THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON ON CATHOLIC LOYALTY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 109, 29 May 1875, Page 15

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON ON CATHOLIC LOYALTY.

++ The following extract from the speech of Jthe hero of Waterloo on the question of Catholic Emancipation, may be read with profit by the admirers of Mr. Gladstone. The testimony of one who had so many opportunities of witnessing the loyalty of Catholics and their unwavering devotion upon many a blood-stained field, when their disaffection would have been fraught with disastrous consequences, should carry infinitely more weight than the vindictive utterances of a disappointed politican, smarting under the effects of a hard, but well-deserved lesson :—: — ,

" It is already well known to your lordships, that, of the troops which our gracious Sovereign did me the honour to entrust to my command at various periods during the war — a war undertaken expressly for the purpose of securing the happy institutions and independence of the country — that at least one half were Roman Catholics. My lords, when I call your recollection to this fact, I am sure all further eulogy is unnecessary. Your lordships are well aware for what length of period and under what difficult circumstances, they maintained the Empire buoyant upon the flood which overwhelmed the houses and wrecked the institutions of every other people ; how they kept alive the only spark of freedom whicli was left unextinguished in Europe ; and how by unprecedented efforts they at length placed us, not only far above danger, but at an elevation of prosperity for which we had hardly dared to hope. These, my lords, a.re sacred and imperative titles to a nation's gratitude. My lords, it is become quite needless for me to assure you that I have invariably found my Roman Catholic soldiers as patieut under privations, as eager for the combat, and as brave and determined in the field as any other portion of His Majesty's troops j and in point of loyalty and devotion to their king and country, lam quite certain they have nerer been surpassed. 1 claim no merit in admitting that others might have guided the storm of battle as skilfully as myself. We have only to recur to the annals of our military achievements to be convinced that few indeed of our commanders have not known how to direct the unconquerable spirit of their troops, and to wreathe fresh glories round the British name. But, my lords, while we are free to acknowledge this, we must also confess that, without Catholic blood or Catholic valour, no victory could ever have been obtained, and the first military talents in Europe might have been exerted in vain at the head of an army. My lords, if on the eve of any of those hard-fought days, on which I had the honour to command thorn, I had thus addressed my Roman Catholic troops : — ' You well know that your country either so suspects your loyalty, or so dislikes your religion, that she has not thought proper to admit you amongst the ranks of her citizens ; if on that aacount you deem it an act of injustice on her part to require you to shed jour blood in her defence, you are at liberty to withdraw' — I am quite sure, my lords, that, however bitter the recollections which it awakened, they would have spurned the alternative with indignation ; for the hour of danger aud glory is the hour in which the gallant, the

- -■__■.» generous-hearted Irishman best knows his duty, and is most deter mined to perform it. But if, my lords, ib had been otherwise ;if they had chosen to desert the cause in which they were embarked, though the remainder of the troops would undoubtedly have maintained the honour of the British arms, yet, as I have said, no efforts of theirs could ever have crowned us with victory. Yes, my lords, it is mainly to the Irish Catholics that we all owe our proud pre-eminence in our military career ; and that I, personally, am indebted for the laurels with which you have been pleased to decorate my brow, for the honours which you have so bountifully lavished on me, and for the fair fame (I prize it above all other rewards), whicli my country in its generous kindness, has bestowed upon me. I cannot but feel, my lords, that you yourselves have been chiefly instrumental in placing this heavy ' debt of gratitude upon me, greater, perhaps, than has ever fallen to the lot of any individual, and however flattering the circumstance, it ' often places me in a very painful position. Whenever I meet, and it is almost an every day occurrence, with any of those brave men,'wlu>, in common with others, are the object of this bill, and who have bo often borne me on the tide of victory ; when I see them still branded with the imputation of a divided allegiance, still degraded beneath the honest mind, and still proclaimed unfit to enter within the pale of the constitution, I feel almost ashamed of the honours which have been lavished upon me — I feel that, though tlie merit was theirs, what was so freely given to me was unjustly denied to'them ; that I had reaped though they had sown ; that they had borne the heat and burden of the day, but that the wages and repose were mine alone. My lords, it is a great additional gratification to me to advocate these principles in conjunction with a distinguished member of my family, so lately at the head of the Government of his native country — a country ever dear to me from the recollections of my infancy, the memory of her wrongs, and the bravery of her people. I glory, my lords, in the name of Ireland ; and it is the highest pleasure of my ambition to be thus united with the rest of my kindred in tlie grateful task of closing the wounds which seven centuries of misgovernment have inflicted upou that unfortunate land.".