to grant a charter to incorporate a society empowered to take subscriptions, receive benefactions, make purchases, and hold courts and consultations, to carry out these objects.1 The Queen received the memorial very graciously; but it was deemed prudent not to move further in the matter without consulting the Convocation and the Parliament.2 Meanwhile the Primate of all Ireland and his clergy joined in a subscription for the support of two missionaries to preach in the native tongue to the Romish inhabitants of the diocese of Armagh. The Bishop of Derry and his clergy made a similar effort. Mr. Richardson, the most zealous advocate of the project, was a corresponding member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; and, at his instigation, that association caused an edition of three thousand copies of his Short History of the attempts to convert the Popish natives of Ireland, to be printed for general circulation. A considerable sum was soon raised by subscription: and, in consequence, six thousand copies of the Book of Common Prayer, six thousand copies of the Church Catechism, and six thousand copies of an Exposition of the Catechism—all in Irishissued from the press.3 But, beyond this, the scheme seems to have made little progress. When the Convocation met, the Lower House appeared disposed to patronize it; and passed several resolutions of a favourable character; but when it was brought under the consideration of the prelates, it received so little encouragement that it was eventually abandoned.5 Whilst the lords spiritual, by their apathy or opposition, contrived to extinguish this scheme for the religious instruction of the people, they were resolved to throw every discouragement in the way of Protestant non-conformists. In 1710 the 1 See this memorial in Mant, ii. 220-22. 2 Mant, ii. 223. 3 Ibid. 224. It appears that Mr. Richardson also published in Irish Sermons on the Principal Points of Religion, by Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Beveridge, and others. Nicholson's Irish Historical Library, Preface, xxxviii. Dublin, 1724. 4 Mant, ii. 226. 5 Archbishop King was a zealous promoter of this scheme; but it appears from his letters that it failed in consequence of the "manifest disapprobation" of most of the other bishops. See Mant, ii. 230, 225, 227, 228. Presbyterian ministers of the north, already known as The Synod of Ulster, planned a mission to the native Irish; and it was found, on enquiry, that they had among them ten preachers qualified to address their countrymen in their own tongue.1 But the heartless treatment which they soon afterwards received from persons in authority, backed by the bishops and their clergy, raised up great difficulties in the way of the prosecution of the design.2 Though, ever since the enactment of the Sacramental Test, they had been struggling for its repeal, they had hitherto been completely baffled by the combined influence of the episcopal opposition.3 Among their most unscrupulous assailants was the celebrated Jonathan Swift-created, towards the close of this reign, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. At an early stage of his ecclesiastical career, this divine had taken offence at some of the northern non-conformists who had ventured to express their disapproval of his conduct; and he never afterwards lost an opportunity of attacking them with all the venom of his malignant nature. At a time when religion was at the very lowest ebb, his writings were amazingly popular; for he possessed matchless powers of wit and sarcasm. As a politician, he could not claim the credit of consistency; he had little respect for principle; he could utter the most atrocious falsehoods with the greatest assurance; and he had no pretensions to refinement or elevation of sentiment: but he had a most acute perception of the ridiculous; he was remarkable for shrewd 1 Reid, iii. II. 2 In 1716 they resumed this project, and established in Dundalk a school for teaching the Irish tongue. Reid, iii. 86. They also published an Irish grammar, and an edition of the Shorter Catechism in Irish. Ibid. Shortly afterwards they appointed an Irish-speaking missionary. Reid, iii. 90. 3 Mant, speaking of the Irish Parliament of 1710, says :-"In the Lords the bishops were understood to be unanimously opposed to the repeal, constituting as they did, by reason of the absence of many temporal peers, nearly a moiety of the House." ii. 191. On some occasions they were an actual majority. Mant adds:-"The whole body of the clergy, meanwhile, was utterly hostile to the repeal." Ibid. 4 He was appointed to the deanery by letters patent, dated May 6th, 1713. He was born in Dublin in 1667, and educated at Trinity College. His first preferment was, in 1695, to the prebend of Kilroot, near Carrickfergus. He resigned this in 1698. Cotton's Fasti, iii. 266. He died in October, 1745. VOL. II. Р ness and vigour of mind; and wonderful flashes of genius. glared through his invectives. His irony scorched like fire; and, when his wrath was kindled, he had no pity on his victim. At one time he wielded immense influence as a political pamphleteer: and, though he never attained a bishopric himself-simply because he had ridiculed the Queen's favourite, the Duchess of Somerset, and the lady could never forgive his indiscreet allusion to her red hair2-it is well known that Government, in this reign, deferred to his wishes even in episcopal appointments. Towards the close of the year 1708 he published anonymously a letter concerning the Sacramental Test; and, with his characteristic disregard to truth, he described it as written by "a member of the House of Commons in Ireland to a member of the House of Commons in England." In this production he holds up the non-conformists to contempt in his most flippant style of vituperation; and contends that, with safety to the country, they could not be admitted to civil or military offices. Other writers of less ability, but equally bitter and exclusive, protested, in various forms, against the repeal of the offensive enactment. These hostile demonstrations served to keep up a spirit of sectarian animosity; but they were scarcely required to stimulate the opposition of the Legislature; as, from the Irish Parliament, there was little prospect of any relief for the Presbyterians.* 1 A very just estimate of the character of Swift may be found in a work edited by the late Rev. Dr. James Hamilton, of London, entitled Excelsior, vol. iv., pp. 169-183. London, 1855. 2"He made a direct attempt to get her (the Queen) to discharge her favourite, the Duchess of Somerset, in a copy of verses addressed to the Queen, the most bitter with regard to the Duchess, perhaps, that ever was penned, called The Windsor Prophecy. Elsewhere he speaks thus of the lady in verses on himself :'From her red locks her mouth with venom fills, And thence into the royal ear distils, The Queen incensed, his (Swift's) services forgot, -See Life of Swift, by Sheridan, p. 128. Dublin, 1785. 3 See Mant, ii. 246-267. 4 Mr. Doddington, Secretary to the Irish Viceroy, in a letter dated August 14th, 1707, says: "This Parliament is made up of two-thirds as High Churchmen as any in England." See O'Flanagan's Lord Chancellors of Ireland, ii. 7. London, 1870. Very shortly after Anne ascended the throne, the Irish senators-Commons as well as Lords-exhibited their antipathy to non-conformity; and, as this reign approached its close, their enmity assumed a more decided and dangerous character. Towards the end of the year 1711, a committee of the Upper House, consisting of thirteen bishops and eleven lay lords, was appointed to draw up a representation and address to the Queen relating to the Dissenting1 ministers of the kingdom. The paper, with some slight alterations, was adopted, and ordered to be laid before Her Majesty.2 The memorialists, in this extraordinary document, express themselves in the style of injured innocence; and complain most pathetically of the grievances inflicted on them by the Presbyterians! The latter had now no political power; they had been driven out of all the corporations, expelled from the magistracy, deprived of all offices in the customs and excise, and even refused any legal sanction for the celebration of their worship; and yet they are described as "exercising great severities towards their conforming neighbours by denying them common offices of humanity, and by threatening and actually ruining many who, in compliance with their consciences, had left their sect." There had been in Drogheda a small Presbyterian congregation; but it had been long without a minister; and an attempt had recently been made to supply it once more with Presbyterian ordinances. The Rev. Dr. Cox, the vicar of the parish, resented the preaching of the non-conforming ministers within his borders as an intrusion; and, at his instigation, the Rev. James Flemingone of the members of the Synod of Ulster who had officiated. in a private dwelling-house in the town-was arrested, and bound over to stand his trial at the next assizes, for what was most absurdly called "a riot and unlawful assembly."5 The Lord 1 Irish Presbyterians often objected to the name Dissenters as applied to them. They never properly belonged to the Episcopal Church, and were quite equal to it in point of antiquity. On the same ground Romanists did not care to be called Dissenters. 2 Reid, iii. 16. 3 Ibid. 17. 4 He was Dean of Ferns and Leighlin, and Vicar of St. Peter's, Drogheda. Cotton's Fasti, ii. 350. 5 Reid, iii. 3, 4. 2 Lieutenant had, however, interfered and stopped the prosecution; and the petitioners refer to this case in their memorial, and complain of the chief governor for delivering Mr. Fleming out of his difficulties. But their monster grievance was the grant of the Regium Donum. They alleged that it was applied "to the propagation of schism, the undermining of the Church, and the disturbance of the peace and unanimity of the conformists." By means of it, they affirmed, the Presbyterians "supported lawsuits against the Church, formed seminaries to the poisoning of the principles of youth,1 and set up synods and judicatories destructive of Her Majesty's prerogative." Not content with forwarding this representation to the Queen, the Lords ordered it to be printed, that it might be widely circulated, and that the hardships of the unhappy Episcopalians might awaken the deeper commiseration. At the same time they very emphatically proclaimed their aversion to the literature of the non-conformists. The Rev. Joseph Boyse, one of the Presbyterian ministers of Dublin, had been long known as an accomplished polemic; and had more than once successfully encountered the very ablest champions of episcopacy in theological discussion. He had recently published a volume of sermons; and, among the rest, a learned discourse on the office of a scriptural bishop. We may well suppose that no one could have recognized, in his portrait of a bishop, the features of any Irish Church dignitary. But instead of requesting one or other of their Most Reverend or Right Reverend Fathers to confront the author, the Lords adopted a more summary mode of dealing with his performance. To show their detestation of it, they ordered the book to be burned before the Tholsel, or City Hall, in Dublin, by the common hangman, on the ground that it was "false and scandalous, and contained matters There was at this time what was 1 These charges were without foundation. called "a philosophy school" at Killileagh, conducted by the Rev. John McAlpine, a Presbyterian minister, where candidates for the sacred office, as well as others, could receive a portion of their education; but this seminary was otherwise supported. See Reid, ii. 477. There had been similar establishments in the reign of Charles II. at Antrim and Newtonards. Reid, ii. 336. 2 Ibid. iii. 18. |