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ment, only authorised a fine; and at the same time, petitioned for the free exercise of their religion.

Unfortunately for that system of conciliation, which the vast importance, and hitherto known loyalty of the Catholics of English descent tended to suggest to James's counsellors, the news of the Gunpowder Plot was received on the very day this petition was presented; and though there appeared no reason afterwards to suppose any connection between the English and Irish Catholics, yet this coincidence was productive of every ill effect at the moment. The Irish government was alarmed, the chief petitioners were confined in the Castle of Dublin, and Sir Patrick Barnwell, their principal agent, was, by the King's command, sent prisoner into England.

But what contributed more, even than all these reasons, to alienate the minds of the Catholics of the Pale and of the towns, was, their removal from all places of trust and emolument.

To appreciate the effect which these measures had upon the minds of the Ca

tholics, we must make ourselves familiar with their situation in these times, and judge of them from what they were then, not from what they are now. This point is very little understood. The Catholics of the Pale and towns had, at the beginning of James's reign, exactly the same habitual -ascendancy over the mere Irish, which the Protestants have now over the Catholics. They occupied every situation of importance under government, all offices in the law, in the magistracy; they filled the ranks and officered the army; they had long been in the habit of considering the English government in Ireland as owing its existence to their courage, their loyalty, and not unfrequently to the assistance of their private fortunes. It had always been considered as a matter of course that their lords should be consulted on every important measure taken by government. So circumstanced, the character of the Catholics of those days was quite the reverse of what it was afterwards. Not habituated to degradation, their sense of honour was lively and resentful; above suspicion, their conduct was frank, manly, and in justification,

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bordered on defiance; their minds unbroken by adversity, and unsapped by the effeminacy of superstition, were liberal, enlarged, rich in the natural luxuriance of talent, and grateful to culture. The hereditary practice of arms had impressed upon them the best qualities of a soldier moral and physical courage, disinterestedness and promptitude. We see in their conduct nothing paltry, wavering, or sel

fish.

We are not to imagine that because the Catholics long felt very little interest about their emancipation from degradation, that the Catholics then felt very little upon entering on it; on the contrary, just that degree of rage and indignation which the Irish Protestants spoiled by power, would now feel, if their churches were shut up, if they were compelled to go to mass, if they were declared incapable of holding any office of trust and emolument, if they were driven from the privy council; just that degree must the old English colonists have felt when, for the first time, discountenanced and persecuted by the govern

ment.

We omit to dwell upon the condemnation of Lalor, a poor popish ecclesiastic, whom government sought to dignify with a martyrdom; and upon the expulsion of the popish regulars from the kingdom, as far as direct insults could justify the resentment of the Roman Catholics, we have said enough. An indirect attack was made upon them, more fatal to their interests and to those of the country at large, which well merits our consideration, for we now pay the penalty for it.

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James, finding it possible that there might be a majority of Roman Catholics in the House of Commons, created a large number of boroughs from towns so inconsiderable, that they and their represent-tives would be certain to be dependent on government. Here was accomplished the ruin of the Catholics; here was perpetuated the distraction of the country; here commenced the corruption of the constitution; this measure, to which the Protestants were base accessaries, has been. visited upon their descendants with poetical justice, by the Union, which was effected by purchasing the corrupt owners of these

identical rotten boroughs. To this measure the Catholics gave all the resistance which spirit and talents could prompt. In vain. A tyrant might have yielded from fear; a wise king would have retracted from conviction; but the obstinacy and conceit of a pedant were invincible.

Yet James had sense enough to stoop to conciliation when he had carried his point. No new measures were proposed against popery; the oath of supremacy was tacitly excused, and, when a bill was proposed by Sir Oliver St. John for keeping the 5th of November as a religious anniversary, it was silently got rid of.

A government may, with safety to itself, essentially infringe the interests of its subjects, if it has the condescension to manage their pride. This was exemplified in the - case of James. Although he had prepared the ruin of the Catholics, yet as soon as he assumed a moderate tone and gentle usage towards them, they vied with the Protestants in expressions of loyalty, and, what was more substantial, in granting subsidies.

Thus stood the question of disaffection

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