Thomas Chandler Haliburton. slightest pretension for continuing restric tions; for if the whole house and all the council were Catholics, it would be impossi ble to alter the constitution — the governor was appointed by the King, and not by the people, and no act could pass without his consent. What was the reason that Protes tants and Catholics in this country mingled in the same social circle and lived in such per fect harmony? How was it that the Catho lic mourned his Protestant friend in death, whom he had loved in life — put his hand to the bier — followed his mortal remains to their last abode and mingled his tears with the dust that covered him, while in Great Britain there was evident hostility of feeling, and the cause must be sought in something beyond the mere difference of religion? Th estate of Ireland afforded a most melancholy spectacle : the Catholic, while he was bound in duty — while he was led by inclination, to support his priest, was compelled by law to pay tithes to the Prot estant rector; there were churches without congregations —pastors without flocks, and bishops with immense revenues without any duty to perform; they must be something more or less than men to bear all this un moved — they felt and they murmured; while on the other hand the Protestants kept up an incessant clamor against them that they were a bad people. The property of the Catholic church had passed into the hands of the Protestant clergy — the glebes — the tithes — the domains of the mon asteries — who could behold those monaster ies, still venerable in their ruins, without re gret? The abodes of science — of charity, and hospitality, where the way-worn pilgrim and the weary traveler reposed their limbs and partook of the hospitable cheer; where the poor received their daily food, and in the gratitude of their hearts implored bless ings on the good and pious men who fed them; where learning held its court, and science waved its torch amid the gloom of barbarity and ignorance.
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"Allow me, Mr. Speaker, to stray, as I have often done in years gone by, for hours and for days amidst those ruins, and tell me (for you, too, have paused to view the des olate scene), did you not, as you passed through those tesselated courts and grassgrown pavements, catch the faint sounds of the slow and solemn march of the holy pro cession? Did you not seem to hear the evening chime fling its soft and melancholy music o'er the still sequestered vale, or hear the seraph choir pour its full tide of song through the long protracted aisle, or along the high and arched roof? Did not the mouldering column — the gothic arch — the riven wall and the ivied turret, while they drew the unbidden sigh at the work of the spoiler, claim the tribute of a tear to the memory of the great and good men who founded them? "It is said that Catholics were unfriendly to civil liberty; but that, like many other aspersions cast upon them, was false. Who created Magna Charta? Who established judges, trial by jury, magistrates, sheriffs, etc.? Catholics! To that calumniated peo ple we were indebted for all that we most boasted of. Were they not brave and loyal? Ask the verdant sods of Chrysler's farm. Ask Chateauguay, ask Queenstown Heights, and they will tell you they cover Cath olic valor and Catholic loyalty — the heroes who fell in the cause of their country! Here, there was no cause of division, no property in dispute —their feelings had full scope. We found them good subjects and good friends. Friendship was natural to the heart of man; it was like the ivy that seeks the oak and clings to its stalk, and embraces its stem, and encircles its limbs in beautiful festoons and wild luxuriance, and aspires to its top, and waves its tendrils above it as a banner, in triumph of having conquered the King of the forest. "Look at the township of Clare : — it was a beautiful sight : a whole people having the same customs, speaking the same lan
