[10]“We have heard of a time, Mr. President, when England was the envy and the terror of the whole world; we have heard of a time when commerce flourished, and the quartern loaf was sold for a penny-halfpenny; but these things are now altered; bread has risen, as stocks have fallen; we lose time in debates, and we lose men in battle; and are not all these things owing to Mr. Pitt? Unfortunate man! he had it in his power to make his country happy, and he has left it miserable; all of it encumbered with penury and taxation, and half of it fettered by a damnable religious restriction. Yes, Mr. President, from the fear of rebellion and revolution, the Protestants are wretched and spied upon; and from the dread of the Holy Alliance, the Pope, the Pretender, the Arch-Fiend Napoleon, and the Devil, the Catholics are oppressed and persecuted.” Here the honourable member is jerked from his hobby by an orthodox hiss from the corner, and he sits down among the comments of the crowd. “What do you think of the opener?”--“Why, I think he’s all Public debts, Epithets, Foul and filthy, good and great, Glorious wars, British tars, Beat and bruise Parlez-vous, Frenzy, frown, Commons, Crown, Ass and pannier, Rule Britannia!-- How I love a loud debate!” Then the Church shakes her rattle, and sends forth to battle The terror of Papist and sinner, Who loves to be seen as the modern Mæcenas, And asks all the poets to dinner. [11]“Mr. President,--I rise to express my dissent from the honourable opener with regard to the Catholics. With respect to the question of debate, my sentiments are entirely those of the late Charles James Fox. He was a man adorned by every manly virtue that can adorn and dignify a man--_Propria quæ maribus tribuuntur, mascula dicas_. But with regard to the Catholics, when I remember the times of the Bloody Queen Mary, when I call to mind the horrible massacres she perpetrated--the helpless old women that were depopulated--I cannot sufficiently restrain my feelings to hear the Catholics commended without expressing my dissent.” Then the gentleman Attic, with tales Asiatic And body that bends with a grace, The maker of jeers that led us for years, The prime Staple-Ton of the place.