THE CASE OF MR. O’CONNELL.
At the time of the Clare election Mr. O’Connell had assured the people that he was entitled to sit in parliament without taking the oaths, which no Catholic could take. He had staked his professional reputation on this point, and had given assurances that he held other learned opinions to the same purport. His return had subsequently been petitioned against; but a committee to whom the petition had been referred, had reported that he was duly elected. Now, according to the old law, under which Mr. O’Connell’s claim had arisen—he having been elected before the measure of emancipation had passed—if a person known and believed to be a Catholic could take certain oaths, which oaths involved an abjuration of Popery, he was entitled to take his seat. The new act, however, did not seem to forward his pretensions. The oath, indeed, which it substituted for those that were abrogated, could be taken by a Catholic as well as a Protestant; but that provision was expressly limited to “any person professing the Roman Catholic religion, after the commencement of this act, be returned as a member of the house of commons.” Mr. O’Connell and his friends, however, held that from the moment the bill received the royal assent, there was an end to the power of administering the abrogated oaths, or demanding any of the declarations which then stood repealed. On these grounds Mr. O’Connell hoped to take his seat in parliament. He presented himself at the table of the house on the 15th of May; and the clerk produced the oath which had been repealed by the late act. A brief conversation took place; and the clerk having communicated what took place to the speaker, he addressed the house thus: “It is my duty to state, if I have been correctly informed, that the course which the honourable member has proposed to take, is a course which, until overruled by stronger authority, I do not conceive it my duty to acquiesce in. I understand that he proposes to take the oath prescribed to be taken by Roman Catholics as it is to be found in an act of parliament recently passed. As I read that act of parliament, it is my impression, and on my impression it is my duty to act, that it involves two points relative to the course to be pursued in taking seats in this house. The first point is that of repealing the declaration against transubstantiation; the other, that of appointing an oath to be taken by such members of this house as profess the Roman Catholic creed; but with this condition, that those members should be returned subsequently to the passing of the act. Now the honourable member was returned, as the house is well aware, long before the passing of this act. I have, therefore, only to refer to the law affecting all the members of this house until the late act passed; and, with the single exception of repeating the declaration against transubstantiation, I have to state that the construction which has been uniformly put on the law of the land, and which has been repeatedly sanctioned and confirmed by act of parliament, is, that every member, before taking his seat, shall take the oath of allegiance and supremacy before the lord-steward, and the oath of abjuration at the table of this house. This is the course which, by law, the dignity and the privileges of this house require. I state this the rather because it is well known that this house is open to an appeal by petition, or it may be brought forward by any member in this house. In that case, the house will be better able to judge, and to state its opinion of the propriety of the conduct which it appeared to me to be my duty to pursue. I, therefore, state to the honourable gentleman that he must withdraw.” Mr. O’Connell having withdrawn, Mr. Brougham moved, that he should be called back, and heard at the table in support of his claim to be admitted on taking no other oath than that contained in the late act. Mr. W. Wynn was of opinion that Mr. O’Connell was entitled to be heard at the bar of the house, and that it made no difference whether he was heard there or at the table, though it was his opinion it might be better to adhere to the former course. Mr. Peel, however, thought there was a great distinction between hearing the applicant at the table and at the bar; and that he had no right to be heard at the former. The debate on this point was adjourned to the 18th of April; on which day it was finally ordered, on Mr. Peel’s motion, “that the member for Clare be heard at the bar, with reference to his claim to sit and vote in the house of commons without taking the oath of supremacy.” On his appearance at the bar, Mr. O’Connell maintained that the Act of Union with Ireland entitled him to sit without taking the oath of supremacy; and that the act lately passed entitled him to sit without taking the declaration against transubstantiation. He claimed, under the spirit and effect of the new statute, to sit without taking the oath of supremacy; and he claimed also, under its positive enactments, to sit without taking any other oath than what was therein contained. There were many points in his arguments very strongly put, and they were delivered with a temperance calculated to conciliate the good will of the house. Even the lawyers, also, who were opposed to Mr. O’Connell, confessed that there were doubts as to the true meaning of the oath of supremacy; but the house, notwithstanding, came to the resolution, that unless Mr. O’Connell took that oath, he was not entitled to sit or vote in that house. A motion to that effect, moved by the solicitor-general, was carried by a majority of one hundred and ninety against one hundred and sixteen. Mr. O’Connell was then called again to the bar, and the speaker having put the question to him whether he would take the oath or not, he replied:—“I see, in this oath, one assertion as to a matter of fact which I know is not true, and see in it another assertion, as to a matter of opinion which I believe is not true; I therefore refuse to take this oath.” A new writ was now ordered for a new election, and Mr. O’Connell went back to Ireland to be re-elected by his constituents. The decision had an untoward effect upon his mind; for he now loaded ministers with the most opprobrious epithets, as men who having been false to their own party could never be true to any other. It caused him, indeed, to announce his ulterior design to effect a repeal of the union by that system of agitation which had already proved so successful. This purpose he has deliberately followed up by the most inflammatory harangues, and various other modes of popular excitement. From that day to this year, indeed, his whole career has been one long course of agitation to effect the repeal of the union; but whether he or any other agitator in Ireland will ever be gratified by such an event demands a doubt.