'182 Tranquillity not to be ensured by Coercion. 



information and reflection have furnished no 

 reason to retract. The inefficacy of force has 

 been manifested by the experience of centuries. 

 Coercion, sustained by an overwhelming mili- 

 tary power, by depopulating the country, 

 might produce a temporary calm ; but it is the 

 last expedient which ought to be resorted to 

 for the attainment of permanent order, and 

 obedience to the laws and civil authorities. 



The violence which appears from time to 

 time in resolutions of catholic meetings, is re- 

 presented as the artifice of a few designing in- 

 dividuals, who, though so loud in demanding 

 catholic emancipation, dread nothing so much 

 as its being conceded. By concession, their 

 consequence would be extinguished, and their 

 powers would cease with the means possessed 

 of inflaming and influencing the untaught minds 

 of the lower orders. The abrogation of what 

 remains of the penal statutes would demolish the 

 existing barrier which divides the people, and 

 be the happy occasion of removing those mutual 

 jealousies and prejudices which have now so 

 pernicious an effect on the minds of men of 

 both persuasions, and are not less degrading to 

 the nation than injurious to its peace and pros- 

 perity. 



