the said articles, not only to be preserved, but also to be enlarged by a future parliament; whereas the quite contrary has been since done by these laws ;) how can it be seriously imagined, that the catholics of Ireland enjoy, at this day, the free exercise of their religion, when that very exercise is precisely the cause of their being robbed, pursuant to those laws, in so many instances, of both their liberty and property! Nothing certainly can equal the absurdity of supposing the exercise of that religion to be free and undisturbed, at the same time that it is forbidden and restrained by a multiplicity of severe legal penalties, which are still occasionally inflicted.

Under all these unjust suspicions pressures, and restraints, did the Roman catholics of Ireland labour, by the operation of the two self-executing popery acts of the second and eighth of queen Anne, without the least glimpse of any reasonable hope of redress, until the year 1775; when a prospect seemed to be opened to them of some future alleviation in the legislature's free and unsolicited tender of an oath of allegiance, which has afforded them the long-wished for opportunity of wiping off, effectually, those foul aspersions which for so many years past have been cast upon both, by their ignorant or malicious enemies. In that year, a majority of humane and enlightened members, in both houses of parliament, having been themselves witnesses of the constant dutiful behaviour of the Roman catholics of Ireland, under many painful trials; and conscious that their long perseverance in such behaviour was the best proof they could have given of the integrity of that principle, which had hitherto withheld them from sacrificing conscience and honor to any temporal interest, since rather than violate either by hypocritical professions, they have, under all trials, patiently suffered in that particular: these truly patriotic members, I say, influenced by such motives, caused the aforesaid oath to be framed; which as it is the most certain test, that can possibly be required or given by men, of the sincerity of their professions must sufficiently ensure their civil duty and allegiance.

As the conciliating spirit of the framers of this oath manifestly appears in the preamble to it, it may not be improper to insert it in this place at large.

"Whereas many of his majesty's subjects in this kingdom.

are desirous to testify their loyalty and allegiance to his majesty; and their abhorrence of certain doctrines imputed to them; and to remove jealousies, which hereby have, for a length of time, subsisted between them and others, his majesty's loyal subjects; but upon account of their religious tenets, are by the laws now in being, prevented from giving public assurances of such allegiance, and of their real principles, good-will, and affection towards their fellow subjects; in order, therefore, to give such persons an opportunity of testifying their allegiance to his majesty, and good-will towards the constitution of this kingdom, and to promote peace and industry among the inha bitants thereof, be it enacted, &c."

This test, so well calculated to answer all the necessary purposes of civil duty and allegiance, was, at its first promulgation, voluntarily, and cheerfully taken by a great and respecta ble number of the Roman catholic clergy, nobility, gentry, and people; when no other apparent benefit to them was either proposed or expected from it, but that of testifying, in the most effectual manner, their loyalty and attachment to his majesty's person and government, as well as their abhorrence of certain impious doctrines, most uncharitably imputed to them by their enemies.

CHAP. XIX.

The catholics of Ireland state their grievances in an humble address and petition to the lord lieutenant to be laid before his majesty.

ABOUT this time these people, fearing that neither the number nor quality of their grievances were truly made known to his majesty, or his council in England; from whom, in the last resort, their redress was expected; set forth and delineated some part of the most considerable of them, in the following dutiful address and petition; which, in order to its being transmitted to England and laid before his majesty, was presented, in due form, to his excellency the earl of Buckinghamshire, lord lieutenant of Ireland, by the right honorable the earl of Fingal, the honorable Mr. Preston, and Authony Dermot, esq. And as it has been hitherto but in few hands, and in

deed exhibits a rare and striking picture of persevering loyalty, under oppression, I will here communicate it to my readers.

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

The humble Address and Petition of the Roman Catholios of Ireland.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

We your majesty's most dutiful subjects, the Roman catholics of your kingdom of Ireland, with hearts full of loyalty, but overwhelmed with affliction, and depressed by our calamitous and ruined circumstances, beg leave to lay at your majesty's feet some small part of those numerous and insupportable grievances under which we have long groaned, not only without any act of disobedience, but even without murmur or com. plaint; in hopes that our inviolable submission, and unaltered patience under those severe pressures, would fully confute the accusation of seditious principles, with which we have been un. fortunately and unjustly charged.

We are deeply sensible of your majesty's clemency, in moderating the rigorous execution of some of the laws against us: but we humbly beg leave to represent, that several, and those the most severe and distressing of these laws, execute themselves with the most fatal certainty, and that your majesty's clemency cannot, in the smallest degree interpose for their mitigation, otherwise your Roman catholic subjects would most. chearfully acquiesce in that resource, and rest with an absolute and unbounded assurance, on your majesty's princely generosity, and your pious regard to the rights of private consci

ence.

We are, may it please your majesty, a numerous and very industrious part of your majesty's subjects, and yet by no industry, by no honest endeavors on our part, is it in our power to acquire or to hold, almost any secure or permanent property whatsoever; we are not only disqualified to purchase, but are disabled from occupying any land even in farm, except on a tenure extremely scanted both in profit and in time; and if we should venture to expend any thing on the melioration of land thus held, by building, by inclosure, by draining, or by any other species of improvement, so very necessary in this coun

tty; so far would our services be from bettering our fortunes, that these are precisely the very circumstances, which, as the law now stands, must necessarily disqualify us from continuing those farms, for any time in our possession.

Whilst the endeavors of our industry are thus discouraged, (no less, we humbly apprehend, to the detriment of the nati onal prosperity and the diminution of your majesty's revenue, than to our particular ruin) there are a set of men, who, instead of exercising any honest occupation in the commonwealth, make it their employment to pry into our miserable property, to drag us into the courts, and to compel us to confess on our oaths, and under the penalties of perjury, whether we have, in any instance, acquired a property in the smallest degree exceeding what the rigor of the law has admitted; and in such case the informers, without any other merit than that of their discovery, are invested (to the daily ruin of several innocent, industrious families) not only with the surplus in which the law is exceeded, but in the whole body of the estate, and interest so discovered, and it is our grief that this evil is likely to continue and increase, as informers have, in this country, almost worn off the infamy, which in all ages, and in all other countries, have attended their character, and have grown into some repute by the frequency and success of their practices.

And this, most gracious sovereign, thoughr extremely griev. ous, is far from being the only or most oppressive particular, in which our distress is connected with the breach of the rules of honor and morality. By the laws now in force in this kingdom, a son, however undutiful or profligate, shall, meerly by the merit of conforming to the established religion, deprive the Roman catholic father of that free and full possession of his estate, that power to mortgage or otherwise dispose of it, as the exigencies of his affairs may require; but shall himself have full liberty immediately to mortgage or otherwise alienate the reversion of that estate, from his family for ever; a regulation by which a father, contrary to the order of nature, is put under the power of his son, and through which, an early disso. luteness is not only suffered, but encouraged, by giving a pernicious privilege, the frequent use of which, has broken the hearts of many deserving parents, and entailed poverty and

despair, on some of the most ancient and opulent families in this kingdom.

Even when the parent has the good fortune to escape this calamity in his life-time, yet he has at his death, the melancholy and almost certain prospect of leaving neither peace nor fortune to his children; for by that law, which bestows the whole fortune on the first conformist, or, on non-conformity, disperses it among the children, incurable jealousies and animosities have arisen; a total extinction of principle and of natural benevolence has ensued; whilst we are obliged to consider our own offspring and the brothers of our own blood, as our most dangerous enemies; the blessing of providence on our families, in a numerous issue, is converted into the most certain means of their ruin and depravation: we are, most gracious sovereign, neither permitted to enjoy the few broken remains of our patrimonial inheritance, nor by our industry to acquire any secure establishment to our families.

In this deplorable situation, let it not be considered, we earnestly beseech your majesty, as an instance of presumption or discontent, that we thus adventure to lay open to your majes ty's mercy, a very small part of our uncommon sufferings; what we have concealed under a respectful silence, would form a far longer, and full as melancholy a recital; we speak with reluctance, though we feel with anguish; we respect from the bottom of our hearts that legislation under which we suffer; but we humbly conceive it is impossible to procure redress without complaint, or to make a complaint, that by some construction may not appear to convey blame : and nothing, we assure your majesty, should have extorted from us even these complaints, but the strong necessity we find ourselves under of employing every lawful, humble endeavor, lest the whole purpose of our lives and labors should prove only the means of confirming to ourselves, and entailing on our posterity, inevitable beggary, and the most abject servitude; a servitude the most intolerable, as it is suffered amidst that liberty, that peace, and that security, which, under your majesty's benign influence, is spread all around us, and which we alone, of all your majesty's subjects, are rendered incapable of partaking.

In all humility we implore, that our principles may not be