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CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.

Extract from the Rev. Sydney Smith's Speech before an Assembly of Clergymen.

[It was spoken at a meeting of the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of the East Riding of Yorkshire, (England) held at the Tiger Inn, at Beverley, for the purpose of adopting a Petition against the Catholic Claims. The meeting was very numerously attended by Clergymen hostile to the bill. The Rev. Sydney Smith stood alone in his opposition. He began as follows:]

SIR, It is very painful to me to differ from so many worthy and respectable clergymen here assembled; and not only to differ from them, but (I fear) to stand alone among them. I would much rather vote in majorities, and join in this or any other political chorus, than stand unassisted and alone, as I am now doing. I dislike such meetings for such purposes-I wish I could reconcile it to my conscience to stay away from them, and to my temperament to be silent at them; but if they are called by others, I deem it right to attend-if I attend, I must say what I think.

I beg leave, Sir, before I proceed on this subject, to state what I mean by Catholic Emancipation. I mean eligibility of Catholics to all civil offices, with the usual exceptions introduced into all bills-jealous safeguards for the preservation of the Protestant Church, and for the regulation of the intercourse with Rome-and, lastly, provision for the Catholic clergy.

I object, Sir, to the law as it stands at present, because it is impolitic, and because it is unjust. It is impolitic, because it exposes this country to the greatest danger in time of war. Can you believe, Sir, can any man with the most ordinary turn for observation believe, that the monarchs of Europe mean to leave this country in the quiet possession of the high station which it at present holds? Is it not obvious that a war is coming on between the governments of law and the governments of despotism?—that the weak and tottering race of the Bourbons will (whatever then our wishes may be) be compelled to gratify the wounded vanity of the French, by plunging them into a war with England?

Already they are pitying the Irish people, as you pity the West Indian slaves-already they are opening colleges for the reception of Irish priests. Will they wait for

your tardy wisdom and reluctant liberality? Is not the present state of Ireland a premium upon early invasion? Does it not hold out the most alluring invitation to your enemies to begin?-And if the flag of any hostile power in Europe is unfurled in that unhappy country, is there one Irish peasant who will not hasten to join it?-and not the peasantry only, Sir,-the peasantry begin these things, but the peasantry do not end them.-They are soon joined by an order a little above them,—and then, after a trifling success, a still superior class think it worth while to try the risk.

Men are hurried into rebellion, as the oxen were pulled into the cave of Cacus-tail foremost. The mob first, who have nothing to lose but their lives, of which every Irishman has nine-then comes the shopkeeper-then the parish priest-then the vicar-general-then Dr Doyle, and lastly, Daniel O'Connell. But if the French were to make the same blunders respecting Ireland as Napoleon committed; if wind and weather preserved Ireland for you a second time, still all your resources would be crippled by watching Ireland. The force employed for this might liberate Spain and Portugal-protect India, or accomplish any great purpose of offence or defence.

THE SAME CONTINUED.

WAR, Sir, seems to be almost as natural a state to mankind as peace-but if you could hope to escape war, is there a more powerful receipt for destroying the prosperity of any country, than these eternal jealousies between the two religions? What man will carry his industry and his capital into a country where his yard measure is a sword, his pounce-box a powder-flask, and his ledger a return of killed and wounded? Where a cat will get, there, I know, a cotton spinner will penetrate-but let these gentlemen wait till one or two of their factories have been burnt down, till one or two respectable merchants of Manchester have been carded, and till they have seen the Cravatists hanging the Shavanists in cotton twist. In the present fervour for spinning, Ouran Outangs, Sir, would be employed to spin, if they could be found in sufficient quantities; but miserably will those reasoners be disappointed who repose

upon cotton-not upon justice; and who imagine this great question can be put aside, because a few hundred Irish spinners are gaining a morsel of bread, by the overflowing industry of the English market.

But what right have you to continue these rules, Sir, these laws of exclusion? What necessity can you show for it? Is the reigning monarch a concealed Catholic? Is his successor an open one? Is there a disputed succession? Is there a Catholic pretender? If some of these circumstances are said to have justified the introduction, and others the continuation of these measures, why does not the disappearance of all these circumstances justify the repeal of the restrictions? If you must be unjust; if it is a luxury you cannot live without-reserve your injustice for the weak, and not for the strong-persecute the Socinians, muzzle the Ranters, be unjust to a few thousand Sectaries, not to six millions-galvanize a frog, don't galvanize a tiger.

If you go into a parsonage house in the country, Mr Archdeacon, you see sometimes a style and fashion of furniture which does very well for us, but which has had its day in London. It is seen in London no more; it is banished to the provinces; from the gentlemen's houses of the provinces, these pieces of furniture (as soon as they are discovered to be unfashionable) descend to the farm houses, then to the cottages, and finally to the faggot heap. As it is with furniture, so it is with arguments. I hear, at country meetings, many arguments against the Catholics, which are never heard in London; their London existence in Parliament is over-they are only to be met with in the provinces, and there they are fast hastening down, with clumsy chairs and ill-fashioned sofas, to another order of men.

THE SAME CONCLUDED.

WE preach to our congregations, Sir, that a tree is known by its fruits. By the fruits it produces I will judge your system. What has it done for Ireland? New Zealand is emerging-Otaheite is emerging-Ireland is not emerging-she is still veiled in darkness-her children, safe under no law, live in the very shadow of death.

Has your system of exclusion made Ireland rich? Has it made Ireland loyal? Has it made Ireland free? Has it made Ireland happy? How is the wealth of Ireland proved? Is it by the naked, idle, suffering savages, who are slumbering on the mud floors of their cabins? In what does the loyalty of Ireland consist? Is it in the eagerness with which they would range themselves under the hostile banner of any invader, for your destruction and for your distress? Is it liberty, when men breathe and move among the bayonets of English soldiers? Is their happiness and their history anything but such a tissue of murders, burnings, hanging, famine and disease, as never existed before in the annals of the world?

This is the system which, I am sure, with very different intentions and very different views of its effects, you are met this day to uphold. These are the dreadful consequences which those laws, your petition prays may be continued, have produced upon Ireland. From the principles of that system, from the cruelty of those laws, I turn, and turn with the homage of my whole heart, to that memorable proclamation which the Head of our Church, the present Monarch of these realms, has lately made to his hereditary dominions of Hanover-That no man should be subjected to civil incapacities, on account of his religious opinions. Sir, there have been many memorable things done in this reign.-Hostile armies have been destroyed; fleets have been captured; formidable combinations have been broken to pieces-but this sentiment in the mouth of a King deserves, more than all glories and victories, the notice of that historian who is destined to tell to future ages the deeds of the English people. I hope he will lavish upon it every gem which glitters in the diadem of genius, and so uphold it to the world, that it will be remembered when Waterloo is forgotten, and when the fall of Paris is blotted out from the memory of man.

Great as it is, Sir, this is not the only pleasure I have received in these latter days. I have seen, within these few weeks, a degree of wisdom in our mercantile law, such superiority to vulgar prejudice, views so just and so profound, that it seemed to me as if I were reading the works of a speculative economist, rather than the improvements of a practical politician, agreed to by a legislative assembly, and upon the eve of being carried into execution, for the benefit of a great people. Let who will be

their master, I honour and praise the ministers who have learnt such a lesson. I rejoice that I have lived to see such an improvement in English affairs-that the stubborn resistance to all improvement—the contempt of all scientific reasoning, and the rigid adhesion to every stupid errour, which so long characterized the proceedings of this country, is fast giving way to better things, under better men, placed in better circumstances.

I confess it is not without severe pain, that in the midst of all this expansion and improvement, I perceive that in our profession we are still calling for the same exclusionstill asking that the same fetters may be rivetted on our fellow-creatures-still mistaking what constitutes the weakness and misfortune of the church, for that which contributes to its glory, its dignity, and its strength.

Sir, there are two petitions at this moment in this House, against two of the wisest and best measures which ever came into the British Parliament-against the impending Corn Law, and against the Catholic Emancipation; the one bill intended to increase the comforts, and the other to allay the bad passions of man. Sir, I am not in a situaation of life to do much good, but I will take care that I will not willingly do any evil. The wealth of the Riding would not tempt me to petition against either of those bills. With the Corn Bill I have nothing to do at this time. Of the Catholic Emancipation bill, I shall say, that it will be the foundation stone of a lasting religious peace; that it will give to Ireland, not all that it wants, but what it most wants, and without which no other boon will be of any avail.

When this bill passes, it will be a signal to all the religious sects of that unhappy country to lay aside their mutual hatred, and to live in peace, as equal men should live under equal law. When this bill passes, the Orange flag will fall. When this bill passes, the green flag of the rebel will fall. When this bill passes, no other flag will fly in the land of Erin, than that flag which blends the Lion with the Harp-that flag which, wherever it does fly, is the sign of Freedom and of Joy-the only banner in Europe which floats over a limited King and a free people.

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