neasure.

o more, is not in its nature a single or unconnected Its objects are the peace and happiness of reland, and the union of the empire, in affection, as well s in Government. Vain indeed would be the hope of ccomplishing such purposes, solely by the repeal of a ew remaining disqualifications, which, by a strange anonaly, are still left subsisting amidst the ruins of a whole code of proscription. To impute to you this visionary pretension, has been the artifice of your oponents. The views of your friends have been more enlarged.

With the just and salutary extention of civil rights to your body must be combined, if tranquillity and union be our object, other extensive and complicated arrangements. All due provision must be made for the inviolable maintenance of the religious and civil estalisliments of this United Kingdom. Much must be done for mutual conciliation much for common safety; many contending interests must be reconciled, many jealousies allayed, many long cherished and mutual destructive prejudices eradicated.

Such, at least, have always been my own declared opini ons. When this matter was last under the consideration of Parliament, I had occasion to dwell, with particular earnestness, on this necessity; I invited the suggestions of others for providing for it; and I enumerated several measures, which eight years before had been in the contemplation of Government, in conjunction with which I then cherished the vain hope of rendering this great service to my country. Among these measures, I pointed out the proposal of vesting in the Crown an effectual negative on the appoint ment of your Bishops. That suggestion had been previously brought forward in the House of Commons, to meet the just expectations, not of any bigotted or interested champions of intolerance, but men of the purest intentions and most enlightened judgment. Men willing to do all justice to the loyalty of your present Bishops, yet not unreasonably alarmed at any possibility, by which functions of such extensive influence might hereafter be connected with a foreign interest, hostile to the tranquillity of your country. A danger recently very much increased by the captivity and deposal of the Head of your Church, by the seizure of his dominions and by the declared intention: of that hostile Government to assume in future the exclusive nomination of his successors. The suggestion thus :

opened to Parliament, produced there impressions highly favourable to your cause; it was received as the surest indication of those dispositions, without which all concession must be nugatory, and all conciliation hopeless. To my mind it had been recommended by long reflection. It had formed a part of the original conception of those measures as consequent upon the Union. It was now again brought forward with the concurrence of the two individuals, from whose opinions those generally prevalent among your body might best be inferred; of the agent of the very persons, to whose office it related, and of your Lordship, to whom, in addition to every other claim to respect and confidence, the exclusive charge of the petition had recently been committed. What I said on the subject in the House of Lords was spoken in the hearing of both and I received from both, while the impression was yet recent in your minds, the most gratifying acknowledgments of your satisfaction in all, that I had stated.

It was never, I believe, imagined by any of us, that what then passed could be binding on the opinions of the petitioners. The Roman Catholics of Ireland are not a corporate body. They speak through no common organ. Their various wishes and interests, like those of their fellow subjects, can be collected only from general information; and any opinions, erroneously attributed to them, they like all other persons, are fully entitled to disclaim.

I learnt, however, with deep and heartfelt regret the subsequent proceedings, which took place in Ireland, in consequence of this suggestion. To discuss the grounds of those proceedings would be foreign from my present purpose. Their effect obviously must be, not only to revive expiring prejudices, but to clog with fresh embarrassment every future consideration of any of the measures connected with your Petitions. To myself unquestionably the difficulty of originating at this time any fresh discussion of those measures, does, in such circumstances, appear almost insuperable.

Let me not, however be misunderstood. When I speak of the necessity of combining, with the accomplishment of your wishes, provisions of just security to others I am no less desirous of consulting every reasonable apprehension on your part.

To the forms, indeed, of these securities, or to the particu lar details of the proposed arrangements, I attach comparatively little importance. A pertinacious adherence to

such details, in opposition even to groundless prejudice, I consider as the reverse of legislative wisdom. I look only to their substantial purposes; the safety of our own establishments, the mutual good will of all our fellow subjects, and the harmony of the United Kingdom.

That adequate arrangements may be made for all these purposes, consistently with the strictest adherence, on your part, to your religious tenets, is the persuasion, which you have long been labouring to establish, and of which I have uniformly professed my own conviction ·

Were it otherwise, I should indeed despair. But that these objects may be reconciled, in sc far at least as respects the appointment of your Bishops, is known with undeniable certainty. It is proved by the acquiescence of your Church, in similar arrangements under other Governments, by the sentiments, which many of yourselves still entertain as to the proposal suggested in 1808, and, most of all, by the express consent formerly given to that proposal, in a declaration signed by the most considerable of your own Bishops.

I see, therefore, in the present state of this subject, much unexpected embarrassmnnt, and many difficulties, which renewed discussion in the present moment, must, instead of smoothing, inevitably aggravate. There is, however, no ground for ultimate discouragement. The sentiments of reciprocal confidence, the spirit of mutual conciliation, would surmount far greater obstacles.

But nothing, permit me to remark it, can in the mean time be more injurious to your cause, than any attempt, by partial and precipitate decisions, to prejudge its separate branches, or to limit its unreserved discussion. No cause' can be more grateful to your opponents, none more embarassing to your supporters,

To Parliament, when any more favourable conjuncture for this discussion shall arise, every information may probably be supplied, every wish imparted, every apprehension communicated.There only by a systematic and comprehensive arrangement of this extensive subject, can all its difficulties be surmounted, all its relations finally adjusted. To be effective and permanent, such an arrangement must be mutually satisfactory.

This is alike the interest of every member of the British Empire, but to none more important than to the Catholics of Ireland. The stability of all your civil rights, both of those, which you already enjoy, and of those, to which you

seek to be admitted, essentially depends on the tranquillity and harmony of your country, on banishing from it every hostile influence, and composing all its internal differences.

These opinions I have expressed to your Lordship with the freedom of a tried and zealous advocate of your cause. On these grounds alone have I ever attempted to do justice to it. To have argued it on any other would have been a dereliction of my own principles.

I need hardly add, that by the same principle, my present conduct must equally be directed. Should the petitioners continue to entertain the desire conveyed in your Lordship's letter, that I should lay this petition upon the table of the House of Lords; with that request I cannot hesitate to comply. It would be highly improper to deny to such a body of men the opportunity of submitting, through my hands, if they should so desire it, and at their own time, their wishes to the Legislature of their own country. It would be still more inexcusable in a case, where all my opinions and all my wishes are favourable to the object of their application. On the measure itself, if any motion respecting it be originated by others, I shall not fail to urge, with unabated earnestness, all the same sentiments, which I have detailed in this letter. But I must with equal explicitness decline to be myself, at this time, and under so many circumstances of such peculiar disadvantage to your cause, the mover of any such proposition. I am satisfied, that, by this decision, I shall best promote the ultimate success of that great work, which I have long laboured to accomplish. My reasons for this persuasion I have, I trust, sufficiently explained. They may be erroneous, they are at least sincere.

To the principle of equal laws, to the object of national conciliatiation, I am invariably attached. By me, they shall never be abandoned. But any personal exertions, which I can make, for purposes of such inestimable benefit to my country, must ever be regulated by that discretion, which I am equally determined in every situation to reserve unfettered by previous engagements, and the faithful exercise of which my public duty imperatively forbids me to relinquish.

Your

I have the honor to be,

With sincere respect and regard,
My Lord,

our Lordship's most obedient humble servant,

Grenville.

No. IV.

TO THE

CLERGY AND LAITY

OF THE

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES IN IRELAND, &c. &c.

Reverend Brothers, Beloved Children, peace be to you!

Inasmuch as we were called upon by an alarm of danger to Religion, to speak our common sentiment at a former time, and accordingly did, on the 14th day of September 1808, enter into and publish certain Resolutions, then judged necessary: And whereas the danger, we then hoped to avert, and the agitation, which we laboured to quiet, have been renewed, and principles disallowed by the Roman Catholic Church, are assiduously disseminated amongst the faithful, for an avowed purpose of innovation. Moreover, whereas, amongst other vain things, it is pretended, that the doctrines of this clergy, that is to say, the avowed doctrines of the R. C. Churches in Ireland, form the chief obstacle to the immediate attainment, by Trish Catholic people, of all the advantages of the constitution; (an argument, by which, if even true, our forefathers would not have been tempted to waver; for they knew, that their Faith, if true, was also immortal; and that their perseverance in that faith, enlivened by Charity, would conduct them to a glorious and everlasting inheritance :) And, whereas, it is most necessary to admonish our flocks, lest that Providence, which has carried onward their paternal Faith through meritorious constancy, to the verge of freedom, henceforth abandon us, in the last moments of temptation, in punishment of yielding to unbelief and contradiction, now that we are relieved, by the mercy of law, from positive suffering.

Invoking the name of Christ, and having only God before our eyes, we have discussed and considered several VOL. III.

B