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sing, namely, upon him and his household, and his children, to the ninth generation, even the blessing of the promise, for ever and ever!

XLI.

Speech on the Catholic Question.—GRATTAN. WHERE, I ask, where are those Protestant petitions against the Catholic claims, which we were told would by this time have borne down your table? We were told in the confident tone of prophecy, that England would have poured in petitions from all her counties, towns and corporations, against the claims of Ireland. I ask, where are those petitions? Has London, her mighty capital, has the university of Dublin, mocked the calamities of your country, by petitioning in favour of those prejudices that would render us less able to redress them? Have the people of England raised a voice against their Catholic fellow-subjects? No; they have the wisdom to see the folly of robbing the empire, at such a time, of one-fourth of its strength, on account of speculative doctrines of faith. They will not risk a kingdom on account of old men's dreams about the prevalence of the pope. They will not sacrifice an empire because they dislike the sacrifice of the mass.

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I say, then, England is not against us. has put ten thousand signatures upon your table in our favour. And what says the protestant interest in Ireland! Look at their petitionexamine the names-the houses-the families. Look at the list of merchants-of divines. Look, in a word, at protestant Ireland, calling

to you in a warning voice-telling you that if you are resolved to go on, till ruin breaks with a fearful surprise upon your progress, they will go on with you-they must partake your danger, though they will not share your guilt.

Ireland, with her imperial crown, now stands before you. You have taken her parliament from her, and she appears in her own person at your bar. Will you dismiss a kingdom without a hearing? Is this your answer to her zeal, to her faith, to the blood that has so profusely graced your march to victory-to the treasures that have decked your strength in peace. Is her name nothing-her fate indifferent-are her contributions insignificant-her six millions revenue-her ten millions trade-her two millions absentee-her four millions loan? Is such a country not worth a hearing? Will you, can you dismiss her abruptly from your bar? You cannot do it-the instinct of England is against it. We may be outnumbered now and againbut in calculating the amount of the real sentiments of the people-the ciphers that swell the evanescent majorities of an evanescent minister, go for nothing.

Can Ireland forget the memorable era of 1788? Can others forget the munificent hospitality with which she then freely gave to her chosen hope all that she had to give? Can Ireland forget the spontaneous and glowing cordiality with which her favours were then received! Never! never! Irishmen grew justly proud in the consciousness of being subjects of a gracious predilection-a predilection that required no apology, and called for no renunciation—a predilection_that_did equal honour to him who felt it, and to those who were

the objects of it. It laid the grounds of a great and fervent hope-all a nation's wishes crowding to a point, and looking forward to one event, as the GREAT COMING, at which every wound was to be healed, every tear to be wiped away-The hope of that hour beamed with a cheering warmth and a seductive brilliancy. Ireland followed it with all her heart-a leading light through the wilderness, and brighter in its gloom. She followed it over a wide and barren waste it has charmed her through the desert, and now, that it has led her to the confines of light and darkness, now, that she is on the borders of the promised land, is the prospect to be suddenly obscured, and the fair vision of princely faith to vanish for ever!—I will not believe it-I require an act of parliament to vouch its credibility-nay more, I demand a miracle to convince me that it is possible!

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XLII.

Decisive Integrity.*—WIRT.

THE man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, as to be willing to open his bosom to the inspection of the world, is in possession of one of the strongest pillars of a decided character. The course of such a man will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear from the world, and is sure of the approbation and support of heaven. While he, who is

*From Mr Wirt's Address to the Students of Rutgers College.

conscious of secret and dark designs which, if known, would blast him, is perpetually shrinking and dodging from public observation, and is afraid of all around, and much more of all above him.

Such a man may, indeed, pursue his iniquitous plans steadily; he may waste himself to a skeleton in the guilty pursuit; but it is impossible that he can pursue them with the same health-inspiring confidence and exulting alacrity, with him who feels, at every step, that he is in the pursuit of honest ends by honest means. The clear, unclouded brow, the open countenance, the brilliant eye which can look an honest man steadfastly, yet courteously in the face, the healthfully beating heart, and the firm elastic step, belong to him whose bosom is free from guile, and who knows that all his motives and purposes are pure and right. Why should such a man falter in his course? He may be slandered; he may be deserted by the world but he has that within which will keep him erect, and enable him to move onward in his course with his eyes fixed on heaven, which he knows will not desert him.

Let your first step, then, in that discipline which is to give you decision of character, be the heroic determination to be honest men, and to preserve this character through every vicissitude of fortune, and in every relation which connects you with society. I do not use this phrase, honest men," in the narrow sense, inerely, of meeting your pecuniary engagements, and paying your debts; for this the common pride of gentlemen will constrain you to do. I use it in its larger sense of discharging all your duties, both public and private,

both open and secret, with the most scrupulous heaven-attesting integrity in that sense, further, which drives from the bosom all little, dark, crooked, sordid, debasing considerations of self, and substitutes in their place a bolder, loftier and nobler spirit: one that will dispose you to consider yourselves as born, not so much for yourselves, as for your country and your fellow creatures, and which will lead you to act on every occasion sincerely, justly, generously, magnanimously.

There is a morality on a larger scale, perfectly consistent with a just attention to your own affairs, which it would be the height of folly to neglect: a generous expansion, a proud elevation, and conscious greatness of character, which is the best preparation for a decided course, in every situation into which you can be thrown; and, it is to this high and noble tone of character that I would have you to aspire. I would not have you to resemble those weak and meagre streamlets, which lose their direction at every petty impediment that presents itself, and stop, and turn back, and creep around, and search out every little channel through which they may wind their feeble and sickly course. Nor yet would I have you to resemble the headlong torrent that carries havock in its mad career. But I would have you like the ocean, that noblest emblem of majestic decision, which, in the calmest hour, still heaves its resistless might of waters to the shore, filling the heavens, day and night, with the echoes of its sublime declaration of independence, and tossing and sporting, on its bed, with an imperial consciousness of strength that laughs at opposition. It is this depth, and weight, and

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