1 the reform of the Criminal Law, last year, he alluded to this subject, and it is from his speech and other Parliamentary papers that I shall take my proofs, for -the present. It appears that in 1812 the number of committals amounted to no less than 6576; an immense number, when we consider what a large proportion of offenders are admitted to bail. However as Captain Gordon and his associates had not then commenced their devout operations for the reformation of the world, we must make all due allowances for the imperfections of your uninstructed countrymen. The work of evangelization then commenced with extraordinary ardour, and continued with increasing zeal and, no doubt, usefulness, from year to year, up to the last year, and we shall see its beneficial fruits in 1825. We have seen that in 1812, the committals in England and Wales amounted to 6576 persons, whereas, in 1825, in consequence of the evangelical labours of Captain Gordon, Lord Bexley, and others, they amounted only to 14,437 !!—(Loud cheers and laughter.) Poor Popery had nothing to say to that enormous change. Oh, no, the Evangelizers had the ground all to themselves they were the tillers and the reapers, and behold their fruit-the number of committals more than doubled!! What says The Courier to that? Hear, hear.) But, perhaps, it would be pretended that this was a solitary instance of one year, We shall see how that is-by taking a period comprising several years. In the seven years preceding 1815, the committals amounted to 47,522. Well, the Evangelizers went then to work with all manner of schemes for reformation, and what was the result? Why this: that in the seven years preceding 1825, the committals amounted to 93,282 !!!—(Hear, hear.) What says The Courier to that? I would thank the Journalist, with the aid of Gordon's intellect and accomplishments, to inform me what had Popery to do with that increase, and to say whether any or all of the Catholic countries of Europe could furnish such a specimen of the increase or the extent of crime, apart from political subjects? Again, it may be said that this is not a fair criterion, inasmuch as the Magistrates are too prone to unjust committals. Well, let us see how the facts stand as to convictions, and confine ourselves to the capital convictions for the same periods. The capital convictions for the seven years preceding 1815 amounted to 4,126!! Yes, in seven short years, 4,126 of our fellow-subjects, in England and Wales, were consigned to ignominious death for criminal offences, without any civil commotion having led to the condemnation of a single individual of that appalling number. Then the Evangelizers took the morals and religion of the country into their holy keeping, and behold the result. In the seven years preceding 1825, the capital convictions in England and Wales amounted to eight thousand, two hundred and forty-four!! My Lord, my Lord, this is indeed an awful statement; no triumph in contrast, no success in proof, no defeat of our opponents in argument, can take precedence over the frightful reflections that such a statement suggests-8244 capitally convicted in England and Wales within seven years! Why, my Lord, nations have struggled for freedom, and despots for dominion, without incurring such a sacrifice of human life! (Hear; hear). But I am anxious to pass by the odious subject which has been thus forced upon our consideration by The Courier and its ally Mr. Gordon, and I shall notice only one fact more. Of all the crimes in the calendar, none proves so much the anti-social character of the guilty party as the crime of theft. It is not committed in indulgence of any political feeling, or any passion, not even of revenge, but indicates, except in very few cases, the disregard of moral and social principles. Yet we find, that in the latter period there were convicted of that single crime not less than 43,000! and all that, not only without the aid of Popery, but at the very time when all the Gordons and others were in full cry throughout the same England and Wales against the abominations of our creed. (Cheers.) If I were disposed to pursue this contrast, I could ask-Was Bellingham an Irish Catholic? Was Thurtell an Irish Catholic? Was Fauntleroy an Irish Catholic? Was the Bishop of Clogher an Irish Catholic? But no, I shall abandon the invidious topic with the hope that those who have led me to the discussion, will not provoke me to return to it. As to the education of our people, it appears by all the attestations of public officers, that they are better educated than the peasantry of England; and really, it is too much for Captain Gordon to set himself up as a teacher, for I recollect he once favoured me with a thesis upon Transubstantiation, and I offered to yield the whole question to him, if he could spell the word!!(Loud laughter.) Yes, and I would now feel no difficulty in repeating the offer.-(Continued laughter.) So much for Captain Gordon. Now as to Mr. Ivimey and his notions of Popery, being a "long lie and a short lie," and so forth, it really is not worthy of much commentary; and I shall only say, that his description of Popery reminds me of poor Betty's description of "true love," in the little story of Ickleton fair. She sings "True love's hot, and true love's cold, And true love's like no other thing, To live in love and die in sin.”—(Loud laughter.) Just so is Popery with Mr. Ivimey; it is "hot" and "cold," and "like no other thing;" and above all, it" makes many a lass and lad to die in sin, without the comfort even of living in love."-(Laughter.) All this would be very ludicrous, if we did not find many individuals of rank and station connected with these abominable societies, and their agents. I may be allowed to express a hope that some of those individuals will withdraw their names from the official lists of their patrons, and by a just direction of the public funds, prevent their being made participators of the evil deeds of those societies, and of the public disgust and execration which they endure in every quarter of Ireland.-(Cheers). Notwithstanding the determination to abstain from urging our political claims, I cannot suppose that it is expected we should endure every calumny without complaint; and I therefore most cordially approve the resolution recommending a spirited opposition to all such unjust imputations and reproaches as are every day poured out upon us. The most fastidious of our friends cannot be so unreasonable as to expect that we would submit to such false charges without remonstrance. Patience is very good, no doubt; but it must be reasonable. What! be patient till your enemies shall have established their dominion over you? Be patient till the public feeling be prostrate and extinct! Be patient till the Orangemen, Military, Police, Magistrates, and all shall have broken the heart of the people! Nor is this all. While we are to be thus patient, calumny is to be put forth without control against us, and that, too, under the ostensible sanction of authority! I allude to a slanderous, and, indeed, outrageous attack upon Mr. O'Connell in The Courier of last Wednesday.-(Cheers.) The Dub. lin Register had stated, that it had some authority for saying, that Mr. O'Connell was to have a patent of precedence, which, by the by, in common justice, he should have had more than ten years ago. After all, the gift would relieve others as much as it would serve him; and when we consider that its effect would be only to lessen the injury done by placing others over his head in the pursuit of private business, apart altogether from any political considerations, the gift would not have been a very great effort of generosity. Yet, not satisfied with contradicting the statement, this organ of authority, and ostensibly and avowedly speaking the language of authority, enters upon a most false and furious tirade against Mr. O'Connell, mixing up rebel, sedition, and so forth, most unsparingly, although that Gentleman had been received by the King himself at his levees in Dublin and London, and by the late Duke of York, at the special desire of his Royal Highness. But the truth is, that the real cause of resentment against Mr. O'Connell is not that he was seditious and rebellious, but because he was neither the one nor the other; because, in fact, his advice and influence contributed so effectually to preserve the peace, and to control the burning discontent of our peasantry, whose feelings had been excited to the greatest excess by the conduct of those who enjoy the patronage of The Courier. If Mr. O'Connell had furnished them with excuses and opportunities of playing the old game of confiscation over again in Ireland, we should hear none of these complaints; for, my Lord, believe me, it is not a second Reformation, but a fourth confiscation, that our pious Missionaries sigh after.--(Loud and continued cheers). I have sometimes differed from Mr. O'Connell in his estimate of measures and of men, and his comments upon them, and no others knew better than ourselves the extent of our difference; but, I should not do Justice to my own feelings, or to the feelings of those who place me here, were I to hesitate in pronouncing this aggression as a foul and atrocious calumny. I know Mr. O'Counell as well as any other person knows him; I have often enjoyed his confidence; and in the language of most strict sincerity, I can pronounce the imputations as grossly unfounded.-(Loud and continued cheers).— If Mr. O'Connell has not, on every occasion, done as my judgment would suggest or approve, I am not, nevertheless, to forget his many, many services to my country; he has been the rallying point for her struggles for more than twenty years, and often, to my own personal knowledge, he has been the principal, perhaps I might say the only individual to control her passions, or to rouse her almost broken spirit. For this he has been rewarded by the general, and, I might almost add, the individual gratitude of his fellow sufferers; and, therefore, in their name, and on their behalf as on my own, I repeat the denunciation of this atrocious libel. I trust this language" from authority" is not an indication of the spirit of those now in authority; but I am compelled to add, that having looked into all the other points supposed to be in any way connected with Government, I have not met a single mitigating reference to the: subject. But I shall not trust myself to further observation upon this topic. There is but one other subject to which I would allude-namely, the necessity of encreasing your exertions towards extending accurate information among your fellow-subjects, who, I must say, stand much in need of it. Having lately visited Yorkshire, I had many opportunities of knowing the truth of this position, and the good results of any efforts to extend accurate knowledge of your civil and religious principles. I am bound to say that, personally, I experienced nothing but kindness and courtesy, and therefore do not mean to offend, when I declare the necessity of your making such exertions. I will furnish one instance of the ignorance of the peasantry: As 1 travelled up Strutton Brow, towards the top of Ambleton Hill, I met a peasant, named Lumley, who went with us to point out the several objects from that delightful spot, called "The White Mare." He talked of Rievaulx Abbey, one of the monuments of Popish barbarism, of which there is just enough still left to shew the taste of its founders, and enough destroyed to prove the taste of their persecutors.→→ (Cheers.) He stated that the Abbey (the ruins of which were about four miles distant from us) had been inhabited by "Papishes." I asked what they were? He replied, that they were a sort of folk that he had not liking for-that they wanted dominion over Protestants. I asked him why he thought so, but he could give no answer whatever to that question. I asked him if there were any Papishes then in the country? he said there are some at Ampleforth College, about five miles distant that they came sometimes to the Hill, sixty or eighty at a time, and took out his two gavelocks (iron crow bars), and brought them to the top of the Hill, and then gathered round the gavelocks; that they said something of a catechism-like in their own language, which Protestants could not understand, and then they all worshipped the gavelocks.-(Loud laughter). I asked, did he perceive any change in the gavelocks after they were worshipped? He said he did not think any better of it, and I am quite certain he believed every word he said. On the next day, I visited Ampleforth College (a place worthy of the esteem of every admirer of liberal education, religious pùrity, and genuine hospitality), and I inquired as to this gavelock worshipping branch of the new Reformation-(loud laughter)—when I obtained this solution of the awful mystery-that some of the young Lords sometimes rolled large stones down the Hill for their amusement, and borrowed poor Lumley's gavelocks to aid in these idolatrous practices (Laughter). Such things are very Judicrous, but consider whether they are not also very pernicious, for what opinion can a peasantry who believe such things entertain of those whom they consider capable of such worship?-(Hear, hear). It is to be lamented that the contributions to your funds are not more liberal; and an intelligent Dissenter observed to me that the Catholics had not such just cause to blame either Protestant Churchmen or Dissenters, as some of their own body, who took no pains to remove the unjust prejudices against them. He recounted the names of some Catholics, having possessions in two Northern counties to the amount of some hundred thousand pounds a year, and who scarcely contributed a shilling to your funds, at the same time that they would be very much dissatisfied with any Protestant member of Parliament who would decline attending to vote for us on account of the expense that would attend his journey from the extremity of Scotland or Ireland. We must rather make some exertions ourselves, if we really expect to succeed; and it is not more our duty as Catholics, than as loyal subjects, to aid in the diffusion of truth and the correction of error as to our principles. For all these errors lead to jealousies, criminations, and retaliations, that produce great discontent among the injured, and a spirit of hatred among other classes of our fellow subjects. Mr. M'Donnell thanked the meeting for their indulgent hearing, and was warmly cheered as he concluded. WE perceive the Dissenters are bestirring themselves vigorously, in several parts of the country, to escape contributing any thing towards the expense of the new Churches. The following extract from a letter in The Leeds Mercury will shew the grounds on which they resist the claim : "I hope I am not unwilling to pay my proportion of every charge that comes fairly upon the public; and, being a Dissenter, I do much more than this, for I pay my share towards the maintenance of a clergy whom I never hear, and of a church which I never enter. I am far from acknowledging the justice of being called upon to do this; I contribute to support my own minister, and to bear all the expenses of my own place of worship; nor can I admit the fairness of my paying double, in order that my church-going neighbour may pay only half. Yet I have always quietly submitted to what I cannot but deem an imposition, because I had rather give my money than have my goods restrained. But I find that, whereas I have hitherto paid to the maintenance of one church, I am now and henceforth to be called upon to pay for four churches; and this seems to me so unjust, so shameful a proposition, that I will never, either on my own part or on that of my fellow townsmen, submit to it, until I have used every possible effort to avert the burden. I hope ever to live in charity with my church-going townsmen, but it would be the weakness of a child to suffer myself to be duped into an acquiescence in so ridiculous an imposition. Somebody-I know not who-has thought it proper that three new churches should be built in Leeds and the neighbourhood. Let it be admitted (though I doubt it) that these churches were necessary; let it be supposed (though I understand it is not the case) that they are now tolerably well filled; what, in the name of common sense, is all this me? I was never consulted about the building; I have never heard service in them since built; I have neither interest in them, nor profit from them. Yet, though I am thus uninformed and uninterested, I have been obliged to pay as much towards the erection as those who attend them; I have paid my share of more than thirty thousand pounds towards building them, though I dare say no one who goes there ever paid sixpence towards the support of my minister. All this I have paid, because I could not help it; but can any one, with the slightest portion of justice, or conscience, or decency, require that the whole town shall be taxed to pay for furnishing and upholding all these churches for ever ?" Andrews, Printer, 3, Chapterhouse court, St. Paul's, London. CATHOLIC PETITION. PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, HALIFAX, ON MONDAY, FEBY. 26TH, 1827. It being the order of the day that the Roman Catholic Petition should be taken into consideration, that document was read, and is as follows: "To the Honourable the HouSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, in General Assembly convened. "WE, his Majesty's faithful subjects, professing the Roman Catholic Religion, beg leave to approach your Hon. House with the unfeigned assurances of respect and gratitude. 66 It would indicate an insensibility to the feelings of our nature, if we failed to express our heartfelt acknowledgments to your Hon. House, for its suppression of those penalties once recited by law on the practice of our faith. The claims of your Hon. House on your Petitioners, derive additional strength from the incident, that they have arisen out of the sole agency of your own dispositions, unprompted by any solicitations from us, our silence then has been productive of a two-fold utility; it has given room for the uninstigated generosity of your Hon. House to disclose itself, and it attracts upon this Petition all that notice which is due to a first claim; while your Hon. House possessed the power, we felt confident of its exercise to our own benefit, and we never appeared to petition for what was conceded without request; but now that your authority as regards us is exhausted, we solicit your intercession, where we can no longer profit by your power. "The grounds of our present complaints are created by the exaction of the oaths now used as tests of eligibility to various preferments and offices in the province. These contain a misrecital of our own |