trous? Is not this to insult the Ma should sit or vote therein, nor any person bear any office, civil or mili-jesty of Heaven, and blaspheme his Holy Name? Is it really necessary for the security of a PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY, that all who are qualified for office under the British crown must swear, in the presence of God, without equivocation of reservation, that all catholics at the present day, as well as the members of the Greek church, and other sectaries in the east, thus including the greatest part of the christian world, and the most renowned monarchs of every age, are superstitious idolaters? Can any thing be more in disgraceful test? And yet it still stands unrepealed in our statute book, notwithstanding the shameful circumstances under which it was enacted! Truly, sir, before you reproach modern reformers with the crimes of blasphemy and impiety, you ought to call for the removal of the stain which your reforming ancestors have left on their proceedings, and endeavour to make restitution for the injury inflicted on the catholics and their posterity. tary, until he shall first have taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and audibly repeated and subscribed a declaration against popery; which declaration consists of a solemn protestation, in the presence of God, that the protester believes there is not any transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, in the sacrifice of the mass; and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the mass, as they are now used in the church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous.sulting, more calumniating than this Now, sir, let me again inquire of you, if this proceeding, from the beginning to its termination, does not savour of impiety, oppression, infamy, cruelty, injustice, and blasphemy? You have seen the accounts given of it by Hume, which are confirmed by all contemporary writers, and have been admitted by the late Mr. Fox; and is there not sufficient to make you blush for the credit of PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY? The test act is considered by many, at this day, as the great bulwark of the British constitution, and the commons house which passed it voted it to be a bill, "upon which the safety of the king and kingdom, and the protestant religion, depended." What, sir, does the safety of the constitution and the protestant take a view of the situation of the religion depend upon the taking an Irish catholics. The reformation, impious test? Is it a necessary as it is called, of religion in the sixsafeguard to the PROTESTANT As- teenth century, according to newsCENDENCY, that every statesman, paper reporters, was lately stated by legislator, general or admiral, every the gallant general, the duke of mayor of a town, and every excise- Wellington, in his place in the man, should appear in the presence house of lords, to have been enof his God, and solemnly declare forced by the power of the sword, his belief that the doctrine which, not by the maxims of the gospel; was taught by the apostles of Christ, consequently the blessings flowing conformably to his mandates, and from such an evangelical mode of was held for fifteen hundred years propagating civil and religious liby the universal church in all na- berty among idolatrous and uncivi. tions, is superstitious and idola-lized papists, you will imagine were ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. VIII. By means such as I have described were the English catholics thrust out of the pale of the constitution, and despoiled of their civil privileges, without any one act on their part to justify so oppressive and ty rannical a measure. We will now C not so. _ you buy the question of the most felicitous nature. Yet,, leges with their protestant fellow 1 sir, impartial historians record, that countrymen. Notwithstanding this throughout the reigns of the virgin solemn compact on the part of an queen Elizabeth and the Stuarts, English protestant monarch and the Ireland groaned under a system of catholics of Ireland, nine days did tyranny, pillage, sacrilege, exac- not elapse before it was violated by tions, bigotry, persecution, and in- the ministers of the former, without ternal warfare, revolting to huma- the shadow of an infraction on the nity. A slight perusal of Mr. Wm. part of the latter. But this was Parnell's Historical Apology for the not thought sufficient on the part of Irish Catholics will satisfy you, sir, protestant - ascendency-men; for, that I have not exaggerated the for- not content with breaking faith lorn and hopeless situation of that with the supposed idolatrous cathoill-fated and unfortunate country, lics, they followed up this violation so long doomed to feel the intole- of a sacred contract with a succesrant and iron grasp of PROTESTANT sion of the most inhuman and grindASCENDENCY. During the rule of ing laws, under the pretence of sethese sovereigns, however, catholics curing the protestant religion, and were not legally excluded from par- preventing the growth of popery.— liament, nor from civil office, but But let me ask you, sir, if the estarecourse was had to other schemes,blished religion is more secure now namely, that of corrupting the two houses, particularly the house of commons, by the introduction of 66 a considerable number of clerks, soldiers, serving-men, and others, not legally or not chosen at all, and having no manner of estate in the kingdom," according to the remonstrance of the catholics of Ireland, agreed to at Trym on the 17th of March, 1642, to be presented to Charles I. It was not till after the revolution of 1688 that the catholics of Ireland were excluded the constitution, and then by the most perfidious act of treachery that ever blackened the annals of a country laying claim to civilization. When James II abdicated the throne of England, the catholics of Ireland continued their allegiance to him, and defended his claim with their lives and fortunes. The tide of war turning against that sovereign, chiefly from his own folly, the catholics entered into a treaty with the new monarch under the walls of Limerick, by the articles of which the former stipulated for, and the latter granted, the free and full enjoyment of the exercise of their religion, and equal rights and privi than when these propping laws were enacted? Have not all the attempts made to prevent the growth of popery proved fruitless and unavailing? In Ireland the catholics are more numerous than at any stated period since the reformation, so called, was first introduced there under military execution; and as to your establishment, are you not in greater danger for its safety from the misconduct of its own clergy, and the busy zeal of dissenters, than from catholics? Have you not been obliged to have recourse to the strong arm of the law for protection against infidel protestants, in proportion as you have remitted some of the penalties laid upon the catholics by your ancestors? Look, sir, at Ireland, and look at your own country. In the former you will see the catholic clergy assiduous in performing the laborious duties of their sacred calling, and the people not only peaceable, but free from the contamination of the irreligious pamphlets which swarm from the English press. In this country, such has been the spread of immoral and anti-christian works, that new measures have been thought neces " "By the treaty of Limerick, the ca- perty, take annuities for lives secured sary to be enacted to suppress them. He "By the treaty of Limerick they were left at liberty to educate and to act as guardians to their own children: by the penal laws they neither can send them to be educated abroad, or have them educated at home, or he guardians to their own, or the children of any other persons. "By the treaty of Limerick, the free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to them. By the penal laws their chapels are shut up, their priests are bannished, and hanged if they returned home. "By the treaty of Limerick, their noblemen and gentlemen were specially allowed the privilege of wearing arms, and the whole body were equally entitled to the same privilege, because, when it was executed, no law existed to the contrary. By the penal laws, no catholic is permitted to have the use of arms, except a very few even of those who were specially comprised in the treaty. "By the treaty of Limerick, catholics might intermarry with protestants. By the penal laws this privilege is removed. "By the treaty of Limerick, the profession of the law was open to them; by these laws it is taken from them, act as constables, or as sheriffs or under- "By the treaty of Limerick, they "By the treaty of Limerick, they were acknowledged as the free subjects of a British king; by the penal laws they are placed in the double capacity of slaves and enemies of their protestant countrymen,” al 201 in I have now, sir, detailed the situation in which the catholics of the two countries were placed by the in-ro tolerant spirit of PROTESTANT ASCENDENCY, and the means which were pursued to reconcile the English people to this system of unjust oppression. And yet, instead of blushing, instead of feeling shame and remorse at the barbarous and ant forefathers, you taunt us with uncalled for policy of your protestsaying, that emancipation from this heretofore unheard of state of slavery, when first proposed, was not ventured to be petitioned for totally and unqualifiedly.. Relief from all disabilities was demanded, but not without the promise of secu rities; and when, (you remark) in the progress of desire for political power, eligibility to seats in parlia 66 ment was asked, those who sup- appears reasonable and expedient ported the catholic cause were to relax the same (the laws of pledged on their side to the conces Anne): and it must tend not only sion of the veto." Now, sir, this to the cultivation and improvement statement of yours is not only con- of this kingdom, (Ireland) but to fused, but is also incorrect, as the the prosperity and strength of all following facts will shew. The his majesty's dominious, that his first act of relief passed by the Irish | subjects of all denominations should parliament in favour of catholics enjoy the blessings of a FREE CONwas unsolicited by them, and took STITUTION, and should be bound to place in 1774. It was an act to each other by mutual interest and enable his majesty's subjects, of mutual affection," &c. This act whatever persuasion, to testify their was also unasked for by the cathoallegiance to him." This was fol- lics, and the same year produced the lowed by a petition from the catho- first instance of legislative toleralics of Ireland to his majesty, from tion in England, by an act of trifling the pen of the late Edmund Burke, relaxation in favour of the catholics in which they were made to say, of this country. In the year 1782, that they neither wished nor de some further relaxation was granted sired to receive any thing, but as the by the Irish parliament; and for mere act of his majesty's clemency, these concessions they were not only and of the indulgence and equity of indebted to the exertions of their li parliament." This address was beral protestant friends, but likewise presented by lord Fingal, Mr. Pres- to the resistance which the Ameriton, and Mr. Dermot, to lord Buck- cans were then making against Enginghamshire, to be by him trans land. For the British government mitted to the sovereign. Now, finding itself compelled to send the when we take into consideration the whole of the British army from Iremiserable and enslaved state the ca- land to America, and thus leave it tholics had endured for a century exposed to the attacks of France, and more; when we reflect that the the only alternative left for PROpetition was drawn up by a protest- TESTANT ASCENDENCY to adopt was, ant, who could not feel as a catho- either to conciliate the catholics, lic the injustice inflicted upon him, and engage them in the common dethough, in honour to his memory fence of the island, or leave it to be it said, Mr. Burke was always fall an easy prey to France. Selfthe honest declaimer against the se- preservation, therefore, and not naverity of the penal code, the catho- tional justice, nor the demands of lics cannot be reproached for, nor the catholics, occasioned the first fairly charged with, the adoption of relaxations from a system of politi language so humble and resigned. cal torture unexampled in the hisIn 1778 another act passed, ex- tory of the world. I should notice tending still farther relief to the ca- also, that, besides the open resisttholics of Ireland, and conveyed a ance of America to the power of recognition of the policy, it should Great Britain, the protestants of have been justice, of admitting them Ireland were engaged in obtaining to a full participation of the bles- a sings of the constitution, in the following words of the preamble:"And whereas, from their (the catholics) uniform peaceable behaviour for a long series of years, it reform in her parliament, and the catholics thus became an object of attention to the two contending parties, for to which ever side they attach ed themselves, considerable strength would evidently accrue. This was another motive with the government for passing the acts of 1778 and 1782. To shew that the catholics were then no insignificant body. I need only mention, that the Dungannon convention, which met in February, 1782, and was composed of representatives of, or delegates from, 143 protestant corps of volunteers, having resolved, with only ten dissentient voices, "that they held the right of private judgment, in matters of religion, to be equally sacred in others as themselves; therefore, that, as christians and protestants, they rejoiced in the relaxation of the penal laws against their Roman catholic fellow-subjects, and that they conceived the measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and prosperity of Ireland ;" this liberal declaration on the part of the meeting, and the general conduct of the protestants, obtained the concurrence of the catholics and the British government found itself reluctantly compelled to concede a favourite object of the Irish people, namely, an independent parliament. Thus united, the protestants attempted to carry the measure of parliamentary reform; but a division of opinion manifesting itself among some of the corps in the north, on the question of catholic emancipation, the emissaries of government availed themselves of this circumstance, and contrived to have a motion made for combining the emancipation of the catholics with the question of parliamentary reform. This motion was rejected by the convention, which, in consequence, lost the support of the catholic voice, and government succeeded in putting the convention down. Things thus remained till the year 1791, when an act was passed in the English parliament, granting the free exercise of their religion to the catholics of that country. About this time the public mind was considerably, I may say violently, agitated with political dissensions, occasioned by the explosion of the French revolution, which found many admirers among the leading protestants in Ireland. After enduring a long period of pains and penalties, without the least act of disloyalty being proved upon them as a body, the catholics determined at length to make an effort of themselves to ob|tain a restoration of their constitutional rights; and accordingly a committee was convened to carry the determination into effect. A string of resolutions was transmitted to the committee, who referred it to a sub-committee, by whom a report was drawn up and agreed to by the general committee, and a petition was prepared in order to be laid before parliament. With this petition a deputation waited upon the chief secretary, to solicit the protection and countenance of government, but their application was fruitless. A second deputation was sent, with the like success, and a member of the committee was dispatched to London, to lay the case before his majesty's ministers, who, on his arrival here, opened a negociation with Mr. Pitt. Whilst this was going on, the Irish administration endeavoured to sow discord among the catholics, and counteract their views, by enter ing into an intercourse with the principal nobility and gentry of their body, and succeeded so far as to induce them to submit a resolution, to be adopted by the committee, of seeking no removal of the existing disabilities, but in such manner and to such an extent as the wisdom of the legislature deemed expedient.— I cannot help remarking here how similar the feelings of the Irish aristocracy then were to those which govern the leaders of the self-named English board now, who, in their petitions, always express their readiness |