them, may be murdered-ask the Catholic inhabitants of towns and cities, whom the spirit of Corporation Ascendancy haunts through all the details of life; who are sacrificed at every step to the immunities of others, and kept, as game, for a few privileged

Diocese, should be a disinterested judge? And lastly, is it likely, that an humble Ecclesiastic depending altogether for preferment in the Church, on the absolute will of his Bishop, who might (as he well knows) be prejudiced against him by the Clergy, were he to venture to check their exactions, should be an independent judge ?"—Report of the Committee of the Parish of Blackhrath.

* "Protestant servants and tenants (says Mr. Wakefield) are arrogant, and consider themselves a superior order of men; which, in some degree, arises from their being allowed the use of arms-a privilege denied to the Catholics. This exclusion, as it points out to them their own weakness, draws them, like animals in a storm, closer together."

During the reign of the Penal Code, Mr. O'Connor tells us, the "Roman Catholic gentlemen evaded prosecution by re- gistering their arms in the name of their Protestant servants, whom the law recognized as freemen, though it stamped their masters as slaves. Thus the Catholic gentry contrived means of defence against midnight assassination, and of redress against upstart insolence.”—See, in Scully's Penal Laws, a statement of the extent to which this infringement on the Rights of Self-Defence still exists.

persons to torment-ask any and all of these, why they are thus persecuted, and when they answer you with that proverb, which sorrow has engraven on their very hearts, "there is no law in Ireland for a Catholic,”—if you still think Emancipation unnecessary, go, vote with Mr. Peel-appeal to God and the Constitution with Lord Eldon-talk guard-room politics with the Duke of Wellington -rave of Jesuits with Sir Thomas Lethbridgewrite mad pamphlets with Sir Harcourt Leesdrink deep to the Glorious Memory with Sir Abraham Bradley King *-in short, do every thing that is most absurd, frantic, and mischievous-Captain Rock will take you to his bosom as a true and devoted friend, and enrol you along with the illustrious personages just mentioned, as one of the best and most useful consolidators of his power.

* I have not done justice here to one-half of the "Dii Majores" of Orangeism; and must therefore, to supply the deficiencies, refer to a list of "Loyal Public Characters," given in a book called "the Williamite," as the standing Toasts of all Orange Lodges. Mr. Peel, who has naturally a spirit "touch'd to finer purposes," will there see with what luminaries his No-Popery politics constellate him.

VOL. IX.

13

CHAPTER XII.

1798-1800.

The Captain's views of his own interest.—The Government acts up to them.—Rebellion of 1798.—The People provoked into it.-The Union.-Secular Odes of Ireland. -Conclusion.

I have already, in a preceding Chapter, acknowledged, that the lucid interval of Lord Fitzwilliam's administration alarmed me. At that moment, could I have introduced myself, as a sort of political Mephistopheles, into the confidence of Mr. Pitt, I would have said to him, "Great minister ! this will never do-it is contrary to the whole natural course of rule in Ireland. Here is Lord Fitzwilliam, not only about to deprive of their birthright that select knot of Protestant gentlemen, who have derived from their ancestors the privilege of mis-governing Ireland, but even forming a plan to introduce, in place of their monopoly, a system of law, moderation, and equal rights. Never was such a thing heard of since the days of Brian Borumbe!

"Still worse-there is, at this moment, a con

spiracy organizing; and such a one as a Government with any taste for phlebotomy would rejoice at. It is, as yet, confined to the Protestants and Presbyterians of the North; but the Catholics, if left in their present state of discontent, or, at all events, if goaded according to the old established method, will inevitably join it. Yet, so lost are the examples of history upon Lord Fitzwilliam and Mr. Grattan, that-instead of availing themselves, as they ought, of such a glorious opportunity for confusion-they are actually, while I address you, meditating a measure, which will content the Catholics, disconcert the United Irishmen, squeeze the black drop (as the angel did with Mahomet) out of the heart of the Protestant Ascendancyand, in short, make eleven twelfths of the people happy and peaceable, to the utter extinction of the tyranny and mischief of the remaining handful!

"This, I repeat it, will never do-shades of Sir William Parsons and Primate Boulton forbid it! You must recall Lord Fitzwilliam-restore the Ascendancy to that power, which it knows so well how to abuse-send us over a Governor, not too wise, who will let Lord Clare and the Beresfords be viceroys over him-give full loose to the loyalty of the Orangemen, those hereditary scourges of the