vereign did me the honour to entrust to my command, at various periods during the war; a war undertaken expressly for the purpose of securing the happy institutions and independance of the country; that at least one half were Roman Catholics. My lords, when I call your recollection to this fact, I am sure all further eulogy is unnecessary. Your lordships are well aware for what length of period, and under what difficult circumstances, they maintained the empire buoyant upon the flood which overwhelmed the thrones, and wrecked the institutions of every other people: how they kept alive the only spark of freedom which was left unextinguished in Europe; and how, by unprecedented efforts, they at length placed us, not only far above danger, but at an elevation of prosperity for which we had hardly dared to hope. These, my lords, are sacred and imperative titles to a nation's gratitude. My lords, it is become quite needless for me to assure you that I have invariably found my Roman Catholic soldiers as patient under privations, as eager for the combat, and as brave and determined in the field, as any other portion of his majesty's troops; and in point of loyalty and devotion to their king and country, I am quite certain they have never been surpassed. I claim no merit in admitting that others might have guided the storm of battle as skilfully as myself. We have only to recur to the annals of our

military achievements to be convinced, that few indeed of our commanders have not known how to direct the unconquerable spirit of their troops, and to shed fresh glories round the British name. But, my lords, while we are free to acknowledge this, we must also confess, that without Catholic blood and Catholic valour, no victory could ever have been obtained; and the first military talents in Europe might have been exerted in vain, at the head of half an army. My lords, if on the eve of any of those hard-fought days on which I have had the honour to command them, I had thus addressed my Roman Catholic troops: "You well know that your country either so suspects your loyalty, or so dislikes your religion, that she has not yet thought proper to admit you amongst the ranks of her free citizens; if, on that account, you deem it an act of injustice on her part to require you to shed your blood in her defence, you are at liberty to withdraw :" I am quite sure, my lords, that however bitter the recollections which it awakened, they would have spurned the alternative with indignation; for the hour of danger and of glory, is the hour in which the gallant, the generous-hearted Irishman, best knows his duty, and is most determined to perform it. But if, my lords, it had been otherwise; if they had chosen to desert the cause in which they were embarked; though the remainder of the troops would undoubtedly have maintained

the honour of the British arms; yet, as I have just said, no efforts of their's could ever have crowned us with victory. Yes, my lords, it is mainly to the Irish Catholic that we all owe our proud pre-eminence in our military career; and that I, personally, am indebted for the laurels with which you have been pleased to decorate my brow-for the honours which you have so bountifully lavished on me— and for the fair fame (I prize it above all other rewards) which my country, in its generous kindness, has bestowed upon me. I cannot but feel, my lords, that you yourselves have been chiefly instrumental in placing this heavy debt of gratitude upon me, greater, perhaps, than has ever fallen to the lot of any individual; and however flattering the circumstance, it often places me in a very painful situation. Whenever I meet (and it is almost an every-day occurrence,) with any of those brave men who, in common with others, are the object of this bill, and who have so often borne me on the tide of victory; when I see them still branded with the imputation of a divided allegiance, and still declared unfit to enter within the pale of the constitution, I feel almost ashamed of the honours which have been lavished upon me: I feel that though the merit was their's, what was so freely given to me, was unjustly denied to them; that I had reaped, though they had sown; that they had borne the heat and burden of the day, but that the

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wages and repose were mine alone. My lords, it is indeed to me a subject of deep regret, that of the many brave officers of the Roman Catholic persuasion, some of whom I have had occasion to bring to the notice of the country, in relating the honourable services they have performed, not one has risen to any eminence in his profession. It is not to be supposed, that either talent or merit is the exclusive privilege of Protestantism: attached as I am to the Reformed Church, I cannot give her that monopoly. No man, my lords, has had more experience to the contrary than myself. Entrusted with the command of two Catholic armies, I soon found that, with similar advantages, they were quite equal to The same hatred of tyranny, the same love of liberty, the same unconquerable spirit, pervaded both the soldier and the peasant of those two Catholic states. I even found amongst them Irishmen, whom the intolerance of our laws had driven to shed the lustre of their talents over a foreign clime.

our own.

It now becomes me, my lords, to speak of the liberality which I experienced from their hands. Notwithstanding that I dissented from the religion of the state, it was never made a preliminary that I should abjure my own creed, and conform to another; (and why should I demand this sacrifice from those who are now only petitioning your lord

h

ships for similar opportunities of serving their country?)-neither my known denial of the doctrines of Transubstantiation, and of the supremacy of the Pope, presented the smallest obstacle to my advancement ;-neither my merit nor my capacity were weighed in the scale of speculative belief in religious tenets:-it was my country, and not my faith, that was my title to approval:-I was an accredited delegate from the British empire, and that was sufficient. I was entrusted with the supreme command of all their forces; I was admitted to their councils; I was called upon for my opinion in the senate; and for the services which I was fortunately enabled to render them, nothing could exceed the prodigality of the reward. The highest honours, the most munificent donations, and perhaps the most splendid presents that ever were bestowed upon a subject, were all showered down upon me, with the most generous profusion. Every succeeding service was met with a fresh eagerness of reward; and, in countries super-eminently Catholic, I was loaded with benefits only equalled by those bestowed upon me by our own Protestant legislature. Indeed, there was not a Catholic state in Europe which was not emulous to overpower me with honourable distinctions, and to place me under an imperative obligation to it. I feel it, therefore, my lords, to be an act of the purest justice, on the one side, and of only reciprocal liberality,