COLONEL* HUTCHINSON'S SPEECH,

ON A BILL INTRODUCED INTO THE IRISH HOUSE OF COMMONS BY SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, FOR REMOVING CERTAIN RESTRAINTS AND DISABILITIES UNDER WHICH HIS MAJESTY'S ROMAN CATHOLICK SUBJECTS LABOUR FROM STATUTES AT PRESENT IN FORCE, FEBRUARY 18TH, 1792.

FEW of his contemporaries are more distinguished by versatility of talents, or the brilliant exertion of them, than the author of the ensuing speech.

Like some of the memorable characters of antiquity, he is capable of leading the arms of his country to victory, or, of controlling the decisions of her senate by the powers of a highly impressive eloquence.

The speech we have selected, displays sufficient proofs of the vivacity of his genius, the liberality of his political principles, and of the ease, the elegance, and the energy of his parliamentary harangues.

MR. CHAIRMAN,

SPEECH, &c.

AS other gentlemen have spoke at large on the principle of this bill, I shall take the liberty of doing the same. This great subject requires unequivocal, and decisive language. I shall speak my sentiments upon it with the utmost submission, but with the utmost firmness. I may value your applause; but I should be unworthy of a seat in this house, if I could fear your censure, when I acted in conformity to the dictates of my judgment, after the best considera

* Now lord Hutchinson, who commanded the English troops in Egypt.

tión I could give an important question. The opinions which on this night I shall mention, I adopted in early youth; my manhood has confirmed them; I am confident they are founded on the immutable principles of truth and reason; I shall therefore never cease to cherish them till I cease to exist.

Unfortunately for this country, those jealousies between Catholicks and Protestants, which every good man hoped were buried in oblivion, are now rising again. I accuse no man either within these walls or without them, but I implore the attention of you all, and trust that this will prove a contest, not of passion, but of reason; not of prejudice but of argument. Fears have been mentioned in this capital, and in this house, of dangers threatening the protestant ascendency; these sentiments have extended themselves to the utmost corners of the island, and have been reverberated back again to us. Relying on the wisdom of this house, and on the moderation of the protestants of Ireland, I do hope that this heated collision between the constituent and the representative body, will never create a flame which may devour and consume this ill fated country. I certainly have to regret that this momentous subject has not been canvassed with that temper which the investigation of truth and fair discussion naturally require; but as I do not feel these apprehensions, and cannot see any danger which could arise to the protestant establishment from the further emancipation of the catholick body, I must beg leave to state my reasons why I am of this opinion, and to answer several objections which have been made to the adoption of such a measure.

I shall vote for the committal of this bill. The only objection that I can have to it is, that it does not go far enough. It embraces four objects. The right of taking apprentices, and of keeping schools, the power of intermarriages, and of being called to the bar. I really thought that a bill so harmless, so innocent, and so innoffensive, a bill which gives so little, and that little so reasonable, might have passed into a law without objection and without debate.

The ingenuity of gentlemen would probably have been at a loss, if the favourite topick of the protestant ascendency had not suggested itself. In this manner of reasoning, I acknowledge there is much philosophy and depth of thought. For the protestant mechanick will assuredly find the protestant ascendency in the monopoly of trade; and the protestant schoolmaster will use his learning to discover this same ascendency in the monopoly of teaching. Beau. ty, honour, virtue, truth, might possibly in the person of a woman and a wife convince a protestant husband, that though a catholick was not to be trusted with power or office, a person of that religion might constitute the joy, the pride, the happiness, the consolation of domestick life. If the law were a profession of less liberality, the protestant barrister might search for this same ascendency, in the depression of the industry and the abilities of his catholick brother. Certainly the preservation of this ascendency is the material object to which every other consideration must be sacrificed; yet still I am not able to devest my mind entirely of the idea, that the general pros perity of the great body of the people is something. Impressed with this opinion, I would wish to annihilate monopoly; because I know that trade droops. I would give every man the benefit that might accrue from his superiour knowledge, and promote learning by competition, because it is with difficulty to be found in this land; it has never taken root, but has languished for want of encouragement; or sought re fuge in foreign and more congenial climates. I would suffer protestants and catholicks to intermarry, because though the offices, the honours the power, the authority of the state ought certainly to be in the hands of the few, yet I have heard and read that it is the union, and not the separation, the agreement, and not the dissension of the many, which must constitute the strength of the nation. I would open the bar to them, because I would wish to call catholick eloquence to the support of protestant liberty. Great is the succour, great is the security, which countries

derive from the possession of men of talents; they are their natural guardians, protectors and defenders; in bad times they shield the people against the encroachments and corruptions of bad governments, or interfere between themselves and their prejudices. I hear with amazement the daily cant that the catholick is not persecuted, because he enjoys his liberty and his property in as much security as the protestant; but in my opinion every disability for religious belief is persecution. It is buzzed in my ear, that every man in this house is as tolerant as I am, and that it is a contest for power not for religion. It matters little to the world whether you change the name of things or not, provided the effect still continues the same. It may be contest for power; but it is founded on religious difference. You may argue round the circle; but I still bring you back to the point of religion. For my part, I have not a mind sufficiently expanded to comprehend the force of this reasoning. I cannot conceive the absolute necessity that protestants should exterminate catholicks, or catholicks protestants. May they not flourish together and divide this their country between them? Deny the position and you blaspheme the common Father of both. I do allow that all these contests were originally contests of power. The reformation was opposed by most of the sovereigns of Europe, who thought it dangerous to their power that their subjects should use the light of their own reason, and that all habits of discussion, were inimical to despotism. The clergy availed themselves of their influence over a laity, ignorant and superstitious, and lighted up the fires of persecution, not because they feared God or hated man, but because they loved power.

It appears at first not a little surprising, that a difference of opinion among divines, whether a text of scripture ought to be construed figuratively or literally, should have created such animosities. The absurdity of such a cause of contest is lost in the immensity of mischief it has done. For think as you please, and say what you will, this is the difference,

the real and substantial difference which has caused that immense separation between the Catholick and Protestant church, which nor time, nor reason, nor philosophy has yet been able to close.

The oppression of catholick governments on their subjects who do not profess the religion of the state, has always been the object of the reprobation of the protestants, and too often of their imitation. England has shared in this disgrace, but you have exceeded all other nations. Your old sanguinary code still remains on your statute book. Inspect it again, if the tear of humanity shall not blot the pages and conceal from your sight the disgrace of your ancestors, and the oppressions and calamities of their fellow subjects, and then if you are inclined for panegyrick and self applause, you may boast of the mercy and long suffering of the protestant religion. But if you have been tolerant I do not know what persecution is. You refuse the catholick toleration for his religion; arms for his personal defence; the right of purchase in the country in which he had been born and bred; and any landed security for his money. When with his industry cramped, his person in danger, and his conscience in fetters, he retired to his house for comfort and relief, what were his feelings, what were his apprehensions? He found that the bloody spirit of your inquisitorial legislation had entered before him. The suspicion which you had created dashed every joy of his life, and embittered every prospect of futurity. In his friend or his servant he saw an informer, in his wife the mother of him who might become his bitterest enemy and despoiler. The usual connexions and gradations of human life were reversed. The parent was made to depend on the child, and not the child on the parent. The fondest parent surveyed with doubt and melancholy the opening talents of his offspring. He knew that if his son should prove valiant or enterprising, his country rejected his services, and that he must either pine at home in inactivity, or live an exile in a foreign country. If he should be wise or eloquent he could not raise his