that there could be no objection to it? While we have to encounter prejudice, and oppose confederacy, how is it possible that truth and reason can be victorious with unanimity? But to say that this house is to be deterred by popular clamour or prejudiced objections from exercising its fair judgment, is tantamount to a declaration that no disorders can be removed, no abuses corrected, no tyranny subdued. I therefore must resist and deprecate such arguments coming from the Right Honourable Gentleman against this motion, as unparliamentary, unconstitutional, and dangerous. But, Sir, I know of no reason why that measure which His Majesty's minister is of opinion was expedient, and ought to have been done four years ago, and may be done hereafter, ought not to be done now: and as to any danger that can arise from bringing forward the question now, as is alledged, without the chance of success, the only mischief I can apprehend is from the refusal, which must recoil upon ministers themselves, as the cause of it.

The whole of the Right Honourable member's speech upon this subject is indefinite, full of mystery, and, to me at least, not clearly intelligible. The Right Honourable Gentleman has talked of expediency as distinct from right. But the claim of the catholics is not set up upon what is termed a fantastical claim of right, but a plain and common right to an equal share and participation in the benefits of the constitution under which they live. I am myself disposed to rest the principal part of the claim upon expediency, with

out excluding right. But the Right Honourable Gentleman will hear only of expediency. But this sort of attack upon principles of right cannot be maintained. Rights, in the strictest sense of the word, as employed by the Right Honourable Gentleman, no where exist but even on the ground of right as a claim of nature, the catholic petition, I say, is founded in justice. They state that what they ask is founded on political expediency; and the policy and expediency of acceding to their petition, is only rebutted by alleging, that to grant their claims would be attended with the greatest danger to our protestant establishments in church and state. What this danger is, from the best consideration I have been able to give to the subject, I am utterly at a loss to discover; the onus of proof lies upon those who plead that danger. But, looking to all the dangers; as well these which those who oppose this motion plead, as those which there may be any reasonable ground to apprehend, I think that to grant now the claims of the catholics is by much the less dangerous policy to pursue.

For the present, however, I shall not trespass on the attention of the house by arguing the question further; I shall content myself with entering my solemn protest against the species of argument urged by His Majesty's ministers against this petition, and declaring my firm resolution to persevere in this object, which I consider as best calculated for the safety of that very protestant establishment to which it is said to be inimical and I have the strongest hope, anxiety, and

confidence, that the period is not far remote when this house will see the justice and sound policy of conceding this salutary, wise, and beneficent measure.

Sir John Newport, Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald, Mr. Dillon, Mr. John Latouche, Sir John Hippesley, Colonel Hutchinson, and Mr. Hawthorn supported the motion. Mr. Archdall, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Hiley Addington, Sir George Hill, and Sir William Dolben opposed it. After Mr. Fox had replied, the house divided, when there appeared,

CAPT. WRIGHT'S IMPRISONMENT.

July 9, 1805.

MR. WINDHAM felt it to be his duty, previously to the separation of the house for the session, to recall to their recollection a subject of much interest, which he had twice before had occasion to mention, once at the close of the last session and again at the commencement of the present. This was the case of Captain Wright, an officer who had been captured with his ship, when serving on the high seas in the regular course of his profession, and with His Majesty's commission in his pocket. This was material to shew that his case was not distinguished by any circumstances from that of the other prisoners of war; but the French Emperor, it appeared, thought he had been employed on other services, as in landing men upon the coast of France, which placed him on a different footing from prisoners of war. When questioned on this head, Captain Wright very properly, and as might have been expected from men even far less determined than he, refused to give an answer though menaced, not obscurely, with proceedings that went

to affect his life. Nothing so atrocious, however, had been perpetrated, but he had been committed a close prisoner to the Temple, denied pen, ink, and paper, and excluded from all communication with persons without. The severity of the confinement there could be explained from experience by a gallant officer then in his eye (Sir Sydney Smith), who had, after escaping confinement there, nobly revenged himself upon his oppressors by his illustrious exploits in the defence of Acre; exploits, he would venture to say, not to be exceeded by any thing which could be found in the naval or military annals of any country.

As to the truth of the charge against Captain Wright, he thought it unnecessary to inquire into it; it being a matter of perfect indifference for the present purpose whether it was true or not. Nobody, he supposed, would contend, that to put on shore upon an enemy's coast persons meaning to excite commotion or insurrection, was contrary to the laws of war. If it was, what would become of all which the French had done during the course of the last war, in landing Tandy and others on the coast of Ireland? If men so landed were not of the nation on whose coast they landed, and yet did not avow themselves as enemies, they were liable to be treated as spies. If they were subjects of that nation, they might be treated as rebels or traitors: but neither in one case or the other, was there any ground for charging with a breach of the laws of war those by whom they were landed. The fact was, that the hostility of the French Emperor to