not obliged to take the oath of supremacy.  But by this bill they will be required to take the oath of allegiance, in which a great part of the oath of supremacy is included—­namely, that part which refers to the jurisdiction of foreign potentates; and, I must say, that the church, if in danger, is better secured by the bill than it was previous to the 30th of Charles II.  The object for which that act was recognised at the period of the Revolution—­namely, to keep out the house of Stuart from the throne—­has long ceased to exist, by the extinction of that family.  It is the opinion of nearly every considerable man in the country (of nearly all those who are competent to form a judgment on the question), that the time has now arrived for repealing these laws.  Circumstances have been gradually tending towards their repeal since the extinction of the house of Stuart; and at last the period has come, when it is quite clear that the repeal can be no longer delayed with safety to the state.

April 2, 1829.

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State of Ireland, a Reason for Emancipation.

I know that, by some, it has been considered that the state of Ireland has nothing to do with this question—­that it is a subject which ought to be left entirely out of our consideration.  My Lords, they tell us that Ireland has been disturbed for the last thirty years—­that to such disturbance we have been accustomed—­and that it does not at all alter the circumstances of the case, as they have hitherto appeared.  My Lords, it is perfectly true that Ireland has been disturbed during the long period I have stated, but within the last year or two, there have been circumstances of particular aggravation.  Political circumstances have, in a considerable degree, occasioned that aggravation; but, besides this, my Lords, I must say, although I have no positive legal proof of the fact, that I have every reason to believe that there has been a considerable organization of the people for the purpose of mischief.  My Lords, this organization is, it appears to me, to be proved, not only by the declarations of those who formed, and who arranged it, but likewise by the effects which it has produced in the election of churchwardens throughout the country; in the circumstances attending the election for the county of Clare, and that preceded and followed that election; in the proceedings of a gentleman who went at the head of a body of men to the north of Ireland; in the simultaneous proceedings of various bodies of men in the south of Ireland, in Templemore, in Kilenaule, Cahir, Clonmel, and other places; in the proceedings of another gentleman in the King’s county; and in the recall of the former gentleman from the north of Ireland by the Roman Catholic Association.  In all these circumstances it is quite obvious to me, that there was an organization and direction by some superior authority.  This organization has certainly produced a state of society in Ireland which we have not heretofore witnessed, and an aggravation of all the evils which before afflicted that unfortunate country.