It might naturally be supposed that, when the Lord Lieutenant found that he could not give protection to his Majesty’s subjects even when he had the association act, it would, at least, have been continued.  No such thing.  When Parliament reassembled, the question was again put by one of the noble Lords near me, whether it was intended to propose a renewal of that act; and the answer was, that the noble Lord at the head of the Irish government thought that he would tranquillize the country without having recourse to extraordinary measures.  From that day to this there has been no security to property—­no security for person; there has been no enjoyment of peace or tranquillity in Ireland.  That is the state in which it has continued from that time to the present.  Now, my noble friend stated most truly that this is the result of a conspiracy; I say the same; and before I sit down, I will prove that it is a conspiracy, and nothing but a conspiracy, which tends to deprive a large class of his Majesty’s subjects of their property,—­which renders their lives insecure,—­a conspiracy which tends to the overthrow of all government, if they do not adopt some measure to put it down.  On this ground alone I address your Lordships; I wish to warn the people and the government of the real nature of that which exists in that part of the United Kingdom.  We have heard of an attempt, which was lately made by a clergyman, to avail himself of a sale under a distress, for the purpose of obtaining payment of a part of what was his due.  A body of troops were assembled, by direction of the magistrates, for the purpose of protecting the sale.  It appears, from an account of a nature usually tolerably accurate, that, on the first day appointed for the sale, an assemblage of 20,000 people collected together; on the second day the number was 50,000; and on the third it amounted to 100,000.  I will take an unit from each of these numbers, and even then I defy any man to shew me how that body could have been assembled but by a conspiracy.  Who led them there?  My Lords, the Priests.  I have seen a letter from an officer who commanded one of the bodies of troops employed on the occasion, in which such is stated to be the fact.

When, my Lords, I know that that conspiracy exists, and that it goes to prevent a large proportion of his Majesty’s subjects from enjoying their property—­when I know that the same conspiracy may be applied to any other description of property—­to any man’s life, to his house, to his honour, or to anything else that is most dear to man, I do say, it becomes the noble Earl at the head of his Majesty’s Government to adopt some measures, in order to do that which Government can do, to get the better of that conspiracy.  It must not be said that, under the British Constitution, there is no power to prevent such a conspiracy:  I say, there is a power, and that power resides in Parliament, which can give the Government, under this best of all Constitutions, the means which shall at