terly sensibilities of England towards our insulted country; he promised, with all due submission to the higher power of English prejudice, and English

serving, who has seen our doors kindly and bountifully thrown open to foreign sufferers for conscience, whilst through the same ports were issuing fugitives of our own; driven from their country, for a cause, which to an indifferent person would seem to be exactly similar; whilst we stood by without any sense of the impropriety of the extraordinary scene, accusing and practising injustice.

For my part, there is no circumstance in all the contradiction of our most mysterious nature, that appears to be more humiliating than the use we are disposed to make of those sad examples, which seem purposely marked for our correction and improvement. Every instance of fury and bigotry in other men, one should think, would naturally fill us with an horror of that disposition. The effect, however, is distinctly contrary. We are inspired, it is true, with a very sufficient hatred for the party, but with no detestation at all of the proceeding; nay, we are apt to urge our dislike of such measures as a reason for imitating them, and by an almost incredible absurdity, because some powers have destroyed their country by their persecuting spirit, to argue, that we ought to retaliate on them by destroying our own. Such are the effects, and such, I fear, has been the intention, of those numberless books which are daily printed and industriously spread, of the persecutions in other countries and other religious persuasions."

In the reign of which we are now writing, the persecution of the French protestants was the constant theme of every Englishman; it excited pity in every bosom, and sharpened the vengeance of that war which England then waged against the French nation; yet these same English who thus sympathized with the French protestant, could look on the tortures of their catholic fellow-subjects without a single emotion of compassion, or the slightest manifestation of sympathy. Such, however, has ever been the blindness of all sects to their own bigotry.

avarice and injustice, that the Irish parliament should be kept down ;-well and faithfully did this monarch of immortal memory" keep his word. At this period the woollen manufacture of Ireland was sufficiently prosperous and important to rouse the jealousy of our sister; with Ireland it was a profitable branch of commerce. Before the time

of Charles I. we endraped our wool, and exported what we did not consume to foreign markets. Of this privilege of export we were deprived by several acts of parliament, more especially one enacted in the reign of Charles II. which was deeply marked with the most unjust severity; all this would not satisfy King William, of "immortal memory." The woollen manufacture of Ireland should be extinguished; so great and ardent was William's af fection for the industry and prosperity of our country. Indeed this transaction is of so black and impudent a colour, that it would be doing sad injustice to the "immortal memory" of our King William, if we did not set down the exact words of solemn introduction with which William and his audacious parliament had the hardihood to preface this unprecedented outrage on our country. The Irishman who reads this, and who witnesses the annual commemoration of that very king who thus trampled on the liberties and the rights of Ireland, cannot suppress his indignation against that impertinent faction who presume to style themselves the friends of Ireland. Irishmen may measure the wisdom and the kindness of their rulers by the frequency or the unfrequency of those exhibitions

which sometimes parade our metropolis, rouse the irritability of insulted virtue, expose the best men of our country to the insults of a mercenary yeomanry or soldiery, promote drunkenness and abandonment among aldermen, and encourage the vicious and the corrupt to make experiments on the patience of the arm, which, if once roused, could so easily extinguish them. The aldermen and the corporations of Ireland will not forget, when they are drinking "the immortal memory" of their demigod and hero, that the destruction of the woollen manufacture is not the least among the topics of recommendation which may be urged in his favour. As this miserable transaction at once displays the tyranny of King William and his parliament, and the fallen and wretched state of the Irish parliament; as it exhibits the playful mockery with which Ireland was then treated by her bitterest enemy, it would be an act of justice to set down the memorable words in which the English parliament thought proper to prevail on an Irish parliament to rob their own country. We request the reader to pay particular attention to the following specimen of English justice, during the reign of the immortal King William. In 1698, the English House of Commons addressed his Majesty to the following effect:

"That being very sensible, the wealth and power of England do in a great measure depend on the preserving the woollen manufacture, as much as possible, entire to this realm, they thought that it became them, like their ancestors, to be

jealous of the establishment and increase thereof elsewhere; and to use their utmost endeavours to prevent it. That they could not, without pain, observe that Ireland, which is dependent on and protected by England (what an impudent mockery!) in the enjoyment of all she has, and which is so proper for the linen manufacture, the establishment and growth of which would be so enriching to themselves and so profitable to England, should of late apply itself to the woollen manufacture, to the great prejudice of the trade of this kingdom, and so unwillingly promote the linen trade, which would benefit both nations. That the consequence thereof would necessitate his Majesty's parliament of England to interpose, to prevent the mischief, unless his Majesty" of immortal memory, "by his authority and great wisdom, should find means to secure the trade of England, by making his subjects of Ireland preserve the joint interest of both kingdoms; wherefore they implored his Majesty's protection and favour in this matter, and that he would make it his royal care, and enjoin all those he employed in Ireland, to use their utmost endeavours to hinder the exportation of wool from Ireland, (except it be imported hither), and for the discouraging the woollen manufactures, and encouraging the linen manufactures, to which the commons of England should always be ready to give their utmost assistance."

This is so delightful an instance of English kindness to the Irish people, that we thought it would be a pity to lose one word of it. There is

so much humour in the manner with which they plunder Ireland of her property, and so candid a care of the industry and the property of England, that we do not wonder a drunken corporation should riot in ecstacy of joy when they are pouring out libations to the "inmortal memory" of the monarch who so faithfully promised to put in execution against Ireland the utmost wishes of the English parliament. What did the immortal sovereign reply to the above parental address of the commons? He made answer that he should do all that in him lay to promote the trade of England, and to discourage the woollen manufacture of Ireland. He also promised to give all possible encouragement to linen manufactures. This is one among the many reasons why the corporations of Ireland, the last remaining depots of every thing which the enlightened protestant and catholic consider ignorant and contemptible, so perpetually offer up their incense to this sainted monarch.

To him who will estimate the qualities of King William by the infamous acts to which he was obliged to give his consent, the character of this monarch, in the exercise of his royal power in Ireland, must appear odious and detestable. Those of the Irish people who are so clamorous in his praise, found their veneration for King William on those passages of his life which excite the indignation of every honest Irishman. But justice to the memory even of a recorded enemy of Ireland, obliges us to admit, that William had to contend with a rancorous malignity, which national jealousy has always