GRATTAN. 267 large, unowned by one country, and unelected by the other, suspended between both, false to both, and belong ing to neither. The sagacious British secretary of state had remarked, how great would be the advantage to the talents of Ireland, to have this opportunity in the British empire thus opened 1 that was what they dreaded: that the market of St. Stephen would be opened to the indivi dual, and the talents of the country, like i t s property, drafted from the kingdom o f Ireland t o b e sold i n Lon don. These men, from their situation (man was the child o f situation), though their native honour might struggle, would b e adventurers o f a most expensive kind, ad venturers with pretensions, dressed and sold, a s i t were, i n the shrouds and grave-clothes o f the Irish parliament, and playing for hire their tricks o n her tomb, the only repository the minister would allow t o a n Irish constitu tion; the images o f degradation and the representatives o f nothing. “He then noticed the bribes offered b y Mr. Pitt. To the protestant church perpetual security was promised; but a measure that would annihilate the parliament b y which that church was upholden, and disfranchise the people who supported that establishment, would rather tend, h e said, t o i t s disgrace and ruin. To the catholic clergy salaries were promised. Those who had been strongly accused o f disloyalty were t o b e rewarded for imputed treasons against the king, i f they would commit real treasons against the people. Salaries, h e allowed, might reasonably b e given t o those sectaries for the exercise o f religious duty; but h e could not approve the grant o f wages for political apostacy. According t o this plan, the catholic religion would seem t o disqualify i t s followers from receiving the blessings o f the constitution, while their hostility t o that constitution qualified them t o receive a salary for the exercise o f their religion, which would thus b e a t once punished b y civil disability and encouraged b y ecclesiastical provision: a s good catholics they would b e disqualified, and, a s bad citizens, would b e rewarded.
