Christ, are not subject to any law either of God or man, I would, if it were in my power, withdraw the bible from every such profaner of it, and, instead of it, I would put into his hands the excellent General Catechism for the Catholics of Ireland, mentioned above, in which he would find the bread of God's word broken, and prepared for his weak digestion by those prelates to whom this duty particularly belongs.

In a word, the object of the associators and and other persons who distribute bibles amongst the Irish peasantry, with instructions to hammer out of them a religion for themselves, is not to enlighten but to obscure their minds, is not to communicate religious knowledge, but to deprive them of that which they have, to unsettle their belief, and cause them, like themselves, to be tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine*.

I remain, &c.

Ephes. iv. 14.

LETTER XIX.

Cork, July 31, 1807.

DEAR SIR,

SINCE I wrote to you last, I have had different opportunities, in the visits I have villas upon the

paid to the gentry who possess villas

estuary of Cork, to survey, in detail, the several beauties of it. I am just now returned from the most delightful sailing party upon it which I ever enjoyed in my life, not excepting those in Torbay and on the coasts of Dorsetshire and Hampshire. The day could not be finer, nor the wind better regulated, so as to give spirit to the sailing, without the smallest degree of danger, nor the company more agreeable. Our vessel was a part of a flotilla of about twenty sail, in one of which there was a band of music. But what chiefly enchanted me were the views upon the water, and the surrounding landscape still varying, and becoming more and more interesting the further we sailed, namely, the harbour, where part of the royal fleet is constantly stationed, the elegant town of Cove rising from the water in the form of an amphitheatre, the numerous bays, rocks, mountains, and islands, with interspersed country seats, pavillions, villages, fortifications, and batteries,

C c

down to the very opening of the great sea. Immense sums have been thrown away upon some of these fortifications and batteries, which are evidently calculated to repel those enemies alone who may happen to descend from the clouds; and it will be well if a great part of the million or fifteen hundred thousand pounds which are said to be still required for erecting certain new fortifications, with all the necessaries and conveniencies belonging to them, are not equally thrown away. For, by what I can learn, Ireland is of all other parts of the British empire, peculiarly the country of jobs, which may be accounted for upon political as well as moral principles.

The city of Cork is computed to contain about 100,000 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom are Catholics; the remaining third consists of members of the established church, Dissenters, Quakers, and Methodists. The last mentioned are increasing prodigiously in Ireland as well as in England; but it is all at the expense of protestantism; for they never gain a proselyte among the Catholics. Yet, however populous the cities and towns are in this island, it is in the country cabins that the strength of its numbers is to be found. These cabins line the road side in every county I have yet visited, as well along the cross and bye roads, as the turnpike roads, in a manner that, even after travelling through Lancashire and Staffordshire, you will hardly conceive; and all of them swarm, as I have before expressed my

8

self, with handsome, healthy children. I need not add that the cottagers are, in a manner, exclusively Catholic, in three out of the four provinces of Ireland, and that in the fourth the Catholics are more numerous than all the other denominations of believers and unbelievers put together. In some country parishes in which I stopped I found that there were not more than three or four protestant families, whose servants, at the same time, were Catholics; in others, that only the minister and his clerk were Protestants, the latter of whom was only an occasional conformist.

In ascertaining that the catholic population of Ireland is exceedingly great, I had but to consult my own eye sight; but I never should have been able to form any thing like a correct idea of its absolute number, or of the proportion which it bears to the rest of the inhabitants, without the information which I have derived from the calculations of industrious and intelligent writers on this subject, who had better means of information than I possessed. The Royal Irish Academy published the plan of a statical inquiry concerning Ireland, one part of which was directed to the enumeration of its inhabitants, as distinguished into Catholics and Protestants; and Edward Hay, Esq. a member of the academy, took great pains in executing. that plan*, with the concurrence and approba

Appendix to Hay's History of the Insurrection in Wexford.

tion of Lord Fitzwilliam, Edmund Burke, Esq, and other distinguished personages in his native county of Wexford. The Rev. Mr. Whitlaw has since prosecuted the undertaking; but it was reserved for Major Newenham to furnish the legislature and the public with a treatise which is deservedly considered as the standard work on the population of Ireland*. It is a satisfaction, however, to observe that the different enumerators do not materially differ in their returns, and that they all give the lie direct to Dr. Duigenan, who fears he shall not be thought sincere by the church which so amply pays him, if he were to omit any opportunity of insulting and injuring that from which he has deserted. A few days ago I had the gratification of dining and spending an evening with the above-mentioned enlightened and accurate author, who still further convinced me by word of mouth, of the correctness of the statements which he has demonstrated in print, namely, that the Catholics of Ireland, to speak in round numbers, are considerably more than four millions, whilst the inhabitants of every other denomination do not

A Statical and Historical Inquiry into the Progress and Magnitude of the Population of Ireland, by Thomas Newenham Esq. London, 1805. This gentleman had before published Essays on the Population of Ireland, and the character of the Irish, by a member of the last Irish Parliament, London, 1803.

He maintains that "the whole inhabitants of Ireland do not exceed three millions, and that one million two hundred thousand of these are Protestants." Speech of Dr. Duigenan, May 13, 1805: