actions at Wexford bridge,* and the barn of Scullaboge.† Let him contemplate the scenes of New Ross and Vinegar-hill! These inhuman atrocities, Sir, which would have disgraced the savages of America, and could only be perpetrated at the instigation of the devil, are well known to have been encouraged by the Popish priests; many of whom personally assisted in them, and whose authority and influence alone could give them birth. And could the priests presume thus to act, without the secret connivance of the bishops? or the latter, without the authority and approbation of Rome? Let the man that is fool enough believe this. Let such men as your correspondent, who appears to be the dupe of every fair story the Papists please to tell of themselves, believe it; but let them not expect men who make use of their understandings, who place more reliance on facts than on fibs, on the truth of positive evidence than on the falsehood of evasions and exculpatory denials, to become volunteers in their faith of Popish purity and innocence.

But I much question the correctness of his statement, as to the actual omission of the obnoxious clause; although the preceding facts render its omission or retention a matter of perfect indifference. My reason for doubting it is this: about six years ago, I publicly charged the Papists with it in a pamphlet, written in reply to their claims. This produced a controversy in the newspapers on the subject; during which, neither bishops nor priests attempted to deny the actual existence of the clause, but merely laboured to soften it down; asserting, in the face of the facts recorded in history, in direct opposition to the evidence of Smithfield in London, and of the inquisitions of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, that to persecute and destroy, meant only to instruct and reclaim! This is exactly of a piece with that sample of hell-born hypocrisy in the holy inquisitorial fathers, who, when they had condemned an innocent follower of Christ to the flames, handed the wretched

*Where 98 out of 100 Protestants, the first division, selected for slaughter, were savagely butchered; and the remaining 2, miraculously saved by the opportune advance of the Protestant army.

+ Here nearly 300 Protestants were shut up, and burned together with the barn.

victim over to the secular power, with a solemn request, that "he might not be injured in life or blood!" When we read of such consummate villany, we involuntarily adore the Divine justice, that has prepared a suitable punishment for its perpetrators. And yet, gracious heaven! there are found advocates in England for their admission into the bosom of the British constitution!

It is impossible, Sir, that we can have stronger or more conclusive evidence than we are in possession of, that the spirit of persecution, and an insatiable thirst for the extirpation of the Protestant religion, and the universal establishment of Popery and Popish domination, at any expense of morality, charity, and even Protestant blood, actuates the bosoms of the present race of Papists, as it did those of their forefathers. The atrocities above alluded to were perpetrated by the present generation. They still secretly breathe the same spirit, and pant for a repetition of those awful scenes. Nay, often in the unguarded moments of inebriation, when prudence slumbers, and" out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh," they are heard to regret the inefficacy of the last struggle for liberty (in 1798); and exultingly to boast that their next effort shall leave neither root nor branch of their opponents: thus demonstrating that their candid spokesman, Dr. Dromgoole, whose declarations your correspondent affects to treat with so much contempt, expressed the real sentiments of their hearts, when he anticipated the downfall of our Protestant church and state; prognosticated its utter destruction, at no distant period; and exulted in the hope of again seeing "a Catholic king, a Catholic parliament, and a Catholic hierarchy, in the British empire." Your correspondent indeed has no ear for these true and faithful representations of Popish feeling; but he can listen to their futile and contemptible declarations of innocence, made in the teeth of the most authenticated and atrocious facts. It is not, Sir, in the hope of convincing such men that I write, for prejudice has placed them beyond the reach of truth; but it is to rescue men of candour and sincerity from the influence of their deceptive arguments and fallacious statements, that I take the trouble of thus refuting them. And the subjcct demands investigation;

for it is closely connected with our best | 1415, notwithstanding the writ of safefeelings and our dearest interests. conduct given him by Sigismund, king of Hungary. The decree was passed, to sanction their own perfidy; and this provision is made for the free and innocent practice of similar acts of atrocious villany, by any member of that immaculate church, to the end of time! These are the real facts of this case; to oppose which, your correspondent alleges, that Spanish merchants have occasionally proved faithful in commercial transactions with the subjects of Great Britain! Every child knows that fidelity, in mercantile intercourse, is essentially necessary to its continuance: policy would, therefore, dictate the expediency of not availing themselves of the liberty granted by their church to the Spanish merchants in such cases. But could your correspondent imagine, that such a case (admitting its existence) would disprove the important fact of the issuing of that decree; of its continuance in force, as unrepealed by the same authority which gave it birth; and the consequent liberty of every Papist in the world, to avail himself of its sanction in the perpetration of any act of treachery, which may again be neces sary for the benefit of his church?

Your worthy correspondent next alludes to an application from Mr. Pitt in the year 1789, to six of the principal Popish Universities; in which he proposed "certain questions respecting those points which had caused the greatest alarm to Protestants." And he gravely assures us, that “the tenets imputed to them were distinctly disclaimed by the whole of these learned bodies; and great surprise was expressed, that a people so intelligent as the English could think such doctrines belonged to any body of Christians!" What those tenets were, we are not informed; but Mr. Pitt must have strangely mistaken his men, if he expected the heads of those houses would constitute him their father confessor, submit to be catechised by him, and make true answers to all such questions as he chose to propose, to their own condemnation! They must have smiled at the weakness and simplicity of the attempt; but there was little danger of their confessing the truth to the Prime Minister of Great Britain. The wonder is, how so wise a politician as Mr. Pitt could expect it; or that he should expose his own weakness and credulity by the attempt. Even your correspondent himself condemns it; for he immediately adds, "I agree with Omega, that we ought not to decide a case upon the evidence of an interested party." Why then does he trouble you and the public with cases which he acknowledges are of no authority?

Equally futile is his effort to rebut the charge, "that it is one of their maxims, that no faith is to be kept with heretics." "This (he says) is disproved by the facts of the case.' What case? Why, one that has no kind of connection with the case in question. The case in question is this; the Popish council of Constance, whose acts are binding on the Romish church, enacted and published the maxim or decree, that no faith is to be kept with heretics;" meaning, thereby, all Protestants. This decree never has been revoked by the infallible authority which enacted it; consequently it is still in full force, and may be acted upon by any member of the Romish church, as it was in the case of John Huss the martyr, who was burned by order of that council in

Your correspondent, Sir, would fain wash out some of the stains of this Ethiopian's skin, or change the spots of this fierce and treacherous leopard; or, failing in that, he would at least cast a veil over his deformities: but, Sir, it will be all labour in vain; the nature of the beast is totally unchangeable, and could his friends and advocates even succeed in their attempts to blanch his skin, yet his vindictive and polluted heart remains the same it ever was. There is no safety in any kind of intercourse with that church, whose destruction God himself hath decreed, and is hastening to accomplish it. And until this is done, his command to us, and to every Protestant nation and church in the world, is, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."* If, in defiance of this command, we open our arms, and take her into our bosom, what can we expect but to partake both of her crimes and her punishment?

Your correspondent proceeds, and says, "The charges that 'the Catholic

*Rev. xviii. 4.

have recently manifested themselves and uniting all their energies against in Spain. Profiting, however, by the their common enemy, the house of example of the sister kingdom, Ferdi- Austria, for the preservation of that nand, that besotted dupe of monkish democratical form of government they influence, opened his eyes just in time had mutually adopted and approved. to save himself and his kingdom from In such a state, the interests of the the horrors of a revolutionary war. two parties could easily be combined But here also Popery and tyranny are upon the basis of mutual toleration falling together: as the standard of and forbearance; principles, however, liberty advances, Popery recedes; and which it appears can only be infused while paralyzed by her triumphant ap- | into the minds of Papists by coercion, proach, the priest relinquishes his though perhaps they may be subsedeadly grasp upon the royal con- quently maintained by policy. The science, and loses his noxious influ- foundation of them in Switzerland ence in the cabinet, tyranny dis- could only be laid in the well-merited appears, and the auspicious moment death of the Popish Austrian tyrant of emancipation is hailed by the Gresler, which was effected by the nation, upon whose political horizon celebrated William Tell; and they the star of liberty is just shooting its were subsequently preserved by a earliest beams. bloody contest of many years' continuance.

To Switzerland your correspondent calls our 66 particular attention," alleging, that its history is a sufficient answer to most that has been objected against Catholic emancipation."* He appears disposed to give the Papists of the Swiss cantons great credit for their peaceable demeanour towards their Protestant countrymen. And, indeed, there is something rather extraordinary in their case; it being quite unusual for Papists with arms in their hands, and liberty to use them, to live in peace and harmony with their Protestant countrymen, and to join with them in the maintenance of their civil liberties. But the mystery admits of an easy solution, by a reference to the history of their fierce and bloody civil wars, during which the two parties contended for superiority; the object of the Protestant party being to maintain their own and their countries' liberties, and that of the Papists to subdue or destroy them. The latter finding, by experience, that it was impossible to overcome the invincible bravery and free spirit of their opponents, reluctantly gave up the contest; and the Protestants wanting nothing but peace and liberty, on the first sight of the olive branch instantly gave their enemies the right hand of fellowship. Both parties at length saw and felt the necessity of healing their internal feuds and animosities,

I confess, however, I should not like to see the same experiment tried in Great Britain. We are at present in the enjoyment of peace; but should we put the Papists upon such a footing as would enable them to contend, with a probability of success, for the attainment of the supreme power of these realms, we are not perfectly sure how the contest might terminate; especially if the Popish powers of France and Spain, as might naturally be expected, should throw their weight into the Popish side of the balance. And in the event of the Protestant interest being subdued in Great Britain, I ask, What security have we that our Popish masters would, in such a case, even divide the government with us? Is your correspondent himself quite sure that they would even give us a constitution formed upon the model of that he so much admires in Switzerland? and are we prepared to surrender our limited monarchy in exchange for it? From the difficulty which might attend any attempt to settle the balance of power between two such opposite parties as Papist and Protestant in such a country, and under such a government as that of Great Britain, to the mutual satisfaction of each party, together with the uncertainty both of the continuance and final issue of the contest, which, on the model of Switzerland, must precede the settlement, I I beg to have it distinctly understood, should conceive it the safest and wisest that I am, and ever have been, a warm and plan to let the power remain where a strenuous advocate for the emancipation of Papists, from the only bondage they are under wise and gracious Providence has placed in the British dominions, namely, the horrible it, giving the poor deluded Papists and disgraceful tyranny of priesteraft.-OMEGA. full liberty to continue to be the di