ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN Production Note Project Unica Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign 2015 À LETTER, &c. S I R, A FTER your fending over to this country your fon, fuch as he is, to infult our nation by his advice, and our Parliament by his interference; I ho longer wonder at anything that you do to injure your native country, or dcftroy its peace, as long as any religion fhall predominate over your favourite Popiih doctrines. I little imagined, when I read your pamphlet on the French B Revolution,( a ) Revolution, that it was written In the fpirit of Popifh vexation • or that it was the downfall of fuperfti-tion^ and not that of monarchy, you fo much lamented. You have now thrown off the mafk, by pub-lifhing this declamation to your Catholic countrymen, to perfuade them, (if they w anted your arguments for that purpoie) that they are oppref-fed; that that oppreffion is contrary to the fpirit and letter of the con-ftitution • that the Parliament is illiberal, and will not liften to their petitions ; that the Diifenters will affift them, while the Proteffants hate them; and only endeavour to difunite them from the Diifenters, to leave them worfe than they were; and that while they are willing to punifh them, for accepting of the invitations( 3 ) invitations of Diilenters, they are willing to preferve to the people, who you fay have tempted them, 44 all their liberties and immuni-4t des, as their own life’s blood.” The arguments you make nfe of to prove, that depriving the Catholics of a right of franchife, is contrary to the conftitution, are deduced from Magna Charts; and of the two articles of the charter you adduce, the one is again!! your portion, the other is not for it. The firit article of^ the charter, viz. that the Church of England ihall be free, binds down every member of the legiilature, to protect that church, as by law efta-bliihed, from the encroachments of B 2 any( 4 ) any other foils, that think it their intereit or their duty to encroach on its privileges, or other wife weaken it ; and while the Catholics are under the dominion of the See of Rome, and all their preferments in the church come under the papal iignature, and the eccleiiaftics have fuch an influence over their minds, it will be ever the duty of the legiilature to keep power out of the hands of a feel, that are ultimately governed by a foreign potentate, whofe intereit it is to weaken by every means the eitabliihed religion. So far for the point of intereil; but I think there is ftill a more dangerous circumftancc to the efta-bliihed church, that of their confl- dering( 5 ) dsring it as a duty, by every means of force or perfuafion, to make prole lytes, from whence all the perfe-cutions and evils of the Roman Church have principally followed. It has never been a maxim of our Church, to coniider people differing in opinion with us, as our enemies ; all the reftraints we have put on the Catholics, have been with juft rcafon, and merely on motives of felf-prefervation. Thank God, time has done much in their favour, they have got rid of a great deal of their hereditary hatred againft us, and we have taken off a great number of thofe reftridfions, and we will take more of them off, according as the circumftances of the times fhall admit; but the Catholics are not now, nor will be,t until they( 6 } \ they are under the foie jurifdiction of the King of Great Britain, both as to their civil and ecclefiaftical government, and until the light of education fhall be more univerfally diffuled among them, lit to partake in the right of franchife, or in any part of the executive government. The other article, u that no man 64 ihall be dineifed of his liberties “ and free cuftoms, but by the judgments of his peers, or the laws of the land,” is as little to your purpofe, and indeed you do not deny the authority of flatutes made in direct oppoiition to Magna Charta ; but at the iigning of the great charter, it was impoffible to forefee the neceffity that compelled the( 1 ) the State to make thoie laws re-ilri&ive on the Catholics. I need not dwell longer on thefe arguments, every body mull lee the futility of them ; but I will caft back a look at your arguments on the third article of the Coronation Oath, in which the King fwears, he “ will maintain the Proteftant reform-“ ed religion, as it is eftabliihed by u law.” And there you endeavour by drawing comparifons between the Catholics and Diifenters, to infatuate, nay more than iniinuate, that the Church of England is in as much danger from the Diifenters, as from the Papifts. Thele are iniinuations that can tend to nothing, but to difturb the minds of Proteftants with ill-grounded fears, and( 8 )' and irritate the minds of the Roman Catholics, by fuch reprefentations of their comparative iituations. I will aik any man of common fenfe, if the fupremacy of the Church of England can be in danger from the Difienters, a feci of men whole religious principles fo ftrongly op-pofe every idea of interfering in the State, fo far as relates to the fupremacy of one religion over another; (not that I mean to fay, the Diffen-ters are more unambitious than other men) $ut the idea of their religion having any thing to do with the executive power, is totally averfe to the dodlrine or a fet of men, who look for humility in their clergy, as one of their greateit merits, and allow no diftindlion among ( 9 ) among them, but from fuperior piety, or greater age. What avail then all your declamations to prove the Catholics of Ireland are treated with more dif-refpedl than Jews, or Mahometans, or even public declared Atheifts. It is no principle of our religion, or of our policy, to interfere with any individual’s religious opinions, as long as they do not interfere with ours—have no mofques, and fewr fynagogues, in this country; but if either a Mahometan, or a Jew, chufes to ferve God after his own manner, we will never interfere.— But Atheiils are the natural enemies of no religion 5 (and indeed I never could perfuade myfelf, that fuch a being exiited: fome men, who C had( IO ) had reafon to bluili at their vices, at their difregard of every law, divine and human, have imagined, that they could argue themielves into fiich ideas, as an excufe for their vices; but I never yet heard of an Atheift who, when he was about to appear before the awful tribunal of his Maker, did not feel that there was a God, whom he had offended.)-----But to return; luch men, content with maintaining, and adfing according to fuch opinions, never trouble their heads about the religious opinions of other people; fo that the Proteftant religion can be in no danger from them; and, the Jews and Mahometans, if they are the enemies of the Chriftian religion in general, they are too weak in this part of the world to injure( 11 ) injure it by force: and their doctrines will always meet with too flrong prejudices, to leave it in their power to injure it any other way. Who then are the enemies of the church of England, againft whom the king is to defend it ? The Roman Catholics; they are the only people who think they ought, either from prejudice, from intereff, or from duty, to oppofe it; and the legif-lature ought to be careful, very careful, how they put it in their power to injure or deprefs it. But, Sir, there are dodlrines in the Popiih religion that will ever make a Proteftant diitruft them.— Who will believe the declaration of a man, who can falve over a falfe-C 2 hood,( 12 ) hood, by a mental refervation, and be abfolved from an oath, by the very man whofe intereft it is, that he ihould not keep it ? You are pleafed to fay, Sir, that the Parliament of Ireland has de-fpifed, and reiufed to accept, the petitions of the people. You have miftaken the matter: if your good frietidy tlieir Agent, has not told you the circumftances of it, I will. When that young man came here, (and indeed if his relations had a little of that Scotch policy, which induces that nation to keep a certain part of their inhabitants at home, they never would have ventured him acrofs the fea :) When he came here, ignorant of the rules of Parliament, or wiihing to infult it,( i f & it, he prevailed on a gentleman to prefen t a petition to the Houfe, without that gentleman's being acquainted with the iignatures of thole people whole names were to it, or without his knowing the contents of it; the gentleman had a much better opinion of him than I have, when he believed his aliertions about the propriety of a petition, which he would not fuffer him to read. For my part, I ihould have fufpe&ed there was a little mental relervation in the cafe. Was fuch a petition to be received by the Houle ? Surely not. They with one accord cried out againft the proceeding. I cannot with patience think of the fequel. That a itranger ihould have the infolence to walk into the body of our Houle, and( 14 } ând command any of our members with his nod, muft be truly grating to every man, who feels for the dignity of the Hoùfe. I know not how the gentleman felt, to whom it was addreiled • I can but judge by his obedience of it. Such petitions, ib prefented, I hope will be always rejedted. However willing, nay, defrous, they may be, of keeping Up a communication with the people, their ears are always open to the wiihes of their fellow-fubjedts, nor will all your eloquence perfuade the people that they are not willing to liiien to them. If you imagine that there has been any idea of a junction between the Diffenters and Catholics, you are very much miftaken. If fuch a thinga thing occurred, I am fare I could not be ignorant of it. But it never did occur. If a few troublefome people in Belfaif, who happened to be moil of them of that relb gion, lent up a petition to Parliament, praying them to grant all privileges to Catholics ; are we to argue from that, that the Di(Tenters are joined with the Catholics ? No. There is not a feed of any de-feription, that by their principles are more prejudiced againil the Catholics, than the Difienters. Thus, Sir, you fuppofe a thing to have happened, that has no foundation but in your own ima.-gination; from luch an imaginary thing you wander into a long train of argument and declamation, to prove,( 16 ) prove, that we are endeavouring to difunite the Catholics and Diiient-ers, and to deflroy a union, that never exifted. You fay, that “ the u Diffenters offer bribes, the Par-cc liament nothing, but the front “ negative of a hern and forbid-“ ding authority.” I fay, Sir, and I fay with more truth, the “ Dif-u fenters offer nothing, the Parlia^ u ment offer indulgences, they of-“ fer to the Catholics all thofe ad-vantages which will hereafter “ qualify them for further indul-u gences, they have offered them u the light of education, the power w of pradtifing at the bar, and the u power of intermarrying with Pro-u teilants.” Thefe indulgences, I fay, are fuch as will hereafter entitle ( i7 ) lie them to further ones, without danger to the eftablifhed religion. If I wiihed to itrengthen the Pro-teftant religion, on the downfall of the Roman Catholic fuperftition, I do not know a more certain method than by fpreading the light of fcientific knowledge over the minds of the people, and giving them a habit of arguing. Sorry I am to fay, that there are iome people who can both write and talk of liberality of fentiment, and yet whofe minds are fo warped by fuperftition, that tho1 they have travelled through the whole labyrinth of fcience, accuf-tomed their minds to argument, entered deeply into hiftory and morality, yet can believe that the moil facred obligations can be difpenfed D with,( 18 ) with, the moil heinous crimes can be committed, without puniihment from di vn iC juilice, by any man who is capable of paying the price the pried: lays on his diipenfation, or pardon ; but the number of thefe, I flatter myfelf, are few.— Such, I hope, will ihortly be the eifedl that education will have on the Roman Catholics, that thofe filly prejudices will be done away. By giving the Catholics a liberty of pradliiing at the bar, we give them an opportunity of knowing the happy conftitution by which this country is governed; and, lafl-ly, we hold out to them an offer of intermarrying with us, and making our interefts common. In( J9 ) - In procefs of time we will fee what effect thefe indulgences will have, and whether the legiilature may not venture to give them more. If an extraordinary and unfounded afiertion of yours, with refpect to the people of Ireland, were true, “ that there are thoufands of peo-u pie in Ireland who have never converfed with a Roman Catholic “ in their lives, unlefs they hap-w pened to talk to their gardeners’ w workmen, or afk their way when “they had loft it, in their fports-u that we never fuffered them to “ get nearer us than our ilablcs.” If, I fay, fuch an affertion w ere true; if it was not founded on folly, and a total ignorance of the Irifh nation; if I was not convinced that D 2 it( ) it was not the cafe, 1 ihould think it the itrongefl argument that could dc made ufe of, if fucli an argument were neceiiary, againil allowing Roman Catholics a right of fran-chiie. I ihould be unwilling to put thefmalleil power into the hands of a fet of people whom we had thus ill ufed and defpifed; but I am convinced there is not in this kingdom a iingle Roman Catholic that would hazard fo bare-faced an ailertion, and I think, Sir, the Roman Catholics ought to be, and are, very-little obliged to you for it, If you wiih truly to ferve the Roman Catholics, buffer the a 61 now brought in by the Right Honourable Baronet to take its courfe; fuffer the common people of Ireland to emerge out of that barbae rous( 21 ) rous and blind ignorance that envelopes them, and do not, by filling the minds of the Roman Catholics with fooliih jealouiies, prevent that union between their families and thofe of their Proteftant countrymen, which will cement their inte-reft together, and produce fo many happy effects. A Protestant.' ■ ? •n- . ' ...