not wish to circulate the extent of the evil that may be dreaded from the outrages I allude to, if our country shall continue in the hands of foreign empirics and pretenders; but it is clear to a demonstration, that no man can be attached to his king and country, who does not avow the necessity of submitting the control of this political evil to the only competent tribunal-an Irish parliament. The ills of this awful moment are confined to our domestic complaints and calamities. The great enemy of the liberty of the world extends his influence and his power from the Frozen Ocean to the Straits of Gibraltar. He threatens us with invasion from the thousand ports of his vast empire; how is it possible to resist him with an impoverished, divided, and dispirited empire? If, then, you are loyal to your excellent monarch-if you are attached to the last relic of political freedom, can you hesitate to join in endeavoring to procure the remedy for all your calamities—the sure protection against all the threats of your enemy - the repeal of the union? Yes, restore to Irishmen their country, and you may defy the invader's force; give back to Ireland her hardy and brave population, and you have nothing to dread from foreign power. It is useless to detain the meeting longer in detailing the miseries that the union has produced, or in pointing out the necessity that exists for its repeal. I have never met any man who did not deplore this fatal measure, which has despoiled his country; nor do I believe there is a single individual in the island, who could be found even to pretend approbation of that measure. I should be glad to see the face of the man, or rather of the beast, who could dare to say he thought the union wise or good for the being who could say so, must be devoid of all the feelings that distinguish humanity. With the knowledge that such were the sentiments of the universal Irish nation, how does it happen that the union has lasted for ten years? The solution of the question is easy-the union continued only because we despaired of its repeal. Upon this despair alone has it continued. Yet what could be more absurd than such despair? If the Irish sentiment be but once known-if the voice of six millions be raised from Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway— if the men most remarkable for loyalty to their king and attachment to constitutional liberty, will come forward as the leaders of the public voice, the nation would, in one hour, grow too great for the chains that now shackle you, and the union must be repealed without commotion and without difficulty. Let the most timid amongst us compare the present probability of repealing the union, with the prospect that in the year 1795 existed of that measure being ever brought about. Who in 1795 thought a union possible? Pitt dared to attempt it, and he succeeded. It only requires the resolution to attempt its repeal; in fact, it requires only to entertain the hope of repealing it, to make it impossible that the union should continue; but that pleasing hope can never exist, whilst the infernal dissensions on the score of religion are kept up. The Protestant alone could not expect to liberate his country — the Roman Catholic alone could not do it-neither could the Presbyterian; but amalgamate the three into the Irishman, and the union is repealed. Learn discretion from your enemies; they have crushed your country by fomenting religious discord; serve her by abandoning it for ever. Let each man give up his share of the mischief, let each man forsake every feeling of rancor. But I say not this to barter with you, my countrymen, I require no equivalent from you; whatever course you shall take, my mind is fixed. I trample under foot the Catholic claims, if they can interfere with repeal. I abandon all wish for emancipation if it delays the repeal. Nay, were the minister to-morrow to offer me the repeal of the union upon the terms of re-enacting the penal code, I declare from my heart, and in the presence of my God, that I would most cheerfully embrace his offer. Let us then, my beloved countrymen, sacrifice our wicked and groundless animosities on the altar of our country; let that spirit which heretofore emanating from Dungannon spread all over the island, and gave light and liberty to the land, be again cherished amongst us-let us rally round the standard of Old Ireland, and we shall easily procure that greatest of all political blessings, an Irish Sovereign, an Irish House of Lords, and an Irish House of Commons. O'CONNELL. ON MAYNOOTH. THE honorable gentleman opposite talks of bigotry; can anything exceed the bigotry of the petitions which have been presented against the grant to Maynooth college? Can anything be more disgusting than the rancor which overflows in these petitions which the honorable gentleman, with gloating zeal, has introduced into the house? Are the people of Ireland deserving of the aspersions which the honorable gentleman opposite pours against them? are they deserving of those foul calumnies, those abhorrent misrepresentations, in which the honorable gentleman indulges? Oh! if that be his christian faith, let him keep it all to himself; if that be his christian charity, God defend me and mine from becoming its object! Nothing can be more just than the tribute which Lord Morpeth has this evening paid to the Irish nation. Most true is it that of these realms the women of Ireland are of the purest, her men among the most temperate, and all the most religious — none are more regular communicants with their church none more zealous for their religion-none more famed for their practical piety. True, oppression goads its victim on to an act of revenge; but I can with pride, in comparing my country with either England or Scotland, affirm that in Ireland crime is infinitely less in aggregate amount, and infinitely less in individual atrocity, than in either of the other portions of Great Britain. Never was Ireland dishonored by those pecuniary murders—those horrible assassinations, committed merely out of a thirst for gold, which are of such dreadful frequency, and which cast such a foul blot upon the people of England and Scotland. The attempt to raise a cry against such a people as the Irish, is neither wise nor prudent, nor christian-like. Those who oppose Ireland, would do well to mind their own religions more, and that of Ireland less. Let the honorable gentleman opposite occupy himself with studying presbyterianism till he attains the highest light it can afford; and, if this research do not sufficiently engage him, let him turn his attention to protestantism, with which church he also communicates. The honorable member's speech has been called an able one; but it is a slanderous speech- a calumnious speech-a speech replete with foul, envenomed, and unfounded calumnies. Of what church does the honorable member call himself? The idol whom he appears to set up and glorify is John Knox: a certain northern member would thereupon gladly ask him, "But do you belong to any church at all," and I will say to the honorable member, "Have you ordination in yonr church, and do you know who John Knox really was?" Has the honorable member ever read Mr. Tytler's work? That protestant presbyterian historian proves that John Knox was accessory to two murders a notable idol for the honorable gentleman! And yet he dares to talk about the Roman Catholic doctrine inculcating the violation of faith even to protestants! The honorable gentleman's idol, John Knox, indeed, said that no faith was to be kept with catholics; but to assert that Roman catholic doctrines, in any place, or in any manner or degree, inculcated the abominable principle that faith was not to be kept with protestants, is a preposterous and unfounded calumny. It is the doctrine of the Roman catholics that faith is invariably to be kept with everybody; and he violates his faith with God, be he who and what he may, who violates his faith with man. But what was John Knox's first act when he got into power? He procured an act of parliament to put Roman catholics to death as idolaters. And yet the honorable gentleman opposite, who gloirfies John Knox, assailed the Roman catholic priests because, he declares they are intolerant. They are assailed too, because it is said that they inculcate the violation of allegiance to the crown; but who was so open a teacher of rebellion as John Knox? The disciples of such a man must be viewed with pity, guarded with a large share of distrust. I have been compelled by the change which the discussion has taken, to look at the question more than I could have wished in a polemical point of view; but polemics having been introduced by others, I feel that, standing in the presence of that God before whom I may so soon appear, I cannot afford to give up one tittle of the faith which is my consolation and my hope, and which, while I have breath, I will never cease to uphold and to maintain, a faith which -a faith has been the faith of some of the greatest names in history-a faith which, in my firm belief, is fated to endure for all timewhich, to use the eloquent words of a recent publication, “will be found standing when some traveller from New Zealand shall take his stand in the midst of a vast solitude on the broken arches of London bridge, to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." O'CONNELL. ON CHURCH RATES. I CERTAINLY regret that there is not a mode of providing for the repairs of Churches less objectionable than church rates. But it is a very different thing to establish, either by a resolution or any bill brought forward in this House, the principle, or countenance the opinion, though held by several among the dissenters, that the payment of church rates ought to be refused upon the ground of conscience, and the law of the land disobeyed upon the same pretence. I think that this opinion, though held by many respectable persons, is not only incompatible with the existence of an established church, but with the maintenance of the general law of the land; neither is it an opinion countenanced by the early christians. They paid tribute to the Roman emperors, who, as they well knew, in many instances devoted the money to the erection of temples in honor of the heathen gods. The early christians knew well that the most superstitious and abominable rites were often performed in those temples; and yet were told by the highest authority that it was their duty to pay tribute. I cannot understand how it can be a violation of the rights of conscience, to be obliged to pay a sum of money for the support of a worship with which the individual does not agree. I wish to respect all conscientious feelings; but it is absurd to lay down a principle such as that a man would have only to pronounce the word "conscience" to be freed from the payment of legal demands. It has been said that it is unjust to confine a man in a goal when he is guilty of no crime against society, but |