plantation, as the Irish were accustomed to be excluded out of the first English colonies; but he made a mixt plantation of English and Irish, that they might grow up into one nation, and this truly is the mafter-piece of that work of reformation, fo worthy of his majefty's royal pains; for when this plantation has taken root, it will secure the peace of Ireland, and make it a civil, a mighty, a rich, and a flourishing kingdom--the clock of the civil government is now well fet, and all the wheels thereof do move in order; the ftrings of this Irish harp, which the civil magiftrate doth finger, are now in tune; for the whole ifland from fea to fea, hath been brought into his highneffes peaceable poffeffion : In which condition of fubjects the Irish will gladly continue without defection, as long as they may be protected, and justly governed, without oppreffion on the one hand, or impunity on the other---For there is no nation of people under the fun, that doth love equal, and indifferent justice better than the Irish; will reft better fatisfied with the execution thereof, "altho' it be against themselves; fo as they may have the protection and benefit of the law--"

or

"I

do affirm, continues Davis, page 116, that for the fpace of five years laft paft, there have not been found fo many malefactors worthy of death in all this realm of Ireland, which is now divided into thirty-fix fhires at large, as in one circuit of fix fhires in England---for the truth is, that in time of peace, the Irish are more fearful to offend the law than the English, or any other nation whatsoever---"

And happy had it, indeed, been for this island, had this masterpiece of James I's. work of reformation, as Sir John Davis juftly denominates it, been followed up, and adopted by his fucceffors, and their ministers; this wife Attorney General

approves

approves of an indifcriminate plantation of English and Irfb, THAT THEY MAY GROW UP INTO ONE PEOPLE! НЕ never dreamt of probibiting marriages by ftatute; of difarming one portion of the fubjects of the land, that they might be affaulted, and preyed upon by the other; of the bideous and unheard of atrocity, and perfecution of raifing up the child against the parent, and fowing difcord among brethren, by authority of the legislature; of making it penal, and a forfeiture, to travel abroad for education; and making it equally penal for their being inftructed at home--fuch ftatutes were left to fucceeding adminiftrations, whofe objects were divifion, and fubjugation; and whofe measures fucceeded to the very extremity of their defires and too prophetic was Davis, in his concluding words; for, gladly did they continue without defection, as long as they were protected, and justly governed, without oppreffion on one fide, or impunity on the other:--But fatally for the general welfare of Ireland, in the conclufion of that reign, in the fucceeding, and ever fince, till 1779, they became unprotected, unjustly governed, oppreffed without redress, and with impunity plundered, murdered, and exterminated; till perfecuted to defperation, they returned rancour for rancour, blood for blood; and in vengeance of four maffacres they boldly plunged into one daring and dreadful attempt-to fweep the name of Briton from their long affaulted fhores ; deluged in carnage by that tyrannical people, for a cruel series of four hundred years.

How grateful were this calumniated people for even common juftice extended to them by the English deputies, Dr. Leland relates, p. 311, "When Sir John Perrot was recalled by Queen Elizabeth, he delivered the fword to Sir William Fitzwilliams, declaring that he left the kingdom

in peace; and he embarked with the acclamations/ of the lower order of the people, who felt the benefits of his adminiftration; Old Tirlagh O'Nyal, of Tirowen, followed him to the wateredge, bathed in tears."

And what is one of the greateft bigots against the native Irish, on account of their religion, but a man of ability, compelled to acknowledge of them?" A more kind, affable, obliging-humoured people," fays Richard Lawrence, in his Interefts of Ireland, 1680, page 162, "are not to be converfed with, than the generality of the Irish, who have been educated among the English, or otherwife well bred: For they are forewd, and capable of the highest improvements in all the liberal fciences, and ingenious arts."In the fame very curious treatise, page 98, Mr. Lawrence is alfo fo favorable to the Irish foil, as to fay: "I have now shown at large how an English breed, for this country's defence, would much increafe on Irish ground; ten of whom are worth twenty, bred and brought up in England." But I do not infinuate, that he recommended they fhould have Irish fathers; though his words would bear that conftru&ion.

The truth is, that although the Proteftants have now, for near two centuries, made a bustle about confcience, reason, and the gofpel, at bottom they have had no more dependance upon thefe, than upon miracles and infallibility; but have placed their fole reliance upon the preaching of lawyers and the miffion of informers. Nor were the penal laws intended, at their formation, to produce converts: It was not Popery which was hated, but the Papift; divifion was the object, reformation was the pretext. From their conftruc

tion, they appear to ferve as ramparts to a wealthy town, where no Roman Catholic fhall enter at the gate, left too many fhould crowd in at once: fo one by one, they are compelled to wade through dirt and fhame, in order to arrive at the appointed narrow paffage, expofed to the hiffes of thofe who are without, and to the fcorn and fufpicion of those who are within.

But experience ought to have instructed Proteftants, who themselves had wrestled with perfecution, that religious principles are of too ftubborn a nature to be removed by punishments of a limited duration. The opinion of an immortal recompence, or an immortal misery, must for ever preclude all human confiderations: But political notions, admitting bad ones to have had existence, are easily to be weakened by kindnefs, and to be altered by encouragements. An oppofition of interefts, not of creeds, has, hitherto, been the cause of divifion amoug Irishmen: Let clafbing advantages be brought to coinside; remove a pernicious fyftem of legislation; divifion ceafes, and the cause and the complaint difappear together.

Religious penalties, and penal exclufions, operate only to ftupify, to make Lutheranifm hated, and the reforming perfon a hypocrite. The political guilt of a nation lies at the door of those who govèrn by fuch a fyftem-A tyrant, who rules without a parliament, fuftains the whole iniquity himfelf: But a fenate, and a free people, who originate, or who adopt fuch ftatutes, divide the heavy guilt among them; and every Proteftant individual of you, who does not protest against your brother's chains, is, in the eyes of God, and of the civilized world, acceffary to the enormity,

in proportion to the degree of intelligence he is naturally endowed with, and of the influence he may be poffeffed of, to diminish the diffraction and the anguifh of his brother.

And fure a forer evil exifts not upon earth, than the fituation of the peafantry of this devoted ifland;----contemplating the penury which fetters them to the earth, and the fertility of the country in which they are doomed to calamity;---contemplating the vaffalage under which they crouch, and the furdy yeomanry which to-day they ought to have been.

They are to-day the most wretched people under the fun; for they are furrounded with a plenteoufness, which they never are to tafle; and they behold comforts which they are never to experience:Harvest comes, and the more favoured bullock falls in the flaughter-house, but not for them! and they fometimes hear of the food and raiment of the manufacturer of the barren North, and they curfe it in the bitterness of their mifery :Famine, nakedness, and overstrained labour, ftupifies each faculty of their body, and of their mind----smoke, filth, and winds, fill their habitations, where a few potatoes are their exclufive food-reduced to the condition of reptiles, they and their children crawl in dirt, and are, like reptiles, loathfome--and fome of this I have myfelf beheld; yet thefe men pay your clergy, while the gentry contribute nothing! Even their wretched potatoes are decimated, for a priesthood whom they never hear-while a cruel vote of. agiftment covers the paftures of their landlord!

Where