to any temporal intereft, fince rather than violate either by hypocritical profeffions, they have, under all trials, patiently fuffered in that particular: thefe truly patriotic members, I fay, influenced by fuch motives, caufed the aforefaid oath to be framed, which as it is the most certain teft, that can poffibly be required or given by men, of the fincerity of their profeffions muft fufficiently enfure their civil duty and allegiance.

As the conciliating spirit of the framers of this oath manifeftly appears in the preamble to it, it may not be improper to infert it in this place at large.

"Whereas many of his majesty's subjects in this kingdom are defirous to teftify their loyalty and allegiance to his majesty; and their abhorrence of certain doctrines imputed to them; and to remove jealoufies, which hereby have, for a length of time, fubfifted between them and others, his majefty's loyal fubjects; but upon account of their religious tenets, are by the laws now in being, prevented from giving public affurances of fuch allegiance, and of their real principles, good-will and affection towards their fellow fubjects; in order, therefore, to give fuch persons an opportunity of teftifying their allegiance to his majefty, and good-will towards the conftitution of this kingdom, and to promote peace and industry among the inhabitants thereof, be it enacted, &c."

This teft, fo well calculated to answer all the neceffary purposes of civil duty and allegiance, was, at its first promulgation, voluntarily and chearfully taken by a great and respectable number of the Roman catholic clergy, nobility, gentry, and people; when no other apparent benefit to them was either propofed or expected from it, but that of testifying, in the most effectual manner, their loyalty and attachment to his majesty's perfon and government, as well as their abhorrence of certain impious doctrines, most uncharitably imputed to them by their enemies.

CHA P.

CHA P. XIX.

The catholics of Ireland ftate their grievances in an humble addrefs and petition to the lord lieutenant to be laid before his majesty.

ABOUT

BOUT this time these people, fearing that neither the number nor quality of their grievances were truly made known to his majefty, or his council in England; from whom, in the last resort, their redress was expected; fet forth and delineated fome part of the moft confiderable of them, in the following dutiful addrefs and petition; which, in order to its being tranfmitted to England, and laid before his majesty, was prefented, in due form, to his Excellency the Earl of Buckinghamfhire, lord lieutenant of Ireland, by the Right Honourable the Earl of Fingal, the Honourable Mr. Preston, and Anthony Dermot, Efq. And as it has been hitherto but in few hands, and indeed exhibits a rare and striking picture of perfevering loyalty, under oppreffion, I will here communicate it to my readers.

To the KING's moft Excellent MAJESTY. The humble Addrefs and Petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland.

Moft gracious Sovereign,

WE your majesty's most dutiful fubjects, the Roman catholics of your kingdom of Ireland, with hearts full of loyalty, but overwhelmed with affliction, and depreffed by our calamitous and ruined circumftances, beg leave to lay at your majefty's feet fome fmall part of those numerous and infupportable grievances under which we have long groaned, not only without any act of disobedience, but even without murmur or complaint; in hopes that our inviolable fubmiffion, and unaltered patience under those severe preffures, would fully confute the accufation of feditious principles,

with

with which we have been unfortunately and unjustly charged.

We are deeply sensible of your majesty's clemency, in moderating the rigorous execution of fome of the laws against us: but we humbly beg leave to reprefent, that several, and those the most severe, and distressing of thefe laws, execute themselves with the most fatal certainty, and that your majesty's clemency cannot, in the smallest degree interpofe for their mitigation, otherwife your Roman catholic subjects would most chearfully acquiefce in that refource, and rest with an absolute and unbounded affurance, on your majesty's princely generofity, and your pious regard to the rights of private confcience.

We are, may it please your majefty, a numerous and very industrious part of your majefty's fubjects, and yet by no industry, by no honeft endeavours on our part, is it in our power to acquire or to hold, almost any secure or permanent property whatsoever; we are not only difqualified to purchase, but are difabled from occupying any land even in farm, except on a tenure extremely fcanted both in profit and in time; and if we should venture to expend any thing on the melioration of land thus held, by building, by inclosure, by draining, or by any other fpecies of improvement, fo very neceffary in this country; fo far would our fervices be from bettering our fortunes, that thefe are precifely the very circumstances, which, as the law now ftands, muft neceffarily difqualify us from continuing those farms, for any time in our poffeffion.

Whilst the endeavours of our industry are thus difcouraged, (no lefs, we humbly apprehend, to the detriment of the national profperity and the diminution of your majefty's revenue, than to our particular ruin) there are a fet of men, who, inftead of exercising any honeft occupation in the commonwealth, make it their employment to pry into our miferable property, to drag us into the courts, and to compel us to confefs on our oaths, and under the penalties of perjury, whether we have, in any instance, acquired a property in the fmalleft degree exceeding what the rigor of the law has admitted

mitted; and in fuch case the informers, without any other merit than that of their discovery, are invested (to the daily ruin of feveral innocent, industrious families) not only with the furplus in which the law is exceeded, but in the whole body of the eftate, and intereft so discovered, and it is our grief that this evil is likely to continue and increase, as informers have, in this country, almost worn off the infamy, which in all ages, and in all other countries, has attended their character, and have grown into fome repute by the frequency and fuccefs of their practices.

And this, moft gracious fovereign, though extremely grievous, is far from being the only or moft oppreffive particular, in which our diftrefs is connected with the breach of the rules of honour and morality. By the laws now in force in this kingdom, a fon, however undutiful or profligate, fhall, meerly by the merit of conforming to the established religion, deprive the Roman catholic father of that free and full poffeffion of his eftate, that power to mortgage or otherwise dispose of it, as the exigencies of his affairs may require; but shall himself have full liberty immediately to mortgage or otherwise alienate the reverfion of that estate, from his family for ever; a regulation by which a father, contrary to the order of nature, is put under the power of his fon, and through which an early diffolutenefs is not only fuffered, but encouraged, by giving a pernicious privilege, the frequent ufe of which, has broken the hearts of many deferving parents, and entailed poverty and defpair, on fome of the most ancient and opulent families in this kingdom.

Even when the parent has the good fortune to ef cape this calamity in his life-time, yet he has at his death, the melancholy and almoft certain profpect of leaving neither peace nor fortune to his children; for by that law, which beftows the whole fortune on the first conformist, or, on non-conformity, disperses it among the children, incurable jealoufies and animofities have arifen; a total extinction of principle and of natural benevolence has enfued; whilft we are obliged to confider our own offspring VOL. II.

U

and

and the brothers of our own blood, as our most dangerous enemies; the bleffing of providence on our families, in a numerous iffue, is converted into the most certain means of their ruin and depravation: we are, moft gracious fovereign, neither permitted to enjoy the few broken remains of our patrimonial inheritance, nor by our induftry to acquire any fecure establishment to our families.

In this deplorable fituation, let it not be confidered, we earnestly befeech your majefty, as an instance of prefumption or discontent, that we thus adventure to lay open to your majefty's mercy, a very fmall part of our uncommon fufferings; what we have concealed under a refpectful filence, would form a far longer, and full as melancholy a recital; we speak with reluctance, though we feel with anguish; we refpect from the bottom of our hearts that legiflation under which we fuffer; but we humbly conceive it is impoffible to procure redrefs without complaint, or to make a complaint, that by fome conftruction may not appear to convey blame: and nothing, we affure your majefty, fhould have extorted from us even these complaints, but the ftrong neceffity we find ourselves under of employing every lawful, humble endeavour, left the whole purpose of our lives and labours fhould prove only the means of confirming to ourselves, and entailing on our pofterity, inevitable beggary, and the most abject fervitude; a fervitude the more intolerable, as it is fuffered amidft that liberty, that peace, and that fecurity, which, under your majefty's benign influence, is spread all around us, and which we alone, of all your majesty's fubjects, are rendered incapable of partaking.

In all humility we implore, that our principles may not be estimated by the inflamed charge of controversial writers, nor our practices measured by the events of thofe troubled periods, when parties have run high (though thefe have been often mifreprefented, and always cruelly exaggerated to our prejudice); but that we may be judged by our own actions, and

in