193 1 This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You may not reproduce this digitized copy of the book for any purpose other than for scholarship, research, educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy (or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes. HISTORY PENAL LAW S against the IRISH CATHOLICS; FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE UNION. By HENRY PARNELL, Esq. M. P.- " He felt it his duty to declare fully his sentiments on these points, be- " cause he looked upon his Roman Catholic brethren as fellow subjects " and fellow Christians, believers in the same God, and partners in the " same Redemption. Speculative differences in some points of faith from " him, were of no account, they and he had but one religion — the religion " «f Christianity. Therefore, as children of the same father, as travellers '' in the same road, and seekers of the same salvation, why not love each " other as brothers F It was no part of Protestantism to persecute Catho- " lies, and without justice to the Catholics there could be no security: for " the Protestant Establishment." Vide Speech of Dr. Law, Bishop ofElphin, on the Catholic Bill of 1793. " If any one should contend that this is not the time for Governnlent to " make concessions to Ireland, I wish him to consider, whether there is any. " time in which itis improper, for either individuals or nations to do justice, " any season improper for extinguishing animosity, any occasion more suit-; "able than the present, for putting an end to heartburnings, and internal, " discontent." _ , Vide Speech intended to be spoken by Dr. Watson, Bishop of Landaff, November 23, 1803. LONDON : PRINTED FOR J. HARDING, 36, ST. JAMES'S STREET. 1 808. Wr%ht, Printer, St. John's Square. INDEX. Arms, Catholics deprived of the use of 22.40. 61 Act of 1793 116 Articles of Limerick .......... 5. 22. App. i. Attornies, Catholics not admitted to be 26. 4l . admitted- to be j . 107 Advowsons 29 83 Apprentices, Catholic ... 41. 108 Allegiance of Catholics 56. 73 Absolution of Sins „ 5/ Addresses to the Duke of Bedford, 1757 59 . of the inhabitants of Cork 60 : — — to the King, 1774 ...76 to the King, 1793 125 Barristers, Catholics not to be 46 - — ¦ admitted to be 107 Burke, Edmund. Letter of, to Sir H. Langrkhe 102 Butler, Sir Theobald, Speech on act to prevent the further growth of Popery App. i. Butler, Dr. Letter to Lord Kenmare 1 APP- *lx- Catholics, rights secured to them by the treaty of Limerick 19.31 — — — — Laws in force against themln 1697 . . 20 ; Conduct in 17 1 5 .44 . Conduct of, in 1745 49 Declaration of, in 1757 and 1792 55. 108 ¦ . Resolutions of, 17S2 102 Admitted to marry Protestants 108 ¦ Convention of 1792 109 Good faith of. App. xix. to what disabilities now subject .-. . . 124 Catholic Clergy, conduct of, 1745 51 . Exhortation of, 1757 52 . Exhortation of, in 1793; 134 ¦ Conduct of, in 1798 149 Catholic soldiers, how circumstanced 125. 127 Catholic religion, the principles of App. xn. 1— • Establishment of 58. 150 Catholic general committee 55 Constables, Catholics not to be -- 43 Coronation oath -64 Concordat, French App. xm. Cloyne, Bishop of, refutation of his assertions, by Dr. But ler - - App. xix. Declaration of 1757 56 : of 1792 - 56 of 1798 App. xi. Defenders . . 128 Education of Catholics prohibited 22, 39 admitted 83, 108 Elections, IKBEX. Elections, Catholics uot to vote at 29. 43. 4$. : -Catholics to vote at -...sz — .lii Forfeited lands......... - — -y-i --- Fitzwilliam Lord, Lord Lieutenant .. ; UO _.. Recalof - 138 Guardianship by Catholics 22. 27. 83. 87 Gamekeepers .......... ........ 2p Grind Jurors, Catholics not to be 41 Ghilini, Letter of, in 1768 App. xxi. Gosfbrd's, Lord, Speech. _ 130 Heretics .........56 Hibernica Domini cana. . .............. ..... ..App. xxi. Jurors, Petit, qualification of. ........ ..... ...... 47v Limerick, Articles of. ........ .....5. App. r. Marriage of Protestants with Catholics . .26.48 Oaths 56 Oath of Allegiance App. xx. — — of Catholic bishops App. xxii. Priests, banishment of... .......... ....22 converted ... 40 ¦ <- discovery of .40 — registering of . : 41.83 Popery, act to prevent . 27 to discharge persons from penalties .44 Property ..27. 81, 82. 1 16 Penal Laws, effect of. . ............ .............66 repeal of some of them ..83 — — — — still in force 124 Protestant Charter Schools ..47 Pope .• 57 Parliament,- Catholics excluded from 62 Petition, 1744 76 *_ 179 i .90 1792 92 1793 no Pitt, Mr. favourable to Emancipation........ ..... ....gl Protestants of Ulster favourable to the Catholics, 86. 91. 101. J 16. 128. 142. and App. xxiv. Principles of the Catholic, religion App.xn. Presbyterians favourable to the Catholics 128 Rebellion of 1798 /.'."'. 143 Sheriffs, Catholics not to be 41 Students of King's Inns, Catholics notto be *__ "m'm62 admittedto.be j07 Vestry, Catholics not to vote at ._ „ 44 Universities, answers of foreign . ' ..164 Union, supported by the Catholics ........ yjl A HISTORY OP THE PENAL LAWS, 'g- WILLIAM III. WHEN James II. abdicated the throne of En^ land, he retired to France, to solicit the aid of Louis XIV. to enable him to secure the possession of Ireland, where he was still acknowledged as the lawful sovereign. On the 12th of March, 1689, James landed at Kinsale with about 1200 of his own subjects in the pay of France, and 190 French officers. He was received with open arms, and the whole country seemed to be devoted to him, for although the protestants in the north had de clared for the new government, their strength and number were inconsiderable, when compared with the forces of the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel. This minister had disarmed all the other protestants in one day, and assembled an army of 30,000 foot, and 8,000 cavalry.* Addresses were poured in upon James from all orders of the people. The established clergy among the rest, congratulated him upon his arrival, a certain sign that his chance of success was not contemptible. * Smollett, 1. 36. . b James 2 James continued to govern Ireland, without any interruption from William, till the 13th of Au gust,* when Schomberg landed at Belfast with an English army of 10,000 men. To oppose him, James collected his forces, amounting to 30,000, at Drogheda. f Schomberg who had arrived at Dundalk, thought it pruflefit to advance no far ther ; and instead of reducing Ireland, after hav ing lost one hajf of his army by sickness, he at the end of the campaign was under the necessity of entrenching himself against an enemy, which he had been taught in England to despise, and of con fining his operations to the protection of the nor thern province.^ On the 14th of June in the year following, Wil liam landed with reinforcements at Carrickfefgus. His military genius, as well as the distracttd state of England, and the formidable preparations of France, inclined him to a vigorous prosecution of $be war in Ireland. § He advanced towards Dubr li'n with an army of 36,000 men. James collected bis forces amounting to '33,000 at Drogheda, and by an unaccountable infatuation resisted the advice of his general officers, to act on the defensive against William ; who would then have had to contend, at the same time, against a threatened fo>- •rfeign invasion of Britain, the insurrection which ¦his own -subjects Were .plotting, and the difficulty of maintaining his Irish army in an unfriendly cli- iriatfc, without provisions or succours. Though William obtained a decided victory at the -Boy ne, the Irish army had fought with cou rage and obstinacy ; and, in consequence of having at pne time repulsed the centre of the English * Lelandj ». 3, b. 6. c. 6. + lb. + lb. § Ib. armv, 3 army, were able to retire in good order, with the loss of only 1500 men.* The subsequent defeat of General Douglas before Athlone, and of WiUiam , himself before Limerick, left James, at the end of the campaign, in possession of nearly one half of Ireland, and well supported by an army inured to war, and commanded by able and experienced generals. William experienced still greater em barrassments on the continent and in England. A victory had been gained by Luxemburgh, in Flan ders, over Prince Waldeek and the confederate army; Tourville had defeated the united fleets of England and Holland ; and great dejection and discontent were visible among all his British sub jects. William having returned to England in the au tumn of 1690, General Ginckle, with an army in ferior to that of St. Ruth, who now commanded the Irish forces, commenced the campaign by the capture of the fort of Baltimore. Having af terwards taken Athlone, and defeated St. Ruth at the battle of Aughrim, he laid siege to Limerick on the 25th of August, 1691. The fortifications had been strengthened since William was repulsed before it in the preceding* year ; the garrison was healthy, well supplied, and in numbers equal to the assailants, and strong succours were daily expected from fiance. f The besiegers, on the other hand,, were too few for the undertaking, the season ofthe year was far advanced, and they had no expecta tions of receiving any reinforcements. Week passed away .after week without Ginckle's obtaining any advantage over the besieged ; at length he made a lodgment on the opposite side of * Leland, v. 3. b. 6. c. 6. + lb. B 2 the 4 the Shannon: But,, not withstanding this success,' it was debated whether the siege should be carried on, or converted into a blockade; such were the difficulties foreseen in reducing the town. It was dangerous for the besiegers to. continue in their present station on the approach of winter, and ha zardous to divide an army sufficient only for as sailing the town on one side ; and yet the only ef fectual way of reducing it was to invest it on all sides, by cutting off the garrison from all inter course with the county of Clare.* William, in the mean time, was so sensible ofthe necessity of obtaining the surrender of the Irish army, in order to secure his newly acquired throne, and the success of the revolution, that he sent in structions to the lords justices to issue a procla mation, offering to the Catholics still more liberal terms than those which they afterwards accepted; and he gave Ginckle urgent directions to terminate the war oh any conditions. f Fortunately, how ever, for William and the revolution party, but most unfortunately, as events have since proved, for the Catholics, the garrison of Limerick beat a parley on the 29th day ofthe siege. A cessation of three days was granted ; and, on the last day of it, the Irish generals proposed terms of capitulation. They required an act of indemnity for all past offences, with a full enjoyment of the estates they possessed * Leland, t. 3. b. 6- c. 6, + Leland, v. 3. b. 6. c. 6. and Harries Life of William, p. 372. This was called the secret proclamation, because, though printed, it never was published, in consequence of the Lords Justices being informed of the inclination ofthe garrison to treat for their surrender. before before the present revolution, freedom for the Ca-1 tholic worship, with an establishment of one Ro mish ecclesiastic in each parish. They also re quired, that Catholics should be declared fully qua lified for every office, civil and military ; that they should be admitted into all corporations ; and, that the Irish army should be kept up and paid in the same manner with the king's other troops, pro vided they were willing to serve.* Ginckle refused to accede to their proposal ; but being desired to offer such terms as he could grant, he consented to conditions which were accepted by the garrison, and which are contained in the following civil and military articles. Three days after they were signed, the French fleet arrived in Dingle Bay.f THE CIVIL and MILITARY ARTICLES op LIMERICK, Exactly printedfrom the Letters Patent, wherein they afe ratified and exemplified by their Majesties, under the Great Seal of England. % Gulielmus & Maria Dei gratia, Anglae, Scotiae, Francise & Hibernise, rex et regina, fidei defensores, &d Omnibus ad quos presentes literse nostrse pervenerint sa lutem : inspeximus irrotulament. quarund. literarum patentium de confirmatione, geren. dat. apud Westmo- nasterium vicemo quarto die Februarii, ultimi praeteriti in cancellar. nostr. irrotulat. ac ibidem de recordo remanem. in haec verba. William and Mary, by the grace of God, &c. To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting, * Leland, v. 3, b. 6. c. 6. + See Note A. J The date of the ratification of these articles, is 5th of April, 1692, that is four years after their majesties had taken the coronation oath. Whereas 6 Whereas certain articles, bearing date the third day of October last past, made and agreed on between our jus tices of our kingdom 6f Ireland, and our general of our forces there on the one part ; and several officers there, commanding within the city of Limerick, in our said kingdom, on the other part. Whereby out said justices fend general did Undertake that we should ratify thdse ar* tides) within the space of eight months or sooner ; and use their utmost endeavours that the same should be rati fied and confirmed in parliament, The tenor of which said .articles is as follows, viz. . A*T ICLES AGREED tJPON THE THIEfa t)AY Of OdTOfefcjl,* ONE THOD- SASD SIX (LuKdRED AUD NINETT'ONE. Between the Right Honourable Sir Charles Porter, Knight, 'and Thomas Coningsby, Esq. Lords Justices of Ireland; and his Excellency the Baron De Ginckle, Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of the English army; on the ene Part. And the Right Honourable Patrick Earl of Lucan, Piercy, Viscount Gallmoy, Colonel Nicholas Parcel, Colonel Nicholas Diisack, Sir Toby Butler, Colonel Garret Dillon, and Colonel John Brown ; on the other Part: In the behalf of tbe Irish Inhabitants in the City and County of Limerick, the Counties of Clare, Kerry, Cork, Sligo j and Mayo. In consideration of the Surrender of the City of Lime rick, and other Agreements made between the said Lieutenant General Ginckle, the Governor of the City of Limerick, and the Generals of the Irish army, beat ing date with these Presents, for the Surrender of the City, ind Submission of the said Arftiy : it is agreed, That, I. The Roman Catholics ©f this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion, as are , consistent consistent with the laws of Ireland 5 or as they did enjoy in the reign of King Charles the Second : and their Majes, ties, as soon as their affairs wjll permit then) to summon! a Parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure tbe said Roman Catholics such farther security in 'that particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the account cf their said religion. II. All the inhabitants or residents of Limerick, or any other garrison now in the possession of the Irish, and all pfficers and soldiers, now in arms, under any commission of King James, or those authorised ' by him, to grant the same in tbe several counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo, or any of them ; and all the commissioned officers in their Majesties' quarters, that belong to the Irish regiments now in being, that are treated with, and who are not prisoners of war, or have taken protection, and who shall return and submit to their Majesties' obe dience ; and their and every of their heirs, shall hold, possess, and enjoy, all and every their estates of freehold and inheritance ; and all the rights, titles and interest, pri vileges and immunities, which they, and every or any of them bejd, enjoyed, or were rightfully and lawfully enti tled to in the reign of King Charles II . or at anv time since, by tbe laws and statutes that were in force in the said reign of King Charles JI. and .shall be put in posses sion, by order of the government, of such of thein as are in the King's hands, or the hands of his tenants, without being put to any suit or trouble therein ; and all such es tates shall be freed and discharged from all arrears of crown rents, quit rents, and other public charges, incurred and become- due since Michaelmas 1688, to the day of jtbe date herepf : and all persons comprehended in this article, shall have, hold, and enjoy all their goods and chatties, real and persona], to the**), or any of them belonging, and remain ing either in their own hands, or iir the hands of any per sons whatsoever, in trust for, or for the use of them, or any of them ; and all, and every the said persons, of -what profession, trade, or calling soever they be, shall and may use, exerciae,and practise their several and respective pro fessions, trades and callings, as freely as they did use, ex ercise, and enjoy the same in the reign of King Charles II. provided provided that nothing in this article contained, be construed to1 extend to, or restore any forfeiting person now out of the kingdom, except what are hereafter comprised; pro vided also, that no person whatsoever shall have or enjoy the benefit of this article, that shall neglect or refuse to take the oath of allegiance,* made by act of Parliament in England, in the first year of the reign of their present Majesties, when thereunto required. III. All merchants, or reputed merchants of the city of Limerick, or of any other garrison now possessed by the Irish, or of any town or place in the counties of Clare or Kerry, who are absent beyond the seas, that have not bore arms since their Majesties declaration in February 1688, shall have the benefit of the second article, in the same manner as if they were present ; provided such merchants, and reputed merchants, do repair into this kingdom within the- space of eight months from the date hereof. IV. The following officers, viz. Colonel Simon Lutterel, Captain Rowland White, Maurice Eustace of Yermans- town, Chieveas of Maystown, commonly called Mount- Leinster, now belonging to the regiments in the aforesaid garrisons and quarters ofthe Irish army, who were beyond the seas, and sent thither upon affairs of their respective regiments, or the army in general, shall have the benefit and advantage of the second article, provided they return hither within tbe space of eight months from the date of these presents, and submit to their Majesties government, and take the above-mentioned oath. V. That all and singular the said persons comprised in the second and third articles, shall have a general pardon of all attainders, outlawries, treasons, misprisions of trea son, premunires, felonies, trespasses, and other crimes and misdemeanors whatsoever, by them, or any of them, committed since the beginning of the reio-n of Kin°' James II. and if any of them are attainted by "Parliament', * I A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, that I will be faithful, and bear true Allegiance to their Majesties King Wil. liam and Queen Mary. So help me God. the the Lords Justices, and General, will use their best en deavours to get the same repealed by Parliament, and the outlawries to be reversed gratis, all but writing-clerks fees. VI. And whereas these present wars have drawn on. great violences on both parts; and that if leave were given- to the bringing all sorts of private actions, tbe animosities would probably continue that have been too long on foot, and the public disturbances last : for tbe quieting and set tling therefore of this kingdom, and avoiding those incon veniences which would be the necessary consequence of the contrary, no person or persons whatsoever, comprised in the foregoing articles, shall be sued, molested, or im pleaded at the suit of any party or parties whatsoever, for any trespasses by them committed, or for any arms, horses money, goods, chatties, merchandizes, or provisions what soever, by them seized or taken during the time ofthe war. And no person or persons whatsoever, in the second or third articles comprised, shall be sued, impleaded, or made accountable for the rents or mean rates of any lands, tenements, or houses, by him or them received, or enjoyed in this kingdom, since the beginning of the present war, to the day of the date hereof, nor for any waste or trespass by bim or them committed in any such lands, tenements or houses : and it is also agreed, that this article shall be mutual and reciprocal on both sides. VII. Every nobleman and gentleman comprised in tbe said second and third articles, shall have liberty to ride with a sword and case of pistols, if they think fit ; and keep a gun in their houses, for the defence of the same, or for fowling. VIII. The inhabitants and residents in the city of Li merick, and other garrisons, shall be permitted to remove their goods, chatties and provisions, out of the same, with out being viewed and searched, or paying any manner of duties, and shall not be compelled to leave tbe houses or lodgings they now have, for the space of six weeks next ensuing the date hereof, IK. 10 IX. The oath to be administered to such Romaft Cathpi lies as' submit to their Majesties Government, shall be the oath abovesaid, and no other. X. No person or persons who shall at any time here after break these articles, or any of them, shall thereby make, or cause any other person or persons to forfeit or lose the benefit of the same. XI. The Lords Justices and General do promise to use their utmost endeavours, that all the persons comprehended in the abovementioned articles, shall be protected and defended from all arrests and executions for debt or da mage, for the space of eight months next ensuing the date hereof. XII. Lastly, the Lords Justices and General do under take, that their Majesties will ratify these articles within the space of eight months, or sooner, and use their utmost endeavours that the same shall be ratified and confirmed in Parliament. XIII. And whereas Colonel John Brown stood indebted to several Protestants, by judgments of record, which ap. pearing to the late Government, the Lord Tyrconnel, and Lord Lucan, took away the effects the said John Brown had to answer -the said debts, and promised to clear the said John Brown of the said debts ; which effects were taken for the public use of the Irish, and their army : for freeing the said Lord Lucan of his said engagement, past on their public account, for payment of the said Protes tants, and for preventing the ruin of the said John Brown, and for satisfaction of his creditors, at the instance of the Lord Lucan, and the rest of the persons aforesaid, it is agreed, that tbe said Lords Justices, and the said Baron De Ginckle, shall intercede with the King and Parliament, to have the estates secured to Roman Catholics, by arti cles and capitulation in this kingdom, charged with, and equally liable to the payment of so much of the said debts, as the said Lord Lucan, upon stating accounts with the said John Brown, shall certify under his hand* that the ef fects taken from the said Brown amount unto ; which ac compt II compt is to be stated, and the balance certified by the said Lord Lucan in one and twenty days after the date hereof: For the true performance hereof, we have hereunto set our bands, Present SCRAVENMORE. CHAR. PORTER. H. MACCAY. THOS. CONINGSBY. T. TALMASH. Bar. De GINCKLE. And whereas the said city pf Limerick hath been since, in pursuance of the said articles, surrendered unto us. Now know ye, that we having considered ofthe said arti cles, are graciously pleased hereby to declare, that we do for us, our heirs, and successors, as far as in its lies, ratify and confirm the same, and every clause, matter, and thing therein contained. — And as to such parts thereof, for which an act of Parliament' shall be found to be necessary, we shall recommend the same to be made good by Parliament, and shall give our royal assent to any bill or bills that shall be passed by our two houses of Parliament to that purpose. And whereas it appears unto us, that it was agreed be tween the parties to tbe said articles, that after the words, Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Mayo, or any of tbein, in the second of the said articles, the words following, viz. " And all such as are under their protection in the said counties," should be inserted, and be part of the said ar ticles. Which words having been casually omitted by the writer, the omission was not discovered till after the said articles were signed, but was taken notice of before the se cond town was surrendered : and that our said justices and general, or one of them, did promise that the said clause should be made good, it being within tbe intention of the capitulation, and inserted in the foul draft thereof. Our further will and pleasure is, and we do hereby ratify and confirm tbe said omitted words, viz. " And all such as are ander their protection in the said counties," hereby for us, Our heirs and Successors, ordaining and declaring, that ail and every person and persons therein concerned, shall and may have, receive, and enjoy the benefit thereof, in such and the same manner, as if the said words had been inserted IS inserted in their proper place, in the said, second article; any omission, defect, or mistake in tbe said second article, in any wise notwithstanding. Provided always, and our will and pleasure is, that these our letters patents shall be enrolled in our court of Chancery, in our said kingdom of Ireland, within tbe space of one year next ensuing. In witness, &c. witness ourself at Westminster, the twenty- fOurth day of February, anno regni regis & reginae Guliel- ml & Mariae quarto per breve de privato sigillo. Nos au tem tenorem premissor. predict. Ad requisitionem attor- riat. general, domini regis & dominae reginae pro regno Hi- berniae. Duximus exemplificand. per presentes. In cujus rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Testibus nobis ipsis apud Westmon. quinto die Aprilis, annoqr regni eorum quarto. BRIDGES. Examinat. f S. Keck. "j In Cancel. per nos \ Lacon Wm. Childe. jMagistros. Military .Articles agreed upon between the Baron de Ginclcle, Lieutenant-General, and Commander in Chief ofthe English army, on the one side- — And the Lieutenant-General s De Ussoon and De Tesse, , Commanders in Chief of the Irish army, on the other; and the General Officers hereunto subscinbing. I. That all persons, without any exceptions, of what quality or condition soever, that are willing to leave the kingdom of Ireland, shall have free liberty to go to any country beyond the seas (England and Scotland excepted) where they think fit, with their families, household-stuffj plate, and jewels. II. That all general officers, colonels, and generally all other officers of horse, dragoons, andfoot guards, troopers, dragooners, soldiers of all kinds that are in any garrison, place, or post, now in the hands of the Irish, or encamped in the counties of Cork, Clare, and Kerry, as also those called Rapparees, or volunteers, that are willing to go be* yond seas as aforesaid, shall have free leave to embark themselves themselves wherever the ships are that are appointed to transport them, and to come in whole bodies as they are now composed, or in parties, companies, or otherwise, without having any impediment, directly or indirectly. III. That all persons above-mentioned, that are willing to leave Ireland and go into France, shall have leave to declare it at the times and places hereafter mentioned, viz. the troops in Limerick, on Tuesday next in Limerick ; the horse at their camp on Wednesday, and the other forces that are dispersed in the counties of Clare, Kerry, and Cork, on the 8th instant, and on none other, before Monsieur Tameron, the French intendant, and Colonel Withers ; and after such declaration is made, the troops that will go into France must remain under the command and discipline of their officers that are to conduct them thither ; and deserters of each side shall be given up, and punished accordingly. IV. That all English and Scotch officers that serve now in Ireland, shall be included in this capitulation, as well for tbe security of their estates and goods in England, Scotland, and Ireland, (if thev are willing to remain here), as for passing freely into France, or any other country to serve. V. That all the general French officers, the intendant, the engineers, the commissaries at war, and of tbe artillery^ the treasurer, and other French officers, strangers, and all others whatsoever, that are in Sligo, Ross, Clare, or in the army, or that do trade or commerce, or are otherways employed in any kind of station or condition, shall have free leave to pass into France, or any other country, and shall have leave to ship themselves, with all their horses, equipage, plate, papers, and all their effects whatever ; and that General Ginckle will order pa;s;wrts for them, convoys, and carnages, by land and water, to carry them safe from Limerick to the ships where they siall be em barked, without payingany thing for the said carriages, or to those that are- employed therein, with their horses, cars, boats, and shallops. VI. That 14 VI. That if any of the aforesaid equipages, merchan dize horses, money, plate, or other moveables, or house hold' stuff belonging to the said Irish troops, or to tbe French officers, or other particular persons whatsoever, be robbed, destroyed, or taken away by the troops of tbe said General, the said General will order it to be restored, or payment to be made -according to the value that is given in upon oath by the person so robbed or plun dered : and the said Irish troops to be transported as aforesaid : and all other persons belonging to them, are tp observe good order jn their march and quarters, and shall restore whatever they shall take from the country, or make restitution for the same, _t VII. That to facilitate tbe transporting the said troops, the General will furnish fifty ships, each .ship's burthen two hundred tons; for which, the persons to be trans ported shall not be obliged to pay, and twenty more, if there shall be occasion, without their paying for them ; and if any of the said ships shall be of lesser burthen, be will furnish more in number to countervail ; and also give two men of war to embark the principal officers, and serve for a convoy to the vessels of burthen- VIII. That a commissary shall be immediately sent to Cork to visit the transport ships, and what conditidn they are iu for sailing : and tliat as soon as they are. ready, the troops to be transported shall march wj,tsb all convenient speed, the nearest way, in order to embark there : and if there shall be any more men to be transported than can he carried off in the said fifty ships, the rest shall quit the En glish town of Limerick, and march to such quarters as shall be appointed for them, convenient for their trans portation, where they shall remain till tbe other twenty ships he ready, which are to be in a month ; and may embark on .any French ship that may come in the mean time. IX. That the said ships shall he furnished with forage for horse, and all necessary provisions to subsist the offi cers, troops, dragoons, and soldiers, and all other persons that are shipped to be transported into France ; which provisions 15 * provisions shall be paid for as soon as all are disembarked at Brest or Nantz, upon the coast of Brittany, or any other port of France they can make. X. And to secure the return ofthe said ships (the danger ofthe seas excepted) and payment for the said provisions, sufficient hostages sball be given, XI. That the garrisons of Clare-castle, Ross, and all other foot that are in garrisons in the counties of Clare, Cork, and Kerry, shall have the advantage of this present capitulation ; and such part of those garrisons as design to fo beyond seas, shall march out with their arms, baggage, rums beating, ball in mouth, match lighted at both ends, and colours flying, with all the provisions, and half the ammunition that is in the said garrisons, and join the horse that march to be transported ; or if then there is not ship ping enough for the body of foot that is to be next trans ported after the horse, General Ginckle will order that they be furnished with carriages for~that purpose, and what provisions they shall' want in their march, they pay ing for the said provisions, or else that they may take it out of their own magazines. a XII. That all the troops of horse and dragoons, that are in the counties of Cork, Kerry, and Clare, shall also have the benefit of this capitulation ; and that such as will pass into France, shall have quarters given them in the counties of Clare and Kerry, apart from the troops that are commanded by General Ginckle, until they can be shipped ; and within their quarters they shall pay for every thing, except forage and pasture for their horses, which shall be furnished gratis. XIII. Those of the garrison of Sligo that are joined to the Irish army, shall have tbe benefit of this capitulation ; and orders shall be sent to them that are to convey them up, to bring them hither to Limerick the shortest way. XIV. The Irish may have liberty to transport nine hundred horse, including horses for the officers, which sball be transported gratis : and as for the troopers that. 16 that stay behind, they shall dispose of themselves as they shall think fit, giving up their horses and arms to such persons as the General shall appoint. XV. It sball be permitted to those that are appointed to take care for the subsistence of the horse, that are willing to go into France, to buy hay and corn at the King's rates wherever they can find it, in the quarters that are assigned for them, without any let or molestation, and to carry all necessary provisions out of tbe city of Limerick ; and for this purpose, the General will furnish convenient carriages for them to the places where they shall be embarked. XVI. It shall be lawful to make use of the hay pre- served in the stores ofthe county of Kerry, for tbe horses that shajl be embarked ; and if there be not . enough, jt shall be lawful to buy bay and oats wherever it shall be found, at the King's rates. XVII. That all prisoners of war, that were in Ireland tbe 28th of September, shall be set at liberty on both sides ; and the General promises to use bis endeavours, that those that are in England and Flanders shall be set at liberty also. XVIII. The General will cause provisions and medicines to be furnished to the sick and wounded officers, troopers, dragoons, and soldiers of the Irish army, that cannot pass into France at tbe first embarkment; and after they are cured, will order them ships to pass into France, if they are willing to go. XIX. That at the signing hereof the GeneraHvill send a ship express to France ; and that besides, he will furnish two small ships of those that are now in the river of Lime rick, to transport two persons into France that are to be sent to give notice of this treaty ; and that the commanders of tbe said ships shall have orders to put ashore at the next port of France where they shall make. XX. That all those of tbe said troops, officers,. and others, of what characters soever, that would pass into France, 17 France, shall not be stopped on account of debt, or any other pretext. XXI. If, after signing this present treaty, and before the arrival of tbe fleet, a French packet-boat, or other transport-ship, sball arrive from Prance in any other part of Ireland, the General will order a passport, not only for such as must go aboard the said ships, but to the ships to come to the nearest port to the place where the troops to be transported shall be quartered. XXII. That after the arrival of the said fleet, there shall be free communication and passage between it and the quarters of the above-said troops ; and especially for all those that have passes_from the chief commanders of the said fleet, or from Mons. Tameron, the Intendant. XXIII. In consideration of the present capitulation, the two towns of Limerick shall be delivered and put into the hands ofthe General, or any other person he shall ap point, at the time and days hereafter specified, viz. tbe Irish town, except the magazines and hospital, on the day of the signing of these present articles ; and as for the Eng lish town, it shall remain, together with the island, and the free passage of Thomond-bridge, in the hands of those, of the Irish army that are now in the garrison, or that shall hereafter come from the counties of Cork, Clare, Kerry, Sligo, and other places above-mentioned, until there shall be convenience found for their transportation. XXIV. And to prevent all disorders that may happen between the garrison that the General shall place in the Irish town, wbich shall be delivered to him, and the Irish troopers that sball remain in the English town and the island (which they may do, until the troops to be embarked on the first fifty ships sball be gone for France, and no longer ;) they shall entrench themselves on both sides, to hinder tbe communication of tbe said garrisons; and it sball be prohibited on both sides, to offer any thing that is offensive ; and the parties offending shall be punished on either side. c XXV. That 18 XXV. That it shall be la>-ful for the said garrison to march out all at once, or at different times, as they can be embarked, with arms, baggage, drums beating, match lighted at both ends, bullet in mouth, colours flying, six irass guns, such as the besieged will chuse, _ two mortar pieces, and half the ammunition that is now in the maga zines of the said place ; and for this purpose an inventory bf all the ammunition in the garrison, shall be made in the presence of any person that the General shall appoint, the next day after these present articles shall be signed. XXVI. All the magazines of provisions shall remain in the hands of those that are now employed, to take care of the same, for the subsistence of those of the Irish army that will pass into France : and if there shall not be suffi cient in the stores, for the support of the said troops whilst they stay in this kingdom, and are crossing the seas, that upon giving up an account of their numbers, the Ge neral will furnish them with sufficient provisions at the King's rates ; and that there shall be a free market at Li merick, and other quarters where the said troops shall be ; and in case any provision sball remain in the magazines of Limerick vyhen tbe town shall be given up, it shall be valued, and the price deducted out of what is to be paid for the provisions to be furnished to the troops on shipr board. XXVII. That there shall be a cessation of arms at land, as also at sea, with respect to the ships, whether English, Dutch,, or French, designed for tbe transportation qf the said troops, until they shall be returned to their respective harbours ; and that on both sides they shall be furnished with sufficient passports both for ships and men ; and if any sea commander, or captain of a ship, or any officer, trooper, dragoon, soldier, or any other person, shall act contrary to this cessation, tbe persons so acting shall be punished on either side, and satisfaction shall be made for the wrong that is done ; and qfficers sball be sent to the mouth) of the rivjer of Limerick, to give notice to the com manders of the English and French fleets, of the present conjuncture, that they may observe the cessation of arms accordingly, XXVIII. That J9 XXVIII. That for the security ofthe execution of this present capitulation, and of each article therein contained, the besieged shall give the following hostages—. — and the General shall give XXIX. If before this capitulation is fully executed, there happens any change in the government, or command of the army, which is now commanded by General Ginc kle ; all those that sball be appointed to command the same, shall be obliged to observe and execute what is spe cified in these articles, or cause it to be executed punc tually, and shall not act contrary on any account. Oct. 19. BARON DE GINCKLE. If this treaty is only considered according to those rules of common morality, which influence the conduct of man to man ; if, in proportion to the great advantages which England derived from it, she was bound to construe it with liberality, as well as to execute it with good faith ; then the Irish Catholics must be considered as placed by it in a situation of complete equality with their Pro testant countrymen. The free exercise of their re ligion was granted in the >most unqualified man ner : Security of property was as fully confirmed to them. In regard to personal security, they were pardoned all misdemeanors whatsoever, of which they had been guilty, and were restored, to all the rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities, which, by the laws of the land, and customs, con stitutions, and native birthright, they, any, and every of them, were equally, with every other of their fellow subjects entitled to.* The practice of the several trades or professions was secured to them. They were allowed the use of arms, some of them specially, but all of them in consequence of no * Sir Theobald Butler'* speech, Tide Appendix, No. I. c 2 limitation so limitation or exception to the contrary ; and they were left at liberty to vote for members of Parlia ment, and to sit in Parliament.* Even the laws which were in force against the Catholics, when the treaty took place, ought, according to the first article, to have been repealed ; f because their Ma jesties engaged, by this article, to obtain for the * The articles of Limerick were signed by De* Ginckle on the Sd of Oct. 1691. The English parliament that passed the 3d W. and M. c. 2. by which Irish peers and members of par liament were first required to take the oath of supremacy, met on the 22d Oct. 1691. According to the constitution of lre- land as granted by Henry II. and confirmed in 1782, thisact of ihe 3d W. and M. c. 2. was not binding in Ireland, and though the Catholics submitted to it, they were not legally excluded from parliament till the 22-d year of his present majesty's reign. This act was in direct violation of the treaty of Linieriplc. . t These laws were, 1st, an act against the authority. of the See of Rome. It enacts, that no por^on shall attribute any ju risdiction to the See of Rome ; that the person offending shall be subject to a premunire ; and, that all who have any office from the King, every person entering into orders,, or taking a degree in the University, shall take the oath of supremacy.* 2d, An act restoring to the Crown the 'antient jurisdiction over the State, ecclesiastical and spiritual. It likewise enacts, that every ecclesiastical pcrspn, every person accepting office, shall takethe'oath' of supremacy. ; ,.< ¦• , 3d, An act for the uniformity of Common Prayer. It enacts,' that every person, having no lawful excuse to be. absent, shall, every Sunday, resort to' someplace of worship of*the established Church, or' forfeit 1 2d. ' ,? 4th, An act, by which the Chancellor may appoint a guardian tojthe child of a Catholic. , 5th, An act by which no Catholic schoolmaster can teach in a private house, without a license from the ordinary of his dio cese, and taking the oath of supremacy. 6th, The new rules^ by' which no person can be admitted into any corporation without taking the oath of supremacy. , This statement is taken from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons appointed, in 1697,' to consider what petoal laws were then in force against the Catholics. — Com, Jour, of Ireland, v- 2. Catholics 21 Catholics such further security, in respect to the exercise of their religion, as might preserve them from any disturbance on account of ihat religion. It is impossible for any other fair construction to be given to this article, than that which is here given. It would be beneath the dignity, and wholly inconsistent with that character for good faith, of which it has always been the pride of England to boast, to attempt to apply any other meaning to it. No doubt there- are those who would wish to act, on all occasions, towards the Catholics, according to that system of perverted morality which the. powerful always impose on the weak ; but, so long as the true principles of justice shall have their due influence, the majority of mankind can never consider this first article of the treaty of Limerick in any other light, than as a complete and perpetual exemption of the Irish Catholics from all political and religious disqualifi cation on account of their religion. This treaty has been Very accurately described as the great charter of the civil and religious liberty of the Ca tholics ;* and though not hitherto observed as such by the English government,- the Catholics have a right (which time cannot efface, nor perfidy destroy) to recur to its stipulations. Though William had bound himself by .this treaty to call a Parliament as soon as his affairs would admit, and to obtain from it the ratification of the treaty, he dissolved the first Parliament of his reign, which had met on the 5th of October, \6Q% in Sept. 169-3, without proposing to them any such measure. He was further guilty of a want of attention to his engagement, by not sum* * Smollet. c 3 moning moning another Parliament till the 27th April, 1695 ; and, when this Parliament did meet, he seems' to have entirely forgotten that his own faith, and the faith of the English nation, was plighted to the Catholics by a solemn treaty ; for, instead of recommending to them, in the speech of his Lord Deputy, to proceed to confirm the articles of Limerick, he told them that he was intent upon the great work of a firm settlement of Ireland upon a Protestant interest.* The Parliament were not backward in promoting his object. They first of all passed an act to deprive the Catholics of the means of educating their children either at home or abroad, and of the privilege of being guardians either of their own or of any other person's chil dren, f Then they passed an act to disarm the Catholics,;}; another to banish their priests, § and, strange as it may. appear, they then thought proper in the year 1697, to pass an act to confirm ihe Ar ticles of Limerick. || Of this act it is to be observed, in the first place, that the very title of it is a proof of its injustice ; * Comm. Journal, 2. 279- + 7th W. III. c. 4. of this act Mr. Burke says, " Whilst this restraint upon foreign and domestic education was part of a horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted to the body. To render men patient, under a depri vation of all the rights of human nature, every thing which could give them a knowledge or feeling of those rights was ra tionally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of improving our rational nature, to be the worst species of tyranny that the insolence and per* Terseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. — Letter to a Peer iff Ireland. % 7th W. III. c. 5. .* Sth William III. c. I. H 9th William III. c. 2. for 2S for it is styled " an act for the confirmation qfdi4* tides," and not, as it ought to be, ".of Me arti cles" made at the surrender of Limerick." The preamble affords further evidence of the' intention of the framers of it to evade its proper object. It runs thus : " That the said articles, of so much of them as may consist with the safety and welfare of your Majesty's subjects of this kingdom may be confirmed," &c. But the whole act goes to convict the Parlia ment, and (as this Parliament was completely under the controul of the Lord Deputy,)* even William himself, of gross injustice towards the Catholics. For the first article of the treaty is wholly omitted, which guarantees to the Catho lics the free exercise of their religion, and an ex emption from all disturbance on account of it ; and each clause of the act has the effect of limiting the terms of the other articles, and depriving the 'atholics ofthe benefit of them, instead of ratify ing and confirming them. The first clause, which refers at once to the se cond article, explains who are entitled to the bene-' fit of it, and the rights conferred upon them ; as suming as a fact, for which there could be no foundation, that this article required explanation,* With respect to the persons entitled to the benefit of the treaty, a most remarkable difference occurs between the words of the second article, and those of this clause in describing them^ In the ratifica tion of the treaty by William, there is the follow ing passage : " And whereas it appears to us, that " * He (Lord Capel the Lord Deputy) carried the projects ofthe Crown in Parliament, and was recommended as an ex cellent Governor, in a special address sent by the Commons to the King.'': — Macpherson's Hist. 2. 94. c 4 .it 24 it was agreed between the parties to the said arti cles, that -after the words Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo, or any of them, in the second of the said articles, the words following, viz. " And all such as are under their protection in the said counties," should be inserted and be part of the said article; " Our further will and' pleasure is, and we do ratify and confirm the said omitted words." These words, according even to the strict letter of the article, extended the benefit of the treaty to the whole Catholic population of these counties, which certainly was the object of the treaty, as it may be collected from the pream ble to it, in which it is stated that theTrish Gene rals, acted in behalf of the Irish inhabitants of these counties. But in this clause of the act of Parliament to confirm the treaty, these words are omitted, and therefore tbe benefit of the treaty is limited, by this explanatory and confining act, to the Irish army and the inhabitants of the city of Limerick, and a few more garrison towns: a li mitation in every respect most perfidious, and wholly unjustifiable upon any plea of ambiguity in the language. of the article, even if such a plea could for a moment be allowed. With respect to the rights conferred by the se cond article, this clause affords a striking proof of the paltry subterfuges to which the Legislature of that day could have recourse, in order to defeat the ends of justice, and to oppress the Catholics. The second article declares, that all those comprised in the treaty, " shall hold, possess, and enjoy, all and " every their estates of freehold and inheritance; " and all the rights, titles, and interests., privileges, " and immunities, which they, every, or any of them held, enjoyed, or were rightfully and law- " fully 25 " fully entitled to in the reign of King Charles II." The clause of the act corresponds with the article except in these most material points ; after the word '* inheritance:" the stop, instead of being a semicolon, as it is in the original treaty, is altered to a comma ;' and after the words " privileges and " immunities," the words "to the said estates" are inserted ; and thus the meaning of the second ar ticle is wholly altered, and the words " rights, " privileges, and immunities," made to refer to the estates of the Catholics, instead of to their persons and liberties, to which only by the original article they can refer. If any authority were wanting to maintain this construction, a very unquestionable one may be adduced from the speech of Sir Theo bald Butler, before alluded to, who was in Limerick when it surrendered, and was the person employed to draw up the treaty. This act for confirming the treaty, wholly omits that part of the second article, which guarantees to the Catholics the exercise of their several trades and professions. It also omits the fourth article. It limits the benefit of the indemnity granted by the sixth article to a period subsequent to the 10th of April, 1689, and enables all persons, who suf fered any injuries between the 5th of November, 1688, and this period, to bring their actions for the same until the 1st of September, 1691, by declaring that the commencement of the war referred to in the article, was the 10th of April, 1689, and not the 5th of November, 1688, and it omits the 7th, 8th, 9th, and lOtharticles. Being in short an act that, under the name of conferring favours on the Catholics, really placed them in a worse condition than that in which they were before it passed into a law- The 2b The other acts of this reign, relating to the Ca tholics, are, an act to prevent Protestants from intermarrying with Papists,* and an act to prevent them from being solicitors.f A clause was intro duced in an act for the preservation of game, pro hibiting papists from being employed as game keepers..'}; How it is possible to defend William and his mi nisters from the charge of having acted with per fidy towards the Catholics, it is not easy to dis cover. That they were guilty of violating the treaty no one can deny. The excuse that has been made for William, that he was obliged to submit to the power of the anti-catholic party, is not suffi cient. Why did he not refuse his consent to these laws, on the ground of their being contrary to his solemn engagements to the Catholics ? He had ex ercised this prerogative in the case of one Scotch;^ and of one English bill. || But even this extremity might have been avoided, because the law of Poynings required that every bill should be approved by the King and Council of England, before it could pass the House of Commons ; and, if a bill was exceptionable, by withholding their approbation, a very common proceeding, it fell of course to the ground. But if William and his ministers were guilty of perfidy towards the Catholics, his successor far Outstripped him. Nor has any succeeding prince been free from the blame of having been an acces- * 9th William III. c. 3. + 10th William III. c. 13. + 10th William III. c. 8. § For excluding from any public trust all such as had been concerned in the encroachments ofthe late reign. J] Concerning free and impartial proceedings in Parliament. sary 27 sary to his crime, in proportion as he has neglected or refused to repeal those penal laws, which are so many glaring violations of the treaty of Limerick, which are a scandal to the boasted good faith of the English nation, and a mockery of that equitable religion, whose precepts are founded upon the purest principles of justice and humanity. ANNE. On the 4th of March, 1704, the royal assent was given to the act to prevent the further growth of popery ; being the first of those two famous acts, -which have most deservedly been termed by Mr. Burke, the ferocious acts of Anne. By the third clause of this act the popish fa ther, though he may have acquired his estate by descent from a long line of ancestors, or by his own purchase, is deprived of the power, in case his eldest son, or any other son, becomes a Protestant, to sell, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of it, or to leave out of it any portions or legacies. By the 4th clause, the popish father is debarred, under a penalty of 5001. from being a guardian to, or from having the custody of his own children ; but if the child, though ever so young, pretends to be a Protestant, it is to be taken from its own father, and put into the hands of a Protestant re lation. The 5th clause provides that no Protestant shall marry a Papist, having an estate in Ireland, either in or out of the kingdom. The 2S The 6th clause renders Papists incapable of pur* chasino- any manors, tenements, hereditaments, or any lents or profits arising out of the same, or Of holding any lease of lives, or other lease whatever, for any term exceeding 31 years. Even with re spect to this advantage restrictions are imposed on them, one of which is, that if a farm produced a profit greater than one-third of the amount of the rent, the right in it was immediately to cease, and to pass over entirely to the first Protestant who should discover the rate of profit. The 7th clause deprives Papists of such inheri tance, devise, gift, remainder or trust, of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of which any Pro testant was, or should be seized in fee simple, ab solute or fee tail, which, by the death of such Pro testant, or his wife, ought to have descended to his son or other issue in tail, being Papists, and makes them descend to the nearest Protestant relation, as if the Popish heir and other Popish relations were dead. By the 10th clause, the estate of a Papist, for want of a Protestant heir, is to be divided, share and share alike, among all his sons ; for want of sons, among his daughters ; and, for want of daughters, among the collateral kindred of the father. , By the 15th clause, no person shall be" exempt from the penalties of this act,' that shall not take and subscribe the oath arid declaration required by this act to be taken. By the 1 6th clause, all persons whatsoever who shall receive any office, civil and military, shall take and subscribe the oath and declaration re quired to be taken by the English act of Srd Wm. and, Mary; and also the oath of abjuration re quired 29 quired to be taken by another English act of 1st Anne ; and also shall receive the sacrament.* The 23rd clause provides, that no Papist,, except under particular conditions, shall dwell in Lime rick or Galway. The 24th, that no persons shall vote at elections without taking the oaths of allegiance and abju ration. And the 25th clause, tliat all advowsons pos sessed by Papists shall be vested in her Majesty. The Catholics, who had submitted in silence to all the unjust transgressions ofthe last reign, felt it necessary, when this act was first brought before Parliament, to use their utmost exertions to prevent ' it from passing into a law. They, however, ap pealed in vain to the English Cabinet to respect the solemn engagements of the treaty of Limerick, and were obliged to have recourse to a petition to the Irish Parliament. Sir Theobald Butler was heard, as counsel for the petitioners, at the bar of the House of Com mons, on the 22nd February, 1703. He stated, " that the bill would render null and void the ar- '- tides of Limerick ; that those articles had been •' granted for the valuable consideration of the * Upon this elapse of the bill, Bishop Burnet makes the fol lowing' observations: " A clause was added (in England) which they (the Roman Catholics) hoped would hinder its being ac cepted in Ireland. The matter was carried on so secretly, that it was known to none but those who were at the Council, till the news of it came from Ireland, upon its being sent thi ther. It was hoped, by those who got this clause added to the bill, that those in Ireland, who promoted it, would be less fond of it, when it had such a weight hung to it." Hist, v- 1. p. 214. This clause has since been called the Sacramental Test,, the first imposed on dissenters in Ireland. It was repealed without jiny opposition ih the Sessions of 1782. " surrender 30 " surrender of that garrison, at a time when the " Catholics had the sword in their hand, and were " in a condition to hold out much longer; and " when they had it in their power to demand and " make such terms as might be for their own fu- " ture liberty, safety, and security : that the al- " lowing of the terms, contained in these articles " were highly advantageous to the government to " which they submitted, as well for uniting the " people that were then divided, quieting and set- " tling the distractions and disorders of this mise- " rable kingdom, as for the other advantages which u the government would thereby reap in its own af- " fairs, both at home and abroad, when its enemies " were so powerful, both by sea and land, as to ren- " der the peace and settlement of these countries " a circumstance of great uncertainty : that these "articles were ratified by their late Majesties, for " themselves, their heirs, and successors, and the " public faith thereby plighted to all those conl- " prised in these articles, in the most binding man- " ner it was possible for faith to be plighted, and " than which nothing could be more sacred and " solemn : that, therefore, to violate and break " those articles would; on the contrary, be the " greatest injustice possible for any one people of •' the whole world to inflict upon another, and "contrary to both the laws of God and man." He then proceeded to shew that the clauses of the bill which take away from Catholics the right to purchase, bequeath, sell, and inherit estates, were infringements of the 2nd article of the treaty : that the 9th clause of the bill, imposing upon Catho lics new oaths, was another manifest breach of the articles, for that, by the 9th articld, no oath is to be administered to, nor imposed upon such Catho lics 31 lies as should submit to government, but the oath of allegiance, appointed by an act made in Eng land in the first year ofthe reign of their late Ma jesties; that the clauses for prohibiting Catholics from residing in Limerick or Galway, from voting at elections without taking certain new oaths, and from possessing advowsons, were likewise infringe ments of the treaty. "For if," concludes Sir Theobald Butler, "tiiere was no law in force in " the reign of Charles II. against these things, as " there certainly was not, and if the Roman Ca- " thplics of this kingdom have not since forfeited " their right to the laws that then were in force, " as for certain they have not, then, with humble " submission, all the aforesaid clauses, and matters " contained in this bill, entitled, An Act to pre- " vent the further growth of Popery, are directly " against the plain words and true interest and " meaning of the said articles, and a violation of " the public faith."* In consequence of the passing of this act, and of those other acts which were passed of a similar ten dency in the last reign, the Catholics were de prived of all those privileges and immunities, which they trusted had been secured in consequence of a King of England having bound himself, his heirs and successors, to fulfil the conditions of the treaty of Limerick. In place of being the free subjects of a prince, from whom they were taught to expect only justice and mercy, they were made the slaves of every one, even of the very meanest, of their Protestant countrymen. They saw the English government, on whom they had claims for protec- * Vid. App. No. l. for the Speech at length of Sir Theobald Butler. tion 32 tion against thsir own parliament, directing its fa natic councils, and confirming its crimes. By the treaty of Limerick tfiey were left a$ liberty to edu cate, and to act as guardians to their own children: , by the penal laws they neither can send them to be educated abroad, or have them educated at home, or be guardians to their own, or the children of any other persons. By the treaty of Limerick, the, free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to them. By the pe nal laws their chapels are shut up, their priests ¦ are banished, and hanged if they returned home. By the treaty of Limerick, their noblemen and gentlemen we,re specially allowed the privilege of wearing arms, and the whole body were equally entitled to the same privilege, because, when it was executed, no law existed to the contrary. By the penal laws, no Catholic is permitted to have the use of arms, except a very few even of those who were specially comprised in the treaty. By the treaty of Limerick, Catholics might in termarry with Protestants. By the penal laws this privilege is removed. By the treaty of Limerick, the profession ofthe law was open to them ; by these laws it is taken from them. By the treaty of Limerick, the Catholics' could purchase, sell, bequeath, and inherit .landed pro-* perry. By the penal laws they can neither pur chase, sell, bequeath, or inherit landed property, take annuities for lives secured on lands, or any> longer lease of land than for 31 years; nor could* they lend money on_mortgage* or vest it in public; securities. * i3y a construction of Lord Hardwicke. ' ) 33 By the treaty of Limerick, the Catholics Were left in full enjoyment of every political franchise, except those of holding offices under government, and of becoming members of corporations. By the penal laws, they cannot vote at vestries, serve on grand juries, act as constables, or as sheriffs or under-sheriffs, be magistrates, vote at elections, or sit in parliament.* By the treaty of Limerick, they were protected from being called upon to take any other oaths besides the oath of allegiance of the 1st William and Mary. By the penal laws they are required to take the oaths of abjuration and supremacy, and to subscribe declarations against the principal te nets of their religious faith. By the treaty of Limerick, they were acknow ledged as the free subjects of a British King ; by the penal laws they are placed in the double capa city of slaves and enemies of their Protestant coun trymen. Had they become mere slaves, they might have experienced some degree of humane treatment; but, as the policy which made them slaves, held them out at the same time as the natu ral and interested enemies of their masters, they i * " The. exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude them wholly from all that is beneficial, aud expose them to all that is mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own observation, for I Was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the year 1767, where I had'suf* ficient means of information, concerning the inhuman proceed ings (among which were inany cruel murders, besides an infinity of outrages and oppressions, unknown before in a civilized ago} which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pre tended - conspiracy among Roman Catholics against the King's Government." — Burke's Letter to a Peer of Ireland. p were 34 were doomed to experience all the oppressioflfof tyranny, without any of the chances, that other slaves enjoy, of their tyrants being merciful, from1 feeling their tyranny secure. This statement will be sufficient to convince those who really form their political opinions upon principles of justice, that the penal laws never should have been enacted; and that it is the duty of every upright statesman to promote the instant repeal of the whole of them : because it proves a solemn compact entered into between the Catho lics and the English Government, and the breach of that contract by the English Government, not withstanding the Catholics fulfilled their part of the agreement. How can men gravely and zea lously contribute to make perpetual the political . disabilities of the Catholics, which were the base and perfidious means adopted by a wicked legis lature to influence men's consciences by corrupt motives, and tempt and bribe them to apostacy ? As there are, however, no small number of politi cians who, though they would think it an edifying exhibition to see a Catholic occasionally consigned' to martyrdom, yet would be scandalized at the bare idea of breaking faith with him in any affair of baiter, particularly if they had already, received from him their consideration, and that a valuable one ; it will be necessary to make some further ob servations upon the violation of the treaty of Li merick, in order that no one may have a pretext on which he can escape the fair conclusion that ought to be drawn from what has been advanced, that the English government and nation are, at this day, bound to make good, to the Catholics of Ire land the stipulations contained in that treaty. For,, if ever there was an instance in Which thecon- sideratiDn 35 sideration that formed the basis of a treaty shbnld have secured a liberal and a just fulfilment, it was the instance of this treaty of Limerick. In the course of the three campaigns, during which the war lasted in Ireland, the English army had been defeated on several occasions. In the North un der Schomberg ; before Athlone under Douglas; and before Limerick under William himself. The victory ofthe Boyne was the result ofthe personal failings of James, not of any deficiency in the num ber of his army, or of any want of courage on their part. " Exchange Kings," said the Irish officers, " and we will once more fight the battle." St. Ruth had won the battle of Aughrim, and had exclaimed, in an ecstacy of joy, " Now will I drive the En glish to the walls of Dublin," at the moment the fatal ball struck him.* And, at the time the gar rison of Limerick capitulated, the Irish army was in a condition to hold out at least another cam paign, with a good prospect of being able to restore the fallen fortunes of James. The besieging army had made no impression on the principal part of the city ; it was inferior in numbers to that of the garrison; winter was fast approaching, and at the very moment French succours were on the coasts yet all these advantages did the Irish army forego, in consideration of the terms which were granted to them by the treaty of Limerick. On the other hand, in granting these terms, the English go* vernment and nation obtained advantages of the utmost importance- For so long as James had a powerful army in Ireland, and nearly one half of the kingdom under his dominion, the great, work of the revolution was neither accomplished nor se* * Leland, B. 6, e. 7. c 2 Cured. 36 " cured. The fair way, therefore, of judging ofthe value of the, treaty of Limerick to England, is to consider how far it contributed to promote this in estimable object. If the treaty of Limerick, in any degree, led to the establishment of the revo lution, the vast importance of this event should have inclined the people of England to act with justice, at least, towards the Catholics. Bat if their submission contributed essentially to crown the brilliant > efforts of the friends of liberty with success, then indeed the people of England should have felt zealous to act towards the Catholics, not on a cold calculation of what was merely just on ' their part, but with that kindness with which we always regard those Avho have promoted our pros perity, whether intentionally or not. That the submission of the Irish Catholics did so contribute to complete the revolution is plain, from the means which they possessed of continuing the war; from the opportunity it afforded William to bring his whole forces to bear against Louis ; and from the termination it fixed to the hopes and the con spiracies of the adherents of James in England. Yet, notwithstanding the great concessions which the Catholics, on their part, made by their submis sion, in order to dbtain the terms ofthe treaty of Limerick, and the great advantages which the English nation, on the other hand, acquired by it, twelve years only elapsed before the Catholics were deprived of every right and privilege which was solemnly guaranteed to them by that treaty. The only species of justification that could, un der any circumstances, have been brought for ward for acting in this manner towards the Catho lics, would have been, the proof of the forfeiture, by misconduct, of their right to the fulfilment of 3 the 37 the treaty. That any thing which they did prior to the treaty, could have, in justice, any influence on measures passed subsequent to its taking place, is quite impossible ; because the treaty admitted their acts to be those of open and honourable enemies, and specifically pardoned them.* As to their conduct afterwards, even their most invete rate and most unprincipled enemies did not charge them with a single transgression against the State, from the year I69I to the year 1704, when the act to prevent the farther growth of Popery was pas sed. And it is very plain that no such charo-e could be maintained, from the paltry attempt that was made in Parliament to justify this act. It was said, " That the Papists, had not demonstrated " how and where, since tne making of the articles " of Limerick, they had addressed the Queen or " Government, when all other subjects were so - ther act was still wanting to explain and amend it. Such an act passed in the year 1709.+ The 1st clause provides, that no Papist shall be capable of taking any annuity for life. The following is the 3rd clause, every word of which is of value, in order to shew the vexations with which the unfortunate Catholics of Ireland have been exposed : " And, be it further enacted, " by the authority aforesaid, that where and as " often as any child or children of any Popish pa- " rent or parents hath, or have heretofore pro- " fessed or conformed him, her, or themselves, to "the Protestant, religion, as by law established, "and enrolled in the High Court of Chancery a " certificate ofthe Bishop ofthe diocese in which he " she or they shall inhabit or reside, testifying his, ?• her, or their being a Protestant, and conforming * Debates on the Popery Laws, App. I. + 8th Anne, c. 3. " him, " him, her, or themselves-, to the church of Ireland, " as by law established, it shall and may be lawful "for the High Court of Chancery, upon a bill "founded upon this act, to oblige the said Papist, "parent, or parents, to discover upon oath thefult^ " value of all his, her, or their estate, as well " personal as real, clear, over and above all real " incumbrances and debts contracted, bona-fide, " for valuable consideration, before the enrolment " of such certificate, and thereupon to make such " order for the support and maintenance of such " Protestant child or children, by the distribution " ofthe said real and personal estate, to and among " such Protestant child or children, for the present " support of such Protestant child or children; and " also to and for the portion or portions, and future " maintenance or maintenances, of such Protestant " child, or children, after the decease of , such " Popish parent or parents, as the said court shall "judge fit." The 12th clause provides, that all converts in public employments, members of parliament, bar risters, attornies, or officers of any courts of law, shall educate their children Protestants. By the 14th clause, the Popish wife of a Papist, having power to make a jointure, conforming, shall, if she survives her husband, have such pro vision, not exceeding the power of her husband, to make a jointure, as the Chancellor shall ad judge. By the 15th clause, the Popish wife of a Papist, not being otherwi.se provided for, conforming, shall have a proportion out of his chattels, not withstanding any will or voluntary disposition, and the stat. 7th W. III. 6. The 16'th clause provides, that a Papist teaching school publicly, or in a private house, or as usher r> 4 to 40 to a Protestant, shall be deemed and piosecutedas a Popish regular convict. • V _ The 18th clause provides, that Popish priests, who shall be converted, shall receive 301. per an num, to be levied and paid by Grand Juries. The 20th clause provides, whimsically enough, for the reward of discovering Popish clergy and schoolmasters, viz. For discovering an archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, or other person exer cising atiy foreign ecclesiastical ju risdiction --'-'_ £.50 0 0 For discovering each regular clergy man, and each secular clergyman, - not registered _-._ -£.W 0 0 For discovering each Popish school master or usher - £.10 0 0 '¦> The 21st clause empowers two justices tosum- mon any Papist of 1-8 years of age, and if he shall refuse to give testimony where and when he heard mass celebrated, and who and what persons were present at the celebration of it, and likewise touch ing the residence and abode of any priest or Popish schoolmaster to commit him to jail, without bail, for 12 months, or until he shall pay 201. By the 25th clause, no priest can officiate ex cept in the parish for which he is registered, by 2d Anne, c. 7. The 30th clause provides for the discovery of all trusts agreed to be undertaken in favour of Papists ; and enables any Protestant to file a bill in Chancery against any person concerned in any sale, lease, mortgage, or incumbrance, in trust for Papists, and to compel him to discover the same; and it further provides, that all issues to be tried in 41 in any action founded upon this act, shall be tried by none but known Protestants. The 37th' clause provides, that no Papist in trade, except in the linen trade, shall take more than two apprentices. The following are the other acts passed in this reign concerning the Catholics. An act to prevent Popish clergy from coming into the kingdom.* An act for registering Popish clergy. By which all the Catholic clergy then in the kingdom were required to give in their names and places of abode at the next quarter sessions : by this act they are prohibited from employing curates.')* An act to amend this act. J An act to explain and amend an act to prevent Papists being solicitors or sheriffs, &c.§ Clauses are introduced into this act, by which Catholics are prevented from serving on grand ju ries ; and by which, in trials upon any statute for strengthening the Protestant interest, the plaintiff might challenge a Papist, which challenge the judge was to allow. During all Queen Anne's reign, the inferior civil officers, by order of government, were incessantly harassing the Catholics, with oaths, imprisonments, and forfeitures, without any visible cause but hatred of their religious profession. In the year 1708, on the bare rumour of an intended invasion of Scot land by the Pretender, forty-one Roman Catholic noblemen and gentlemen were imprisoned in the castle of Dublin; and, when they were afterwards set at liberty, the government was so sensible of the wrong done to them, that it remitted their fees, * 2d Anne, c. 3. + 2d Anne, c. 7. J 4th Anne? c. 2. § 6th Anne, c. 1. amounting amounting to 8001. A custom that had existed from time immemorial, for infirm men, women, and children, to make a pilgrimage every summer to'a place called: St. John's well, in the county of Meath, in hopes of obtaining relief from their se veral disorders, by performing at it certain acts of penance and devotion, was deemed an object wor- thytof the serious consideration. of the House of Commons ; who accordingly passed a vote, that these sickly devotees "were assembled, in that " place to the great hazard and danger ofthe pub- " lie peace, and safety of the kingdom." They also passed a vote, on the 17th March, 1705, " That all magistrates and other persons what- " soever, who neglected or omitted to put them " ( the penal laws) in due execution, were , be- " trayers ofthe liberties of the kingdom ;"* and in June, 1705, they resolved, "That, the saying " and hearing of mass, by persons who had not " taken the oath of abjuration, tended to advance "the interest ofthe Pretender; and that such "judges and magistrates as wilfully neglected to " make diligent inquiry into, and to discover such " wicked practices, ought to be looked upon as " enemies to her Majesty's goverment,"f And, upon another, occasion, they resolved, " That the " prosecuting, and informing against Papists was, " an honourable service to the government."^; * Com. Jour. 3. 2S9. + Ib. 319; + Ib, 319. GEORGE %, 43 GEORGE I. The following acts of Parliament were passed in this reign, for the purpose of strengthening the system which had been adopted by William and Anne, for preventing the growth of Popery. An act to make the militia of this kingdom more useful.* By the 11th and 12th clauses of this act, the horses of Papists may be seized for the militia. By the 4th and 1 Sth clauses, Papists are to pay double towards raising the militia. By the 16th clause, Popish house-keepers in a city, are to find fit Protestant substitutes. An act to restrain Papists from being high or petty constables, and for the better regulating the parish watches.f An act for the more effectual preventing fraudu lent conveyances, in order to multiply votes for electing members to serve in Parliament, &c.J By the 7th clause of this act, no Papist can Vote at an election, unless he takes the oaths of allegi ance and abjuration. An act for the better regulating the town of Galway, and for strengthening the Protestant in terest therein. § An act for the better regulating the corporation of the city of Kilkenny, and strengthening the Protestant interest therein. || An act by which Papists resident in towns, who * 2d G. I. c. 9. + 2d G. 1. c. 10. — This act expired in three years, and was not renewed. + 2d Geo. I. c. 19. ^ 4th Geo. I. c. IS. ¦ U 4th Geo. I. C. 10. shall 44 shall not provide a -Protestant watchman to watch in their room, shall be subject to certain penalties.* By the 7th clause of this act, no Papist can vote at a vestry. These acts of Parliament originated in the same spirit of persecution, which disgraced the reigns of William and Anne, and were, like the penal laws against the Catholics of those reigns, palpable vio lations of the treaty of Limerick. Though a glim mering of toleration had found its way into the councils of England, and given rise to " an act for exempting Protestant dissenters of^ this Country ( Ireland) from certain penalties to which they were subject," the Catholics were excluded, by a particular clause, from any benefit of it. And though it was in this reign that the first act|; passed "for discharging all persons in offices and employments from all penalties which they had in curred by not qualifying themselves, pursuant to an act to prevent the further growth of Popery," the favour conferred by it was wholly to the Protestant dissenters, as no Catholic had been placed in any public office since the passing of that penal law. The loyalty of the Catholics was in this reign put to a complete trial, by the Scotch rebellion of 1715. If, after having fought three campaigns in support of James's pretensions to th'e throne of Ire land ; after having experienced the infraction of every part of the treaty of Limerick, and been ex posed to a code of statutes, by which they were to tally excluded from the privileges of the constitu tion ; and if, after they had become subject "to, the worst of all oppressions, the persecution df pri- * 6th Geo. I. c. 10. + 6th Geo. I. vate 45 vate society and private manners,"* they had em* backed in the cause of the invader, their conduct would have been that of a high spirited nation, goaded into a state of desperation by their relent less tormentors, and if their resistance had been successful, their leaders would have ranked among the>Tell's and Washington's of modern- history.— « But so far from yielding to the natural dictates of revenge, or attempting to take advantage of what was passing in Scotland to regain their rights, they did not follow the example of their rulers, in vio lating, upon the first favourable opportunity, a sacred and solemn compact ; and thus they gave the strongest testimony, that they had wholly given up their former hopes of establishing a Catholic prince upon the throne. Their loyalty was not, however, a protection to them against the oppres sions of their Protestant country men. The penal ties for the exercise of their religion, were general ly and rigidly inflicted. Their chapels were shut up, their priests dragged from their hiding-places, hurried into prisons, and from thence sent into ba nishment. GEORGE II. In this reign, the following additional disabili^ ties were imposed upon the Catholics. By the 1st G. II. c. 9- sect. 7. no Papist catt Vote at an election without taking the oath of su premacy: However great the oppression which the Catholics had experienced during former reigns, * Burke's Letter, to a Peer of Ireland.,. this 46 this measure altogether completed their entire ex* elusion from the benefits of the Constitution, and from the opportunity of regaining their former just rights. It was because this privilege had be gun to operate amongst Protestants in a manner very favourable to the Catholics, and to bring a- bout a feeling of regret for their sufferings, and a coalition between the two parties to oppose the in fluence of the English Government as a common cause of grievances, that Primate Boulter advised the Ministers to pass this law. His principle of go vernment for Ireland, was to uphold the Englishing terest by the divisions of the inhabitants; and, .on this occasion, it induced him to adopt the despe rate resolution of disfranchising, at one stroke, above five-sixths of its population.* By the first clause of 1st Geo. II. c. 30. barris ters, six clerks, &c. are required to take the oath of supremacy. By the second clause all converts, &c. are bound to educate their children as Protestants. By 7th Geo. II. c. 5. sect. 12. barristers or soli citors, marrying Papists, are deemed Papists, and made subject to all penalties as such. By 7th Geo. II. c. 6. no convert can aGt as a justice of the peace, whose wife, or children, under 16 years of age, are educated. Papists. The 13th Geo. II. c. 6. is an act to amend for mer acts for disarming Papists. By the 6th clause of this act, Protestants edu* eating their children as Papists, are made subject to the same disabilities as Papists are. By 9th Geo. II. c. 3. no person can serve on a * Primate Boulter, in his Letter of this year to the Arch« bishop of Canterbury (1st. vol; p. 210.) says, " There are, pro- ba-bly, in this kingdom, five Papists at least to one Protestant." petty 47 petty jury, unless seized of a freehold of 5L per annum, or? being a Protestant, unless possessed of a profit rent of 151. per annum under a lease for years. By 9 th Geo. II. c. 6. sect. 5. persons robbed by? privateers, during war with a Popish prince, shall be reimbursed by grand jury presentment, and the money be levied upon the goods and lands of Popish inhabitants only. The :19th Geo. II. c. 5. is an act for granting a> duty on hawkers and pedlars to the society of Pro testant charter- schools.* The * The following is' the preamble ofthe charter for erecting these schools. " George II. by the grace of God, &c. Foras much as we have received information, by the petition of the lord primate, lord chancellor, archbishops, noblemen, bishops, judges, gentry, and clergy, of our kingdom of Ireland, that in many parts of the said kingdom, there arc great tracts of land almost entirely inhabited by Papists, who are kept by their Clergy in great ignorance of the true religion, and bred up in great dissatisfaction to the government. That the erecting of English Protestant schools in those places, is absolutely Hecessary for their conversion ; that the English parish schools already es tablished, arc not sufficient for t/iat purpose; nor can the resi dence of the parochial clergy "only fully answer that end." — ¦ Catholics are excluded by this charter from being subscribers to, or members of this society. Fid. Report of Committee of Irish H. of Commons, 14 Ap. 1788. Ir. Comm. Journ. 12 Ap. S10. — The children admitted into the schools are orphans, or the children of Catholic and other poor natives of Ireland, who, from their situation in life, are not likely to educate them as Protestants. They are apprenticed at the age of fourteen years, with a fee of seven guineas with each female, and of five guineas With each male, into protestant families.- The society give a por tion of five pound to every person educated ih these schools, upon his or her marrying a protestant. In Sept. 1806", the number of children in the schools were 2130. The funds of the society consist in lands, funded property, and an annual grant of parliament.- -They amouut (o about .34,0001. 43 The 19th Geo. II. c. 13. is an act to annul all marriages between Protestants and Papists, or ce lebrated by Popish priests. By the 23rd Geo. II. c. 10. sect. 3. every Popish priest who shall celebrate any marriage contrary to 12th Geo. Lc. 3. and be thereof convicted, shall be hanged. Of these last acts, and of 'Lord Chesterfield's ad ministration, Mr. Burke gives the following ac count. " This man, while he was duping the " credulity ofthe Papists with fine words in private, " and commending their good behaviour during a "rebellion in Great Britain, as it well deserved to " be commended and rewarded, was capable ofurg- " ing penal laws against them in a speech from the . " throne,* and of stimulating with provocatives " the wearied and half exhausted bigotry of the '" Parliament of Ireland. They set to work, but 34,(9001. per annum. From the year 1754, 31 Geo. II. c. 1. to the 1st January, 1808, there has been granted by parliament ta this society 491,3261. besides certain duties on hawkers and pedlars, from 1754 to 1786. • By the 23rd G. II. c. 11. the society may appoint persons to take up beggar children, and send them to the charter schools, and when old enough bind them apprentices. By the same act, § 8. a child received with the parent's consent, is deemed a child ofthe public, and may be disposed of though claimed by the parent. * " The measures that have hitherto been taken to prevent the growth of Popery, have, 1 hope, had some, and will still have a greater effect;, however I leave it to your consideration whether nothing further can be done, either by new lawsj or by more effectual execution of those in being, to secure the na tion against the. greater number of Papists, whose speculative errors would only deserve pity, if their pernicious influence upon civil society did not both require and authorise restraint." — Speech to both Houses of Parliament, October 8, 1745. — Conn Jour. 7. 642. '« they /*9 Y " they were at a loss what to do ; for they had al- " ready almost gone through every contrivance " which could waste the vigour of their country: " but, after much struggle, they produced a child " of their old age, the shocking and unnatural, act " about marriages, which tended to finish the " scheme for making the people not only two dis- " tinct parties for ever, but keeping them as two " distinct species in the same. land. Mr. Gardi- " ner's humanity was shocked at it, as one of the " worst parts of that truly barbarous system, if " one could well settle the preference, where al-< " most all the parts were outrages on the rights " of humanity and the laws of nations."* Of the conduct of the Catholics during the Scotch rebellion of 1745, fortunately for them, but greatly to the shame of those who accuse them of being actuated by religious principles inconsistent with their duty to their sovereign, there is on re* cord an irrefutable document. In the year 1762, upon a debate in the House of Lords, about the expediency of raising five regiments of Catholics for the King of Portugal, the Primate, Dr. Stone, jn answer to the usual objections that were urged on all occasions against the good faith and loyalty of that body, declared in his place, " that in the "year 1747, after that rebellion was entirely sup- " pressed,, happening to be in England, he had an " opportunity of perusing all the papers of the " rebels, and their correspondents, which were " seized in the custody of Murray, the Pretender's " secretary ; and 'that, after having spent much " time, and taken great pains in examining them, " not without some share ofthe then common sus- " picion, that there might be some private iinder- * Letter to a Peer in Ireland. k *' standing 50 " standing and intercourse between them and the " Irish Catholics, he could not discover the least v trace, hint, or intimation of such intercourse or " correspondence in them, or of any of the latter's " favouring or abetting, or having been so much " as made acquainted with the designs or proceerf- " ings of these rebels. And what," he said, " he " wondered at most of all was, that in all his re- " searches, he had not met with any passage in any " of these papers, from which he could infer, that " either their holy father, the pope, or any of his " cardinals, bishops, or other dignitaries of thai. " church, or any ofthe Irish clergy, had either di- " rectly, or indirectly, encouraged, aided, or ap- " proved ofthe commencing or carrying on of that " rebellion."* Those of the clergy of England, who lately took so active a part in exciting and upholding the- in famous outcry of "No Popery" — will do well to compare this declaration of Primate Stone, with the following statement ofthe conduct of the- Irish clergy, immediately upon the breaking out of the Scotch rebellion. They will learn how easily it is, even for the grave profession of the church to commit errors, and to pollute its sacred character, by embarking in the controversy of party politics. " The bishops wrote pastoral letters to their re spective diocesans, to excite the members of the established church to enforce all the penal statutes," and with equal wisdom and charity, and a ready obedience did the clergy follow the example aiid directions of their superiors, and apply the whole power of their body to support the fanatic politics of the day. In their inflammatory sermons they * Curry, Rev. ofthe civil wars of Ireland, 2. 261. excited 51 excited religious animosity by reviving the most shocking circumstances of the Irish rebellion of 1641, and ofthe gun-powder plot in England in 1605. These transactions were studiously aggra vated, and the crimes, whether real or supposed, committed by Catholics, dead more than a century. before, were imputed to all those who survived of the same religious persuasion.''* If the conduct of the bishops and clergy was improper, on account of its inconsistency with those principles of universal charity, that the gos-* pel inculcated, it was still more so, from there be ing no grounds even of suspicion, that the Catho lics were disloyal. Besides, it was indecent in the last degree for those, who were endowed by the state for the purpose only of discharging the func tions of a religious profession, to degrade their sa* cred character by assuming the duties of the civil magistrates, and embarking in all the tumult and passion of political persecution. The conduct of the Catholic priests at this period forms a contrast, by no means creditable to those who teach the su perior tolerance, of the Protestant religion, and ground their animosities against the Catholics on the supposed illiberality which controuls their prin ciples. This oppressed and indigent body of men, instead of taking offence at the proceedings ofthe bishops and clergy of the established church, "co=- " operated with their Protestant brethren, tomain- " tain order and tranquillity. Their pastoral let- " ters, public discourses from the pulpit, and pri- '•' vate admonitions, were equally directed for the '( service of the government. "t Yet these clergy were the members of that church, the principles of * Curry Rev. 2. 259. + Chesterfield's Works, 1. 150 Ir. Ed- £ 2 which 52 Which' are stated to be of such a nature by many ofthe English clergy, as to render it absolutely im possible, that a Catholic Can be a good subject. On the 26th September, 1757, the Duke of Bed- ford was sWorn in Lord Lieutenant. His open- declarations of liberal sentiments towards the Ca tholics, and some communications that were made for the first time since the passing of the ferocioui act of Anne to prevent the growth of Popery, of an intention to repeal some part ofthe penal laws, en couraged them to hope for a change in the system of Irish government. Ten days after his arrival, the Catholic clergy of Dublin, influenced by these communications, read the following exhortation to their respective congregations. It forms the first and a very important document in proof of the sufferings, the resignation, and the loyalty ofthe Catholic body. It is one peculiarly deserving of attention, as being well calculated to remove the ignorance, and prejudices of those who still persist in calumniating the Catholic clergy of Ireland, and representing them as enemies to the King and con stitution. Exhortation ofthe Bom an Catholic Clergy of Dublin, read from their Altars on the 2d of October, 1757. It is now time, Christians, that you return your most grateful thanks to the Almighty God, who, after visiting you with a scarcity, which approached near unto'a famine, has been graciously pleased, like a merciful father, to hear your prayers, and feed you with a plentiful harvest ; nor ought you to forget those kind benefactors, who, in the severest times, mindful only of the public good, gene. rously bestowed, without any distinction of persons, those large charities, by which thousands were preserved, who otheru ise must have perished tbe victims of hunger and poverty. 53 poverty. We ought especially to be most earnest in our thanks to the chief governors and- magistrates ofthe king dom, and of this city in particular, who, On this occasion, proved the fathers and saviours of the nation. But as we have not a more effectual method of shewing our ac knowledgment to our temporal governors, than by an humble, peaceful, and obedient behaviour ; as hitherto, we earnestly exhort you to continue in the same happy and Christian disposition, and thus, by degrees, you will entirely efface in their minds those evil impressions, which have been conceived so much to our prejudice, and in dustriously propagated by our enemies. A series of more than sixty years spent, with a pious resignation, under the hardships of very severe penal laws, and with the greatest thankfulness for the lenity and moderation, with which they were executed, ever since the accession of the present royal family, is certainly a fact which must outweigh, in the minds of all unbiassed persons, any misconceived opi nions of the doctrines and tenets of our holy church. You know that it has always been our constant practice, as ministers of Jesus Christ, to inspire you with the great est horror for thefts, frauds, murders, and the like abomi nable crimes ; as being contrary to the laws of God and nature, destructive of civil society, condemned by our most holy church, which, so far from justifying them on the score of religion, or any other pretext whatsoever, deli vers tbe unrepenting authors of such criminal practices over to Satan. We are no less zealous than ever in exhorting you to abstain from cursing, swearing, and blaspheming ; detesta ble vices, to which the poorer sort of our people are most unhappily addicted, and which must, at one time or other, bring down the vengeance of heaven upon you in some visible punishment, unless you absolutely refrain from them. It is probable, that from hence some people have taken occasion to brand us with this infamous calumny, that we need not fear to take false oaths, and consequently to per jure ourselves ; as if we believed that any power upon earth could authorize such damnable practices, or grant dispensations for this purpose. How unjust and cruel this' charge is, you know by our instructions to you both in E 3 public u public and private, in which we have ever condemned such doctrines as false and impious. Others, likewise, may easily know it from the constant behaviour of num bers of Roman Catholicsj who have given the strongest proofs of their abhorrence of those tenets, by refusing to rake oaths, which, however conducive to their temporal interest, appeared to them entirely repugnant to the prin*- ciples of their religion. "We must now intreat you, dear Christians, to offer up your most fervent prayers to the Almighty God, who holds in his hands the hearts of kings and princes, be seech him to direct the counsels of our rulers, to inspire them with sentiments of moderation and compassion to wards uft. We ought to be more earnest at this juncture, in our supplications to heaven; as some very honourable personages have encouraged us to hope for a mitigation of the penal laws. Pray then the Almighty to give a blessing to these their generous designs, and to aid their counsels, in such a manner, that, whilst they intend to assist us, like kind benefactors, they may not, contrary to their intent tions, by mistaking the means, most irretrievably destroy us. To conclude, be just in your dealings, sober in your conduct, religious in your practice, avoid riots, quarrels, and tumults ; and thus you will approve yourselves good citizens, peaceable subjects, and pious Christians, Instead, however, of a repeal taking place of any of the penal laws, rumours began very generally to prevail, of its being the intention of government to proceed to carry into effect a bill, that had been prepared by the former administration, for altering the law respecting the registry of the clergy, The existing law, which passed in the reign of Queen Anne, had been found too penal to admit of its being carried into execution ; and thus, by an excess of tyranny, was the object of it wholly de feated. In the place of this law, it had.been pro* posed to pass one with such provisions, that it should 55 should, like the other penal laws, execute itself; and upon this project being now revived, the Ca tholics, for the first time since 1704, took mea sures as a body, to vindicate their religious and civil principles. Mr. Charles O'Connor, the cele brated Irish scholar and antiquarian, with the as sistance of Dr. Curry, the author of the Review of the Civil Wars of Ireland, and Mr. Wyse, of Wa- terford, exerted themselves with good effect in persuading their'suffering countrymen of the ne-- cessity of coming forward to induce their rulers to admit them into a participation of the privileges ofthe constitution. As aground-work of their future labour, Dr. O'Keefe, the titular Bishop of Kildare, proposed, at a meeting held at Lord Trim- bleston's, a declaration of the principles of their church, as far as they could bear upon their civil duties, to be signed by the chiefs of their body, and published as an answer to the misrepresenta tions and calumnies they had laboured under since the reformation of the national religion : this de claration was unanimously adopted ; it was signed by many clergymen and gentlemen of rank and property, and sent to Rome, as the act and deed of the Irish Catholics. It is as follows : Whereas certain opinions and principles, inimical to good order and government, have been attributed to the Catholics, the existence of which we utterly deny ; and whereas it is at this time peculiarly necessary to. remove such imputations, and to give tbe most full and ample sa tisfaction to our Protestant brethren, that we hold no prin ciple whatsoever, incompatible with our duty as men or as subjects, or repugnant to liberty, whether political, civil, or religious. Now, we, the Catholics of Ireland, for the removal of all such imputations, and in deference to the opinion of many E 4 respectable 56 respectable bodies of men, and individuals among our Protestant brethren, do hereby in the face of our country, of all Europe, and before God, make this our deliberate and solemn declaration : 1st. We abjure, disavow, and condemn tbe opinion, that princes, excommunicated by the pope and council, or by any ecclesiastical authority whatsoever, may there fore be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any Other persons. We bold such doctrine in detestation, as Wicked and impious; and we declare that we do not be lieve, that either tbe pope, with or without a general coun cil, or any prelate or priest, or any ecclesiastical' power xehatsoever, can absolve tbe subjects of this kingdom, or any of them, from their allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third, who is by authority of Parliament, the lawful King of this realm. 2d. We abjure, condemn, and detest, as unchristian and impious, the principle, that it is lawful to murder, destroy, or any ways injure any person whatsoever, for or under the pretence of being heretics ; and we declare solemnly before God, that we believe that no act, in itself unjust^ immoral, or wicked, can ever be justified or excused by, or vnder pretence or colour, that it was- done either for the good of the church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical pot&er whatsoever. 3d. We further declare, that we hold it as ah unchristian and impious principle, that " no faith is to be kept with heretics." This doctrine we detest and reprobate, not only as contrary to our religion, but as destructive of mo rality, of society, and even of common honesty; and it is our firm belief, that an oath made to any person, not of the Catholic religion, is equally binding as if it were made to any Catholic whatsoever! > 4th. We have been i barged with holding as an article of our belief, that the pope, with or without the autho rity of a general council, or that certain ecclesiastical powers can acquit and absolve us, before God, from our 3 oath 57 , bath of allegiance, or even from the just oaths and con „ tracts entered into between man and man. Now we do utterly, renounce, abjufre, and deny, that we hold or maintain any such belief, as being contrary to the peace and happiness of society, inconsistent with morality, and above all, repugnant to the true spirit of the Catholic religion. 5th. We do further declare, that we do not believe that the pope of Rome, or any other prince, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this realm. 6th. After what we have renounced, it is immaterial, in a political light, what may be our opinion or faith in other points, respecting the pope : however, for greater satis faction we declare, that it is not an article of the Catholic faith, neither are we thereby required to believe or profess, " that the pope is infallible," or that we are bound to obey any order, in its own nature immoral, though the pope, or any ecclesiastical power, should issue or direct such order; but, on the contrary, we hold, that it would be sinful in us to pay any respect or obedience thereto. 7th. We further declare, that we do not believe that any sin whatsoever, committed by us, can be forgiven at the mere will of any pope, or of any priest, or of any person or persons whatsoever ; but, that sincere sorrow for past sins, a firm and sincere resolution, as far as may be in our power, to restore our neighbour's property or character, if we have trespassed on, or unjustly injured either ; a firm and sincere resolution to avoid future guilt, and to atone to God, are previous and indispensable requisites to esta blish a well-founded expectation of forgiveness ; and that any person who receives absolution without these previous requisites, so far from obtaining thereby any remission of his sins, incurs the additional guilt of violating a sacrament. Sth. We do hereby solemnly disclaim, and for ever re nounce all interest in, and title to all forfeited lands, re sulting from any rights, or supposed rights, of our ances tors 58 tors, or any claim, title, or interest therein ; nor do we ad mit any title, as a foundation of right, which is not esta blished and acknowledged by the laws of the realm, as they now stand. We desire further, that whenever the patrio tism, liberality, and justice of our countrymen, shall restore to us a participation in the elective franchise, no catholic shall be permitted to vote at any election for members to serve in parliament, until he shall previously take an oath to defend to the utmost of his power, the arrangement of property in this, country, as established by the different acts ef attainder and settlement. 9tb. It has been objected to us, that we wish to subvert the present church establishment, for the purpose of sub stituting a Catholic establishment in its stead : Now, we do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any- &uch intention ; and further, if we shall be admitted into any share of the constitution, by our being restored to the right of elective franchise, we are ready, in the most so lemn manner, to declare, that we will not exercise that privilege to disturb and weaken the establishment of the Protestant religion, or Protestant government in this country. Though this declaration did not produce any change of conduct on the part of the English go vernment at that time, its failure can only be att tributed to the obstinacy with which the principle of governing Ireland, upon the system of separate interests between the Protestants and Catholics, was adhered to. That system is now happily ex posed ; and, though of late attempted to be re* vived by his Majesty's present Ministers, the in telligence and liberality of the present race of Irish Protestants has completely counteracted their de signs. This declaration, though at first ineffec tual, was re-published in 1792, and may surely be expected at last to open the eyes of mankind to the tiue character of the Irish Catholic, and to secure to $9 to them the reward which it deserves, the unli mited confidence of their King and fellow subjects, and the entire restoration of their constitutional rights. In the year 1759, when it was known that a French force, under the command of Conflans, was collected to invade Ireland, the conduct ofthe Catholics on this, as it had uniformly been on si milar occasions, was loyal in the extreme. Mr. O'Connor, Dr. Curry, and Mr. Wyse, had some time before, in 1757, succeeded in establishing a ge-f neral committee of the Catholic body, formed by delegates of parishes, and the principal Catholic nobility and gentry. As soon as this invasion was announced to Parliament by a message from the Duke of Bedford, this committee Was summoned to meet ; and Mr. O 'Connor having submitted to it the following address to the Lord Lieutenant, it was unanimously approved of. May it please your Grace, We, his Majesty's dutiful and faithful subjects, the Ro man Catholic gentlemen, merchants, and citizens of Dub* lin, do, with the greatest respect, approach the illustrious representative^ tbe best of Kings, with our" hearty con* gratulations on those glorious successes, by sea and land, which have attended his Majesty's arms, in the prosecu tion of this just and necessary war. We gratefully acknowledge the lenity extended to us by his most sacred Majesty, and by his royal father, of happy memory. Our allegiance, may it please your Grace, is confirmed by affection and gratitude ; our reli gion commands it $ and it sball be our invariable rule firmly and inviolably to adhere to it. We are called to this duty, at the present time in parti cular, when a foreign enemy is meditating desperate at tempts to interrupt the happiness and disturb the repose, which these kingdoms have so long enjoyed, under a Mo narchy 6o narch, who places bis chief glory in proving" himself th© common father of all his people : and we sincerely assure your Grace, that we are ready and willing, to the utmost of our abilities, to assist in supporting his Majesty's go vernment against all hostile attempts whatsoever. Whenever, my Lord, it shall please the Almighty, that the legislative power of this realm shall deem the peaceable conduct of his Majesty's Catholic subjects of Ireland, for many years past, an object worthy of its favourable atten tion, we humbly hope means may then be devised, to render so numerous a body more useful members to tbe community, and more strengthening friends to the state, than they could possibly have hitherto been, under the restraint ofthe many penal laws against them. We most humbly beseech your Grace to represent to his Majesty these sentiments and resolutions of his Majesty's faithful subjects, the Roman Catholics of this metropolis, who sincerely wish, that a peace honourable to bis Majesty, and advantageous to his kingdoms, may be the issue of the present war ; and that the people of Ireland may be long governed by your Grace, a Viceroy, in whom wisdom, moderation, and justice, are so eminently conspicuous. On that occasion, also, the wealthy individuals of this persuasion, offered to accommodate the government with large sums of money, in case of necessity, to support the Protestant establishment against all its enemies ; and the Catholics of the cityxjf Cork, in a body, presented an address to the Lord Lieutenant, expressing their loyalty in the warmest terms of assurance. They professed the warmest indignation at the threatened invasion of the kingdom, by an enemy vainly flattered with the imaginary hope of assistance in Ireland, from the former attachments af their deluded prede cessors. They assured his Grace, that such schemes were altogether inconsistent with their principles and intentions ; and that they would, to the utmost exertion of their abilities, with their lives 61 lives and fortunes, join in the defence and support of his Majesty's royal person and government, against all invaders whatsoever.* These circumstances are proofs of no ordinary fidelity in the Irish Catholics to the House of Brunswick. They were, however, of no avail in mitigating , the rigour, of the magistracy in the execution of the penal laws, or in iuclucing the British Government to repeal any part of them ; for the reign of George II. closed without any grateful acknowledgment being made to them for the steadiness, the moderation, and the loyalty, which they had displayed on so many trying occasions. GEORGE III. Though the first measure of this reign, the royal recommendation to Parliament to make the judges independent of the crown, bespoke the determination of his Majesty to respect the feelings and confirm the rights and liberties of his subjects ; still the unfortunate Catholics of Ireland were doomed to suffer under new pains and penalties. In the year 1776, an act of parliament was passed, f by which one or more justices ofthe peace, and all sheriffs and chief magistrates of cities and towns corporate, within their respective jurisdic tions, may from time to time, as well by night as by day, search for and seize all arms and ammuni tion belonging to any Papist not entitled to keep * Smollett's History of England, 4, 69. + 15th and 16th Geo. III. c. 21. § 15. the 62 the same, or in the hands of any person in trust, for a Papist ; and for that purpose enter any dwel ling-house, out-house, office, field, or other place belonging to a Papist, or to any other person where such magistrate has reasonable cause to suspect any such arms or ammunition shall be concealed ; and on suspicion, after search, may summon and exa mine on oath, the person suspected of such con cealment. By the 17th clause of this act, Papists refusing to deliver up or declare such arms as 'they, or any with their privity, have, or hindering the delivery, or refusing to discover on oath, or without cause neglecting to appear on summons to be examined before a magistrate concerning the same, shall, on conviction, be punished by fine and imprisonment, or such corporeal punishment of pillory or whip ping, as the Court shall in their discretion think proper. In the year 1782, a clause was introduced into an act,* by which no person shall be admitted into the Society of King's Inns as a student, who shall not, at the time of his admission, be a Protestant. In the same year, an actf was passed, by the 3d clause of which, all statutes made in England or Great Britain, and all such clauses and provisions contained in any statute there made, as relate to the taking any oath or oaths, or making or subscrib ing any declaration in Ireland, or to any penalty or disability for omitting the same, shall be accepted, used, and executed in Ireland. This act referred to: 1st, the English act of 3d William and Mary, c. 2. sect. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, by * 21st and 22d Geo. III. c. 32. § 2. t 21st and 22d Geo. III. c. 48. § 3. which 63 which the oath of supremacy mentioned in 2 Eliz, 1. c. 1. is abrogated, and a new oath of supremacy is required to be taken by all persons admitted in Ireland to hold any civil or military office, and by members of both Houses of Parliament : 2dly, to the TEnglish act of 1st Anne, stat. 2. c. 17. re quiring all persons to take the oath of abjuration, prescribed by the English acts of 13th Win. III. c. 6. and 1st Anne, st. 1. c, 22d : 3dly, to the Eng lish act of 6th Geo. III. c. 53. § 2. declaring that from the 1st August, 1776, the oath of abjuration, by this act appointed to be taken in Great Britain, shall be the oath of abjuration, to be taken in Ire land. Though this clause ofthe 21st and 2 2d of Geo. III. c. 48. has attracted very little public attention, it was of no less import than thai; of being the first legal exclusion of Catholics fro\n sitting in the Irish Parliament. They had been excluded de facto by their voluntary submission to the English act of 3d William and Mary, but not dejure till this act of 21st and 22d Geo. III. which made the act of 3d William and Mary just mentioned, bind ing in Ireland.* This * The first Irish parliament summoned by William, having met on the 5th of October 1692, immediately after the election of a speaker and his being seated, " a motion was made for the reading of a late act of parliament, made in England in the third year of their majesties reign, intituled ' An act for abro gating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and appointing other oaths,' upon reading whereof, the house immediately proceeded to the swearing of their members, and they being sworn the house' adjourned." (Irish Com. Jour. 2. P. 9. } It does not appear by the Journals that any objection was made to this motion, or that any Catholic had been elected to serve in this parliament, notwithstanding this English act was not binding in Ireland. Nor is any mention made in the historians of 64 This circumstance, which has always been over looked, even by the Catholics themselves, proves how readily they have been inclined at all times to submit to the authority of G overnment. And it also proves how unfounded those arguments are, which maintain that the exclusion ofthe Catholics of Ire land from Parliament, is a principle on which the family of his Majesty was placed upon 'the throne. It completely overturns the system of erroneous rea soning concerning the coronation oath, which of. late has been so common ; and, so far as the mean ing of this oath is at issue, it reduces the question to this simple point, whether the king can consci- enciously place the Catholics of Ireland in the same condition, with respect to sitting in Parliament/in which they had continued till the twenty-second year of his own reign. In 1785 an act was passed* for granting 40001. te be expended in apprentice fees, to such trades men or manufacturers, as should take children from charter-schools or the Foundling Hospital ; but it was expressly provided that the children should be bound to none but Protestant tradesmen and ma nufacturers. The whole code of the penal statutes against the Catholics of Ireland is now laid before the view of the reader,under which they so long and so patiently languished ; statutes unexampled for their inhuma nity, their unwarrantableness, and their impolicy, which were adopted to exterminate a race of men already crushed and broken by the longest series of that day, concerning the grounds upon which the Catholics submitted to it. The submissive forbearance of them under a most severe extension of the penal code, i< the only point relat ing to them, which has arrested their notice. Plovden, 1. 198. *25th of George III. c 48 § 11. and 12- 65 of calamities which one nation had ever the oppor tunity of inflicting upon another. They were framed against Christians under the pretence of se curing religion ; they were the work of Protestants, than whom no sect has cried out more loudly against persecution when Protestants were the martyrs. They were sanctioned by a nation who owed its liberties, and by monarchs who owed their throne, to a solemn covenant that such penal disabilities should never exist.* Here may we not inquire, if the English nation, legislature, and king, have not a duty to fulfil towards the Irish Catholics even greater than that of justice — a duty of compunction, of repentance, and atonement ? The faith of a solemn treaty made with them ha» been broken : it is not enough that it has been in part re-established, it ought to be religiously ful filled. They have been ruled •with tyranny: it is not enough that the tyranny should be relaxed, it should cease altogether. They have been driven from the pale of the Constitution : it is not enough that they should be allowed to pass its barriers, they should range free and uncontrouled through all its rights. That this system of slow political torture, was not warranted by any alleged delinquency on their part is notorious, for it was devised and perfected in times of profound' tranquillity. That they were not deserving even of the suspicion of being dis loyal subjects, is proved by their-signal forbearance, which has preserved the empire from the calamitous consequences of such flagitious misgovernment '; and that, on the contrary, they fully merited the confidence and protection ofthe legislature, no fair * See the articles of Limerick, supra, f and 66 and candid mind can deny, when it gives to their conduct, in strictly adhering to the stipulations of the treaty of Limerick, and to their allegiance to the house of Brunswick,, the just value to which it is entitled. Having now reached the utmost point to which the penal statutes extended, which seems to be as- far as human invention, quickened by mixed fe " Has not the experience of every age and every " nation, proved that the effect is 'nvariable and uni- " versal ? Let a religion be what it may, and under " whatever circumstances, no system of persecu- " tion ever yet had any other effect, than to con- " firm its professors in their tenets, and spread their "doctrines, instead of restraining them. The great * 17Z&- f 3 " plea 70- "plea of the Roman Catholic priests, and their " merit with their congregations, are the dangers " they hajzard, and the persecutions they suffer for " the sake of their faith ; arguments that have, and " ever will have weight, while human nature con- " tinues formed of its present materials. " But if these exertions of a succession of igno- " rant legislatures have failed continually in propa- " gating the religion of government, much more " have they failed in the great object of natural " prosperily. The only considerable manufacture " ip Ireland, which carries in all parts the appear- " ance of industry, is the linen, and it ought never " to be forgotten that this is solely confined to the " Protestant parts of the kingdom. The poor Ca- " tholics in the south of Ireland spin. wool general- "• ly,but the purchaser of their labour, and the whole " worsted trade, is in the hands of the Quakers of " Clonmel, Carrick and Bandon, &c. The fact is, " the professors of that religion are under such. " discouragements, that they cannot engage in " any trade which requires both industry and ca- " pita!. If they succeed and make a fortune, what " are they to do wkh it ? They can neither buy " land, nor take a mortgage, nor even fine down " the rent of a lease. Where is there a people in " the world to be found industrious under such " circumstances ? " It is no superficial view I have taken of this " matter in Ireland; and being at Dublin at the " time a very trifling part of these laws was agi- " tated in parliament, I attended the debates, with " my mind open to conviction, and an auditor for " the mere purposes of information, I have con- " versed on the subject with most distinguished " characters 71 " characters of the kingdom, and I caniiot after " all but declare that the scope, purport, and aim " ofthe laws of discovery, as executed* are not " against the Catholic religion, which increases " under them, but against the industry and pro- " perty of whosoever professes that religion. In " vain has it been said, that consequence and pow- " er follow property* and that the attack is made " in order to wound the doctrine through its pro- " perty. If such was the intention, I reply, that " seventy years experience prove the folly and " futility of it. Those laws have crushed all the " industry, and wrested most of the property from " the Catholics ; but the religion triumphs ; it is " thought to increase; Those who have handed " about Calculations to prove a decrease* admit on " the face of them, that it will require 4000 years " to make converts of the whole* supposing the " work to go on in future, as it has in the past time; " But the whole pretence is an affront to common " sense, for it implies, that you will lessen a reli- " giort, by persecuting it: all history and expe- %t rience condemn such a proposition. " The system pursued in Ireland has had no " other tendency but that of driving out' of the " kingdom all the personal wealth of the Catho- " lies, and prohibiting their industry within it. " The face of the country, every object, in short, " which presents itself to the eye of a traveller, " tells him how effectually this has been done. I " urge it not as an argument, the whole kingdom " speaks it as a fact. We have seen that this con- " duct has not converted the people to the religion! " of government ; and instead df adding to the in- " ternal securitv, it has endangered it: if there- f 4 "fore 72 " fore it does not add to the national prosperity* ' " for what purpose, but that of private tyranny, " could it have been embraced and persisted in? " Mistaken ideas of private interest account for the " actions of individuals ; but what could have in- " fluenced the British government to permit a sys- " tern which must inevitably prevent the island . " from even becoming of the importance which " nature intended ?"* Of the state ofthe agriculture of Ireland at this period, a tolerable accurate idea may be formed from the words of the same author. — " I have "reason to believe that five pounds sterling per " English acre, expended all over Ireland, which "amounts to 88,841,1361. would not more than " build, fence, plant, drain and improve that coun- " try, to be upon a par in those respects with Eng- " land."'}" The prices also ofthe produce, of land, afford proof of the general poverty ofthe kingdom. In 177.8, butter sold for 5|-d. per lb. — mutton, 2-^d. beef, 24-d. — pork, 2^d. — veal, 3-^d. — a fat turkey for 10^d. — a goose for 8^-d. — and a chicken for 24d. From these several authorities upon the state of Ireland in 1778, much information may be collect ed concerning the causes of many of those, peculiar circumstances which, at this day, belong to that country. If it is asked, why the people of Ireland are soiHiterate ? The answer that presents itself is, 109k to the penal laws, that deprived them, till a late period, of education. If it is asked, why they are poor? The, same answer must be given, look * Young's Tour, vol. 2. 135. Eng. Ed. + Young's Tour, App. to 73 to the penal laws. If it is asked, why the lower orders eat vegetables only, and live in hovels ? Still the same answer, look to the penal laws. If it is asked why there is no class of yeomanry in Ireland like that in England ? The answer is, because the penal laws prohibited industry, and prevented the small landholder from acquiring either property or conse quence in the one country, as he might do in the other. If it is asked, why the people are discontent ed and dislike England ? This answer only can be given, because from Engl and they received this penal code, under which they have endured, for above a century, every species of calamity, contrary to the positive stipulations of a sacred and solemn treaty. It was in the year 1774, that the Irish legislature passed the first act towards conciliating the Catho lics, ".an act to enable his majesty's subjects, of " whatever persuasion, to testify their allegiance to " him."* Which is as follows : Whereas many of-bis Majesty's subjects in this kingdom are desirous to testify their lovalty and allegiance to his Majesty, and their abhorrence of certain doctrines imputed to them, and to remove jealousies which hereby have for a, length of time subsisted between them, and others his Ma jesty's loyal subjects ; but upon account of their religious tenets are, by the laws now in being, prevented from giv ing public assurances of such allegiance, and of their real principles, and good will, and affection towards their fel low subjects ; in order, therefore, to give such persons an opportunity of testifying their allegiance to his Majesty, and good will towards tbe present constitution of this kingdom, and to promote peace and industry amongst the inhabitants thereof, be it enacted by the King's most ex- * 13 and 14th Geo. III. c. 35. cellent 74 eellent Majesty, by and with the advice and cdnsent of the* Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this pre sent Parliament assembled, and by the authority of thei same, that from and after the first day of June, one thou sand seven hundred and seventy-four, it shall and may be' lawful for any person professing the Popish religion, to go before the Judges of his Majesty's Court of King's Bench* any Justice of Peace for the county in which he does or shall reside, or before any magistrate of ady city or town; corporate, wherein he does or sball reside, and there take and subscribe the oath of allegiance and declaration, here in after^mentioned ; which oath and declaration such -Judges of the King's Bench, Justices of the Peace and Magistrates* are hereby enabled and required to admw nister. " 1 A. S. do take Almighty God, and his only son Jesu» Christ my Redeemer, to witness, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to our most gracious Sovereign Lord King George the Third, and him will defend to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatever, that shall be made against his person, crown, and dignity J and I will do my utmost endeavour to disclose and makes known to his Majesty and his heirs, all treasons and trai torous conspiracies which may be formed against him-or them ; and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my power, the succession of the crown in his Majesty's Family, against any person ot persons whatsoever ; hereby utterly renouncing and ab^ juring any obedience or allegiance unto the person taking upon himself the style and title of Prince of Wales in the life-time of his father, and who, since his death, is said to have assumed the style and title of King of Great Britain and Ireland, by the name of Charles the Third, and to any1 Other person claiming or pretending a right to the Crewn of these realms ; and I do swear, that I do reject and detest as unchristian and impious to believe* that it is lawful td murder or destroy any person or persons whatsoever* for Or under pretence of their being hereticks ; and also that unchristian and impious principle, that no faith is td be kept with hereticks ; I further declare, that it is no ar ticle of my faith, and that I do renounce, reject, and ab jure 75 jure the opinion, that Princes excommunicated by the Pope and Council, or by any authority of the See of Rome, or by any authority whatsoever, may be deposed and mur dered by their subjects, or by any person whatsoever; and I do promise, that I will not hold, maintain, or abet, any such opinion, or any other opinion contrary to what is ex pressed in this declaration ; and I do declare that I do not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign Prince, Prelate, State, or Potentate, hath or ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this realm, and I do solemnly, in the presence of God, and of his only Son Jesus Christ my Redeemer, profess, testify, and de clare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words of this oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental re servation whatever, and without any dispensation already granted by the Pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, or any person whatever ; and without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or man, or ab solved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope, or any other person or persons, or authority whatsoever, shall dispense with, or annul the same, or de clare that it was null and void from the beginning.* " SohelpmeGod." And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the* officer ofthe Court of King's Bench, justices ofthe peace, and magistrates of the city and towns corporate, shall yearly, within twenty-one days after the first of December, return to tbe Clerk of the Privy Council of this kingdom, or his deputy, a true and perfect list, under his or their hand, of every such Papist as shall, in the course of the preceding year, have taken and subscribed such oath, in which list the quality, condition, title, arid place of abode of such Papist, shall be specified. About the same time, fearing that their grievances were not known to his Majesty, the * See App. Note B. Mr Catholics prepared a Petition ; which was pre sented to Lord Buckinghamshire by Lbrd Fingal, Mr. Preston and Mr. Dermot, in order that it might be transmitted by him to the King. To the King's most Excellent Majesty, the humble Address and Petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. Most Gracious Sovereign, We your Majesty's most dutiful subjects, the Roman Catholics of your kingdom of Ireland, with hearts full of loyalty, but overwhelmed with affliction, and depressed by our calamitous and ruined circumstances, beg leave to lay at your Majesty's feet, some small part of those numerous and insupportable grievances under which we have long groaned, not only without any act of disobedience, but even without murmur or complaint ; in hopes that our in violable submission and" unaltered patience under those severe pressures, would fully confute the accusation of seditious principles, with which we have been unfortu nately and unjustly charged. We are deeply sensible of your Majesty's clemency, in moderating the rigorous execution of some of the laws against us : but we humbly beg leave to represent, that several, and those the most severe and distressing of those laws, execute themselves with the most fatal certainty, and that your Majesty's clemency cannot, in the smallest de- gree,~interpose for their mitigation, otherwise your Roman .Catholic subjects would most cheerfully acquiesce in that resource, and rest with an absolute and unbounded as surance on your Majesty's princely generosity, and your pious regard to tbe rights of private conscience. We are, may it please your Majesty, a numerous and very industrious part of your Majesty's subjects, and yet by no industry, by no honest endeavours on our part, is it in our power to acquire or to hold, almost any secure or permanent property whatsoever ; we are not only disqua lified to purchase, but are disabled from occupying any land, even in farm, except on a tenure extremely scanted both in profit and in time ; and if We should venture to 3 expend 77 expend any thing on the melioration of land thus held, by building, by inclosure, by draining, or by any other species of improvement, so very necessary in this country ; so far would our services be from bettering our fortunes, that these are precisely the very circumstances, which, as the law now stands, must necessarily disqualify us. from continuing those farms, for any time in our possession. , Whilst the endeavours of our industry are thus discou raged, (no less, we humbly apprehend, to the detriment of the national prosperity, and the diminution of your Majesty's revenue, than to our particular ruin) there are a set of inen, who, instead of exercising any honest occupa tion "in the commonwealth, make it their employment to pry into our miserable property, to drag us into tbe courts, and to compel us to confess on our oaths, and un der the penalties of perjury, whether we have, in any in stance, acquired a property, in the smallest degree ex ceeding what the rigour of the law has admitted ; and in such case the informers, without any other merit than that of their discovery, are invested (to the daily ruin of seve ral innocent, industrious families) not only with the sur-, plus in which the law is exceeded, but in the whole body of the estate, and interest so discovered, and it is our grief that this evil is likely to continue and increase, as in formers have, in this country, almost worn off the infamy, which, in all ages, and in all other countries, has attended their character, and have grown into some repute by the frequency and success pf their practices. And this most gracious Sovereign, though extremely grievous, is far from being tbe only or most oppressive particular, in which our distress is connected With the breach of tbe rules of honour and morality. By the laws now in force in this kingdom, a son, however undutiful or profligate, shall, merely by the merit of conforming to tbe established religion, not only deprive the Roman Ca tholic father of that free and full possession of his estate, that. power to mortgage or otherwise dispose of it, which the exigencies of his affairs may require ; but. shall him self have full liberty immediately to mortgage or otherwise alienate the reversion of that estate, from his family for ever ; a regulation by which a father, contrary to the prder of nature, is put under the power of his son, and through 78 through which an early dissoluteness is not only suffered, but encouraged, by giving a pernicious privilege, the fre quent use of which has broken the hearts of many deserv ing parents, and entailed poverty and despair on some of tbe mostaneient and opulent families in this kingdom. Even when the parent has tbe good fortune to escape this calamity in his life-time, yet be has at his death, the- melancholy and almost certain prospect of leaving neither peace nor fortune to his children ; for by that law, which bestows' the whole fortune on the first conformist, or, on non-conformity, disperses" it among the children, incura ble jealousies and animosities have arisen ; a total extinc tion of principle and of natural benevolence has ensued ; whilst we are obliged to consider our own offspring and the brothers of our own blood, as our most dangerous enemies ; tbe blessing of providence on our families, in a numerous issue, is converted into the most certain means of their ruin and depravation : we are, most gracious Sovereign, neither permitted to enjoy the few1 broken re mains of our patrimonial inheritance, nor by our industry to acquire any secure establishment to our families. In this deplorable situation, let it not be considered, we earnestly beseech your Majesty, as an instance of presump tion or discontent", that we thus adventure to lay open to your Majesty's meicy, a very small part of our uncom mon sufferings ; what we have concealed under a respect ful silence, would form a far longer, and full as melancho ly a recital ; we speak with reluctance, though we feel with anguish ; we respect from the bottom of our hearts that legislation under which we suffer ; but we humbly conceive it is impossible to procure redress without com plaint, or to make a complaint, that by some construction may not appear to convey blame : and nothing we assure your Majesty, should have extorted from us even these complaints, but the strong necessity we find ourselves un der of employing every lawful, bumble endeavour, lestthe whole purpose of our lives and- labours should prove only the means of confirming to ourselves, and entailing on our posterity, inevitable beggary, and the most abject servi tude ; a servitude the more intolerable, as it is suffered amidst that liberty, that peace, and that security, which, under your Majesty's benign influence, is spread all around us, 79 us, and which we alone, of all your Majesty's subjects, are rendered incapable of partaking. In all humility we implore, that our principles may not be estimated by the imflamed charge of controversial wri ters, nor our practices measured by the events of those troubled periods, when parties have run high (though these have been often misrepresented, and always cruelly ex aggerated to our prejudice) ; but that we may be judged by our own actions, and in our own times ; and we humbly offeir it to yoiw most equitable and princely consideration, that we do not rest the proof of our sincerity on words, but on things ; on our dutiful, peaceable, submissive be haviour for more than fourscore years : and though it will be considered as too severe to form any opinion of great bodies, by the practice of individuals, yet if in ail that time, amongst all our people, in the daily increase of severe laws against us, one treasonable insurrection, or one trea sonable conspiracy can be proved ; if amongst our clergy, one seditious sermon can be shewn to have been preached ; we will readily admit that there is good reason for con tinuing the present laws fn all their force against us ; but if, on the contrary, (we speak in full confidence), it can be shewn, that our clergy have ever exerted their utmost endeavours to enforce submission to your Majesty's govern ment, and obedience to your laws ; if it can be shewn that these endeavours have always been most strenuous in times of public danger, or when any accident tended to create a ferment amongst the people ; if our laity have frequently offered (what we are always ready to fulfil) to hazard their lives and fortunes for your Majesty's service ; if we have willingly bound up the fruits of our discouraged industry with tbe fortune of your Majesty's government in the pub lic loans; then, we humbly hope, we may be admitted to a small portion of mercy, and that that behaviour, which your Majesty's benignity and condescension will esteem a merit in our circumstances, may entitle us, not to reward, but to such toleration as may enable us to be come useful citizens teour country, and subjects as profi table, as we are loyal to your Majesty. Permit us, most gracious Sovereign, on this occasion, to reiterate the assurances of our unshaken loyalty, which all our sufferings have not been able to abate ; of our sin cere 80 cere zeal for your Majesty's service, of our attachment to the constitution of ou.r country, and of our warmest grati tude for your Majesty's cpntinual indulgence, and for the late instance of favour we have experienced from Parlia ment, in enabling us; consistent with our religious tenets, to give a legal < proof of our sentiments upon these points. And we.bumbly hope, that the alacrity and eagerness with which webave seized this first, though long wished oppor tunity of testifying^ in the most solemn and public man ner, our ihvialahle fidelity '.to your Majesty, our realprin- ciples,and our good-will and affection towards our fellow- subjects, will extinguish all jealousies, and remove those imputation*, which alone have hitherto held us forth in the light 6f enemies to your Majesty, and to the state. And if any thing farther can be suggested or devised, whereby we can, by our actions, more fully evince our sincerity, we shall consider such an opportunity of demonstrating our real loyalty, as an high favour, and shall be deficient in no act whatever, which does not amount to a renunciation of that religious profession which we value more than our lives, and which it cannot be suspected we bold from ob stinacy or a contempt of tbe laws, since it has been taken up by ourselves, but has, from time immemorial, been handed down to us from our ancestors. We derive no small consolation, most gracious Sove reign, from considering,, that the most severe and rigorous of the laws against us had been enacted before the acces sion of your Majesty's mqst illustrious House to the Throne of these kingdoms : we therefore indulge the more sanguine hopes, that the mitigation off hem, and the esta blishment of peace, industry, and universal happiness, amongst all your loval subjects, may be one of tbe bles- ings of Vour Majesty's reign. And though we might plead in favour of suchrelaxation, the express words of a solemn ' treaty, entered into with us, by your Majesty's royal prede cessor, King WiUiam, (which'has been forfeited by no dis obedience on our part), yet we neither wish, nor desire,; to receive any thing, but as a mere act of your Majesty's clemency, and of' the indulgence and equity of your Par liament. - < That this act of truly loyal beneficence and justice may be added to the other instances of your Majesty's august virtues 81 virtues, and that the deliverance of a faithful and distressed people may be one of those distinguishing acts of your reign, which shall transmit its memory to the love, grati tude, and veneration, of our latest posterity, is the humble prayer of, &c. &c* In the year 1778,f an act passed " for the re- " lief of his Majesty's subjects of this kingdom, " professing the Popish religion," The preamble of which contains a confirmation of every thing that has been already advanced, concerning the loyalty of the Catholics, and a declaration on the part of the King and Parliament, respecting the policy of admitting the Catholics into a full parti cipation of the blessings of the Constitution, which is a complete recognition of their right to enjoy them. It states, " And Whereas, from their uni- " form peaceable behaviour for a long series of " years, it appears reasonable and expedient to re- " lax the same, (the laws of Anne) ; and it must " teri*d not only to the cultivation and impfove- " ment of this kingdom, but to the prosperity and " strength of all his Majesty's dominions, that " his subjects of all denominations, should enjoy " the blessings of a free constitution, and should " be bound to each other by mutual interest and " mutual affection, 8?c." By this act Papists, provided they take the oath of declaration of 13th and 14th of Geo. III. c. 35. are admitted to the following privileges.— They may take land on leases not exceeding 999 years, or determinable upon any number of lives not ex ceeding five. The lands of Papists are to be descendable, de- viseable, and transferable, as fully as if the same * This petition is from the pen of Mr. Barke. + 17th and 18th of Geo. IJI. c 49. g were 82 ' ' were in the seizure of any other of his Majesty'* Bubjects. Papists are rendered capable to hold and enjoy all estates which may descend, be devised or trans ferred to them. No maintenance is to be hereafter granted to a conforming child of a Papist^ out of the personal property of such Papist, except out of such leases as may be taken under this act. And the conformity of the eldest son is not to alter hereafter the Popish parent's estate. In the year 1782, another act passed " for the " further relief of his Majesty's subjects of this " kingdom, professing the Popish religion."* The preamble of this act states : " Whereas, all '" such of his Majesty's subjects in this kingdom, " of whatever persuasion, as have heretofore. taken " and subscribed, or shall hereafter take and sub- " scribe, the oath of allegiance and declaration pre- " scribed by an act passed in the 13th and 14th " year of his -present Majesty's reign^ entitled an " act to enable his Majesty's, subjects, of whatever " persuasion, to testify their allegiance 'to hirn, " ought to be considered as good and loyal sub- " jects to his Majesty, his crown and government : " and whereas a continuance of several of the laws " formerly enacted, and still in force in this king- " dom, against persons professing the Popish re- " ligion, is therefore unnecessary, in respect ,to " those who have taken, or shall take the said oath, " and is injurious to the real wealth and prosperity " of Ireland, therefore, &c." By this act Catholics, provided they take this oath, may purchase or take lands, or any interest ;# 21st and 22d Geo. III.-c. 24. . . therein, 83 therein, except advowsons or boroughs returning members of Parliament, and dispose of the same by will or otherwise ; and Popish ecclesiastics, on the same condition, and registering their name and abode, with the register of the diocese, are dis charged from all penalties^ Thisi act repeals so much of 8th Anne, as sub jects a Papist to fine and imprisonment, on his re fusal to testify on oath before two justices of the peace, when and where he heard the Popish mass celebrated, and the names of the persons celebrat ing it; and so much of 7th Wm. III. c. 5. as sub jects any Papist, who shall have In his possession any horse of the value of 5\. or more, to the penal ties therein mentioned ; and so much of 8th Anne, as enables the Lord Lieutenant to seize any horse belonging to a Papist, upon a prospect of invasion or rebellion. It also repeals so much of 9th Geo. II. c. 67 as enables grand juries to reimburse such persons as have been robbed by privateers in time of war, for their losses, and to levy the same on the goods of Papists only ; and so much of 6th Geo. I. c. 10. as subjects Papists, who shall not provide a Protestant watchman to watch in their turn, to certain penalties ; and so much of 2d Anne, c. 6, as subjects Papists, who took any house, or came to dwell in Limerick, after the year 1703, or within the town of Galway, to certain penalties. In the same year was likewise passed an act to allow persons, professing the Popish religion, to teach school in this kingdom, and for regulating the education of Papists, and also to repeal parts of certain laws relative to the guardianship of their children.* * 21st and 22d Geo. III. c. 62. e 2 Th« 84 The preamble states : " Whereas several of the " laws made in this kingdom, relative to the edu- " cation of Papists, or persons professing tbe Popish " religion, are considered as too severe, and have " not answered the desired effect." This act repeals so much of 7th Wm. III. c, 4, and 8th of Anne, e. 3. as subjects Catholics, who shall publicly teach school, or privately in struct youth, to the like penalties as any Popish regular convict, provided they take the oaths of 13th and 14th of George III. c. 35 ; and it enables Catholics, except ecclesiastics, to be guar dians. Of the numerous individuals, who at this time distinguished themselves for their exertions in fa vour of the Catholics, there was no one to whom they were under greater obligations than to the late Mr. Burke. He wrote for them the Petition which was presented to the King in 1774. In the English House of Commons in 1778 he was the first to declare the necessity of concessions being made to them ; he said that " Ireland was now the " chief dependence ofthe British crown, and that " it particularly behoved that country to admit the fl Irish nation to the privileges of British citi- " zens;"* and, in the year 1782, he wrote his ce^ lebrated letter to Lord Kenmare, in which he so ably exposes the folly, injustice, and tyranny of the penal laws. It certainly is a fact of no small importance in favour ofthe wisdom of unlimited concession to the Catholics, that this great statesman, the advocate for existing establishments, and who was the first and most formidable opponent to the progress of * 8th Eng. Deb. p. 185, 1st Ap*il, 1778. the 85 the Jacobinical principles of France, should have advised it, and incessantly fowarded it by his power ful talents and extensive influence. But the Catholics were indebted, not only to the labours of their friends, but also to the great revo lution which was going on at this period in Ame rica, for the success of the first concessions that were made to them. This soon appeared very evi* dent ; an attempt was made by Mr. James Fitz gerald, a few months before the introduction of the act of 17. 18. Geo. III. to obtain for them a power to take leases for lands for 61 years, and this attempt failed. But, soon afterwards, when the intelligence arrived of the defeat of the British forces in America, the same Parliament, on the recommendation of the government, passed an act for enabling them to take land on leases for 999 years. > It was not, however, till the British government were obliged to transport the whole of the British army from Ireland to America, and thus leave it exposed to the attacks of France, that the Catho lics became of sufficient importance in the eyes either of their own Protestant countrymen, or of the British government, to be attended to and ca ressed by them. The only alternative then left for the Protestants to adopt, was either to promote a union of sects in the common defence of the king dom, or to make up their minds to fall an easy prey to the arms of France. Upon this principle of preservation, by an oblivion of all past animo sities, the volunteers were embodied, and com posed indiscriminately of Catholics and Protestants. But, in proportion as the danger of invasion di minished, they naturally turned their attention to the grievances that both sects experienced at the g 3 •6 hands of the British government, and soon hecape an armed association for the attainment of politi cal rights. In this appeal to arms, in open resistance to the power of Great Britain, for the purpose of com pelling her to grant to Ireland the independence of her legislature, and a reform of her Parliament, the Protestants took the lead. But the contention between them and the British government was not one of arms, because Great Britain had no troops with which to dispute with the volunteers, but one of political manoeuvring. It was plain, that to which ever party the Catholics attached them selves, victory would belong.' The government, therefore, in order to secure them, passed the acts of 1778 and 1782 ; while the Protestants, on the other hand, endeavoured to conciliate them by public resolutions and declarations in favour of their complete emancipation. The Dungannon convention, which met in February 1782, and was composed of the representatives of 143 Protestant corps of volunteers, resolved, with two dissenting voices only, " that they held the right of pri- " vate judgment, in matters of religion, to be " equally sacred in others.as themselves; therefore, " that, as Christians and Protestants, they rejoiced "in the relaxation of the penal laws against their *' Roman Catholic fellow- subjects, and that they *' conceived the measure to be fraught with the " happiest consequences to the union and pros- " perity of Ireland." These liberal .declarations on the part of this. meeting* and the general tenoux of the conduct of the Protestants throughout Ireland towards the Catholics, secured their cordial concurrence, and the British Government were, at length, reluctantly obliged S7 oblige^0 concede the favourite object of an inde pendant Irish legislature. The Protestants now proceeded to attempt to carry their other great object, a parliamentary re form ; and, after the sense of the kingdom had been expressed, at various public meetings, to be decidedly in favour of it, they determined to hold a convention in Dublin, for the purpose of im pressing upon government and parliament the ne cessity of acceding to their demands. In the mean time, a division of opinion had manifested itself among some of the northern corps of vo lunteers On the Catholic question, and Lord Char- lemont and other persons had declared themselves hostile to further concessions. This circumstance afforded the government an easy opportunity of de feating the object ofthe convention ; they contrived to have a motion made for connecting the eman cipation of the Catholics with the question of par liamentary reform ; and upon its being rejected by the convention, knowing that its power was not to be dreaded, if unsupported by the Catholic popu lation, they despised its threats, and, by a manly opposition to their demands, they secured their dispersion without tumult, and certainly without the regret ofthe advocates of such a reform in Par liament as the general circumstances of the coun try absolutely required. From this period, to the year 1790, the Catholic question was not once agitated, either by the Ca tholics or by Parliament. In this year the attor ney-general brought in a bill to explain and amend the act of 22d Geo. III. c. 62. The intention of this act was to give to Ca tholics the power of appointing guardians to their children, but it was so carelessly clrixvn, o 4 that 88 that, upon consulting it, in the case of \ije will of the late Lord Gormanstown, by which h\ had appointed guardians to his son, it was discovered that they were not competent to act. The pre sent bill was therefore introduced to remedy this defect. , A circumstance, which took place this summer shews, that this act of common justice was not, in any degree, the result of an inclination, on the part of government, to -treat the Catholics with more than customary liberality. Lord Westmore land, then Lord Lieutenant, had visited the South of Ireland ; and, on his arrival at Cork, it was intimated to the Catholics there, that an expres sion of their loyalty would be acceptable. Ac cordingly an address of that nature was prepared, which, however, concluded with a hope, that their loyalty would entitle them to some relaxation of the penal code. Before its being formally pre sented, it was submitted to his Excellency, and was returned to them, to strike out the clause which expressed hope. With a feeling rather natural to men not perfectly broken down by oppression, they refused to strike it out, and declined presenting the address. A century of pains and penalties had now elapsed, in which period the most severe and mi nute investigation had not been able to ascribe to the Catholics one instance of disloyalty, when they at length determined to make a vigorous exertion to obtain a restoration of their constitutional rights. In the course of the year 1790, violent resolutions had been entered into by the magistrates of the county of Armagh against them. Those of Dub lin, and of the other principal cities and towns of Ireland, were in consequence roused to adopt re solutions 89 solutions on their part, expressive of. the neces sity of petitioning Parliament These had been transmitted to the general committee of Catho lics, who thereupon held a meeting to consider them on the 11th of February 1791. The ge neral committee referred these resolutions to a sub-committee, who made upon them the follow ing report : " Your committee having, in obedience to your " directions, carefully perused the resolutions of " the Catholics of Ireland, report, that said resolu- f' tions contain the most unequivocal sentiments " of loyalty to our most gracious Sovereign, " George the Third, of love for our country, and " obedience to its laws, and the most humble hope " of being restored to some participation of its ex- " cellent constitution. " That vour Catholic brethren refer, with con- " fidence, to the numberless proofs they have "- given of fidelity in times the most perilous, " when rebellion raged in the bosom of Britain, " and when foreign invasion threatened our coast, *' and to that alacrity with which all descriptions " of our people took the oath of allegiance ; and ' they rely that their scrupulous observance of " such sacred obligation will no where be doubted, " when it is considered, that if thty took those " oaths required bylaw, they would thereby be. " come entitled to all the rights of citizens., " That, with all humility, they confide in the " justice, liberality, and wisdom of Parliament, " and the benignity of our most gracious Sove- " reign, to relieve them from their degraded situa- " tion, and no longer to suffer them to continue " like strangers in their native land; but thus "have the glory of shewing all Europe, that in " the " the plenitude of power, strength, and riches of " the British empire, when nothing they grant " can be imputed to any motives but those of jus- " tice and toleration ; that,. at such a period, they'- " deign to hear and relieve their oppressed and M faithful subjects, and to unite them for ever to " their country, by every tie .of gratitude and in- " terest ; and that they will shew to all Europe, " that humble and peaceful conduct, and dutiful " application, are the only true and effectual me- ct thods for good subjects to obtain relief from a *\ wise andg ood government. ' "That our Catholic brethren therefore desire, '* that application may be made for such relief as "the wisdom and justice of Parliament may grant ; " and they hope to be restored, at least, to some " of the Tights and privileges which have been " wisely granted to others who dissent from the " established church ; that they may be thus en- , "abled to promote, in conjunction with the rest " of their fellow-subjects, the present and future " happiness and strength of their country. " That our said Catholic' brethren direct, that " such application be immediately made, and con- " tinned, in the most submissive and constitutional " manner, for a mitigation of the restrictions and " disqualifications under which they labour." The general committee having agreed with and adopted this report, a petition was prepared in order to be laid before Parliament in the ensuing session. With this petition a deputation of the general committee waited upon the chief Secretary, Lord Hobart, to solicit the countenance and protection of government, but in vain. This was not only refused them, but the Catholics of Ireland, consti tuting, 91 tuting* at the lowest calculation, three-fourths of the inhabitants of the kingdom, had not even suf ficient influence to induce any one member of Par liament to present it. A second deputation having failed to obtain even an answer from government to a renewed application for its support, it was determined tb send Mr. Keogh to London, to lay before his Ma jesty's Ministers the state of his Catholic sub jects. Mr. Keogh, on his arrival in London, instituted a negociation with Mr. Pitt and the Cabinet: at the close of which, the Catholics were given to un derstand that they might hope for four objects — - grand juries, county magistrates, high sheriffs, and the bar. Admission to the right of suffrage was also mentioned, and taken under consideration. The spirit' of religious liberty having, at this time, made great progress among the Protestant dissenters in Ulster, the 1st Belfast volunteer com pany, in July 1791, passed a resolution in favour of admitting the Catholics to a full enjoyment ofthe constitution ; and, in October, the great Northern Association of United Irishmen * pledged them selves '¦' to endeavour, by all due means, to procure " a complete and radical reform of the people in " Parliament, including Irishmen of every religious " persuasion." In the mean time, whilst Mr. Keogh was in London, the Irish Administration had been en deavouring to counteract the views of the Catho lic body, by a negociation with the principal nobi lity and gentry belonging to it ; and, in some de- * It was not till 1794, that a new society, under this name. embarked in an attempt to separate Great Britain and Ireland. gree; 92 gree, their exertions were successful. For, at a meeting of the general committee, held in Decem ber 1791, for the purpose of considering of the po licy of petitioning Parliament in the ensuing ses sion, some of the meeting wished to adopt a reso lution of seeking no removal of the existing dis abilities, but in such a manner and to such an ex tent as the wisdom of the legislature deemed expe dient. This was resisted by others, and on a divi sion upon the question of petitioning, the nobili ty were left in a minority of 90 to 17. Pursuant to this decisionr the. following petition was drawn up, and introduced into the House of Commons, by Mr. O'Hara, on the 23d January* 1792. We your petitioners, being appointed by sundry of his Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion, to be agents for conducting applications to the legislature for their relief, in our own and their names, beg leave- to approach this High Court of Parliament with an unfeign ed respect for its wisdom and authority ; and at the same time, with a deep and heartfelt sensation of our singular and deplorable situation! And, first of all, we implore (and for this we throw ourselves on the indulgence of parliament) that no irregularity or defect in form or lan guage, should obstruct the success of these our most ar dent supplications. The circumstances in which we stand deserve consideration. For near a hundred years, we and our fathers, and our grandfathers, have groaned under a code of laws, (in some parts already purged from tbe statutes), the like of which, no age, no nation, no cli mate ever saw. Yet, sore as it were from the scourge1 of active persecution, scarce yet confirmed in our minds, and but lately secure in our persons and in our houses, from the dailv alarms of search-warrants and informers, we come before Parliament for the first time ; and we come to ask an alleviation of burdens, under which we can only find censolation in the melancholy comparison of former times. In 93 In this state of recent apprehension and troubled anxiou9 liope, with minds unadapted to the precise observances of decorum, we rest upon the simple merits of our case. It is apart of our calamities, that we do not know howto tell them with propriety ; and if our complaints should deviate into remonstrance, and we should seem to upbraid, when we mean to supplicate, we trust a due allowance will be made for expressions extorted by our anguish, or proceed ing from an inevitable ignorance of form. Excluded from the constitution in all its parts, and in many respects aliens to the law, how should we have learned the forms of Par liament ? The hardships we suffer proceed from the law. It is, therefore, only to the fountain of the law that we can look for relief. You are the great Council of our Sovereign Lord the King ; but you are also subjects like ourselves. The ear of Majesty, by the law ofthe land, and by the benignity of that Sovereign, whom it is your glory to imi tate, is ever open to the petitions of bis people. As far as we are able to discern the great oulines of a constitu tion, which we know only in speculation, we conceive that it is the boast of the constitution of these kingdoms., tD have associated a portion of the people into the Sove reign power ; in order that, not dazzled by the awe of supreme Majesty, the subject may find a happy mediato rial institution, an asylum wherein to deposit the burden of his griefs, to expose the nakedness of his oppressions, and indulge complaint even to exaggeration. There were, indeed, those who would have made us believe, that Parliament was only to be approached with circumspect and timid steps ; at most, in general terms ; and that, wrapped in proud and inexorable state, )'ou would consi der a specification of the wants of the people as an insult, and a reason for not supplying them. But Ave knew it could not be. We knew that no senate, no king, no ty rant, had ever professed to turn his ear from detailed sup plication. The Majesty of God himself is willing to re ceive, and demands tbe incense of particular prayer. And shall we, who. speak from man to man, from subject to subject, not dare to specify the measure and extent of our crying necessities. Despising that base and hypocritical affectation, we are sure it is far more congenial to the nature and to the temper of Parliament, with a firm and generous confidence, 94 confidence, to say, Ss we say — here is the evil— -there fo the remedy : To you we look for relief. » Behold us then before you, three millions of the people of Ireland, subjects of the same king, inhabitants of the same land, bound together by the same social contract, contributing to the same revenues, defended by the same armies,decli»red, by the authentic words of an act of Parlia. ment, to. be good and loyal subjects to bis Majesty, his Crown, and Government, and yet doomed to one ge neral unqualified incapacity, and universal exclusion, an universal civil proscription. We are excluded from the state. We are excluded from the revenues. We are excluded from every distinction, every privilege, every office, every emolument, every civil trust, every corporate right. We are excluded from the navy, from the army, from the magistrature, from the professions. We are excluded from the palladium of life, liberty, and property, tne juries and inquests of our country. — From what are we not excluded? We are excluded from the constitution.. We stand a strange anomaly in the lawj not acknowledged, not disavowed ; not slaves, not free men : an exception to tbe principles of jurisprudence ; a prodigy in tbe system of civil institution. We incur no small part of tbe penalties of a general outlawry, and a ge neral excommunication. Disability meets us at every hour, and in every walk of life. It cramps our industry, it shackles our property, it depresses our genius, it debi litates our minds. — Why are we disfranchised^ and why are we degraded ? Or rather, why do these evils afllict our country, of which we are no inconsiderable part ? We most humbly and earnestly supplicate and implore Parliament to call this law of universal exclusion to a se vere account, and now at last to demand of it, upon what principle it stands, of equity, of morality, of justice, or of policy. And,- while we request this scrutiny into the law, we demand, also, the severest scrutiny into our principles, our actions, our words, and our thoughts. Wherein have we failed as loyal and affectionate subjects to tbe best of Sovereigns, or as sober, peaceable, and; useful members of society. Where is that people who can offer the testimony of a hundred years patient sub mission to a code of laws, of which no man living is now an advocate — without sedition, without murmur, without complaint. 95 i complaint. Our loyalty has undergone a century of se vere persecution for the sake of our religion, and we hare come out of the ordeal with our religion, and with our loyalty. Why then are we still left under the ban of our country ? We differ, it is true, from the national church, in some points of doctrinal faith. Whether it is our blessing or our misfortune, He only knows to whom all things are known. For this our religion we offer no apology., Af ter ages of learned and critical discussion, we cannot ex pect to throw farther light upon it. We have only to say, that it is founded on revelation, as well as the religion es tablished by law. Both you and we are regenerated in the same baptism, and profess our belief in the same Christ ; you according to the church of England, we according to the church of Rome. We do not exercise an abject or ob» scure superstition. If we err, our errors have been, and still are, sanctioned by the example of many flourishing, learned, and civilized nations. We do not enter, we dis* dain to enter into the cavils of antiquated sophistry, and to insult tbe understanding of Parliament by supposing it necessary to prove that a religion is not incompatible with civil government, which has subsisted for so many hun dred years under every possible form of government, in some tolerated, ih some established, even to this day. With regard to our civil principles, we. are unalter* ably, deeply, and zealously attached to his Majesty's per son and government. Good and loyal subjects we are, and we are declared by Jaw to be. With regard to the Constitution of the state, we areas much attached to it as it is possible for men to be attached to a constitution by which they are not avowed, With regard to. the con stitution of the church, we are, indeed, inviolably attached to our own : First, because we believe it to be true ; and next, because, beyond belief, we know that its. principles are calculated to make us, and have made us, good men and good citizens. But as we find it answers to us, individu ally, all the useful ends of religion, we solemnly and con scientiously declare, that we are satisfied with the present con dition of our ecclesiastical policy. With satisfaction, we acquiesce in the establishment of the national church ; we neither repine at its possessions, nor envy its dignities ; we are 96 are ready, upon this point, to give every assurance that is binding upon man. With regard to every other subject, and toevery other calumny, we have no disavowals, we have no declarations to make : Conscious ofthe innocence of our lives, and the purity of our intentions, we are justified in asking,' what reason of state exists, and we deny that any does exist, for leaving us still in the bondage of the law, and under the protracted restriction of penal statutes. Penalties suppose, if not crimes, at least a cause of reasonable suspicion. Cri minal imputations like those (for to be adequate to the effect, they must be great indeed) are, to a generous mind, more grievous than the penalties themselves. They in, controvertibly imply, that we are considered by the legis lature as standing in a doubtful light of fidelity or loyalty to the King, or to the constitution of our country, and perhaps to both,' While on these unjust suppositions we are deprived of the common rights and privileges of Bri tish and of Irish subjects; it is impossible for us to say we are contented while we endure a relentless civil proscrip tion for which no cause is alledged, and for which no rea son can be assigned. Because we now come with a clear, open, and manly voice, to insist upon the grievances under which we still labour, it is not to be inferred that we have forgot the be- nigant justice of Parliament,' which has relieved us from the more oppressive, but not tbe most extensive part of the penal system. In those days of affliction, when we lay prostrate under the iron rod, and, as it were, entranced ' in a gulph of persecution, it was necessary for Parliament to go the whole way, and to stretch out a saving hand to relieve us. We had not the courage to look up with hope, to know our condition, or even to conceive a remedy. It is because the former relaxations were not thrown away upon us ; it is because we begin to feel the influence of somewhat more equal laws, and to revive from our former inanition, -that we now presume to stand erect before you : Conceiving that Parliament has a right to expect, as a tost of our gratitude, that we should no longer lie a dead weight upon our country, but come forward in our turn to assist with our voice, our exertions, and our councils, in a work, to which the wisdom and power of Parliament is incompetent 97 incompetent without our co-operation — the application of a policy, wholly new, to the pressing wants, and to the inti mate necessities of a people long forgotten, out of tbe sight and out ofthe knowledge of a superintending legislature. —Accordingly we are come, and we claim no small merit that we have found our way to the door of Parliament. It has not been made easy for us. — Every art and industry* has been exerted to obstruct us : Attempts have been made to divide us into factions, and to throw us into con fusion. We have stood firm and united. We have re ceived hints and cautions ; obscure intimations and pub lic warnings to guard our supplications against intimida tion. We "have resisted that species of disguised and arU ful threat. We have been traduced, calumniated, and li belled. We have witnessed sinister endeavours again to blow be flame of religious animosity, and awake the slum bering spirit of popular terrors and popular fury.— But we have remained unmoved. We are, indeed, accustom ed to this tumid agitation and ferment in the public mind. In former times it was the constant precursor of more in tense persecution, but it has also attended every later and happier return of legislative mercy. But whether it be tokens us evil or good, to Parliament we come, to seek, at that shrine, a safeguard from impending danger, or a communication of new benefits. What then do we ask-of Parliament ? To be thoroughly united and made one with tbe rest of our fellow-subjects. That, alas ! would be our first, our dearest wish. But if that is denied us, if sacrifices are to be made, if by an ex ample of rare moderation, we do not aspire to the condi tion of a fair equality, we are not at a loss to find, in the range of social benefits (which is nearly that of our present exclusions), an object/ winch is, and ought to be, the scope and resfing-place of our wishes and our hopes. That which, if we do not ask, we are not worthy to obtaiu. We knock that it may be opened unto us. We have learned by tradition from our ancestors, we have heard by fame in foreign lands, where we have been driven to seek educa tion in youth, and bread in manhood ; and, by the con templation of our own minds, we are filled with a deep and unalterable opinion that the Irish, formed upon the model of the British constitution,is a, blessing of inesti- h mabie 98 mabie value ; that ft contributes, and is even essentially necessary for national and individual happiness. Of this constitution, we feel ourselves worthy j and though not practically, we know the benefits of its franchises. Nor can we, without a criminal dissimulation, conceal from Parliament the painful inquietude which is felt by our whole persuasion, and the dangers to which we do not cease to be exposed, by this our total and unmerited ex clusion from the common rights, privileges, and fran chises, conceded by our Kings forthe protection of thesub- ject. This exclusion is indeed the root of every evil. It is that which makes property insecure, and industry preca rious. It pollutes tbe stream of justice. It is the cause of daily humiliation. It is the insurmountable barrier, tbe impassable line of separation which divides the nation, and which, keeping animosity alive, prevents the edtire and cordial iniermixture ofthe people, And therefore inevita bly it is, that some share, some portion, some participation in the liberties and franchises of our country, becomes the primary and essential object of our ardent and common solicitation. It is a blessing for which there is no price, and can be no compesation. With it, every evil is toler able ; without it, no advantage is desirable. In this, as in all. things, we submit odrselves to the paramount autho rity of Parliament ; and we shall acquiesce in what is given, as we do in what is taken away. But this is the boon we ask. We hunger and we thirst for the constitu tion of our country. If it shall be deemed otherwise, and shall be determined that we are qualified perhaps for the base ana lucrative tenures of professional occupation, but unworthy to perform the free, afid noble services of the constitution, we submit, indeed, but we solemnly protest "against that distinction for ourselves and for our children. It is no act of ours. Whatever judgment may await our merits or our failings, we cannot conclude ourselves, by recognizing, for a consideration, the principle of servility and perpetual degradation. These are the sentiments which we feel to the bottom of our bedrts, and we disclose them to-tbe free Parliament of a Monarch whose glory it is to ireigwover a free people. —To you we commit our supplications and our causer. We have, indeed, little froapprehend, in this benigner age, , * from frqrn the malignant aspersions of former times, and not more from the obsolete calumnies of former strife ; al though we see them endeavouring again to collect the remnant of their exhausted venom, before they die for ever, in a last and feeble effort to traduce our religion and our principles. But, as oppression is ever fertile in pre texts, we find the objections started against us more dan gerous because they are new, or new at least in the novel ty of a shameless avowal. They are principally threes- First, it is contended that wp ar^ a people originally an,d fundamentally different from yourselves, and that our in terests are for ever irreconcileable, because some hundred years ago our ancestors were, conquered by your's. We deny the conclusion : we deny the fact. It is false. — In addressing ourselves to you, we speak to the children of our ancestors,. as we also are the children of your fore fathers : Nature has triumphed qver law ; we are inter mixed in blood ; we are blended in connexion ; we are one race ; we all are Irishmen ; subjects of the Imperial Crown of Ireland, The honour of Parliament is concerned, tp repress, the audacity of those who tell us trjat you are a forpign colony ; and, consequently, ought to govern ac cording to the principles of invaders, and the policy of recent usurpation. At least we confide tfiiit you will npt suffer the walls of Parliament to be contaminated with that libel upon the government of Ireland. The shaft which was aimed at us has strqck ypurselves ; a rpemorable, but, at the same tjme, we trust, a most auspicious example, to teach both you and us, and our common posterity, that our interests are one ; and that wrjatevpcattects the well- being and honour ofthe Roman Catholics, is also injurious to the Prote^ant interest. Of the same complexion an~d tendency aye the fwo qbjectipns, one that our adyance7 ment in property and privilege would leatj to a repeal of phe act of settlement ; the other, that our participation in the liberties and franchises of our country, would enr danger the existence of the constitution into which we are admitted. A resumption of the lands forfeited by our and your an cestors, (for they are the same), after the lapse of so mjiny years, (near three returns of the longest period of legal limitation) after the dispersion and extinction of so many fj 2 families ; 100 families ; after so many transitions and divisions, repar titions and reconsolidations of property; so many sales, judgments, mortgages, and settlements ; and after all the various process of voluntary and legal operation, to con ceive the revival of titles dormant for ISO years, is an idea so perfectly chimerical, so contrary to the experience of all ages and all countries, so repugnant to the. principles of jurisprudence, and so utterly impossible in point of tact ; that the Roman Catholics of Ireland, once for all, make it their earnest request to have that question thoroughly in vestigated, hi the assured hope, that so idle, vain, and ab surd an object of public apprehension, being exposed and laid open to the eye of reason, may sleep in oblivion for ever. As to the other subject of apprehension, we have but one answer to make. We desire to partake in the consti tution ; and therefore we do not desire to destroy it. Par liament is now in possession of onr case j our grievances, our sorrows, our obstructions, our solicitudes, our hopes. We have told you the desire of our hearts. We do not ask to be relieved from this or that incapacity ; not the abolition of this or that odious distinction ; not even per haps to be in the fulness of time, and in the accomplish ment of the great comprehensive scheme of legislation, finally incorporated with you in the enjoyment of the same constitution. Even beyond that mark, we have an ulti mate and if possible an object of more interior desire. We look for an union of affections ; a gradual j and, therefore, a total obliteration of all the animosities, (on our part they are long extinct), and all the prejudices which have kept us disjoined. We come to you a great accession to the Protestant interest, with hearts and minds suitable to such an end. We do not come as jealous and suspicious rivals, to gavel the constitution, but, with fraternal minds, to participate in the great incorporeal inheritance of free dom,- to be held according to the laws and customs of the realm, and by our immediate fealty and allegiance to the King. And so. may you receive us. . And we sball ever pray. . Objections 101 Objections having been made to this petition, upon Mr. O'Hara's presenting it, as being infor mal, he withdrew it ; and the general committee finding that so bold and explicit a statement of their case had given offence to some of their more violent opponents, prepared another petition, mere ly praying that the House would take into consi deration, whether the removal of some of the griev ances of the petitioners might not be compatible with Protestant security. This petition was pre sented by Mr. Egan on the 18th of February ; and, on, the 2Qth, was afterwards rejected, on a division of 200 to 23. On the same day was also rejected a petition from the Protestant inhabitants of Belfast, which went much farther than the petition of the Catho lics, as it required that they should be placed on the same footing with their Protestant fellow-sub jects. About this time the general committee invited over the son of Mr. Burke to act for them as their confidential agent.* They were induced to take this step Jn order to pay a compliment to Mr. Burke, in return for the extraordinary services he had done for them, and to secure, at this juncture, the renewal of his exertions in promoting their cause. It was on the 3d January of this year, that Mr. Burke published his letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, in which he gave him that learned and liberal opinion upon the subject of the elective franchise, which, it is said, obtained the royal as sent to the measure that afterwards was adopted for conceding it. This letter was admirably well * It appears from a statement, published by the committee, of their accounts, that they paid Mr. R.Burke for his attendance, L.2321. h 3 adapted 102 adapted to meet every species of objection, moral, local, and constitutional. It was calculated to remove the prejudices of the Church of England, and every sect of Protestant dissenters • and, above all, it was quite conclusive, as a demonstration of the compatibility of Catholic erriaticipatiori with the coronation oath. At a meeting of the general committee, on the 4th February, the following resolutions were agreed to, and afterwards published, with an address to the Protestants, written by Mr. R. Burke, and corrected by his father. To this ad dress were added the answers of the foreign Ca- tholic univerSj^ies to questions that had been put to them in 1789,. at the desire'of Mr. Pitt, con cerning the existence and extent of the Popish dispensing power. Resolved, That this committee has been informed, that reports have been circulated-, that the application of the Catholics for relief, extends to unlimited and .total eman, cipation ; and that attempts have been made, wickedly aud falsety, to instil into the minds of the Protestants of this kingdpm an opinion, that our applications were preferred in a tone of menace. Resolved, Tliat several Protestant gentleman have ex pressed great satisfaction on being individually informed of the real extent and respectful manner of the applicar tions for relief, have assured us, that nothing could have excited jealousy, or apparent opposition to us, frotti Our Protestant 'countrymen, but the above-mentioned misap prehensions. Resolved, That we therefore deem it necessary to de clare, that the whole of our late applications, whether to his Majesty's Ministers, to men in power, or to private members of the legislature, as well as our intended peti tion, neither did, nor does contain any thing, or extend further 103 further, either in substance or in principle, than the four foUowing objects. 1st. Admission to the profession and practice of the law. 2d. Capacity to serve as county magistracies. 3d. A right to he summoned, and to serve on grand and petty juries. 4th. The right of voting in counties only for Protes tant members of Parliament ; in such a manner, howeyer, as tliat a Roman Catholic freeholder should not vote, un less he either rented, and cultivated a farm of twenty pounds per annum, in addition to his forty shillings free hold j or else possessed a freehold to the amount of twenty pounds a-year. Resolved, That, in our opinion, these applications., not extending to any other objects than tbe above, are mode rate, and absolutely necessary for our general alleviation, and more particularly for the protection of the Catholic farmers and the peasantry of Ireland ; and that they do not, in any degree, endanger either church or state, or endan ger the security ofthe Protestant interest. Resolved, That we never had an idea or thought so ex travagant, as that of menacing or intimidating our Protes tant brethren, much less the legislature ; and that we dis claim the violent and turbulent intentions imputed to us in some of the public prints, and circulated in private con versation. Resolved, That we refer to the known disposition of the Roman Catholics of this kingdom, to our dutiful behaviour, during a long series of years, and particularly to the whole tenor of our late proceedings for the full refutation of every charge of sedition and disloyalty. Resolved, That f6r the more ample and detailed expo sure of all the evil reports and calumnies circulated against rH4 us. 104 bb, an address to our Protestant fellow-subjects, and to the public in general, be printed by the order, and in the name of the genera^committee. The queries and answers concerning the Popish dispensing power, are as follow : 1st. Has the Pope or Cardinals, or any body of men, or any individual of the'Church of Rome, any civil authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence whatsoever, within the realm of England ? 2d. Can the Pope or Cardinals, or any body of men, or 'ahy individual ofthe Church of Rome, absolve or dispense "with his Majesty's subjects from their oath of allegiance, upon any pretext whatsoever ? 3d. Is there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic faith, by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith With heretics, or other persons differing from them in reli gious opinions, in any transaction, either of a public or a ^private nature ? Abstract fr6m the Answer of the Sacred Faculty of Divi nity of Paris to the above Queries. After an introduction according to the usital forms of the university, they answer the first query by declaring : Neither the Pope, nor the~Cardinals, nor any body of men, nor any other person of the Church of Rome, bath any civil authority , civil power, civil jurisdiction, or civil pre-eminence whatsoever in any kingdom ; and conse quently, none in the kingdom of England, by reason or virtue of any authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-emi nence by divine institution inherent in, or granted, or by any other means belonging to the Pope, or the Church 6f Rome* This doctrine the Sacred Faculty of Divinity 'of Paris has always held, and upon every occasion maintained, and upon every occasion has rigidly proscribed the con trary doctrines from her'schoojs. Answer 105 ' Answer to tbe second query. — Neither the Pope, nor the Cardinals, nor any body of men, nor any person of the Church of Rome, can, by virtue of the keys, absolve or release the subjects ofthe King of England from their oath of allegiance. This and the first query are so intimately connected, that the answer of the first immediately and naturally ap plies to the second, &c. Answer to the third query. — There is no tenet in the Catholic church, by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or those who differ from them in matters of religion. The tenet, that it is lawful to break faith with heretics, is so repugnant to common honesty and the opinions of Catholics, that there is nothing of which those who have defended the Catholic faith against Protestants have complained more heavily, than the malice and calumny of their adversaries in imputing this tenet to them, Sfc. tyc. Sec. Given at Paris, in tbe General Assembly of tbe Sor- bonne, held on Thursday the 11th day before the calends of March, 1789. Signed in due form. University of Louvain. The Faculty of Divinity at Louvain having been re quested to give her opinion upon the questions above stated, does it with readiness — but struck with astonish* ment that such questions should, at the end of this eighteenth century, be proposed to any learned body, by inhabitants of a kingdom that glories in the talents and discernment of its natives. The Faculty being assembled for tbe above purpose, it is agreed, with the unanimous assent of all voices, to answer the first and second queries absolutely in the negative. Tbe Faculty does not think it incumbent upon her, in this place, to enter upon tbe proofs of her opinion, or to shew how it is supported by passages in the Holy Scriptures, or the writings of antiquity. That has already been done by Bossuet, De Marca, the two Barclays, Goldastus, the Pithseuses, Argentre Widrington, and his Majesty I OS Majesty King James tbe First, in his .Dissertation against geiiarmine and Du Perron, and by many others, &c. &c. &e. * The Faculty then proceeds to declare, that the sovereign power of the state is in nowise (not even indirectly, as it is germed) subject to, or dependent upon, any other power; though it be a spiritual power, or even though it be insti tuted for eternal salvation, &c. &c. That no. man, nor any assembly of men, however eminent V> dignity and power, nor even the whole body of the Ca-. thgtic church, though assembled in general council, can, upon any ground of pretence whatsoever, weaken the bond of union between the Sovereign and the people^ still less can they absolve or free the subjects from their oath of allegiance. Proceeding to the third question, the said Faculty of Divinity fin perfect wonder that such a question should be proposed to her) most positively and unequivocally an swers, that there is not, and there never has been, among ^he Catholics, or in the doctrines of the Church of Rome, any law or principle which makes it lawful for Catholics to,, break their faith with heretics, or others of a different persuasion from themselves, in matters of religion, .either i,n. public or private concerns. The Faculty declares the doctrine of the Catholics to Ip.e, that the divine and natural law, which makes it a duty ^0, keep faith, and promises, is the same ; and is neither shaken nor diminished, if those, with whom the engage ment is made, hold erroneous opinions in. matters of reli gion,, &c. &c. Signed in due -form on, the 18th of November, n.88, University of Valladolid. To the first question, it was answered — That neither Pope, Cardinals, or even a General Council, have any civil authority, power, jurisdiction,, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, in the kingdom of Great Britain ; or over any other kingdom or province in which they possess no temporal dominion. To the second it is answered — That neither Pope nor Cardinals,. i0'7 Cardinals, nor even a General Council, can absolve the subjects of Great-Britain from their oaths of allegiance, or dispense with their obligation. To the third it is answered — That the obligation of keeping faith is grounded on the law of nature, which binds all men equally, without respect to their religious opinions ; and with regard to Catholics, it is still more cogent, as it is confirmed by the principles of their re ligion. Signed in the usual form, February 17, 1789. While the general committee were occupied in carrying these measures into effect, Parliament had passed a law* for removing part of the restraints and disabilities to which the Catholics were liable. It was introduced into the House of Commons by Sir H. Langrishe, and, being supported by govern ment, it met with little opposition. But the con duct of government, on- this occasion, was so suspi cious, and its favour conferred with so bad a grace, f that it did not in the least degree contribute to ap pease the irritation which its former conduct in 1791 had so justly given rise to. By this act Catholics may be called to the bar, and may be admitted as students into the King's- Inns. Attornies may take Catholic apprentices, and are relieved from the necessity of educating their children Protestants ; and barristers may marry Catholic wives. Catholic barristers, and apprentices to attornies, must, nevertheless, qua lify themselves for the benefits of this act, by taking the oath of the 13th, & 14th Geo. III. c, 35. By this act, so much of 9th William III. c.' 3. * 32d Geo. III. c. 21. + This measure was introduced irito the House of Commons Without any communication with the general committee. and 108 - and 2d Anne, c. 6. as prevents protectants from intermarrying with Papists, is repealed. But Pro testants married to Catholics are not to vote at elections ; and the law is not altered which makes it a capital felony for a priest to celebrate the mar riage of a Protestant and a Catholic, though the very next act in the statute book enables a Presby terian clergyman to celebrate the marriage of a Protestant and a Presbyterian. By this act, also, the 7th William III. for re straining foreign education, is repealed ; and Ca tholics are permitted to teach school without tak ing out a license from the ordinary. And so much •likewise of 8th Anne, c. 3. is repealed, which enacts, that no Papist shall take more than two apprentices. In the course of the debates upon this act, the Catholics were accused of professing tenets ini mical to good order and government ; and with harbouring pretensions to the forfeited estates of their forefathers, and with wishing to subvert the existing establishment, that they might reinstate a Popish one in its stead. The general committee were also accused of being turbulent and seditious agitators. It was asserted, that the petition which they presented this year to Parliament was the act of an obscure faction, confined merely to the capital, and disavowed by the great mass of the Catholics. In order to repel the first of these accusations, the declaration of 1774, which has already been introduced into this work, was republished, and signed by Dr. Troy and the principal Catholic clergy and laity of the kingdom. The second charge was not so easily to be'contradicted.. It was one of most serious importance to the in terests io9 terests of the whole body, and, if suffered to pass' without the fallacy of it being exposed, would have contributed to defeat all the exertions which had bCeri made to obtain redress. Urged by these con siderations, and also by a communication, which, about this time, was made, from the first authority, that a further application for relief would have great weight with his Majesty, and with Parlia ment, if the committee were qualified to declare, that it was the measure of every Catholic in the kingdom,* the committee devised a plan, by which a convention of delegates should be held, elected by the whole Catholic body. A circular letter was immediately written, directing that each parish should proceed to choose one or two electors, and that thiese electors should then elect from one to four delegates, as it might appear most expedient to them. Their directions were obeyed, and car ried into effect with so much promptitude and good order, that the convention were able to meet on the 3d of December, without the smallest degree of tumult or agitation having occurred in any part of the kingdom. - In the mean time, this circular letter had been laid hold of by the government as a proper instru ment with which to rekindle the embers of religious animosities. Where the partizans of government were sufficiently strong, corporate and county meetings were held to reprobate the plan of the general committee ; but if defeat, or even formid able resistance, was apprehended, similar resolutions were entered into by the grand juries, where suc cess could easily be secured, from the influence of government in their appointment. * See the plan for conducting the election of delegates, pub lished 1793 la UQ In order to counteract the effect of these reso^ lutions, those Protestants who had the virtue and the good sense neither to become the tools or the dupes of government, held a great number of meetings of different towns, and districts. Some few, with Londonderry at their head, expressed themselves favourable to a gradual admission of the Catholics; but the great majority followed the example of an immense body of volunteers, who, when assembled together at their comme-; m Oration meeting, declared their sentiments in favour of the immediate and unqualified exten-; sion ofthe right of suffrage to the whole Catholic body. v When the convention met in" December, their proceedings, were wise, temperate, and decisive, and conducted without any violation of the laws of the land, or of the good order of society. At the first meeting the following petition to the King Was unanimously agreed to, pursuant to instruct tions which had been given to each delegate by his respective electors. To the King's: most Excellent Majesty, the humble Peti". • tion of the, Undersigned, Catholics, on behalf of. themr selves and the re$t of his Catholic Subjects of the king7 dom of Ireland,. Most Gracious Sovereign, We your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects ojf your kingdom ,of Irelandi professing the Catholic religion, presume to approach your Majesty, who are tbe common father of alj yppr people, and humbly to submit-to your consideration the manifpld incapacities arid oppressive dis qualifications under which we labour. For, may it please your. Majesty,' after, a century of. uninterrupted loyalty, in which time five, foreign war* and two domestic rebellions have occurred, after having taken ill taken every oath of allegiance and fidelity tb your Ma jesty, and given, and being still ready to give, every pledge, which can be devised for their peaceable de meanour and unconditional submission to the laws', the Catholics of Ireland stand obnoxious to a long catalogue of statutes, inflicting on dutiful and meritorious subjects pains and penalties of an extent and severity, which scarce any degree of delinquency can warrant, and prolonged to a period, when no necessity can be alleged to justify theifc continuance; In the first place, we beg leave, with all humility, td represent to your Majesty, that, notwithstanding the lowest departments in your Majesty's fleets and armies ar*e largely supplied by our numbers, and your revenue ih this country to a great degree supported' by our contribu tions, we are disabled from serving your Majesty inanyoffic'S of trust and emolument whatsoever, civil or military— a proscription, which disregards capacity or merit, admits of neither qualification nor degree, and rests as an univer sal stigma of distrust upon the whole body of your Catho lic subjects. We are interdicfed- frOm all municipal stations, and the franchise of all guilds and corporations; and our ex clusion from tbe benefits annexed to those situations is not an evil terminating in itself; 'for, by giving an advantage over us to those, in whom thev are exclusively vested, they establish throughout the kingdom sfspecies of qua lified monopoly, uniformly operating ih our disfavour, contrary to the spirit, and highly detrimental to the free dom of trade. We may not found nor endow any university, college, or school, for the education of our children ; and we are interdicted from obtaining degrees in tbe university of Dublin by the several charters and statutes now in force therein. We are totally prohibited from keeping or using wea^ pons, for the defence of our bouses, families, or persons, whereby we are exposed to the violence of burglary, rob-; bery, and assassination ; and to enforce this prohibition, contravening that great original law of nature, whieh en* joins us to self-defence, a variety of statutes exist, not less grievous and oppressive in their provisions, than unjust in theif 112: their object ; by one of which, enacted so lately as within these sixteen years, every one of your Majesty's Catholic subjects, of whatever rank or degree, peer or peasant, is compellable by any magistrate to come forward and con vict himself of what may be thought a singular offence in a country professing to be free — keeping arms for his de fence ; or, if he shall refuse so to do, may incur not only fine and imprisonment, but the vile and ignominious pu nishments of the pillory and whipping, penalties appro priated to the most infamous malefactors, and more terrible to a liberal mind than death itself. No Catholic whatsoever, as we apprehend, has his perso nal property secure. The law allows and encourages the disobedient and unnatural child to conform and deprive him of it: the unhappy father does not, even by the sur- renderof his all, purchase his repose ; he may be attacked by new bills, if his future industry be successful, and again be plundered by due process of Jaw. We are excluded, or may be excluded, from all petit juries, in civil actions, where one of the parties is a Pro testant ; and we are further excluded from all petit. jui"ies in trials by information or indictment founded on any of the Popery laws, by which law we most humbly submit to your Majesty, that your loyal subjects, tbe Catholics of Ireland, are in this their native land, in a worse situation than that of aliens, for they may demand an equitable pri vilege denied to us, of having half their jury aliens like themselves. We may not serve oil grand juries, unless, which it is scarcely possible can ever happen, there should not be found a sufficiency of Protestants to complete tbe pannel ; contrary to that humane and equitable principle of the law, which says, that no man shall be convicted of any ca pital offence, unless by the concurring verdicts of two jiiries of bis neighbours and equals ; whereby, (and fo this We huiiibly presume more particularly to implore your roval attention) we are deprived of the great palladium of the constitution, trial by our peers, independent ofthe ma nifest injustice of our property being taxed in assessments by a body, from which we are formally excluded. We avoid a further enumeration of inferior grievances; but may it please your Majesty, there remains one incapa city, 113 city, which your loyal subjects, the Catholics of Ireland j feel with most poignant anguish of mind, as being the badge of unmerited disgrace and ignominy, and the cause and bitter aggravation of all our other calamities ; we are deprived ofthe elective franchise, to the manifest pervert sion of tbe spirit of the constitution, inasmuch as your faithful subjects are thereby taxod, where they are not re presented, actually or virtually, and bound by laws, in the framing of which they have no power to give or withhold their assent ; and we most humbly implore your Majesty to believe, that this our prime and heavy grievance is not an evil merely speculative, but is attended with great dis tress to all ranks, and, in many instances, with the total ruin and destruction ofthe lower orders of your Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects the Catholics of Ireland ; for, may it please your Majesty, not to mention the infinite variety of advantages in point of protection and otherwise, which the enjoyment of the elective franchise gives to those who possess it, nor the consequent inconveniencies to which tho^e who are deprived thereof are liable ; not to mention the disgrace to three-fourths of your loyal subjects of Ireland, of living the only body of men incapable of franchise, in a nation possessing a free constitution, it continually happens, and of necessity from tbe malignant. nature of the law must happen, that multitudes of the Catholic tenantry in divers counties in this kingdom are, - at the expiration of their leases, expelled from their tene ments and farms, to make room for Protestant freeholders, who, by their votes, may contribute to the weight and im portance of their landlords ; a circumstance which renders the recurrence of a general election, that period which is the boast and laudable triumph of our Protestant brethren, a visitation and heavy curse to us, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal suhj.ects. And may it please your Majesty, this uncertainty of possession to your Majesty's Catholic sub jects, operates as a perpetual restraint and discouragement on industry and the spirit of cultivation, whereby it hap pens, that this your Majesty's kingdom of Ireland, pos sessing many and great natural advantages of soil and climate, so as to be exceeded therein by few, if any coun tries on the earthy is yet prevented from availing herself ¦ thereof so-fiitly as she otherwise might, to the furtherance 114 of your Majesty's honour, and the more effectual support of your service. And, may it please yourrMajesty, the eVil does not even rest here ;- for many of j'our Majesty's Catholic subjects, to preserve their families from total destruction, submit to a nominal conformity against their conviction and their conscience, and; preferring perjury to famine, take oaths which they utterly disbelieve ; a circumstance which we doubt not will shock your Majesty's well known and ex emplary piety, not less than the misery which drives those unhappy wretches to so desperate a measure, must distress and wound your royal clemency and commiseration, And may it please your Majesty, though, we might here rest our case on its own merits, justice, and expediency, yet we further presume humbly to subm.it to your Ma jesty, that the right of franchise was, with divers other rights, enjoyed by tbe Catholics of this kingdom, from the first adoption of the English constitution by our forefa thers, was secured to at least a great part of our body, by the treaty of Limerick, in 1691, guaranteed by your Ma jesty's royal predecessors, King William aud Queen Mary, and, finally confirmed and ratified by Parliament ; notwith standing which, and in breach of the public faith of the nation, thus solemnly pledged, for which our ancestors. paid a valuable consideration, in the surrender of their arms, and a great part of this kingdom, and notwithstanding the most scrupulous adherence on our part, to the terms ofthe said treaty, and our unremitting loyalty fro~m that day to the present, the said right of elective franchise was finally and universally, taken away from the Catholics of Ireland, so lately as the first year of his Majesty King George.the Second. And when we thus presume to submit this infraction of tbe treaty of Limerick to your Majesty's royal notice, it is not that we ourselves consider it to be the strong part of our case ; for, though our rights were recognized, they were by no means created by that treaty ; and we do with all humility conceive, that if no such event as the said treaty had ever taken place, your Majesty's Catholic sub jects, from their unvarying loyalty, and dutiful submission to thelaws, and from the great support afforded by them to your Majesty's government in this country, as well. in their 115 their personal service, in your Majesty's fleets and armies, as from the taxes and revenues levied on their property, are fully competent, and justly entitled to participate and enjoy the blessings of the constitution of their country. And now that we have, with all humilit}-, submitted our grievances to your Majesty, permit us, most gracious Sovereign, again to represent our sincere attachment to tbe constitution, as established in the three estates of King, Lords, and Commons; our uninterrupted loyalty, peacea ble demeanour, and submYs'on to the laws for one hundred years, and our determination to persevere in the same' du tiful conduct, which, has, under your Majesty's happy auspices, procured us those relaxations of the penal sta tutes, which the wisdom of the legislature has from time to time thought proper to grant ; we humbly presume to hope, that your Majesty, in your paternal goodness and affection towards a numerous and oppressed body of your loyal subjects, may be graciously pleased to recommend to your Parliament of Ireland, to take into theft considera tion the whole of our situation, our numbers, our merits, and our sufferings ; and as we do not give place to any of your Majesty's subjects in loyalty and attachment to your sacred person, we cannot suppress our wishes of being restored to the rights and privileges of the constitution -of our country, and thereby becoming more worthy, as well as more capable, of rendering your Majesty that service, which it is not less our duty than our inclination to afford. So may your Majesty transmit to your latest posterity, a crown secured by public advantage and public affection ; and so may your royal person become, if possible, more dear to your grateful people. On the 2d January, 1793, the gentlemen who had been deputed to present this petition, wei;e in troduced to his Majesty by Mr. Dundas ; and, on the 10th ofthe same month, Lord Westmoreland, in a speech from the throne to both Houses of Parliament, said, " I have it in particular command " from his Majesty, to recommend it to you, to " aPP'y yourselves to the consideration of such i 2 " measures 116 " measures as may be most likely to strengthen and " cement a general union of sentiment among all " classes of his Majesty's subjects, in support of the "established constitution ; with this view his Ma- " jesty trusts, that the situation of his Majesty's " Catholic subjects will engage your serious atten- " tion; and, in consideration of this subject, he " relies on the wisdom and liberality of Parlia- ." ment." In a few days afterwards, Major Hobart, now Lord Buckinghamshire, presented to the House of Commons a petition from the Catholics, praying for relief. A petition to the same effect was pre sented from the Protestant inhabitants of Belfast, and soon after the royal assent was given to, the following act for affording relief to his Majesty's Popish or Roman Catholic subjects of Ireland. Whereas various acts of Parliament have been passed, imposing on his Majesty's subjects professing tbe Popish or Roman Catholic religion, many restraints and disabi lities to which other subjects of this realm are not liable ; and, from the peaceable and loyal demeanour of his Ma jesty's Popish or Roman Catholic subjects, it is fit that such restraints and disabilities shall be discontinued: Be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that his Ma jesty's subjects being Papists, or persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, or married to Papists, or persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic reli gion, or educating any of their children in that, religion, shall not be liable or subject to any penalties,? forfeitures, disabilities, or incapacities ; or to any laws for the limita tion, charging, or discovering of their estates and property, real or personal, or touching the acquiring of property, or securities affecting property, save such as his Majesty's subjects of the Protestant religion are liable and subject to; '3 the 117 and that such parts of all oaths as are required to be taken by persons, in order to qualify themselves for Voting at elections of members to serve in Parliament ; and also such parts of all oaths required to be taken by persons voting at elections for members to serve in Parliament, as import to deny that the person taking the same is a Papist, or mar ried to a Papist, or educates his children in the Popish re ligion, shall not hereafter be required to be taken by any voter, but shall be omitted by the person administering the same ; and that it sball not be necessary, in order to entitle a Papist, or person professing the Popish or Roman Ca tholic religion to vote at an election of members to serve in Parliament, that he should at, or previous to his voting, take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, any statute now in force to the contrary of any of the said matters, in apy wise notwithstanding. 2. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that all Papists, or persons professing the Popish or Roman Ca tholic religion, who may claim to have a right of voting for members to serve in Parliament, or of voting for ma gistrates in any city, town corporate, or borough, within this kingdom, be hereby required to perform all qualifica tions, registries, and other requisites, which are now re quired of his Majesty's Protestant subjects in like cases, by any law or Jaws now of force in this kingdom, save and except such oaths and parts of oaths, as are herein before excepted. 3. And provided always, That nothing herein before contained shall extend, or be construed to extend to re peal, or alter any law or act of Parliament now in force, by which certain qualifications are required ta be per formed hy persons enjoying any offices or places of trust under his Majesty, his heirs and successors, other than as herein after is enacted, 4. Provided also, That nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to give Papists or per sons professing the Popish religion, a right to vote at any parish vestry for, levying money to rebuild or repair any paiish church, or respecting the demising or disposal of i 3 - the 118 the income of any estate belonging to any church or pa rish, or for the salary ofthe parish clerk, or at the election of any churchwarden. 5. Provided always, That nothing contained in this act shall extend to, or be construed to affect any action or suit now depending, which shall have been brought or instituted previous to the commencement of this session of Parliament. 6. Provided also, That nothing herein contained shall extend to authorize any Papist or person professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, to have or keep in his hands or possession any arms, armour, ammunition, or any warlike stores, sword blades, barrels, locks, or stocks of guns or fire arms, or to exempt such person from any forfeiture or penalty inflicted by any act respecting arms, armour or ammunition, in the hands or possession of any Papist, or respecting Papists having or keeping such war like stores, save and except Papists or persons of the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, seized of a freehold estate of one hundred pounds a-year, or possessed of a personal estate qf one thousand pounds or upwards, who are hereby authorized to keep arms and ammunition as Protestants now by law may ; and also save and except Papists or Roman Catholics possessing a freehold estate of ten pounds yearly value, and less than one hundred pounds, or a personal estate of three hundred pounds, and less than one thousand pounds, who shall have, "at the ses sion of the peace in the county in which they reside, taken the oath of allegiance prescribed to be taken, by an^act passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of his present Majesty's reign, entitled, " An Act to enable bis Majesty's "Subjects, of whatever Persuasion, to testify their alle- " giance to him ;" and also, in open court, swear and sub scribe an affidavit, that they are possessed of a freehold estate, yielding a clear yearly profit to tbe person making the same, of ten pounds, or a personal property of three hundred pounds above his just debts, specifying therein tbe name and nature of such freehold, and nature of such personal property ; which affidavits shall be carefully pre served by the clerk of the peace, "who shall have for his trouble a fee of sixpence, and no more, for every such affidavit 119 affidavit ; and the person making such affidavits, and pos sessing such property, may keep and use arms and ammu nition as Protestants may, so long as they shall respectively possess a property ofthe annual value of ten pounds and upwards, if freehold, or the value of three hundred pounds if personal, any statute to the contrary notwithstanding. 7. And be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for Papists, or persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, to hold, exercise, and enjoy, all civil and military offices, or places of trust or profit under his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in this kingdom ; and to hold or take degrees, or any professorship in, or be mas ters or fellows of any college to be hereafter founded in this kingdom, provided that such college shall be a mem ber of the university of Dublin, and shall not be founded exclusively for the education of Papists, or persons pro fessing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, nor consist exclusively of masters, fellows, or other persons to be named or elected on the foundation of such college, being persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, or to hold any office or place of trust in, and to be a mem ber of any lay body corporate, except the college of the Holy and undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin, without taking and subscribing the oath of alle giance, supremacy, or abjuration, or making or subscrib ing the declaration required to be taken, made, and sub scribed, to enable any person to hold and enjoy any of such places, and without receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to tbe rights and ceremonies of the Church of Ireland, and law, statute, or bye-law, of any corporation to the contrary notwithstanding ; provided that every such person shall take and subscribe the oath appointed by the act, passed in the thirteenth and four teenth years of his Majesty's reign-, entitled, " An Act to " enable his Majesty's Subjects, of whatever persuasion, td " testify their allegiance tb him ;" and also the oatb and declaration following, that is to say : " I A. B. do hereby declare, that I do profess the Ro man Catholic religion." i 4 « I A, B. 120 " I A. B. do swear, that I do abjure, condemn, and detest, as unchristian and impious, the principle that it is lawful to murder, destroy, or any ways injure any person whatsoever for or under the pretence of being a heretic • and I do declare solemnly before God, that I believe, that- no act in itself unjust, immoral, or wicked) can ever be justified _or excused by or under pretence or colour that it was done either for the good ofthe church, or in obedi ence to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever. I also dei dare, that it is not an article of the Catholic faitb, neither am I thereby required to believe or profess that the Pope is infallible, or that I am bound to obey any order in its own nature immoral, though the Pope, or any ecclesiastical power, should issue or direqt such order ; but, on the con- trary^ I bold that it would be sinful in the to pay any res pect or obedience thereto: I further declare, that I do not believe that any sin whatsoever committed by me can be forgiven at the mere will of any Pope, or of any priest, or of any person or persons whatsoever; but that sincere sor row for past sins, a firm and sincere resolution to avoid fu ture guilt, and to atone to God, are previous aud indispen- sible requisites to establish. a well-founded expectation of forgiveness ; and that any person who receives absolution without these previous requisites, so far from obtaining thereby any remission of bis sins, incurs tbe additional guilt of violating a sacrament ; and I do swear that I will defend, to the utmost of my power, the settlement and ar rangement of property in this country as established by the laws now in being ; I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and so lemnly abjure any intention to subvert the present church establishment, for thepurpose of substituting a Catholic es tablishment in its stead ; and I do solemnly swear, that I will not exercise any privilege to which I am or may be come entitled, to disturb and weaken tbe Protestant reli gion and Protestant government in this kingdom. " So help me God." 8. And be it enacted, That Papists^ or persons profess ing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, may be capa ble of being elected professors of medicine upon the foun dation of Sir Patrick Dunn, any law or statute to the con trary notwithstanding, 9. Pro- isi 9. Provided always, and be it enacted, That nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to enable any person to sit or vote in either House of Parlia ment, or to hold, exercise, or enjoy the Office of Lord Lieu tenant, Lord Deputy, or other Chief Governor or Governors of this kingdom, Lord High Chancellor or Keeper, or Com missioner of the Great Seal of this kingdom, Lord High Treasurer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench or Common Pleas, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, Justice of the Court of King's Bench or Common Pleas, or Baron of the Court of Exchequer, Judge ofthe High Court of Admiralty, Master or Keeper of tbe Rolls, Secretary of State, Keeper of the Privy Sealr Vice-Treasurer, Teiler and Cashier of the Ex chequer, or Auditor General, Lieutenant or Governor, or Custos Rotulorum of Counties, Secretary to the Lord Lieu tenant, Lord Deputy, or other Chief Governor or Governors of this kingdom, Member of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, Prime Serjeant, Attorney-General, Soli citor-General, Second and Third Serjeants at Law, or King's Council, Masters in Chancery, Provost or Fellow of the College of the holy and undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin; Post-Master General, Master and Lieutenant General of bis Majesty's Forces, Generals on the Staff, and Sheriffs and Sub-sheriffs of any County in this kingdom, or any office contrary to tbe rules, orders, and directions made and established by the Lord Lieute nant and Council, in pursuance of the act passed in the seventeenth and eighteenth years of tbe reign of Kinsj Charles the Second, entitled, " An Act for the explaining " of some doubts arising upon an Act, entitled, An Act for " the better execution of his Majesty's gracious Declara- " tion for the Settlement of bis Kingdom of Ireland, and " Satisfaction ofthe several Interests of Adventurers, Sol- " diers, and other his Majesty's Subjects there, and for " making some alterations of, and additions unto the said " Act, for the more speedy and effectual Settlement of this " Kingdom," unless he shall have taken, made, and sub scribed the oaths and declaration, and performed the seve ral requisites which by any law heretofore made, and now of force, are required to enable any person to sit or .vote, Or to Jiold, exercise, and enjoy the said offices respectively k 10. Pro* 122 10. Provided also, and be itenacted, That nothing in this act contained shall enable any Papist, or person professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion to exer cise any right of presentation to any ecclesiastical benefice whatsoever. II. And be it enacted, That no Papist, or person pro fessing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion shall be lia ble to, or subject to any penalty for not attending divine service on the Sabbath-day, called Sunday, in his or her parish church. 12. Provided also, and be it enacted, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to authorise any Po pish priest, or reputed Popish priest, to celebrate marriage between Protestant and Protestant, or between any person who hath been, or professed himself or herself to be a Pro testant at any time within twelve months before such cele bration of marriage, and a Papist, unless such Protestant and Papist should have been first married by a clergyman of tbe Protestant religion ; and that every Popish priest, or reputed Popish priest, who shall celebrate any marriage between two Protestants, or between any such Protestant and Papist, unless such Protestant and Papist shall have been first married by a clergyman of the Protestant reli gion, shall forfeit the sum of five hundred pounds to his Majesty, upon conviction thereof. 13. And whereas it may.be expedient, in case his Ma jesty, his heirs and successors, shall be pleased to alter the statutes ofthe college ofthe holy and undivided Trinity, near Dublin, and ofthe university of Dublin, as to enable persons professing tbe Roman Catholic religion to enter into or take degrees in tbe said university to remove any obstacle which now exists by statute law ; be it enacted, That from and after the first day of June, one thousand se ven hundredand ninetythree, it shall not be necessary for any person upon taking any of the degrees usually con ferred by the said university to make or subscribe any decla ration, or to take any oath save the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, any law or statute to the contrary notwith standing. 14 Pro- 123 14. Provided always, That no Papist or Roman Catho lic, or persons professing the Roman Catholic or Popish re ligion, shall take, any benefit by or under this act, unless be shall have first taken and subscribed the oath and decla ration in this act contained and set forth, and also the said oath appointed by the said act passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of bis Majesty's reign, entitled " An act " to enable his Majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, " to testify their allegiance to him," in some one of his Majesty's four courts of Dublin, or at the general sessions ofthe peace, or at any adjournment thereof to be holden for the county, city_, or borough wherein such Papist or Ro man Catholic ,or person professing the Roman Catholic or- Popish religion, doth inhabit or dwell, or before the going judge or judges of assize, in the county wherein such Pa pist or Roman Catholic, or person professing tbe Roman Catholic or Popish religion doth inhabit and dwell, in open court. 15. Provided always, and be it enacted, That the names of such persons as shall so take and subscribe the said oaths and declaration, with their titles and additions, shall be en tered upon the rolls for that purpose to be appointed by said respective courts ; and that the said rolls, once in every year, sball be transmitted to, and deposited in the rolls office in this kingdom, to remain amongst the records thereof; and the masters or keepers of the rolls in this kingdom, or their lawful deputy or deputies, are hereby empowered and required to give and deliver to such per son or persons so taking and subscribing the said oaths and declaration, a certificate or certificates of such person or persons having taken and subscribed the said oaths and declaration, for each of which certificates the sum of one shilling, and no more shall be paid. 16. And be it further provided and enacted, That froth and after the first day of April, one thousand seven hun dred and ninety-three, no freeholder, burgess, freeman, or inhabitant of this kingdom, being a Papist or Roman Ca tholic, or person professing the Roman Catholic or Popish religion, shall at any time be capable.of giving bis vote for the electing of any knight or knights of any shire or county 124 county within this kingdom, or citizen or burgess to serve in any Parliament, until he shall have first produced and, shewn to tbe high sheriff of tbe said county, or his deputy or deputies, at any election of a knight or knights of the said shire," and to the respective chief officer or officers of any city, borough, or town corporate to whom tbe return of any citizen or burgess to serve rn Parliament, such cer tificate of bis having taken and subscribed the said oaths and declaration, either from the rolls office, or from the proper officer of tbe court in which the said oaths and de claration shall be taken and subscribed ; and such person being a freeholder, freeman, burgess, or inhabitant, so pro ducing and shewing such certificate, sball be then permitted to vote as amply and fully as ' any Protestant freeholder, freeman, burgess, or inhabitant of such county, city, bo rough or town corporate, but not otherwise.* The * As no further concessions have been njade to the Catholics, it may be as well to enumerate here, as in any other place, the various disabilities to which they are still liable. Education. — They cannot teach school, unless they take (he , oaths of 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35. They cannot take^Protesu fant scholars, or be ushers to Protestant schoolmasters, 32d Geo. III. c. 20. Guardianship.-r-They cannot be guardians, unless they take the oaths of 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35. If ecclesiastics, they cannot, under any circumstances, be guardians ; nor can any Catholic be guardian to a child of a Protestant, 3,0th Geo. III. c. 29.Marriage. — If a Catholic clergyman marries a Protestant and a Catholic, the marriage is null and void, and ,he is liable to suffer death, 32d Geo. III. c. 21, Self-defence. — No Catholic can keep arms; unless he possesses a freehold estate of 101. per annum*, or a personal estate of 3001. If so qualified, he must further qualify himself by taking the oaths of 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35i unless he has a freehold estate of iQOl. per annum, or a personal estate of 10001, 33d Geo. Ill, V. 21. Exercise of Religion.- — The Catholic clergy must take the oaths of 13th, '14th Geo. III. c. 35. and register their plaGe of abode, age, and parish. No chapel can have a steeple or bell, no funeral can take place in any church or chapel-yard, and no rites or ceremonies ofthe religion or habits of their order are ppr-. 125- The general committee, in testimony of their gratitude to the King for this most important con cession, presented the following address to the Lord Lieutenant, to be by him transmitted to his Majesty: Most Gracipus Sovereign, We your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects the Catholics of Ireland, animated with sentiments ofthe most lively gratitude, beg leave to approach your Majesty with our sincere and heartfelt thanks, for the substantial bene- permitted, except within their several places of worship, or in private houses, 21st, 22d Geo. III. c. 24. § 6. Property. — The laws of Anne are in force against-all Catholics who do not take the oaths of 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35. and also against all Protestants who may have lapsed or become converts to the Catholic religion. Franchises. — No Catholic can hold any of the offices enume» rated in § Q. of the act here inserted, of 33 G. III. c. 21. Catholics cannot sit in Parliament. They cannot vote at elections for members without'taking the oaths of the 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35. and of 33d Geo. III. c. 21. They cannot vote at vestries. They cannot he barristers, attorneys, or professors of medicine on Sir P. Dunne's foundation, without taking the oaths of 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35. and of 33d Geo. 111. c. 21. or even fowlers and gamekeepers. Catholic Soldiers, by the mutiny act, if they refuse to frequent the Church of England worship, when ordered to do so by their commanding officer, shall, for the first offence, forfeit 12d.; and, for the second, not only forfeit 12d. but be laid in irons for 12 hours ; and, by the 2d section, art 5. of the articles of war, the punishment even extends to that of death. An Irish Catholic officer or soldier on landing in Great Britain, Jersey, or Guernsey, is immediately liable to the penalty, among others, by the English act 1st Geo. I. c. 13. of forfeiting 3001. Catholics are excluded from holding the offices of Governor, Deputy-Governor or Director, of the Bank of Ireland. No part, scarcely-, in fact, of the penal code' is repealed, but all of it is now the law of the land, and in full force against those Catholics who have not qualified themselves for relief from its violence, by taking the oaths of 13th, 14th Geo. III. c. 35. or who may have lapsed or become converts to the Catholic religion. fits 126 fits, which, through your Majesty's gracious recommenda tions, we have received from the wisdom and liberality of Parliament. Impressed with a deep sense of your Majesty's goodness, we reflect, that, in consequence of this last and signal in-- stance of your royal favour, the disabilities under which we and our ancestors so long laboured, have, in a consider able degree, been removed, the constitutional energy of three-fourths of your loyal subjects restored to their coun try, and themselves enabled to testify, in a manner more useful to your Majesty's service, their devoted attachment to your person, family, and government.. Restored as we now are, to such valuable privileges, it sball be our duty, as it is our inclination, to unite in support of our excellent constitution,, as established in King, Lords, and Commons : A constitution revered by us for its excellence, even when secluded from its blessings, and from which every advan tage we derive becomes a new tie of fidelity and attache ment. Permit us, most gracious Sovereign, to express our un feigned satisfaction, that, to a Monarch endeared to us by so many proofs of clemency, belongs the glorious distinc tions of being the first to begin that work of emancipation, in the accomplishment of which, we humbly hope, your Majesty will enjoy the gratification of seeing your whole people united in the bonds of equal law and equal liberty. May your Majesty long continue lo reign in the hearts of your faithful subjects, dispensing, as common father to all your people, the inestimable blessings of freedom, peace, and union. The committee likewise addressed Lord West moreland ! That liberal and consistent Lord Lieute nant, who, in 1790, would not admit the loyal Catholics of Cork to hope for any relief from their disabilities ; who, in 1792, set on foot the violent resolutions of the corporations and grand juries * against all concessions to the Catholics ; and who, in 1793, was not ashamed to retrace his steps and j become 127 bqconafi i^hq public organ of his Majesty's more benevolent and enlightened policy. Although this act declared that Catholics might hold, any military office or employment, as its powers could not extend out of Ireland, and as all Irish Catholic soldiers, sailors, and officers, were uniformity employed on services out of Ireland, it was represented to the government, that,- in order to give it any useful effect in this respect, the En glish act of 1st Geo. I. which prohibits Catholics from filling any military situation, should be re pealed. In answer to their application, the Catho lics were informed by Lord Hobart, that such a measure would be immediately adopted, and the letter of the Secretary of State was shewn to them, containing the promise ofthe English government. In the House of Lords, when, upon the debate of this act,, Lord Farnham proposed an amendment to the clause relating to the military officers, by ren dering its operation conditional, until England should pass a similar law, the Chancellor, Lord Clare, opposed it ; " for," said he, " it could not " be supposed that his Majesty would appoint a " man to such a post until the laws of the empire " should fully qualify him to act in every part of " it. It was more than probable a similar law to " this would be adopted in England before the " lapSe of two months, and on this ground the " amendment would be wholly unnecessary." * Fourteen years, however, were allowed to pass by without any such law having been attempted to be adopted in England ; and, when the late Ministers sought to rescue the plighted faith of their predecessors from well merited reproach, they were accused of an attempt to subvert the esta blished church, and driven from the councils of his Majesty * Plowden's Hist, of Br. Empire during 1792 and 1793, 128 Majesty- as the allies of the Pope and the instru ments of.Bonaparte. j In the course of this year, a most unequivocal^ proof was given of the liberal sentiments which prevailed throughout the Protestants of the North of Ireland, in regard to their Catholic fellpw- eountrymen. At the meeting of the convention of delegates, which was held in February at Dun^ gannon, and in which the counties . of Antrim^ Down, Londonderry, Tyrone, Donegal, and Mo naghan, were fully represented, they passed reso lutions in favour of the absolute necessity of a re form in Parliament, including the unqualified ad mission of the Catholics, The Synod of ,: Ulster* also (a body consisting of the whole dissenting clergy ofthe North, and the Presbytery of Dub lin, together with a lay delegate from each parish) presented an address to the Lord Lieutenant, in which they expressed their satisfaction at the ad^ mission of the Catholics to the privileges of the constitution. , • These occurrences are of vast importance in forming a correct view of the opinion of the Irish Protestants upon this question ; because the Pres byterians being in numbers fully equal to the Pro-* testants of the Church of England, it leaves but a small number of the whole people adverse, to the. Catholic claims^ even if all these Protestants were, as they certainly are not, hostile to emancipation.*1 During this session, another subject occupied the serious attention of the upper house of Parlia ment. Disturbances had broken out, and out rages were committed in the county of Louth, and the neighbouring counties of Meath, Cavan,'and Monaghan, by persons pf the very lowest rank in life, associated under the name of defenders. This body *- See Appendix— Jfofjj C. ¦: y..i ' 129 body had its origin in religious persecution, and was an almost inevitable consequence of the sys tem, according to which Ulster had been colonized and settled, and Ireland ruled since the reforma tion. In that province English and Scotch: plan ters had been established on the forfeited lands of the native Catholics. These last were, for the most part, obliged to retire to the bogs and moun tains; but, even there, they were not permitted to lose the remembrance of their forefathers, their power and their opulence, in the tranquil enjoy ment of security and content. The bogs and mountains afforded them no refuge against the acts of uniformity and supremacy, or the accumulating oppressions of the Popery laws. Nor were the wretched inhabitants exempted by their defenceless condition from the hatred, contempt, and perse cution of their privileged and arrogant neighbours. Hence arose a mutual rancorous animosity between the new settlers and natives ; or, in other words, between the Protestants and Catholics, transmit ted from generation to generation, until at last it became more violent and intolerant than in any other part of Ireland. The volunteers, by the benign influence of their institution, had", for the first time, considerably abated this spirit ; and, by their successful acti vity as military men, in keeping the peace, had pre vented its receiving fresh provocation by outrage and insult. But in proportion as this body de clined, or was discouraged, prejudices and -hatred revived, especially in districts remote from the principal presbyterian towns, where the growing liberality of the most enlightened dissenters could scarcely operate. These prejudices, which chiefly n prevailing 130 prevailing in the county "of Armagh, * extended, more or less, into the abjoining districts of .the counties of Down and Tyrone, began to break out in the year 1791. About that period several associations, among the lower orders of the Pro* testarits, were formed, under the appellation of Peep-a-day Boys, whose object was to scour the Catholic districts about the break of day, and. strip * Lord Viscount Gosf ord' s Address to the Magistrates ofthe Coun ty of Armagh. Gentlemen — Having requested your attendance here this day, it becomes ray duty to state the grounds upon which I thought it adviseable to propose this meeting, and at the same time to submit to your consideration a plan which occurs to me as most likely to. check the enormities that have already brought, disgrace upon this country, and may soon reduce it into deep distress, lt is no secret, that a persecution, accompanied with all the eircu instances of ferocious cruelty, which have in all ages distinguished that dreadful calamity, is now raging in this coun try. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence as to any guilt in the late disturbances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less to afford protection. Tbe only crime which the wretched objects of this ruthless persecution are charged with, is a crime, indeed, of easy proof; it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith, or an inti. mate connection with a person professing this faith. A lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this new species of delinquency, and the sentence they have denounced is equally concise and terribLe ! It is nothing less than a confiscation of all property, and an immediate banishment. It would be ex tremely painful, and surely unnecessary, to detail the horror* that attend the execution of so rude and tremendous, a proscrip tion-— a proscription that certainly exceeds, in the comparative number of thoee it consigns to ruin and misery, every example that- ancient and modern history, can supply : for, where have we heard, or in what story .of human, cruelties have we read, of more than half the inhabitants of a populous country deprived at one blow of the m6ans as well as of the fruits of their indus try, and driven, in the midst of an inclement season, to seek a shelter for themselves and their helpless families where chance may guido them. This is iio exaggerated picture of the horid 6'cencj 131 strip the inhabitants of fire-arms, alledging thai {hey were warranted in so doing by the Popery laws, which had indeed for a long period forbid den, to the members of that communion the use of arms, even for self-defence. The scenes now acting in this county. Yet surely it is sufficient to awaken sentiments of indignation and compassion in the coldest bosoms. These horrors are now actingwith impunity. The spirit of impartial justice (without which law is nothing betteis than an instrument of tyranny) has for a time disappeared in this county, and the supineness of the magistracy of Armagh is become a common topic of conversation iu eyery corner of the kingdom. It is said in reply, the catholics are dangerous ; they may be so^-they may be dangerous from their numbers, and still more dangerous from the unbounded views thay have been encouraged to. entertain $ but I will venture to assert, without fear of con tradiction, that these procediugs are not more contrary to hu manity than they are to sound policy. It is to be lamented, Jhat no civil magistrate happened tq be present with the military detachment on the night of the 21st instant ; but, I trust, tho suddenness of the occasion, the unexpected and instantaneous aggression on the part ofthe delinquents will be universally ad mitted as a full vindication of the conduct of the officer, and the party acting under his command. Gentlemen, I have the honour tQ hold a situatjoir in this county, which calls upon me to deliver my sentiments, and I dp it without fear and without disguise. I am as true a protestant as any gentleman in this. roam, I inherit a property which my family derived under a protestant title, and, with the blessing of God, 1 will maintain ^hat title to the utmost of my power. I will never consent to make a sacrifice of protestant ascendancy to catholic claims, with whatever menace they may be urged, or however specious. ly or invidiously supported. Conscious of my sincerity in this public declaration, which I do not make unadvisedly, but as the result of mature ^deliberation, I defy the paltry insinuations that malice pr party-spirit may suggest, I know my own heart, and I should despise myself, if, under any intimidation, I could dose my eyes against such scenes as present themselves on every side, or my ears against the com: plaints of a persecuted people. ' K 2 I$houIc| 132 The Catholics, thus exposed and attacked, en tered into a counter-association, called defenders, which derived its name from the necessity of their situation, and its excuse from the difficulty, or as they I should be guilty of an unpardonable injustice to the feel. ings of gentlemen here present, were I to say more on this subject. I have now acquitted myself to my conscience and my country, and take the liberty of proposing the following re solutions. 1st. That it appears to this meeting, that the county of Ar magh is at this moment in 'a state of uncommon disorder ; that the Reman catholic inhabitants are grievously oppressed by law less persons unknown, who attack and plunder their houses by night, and threaten them with instant destruction, unless they immediately abandon their lands and habitations. 2d. That a committee of magistrates be appointed to sit on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the chapter-room in the town of Armagh, to receive information against all persons of whatever description, who disturb the peace of this county. 3d. That the instruction of the whole body of magistrates to their committee shall be to use every legal means within their power to stop the progress of the persecution now carrying on by an ungovernable mob against the Roman catholic inhabitants of this county. 4th. That said committee, or any three of them, be em powered to expend any sum or sums of money, for informa tion or secret service, out of the fund subscribed by the gentle men of this county 5th. That a meeting of the whole body of the magistracy be held every second -Monday, at the house of Mr. Charles M'Reynolds, in the town of Armagh, to hear the reports ofthe committee, and to give such further instructions as the exigence of the case may require. 6th. That offenders of every description in the present dis-- turbauces shall be prosecuted out of the fund subscribed by the gentlemen of this county. 133 they stated, the impossibility of obtaining justice against their aggressors. This association, at first local and confined, as much as mutual hatred would allow, to actual self-defence, began in 1792 to spread through other parts of the kingdom, and not a little to connect itself with more general politics. In proportion as this association extended itself into districts where no Protestants of inferior rank in life were to be found, and therefore no outrages like those committed by the Peep- a- day Boys to be apprehended, it gradually lost its characteristic of being a religious feud, and became, in fact, an as sociation of the very lowest orders, particularly for procuring a redress of the grievances of the very lowest orders. Even in the_counties where it ori ginated, it ceased to be actuated by religious ani mosity before the end of 1792, in consequence of the exertions of the early United Irishmen, whose chief endeavours were always directed to reconcile the Protestants and Catholics. These disturbances having attracted the atten tion ofthe House of Lords early in 1793, a secret committee was appointed to enquire into their causes, to endeavour to discover their promoters and to prevent their extension. In their report they exculpate the Catholics as a body from all criminality with respect to these proceedings. They say, " That nothing appeared "before them which could lead them to believe " that the body of the Roman Catholics in this " kingdom were concerned in promoting or coun- " tenancing such disturbances :" and then they even acquit the lower orders of Catholics of being to blame, by saying, " That if all the Magistrates "in the disturbed counties had followed the K 3 *' spirited 134 " spirited example of the few, who, much to their" " honour, exerted themselves with vigour and " courage to support the laws, the committee are " persuaded, that these disturbances might have " been suppressed 3> but, instead of doing so, they " remained inactive." In further corroboration of the innocence ofthe Catholics there is the following declaration of one ofthe members ofthe committee in the debate on the Catholic bill. Lord Portarlington saidj " That if he was not fully convinced that the Ca tholic body had no connection whatever in the *' disturbances created by some of their communion " in the North, he should never give this bill his " support'' The 'Catholic clergy, who have been uniformly ready to promote tranquillity, and inculcate the obligation of a strict submission to the laws, Were not backward^ on this occasion, in assistinggovern- ment to suppress the outrages of the defenders: Dr. Troy, Dr. O'Reilly, Dr. Bray, Dr. Bellew, and Dr. Cruise, all of them titular bishops, happen ing to be in Dublin when the business was first taken up to the House of Lords, published the following admonition to those of their communion, and directed the priests of their dioceses to read it in their respective chapels. In Dear Christians, Dublin, January 25, 1793. It has been our constant practice, as it is bur indispen sable duty, to exhort you to -manifest on all occasions, that unshaken loyalty to his Majesty, and obedience to the laws, which the principles of our holy religion inspire and com mand. This loyalty and obedience have ever peculiarly distinguished the Roman Catholics of Ireland. We- db sot conceive a doubt of their 'being actuated at present by 3 the 1S5 ¦ the same sentiments ; but think it necessary to observe, that a most lively gratitude to our beloved Sovereign should render their loyalty and love of order,. if possible, more conspicuous. Our gracious King, the common father of ail his people, has, with peculiar energy, recomr mended his faithful Roman Catholic subjects of this king dom to the wisdom and liberality of our enlightened Par liament. How can we, dear Christians, express our heartfelt acknowledgements for this signal and unprece dented instance of royal benevolence and condescension ! Words are insufficient ; but your continued and peace able conduct will more effectually proclaim them, and in a manner equally, if not more satisfactory and pleasing to his Majesty and his Parliament. Avoid then, we conjure you, dearest brethern, every appearance of riot : attend to your industrious pursuits for the support and comfort of your families ; fly from idle assemblies; abstain from the intemperate use of spirituous and intoxicating .liquors ; practise the duties of our holy religion : this conduct, so pleasing to Heaven, will also prove the most powerful re commendation of your present claims to our amiable So vereign, to both'Houses of Parliament, to the magistrates, and to all our well meaning fellow-subjects of every des cription, None but the evil-minded can rejoice in your being concerned in any disturbance. We cannot but declare our utmost and consciencious de testation and abhorrence of the enormities lateh- commit ted by seditious and misguided wretches of every religious denomination, in some counties of this kingdom ; they are enemies. to God and man, the outcasts of society, and a disgrace to Christianity : we consider the Roman Ca tholics amongst them unworthy the appellation ; whether acting from themselves, or seduced to outrage by arts of designing enemies to us, and to national prosperity, inti mately connected with our emancipation, Offer your prayers, dearest brethren, to the Father of mercy, that he may inspire these deluded people with sen timents becoming Christians and good subjects ; suppli cate tbe Almighty Ruler and Disposer of empires, by whom kings rule and legislators determine what is just, tp direct his Majesty's councils, and forward his benevolent intentions to unite all his Irish subjects in hoods of com. k 4 niou 136 mon interest, and common endeavours for the perserva- tion of peace and .good order, and for every purpose tend ing to increase and secure national prosperity. Beseech the throne of Mercy also, to assist both Houses of Parliament in their important deliberations ; that they may be distinguished by consummate wisdom and libera lity, for the advantage of the kingdom, and the relief and happiness of his Majesty's subjects. Under the pleasing expectations of your cheerful com pliance with these our earnest solicitations, we most sincerely wish you every blessing in this life, and ever. lasting happiness in the next ; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the summer of 1794, Mr. Pitt formed his me morable coalition with the Rockingham party ; and though the ground of this transaction was a con currence of opinion concerning the war with France, " if the general management and super- " intendance of -Ireland had not been offered to " the Duke ojf Portland, that Coalition could "never have taken place : The sentiments that " he had entertained, and the language he had f ' held so publicly for years back on the subject, " rendered the superintendance of Irish affairs a "point that could not be dispensed with by " him."* It having thus become a point that could not be dispensed with by the Duke of Port land f to grant the Catholics of Ireland complete emancipation, the first measure of his Grace, im mediately upon the coalition being arranged, was to solicit Lord Fitzwilliam to accept of the office of Lord Lieutenant, and to propose to him to carry this measure instantly into effect. X This * Letter from Lord Fitzwilliam to Lord Carlisle. + The reader may possibly suppose that this Duke of Port land is not the Duke of Portland now at the head ofthe pre sent Administration. The fact, however, is so. J Lord Fitz william's letter to Lord Carlisle- measure 137 measure was decided upon- by the Cabinet: on the dav the Duke of Portland kissed hands, after fre quent consultations between Mr. Pitt, the Duke of Portland, Lord Fitzwilliam, Mr. Grattan, and Mr. Ponsonby.* Lord Fitzwilliam having acceded to the pressing solicitations of the Duke of Portland, to undertake to carry this favourite and indispensable measure into effect, landed in Dublin on the 2d of January. He had consented not to bring the question for ward on the part of government, but rather to endeavour to keep it back until a period of more general tranquillity, " but it had been resolved by " the Cabinet, that, if the Catholics should appear " determined to stir the business, and bring it be- " fore Parliament, then he xvas to give it a hand- " some support on the part of government v"f But no sooner was Lord Fitzwilliam landed than he found this determination had been taken by the Catholics. The Catholics of Dublin had held a meeting on the 23d of December, and agreed to a petition to Parliament, claiming the repeal of all the penal laws. Similar petitions had b&en agreed to through out the whole kingdom, the natural consequences of its being known for some months, that so steady and strenuous a friend to emancipation as the Duke of Portland had become one of his Majesty's Ministers. Lord Fitzwilliam finding, therefore, that the question would-force itself upon his imme diate consideration, communicated his opinion and intentions to the English government, on the third day after his arrival, in the following terms : " that not to grant cheerfully, on the part of * Lord Fitzwilliam's letter to Lord Carlisle. '+ Ibid. " government, ¦> 138 " government, all the Catholics wished for, would " not only be exceedingly impolitic, but perhaps (i dangerous ; that in doing this no time was to be " lost ; that the business would , presently be <( at hand ; and that, if he received no very pe- {e Temp tory directions to'the contrary, he would " acquiesce to the wishes ofthe Catholics."* parliament met on the 22d of January, and on the 12th of February, " no peremptory directions " to the contrary having arrived," though sq much time had elapsed since Lord Fitzwilliam had com municated his intentions to the English govern ment, Mr. Grattan, with the consent of Eord Fitzwilliam, moved for leave to bring in a bill for the farther relief of the Catholics. Meanwhile the English Cabinet forgot the stir, nidations which they had entered into with Lord Fitzwilliam, " that if the Catholics should appear "determined to stir the business and bring it be- quieting and settling the distractions and disor ders of this then miserable kingdom, as for the other advantages the go vernment would thereby reap in its own affairs, both at home and abroad ; when its enemies were so powerful both by sea and land, as to give^doabt , of interruption, to its jieace and settlement. A ii APPENDIX. No. I. " That by. such their power, those of Limerick did for themselves, and others therein comprised, obtain, and make such articles, as by which, all the Irish inhabitants in the city and county ofLimerick, and in the counties of Clare, Kerry, Cork, Sligo and Mayo, had full and free pardon of and for all attainders, outlawries, treasons, misprision of trea sons, felonies, trespasses and other crimes whatever, which at any time from the beginning of K. James the Second, to the 3d of October, 1691, had been acted, committed, or done by them, or any of them; arid by which they and their heirs were to be forthwith put in possession of, and for ever possess, and enjoy all and every of their freeholds and inhe- ritance; and all their rights, titles, and interests, privileges and immuni- ties, which they and every of them held and enjoyed, and by the laws in force were entituled unto, in the reign of king Charles II. or at any time since, by theMaws and statutes that were in force in that reign^&c,- And thereupon read so much of the second article ofLimerick, as tended to that purpose. *' That in the feign of king Charles the Second, the petitioners, and all that were intituled to the benefit of those articles, were ifi such full and free possession of their estates; and had the same power to sell, ot otherwise to dispose, or convey them, or any other thing they, enjoyed ; and were as rightfully intituled to all the privileges, immunities and other advantages whatever, according to the laws then in force, as any other subjects whatsoever, and which, therefore, without the highest injustice, could not be taken from them, unless they had forfeited them themselves. " That if they had made any such forfeiture, it was either^ before' or after the making of the said articles : if before, they had a full and free pardon for that by the said articles, &c. anc- therefore are not account? able by any law now in force for the same ; and for that reason not now to be charged with it, and since they cannot be charged with any gene. ral forfeiture of those articles since,, they at the same time remained al absolutely intituled to all the privileges, advantages and benefits of the laws both already made, and hereafter to be made, as any other of hei majesty's subjects whatsoever. " That among all societies there were some ill people, but that by the ioth article of Limerick the whole community is not to be charged with, nor forfeit by, the crimes of particular persons. " That there were already wholesome laws in force sufficient, and if not, such as were wanting might be made, to punish every, offender according to the nature of the .crime : and in the name of God let the guilty suffer for their own faults; but the innocent ought not to suffer for the guilty, nor the whole for any particular. That surely they would not now (they had tamely got the sword out qf their hands) rob them of what was in their power to have kept ; for that would be unjust,, and. not according to that golden rule, to do as they would be, done by, was the case reversed, and the contrary side their own. . " That the said articles were first granted them by the general ofthe -English army, upon the most important consideration of getting: the city of Limerick into his hands (when it was in a condition to have held out, till it might have been relieved by the succeurs then coming to it, from France) and for preventing the further effusion of blood, and the other ill consequences which (by reason of the then divisions and disorders) the nation then laboured under; and for reducing those. in arms against the English government to its obedience. " That the said articles were signed and perfected by tbe said general, No. I. APPENDIX. iii and the then lords justices of this kingdom : and afterwards ratified by their late majesties, for themselves, their heirs and successors; and hava ' been since confirmed by an act of parliament in this kingdom, viz* stat. 9. Guil. 3. ses. 4. chap. 27. (which he there produced and pleaded), and said could not be avoided without breaking the said articles, and the public faith thereby plighted to all those comprised under the said ar ticles, in the most solemn and engaging manner, 'tis possible for any peo ple to lay themselves under; and than which nothing could be more sacred and binding. That therefore to violate, or break, those articles, would on the contrary be the greatest injustice possible for any one peo ple of the whole world to inflict upon another, and which is contrary to both the laws of God and man. " That pursuant to these articles, all those Irish then in arms against the government, did submit thereunto, and surrendered the said city of Limerick, and all other garrisons then remaining in their possession ; and did take such oaths of fidelity to the king and queen, &c. as by the said articles they were obliged to, and were put into possession ot their es. ' tates, &c. » / " That such their submission was upon such terms, as ought now, and at all times to be made good to them: but that if the bill then before the house, intituled, An act to prevent the further growth of popery, should pass into a law (which, said he, God forbid I) it would be not only a violation of those articles, but also a manifest breach of the pub lic faith, of which the English had alwaj s been most tender in many instances, some of which he there quoted ; and that, in particular, in the ' preamble of the act before mentioned, made for confirmation of these articles, wherein there is a particular regard, and respect had to the pub lic faith. " That since the said articles were thus under the most solemn ties, and for such valuable considerations granted the petitioners, by nothing •less than the general ofthe army, the lords justices of the kingdom, the king, queen, and parliament, the public faith of the nation was therein concerned, obfiged, bound, and engaged, as fully and firmly, as was pos sible for one people to pledge faith to another j that therefore this parli ament could not pass such a bill, as that intituled, An act to prevent the further growth of popery, then before the house, into a law, without in- fringing"those articles,- and a manifest breach of the public faith ; of which he hoped that house, would be no less regardful, and tender, 'than their predecessors, who made the act for confirming those articles had been. " That the case ofthe Gibebnites, 2 Sam. xxi. • . was a fearful exam ple of breaking of public faith, which above 100 years after brought nothing less, than a three years famine upon the land, and stayed not till the lives of all Saul's family atoned fork. " That even among the heathens, and most barbarous of nations, all the world over, the public faith had always been held most sacred and binding, that surely it would find no less a regard in that august assembly. " That if he proved that the passing that act, was such a manifest breach of those articles, and consequently of the public faith, he hoped that, honourable house would be very tender how they passed the said hill before them into a law ; to the apparent prejudice ofthe petitioners, and the hazard of bringing upon themselves and posterity, such evils, reproach and infamy, as the doing the like had brought upon other na tions and people. 1 A z iv APPENDIX. No. I. " Now, that the passing, sucb a bill as that then before the house to prevent ihefurther growth nf popery, will be a breach of those articles, '"and consequently of the public faith', I prove (said he) by the following argument'.' " The argument then is (said he) whatever shall be enacted to the pre judice or destroying of any obligation, covenant or contract, in the most solemn manner, and for the most valuable consideration entered into, is a manifest violation and destruction of every such obligation, covenant and contract : but the passing that bill into a law, will evidently and ab solutely destroy the articles of Limerick and Galway, to all intents and purposes, and therefore the passing that bill into a law, will be such a breach of those articles; and consequently of the public faith, plighted for performing those articles; which remained to be proved. " The major is proved (said he) for that whatever destroys or violates any contract qr obligation, upon the most valuable considerations, most solemnly made and entered into, destroys and violates the end of every such contract or obligation ; hut the end and design of those articles was, "that all those theiein comprised, and every of their heirs, should hold, possess, and enjoy all and every of their estates of freehold and inherit ance, and all the rights, titles,- and interests, privileges and immunities, which they and every of them held, enjoyed, or were rightfully entitled to, in the reign ot king Charles the Second ; or at any time since, by the laws and statutes that were in force in the said reign in this realm: but that the design of this bill, was to take away every such right, title, interest, &c. from every father being a papist, and to make the popish ' father, who, by the articles and laws aforesaid, had an vndoubted right, either-to sell or otherwise at pleasure to dispose of his estate,-at any time of his life, as he thought. fit; only tenant for life : and consequently dis abled from selling, or otherwise disposing thereof, after his son or other heir should become protestant; though otherwise never so disobedient, profligate, or extravagant : Ergo, this act tends to the destroying the end for which those articles were made, and consequently the breaking of the public faith, plighted for their performance. " The minor is proved by the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th 9th, 15th, 16th, and 17th clausesof the said bill, all which (said he) 1 shall consi. der and. speak to, in the order as they are placed in the bill. " By the first of these clauses (which is the third of the bill), I that am the popish father, without committing any crime against the state, or the law's of the land, (by which only 1 ought to be governed) or any other fault ;. The dpctrine pf equivocation, or mental reservation, however Wrongfully imputed to the Catholic religion, was never taught or ap proved by the Chuich as any part of her belief: on the contrary, sim. plicity and godly sincerity are constantly inculcated by her as truly Chris tian ^virtues, necessary to the conservation pf justice, truth, and common security. SECTION III. 1. Every Catholic believes that when a sinner repents of his sins, fr&m the bPttom of his heart, and acknowledges his transgresstons to God and his ministers, the dispensers of the mysteries of Christy resolving to turn No. 1IH APPENDIX. x» from his evil ways, and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, there is then, and npt Ptherwise, an authority left by Christ to absolve such a pe nitent sinner from his sins ; which authority Christ gave to his Apostles and their successors, the Bishops and Priests of hisChnrch, in those Words, when he said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sin's you shall/or* give, they are forgiven unto them. 2. Though no creature whatsoever can make condign satisfaction, either for the guilt of sin or the pain eternal due to it, this satisfaction being proper to Christ our Saviour only, yet penitent sinners, redeemed by Christ, may, as members of Christ, in some measure satisfy by prayer, fasting, alms-deeds, and other works of piety, for temppral pain, which, in the order of Divine Justice sometimes remains due, after the guilt ofsiri and pain eternal have been remitted. Such penitential works are, not withstanding, no otherwise satisfactory, than as joined and applied to that satisfactipn which Jesus made upon the Cross, in virtue of which all our good works find a grateful acceptance in the sight of God. 3. Theguilt pf sin, or pain eternal due toit, is never remitted by what Catholics call Indulgences ; but only such temporal punishments as re main due after the guilt is remitted : those indulgences being nothing else than a mitigation or relaxation of canonical penances, enjoined by the pastors of the Church on penitent sinners, according to their several de grees of demerit. And if abuses and mistakes have been sometimes committed, either in point of granting pr gaining indulgences through) the remissness pr ignorance of particular persons, contrary to the ancient custom and discipline ofthe Church, such abuses or mistakes cannot rea sonably be charged on the Church, or rendered matters of derision, ins prejudice to her faith and discipline. 4. Catholics hold there is a purgatory, that is to say, a place or state where souls departing this life, with remission of their sins as to the eter« nal guilt or pain, but yet obnpxious to some temporal punishment stilt- remaining due, pr not perfectly freed from the blemish pf some defects or deordinations, are purged before their admittance into heaven, where nothing that is defiled can enter, j. Catholics also hold, that such souls so detained in purgatory, being the living members of Jesus Christ, are relieved by the prayers and sufi frages of their- fellow-members here on earth : but where this place is, or of what nature or quality the pains are, how long souls may be there detained, in what manner the suffrages made in their behalf are applied, whether by way of satisfaction or intercession, &c. are questions s.uper- fluous, and impertinent, as to faith. 6. No man, though just, can merit either an increase of sanctity in this life, or eternal glpry in the next, independently on the merits and passipn of Christ JeSus; but the gpod works of a just man proceeding ftofri grace and charity, are so far acceptable to God, as to be through his goodness and sacred promises, truly meritorious of eternal life, 7". It is an article of the Catholic faith, that in the most holy Sacra ment of the Eucharist, there is truly and really contained the botjy of Christ, which was delivered for us, and his blood which was shed, for the remission of sins : the substance of bread and wine being, by the power of Christ, changed into the substance of his blessed body and blood, the species or appearances of bread and wine still remaining. — But, 8. Christ is not present in this sacrament according to his. natural way of existence, that is, with extension of parts, &c. but in a super natural manner, one and the same in many places, his presence there- tvi APPENDIX. No.IIL fore is reat and substantial, but sacramental, not exposed fo the external senses, or obnoxious to corpora! contingencies. 9. :]Neither is the body of Christ in this holy sacrament separated from his blood, or his blood from his body, or either of them disunited from his soul and divinity, but all and whole living Jesus is entirely contained under each species ; so that whosoever receives under pne kind is truly partaker of the whole sacrament, and no wise deprived either of the bo- dy or blood of Christ. True it is, - 10. Our Saviour Jesus Christ left unto us his body and blood under two distinct species or kinds ; in doing of which, he instituted npt only a sacrament, but also a sacrifice, a cpmmernorative sacrifice distinctly shewing his death and bloody passion until he come ; for as the sacri fice pf the Cross was performed by a distinct effusion of blood, so is that sacrifice commemorated in that of the altar, by a distinction pf the symbols. Jesus therefore is here given not only to us, but for us, and the Church Js thereby enriched with a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice usually termed the Mass. 1 1 . Catholics renounce all divine worship and adoration of images or pictures. God alone we worship and adore ; nevertheless we place pic tures in Churches to reduce pur wandering thoughts, and enliven pur memories towards heavenly things. Further, we allow a certain honour to be shewn to the images of Christ and his saints, beyond what is due to every profane figure; npt that we believe any divinity pr virtue to reside in them, for which they ought to be honpured, but because the honour given to pictures is referred to the prototype or thing repre. sented. In like manner, 12. There is a kindpfhpnour and respect due to the Bible, totheCross, to the name pf Jesus, to Churches, to the Sacraments, &c. as things peculiarly appertaining to Gpd, also' to the glprfous Saints in heaven, as the friends of God, and to Kings, Magistrates, and Superiorson earth 5 to whpm honpur is due, hpnour may be. given, without any derogation to the majesty .of God, or that divine worship which is appropriate to him.^ Moreover, 13. Catholics believe that the blessed Saints in heaven, replenished with charity, pray for us their fellow-members here on' earth ; that they rejoice at our conversion ; that, seeing God, they see and know him in all things suitable to their happy state : but God may be inclined to hear their requests made in our behalf, and for their sakes may grant us many favours; therefore we believe it is good and profitable to de sire their intercession ; and that this manner of invocation is no more injurious to Christ our Mediator, than it is for one Christian to beg the prayers of another in this world. Notwithstanding which, Catholics are not taught so to rely on the prayers of others, as to neglect their own duty to God; in imploring his divine mercy and goodness; in morti fying the deeds ofthe flesh ; in despising the world ; in loving and serv ing God and their neighbour; in following the footsteps of Christ our Lord, who is the way, the truth, and the life, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. APPENDIX. »ii No. IV. Copy ofthe Contention between the French Government and his Holiness the Pope, Pius VII. Ratified the 23d Fructidor, Year 9, (ioth September, 1801.) THE Chief Consul ofthe French Republic, and his Holiness the So vereign Pontiff, Pius the VII. have named as their respective plenipo tentiaries, The Chief Consul, the Citizens Joseph Bpnaparte, Cpunsellor of State ; Cretet, Counsellor of State ; and Bernier, Doctor of Divinity, Curate of St. Laud d' Angers; furnished with full powers : His Holiness, his Eminence Monseigneur Hercule Consalvi, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Deacon of St. Agathe ad Suburram, his Secretary pf State; Joseph Spina, Archbishop pf Cprinth, Domestic Pre late to his Holiness, Attendant on the Pontifical Throne; and Father Caselli, his Holiness's Adviser pn ppints of Thepfogy ; in like manner furnished with full powers in due form : Who, after-exchanging their full powers, have concluded the follow ing Convention: Convention between the French Government and his Holiness the Pope, Pius VII. The Government ofthe Republic acknowledges that the Catholic, Apostolical, and Roman Religion, is the religion of the great majority of French citizens. His Holiness in like manner, acknowledges that this same religion has derived, and is likely to derive, the greatest benefit and the greatest splen dor from the establishment pf the Cathplic wprship in France, and from its being openly professed by the Consuls ofthe Republic. This mutual acknowledgement being "made, in consequence, as well for the gppd pf religipn, as for the maintenance pf interipr tranquillity, they have agreed as folfows : Article I. The Cathplic, Appstolical, and Roman religion shall be freely exercised in France. Its service shall be publicly performed, con formably to the regulations of police which the governmeziLjihatt judge necessary for the public tranquillity. II. There shall be made by the Hl4> See, in concert with the go vernment, a new division of French dioceses. III. His Holiness shall declare to the titular French bishops that he expects from them, with the firmest confidence, every sacrifice for the sake of peace and unity — even that pf their sees. After this exhprtatipn, if they shpuld refuse the sacrifice commanded for the good pf the church, (a refusal, nevertheless, which his Hpliness by no means expects), the sees of the new division shall be governed by bi. . shops appointed as follows : IV. Within three months after the publication of his Holiness's bull, the Chief Consul shall present to the archbishoprics and bishoprics of the nete * C ^Ui APPENDIX. No. IV. division. His Holiness shall confer canonical institution, according to the forms established for France before the revolution (avant le changement -de gpvernment). - . V. The nomination to the bisltoprics which become vacant m future shall likewise belong to the Chief Consul, and canpnical institution shall be ad ministered by the Holy See, cpnformably to the preceding article. VI. The bishops, before they enter upon their functions, sha|l take, before the.Chief Consul, the path of fidelity which was in use before the revplution, expressed in the following words : " I swear and promise to God, upon the Hply Evangelists, to preserve obedience and fidelity to the government established by the constitutton of the French Republic. I likewise promise to carry pn np correspond ence, to be present at no conversation, to form no connection, whether within the territories of the republic or without, which may, in any de gree, disturb the public tranquillity: and if, in my diocese or elsewhere, I discover that any thing is going forward to the prejudice of the state, I will immediately communicate to Government all the information I possess." VII. Ecclesiastics of the second ordershall take the same oat}} before the civil authorities appointed by the government. VHI. The following formula of prayer shall be reti ted at the end of divine service in all the Catholie^hurches of France. Domine, salvam fac Rempublicam, Domine, salvos fac Consules. IX. The bishops shall make a new division of the parishes in their dipceses ; which, ncwever, shall npt take effect till after it is ratified by government. X. The bishops shall have the appointment ofthe parish priests. Their choice shall not fall but pn perspns approved by Gpvernment. XI. The bishops may have a chapter in their cathedral, and a semi nary for the diocese, without tbe government being obliged to endow them. XII. All the metropolitan, cathedral, parochial, and other churches which have not been alienated, necessary to public worship, shall be placed at the disposal of the bishops. XIII. His Holiness, for the sake of peace and the happy re-establish ment ofthe Cathplic religion, declares, that neither he nor his successors will disturb in any manner those who have acquired the alienated pro. perty pf the church; and that in cpnsequenee, that property, and every part pf it, shall belong for ever tp them, their heirs and assigns. XIV. The gpvernment sball grant a suitable salary to bishops and parish priests, whose dioceses, and parishes are comprised in the new division. XV, The government shall likewise take measures to enable French Catholics, who are so inclined, to dispose of their property for the sup port of religion. XVI. His Holiness reepgnises ir* the Chief Consul pf the French re public the same rights and prerogatives in religious matters which the ancient- gpvernment enjoyed. XVII. It is agreed between the epntractifig parties, that in case any of the successors pf the present Chief Consul should not be a Roman Ca thplic, the rights and prerogatives mentioned inthe foregoing articles, as well as the nomination to thebishops' sees, shall be regulated, with re gard xd him, by a new convention. NoteA. APPENDIX. *ix The ratifications shall be exchanged at Paris in the space of forty days. ' Done at Paris, the 26th Messidor, year 9 of the French republic. (Signed) Joseph Bonaparte. Hercules, Cardinalis Consalvi. Josep-h, Archiep. Corinthi. Bernier. F. Carolus Caselli. Note A. " Some officers of the garrison urged Lord Lucan and Lprd Gall- moy, the commanders ofthe Irish army, to break off the treaty, alledg- ing that they could now raise the siegey«which would give such spirits to the Catholics and so depress the besiegers, that they might yet recoyer Ireland; and the more so as they were certain of more aid from France. What was the reply of Lords Lucan and Gallmoy ? They said they considered themselves pledged in honour to deliver up Limerick and Ire land to the Protestants ; and they, did so, depending on their faith and truth to preserve inviolate the rights ofthe Catholics under the articles." Mr. Keogh' s Speech at the Catholic Meeting, Oct. 31, 1792. Note B. A Letter from Dr. Butler, Titular Archbishop of Cashel, to Lord Kenmare. Thurles, December 27, 1786. My dear and honoured Lord, I am not a little impatient to impart to ypur Lprdship my thpughts on a late publication, entitled, " The present State of the Church of Ireland."- lt is written by Doctor Wopdward, Bishop of Cloyne; and, iti the short space of twelve days, has already passed through four editions. Who ever has seen the Address to the Nobility and Gentry of the Protestant Church, and reads this Second Pamphlet, cannot but fopk uppn them as both designed to undo all that has been done in favour of Roman Catlap. lies; as they tend to undermine the primary title the Roman Catholics had to the protection of government and the confidence of their fellow- subjects. The unjust and false strictures his Lordship makes on the since^ rity ofthe Paths ofthe Roman Catholic Bishops, concur to effect this injbe minds of those who can or will be imposed on by what his LerdsiSJfso C * xx Appendix. Note b. confidently asserts. For certainly, if the oaths of Roman CatholicPrelates can no more be depended on, all claim to a legal existence for us in the state ceases. We are all designing and most dangerous enemies: like the viper in the fable, we only sought the warmth of protection to gnaw the bosom which gave the reviving heat. His Lordship, to establish and enforce what he advances with regard to pur oaths, by some new argu ment which, from not having been used before, had never been blunt- ed by the shield of truth, brings forth a letter of a Mousignor Ghilini, Nuncio at Brussels, written in the year 1768, from amidst the dust of oblivion, where it would otherwise have, as it deserved, remained till doomsday; notwithstanding the most strangely misapplied encomiums bestowed on it by Doctor Bourke : encomiums, which 1 know, from the letters the said Nuncio wrote to me, before I left the Continent, expressive of his own alarmed feelings, after cppl reflection, on the impropriety and Indiscretion of said letter, he would have willingly spared tbe Doctor. Npthing tp be sure, but an enthusiastic partiality for scliolastic opinions, which Dpctor Bourke, perhaps, had formerly, when professor, defended, (as some Ultromantanists have done, to their reproach and the discredit of religion, with as much warmth of debate as if "those opinions had been acknowledged Articles of Faith, which they were supporting against un believers) can any way extenuata Doctor BPurke's imprudence, to call it by no harsher name, in publishing such a letter, The Doctor should have reflected, that the opinions alluded to by the Nuncio, however un noticed they may be suffered to pass in a country like Italy, where the Sovereign and all the subjects are ofthe Roman Catholic Religion, they cannot be considered in the same light -in this kingdom, whereof the King and principal subjects are Protestants, and two thirds, at least, of the.inhabitants are of our communion. Here such opinions, if main tained, could not but be prejudicial, by alarming the Sovereign, and be coming a constant source of jealousy and dissension 'betwixt fellow- subjects. — This, I recall to mind, was what I alledged to Cardinal Maie- fuschi, whb was at the time the oath was proposed, our Cardinal Protec tor, (that is, as your Lordship knows, the Cardinal entrusted by his Ho liness with the superintendahce of our ecclesiastical affairs in Ireland,) as a reason why the Roman Catholic Bishops thought themselves called up on to declare, in the public manner they did, that they found nothing in the test of allegiance, held put by the legislature to the Roman Catholics of Ireland, contrary to the principles of the Roman Catholic Faith : and, therefore, that the opinions disclaimed by that oath never made part qf our creed. The Cardinal, in his anszcer, expressed thefullest approbation of my sentiments ; which approbation of his Eminence was afterwards confirmed by the Pope and the Congregation de. Propaganda Fide, approving also ofthe said test of allegiance : of all which approbations I have authentic voucli- ers by me ; the very letters written on the occasion to and from the Sa cred Congregation. I shewed these letters to Lord Pery, when he was Speaker of theHquse of Commons, at Sir Robert Staples's, and I shewed him again, in Dublin, another letter which I received from the same Con gregation, two years after, expressive of their Eminencies' thanks for my diligence in fulfilling what I owed to my station and religion, sinqe the time I came into the kingdom. Now, my dear Lord, I hope I may ven ture to say, without risking the imputation of vanity or' falsliood, that I was most particularly warm and active in promoting the taking of the Test Oath *, after I had publicly approved pf it at the head pf my Suffra- ? Rog. 13. 14. G. 5. c. 3, Note B. APPENDIX. xxi gans, in the year 1775 ; an aera which I always called to mind with new- felt pleasure; and consequently, the approbation of my conduct, during all that time, was of itself; had 1 no other proof's of the Congregation's having approved the Test, tantamount to an approbation. Lord Pery, when I shewed him that letter pf the Congregation acknowledged it was ; so did his Grace the Primate, when I had the honour, on being intro duced to him by your Lordship, to mentipn it to him. But that nothing might be wanting, in our power, to consign the letter of the Nuncio to eternal oblivipn, and that no one of our people might be ever affected by it, We, (I mean the Roman Catholic Prelates of Munster) in a meeting we held at Thurles, soon after the one near Cork, in 1775, Passed our decided censure uppn the Hibernia Dpminicana and its Supplement: which censure We, indeed, at first, signified pnly to our clergy; npt thinking it prudent tp make knpwn to the people a work of the stamp of the Hibernia Dominicana ; which, from its being written in Latin, and bearing a title which was not likely to attract the attention of those who understood that language, would, as I said before, in all probability have remained for ever unknown to them. Our cen sure was well known at Rome, without being considered there, in the smallest degree, obnoxious to. the Holy See. The original, subscribed toby the Bishops, I providentially kept by. me; not knowing but the time might come, when some one or other would, through ignorance pr false zeal, profit of a discovery pf the Nuncio's letter, and make use of it as a proper weapon to give what he might think the deadly blow to all our fond hopes of protection and confidence from government and our fel low-subjects. My apprehension of such an event, your Lordship sees by Doctor Woodward's work, was not groundless. At the same time had I not such a formal and avowed condemnation to produce, the letters from the Sacred Cpngregation and the Roman Catholic Bishops of the whole kingdom after the most mature deliberation, approving the Test, whereby they solemnly declared, in the face of the whole world, their -disbelief and abhorrence ofthe opinions alluded to by the Nuncio, was more than sufficient to obviate the ill grounded insinuations his Lordship of Cloyne has held forth. As a public and formal answer will, I hope, be given to his Lordship of Cloyne's strictures I'll leave to the writer thereof (that I may not spin out this letter to an unnecessary length) to enlarge mpre fully pn what I here pnly sketch out. For a public answer must be given. The con sciousness of our inviolable attachment to our oaths of allegiance ; our lively sense of what we owe to our sacred characters; our sincere wjsh to promote and preserve that long desired mutual confidence, which had happily begun to warm and link in social union the minds or perspns pf different persuasipns, call on us to repel, in the most earnest and public manner, any attempt to undermine what cannot but be most precious to us. The author ofthe public reply to his Lordship's strictures will not fail, 1 am confident, to paint in the most pathetic manner what our feelings must be, on seeing ourselves traduced as we are to the public; and that by the very Bishop to the neighbourhood of whose diocess I and my Suffragans, the Roman Catholic Prelates of Munster, had speedily re paired, to oppose, as far as in us lay, with our united efforts, in the morning of these troubles, the unwarrantable attempts made against ec clesiastical authority. His Lordship may be also more clearly informed by him ofthe nature of a Nuncio's commission, with regard to the Ro man Catholics of this kingdom : his Lordship will find it quite different Xxii APPENDIX' NoteB. from what he represents it ; and that so far are a Nuncio's sentiments from being fopked uppn as decistons pf the Church, that Roman Catho lic Bishpps have dissented, and may dissent from the Roman Legate, withput apprehensipn pf guilt in all that dpes npt affect the established principles pf faith and christian mprality. In the letter alludedto, your Lprdship cannot but have observed the Nuncio gives only his own no. tions; which, strange as they appear, can be easily accounted for, in one, who being educated in the Pope's dominions, and being his public Ambassadpr, may, from too warm a desire of aggrandizing the temporal power of his Sovereign, extend too far the prerogatives of his spiritual jurisdiction. As to the oath taken by the Roman Catholic Bishpps at their conse cration, and printed in the Roman Pontifical, which Doctor Woodward brings forth as an auxiliary propf how little pur paths of allegiance are tP be depended pn, I shall just pbserve, that his Lprdship has entirely miscpnceived bpth the intentipn and wprds ofthe oath. A little reflec- tion would have made his Lordship sensible, that said oath is by no means incotisistent with the subject's allegiance to his Prince; that Sovereigns as jealous and tenacious of their rights as Sovereigns can be, permit said oath to be taken by the Roman Catholic Bishops in their dominions : which they evidently never would consent to, but would, on the con trary, strenuously oppose, if they could think it infringed in the least on their rights, or paved the way tb papal encroachments. It is well knpwn this very oath, of which Doctor Woodward speaks, is taken by all the Bishops consecrated in France, Germany, Spain, and in all the different kingdoms and republics on the Cpntinent. — The Bishpps pf the republic of Venice all take it. Fra. Papli .himself, in his warm Defence of the Rights of the Venetian Republic against the claims ofthe Court pf Rome, (a wprk Dpctor Wppdward cannpt be a stranger to,) never points out tp that jeatous Senate the oaths taken by Roman Cathplic Bishpps at their cpnsecration, as affording a ground tosuspect their fealty to the state. This path was even taken in Holland, under the eyes pf the States them selves, by the Pope's Vicar Apostolic for that country, who must generally be a Bishop, and consequently conform to the Rubrics ofthe Pontifical, which he does without becoming obnoxious tP the Dutch. The King of Prussia apprehends np danger from it ,to hia dominions, though he knows full well the Bishops, pf Silesia, pf whpse loyal sentiments he is more particularly interested in being secure, take also said oath at their consecration. Nay, the King of Great Britain,. our most gracious So vereign, whom may the Almighty long preserve, is no way alarmed at having a Roman Catholic Bishop in Canada; being/«%assured that a Roman Catholic Bishop in Canada will be as earnest to oppose all papal encroachments as his confreres in England were in opposing, (according even to his Lordship of Cloyne's acknowledgment, page 48,) in the ear lier days of the British empire, those of the Sovereign Pontiffs. For every discerning person cannot but know, on the least reflection, that none of us, to make use ofthe very wprds pf the great Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, ever engage purselves by this oath to any thing that is cpn- trary to our conscience, pr the service pf pur King andxpuntry : far from thinking we prejudice any pf these, it is even expressed in the path, that we take it withput prejudice to pur state, salvomeo ordine. The submis sion which is sworn to the Pope in spirituals, is of a different order from what we naturally owe pur Prince in tempprals, and without protesting, we have always well understood, that one does not interfere with the pther.— Sp far that learned and judicious Prelate. NoteB. APPENDIX. xxiii Your Lordship will find these very words of Bossuet in the beginning of the first chapter of the 7th book of the Variations 1— they clearly ac count for said oath's being so universally taken by all Roman Catholic Bishops in bpth cathplic and protestant states. The SALVO MEO OftDlNE rempvesall fear pf the oath's injuring the allegiance due to other princes. The^ oath itself at the beginning was only taken by the Bishops ofthe Pope's ecclesiastical territories, who from being subjects ofthe Pope, as a temporal Sovereign, swear fealty to him both in spi rituals and temporals, which' is not the case with Bishops, who do not belong to the Pope's dominions; and hence, when a desire of cpnformi- ty with the Bishops that are immediately subject to the Pope, made it, by degrees, customary for the Roman Catholic Bishpps throughput the whole world to take the said path at their consecration, they all took: care to profess plainly and publicly, by the clause SALVO MEO OR DINE, that they did not bind themselves down to any thing in said oath but in as far as it was compatible with the situation of every Bishop under their respective Sovereigns, and the duty he essentially owes to them. The oath is almost pf 800 years date ; time, surely, sufficient for every Sovereign to knpw the meaning pf it. • The words pf the oath, Hereticos persequar et impugnabo, which his Lordship of Cfoyne represents as so alarming to the Protestant interest, far from meaning what his Lordship seems to think, imply nothing more than the obligation every Bishop takes uppn himself, to be ever earnest in opposing and refuting by the spiritual weapons of the Gospel, all broachers of doctrines contrary to its principles. These, My Dear Lord, are the thoughts which occurred to me pn reading that part pf Dpctor Woodward's work, which attacks the con scientious sincerity of Roman Catholic Bishops. Thoughts, which I was most anxious to cpmmunicate to a Npbleman pf my own religipn, whose zealous and successful exertipns in suppressing the disturbances in the county pf Kerry, have met with the deserved applause of Government and ofthe Clergy of both communions. On that account, I look up to your Lordship, as the best entitled to avail yourself with every advantage ofthe facts I have mentioned, in order to prevent or efface the very un favourable impressions Doctor Woodward's strictures on us may make, or have made, on the public, by misrepresenting the Nuncio's letter as a decision of our Church, and the oath Bishops take at their consecration, as incompatible with our allegiance. , I - I have the honour to be, With the sincerest attachment and esteem, My Dear Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient servant, and affectionate kinsman, JAMES BUTLER, xxiv APPEND! X. Note C. , Besides the various Instances which have been stated of the disposi. tion ofthe Protestants in various parts of Ireland to adl with liberality towards the Cathplfcs, the following have pccurred within the last twelve mpnths. — Resplutipns have been published by the Grand Juries pf the CPunties pf Kilkenny and Galway in favpur pf emancipatipn.— The Pro testant inhabitants of Newry at a public meeting convened by the Senes chal agreed to a declaration expressing their wish to have every thing conceded to them, provided they would cpnsent to permit the King to BPminate their Bishpps. — The principal Nobility and Gentry ofthe epunties of Tipperary, Meath and Waterford, have published declara tions pf their sentiments in favpur of emancipation. — At general meet ings of the Freeholders pf the cpunties of Galway, Roscommpn and Sligp, unanimpus resolutions have been agreed to approving of that mea sure. — Thirty Orange Lpdges in the North of Ireland published an ex position of their'principles last July, wherein they stated that the pbject of their i#stitutipn was to resist republicanism, and npt religtous cpns:- deratipns. — They likewise declared their intention not again to celebrate the Battle ofthe Boyne. 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