the violent and unconstitutional acts of the Association. He entreated
their Lordships to consider, that the eyes of all Europe were upon them;
and that they should do nothing which could give any man ground to
believe that, in the steps they were about to take, they were guided by
any other motive than that of expediency and good policy.

* * * * *

If they looked to the state in which the Roman Catholic question stood
in Parliament, from the period of the Union down to the present, they
would see the prevalence of a growing opinion in its favour. Mr. Pitt
had, in his time, considered it necessary to admit, that the laws
enforcing eligibility upon Catholics ought to be reviewed, for the
purposes of modification; and, under the repeated assurances of
different eminent statesmen, a Roman Catholic influence had undoubtedly
grown up in Ireland, which it was high time to satisfy by a reasonable
change of policy. For some years after this subject had attracted
parliamentary attention, there were reasons of a highly creditable
nature, both to individual ministers and to Parliament, why it would
have been improper and impolitic to have brought the measure forward as
a measure of government; but, since the year 1811, these particular
reasons had not been in full operation; and the subject, notwithstanding
the divided state of the Cabinet upon it, had been constantly discussed,
and during all that time, had been gaining ground. He was not prepared
to describe here the mode in which the principle of a divided government
had operated upon the Catholic question; but he defied any member of the
government, at the period to which he referred, to deny that, whether
the question before them was one of education for Ireland, one for the
alteration of the Criminal Law, or one for the regulation of tithes,
this division was felt to affect one and all of these topics; in fact,
that none of them could come to be discussed, without some reference to
the great subject which was so long in agitation. The time had, he
hoped, now arrived, when Parliament was prepared to settle it.

_February 19, 1829._

* * * * *

_Unparalleled State of Ireland in 1829._

From all he had seen and read relative to Ireland, during the last two
years, he was forced to arrive at this conclusion, namely, that he did
not believe there was on the face of the globe any country claiming the
denominati