Nor is the idea of the existence of fuch a fentiment in us Proteftants fo incredible, or unprecedented; nor are we upon this fubjeći to be carried away by the delufive lights of fiation, or of eloquence: for no genius however exalted is fuperior to the poifon of Prejudice and Bigotry, adminiftered by parental hands, and drunk by the thirfty ears of enquiring infancy.-The illuf trious Spencer, when fecretary to Lord Deputy Grey, in fpeaking of the war carried on againit the Irish in Munfter in 1597, thus concludes, "The deputy had driven them to fuch an ex

tremity of famine, that they digged dead carcafes "out of the graves for food: Therefore by all " means it must be affured that after once en"tering into this course of reformation, there be "afterwards no remorse, nor drawing back,

for the fight of any fuch rueful objects as muft, "thereupon, follow, nor for compaffion of their "calamities; feeing that by no other means it is "poffible to cure them" State of Ireland, p. 166, Lond. Edit.] It is thus, this British secretary, the boast and pillar of Britith genius, poisoned by the prejudices of his youth and nation, re fufes himself, and inculcates to be refused by those in authority who were to come after him, every emotion of remorse or compaffion, to the whole Irish human race!! and this the British government called A REFORMATION! and this leffon has been pursued with a pertinacity due to fuch an authority.-Irish man-hunting, and feeding them upon one another, has been fucceeded by a more deliberate, and more effectual process of torment and depopulation; and fword and fire has yielded to the operations of a penal code, more extenfive, and not lefs deadly.

But

But among what defcription of the Catholic body is this revival of ancient titles expected to originate, upon a restoration of Catholic Rights?-among the rabble, or among the individuals of property and confideration? If among the rabble, they have it as much in their power to revive them now; they never can be in parliament; and the plan of their operations muft always neceffarily be the fame-by numbers, and by violence and if it is to originate from the Catholic gentlemen, the proprietors of lands, or of perfonal property, who will necef farily be the firft to be returned to the Legislature, it is not probable that these men will be much disposed to promote a general parliamentary dif turbance of proprietors in poffeffion, that they may offer a compliment of their prefent acres to perfons with more lineal titles; and ranfack Europe, or the hoggeries of the kingdom, the prefent refidence of the Irish people, for the rightful representatives;nor could there be devised a more fruitful fource of inteftine and bitter division among the Catholicks themselves, than a revival of the Court of Claims: Because here are the most opulent Catholicks of the prefent period, daily acquiring landed property upon the validity of Proteftant conveyances, either by leafehold, or in fee, in the very eftates of thofe forfeiting Catholicks of a former age, whofe right heirs are prefently to be restored, upon the utter ruin of thefe latter Catholick intruders: which ruin is, moreover, to originate with these intruders themfelves, upon their firft admiffion into a Proteftant houfe of commons-for in confequence of the late, tho' partial relaxation of the penal laws, multitudes of Catholicks have taken valuable leafehold interefts upon the once

forfeited,

forfeited, and now Proteftant. eftates of this kingdom; or have purchafed portions of forfeited estates, from Proteftant fellers, upon the validity of Proteftant titles, and a Proteftant conveyance, or have advanced money upon Proteftant fecurities, and are become mortgagees to Proteflant properties in lands which were forfeited by Catholicks; or have come under marriage fettlements with Proteftant families: all which Catholicks ranging under the above various defcriptions of interefts in lands, muft vitiate their titles, violate their fecurities, and beggar their children, by any innovation whatever upon the prefent Proteftant establishment of tenures in the kingdom: and it is a truth notoriously acknowledged, that of the present astonishing increase of buildings and other improvements in the capital, and its neighbourhood, two thirds are conducted at the expence of, are contracted for, or belong to Catholic individuals and tho' we are daily trumpeting of forfeitures, and the danger of the Catholicks of family looking to recover the loft feignories of their race, yet we hear nothing of the mul titude of Catholicks of family, and many of them those who headed armies, and were most vehement in oppofition to the prefent eftublifoment of things, whofe defcendants are conformifts at this day or who by extravagance or misfortunes, alienated for full value their family estates to the prefent novel occupiers, whether Proteftants, or Catholicks.

It

The illuftrious names of O'Neille, O'Connor, Macdonnel O'Brien, De Burgh, Fitzgerald, Butler, Wogan, Plunket, Macnamara, Nugent, and a long et cætera.

It is the conftitution of Ireland-That every man poffeffed of forty fhillings per annum, by that frank tenure which we call a freehold, befides certain perfons invefted with privileges in cities and boroughs, shall have a vote in electing a member of that affembly which alone can tax his property :-This was, and is the bulwark of Irish liberty, and without this, we Proteftants, fhould be flaves-This is the conftitution which ought to be communicated to Irish Catholicks, as their ancient inheritance, and the bulwark of their liberty: and let us be afhamed, then, in this hour of general fafety, and diffufion of philofophy, any longer to affert-That their property fhall be taxed in any affembly to which their freeholders and electors do not depute a reprefentative.

I maintain that the Catholic is deprived of the most effential privilege of an Irishman, if the fect to which he annexes himself can be taxed by an affembly in which that fect is not reprefented-I maintain that if a number of perfons can be deprived of their lives, or their property by any other body of people, fuch perfons are enflaved; and whether it be by a nation, or a monarch, is immaterial, the mafters only are different, but the government is equally defpotic. The helots of Sparta were as much flaves as the bondfinen of the Turk, or of the - West Indies; and I challenge writers to enumerate any power which the Spartan republic exercised over the helots, which the English fettler has not affumed over his Irish feudatory: The Lacedemonians fported with the lives of their helots-In 1601, Roger Williams, at a gaol delivery at Waterford, was fined by Wogan,

Lord

Lord Juftice of Ireland, five marks, for killing one O'Drifcol, he being a mere Irishman;" by which legal phrafe was meant that he had no crofs of English blood in him--[Sir John Davis, Hift. Rel.] I do not infinuate that the Proteftant of the present day may not be disposed to govern his helots with a little more forbearance, and humanity; but however mildly his defpotic powers be adminiftered, the fervile fate of the Catholic is not lefs that of a defpotifm.

Let us, then, act wifely, difcreetly and affectionately by them while we may :-They are weak by their circumstances, do not make them ftrong by their defpair. The gradual increase of numbers, and of opulence has added strength to their force, but that force is willing to repofe in the arms of their Proteftant brethren, unless it be provoked and awakened by infolence fuperadded to injury-The numbers of a people are not fo formidable, as their union, their hatred, their fury-If our dominion be founded only in our ftrength, it can fubfift no longer than their weakness; and it is evident that we shall hold the Catholicks by a better fecurity, if we do not continue them in fubjection; because we know that a free nation can fupport greater burthens than nations equally opulent, that are enflaved-No power, no management has ever fucceeded to tax the latter as highly as the firft; and the efforts of defpotifm of a fingle, or of half a million of tyrants, have ever produced only depopulation, and rebellion

Let us confider in time, at how much cheaper a rate, as well as one more confonant to the nobleft feelings of the heart, the friendship

may