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lence of political superiority intoxicated them, the pride of fanaticism hardened their hearts; their power was commensurate with their hate; with one hand they signed the law, with the other they raised the swordthat was to exterminate the Papists, whom they called bloody.

All this time, while the English government prepared the ground, the court of Rome was industriously sowing the seeds of rebellion.

Jesuits and priests were sent from Spain and Rome, who knew how to turn these preposterous mistakes of government, to the best account; they knew how to enflame men's passions by their pride, how to mould their opinions by their interests, and how to urge religion to fanaticism, by the sharp incentive of injuries and insults. Hence the Catholic religion, which in Ireland had till now been characterised by a native mildness, a spirit of toleration, and a composure peculiar to old establishments, acquired an illiberal, enthusiastic, and sanguinary spirit.

Yet, so difficult is it even for oppression to eradicate from men's minds, the habits

of loyalty and submission to government, that the religious principle appears to have had little influence in originating the rebellion. Even when the stronger feelings of injured interest, and outraged pride, had urged the native Irish to take up arms, the Catholics of the Pale advanced forward in support of government. They were received with a severe suspicion, by the puritan chief justice; and instead of being as of old, looked up to as the solid support of government, (which probably would have made them continue so) a very scanty supply of arms was delivered to them. At length, on the progress of the rebellion, they were entirely deprived of arms.

This was the full measure of folly, and completed that series of insults and injuries, which broke the strong bands of habitual loyalty, which had hitherto attached the Catholics of the Pale to the English government, with a fidelity that had never been suspected through five successive reigns.

The Catholic lords and gentlemen of the Pale, when their loyalty was made incompatible with their honour, reluctantly had

recourse to resistance, and sooner than surrender their arms, turned them against the government.*

The Catholics of the Pale, hitherto the most determined enemies of the native Irish, now joined in their rebellion.

This is the event with which the train of our argument closes.

Before this it is impossible to call the rebellions of the Irish, Catholic rebellions, when they were in fact principally opposed by Catholics; but after this it would be idle to deny that Catholic bigotry had a very large share in exciting and prolonging the rebellions in Ireland. That writer would be an injudicious defender of the Catholics, who should deny the fact; when perhaps there is not a more lamentable instance of the weakness of the human mind, when subservient to religious bigotry, than the absurdity and intemperance with which the Catholics acted, when they surrendered

* In an age when the profession of arms was the only profession of a gentleman, and when it was disgraceful to appear without them, this measure of depriving the Catholic gentry of arms, must have been felt as a much greater insult, than what we have now any idea of

their interests to the influence of the Nuncio Ranuncini, and in fact sold their country to the Pope.

But if it is certain that the Catholics became bigots and rebels, it is no less certain that their bigotry and rebellions arose entirely from the injuries and insults inflicted on them; and if we have made this clear so far, it is unnecessary to carry the argument further, as this persecution was encreased to a degree which future ages will scarcely believe, or believing, will wonder how it could be borne.

To the Protestants these arguments are addressed, and if they have no other effect than to make them re-consider the policy of maintaining the present political inferiority of the Catholics, they will not have been urged in vain.

In our anxiety to produce conviction, we have already been guilty of too much repetition. Instead, therefore, of recapitulating our arguments we will take a short view of the impolicy of continuing the present restrictions, and briefly state their practical effect.

We will not argue the question of right.

In this age of mere mercantile feelings, to speak from the heart, is not to speak to the head; we must prove the Catholic restrictions to be a losing speculation, or we prove nothing.

At this present moment, the whole soul of England is bent on reducing the power of the French within reasonable bounds. For this they are profuse of their blood, and their very means of subsistence; yet to this they will not sacrifice their bigotry. If England had possessed any day these last three months, a disposable army of 60,000 men, to act on the Continent, she might have struck a decisive blow; she might have destroyed Boulogne, she might easily have become mistress of Italy, or she might have hung upon the whole line of French dominion, and held those armies in suspense, which now pour into Poland with such uninterrupted celerity. Yet double this force might have been raised in Ireland, if the minds of its inhabitants had been conciliated by a constitutional grant of civil and religious freedom.

At present, the Roman Catholic peasantry enlist with the greatest reluctance, be

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