business; they were absolutely annihilated, had had no more agency
in the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's
eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know
of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the
Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the
commerce of Ireland has doubled--there are four Catholics at work
for one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one
Episcopalian. Of course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears
to Protestant wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the
Catholics. I have already told you what their purchases of land
were the last year: since that period I have been at some pains to
find out the actual state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible
upon such a subject to arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good
reason to believe that there are at present 2,000 Catholics in
Ireland, possessing an income of 500 pounds and upwards, many of
these with incomes of one, two, three, and four thousand, and some
amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per annum:- and this is the
kingdom, and these the people, for whose conciliation we are to wait
Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury why! As for me, I never
think of the situation of Ireland without feeling the same necessity
for immediate interference as I should do if I saw blood flowing
from a great artery. I rush towards it with the instinctive
rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and have no other
feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no more.

I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the
loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last
ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry
in the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch
used ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the