enjoyed by Protestants; these are the privileges we so ardently seek, yet we will not procure them, by taking these oaths, which demonstrates our sacred regard to the obligations of an oath. In answer to this argument, it is to be observed, that, by the oath of supremacy, the person who takes it, abjures the supremacy of the Pope, which supremacy is a point of faith in the Romish church, and is defined so to be by Doctor Troy, and by all other Romish divines. This is one of the oaths of qualification; and this oath no Romanist can take, because the taking it would be an abjuration of their faith, and, with them, an impious abomination; but the oath of allegiance to his Majesty (according to their faith, an Heretical Prince) being an engagement of service with, and, to a Heretic, is in itself a nullity, and, therefore, not binding; nor can any sin or crime be attached to the taking and violating such oath, for being an absolute nullity, the oath or the breach of it cannot be imputable. With what propriety, then, does a sect of Christians, who have defiled the pure precepts of the Gospel with such detestable doctrines, or their advocates, appeal to the precepts of the Gospel, as condemnatory of the laws enacted, by the state, for its security, against the professors of such dangerous and unchristian tenets! It is already shewn, that the principles and practices of

this sect have been treated with a lenity and indulgence unexampled in the conduct of any state on the face of the earth, to the avowed enemies of their laws and Constitution, and that the Protestant government of the country has always acted towards them on the true principles of Christian forbearance, charity, and benevolence.

It is admitted in the History of the Penal Laws, that all these laws against the growth of Popery in Ireland, so pathetically complained of, have been repealed; in fact, they have been all finally repealed so long back as the year 1793; it is, therefore, not improper to ask why this odious and irritating account of them is published in the year 1808, with such misrepresentations of them, as infractions of a solemn treaty, and a reproach to the nation, as guilty of a breach of faith and of perfidy in enacting them, and as militating against all the principles of Christianity? Is conciliation the aim of this publication? Is the Protestant, defamed in the most groundless and unjust manner, to be reconciled to the Romanist, by whom, or on whose behalf, these envenomed libels of Curry are republished? Or is the Romanist to be reconciled to the Protestant by this inflammatory representation of the tortures, (to use the words of the History,) which have been inflicted on those of his sect, for upwards of a century, of a century, by Protestants, in

breach of the articles of Limerick? No, no! every person who reads this compilation, will easily see the drift of it. It is the tribute of Romish gratitude to the Protestant government of the British empire, and particularly to the Protestant government of Ireland, for releasing them from the legal restraints to which they were liable, merely calculated to prevent their relentless animosity against Protestants from involving this country in rebellion and ruin.

These Popery laws, so pathetically complained of in the History of the Penal Laws, were, as before-mentioned, all repealed in the year 1793; and certain oaths of allegiance and fidelity to the Constitution prepared and drawn up, from the declarations of their principles presented to the parliament by the Romanists themselves, were prescribed to be taken by them, to entitle them to the benefits of the repeal; and it is not unworthy of notice, that the History of the Penal Laws complains of the hardships imposed on Romanists, in obliging them to take these oaths of allegiance and fidelity, framed from their own avowed declarations, in the following terms:-" No part scarcely, in fact, of the penal code is repealed; but all of it is now the law of the land, and in full force against those Catholics who have not qualified themselves for relief from its violence, by taking the oaths of the thirteenth

and fourteenth of George the Third, chapter 35, or who may have lapsed or become converts to the Catholic religion.”

Notwithstanding this repeal, in 1798, and previous to the year 1793, the whole Romanists of Ireland entered into a conspiracy, in conjunction and alliance with the French directory, to break out into rebellion, for the avowed purpose of separating Ireland, for ever, from Great Britain, and establishing a democratic republic under the protection of France. So early as the year 1795, as may be seen by the report of the secret committee of the House of Lords, of 1797, a person was dispatched to France, to negotiate with the French directory, on behalf of the Romanists of Ireland. This man is one Levins, an Irish Romish attorney; he is now, and has been for several years, the accredited agent of the Irish Romanists at Paris; appears at the court there in great splendor, and is treated as an ambassador, and his expenses are supported by the Irish Romanists. In the month of May, 1798, the Romish rebellion suddenly broke out in the province of Leinster, with the usual attendants on all Irish rebellions, the massacre of all Protestant men, women, and children, whom the rebels could get into their hands, and universal pillage. This rebellion had been batching in, and previous to, the year 1792, as appears by

the report of the secret committee of the Irish House of Lords, in the year 1793. The report states the outrages committed by persons, styled defenders, in the counties of Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan, and the parts adjacent, in the years 1792 and 1793; that they were all of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and, in general, poor, ignorant, labouring men; that they assembled generally in the night, and broke into the houses of Protestants, and robbed them at first of their arms, but afterwards they plundered their houses of every thing they could find; and that their measures appeared to be concerted and conducted with the utmost secrecy, and a degree of regularity and system not usual in people of such mean condition, and as if directed by men of superior rank; that large sums of money had been levied on the Romanists, by collections, throughout the kingdom, and that part of those sums had been applied, by the general committee of Romanists, resident in Dublin, and acting in the name of the whole body throughout Ireland, for the purpose of defraying the legal expenses, and the support of such defenders as were imprisoned, prosecuted, and tried for their crimes at the assize-towns of their respective counties the report, indeed, states, that the committee had nothing before them which could lead them to believe that the body of the Roman Catholics of