THE HUMBLE PETITION, I $ * OF THE BEGGARS OF IRELAND. L WITH NOTES. Je ne vous insulte point, dit le vieillard ; je vous parle en • ami, et je paie mon asyle en vousdisant la vdritd.— Belisaire. LIVERPOOL: PRINTED BY F. B. WRIGHT, CASTLE-STREET. 1830. JEREMIAH, xxr, 12. Thus saitli the LORD, Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. EZEKIEL, xvi. 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, ful¬ ness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her, and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. PROVERBS, xxix. 14. The King that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever. 3 i> q H ni ) KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, \ P AND TO THE LORDS OF GREAT BRITAIN, AND TO THE COMMONS. The Humble Petition of the Beggars of Ireland , ifWostf ffeumhlg §if) efoetS, That your petitioners, being in a condition destitute, helpless, and miserable ; without home* friendless, and deprived of every honourable means of support; of every means of living with hon¬ esty, (1) except w'hat may arise from disobeying your laws, and humbling ourselves like dogs in the presence of our fellow men ; not having friends that represent us to your Honours, or misrepresented by such as have reduced us to this base condition, and those who would prevent us from escaping from our ruined state; deserted or betrayed by our natural protectors, some of whom are unable, even if they are willing, to make amends for the injury they have done to us and our country ; overwhelmed in debt, which we could not avoid incurring, to pawnbrokers, having stripped our bodies to save our lives : scarce¬ ly clad or more naked than swine ; in debtiio those wAo, for the wretched cellars or garrets wherein they have given us a shelter, have forced us to surrender the tickets (2) of our clothes or nightly covering, spiritless, debased, cast forth from society, for no offence, or confined in prisons for asking food of our V 4 fellow creatures, to keep us from starving, approach you in the hope, that that sense of justice, which we acknowledge to have frequently dictated your acts, and that compassion, which we have occasionally experienced, will induce you to listen to the expres¬ sion of our grievances. We know that you are able, we hope that you are willing, to raise us from our base condition. Your Honours made some inquiry about us on a late occasion ; but you do not now 7 seem to think of us, nor does it appear that the answers given to your inquiries, influenced you to think it expedi¬ ent to take us under your protection. But may we be permitted to represent to you, that we were not asked to explain our own case to your Honours. You heard something about charity, or the pleasure which some persons take in seeing us cold and naked and famishing, because it gives them, or other per¬ sons, occasion to exercise what they call charity. Ah ! just and compassionate Englishmen, look at our pale, thin, starved faces. ( for may be they may tell you that we hide our clothes, but it is not likely that we would die for the want of them, if we had them.) If they had a grain of charity in their hearts, do you think they would be content that we remain dependant on their charity ? (3) If we compare ourselves to those of the natives of Great Britain, who follow the same occupa¬ tions that we followed in our better days, vve see no reason to think, that it is pleasing to the Sovereign Disposer of all things, that they should enjoy the benefit of laws that provide every Englishman who wants them with a home and food and clothing, and that we should be destitute of all. (4) We have worked in your fields, vve have lost our health in your manufactories, we have wandered after those who have carried our wealth to you and thereby en¬ riched your artizans and tradesmen : (5) when we could work we did your work well: we have followed our generals, and with them fought your battles, and largely contributed to your wealth and power and 5 glory. Will you continue to leave us in a condition worse than that of your negroes, worse than that of your dogs and of your swine ? Some of your Honours are of opinion, that the laws made for your own poor are defective, or that they do not sufficiently guaranty the comforts of your poor. There may be defects, and your poor might perhaps be provided for more effectually than at present.(6) But it is not for us to offer suggestions on this subject to your Honours. We approach you as supplicants, reduced to the lowest possible neces¬ sity. We ask you for laws that will enable us to live. We ask you for impunity for telling you that we are starving, or much rather we ask you to place us iu a condition, wherern being on a level with Englishmen, we may acquiesce in the justice and wisdom of statutes that award an ignominious im¬ prisonment on those who without necessity degrade themselves below the level of men. We do not ask you to share your wealth with us : but we ask you, by means of the wealth of our country, to render it unnecessary that we should transgress your laws, and trouble you with importu¬ nate craving for bread, and wander through your streets, or hide ourselves in your cellars, lest the ap¬ pearance ©four poverty should draw upon us notice and procure us weeks of hard labour in gaol, while our families are to perish for want of the aid which we would gladly obtain for them if we could, by the free use of our limbs and free labour of our bodies. Need we remind you, that while an English la¬ bourer obtains half-a-crown a day, an Irish labour¬ er, when at home, cannot get ten-pence ; (7) that the persons who ought to find work and wages for the Irish labourers in Ireland, expend in England the property of the Irish poor, and leaving the Irish manufacturers who cannot travel in pursuit of them, leave their own debts unpaid] The higher manu¬ facturers are bankrupts, and the poor ones perish. Thus enormous wealth too flows into the purses of the British tradesmen. Yet, though the En- JB 2 6 glish receive all our wandering nobles ; and though such of our gentry as desert that immutable duty which God has imposed upon those who profess his dreadful name, to defend, provide for, and relieve the poor and oppressed, are cherished in Great Britain and encouraged to desert us ; if they, or if the English, whom they enrich by making us poor, are intreated to give a trifling portion of our wealth to a starving Irish beggar, they are allowed by your laws to tear him from his helpless family and send him to a gaol ; where, while they are perhaps dying of sickness and famine, and have none to bring them so much as a drink of water, his emaciated limbs may be racked, or rendered still more emaciated, by hard labour and improper food. On his return he may find them to have been consigned to the boards and last cold home, which, as they are final expenses are not much grudged by an English parish to the Irish sojourner, who in a land called Christian, has been allowed to perish for want. You are wise and considerate ; and can you think that we have left our country for no cause at all, when we prefer suffering these and still more miseries, and death itself, to a return to it? When we leave our country, unable to support our fami¬ lies, and to pay the sums demanded to support a re¬ ligion which we do not believe to be divine, (8) and the rents of our dwellings, (in which, though they are too small for ourselves, we are fain to afford shelter to our cattle and swine; ) sums to be spent among you, that the sons and daughters of those that have spoiled us may adorn and occupy sumptu¬ ous houses in your cities, we hope at least to obtain in your employ some portion of what we have lost, by the industrious use of our skill and labour. We sometimes are not entirely frustrated in our hopes ; and have no reason to repent of having deserted our impoverished homes ; but if broken down by unfore¬ seen calamities, we are poor and helpless, sick and naked, in this country, where the stranger that is poor finds that he is indeed a stranger, where not 7 having been yourselves strangers, you do uot think of fulfilling the claims which God has given them on your hospitality, our condition is truly dismal. We ask those, whom we see to have such forms and fea¬ tures and flesh and blood as we have, for mercy, for the honour of God ; we tel) them we have nothing to eat; and they see that we have not enough of clothes, yet they offer us a halfpenny, and that seldom. They do not clothe us, although many of them are oppressed or overloaded with the fine warm clothing which we have lost our time in making: nor do they often give us covering for the winter nights, although they expensively clothe the dead, and have more laid up in their houses and warehouses, than they can either use or sell. We lie lower down in the earth than their horses and their dead, not only without sufficient covering, but without sufficient straw. If we ask for relief, they tell us to apply to the parish : but they do not reflect that we have no parish : they did not support us ; but they took our tythes. They contribute small sums to purchase us medicines, and physicians advise us to take them when we are starving : (9) but on cold days to walk barefooted through several streets to dispensaries, or to sit or stand for hours in the courts of dispen¬ saries, may counteract the medicines, and thus they may do us no good ; besides that, if we lie sick, and our wives or children are dragged to gaol for making use of the only means left us to live, we are left with¬ out messengers to send for our medicines. They say (10) we are idle ; but they do not gife us worfc. They think we are dirty, and our dwellings infested with vermin ; and they shun us. What can we do ? Your laws have not provided us with houses, and have not even secured us those habitations, which, as we have to share them with our cattle, we cannot possibly preserve clean.(l 1) Thus we are of necessity habituated to filthiness. They may think that we are insatiable: we know that they never satisfy us. Would En¬ glishmen be satisfied with less than four meals a 8 day ? how can we be content with four in the week ? ( 12 ) These calamities your poor petitioners endure, and we have endured them for almost two hun¬ dred and ninety years; but the English would not endure them : so restitution was made for what was taken from them, and given to be disposed of by a tyrant whom every Englishman at this day abhors. (13 ) But we, who, as well as the English poor, lost our property through the public and parliamentary infliction of national vengeance, which plundered the monasteries that gave us support, have received no reeompence. We, who feel the dire effects of that righteous vengeance, which divine justice, by means of a merciless government and a too pliant legislature, inflicted ; call upon a merciful sovereign , whose counsellors are free men,—on the representa¬ tives of a nation, who like to conceal their acts of mercy, (14^) and to make an open display of acts which they think just, beseeching you. and conjiu ring you, if you regard the mercy of God, to do us justice. You cannot show us mercy adequate to our wants, in our present condition, without constant¬ ly making a display of your mercy. Our misery wearies the compassion of our friends, and still pre¬ sents an undiminished mass. It lies not exposed to your view ; (yet you might discover and witness it:) it is under ground that we suffer, and thus we are left to suffer, and remain like the dead. We bless and load with our prayers, those who afford us relief; and are thankful if we get but one meal a day : are they who bereave us thankful for four? We know that we are poor and debased ; but we know not that any ought to despise us. We are ail descended from one father: have pity on us then and give us laws : if you do not know better, give us the benefit of your own laws till you do, and do not send us back to perish : but afford us (15) the hospitality and support we need, till, through such provision, as to your wisdom shall seem fit, we may 9 be able to return to our country in the expectation of being received at houses of our own, to which the poor both of England and of Ireland may be equal¬ ly welcome to resort. You give habitations to the Africans, whom you have rescued from pirates, and teach them to live in regulated communities. Some of you w ould deprive the Hindoo widows of the liberty of burning themselves to death. But you leave neglected that which more concerns you. Haste then to rescue a natiou of famished and almost naked beggars, and teach us to live in honesty, and like civilized men Deliver us from those that have spoiled us. Pur¬ chase from them the green fields of our unhappy country; build ushumblejvillages upon them, (16) and let us repay you with industry and loyalty. Do not continue to repress the feelings of English gentle¬ men ; do not suffer your children to accept of presents—nor suffer them to wear the gold chains and gaudy trinkets, the meed of our chyle and of our heart’s blood.—But awake every man of you, at the sighing of theoppressed, and with that strength that renders omnipotent the right hand of human power when moved by justice, save us, save generations to come, from our obscene murderers, or from ignoble destroyers. We forgive them for the sufferings they have caused us to endure ; and wish them abundance of such prosperity, as they may enjoy with a good conscience and without disgrace; but you we im¬ plore to put an end to our sufferings. O reflect, and take it to heart, that we are des¬ titute of most of the things, without which human nature repines, and that make men desire to live! that while you have many homes and palaces, and many thousand times more room than you can oc- cupy, we have scarcely a foot of ground whereon to lay our head ; that while your heads are laid on downy pillows, surrounded by splendour and secure from external air, we lie exposed to the frost and tempest, and our lodging is upon the cold damp ground ; that while you have rivers of wine, and can bathe yourselves daily in milk, we can seldom taste even such milk as English labourers would reject, and are glad if we can get such as they give to their pigs ; that we frequently die when a little wine might save us ; (17) for to whom can we apply for wine, when almost all would deny us milk 1 Think but on this. And reflect on the fact, that hundreds of your fellow creatures, whom you have the means to make happy, useful, and con¬ tented, are, in the midst of abundance and luxury, daily and hourly, perishing through cold and hun¬ ger. Make haste then to help us. Begin your acts by delivering England from the guilt, (18) and your poor petitioners from the effects of a great national crime, that has been starving us for ages. Let your first session, (19) oh! let its first act be characterized by righteousness,and kindness to man. Break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, and peradventure He who is the sovereign of all sovereigns, and greater than we all. He who is the best friend of the poor, the avenger of the injured and oppressed, will look down upon you and grant a blessing to your subsequent proceedings, and give you prosperity (20) as He has given you glory. FINIS. NOTES. No. 1, page 3, “with honestyS’ To live by begging, though base and wicked men of different ranks may have done so, is not, in itself, dishonest. The great poet and moralist of the hea¬ then world, (himself indeed a beggar,) enforces the duties of hospitality and kindness to the poor, by the highest motive then generally received : For Jove unfolds our hospitable door, Tis Jove that sends the stranger and the poor. Pope, Odys * xiv, 57, 58. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, said: He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and lie that hath meat, let him do likewise. Luke, iii, 11. If this and the other divine poor laws were obeyed by Christians, all the poor might be comfortably lodged and fed and clothed, with little expense and trouble to individuals. But the wise commands of God which provide for the poor, are disobeyed, and the poor perish. The forerunner of the Messiah was disregarded by those most eminent for their piety. They omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith, Matth. xxiii, 23, and when the Messiah had entered on his ministry, it was found necessary to sanction begging. Give to every man that asketh of thee. Luke, vi, 30: and in the parable or narrative of our Saviour, concern¬ ing the rich man who left the poor man to the care of the dogs, while he himself was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, the beggar is represented to be in the bosom of Abraham in paradise, or hades, while the rich man was in torments and in disgrace. Luke, xvi. 12 But least of all does the profession of an Irish beggar imply in itselfthe existence of dishonourable or dishonest conduct in the poor beggars. And why ? The law which forbids them to beg, took from them the means provided for their support by the ancient superstition of the country : and not only that, but it omits the correcting the propensity which their natural protectors have to wander from their place, by sumptuary enactments, and leaves them without employment. No, 2, page 3, ct the tickets.” When an Irish pauper arrives in an English town, either in quest of employment, or in despair of pre¬ serving his life and those of his family, by either the so much talked of charity of the Irish or otherwise ; or when having spent the little sum, perhaps at the utmost from live shillings to a pound, the earnings of many weeks or months of begging, he finds himself and his family counted transgressors in a land, the inhabitants of which, were supposed in Mayo, Long¬ ford, or some western county, to be as liberal to the poor, as Christians; they are taken into some damp cellar or upper room with broken windows, for God’s sake, as the owner says. (For it is on the poor that the great weight falls under the present system, of affording lodging and support out of their own inadequate means, while they themselves are often perishing with want, to the destitute and perishing poor of Ireland, spurned or driven from the houses of the rich.) His family want food ; and then one of their coats or shirts or some article of their scanty clothing must go to be pawned. Thus from six pence to six shillings is raised, and hence they get pleurisy, rheumatispi, diarrhoea, or the like. It is seldom these friendless improvident creatures have sense enough to send for medical aid, till a serious illness is secured to them. This sum expend¬ ed, and the owner of the room being also poor and Irish, some more clothes must be pawned, or some 13 of the children must go out in the cold to beg, or with matches. A prowling constable, or some ma¬ gisterial Irus, in spite of the brimstone pass, seizes upon the poor little beggar,* and consigns it to starving and darkness, or to bread and water, in the coal hole. Next morning, being brought before a worthy bench, none of whom ever knew what it was to have an empty stomach, he receives the sen¬ tence to him incomprehensible, of three weeks im¬ prisonment as a beggar and a vagabond. Meantime the father, perhaps a strong labourer, who could have earned a guinea a week if all had been right, dies ; and soon after the mother, one of those thin beggar women, that are so common and so trouble¬ some, of whom, an absentee Irish lady of quality, who, though she may distribute bibles, seldom reads them and never fasts, would make two, lies down and dies also, and it may be hoped, is admitted to a place, whence poor beggar women are not allowed to go on errands for ladies in the coal hole, no not even for a drop of water to cool their tongues; or for a year longer protracts her own and her chil¬ drens* lives, by, perhaps from a penny to six pence a clay, gained by selling eggs, or making matches, or begging ; till inanition and cold and nakedness and sorrow lay them all low, and add to the list of victims to the modern Moloch—the god of avarice, cruelty and pride, who dwells in temples made with hands, who pampers the rich, and robs and starves the poor. But what an imperfect description is this of the multifarious misery, which these patient victims are constantly suffering. No. 3, page 4, “ their charity * I appeal to parish officers in the English towns, whether these miserable people do not often prefer certain death by cold and liuuger, to the being sent See Appendix, C 14 back to Ireland. And what great wonder ! Is it likely, that being almost naked, and unable to re¬ deem their clothes and other things, their families scattered in different parts of the country, in quest of employment, some in gaols for begging, and some in fever hospitals ; and without the means of travelling beyond the Irish port where they should be lauded, they should chuse to be sent to a country where they can get no employment, and where mi¬ sery still more accumulated by the transfer of its wealth, renders it vain to expect, that the liberality of individuals will make any thing like amends for the defect in parochial laws, even though spurred occasionally by fear ofiegislatorial interference; even though it were excited by the vain hope of bribing God, which may fairly be supposed to influence such as would dissuade our legislators from abolish¬ ing the popish trade in alms. It is a common thing in Ireland, for beggars to ask alms, not only for the love and honour of God and of the Virgin Mary, but also for their intercession for the souls of de¬ parted relatives. It appears not to me unlikely, that such squalid hypocrites (see Matth vi. 5,) at the corners of the streets, or along the walls iiear chapels, where, on Sundays and holidays, old wo¬ men and other beggars, especially women with lit¬ ters of children, station themselves at convenient intervals to collect catholic charity, think their in¬ tercessions equivalent to the donations offered by the rich as an apology tor disobedience to the laws of the Gospel, or foolishly hoping to make an atone¬ ment. for their sins, according to the ancient, but most ungodly doctrine, taught by some of the Jew¬ ish books reckoned canonical by the church of Rome. See Tobit, iv, 11. Such charity is not the love spoken of in the New Testament: for that seefceth not its own. See 1 Cor. xiii. 15. People have very confused notions which they ex¬ press by the term charity ; as appears from the talk of the beggars; sometimes they ar t “ objects of charitv sometimes they are “ act6 ot charity 15 and a little starved creature will say, she is "the big¬ gest charity you ever saw. Truly this cant should be abolished ; it is a disgrace to the Irish nation. No. 4, page 4, " destitute of all* Is it not notorious, that the great mass of poverty in the manufacturing districts, is among the Irish ; who, when turned out of work, have no provision nor parishes to apply to ; and so must either perish through poverty, or be a heavy burthen to the in¬ habitants of English parishes ? To me it appears not unlikely, that they who think that the poor laws of England are not adequate, do not sufficiently consider, how much this is owing to the influx of Irish, in consequence of the want of poor laws in Ireland. If the English beg, they have something particu¬ lar to ask for: some aliment necessary for them, when ill, some article of apparel, a little wine, or the like. And when they get them, they are thank¬ ful or satisfied.* But if you ask Irish beggars, what they want? they answer: any thing your Honours please. They are destitute of almost every thing they ought to have. One very bad feature in the English system of poor laws, is that whereby a married w’oaian is made solely chargeable to her husband’s place of residence or parish. In this way, if an English w r o- man has married an Irishman, when he dies, leav¬ ing a family who had entirely depended on his ex¬ ertions, or is deprived of the means of supporting them, they immediately become beggars without resource. No. 5, page 4 , "tradesmen * It may be said, and I have beard as much, that the encouragement of the importation of Irish pro¬ perty, is necessary for the encouragement or gup- port of the artizans and tradespeople of London, 16 and that if the rich Irish did not transfer what should be the wages of Irish labourers, to the gold¬ smiths, &c. of London, these artisans would want employment, or would be as poor as the Irish are now. This sentiment is in itself most iniquitous. What else does it import, but that the Irish peasants are to be starved to death, lest the poor rates of the British Metropolis should be raised. So the interests of the poor of Norway were sa¬ crificed to the enrichment of the Danish capital: but Providence, whose eyes are throughout the earth, beheld the injustice and rent the kingdom from Denmark. No. 6, page 5, “at present ” 1 do not pretend to argue here on common grounds, against the policy, or expediency, or wis¬ dom in a worldly sense of the parochial provision for the poor being such as to deter them from ac¬ cepting of it, if they can avoid it, although 1 am well aware of its tendency to increase the number of beg¬ gars : but disdaining to rest on any lower ground, than what the word of God warrants me to assume, in addressing such as are called Christians, ( and it is not my part, to tell any that say they believe in Jesus, as all our legislators, and most of those for whom they make laws do, that they affirm that they believe what they do not believe ; I leave that to their own conscience before God :) and finding that the foundation of God has this seal : Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from ini¬ quity. 2 Tim. ii. 19. I am bold to assert in the presence of God and before all * i ; that the pro- vision made for the English poor, is not what the law of Christ requires. It is not of that openheart- ed, liberal kind, which, among those who profess his name, should be the consequence of a conscien¬ tious, faithful observance of that command of the Lord Jesus, which, even a Jew of the synagogue has lately called divine : All things, whatsoever ye 17 would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Matth. vii. 12. The rich do not suffix cienily consider, that the poor have just such feel¬ ings and constitutions as they have ; that if they were forced to subsist or pine away on the diet of a workhouse, and to submit to the confinement too often connected with it, they would be discontented, or even miserable, as well as their poor, but ‘‘dearly beloved brethren; ' for whom they ought to lay down, not merely their possessions, but their lives, see l John, iii. 16: and especially if their only al¬ ternatives were, to be allowed two shillings a week, or punished incase they begged for more, or chased through the streets, for asking for what is necessary to support life : if they were not allowed the daily modeiate use of agreeable, or cordial bevera¬ ges, such as of tea, or coffee, or malt, or even some¬ times wine, household spices, and vinegar ; which they who can use them when they please, do not perceive the inconvenience of wanting ; but, Queis humaria sibi doleat natura negatis : yet not only are such things denied in poor houses, to the great number of the inmates, they are even forbid to take any spirits or wine that might be brought them, that I may say nothing of the cruelty of separating poor families from their dying relatives, the hard¬ ship of mothers being deprived of their infants, &c. But truly all this, though it may save present ex¬ pense and trouble to overseers, cannot claim liberal blessing from God ; and it is this that maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Prov. x. 22, For the word of God, which abkleth for ever, and his promise, which soars above human calculation, gives this assurance to his ancient people : (and the Apostle instructs us, 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, that every scripture that is divinely inspired, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be per¬ fect, throughly furnished unto all good works.) Loose those whom thou hast unjustlv bound ; undo c 2 18 the heavy burdens ; let the oppressed go free ; break every yoke; deal thy bread to the hungry ; bring the poor that are cast out, to thy house ; when thou seest the naked, cover him ; and hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily ; and thy righteousness shall go be¬ fore thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then sbalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer thee; thou shalt cry, and he shall say: Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul ; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day : and the Lord shall guide thee con¬ tinually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and strengthen thy bones : and thou shalt be like a wa¬ tered garden, and like aspring of water, whose wa¬ ters fail not. And through thee shall be built the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the founda¬ tions of many generations ; and thou shalt be called The Repairer of the breach, The Restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah, lviii. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. No. 7. page 5 . “ten pence Or five pence. Is there any thing less severe than the torments in the abode of spirits, which infallible testimony assures us, await the unmer¬ ciful and unjust, that can convince those whom neither reason nor revelation convince of the injus¬ tice of the poor, but strong, or strongly built Irish labourers having to work for five pence a day, while the English man, for the same or less work, receives more than five times as much ? Is it not such things, that drive the poor Irish to desperation and to acts of violence—and that be¬ speak many victims to divine indignation, who like the rich man in the narrative or parable, even with frhe consent of Abraham, are intensely tormented iu 19 h&des while the poor of this world are comforted ? Luke xvi. 14, to the end. Behold, the hire of the labourers, which have reap¬ ed down your fields, which is of you kept back by ftaud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sa- baoth. James v. 4. No. 8, page 6, “ to be divine .” There are two great evils existing in Ireland : and till they are removed, no government in my humble opinion, can reasonably expect, that Ireland w ill be tranquil, or be the scene of that happiness to which the natural disposition of its inhabitants would a- dapt it.They are such as cry to heaven, and demand immediate redress from human justice and mercy. One is the utterly destitute state of the poor ; in which they were left at the union with England. The other is an abuse of power, so repugnant to right reason, that it requires no revelation or par¬ ticular divine precept, to mark its unrighteousness. I mean the compelling the Roman Catholics, be¬ sides what they have to pay the ministers of their own superstition, to pay for another superstition, which they do not believe to be divine. A small number, chiefly of the higher orders, are addicted to that religion, w hich they think best promotes their worldly interests. If they think their religiou worthy of such expensive officers, and if they think its doctrines so comfortable, let them pay for their own comforts. The great teacher appointed by God, the great king who came in disguise, brought good tidings to the poor and preached them gratis. The teachers commissioned by him followed his example ; and the joyful message: that God had been in Christ re¬ conciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, was spread through the civilized world by these poor and despised messengers. This message still remains preserved by divine providence* 20 in spite of the frauds of creed makers or other spoil¬ ers of the truth, in the genuine parts of the New Testament. But it is eclipsed and obscured in some of the modern versions, and especially through means of a false tale of a Jewish false prophet, an¬ nouncing to us prodigiously wonderful things, as if shown to him by angels, but things that plunge hu¬ man hearts in dismay or strike them with horror. This miserable compilation has, in spite of thejudg- inent of honest and learned writers in the early times of Christianity, been palmed upon the so called Christian world by the bishops of both the Eastern and Western Churches, as a work of an x4postie of Christ; and being the only portion of the Bible, that gives any plausible support to episcopacy, has con* tinned, in spite of the judgment of some of the best qualified writers in the 16th century, for upwards of two centuries, to be published as a portiou of the Holy Scriptures, in the Protestant Bibles. Thus, the father of his creatures, whose tender mercies are over all ills works, who so loved the world, that he gave his only genuine Son, that whosoever bclieveth in him should not perish, but have eternal life, is represented as an enemy toman, and the patient and forgiving lamb of God, which took away the sin of the world; John i. 29, 36,who came not to judge the world, but to save the world ; John xii. 47, is repre¬ sented as a cruel, ruthless idol called a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, and thejudaizing Chris¬ tians are called upon to rise up against the powers that be, to avenge themselves, and to render their enemies evil for evil. Such doctrines, however they may be relished by rebellious, evil disposed spirits in our time, are dis¬ approved of by such as have the spirit of Christ, who are commanded to be subject to the higher powers, and to render to no man evil for evil. Ro¬ mans, xiii. 1, xii. 17. Such a pill requires to be gilt. But here there is terror rather than comfort for the poor, although their comforts go to pay for the gilding. The testi* 21 mony of Christ requires no gilding: but while it of¬ fers freely, true, durable riches and righteousness to the poor and to the rich who receive it as beggars, casts contempt on all worldly riches, and honour, and grandeur, and announces to Kings and other worldly rulers, that while it requires its subjects to be faithful friends to them, such of them as profess themselves the subjects of Christ, have not while members of his assembly, any advantage or author¬ ity therein, on account of their worldly station ; Christ having said : The kings of the gentiles exer¬ cise lordship over them : and they that exercise au¬ thority upon them are called benefactors, but ye SHALL NOT BE SO; BUT HE THAT IS GREATEST AMONG YOU LET HIM BE AS THE YOUNGER ; AND HE THAT IS CHIEF AS HE THAT DOTH SERVE. Luke xxii. 25, 26. Our rulers should find out for themselves, the true way to serve God, instead of continuing to impose that system of human inventions, called the estab¬ lished church, upon the poor Roman Catholics. They should examine themselves, whether there really is any attribute, common to that gorgeous, expensive thing, and the ecclesia (congregation, or assembly) of Christ,which they read of in the New Testament. The question requires no great study, but may be de¬ cided in a few hours. They should themselves cease to bear the instruction, that causeth to err from the words of knowledge : and simply furnish the poor of Ireland with the means of making a similar in¬ quest individually : but not allow them to be forced to support a modern system of falsehood, which takes the name of Christ and tramples on his laws. I speak as to English gentlemen, who lay claim to the characteristics of nobleness and sincerity. I speak as to wise men ; whom it is lamentable to see labouring under error. I have often thought, what a great blessing it might be to the land, if such an institution as that of the Synagogues of Judea, which though they were not of divine appointment, Christ disdained not to 22 visit, were happily to supercede ecclesiastical estab¬ lishments : not the modern Synagogues, where men meet to pray and sing, or listen to the singing of a Chassan, nor* yet the Vitringal Synagogues: but assemblies where all sects, or all who believe in the N. T. Scriptures, might meet to be instructed from or concerning the Scriptures, or exhorted to good works: in which the various sects of Trinita¬ rians, and the believers in but one God, learned and unlearned, Pharisees and Sadducees, Catholics and Protestants, should meet to learn as children,rather than offer the sacrifice of fools. Nor do I think there would be insuperable diffi¬ culty in the way of such a change taking place even immediately. The bishops might be created temporal peers, and they and their clergy made comfortable for life by life pensions. All the offices of the Synagogues might be per¬ formed gratuitously, like the gratuitous Magistracy of England. So Christians, or so called Christians of all sects might listen to the word of God in society, w ithout meeting to use vain repetitions as the heathen did, as is now done io churches,—but as Christ has forbidden to do. Matth. vi. 7. Is it not quite anti-christian to stand praying in such assem¬ blies? See Matth. vi. 6 . Let men pray in their chambers, as Christ has recommended, ver. 6. Thus, without offending any God, or injuring any man, an honest and an ample fund might gradually arise for the fulfilment of the promise made by King Henry the VIII to the nation, when he cheated the Parliament, and robbed the poor of the hospitals and monasteries : magnam curam adhibiturum se promisit, ut ad Dei gloriam, bonumque publicum ea disponerentur. This he said, not that he cared for the glory of God, or the public good ; but because he was a thief and had the bag, and kept what was put therein, or gave it to his bishops and nobles. It must be admitted, I think, that this would be more sensible, than certain old-fashioned customs, which some of us might have learned in our youth 23 in some of the seats of knowledge : e. g. that of prav- ing, propria persona, to the Arian God, in the meeting house, while performing righteousness by proxy, e cathedra , at his Graces elbow, to the Tri¬ nity. In such Synagogues Elias when he comes might teach : but sure I am, that neither Elias, nor Christ, nor Paul, would ever go to church. In Christ’s congregations or assemblies, all are to speak the same thing, and to be perfectly joined to¬ gether in the same mind and in the same judgment. S< e 1 Cor. i. 10. But only he can form such assem¬ blies ; nor has he authorized any man to imitate his work. The most perfect imitations are at best but idolatrous. No. 9, page 7, e< starving.” I know of a surgeon’s having put an issue in a half starved beggar’s leg, to remove the pain of cold. Afterwards the man got drawers and stock¬ ings, and regained flesh and dispensed with the is¬ sue. Iiow often is medicine given when quite use¬ less, through want of food and clothing. Such physicians and surgeons as are in the pain¬ ful habit of visiting these people, know the difficul¬ ties to he great, that attend the administering of medical aid to them, by reason of the utter want of proper attendance and conveniences in their hovels ; and they must find it a most disagreeable employ¬ ment on this account, as weil as of the dirt and vermin. Even in the public institutions, physicians or surgeons, I am persuaded,' are considerably coun¬ teracted by niggardly and inadequate supplies as to diet and especially wine. I am persuaded that many poor persons die, or are much injured, in some of the institutions in Liverpool in consequt nee of this. Ii is an ill sign of the growing prosperity of a town, when the poor rates are diminished, by with¬ holding from the poor what would prolong their 24 lives, to say nothing of making them comfortabls and grateful. No. 10 , page 7 , “ They say we are idle So Pharaoh said to the Israelites : Ye are idle, ye are idle. Exod, v. 17. How often do hypocrisy and idleness and covetousness suggest such an ob- jectic ; or excuse, when a poor beggar happens to apply for relief. No. 11, page 7, “ clean ” Viz. in the provinces: yet occasionally in towns. I saw a nest of Irish paupers in an English town, where there was also a sow belonging to the owner of the place. None of them were comfortable ex¬ cept the sow’; who occupied a good corner, and had a tolerably decent bed (for an Irish sow.) What wonder if an infliction similar to one of the plagues of Egypt should come upon the land, since the laws continue to sanction by their silence, the singular good taste of Munster peers, (and mere Union peers too ! ) for the maceration of peasants, and (as be¬ comes those genuine disciples of Saint Patrick ) for the encouraging of the propagation of bugs and lice ! I see no reason to believe, that, if Irish peasants bad the same advantages as English, they would not be quite as cleanly in their habits. But it is quite absurd to expect an improvement in respect to cleanliness, till the poor are allowed room to budge. How can poor creatures keep themselves clean, who have no habitations but such as have for many years been inhabited by undisturbed families of bugs ? who are crowded by tens or twenties, in apart¬ ments consisting of one or two small rooms, d\ing, dead, bringing forth and being born, and sick, men women and children together, packed six and seven in a bed, like bottles in a bin, or rather on a layer of straw, covered with a beggar woman’s cloak, or a dirty blanket, without a sheet ? Moreover how can 25 their moral condition be improved, while all sorts are left to associate together ? In truth the want of cleanliness, which by some is thought peculiar to the Irish paupers, ought to be ascribed to their poverty and the neglect with which they are treated, and especially to the want of clean clothing, more particularly linen and cot¬ ton. But the Irish talk of their linen trade being unprosperous. If so, they may take it as an admo¬ nition from divine providence, to supply their poor with change of linen. In the public institutions, both in England and Ireland, much attention is paid to decency in this respect: and so far they are right: but they are not right in keeping up decency, by excluding shirtless paupers. In some of the numerous institutions (the old ones) in Dublin, much care, I allow, is bestowed on the in¬ mates. Butin these, respect is, I fear, too much had to decency of appearance, in admitting persons; and perhaps a well dressed harlot, or some one who can bring a note from a gentleman or a lady, might be more readily received into a charitable hospital or other establishment, than a poor dirty beggar wo¬ man, who has no recommendation, but that of her misery, and a family of children who are all her own, and who has neither inducement nor ability to keep herself cleam I once asked a surgeon of an hospital, that has received large sums from parlia¬ ment, to take a poor woman in; but he made the inquiry whether she could keep herself decent, as otherwise the rest of the patients (some of them perhaps, whores;) might be discontented. I knew nothing of her, except that she had a bad ulcer on her leg, and was very dirty and almost naked. Now however such a question might harmonize with the expression of Irish charity, I maintain, that, if such is the nature of Irish charity, that it respects the superior clothing, decency and the like of its objects, the poor of Ireland ought immediately to be provid¬ ed for at the public expense. It is just the dirty, D 26 lousy beggars, that cet. par. ought to be provided for first, and for this simple reason, that they want it most. It is such that should have houses provided for them, where they could have food of such quality as might induce them to accept of it: food suffi¬ ciently good for human creatures : to which they should have a right to resort, as the paupers in England have to the parish, and even be compelled (kindly) to resort to them, and washed and shaved, and made to experience the comforts of decency ; (but not, as in the mendicity institutions, and some others, saginated with potatoes and candle-grease, or meal and mouse dirt,or potatoes and — I know not what,) and taught to transmit them to their children, to pre¬ vent the increase of filthiness and vermin, and that the race might be improved : not left, as St. Patrick and “our church” have left them,to solace themselves in their hopeless condition, by killing, vermin by the permission of the national Saint, at the steps of charitable gentlemen. It is said indeed, that in the mendicity they get quantities to eat ; mostly consisting of potatoes, (very good to be sure ; ) and greasy materials brought f rom various sources in vessels like house-buckets. But what may these materials consist of ? I do not know. Do they who prepare them ? Since they consist of every ones leavings, may they not contain pieces of bread arid butter impressed with the teeth of gentlemen who have the venereal disease, or the like? God knows 1 would not taste their food, and if they who prepare the food thus collected, were under the influence of that precept : thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, this food would not be thus unmannerly served up to the poor. Even the heathen satirist says, Stnlttis et prodigus donat quod spernit et odit. But is this a fit expression of their Christian chari¬ ty? Is this dealing out their bread to the hungry, and satisfying every afflicted soul? Such charity it 27 is, that according to their own orthodoxy, is followed in the next life, by damnation. But according to the testimony of Jesus, and the genuine scriptures of God, is succeeded by torments and disgrace, for an undefined portion of duration in the abode of spirits. Luke xvii. But at the mendicity place, the poor, it is said, get no clothes, nor blankets ; and as to sheets—To think of such things for beggars!—But beggar women have most exquisitely contrived skins, form¬ ed by the hand of God, as well as the ladies, who get themselves invited to the castle, or sweat in con-, venticles or churches, or ball rooms, and afford at their own expense or at that of their husbands cre¬ ditors, to keep gigs and jaunting cars, and scold five or six servants on low wages and neither beer nor whiskey, human labour being cheap;—and use two dozen gowns, &c., and keep a town house and a country house, while a dozen of poor people, with four pairs of shoes among them ! inhabit one ap- partment in the liberty, at the expense of beggars swarming like mice, the poor being employed by God to afford shelter to the poor:—since the higher orders will not do it,—and say to the starviug poor, I have nothing to give you, go to the mendicity, and eat what we and our dogs or our ill taught children leave. However the poor of the mendicity say that they are miserable, and the beggars in England, are about as unwilling to be sent to these hospitable re¬ treats, as the beggars of Ithaca were, to be sent to king Echetus. So it will be, where there are no laws for the poor. No. 12. page 8, “ in the week ” We are told of late, that the evils of Ireland are to be ascribed to the rapid increase of population in that country, and that since the population pro¬ ceeds to increase in a ratio greater than that of the means by which they subsist, unless population is 28 checked, the inhabitants of the earth must in time be deprived of food. But notwithstanding the theo¬ ries of heathenish philosophists, (whose wisdom af¬ ter all, is of the same kind as that which led king Pharaoh to murder the infants of the children of Is¬ rael,) the Omniscient Creator of the world has pro¬ vided more than superabundantly for all the crea¬ tures that he has created, and that he intends to create, but especially for the inhabitants of Ireland. This provision is made in two ways ; in the first place, by supplying more than enough for all both rich and poor : secondly, by his word ; (for man liveth not by bread only, but by every word which pro¬ ceeded out of the mouth of God :) by which word he has commanded all that have this world’s goods, to attend to and to supply the wants of the poor, not to waste his gifts in ebriety and gluttony. What then is the reason that the poor of Ireland are so miserable ? because the commands of the Su¬ preme Sovereign, to whom we owe every thing we have, are almost entirely disregarded. The rich give to the rich, and oppress the poor, to increase their substance. Christ has given no command to heap extravagant wealth on the rich, on those from whom a return is to be expected. Luke vi. 33. But he has com¬ manded his disciples to attend to the wants of the destitute and weak, and guilty : according to the ex¬ ample of God, who is kind to the ungrateful and evil ; who maketh his sun to rise upon evil men and good men, and raineth on just and on unjust. Matth. v. 43—48 . Luke vi. 31—36. And to one who had invited him he said : When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbours ; lest they also invite thee again, and a recorn pence be made thee. But when thou makest an entertainment, call poor, maimed, lame, blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; because they cannot recompense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just. Luke xiv. 12, 13, 14. ( So we see that, to christiau 29 missionaries, services of gold and silver are useless trumpery.) They then, that withhold necessary support from the needy, and either hoard up, or expend on the rich, what God has intrusted them with for the poor, are justly said to rob God, and thus their blessings are cursed. Though the rich invite to their feasts, their rich neighbours, their friends, their brethren and their kinsmen, and in doing so, give themselves a great deal of unnecessary trouble, and little or no satisfaction to any one, they often refuse to give the poor any thing : whereas if every Christian and per¬ son called Christian were to pay even so much regard to the commands of Christ, as to give the value of a potatoe and a glass of water to every pauper that should ask, the poor might be amply provided for and at little expence ; and the appalling distresses of the poor might vanish as a cloud. It is true the commands of Christ are not issued among thunderings and lightenings from Sinai. His will is expressed in the epistles oi his friends, and in his own familiar discourses:—the conversations of him who is before Abraham was: who conversed with Abraham and his family as a friend : him who spake as never man spake. But these express his w ill sufficiently ; and it is exceeding great folly for any, even the highest upon earth, to neglect the ex¬ pressed will of so great a Fotentate^because though he could compel us to obey, he rather invites and entreats as a friend, enforcing his entreaties by his example. But if his gentle hints are despised, he can moreover, in case they are requisite, and we prefer then), further enforce them by dreadful blows. He indeed defended the woman who anointed his feet with a costly ointment, against the churlish censure of some of his disciples. But it was his feet that she anointed,—the feet of him who brought good tidings gratis : not the feet of such as assume his name, while they despise his example and dis¬ obey his commands. It was w ? ith the poor that he associated during his life: the piousputhim todeath, D 2 so and the rich gave him a grave. Though of the high¬ est family in Israel, of the highest family on earth, he seldom visited the houses of the rich or great. Besides: the ointment was her own : she had not procured it, by robbing and cheating the poor. People that are rich, and have high characters for piety, mean perhaps well, in speaking against the drunkenness, into which poor people are occasionally said to fall. But do they ever consider, that they themselves, with their rich and pious friends, fre¬ quently consume in one sitting, more than what would frequently intoxicate more than equal num¬ bers of such, as, like the Irish poor, and many of the poor of England, scarcely ever taste wine or any strong drink. If the poor, by reason of the voracity of the rich, or of such as can live on credit, who seldom spare to give what they can afford, to please their high acquaintances or to pamper them¬ selves, keep up the price of whatever is good, so that the poor cannot have the daily moderate use of what the providence of God has given, to cheer the heart of man in general, what wonder, if the poor should occasionally be inebriated, since some ot them can only bear a little, and yet, very naturally, take as much as they can, whenever it happeus to fall in their way. And so it is with regard to food. Does npt every one know, that through some fault or other, most of those things that are indicated as most proper for the poors’ digestion, are kept up at such a high price, that the poor, who want them most, must do without them. The Irish poor endeavour to live oc¬ casionally on starch flummery, or even sea weeds : while the higher orders and their domestic animals consume more flesh—much more than would suffice for all: and much of what they eat is lost, as would appear evidently, by an examination of the bills of apothecaries, and analysis of the crapula hodierna and hesterna of Munster Earls.—Vulgar stuff! No, for I am not speaking of the poor. Yet their solid or liquid contents are thought of more considerable 81 value : at least, they are sold, in some of the Eng¬ lish tovvus, to pay for their expenses. Mow often have I heard pious people ascribe in¬ toxication falsely to the poor ! How often are they said to be reeling drunk, when afflicted and drunk¬ en, but not with strong drink, when their knees are weak with famine and weariness, and their minds distracted and harrassed by watching and cold and anxiety. A lady when drunk, spoke to me once, against the propensity that some poor person had, or was surmised to have, for taking drams. Truly snch people, whether they be pious or im¬ pious, should just study to mind their own business, and should recollect the story of the high priest Eli, how he unjustly ascribed that atrocious sin to the afflicted mother of the young prophet appointed af¬ terwards to announce to him the ruin of his house and of his priesthood. He should have spared his admonitions, and attended to the failings of his beastly sons. See 1 Sam. i. ii. The poor, who- thank God for all they can get, may reasonably be supposed to know what agrees with their own constitutions, as well as the rich and the pious, who say or listen to many prayers and thanksgivings, and never thank God for any thing. They perhaps have experienced jn themselves cer¬ tain outward phenomena to be the effects of what their conscience disallows, and then with no philo¬ sophic minds, or understandings furnished with much power of abstracting, to presume, in common life, as if to follow that rule in philosophising : that of many effects of the same kind, the same causes are to be assigned as much as may be. It is the common cant among the higher sorts of Irish. No doubt it is the will of God, that there should be various orders of high and low, rich and poor on the earth : but is not his will, that there should be such great disproprtion as to the use of the good things which he has given. And how? His word appoints the rich stewards of their substance for the poor, till these have enough, and has invited them 32 to make the poor their guests ; promising to those who obey him, blessings, to which all their transitory wealth and honours are not to be compared. We have heard a great deal of late, about the lux¬ urious habits of beggars in London, especially the Irish : and very likely many individuals of superior ingenuity may find the way to thrive in such a large and opulent town, in that vile profession as well as in others. But is this an argument against the poor simple peasantry of Ireland, why they should be left to starve at the bottom of such a profession? Is it not rather a'cogent argument, why an universal system for employment of the poor, and of main¬ taining them in their proper places, being enacted, their present vile profession may retain no excuse ? I know that great dislike has been expressed, or entertained in Ireland, to the notion of enacting parochial laws for the poor. And I am willing to hope that this dislike does not always proceed from covetousness, and that many who express such aversion, have not seriously considered the subject : for I know not what reasonable objection, honest and just men have against it. A just and wise sys¬ tem of poor laws, might not only, by laying reason¬ able proportions on all, make the support of the poor tolerable, or even agreeable to each, but might have the effect of sumptuary laws, to prevent the useless expending abroad too great a proportion of the amount of the rents of the country. It would argue the absence of sentiments that are just, in the rest of the richer portion of the inhabitants of Dub¬ lin for instance, to be willing to take advantage, of the exuberant kindness, patience and liberality of two or three, or a few extraordinarily rich gentle* men, (If there really are any who possess these re quisite virtues,) and to overwhelm them with the weaves of human misery, which, if it had liberty al- iow'ed it to discover itself, would doubtless make exertion for the protracting of human life, and pour in upon them, from the thronged recesses, alleys, cellars, or sties in the liberties of that splendid capi- 35 tal, laying such a claim on each of them (which cer¬ tainly ought not to be eluded, and must be allowed) to an exertion of Christian beneficence, which would soon require the sacrifice of every luxury, and al¬ most every convenience and comfort of their lives, and after all perhaps make but a trifling diminu¬ tion of the glass of wretchedness, that has accumu¬ lated for many years, or for centuries, through the atrocious guilt oflrish legislators, the general defi¬ cient sense of moral obligation, and dearth of real efficacious charity. I would not however, that the English parochial laws were without modification, introduced into Ireland. At least if they were, the Government should see that they were made effectual, for the happiness and improvement of the poor. We see from the reports of the Dublin mendicity Society, with what immense difficulties the exertions of a few individuals, extort from the world’s cold charity, the paltry donations, by which a great number, but a small proportion of the starved beg¬ gars have their lives protracted in misery, and want of almost every thing that makes life agreeable. I know not, whether the people of Dublin are deaf to the pious exhortations addressed to them, wherein it is cslculated, that by contributing a few shillings to the mendicity Society, they may keep alive such of the poor as know that there is such a place as Dublin, in misery and want, at the same time that they ward off the infliction of an adequate legal pro¬ vision for thousands or tens of thousands of the pro¬ vincials, especially of Connaught, living, or here¬ after to live, under ground in England, in miserable dark holes,like rats and mice, who know nothing of Dublin or of its charitable institutions, and like the starved and satirical horse that committed suicide in the Ribble, chuse rather to perish where they are, than take the trouble of returning to perish at home, —whether they have good sense enough to see or to feel, that no such exhortations can flow from genu¬ ine benevolence, and that no private exertions can 34 be of adequate avail, as long as want of law permits the idle, dissolute nobility and gentry to spend in foreign countries or in vicious extravagance, all the wealth that should enable them to make the pea¬ santry of Ireland joyful and contented ; — but the tardiness and inadequacy of their contributions speak, as if by the incitement that gave a voice to the ass of Balaam, reproving the tardiness of the government and legislature. It is for desultory peers, who enjoy the riches that formerly were spent upon the poor ; it is for the bloated and superabundantly rich devourers of the good things of the land, to fancy it for their interest to have the citizens persuaded that poor laws would be a burden. They, who in case of poor laws being made universal, might reasonably be made to con¬ tribute annually their hundreds and thousands to¬ wards the support and employment of their neglect¬ ed tenantry, are now at liberty to throw their bur¬ den, their intolerable burdens, on the poor, or on such of the industrious and affluent as are consci¬ entious ; and to cant about the charity and benevo¬ lence of Ireland, while they themselves neglect the ILGSt Indispensable of their duties, and, as is pretty generally admitted, leave the population of the country, which they insolently call redundant, to famine, cold, and nakedness, in the midst of the abundant provision of all that is good, which the hand of God daily bestows: While the good bishop, with a meeker air. Admits, and leaves them,—providence’s care. No. 13, page 8, “ every Englishman at this clay abhors” Godwin, (Francis) a bishop of Hereford, in the reign of Charles I, after mentioning the act of Par¬ liament, whereby all the hospitals, and houses for poor travellers and strangers, in the whole kingdom Q 35 &c., were given up to King Henry VIII, ut iis pro suo arbitrio uteretur, adds : Ac iis quidem ordinibus gratias agens, inagnam curam adbibiturum se pro- misit, ut ad Dei gloriam, bonumque publicum ea disponerentur. Cseterum promissoruni fidem non- dum exolutam videmus. Annal. lib. i. Anno. 1545. He says in another place: Adeoque si rex post tan- tos sumptus egere coeperit, mirandum non putarem* nisi ex coenobiorum nupe? everscrum spoliis opum vim incredibdem congessisse verisiinile esset. At ille nihilominus exhausto plane fisco, rei nummariae inopia magnopere laboravit; sive quod Deo erepta Dei benedictionem securn non adferrent, quae sola (ut Salomon) divites facit: sive quod partem longe maximum in alios, proceres puta et aulicos suos(the ancestors of those who expend the poors sustenance so as to leave the poor of Ireland to perish, because there is no law for the poor :) contulisset sive de- nique quod ex iis quae sibi reservarat magna stipen- dia ejectis monachis persolvenda erant quamdiu vi- verent. Quibus adjiciendum est, quod Episcopatus novos sex constituerat, et Ecclesias Cathedrales tc- tidem. Five of them remain, like Jeroboam’s calves, or like the high places and groves of the house of Ahab, a disgrace, to the nation, or a monument of iniquity. No. 14, page 8,