acted. So late as the year 1745, it was provided, that all marriages celebrated by a Roman Catholic clergyman, between two Protestants, or between a Protestant and a Roman Catholic, should be null and void, to all intents and purposes, without any process, judgment, or sentence of the law whatsoever.* To what a hideous flood of licentiousness; what overwhelming immorality; what bastardizing of children; what uncertainty of inheritance, must this vile law have given rise!

Justices of peace might summon any person, suspected of having been married by a Roman Catholic priest, or been present at such marriage; and if such person refused to attend, or to be examined, or to enter into recognizance to prosecute, he was liable to three years imprisonment.586

Dreading lest the piratical and sanguinary system they were establishing should lead to insurrection, in which they might meet the fate their tyranny deserved, the "ascendency" early determined to secure themselves from that consequence, by robbing and plundering the Catholics

"After the first of May, 1746, every marriage celebrated by a Popish priest, between a Papist and any person who hath been, or hath professed himself or herself to be a Protestant, at any time within twelve months of such celebration of marriage, or between two Protestants, shall be null and void, to all intents and purposes, without any process, judgment, or sentence of the law whatsoever."

99587

596 Robins, 389.

587

2 Geo. II. xiii. 19.

of their arms;* thus in a manner tying them neck and heels, and laying them prostrate at their mercy.

The laws on this point, which was regarded as vital to the security of the tyrants, were of the most extraordinary rigour. Two justices of the peace might summon before them any Catholics, from the peer or peeress to the lowest peasant, and examine them, on oath, not merely on the subject of arms in their own possession, but oblige them to turn informers against their parents, children, friends, and neighbours; and if they refused to appear, or, on appearing, refused to give evidence, or turn informers, peers and peeresses were subject to a penalty of three hundred pounds, for the first offence; and for the second, to imprisonment for life, and forfeiture of all their goods!!†

"All Papists within this kingdom of Ireland, before the 1st of March next, shall discover and deliver up to some justice of the peace, all their arms, armour, and ammunition, of what kind soever, in their possession; and after that time, any two or more justices of the peace, within their respective limits, and all mayors, sheriffs and chief officers of cities, &c. in their liberties, by themselves or their warrants, under their hands and seals, may search for, seize, or cause to be searched for and seized, and take into their custody, all such arms, &c. as shall be concealed in any house, lodging or other places where they suspect any such to be.'

99588

"Two justices of peace, or the magistrate of any corporation, are empowered to summon before them any persons whatsoever, to tender them an oath, by which they oblige

588 Robins, 448.

By this law, the best man in the land might be summoned by two justices of the peace, at the instance of the lowest scoundrel, and an oath tendered to him to inform against his nearest or dearest friend. The same oath might be tendered to him a second time, within an hour; and if he refused both times, he was, ipso facto, liable to be robbed of his goods, and subject to imprisonment for life!!

Lest there should be any scruples of conscience among the justices, which might prevent their activity in the enforcement of such a system of rapine, any magistrate who should neglect or refuse to perform the duties it imposed on him, was subject to fifty pounds penalty.*

All wise legislators justly hold, that one of their most important duties is to provide for the instruction and illumination of the people, under a

them to discover all persons who have any arms concealed, contrary to law. Their refusal or declining to appear, or, on appearing, their refusal to inform, subjects them to the severest penalties. If peers or peeresses are summoned, (for they may be summoned by the bailiff of a corporation of six cottages) to perform this honourable service, and they refuse to inform, the first offence is 300l. penalty; the second is premunire, that is to say, imprisonment for life, and forfeiture of all their goods.

Persons of an inferior order are for the first offence fined 30%. for the second, they too are subjected to premunire."589

*"If any justice or justices of peace, mayor, &c. neglect or refuse to execute any the powers which they are required by this act to put in execution, every such justice shall forfeit, for every such offence, the sum of 501."590

589 Burke, V. 195.

590 Robins, 459.

conviction that public instruction and virtue, ignorance and vice, grow to maturity together.

But

the Irish Parliament doomed five-sixths of the nation, to which it was given as a curse, to perpetual and invincible ignorance! To brutalize and barbarize those Helots, to plunge them into the abysses of Cimmerian darkness, they were, at one stroke, cut off from education. The law punished the man who

"Taught the young idea how to shoot,"

who assisted to remove that brutal ignorance which prepares the mind for every species of vice and crime, as severely as the man who robbed altars, burned houses, or murdered his father or mother!

This never-enough-to-be-execrated code was far worse than Draco's, which is

"Damn'd to everlasting fame."

Draco, barbarous and cruel as he was, in his sanguinary code, which punished all crimes with death, has never been accused of punishing any thing but crimes. But the worse than Draconian Irish legislature denounced banishment, and, in case of return, death, against any Catholic guilty of the offence of teaching school; instructing children in learning, in a private house; or officiating as usher to a Protestant school-master!*

*"If any Papist shall publicly teach school, or instruct youth in learning in any private house, or shall be entertained to instruct youth, as usher or assistant to any Protestant schoolmaster, he shall be esteemed a Popish regular clergyman, and

The eternal laws of humanity, imprinted on our hearts by our great Creator, command sympathy for our suffering fellow creatures, and, when in our power, the extension of relief to their miseries. The rudest savages are not insensible to the sway of this universal and sovereign law. They share their slender pittance with the distressed and suffering stranger. Christ Jesus himself, in the most emphatical language he ever used, in "words that burn," denounces "everlasting fire" against those who refuse obedience to this law:

"Depart from me, ye cursed! into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels! for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not."

This divine lesson the impious and barbarous Irish legislature, with a wicked hypocrisy, which enhanced the atrocity of the deed, trampled under foot, under pretence of propagating, in its utmost purity, the religion of that Jesus Christ, of whose precepts and maxims their laws were an undeviating violation. By those laws, if Francis Xavier, Fleury, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fenelon, Massillon, cardinal Pole, archbishop Carroll, bishop Chevereux, Mr. Matignon, Mr. Harding, Mr. Fleming, or Mr. Græssel, were in Ireland, and "hungry, and

prosecuted as such, and shall incur such penalties and forfei tures as any Popish regular convict is liable unto.

99591

591 Robins, 612.