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16 a sterling Englishman of the old school, and it has revered him accordingly. He is now more popular than ever. Great expectations rested upon the Bishop of Chester, and they were re- alized. His eloquent and powerful speech has gained him his due place in the estimation of his country. For- tunate it is for the Church of England that she has gained a prelate like him in these her days of danger. Those who, like us, look beyond public cha- racter, will find some satisfaction in being told that he bears the highest character as a man and as a minister, in the parish in London which has been under his care. The sound and ex- cellent speech of Lord Longford de- serves notice. The venerable Lord Chancellor closed the debate in a man- ner worthy of his commanding talents and virtues ; upon him the confidence of the nation mainly rested, and he proved that he deserved it. We mention the Earl of Liverpool last, not to give him the lowest place in our panegyric. He was, on this oc- casion, again himself. His speech was exactly what might have been expect- ed from a man of his powerful under- standing and great experience and re- putation from the Prime Minister of England from the Head of that Mi- nistry which had conducted the country through unexampled difficulties and dangers, to unexampled glory and pros- perity. He did not tamper with the innocuous extremities of the question, but he grasped it by the vitals ; he did not whimper and whine, and sing eu- logies over the creature he meant to destroy, but he treated it with the firm hostility of a manly enemy. He laid his hand at once upon the foul ulcers of the Catholic church, and pinched them until she shrieked out in agony. No speech has been abused like that of Lord Liverpool, and this proves de- cisively that no speech has told so tre- mendously against the demerits of Ca- tholicism as that of Lord Liverpool, This speech has been shuddered at, and snarled at, and wept over ; the Catholics have railed against it, the newspapers have -lavished on it their choicest Billingsgate, the House of Commons have sat upon it, Mr Can- ning himself has tried his hand at its refutation, and yet it remains unin- jured, unanswered, and unanswerable. It will yield prodigious benefit to the country; it will fix the eyes of the na- tion where they ought to be fixed, upon the real merits of the Catholic Question upon the effects of the pre- sent system of the Catholic church upon society. This speech has been called an in- temperate one ; it is a sufficient refu- tation of this, that no one has ven- tured to cite avy portions of it to prove its intemperance. Lord Liverpool kept aloof from personalities and matters purely theological ; he was called upon to say whether there was anything in the system and conduct of the Catholic church to justify the exclusion of its members from Parliament and the Mi- nistry, and he pointed out that in both, in a temperate but firm manner, which, in his judgment, justified such exclu- sion. It has been said, that he pla- ced before the Catholics the alternative of conversion or perpetual subjection to the disabilities. He did no such thing; he only, in effect, called for such an alteration in the laws and con- duct of the Catholic church, as would harmonize it with the constitution and laws of the empire. The calumnies which have been cast upon this most virtuous man, and most upright and able Minister, have only done him ser- vice. He now occupies that place irr the affections of his country which might even content the most unscru-. pulous worshipper of popularity. His Majesty was placed by this ques- tion, and the conduct of the Catholics and their advocates, in the most deli- cate, difficult, and trying situation ima- ginable; his conduct displayed con- summate temper and prudence, and it is duly appreciated by the nation. Whether the Peers did wisely, or unwisely, in rejecting the bill, is a question which we are not called upon to discuss. Our opinion touching this matter is known to our readers. But there is a question on which we must say something, and this is Can any- thing whatsoever be found to justify the present words and conduct of the Catholics, and their parliamentary and other advocates ? We have already said, that however the question of right and expediency may be -however just or unjust the disabilities may be there is but one tribunal that can, and that ought to, remove these disabilities. Before this tribunal the Catholics have appeared their case h^s been fully investigated they have had a fair trial all. the 3