578 
No. 2. 
Answer to the foregoing, by the Right 
| Hon, the Earlof Fingall. 
Great Denmark Street, 
My lord, 4X8 42 1803. 
T have the honour to receive your 
tordship’s letter, and am much o- 
bliged to you for appointing me a 
magistrate of the county of Meath, 
at a time when the task is so ardu- 
ous. I-must beg leave to assure 
your lordship, that nothing but my 
most anxious desire to be useful, by 
every means in my power, would 
have induced me to solicit the com- 
mission of the peace. 
Permit me to return your lordship 
my best thanks, for the very able 
and excellent instructions contained 
in your letter: it shall be my un- 
ceasing endeavour to prove myself 
not unworthy the trust confided to 
me, for which I should feel myself 
very ill qualified, if I did not under- 
stand the duties of active loyalty, to 
be exaétly such as they are laid 
down by your lordship. I have al- 
ways been taught, that that man was 
a traitor, and violated his allegiance, 
who concealed any plot against the 
state: to this opinion, all those who 
profess the same religious faith that 
i do, are bound by the most solemn 
pledges: I am very sorry any have 
deviated from it; they cannot be, 
J am persuaded, those remarkable 
for their religious and good con- - 
duct. It gives me much concern, 
and I should be extremely sorry, 
were it generally conceived that 
your lordship, the person to whom 
the catholics of another part of the 
united kingdom never cease ex- 
pressing their obligations ; with your 
superior talents; enlightened and 
Niberal mind; holding the high si- 
tuation you do in this country, with 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1863. 
so much credit to yourself, and ad- 
vantage to the public, should have 
an opinion, in any degree, unfa- 
vourable to the Irish catholics. 
My lord, the catholic religion is 
the same every where. I very re- 
luctantly enter on the subject. Re- 
ligious disputes I have always con- 
sidered the greatest misfortune any 
country could experience. J must, 
however, beg leaye to state to your 
lordship, what I have always found 
to be the conduct and faith of the 
catholic. J need not speak of his 
attachment to, and respect for, an 
oath: were he less delicate, why 
should he labour under any exclu- 
sion now, or have suffered many 
years of penal restriction? I must 
say, I never heard a catholic wish 
for the overthrow of the protestant 
establishment, and setting up in its 
place one of his own religion. ‘This 
was not, as is well ascertained, the 
object of the promoters of the re- 
bellion in 1798; nor do f believe it 
was that of the ruffians and mur- 
derers who disgraced this country 
on a late occasion. The catholic is 
ready at this moment to sacrifice his 
life, his property, every thing dear 
to him, in support of the present 
constitution ; in defence of that be- 
loved sovereign to whom your lord- 
ship does not seem to think we look 
up, with that veneration, grati- 
tude, and attachment, which, I as- 
sure you, we do. The ‘catholic 
wishes no other family on the 
throne, no other constitution ; but 
certainly wishes to be admitted, 
whenever it shall be deemed expe- 
dient, to a full share in the benefits 
and blessings of that happy consti- 
tution under which we live; a par- 
ticipation which I trust we have, 
and shall continve to prove our- 
selyes not undeserving of. Catholic 
loyalty 
