sons, as anxious for the removal of the disabilities as the Catholics themselves. These members hold their seats on the sole condition of voting for this remo- val, and, therefore, on such a question they can only be regarded as so many Catholics. If we subtract them, we find the majority to be in favour of the disabilities. The opinion of such peo- ple, and of those who supported the bill on the ground of abstract right, is perfectly worthless on a question which ought to be decided solely upon its merits.
It certainly requited prodigious har- dihood to assert, in the face of the pe- titions which were spontaneously pour- ed into Parliament, that the British people were on the side of the Catho- lics. The British people not merely the lower orders but the vast mass of the middle and upper classes, were ne- ver more decidedly hostile to the re- moval of the disabilities, than they are at present ; and they never gave more unanswerable evidence that they were actuated by such hostility, than they have done during the present session of Parliament, The Catholics have lost ground fearfully among the Dis- senters. The Methodists, many of the Baptists, and some of the Presbyte- rians and Independents, petitioned against them ; and in spite of the as- sertions of Mr W. Smith and Mr Brougham, we happen to know that the feeling in favour of the disabilities is very widely entertained among the Presbyterians and Independents. For much of this the Catholics have, no doubt, to thank their connexion with, and the writings of, Cobbett. As to the "apathy" on which so much has been said, we believe it never existed; as far as our personal observation went, it did not exist in London; and from all the information we have been able to. procure, it did not exist in the country. The fact is, every one was prepared to expect, from former experience, and the din which was kept up in the House of Commons in favour of "liberality" and "liberal principles," that the bill would pass this House; but no one believed that it would travel any farther. All felt perfectly confident that it would be rejected by the Peers, and that there was not the least necessity for peti- tioning. In addition to this, the lead- ing Tories of the country were exceed- ingly reluctant to disturb the existing harmony, without absolute necessity. But when it was industriously trum- petted forth that Lord Liverpool had changed his opinion, that the bill would pass the Lords, and that the Crown was even in its favour, the na- tion took the field in a moment. As soon as it was thought that petitions were necessary, Parliament was almost overwhelmed with them. Lord Eldon in the one house, and Mr Peel in the other, distinctly declared that they had not taken any steps to procure a single petition the Bishops declared that they had used no influence to procure petitions the leading opponents of the Catholics were in many places deter- red from calling public meetings, by threats of opposition from the Whigs scarcely any public meetings were held to influence the public mind by inflammatory speeches and by far the greater portion of the press was in fa- vour of the Catholics. The petitions emanated from, and spoke the consci- entious opinion of, the nation at large, to a degree almost unexampled. Our readers have not to be told, that the Upper House did not adopt the opi- nion of the lower one, touching the Ca- tholic relief bill. To this bill the Duke of York, with a boldness and honesty worthy of his high station and charac- ter, gave the first mortal blow. We need not defend him from the flood of slan- der which his excellent speech has drawn upon him ; we need not com- ment on the base and dastardly strokes which have been aimed at him from other quarters than Catholic meetings and newspaper offices. The country is acquainted with his character, and it is equally well acquainted with the character of his calumniator. His Royal Highness has long been one of the most popular men in the nation. He has been popular not with one class or party, but with all. He has been popular, not from courting popularity, but from disregarding it not from shifting, trimming, and conceding, from veering about from creed to creed, and system to system, as fashion might dictate, but from his consistency, his stern integrity, his firm attachment to the maxims of his illustrious father his open and determined adherence to the institutions and old principles of the empire. He has been popular, not from being a liberal man, but from being an honest man. The nation has found in him the heart and conduct of
