CHARLES WATERTON, ESQ. XIX 



nothing contained in the act should be construed 

 " to give ease to any papist or popish recusant." 



My grandfather had the honour of being sent 

 prisoner to York, a short time before the battle of 

 Culloden, on account of his well-known attachment 

 to the hereditary rights of kings, in the person of 

 poor Charley Stuart, who was declared a pretender ! 

 On my grandfather's release, he found that his 

 horses had been sent to Wakefield, there to be kept 

 at his own expense. But the magistrates very gra- 

 ciously allowed him to purchase a horse for his own 

 riding, provided the price of it was under five pounds. 



My own father paid double taxes for some years 

 after he came to the estate. 



Times are better for us now : but I, individually, 

 am not much better for the change ; for I will never 

 take Sir Robert Peel's oath. In framing that abo- 

 minable oath, I don't believe that Sir Robert 

 cared one fig's end whether the soul of a Catholic 

 went up, after death, to the King of Brightness, 

 or descended to the king of brimstone : his only 

 aim seems to have been to secure to the church by 

 law established, the full possession of the loaves 

 and fishes. But, as I have a vehement inclination 

 to make a grab at those loaves and fishes, in order 

 to distribute a large proportion of them to the poor 

 of Great Britain, who have an undoubted claim to 

 it, I do not intend to have my hands tied behind 

 me : hence my positive refusal to swallow Sir Robert 

 Peel's * oath. Still, take it or refuse it, the new 



* " I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention 

 to subvert the present Church Establishment within this realm," &c. (Se 

 Sir Robert Peel's oath.) 



