LETTER TO The Societies of United Irishmen OF THE TOWN OF BELFAST, PON THE SUBJECT OF CERTAIN APPREHENSIONS WHICH HAVE ARISEN FROM A PROPOSED RESTORATION OF CATHOLIC RIGHTS. BY WILLIAM TODD JONES, Esq. "We Proteftants ought to be meek-fpirited, till we are affured of the honesty of our ancestors; for covetoufness and circumvention make no good motto for a coach.". COLLIER. "I conceive it to be a facred truth, and written as it were in the tables -That the Irif Proteftant fould never be free, vntil the Irish of Fate Catbolick ceafed to be a flave.” Mr. GRATTAN -Reply to Dublin Volunteers, 1781. DUBLIN: PRINTED BY J. CHAMBERS, ABBEY-STREET. 1792. 226. i. 168.15) A LETTER, &c. UNDERS NDERSTANDING that a folicitude refpecting the fecurity of Protestant tenures, fhould the Roman Catholics be reftored to their parliamentary privileges, has lately a good deal agitated fome liberal-minded men in Ulfter; a folicitude much increased by a general perfuafion that a map now fecretly exifts, delineating the districts and manors of each forfeiting family--I take the liberty of addreffing to fo meritorious an Affociation, a few pages regarding an apprehenfion which appears to me unfounded and delufive; and powerfully fubverfive of the prefent aufpicious and progreffive interefts of this late emerging country. And I remember that upon moving the Addrefs to Lord Charlemont at Belfast, in behalf of the Catholics, in 1784, when a few fuppofed great authorities of the day were against us, and when we carried it by means of the people in, 'oppofition to their leaders, the only argument I had to combat was the terror of forfeiture: the danger of the church was not mentioned, nor apprehended: and when circular letters were, in no very dignified manner fecretly dif patched by expreffes to Derry, and to other Volunteer Affemblies afterwards to be reviewed, to defeat the progrefs of that munificent fentiment, no fear but that of forfeiture was inculcated-which underhand efforts of a few, fuccefsful for the time againft the principles of the MANY, I recal to your recollection, to warn you against fimilar attempts and confequences in future.--Confide not in affumed authorities; the liberal and the moderate, upon their own principles, must be with you; and the bigotted in this queflion, however learned, or amiable, are to be pitied! and---to be laid afide !--If they have aught fubftantial to offer, let them coine forward with their names, and boldly combat and confute: for notwithstanding the defeat of that day, we perfevered in maintain ing, that before a lapfe of a dozen years, the fentiment would gain ground; that the argu ment of policy and juftice would fuperfede the operations of avaiice, or of zeal; and your valuable Affociation, gentlemen, affords an honourable illuftration how reasonably ground. ed was that opinion. In cherishing from my early years the august idea of the emancipation of the Catholics from a profligate, mistaken, paffionate, and impolitic farrago of ftatutes of penalty and difqualification, I have frequently enquired into the mo tives of my own mind, why I fhould never experience apprehenfions upon this fubject, in common common with many selfish, and fome innocent antagonists of fuch a glorious refloration to their country;---and it may pardonably be objected against me, that poffeffing, from family decline, inconfiderable property to hazard, I could not be liable to that delicate fenfe of danger which must come home to the feelings of the great Proteftant proprietors: But granting I have little comparatively, at stake, that little is my all; and I stand in this refpect fimilarly fituated with the majority of the Proteftants---I hold myself open to conviction by any who will be at the trouble to confute me; and I will then readily fubfcribe to my error in now maintaining that fuch an apprehenfion is a panic, infpired by interested men, unfupported by argument, and unfounded upon the authority of history; that it is the fhadow which by too intently gazing upon, may induce us to relinquish the fubftance; and that it ought inftantly and univerfally to be rejected by Irifhmen; and finally returned to the English cabinet, that fore-house of projects for dividing, barbarizing, and debilitating this island. "Let the privilege of the peerage, the elective franchife, and the capacity of reprefentation be RESTORED to the Catholics, and they will compose a majority in parliament who will revive the Court of Claims, and inftitute an enquiry into defective titles, and an invitation of reaffumption to ancient pro-. prietors." Such is the panic which obftructs national union: let us, therefore, contemplate the extravagant B 2 |