LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE. 505 
delivering fui table fpeeches, and all by giving effective 
votes. 
“'On a queftion of religion, even your flxty-two-mem¬ 
bers, with their connexions in both houfes (for the ca¬ 
tholic peers would be neither dormant nor infignificant), 
might be enabled to create embarraffment. But can you 
conceive, if the catholics were once admitted into the le¬ 
giflature, that their intereft in Ireland would be ftationary? 
that only fifty would continue long to be the number of 
catholic reprefentatives returned from that kingdom ? Do 
you quite exclude from, your calculation of future events, 
the poflibility and the probability of an increafing intereft 
and of proportionate reprefentatives, refulting from an 
expectation, fo well founded as to be little fhort of abfo- 
liite certainty, that the catholics, when members of the 
legiilature, will advance in their claims? will make their 
firft claim, for a catholic lord lieutenant; their fecond, 
for a catholic government in Ireland their third, for 
placing the catholic church in Ireland on an equality, at 
leajl, with the church now eftablifhed ? Succels to thefe 
claims would indeed be gradual; but in the mean time 
the very profpedi of their being in contemplation, and 
progreflively to be advanced, would accelerate the attain¬ 
ment of fuccefs. For, whilft opportunity yet remained, 
and advantageous fales-could be made by transfer to ca¬ 
tholic purchafers, who for the fake of concomitant influ¬ 
ence would give more than the intrinfic value of what 
they bought; the proteftant gentlemen of Ireland would 
dilpofe of their eftates 5 and like prudent navigators, who 
make for the port before the ftorm burfts, would leave 
that kingdom, and fettle in England. The zeal which is 
fliovvn for the Irifli catholics,..and the comparative apathy 
for Irifli proteftants, would be continually operating as a 
fentence of exile pronounced on the proteftant gentlemen; 
and, in the interval, the landed intereft would be palling 
into the hands of catholics, who would naturally employ 
whatever means are attached to that intereft for the re¬ 
turn of catholic reprefentatives. Gentlemen of their 
church have not'yet imbibed that generalifing fpirit, 
which ftiall prompt them to prefer thofe, who widely dif¬ 
fer from them, to thofe who agree with them in religious 
opinion ; thofe, who are of another communion, to thole 
who are of their own. Steady and warm in their attach¬ 
ment, they will think (and as honeft catholics they ought 
to think) a catholic more eligible for their purpofe than 
a proteftant. Thence your fifty Irifli catholic members 
would at every vacancy in a borough or county be ac¬ 
quiring additional Strength ; and the end would be, that 
nearly the whole of the Irifli reprefentatives would be ca¬ 
tholics. The artful and defigning among the catholics 
know this. It is one of the points at which they are aim¬ 
ing. Do not fuppofe the clamour raifed by the dema¬ 
gogues about adtniflion into parliament is merely for the 
name and honour of the thing; there is in view an ulte¬ 
rior objedt, which in the prelent ftage it is wife to con¬ 
ceal. Seat in the houfe of commons nearly a hundred 
catholic members, and mark the effect. In all great and 
extenfive empires there muft be times of difficulty. Dif¬ 
ficult times require ftrong meafures. The carrying of 
proposals for ftrong meafures can often be accomplilhed 
only by parliamentary conceftions. Thefe will be the fea- 
rfons for the catholic body to offer its terms to the leading 
men, who may be either friendly, or adverfe, to the mea¬ 
fures propofed. Accordingly as concelnons are made to 
their demand (for fuch it will be) in favour of catholi- 
' cifm, fo will be the fuccefs, or failure, of propofed mea¬ 
fures. To whatever fide fuch a body ftiall throw its 
weight, that fide will preponderate. Retrofpeft on tranf- 
aftions in the thirty years paft, will warrant conception 
of the events, in which the adiniffion of catholics into the 
legiflature will terminate, within the compafs of thirty 
years future. And as thofe events will be detrimental, 
if not to the whole Britiih empire, yet certainly to. the 
proteftant mbjects in Ireland, a very material and eftima- 
ble part of the Britiih empires the hope of averting from 
them banifhment, if they muft leave their native country; 
or degradation and deterioration, if they muft remain in 
it; will juftify precaution taken in a way the molt mild, 
yet the molt firm poflible; taken where it can and while 
it can be adopted ; that is, by voting in parliament againft 
your meafure whenever it is again propofed. 
“At our fears, apprehenfions, and horrors, your lord- 
fliip is difpofed to laugh, when you c,all the danger of ac¬ 
ceding to your propofal, for admitting catholics into the 
legiflature, the fhadow of a fhade. ‘ We havfe our fears 
molt certainly ; but they are of a defcription not quite fo 
evanefcent, and proceed from a caufe not quite fo unfub- 
ftantial, as you Teem to imagine. Our fears are, left by a 
vote, indifcreet according to our views of the fubjefl in 
all its branches and bearings, we fhould do wrong ; wrong 
to the cor.ftitution, to the Britifh empire, to the protef¬ 
tants of England, to the proteftants of Ireland ; wrong in 
the fight of man ; wrong to the purity of the Chriltian reli¬ 
gion ; wrong before God ! Thefe are fears which in- 
ipire political courage; courage neither to be abafhed by 
your very innocent raillery; nor to be intimidated by the 
menacing language of certain catholic writers, who do 
every thing but tell the catholics; in plain terms, they 
fhould force their way into the houfes of parliament as l'e- 
giflators. 
“Your idea of king James the Second’s cha'rafler, and 
of his devotednefs to the Roman-catholic religion, is more 
corredt, becaufe more confonant with the general tefti- 
mony of hiftorical writers, than the novel opinion that lie 
became catholic with a view of being thereby defpotic. 
Either perfualion however will militate againft inverting 
catholics with legiflative power. For? if on the one hand 
he was fincerely a catholic, he gives us reafon to fuppofe 
catholics will ufe their power in favour of catholics ra¬ 
ther than in favour of proteftants. If, on the other hand, 
he aimed at def'potiim under the cloak of catholicifm, it is 
evident he thought catholicifm better fuited than protef- 
tantifm for imperious domination. It is remarkable that 
king James fhould have covered his real defigp with {lie 
fpecious pretext, that, { fince thefervice of all his fubjefts 
was due to him by the laws of nature, he declared them 
all equally capable of employments, and fuppreffed all 
oaths or tefts that limited this.’ When in favour of ca¬ 
tholics a fimilar doffrine of equal capability is again ad¬ 
vanced, it cannot be entitled to a hafty reception. 
“The chief objee't claimed by the catholics, arid more 
efpecially by the catholics'of Ireland, is participation of 
legiflative power. The chief fource of their diicontent is 
the exiftence of thofe coriftitutional laws, which, by re¬ 
quiring an oath of abjuration to be taken and a declaration 
folemnly to be made, impede attainment of,the objeft 
claimed. And it is to that alleged grievance principally, 
though not altogether, your fpeech adverts, when it afks, 
* Is it no benefit to our country, to do away a juft caufe 
of diflatisfariion from upwards of four millions of your 
fellow-fubjefts, a great proportion of v> horn are now fhed- 
ding their blood in your caufe, and fighting your battles 
by land and by fea ; to whom therefore not only grati¬ 
tude is due in point of juftice, but alfp confidence in point 
of policy?’ Your queftion fliall be considered and met. 
The feelings and language of dillatisfariion are then only 
juftifiable, when the caufe of it is reafonable; that is, 
when the objedt fought may with reafon be required and 
in reafon be expected. Now we deny it may with reafon 
be required and in reafon be expected by the catholics, 
that to them, who are inflexibly determined not to con¬ 
cede one tittle for accommodation with proteftants, pro¬ 
teftants fhould furrender their confutation. For if the 
laws, which relate materially and eifentially to the eccle- 
fiaftical fupremacy of the fovereign, the prefent ftate of 
the legiflature, and the fecurity of .proteftantifm, are to be. 
altered at the will of the catholics, it is a furrender of the 
conftitution. When the alliance was formed between 
church and ftate in the days of Conftantine, the civil.and 
religious interefts were united by compromise. In the 
.uiitaccs- 
