492- The (Jatholic Association." [M.AV 



tion as an instrument of proselytism ; their forcing of libellous tracts on the 

 people ; their persecutions of recusant tenantry, and refractory cottiers ; 

 and their aggravating triumph on every paltry and precarious success ; and 

 then let him, if he can, wonder that the priests are exasperated and the 

 people furious. I, Mr. Editor, am an Englishman, and a protestant ; as 

 partial to my own country, and as hostile to the spirit of popery, as man 

 can be ; yet, so help me Heaven, my sole astonishment is at the patience 

 and forbearance of the Catholics under their manifold grievances, and 

 that the peace of the country is preserved amidst such a complication of 

 miseries. 



In much that your correspondent writes, as touching the imprudence of 

 certain acts*of the association, 1 perfectly agree; but as touching their 

 impression on the English opponents of emancipation, I differ. The dia- 

 tribe on the dying duke, unquestionably did great mischief, if it only 

 afforded a plausible handle to the enemies of the cause ; but it did more ; 

 it alarmed the timid, and it gave something to say to the no-thinkers, who 

 oscillate between the two parties, and are ever disposed to side with that 

 which is the strongest. The Liberators too was a most absurd farce, and 

 cast a " ridicule ineffa$able" upon the noble and dignified efforts of the 

 forty- shilling freeholders to save their country : an effort worthy of ancient 

 Greece, and of the yeomanry of England in the proudest days of her 

 Hampdens and her Marvels. The alliance with Cobbett was founded on 

 an utter ignorance of the estimation and influence of that writer. These 

 were great political mistakes, attributable to individuals. But even in 

 judging of individuals, we should not forget how far Ireland is out of the 

 gang-way of Europe. We should not forget, that for centuries, education 

 was penal there ; and that Irishmen cannot be expected to act otherwise 

 than consonantly with such circumstances. The Irish are all national ; 

 national in their prejudices, in their feelings, and ideas ; and consummately 

 ignorant of that political instruction which the protracted struggle of the 

 French revolution has afforded to the nations of the Continent : they 

 know nothing of how people feel and think in any other country than 

 their own. They are full of confidence and simplicity, and they are the 

 dupes of their own first impressions. With respect to O'Connel's conduct 

 in the matter of the forty-shilling freeholders, how, it may be asked, was 

 he to foretell the sudden revolution which afterwards ensued, and restored 

 the Irish serfs to a momentary independence ? After all, was he wrong in 

 his first ideas ? Will that independence continue ? Will the peasants not 

 relapse into that thraldom which rendered their franchise as burthensome 

 to themselves as it was mischievous to the community ? " reste asavoir." 

 For my own part, I take their present condition to be merely an accident ; 

 and their former plight, to be the ordinary and natural consequence of 

 their position in society. Universal suffrage alone can ensure the political 

 independence of the tenant ; and without it, it matters little who returns 

 the one hundred members to a British parliament. With respect to " the 

 rent" and its application, 1 differ from your correspondent, both in facts and 

 in inferences. To its collection there is but one objection, that it is effica- 

 cious. That its collection is burthensome must be admitted ; but it is scarcely 

 more so than your penny a week subscriptions for converting Jews and 

 baptizing Hindoos, are to the starving population of England. Then the 

 money is raised for the people, and not for aliens and strangers. As to its 

 application, it has been hitherto faithfully employed in advancing the 

 cause, and in obviating the tyranny of the disappointed and exasperated 



