1828.] The Treaty of Limerick. 627 



25th of May instant. The right honourable secretary has evidently no 

 idea of any thing like an order in the discharge of human debts and 

 duties ! He never heard it observed that, though a man's shirt was near, 

 his skin was nearer to him still ? Because this is no affair of giving up a 

 point of national pride, or a commercial advantage, or even a piece of 

 territory, (not too valuable,) on the faith of a mouldy scrap of paper ; 

 the question is one, in Mr. Peel's mind, of our church, of our constitution, 

 of almost our national existence ! If a treaty were unluckily produced, 

 which declared that we were sold, all of us, stock and block, to Belzebub, 

 under the same principles, (if the right honourable gentleman should only 

 happen to be brought to think that it was duly signed and executed), he 

 would give us up to a certainty ! The piety of Abraham, who offered up 

 his own son, was but a type of that of the right honourable secretary 

 for the Home Department ! But enough there is on this head, and more 

 than enough. It is impossible to believe that Mr. Peel entertains any 

 such opinions as those for which he has given himself credit. Either 

 the right honourable secretary, which we should be loath to find, allowed 

 his desire for conciliation, in this debate, to betray him into a pledge, 

 which, had the occasion arisen, he never could have kept ; or that which 

 we should be happy to find he has not those serious apprehensions as to 

 the result of a concession of the Catholic claims, which we were once 

 inclined to fear he had ; and which undoubtedly many of those profess to 

 have, who act upon the question with him. 



The question, however, in the House of Commons, was not how 

 far the treaty ought at all events to be fulfilled ; that seemed, pretty 

 nearly on all sides so honest a people are we become a question ad- 

 mitted. But there was the resource of a difference of opinion as to its 

 intent ; and, as upon that question we are decidedly opposed to the 

 Catholics themselves, we shall beg our reader's attention for a few 

 moments, while we proceed to shew, that there is not a line in the Treaty 

 which gives that body the remotest claim to the rights or privileges 

 for which they are contending. 



To begin, then, we are content to concede, merely to spare time and 

 paper for the documents, strictly read, can claim no such construction 

 * that the provisions of the Treaty of Limerick apply, generally and 

 collectively to the whole body of the Catholic population of Ireland. 

 Fairly construing the treaty, this is clearly not the case ; for it is the 

 Jirst article, only, that applies to < f The Roman Catholics of this King- 

 dom," generally. The second, third, and fourth articles, provide dis- 

 tinctly, and in plain, unequivocal words, for " The inhabitants of 

 Limerick, and other garrisons then in possession of the Irish, and officers 

 and soldiers then in arms under the order of King James the Second." 

 And the fifth article, again, which refers to part of the matter preceding, 

 distinctly refers, not to the " Roman Catholics of the Kingdom" gene- 

 rally, provided for by the first article ; but specifically " to all persons 

 comprised in the second and third articles of the treaty." But this dis- 

 tinction we are disposed to abandon ; because our question is as to the 

 fair effect of the treaty ; and, if it had to be fulfilled to-morrow, we 

 should protest against the useless trouble and confusion which must 

 arise out of admitting a portion of the Catholics most difficult, if not 

 impossible to distinguish in the first generation ; and still more imprac- 

 ticable to separate in a second or third, for there are words in the treaty 

 which would render it doubtful, whether the right would not descend to 

 their heirs to privileges not enjoyed by the rest of their countrymen. And, 



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