25 MAY 1867, Page 2

Mr. Roebuck made a passionate speech on Thursday night,—in which

he accused the Irish party of scandalous falsehood,—in favour of the Irish Protestant Church, —a very "mild" Church 'he truly called it,—the Irish land laws, the Irish Government generally, and on the utter absence of excuse for even a faint -dissatisfaction w:th existing things in the Irish mind. Mr. -right answered Mr. Roebuck in a speech diatinguished by a cttriosa felicitas of argument. He showed that the position of 'the Catholic in Ireland is in no respect similar to that of the Dis- senter in England. The Dissenter has been deprived of nothing. He has seceded from the Establishment, disapproving, but not necessarily hating it, regarding it as a great institution, to be :abrogated, it may be, in due course of time, but not as a great

grievance justifying insurrection. The Irish Catholic was robbed by military violence of his share in the ecclesiastical revenue, which was given to a "garrisoned minority," whose faith the Catholic utterly repudiated. The Dissenter is at most the subject of a law he dislikes, while the Irish Catholic is the victim of a violent 'Wrong. Good men bear bad laws, but only mean-spirited men pat itp with violent oppression.