STATE PAPERS. 



H9 



and resolution, exhibited in the 

 first instance on their own part, 

 will, as has been proved by recent 

 experience, most efiFectually pre- 

 vent or repel such unlawful aggres- 

 sions ; and we do further, in the 

 name and on the behalf of his ma- 

 jesty, charge and command, all 

 sheriffs, justices of the peace, 

 mayors, bailiil's, constables, and 

 other civil officers, to continue 

 their utmost vigilance and activity 

 for the preservation of peace and 

 good order, the prevention of night- 

 ly and other unlawful meetings of 

 ill-designing and wicked men, and 

 for the defence of his majesty's 

 peaceable and industrious subjects, 

 from the secret machinations and 

 open attacks of the violators of 

 private property, and the dis- 

 turbers of the public tranquillity ; 

 trusting, as we do, that by the 

 constant and active exertions of all 

 well-disposed men, the misguided 

 may be reclaimed, and the mis- 

 chievous kept in awe, without 

 the necessity of recurring to the 

 chastisements of the law, which it 

 will be our duty, as guardians of 

 the general peace and prosperity of 

 the realm, strictly to enforce, if 

 unhappily the renewal of such 

 atrocities as we have lately had to 

 deplore, should again call for the 

 infliction of just and exemplary 

 punishment. 



Given at the Court at Carlton- 

 house, this first day of February, 

 one thousand eight hundred and 

 thirteen, in the S3rd year of his 

 majesty's reign. 



The Roman Catholic Prelates, as- 

 sembled in Dublin, to the Clergy 

 and Laity, of the Roman Catholic 

 Churches in Ireland. 

 Reverend Brothers — Beloved 



Children— Peace be with you, — 



Solicitude for the spiritual interest 

 of our beloved flocks, obliges us 

 once more to suspend the exercise 

 of our other pastoral duties, in order 

 to deliberate, in common, upon the 

 present posture of our religious 

 concerns. 



We hasten to declare to you, the 

 lively feelings of gratitude excited 

 in our breasts by the gracious con- 

 descension of the legislature in ' 

 taking into its favourable consi- 

 deration the disabilities which stilt 

 affect the Catholic body. With 

 these feelings deeply and indelibly 

 impressed upon our hearts, it is 

 with the utmost distress of mind 

 that we are compelled, by a sense 

 of duty, to dissent (in some points 

 connected with our emancipation) 

 from the opinions of those virtu- 

 ous and enlightened statesmen, 

 who have so long and so ably 

 advocated the cause of Catholic 

 freedom. 



Probably from a want of suffi- 

 cient information, but unquestion- 

 ably from the most upright mo- 

 tives, they have proposed to the 

 legislature the adoption of certain 

 arrangements respecting our eccle- 

 siastical discipline, and particularly 

 respecting the exercise of episco- 

 pal functions, to which it would be 

 impossible for us to assent, without 

 incurring the guilt of schism — in- 

 asmuch as they might, if carried 

 into effect, invade the spiritual 

 jurisdiction of our Supreme Pastor, 

 and alter an important point of 

 our discipline, for which alteration 

 his concurrence would, upon Ca- 

 tholic principles, be indispensably 

 necessary. 



When the quarter is considered 

 from whence the clauses have pro- 

 ceeded, it might perhaps be ima- 

 gined, were we to continue silent, 

 that they had our unqualified ap- 



