stroying an adversary than to deprive him of the means of subsistence. And that this is the full purpose and intention of the Roman Catholics, I prove by the most authentic testimony. I prove it by their own petition, presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Brougham on the 31st of May, 1824. In that petition, and it is a document well worthy your most serious attention, they plainly insinuate that, in order to satisfy them, three things are absolutely necessary. And what are these three things? First, the repeal of the Union; second, the abolition of tithes; and third, the annulling of all corporate privileges. The petition itself was long and comprehensive, and so general was its censure of everything established in Ireland, that it called forth the reprobation of even the honourable and learned member himself (Mr. Brougham), who declined to found any measure upon it, from the certain conviction that the House would mark its indignation of the matter contained in it. The petition, however, concluded with this prayer:'The petitioners therefore pray, that the House will cause a thorough reform to be made in the temporalities of the Established Church; that the House will render Orangemen ineligible to serve as magistrates or jurors; that the House will disfranchise the corporations; and that the House will pass an act to emancipate the Roman Catholics of Ireland.' Now in order to know what the Roman Catholics mean by a reform in

the temporalities of the Established Church, I must refer to the works of J. K. L., and there I will find that a reform in the temporalities means, to strip the Protestant Church of all its property, and to give its ministers a stipend proportioned to their duties; to take away the churches, in order to restore them to the Roman Catholics; and to put the schools, colleges, and endowments of the Protestant Establishment upon a new footing. The disfranchisement of the corporations, and disqualification of Protestants to serve as judges or jurors, is clear enough.

"Now it is a curious coincidence, that every one of these objects, which are so fervently sought for by the Roman Catholics in 1824, were actually carried into execution in 1687 and 1688, when the Roman Catholics had unrestrained power in Ireland; and with the permission of the House I shall mention how this was effected, and its consequences. In the year 1687, when Lord Tyrconnell was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and when it was determined in King James's cabinet to root out the Protestant Establishment in Ireland, the first act of his administration, in order to secure this object, was to remove every Protestant from the administration of justice. The Protestant judges were accordingly removed from the bench, Protestant magistrates from the commission of the peace, Papists were put into their places; every office of justice

from a sheriff to a constable was filled by a Papist.

"Having succeeded in getting complete power over the lives and properties of the Protestants by the appointment of Roman Catholic ministers of justice, the next object of attack was against the corporations. Accordingly, to use the language of the Roman Catholic petition, the corporations were all disfranchised; their charters were taken away, and new charters given, by which the king reserved to himself the power of displacing any mayor, alderman, or burgess. The corporations, therefore, became the slaves of the king's will, and by displacing all the Protestant members, and filling up their places with Papists, he in fact secured to himself a complete and uncontrollable power over the legislature, and commanded the corporations to return such men to Parliament as best suited his purpose.

"Having settled these preliminaries, the next step was to summon a Parliament, in order to have the colour of law for the great and comprehensive scheme of destroying the Protestant religion. In 1689 a Parliament met in Dublin; and from the precautions taken by the Government to give orders to the sheriffs to return none but Papists from the counties, and from the complete possession of the corporations by the Roman Catholics, it was just such a Parliament as the most sanguine Roman Catholic could desire. The House of Commons consisted of two hun

dred and twenty-eight members, eight of whom only were Protestants; the House of Lords consisted of forty-six members, of whom only eight or nine were Protestants.

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Behold, therefore, the Roman Catholics in full power, and what was the use which they made of it? Their first act was to repeal the Act of Settlement, an act which had been passed in the reign of King Charles II., for confirming the titles of the forfeited estates, and which then, as it does now, formed the title by which more than two-thirds of the Protestant proprietary of Ireland held their lands. This act was repealed, and more than twelve millions of acres left at the disposal of the Crown for repaying the fidelity of its Roman Catholic subjects. In vain some Papists, who had purchased estates under the Act of Settlement and explanation, remonstrated against being deprived of their possessions. Their remonstrances were useless, they were told they must suffer for the general good; and I beg to submit this proceeding for the consideration of those gentlemen who think they can find a security against any attempt on the part of the Roman Catholics to recover the forfeited estates, in the argument that Roman Catholics themselves have become purchasers. The next act, in order to give a more fatal blow to the Protestants, and to make their extirpation more complete, was an Act of Attainder, by which all Protestants of all ranks and degrees, and of all sexes, were at

tainted of high treason, on the pretence that they were out of the kingdom at the passing of the act. According to Archbishop King, two thousand six hundred were included in the proscription, and the manner of their condemnation was no less unjust than the motive; for Sir R. Nagle, on presenting the act to the king for his assent, informed him, that many in the act were condemned upon such evidence as satisfied the House, the rest upon common fame.

"But sweeping and comprehensive as these measures were for the extirpation of the Protestant religion, they were not enough to satisfy the Roman Catholics. The Parliament of 1689 proceeds in the spirit of the Catholic Association of 1824, to reform the temporalities of the Church and we have the definition of Dr. Doyle's reform carried into complete execution by the votes of the Roman Catholic legislature. In the first place, all the diocesan and parish schools which had been formed for the encouragement of the Protestant religion, were taken away from the Protestant schoolmasters, and their places were filled up by Roman Catholics. The king exercised his right of regulating the statutes of the university, by dispensing with the oath, and sending a mandamus to the fellows to elect whomsoever he should nominate; he accordingly filled up several fellowships with Papists, and appointed a Popish priest as provost. An act passed this Parliament, whereby