My Lords, late in the year, a considerable town was attacked, in the middle of the night by a body of people who came from the neighbouring mountains—­the town of Augher.  They attacked it with arms, and were driven from it with arms by the inhabitants of the town.  This is a state of things which I feel your Lordships will admit ought not to exist in a civilized country.  Later in the year still, a similar event occurred in Charleville; and, in the course of the last autumn, the Roman Catholic Association deliberated upon the propriety of adopting, and the means of adopting, the measure of ceasing all dealings between Roman Catholics and Protestants.  Is it possible to believe supposing these dealings had ceased, supposing this measure had been carried into execution—­as I firmly believe it was in the power of those who deliberated upon it to carry it into execution—­is it possible to believe that those who would cease those dealings would not likewise have ceased to carry into execution the contracts into which they had entered?  Will any man say that people in this situation are not verging towards that state, in which it would be impossible to expect from them that they would be able to perform the duties of jurymen, or to administer justice between man and man, for the protection of the lives and properties of his Majesty’s subjects?  My Lords, this is the state of society to which I wished to draw your attention, and for which it is necessary that Parliament should provide a remedy.

April 2, 1829.

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Emancipation claimed as the Price of the Union.

I am old enough to remember the rebellion in 1798.  I was not employed in Ireland at the time—­was employed in another part of his Majesty’s dominions; but, my Lords, if I am not mistaken, the Parliament of Ireland, at that time, walked up to my Lord Lieutenant with an unanimous address, beseeching his Excellency to take every means to put down that unnatural rebellion, and promising their full support, in order to carry those measures into execution.  The Lord Lieutenant did take measures, and did succeed in putting down that rebellion.  Well, my Lords, what happened in the very next session?  The Government proposed to put an end to the Parliament, and to form a Legislative Union between the two kingdoms, for the purpose, principally, of proposing this very measure; and, in point of fact, the very first measure that was proposed after this Legislative Union, after those successful endeavours to put down this rebellion, was the very measure with which I am now about to trouble your Lordships.  Is it possible noble Lords can believe that, supposing there was a renewal of the contest to which I have referred—­is it possible noble Lords can believe that such a contest could be carried on without the consent of the other House of Parliament?  I am certain, my Lords, that, when you look at the division of opinion which prevails in both Houses