tages of ren lics eligible to 4. On the other hand, were Catho- CHAP. IL lics eligible to seats in the Legislature-were public advan there only ten Catholics in the Upper House, dering Catho and twenty in the lower House (which is a the Legislature probable estimate for the first ten years) how many mischiefs and errors might be avoided, how many useful projects formed and accomplished!!! No Protestant member, however upright and enlightened, can be expected by the Catholics to be constantly prepared to protect their property from unequal impost in Parliament, their rights from aggression, their fame from calumny, or their Religion from gross misrepresentation. Catholic Members, and they alone, would prove competent to those tasks. A Member of this description, duly qualified, speaking upon the affairs, complaints, and interests of his own community, could readily falsify the fabricated tale, refute the sophistical objection, unravel the apparent difficulty, state the true extent of what is desired, and what is practicable. Such a Catholic, actually knowing the condition of his fellow-sufferers, could put down a calumny in the instant of its utterance; be avoided. and this, not merely by contradicting it, but by referring with promptitude to existing documents, facts, and authorities-by quoting time, Calumnies ex Errors would posed. CHAP. II. place, and circumstance, and bringing within the immediate view of the House and the public the necessary materials of refutation. Illiberal Laws would not be proposed. If an illiberal or unjust Law should be insidiously or ignorantly proposed, he could arrest its progress. He could check every attempt to impose new restraints upon toleration, and detect intolerance under its most wily disguises, whether of education or charity, military aid, or Religious zeal. If, under any of those specious pretexts, measures should be brought forward, really calculated to foster false prejudices, to prolong intestine divisions, or to abet a barbarous and obsolete policy, he could expose the lurking mischief; he could, from local knowledge, unfold the inconvenience, inadequacy, or injustice of such measures; explain their probable operation, and perhaps point out the means of attaining their professed objects, by measures more mild and legitimate. We should, probably, no longer hear of men starting up in Parliament, gravely vouching for facts, which either have never occurred or have been egregiously misconceived, and availing themselves of the acMistateme ts cident of being Irishmen, or having seen Ire Useful Laws would be facilitated, checked. land, to give currency to the grossest delusions upon their English audience. rendering Ca Such men would not attempt those practices CHAP. II. in the presence of a competent Catholic mem- Advantages of ber: or, if once attempted, would find little en- tholics eligible. couragement to repeat them, They would abandon the occupation of misrepresenting the Catholics, as unprofitable and unavailing. And this would be, in itself, no small advantage gained by the Catholics and by the empire. ple would be known to Par 5. Still further, the very habits of The Irish PeoCatholic Members, and their intimate acquaint- come better ance with the wishes and condition of their fel- liament. low-Catholics, would naturally assist the Legislature in acquiring a better knowledge of the people of Ireland; in learning their real means and wants, their local and general interests. Pub- A salutary Relic measures upon an enlarged and comprehen- liament, withsive scale might, then, be more safely proceeded upon, and more directly facilitated. The Le gislature would embrace an enlarged representation, for the benefit of Millions-now unrepresented. An improvement of the highest value, and of the most popular nature, would take place in the Constitution of Parliament, without innovation or disturbance of established systemsor any greater effort than merely that of restoring Four Millions of Catholic citizens to their ancient place in their country, effected in Par out innovation, CHAP. II. Thus, by a single act of justice, moderate and constitutional, a salutary reform in Parliament might, to a certain degree, be attained and thus these realms might become in reality, as they now are in name only, an United Kingdom. Finally, the enlightened Statesman may truly observe of this exclusion of the Catholics from both houses of Legislature, "Continue this Paramount im. "Exclusion, and the removal of all the other portance of re bility of Catho storing Eligi"grievances will be of little value, and of no permanent security to the Catholics, or to lics to serve in ❝ Parliament. "the Empire. Remove this Exclusion, and the "other grievances cannot long survive.” SECTION VI. "Of the Elective Franchise, as enjoyed by the "Catholics." 1. THE Elective Franchise, or right of voting at the election of Members of Parliament, is supposed to have been wholly restored to the Catholics by the Statute of 1793. Let us inquire what is the fact. franchised in In 1727, the Catholics of Ireland were de- CHAP. II. prived of this right, by Act of Parliament. Catholics die It was enacted, "That no Catholic shall be 177 "entitled or admitted to vote at the Election of 66 any member to serve in Parliament as a knight, "citizen, or burgess; or at the Election of any magistrate for any city, or other town 66 "porate; any law, statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding." Thus, the Catholics were stripped of the Elective Franchise-and thus they remained during sixty-six years. 66 1 Geo. 2. eh. Seet, 7. In 1793 it was enacted, in substance, "That Conditionally reinstated in every Catholic should be qualified to vote at 1793. "such Elections, upon his producing to the 33 Geo. 3. c. "returning officer a certificate of his having taken 15, 16. "and subscribed certain oaths and declarations 21. Sect. 7, 14 | of 1797. But, by a subsequent Statute of 1797, termed Election Act the Election Act, it was declared, that Catholics, 47. Sect. 19, who qualify previous to the teste of the writ of Election, shall be deemed to have qualified 37 Geo. 3. c. within the meaning of those Statutes of 1793 and 1797, in order to entitle them to vote at such Elections. Upon these two Statutes a question arose, which for some time, imposed new difficulties upon the Catholic franchise. |