Commons, which has been adopted by the Protestant Association, and have only to add that similar petitions may be sent from the country through the Post-office, free, to any Member of Parliament; if they be left open at the ends, and the word "Petition" be written on the cover; or if this be not advisable, they may be forwarded to the Committee of the Protestant Association, and by them placed, for presentation to the House of Commons, in the hands of some Protestant Member.

PETITION AGAINST MAYNOOTH COLLEGE.

"The Petition of the undersigned inhabitants of

"Humbly showeth,

"That your petitioners, receiving the written Word of God as the only true standard of faith and morals, are convinced by its testimony that the peculiar tenets of the Church of Rome, as defined and settled at the Council of Trent, are anti-christian, idolatrous, anti-social, and utterly incapable of being reconciled with the genuine doctrines of the Gospel.

"That those heresies have been solemnly repudiated by this country for many generations, during which the blessing of Almighty God has descended upon the Government in a marked and unprecedented

manner.

"That your petitioners, therefore, deeply lament that a College for the instruction of a Popish priesthood has been established, and is now supported, at Maynooth, in Ireland, by grants from the public treasury; and they fear that this measure, being a participation in the guilt of idolatry, and an open apostacy from the principles of our Protestant Constitution, is calculated to draw down Divine judgments

on the nation.

"Your petitioners would further remind your Honourable House that it has been proved, by the most satisfactory information given in evidence before both Houses of Parliament, and a Royal Commission appointed to investigate the state of Irish education, as well as by the uniform testimony of actual experience, that the objects contemplated by those statesmen who recommended the establishment of the College have in no respect been attained; but that, on the contrary, that Institution has proved the chief source of seditious turbulence, as well as of superstitious delusion and religious discord in Ireland.

"Your petitioners, therefore, on every ground of principle, policy, and consistency, humbly pray your Honourable House to withdraw every kind of public support from the Popish College of Maynooth. "And your petitioners, &c."

Macintosh, Printer, 20, Great New Street, London.

SPEECH

OF

MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, Esq. M.P.

FOR NEWARK,

IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

ON TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 1829,

AT THE SECOND READING OF

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL.

Reprinted.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION: AND SOLD BY NISBET, BERNERS-STREET; SEELEYS, FLEET-STREET; HATCHARDS; RIVINGTONS; DALTON; SHAW; FORBES & JACKSON; BAISLER, OXFORD-STREET;

AND MAY BE OBTAINED OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.

No. XX.

M DCCC XXXIX.

[Price 3d. or 20s. per 100.

Mr. M.T. SADLER, of Leeds, the author of "The Law of Population," and "Ireland: its Evils and their Remedies," became a Candidate for Newark on the retirement of Sir William Clinton, in February, 1829, and having declared in his address that he appeared "as an humble, but determined advocate of that sacred cause so justly dear to us— Protestant ascendancy," he was elected on March 6, by a majority of 214 over his opponent, Mr. Sergeant Wilde, the numbers beingMr. M. T. Sadler, 801; for Mr. Sergeant Wilde, 587.

However unwilling the Committee of the PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION are to cause offence to those amongst whom are now to be found some of the warmest advocates of Protestantism, they have not felt themselves at liberty to omit any portion of Mr. Sadler's Speech.

OF

MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, ESQ., M.P., &c. &c.

I RISE to address this House, labouring under feelings which would on any occasion be most embarrassing, but which are now painfully heightened by a sense of the unequalled importance of the subject to which I venture to address myself, and by all the circumstances with which it is connected: a consideration of these may, I apprehend, incapacitate me from addressing you at all. I must, however, attempt it. The cause which demands, at this moment, all the efforts of the true friends of the existing Constitution, shall have mine, however humble, and at every sacrifice. I am willing, therefore, to expose myself in its service, though both diffidence and pride equally prompt me to be silent. I add my humble vote to that faithful band who have resigned the countenance of those whom they have hitherto respected so deeply, and to whom they have adhered so faithfully; who have surrendered, in the language of many, all pretensions to a share of common sense or of general information; who submit to be branded as a lessening class of intolerants and bigots, from which the Ministers themselves have just happily escaped; and, what is still more painful to generous minds, who are ranked amongst those that are as devoid of true liberality and benevolence, as they are of reason and intelligence. Short as has been the time in which I have had the honour of a seat in this House, I have been here long enough to perceive the spirit by which a part of it, and unhappily too large a one, is actuated ; and I am prepared to share in this treatment. The spirit of Popery, when dominant (I beg pardon for any thing so obsolete and illiberal as an allusion to history), dragged the objects of its resentment to the stake its spirit still survives; its advocates at this moment would willingly inflict on its conscientious opponents a martyrdom still more grievous to generous minds, in aiming at the moral and intellectual character and attainments of those whom they mark out as their victims. All these things, however, move us not; in a cause like that of the Protestant Constitution of England, now placed for the first time since its existence in a situation of imminent peril, a humble part in its triumph would indeed give me a share of that immeasurable joy which its rescue would diffuse throughout the nation; but to be numbered as

one of those, who, faithful to the end, made a last though ineffectual struggle in its defence, will afford a melancholy satisfaction which I would not exchange for all the pride, and power, and honours which may await a contrary course.

Bear with me, Sir, in thus expressing my feelings; they are those of the vast mass of the British people-not a besotted, ignorant, bigoted people, as some describe their countrymen to be; but of an intelligent, a well principled, and a religious people, the people of England—men who, intellectually, are as competent to entertain this question as those who attempt to stultify them; and who, morally speaking, are far better qualified to decide upon it than those who malign them, inasmuch as they bring to it the lights of common sense-what has lately become a rare virtue, disinterested principle, and, above all, religious feeling (loud cheers)—and who, moreover, are far more removed from that bitterness and intolerance in discussing it than those who are perpetually accusing them of being so actuated. It is these views and feelings, Sir, which I would rather present to this House than weary it with any long and laboured arguments on the general question. But, before I attempt to do either, let me attend for a moment to what is made the apology for this fearful inroad on the Constitution, namely, the condition of Ireland. This, Sir, I have heard stated again and again, as the sole reason for the meditated change; and it has been asked, as in a tone of triumph, what other remedy can be proposed? I deny, Sir, that the proposition is a remedy; I deny that the reason is substantial. Protestant Ascendancy the source of the disorders of Ireland! Why, Sir, any man who knows any thing of the history of that unhappy country-and I speak in the hearing of many who will correct me if I err-must be well aware that the state of things now sought to be remedied, and the turbulence and the misery which it occasions, existed, and in a still greater degree, and produced far more lamentable consequences, before the Reformation than at present, when consequently there was only one religion in the country. Need I go over its history, reign by reign, in proof of this? No! the fact is too notorious to admit contradiction. Again, if it should be said that the causes of discontent are now changed, I still deny the assertion; and in so doing, I appeal to the authority of a late Right Honourable Secretary for Ireland, one who, though no longer in his Majesty's Government, is friendly to the measure now before us; who, in a speech delivered in this House, and afterwards deliberately given to the public, said, immediately after a recent and sanguinary disturbance there, that "all the commotions, which for the last sixty years have tormented and desolated Ireland, have sprung"-From what? From Protestantism, or Protestant Ascendancy? No;" immediately from local oppression."

Sir, the mischief regarding Ireland is this: Ireland, as it respects its connexion with England, was a conquered country-that was her misfortune; but it has been our crime that she has continued to be treated as such. Her lands have been given away, from time to time, to strangers, on condition that they should reside in the country, and support the Protestant religion-and they have deserted both: absentees,