ormation, when all Ireland was of one
religion. True: and they had existed, just because, even before the
Reformation, the same system of excluding the natives from political
power had been long followed, though on different grounds. What Sir John
Davies, who wrote in the days of Elizabeth, stated to be the cause
of the evils of Ireland in his time, was in force still:--"From the
earliest times," said that writer of the English government of Ireland,
"it seemed to be the rule of policy that the native Irish should someway
or other be not admitted to the privileges of the constitution equally
with the English residents. And in order to perpetuate the ascendancy
of the latter, the governors of Ireland had determined to oppress the
former as much as possible. Accordingly, it has been the system of rule
in that country, for the last four hundred years, to attempt by all
manner of means to root out the native Irish altogether." That system
had been acted on since the time of Sir John Davis in some form or
other, and with consequences which would last so long as the laws
against the Catholics remained unrepealed. This inequality of political
power, then, was the cause; and by removing it, an end would be put
to the turbulence and exasperation to which it gave birth. Mr.
Grant further argued that this might be done without injury to the
constitution, and that the constitution did not recognise any principle
of exclusion against any portion of the community. Its essence, he said,
was the communication of its protection and privileges to all. Lord
Palmerston followed on the same side. He admitted that if the question
were, whether we should have any Catholics at all; whether the religion
throughout the empire should be exclusively Protestant; then all Ireland
should be made Protestant. But this was not possible, Catholics there
were, and Catholics there must be. There they were, good or bad; and,
whether their tenets were wholesome or unwholesome, the persons holding
them were six millions in number, and they were seated in the very heart
of the empire. What, then, he asked, were we to do with them, since we
were not able to exterminate them? Were we to make them our enemies,
fiercer and more inveterate in proportion as we persecuted them? or were
we by kindness and conciliation to convert them into friends? The latter
was clearly the more expedient and desirable in itself, unless it were
accompanied by some imminent danger. He ca