582 
thing that would appear improper 
or unreasonable to your lordship. 
I have the honour to be, &c. 
Fingall, 
To the Right Hon. 
Lord Redesdale, &c. &c. 
APY (No. 5.) 
From the Right Hon. the Lord Chan- 
cellor to the Earl of Fingall. 
Ely-Place Dublin, 
My 16rd, Aug. 28, 1803. 
The high respect and esteem I bear 
for your lordship, whose loyalty 
and humanity have been at all times 
conspicuous, and the manner in 
which your lordship, in the letter 
with which I was honoured yester- 
day, has expressed your regret, that 
any part of your former letter 
should have given me pain, com- 
pel me again to trouble your lord- 
ship with a few words. ‘The pain 
I felt arose from an apprehension, 
that I could not hope for such a 
change in the sentiments of those of 
the people of Ireland, who adhere 
to the see of Rome, towards those 
who refuse obedience to it, as might 
lead to their living together in 
peace. In some parts of Europe, 
misfortune appears to have produced 
so much of humility, that the per- 
sons who have occupied the choice 
of that see, have been inclined to 
bend towards countries, in which 
some of its most important preten- 
sions have been rejected ; and in 
this state of humiliation, it might 
have been hoped that a sense of the 
weakness and imperfections of man 
might have been so far felt, as to 
lead the adherents to that see, in 
Jreland, no longer to teach their 
followers a doctrine so repugnant 
(as it appears to me) to the repose 
of mankind, as that to which I had 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
alluded in my letter. I conclude, 
from your lordship’s letter to me, 
that there is no person amongst the 
adherents of the see of Rome, in 
Ireland, whose mind, however cul- 
tivated, however liberal in other 
respects, can be thought to con- 
sider any persons as christians, who 
refuse obedience to that see. I 
conclude, also, that the priests of 
that persuasion still teach their 
flocks, that all who refuse obedience 
are guilty, of a wicked rebellion 
against divine authority, which must 
produce their eternal damnation in 
the next world, and render them 
objects of horror and dislike in this, 
As long as this doctrine (which, 
with all humility 1 say it, appears 
to me to be repugnant to every 
idea of christian charity, taught by 
the Scriptures) shall be preached to 
their congregations ; and until those 
congregations shall be taught that 
protestants of every description, al- 
though in their opinion in error on 
certain points, are to be considered 
as members of the church of Christ, 
and their brethren in the faith of 
Christ, it seems to me, that there 
can be no hope that exhortations 
to loyalty and obedience to a pro- 
testant government will have- any 
effect. Men of education and”pro- 
perty may feel loyalty and obe- 
dience to such a government to be 
proper, or, at least, expedient ; 
but preaching to men of the lower 
orders, and especially to those with- 
out property, loyalty, and obe- 
dience, under such circumstances, 
cannot be sincere, without supposing 
their minds of a refinement of which 
they are utterly incapable; and 
seems, therefore, to me, to be either 
mockery or folly. Perhaps I am 
too presumptuous in forming this 
opinion, but it seems to me con- 
firmed 
