remonftrance to the throne, by first presenting a congratulatory addrefs to his prefent moft gracious majefty, on his happy acceffion; which addrefs was accordingly drawn up, and after having been figned by all the most confiderable Roman catholics of the kingdom, was laid before the Earl of Hallifax, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and by him tranfmitted to his majesty, by whom it was graciously received. The remonftrance above-mentioned was conceived in the following words:

To the KING's moft Excellent MAJESTY.

The humble Petition and Remonftrance of the Roman Catholics of Ireland.

Moft gracious Sovereign,

WE your majesty's dutiful and faithful subjects, the Roman catholics of the kingdom of Ireland, beg leave to lay at your majesty's feet this humble remonftrance of fome of those grievances and restraints under which we have long laboured without murmuring or complaint; and we presume to make this fubmiffive application, from a sense of your majesty's great and univerfal clemency, of your gracious and merciful regard to tender confciences, and from a confcioufnefs of our own loyalty, affection and gratitude to your majesty's perfon and government, as duties incumbent upon us, which it is our unalterable refolution to pay in all events during the remainder of our lives.

And we are the more emboldened to present this our humble remonftrance, because it appeareth unto us, that the laws by which fuch grievances are occafioned, and fuch penalties inflicted upon us, have taken rise rather from private views of expediency and self-intereft, or from mistaken jealoufies and mistrusts, than from any truly public fpirited motives; inafmuch as they seem to have infringed certain privileges, rights and immunities, which had been freely and folemnly granted, together with a promise of further favour and indulgence

to

to the Roman catholics of Ireland, upon the most valuable confiderations. For we most humbly offer it to your majesty's juft and generous confideration, that on the third day of October, 1691, the Roman catholic nobility and gentry of this kingdom, under the late king James, entered into articles of capitulation at Limerick, whereby, among other things, it was ftipulated and agreed, that "the Roman catholics of Ireland fhould enjoy fuch privilege in the exercise of their religion as they did enjoy in the reign of king Charles II. and that their majesties as soon as their affairs would permit them, would fummon a parliament in Ireland, and endeavour to procure the faid Roman catholics fuch further fecurity in that particular, as might preferve them from any disturbance on account of their faid religion." Whereupon these noblemen and gentlemen laid down their arms, and immediately fubmitted to their majefties government; at the fame time that they had offers of powerful affiftance from France, which might, if accepted, have greatly obftructed the fuccefs of their majefties arms in the war then carrying on abroad against that kingdom.

And although these articles were duly ratified and confirmed, first by the commander in chief of their majefties forces in Ireland in conjunction with the then lords juftices thereof, and afterwards by an act of the Irish parliament, in the ninth year of his majesty king William's reign, by which they became the public faith of the nation, plighted and engaged to these people in as full, firm and folemn manner, as ever public faith was plighted to any people; yet fo far were the Roman catholics of Ireland from receiving the just benefit thereof; fo far from seeing any steps taken, or means used in the Irish parliament, to procure them fuch promised fecurity, as might preferve them from any disturbance on account of their religion, that on the contrary, feveral laws have been fince enacted in that parliament, by which the exercise of their religion is made penal, and themselves and their heirs for ever have forfeited those rights, immunities and titles to their eftates and properties, which in the reign of king Charles II. they

were

were by law intitled to, and enjoyed, in common with the reft of their fellow fubjects.

And fuch is the evil tendency of these laws to create jealoufy and difguft between parents and their children, and especially, to stifle in the breasts of the latter those pious fentiments of filial duty and obedience which reafon dictates, good policy requires, and which the almighty fo ftrictly enjoins, that in virtue of them, a fon, however undutiful or profligate in other refpects, shall merely by the merit of conforming to the established religion, not only deprive his Roman catholic father of that free and full poffeffion of his estate, that power to mortgage or otherwife difpofe of it, as the exigencies of his affairs may require, but also fhall himself have full liberty to mortgage, fell or otherwise alienate that estate from his family for ever; a liberty, moft gracious fovereign, the frequent ufe of which has entailed poverty and despair on fome of the most antient and opulent families in this kingdom, and brought many an aged parent's grey hairs with forrow to the grave.

And although very few estates at present remain in the hands of the Roman catholics of Ireland, and therefore little or no matter appears to be left for these laws to operate upon, nevertheless, we are fo far from being secure in the poffeffion of perfonal property, fo far from being preferved from any disturbance on account of our religion, even in that refpect, that new and forced conftructions have been of late years put upon these laws (for we cannot think that fuch conftructions were ever originally intended), by which, on the fole account of our religion, we are in many cafes, ftript of that personal property by discoverers and informers; a fet of men, moft gracious fovereign, once generally, and juftly defpifed among us, but of late grown into fome repute, by the increase of their numbers and by the frequency, encouragement and fuccefs of their practices.

These and many other cruel restrictions (fuch as no christian people under heaven but ourselves are made liable to) are and have long been greatly detrimental, not only to us in particular, but alfo to the commerce,

culture,

culture, and every other improvement of this kingdom in general; and what is furely a melancholy confideration, are chiefly beneficial to the discoverers and informers before-mentioned; who, under colour of these laws, plunder indifcriminately, parents, brethren, kinfmen and friends, in despite of all the ties of blood, of affection and confidence, in breach of the divine laws, of all former human laws, enacted in this or perhaps any other kingdom, for the fecurity of property, fince the creation of the world.

The neceffity of continuing laws in their full force for fo great a number of years, which are attended with fuch fhameful and pernicious confequences, ought, we humbly conceive, to be extremely manifeft, pressing, and permanent; but fo far is this from being the cafe with refpect to thefe difqualifying laws, that even the pretended grounds for those jealoufies and miftrusts, which are faid to have given birth to them, have long fince disappeared; it being a well-known and undeniable truth, that your majefty's diftreffed, but faithful fubjects, the Roman catholics of Ireland, have neither the inclination nor the power to disturb your majesty's government; nor can (we humbly prefume) that only pretext now left for continuing them in force, viz. their tendency to make profelytes to the established religion, in any degree justify the manifold feverities and injuries occafioned by them. For, alas! moft gracious fovereign, there is but too much reafon to believe, that profelytes fo made are, for the most part, fach in appearance only in order to become in reality, what all fincere chriftians condemn and deteft, undutiful children, unnatural brethren, or perfidious friends; and we fubmit it to your majesty's great wisdom and goodness, whether motives fo repugnant to the public interest, and to all focial, moral, and religious duties, are fit to be confided in or longer encouraged.

And because we are fenfible, moft gracious fovereign, that our profeffions of loyalty have been often cruelly mifrepresented, even by those who were thoroughly acquainted with the candour and uprightness of our dealings in all other refpects, we most humbly offer it to

your

your princely and generous confideration, that we rest not the proof of our fincerity in fuch profeffions on words, but on things known and attefted by all the world, on our dutiful, peaceable and fubmiffive behaviour under fuch preffures, for more than half a century; a conduct, may it please your majefty, that clearly evinces the reality of that religious principle, which withholds us from facrificing confcience or honour to any worldly interest whatever; fince rather than violate either by hypocritical profeffions, we have all our lives, patiently fuffered fo many restrictions and loffes in our temporal concerns; and we most fubmiffively befeech your majesty to look down on fuch trials of our integrity, not only as a proof of our fincerity in this declaration, but also as an earnest and furety of our future good behaviour; and to give us leave to indulge the pleasing hope, that the continuance of that behaviour, enforced by our religious principles, and of your majesty's great and inherent goodnefs towards us, which it fhall be the bufinefs of our lives to endeavour to merit, may at length be the happy means of our deliverance from fome part of that burthen, which we have so long and fo patiently endured.

That this act of truly royal commiferation, beneficence and justice, may be added to your majesty's many other heroic virtues, and that fuch our deliverance may be one of those distinguishing bleffings of your reign, which shall transmit its memory to the love, gratitude, and veneration of our latest pofterity, is the humble prayer of, &c.

This remonstrance having been communicated to the late right reverend primate Stone, was approved of by his grace, and by as many of his moft difcerning and confidential friends as he thought proper to fhew it to, as he himself affured Lord Taaffe; and nothing hindered its being then laid before his majesty, but those unhappy divifions and animofities which still fubfifted among us, and the premature death of his grace, which followed not long after, to the fincere and lafting regret of all his majesty's good and loyal fubjects of this kingdom; fo that it never was prefented to the king; and is now inferted