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BRITAIN. 717 



Britain, thnrft. It was not indeed easy to answei the argu- Th . of emancipation answer, that tli' 



v m-nts which abstract justice had to plead in favour Cathol full toleration for their reli , 



of the Catholics; and ai^ument-, too, which tlic are not punished for going to nu r;, nor obstructed OiO " IIL 



dangers of the country, and cousideratio:.-i of policy, in 0ie performance of it. To tin;, it i, n-p 



every day multiplied and confirmed. The exclusion that a penal law a-ainst Catholics, is it,;. U m 



of a filth part of our whole population from the law, whether it enjoins the punishment of .1 ,m<t 



"liiity of rising to high and important situations of line for their religion; and, in what n 'I'ol'c 



in the country, is an injury to the empire, which is the exclusion of the Catholics from the most ho- '7"* nc -P- 



thus deprived of the talents which might spring from nourable offices in the law, the army, the corpora- """' 



of population. It is an insult to that tions, and the universities, different from a penalty ?$ 



excluded population, which extends still wider than The right of aspiring to such offices is inherent in 



the injury. It saps the foundation of their loyalty the free subject ; it is not conferred by acts of par- 



and patriotism, or, at least, gives us a weaker right liamcnt ; but the statute which takes it away, is aa 



to expect them. It turns the heart and the eye of essentially penal as if it deprived the subject of his 



the degraded Catholics towards that Catholic enemy personal liberty, or of any other right. The third ob- 



of the country, who has an interest and pretext to jcction to the measure is, that the Catholics would de- 



oilrr his aid for obtaining to them all the rigiits which rnand more than mere right, and would aim at religious 



their own government denies. It deprives Pro- supremacy in Ireland, if their present demands were 



testantism itself of the surest triumph over Catho- granted. If it were even fair to deny what is due 



licism of reformation. It keeps the Catholic more for fear of more being demanded, it could be easily 



suspected, consequently more degraded, and conse- proved, in answer to this objection, that the Catho- 



quently more bigotted and averse to the purer creed lies have not the power as legislators to sway the 



of Christianity. British parliament, and their attempting it by force, 



J From the period of the Reformation to that of the Revolution of 1688, popery seems to have been considered, rather 33 a 

 crime, for which individuals convicted of any overt-act were subjected to punishment, than as a system of faith which the more 

 powerful sect were solicitous to represser extinguish by durable disqualifications. To celebrate mass, or to attend its celebra- 

 tion, were offences punishable by law ; and every subject was liable to severe and immitigable penalties, if he omitted to at- 

 tend public worship, according to the forms of the established church, once at least on every Sunday. Catholics, however, 

 notwithstanding the terrible religious rancour of those times, were neither excluded from the legislature, nor exposed to any 

 hardships respecting the enjoyment and transference of their possessions or the economy and regulation of their families 

 or their personal rights and immunities. The truth is, that the early rigours exercised upon the Catholics, were rather meant 

 as preventativcs of heresy than as political distinctions. During the reign of Elizabeth, the law.-, against the Catholics wcie 

 administered, upon the whole, with mildness and forbearance; in England and in Ireland they remained almost a dead letter. 

 In the reign of James II., however, when the Protestants obtained, for the first time, a decided majority in thu parliament of 

 Ireland, they were occasionally enforced with considerable rigour. Under Charles, the peculiar difficulties of hissituation, .mrt 

 the authorised enormities of the English settlers, led to those scenes of more than savage devastation, which filled the rebel- 

 lion of 1641. From that period, to the complete subjugation of the country by Cromwell, Ireland was a prey to the most 

 frightful disorders, allayed occasionally by a military despotism nearly as terrible. The soldiery of Cromwell settled them- 

 selves in the lands of which they had dispossessed their opponents ; and, ,it the Restoration, the act of settlement confirmed 

 this desolating ejectment, by warranting the absolute transference of eight millions of acres from Irish Catholics to English 

 Protestants. 



Such was the state of servitude and penury to which the Catholics of Ireland were reduced on the accession of Jaine II. 

 It was natural to imagine, that, with the known dispositions of this prince in favour of Popery, he would endeavour, anxious- 

 ly and effectually, to restore the political preponderance of this sect in Ireland. Tyrconnel, (as we have seen,) a blind and 

 furious bigot, was selected as the instrument for obtaining the objects of the king. Except, however, the disarming of the 

 Protestants, the dismissal of some officers, and the disbanding of four thousand soldiers of that persuasion, it does r.ot appear 

 that tny very severe oppressions were exercised by the Catholics, to whom a concurrence of circumstances bad now given the 

 right of the strongest. Tyrconnel, indeed, had formed a scheme for calling a parliament, in order to reverse the act of set- 

 tlement ; but he was opposed so strenuously by the moderate Catholics in the king's council, that he was compelled to relin- - 

 quish his project. 



William III., called upon by the English people to rescue them from Popery and shivery, came over from a country par- 

 tially peopled with Catholics, and with an army chiefly composed of Catholics, to destroy the tyranny of a Popish prince in 

 England. The means by which he effected the deliverance of the people whom he came to deliver, indicate the beneficial 

 consequences of a tolerating spirit. The liberties of a Protestant state were revived, affirmed, and augmented, by the Ic.idtr of 

 a Catholic army ; and the principles of our constitution were framed under the auspices of an aid, which liberality had won 

 over to the cause of freedom. 



It was natural that, in this struggle, the Catholics should side with the monarch, in whom all their expectations were 

 placed. They, accordingly, made every effort to sustain the fallea fortunes of James ; and it was not until 1691 that the Pro- 

 testant government obtained the full resumption and recognition of its ascendancy, bj the treaty of Limerick. By the ar- 

 ticles of that treaty, it was expressly stipulated, that " the Roman Catholics should enjoy such privileges in the exercise of 

 their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland ; or, as they did enjoy in the reign of Charles II. ; and their majesties, 

 as soon as they can summon a parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such farther 

 security in that particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance on account of their religion." 



In direct defiance of this solemn pledge, in peremptory violation of the sacred conditions, on the faith of which the instru- 

 ment was ratified by the submission of the Irish people, three years had scarce elapsed, when the famous act for preventing 

 the growth of popery was passed by the English parliament. The history of this act, though related by a crowd of respectable 

 authorities, should nevertheless be perpetually repeated. When evils subsist for our shame, it is but fair that they showM 

 subsist for our instruction. 



A party, in England, were in violent opposition to the government of William, whose principles, and, of course, those of 

 his ministers, were known to be enlightened and tolerant. The opposition party resolved to make the king outrage his princi- 

 ples, or subject himself to the odium of protecting popery. In order to effect their object, they purposely brought in the 



