"630 Catholic Resolutions: [JuNE, 



in a dozen different forms of words, that these very same persons should 

 be freed from prosecution for all offences, or misdemeanors committed 

 by them since the beginning of the reign of James the Second. And, 

 again, a sixth. article provides (adding assurance to assurance), still for 

 the same parties, that they shall not be proceeded against for any acts 

 inferences, or general expressions here ? Nor in any portion we should 

 submit as he who runs may read of the whole treaty, 

 of private wrong, such as " the seizing of goods/' &c., which might 

 have been done by them during the war. There is no trusting to 



But we shall quit the discussion of these quiddities and we ought 

 already, perhaps, to apologize to our readers for having dwelt so long 

 upon them because there is one answer to the whole case of this treaty 

 of Limerick, so conclusive and brief, that the marvel is in the fatuity 

 we do not wish to use a harder term of those people who can be cogni- 

 zant of the fact, and yet, set up any claim under it. What will our 

 readers say to the demand of admission to political trusts and offices, 

 charged to be implied in the terms of the Treaty of Limerick, if it appears 

 that the recognition of those very eligibilities was actually claimed from 

 William's general (the Baron de Ginckel), in the conditions proposed 

 by the garrison, three days before the conclusion of the treaty ; and 

 peremptorily rejected by him ! And this is literally the truth. 



This simple fact forms one branch of a very short, and, we think, con- 

 clusive, case. The Treaty of Limerick was finally executed by the Irish 

 leaders on one side, and the English commander (Baron Ginckel) on the 

 other, on the 3d of October, 1691. On the 29th of September four days 

 previous the garrison, believing that to hold the town was impracticable, 

 and having obtained a suspension of hostilities, sent to propose terms of 

 capitulation. The articles then demanded, by the Irish, were seven in 

 number ; the most material being the fourth and sixth, which ran in 

 these terms " The Irish Catholics to be capable of holding all employ- 

 merits, civil and military, under the crown /' and " The Irish Catholics 

 to be at liberty to be members of corporations, and to exercise all corporate 

 franchises, and immunities." Here, then, was the question put fairly. 

 Here was a demand of " offices/' and of " immunities," the thing pro- 

 posed in plain words and what was the English commander's answer to 

 it ? De Ginckel returned for answer, that " he was a stranger to the 

 Constitution of England ; but that he knew enough of it to perceive 

 that the terms demanded were hostile to that constitution, and to his own 

 honour." On the same day, he erected a new battery, and pressed the 

 town. In the evening, the garrison sent another message, to know what 

 terms he (the Baron Ginckel) would be content to grant ? And the result 

 was the conclusion of the " Treaty of Limerick." 



There needs but one addition to this pleasant little history ; and that 

 will be a very brief one. There is one little article in the Treaty of 

 Limerick itself, which we adverted to, to be named hereafter we re- 

 served it as a bonne bouche for our readers. In this very treaty, the first 

 second, and third articles of which extend to the Catholics as some of 

 that body tell us all the rights and eligibilities of which free subjects 

 can be capable. Which give them (by inference) the right to offices to 

 seats in parliament in short, to adopt the description of Sir Francis 

 Burdett, " the fullest participation in all the rights, and privileges, civil 

 and political of the British Constitution" In this very treaty, the early 

 articles of which place (by construction) the Irish Catholics in this total 

 freedom from restraint ; giving them, the same honourable baronet says, 



