"I can applaud her-while she's kind ;- And shakes her wings and will not stay,— Yes, Sir, I love, I covet, I enjoy popularity; but I will not court it by the surrender of my conscientious judgment, or by the sacrifice of my settled opinions. But, Sir, I do not believe that any popularity which I may have the good fortune to enjoy, is put to hazard by my support of the bill now before us. If the honourable and learned gentleman (Mr. Brougham) opposite, who on the first night of the session so gallantly identified himself with the Catholic Association, thinks that he has thereby gained the palm of popularity which I am losing, let me tell him that I cannot congratulate him on the fancied acquisition. On the contrary, I believe mine to be eventually the surer road. I do not mean to speak lightly of the honourable and learned gentleman's support of this question, or of the consequences attending it. I do not under-value the services of such an advocate in any cause which he thinks fit to espouse; I acknowledge freely his great talents and acquirements, his accumulated knowledge, and the prodigious power with which he brings all those qualities into action. I acknowledge them the more freely, because it has been often our fortune to be opposed to each other : "Stetimus tela aspera contrá Contulimusque manus: experto credite, quantus But valuable as these qualifications must at all times render him as an advocate to those whose cause he undertakes, he may still experience disappointment in the quarter where he expects to find his chief reward; and may discover that he has mistaken the road, not only to the general approbation of the country, but even to the good graces of those whom he most immediately aims at pleasing. Differing, however, totally as I do from the honourable and learned gentleman in the estimation in which he holds the Catholic Association, I must, for the sake of the Catholic Question itself, and in order to retain the power of serving it, take my firm stand in support of the present bill. Having always viewed the question of Catholic concession, not simply as it affected those whom it went to relieve, but with reference to the interest, happiness, and security of the whole country; being persuaded that to make its beneficial effects thus extensive, we must carry the country with us; believing that there is, in England, a great inert mass of opposition to the Catholic Question, which can only be worn down by degrees, and which must be dealt with gently and considerately; that nothing would be more calculated to embody and confirm an obstinate resistance, than any apprehension on the part of the mass of the people of England, that the Government was leagued together for the express purpose of carrying that question; and that an Administration formed for the specific and avowed purpose of carrying it, would not only fail in that object, but would light up a flame throughout this country, which it would be most difficult indeed to quench; I still hope and trust that the question will ultimately succeed. If it succeeds, it will be through discussions in Parliament leading to favourable decisions. Such decisions. must ultimately operate upon the Administration, which, however composed, cannot but feel itself bound to carry the decisions of Parliament into effect. I do not despair of this result, if we proceed with sobriety and circumspection; but I doubt whether we can accomplish every thing at a single blow. I have already reminded the House, that in 1813 we might have carried a bill containing every thing but seats in Parliament, but we threw it up in a pet. I have never ceased to regret that hasty determination. "Ex illo fluere, ac retro sublapsa referri From that moment the Catholic Question began to lose ground. But, Sir, the lost ground may yet be recovered. With a view to that recovery, I have already said we must quiet, in this country, the apprehensions entertained for the safety of the Protestant Church Establishment. With a view to that recovery, we must put down, in Ireland, faction, of whatever description; we must put down all unconstitutional associations, but, foremost, this Catholic Association, for which alone a stand has been made. I conjure the House therefore to entertain and to pass this bill; first, for the suppression of an association of which no government, worthy the name of a government could tolerate the existence; and, secondly, for the advancement of the great question to which that association has endeavoured to ally itself, an alliance of which the Catholic Question must be disencumbered before it can have fair play. ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL. APRIL 21st, 1825. SIR F. BURDETT moved the order of the day, for resuming the adjourned debate on the Amendment proposed to be made to the question, " That the bill be now read a second time;" which Amendment was, to leave out the word "now," and at the end of the question to add the words, upon this day six months." MR. SECRETARY CANNING rose, amidst general cries from all sides of the House, and spoke to the following effect: Often as it has fallen to my lot to address the House on this important question, I cannot approach the consideration of it on this occasion without feelings of the deepest anxiety. And yet it must be confessed, that the subject now presents itself under appearances unusually cheering. Whether the opinion of this country be not, in fact, as strongly opposed to concession to the Roman Catholics as I believed it to be at the beginning of the session, or that the abatement of the causes which at that particular period existed |