TRACTS

RELATIVE TO THE

LAWS AGAINST POPERY IN IRELAND'.

I.

Fragments of a Tract on the Popery Laws.

THE PLAN.

I PROPOSE, first, to make an introduction, in order to show the propriety of a closer inspection into the affairs of Ireland; and this takes up the first chapter; which is to be spent in this introductory matter, and in stating the popery laws in general as one leading cause of the imbecility of the country.

1 The condition of the Roman Catholics in Ireland appears to have engaged the attention of Mr. Burke at a very early period of his political life. It was probably soon after the year 1765, that he formed the plan of a work upon that subject, the fragments of which are now given to the public. No title is prefixed to it in the original manuscript; and the plan, which it has been thought proper to insert here, was evidently designed merely for the convenience of the author. Of the first chapter some unconnected fragments only, too imperfect for publication, have been found. Of the second there is a considerable portion, perhaps nearly the whole; but the copy, from which it is printed, is evidently a first rough draught. The third chapter, as far as it goes, is taken from a fair corrected copy; but the end of the second part of the first head is left unfinished; and the discussion of the second and third heads was either never entered upon, or the manuscript containing it has unfortunately been lost. What follows the third chapter appears to have been designed for the beginning of the fourth, and is evidently the first rough draught; and to this we have added a fragment, which appears to have been a part either of this or the first chapter. The Letter to Mr. Smith, the Second Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, and the Letter to his son, which here follow in order the Fragment on the Popery Laws, are the only writings upon this subject found amongst his papers sufficiently complete for publication.

Ch. II. states particularly the laws themselves in a plain and popular manner.

Ch. III. begins the remarks upon them, under the heads of, 1st. The object, which is a numerous people. 2ndly. Their means, a restraint on property. 3rdly. Their instruments of execution, corrupted morals; which affect the national prosperity.

Ch. IV. The impolicy of those laws as they affect the national security.

Ch. V. Reasons by which the laws are supported, and answers to them.

CHAPTER II.

In order to lay this matter with full satisfaction before the reader, I shall collect into one point of view, and state, as shortly and as clearly as I am able, the purport of these laws, according to the objects which they affect, without making at present any further observation upon them, but just what shall be necessary to render the drift and intention of the legislature, and the tendency and operation of the laws the more distinct and evident.

I shall begin with those which relate to the possession and inheritance of landed property in popish hands. The first operation of those acts upon this object was only to change the course of descent by the common law; to take away the right of primogeniture; and, in lieu thereof, to substitute and establish a new species of statute gavelkind. By this law, on the death of a Papist possessed of an estate in fee simple, or in fee tail, the land is to be divided by equal portions between all the male children; and those portions are likewise to be parcelled out, share and share alike, amongst the descendants of each son, and so to proceed in a similar distribution ad infinitum. From this regulation, it was proposed, that some important consequences should follow. First. By taking away the right of primogeniture, perhaps in the very first generation, certainly in the second, the families of Papists, however respectable, and their fortunes, however considerable, would be wholly dissipated, and reduced to obscurity and indigence, without any possibility that they should repair them by their industry or abilities; being, as we shall see anon, disabled from every species of permanent acquisition. Secondly. By this law the right of testamentation is taken away, which the inferior tenures had always enjoyed; and all tenures from the 27 Henry VIII. Thirdly. The right of settlement was taken away, that no such persons should, from the moment the act passed, be enabled to advance themselves in fortune or connexion by marriage, being disabled from making any disposition in consideration of