that they would, to the utmost exertion of their abilities, defend his majesty's person and government with their lives and fortunes against all such invaders and all his enemies*.

No particular notice was taken of these loyal proceedings: but some expressions of general goodwill towards the catholics, were known to have fallen from the lord lieutenant, and both the language and demeanour of persons in power, in their regard, were courteous and conciliatory;-persecution was still severely felt, but it was sensibly alleviated.

XC. 5.

GEORGE III.

It is not a little remarkable that, though such signal acts of legislative beneficence were passed in the reign of his late majesty, in favour of all his catholic subjects, and so great a progress made towards their emancipation, several penal acts of great severity were successively passed against the Irish catholics during the first half of his reign t. The act of the twentyfirst and twenty-second of his reign, deserves particular attention, from a circumstance attending it, which is of extreme importance, but which appears unaccountably to have escaped the observation both of protestants, and what is more astonishing, of catholics, until their attention was • Smollet's History of England.

+ 15 & 16 Geo. III, c. 21, s. 15; 21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 32, s. 2; 21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 48. s. 3; 25 Geo. III, c. 48, s. 11,

called to it by sir Henry Parnell. We shall notice it in that gentleman's own words:

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"Though this clause of the 21 & 22 of Geo. III, c. 48, has attracted very little public attention, "it was of no less import than that, of being the "first legal exclusion of catholics from sitting in "the Irish parliament. They had been excluded "de facto by their voluntary submission to the English act of 3 William and Mary, but not de "jure till this act of 21 & 22 Geo. III, which made "the act of 3 William and Mary, just mentioned, binding in Ireland.

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"This circumstance, which has always been overlooked, even by the catholics themselves, proves how readily they have been inclined at "all times to submit to the authority of govern"ment: and it also proves how unfounded those arguments are, which maintain that the exclusion “of the catholics of Ireland from parliament, is a principle on which the family of his majesty was placed upon the throne. It completely overturns "the system of erroneous reasoning concerning the "coronation oath, which of late has been so com"mon; and, so far as the meaning of this oath "is at issue, it reduces the question to this simple

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point, whether the king can conscientiously place "the catholics of Ireland in the same condition, "with respect to sitting in parliament, in which "they had continued till the twenty-second year of "his own reign?"

In the year 1774, the FIRST ACT was passed which had any conciliatory or friendly tendency

towards the catholics. It was intituled, "An act to "enable his majesty's subjects of whatever persua "sion to testify their allegiance to him *." It prescribed the form of an oath of allegiance, and made it lawful for the catholics to take it before his majesty's judges and justices of the peace; but it did not enjoin them to take the oath under any penalties, or accompany the taking of it with any advantages. It contained the usual expression of pure and undivided allegiance, and was therefore generally taken. Before this time, Mr. Charles O'Conor, the celebrated Irish scholar and antiquarian, doctor Curry, the author of the invaluable" Review of the "Civil Wars of Ireland," and Mr. Wise of Waterford, had succeeded in establishing a general committee of the catholic body, formed of the principal catholic nobility and gentry, and of delegates from the principal parishes. To these three gentlemen, and principally to Mr. O'Conor, the emancipation of the catholics is primarily owing. The formation of the board gave consistency and stability to their councils and measures, and produced a general cooperation of the body.

The effect was soon discernible: a petition, framed by Mr. Edmund Burke, was presented to his majesty, and in 1778 an act† passed, which enabled roman-catholics, who should take the oath of allegiance prescribed by the former act, to hold leases for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, or determinable upon any lives, not exceeding five. The * 13 & 14 Geo. III, c. 35. † 17 & 18 Geo. III, c. 49.

lands of catholics were made deviseable and transferrable, and catholics were rendered capable of holding and enjoying those which might descend or be devised or transferred to them. In 1782, an act* passed for the further relief of the catholics: it contained many provisions in their favour, particularly one, which discharged from all penalties, such catholic ecclesiastics, as should register their names and abodes in the manner it prescribed. Another act of the same year allowed persons professing the popish religion to teach schools t.

"Of the numerous individuals," says sir Henry Parnell ‡," who, at this time, distinguished them"selves for their exertions in favour of the catholics, "there was no one to whom they were under

greater obligations than to the late Mr. Burke. "He wrote for them the petition which was pre"sented to the king in 1774. In the English "house of commons, in 1778, he was the first to "declare the necessity of concessions being made "to them; he said that Ireland was now the chief dependence of the British crown, and that it particularly behoved that country to admit the "Irish nation to the privileges of British citizens;' "and, in the year 1782, he wrote his celebrated "letter to lord Kenmare, in which he so ably exposes the folly, injustice, and tyranny of the "penal laws."

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From this period to the year 1790, the catholic

• 21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 24.

† 21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 62.

History of the Penal Laws, p. 84.

question was not agitated in parliament; but in the mean time two events happened, which materially assisted the catholic cause:-the fear of an invasion from France, and the establishment of the national independence of Ireland. The first produced the embodying of volunteer corps throughout all the kingdom, and these were composed indiscriminately of catholics and protestants.

Insensibly they became an armed association for compelling Great Britain to grant to Ireland the independence of her legislature. In this important attempt the protestants took the lead; and it was evident that the victory would belong to the party, to which the catholics should attach themselves. It was with a view of securing them, that government passed the acts of 1778 and 1782. Their protestant brethren, on the other hand, endeavoured to conciliate them by public resolutions in favour of their complete emancipation. Among these the Dungannon convention, which met in February 1782, and was composed of the representatives of one hundred and forty-three protestant corps of volunteers, deserves particular mention. They resolved, with two dissenting voices only, "that

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they held the right of private judgment, in mat"ters of religion, to be equally sacred in others as "themselves; therefore, that, as christians and

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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."