the R. C. hierarchy, and their people, and it will be seen, how great an advance has been made by them in the course of the last twenty years: it will also be seen by every man among us, who is not wilfully blind to the danger, how imperative is the duty of preventing, by the most effectual restraints, this same encroaching spirit from still further extending itself; above all, from having the means of realizing those projects of ambition, of the existence of which it would be weakness any longer to doubt.

Power of the Roman Catholic Bishops and Clergy over the Representation of Ireland.

Unhappily, in the present state of the Elective Franchise, they have an engine of power and influence, which, a very short time ago, it would have been deemed the wildest dream of bigoted folly to affect to apprehend. The advocates for the expediency of admitting Roman Catholics into Parliament were once accustomed to found their best argument on the improbability of many seats being affected by the measure. Mr. Burke, as we have seen above, believed it impossible, that more than

*See above, p. 165.

three, or at the most four, Roman Catholics could be elected. But, in the present day, the prospect is completely changed. There is no longer a County, a Town, a Parish, in Ireland, in which the political influence of the Priesthood is not strongly felt. Nor is it the least striking, nor the least instructive, particular in the case, that they do not, as formerly, attempt to conceal their power, but, on the contrary, are eager, on every occasion, to obtrude the most public and ostentatious avowal of it. The Priests themselves openly boast of having "in"duced the 40s. Freeholders at the last elec"tions to vote against their Landlords;" they claim from the Association money advanced to these Freeholders to save them from ejectments:* and their Lay followers are not slow to acknowledge the value of their services.

"The Clergy," says Mr. O'Connell, "from "the most venerable and reverend prelates in "the land, to the youngest curate of the most "remote parish, make common cause with the "people."†

σε

"The aid of the Catholic Priesthood," says

* See Letter from Rev. P. Byrne of Castletown, July 26, 1827, read in the Association.

+ Fourteen Days Meeting, 1st Day, January, 1828.

Mr. Lawless, and their intelligent and zea"lous co-operation, will ever be necessary to the "foundation of the national cause:-that aid "we enjoy in an unlimited degree."* The same gentleman on a very recent occasion-giving notice of a motion in the Association," that "they would consider any member of Parliament, who supported the present Administra"tion, at the head of which was the Duke of "Wellington, as an enemy to Ireland;" and further saying, that he would recommend the calling on all the parishes to meet and adopt a similar resolution-proceeded as follows:

"They all knew, that the 40s. Freeholders and the Roman Catholic Clergy could dispose of the representation of this country as they liked. They were all perfectly aware, that the 40s. Freeholders could, in fact, command the return of the members; and if the Clergy supported them, he would be a bold man indeed that would support the Wellington Administration."+

Mr. O'Connell, as I have already said, bears similar testimony. "In Cavan," (a county, in which, at the last general election, the Romanists property in fee did not exceed 3000 acres-I

* Answer to Address from the Inhabitants of Longford, December 9, 1827.

+ Fourteen Days Meeting, 3d Day. See "Times of 25th of January, 1828."

See above, p. 166.

speak on the authority of a gentleman most intimately acquainted with the state of property there ;)

"In Cavan," said Mr. O'Connell,* "Young Maxwell and Saunders would have been ousted, if the Catholic Clergy had been well urged on, and had exerted themselves. In three baronies, where the people were roused to a sense of duty, the liberal candidate had a complete majority." If the Catholic Claims were conceded, he would not feel the smallest reluctance in going down to Cavan himself,† and opposing the illiberals."

Mr. Shiel speaks still more plainly:

"To the Protestants of Ireland I do not look for emancipation. It does not depend on them. We are, to a great extent, masters of the representation of Ireland; and I trust that, before long, every county member shall obey our bidding; therefore I scarce care one jot, whether the Irish Protestants are favourable to us or not. But on the English Protestants I do depend, and for their conviction I rely, not on the justice of our claims," &c.

One further intimation he gives, which is too important to be withholden.

"I rejoice to be able to add, that the present condition of the Catholics, when all of us, from the highest to the

* Catholic Meeting, November 5, 1827.

† Mr. O'Connell, I am informed, has no property whatever in that county.

lowest, are bound together, portends to the bad monopoly, which is misnamed the Constitution, no ordinary peril."*

Looking, then, to this unhappy state of things, to the unconstitutional power over the great majority of Irish Representatives, possessed by the Roman Catholic Prelates and Priesthood -and looking, too, to the known and avowed hostility of themselves, and of all the most prominent of their Lay adherents, to the Established Church, both in England and in Ireland, can it

* Speech at New Ross, 23d of October, 1827. That the assertion of the power of the Priesthood over the representation of Ireland, is not an idle boast, the experience of the late elections manifested in the face of the world. But this influence is not limited to the instances in which it was thus notorious. Of the members, who sit in Parliament for Irish counties, there are, it is to be feared, not a few, who know that they hold their seats at the will of the Roman Catholic Priesthood. One of these, who always votes for their claims, has himself told me, that if he did not so vote, he should be driven from his seat; "that," said he, "I should not mind; but I should be driven from my house, " and compelled to quit the place of my fathers." That this is not a solitary instance, I know from authority which the delicacy of the case forbids me to name. I might even appeal to the internal conviction of more than one county member returned to the present Parliament, who have always supported the cause of the Roman Catholics, whether they would have had a chance of success, if Roman Catholic candidates could have been opposed to them.