tenance. "The religion of the papists," say the Irish protestant archbishops and bishops of the se venteenth century, "is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical; their church, in respect of both, apostatical. To give them, therefore, a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine, is a grievous sin, and that in two re spects: for, first, it is to make ourselves accessary not only to their superstitions, idolatries, and heresies, and, in a word, to all the abominations of popery, but also (which is a consequence of the former), to the perdition of the seduced people, who perish in the deluge of the catholic apostacy; secondly, to grant them a toleration in respect of any money to be given, or contribution to be made by them, is to set religion to sale, and with it the souls of the people whom Christ hath redeemed with his blood; and as it is a great sin, so it is also a matter of most dangerous consequence; the consideration whereof we commit to the wise and judicious, beseeching the God of truth to make them who are in authority zealous of God's glory, and of the advancement of true religion; zealous, resolute, and

7. The unbending bigotry of the protestant bishops and arch-bishops of Ireland, at this period, forms a curious contrast with the enlightened liberality which distinguished the catholic government of France under the administration of the great Richelieu. Mr Hume, in his reign of Charles I. says, "that a toleration was continued to the Hugonots after the taking of Rochelle; the only avowed and open toleration," says Mr Hume," which at that time was granted in any European kingdom.”

courageous, against all popery, superstition and idolatry."

J

We challenge the records of superstition to produce a higher specimen of fanaticism than that which we have just quoted; it demonstrates how easily all sects of Christianity can recriminate on each other, and how vain the controversy which attributes to the doctrines of popery a more malignant spirit of intolerance than to those of any other Christian denomination. The followers of Christianity, in the nineteenth century, laugh at the fa naticism of their ancestors, and all classes of Christians adhere to the faith of their fathers, undisturb ed by the insolence of sectarian ascendancy. The distress of Charles counterbalanced the prayers of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, and for a contribution of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, payable in three years, the British monarch promised to redress the grievances of which his drish subjects so loudly and justly complained. We -have said that Charlesipromised to redress their griev ances, because our readers will find that the instruc--tions communicated to his deputy in Ireland, were never confirmed by an act of the legislature, and that the immoderate wants of the king forced him to hold out hopes to his Irish subjects, as the price of that aid which their generous credulity had never yet hesitated to contribute. The graces to be conferred were therefore of the most substantial -kind. The properties of the Irish were no more to be disturbed, the insulting condition of the oaths of supremacy and abjuration no longer to be en

forced, as the necessary qualification for office; the oppressions of the soldiery were to be restrained, and justice was to be impartially administered to all denominations of Irishmen. These promises of protection were soon forgotten, the respite of the Irish people from the persecution of fanaticism was of very short duration; for we find soon after, a well authenticated account of a most wanton and atrocious violence on the unoffending catholic, at the moment he was engaged in the adoration of his Creator, according to the form and ceremonies of his own religion. Hammon Lestrange, one of the English adventurers who came over to Ireland to insult the nation he assisted in plundering, thus speaks of the Roman catholic clergy in the early part of his reign of Charles I." In this year the Roman clergy began to rant it, and to exercise their fancies, called religion, as publicly as if they had gained a toleration." "The reader," says the honest and well informed Dr Curry," will be surprised to find that this ranting of the catholic clergy was nothing more than their reading of prayers quietly to their people in one of their own chapels." "For," proceeds the above mentioned author, Hammon Lestrange, while the lords justices were at Christ Church in Dublin, on St Stephen's day, the clergy were celebrating mass in Cook-street, which their lordships taking notice of, they sent the archbishop of Dublin, the mayor, sheriffs, and recorder of the city, with a file of musketeers, to apprehend them, which they did, taking away the crucifixes and ornaments of the altar, the soldiers hewing

ἐς

down the image of St Francis. The priests and friars were delivered into the hands of the pursuivants, at whom the people threw stones, and rescued them. The lords justices being informed of this, sent a guard and delivered them, and clapped eight popish aldermen by the heels for not assisting their mayor. On this account fifteen houses (chapels), by direction of the lords of the council in England, were seized to the king's use, and the priests and friars were so persecuted, that two of them," adds my liberal and enlightened author, "hanged themselves in their own defence." This single fact, which never was disputed, would almost vindicate the catholics of Ireland in the commission of any violence to destroy such atrocious despotism. Few, I believe, will wonder that the populace endeavoured to rescue their priests in such an exigency; and fewer that the catholic aldermen ́of Dublin did not assist their mayor in this priestcatching business. This persecution was afterwards extended all over the kingdom.

The English council acquainted the justices of Ireland on this memorable occasion," that his majesty was pleased openly and in the most gracious manner to approve and commend their ability and good service, whereby they might be sufficiently encouraged to go on with the like resolution and moderation till the work was fully done, as well in the city as in other places of the kingdom, leaving to their discretion when and where to carry a soft and tender hand;" yet Lord Clarendon, in the front of these facts, has the boldness to state,

"that during all this, and the former reign, the catholics of Ireland enjoyed an undisturbed exercise of their religion; and that even in Dublin, where the seat of the king's chief governor was, they went as publicly and uninterruptedly to their devotions as he went to his." It is to such authorities as Lord Clarendon may be attributed all that ignorance which Englishmen discover of the real causes of the cruel vengeance which the Irish were driven to take against their oppressors. No people are to be found in the records of history who have manifested so much patience under so much suffering, nor can any nation produce such a crowd of such exasperating causes to justify the furious excesses of their vengeance. They had to contend with the hypocrisy and avarice of unprincipled monarchs, and the blind and ignorant fanaticism of the creatures of their power.

Their loyalty and fidelity were rewarded with perpetual insult and injury, and the evidence of their attachment to the state was often the cause of new expedients to plunder, to harass, and exasperate.

The graces promised by Lord Falkland, and which amounted to an acknowledgment of the rights of the Irish, had the effect of producing a cheerful submission to the contribution so much wanted by Charles. We shall find, in the course of this reign, that to the distress of the monarch may be attributed whatever indulgence the catholics experienced; and that the necessity of counteracting the power of the English puritans, com