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sure was yet in prospectu; before even the particular clauses of the Bill were made public. It was written to explain and vindicate my refusal to sign a petition against any change in the scheme of law and policy established at the Revolution. But as the arguments are in no respect affected by this circumstance; nay, as their constant reference to, and dependence on, one fixed general principle, which will at once explain both why I find the actual Bill so much less objectionable than I had feared, and yet so much less complete and satisfactory than I had wished, will be rendered more striking by the reader's consciousness that the arguments were suggested by no wish or purpose either of attacking or supporting any particular measure; it has not been thought necessary or advisable to alter the form. Nay, if I am right in my judgment that the Act lately passed, if characterized by its own contents and capabilities, really is-with or without any such intention on the part of its framers-a stepping-stone, and nothing more; whether to the subversion or to the more perfect establishment of the Constitution in Church and State, must be determined by other causes ;the Act in itself being equally fit for either, offering the same facilities of transit to both friend and foe, though with a foreclosure to the first comer;-if this be a right, as it is my sincere judgment and belief, there is a propriety in retaining the language of anticipation. Mons adhuc parturit : the ridiculus mus was but an omen.

and

PART II.

OR, AIDS TO A RIGHT APPRECIATION

OF THE ACT

ADMITTING ROMAN CATHOLICS TO SIT IN BOTH

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

̓Αμέλει, μὰ τὸν Δί' οὐκ ἐνασπιδώσομαι·
λέξω δ' ὑπὲρ Ετερογνωμόνων, ἅ μοι δοκεῖ·
καί τοι δέδοικα πολλά· τούς τε γὰρ τρόπους
τοὺς ξυμπολίτων οἶδα χαίροντας σφόδρα,
ἐάν τις αὐτοὺς εὐλογῇ καὶ τὴν πόλιν,
ἀνὴρ ἀλαζων, καὶ δίκαια κᾄδικα·
κανταῦθα λανθάνουσ ̓ ἀπεμπολώμενοι.

Aristoph. Acharn. 367. &c. (leviter mutata.)

I ESTIMATE the beauty and benefit of what is called “a harmony in fundamentals, and a conspiration in the constituent parts of the body politic," as highly as any one. If I met a man who should deny that an imperium in imperio was in itself an evil, I would not attempt to reason with him: he is too ignorant. Or if, conceding this, he should deny that the Romish Priesthood in Ireland does in fact constitute an imperium in imperio, I yet would not argue the matter with him: for he must be a bigot. But my objection to the argument is, that it is nothing to the purpose. And even so with regard to the arguments grounded on the dangerous errors and superstitions of the Romish Church. They may be all very true; but they are - nothing to the purpose. Without any loss they might pair off with "the heroes of Trafalgar and Waterloo," and "our Catholic ancestors, to whom we owe our Magna Charta," on the other side. If the prevention of an evil were the point in question, then indeed! But the day of prevention has long passed by. The evil exists: and neither rope, sword, nor sermon, neither suppression nor conversion, can remove it. Not that I think slightingly of the last; but even those who hope more sanguinely than I can pretend to do respecting the effects ultimately to result from the labours of missionaries, the dis

persion of controversial tracts, and whatever other lawful means and implements it may be in our power to employ-even these must admit that if the remedy could cope with the magnitude and inveteracy of the disease, it is wholly inadequate to the urgency of the symptoms. In this instance it would be no easy matter to take the horse to the water; and the rest of the proverb you know. But why do I waste words? There is and can be but one question: and there is and can be but one way of stating it. A great numerical majority of the inhabitants of one integral part of the realm profess a religion hostile to that professed by the majority of the whole realm: and a religion, too, which the latter regard, and have had good reason to regard, as equally hostile to liberty and the sacred rights of conscience generally. In fewer words, three-fourths of his Majesty's Irish subjects are Roman Catholics, with a Popish priesthood, while three-fourths of the sum total of his Majesty's subjects are Protestants. This with its

causes and consequences is the evil. It is not in our power, by any immediate or direct means, to effect its removal. The point, therefore, to be determined is: Will the measures now in contemplation be likely to diminish or to aggravate it? And to the determination of this point on the probabilities suggested by reason and experience I would gladly be aidant, as far as my poor mite of judgment will enable me.

Let us, however, first discharge what may well

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