* certain form of words, to that fame 'Henry II. whom he ought rather to have stript of his own, on account of * the above crime.

⚫ Thus, omitting all legal and ju ritical order, and alas! his national prejudices and predilections blindfolding the difcernment of fuch a Pontiff! without our being guilty of any crime, without any rational caufe whatsoever, he gave us up to be mangled to pieces, by the teeth of the most cruel and voracious of all monsters. And if fome times nearly flayed alive, we escape from the deadly bite of those treacherous and greedy wolves, it is but to defcend into the miferable abyffes of fhameful flavery, and to drag on the doleful remains of a life more terrible than death itfelf-Ever fince thofe English appeared frit upon our coafts, in virtue of the above furreptitious donation, they entered our territories under a certain fpecious pretext of piety and external hypocritical fhow of religion: endeavouring in the meantime, by every artifice malice could fuggeft, to extirpate us root and branch; and without any other right, than that of the ftrongeft, they have fo far fucceeded, by bafe and fraudulent cunning, that they have forced us to quit our fair and ample fituations and paternal inheritances, and to take refuge, like wild beafts, in the mountains, the woods, and the moraffes of the country; nor can even the caverns and dens protect us against their infatiable avarice. They purfue us even into thole frightful abodes, endeavouring to difpoffefs us of the wild uncultivated rocks, and arrogating to themfelves the property of every place, on which we can print the figure of our feet; aud through an excess of the most profound ignorance, impudent arrogance, or blind infanity fcarce conceivable, they dare to affert, that not a fingle inch of Ireland is ours, but by right, entirely

their own,

Hence the implacable animofities, and exterminating carnage, which is perpetually carried on between us ; hence our continual hoftilities, our deteftable treacheries, our bloody reprifals, our numberlefs maffacres, in which, fince their invafion to this day. more than 50,000 men have perished on both fides, not to speak of those who died by famine, defpair, the ri gours of captivity, nightly marauding, and a thousand other diforders which it is impoffible to remedy, on account of the anarchy in which we live an anarchy which, alas! is tremendous not only to the ftate, but also to the church of Ireland; the minifters of which are daily expofed, not only to the ofs of the frail and tranfitory things of this world, bu alfo the lois of thofe folid and fubftantial bleflings which are eternal and immutable.

Let thofe few particulars concerns ing our origin, and the deplorable ftate to which we have been reduced by the above donation of Adrian IV. fuffice for the prefent.

We have now to inform your ho lines, that Henry, king of England, and the four kings, his fucceffors, have violated the conditions of the pon tifical bull, by which they were em powered to invade this kingdom. For the faid Henry promiled, as ap Pears by faid bull, to extend the pas trimony of the Irish church, and to pay to the apoftolical fee annually, one penry for each houfe.-Now this

above-mentioned, and their iniquitous promife both he and his fucceffors minifters, obferved not at all with fe gard to Ireland. On the contrary, they have entirely and intentionally eluded them, and endeavoured to en force the reverse.

As to the church lands, fo far from extending them, they have confined thein, retrenched them, invaded them on all fides; fo that fome cathedral churches have been, by open force, notorioufly plundered of their P

theit

their poffeflions. Nor have the perfons of our clergy been more respected for in every part of the country, we find bithops and prelates cited, arrefted, and imprifoned, without diftinction; and they are oppreffed with fuch fervile fear by thofe frequent and unparalleled injuries, that they have not even the courage to reprefent to your holine fs, the fufferings they are fo wantonly condemned to undergo. But fince they are fo cowardly and fo bafely filent in their own caufe, they deferve not that we should fay a fyllable in their favour. The English promifed alfo to introduce a better code of laws, and enforce better morals, but the holy and dove-like fimplicity of our nation, is on account of the flagitious example of thofe reprobates, changed into the malicious cunning of the ferpert.

We had a written code of laws, according to which our nation was governed hitherto; they have deprived us of thote laws, and of every law except one, which it is impoffible to reft from us, and for the purpose of exterminating us they have eftablished other iniquitous laws, by which injuftice and humanity are combined for our deftruction: fome of which we here infert for your infpection, as being fo many fundamental rules of English jurisprudence established in this kingdom.

Every man not an Irishman, can on any charge however frivolous, profecute an Irishman; but no Irifhman whether lay or ecelefiallie, (the preTate excepted) can profecute for any offence whatfoever becaufe he is an Irishman. If any Englishman fhould, as they often do, treacherously and perdfiioufly murder an Irifhman, be he ever fo noble or fo innocent, whether lay or ecclefiaftic, fecular or regular, even though he fhould be a prelate, no fatisfaction can be obtained from an English court of juftice. On the contrary, the more worthy

the murdered man was, and the more refpected by his own countrymen, the more the murderer is rewarded and honoured, not only by the English rabble, but even by the English clergy and bishops; and efpecially by thofe whofe duty it is chiefly, on account of their ftation in life, to correct fuch abominable malefa&ars.Every Irish woman, whether noble or ignoble, who marries an Englishman, is after her husband's death, deprived of the third part of her husband's lands and poffeffions, on account of her being an Irish woman. In like manner, whenever the English can violently opprefs to death an Irishman,they will by no means permit him to make a will or any difpofal whatfoever of his affairs; on the contrary, they feize violently on all his property, deprive the church of its rights, per fofce reduce to a fervile conditi on that blood which has been from all antiquity free.

The fame tribunal of the English, by advice of the king of England and fome English Bishops, among whom the ignorant and ill-conducted archbifhop of Armagh was prefident, has made in the city of St. Kennicus (Kilkenny) the following abfurd and informal ftatute,that no religious community in the English pale, fhall receive an Irishman as novice under pain of being treated as contumacious contemners of the King of England's laws. And as well before as after this law was enacted, it was fcrupuoufly obferved by the English domi nicans, francifcans, monks, cannons, and all other religious orders of the English nation, who fhewed a partiality in the choice of their religious fubjects, the more odious in as much as thofe monafteries were founded by

fhmen, from which Irishmen are fo bafely excluded by Englishmen in modern times. Befides where they ought to have eftablished virtue, they have done exactly the contrary; they

have

have deftroyed our native virtues, and eftablished the most abominable vices in their (tead.

For the English who inhabit our ifland, and who call themselves a middle nation (between English and Infh) are fo different in their morals from the English of England, and of all other nations, that they can, with the greatest propriety,be ftyled a natien not of middling, but of extreme perfidioufnefs; nor is it of old that they follow the abominable and nefa rious cuftom, which is acquiring more inveteracy every day from habit ; amely, when they invite a nobleman of our nation to dine with them, they either in the midft of the entertainment, or in the unguarded hour of deep, fpill the blood of our unfufpecting countrymen, terminate their deteftable fealt with murder, and fell the heads of their guests to the enemy!

Juft as Peter Brumichehame, who is fince called the treacherous Baron, did with Mauritius's brother Calna cus, men much esteemed for their talents and honour among us; he invited them to an entertainment on the feaft day of the holy Trinity; on that day, the inftant they ftood up from the table, he cruelly maffacred them with twenty-four of their followers, and fold their heads at a dear price to their enemies and when he was arraigned before the king of England, the prefent king's father, no juftice could be obtained against such a nefarious and treacherous offender. In like manner Lord Thomas Clare, the Duke of Glocefter's brother, invited to his house the most illuftrious Brian Roe O'Brien of Thonond his fponfor,

As all hope of peace between us is therefore completely deftroyed; for fuch is their pride, fuch their exceffive luft of dominion, and fuch our

ardent ambition to fhake off this infupportable yoke, and recover the inheritance which they have fo unjustly ufurped, that, as there never was, fo there never will be any fincere coalition between them and us, nor is it poffible that there should in this life; for we entertain a certain natural enmity against each other, flowing from mutual malignity, defcending by inheritance from father to fon, and spreading from generation to generation.

Let no perfon wonder then if we endeavour to preserve our lives, and defend our liberties, as well as we can, against thofe cruel tyrants, ufurpers of our jut properties, ard murderers of our perions. So far from thinking it unlawful, we hold it to be a meritorious act, nor can we be accufed of perjury or rebellion: fince neither our fathers or we, did at any time bind ourfelves by any o th of al legiance to their fathers or to them, and therefore without the leaft remorfe of confcience, while breach remains, we will attack them in defence of our just rights, and never lay down our arms until we force them to des fift. Befides we are fully fatisfied to prove in a juridical manner before twelve or more bishops the facts which we have ftated, and the grievances which we have complained ot-Not like the Englith, who in time of profperity contemn all legal ordinances, and if they enjoy profperity at prefent would not recur to Rome as they do now, but would crush with their overbearing and tyrannical haughtinefs, all the furrounding nations, defpifing every law, human and di

inftead of governing us as they were bound to do with jatice and modera tion, have wickedly endeavoured to exterminate us off the face of the earth; and to shake off entirely their deteftable yoke, and recover our native liberties which we loft by their means; we are forced to carry on an exterminating war, chufing in defence of our lives and liberties, rather to rife like men and expofe our perfons bravely to all the dangers of war, than any longer to bear like women their atrocious and deteftable injuries; and in order to obtain our intent the more speedily and confiftently, we invite the gallant Edward Bruce, to whom being defcended from our inoft noble ancestors, we transfer, as we juft ly may, our own right of royal doninion; unanimoufly declaring him to be our king by common confent, who in our opinion, and in the opinion of moft men, is as juft, prudent and pious as he is powerful and courageous; who will do justice to all claffes of people, and reftore to the church thofe properties of which it has been fo damnably and inhumanly defpoiled, &c.

Dr. Milner's Inquiry into certain vulgar opinions, concerning the Catholic Inhabitants, and the Antiquities of Ireland, &c.

'Tis no Sir John Car that we now bring before the public-'tis no hopping franger, who comes amongst us to collect ftale and vulgar witicisms, to eat fumptuous dinners with great people and to praife their, to fkim of the top and furlace of our national character and with the vapid fubftance, to raife his pastry-book to a bloated folio.'Tis not fuch a fuperficial

Tourist as this whom we introduce to our readers, but the venerable and learned and phfophic Milner, already known in the literary world, by his Hiftory of Winchefter, his Letters to Sturges, his Cafe of Confcience, and his numerous other works. 'Tis fomewhat confoling to an Irishman, who has been used to contemplate the difgufting pictures which Englishmen have drawn of his calumniated country, thus to behold rifing up from amidst that felfish contemning and un-! juft people, one of its boldest and most liberal defenders. The time is now come, when English prejudices muft disappear, when the frong light of truth burfting on the ignorance and darknets of the English public mind, muft chace away the fallehoods concerning the Irish people and the Irish character, long cherished against both. The angel of juftice has gone abroad, and even Englishmen muft open their eyes to the injuries they have inflicted on a meritorious unoffending country, to the foulness of the impu tations with which they have blackened and ftained its name. 'Tis well known that the mals of the neighbouring inhabitants an ignorant and, unthinking, though a well-fed race, have always entertained the most unaccountable notions of our manners, our population, and our genius. In* Dr. Milner's own words, they are perfuaded that we are a ftupid and mifconceiving people, many degrees below themfelves in every niental faculty" they fuppofe our inland not to equal in extent the county of York, and the number of its inhabitants not to exceed what that district contains. They have levelled us with the irrational creation; the poor wild Irish