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diff --git a/old/ptpml10.txt b/old/ptpml10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a07f770 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ptpml10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5334 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Peter Plymley's Letters etc., by Sydney Smith +#1 in our series by Sydney Smith + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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His mother was of a +French family from Languedoc, that had been driven to England by the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Sydney Smith's grandfather, upon +the mother's side, could speak no English, and he himself ascribed +some of his gaiety to the French blood in his veins. + +He was one of four sons. His eldest brother Robert--known as Bobus- +-was sent to Eton, where he joined Canning, Frere, and John Smith, +in writing the Eton magazine, the Microcosm; and at Cambridge Bobus +afterwards was known as a fine Latin scholar. Sydney Smith went +first to a school at Southampton, and then to Winchester, where he +became captain of the school. Then he was sent for six months to +Normandy for a last polish to his French before he went on to New +College, Oxford. When he had obtained his fellowship there, his +father left him to his own resources. His eldest brother had been +trained for the bar, his two younger brothers were sent out to +India, and Sydney, against his own wish, yielded to the strong +desire of his father that he should take orders as a clergyman. +Accordingly, in 1794, he became curate of the small parish of +Netherhaven, in Wiltshire. Meat came to Netherhaven only once a +week in a butcher's cart from Salisbury, and the curate often dined +upon potatoes flavoured with ketchup. + +The only educated neighbour was Mr. Hicks Beach, the squire, who at +first formally invited the curate to dinner on Sundays, and soon +found his wit, sense, and high culture so delightful, that the +acquaintance ripened into friendship. After two years in the +curacy, Sydney Smith gave it up and went abroad with the squire's +son. "When first I went into the Church," he wrote afterwards, "I +had a curacy in the middle of Salisbury Plain; the parish was +Netherhaven, near Amesbury. The squire of the parish, Mr. Beach, +took a fancy to me, and after I had served it two years, he engaged +me as tutor to his eldest son, and it was arranged that I and his +son should proceed to the University of Weimar in Saxony. We set +out, but before reaching our destination Germany was disturbed by +war, and, in stress of politics, we put into Edinburgh, where I +remained five years." + +Young Michael Beach, who had little taste for study, lived with +Sydney Smith as his tutor, and found him a wise guide and pleasant +friend. When Michael went to the University, his brother William +was placed under the same good care. Sydney Smith, about the same +time, went to London to be married. His wife's rich brother +quarrelled with her for marrying a man who said that his only +fortune consisted in six small silver teaspoons. One day after +their happy marriage he ran in to his wife and threw them in her +lap, saying, "There, Kate, you lucky girl, I give you all my +fortune!" The lucky girl had a small fortune of her own which her +husband had strictly secured to herself and her children. Mr. Beach +recognised the value of Sydney Smith's influence over his son by a +wedding gift of 750 pounds. In 1802 a daughter was born, and in the +same year Sydney Smith joined Francis Jeffrey and other friends, who +then maintained credit for Edinburgh as the Modern Athens, in the +founding of The Edinburgh Review, to which the papers in this +volume, added to the Peter Plymley Letters, were contributed. The +Rev. Sydney Smith preached sometimes in the Episcopal Church at +Edinburgh, and presently had, in addition to William Beach, a son of +Mr. Gordon, of Ellon Castle, placed under his care, receiving 400 +pounds a year for each of the young men. + +In 1803 Sydney Smith left Edinburgh for London, where he wrote +busily in The Edinburgh Review, but remained poor for many years. +His wit brought friends, and the marriage of his eldest brother with +Lord Holland's aunt quickened the growth of a strong friendship with +Lord Holland. Through the good offices of Lord Holland, Sydney +Smith obtained, in 1806, aged thirty-five, the living of Foston-le- +Clay, in Yorkshire. In the next year appeared the first letter of +Peter Plymley to his brother Abraham on the subject of the Irish +Catholics. + +These letters fell, we are told, like sparks on a heap of gunpowder. +All London, and soon all England, was alive to the sound reason +recommended by a lively wit. Sydney Smith lived to be recognised as +first among the social wits, and it was always the chief praise of +his wit that wisdom was the soul of it. Peter Plymley's letters, +and Sydney Smith's articles on the same subject in The Edinburgh +Review were the most powerful aids furnished by the pen to the +solution of the burning question of their time. Lord Murray called +the Plymley letters "after Pascal's letters the most instructive +piece of wisdom in the form of irony ever written." Worldly wealth +came later; but in wit, wisdom, and kindly helpful cheerfulness, +from youth to age, Sydney Smith's life was rich. + +H. M. + + + +LETTERS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CATHOLICS. +TO MY BROTHER ABRAHAM, +WHO LIVES IN THE COUNTRY. +BY PETER PLYMLEY. + + + +LETTER I. + + + +Dear Abraham,--A worthier and better man than yourself does not +exist; but I have always told you, from the time of our boyhood, +that you were a bit of a goose. Your parochial affairs are governed +with exemplary order and regularity; you are as powerful in the +vestry as Mr. Perceval is in the House of Commons,--and, I must say, +with much more reason; nor do I know any church where the faces and +smock-frocks of the congregation are so clean, or their eyes so +uniformly directed to the preacher. There is another point, upon +which I will do you ample justice; and that is, that the eyes so +directed towards you are wide open; for the rustic has, in general, +good principles, though he cannot control his animal habits; and, +however loud he may snore, his face is perpetually turned towards +the fountain of orthodoxy. + +Having done you this act of justice, I shall proceed, according to +our ancient intimacy and familiarity, to explain to you my opinions +about the Catholics, and to reply to yours. + +In the first place, my sweet Abraham, the Pope is not landed--nor +are there any curates sent out after him--nor has he been hid at St. +Albans by the Dowager Lady Spencer--nor dined privately at Holland +House--nor been seen near Dropmore. If these fears exist (which I +do not believe), they exist only in the mind of the Chancellor of +the Exchequer; they emanate from his zeal for the Protestant +interest; and, though they reflect the highest honour upon the +delicate irritability of his faith, must certainly be considered as +more ambiguous proofs of the sanity and vigour of his understanding. +By this time, however, the best-informed clergy in the neighbourhood +of the metropolis are convinced that the rumour is without +foundation; and though the Pope is probably hovering about our coast +in a fishing-smack, it is most likely he will fall a prey to the +vigilance of our cruisers; and it is certain that he has not yet +polluted the Protestantism of our soil. + +Exactly in the same manner, the story of the wooden gods seized at +Charing Cross, by an order from the Foreign Office, turns out to be +without the shadow of a foundation; instead of the angels and +archangels, mentioned by the informer, nothing was discovered but a +wooden image of Lord Mulgrave, going down to Chatham, as a head- +piece for the Spanker gun-vessel; it was an exact resemblance of his +Lordship in his military uniform; and THEREFORE as little like a god +as can well be imagined. + +Having set your fears at rest, as to the extent of the conspiracy +formed against the Protestant religion, I will now come to the +argument itself. + +You say these men interpret the scriptures in an unorthodox manner, +and that they eat their god.--Very likely. All this may seem very +important to you, who live fourteen miles from a market-town, and, +from long residence upon your living, are become a kind of holy +vegetable; and in a theological sense it is highly important. But I +want soldiers and sailors for the state; I want to make a greater +use than I now can do of a poor country full of men; I want to +render the military service popular among the Irish; to check the +power of France; to make every possible exertion for the safety of +Europe, which in twenty years' time will be nothing but a mass of +French slaves: and then you, and ten other such boobies as you, +call out--"For God's sake, do not think of raising cavalry and +infantry in Ireland! . . . They interpret the Epistle to Timothy in +a different manner from what we do! . . . They eat a bit of wafer +every Sunday, which they call their God!" . . . I wish to my soul +they would eat you, and such reasoners as you are. What! when Turk, +Jew, Heretic, Infidel, Catholic, Protestant, are all combined +against this country; when men of every religious persuasion, and no +religious persuasion; when the population of half the globe is up in +arms against us; are we to stand examining our generals and armies +as a bishop examines a candidate for holy orders; and to suffer no +one to bleed for England who does not agree with you about the +second of Timothy? You talk about the Catholics! If you and your +brotherhood have been able to persuade the country into a +continuation of this grossest of all absurdities, you have ten times +the power which the Catholic clergy ever had in their best days. +Louis XIV., when he revoked the Edict of Nantes, never thought of +preventing the Protestants from fighting his battles; and gained +accordingly some of his most splendid victories by the talents of +his Protestant generals. No power in Europe, but yourselves, has +ever thought for these hundred years past, of asking whether a +bayonet is Catholic, or Presbyterian or Lutheran; but whether it is +sharp and well-tempered. A bigot delights in public ridicule; for +he begins to think he is a martyr. I can promise you the full +enjoyment of this pleasure, from one extremity of Europe to the +other. + +I am as disgusted with the nonsense of the Roman Catholic religion +as you can be: and no man who talks such nonsense shall ever tithe +the product of the earth, nor meddle with the ecclesiastical +establishment in any shape; but what have I to do with the +speculative nonsense of his theology, when the object is to elect +the mayor of a county town, or to appoint a colonel of a marching +regiment? Will a man discharge the solemn impertinences of the one +office with less zeal, or shrink from the bloody boldness of the +other with greater timidity, because the blockhead thinks he can eat +angels in muffins and chew a spiritual nature in the crumpets which +he buys from the baker's shop? I am sorry there should be such +impious folly in the world, but I should be ten times a greater fool +than he is, if I refused, till he had made a solemn protestation +that the crumpet was spiritless and the muffin nothing but a human +muffin, to lead him out against the enemies of the state. Your +whole argument is wrong: the state has nothing whatever to do with +theological errors which do not violate the common rules of +morality, and militate against the fair power of the ruler: it +leaves all these errors to you, and to such as you. You have every +tenth porker in your parish for refuting them; and take care that +you are vigilant and logical in the task. + +I love the Church as well as you do; but you totally mistake the +nature of an establishment, when you contend that it ought to be +connected with the military and civil career of every individual in +the state. It is quite right that there should be one clergyman to +every parish interpreting the Scriptures after a particular manner, +ruled by a regular hierarchy, and paid with a rich proportion of +haycocks and wheatsheafs. When I have laid this foundation for a +rational religion in the state--when I have placed ten thousand +well-educated men in different parts of the kingdom to preach it up, +and compelled everybody to pay them, whether they hear them or not-- +I have taken such measures as I know must always procure an immense +majority in favour of the Established Church; but I can go no +further. I cannot set up a civil inquisition, and say to one, you +shall not be a butcher, because you are not orthodox; and prohibit +another from brewing, and a third from administering the law, and a +fourth from defending the country. If common justice did not +prohibit me from such a conduct, common sense would. The advantage +to be gained by quitting the heresy would make it shameful to +abandon it; and men who had once left the Church would continue in +such a state of alienation from a point of honour, and transmit that +spirit to their latest posterity. This is just the effect your +disqualifying laws have produced. They have fed Dr. Rees, and Dr. +Kippis; crowded the congregations of the Old Jewry to suffocation: +and enabled every sublapsarian, and superlapsarian, and semi- +pelagian clergyman, to build himself a neat brick chapel, and live +with some distant resemblance to the state of a gentleman. + +You say the King's coronation oath will not allow him to consent to +any relaxation of the Catholic laws.--Why not relax the Catholic +laws as well as the laws against Protestant dissenters? If one is +contrary to his oath, the other must be so too; for the spirit of +the oath is, to defend the Church establishment, which the Quaker +and the Presbyterian differ from as much or more than the Catholic; +and yet his Majesty has repealed the Corporation and Test Act in +Ireland, and done more for the Catholics of both kingdoms than had +been done for them since the Reformation. In 1778 the ministers +said nothing about the royal conscience; in 1793 no conscience; in +1804 no conscience; the common feeling of humanity and justice then +seem to have had their fullest influence upon the advisers of the +Crown; but in 1807--a year, I suppose, eminently fruitful in moral +and religious scruples (as some years are fruitful in apples, some +in hops),--it is contended by the well-paid John Bowles, and by Mr. +Perceval (who tried to be well paid), that this is now perjury which +we had hitherto called policy and benevolence. Religious liberty +has never made such a stride as under the reign of his present +Majesty; nor is there any instance in the annals of our history, +where so many infamous and damnable laws have been repealed as those +against the Catholics which have been put an end to by him; and +then, at the close of this useful policy, his advisers discover that +the very measures of concession and indulgence, or (to use my own +language) the measures of justice, which he has been pursuing +through the whole of his reign, are contrary to the oath he takes at +its commencement! That oath binds his Majesty not to consent to any +measure contrary to the interest of the Established Church; but who +is to judge of the tendency of each particular measure? Not the +King alone: it can never be the intention of this law that the +King, who listens to the advice of his Parliament upon a read bill, +should reject it upon the most important of all measures. Whatever +be his own private judgment of the tendency of any ecclesiastical +bill, he complies most strictly with his oath, if he is guided in +that particular point by the advice of his Parliament, who may be +presumed to understand its tendency better than the King, or any +other individual. You say, if Parliament had been unanimous in +their opinion of the absolute necessity for Lord Howick's bill, and +the King had thought it pernicious, he would have been perjured if +he had not rejected it. I say, on the contrary, his Majesty would +have acted in the most conscientious manner, and have complied most +scrupulously with his oath, if he had sacrificed his own opinion to +the opinion of the great council of the nation; because the +probability was that such opinion was better than his own; and upon +the same principle, in common life, you give up your opinion to your +physician, your lawyer, and your builder. + +You admit this bill did not compel the King to elect Catholic +officers, but only gave him the option of doing so if he pleased; +but you add, that the King was right in not trusting such dangerous +power to himself or his successors. Now you are either to suppose +that the King for the time being has a zeal for the Catholic +establishment, or that he has not. If he has not, where is the +danger of giving such an option? If you suppose that he may be +influenced by such an admiration of the Catholic religion, why did +his present Majesty, in the year 1804, consent to that bill which +empowered the Crown to station ten thousand Catholic soldiers in any +part of the kingdom, and place them absolutely at the disposal of +the Crown? If the King of England for the time being is a good +Protestant, there can be no danger in making the Catholic ELIGIBLE +to anything: if he is not, no power can possibly be so dangerous as +that conveyed by the bill last quoted; to which, in point of peril, +Lord Howick's bill is a mere joke. But the real fact is, one bill +opened a door to his Majesty's advisers for trick, jobbing, and +intrigue; the other did not. + +Besides, what folly to talk to me of an oath, which, under all +possible circumstances, is to prevent the relaxation of the Catholic +laws! for such a solemn appeal to God sets all conditions and +contingencies at defiance. Suppose Bonaparte was to retrieve the +only very great blunder he has made, and were to succeed, after +repeated trials, in making an impression upon Ireland, do you think +we should hear any thing of the impediment of a coronation oath? or +would the spirit of this country tolerate for an hour such +ministers, and such unheard-of nonsense, if the most distant +prospect existed of conciliating the Catholics by every species even +of the most abject concession? And yet, if your argument is good +for anything, the coronation oath ought to reject, at such a moment, +every tendency to conciliation, and to bind Ireland for ever to the +crown of France. + +I found in your letter the usual remarks about fire, fagot, and +bloody Mary. Are you aware, my dear Priest, that there were as many +persons put to death for religious opinions under the mild Elizabeth +as under the bloody Mary? The reign of the former was, to be sure, +ten times as long; but I only mention the fact, merely to show you +that something depends upon the age in which men live, as well as on +their religious opinions. Three hundred years ago men burnt and +hanged each other for these opinions. Time has softened Catholic as +well as Protestant: they both required it; though each perceives +only his own improvement, and is blind to that of the other. We are +all the creatures of circumstances. I know not a kinder and better +man than yourself; but you, if you had lived in those times, would +certainly have roasted your Catholic: and I promise you, if the +first exciter of this religious mob had been as powerful then as he +is now, you would soon have been elevated to the mitre. I do not go +the length of saying that the world has suffered as much from +Protestant as from Catholic persecution; far from it: but you +should remember the Catholics had all the power, when the idea first +started up in the world that there could be two modes of faith; and +that it was much more natural they should attempt to crush this +diversity of opinion by great and cruel efforts, than that the +Protestants should rage against those who differed from them, when +the very basis of their system was complete freedom in all spiritual +matters. + +I cannot extend my letter any further at present, but you shall soon +hear from me again. You tell me I am a party man. I hope I shall +always be so, when I see my country in the hands of a pert London +joker and a second-rate lawyer. Of the first, no other good is +known than that he makes pretty Latin verses; the second seems to me +to have the head of a country parson and the tongue of an Old Bailey +lawyer. + +If I could see good measures pursued, I care not a farthing who is +in power; but I have a passionate love for common justice, and for +common sense, and I abhor and despise every man who builds up his +political fortune upon their ruin. + +God bless you, reverend Abraham, and defend you from the Pope, and +all of us from that administration who seek power by opposing a +measure which Burke, Pitt, and Fox all considered as absolutely +necessary to the existence of the country. + + + +LETTER II. + + + +Dear Abraham,--The Catholic not respect an oath! why not? What upon +earth has kept him out of Parliament, or excluded him from all the +offices whence he is excluded, but his respect for oaths? There is +no law which prohibits a Catholic to sit in Parliament. There could +be no such law; because it is impossible to find out what passes in +the interior of any man's mind. Suppose it were in contemplation to +exclude all men from certain offices who contended for the legality +of taking tithes: the only mode of discovering that fervid love of +decimation which I know you to possess would be to tender you an +oath "against that damnable doctrine, that it is lawful for a +spiritual man to take, abstract, appropriate, subduct, or lead away +the tenth calf, sheep, lamb, ox, pigeon, duck," &c., &c., &c., and +every other animal that ever existed, which of course the lawyers +would take care to enumerate. Now this oath I am sure you would +rather die than take; and so the Catholic is excluded from +Parliament because he will not swear that he disbelieves the leading +doctrines of his religion! The Catholic asks you to abolish some +oaths which oppress him; your answer is that he does not respect +oaths. Then why subject him to the test of oaths? The oaths keep +him out of Parliament; why, then, he respects them. Turn which way +you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the Catholic is bound by +religious obligations as you are; but no eel in the well-sanded fist +of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, ever twisted and +writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is compelled by the gripe +of reason to admit anything in favour of a dissenter. + +I will not dispute with you whether the Pope be or be not the +Scarlet Lady of Babylon. I hope it is not so; because I am afraid +it will induce His Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer to +introduce several severe bills against popery, if that is the case; +and though he will have the decency to appoint a previous committee +of inquiry as to the fact, the committee will be garbled, and the +report inflammatory. Leaving this to be settled as he pleases to +settle it, I wish to inform you, that, previously to the bill last +passed in favour of the Catholics, at the suggestion of Mr. Pitt, +and for his satisfaction, the opinions of six of the most celebrated +of the foreign Catholic universities were taken as to the right of +the Pope to interfere in the temporal concerns of any country. The +answer cannot possibly leave the shadow of a doubt, even in the mind +of Baron Maseres; and Dr. Rennel would be compelled to admit it, if +three Bishops lay dead at the very moment the question were put to +him. To this answer might be added also the solemn declaration and +signature of all the Catholics in Great Britain. + +I should perfectly agree with you, if the Catholics admitted such a +dangerous dispensing power in the hands of the Pope; but they all +deny it, and laugh at it, and are ready to abjure it in the most +decided manner you can devise. They obey the Pope as the spiritual +head of their Church; but are you really so foolish as to be imposed +upon by mere names? What matters it the seven-thousandth part of a +farthing who is the spiritual head of any Church? Is not Mr. +Wilberforce at the head of the Church of Clapham? Is not Dr. Letsom +at the head of the Quaker Church? Is not the General Assembly at +the head of the Church of Scotland? How is the government disturbed +by these many-headed Churches? or in what way is the power of the +Crown augmented by this almost nominal dignity? + +The King appoints a fast-day once a year, and he makes the bishops: +and if the government would take half the pains to keep the +Catholics out of the arms of France that it does to widen Temple +Bar, or improve Snow Hill, the King would get into his hands the +appointments of the titular Bishops of Ireland. Both Mr. C-'s +sisters enjoy pensions more than sufficient to place the two +greatest dignitaries of the Irish Catholic Church entirely at the +disposal of the Crown. + +Everybody who knows Ireland knows perfectly well, that nothing would +be easier, with the expenditure of a little money, than to preserve +enough of the ostensible appointment in the hands of the Pope to +satisfy the scruples of the Catholics, while the real nomination +remained with the Crown. But, as I have before said, the moment the +very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to +common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with +the barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots. + +Whatever your opinion may be of the follies of the Roman Catholic +religion, remember they are the follies of four millions of human +beings, increasing rapidly in numbers, wealth, and intelligence, +who, if firmly united with this country, would set at defiance the +power of France, and if once wrested from their alliance with +England, would in three years render its existence as an independent +nation absolutely impossible. You speak of danger to the +Establishment: I request to know when the Establishment was ever so +much in danger as when Hoche was in Bantry Bay, and whether all the +books of Bossuet, or the arts of the Jesuits, were half so terrible? +Mr. Perceval and his parsons forget all this, in their horror lest +twelve or fourteen old women may be converted to holy water and +Catholic nonsense. They never see that, while they are saving these +venerable ladies from perdition, Ireland may be lost, England broken +down, and the Protestant Church, with all its deans, prebendaries, +Percevals, and Rennels, be swept into the vortex of oblivion. + +Do not, I beseech you, ever mention to me again the name of Dr. +Duigenan. I have been in every corner of Ireland, and have studied +its present strength and condition with no common labour. Be +assured Ireland does not contain at this moment less than five +millions of people. There were returned in the year 1791 to the +hearth tax 701,000 houses, and there is no kind of question that +there were about 50,000 houses omitted in that return. Taking, +however, only the number returned for the tax, and allowing the +average of six to a house (a very small average for a potato-fed +people), this brings the population to 4,200,000 people in the year +1791: and it can be shown from the clearest evidence (and Mr. +Newenham in his book shows it), that Ireland for the last fifty +years has increased in its population at the rate of 50 or 60,000 +per annum; which leaves the present population of Ireland at about +five millions, after every possible deduction for EXISTING +CIRCUMSTANCES, JUST AND NECESSARY WARS, MONSTROUS AND UNNATURAL +REBELLIONS, and all other sources of human destruction. Of this +population, two out of ten are Protestants; and the half of the +Protestant population are Dissenters, and as inimical to the Church +as the Catholics themselves. In this state of things thumbscrews +and whipping--admirable engines of policy as they must be considered +to be--will not ultimately avail. The Catholics will hang over you; +they will watch for the moment, and compel you hereafter to give +them ten times as much, against your will, as they would now be +contented with, if it were voluntarily surrendered. Remember what +happened in the American war, when Ireland compelled you to give her +everything she asked, and to renounce, in the most explicit manner, +your claim of Sovereignty over her. God Almighty grant the folly of +these present men may not bring on such another crisis of public +affairs! + +What are your dangers which threaten the Establishment?--Reduce this +declamation to a point, and let us understand what you mean. The +most ample allowance does not calculate that there would be more +than twenty members who were Roman Catholics in one house, and ten +in the other, if the Catholic emancipation were carried into effect. +Do you mean that these thirty members would bring in a bill to take +away the tithes from the Protestant, and to pay them to the Catholic +clergy? Do you mean that a Catholic general would march his army +into the House of Commons, and purge it of Mr. Perceval and Dr. +Duigenan? or, that the theological writers would become all of a +sudden more acute or more learned, if the present civil incapacities +were removed? Do you fear for your tithes, or your doctrines, or +your person, or the English Constitution? Every fear, taken +separately, is so glaringly absurd, that no man has the folly or the +boldness to state it. Every one conceals his ignorance, or his +baseness, in a stupid general panic, which, when called on, he is +utterly incapable of explaining. Whatever you think of the +Catholics, there they are--you cannot get rid of them; your +alternative is to give them a lawful place for stating their +grievances, or an unlawful one: if you do not admit them to the +House of Commons, they will hold their parliament in Potatoe Place, +Dublin, and be ten times as violent and inflammatory as they would +be in Westminster. Nothing would give me such an idea of security +as to see twenty or thirty Catholic gentlemen in Parliament, looked +upon by all the Catholics as the fair and proper organ of their +party. I should have thought it the height of good fortune that +such a wish existed on their part, and the very essence of madness +and ignorance to reject it. Can you murder the Catholics? Can you +neglect them? They are too numerous for both these expedients. +What remains to be done is obvious to every human being--but to that +man who, instead of being a Methodist preacher, is, for the curse of +us and our children, and for the ruin of Troy and the misery of good +old Priam and his sons, become a legislator and a politician. + +A distinction, I perceive, is taken by one of the most feeble +noblemen in Great Britain, between persecution and the deprivation +of political power; whereas, there is no more distinction between +these two things than there is between him who makes the distinction +and a booby. If I strip off the relic-covered jacket of a Catholic, +and give him twenty stripes . . . I persecute; if I say, Everybody +in the town where you live shall be a candidate for lucrative and +honourable offices, but you, who are a Catholic . . . I do not +persecute! What barbarous nonsense is this! as if degradation was +not as great an evil as bodily pain or as severe poverty: as if I +could not be as great a tyrant by saying, You shall not enjoy--as by +saying, You shall suffer. The English, I believe, are as truly +religious as any nation in Europe; I know no greater blessing; but +it carries with it this evil in its train, that any villain who will +bawl out, "The Church is in danger!" may get a place and a good +pension; and that any administration who will do the same thing may +bring a set of men into power who, at a moment of stationary and +passive piety, would be hooted by the very boys in the streets. But +it is not all religion; it is, in great part, the narrow and +exclusive spirit which delights to keep the common blessings of sun +and air and freedom from other human beings. "Your religion has +always been degraded; you are in the dust, and I will take care you +never rise again. I should enjoy less the possession of an earthly +good by every additional person to whom it was extended." You may +not be aware of it yourself, most reverend Abraham, but you deny +their freedom to the Catholics upon the same principle that Sarah +your wife refuses to give the receipt for a ham or a gooseberry +dumpling: she values her receipts, not because they secure to her a +certain flavour, but because they remind her that her neighbours +want it:- a feeling laughable in a priestess, shameful in a priest; +venial when it withholds the blessings of a ham, tyrannical and +execrable when it narrows the boon of religious freedom. + +You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present +prime minister. Grant you all that you write--I say, I fear he will +ruin Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true +interest of his country: and then you tell me, he is faithful to +Mrs. Perceval, and kind to the Master Percevals! These are, +undoubtedly, the first qualifications to be looked to in a time of +the most serious public danger; but somehow or another (if public +and private virtues must always be incompatible), I should prefer +that he destroyed the domestic happiness of Wood or Cockell, owed +for the veal of the preceding year, whipped his boys, and saved his +country. + +The late administration did not do right; they did not build their +measures upon the solid basis of facts. They should have caused +several Catholics to have been dissected after death by surgeons of +either religion; and the report to have been published with +accompanying plates. If the viscera, and other organs of life, had +been found to be the same as in Protestant bodies; if the provisions +of nerves, arteries, cerebrum, and cerebellum, had been the same as +we are provided with, or as the Dissenters are now known to possess; +then, indeed, they might have met Mr. Perceval upon a proud +eminence, and convinced the country at large of the strong +probability that the Catholics are really human creatures, endowed +with the feelings of men, and entitled to all their rights. But +instead of this wise and prudent measure, Lord Howick, with his +usual precipitation, brings forward a bill in their favour, without +offering the slightest proof to the country that they were anything +more than horses and oxen. The person who shows the lama at the +corner of Piccadilly has the precaution to write up--ALLOWED BY SIR +JOSEPH BANKS TO BE A REAL QUADRUPED, so his Lordship might have +said--ALLOWED BY THE BENCH OF BISHOPS TO BE REAL HUMAN CREATURES. . +. . I could write you twenty letters upon this subject; but I am +tired, and so I suppose are you. Our friendship is now of forty +years' standing; you know me to be a truly religious man; but I +shudder to see religion treated like a cockade, or a pint of beer, +and made the instrument of a party. I love the king, but I love the +people as well as the king; and if I am sorry to see his old age +molested, I am much more sorry to see four millions of Catholics +baffled in their just expectations. If I love Lord Grenville, and +Lord Howick, it is because they love their country; if I abhor . . . +it is because I know there is but one man among them who is not +laughing at the enormous folly and credulity of the country, and +that he is an ignorant and mischievous bigot. As for the light and +frivolous jester, of whom it is your misfortune to think so highly, +learn, my dear Abraham, that this political Killigrew, just before +the breaking-up of the last administration, was in actual treaty +with them for a place; and if they had survived twenty-four hours +longer, he would have been now declaiming against the cry of No +Popery! instead of inflaming it. With this practical comment on the +baseness of human nature, I bid you adieu! + + + +LETTER III. + + + +All that I have so often told you, Mr. Abraham Plymley, is now come +to pass. The Scythians, in whom you and the neighbouring country +gentleman placed such confidence, are smitten hip and thigh; their +Beningsen put to open shame; their magazines of train oil +intercepted, and we are waking from our disgraceful drunkenness to +all the horrors of Mr. Perceval and Mr Canning . . . We shall now +see if a nation is to be saved by school-boy jokes and doggrel +rhymes, by affronting petulance, and by the tones and gesticulations +of Mr. Pitt. But these are not all the auxiliaries on which we have +to depend; to these his colleague will add the strictest attention +to the smaller parts of ecclesiastical government, to hassocks, to +psalters, and to surplices; in the last agonies of England, he will +bring in a bill to regulate Easter-offerings: and he will adjust +the stipends of curates, when the flag of France is unfurled on the +hills of Kent. Whatever can be done by very mistaken notions of the +piety of a Christian, and by a very wretched imitation of the +eloquence of Mr. Pitt, will be done by these two gentlemen. After +all, if they both really were what they both either wish to be, or +wish to be thought; if the one were an enlightened Christian who +drew from the Gospel the toleration, the charity, and the sweetness +which it contains; and if the other really possessed any portion of +the great understanding of his Nisus who guarded him from the +weapons of the Whigs, I should still doubt if they could save us. +But I am sure we are not to be saved by religious hatred, and by +religious trifling; by any psalmody, however sweet; or by any +persecution, however sharp; I am certain the sounds of Mr. Pitt's +voice, and the measure of his tones, and the movement of his arms, +will do nothing for us; when these tones and movements, and voice +brings us always declamation without sense or knowledge, and +ridicule without good humour or conciliation. Oh, Mr. Plymley, this +never will do. Mrs. Abraham Plymley, my sister, will be led away +captive by an amorous Gaul; and Joel Plymley your firstborn, will be +a French drummer. + +Out of sight, out of mind, seems to be a proverb which applies to +enemies as well as friends. Because the French army was no longer +seen from the cliffs of Dover; because the sound of cannon was no +longer heard by the debauched London bathers on the Sussex coast; +because the Morning Post no longer fixed the invasion sometimes for +Monday, sometimes for Tuesday, sometimes (positively for the last +time of invading) on Saturday; because all these causes of terror +were suspended, you conceived the power of Bonaparte to be at an +end, and were setting off for Paris with Lord Hawkesbury the +conqueror. This is precisely the method in which the English have +acted during the whole of the revolutionary war. If Austria or +Prussia armed, doctors of divinity immediately printed those +passages out of Habakkuk, in which the destruction of the Usurper by +General Mack, and the Duke of Brunswick, are so clearly predicted. +If Bonaparte halted, there was a mutiny or a dysentery. If any one +of his generals were eaten up by the light troops of Russia, and +picked (as their manner is) to the bone, the sanguine spirit of this +country displayed itself in all its glory. What scenes of infamy +did the Society for the Suppression of Vice lay open to our +astonished eyes! tradesmen's daughters dancing, pots of beer carried +out between the first and second lesson, and dark and distant +rumours of indecent prints. Clouds of Mr. Canning's cousins arrived +by the waggon; all the contractors left their cards with Mr. Rose; +and every plunderer of the public crawled out of his hole, like +slugs, and grubs, and worms after a shower of rain. + +If my voice could have been heard at the late changes, I should have +said, "Gently, patience, stop a little; the time is not yet come; +the mud of Poland will harden, and the bowels of the French +grenadiers will recover their tone. When honesty, good sense, and +liberality have extricated you out of your present embarrassment, +then dismiss them as a matter of course; but you cannot spare them +just now; don't be in too great a hurry, or there will be no monarch +to flatter, and no country to pillage; only submit for a little time +to be respected abroad, overlook the painful absence of the tax- +gatherer for a few years, bear up nobly under the increase of +freedom and of liberal policy for a little time, and I promise you, +at the expiration of that period, you shall be plundered, insulted, +disgraced, and restrained to your heart's content. Do not imagine I +have any intention of putting servility and canting hypocrisy +permanently out of place, or of filling up with courage and sense +those offices which naturally devolve upon decorous imbecility and +flexible cunning: give us only a little time to keep off the +hussars of France, and then the jobbers and jesters shall return to +their birthright, and public virtue be called by its own name of +fanaticism." Such is the advice I would have offered to my +infatuated countrymen: but it rained very hard in November, Brother +Abraham, and the bowels of our enemies were loosened, and we put our +trust in white fluxes and wet mud; and there is nothing now to +oppose to the conqueror of the world but a small table wit, and the +sallow Surveyor of the Meltings. + +You ask me, if I think it possible for this country to survive the +recent misfortunes of Europe?--I answer you, without the slightest +degree of hesitation: that if Bonaparte lives, and a great deal is +not immediately done for the conciliation of the Catholics, it does +seem to me absolutely impossible but that we must perish; and take +this with you, that we shall perish without exciting the slightest +feeling of present or future compassion, but fall amidst the +hootings and revilings of Europe, as a nation of blockheads, +Methodists, and old women. If there were any great scenery, any +heroic feelings, any blaze of ancient virtue, any exalted death, any +termination of England that would be ever remembered, ever honoured +in that western world, where liberty is now retiring, conquest would +be more tolerable, and ruin more sweet; but it is doubly miserable +to become slaves abroad, because we would be tyrants at home; to +persecute, when we are contending against persecution; and to +perish, because we have raised up worse enemies within, from our own +bigotry, than we are exposed to without, from the unprincipled +ambition of France. It is indeed a most silly and affecting +spectacle to rage at such a moment against our own kindred and our +own blood; to tell them they cannot be honourable in war, because +they are conscientious in religion; to stipulate (at the very moment +when we should buy their hearts and swords at any price) that they +must hold up the right hand in prayer, and not the left; and adore +one common God, by turning to the east rather than to the west. + +What is it the Catholics ask of you? Do not exclude us from the +honours and emoluments of the state because we worship God in one +way, and you worship Him in another. In a period of the deepest +peace, and the fattest prosperity, this would be a fair request; it +should be granted, if Lord Hawkesbury had reached Paris, if Mr. +Canning's interpreter had threatened the Senate in an opening +speech, or Mr. Perceval explained to them the improvements he meant +to introduce into the Catholic religion; but to deny the Irish this +justice now, in the present state of Europe, and in the summer +months, just as the season for destroying kingdoms is coming on, is +(beloved Abraham), whatever you may think of it, little short of +positive insanity. + +Here is a frigate attacked by a corsair of immense strength and +size, rigging cut, masts in danger of coming by the board, four foot +water in the hold, men dropping off very fast; in this dreadful +situation how do you think the Captain acts (whose name shall be +Perceval)? He calls all hands upon deck; talks to them of King, +country, glory, sweethearts, gin, French prison, wooden shoes, Old +England, and hearts of oak; they give three cheers, rush to their +guns, and, after a tremendous conflict, succeed in beating off the +enemy. Not a syllable of all this; this is not the manner in which +the honourable Commander goes to work: the first thing he does is +to secure twenty or thirty of his prime sailors who happen to be +Catholics, to clap them in irons, and set over them a guard of as +many Protestants; having taken this admirable method of defending +himself against his infidel opponents, he goes upon deck, reminds +the sailors in a very bitter harangue, that they are of different +religions; exhorts the Episcopal gunner not to trust to the +Presbyterian quartermaster; issues positive orders that the +Catholics should be fired at upon the first appearance of +discontent; rushes through blood and brains, examining his men in +the Catechism and thirty-nine Articles, and positively forbids every +one to sponge or ram who has not taken the Sacrament according to +the Church of England. Was it right to take out a captain made of +excellent British stuff, and to put in such a man as this? Is not +he more like a parson, or a talking lawyer, than a thorough-bred +seaman? And built as she is of heart of oak, and admirably manned, +is it possible, with such a captain, to save this ship from going to +the bottom? + +You have an argument, I perceive, in common with many others, +against the Catholics, that their demands complied with would only +lead to further exactions, and that it is better to resist them now, +before anything is conceded, than hereafter, when it is found that +all concessions are in vain. I wish the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, who uses this reasoning to exclude others from their just +rights, had tried its efficacy, not by his understanding, but by +(what are full of much better things) his pockets. Suppose the +person to whom he applied for the meltings had withstood every plea +of wife and fourteen children, no business, and good character, and +refused him this paltry little office because he might hereafter +attempt to get hold of the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster for +life? would not Mr. Perceval have contended eagerly against the +injustice of refusing moderate requests, because immoderate ones may +hereafter be made? Would he not have said, and said truly, Leave +such exorbitant attempts as these to the general indignation of the +Commons, who will take care to defeat them when they do occur; but +do not refuse me the Irons and the Meltings now, because I may +totally lose sight of all moderation hereafter? Leave hereafter to +the spirit and the wisdom of hereafter; and do not be niggardly now +from the apprehension that men as wise as you should be profuse in +times to come. + +You forget, Brother Abraham, that is a vast art, where quarrels +cannot be avoided, to turn public opinion in your favour and to the +prejudice of your enemy; a vast privilege to feel that you are in +the right, and to make him feel that he is in the wrong: a +privilege which makes you more than a man, and your antagonist less; +and often secures victory by convincing him who contends that he +must submit to injustice if he submits to defeat. Open every rank +in the army and the navy to the Catholic; let him purchase at the +same price as the Protestant (if either Catholic or Protestant can +purchase such refined pleasures) the privilege of hearing Lord +Castlereagh speak for three hours; keep his clergy from starving, +soften some of the most odious powers of the tithing-man, and you +will for ever lay this formidable question to rest. But if I am +wrong, and you must quarrel at last, quarrel upon just rather than +unjust grounds; divide the Catholic and unite the Protestant; be +just, and your own exertions will be more formidable and their +exertions less formidable; be just, and you will take away from +their party all the best and wisest understandings of both +persuasions, and knit them firmly to your own cause. "Thrice is he +armed who has his quarrel just;" and ten times as much may he be +taxed. In the beginning of any war, however destitute of common +sense, every mob will roar, and every Lord of the Bedchamber +address; but if you are engaged in a war that is to last for years, +and to require important sacrifices, take care to make the justice +of your case so clear and so obvious that it cannot be mistaken by +the most illiterate country gentleman who rides the earth. Nothing, +in fact, can be so grossly absurd as the argument which says I will +deny justice to you now, because I suspect future injustice from +you. At this rate, you may lock a man up in your stable, and refuse +to let him out, because you suspect that he has an intention, at +some future period, of robbing your hen-roost. You may horsewhip +him at Lady Day, because you believe he will affront you at +Midsummer. You may commit a greater evil, to guard against a less +which is merely contingent, and may never happen. You may do what +you have done a century ago in Ireland, make the Catholics worse +than Helots, because you suspected that they might hereafter aspire +to be more than fellow citizens; rendering their sufferings certain +from your jealousy, while yours were only doubtful from their +ambition; an ambition sure to be excited by the very measures which +were taken to prevent it. + +The physical strength of the Catholics will not be greater because +you give them a share of political power. You may by these means +turn rebels into friends; but I do not see how you make rebels more +formidable. If they taste of the honey of lawful power, they will +love the hive from whence they procure it; if they will struggle +with us like men in the same state for civil influence, we are safe. +All that I dread is the physical strength of four millions of men +combined with an invading French army. If you are to quarrel at +last with this enormous population, still put it off as long as you +can; you must gain, and cannot lose, by the delay. The state of +Europe cannot be worse; the conviction which the Catholics entertain +of your tyranny and injustice cannot be more alarming, nor the +opinions of your own people more divided. Time, which produces such +effect upon brass and marble, may inspire one Minister with modesty +and another with compassion; every circumstance may be better; some +certainly will be so, none can be worse; and after all the evil may +never happen. + +You have got hold, I perceive, of all the vulgar English stories +respecting the hereditary transmission of forfeited property, and +seriously believe that every Catholic beggar wears the terriers of +his father's land next his skin, and is only waiting for better +times to cut the throat of the Protestant possessor, and get drunk +in the hall of his ancestors. There is one irresistible answer to +this mistake, and that is, that the forfeited lands are purchased +indiscriminately by Catholic and Protestant, and that the Catholic +purchaser never objects to such a title. Now the land so purchased +by a Catholic is either his own family estate, or it is not. If it +is, you suppose him so desirous of coming into possession that he +resorts to the double method of rebellion and purchase; if it is not +his own family estate of which he becomes the purchaser, you suppose +him first to purchase, then to rebel, in order to defeat the +purchase. These things may happen in Ireland, but it is totally +impossible they can happen anywhere else. In fact, what land can +any man of any sect purchase in Ireland, but forfeited property? In +all other oppressed countries which I have ever heard of, the +rapacity of the conqueror was bounded by the territorial limits in +which the objects of his avarice were contained; but Ireland has +been actually confiscated twice over, as a cat is twice killed by a +wicked parish boy. + +I admit there is a vast luxury in selecting a particular set of +Christians, and in worrying them as a boy worries a puppy dog; it is +an amusement in which all the young English are brought up from +their earliest days. I like the idea of saying to men who use a +different hassock from me, that till they change their hassock they +shall never be Colonels, Aldermen, or Parliament-men. While I am +gratifying my personal insolence respecting religious forms, I +fondle myself into an idea that I am religious, and that I am doing +my duty in the most exemplary, as I certainly am in the most easy, +way. But then, my good Abraham, this sport, admirable as it is, is +become, with respect to the Catholics, a little dangerous; and if we +are not extremely careful in taking the amusement, we shall tumble +into the holy water and be drowned. As it seems necessary to your +idea of an established church to have somebody to worry and torment, +suppose we were to select for this purpose William Wilberforce, +Esq., and the patent Christians of Clapham. We shall by this +expedient enjoy the same opportunity for cruelty and injustice, +without being exposed to the same risks: we will compel them to +abjure vital clergymen by a public test, to deny that the said +William Wilberforce has any power of working miracles, touching for +barrenness or any other infirmity, or that he is endowed with any +preternatural gift whatever. We will swear them to the doctrine of +good works, compel them to preach common sense, and to hear it; to +frequent Bishops, Deans, and other High Churchmen; and to appear, +once in the quarter at the least, at some melodrame, opera, +pantomime, or other light scenical representation; in short, we will +gratify the love of insolence and power; we will enjoy the old +orthodox sport of witnessing the impotent anger of men compelled to +submit to civil degradation, or to sacrifice their notions of truth +to ours. And all this we may do without the slightest risk, because +their numbers are, as yet, not very considerable. Cruelty and +injustice must, of course, exist; but why connect them with danger? +Why torture a bulldog when you can get a frog or a rabbit? I am +sure my proposal will meet with the most universal approbation. Do +not be apprehensive of any opposition from ministers. If it is a +case of hatred, we are sure that one man will defend it by the +Gospel: if it abridges human freedom, we know that another will +find precedents for it in the Revolution. + +In the name of Heaven, what are we to gain by suffering Ireland to +be rode by that faction which now predominates over it? Why are we +to endanger our own Church and State, not for 500,000 Episcopalians, +but for ten or twelve great Orange families, who have been sucking +the blood of that country for these hundred years last past? and the +folly of the Orangemen in playing this game themselves, is almost as +absurd as ours in playing it for them. They ought to have the sense +to see that their business now is to keep quietly the lands and +beeves of which the fathers of the Catholics were robbed in days of +yore; they must give to their descendants the sop of political +power: by contending with them for names, they will lose realities, +and be compelled to beg their potatoes in a foreign land, abhorred +equally by the English, who have witnessed their oppression, and by +the Catholic Irish, who have smarted under them. + + + +LETTER IV. + + + +Then comes Mr. Isaac Hawkins Brown (the gentleman who danced so +badly at the Court of Naples), and asks if it is not an anomaly to +educate men in another religion than your own. It certainly is our +duty to get rid of error, and, above all, of religious error; but +this is not to be done per saltum, or the measure will miscarry, +like the Queen. It may be very easy to dance away the royal embryo +of a great kingdom; but Mr. Hawkins Brown must look before he leaps, +when his object is to crush an opposite sect in religion; false +steps aid the one effect as much as they are fatal to the other: it +will require not only the lapse of Mr. Hawkins Brown, but the lapse +of centuries, before the absurdities of the Catholic religion are +laughed at as much as they deserve to be; but surely, in the +meantime, the Catholic religion is better than none; four millions +of Catholics are better than four millions of wild beasts; two +hundred priests educated by our own government are better than the +same number educated by the man who means to destroy us. + +The whole sum now appropriated by Government to the religious +education of four millions of Christians is 13,000 pounds; a sum +about one hundred times as large being appropriated in the same +country to about one-eighth part of this number of Protestants. +When it was proposed to raise this grant from 8,000 pounds to 13,000 +pounds, its present amount, this sum was objected to by that most +indulgent of Christians, Mr. Spencer Perceval, as enormous; he +himself having secured for his own eating and drinking, and the +eating and drinking of the Master and Miss Percevals, the +reversionary sum of 21,000 pounds a year of the public money, and +having just failed in a desperate and rapacious attempt to secure to +himself for life the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster: and the +best of it is, that this minister, after abusing his predecessors +for their impious bounty to the Catholics, has found himself +compelled, from the apprehension of immediate danger, to grant the +sum in question, thus dissolving his pearl in vinegar, and +destroying all the value of the gift by the virulence and reluctance +with which it was granted. + +I hear from some persons in Parliament, and from others in the +sixpenny societies for debate, a great deal about unalterable laws +passed at the Revolution. When I hear any man talk of an +unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince +me that he is an unalterable fool. A law passed when there was +Germany, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Portugal, and Turkey; when +there was a disputed succession; when four or five hundred acres +were won and lost after ten years' hard fighting; when armies were +commanded by the sons of kings, and campaigns passed in an +interchange of civil letters and ripe fruit; and for these laws, +when the whole state of the world is completely changed, we are now, +according to my Lord Hawkesbury, to hold ourselves ready to perish. +It is no mean misfortune, in times like these, to be forced to say +anything about such men as Lord Hawkesbury, and to be reminded that +we are governed by them, but as I am driven to it, I must take the +liberty of observing that the wisdom and liberality of my Lord +Hawkesbury are of that complexion which always shrinks from the +present exercise of these virtues by praising the splendid examples +of them in ages past. If he had lived at such periods, he would +have opposed the Revolution by praising the Reformation, and the +Reformation by speaking handsomely of the Crusades. He gratifies +his natural antipathy to great and courageous measures by playing +off the wisdom and courage which have ceased to influence human +affairs against that wisdom and courage which living men would +employ for present happiness. Besides, it happens unfortunately for +the Warden of the Cinque Ports, that to the principal incapacities +under which the Irish suffer, they were subjected after that great +and glorious revolution, to which we are indebted for so many +blessings, and his Lordship for the termination of so many periods. +The Catholics were not excluded from the Irish House of Commons, or +military commands, before the 3rd and 4th of William and Mary, and +the 1st and 2nd of Queen Anne. + +If the great mass of the people, environed as they are on every side +with Jenkinsons, Percevals, Melvilles, and other perils, were to +pray for divine illumination and aid, what more could Providence in +its mercy do than send them the example of Scotland? For what a +length of years was it attempted to compel the Scotch to change +their religion: horse, foot, artillery, and armed Prebendaries, +were sent out after the Presbyterian parsons and their +congregations. The Percevals of those days called for blood: this +call is never made in vain, and blood was shed; but, to the +astonishment and horror of the Percevals of those days, they could +not introduce the book of Common Prayer, nor prevent that +metaphysical people from going to heaven their true way, instead of +our true way. With a little oatmeal for food, and a little sulphur +for friction, allaying cutaneous irritation with the one hand, and +holding his Calvinistical creed in the other, Sawney ran away to his +flinty hills, sung his psalm out of tune his own way, and listened +to his sermon of two hours long, amid the rough and imposing +melancholy of the tallest thistles. But Sawney brought up his +unbreeched offspring in a cordial hatred of his oppressors; and +Scotland was as much a part of the weakness of England then as +Ireland is at this moment. The true and the only remedy was +applied; the Scotch were suffered to worship God after their own +tiresome manner, without pain, penalty, or privation. No lightning +descended from heaven: the country was not ruined; the world is not +yet come to an end; the dignitaries who foretold all these +consequences are utterly forgotten, and Scotland has ever since been +an increasing source of strength to Great Britain. In the six +hundredth year of our empire over Ireland we are making laws to +transport a man if he is found out of his house after eight o'clock +at night. That this is necessary I know too well; but tell me why +it is necessary. It is not necessary in Greece, where the Turks are +masters. + +Are you aware that there is at this moment a universal clamour +throughout the whole of Ireland against the Union? It is now one +month since I returned from that country; I have never seen so +extraordinary, so alarming, and so rapid a change in the sentiments +of any people. Those who disliked the Union before are quite +furious against it now; those who doubted doubt no more; those who +were friendly to it have exchanged that friendship for the most +rooted aversion; in the midst of all this (which is by far the most +alarming symptom), there is the strongest disposition on the part of +the northern Dissenters to unite with the Catholics, irritated by +the faithless injustice with which they have been treated. If this +combination does take place (mark what I say to you), you will have +meetings all over Ireland for the cry of No Union; that cry will +spread like wild-fire, and blaze over every opposition; and if this +be the case, there is no use in mincing the matter; Ireland is gone, +and the death-blow of England is struck; and this event may happen +INSTANTLY--before Mr. Canning and Mr. Hookham Frere have turned Lord +Howick's last speech into doggerel rhymne; before "the near and dear +relations" have received another quarter of their pension, or Mr. +Perceval conducted the Curates' Salary Bill safely to a third +reading. If the mind of the English people, cursed as they now are +with that madness of religious dissension which has been breathed +into them for the purposes of private ambition, can be alarmed by +any remembrances, and warned by any events, they should never forget +how nearly Ireland was lost to this country during the American war; +that it was saved merely by the jealousy of the Protestant Irish +towards the Catholics, then a much more insignificant and powerless +body than they now are. The Catholic and the Dissenter have since +combined together against you. Last war, the winds, those ancient +and unsubsidised allies of England; the winds, upon which English +ministers depend as much for saving kingdoms as washerwomen do for +drying clothes; the winds stood your friends: the French could only +get into Ireland in small numbers, and the rebels were defeated. +Since then, all the remaining kingdoms of Europe have been +destroyed; and the Irish see that their national independence is +gone, without having received any single one of those advantages +which they were taught to expect from the sacrifice. All good +things were to flow from the Union; they have none of them gained +anything. Every man's pride is wounded by it; no man's interest is +promoted. In the seventh year of that union four million Catholics, +lured by all kinds of promises to yield up the separate dignity and +sovereignty of their country, are forced to squabble with such a man +as Mr. Spencer Perceval for five thousand pounds with which to +educate their children in their own mode of worship, he, the same +Mr. Spencer, having secured to his own Protestant self a +reversionary portion of the public money amounting to four times +that sum. A senior Proctor of the University of Oxford, the head of +a house, or the examining chaplain to a bishop, may believe these +things can last; but every man of the world, whose understanding has +been exercised in the business of life, must see (and see with a +breaking heart) that they will soon come to a fearful termination. + +Our conduct to Ireland during the whole of this war has been that of +a man who subscribes to hospitals, weeps at charity sermons, carries +out broth and blankets to beggars, and then comes home and beats his +wife and children. We had compassion for the victims of all other +oppression and injustice except our own. If Switzerland was +threatened, away went a Treasury Clerk with a hundred thousand +pounds for Switzerland; large bags of money were kept constantly +under sailing orders; upon the slightest demonstration towards +Naples, down went Sir William Hamilton upon his knees, and begged +for the love of St. Januarius they would help us off with a little +money; all the arts of Machiavel were resorted to to persuade Europe +to borrow; troops were sent off in all directions to save the +Catholic and Protestant world; the Pope himself was guarded by a +regiment of English dragoons; if the Grand Lama had been at hand, he +would have had another; every Catholic clergyman who had the good +fortune to be neither English nor Irish was immediately provided +with lodging, soap, crucifix, missal, chapel-beads, relics, and holy +water; if Turks had landed, Turks would have received an order from +the Treasury for coffee, opium, korans, and seraglios. In the midst +of all this fury of saving and defending this crusade for conscience +and Christianity, there was a universal agreement among all +descriptions of people to continue every species of internal +persecution, to deny at home every just right that had been denied +before, to pummel poor Dr. Abraham Rees and his Dissenters, and to +treat the unhappy Catholics of Ireland as if their tongues were +mute, their heels cloven, their nature brutal, and designedly +subjected by Providence to their Orange masters. + +How would my admirable brother, the Rev. Abraham Plymley, like to be +marched to a Catholic chapel, to be sprinkled with the sanctified +contents of a pump, to hear a number of false quantities in the +Latin tongue, and to see a number of persons occupied in making +right angles upon the breast and forehead? And if all this would +give you so much pain, what right have you to march Catholic +soldiers to a place of worship, where there is no aspersion, no +rectangular gestures, and where they understand every word they +hear, having first, in order to get him to enlist, made a solemn +promise to the contrary? Can you wonder, after this, that the +Catholic priest stops the recruiting in Ireland, as he is now doing +to a most alarming degree? + +The late question concerning military rank did not individually +affect the lowest persons of the Catholic persuasion; but do you +imagine they do not sympathise with the honour and disgrace of their +superiors? Do you think that satisfaction and dissatisfaction do +not travel down from Lord Fingal to the most potato-less Catholic in +Ireland, and that the glory or shame of the sect is not felt by many +more than these conditions personally and corporeally affect? Do +you suppose that the detection of Sir Henry Mildmay, and the +disappointment of Mr. Perceval IN THE MATTER of the Duchy of +Lancaster, did not affect every dabbler in public property? Depend +upon it these things were felt through all the gradations of small +plunderers, down to him who filches a pound of tobacco from the +King's warehouses; while, on the contrary, the acquittal of any +noble and official thief would not fail to diffuse the most heart- +felt satisfaction over the larcenous and burglarious world. +Observe, I do not say because the lower Catholics are affected by +what concerns their superiors, that they are not affected by what +concerns themselves. There is no disguising the horrid truth, THERE +MUST BE SOME RELAXATION WITH RESPECT TO TITHE: this is the cruel +and heart-rending price which must be paid for national +preservation. I feel how little existence will be worth having, if +any alteration, however slight, is made in the property of Irish +rectors; I am conscious how much such changes must affect the daily +and hourly comforts of every Englishman; I shall feel too happy if +they leave Europe untouched, and are not ultimately fatal to the +destinies of America; but I am madly bent upon keeping foreign +enemies out of the British empire, and my limited understanding +presents me with no other means of effecting my object. + +You talk of waiting till another reign before any alteration is +made; a proposal full of good sense and good nature, if the measure +in question were to pull down St. James's Palace, or to alter Kew +Gardens. Will Bonaparte agree to put off his intrigues, and his +invasion of Ireland? If so, I will overlook the question of +justice, and finding the danger suspended, agree to the delay. I +sincerely hope this reign may last many years, yet the delay of a +single session of Parliament may be fatal; but if another year +elapse without some serious concession made to the Catholics, I +believe, before God, that all future pledges and concessions will be +made in vain. I do not think that peace will do you any good under +such circumstances. If Bonaparte give you a respite, it will only +be to get ready the gallows on which he means to hang you. The +Catholic and the Dissenter can unite in peace as well as war. If +they do, the gallows is ready, and your executioner, in spite of the +most solemn promises, will turn you off the next hour. + +With every disposition to please (where to please within fair and +rational limits is a high duty), it is impossible for public men to +be long silent about the Catholics; pressing evils are not got rid +of, because they are not talked of. A man may command his family to +say nothing more about the stone and surgical operations; but the +ponderous malice still lies upon the nerve, and gets so big, that +the patient breaks his own law of silence, clamours for the knife, +and expires under its late operation. Believe me, you talk folly +when you talk of suppressing the Catholic question. I wish to God +the case admitted of such a remedy; bad as it is, it does not admit +of it. If the wants of the Catholics are not heard in the manly +tones of Lord Grenville, or the servile drawl of Lord Castlereagh, +they will be heard ere long in the madness of mobs, and the +conflicts of armed men. + +I observe it is now universally the fashion to speak of the first +personage in the state as the great obstacle to the measure. In the +first place, I am not bound to believe such rumours because I hear +them; and in the next place, I object to such language, as +unconstitutional. Whoever retains his situation in the ministry +while the incapacities of the Catholics remain, is the advocate for +those incapacities; and to him, and to him only, am I to look for +responsibility. But waive this question of the Catholics, and put a +general case: --How is a minister of this country to act when the +conscientious scruples of his Sovereign prevent the execution of a +measure deemed by him absolutely necessary to the safety of the +country? His conduct is quite clear--he should resign. But what is +his successor to do?--Resign. But is the King to be left without +ministers, and is he in this manner to be compelled to act against +his own conscience? Before I answer this, pray tell me in my turn +what better defence is there against the machinations of a wicked, +or the errors of a weak Monarch, than the impossibility of finding a +minister who will lend himself to vice and folly? Every English +Monarch, in such a predicament, would sacrifice his opinions and +views to such a clear expression of the public will; and it is one +method in which the Constitution aims at bringing about such a +sacrifice. You may say, if you please, the ruler of a state is +forced to give up his object when the natural love of place and +power will tempt no one to assist him in its attainment; this may be +force; but it is force without injury, and therefore without blame. +I am not to be beat out of these obvious reasonings, and ancient +constitutional provisions, by the term conscience. There is no +fantasy, however wild, that a man may not persuade himself that he +cherishes from motives of conscience; eternal war against impious +France, or rebellious America, or Catholic Spain, may in times to +come be scruples of conscience. One English Monarch may, from +scruples of conscience, wish to abolish every trait of religious +persecution; another Monarch may deem it his absolute and +indispensable duty to make a slight provision for Dissenters out of +the revenues of the Church of England. So that you see, Brother +Abraham, there are cases where it would be the duty of the best and +most loyal subjects to oppose the conscientious scruples of their +Sovereign, still taking care that their actions were constitutional +and their modes respectful. Then you come upon me with personal +questions, and say that no such dangers are to be apprehended now +under our present gracious Sovereign, of whose good qualities we +must be all so well convinced. All these sorts of discussions I beg +leave to decline. What I have said upon constitutional topics, I +mean of course for general, not for particular application. I agree +with you in all the good you have said of the powers that be, and I +avail myself of the opportunity of pointing out general dangers to +the Constitution, at a moment when we are so completely exempted +from their present influence. I cannot finish this letter without +expressing my surprise and pleasure at your abuse of the servile +addresses poured in upon the throne, nor can I conceive a greater +disgust to a Monarch, with a true English heart, than to see such a +question as that of Catholic Emancipation argued, not with a +reference to its justice or importance, but universally considered +to be of no further consequence than as it affects his own private +feelings. That these sentiments should be mine is not wonderful; +but how they came to be yours does, I confess, fill me with +surprise. Are you moved by the arrival of the Irish Brigade at +Antwerp, and the amorous violence which awaits Mrs. Plymley? + + + +LETTER V. + + + +Dear Abraham,--I never met a parson in my life who did not consider +the Corporation and Test Acts as the great bulwarks of the Church; +and yet it is now just sixty-four years since bills of indemnity to +destroy their penal effects, or, in other words, to repeal them, +have been passed annually as a matter of course. + + +Heu vatum ignar mentes. + + +These bulwarks, without which no clergyman thinks he could sleep +with his accustomed soundness, have actually not been in existence +since any man now living has taken holy orders. Every year the +Indemnity Act pardons past breaches of these two laws, and prevents +any fresh actions of informers from coming to a conclusion before +the period for the next indemnity bill arrives; so that these +penalties, by which alone the Church remains in existence, have not +had one moment's operation for sixty-four years. You will say the +legislature, during the whole of this period, has reserved to itself +the discretion of suspending or not suspending. But had not the +legislature the right of re-enacting, if it was necessary? And now +when you have kept the rod over these people (with the most +scandalous abuse of all principle) for sixty-four years, and not +found it necessary to strike once, is not that the best of all +reasons why the rod should be laid aside? You talk to me of a very +valuable hedge running across your fields which you would not part +with on any account. I go down, expecting to find a limit +impervious to cattle, and highly useful for the preservation of +property; but, to my utter astonishment, I find that the hedge was +cut down half a century ago, and that every year the shoots are +clipped the moment they appear above ground: it appears, upon +further inquiry, that the hedge never ought to have existed at all; +that it originated in the malice of antiquated quarrels, and was cut +down because it subjected you to vast inconvenience, and broke up +your intercourse with a country absolutely necessary to your +existence. If the remains of this hedge serve only to keep up an +irritation in your neighbours, and to remind them of the feuds of +former times, good nature and good sense teach you that you ought to +grub it up, and cast it into the oven. This is the exact state of +these two laws; and yet it is made a great argument against +concession to the Catholics, that it involves their repeal; which is +to say, Do not make me relinquish a folly that will lead to my ruin; +because, if you do, I must give up other follies ten times greater +than this. + +I confess, with all our bulwarks and hedges, it mortifies me to the +quick to contrast with our matchless stupidity and inimitable folly +the conduct of Bonaparte upon the subject of religious persecution. +At the moment when we are tearing the crucifixes from the necks of +the Catholics, and washing pious mud from the foreheads of the +Hindoos; at that moment this man is assembling the very Jews at +Paris, and endeavouring to give them stability and importance. I +shall never be reconciled to mending shoes in America; but I see it +must be my lot, and I will then take a dreadful revenge upon Mr. +Perceval, if I catch him preaching within ten miles of me. I cannot +for the soul of me conceive whence this man has gained his notions +of Christianity: he has the most evangelical charity for errors in +arithmetic, and the most inveterate malice against errors in +conscience. While he rages against those whom in the true spirit of +the Gospel he ought to indulge, he forgets the only instance of +severity which that Gospel contains, and leaves the jobbers, +contractors, and money-changers at their seats, without a single +stripe. + +You cannot imagine, you say, that England will ever be ruined and +conquered; and for no other reason that I can find, but because it +seems so very odd it should be ruined and conquered. Alas! so +reasoned, in their time, the Austrian, Russian, and Prussian +Plymleys. But the English are brave: so were all these nations. +You might get together a hundred thousand men individually brave; +but without generals capable of commanding such a machine, it would +be as useless as a first-rate man-of-war manned by Oxford clergymen +or Parisian shopkeepers. I do not say this to the disparagement of +English officers: they have had no means of acquiring experience; +but I do say it to create alarm; for we do not appear to me to be +half alarmed enough, or to entertain that sense of our danger which +leads to the most obvious means of self-defence. As for the spirit +of the peasantry in making a gallant defence behind hedge-rows, and +through plate-racks and hen-coops, highly as I think of their +bravery, I do not know any nation in Europe so likely to be struck +with the panic as the English; and this from their total +unacquaintance with the science of war. Old wheat and beans blazing +for twenty miles round; cart mares shot; sows of Lord Somerville's +breed running wild over the country; the minister of the parish +wounded sorely in his hinder parts; Mrs. Plymley in fits. All these +scenes of war an Austrian or a Russian has seen three or four times +over: but it is now three centuries since an English pig has fallen +in a fair battle upon English ground, or a farm-house been rifled, +or a clergyman's wife been subjected to any other proposals of love +than the connubial endearments of her sleek and orthodox mate. The +old edition of Plutarch's Lives, which lies in the corner of your +parlour window, has contributed to work you up to the most romantic +expectations of our Roman behaviour. You are persuaded that Lord +Amherst will defend Kew Bridge like Cocles; that some maid of honour +will break away from her captivity, and swim over the Thames; that +the Duke of York will burn his capitulating hand; and little Mr. +Sturges Bourne give forty years' purchase for Moulsham Hall, while +the French are encamped upon it. I hope we shall witness all this, +if the French do come; but in the meantime I am so enchanted with +the ordinary English behaviour of these invaluable persons, that I +earnestly pray no opportunity may be given them for Roman valour, +and for those very un-Roman pensions which they would all, of +course, take especial care to claim in consequence. But whatever +was our conduct, if every ploughman was as great a hero as he who +was called from his oxen to save Rome from her enemies, I should +still say, that at such a crisis you want the affections of all your +subjects in both islands: there is no spirit which you must +alienate, no art you must avert, every man must feel he has a +country, and that there is an urgent and pressing cause why he +should expose himself to death. + +The effects of penal laws in matters of religion are never confined +to those limits in which the legislature intended they should be +placed: it is not only that I am excluded from certain offices and +dignities because I am a Catholic, but the exclusion carries with it +a certain stigma, which degrades me in the eyes of the monopolising +sect, and the very name of my religion becomes odious. These +effects are so very striking in England, that I solemnly believe +blue and red baboons to be more popular here than Catholics and +Presbyterians; they are more understood, and there is a greater +disposition to do something for them. When a country squire hears +of an ape, his first feeling is to give it nuts and apples; when he +hears of a Dissenter, his immediate impulse is to commit it to the +county gaol, to shave its head, to alter its customary food, and to +have it privately whipped. This is no caricature, but an accurate +picture of national feelings, as they degrade and endanger us at +this very moment. The Irish Catholic gentleman would bear his legal +disabilities with greater temper, if these were all he had to bear-- +if they did not enable every Protestant cheese-monger and tide- +waiter to treat him with contempt. He is branded on the forehead +with a red-hot iron, and treated like a spiritual felon, because in +the highest of all considerations he is led by the noblest of all +guides, his own disinterested conscience. + +Why are nonsense and cruelty a bit the better because they are +enacted? If Providence, which gives wine and oil, had blessed us +with that tolerant spirit which makes the countenance more pleasant +and the heart more glad than these can do; if our Statute Book had +never been defiled with such infamous laws, the sepulchral Spencer +Perceval would have been hauled through the dirtiest horse-pond in +Hampstead, had he ventured to propose them. But now persecution is +good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and +malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call +the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will +be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and +caution. + +I was somewhat amused with the imputation brought against the +Catholics by the University of Oxford, that they are enemies to +liberty. I immediately turned to my "History of England," and +marked as an historical error that passage in which it is recorded +that, in the reign of Queen Anne, the famous degree of the +University of Oxford respecting passive obedience, was ordered by +the House of Lords to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, +as contrary to the liberty of the subject and the law of the land. +Nevertheless, I wish, whatever be the modesty of those who impute, +that the imputation was a little more true, the Catholic cause would +not be quite so desperate with the present. Administration. I +fear, however, that the hatred to liberty in these poor devoted +wretches may ere long appear more doubtful than it is at present to +the Vice-Chancellor and his Clergy, inflamed as they doubtless are +with classical examples of republican virtue, and panting, as they +always have been, to reduce the power of the Crown within narrower +and safer limits. What mistaken zeal to attempt to connect one +religion with freedom and another with slavery! Who laid the +foundations of English liberty? What was the mixed religion of +Switzerland? What has the Protestant religion done for liberty in +Denmark, in Sweden, throughout the north of Germany, and in Prussia? +The purest religion in the world, in my humble opinion, is the +religion of the Church of England: for its preservation (so far as +it is exercised without intruding upon the liberties of others) I am +ready at this moment to venture my present life, and but through +that religion I have no hopes of any other; yet I am not forced to +be silly because I am pious; nor will I ever join in eulogiums on my +faith which every man of common reading and common sense can so +easily refute. + +You have either done too much for the Catholics, worthy Abraham, or +too little; if you had intended to refuse them political power, you +should have refused them civil rights. After you had enabled them +to acquire property, after you had conceded to them all that you did +concede in '78 and '93, the rest is wholly out of your power: you +may choose whether you will give the rest in an honourable or a +disgraceful mode, but it is utterly out of your power to withhold +it. + +In the last year, land to the amount of EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND +POUNDS was purchased by the Catholics in Ireland. Do you think it +possible to be-Perceval, and be-Canning, and be-Castlereagh, such a +body of men as this out of their common rights, and their common +sense? Mr. George Canning may laugh and joke at the idea of +Protestant bailiffs ravishing Catholic ladies, under the 9th clause +of the Sunset Bill; but if some better remedy be not applied to the +distractions of Ireland than the jocularity of Mr. Canning, they +will soon put an end to his pension, and to the pension of those +"near and dear relatives," for whose eating, drinking, washing, and +clothing, every man in the United Kingdoms now pays his two-pence or +three-pence a year. You may call these observations coarse, if you +please; but I have no idea that the Sophias and Carolines of any man +breathing are to eat national veal, to drink public tea, to wear +Treasury ribands, and then that we are to be told that it is coarse +to animadvert upon this pitiful and eleemosynary splendour. If this +is right, why not mention it? If it is wrong, why should not he who +enjoys the ease of supporting his sisters in this manner bear the +shame of it? Everybody seems hitherto to have spared a man who +never spares anybody. + +As for the enormous wax candles, and superstitious mummeries, and +painted jackets of the Catholic priests, I fear them not. Tell me +that the world will return again under the influence of the +smallpox; that Lord Castlereagh will hereafter oppose the power of +the Court; that Lord Howick and Mr. Grattan will do each of them a +mean and dishonourable action; that anybody who has heard Lord +Redesdale speak once will knowingly and willingly hear him again; +that Lord Eldon has assented to the fact of two and two making four, +without shedding tears, or expressing the smallest doubt or scruple; +tell me any other thing absurd or incredible, but, for the love of +common sense, let me hear no more of the danger to be apprehended +from the general diffusion of Popery. It is too absurd to be +reasoned upon; every man feels it is nonsense when he hears it +stated, and so does every man while he is stating it. + +I cannot imagine why the friends to the Church Establishment should +enter in such a horror of seeing the doors of Parliament flung open +to the Catholics, and view so passively the enjoyment of that right +by the Presbyterians and by every other species of Dissenter. In +their tenets, in their Church Government, in the nature of their +endowments, the Dissenters are infinitely more distant from the +Church of England than the Catholics are; yet the Dissenters have +never been excluded from Parliament. There are 45 members in one +House, and 16 in the other, who always are Dissenters. There is no +law which would prevent every member of the Lords and Commons from +being Dissenters. The Catholics could not bring into Parliament +half the number of the Scotch members; and yet one exclusion is of +such immense importance, because it has taken place; and the other +no human being thinks of, because no one is accustomed to it. I +have often thought, if the WISDOM OF OUR ANCESTORS had excluded all +persons with red hair from the House of Commons, of the throes and +convulsions it would occasion to restore them to their natural +rights. What mobs and riots would it produce! To what infinite +abuse and obloquy would the capillary patriot be exposed; what +wormwood would distil from Mr. Perceval, what froth would drop from +Mr. Canning; how (I will not say MY, but OUR Lord Hawkesbury, for he +belongs to us all)--how our Lord Hawkesbury would work away about +the hair of King William and Lord Somers, and the authors of the +great and glorious Revolution; how Lord Eldon would appeal to the +Deity and his own virtues, and to the hair of his children: some +would say that red-haired men were superstitious; some would prove +they were atheists; they would be petitioned against as the friends +of slavery, and the advocates for revolt; in short, such a corruptor +of the heart and understanding is the spirit of persecution, that +these unfortunate people (conspired against by their fellow-subjects +of every complexion), if they did not emigrate to countries where +hair of another colour was persecuted, would be driven to the +falsehood of perukes, or the hypocrisy of the Tricosian fluid. + +As for the dangers of the Church (in spite of the staggering events +which have lately taken place), I have not yet entirely lost my +confidence in the power of common sense, and I believe the Church to +be in no danger at all; but if it is, that danger is not from the +Catholics, but from the Methodists, and from that patent +Christianity which has been for some time manufacturing at Clapham, +to the prejudice of the old and admirable article prepared by the +Church. I would counsel my lords the Bishops to keep their eyes +upon that holy village, and its vicinity; they will find there a +zeal in making converts far superior to anything which exists among +the Catholics; a contempt for the great mass of English clergy, much +more rooted and profound; and a regular fund to purchase livings for +those groaning and garrulous gentlemen whom they denominate (by a +standing sarcasm against the regular Church) Gospel preachers and +vital clergymen. I am too firm a believer in the general propriety +and respectability of the English clergy, to believe they have much +to fear either from old nonsense or from new; but if the Church must +be supposed to be in danger, I prefer that nonsense which is grown +half venerable from time, the force of which I have already tried +and baffled, which at least has some excuse in the dark and ignorant +ages in which it originated. The religious enthusiasm manufactured +by living men before my own eyes disgusts my understanding as much, +influences my imagination not at all, and excites my apprehensions +much more. + +I may have seemed to you to treat the situation of public affairs +with some degree of levity; but I feel it deeply, and with nightly +and daily anguish; because I know Ireland; I have known it all my +life; I love it, and I foresee the crisis to which it will soon be +exposed. Who can doubt but that Ireland will experience ultimately +from France a treatment to which the conduct they have experienced +from England is the love of a parent, or a brother? Who can doubt +but that five years after he has got hold of the country, Ireland +will be tossed away by Bonaparte as a present to some one of his +ruffian generals, who will knock the head of Mr. Keogh against the +head of Cardinal Troy, shoot twenty of the most noisy blockheads of +the Roman persuasion, wash his pug-dogs in holy water, and +confiscate the salt butter of the Milesian republic to the last tub? +But what matters this? or who is wise enough in Ireland to heed it? +or when had common sense much influence with my poor dear Irish? +Mr. Perceval does not know the Irish; but I know them, and I know +that at every rash and mad hazard they will break the Union, revenge +their wounded pride and their insulted religion, and fling +themselves into the open arms of France, sure of dying in the +embrace. And now, what means have you of guarding against this +coming evil, upon which the future happiness or misery of every +Englishman depends? Have you a single ally in the whole world? Is +there a vulnerable point in the French empire where the astonishing +resources of that people can be attracted and employed? Have you a +ministry wise enough to comprehend the danger, manly enough to +believe unpleasant intelligence, honest enough to state their +apprehensions at the peril of their places? Is there anywhere the +slightest disposition to join any measure of love, or conciliation, +or hope, with that dreadful bill which the distractions of Ireland +have rendered necessary? At the very moment that the last Monarchy +in Europe has fallen, are we not governed by a man of pleasantry, +and a man of theology? In the six hundredth year of our empire over +Ireland, have we any memorial of ancient kindness to refer to? any +people, any zeal, any country on which we can depend? Have we any +hope, but in the winds of heaven and the tides of the sea? any +prayer to prefer to the Irish, but that they should forget and +forgive their oppressors, who, in the very moment that they are +calling upon them for their exertions, solemnly assure them that the +oppression shall still remain? + +Abraham, farewell! If I have tired you, remember how often you have +tired me and others. I do not think we really differ in politics so +much as you suppose; or at least, if we do, that difference is in +the means, and not in the end. We both love the Constitution, +respect the King, and abhor the French. But though you love the +Constitution, you would perpetuate the abuses which have been +engrafted upon it; though you respect the King, you would confirm +his scruples against the Catholics; though you abhor the French, you +would open to them the conquest of Ireland. My method of respecting +my sovereign is by protecting his honour, his empire, and his +lasting happiness; I evince my love of the Constitution by making it +the guardian of all men's rights and the source of their freedom; +and I prove my abhorrence of the French, by uniting against them the +disciples of every church in the only remaining nation in Europe. +As for the men of whom I have been compelled in this age of +mediocrity to say so much, they cannot of themselves be worth a +moment's consideration, to you, to me, or to anybody. In a year +after their death they will be forgotten as completely as if they +had never been; and are now of no further importance than as they +are the mere vehicles of carrying into effect the common-place and +mischievous prejudices of the times in which they live. + + + +LETTER VI. + + + +Dear Abraham,--What amuses me the most is to hear of the INDULGENCES +which the Catholics have received, and their exorbitance in not +being satisfied with those indulgences: now if you complain to me +that a man is obtrusive and shameless in his requests, and that it +is impossible to bring him to reason, I must first of all hear the +whole of your conduct towards him; for you may have taken from him +so much in the first instance that, in spite of a long series of +restitution, a vast latitude for petition may still remain behind. + +There is a village, no matter where, in which the inhabitants, on +one day in the year, sit down to a dinner prepared at the common +expense: by an extra-ordinary piece of tyranny, which Lord +Hawkesbury would call the wisdom of the village ancestors, the +inhabitants of three of the streets, about a hundred years ago, +seized upon the inhabitants of the fourth street, bound them hand +and foot, laid them upon their backs, and compelled them to look on +while the rest were stuffing themselves with beef and beer; the next +year the inhabitants of the persecuted street, though they +contributed an equal quota of the expense, were treated precisely in +the same manner. The tyranny grew into a custom; and, as the manner +of our nature is, it was considered as the most sacred of all duties +to keep these poor fellows without their annual dinner. The village +was so tenacious of this practice, that nothing could induce them to +resign it; every enemy to it was looked upon as a disbeliever in +Divine Providence, and any nefarious churchwarden who wished to +succeed in his election had nothing to do but to represent his +antagonist as an abolitionist, in order to frustrate his ambition, +endanger his life, and throw the village into a state of the most +dreadful commotion. By degrees, however, the obnoxious street grew +to be so well peopled, and its inhabitants so firmly united, that +their oppressors, more afraid of injustice, were more disposed to be +just. At the next dinner they are unbound, the year after allowed +to sit upright, then a bit of bread and a glass of water; till at +last, after a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to +ask, in pretty plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at +the bottom of the table, and to fill their bellies as well as the +rest. Forthwith a general cry of shame and scandal: "Ten years +ago, were you not laid upon your backs? Don't you remember what a +great thing you thought it to get a piece of bread? How thankful +you were for cheese parings? Have you forgotten that memorable era, +when the lord of the manor interfered to obtain for you a slice of +the public pudding? And now, with an audacity only equalled by your +ingratitude, you have the impudence to ask for knives and forks, and +to request, in terms too plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down +to table with the rest, and be indulged even with beef and beer: +there are not more than half a dozen dishes which we have reserved +for ourselves; the rest has been thrown open to you in the utmost +profusion; you have potatoes, and carrots, suet dumplings, sops in +the pan, and delicious toast and water in incredible quantities. +Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are ours; and if you were not the +most restless and dissatisfied of human beings, you would never +think of aspiring to enjoy them." + +Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very +insult which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are +surprised that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for +perfect justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will +not be contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He +would be a very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who, +though an inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some +sense of justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to +persevere in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more +complete share of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others; +and if they see a little attenuated lawyer squabbling at the head of +their opponents, let them desire him to empty his pockets, and to +pull out all the pieces of duck, fowl, and pudding which he has +filched from the public feast, to carry home to his wife and +children. + +You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this +country to the Irish before the Union. I deny that any voluntary +concession was ever made by England to Ireland. What did Ireland +ever ask that was granted? What did she ever demand that was not +refused? How did she get her Mutiny Bill--a limited Parliament--a +repeal of Poyning's Law--a constitution? Not by the concessions of +England, but by her fears. When Ireland asked for all these things +upon her knees, her petitions were rejected with Percevalism and +contempt; when she demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, +they were granted with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask +of Lord Auckland the fatal consequences of trifling with such a +people as the Irish. He himself was the organ of these refusals. +As secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny +of this country passed through his hands. Ask him if he remembers +the consequences. Ask him if he has forgotten that memorable +evening when he came down booted and mantled to the House of +Commons, when he told the House he was about to set off for Ireland +that night, and declared before God, if he did not carry with him a +compliance with all their demands, Ireland was for ever lost to this +country. The present generation have forgotten this; but I have not +forgotten it; and I know, hasty and undignified as the submission of +England then was, that Lord Auckland was right, that the delay of a +single day might very probably have separated the two peoples for +ever. The terms submission and fear are galling terms when applied +from the lesser nation to the greater; but it is the plain +historical truth, it is the natural consequence of injustice, it is +the predicament in which every country places itself which leaves +such a mass of hatred and discontent by its side. No empire is +powerful enough to endure it; it would exhaust the strength of +China, and sink it with all its mandarins and tea-kettles to the +bottom of the deep. By refusing them justice now when you are +strong enough to refuse them anything more than justice, you will +act over again, with the Catholics, the same scene of mean and +precipitate submission which disgraced you before America, and +before the volunteers of Ireland. We shall live to hear the +Hampstead Protestant pronouncing such extravagant panegyrics upon +holy water, and paying such fulsome compliments to the thumbs and +offals of departed saints, that parties will change sentiments, and +Lord Henry Petty and Sam Whitbread take a spell at No Popery. The +wisdom of Mr. Fox was alike employed in teaching his country justice +when Ireland was weak, and dignity when Ireland was strong. We are +fast pacing round the same miserable circle of ruin and imbecility. +Alas! where is our guide? + +You say that Ireland is a millstone about our necks; that it would +be better for us if Ireland were sunk at the bottom of the sea; that +the Irish are a nation of irreclaimable savages and barbarians. How +often have I heard these sentiments fall from the plump and +thoughtless squire, and from the thriving English shopkeeper, who +has never felt the rod of an Orange master upon his back. Ireland a +millstone about your neck! Why is it not a stone of Ajax in your +hand? I agree with you most cordially that, governed as Ireland now +is, it would be a vast accession of strength if the waves of the sea +were to rise and engulf her to-morrow. At this moment, opposed as +we are to all the world, the annihilation of one of the most fertile +islands on the face of the globe, containing five millions of human +creatures, would be one of the most solid advantages which could +happen to this country. I doubt very much, in spite of all the just +abuse which has been lavished upon Bonaparte, whether there is any +one of his conquered countries the blotting out of which would be as +beneficial to him as the destruction of Ireland would be to us: of +countries I speak differing in language from the French, little +habituated to their intercourse, and inflamed with all the +resentments of a recently-conquered people. Why will you attribute +the turbulence of our people to any cause but the right--to any +cause but your own scandalous oppression? If you tie your horse up +to a gate, and beat him cruelly, is he vicious because he kicks you? +If you have plagued and worried a mastiff dog for years, is he mad +because he flies at you whenever he sees you? Hatred is an active, +troublesome passion. Depend upon it, whole nations have always some +reason for their hatred. Before you refer the turbulence of the +Irish to incurable defects in their character, tell me if you have +treated them as friends and equals? Have you protected their +commerce? Have you respected their religion? Have you been as +anxious for their freedom as your own? Nothing of all this. What +then? Why you have confiscated the territorial surface of the +country twice over: you have massacred and exported her +inhabitants: you have deprived four-fifths of them of every civil +privilege: you have at every period made her commerce and +manufactures slavishly subordinate to your own: and yet the hatred +which the Irish bear to you is the result of an original turbulence +of character, and of a primitive, obdurate wildness, utterly +incapable of civilisation. The embroidered inanities and the sixth- +form effusions of Mr. Canning are really not powerful enough to make +me believe this; nor is there any authority on earth (always +excepting the Dean of Christ Church) which could make it credible to +me. I am sick of Mr. Canning. There is not a "ha'porth of bread to +all this sugar and sack." I love not the cretaceous and incredible +countenance of his colleague. The only opinion in which I agree +with these two gentlemen is that which they entertain of each other. +I am sure that the insolence of Mr. Pitt, and the unbalanced +accounts of Melville, were far better than the perils of this new +ignorance:- + + +Nonne fuit satius, ristes Amaryllidis iras +Atque superba pati fastidia? nonne Menalcan? +Quamvis ille niger? + + +In the midst of the most profound peace, the secret articles of the +Treaty of Tilsit, in which the destruction of Ireland is resolved +upon, induce you to rob the Danes of their fleet. After the +expedition sailed comes the Treaty of Tilsit, containing no article, +public or private, alluding to Ireland. The state of the world, you +tell me, justified us in doing this. Just God! do we think only of +the state of the world when there is an opportunity for robbery, for +murder, and for plunder; and do we forget the state of the world +when we are called upon to be wise, and good, and just? Does the +state of the world never remind us that we have four millions of +subjects whose injuries we ought to atone for, and whose affections +we ought to conciliate? Does the state of the world never warn us +to lay aside our infernal bigotry, and to arm every man who +acknowledges a God, and can grasp a sword? Did it never occur to +this administration that they might virtuously get hold of a force +ten times greater than the force of the Danish fleet? Was there no +other way of protecting Ireland but by bringing eternal shame upon +Great Britain, and by making the earth a den of robbers? See what +the men whom you have supplanted would have done. They would have +rendered the invasion of Ireland impossible, by restoring to the +Catholics their long-lost rights: they would have acted in such a +manner that the French would neither have wished for invasion nor +dared to attempt it: they would have increased the permanent +strength of the country while they preserved its reputation +unsullied. Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because +they are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to +tolerate all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, +is to oppose some of the worst passions of our nature--to plunder +and to oppress is to gratify them all. They wanted the huzzas of +mobs, and they have for ever blasted the fame of England to obtain +them. Were the fleets of Holland, France, and Spain destroyed by +larceny? You resisted the power of 150 sail of the line by sheer +courage, and violated every principle of morals from the dread of +fifteen hulks, while the expedition itself cost you three times more +than the value of the larcenous matter brought away. The French +trample on the laws of God and man, not for old cordage, but for +kingdoms, and always take care to be well paid for their crimes. We +contrive, under the present administration, to unite moral with +intellectual deficiency, and to grow weaker and worse by the same +action. If they had any evidence of the intended hostility of the +Danes, why was it not produced? Why have the nations of Europe been +allowed to feel an indignation against this country beyond the reach +of all subsequent information? Are these times, do you imagine, +when we can trifle with a year of universal hatred, dally with the +curses of Europe, and then regain a lost character at pleasure, by +the parliamentary perspirations of the Foreign Secretary, or the +solemn asseverations of the pecuniary Rose? Believe me, Abraham, it +is not under such ministers as these that the dexterity of honest +Englishmen will ever equal the dexterity of French knaves; it is not +in their presence that the serpent of Moses will ever swallow up the +serpents of the magician. + +Lord Hawkesbury says that nothing is to be granted to the Catholics +from fear. What! not even justice? Why not? There are four +millions of disaffected people within twenty miles of your own +coast. I fairly confess that the dread which I have of their +physical power is with me a very strong motive for listening to +their claims. To talk of not acting from fear, is mere +parliamentary cant. From what motive but fear, I should be glad to +know, have all the improvements in our constitution proceeded? I +question if any justice has ever been done to large masses of +mankind from any other motive. By what other motives can the +plunderers of the Baltic suppose nations to be governed in their +intercourse WITH EACH OTHER? If I say, Give this people what they +ask because it is just, do you think I should get ten people to +listen to me? Would not the lesser of the two Jenkinsons be the +first to treat me with contempt? The only true way to make the mass +of mankind see the beauty of justice is by showing to them, in +pretty plain terms, the consequences of injustice. If any body of +French troops land in Ireland, the whole population of that country +will rise against you to a man, and you could not possibly survive +such an event three years. Such, from the bottom of my soul, do I +believe to be the present state of that country; and so far does it +appear to me to be impolitic and unstatesman-like to concede +anything to such a danger, that if the Catholics, in addition to +their present just demands, were to petition for the perpetual +removal of the said Lord Hawkesbury from his Majesty's councils, I +think, whatever might be the effect upon the destinies of Europe, +and however it might retard our own individual destruction, that the +prayer of the petition should be instantly complied with. Canning's +crocodile tears should not move me; the hoops of the maids of honour +should not hide him. I would tear him from the banisters of the +back stairs, and plunge him in the fishy fumes of the dirtiest of +all his Cinque Ports. + + + +LETTER VII. + + + +Dear Abraham,--In the correspondence which is passing between us, +you are perpetually alluding to the Foreign Secretary; and in answer +to the dangers of Ireland, which I am pressing upon your notice, you +have nothing to urge but the confidence which you repose in the +discretion and sound sense of this gentleman. I can only say, that +I have listened to him long and often with the greatest attention; I +have used every exertion in my power to take a fair measure of him, +and it appears to me impossible to hear him upon any arduous topic +without perceiving that he is eminently deficient in those solid and +serious qualities upon which, and upon which alone, the confidence +of a great country can properly repose. He sweats and labours, and +works for sense, and Mr. Ellis seems always to think it is coming, +but it does not come; the machine can't draw up what is not to be +found in the spring; Providence has made him a light, jesting, +paragraph-writing man, and that he will remain to his dying day. +When he is jocular he is strong, when he is serious he is like +Samson in a wig; any ordinary person is a match for him: a song, an +ironical letter, a burlesque ode, an attack in the newspaper upon +Nicoll's eye, a smart speech of twenty minutes, full of gross +misrepresentations and clever turns, excellent language, a spirited +manner, lucky quotation, success in provoking dull men, some half +information picked up in Pall Mall in the morning; these are your +friend's natural weapons; all these things he can do: here I allow +him to be truly great; nay, I will be just, and go still further, if +he would confine himself to these things, and consider the facete +and the playful to be the basis of his character, he would, for that +species of man, be universally regarded as a person of a very good +understanding; call him a legislator, a reasoner, and the conductor +of the affairs of a great nation, and it seems to me as absurd as if +a butterfly were to teach bees to make honey. That he is an +extraordinary writer of small poetry, and a diner out of the highest +lustre, I do most readily admit. After George Selwyn, and perhaps +Tickell, there has been no such man for this half-century. The +Foreign Secretary is a gentleman, a respectable as well as a highly +agreeable man in private life; but you may as well feed me with +decayed potatoes as console me for the miseries of Ireland by the +resources of his SENSE and his DISCRETION. It is only the public +situation which this gentleman holds which entitles me or induces me +to say so much about him. He is a fly in amber, nobody cares about +the fly; the only question is, How the devil did it get there ? Nor +do I attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of utility, +as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke, for fear it should +flood a province. + +The friends of the Catholic question are, I observe, extremely +embarrassed in arguing when they come to the loyalty of the Irish +Catholics. As for me, I shall go straight forward to my object, and +state what I have no manner of doubt, from an intimate knowledge of +Ireland, to be the plain truth. Of the great Roman Catholic +proprietors, and of the Catholic prelates, there may be a few, and +but a few, who would follow the fortunes of England at all events: +there is another set of men who, thoroughly detesting this country, +have too much property and too much character to lose, not to wait +for some very favourable event before they show themselves; but the +great mass of Catholic population, upon the slightest appearance of +a French force in that country, would rise upon you to a man. It is +the most mistaken policy to conceal the plain truth. There is no +loyalty among the Catholics: they detest you as their worst +oppressors, and they will continue to detest you till you remove the +cause of their hatred. It is in your power in six months' time to +produce a total revolution of opinions among this people; and in +some future letter I will show you that this is clearly the case. +At present, see what a dreadful in state Ireland is in. The common +toast among the low Irish is, the feast of the PASSOVER. Some +allusion to Bonaparte, in a play lately acted at Dublin, produced +thunders of applause from the pit and the galleries; and a +politician should not be inattentive to the public feelings +expressed in theatres. Mr. Perceval thinks he has disarmed the +Irish: he has no more disarmed the Irish than he has resigned a +shilling of his own public emoluments. An Irish peasant fills the +barrel of his gun full of tow dipped in oil, butters up the lock, +buries it in a bog, and allows the Orange bloodhound to ransack his +cottage at pleasure. Be just and kind to the Irish, and you will +indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which +they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add +four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength. +Nightly visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol, +or a knife and fork, the odious vigour of the EVANGELICAL Perceval-- +acts of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you +from the hatred of four millions of people--the guarding yourselves +from universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little +cunning of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the +eternal basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and +madness to which nations are reduced when they lose sight of the +first elements of justice, without which a country can be no more +secure than it can be healthy without air. I sicken at such policy +and such men. The fact is, the Ministers know nothing about the +present state of Ireland; Mr. Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord +Castlereagh a few general officers, who take care, of course, to +report what is pleasant rather than what is true. As for the joyous +and lepid consul, he jokes upon neutral flags and frauds, jokes upon +Irish rebels, jokes upon northern and western and southern foes, and +gives himself no trouble upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of +the idolatrous deputy of the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he +reads no memorials upon the state of Ireland, listens to no reports, +asks no questions, and is the + + +"BOURN from whom no traveller returns." + + +The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I BELIEVE, blown +over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are +become so much more cunning from the last insurrection, that you may +perhaps be tolerably secure just at present from that evil: but are +you secure from the efforts which the French may make to throw a +body of troops into Ireland? and do you consider that event to be +difficult and improbable? From Brest Harbour to Cape St. Vincent, +you have above three thousand miles of hostile sea coast, and twelve +or fourteen harbours quite capable of containing a sufficient force +for the powerful invasion of Ireland. The nearest of these harbours +is not two days' sail from the southern coast of Ireland, with a +fair leading wind; and the furthest not ten. Five ships of the +line, for so very short a passage, might carry five or six thousand +troops with cannon and ammunition; and Ireland presents to their +attack a southern coast of more than 500 miles, abounding in deep +bays, admirable harbours, and disaffected inhabitants. Your +blockading ships may be forced to come home for provisions and +repairs, or they may be blown off in a gale of wind and compelled to +bear away for their own coast; and you will observe that the very +same wind which locks you up in the British Channel, when you are +got there, is evidently favourable for the invasion of Ireland. And +yet this is called Government, and the people huzza Mr. Perceval for +continuing to expose his country day after day to such tremendous +perils as these; cursing the men who would have given up a question +in theology to have saved us from such a risk. The British empire +at this moment is in the state of a peach-blossom--if the wind blows +gently from one quarter, it survives; if furiously from the other, +it perishes. A stiff breeze may set in from the north, the +Rochefort squadron will be taken, and the Minister will be the most +holy of men: if it comes from some other point, Ireland is gone; we +curse ourselves as a set of monastic madmen, and call out for the +unavailing satisfaction of Mr. Perceval's head. Such a state of +political existence is scarcely credible: it is the action of a mad +young fool standing upon one foot, and peeping down the crater of +Mount AEtna, not the conduct of a wise and sober people deciding +upon their best and dearest interests: and in the name, the much- +injured name, of heaven, what is it all for that we expose ourselves +to these dangers? Is it that we may sell more muslin? Is it that +we may acquire more territory? Is it that we may strengthen what we +have already acquired? No; nothing of all this; but that one set of +Irishmen may torture another set of Irishmen--that Sir Phelim +O'Callaghan may continue to whip Sir Toby M'Tackle, his next door +neighbour, and continue to ravish his Catholic daughters; and these +are the measures which the honest and consistent Secretary supports; +and this is the Secretary whose genius in the estimation of Brother +Abraham is to extinguish the genius of Bonaparte. Pompey was killed +by a slave, Goliath smitten by a stripling, Pyrrhus died by the hand +of a woman; tremble, thou great Gaul, from whose head an armed +Minerva leaps forth in the hour of danger; tremble, thou scourge of +God, a pleasant man is come out against thee, and thou shalt be laid +low by a joker of jokes, and he shall talk his pleasant talk against +thee, and thou shalt be no more! + +You tell me, in spite of all this parade of sea-coast, Bonaparte has +neither ships nor sailors: but this is a mistake. He has not ships +and sailors to contest the empire of the seas with Great Britain, +but there remains quite sufficient of the navies of France, Spain, +Holland, and Denmark, for these short excursions and invasions. Do +you think, too, that Bonaparte does not add to his navy every year? +Do you suppose, with all Europe at his feet, that he can find any +difficulty in obtaining timber, and that money will not procure for +him any quantity of naval stores he may want? The mere machine, the +empty ship, he can build as well, and as quickly, as you can; and +though he may not find enough of practised sailors to man large +fighting-fleets--it is not possible to conceive that he can want +sailors for such sort of purposes as I have stated. He is at +present the despotic monarch of above twenty thousand miles of sea- +coast, and yet you suppose he cannot procure sailors for the +invasion of Ireland. Believe, if you please, that such a fleet met +at sea by any number of our ships at all comparable to them in point +of force, would be immediately taken, let it be so; I count nothing +upon their power of resistance, only upon their power of escaping +unobserved. If experience has taught us anything, it is the +impossibility of perpetual blockades. The instances are +innumerable, during the course of this war, where whole fleets have +sailed in and out of harbour, in spite of every vigilance used to +prevent it. I shall only mention those cases where Ireland is +concerned. In December, 1796, seven ships of the line, and ten +transports, reached Bantry Bay from Brest, without having seen an +English ship in their passage. It blew a storm when they were off +shore, and therefore England still continues to be an independent +kingdom. You will observe that at the very time the French fleet +sailed out of Brest Harbour, Admiral Colpoys was cruising off there +with a powerful squadron, and still, from the particular +circumstances of the weather, found it impossible to prevent the +French from coming out. During the time that Admiral Colpoys was +cruising off Brest, Admiral Richery, with six ships of the line, +passed him, and got safe into the harbour. At the very moment when +the French squadron was lying in Bantry Bay, Lord Bridport with his +fleet was locked up by a foul wind in the Channel, and for several +days could not stir to the assistance of Ireland. Admiral Colpoys, +totally unable to find the French fleet, came home. Lord Bridport, +at the change of the wind, cruised for them in vain, and they got +safe back to Brest, without having seen a single one of those +floating bulwarks, the possession of which we believe will enable us +with impunity to set justice and common sense at defiance. + +Such is the miserable and precarious state of an anemocracy, of a +people who put their trust in hurricanes, and are governed by wind. +In August, 1798, three forty-gun frigates landed 1,100 men under +Humbert, making the passage from Rochelle to Killala without seeing +any English ship. In October of the same year, four French frigates +anchored in Killala Bay with 2,000 troops; and though they did not +land their troops, they returned to France in safety. In the same +month, a line-of-battle ship, eight stout frigates, and a brig, all +full of troops and stores, reached the coast of Ireland, and were +fortunately, in sight of land, destroyed, after an obstinate +engagement, by Sir John Warren. + +If you despise the little troop which, in these numerous +experiments, did make good its landing, take with you, if you +please, this precis of its exploits: eleven hundred men, commanded +by a soldier raised from the ranks, put to rout a select army of +6,000 men, commanded by General Lake, seized their ordnance, +ammunition, and stores, advanced 150 miles into a country containing +an armed force of 150,000 men, and at last surrendered to the +Viceroy, an experienced general, gravely and cautiously advancing at +the head of all his chivalry and of an immense army to oppose him. +You must excuse these details about Ireland, but it appears to me to +be of all other subjects the most important. If we conciliate +Ireland, we can do nothing amiss; if we do not, we can do nothing +well. If Ireland was friendly, we might equally set at defiance the +talents of Bonaparte and the blunders of his rival, Mr. Canning; we +could then support the ruinous and silly bustle of our useless +expeditions, and the almost incredible ignorance of our commercial +orders in council. Let the present administration give up but this +one point, and there is nothing which I would not consent to grant +them. Mr. Perceval shall have full liberty to insult the tomb of +Mr. Fox, and to torment every eminent Dissenter in Great Britain; +Lord Camden shall have large boxes of plums; Mr. Rose receive +permission to prefix to his name the appellative of virtuous; and to +the Viscount Castlereagh a round sum of ready money shall be well +and truly paid into his hand. Lastly, what remains to Mr. George +Canning, but that he ride up and down Pall Mall glorious upon a +white horse, and that they cry out before him, Thus shall it be done +to the statesman who hath written "The Needy Knife-Grinder," and the +German play? Adieu only for the present; you shall soon hear from +me again; it is a subject upon which I cannot long be silent. + + + +LETTER VIII. + + + +Nothing can be more erroneous than to suppose that Ireland is not +bigger than the Isle of Wight, or of more consequence than Guernsey +or Jersey; and yet I am almost inclined to believe, from the general +supineness which prevails here respecting the dangerous state of +that country, that such is the rank which it holds in our +statistical tables. I have been writing to you a great deal about +Ireland, and perhaps it may be of some use to state to you concisely +the nature and resources of the country which has been the subject +of our long and strange correspondence. There were returned, as I +have before observed, to the hearth tax in 1791, 701,102 houses, +which Mr. Newenham shows from unquestionable documents to be nearly +80,000 below the real number of houses in that country. There are +27,457 square English miles in Ireland, and more than five millions +of people. + +By the last survey it appears that the inhabited houses in England +and Wales amount to 1,574,902, and the population to 9,343,578, +which gives an average of 5.875 to each house, in a country where +the density of population is certainly less considerable than in +Ireland. It is commonly supposed that two-fifths of the army and +navy are Irishmen, at periods when political disaffection does not +avert the Catholics from the service. The current value of Irish +exports in 1807 was 9,314,854 pounds 17s. 7d.; a state of commerce +about equal to the commerce of England in the middle of the reign of +George II. The tonnage of ships entered inward and cleared outward +in the trade of Ireland, in 1807, amounted to 1,567,430 tons. The +quantity of home spirits exported amounted to 10,284 gallons in +1796, and to 930,800 gallons in 1804. Of the exports which I have +stated, provisions amounted to four millions, and linen to about +four millions and a half. There was exported from Ireland, upon an +average of two years ending in January, 1804, 591,274 barrels of +barley, oats, and wheat; and by weight 910,848 cwts. of flour, +oatmeal, barley, oats, and wheat. The amount of butter exported in +1804, from Ireland, was worth, in money, 1,704,680 pounds sterling. +The importation of ale and beer, from the immense manufactures now +carrying on of these articles, was diminished to 3,209 barrels, in +the year 1804, from 111,920 barrels, which was the average +importation per annum, taking from three years ending in 1792; and +at present there is an export trade of porter. On an average of +three years, ending March, 1783, there were imported into Ireland, +of cotton wool, 3,326 cwts., of cotton yarn, 5,405 lbs.; but on an +average of three years, ending January, 1803, there were imported, +of the first article, 13,159 cwts., and of the latter, 628,406 lbs. +It is impossible to conceive any manufacture more flourishing. The +export of linen has increased in Ireland from 17,776,862 yards, the +average in 1770, to 43,534,971 yards, the amount in 1805. The +tillage of Ireland has more than trebled within the last twenty-one +years. The importation of coals has increased from 230,000 tons in +1783, to 417,030 in 1804; of tobacco, from 3,459,861 lbs. in 1783, +to 6,611,543 in 1804; of tea, from 1,703,855 lbs. in 1783, to +3,358,256 in 1804; of sugar, from 143,117 cwts. in 1782, to 309,076 +in 1804. Ireland now supports a funded debt of above 64 millions, +and it is computed that more than three millions' of money are +annually remitted to Irish absentees resident in this country. In +Mr. Foster's report, of 100 folio pages, presented to the House of +Commons in the year 1806, the total expenditure of Ireland is stated +at 9,760,013 pounds. Ireland has increased about two-thirds in its +population within twenty-five years, and yet, and in about the same +space of time, its exports of beef, bullocks, cows, pork, swine, +butter, wheat, barley, and oats, collectively taken, have doubled; +and this, in spite of two years' famine, and the presence of an +immense army, that is always at hand to guard the most valuable +appanage of our empire from joining our most inveterate enemies. +Ireland has the greatest possible facilities for carrying on +commerce with the whole of Europe. It contains, within a circuit of +750 miles, 66 secure harbours, and presents a western frontier +against Great Britain, reaching from the Firth of Clyde north to the +Bristol Channel south, and varying in distance from 20 to 100 miles; +so that the subjugation of Ireland would compel us to guard with +ships and soldiers a new line of coast, certainly amounting, with +all its sinuosities, to more than 700 miles--an addition of +polemics, in our present state of hostility with all the world, +which must highly gratify the vigorists, and give them an ample +opportunity of displaying that foolish energy upon which their +claims to distinction are founded. Such is the country which the +Right Reverend the Chancellor of the Exchequer would drive into the +arms of France, and for the conciliation of which we are requested +to wait, as if it were one of those sinecure places which were given +to Mr. Perceval snarling at the breast, and which cannot be +abolished till his decease. + +How sincerely and fervently have I often wished that the Emperor of +the French had thought as Mr. Spencer Perceval does upon the subject +of government; that he had entertained doubts and scruples upon the +propriety of admitting the Protestants to an equality of rights with +the Catholics, and that he had left in the middle of his empire +these vigorous seeds of hatred and disaffection! But the world was +never yet conquered by a blockhead. One of the very first measures +we saw him recurring to was the complete establishment of religious +liberty: if his subjects fought and paid as he pleased, he allowed +them to believe as they pleased: the moment I saw this, my best +hopes were lost. I perceived in a moment the kind of man we had to +do with. I was well aware of the miserable ignorance and folly of +this country upon the subject of toleration; and every year has been +adding to the success of that game, which it was clear he had the +will and the ability to play against us. + +You say Bonaparte is not in earnest upon the subject of religion, +and that this is the cause of his tolerant spirit; but is it +possible you can intend to give us such dreadful and unamiable +notions of religion. Are we to understand that the moment a man is +sincere he is narrow-minded; that persecution is the child of +belief; and that a desire to leave all men in the quiet and +unpunished exercise of their own creed can only exist in the mind of +an infidel? Thank God! I know many men whose principles are as firm +as they are expanded, who cling tenaciously to their own +modification of the Christian faith, without the slightest +disposition to force that modification upon other people. If +Bonaparte is liberal in subjects of religion because he has no +religion, is this a reason why we should be illiberal because we are +Christians? If he owes this excellent quality to a vice, is that +any reason why we may not owe it to a virtue? Toleration is a great +good, and a good to be imitated, let it come from whom it will. If +a sceptic is tolerant, it only shows that he is not foolish in +practice as well as erroneous in theory. If a religious man is +tolerant, it evinces that he is religious from thought and inquiry, +because he exhibits in his conduct one of the most beautiful and +important consequences of a religious mind--an inviolable charity to +all the honest varieties of human opinion. + +Lord Sidmouth, and all the anti-Catholic people, little foresee that +they will hereafter be the sport of the antiquary; that their +prophecies of ruin and destruction from Catholic emancipation will +be clapped into the notes of some quaint history, and be matter of +pleasantry even to the sedulous housewife and the rural dean. There +is always a copious supply of Lord Sidmouths in the world; nor is +there one single source of human happiness against which they have +not uttered the most lugubrious predictions. Turnpike roads, +navigable canals, inoculation, hops, tobacco, the Reformation, the +Revolution--there are always a set of worthy and moderately-gifted +men, who bawl out death and ruin upon every valuable change which +the varying aspect of human affairs absolutely and imperiously +requires. I have often thought that it would be extremely useful to +make a collection of the hatred and abuse that all those changes +have experienced, which are now admitted to be marked improvements +in our condition. Such a history might make folly a little more +modest, and suspicious of its own decisions. + +Ireland, you say, since the Union is to be considered as a part of +the whole kingdom; and therefore, however Catholics may predominate +in that particular spot, yet, taking the whole empire together, they +are to be considered as a much more insignificant quota of the +population. Consider them in what light you please, as part of the +whole, or by themselves, or in what manner may be most consentaneous +to the devices of your holy mind--I say in a very few words, if you +do not relieve these people from the civil incapacities to which +they are exposed, you will lose them; or you must employ great +strength and much treasure in watching over them. In the present +state of the world you can afford to do neither the one nor the +other. Having stated this, I shall leave you to be ruined, +Puffendorf in hand (as Mr. Secretary Canning says), and to lose +Ireland, just as you have found out what proportion the aggrieved +people should bear to the whole population before their calamities +meet with redress. As for your parallel cases, I am no more afraid +of deciding upon them than I am upon their prototype. If ever any +one heresy should so far spread itself over the principality of +Wales that the Established Church were left in a minority of one to +four; if you had subjected these heretics to very severe civil +privations; if the consequence of such privations were a universal +state of disaffection among that caseous and wrathful people; and if +at the same time you were at war with all the world, how can you +doubt for a moment that I would instantly restore them to a state of +the most complete civil liberty? What matters it under what name +you put the same case? Common sense is not changed by appellations. +I have said how I would act to Ireland, and I would act so to all +the world. + +I admit that, to a certain degree, the Government will lose the +affections of the Orangemen by emancipating the Catholics; much +less, however, at present, than three years past. The few men, who +have ill-treated the whole crew, live in constant terror that the +oppressed people will rise upon them and carry the ship into Brest: +--they begin to find that it is a very tiresome thing to sleep every +night with cocked pistols under their pillows, and to breakfast, +dine, and sup with drawn hangers. They suspect that the privilege +of beating and kicking the rest of the sailors is hardly worth all +this anxiety, and that if the ship does ever fall into the hands of +the disaffected, all the cruelties which they have experienced will +be thoroughly remembered and amply repaid. To a short period of +disaffection among the Orangemen I confess I should not much object: +my love of poetical justice does carry me as far as that; one +summer's whipping, only one: the thumb-screw for a short season; a +little light easy torturing between Ladyday and Michaelmas; a short +specimen of Mr. Perceval's rigour. I have malice enough to ask this +slight atonement for the groans and shrieks of the poor Catholics, +unheard by any human tribunal, but registered by the Angel of God +against their Protestant and enlightened oppressors. + +Besides, if you who count ten so often can count five, you must +perceive that it is better to have four friends and one enemy than +four enemies and one friend; and the more violent the hatred of the +Orangemen, the more certain the reconciliation of the Catholics. +The disaffection of the Orangemen will be the Irish rainbow: when I +see it I shall be sure that the storm is over. + +If these incapacities, from which the Catholics ask to be relieved, +were to the mass of them only a mere feeling of pride, and if the +question were respecting the attainment of privileges which could be +of importance only to the highest of the sect, I should still say +that the pride of the mass was very naturally wounded by the +degradation of their superiors. Indignity to George Rose would be +felt by the smallest nummary gentleman in the king's employ; and Mr. +John Bannister could not be indifferent to anything which happened +to Mr. Canning. But the truth is, it is a most egregious mistake to +suppose that the Catholics are contending merely for the fringes and +feathers of their chiefs. I will give you a list in my next Letter +of those privations which are represented to be of no consequence to +anybody but Lord Fingal, and some twenty or thirty of the principal +persons of their sect. In the meantime, adieu, and be wise. + + + +LETTER IX. + + + +Dear Abraham,--No Catholic can be chief Governor or Governor of this +kingdom, Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord High +Treasurer, Chief of any of the Courts of Justice, Chancellor of the +Exchequer, Puisne Judge, Judge in the Admiralty, Master of the +Rolls, Secretary of State, Keeper of the Privy Seal, Vice-Treasurer +or his Deputy, Teller or Cashier of Exchequer, Auditor or General, +Governor or Custos Rotulorum of Counties, Chief Governor's +Secretary, Privy Councillor, King's Counsel, Serjeant, Attorney, +Solicitor-General, Master in Chancery, Provost or Fellow of Trinity +College, Dublin, Postmaster-General, Master and Lieutenant-General +of Ordnance, Commander-in-Chief, General on the Staff, Sheriff, Sub- +Sheriff, Mayor, Bailiff, Recorder, Burgess, or any other officer in +a City, or a Corporation. No Catholic can be guardian to a +Protestant, and no priest guardian at all; no Catholic can be a +gamekeeper, or have for sale, or otherwise, any arms or warlike +stores; no Catholic can present to a living, unless he choose to +turn Jew in order to obtain that privilege; the pecuniary +qualification of Catholic jurors is made higher than that of +Protestants, and no relaxation of the ancient rigorous code is +permitted, unless to those who shall take an oath prescribed by 13 +and 14 George III. Now if this is not picking the plums out of the +pudding and leaving the mere batter to the Catholics, I know not +what is. If it were merely the Privy Council, it would be (I allow) +nothing but a point of honour for which the mass of Catholics were +contending, the honour of being chief-mourners or pall-bearers to +the country; but surely no man will contend that every barrister may +not speculate upon the possibility of being a Puisne Judge; and that +every shopkeeper must not feel himself injured by his exclusion from +borough offices. + +One of the greatest practical evils which the Catholics suffer in +Ireland is their exclusion from the offices of Sheriff and Deputy +Sheriff. Nobody who is unacquainted with Ireland can conceive the +obstacles which this opposes to the fair administration of justice. +The formation of juries is now entirely in the hands of the +Protestants; the lives, liberties, and properties of the Catholics +in the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the +administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices +are inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity! In this country, +if a man be a foreigner, if he sell slippers, and sealing wax, and +artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care +half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be +men of similar prejudices and feelings with himself: but a poor +Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevals, and destroyed +according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, +and with all the insulting forms of justice. I do not go the length +of saying that deliberate and wilful injustice is done. I have no +doubt that the Orange Deputy Sheriff thinks it would be a most +unpardonable breach of his duty if he did not summon a Protestant +panel. I can easily believe that the Protestant panel may conduct +themselves very conscientiously in hanging the gentlemen of the +crucifix; but I blame the law which does not guard the Catholic +against the probable tenor of those feelings which must +unconsciously influence the judgments of mankind. I detest that +state of society which extends unequal degrees of protection to +different creeds and persuasions; and I cannot describe to you the +contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a statesman, defends +a system which fills the heart of every Irishman with treason, and +makes his allegiance prudence, not choice. + +I request to know if the vestry taxes in Ireland are a mere matter +of romantic feeling which can affect only the Earl of Fingal? In a +parish where there are four thousand Catholics and fifty +Protestants, the Protestants may meet together in a vestry meeting +at which no Catholic has the right to vote, and tax all the lands in +the parish 1s. 6d. per acre, or in the pound, I forget which, for +the repairs of the church--and how has the necessity of these +repairs been ascertained? A Protestant plumber has discovered that +it wants new leading; a Protestant carpenter is convinced the +timbers are not sound; and the glazier who hates holy water (as an +accoucheur hates celibacy, because he gets nothing by it) is +employed to put in new sashes. + +The grand juries in Ireland are the great scene of jobbing. They +have a power of making a county rate to a considerable extent for +roads, bridges, and other objects of general accommodation. "You +suffer the road to be brought through my park, and I will have the +bridge constructed in a situation where it will make a beautiful +object to your house. You do my job, and I will do yours." These +are the sweet and interesting subjects which occasionally occupy +Milesian gentlemen while they are attendant upon this grand inquest +of justice. But there is a religion, it seems, even in jobs; and it +will be highly gratifying to Mr. Perceval to learn that no man in +Ireland who believes in seven sacraments can carry a public road, or +bridge, one yard out of the direction most beneficial to the public, +and that nobody can cheat the public who does not expound the +Scriptures in the purest and most orthodox manner. This will give +pleasure to Mr. Perceval: but, from his unfairness upon these +topics I appeal to the justice and the proper feelings of Mr. +Huskisson. I ask him if the human mind can experience a more +dreadful sensation than to see its own jobs refused, and the jobs of +another religion perpetually succeeding? I ask him his opinion of a +jobless faith, of a creed which dooms a man through life to a lean +and plunderless integrity. He knows that human nature cannot and +will not bear it; and if we were to paint a political Tartarus, it +would be an endless series of snug expectations and cruel +disappointments. These are a few of many dreadful inconveniences +which the Catholics of all ranks suffer from the laws by which they +are at present oppressed. Besides, look at human nature: what is +the history of all professions? Joel is to be brought up to the +bar: has Mrs. Plymley the slightest doubt of his being Chancellor? +Do not his two shrivelled aunts live in the certainty of seeing him +in that situation, and of cutting out with their own hands his +equity habiliments? And I could name a certain minister of the +Gospel who does not, in the bottom of his heart, much differ from +these opinions. Do you think that the fathers and mothers of the +holy Catholic Church are not as absurd as Protestant papas and +mammas? The probability I admit to be, in each particular case, +that the sweet little blockhead will in fact never get a brief;--but +I will venture to say, there is not a parent from the Giant's +Causeway to Bantry Bay who does not conceive that his child is the +unfortunate victim of the exclusion, and that nothing short of +positive law could prevent his own dear, pre-eminent Paddy from +rising to the highest honours of the State. So with the army and +parliament; in fact, few are excluded; but, in imagination, all: +you keep twenty or thirty Catholics out, and you lose the affections +of four millions; and, let me tell you, that recent circumstances +have by no means tended to diminish in the minds of men that hope of +elevation beyond their own rank which is so congenial to our nature: +from pleading for John Roe to taxing John Bull, from jesting for Mr. +Pitt and writing in the Anti-Jacobin, to managing the affairs of +Europe--these are leaps which seem to justify the fondest dreams of +mothers and of aunts. + +I do not say that the disabilities to which the Catholics are +exposed amount to such intolerable grievances, that the strength and +industry of a nation are overwhelmed by them: the increasing +prosperity of Ireland fully demonstrates to the contrary. But I +repeat again, what I have often stated in the course of our +correspondence, that your laws against the Catholics are exactly in +that state in which you have neither the benefits of rigour nor of +liberality: every law which prevented the Catholic from gaining +strength and wealth is repealed; every law which can irritate +remains; if you were determined to insult the Catholics, you should +have kept them weak; if you resolved to give them strength, you +should have ceased to insult them--at present your conduct is pure, +unadulterated folly. + +Lord Hawkesbury says, "We heard nothing about the Catholics till we +began to mitigate the laws against them; when we relieved them in +part from this oppression they began to be disaffected. This is +very true; but it proves just what I have said, that you have either +done too much or too little; and as there lives not, I hope, upon +earth, so depraved a courtier that he would load the Catholics with +their ancient chains, what absurdity it is, then, not to render +their dispositions friendly, when you leave their arms and legs +free! + +You know, and many Englishmen know, what passes in China; but nobody +knows or cares what passes in Ireland. At the beginning of the +present reign no Catholic could realise property, or carry on any +business; they were absolutely annihilated, had had no more agency +in the country than so many trees. They were like Lord Mulgrave's +eloquence and Lord Camden's wit; the legislative bodies did not know +of their existence. For these twenty-five years last past the +Catholics have been engaged in commerce; within that period the +commerce of Ireland has doubled--there are four Catholics at work +for one Protestant, and eight Catholics at work for one +Episcopalian. Of course, the proportion which Catholic wealth bears +to Protestant wealth is every year altering rapidly in favour of the +Catholics. I have already told you what their purchases of land +were the last year: since that period I have been at some pains to +find out the actual state of the Catholic wealth: it is impossible +upon such a subject to arrive at complete accuracy; but I have good +reason to believe that there are at present 2,000 Catholics in +Ireland, possessing an income of 500 pounds and upwards, many of +these with incomes of one, two, three, and four thousand, and some +amounting to fifteen and twenty thousand per annum:- and this is the +kingdom, and these the people, for whose conciliation we are to wait +Heaven knows when, and Lord Hawkesbury why! As for me, I never +think of the situation of Ireland without feeling the same necessity +for immediate interference as I should do if I saw blood flowing +from a great artery. I rush towards it with the instinctive +rapidity of a man desirous of preventing death, and have no other +feeling but that in a few seconds the patient may be no more. + +I could not help smiling, in the times of No Popery, to witness the +loyal indignation of many persons at the attempt made by the last +ministry to do something for the relief of Ireland. The general cry +in the country was, that they would not see their beloved Monarch +used ill in his old age, and that they would stand by him to the +last drop of their blood. I respect good feelings, however +erroneous be the occasions on which they display themselves; and +therefore I saw in all this as much to admire as to blame. It was a +species of affection, however, which reminded me very forcibly of +the attachment displayed by the servants of the Russian ambassador +at the beginning of the last century. His Excellency happened to +fall down in a kind of apoplectic fit, when he was paying a morning +visit in the house of an acquaintance. The confusion was of course +very great, and messengers were despatched in every direction to +find a surgeon: who, upon his arrival, declared that his Excellency +must be immediately blooded, and prepared himself forthwith to +perform the operation: the barbarous servants of the embassy, who +were there in great numbers, no sooner saw the surgeon prepared to +wound the arm of their master with a sharp, shining instrument, than +they drew their swords, put themselves in an attitude of defence, +and swore in pure Sclavonic, "that they would murder any man who +attempted to do him the slightest injury: he had been a very good +master to them, and they would not desert him in his misfortunes, or +suffer his blood to be shed while he was off his guard, and +incapable of defending himself." By good fortune, the secretary +arrived about this period of the dispute, and his Excellency, +relieved from superfluous blood and perilous affection, was, after +much difficulty, restored to life. + +There is an argument brought forward with some appearance of +plausibility in the House of Commons, which certainly merits an +answer: You know that the Catholics now vote for members of +parliament in Ireland, and that they outnumber the Protestants in a +very great proportion; if you allow Catholics to sit in parliament, +religion will be found to influence votes more than property, and +the greater part of the 100 Irish members who are returned to +parliament will be Catholics. Add to these the Catholic members who +are returned in England, and you will have a phalanx of heretical +strength which every minister will be compelled to respect, and +occasionally to conciliate by concessions incompatible with the +interests of the Protestant Church. The fact is, however, that you +are at this moment subjected to every danger of this kind which you +can possibly apprehend hereafter. If the spiritual interests of the +voters are more powerful than their temporal interests, they can +bind down their representatives to support any measures favourable +to the Catholic religion, and they can change the objects of their +choice till they have found Protestant members (as they easily may +do) perfectly obedient to their wishes. If the superior possessions +of the Protestants prevent the Catholics from uniting for a common +political object, then the danger you fear cannot exist: if zeal, +on the contrary, gets the better of acres, then the danger at +present exists, from the right of voting already given to the +Catholics, and it will not be increased by allowing them to sit in +parliament. There are, as nearly as I can recollect, thirty seats +in Ireland for cities and counties, where the Protestants are the +most numerous, and where the members returned must of course be +Protestants. In the other seventy representations the wealth of the +Protestants is opposed to the number of the Catholics; and if all +the seventy members returned were of the Catholic persuasion, they +must still plot the destruction of our religion in the midst of 588 +Protestants. Such terrors would disgrace a cook-maid, or a +toothless aunt--when they fall from the lips of bearded and +senatorial men, they are nauseous, antiperistaltic, and emetical. + +How can you for a moment doubt of the rapid effects which would be +produced by the emancipation? In the first place, to my certain +knowledge the Catholics have long since expressed to his Majesty's +Ministers their perfect readiness TO VEST IN HIS MAJESTY, EITHER +WITH THE CONSENT OF THE POPE, OR WITHOUT IT IF IT CANNOT BE +OBTAINED, THE NOMINATION OF THE CATHOLIC PRELACY. The Catholic +prelacy in Ireland consists of twenty-six bishops and the warden of +Galway, a dignitary enjoying Catholic jurisdiction. The number of +Roman Catholic priests in Ireland exceeds one thousand. The +expenses of his peculiar worship are, to a substantial farmer or +mechanic, five shillings per annum; to a labourer (where he is not +entirely excused) one shilling per annum; this includes the +contribution of the whole family, and for this the priest is bound +to attend them when sick, and to confess them when they apply to +him; he is also to keep his chapel in order, to celebrate divine +service, and to preach on Sundays and holydays. + +In the northern district a priest gains from 30 to 50 pounds; in the +other parts of Ireland from 60 to 90 pounds per annum. The best +paid Catholic bishops receive about 400 pounds per annum; the others +from 300 to 350 pounds. My plan is very simple: I would have 300 +Catholic parishes at 100 pounds per annum, 300 at 200 pounds per +annum, and 400 at 300 pounds per annum; this, for the whole thousand +parishes, would amount to 190,000 pounds. To the prelacy I would +allot 20,000 pounds in unequal proportions, from 1,000 to 500 +pounds; and I would appropriate 40,000 pounds more for the support +of Catholic schools, and the repairs of Catholic churches; the whole +amount of which sum is 250,000 pounds, about the expense of three +days of one of our genuine, good English JUST AND NECESSARY WARS. +The clergy should all receive their salaries at the Bank of Ireland, +and I would place the whole patronage in the hands of the Crown. +Now, I appeal to any human being, except Spencer Perceval, Esq., of +the parish of Hampstead, what the disaffection of a clergy would +amount to, gaping after this graduated bounty of the Crown, and +whether Ignatius Loyala himself, if he were a living blockhead +instead of a dead saint, could withstand the temptation of bouncing +from 100 pounds a year at Sligo, to 300 pounds in Tipperary? This +is the miserable sum of money for which the merchants and landowners +and nobility of England are exposing themselves to the tremendous +peril of losing Ireland. The sinecure places of the Roses and the +Percevals, and the "dear and near relations," put up to auction at +thirty years' purchase, would almost amount to the money. + +I admit that nothing can be more reasonable than to expect that a +Catholic priest should starve to death, genteelly and pleasantly, +for the good of the Protestant religion; but is it equally +reasonable to expect that he should do so for the Protestant pews, +and Protestant brick and mortar? On an Irish Sabbath, the bell of a +neat parish church often summons to church only the parson and an +occasionally conforming clerk; while, two hundred yards off, a +thousand Catholics are huddled together in a miserable hovel, and +pelted by all the storms of heaven. Can anything be more +distressing than to see a venerable man pouring forth sublime truths +in tattered breeches, and depending for his food upon the little +offal he gets from his parishioners? I venerate a human being who +starves for his principles, let them be what they may; but starving +for anything is not at all to the taste of the honourable +flagellants: strict principles, and good pay, is the motto of Mr. +Perceval: the one he keeps in great measure for the faults of his +enemies, the other for himself. + +There are parishes in Connaught in which a Protestant was never +settled nor even seen. In that province in Munster, and in parts of +Leinster, the entire peasantry for sixty miles are Catholics; in +these tracts the churches are frequently shut for want of a +congregation, or opened to an assemblage of from six to twenty +persons. Of what Protestants there are in Ireland, the greatest +part are gathered together in Ulster, or they live in towns. In the +country of the other three provinces the Catholics see no other +religion but their own, and are at the least as fifteen to one +Protestant. In the diocese of Tuam they are sixty to one; in the +parish of St. Mulins, diocese of Leghlin, there are four thousand +Catholics and one Protestant; in the town of Grasgenamana, in the +county of Kilkenny, there are between four and five hundred Catholic +houses, and three Protestant houses. In the parish of Allen, county +Kildare, there is no Protestant, though it is very populous. In the +parish of Arlesin, Queen's County, the proportion is one hundred to +one. In the whole county of Kilkenny, by actual enumeration, it is +seventeen to one; in the diocese of Kilmacduagh, province of +Connaught, fifty-two to one, by ditto. These I give you as a few +specimens of the present state of Ireland; and yet there are men +impudent and ignorant enough to contend that such evils require no +remedy, and that mild family man who dwelleth in Hampstead can find +none but the cautery and the knife. + + +- "Omne per ignem +Excoquitur vitium." + + +I cannot describe the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr. +Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in +Ireland. If I lived at Hampstead upon stewed meats and claret; if I +walked to church every Sunday before eleven young gentlemen of my +own begetting, with their faces washed, and their hair pleasingly +combed; if the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort-- +how awfully would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the +sword over the cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted +peasants of Ireland! How easy it is to shed human blood; how easy +it is to persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so, and that +the decision has cost us a severe struggle; how much in all ages +have wounds and shrieks and tears been the cheap and vulgar +resources of the rulers of mankind; how difficult and how noble it +is to govern in kindness and to found an empire upon the everlasting +basis of justice and affection! But what do men call vigour? To +let loose hussars and to bring up artillery, to govern with lighted +matches, and to cut, and push, and prime; I call this not vigour, +but the SLOTH OF CRUELTY AND IGNORANCE. The vigour I love consists +in finding out wherein subjects are aggrieved, in relieving them, in +studying the temper and genius of a people, in consulting their +prejudices, in selecting proper persons to lead and manage them, in +the laborious, watchful, and difficult task of increasing public +happiness by allaying each particular discontent. In this way Hoche +pacified La Vendee--and in this way only will Ireland ever be +subdued. But this, in the eyes of Mr. Perceval, is imbecility and +meanness. Houses are not broken open, women are not insulted, the +people seem all to be happy; they are not rode over by horses, and +cut by whips. Do you call this vigour? Is this government? + + + +LETTER X. AND LAST. + + + +You must observe that all I have said of the effects which will be +produced by giving salaries to the Catholic clergy, only proceeds +upon the supposition that the emanciptaion of the laity is effected: +--without that, I am sure there is not a clergyman in Ireland who +would receive a shilling from government; he could not do so, +without an entire loss of credit among the members of his own +persuasion. + +What you say of the moderation of the Irish Protestant clergy in +collecting tithes, is, I believe, strictly true. Instead of +collecting what the law enables them to collect, I believe they +seldom or ever collect more than two-thirds; and I entirely agree +with you, that the abolition of agistment tithe in Ireland by a vote +of the Irish House of Commons, and without any remuneration to the +Church, was a most scandalous and Jacobinical measure. I do not +blame the Irish clergy; but I submit to your common sense, if it be +possible to explain to an Irish peasant upon what principle of +justice, or common sense, he is to pay every tenth potato in his +little garden to a clergyman in whose religion nobody believes for +twenty miles around him, and who has nothing to preach to but bare +walls? It is true, if the tithes are bought up, the cottager must +pay more rent to his landlord; but the same thing done in the shape +of rent is less odious than when it is done in the shape of tithe. +I do not want to take a shilling out of the pockets of the clergy, +but to leave the substance of things, and to change their names. I +cannot see the slightest reason why the Irish labourer is to be +relieved from the real onus, or from anything else but the name of +tithe. At present he rents only nine-tenths of the produce of the +land, which is all that belongs to the owner; this he has at the +market price; if the landowner purchase the other tenth of the +Church, of course he has a right to make a correspondent advance +upon his tenant. + +I very much doubt, if you were to lay open all civil offices to the +Catholics, and to grant salaries to their clergy, in the manner I +have stated, if the Catholic laity would give themselves much +trouble about the advance of their Church; for they would pay the +same tithes under one system that they do under another. If you +were to bring the Catholics into the daylight of the world, to the +high situations of the army, the navy, and the bar, numbers of them +would come over to the Established Church, and do as other people +do; instead of that, you set a mark of infamy upon them, rouse every +passion of our nature in favour of their creed, and then wonder that +men are blind to the follies of the Catholic religion. There are +hardly any instances of old and rich families among the Protestant +Dissenters: when a man keeps a coach, and lives in good company, he +comes to church, and gets ashamed of the meeting-house; if this is +not the case with the father, it is almost always the case with the +son. These things would never be so if the Dissenters were in +PRACTICE as much excluded from all the concerns of civil life as the +Catholics are. If a rich young Catholic were in Parliament, he +would belong to White's and to Brookes's, would keep race-horses, +would walk up and down Pall Mall, be exonerated of his ready money +and his constitution, become as totally devoid of morality, honesty, +knowledge, and civility as Protestant loungers in Pall Mall, and +return home with a supreme contempt for Father O'Leary and Father +O'Callaghan. I am astonished at the madness of the Catholic clergy +in not perceiving that Catholic emancipation is Catholic infidelity; +that to entangle their people in the intrigues of a Protestant +parliament, and a Protestant court, is to ensure the loss of every +man of fashion and consequence in their community. The true receipt +for preserving their religion, is Mr. Perceval's receipt for +destroying it: it is to deprive every rich Catholic of all the +objects of secular ambition, to separate him from the Protestant, +and to shut him up in his castle with priests and relics. + +We are told, in answer to all our arguments, that this is not a fit +period--that a period of universal war is not the proper time for +dangerous innovations in the constitution: this is as much as to +say, that the worst time for making friends is the period when you +have made many enemies; that it is the greatest of all errors to +stop when you are breathless, and to lie down when you are fatigued. +Of one thing I am quite certain: if the safety of Europe is once +completely restored, the Catholics may for ever bid adieu to the +slightest probability of effecting their object. Such men as hang +about a court not only are deaf to the suggestions of mere justice, +but they despise justice; they detest the word RIGHT; the only word +which rouses them is PERIL; where they can oppress with impunity, +they oppress for ever, and call it loyalty and wisdom. + +I am so far from conceiving the legitimate strength of the Crown +would be diminished by these abolitions of civil incapacities in +consequence of religious opinions, that my only objection to the +increase of religious freedom is, that it would operate as a +diminution of political freedom; the power of the Crown is so +overbearing at this period, that almost the only steady opposers of +its fatal influence are men disgusted by religious intolerance. Our +establishments are so enormous, and so utterly disproportioned to +our population, that every second or third man you meet in society +gains something from the public; my brother the commissioner,--my +nephew the police justice,--purveyor of small beer to the army in +Ireland,--clerk of the mouth,--yeoman to the left hand,--these are +the obstacles which common sense and justice have now to overcome. +Add to this that the King, old and infirm, excites a principle of +very amiable generosity in his favour; that he has led a good, +moral, and religious life, equally removed from profligacy and +methodistical hypocrisy; that he has been a good husband, a good +father, and a good master; that he dresses plain, loves hunting and +farming, fates the French, and is in all his opinions and habits, +quite English: --these feelings are heightened by the present +situation of the world, and the yet unexploded clamour of +Jacobinism. In short, from the various sources of interest, +personal regard, and national taste, such a tempest of loyalty has +set in upon the people that the 47th proposition in Euclid might now +be voted down with as much ease as any proposition in politics; and +therefore if Lord Hawkesbury hates the abstract truths of science as +much as he hates concrete truth in human affairs, now is his time +for getting rid of the multiplication table, and passing a vote of +censure upon the pretensions of the hypotenuse. Such is the history +of English parties at this moment: you cannot seriously suppose +that the people care for such men as Lord Hawkesbury, Mr. Canning, +and Mr. Perceval on their own account; you cannot really believe +them to be so degraded as to look to their safety from a man who +proposes to subdue Europe by keeping it without Jesuit's Bark. The +people at present have one passion, and but one - + + +"A Jove principium, Jovis omnia plena." + + +They care no more for the ministers I have mentioned, than they do +for those sturdy royalists who for 60 pounds per annum stand behind +his Majesty's carriage, arrayed in scarlet and in gold. If the +present ministers opposed the Court instead of flattering it, they +would not command twenty votes. + +Do not imagine by these observations that I am not loyal; without +joining in the common cant of the best of kings, I respect the King +most sincerely as a good man. His religion is better than the +religion of Mr. Perceval, his old morality very superior to the old +morality of Mr. Canning, and I am quite certain he has a safer +understanding than both of them put together. Loyalty within the +bounds of reason and moderation is one of the great instruments of +human happiness; but the love of the king may easily become more +strong than the love of the kingdom, and we may lose sight of the +public welfare in our exaggerated admiration of him who is appointed +to reign only for its promotion and support. I detest Jacobinism; +and if I am doomed to be a slave at all, I would rather be the slave +of a king than a cobbler. God save the King, you say, warms your +heart like the sound of a trumpet. I cannot make use of so violent +a metaphor; but I am delighted to hear it, when it is the cry of +genuine affection; I am delighted to hear it when they hail not only +the individual man, but the outward and living sign of all English +blessings. These are noble feelings, and the heart of every good +man must go with them; but God save the King, in these times, too +often means God save my pension and my place, God give my sisters an +allowance out of the privy purse--make me clerk of the irons, let me +survey the meltings, let me live upon the fruits of other men's +industry, and fatten upon the plunder of the public. + +What is it possible to say to such a man as the Gentleman of +Hampstead, who really believes it feasible to convert the four +million Irish Catholics to the Protestant religion, and considers +this as the best remedy for the disturbed state of Ireland? It is +not possible to answer such a man with arguments; we must come out +against him with beads and a cowl, and push him into an hermitage. +It is really such trash, that it is an abuse of the privilege of +reasoning to reply to it. Such a project is well worthy the +statesman who would bring the French to reason by keeping them +without rhubarb, and exhibit to mankind the awful spectacle of a +nation deprived of neutral salts. This is not the dream of a wild +apothecary indulging in his own opium; this is not the distempered +fancy of a pounder of drugs, delirious from smallness of profits; +but it is the sober, deliberate, and systematic scheme of a man to +whom the public safety is intrusted, and whose appointment is +considered by many as a masterpiece of political sagacity. What a +sublime thought, that no purge can now be taken between the Weser +and the Garonne; that the bustling pestle is still, the canorous +mortar mute, and the bowels of mankind locked up for fourteen +degrees of latitude! When, I should be curious to know, were all +the powers of crudity and flatulence fully explained to his +Majesty's ministers? At what period was this great plan of conquest +and constipation fully developed? In whose mind was the idea of +destroying the pride and the plasters of France first engendered? +Without castor oil they might for some months, to be sure, have +carried on a lingering war! but can they do without bark? Will the +people live under a government where antimonial powders cannot be +procured? Will they bear the loss of mercury? "There's the rub." +Depend upon it, the absence of the materia medica will soon bring +them to their senses, and the cry of Bourbon and bolus burst forth +from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. + +You ask me for any precedent in our history where the oath of +supremacy has been dispensed with. It was dispensed with to the +Catholics of Canada in 1774. They are only required to take a +simple oath of allegiance. The same, I believe, was the case in +Corsica. The reason of such exemption was obvious; you could not +possibly have retained either of these countries without it. And +what did it signify, whether you retained them or not? In cases +where you might have been foolish without peril you were wise; when +nonsense and bigotry threaten you with destruction, it is impossible +to bring you back to the alphabet of justice and common sense. If +men are to be fools, I would rather they were fools in little +matters than in great; dulness turned up with temerity is a livery +all the worse for the facings; and the most tremendous of all things +is the magnanimity of the dunce. + +It is not by any means necessary, as you contend, to repeal the Test +Act if you give relief to the Catholic: what the Catholics ask for +is to be put on a footing with the Protestant Dissenters, which +would be done by repealing that part of the law which compels them +to take the oath of supremacy and to make the declaration against +transubstantiation: they would then come into Parliament as all +other Dissenters are allowed to do, and the penal laws to which they +were exposed for taking office would be suspended every year, as +they have been for this half century past towards Protestant +Dissenters. Perhaps, after all, this is the best method--to +continue the persecuting law, and to suspend it every year--a method +which, while it effectually destroys the persecution itself, leaves +to the great mass of mankind the exquisite gratification of +supposing that they are enjoying some advantage from which a +particular class of their fellow creatures are excluded. We manage +the Corporation and Test Acts at present much in the same manner as +if we were to persuade parish boys who had been in the habit of +beating an ass to spare the animal, and beat the skin of an ass +stuffed with straw; this would preserve the semblance of tormenting +without the reality, and keep boy and beast in good humour. + +How can you imagine that a provision for the Catholic clergy affects +the 5th article of the Union? Surely I am preserving the Protestant +Church in Ireland if I put it in a better condition than that in +which it now is. A tithe proctor in Ireland collects his tithes +with a blunderbuss, and carries his tenth hay-cock by storm, sword +in hand: to give him equal value in a more pacific shape cannot, I +should imagine, be considered as injurious to the Church of Ireland; +and what right has that Church to complain if Parliament chooses to +fix upon the empire the burden of supporting a double ecclesiastical +establishment? Are the revenues of the Irish Protestant clergy in +the slightest degree injured by such provision? On the contrary, is +it possible to confer a more serious benefit upon that Church than +by quieting and contenting those who are at work for its +destruction? + +It is impossible to think of the affairs of Ireland without being +forcibly struck with the parallel of Hungary. Of her seven millions +of inhabitants, one half were Protestants, Calvinists, and +Lutherans, many of the Greek Church, and many Jews: such was the +state of their religious dissensions that Mahomet had often been +called in to the aid of Calvin, and the crescent often glittered on +the walls of Buda and Presburg. At last, in 1791, during the most +violent crisis of disturbance, a Diet was called, and by a great +majority of voices a decree was passed, which secured to all the +contending sects the fullest and freest exercise of religious +worship and education; ordained--let it be heard in Hampstead--that +churches and chapels should be erected for all on the most perfectly +equal terms; that the Protestants of both confessions should depend +upon their spiritual superiors alone; liberated them from swearing +by the usual oath, "the Holy Virgin Mary, the saints, and chosen of +God;" and then the decree adds, "that PUBLIC OFFICES AND HONOURS, +HIGH OR LOW, GREAT OR SMALL, SHALL BE GIVEN TO NATURAL-BORN +HUNGARIANS WHO DESERVE WELL OF THEIR COUNTRY, AND POSSESS THE OTHER +QUALIFICATIONS, LET THEIR RELIGION BE WHAT IT MAY." Such was the +line of policy pursued in a Diet consisting of four hundred members, +in a state whose form of government approaches nearer to our own +than any other, having a Roman Catholic establishment of great +wealth and power, and under the influence of one of the most bigoted +Catholic Courts in Europe. This measure has now the experience of +eighteen years in its favour; it has undergone a trial of fourteen +years of revolution such as the world never witnessed, and more than +equal to a century less convulsed: What have been its effects? +When the French advanced like a torrent within a few days' march of +Vienna, the Hungarians rose in a mass; they formed what they called +the sacred insurrection, to defend their sovereign, their rights and +liberties, now common to all; and the apprehension of their approach +dictated to the reluctant Bonaparte the immediate signature of the +treaty of Leoben. The Romish hierarchy of Hungary exists in all its +former splendour and opulence; never has the slightest attempt been +made to diminish it; and those revolutionary principles, to which so +large a portion of civilised Europe has been sacrificed, have here +failed in making the smallest successful inroad. + +The whole history of this proceeding of the Hungarian Diet is so +extraordinary, and such an admirable comment upon the Protestantism +of Mr. Spencer Perceval, that I must compel you to read a few short +extracts from the law itself: --"The Protestants of both confessions +shall, in religious matters, depend upon their own spiritual +superiors alone. The Protestants may likewise retain their trivial +and grammar schools. The Church dues which the Protestants have +hitherto paid to the Catholic parish priests, schoolmasters, or +other such officers, either in money, productions, or labour, shall +in future entirely cease, and after three months from the publishing +of this law, be no more anywhere demanded. In the building or +repairing of churches, parsonage-houses, and schools, the +Protestants are not obliged to assist the Catholics with labour, nor +the Catholics the Protestants. The pious foundations and donations +of the Protestants which already exist, or which in future may be +made for their churches, ministers, schools and students, hospitals, +orphan houses, and poor, cannot be taken from them under any +pretext, nor yet the care of them; but rather the unimpeded +administration shall be intrusted to those from among them to whom +it legally belongs, and those foundations which may have been taken +from them under the last government shall be returned to them +without delay. All affairs of marriage of the Protestants are left +to their own consistories; all landlords and masters of families, +under the penalty of public prosecution, are ordered not to prevent +their subjects and servants, whether they be Catholic or Protestant, +from the observance of the festivals and ceremonies of their +religion," etc. etc. etc.--By what strange chances are mankind +influenced! A little Catholic barrister of Vienna might have raised +the cry of NO PROTESTANTISM, and Hungary would have panted for the +arrival of a French army as much as Ireland does at this moment; +arms would have been searched for; Lutheran and Calvinist houses +entered in the dead of the night; and the strength of Austria +exhausted in guarding a country from which, under the present +liberal system, she may expect in the moment of danger the most +powerful aid: and let it be remembered that this memorable example +of political wisdom took place at a period when many great +monarchies were yet unconquered in Europe; in a country where the +two religious parties were equal in number; and where it is +impossible to suppose indifference in the party which relinquished +its exclusive privileges. Under all these circumstances the measure +was carried in the Hungarian Diet by a majority of 280 to 120. In a +few weeks we shall see every concession denied to the Catholics by a +much larger majority of Protestants, at a moment when every other +power is subjugated but ourselves, and in a country where the +oppressed are four times as numerous as their oppressors. So much +for the wisdom of our ancestors--so much for the nineteenth century- +-so much for the superiority of the English over all the nations of +the Continent. + +Are you not sensible, let me ask you, of the absurdity of trusting +the lowest Catholics with offices correspondent to their situation +in life, and of denying such privileges to the higher. A Catholic +may serve in the militia, but a Catholic cannot come into +Parliament; in the latter case you suspect combination, and in the +former case you suspect no combination; you deliberately arm ten or +twenty thousand of the lowest of the Catholic people; and the moment +you come to a class of men whose education, honour, and talents seem +to render all mischief less probable, then you see the danger of +employing a Catholic, and cling to your investigating tests and +disabling laws. If you tell me you have enough of members of +Parliament and not enough of militia without the Catholics, I beg +leave to remind you that, by employing the physical force of any +sect at the same time when you leave them in a state of utter +disaffection, you are not adding strength to your armies, but +weakness and ruin. If you want the vigour of their common people, +you must not disgrace their nobility and insult their priesthood. + +I thought that the terror of the Pope had been confined to the +limits of the nursery, and merely employed as a means to induce +young master to enter into his small-clothes with greater speed and +to eat his breakfast with greater attention to decorum. For these +purposes the name of the Pope is admirable; but why push it beyond? +Why not leave to Lord Hawkesbury all further enumeration of the +Pope's powers? For a whole century you have been exposed to the +enmity of France, and your succession was disputed in two +rebellions: what could the Pope do at the period when there was a +serious struggle whether England should be Protestant or Catholic, +and when the issue was completely doubtful? Could the Pope induce +the Irish to rise in 1715? Could he induce them to rise in 1745? +You had no Catholic enemy when half this island was in arms; and +what did the Pope attempt in the last rebellion in Ireland? But if +he had as much power over the minds of the Irish as Mr. Wilberforce +has over the mind of a young Methodist converted the preceding +quarter, is this a reason why we are to disgust men who may be acted +upon in such a manner by a foreign power? or is it not an additional +reason why we should raise up every barrier of affection and +kindness against the mischief of foreign influence? But the true +answer is, the mischief does not exist. Gog and Magog have produced +as much influence upon human affairs as the Pope has done for this +half century past; and by spoiling him of his possessions, and +degrading him in the eyes of all Europe, Bonaparte has not taken +quite the proper method of increasing his influence. + +But why not a Catholic king as well as a Catholic member of +Parliament, or of the Cabinet?--Because it is probable that the one +would be mischievous and the other not. A Catholic king might +struggle against the Protestantism of the country, and if the +struggle were not successful it would at least be dangerous; but the +efforts of any other Catholic would be quite insignificant, and his +hope of success so small, that it is quite improbable the effort +would ever be made: my argument is, that in so Protestant a country +as Great Britain, the character of her parliaments and her cabinet +could not be changed by the few Catholics who would ever find their +way to the one or the other. But the power of the Crown is +immeasurably greater than the power which the Catholics could obtain +from any other species of authority in the state; and it does not +follow because the lesser degree of power is innocent that the +greater should be so too. As for the stress you lay upon the danger +of a Catholic chancellor, I have not the least hesitation in saying +that his appointment would not do a ten thousandth part of the +mischief to the English Church that might be done by a Methodistical +chancellor of the true Clapham breed; and I request to know if it is +really so very necessary that a chancellor should be of the religion +of the Church of England, how many chancellors you have had within +the last century who have been bred up in the Presbyterian religion? +And again, how many you have had who notoriously have been without +any religion at all? + +Why are you to suppose that eligibility and election are the same +thing, and that all the cabinet WILL be Catholics whenever all the +cabinet MAY be Catholics? You have a right, you say, to suppose an +extreme case, and to argue upon it--so have I: and I will suppose +that the hundred Irish members will one day come down in a body and +pass a law compelling the King to reside in Dublin. I will suppose +that the Scotch members, by a similar stratagem, will lay England +under a large contribution of meal and sulphur: no measure is +without objection if you sweep the whole horizon for danger; it is +not sufficient to tell me of what may happen, but you must show me a +rational probability that it will happen: after all, I might, +contrary to my real opinion, admit all your dangers to exist; it is +enough for me to contend that all other dangers taken together are +not equal to the danger of losing Ireland from disaffection and +invasion. + +I am astonished to see you, and many good and well-meaning clergymen +beside you, painting the Catholics in such detestable colours; two- +thirds, at least, of Europe are Catholics--they are Christians, +though mistaken Christians; how can I possibly admit that any sect +of Christians, and, above all, that the oldest and the most numerous +sect of Christians are incapable of fulfilling the common duties and +relations of life: though I do differ from them in many +particulars, God forbid I should give such a handle to infidelity, +and subscribe to such blasphemy against our common religion? + +Do you think mankind never change their opinions without formally +expressing and confessing that change? When you quote the decisions +of ancient Catholic councils, are you prepared to defend all the +decrees of English convocations and universities since the reign of +Queen Elizabeth? I could soon make you sick of your uncandid +industry against the Catholics, and bring you to allow that it is +better to forget times past, and to judge and be judged by present +opinions and present practice. + +I must beg to be excused from explaining and refuting all the +mistakes about the Catholics made by my Lord Redesdale; and I must +do that nobleman the justice to say, that he has been treated with +great disrespect. Could anything be more indecent than to make it a +morning lounge in Dublin to call upon his Lordship, and to cram him +with Arabian-night stories about the Catholics? Is this proper +behaviour to the representative of Majesty, the child of Themis, and +the keeper of the conscience in West Britain? Whoever reads the +Letters of the Catholic Bishops, in the appendix to Sir John +Hippesly's very sensible book, will see to what an excess this +practice must have been carried with the pleasing and Protestant +nobleman whose name I have mentioned, and from thence I wish you to +receive your answer about excommunication, and all the trash which +is talked against the Catholics. + +A sort of notion has, by some means or another, crept into the world +that difference of religion would render men unfit to perform +together the offices of common and civil life: that Brother Wood +and Brother Grose could not travel together the same circuit if they +differed in creed, nor Cockell and Mingay be engaged in the same +cause, if Cockell was a Catholic and Mingay a Muggletonian. It is +supposed that Huskisson and Sir Harry Englefield would squabble +behind the Speaker's chair about the council of Lateran, and many a +turnpike bill miscarry by the sarcastical controversies of Mr. +Hawkins Brown and Sir John Throckmorton upon the real presence. I +wish I could see some of these symptoms of earnestness upon the +subject of religion; but it really seems to me that, in the present +state of society, men no more think about inquiring concerning each +other's faith than they do concerning the colour of each other's +skins. There may have been times in England when the quarter +sessions would have been disturbed by theological polemics; but now, +after a Catholic justice had once been seen on the bench, and it had +been clearly ascertained that he spoke English, had no tail, only a +single row of teeth, and that he loved port wine--after all the +scandalous and infamous reports of his physical conformation had +been clearly proved to be false--he would be reckoned a jolly +fellow, and very superior in flavour to a sly Presbyterian. +Nothing, in fact, can be more uncandid and unphilosophical than to +say that a man has a tail, because you cannot agree within him upon +religious subjects; it appears to be ludicrous: but I am convinced +it has done infinite mischief to the Catholics, and made a very +serious impression upon the minds of many gentlemen of large landed +property. + +In talking of the impossibility of Catholic and Protestant living +together with equal privilege under the same government, do you +forget the Cantons of Switzerland? You might have seen there a +Protestant congregation going into a church which had just been +quitted by a Catholic congregation; and I will venture to say that +the Swiss Catholics were more bigoted to their religion than any +people in the whole world. Did the kings of Prussia ever refuse to +employ a Catholic? Would Frederick the Great have rejected an able +man on this account? We have seen Prince Czartorinski, a Catholic +Secretary of State in Russia; in former times a Greek patriarch and +an apostolic vicar acted together in the most perfect harmony in +Venice; and we have seen the Emperor of Germany in modern times +intrusting the care of his person and the command of his guard to a +Protestant Prince, Frederick of Wittenberg. But what are all these +things to Mr. Perceval? He has looked at human nature from the top +of Hampstead Hill, and has not a thought beyond the little sphere of +his own vision. "The snail," say the Hindoos, "sees nothing but his +own shell, and thinks it the grandest palace in the universe." + +I now take a final leave of this subject of Ireland; the only +difficulty in discussing it is a want of resistance, a want of +something difficult to unravel, and something dark to illumine. To +agitate such a question is to beat the air with a club, and cut down +gnats with a scimitar; it is a prostitution of industry, and a waste +of strength. If a man say, I have a good place, and I do not choose +to lose it, this mode of arguing upon the Catholic question I can +well understand; but that any human being with an understanding two +degrees elevated above that of an Anabaptist preacher, should +conscientiously contend for the expediency and propriety of leaving +the Irish Catholics in their present state, and of subjecting us to +such tremendous peril in the present condition of the world, it is +utterly out of my power to conceive. Such a measure as the Catholic +question is entirely beyond the common game of politics; it is a +measure in which all parties ought to acquiesce, in order to +preserve the place where and the stake for which they play. If +Ireland is gone, where are jobs? where are reversions? where is my +brother Lord Arden? where are my dear and near relations? The game +is up, and the Speaker of the house of Commons will be sent as a +present to the menagerie at Paris. We talk of waiting from +particular considerations, as if centuries of joy and prosperity +were before us: in the next ten years our fate must be decided; we +shall know, long before that period, whether we can bear up against +the miseries by which we are threatened or not; and yet, in the very +midst of our crisis, we are enjoined to abstain from the most +certain means of increasing our strength, and advised to wait for +the remedy till the disease is removed by death or health. And now, +instead of the plain and manly policy of increasing unanimity at +home, by equalising rights and privileges, what is the ignorant, +arrogant, and wicked system which has been pursued? Such a career +of madness and of folly was, I believe, never run in so short a +period. The vigour of the ministry is like the vigour of a grave- +digger--the tomb becomes more ready and more wide for every effort +which they make. There is nothing which it is worth while either to +take or to retain, and a constant train of ruinous expeditions have +been kept up. Every Englishman felt proud of the integrity of his +country; the character of the country is lost for ever. It is of +the utmost consequence to a commercial people at war with the +greatest part of Europe, that there should be a free entry of +neutrals into the enemy's ports; the neutrals who earned our +manufactures we have not only excluded, but we have compelled them +to declare war against us. It was our interest to make a good +peace, or convince our own people that it could not be obtained; we +have not made a peace, and we have convinced the people of nothing +but of the arrogance of the Foreign Secretary: and all this has +taken place in the short space of a year, because a King's Bench +barrister and a writer of epigrams, turned into Ministers of State, +were determined to show country gentlemen that the late +administration had no vigour. In the meantime commerce stands +still, manufactures perish, Ireland is more and more irritated, +India is threatened, fresh taxes are accumulated upon the wretched +people, the war is carried on without it being possible to conceive +any one single object which a rational being can propose to himself +by its continuation; and in the midst of this unparalleled insanity +we are told that the Continent is to be reconquered by the want of +rhubarb and plums. A better spirit than exists in the English +people never existed in any people in the world: it has been +misdirected, and squandered upon party purposes in the most +degrading and scandalous manner; they have been led to believe that +they were benefiting the commerce of England by destroying the +commerce of America, that they were defending their Sovereign by +perpetuating the bigoted oppression of their fellow-subjects; their +rulers and their guides have told them that they would equal the +vigour of France by equalling her atrocity; and they have gone on +wasting that opulence, patience, and courage, which, if husbanded by +prudent and moderate counsels, might have proved the salvation of +mankind. The same policy of turning the good qualities of +Englishmen to their own destruction, which made Mr. Pitt omnipotent, +continues his power to those who resemble him only in his vices; +advantage is taken of the loyalty of Englishmen to make them meanly +submissive; their piety is turned into persecution, their courage +into useless and obstinate contention; they are plundered because +they are ready to pay, and soothed into asinine stupidity because +they are full of virtuous patience. If England must perish at last, +so let it be: that event is in the hands of God; we must dry up our +tears and submit. But that England should perish swindling and +stealing; that it should perish waging war against lazar houses and +hospitals; that it should perish persecuting with monastic bigotry; +that it should calmly give itself up to be ruined by the flashy +arrogance of one man, and the narrow fanaticism of another; these +events are within the power of human beings, and I did not think +that the magnanimity of Englishmen would ever stoop to such +degradations. + +Longum Vale! + +PETER PLYMLEY. + + + +HISTORICAL APOLOGY FOR THE IRISH CATHOLICS. + + + +Historical Apology for The Irish Catholics. By WILLIAM PARNELL, +Esquire. Fitzpatrick, Dublin. 1807. + +If ever a nation exhibited symptoms of downright madness, or utter +stupidity, we conceive these symptoms may be easily recognised in +the conduct of this country upon the Catholic question. A man has a +wound in his great toe, and a violent and perilous fever at the same +time; and he refuses to take the medicines for the fever because it +will disconcert the toe! The mournful and folly-stricken blockhead +forgets that his toe cannot survive him; that if he dies, there can +be no digital life apart from him: yet he lingers and fondles over +this last part of his body, soothing it madly with little plasters, +and anile fomentations, while the neglected fever rages in his +entrails, and burns away his whole life. If the comparatively +little questions of Establishment are all that this country is +capable of discussing or regarding, for God's sake let us remember +that the foreign conquest, which destroys all, destroys this beloved +TOE also. Pass over freedom, industry, and science--and look upon +this great empire, by which we are about to be swallowed up, only as +it affects the manner of collecting tithes, and of reading the +liturgy--still, if all goes, these must go too; and even, for their +interests, it is worth while to conciliate Ireland, to avert the +hostility, and to employ the strength of the Catholic population. +We plead the question as the sincerest friends to the +Establishment;--as wishing to it all the prosperity and duration its +warmest advocates can desire,--but remembering always what these +advocates seem to forget, that the Establishment cannot be +threatened by any danger so great as the perdition of the kingdom in +which it is established. + +We are truly glad to agree so entirely with Mr. Parnell upon this +great question; we admire his way of thinking, and most cordially +recommend his work to the attention of the public. The general +conclusion which he attempts to prove is this: that religious +sentiment, however perverted by bigotry or fanaticism, has always a +TENDENCY to moderation.; that it seldom assumes any great portion of +activity or enthusiasm, except from novelty of opinion, or from +opposition, contumely, and persecution, when novelty ceases; that a +Government has little to fear from any religious sect, except while +that sect is new. Give a Government only time, and, provided it has +the good sense to treat folly with forbearance, it must ultimately +prevail. When, therefore, a sect is found, after a lapse of years, +to be ill-disposed to the Government, we may be certain that +Government has widened its separation by marked distinctions, roused +its resentment by contumely, or supported its enthusiasm by +persecution. + +The PARTICULAR conclusion Mr. Parnell attempts to prove is, that the +Catholic religion in Ireland had sunk into torpor and inactivity, +till Government roused it with the lash: that even then, from the +respect and attachment which men are always inclined to show towards +government, there still remained a large body of loyal Catholics; +that these only decreased in number from the rapid increase of +persecution; and that, after all, the effects which the resentment +of the Roman Catholics had in creating rebellions had been very much +exaggerated. + +In support of these two conclusions, Mr. Parnell takes a survey of +the history of Ireland, from the conquest under Henry to the +rebellion under Charles I., passing very rapidly over the period +which preceded the Reformation, and dwelling principally upon the +various rebellions which broke out in Ireland between the +Reformation and the grand rebellion in the reign of Charles I. The +celebrated conquest of Ireland by Henry II. extended only to a very +few counties in Leinster; nine-tenths of the whole kingdom were +left, as he found them, under the dominion of their native princes. +The influence of example was as strong in this as in most other +instances; and great numbers of the English settlers who came over +under various adventures resigned their pretensions to superior +civilisation, cast off their lower garments, and lapsed into the +nudity and barbarism of the Irish. The limit which divided the +possessions of the English settler from those of the native Irish +was called THE PALE; and the expressions of inhabitants WITHIN THE +PALE, and WITHOUT THE PALE, were the terms by which the two nations +were distinguished. It is almost superfluous to state, that the +most bloody and pernicious warfare was carried on upon the borders-- +sometimes for something, sometimes for nothing--most commonly for +cows. The Irish, over whom the sovereigns of England affected a +sort of nominal dominion, were entirely governed by their own laws, +and so very little connection had they with the justice of the +invading country, that it was as lawful to kill an Irishman as it +was to kill a badger or a fox. The instances are innumerable, where +the defendant has pleaded that the deceased was an Irishman, and +that therefore defendant had a right to kill him--and upon the proof +of Hibernicism, acquittal followed of course. + +When the English army mustered in any great strength, the Irish +chieftains would do exterior homage to the English Crown; and they +very frequently, by this artifice, averted from their country the +miseries of invasion: but they remained completely unsubdued, till +the rebellion which took place in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of +which that politic woman availed herself to the complete subjugation +of Ireland. In speaking of the Irish about the reign of Elizabeth +or James I., we must not draw our comparisons from England, but from +New Zealand; they were not civilised men, but savages; and if we +reason about their conduct, we must reason of them as savages. + + +"After reading every account of Irish history," says Mr. Parnell, +"one great perplexity appears to remain: How does it happen, that, +from the first invasion of the English till the reign of James I., +Ireland seems not to have made the smallest progress in civilisation +or wealth? + +"That it was divided into a number of small principalities, which +waged constant war on each other--or that the appointment of the +chieftains was elective--do not appear sufficient reasons, although +these are the only ones assigned by those who have been at the +trouble of considering the subject: neither are the confiscations +of property quite sufficient to account for the effect. There have +been great confiscations in other countries, and still they have +flourished; the petty states of Greece were quite analogous to the +chiefries, as they were called, in Ireland; and yet they seemed to +flourish almost in proportion to their dissensions. Poland felt the +bad effects of an elective monarchy more than any other country; and +yet, in point of civilisation, it maintained a very respectable rank +among the nations of Europe; but Ireland never, for an instant, made +any progress in improvement, till the reign of James I. + +"It is scarcely credible, that in a climate like that of Ireland, +and at a period so far advanced in civilisation as the end of +Elizabeth's reign, the greater part of the natives should go naked. +Yet this is rendered certain by the testimony of an eye-witness, +Fynes Moryson. 'In the remote parts,' he says, 'where the English +laws and manners are unknown, the very chief of the Irish, as well +men as women, go naked in the winter time, only having their privy +parts covered with a rag of linen, and their bodies with a loose +mantle. This I speak of my own experience; yet remember that a +Bohemian baron coming out of Scotland to us by the north parts of +the wild Irish, told me in great earnestness, that he, coming to the +house of O'Kane, a great lord amongst them, was met at the door by +sixteen women, all naked, excepting their loose mantles, whereof +eight or ten were very fair; with which strange sight his eyes being +dazzled, they led him into the house, and then sitting down by the +fire, with crossed legs, like tailors, and so low as could not but +offend chaste eyes, desired him to sit down with them. Soon after, +O'Kane, the lord of the country, came in all naked, except a loose +mantle and shoes, which he put off as soon as he came in; and, +entertaining the Baron after his best manner in the Latin tongue, +desired him to put off his apparel, which he thought to be a burden +to him, and to sit naked. + +"'To conclude, men and women at night going to sleep, he thus naked +in a round circle about the fire, with their feet towards it. They +fold their heads and their upper parts in woollen mantles, first +steeped in water to keep them warm; for they say, that woollen +cloth, wetted, preserves heat (as linen, wetted, preserves cold), +when the smoke of their bodies has warmed the woollen cloth.' + +"The cause of this extreme poverty, and of its long continuance, we +must conclude, arose from the peculiar laws of property which were +in force under the Irish dynasties. These laws have been described +by most writers as similar to the Kentish custom of gavelkind; and, +indeed, so little attention was paid to the subject, that were it +not for the researches of Sir J. Davis, the knowledge of this +singular usage would have been entirely lost. + +"The Brehon law of property, he tells us, was similar to the custom +(as the English lawyers term it) of hodge-podge. When any one of +the sept died, his lands did not descend to his sons, but were +divided among the whole sept: and, for this purpose, the chief of +the sept made a new division of the whole lands belonging to the +sept, and gave every one his part according to seniority. So that +no man had a property which could descend to his children; and even +during his own life his possession of any particular spot was quite +uncertain, being liable to be constantly shuffled and changed by new +partitions. The consequence of this was that there was not a house +of brick or stone among the Irish down to the reign of Henry VII.; +not even a garden or orchard, or well-fenced or improved field; +neither village or town, or in any respect the least provision for +posterity. This monstrous custom, so opposite to the natural +feelings of mankind, was probably perpetuated by the policy of the +chiefs. In the first place the power of partitioning being lodged +in their hands, made them the most absolute of tyrants, being the +dispensers of the property as well as of the liberty of their +subjects. In the second place, it had the appearance of adding to +the number of their savage armies; for where there was no +improvement or tillage, war was pursued as an occupation. + +"In the early history of Ireland, we find several instances of +chieftains discountenancing tillage; and so late as Elizabeth's +reign, Moryson says, that 'Sir Neal Garve restrained his people from +ploughing, that they might assist him to do any mischief.'"--(pp. +99-102). + + +These quotations and observations will enable us to state a few +plain facts for the recollection of our English readers: --lst, +Ireland was never subdued till the rebellion in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth. 2nd, For four hundred years before that period the two +nations had been almost constantly at war; and in consequence of +this, a deep and irreconcilable hatred existed between the people +within and without the pale. 3rd, The Irish, at the accession of +Queen Elizabeth, were unquestionably the most barbarous people in +Europe. So much for what had happened previous to the reign of +Queen Elizabeth; and let any man, who has the most superficial +knowledge of human affairs, determine whether national hatred, +proceeding from such powerful causes, could possibly have been kept +under by the defeat of one single rebellion--whether it would not +have been easy to have foreseen, at that period, that a proud, +brave, half-savage people, would cherish the memory of their wrongs +for centuries to come, and break forth into arms at every period +when they were particularly exasperated by oppression, or invited by +opportunity. If the Protestant religion had spread in Ireland as it +did in England, and if there had never been any difference of faith +between the two countries--can it be believed that the Irish, ill- +treated and infamously governed as they have been, would never have +made any efforts to shake off the yoke of England? Surely there are +causes enough to account for their impatience of that yoke, without +endeavouring to inflame the zeal of ignorant people against the +Catholic religion, and to make that mode of faith responsible for +all the butchery which the Irish and English for these last two +centuries have exercised upon each other. Everybody, of course, +must admit, that if to the causes of hatred already specified there +be added the additional cause of religious distinction, this last +will give greater force (and what is of more consequence to observe, +give a NAME) to the whole aggregate motive. But what Mr. Parnell +contends for, and clearly and decisively proves, is that many of +those sanguinary scenes attributed to the Catholic religion are to +be partly imputed to causes totally disconnected from religion; that +the unjust invasion, and the tyrannical, infamous policy of the +English, are to take their full share of blame with the sophisms and +plots of Catholic priests. In the reign of Henry VIII., Mr. Parnell +shows that feudal submission was readily paid to him by all the +Irish chiefs; that the Reformation was received without the +slightest opposition; and that the troubles which took place at that +period in Ireland are to be entirely attributed to the ambition and +injustice of Henry. In the reign of Queen Mary there was no +recrimination upon the Protestants--a striking proof that the +bigotry of the Catholic religion had not at that period risen to any +great height in Ireland. The insurrections of the various Irish +princes were as numerous during this reign as they had been in the +two preceding reigns--a circumstance rather difficult of +explanation, if, as is commonly believed, the Catholic religion was +at that period the main-spring of men's actions. + +In the reign of Elizabeth, the Catholic in the pale regularly fought +against the Catholic out of the pale. O'Sullivan, a bigoted Papist, +reproaches them with doing so. Speaking of the reign of James I., +he says, "And now the eyes even of the English Irish (the Catholics +of the pale) were opened; and they cursed their former folly for +helping the heretic." The English Government were so sensible of +the loyalty of the Irish English Catholics that they entrusted them +with the most confidential services. The Earl of Kildare was the +principal instrument in waging war against the chieftains of Leix +and Offal. William O'Bourge, another Catholic, was created Lord +Castle Connel for his eminent services; and MacGully Patrick, a +priest, was the State spy. We presume that this wise and MANLY +conduct of Queen Elizabeth was utterly unknown both to the +Pastrycook and the Secretary of State, who have published upon the +dangers of employing Catholics even against foreign enemies; and in +those publications have said a great deal about the wisdom of our +ancestors--the usual topic whenever the folly of their descendants +is to be defended. To whatever other of our ancestors they may +allude, they may spare all compliments to this illustrious Princess, +who would certainly have kept the worthy confectioner to the +composition of tarts, and most probably furnished him with the +productions of the Right Honourable Secretary as the means of +conveying those juicy delicacies to a hungry and discerning public. + +In the next two reigns, Mr. Parnell shows by what injudicious +measures of the English Government the spirit of Catholic opposition +was gradually formed; for that it did produce powerful effects at a +subsequent period he does not deny; but contends only (as we have +before stated) that these effects have been much overrated, and +ascribed SOLELY to the Catholic religion when other causes have at +least had an equal agency in bringing them about. He concludes with +some general remarks on the dreadful state of Ireland, and the +contemptible folly and bigotry of the English--remarks full of +truth, of good sense, and of political courage. How melancholy to +reflect, that there would be still some chance of saving England +from the general wreck of empires, but that it may not be saved, +because one politician will lose two thousand a year by it, and +another three thousand--a third a place in reversion, and a fourth a +pension for his aunt! Alas! these are the powerful causes which +have always settled the destiny of great kingdoms, and which may +level Old England, with all its boasted freedom, and boasted wisdom, +to the dust. Nor is it the least singular, among the political +phenomena of the present day, that the sole consideration which +seems to influence the unbigoted part of the English people, in this +great question of Ireland, is a regard for the personal feelings of +the Monarch. Nothing is said or thought of the enormous risk to +which Ireland is exposed--nothing of the gross injustice with which +the Catholics are treated--nothing of the lucrative apostasy of +those from whom they experience this treatment: but the only +concern by which we all seem to be agitated is, that the King must +not be vexed in his old age. We have a great respect for the King; +and wish him all the happiness compatible with the happiness of his +people. But these are not times to pay foolish compliments to +kings, or the sons of kings, or to anybody else; this journal (the +Edinburgh Review) has always preserved its character for courage and +honesty; and it shall do so to the last. If the people of this +country are solely occupied in considering what is personally +agreeable to the King, without considering what is for his permanent +good, and for the safety of his dominions; if all public men, +quitting the common vulgar scramble for emolument, do not concur in +conciliating the people of Ireland; if the unfounded alarms, and the +comparatively trifling interests of the clergy, are to supersede the +great question of freedom or slavery, it does appear to us quite +impossible that so mean and so foolish a people can escape that +destruction which is ready to burst upon them--a destruction so +imminent that it can only be averted by arming all in our defence +who would evidently be sharers in our ruin--and by such a change of +system as may save us from the hazard of being ruined by the +ignorance and cowardice of any general, by the bigotry or the +ambition of any minister, or by the well-meaning scruples of any +human being, let his dignity be what it may. These minor and +domestic dangers we must endeavour firmly and temperately to avert +as we best can; but at all hazards we must keep out the destroyer +from among us, or perish like wise and brave men in the attempt. + + + +IRELAND AND ENGLAND + + + +1. Whitelaw's History of the City of Dublin. 4to. Cadell and +Davies. + +2. Observations on the State of Ireland, principally directed to +its Agriculture and Rural Population; in a Series of Letters written +on a Tour through that Country. In 2 vols. By J. C. Curwen, Esq., +M.P. London, 1818. + +3. Gamble's Views of Society in Ireland. + +These are all the late publications that treat of Irish interests in +general, and none of them are of first-rate importance. Mr. +Gamble's "Travels in Ireland" are of a very ordinary description, +low scenes and low humour making up the principal part of the +narrative. There are readers, however, whom it will amuse; and the +reading market becomes more and more extensive, and embraces a +greater variety of persons every day. Mr. Whitelaw's "History of +Dublin" is a book of great accuracy and research, highly creditable +to the industry, good sense, and benevolence of its author. Of the +"Travels" of Mr. Christian Curwen we hardly know what to say. He is +bold and honest in his politics, a great enemy to abuses, vapid in +his levity and pleasantry, and infinitely too much inclined to +declaim upon commonplace topics of morality and benevolence. But, +with these drawbacks, the book is not ill-written, and may be +advantageously read by those who are desirous of information upon +the present state of Ireland. + +So great and so long has been the misgovernment of that country, +that we verily believe the empire would be much stronger if +everything was open sea between England and the Atlantic, and if +SKATES AND COD-FISH swam over the fair land of Ulster. Such +jobbing, such profligacy, so much direct tyranny and oppression, +such an abuse of God's gifts, such a profanation of God's name for +the purposes of bigotry and party spirit, cannot be exceeded in the +history of civilised Europe, and will long remain a monument of +infamy and shame to England. But it will be more useful to suppress +the indignation which the very name of Ireland inspires, and to +consider impartially those causes which have marred this fair +portion of the creation, and kept it wild and savage in the midst of +improving Europe. + +The great misfortune of Ireland is that the mass of the people have +been given up for a century to a handful of Protestants, by whom +they have been treated as Helots, and subjected to every species of +persecution and disgrace. The sufferings of the Catholics have been +so loudly chanted in the very streets, that it is almost needless to +remind our readers that, during the reigns of George I. and George +II., the Irish Roman Catholics were disabled from holding any civil +or military office, from voting at elections, from admission into +corporations, from practising law or physic. A younger brother, by +turning Protestant, might deprive his elder brother of his +birthright; by the same process he might force his father, under the +name of a liberal provision, to yield up to him a part of his landed +property; and, if an eldest son, he might, in the same way, reduce +his father's fee-simple to a life-estate. A Papist was disabled +from purchasing freehold lands, and even from holding long leases; +and any person might take his Catholic neighbour's house by paying 5 +pounds for it. If the child of a Catholic father turned Protestant +he was taken away from his father and put into the hands of a +Protestant relation. No Papist could purchase a freehold or lease +for more than thirty years, or inherit from an intestate Protestant, +nor from an intestate Catholic, nor dwell in Limerick or Galway, nor +hold an advowson, nor buy an annuity for life. 50 pounds was given +for discovering a Popish archbishop, 30 pounds for a Popish +clergyman, and 10s. for a schoolmaster. No one was allowed to be +trustee for Catholics; no Catholic was allowed to take more than two +apprentices; no Papist to be solicitor, sheriff, or to serve on +Grand Juries. Horses of Papists might be seized for the militia, +for which militia Papists were to pay double, and to find Protestant +substitutes. Papists were prohibited from being present at +vestries, or from being high or petty constables: and, when +resident in towns, they were compelled to find Protestant watchmen. +Barristers and solicitors marrying Catholics were exposed to the +penalties of Catholics. Persons plundered by privateers during a +war with any Popish prince were reimbursed by a levy on the Catholic +inhabitants where they lived. All Popish priests celebrating +marriages contrary to 12 Geo. I., cap 3, were to be HANGED! + +The greater part of these incapacities are removed, though many of a +very serious and oppressive nature still remain. But the grand +misfortune is that the spirit which these oppressive laws engendered +remains. The Protestant still looks upon the Catholic as a degraded +being. The Catholic does not yet consider himself upon an equality +with his former tyrant and taskmaster. That religious hatred which +required all the prohibiting vigilance of the law for its restraint +has found in the law its strongest support; and the spirit which the +law first exasperated and embittered continues to act long after the +original stimulus is withdrawn. The law which prevented Catholics +from serving on Grand Juries is repealed; but Catholics are not +called upon Grand Juries in the proportion in which they are +entitled by their rank and fortune. The Duke of Bedford did all he +could to give them the benefit of those laws which are already +passed in their favour. But power is seldom entrusted in this +country to one of the Duke of Bedford's liberality, and everything +has fallen back in the hands of his successors into the ancient +division of the privileged and degraded castes. We do not mean to +cast any reflection upon the present Secretary for Ireland, whom we +believe to be upon this subject a very liberal politician, and on +all subjects an honourable and excellent man. The Government under +which he serves allows him to indulge in a little harmless +liberality; but it is perfectly understood that nothing is intended +to be done for the Catholics; that no loaves and fishes will be lost +by indulgence in Protestant insolence and tyranny; and, therefore, +among the generality of Irish Protestants, insolence, tyranny, and +exclusion continue to operate. However eligible the Catholic may +be, he is not elected; whatever barriers may be thrown down, he does +not advance a step. He was first kept out by law; he is now kept +out by opinion and habit. They have been so long in chains that +nobody believes they are capable of using their hands and feet. + +It is not, however, the only or the worst misfortune of the +Catholics that the relaxations of the law are hitherto of little +benefit to them; the law is not yet sufficiently relaxed. A +Catholic, as everybody knows, cannot be made sheriff; cannot be in +parliament; cannot be a director of the Irish Bank; cannot fill the +great departments of the law, the army, and the navy; is cut off +from all the high objects of human ambition, and treated as a marked +and degraded person. + +The common admission now is that the Catholics are to the +Protestants in Ireland as about four to one, of which Protestants +not more than ONE HALF belong to the Church of Ireland. This, then, +is one of the most striking features in the state of Ireland. That +the great mass of the population is completely subjugated and +overawed by a handful of comparatively recent settlers, in whom all +the power and patronage of the country is vested, who have been +reluctantly compelled to desist from still greater abuses of +authority, and who look with trembling apprehension to the +increasing liberality of the parliament and the country towards +these unfortunate persons whom they have always looked upon as their +property and their prey. + +Whatever evils may result from these proportions between the +oppressor and oppressed--to whatever dangers a country so situated +may be considered to be exposed, these evils and dangers are rapidly +increasing in Ireland. The proportion of Catholics to Protestants +is infinitely greater now than it was thirty years ago, and is +becoming more and more favourable to the former. By a return made +to the Irish House of Lords in 1732 the proportion of Catholics to +Protestants was not two to one. It is now (as we have already +observed) four to one; and the causes which have thus altered the +proportions in favour of the Catholics are sufficiently obvious to +any one acquainted with the state of Ireland. The Roman Catholic +priest resides; his income entirely depends upon the number of his +flock; and he must exert himself or he starves. There is some +chance of success, therefore, in HIS efforts to convert; but the +Protestant clergyman, if he were equally eager, has little or no +probability of persuading so much larger a proportion of the +population to come over to his Church. The Catholic clergyman +belongs to a religion that has always been more desirous of gaining +proselytes than the Protestant Church; and he is animated by a sense +of injury and a desire of revenge. Another reason for the +disproportionate increase of Catholics is that the Catholics will +marry upon means which the Protestant considers as insufficient for +marriage. A few potatoes and a shed of turf are all that Luther has +left for the Romanist; and, when the latter gets these, he instantly +begins upon the great Irish manufacture of children. But a +Protestant belongs to the sect that eats the fine flour and heaves +the bran to others; he must have comforts, and he does not marry +till he gets them. He would be ashamed if he were seen living as a +Catholic lives. This is the principal reason why the Protestants +who remain attached to their Church do not increase so fast as the +Catholics. But in common minds, daily scenes, the example of the +majority, the power of imitation, decide their habits, religious as +well as civil. A Protestant labourer who works among Catholics soon +learns to think and act and talk as they do; he is not proof against +the eternal panegyric which he hears of Father O'Leary. His +Protestantism is rubbed away, and he goes at last, after some little +resistance, to the chapel where he sees everybody else going. + +These eight Catholics not only hate the ninth man, the Protestant of +the Establishment, for the unjust privileges he enjoys--not only +remember that the lands of their father were given to his father-- +but they find themselves forced to pay for the support of his +religion. In the wretched state of poverty in which the lower +orders of Irish are plunged, it is not without considerable effort +that they can pay the few shillings necessary for the support of +their Catholic priest; and when this is effected, a tenth of the +potatoes in the garden are to be set out for the support of a +persuasion, the introduction of which into Ireland they consider as +the great cause of their political inferiority, and all their +manifold wretchedness. In England a labourer can procure constant +employment, or he can, at the worst, obtain relief from his parish. +Whether tithe operates as a tax upon him, is known only to the +political economist: if he does pay it, he does not know that he +pays it, and the burden of supporting the Clergy is at least kept +out of his view. But in Ireland, the only method in which a poor +man lives is by taking a small portion of land in which he can grow +potatoes: seven or eight months out of twelve, in many parts of +Ireland, there is no constant employment of the poor; and the potato +farm is all that shelters them from absolute famine. If the Pope +were to come in person, seize upon every tenth potato, the poor +peasant would scarcely endure it. With what patience, then, can he +see it tossed into the cart of the heretic rector, who has a church +without a congregation, and a revenue without duties? We do not say +whether these things are right or wrong, whether they want a remedy +at all, or what remedy they want; but we paint them in those colours +in which they appear to the eye of poverty and ignorance, without +saying whether those colours are false or true. Nor is the case at +all comparable to that of Dissenters paying tithe in England; which +case is precisely the reverse of what happens in Ireland, for it is +the contribution of a very small minority to the religion of a very +large majority; and the numbers on either side make all the +difference in the argument. To exasperate the poor Catholic still +more, the rich graziers of the parish, or the squire in his parish, +pay no tithe at all for their grass land. Agistment tithe is +abolished in Ireland, and the burthen of supporting two Churches +seems to devolve upon the poorer Catholics, struggling with plough +and spade in small scraps of dearly-rented land. Tithes seem to be +collected in a more harsh manner than they are collected in England. +The minute sub-divisions of land in Ireland--the little connection +which the Protestant clergyman commonly has with the Catholic +population of his parish--have made the introduction of tithe +proctors very general, sometimes as the agent of the clergyman, +sometimes as the lessee or middleman between the clergyman and the +cultivator of the land, but, in either case, practised, dexterous +estimators of tithe. The English clergymen in general are far from +exacting the whole of what is due to them, but sacrifice a little to +the love of popularity or to the dread of odium. A system of tithe- +proctors established all over England (as it is in Ireland), would +produce general disgust and alienation from the Established Church. + + +"During the administration of Lord Halifax," says Mr. Hardy, in +quoting the opinion of Lord Charlemont upon tithes paid by +Catholics, "Ireland was dangerously disturbed in its southern and +northern regions. In the south principally, in the counties of +Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary, the White Boys now made +their first appearance; those White Boys who have ever since +occasionally disturbed the public tranquillity, without any rational +method having been as yet pursued to eradicate this disgraceful +evil. When we consider that the very same district has been for the +long space of seven-and-twenty years liable to frequent returns of +the same disorder into which it has continually relapsed, in spite +of all the violent remedies from time to time administered by our +political quacks, we cannot doubt but that some real, peculiar, and +topical cause must exist, and yet neither the removal, nor even the +investigation of this cause, has ever once been seriously attempted. +Laws of the most sanguinary and unconstitutional nature have been +enacted; the country has been disgraced and exasperated by frequent +and bloody executions; and the gibbet, that perpetual resource of +weak and cruel legislators, has groaned under the multitude of +starving criminals; yet, while the cause is suffered to exist, the +effects will ever follow. The amputation of limbs will never +eradicate a prurient humour, which must be sought in its source and +there remedied." + +"I wish," continues Mr. Wakefield, "for the sake of humanity and for +the honour of the Irish character, that the gentlemen of that +country would take this matter into their serious consideration. +Let them only for a moment place themselves in the situation of the +half-famished cotter, surrounded by a wretched family clamorous for +food, and judge what his feelings must be when he sees the tenth +part of the produce of his potato garden exposed at harvest time to +public CANT, or if he have given a promissory note for the payment +of a certain sum of money to compensate for such tithe when it +becomes due, to hear the heart-rending cries of his offspring +clinging round him, and lamenting for the milk of which they are +deprived by the cows being driven to the pound to be sold to +discharge the debt. Such accounts are not the creations of fancy; +the facts do exist, and are but too common in Ireland. Were one of +them transferred to canvas by the hand of genius, and exhibited to +English humanity, that heart must be callous indeed that could +refuse its sympathy. I have seen the cow, the favourite cow, driven +away, accompanied by the sighs, the tears, and the imprecations of a +whole family, who were paddling after, through wet and dirt, to take +their last affectionate farewell of this their only friend and +benefactor at the pound gate. I have heard with emotions which I +can scarcely describe, deep curses repeated from village to village +as the cavalcade proceeded. I have witnessed the group pass the +domain walls of the opulent grazier, whose numerous herds were +cropping the most luxuriant pastures, while he was secure from any +demand for the tithe of their food, looking on with the most +unfeeling indifference."--Ibid., p. 486. + + +In Munster, where tithe of potatoes is exacted, risings against the +system have constantly occurred during the last forty years. In +Ulster, where no such tithe is required, these insurrections are +unknown. The double Church which Ireland supports, and that painful +visible contribution towards it which the poor Irishman is compelled +to make from his miserable pittance, is one great cause of those +never-ending insurrections, burnings, murders, and robberies, which +have laid waste that ill-fated country for so many years. The +unfortunate consequence of the civil disabilities, and the Church +payments under which the Catholics labour, is a rooted antipathy to +this country. They hate the English Government from historical +recollection, actual suffering, and disappointed hope, and till they +are better treated they will continue to hate it. At this moment, +in a period of the most profound peace, there are twenty-five +thousand of the best disciplined and best appointed troops in the +world in Ireland, with bayonets fixed, presented arms, and in the +attitude of present war: nor is there a man too much--nor would +Ireland be tenable without them. When it was necessary last year +(or thought necessary) to put down the children of reform, we were +forced to make a new levy of troops in this country; not a man could +be spared from Ireland. The moment they had embarked, Peep-of-Day +Boys, Heart-of-Oak Boys, Twelve-o'-clock Boys, Heart-of-Flint Boys, +and all the bloody boyhood of the Bog of Allen, would have proceeded +to the ancient work of riot, rapine, and disaffection. Ireland, in +short, till her wrongs are redressed and a more liberal policy is +adopted towards her, will always be a cause of anxiety and suspicion +to this country, and in some moment of our weakness and depression, +will forcibly extort what she would now receive with gratitude and +exultation. + +Ireland is situated close to another island of greater size, +speaking the same language, very superior in civilisation, and the +seat of government. The consequence of this is the emigration of +the richest and most powerful part of the community--a vast drain of +wealth--and the absence of all that wholesome influence which the +representatives of ancient families, residing upon their estates, +produce upon their tenantry and dependents. Can any man imagine +that the scenes which have been acted in Ireland, within these last +twenty years, would have taken place, if such vast proprietors as +the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Hertford, the Marquis of +Lansdowne, Earl Fitzwilliam, and many other men of equal wealth, had +been in the constant habit of residing upon their Irish as they are +upon their English estates? Is it of no consequence to the order +and the civilisation of a large district, whether the great mansion +is inhabited by an insignificant, perhaps a mischievous attorney, in +the shape of agent, or whether the first and greatest men of the +United Kingdoms, after the business of Parliament is over, come with +their friends and families, to exercise hospitality, to spend large +revenues, to diffuse information, and to improve manners? This evil +is a very serious one to Ireland; and, as far as we see, incurable. +For if the present large estates were, by the dilapidation of +families, to be broken to pieces and sold, others equally great +would, in the free circulation of property, speedily accumulate; and +the moment any possessor arrived at a certain pitch of fortune, he +would probably choose to reside in the better country--near the +Parliament, or the Court. + +This absence of great proprietors in Ireland necessarily brings with +it, or if not necessarily, has actually brought with it, the +employment of the middlemen, which forms one other standing and +regular Irish grievance. We are well aware of all that can be said +in defence of middlemen; that they stand between the little farmer +and the great proprietor as the shopkeeper does between the +manufacturer and consumer; and, in fact, by their intervention, save +time, and therefore expense. This may be true enough in the +abstract; but the particular nature of land must be attended to. +The object of the man who makes cloth is to sell his cloth at the +present market, for as high a price as he can obtain. If that price +is too high, it soon falls; but no injury is done to his machinery +by the superior price he has enjoyed for a season--he is just as +able to produce cloth with it, as if the profits he enjoyed had +always been equally moderate; he has no fear, therefore, of the +middleman, or of any species of moral machinery which may help to +obtain for him the greatest present prices. The same would be the +feeling of any one who let out a steam-engine, or any other machine, +for the purposes of manufacture; he would naturally take the highest +price he could get; for he might either let his machine for a price +proportionate to the work it did, or the repairs, estimable with the +greatest precision, might be thrown upon the tenant; in short, he +could hardly ask any rent too high for his machine which a +responsible person would give; dilapidation would be so visible, and +so calculable in such instances, that any secondary lease, or +subletting, would be rather an increase of security than a source of +alarm. Any evil from such a practice would be improbable +measurable, and remediable. In land, on the contrary, the object is +not to get the highest prices absolutely, but to get the highest +prices which will not injure the machine. One tenant may offer and +pay double the rent of another, and in a few years leave the land in +a state which will effectually bar all future offers of tenancy. It +is of no use to fill a lease full of clauses and covenants; a tenant +who pays more than he ought to pay, or who pays even to the last +farthing which he ought to pay, will rob the land, and injure the +machine, in spite of all the attorneys in England. He will rob it +even if he means to remain upon it--driven on by present distress, +and anxious to put off the day of defalcation and arrear. The +damage is often difficult of detection--not easily calculated, not +easily to be proved; such for which juries (themselves perhaps +farmers) will not willingly give sufficient compensation. And if +this be true in England, it is much more strikingly true in Ireland, +where it is extremely difficult to obtain verdicts for breaches of +covenant in leases. + +The only method, then, of guarding the machine from real injury, is +by giving to the actual occupier such advantage in his contract, +that he is unwilling to give it up--that he has a real interest in +retaining it, and is not driven by the distresses of the present +moment to destroy the future productiveness of the soil. Any rent +which the landlord accepts more than this, or any system by which +more rent than this is obtained, is to borrow money upon the most +usurious and profligate interest--to increase the revenue of the +present day by the absolute ruin of the property. Such is the +effect produced by a middleman; he gives high prices that he may +obtain higher from the occupier; more is paid by the actual occupier +than is consistent with the safety and preservation of the machine; +the land is run out, and, in the end, that maximum of rent we have +described is not obtained; and not only is the property injured by +such a system, but in Ireland the most shocking consequences ensue +from it. There is little manufacture in Ireland; the price of +labour is low, the demand for labour irregular. If a poor man be +driven, by distress of rent, from his potato garden, he has no other +resource--all is lost: he will do the impossible (as the French +say) to retain it; subscribe any bond, and promise any rent. The +middleman has no character to lose; and he knew, when he took up the +occupation, that it was one with which pity had nothing to do. On +he drives; and backward the poor peasant recedes, loses something at +every step, till he comes to the very brink of despair; and then he +recoils and murders his oppressor, and is a White Boy or a Right +Boy;--the soldier shoots him, and the judge hangs him. + +In the debate which took place in the Irish House of Commons, upon +the Bill for preventing tumultuous risings and assemblies, on the +31st of January, 1787, the Attorney-General submitted to the House +the following narrative of facts. + + +"The commencement," said he, "was in one or two parishes in the +county of Kerry; and they proceeded thus. The people assembled in a +Catholic chapel, and there took an oath to obey the laws of Captain +Right, and to starve the clergy. They then proceeded to the next +parishes on the following Sunday, and there swore the people in the +same manner; with this addition, that they (the people last sworn) +should on the ensuing Sunday proceed to the chapels of their next +neighbouring parishes and swear the inhabitants of those parishes in +like manner. Proceeding in this manner, they very soon went through +the province of Munster. The first object was the REFORMATION OF +TITHES. They swore not to give more than a certain price per acre, +not to assist or allow them to be assisted in drawing the tithe, and +to permit NO PROCTOR. They next took upon them to prevent the +collection of parish cesses, next to nominate parish clerks, and in +some cases curates, to say what church should or should not be +repaired, and in one case to threaten that they would burn a NEW +church if the OLD one were not given for a mass-house. At last they +proceeded to regulate the price of lands, to raise the price of +labour, and to oppose the collection of the hearth-money and other +taxes. Bodies of 5,000 of them have been seen to march through the +country unarmed, and, if met by any magistrate, THEY NEVER OFFERED +THE SMALLEST RUDENESS OR OFFENCE; on the contrary, they had allowed +persons charged with crimes to be taken from amongst them by the +magistrate ALONE, unaided by any force. + +"The Attorney-General said he was well acquainted with the province +of Munster, and that it was impossible for human wretchedness to +EXCEED THAT OF THE PEASANTRY OF THAT PROVINCE. The unhappy tenantry +were GROUND TO POWDER by relentless landlords; that, far from being +able to give the clergy their just dues, they had not food or +raiment for themselves--the landlord grasped the whole; and sorry +was he to add that, not satisfied with the present extortion, some +landlords had been so base as to instigate the insurgents to rob the +clergy of their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of +the tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's share to the +cruel rack-rents they already paid. The poor people of Munster +lived in a MORE ABJECT STATE OF POVERTY THAN HUMAN NATURE COULD BE +SUPPOSED EQUAL TO BEAR."--"Grattan's Speeches," vol. i., p. 292. + + +We are not, of course, in such a discussion to be governed by names. +A middleman might be tied up by the strongest legal restriction, as +to the price he was to exact from the under-tenants, and then he +would be no more pernicious to the estate than a steward. A steward +might be protected in exactions as severe as the most rapacious +middleman; and then, of course, it would be the same thing under +another name. The practice to which we object is the too common +method in Ireland of extorting the last farthing which the tenant is +willing to give for land rather than quit it: and the machinery by +which such practice is carried into effect is that of the middleman. +It is not only that it ruins the land; it ruins the people also. +They are made so poor--brought so near the ground--that they can +sink no lower; and burst out at last into all the acts of +desperation and revenge for which Ireland is so notorious. Men who +have money in their pockets, and find that they are improving in +their circumstances, don't do these things. Opulence, or the hope +of opulence or comfort, is the parent of decency, order, and +submission to the laws. A landlord in Ireland understands the +luxury of carriages and horses, but has no relish for the greater +luxury of surrounding himself with a moral and grateful tenantry. +The absent proprietor looks only to revenue, and cares nothing for +the disorder and degradation of a country which he never means to +visit. There are very honourable exceptions to this charge: but +there are too many living instances that it is just. The rapacity +of the Irish landlord induces him to allow of the extreme division +of his lands. When the daughter marries, a little portion of the +little farm is broken off--another corner for Patrick, and another +for Dermot--till the land is broken into sections, upon one of which +an English cow could not stand. Twenty mansions of misery are thus +reared instead of one. A louder cry of oppression is lifted up to +heaven, and fresh enemies to the English name and power are +multiplied on the earth. The Irish gentleman, too, extremely +desirous of political influence, multiplying freeholds, and +splitting votes; and this propensity tends of course to increase the +miserable redundance of living beings, under which Ireland is +groaning. Among the manifold wretchedness to which the poor Irish +tenant is liable, we must not pass over the practice of driving for +rent. A lets land to B, who lets it to C, who lets it again to D. +D pays C his rent, and C pays B. But if B fails to pay A, the +cattle of B, C, D are all driven to the pound, and after the +interval of a few days sold by auction. A general driving of this +kind very frequently leads to a bloody insurrection. It may be +ranked among the classical grievances of Ireland. + +Potatoes enter for a great deal into the present condition of +Ireland. They are much cheaper than wheat; and it is so easy to +rear a family upon them, that there is no cheek to population from +the difficulty of procuring food. The population therefore goes on +with a rapidity approaching almost to that of new countries, and in +a much greater ratio than the improving agriculture and +manufacturers of the country can find employment for it. All +degrees of all nations begin with living in pig-styes. The king or +the priest first gets out of them; then the noble, then the pauper; +in proportion as each class becomes more and more opulent. Better +tastes arise from better circumstances; and the luxury of one period +is the wretchedness and poverty of another. English peasants, in +the time of Henry VII., were lodged as badly as Irish peasants now +are; but the population was limited by the difficulty of procuring a +corn subsistence. The improvements of this kingdom were more rapid; +the price of labour rose; and with it the luxury and comfort of the +peasant, who is now decently lodged and clothed, and who would think +himself in the last stage of wretchedness if he had nothing but an +iron pot in a turf house, and plenty of potatoes in it. The use of +the potato was introduced into Ireland when the wretched +accommodation of her own peasantry bore some proportion to the state +of those accommodations all over Europe. But they have increased +their population so fast, and, in conjunction with the oppressive +government of Ireland retarding improvement, have kept the price of +labour so low, that the Irish poor have never been able to emerge +from their mud cabins, or to acquire any taste for cleanliness and +decency of appearance. Mr. Curwen has the following description of +Irish cottages:- + + +"These mansions of miserable existence, for so they may truly be +described, conformably to our general estimation of those +indispensable comforts requisite to constitute the happiness of +rational beings, are most commonly composed of two rooms on the +ground floor, a most appropriate term, for they are literally on the +earth, the surface of which is not unfrequently reduced a foot or +more to save the expense of so much outward walling. The one is a +refectory, the other the dormitory. The furniture of the former, if +the owner ranks in the upper part of the scale of scantiness, will +consist of a kitchen dresser, well provided and highly decorated +with crockery--not less apparently the pride of the husband than the +result of female vanity in the wife: which, with a table, a chest, +a few stools, and an iron pot, complete the catalogue of +conveniences generally found as belonging to the cabin: while a +spinning-wheel, furnished by the Linen Board, and a loom, ornament +vacant spaces that otherwise would remain unfurnished. In fitting +up the latter, which cannot on any occasion or by any display add a +feather to the weight or importance expected to be excited by the +appearance of the former, the inventory is limited to one, and +sometimes two beds, serving for the repose of the whole family! +However downy these may be to limbs impatient for rest, their +coverings appear to be very slight, and the whole of the apartment +created reflections of a very painful nature. Under such +privations, with a wet mud floor and a roof in tatters, how idle the +search for comforts!"--Curwen, i., pp. 112, 113. + + +To this extract we shall add one more on the same subject. + + +"The gigantic figure, bareheaded before me, had a beard that would +not have disgraced an ancient Israelite--he was without shoes or +stockings--and almost a sans-culotte--with a coat, or rather a +jacket, that appeared as if the first blast of wind would tear it to +tatters. Though his garb was thus tattered, he had a manly +commanding countenance. I asked permission to see the inside of his +cabin, to which I received his most courteous assent. On stooping +to enter at the door I was stopped, and found that permission from +another was necessary before I could be admitted. A pig, which was +fastened to a stake driven into the floor, with length of rope +sufficient to permit him the enjoyment of sun and air, demanded some +courtesy, which I showed him, and was suffered to enter. The wife +was engaged in boiling thread, and by her side, near the fire, a +lovely infant was sleeping, without any covering, on a bare board. +Whether the fire gave additional glow to the countenance of the +babe, or that Nature impressed on its unconscious cheek a blush that +the lot of man should be exposed to such privations, I will not +decide; but if the cause be referable to the latter, it was in +perfect unison with my own feelings. Two or three other children +crowded round the mother: on their rosy countenances health seemed +established in spite of filth and ragged garments. The dress of the +poor woman was barely sufficient to satisfy decency. Her +countenance bore the expression of a set melancholy, tinctured with +an appearance of ill health. The hovel, which did not exceed twelve +or fifteen feet in length and ten in breadth, was half obscured by +smoke--chimney or window I saw none; the door served the various +purposes of an inlet to light and the outlet to smoke. The +furniture consisted of two stools, an iron pot, and a spinning- +wheel, while a sack stuffed with straw, and a single blanket laid on +planks, served as a bed for the repose of the whole family. Need I +attempt to describe my sensations? The statement alone cannot fail +of conveying to a mind like yours an adequate idea of them--I could +not long remain a witness to this acme of human misery. As I left +the deplorable habitation the mistress followed me to repeat her +thanks for the trifle I had bestowed. This gave me an opportunity +of observing her person more particularly. She was a tall figure, +her countenance composed of interesting features, and with every +appearance of having once been handsome. + +"Unwilling to quit the village without first satisfying myself +whether what I had seen was a solitary instance or a sample of its +general state, or whether the extremity of poverty I had just beheld +had arisen from peculiar improvidence and want of management in one +wretched family, I went into an adjoining habitation, where I found +a poor old woman of eighty, whose miserable existence was painfully +continued by the maintenance of her granddaughter. Their condition, +if possible, was more deplorable."--Curwen, i., pp. 181-183. + + +This wretchedness, of which all strangers who visit Ireland are so +sensible, proceeds certainly in great measure from their accidental +use of a food so cheap, that it encourages population to an +extraordinary degree, lowers the price of labour, and leaves the +multitudes which it calls into existence almost destitute of +everything but food. Many more live in consequence of the +introduction of potatoes; but all live in greater wretchedness. In +the progress of population, the potato must of course become at last +as difficult to be procured as any other food; and then let the +political economist calculate what the immensity and wretchedness of +a people must be, where the further progress of population is +checked by the difficulty of procuring potatoes. + +The consequence of the long mismanagement and oppression of Ireland, +and of the singular circumstances in which it is placed, is, that it +is a semi-barbarous country--more shame to those who have thus ill- +treated a fine country and a fine people; but it is part of the +present case of Ireland. The barbarism of Ireland is evinced by the +frequency and ferocity of duels--the hereditary clannish feuds of +the common people and the fights to which they give birth--the +atrocious cruelties practised in the insurrections of the common +people--and their proneness to insurrection. The lower Irish live +in a state of greater wretchedness than any other people in Europe +inhabiting so fine a soil and climate. It is difficult, often +impossible, to execute the processes of law. In cases where +gentlemen are concerned, it is often not even attempted. The +conduct of under-sheriffs is often very corrupt. We are afraid the +magistracy of Ireland is very inferior to that of this country; the +spirit of jobbing and bribery is very widely diffused, and upon +occasions when the utmost purity prevails in the sister kingdom. +Military force is necessary all over the country, and often for the +most common and just operations of Government. The behaviour of the +higher to the lower orders is much less gentle and decent than in +England. Blows from superiors to inferiors are more frequent, and +the punishment for such aggression more doubtful. The word +GENTLEMAN seems, in Ireland, to put an end to most processes at law. +Arrest a gentleman!!!--take out a warrant against a gentleman--are +modes of operation not very common in the administration of Irish +justice. If a man strike the meanest peasant in England, he is +either knocked down in his turn, or immediately taken before a +magistrate. It is impossible to live in Ireland without perceiving +the various points in which it is inferior in civilisation. Want of +unity in feeling and interest among the people--irritability, +violence, and revenge--want of comfort and cleanliness in the lower +orders--habitual disobedience to the law--want of confidence in +magistrates--corruption, venality, the perpetual necessity of +recurring to military force--all carry back the observer to that +remote and early condition of mankind, which an Englishman can learn +only in the pages of the antiquary or the historian. We do not draw +this picture for censure but for truth. We admire the Irish--feel +the most sincere pity for the state of Ireland--and think the +conduct of the English to that country to have been a system of +atrocious cruelty and contemptible meanness. With such a climate, +such a soil, and such a people, the inferiority of Ireland to the +rest of Europe is directly chargeable to the long wickedness of the +English Government. + +A direct consequence of the present uncivilised state of Ireland is, +that very little English capital travels there. The man who deals +in steam-engines, and warps and woofs, is naturally alarmed by Peep- +of-Day Boys, and nocturnal Carders; his object is to buy and sell as +quickly and quietly as he can, and he will naturally bear high taxes +and rivalry in England, or emigrate to any part of the Continent, or +to America, rather than plunge into the tumult of Irish politics and +passions. There is nothing which Ireland wants more than large +manufacturing towns to take off its superfluous population. But +internal peace must come first, and then the arts of peace will +follow. The foreign manufacturer will hardly think of embarking his +capital where he cannot be sure that his existence is safe. Another +check to the manufacturing greatness of Ireland is the scarcity, not +of coal, but of good coal, cheaply raised--an article in which (in +spite of papers in the Irish Transactions) they are lamentably +inferior to the English. + +Another consequence from some of the causes we have stated is the +extreme idleness of the Irish labourer. There is nothing of the +value of which the Irish seem to have so little notion as that of +time. They scratch, pick, dawdle, stare, gape, and do anything but +strive and wrestle with the task before them. The most ludicrous of +all human objects is an Irishman ploughing. A gigantic figure--a +seven-foot machine for turning potatoes in human nature--wrapt up in +an immense great-coat, and urging on two starved ponies, with +dreadful imprecations and uplifted shillala. The Irish crow +discerns a coming perquisite, and is not inattentive to the +proceedings of the steeds. The furrow which is to be the depository +of the future crop is not unlike, either in depth or regularity, to +those domestic furrows which the nails of the meek and much-injured +wife plough, in some family quarrel, upon the cheeks of the +deservedly punished husband. The weeds seem to fall contentedly, +knowing that they have fulfilled their destiny, and left behind +them, for the resurrection of the ensuing spring, an abundant and +healthy progeny. The whole is a scene of idleness, laziness, and +poverty, of which it is impossible, in this active and enterprising +country, to form the most distant conception; but strongly +indicative of habits, whether secondary or original, which will long +present a powerful impediment to the improvement of Ireland. + +The Irish character contributes something to retard the improvements +of that country. The Irishman has many good qualities: he is +brave, witty, generous, eloquent, hospitable, and open-hearted; but +he is vain, ostentatious, extravagant, and fond of display, light in +counsel, deficient in perseverance, without skill in private or +public economy, an enjoyer, not an acquirer--one who despises the +slow and patient virtues--who wants the superstructure without the +foundation, the result without the previous operation, the oak +without the acorn and the three hundred years of expectation. The +Irish are irascible, prone to debt and to fight, and very impatient +of the restraints of law. Such a people are not likely to keep +their eyes steadily upon the main chance like the Scotch or the +Dutch. England strove very hard at one period to compel the Scotch +to pay a double Church, but Sawney took his pen and ink, and finding +what a sum it amounted to became furious and drew his sword. God +forbid the Irishman should do the same! The remedy now would be +worse than the disease; but if the oppressions of England had been +more steadily resisted a century ago, Ireland would not have been +the scene of poverty, misery, and distress which it now is. + +The Catholic religion, among other causes, contributes to the +backwardness and barbarism of Ireland. Its debasing superstition, +childish ceremonies, and the profound submission to the priesthood +which it teaches, all tend to darken men's minds, to impede the +progress of knowledge and inquiry, and to prevent Ireland from +becoming as free, as powerful, and as rich as the sister kingdom. +Though sincere friends to Catholic emancipation, we are no advocates +for the Catholic religion. We should be very glad to see a general +conversion to Protestantism among the Irish, but we do not think +that violence, privations, and incapacities, are the proper methods +of making proselytes. + +Such, then, is Ireland at this period--a land more barbarous than +the rest of Europe, because it has been worse treated and more +cruelly oppressed. Many of the incapacities and privations to which +the Catholics were exposed have been removed by law, but in such +instances they are still incapacitated and deprived by custom. Many +cruel and oppressive laws are still enforced against them. A tenth +part of the population engrosses all the honours of the country; the +other nine pay a tenth of the product of the earth for the support +of a religion in which they do not believe. There is little capital +in the country. The great and rich men are called by business, or +allured by pleasure, into England; their estates are given up to +factors, and the utmost farthing of rent extorted from the poor, +who, if they give up the land, cannot get employment in +manufactures, or regular employment in husbandry. The common people +use a sort of food so very cheap that they can rear families who +cannot procure employment, and who have little more of the comforts +of life than food. The Irish are light-minded--want of employment +has made them idle; they are irritable and brave, have a keen +remembrance of the past wrongs they have suffered, and the present +wrongs they are suffering from England. The consequence of all this +is, eternal riot and insurrection, a whole army of soldiers in time +of profound peace, and general rebellion whenever England is busy +with her other enemies or off her guard! And thus it will be, while +the same causes continue to operate, for ages to come, and worse and +worse as the rapidly increasing population of the Catholics becomes +more and more numerous. + +The remedies are time and justice, and that justice consists in +repealing all laws which make any distinction between the two +religions; in placing over the government of Ireland, not the +stupid, amiable, and insignificant noblemen who have too often been +sent there, but men who feel deeply the wrongs of Ireland, and who +have an ardent wish to heal them; who will take care that Catholics, +when eligible, shall be elected; who will share the patronage of +Ireland proportionally among the two parties, and give to just and +liberal laws the same vigour of execution which has hitherto been +reserved only for decrees of tyranny, and the enactments of +oppression. The injustice and hardship of supporting two Churches +must be put out of sight, if it cannot or ought not to be cured. +The political economist, the moralist, and the satirist, must +combine to teach moderation and superintendence to the great Irish +proprietors. Public talk and clamour may do something for the poor +Irish, as it did for the slaves in the West Indies. Ireland will +become more quiet under such treatment, and then more rich, more +comfortable, and more civilised; and the horrid spectacle of folly +and tyranny, which it at present exhibits, may in time be removed +from the eyes of Europe. + +There are two eminent Irishmen now in the House of Commons--Lord +Castlereagh and Mr. Canning--who will subscribe to the justness of +every syllable we have said upon this subject, and who have it in +their power, by making it the condition of their remaining in +office, to liberate their native country, and raise it to its just +rank among the nations of the earth. Yet the Court buys them over, +year after year, by the pomp and perquisites of office; and year +after year they come into the House of Commons, feeling deeply, and +describing powerfully, the injuries of five millions of their +countrymen--and CONTINUE members of a government that inflicts those +evils, under the pitiful delusion that it is not a Cabinet Question, +as if the scratchings and quarrellings of Kings and Queens could +alone cement politicians together in indissoluble unity, while the +fate and torture of one-third of the empire might be complimented +away from one minister to another, without the smallest breach in +their Cabinet alliance. Politicians, at least honest politicians, +should be very flexible and accommodating in little things, very +rigid and inflexible in great things. And is this NOT a great +thing? Who has painted it in finer and more commanding eloquence +than Mr. Canning? Who has taken a more sensible and statesmanlike +view of our miserable and cruel policy than Lord Castlereagh? You +would think, to hear them, that the same planet could not contain +them and the oppressors of their country--perhaps not the same solar +system. Yet for money, claret, and patronage, they lend their +countenance, assistance, and friendship to the Ministers who are the +stern and inflexible enemies to the emancipation of Ireland! + +Thank God that all is not profligacy and corruption in the history +of that devoted people--and that the name of Irishman does not +always carry with it the idea of the oppressor or the oppressed--the +plunderer or the plundered--the tyrant or the slave! Great men +hallow a whole people, and lift up all who live in their time. What +Irishman does not feel proud that he has lived in the days of +GRATTAN? who has not turned to him for comfort, from the false +friends and open enemies of Ireland? who did not remember him in the +days of its burnings and wastings and murders? No Government ever +dismayed him--the world could not bribe him--he thought only of +Ireland--lived for no other object--dedicated to her his beautiful +fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the splendour of +his astonishing eloquence. He was so born and so gifted that +poetry, forensic skill, elegant literature, and all the highest +attainments of human genius were within his reach; but he thought +the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and +free; and in that straight line he went on for fifty years, without +one side-look, without one yielding thought, without one motive in +his heart which he might not have laid open to the view of God and +man. He is gone!--but there is not a single day of his honest life +of which every good Irishman would not be more proud than of the +whole political existence of his countrymen--the annual deserters +and betrayers of their native land. + + + +MOORE'S CAPTAIN ROCK. + + + +Memoirs of Captain Rock, the celebrated Irish Chieftain; with some +Account of his Ancestors. Written by Himself. Fourth Edition. +12mo. London, 1824. + +This agreeable and witty book is generally supposed to have been +written by Mr. Thomas Moore, a gentleman of small stature, but full +of genius, and a steady friend of all that is honourable and just. +He has here borrowed the name of a celebrated Irish leader, to +typify that spirit of violence and insurrection which is necessarily +generated by systematic oppression, and rudely avenges its crimes; +and the picture he has drawn of its prevalence in that unhappy +country is at once piteous and frightful. Its effect in exciting +our horror and indignation is in the long run increased, we think-- +though at first it may seem counteracted--by the tone of levity, and +even jocularity, under which he has chosen to veil the deep sarcasm +and substantial terrors of his story. We smile at first, and are +amused, and wonder, as we proceed, that the humorous narrative +should produce conviction and pity--shame, abhorrence, and despair. + +England seems to have treated Ireland much in the same way as Mrs. +Brownrigg treated her apprentice--for which Mrs. Brownrigg is hanged +in the first volume of the Newgate Calendar. Upon the whole, we +think the apprentice is better off than the Irishman; as Mrs. +Brownrigg merely starves and beats her, without any attempt to +prohibit her from going to any shop, or praying at any church her +apprentice might select: and once or twice, if we remember rightly, +Brownrigg appears to have felt some compassion. Not so Old England, +who indulges rather in a steady baseness, uniform brutality, and +unrelenting oppression. + +Let us select from this entertaining little book a short history of +dear Ireland, such as even some profligate idle member of the House +of Commons, voting as his master bids him, may perchance throw his +eye upon, and reflect for a moment upon the iniquity to which he +lends his support. + +For some centuries after the reign of Henry II., the Irish were +killed like game, by persons qualified or unqualified. Whether dogs +were used does not appear quite certain, though it is probable they +were, spaniels as well as pointers; and that, after a regular point +by Basto, well backed by Ponto and Caesar, Mr. O'Donnel or Mr. +O'Leary bolted from the thicket, and were bagged by the English +sportsman. With Henry II. came in tithes, to which, in all +probability, about one million of lives may have been sacrificed in +Ireland. In the reign of Edward I. the Irish who were settled near +the English requested that the benefit of the English laws might be +extended to them; but the remonstrance of the barons with the +hesitating king was in substance this: "You have made us a present +of these wild gentlemen, and we particularly request that no +measures may be adopted to check us in that full range of tyranny +and oppression in which we consider the value of such a gift to +consist. You might as well give us sheep, and prevent us from +shearing the wool, or roasting the meat." This reasoning prevailed, +and the Irish were kept to their barbarism, and the barons preserved +their dive stock. + + +"Read 'Orange faction' (says Captain Rock) here and you have the +wisdom of our rulers, at the end of near six centuries, in statu +quo. The grand periodic year of the stoics, at the close of which +everything was to begin again, and the same events to be all reacted +in the same order, is, on a miniature scale, represented in the +history of the English Government in Ireland, every succeeding +century being but a new revolution of the same follies, the same +crimes, and the same turbulence that disgraced the former. But +'Vive l'ennemi!' say I: whoever may suffer by such measures, +Captain Rock, at least, will prosper. + +"And such was the result at the period of which I am speaking. The +rejection of a petition, so humble and so reasonable, was followed, +as a matter of course, by one of those daring rebellions into which +the revenge of an insulted people naturally breaks forth. The +M'Cartys, the O'Briens, and the other Macs and O's, who have been +kept on the alert by similar causes ever since, flew to arms under +the command of a chieftain of my family; and, as the proffered +HANDLE of the sword had been rejected, made their inexorable masters +at least feel its EDGE."--(pp. 23-25.) + + +Fifty years afterwards the same request was renewed and refused. Up +again rose Mac and O, a JUST AND NECESSARY WAR ensued; and after the +usual murders, the usual chains were replaced upon the Irishry. All +Irishmen were excluded from every species of office. It was high +treason to marry with the Irish blood, and highly penal to receive +the Irish into religious houses. War was waged also against their +Thomas Moores, Samuel Rogerses, and Walter Scotts, who went about +the country harping and singing against English oppression. No such +turbulent guests were to be received. The plan of making them +poets-laureate, or converting them to loyalty by pensions of 100 +pounds per annum, had not then been thought of. They debarred the +Irish even from the pleasure of running away, and fixed them to the +soil like negroes. + + +"I have thus selected," says the historian of Rock, "cursorily and +at random, a few features of the reigns preceding the Reformation, +in order to show what good use was made of those three or four +hundred years in attaching the Irish people to their English +governors; and by what a gentle course of alternatives they were +prepared for the inoculation of a new religion, which was now about +to be attempted upon them by the same skilful and friendly hands. + +"Henry VII. appears to have been the first monarch to whom it +occurred, that matters were not managed exactly as they ought in +this part of his dominions; and we find him--with a simplicity which +is still fresh and youthful among our rulers--expressing his +SURPRISE that his subjects of this land should be so prone to +faction and rebellion, and that so little advantage had been +hitherto derived from the acquisitions of his predecessor, +notwithstanding the fruitfulness and natural advantages of Ireland. +Surprising, indeed, that a policy, such as we have been describing, +should not have converted the whole country into a perfect Atlantis +of happiness--should not have made it like the imaginary island of +Sir Thomas More, where 'tota insula velut una familia est!'--most +stubborn, truly, and ungrateful, must that people be, upon whom, up +to the very hour in which I write, such a long and unvarying course +of penal laws, confiscations, and Insurrection Acts has been tried, +without making them in the least degree in love with their rulers. + +"Heloise tells her tutor, Abelard, that the correction which he +inflicted upon her only served to increase the ardour of her +affection for him; but bayonets and hemp are no such 'amoris +stimuli.' One more characteristic anecdote of those times and I +have done. At the battle of Knocktow, in the reign of Henry VII., +when that remarkable man, the Earl of Kildare, assisted by the great +O'Neal and other Irish chiefs, gained a victory over Clanricard of +Connaught, most important to the English Government, Lord +Gormanstown, after the battle, in the first insolence of success, +said, turning to the Earl of Kildare, 'We have now slaughtered our +enemies, but, to complete the good deed, we must proceed yet +further, and--cut the throats of those Irish of our own party!' Who +can wonder that the Rock family were active in those times?"--(pp. +33, 35.) + +Henry VIII. persisted in all these outrages, and aggravated them by +insulting the prejudices of the people. England is almost the only +country in the world (even at present) where there is not some +favourite religious sport, where absurd lies, little bits of cloth, +feathers, rusty nails, splinters, and other invaluable relics, are +treasured up, and in defence of which the whole population are +willing to turn out and perish as one man. Such was the shrine of +St. Kieran, the whole treasures of which the satellites of that +corpulent tyrant turned out into the street, pillaged the sacred +church of Clonmacnoise, scattered the holy nonsense of the priests +to the winds, and burnt the real and venerable crosier of St. +Patrick, fresh from the silversmith's shop, and formed of the most +costly materials. Modern princes change the uniform of regiments; +Henry changed the religion of kingdoms, and was determined that the +belief of the Irish should undergo a radical and Protestant +conversion. With what success this attempt was made, the present +state of Ireland is sufficient evidence. + +"Be not dismayed," said Elizabeth, on hearing that O'Neal meditated +some designs against her government; "tell my friends, if he arise, +it will turn to their advantage--THERE WILL BE ESTATES FOR THOSE WHO +WANT." Soon after this prophetic speech, Munster was destroyed by +famine and the sword, and near 600,000 acres forfeited to the crown, +and distributed among Englishmen. Sir Walter Raleigh (the virtuous +and good) butchered the garrison of Limerick in cold blood, after +Lord Deputy Gray had selected 700 to be hanged. There were, during +the reign of Elizabeth, three invasions of Ireland by the Spaniards, +produced principally by the absurd measures of this princess for the +reformation of its religion. The Catholic clergy, in consequence of +these measures, abandoned their cures, the churches fell to ruin, +and the people were left without any means of instruction. Add to +these circumstances the murder of M'Mahon, the imprisonment of +O'Toole and O'Dogherty, and the kidnapping of O'Donnel--all truly +Anglo-Hibernian proceedings. The execution of the laws was rendered +detestable and intolerable by the queen's officers of justice. The +spirit raised by these transactions, besides innumerable smaller +insurrections gave rise to the great wars of Desmond and Hugh +O'Neal; which, after they had worn out the ablest generals, +discomfited the choicest troops, exhausted the treasure, and +embarrassed the operations of Elizabeth, were terminated by the +destruction of these two ancient families, and by the confiscation +of more than half the territorial surface of the island. The last +two years of O'Neal's wars cost Elizabeth 140,000 pounds per annum, +though the whole revenue of England at that period fell considerably +short of 500,000 pounds. Essex, after the destruction of Norris, +led into Ireland an army of above 20,000 men, which was totally +baffled and destroyed by Tyrone, within two years of their landing. +Such was the importance of Irish rebellions two centuries before the +time in which we live. Sir G. Carew attempted to assassinate the +Lugan Earl--Mountjoy compelled the Irish rebels to massacre each +other. In the course of a few months 3,000 men were starved to +death in Tyrone. Sir Arthur Chichester, Sir Richard Manson, and +other commanders, saw three children feeding on the flesh of their +dead mother. Such were the golden days of good Queen Bess! + +By the rebellions of Dogherty, in the reign of James I., six +northern counties were confiscated, amounting to 500,000 acres. In +the same manner, 64,000 acres were confiscated in Athlone. The +whole of his confiscations amount to nearly a million acres; and if +Leland means plantation acres, they constitute a twelfth of the +whole kingdom according to Newenham, and a tenth according to Sir W. +Petty. The most shocking and scandalous action in the reign of +James, was his attack upon the whole property of the province of +Connaught, which he would have effected, if he had not been bought +off by a sum greater than he hoped to gain by his iniquity, besides +the luxury of confiscation. The Irish, during the reign of James +I., suffered under the DOUBLE evils of a licentious soldiery and a +religious persecution. + +Charles I. took a bribe of 120,000 pounds from his Irish subjects, +to grant them what in those days were called Graces, but in these +days would be denominated the Elements of Justice. The money was +paid, but the graces were never granted. One of these graces was +curious enough: "That the clergy were not to be permitted to keep +henceforward any private prisons of their own, but delinquents were +to be committed to the public jails." The idea of a rector, with +his own private jail full of Dissenters, is the most ludicrous piece +of tyranny we ever heard of. The troops in the beginning of +Charles's reign were supported by the weekly fines levied upon the +Catholics for non-attendance upon established worship. The +Archbishop of Dublin went himself at the head of a file of +musketeers, to disperse a Catholic congregation in Dublin--which +object he effected after a considerable skirmish with the priests. +"The favourite object" (says Dr. Leland, a Protestant clergyman, and +dignitary of the Irish Church) "of the Irish Government and the +English Parliament, was THE UTTER EXTERMINATION of all the Catholic +inhabitants of Ireland." The great rebellion took place in this +reign, and Ireland was one scene of blood and cruelty and +confiscation. + +Cromwell began his career in Ireland by massacring for five days the +garrison of Drogheda, to whom quarter had been promised. Two +millions and a half of acres were confiscated. Whole towns were put +up in lots, and sold. The Catholics were banished from three- +fourths of the kingdom, and confined to Connaught. After a certain +day, every Catholic found out of Connaught was to be punished with +death. Fleetwood complains peevishly "that the people DO NOT +TRANSPORT READILY," but adds, "IT IS DOUBTLESS A WORK IN WHICH THE +LORD WILL APPEAR." Ten thousand Irish were sent as recruits to the +Spanish army. + + +"Such was Cromwell's way of settling the affairs of Ireland; and if +a nation IS to be ruined, this method is, perhaps, as good as any. +It is, at least, more humane than the slow, lingering process of +exclusion, disappointment, and degradation, by which their hearts +are worn out under more specious forms of tyranny; and that talent +of despatch which Moliere attributes to one of his physicians is no +ordinary merit in a practitioner like Cromwell: --"C'est un homme +expeditif, qui aime a depecher ses malades; et quand on a mourir, +cela se fait avec lui le plus vite du monde." A certain military +Duke, who complains that Ireland is but half conquered, would, no +doubt, upon an emergency, try his hand in the same line of practice, +and, like that 'stern hero' Mirmillo, in the Dispensary, + + +"While others meanly take whole months to slay, +Despatch the grateful patient in a day!" + + +"Among other amiable enactments against the Catholics at this +period, the price of five pounds was set on the head of a Romish +priest, being exactly the same sum offered by the same legislators +for the head of a wolf. The Athenians, we are told, encouraged the +destruction of wolves by a similar reward (five drachms); but it +does not appear that these heathens bought up the heads of priests +at the same rate, such zeal in the cause of religion being reserved +for times of Christianity and Protestantism."--(pp. 97-99.) + + +Nothing can show more strongly the light in which the Irish were +held by Cromwell than the correspondence with Henry Cromwell +respecting the peopling of Jamaica from Ireland. Secretary Thurloe +sends to Henry, the Lord Deputy in Ireland, to inform him that "a +stock of Irish girls and Irish young men are wanting for the +peopling of Jamaica." The answer of Henry Cromwell is as follows:- +"Concerning the supply of young men, although we must use force in +taking them up, YET IT BEING SO MUCH FOR THEIR OWN GOOD, and likely +to be of so great advantage to the public, it is not the least +doubted but that you may have such a number of them as you may think +fit to make use of on this account. + +"I shall not need repeat anything respecting the girls, not doubting +to answer your expectations to the full IN THAT; and I think it +might be of like advantage to your affairs there and ours here if +you should think fit to send 1,500 or 2,000 boys to the place above +mentioned. WE CAN WELL SPARE THEM; and who knows but that it may be +the means of making them Englishmen--I mean, rather, Christians? As +for the girls, I suppose you will make provisions of clothes, and +other accommodations for them." Upon this, Thurloe informs Henry +Cromwell that the council have voted 4,000 GIRLS, AND AS MANY BOYS, +to go to Jamaica. + +Every Catholic priest found in Ireland was hanged, and five pounds +paid to the informer. + + +"About the years 1652 and 1653," says Colonel Lawrence, in his +Interests of Ireland, "the plague and famine had so swept away whole +counties, that a man might travel twenty or thirty miles and not see +a living creature, either man, or beast, or bird, they being all +dead, or had quitted those desolate places. Our soldiers would tell +stories of the places where they saw smoke--it was so rare to see +either smoke by day or fire or candle by night." In this manner did +the Irish live and die under Cromwell, suffering by the sword, +famine, pestilence, and persecution, beholding the confiscation of a +kingdom and the banishment of a race. "So that there perished," +says Sir W. Petty, "in the year 1641, 650,000 human beings, whose +bloods somebody must atone for to God and the King!" + +In the reign of Charles II., by the Act of Settlement, four millions +and a half of acres were for ever taken from the Irish. "This +country," says the Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant in 1675, "has been +perpetually rent and torn since his Majesty's restoration. I can +compare it to nothing better than the flinging the reward on the +death of a deer among the pack of hounds, where every one pulls and +tears where he can for himself." All wool grown in Ireland was, by +Act of Parliament, compelled to be sold to England; and Irish cattle +were excluded from England. The English, however, were pleased to +accept 30,000 head of cattle, sent as a gift from Ireland to the +sufferers in the great fire! and the first day of the Sessions, +after this act of munificence, the Parliament passed fresh acts of +exclusion against the productions of that country. + + +"Among the many anomalous situations in which the Irish have been +placed, by those 'marriage vows, false as dicers' oaths,' which bind +their country to England, the dilemma in which they found themselves +at the Revolution was not the less perplexing or cruel. If they +were loyal to the King de jure, they were hanged by the King de +facto; and if they escaped with life from the King de facto, it was +but to be plundered and proscribed by the King de jure afterwards. + + +"'Hac gener atque socer coeant mercede suorum.'--VIRGIL. + +"'In a manner so summary, prompt, and high mettled, +Twixt father and son-in-law matters were settled.' + + +"In fact, most of the outlawries in Ireland were for treason +committed the very day on which the Prince and Princess of Orange +accepted the crown in the Banqueting-house; though the news of this +event could not possibly have reached the other side of the Channel +on the same day, and the Lord-Lieutenant of King James, with an army +to enforce obedience, was at that time in actual possession of the +government, so little was common sense consulted, or the mere +decency of forms observed, by that rapacious spirit, which nothing +less than the confiscation of the whole island could satisfy; and +which having, in the reign of James I. and at the Restoration, +despoiled the natives of no less than ten millions six hundred and +thirty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven acres, now added +to its plunder one million sixty thousand seven hundred and ninety- +two acres more, being the amount altogether (according to Lord +Clare's calculation) of the whole superficial contents of the +island! + +"Thus, not only had ALL Ireland suffered confiscation in the course +of this century, but no inconsiderable portion of it had been twice +and even thrice confiscated. Well might Lord Clare say, 'that the +situation of the Irish nation, at the Revolution, stands +unparalleled in the history of the inhabited world.'" (pp. 111- +113.) + + +By the Articles of Limerick, the Irish were promised the free +exercise of their religion; but from that period to the year 1788, +every year produced some fresh penalty against that religion, some +liberty was abridged, some right impaired, or some suffering +increased. By acts in King William's reign, they were prevented +from being solicitors. No Catholic was allowed to marry a +Protestant; and any Catholic who sent a son to Catholic countries +for education was to forfeit all his lands. In the reign of Queen +Anne, any son of a Catholic who chose to turn Protestant got +possession of the father's estate. No Papist was allowed to +purchase freehold property, or to take a lease for more than thirty +years. If a Protestant dies intestate, the estate is to go to the +next PROTESTANT heir, though all to the tenth generation should be +Catholic. In the same manner, if a Catholic dies intestate, his +estate is to go to the next Protestant. No Papist is to dwell in +Limerick or Galway. No Papist is to take an annuity for life. The +widow of a Papist turning Protestant to have a portion of the +chattels of deceased in spite of any will. Every Papist teaching +schools to be presented as a regular Popish convict. Prices of +catching Catholic priests, from 50s. to 10 pounds, according to +rank. Papists are to answer all questions respecting other Papists, +or to be committed to jail for twelve months. No trust to be +undertaken for Papists. No Papist to be on Grand Juries. Some +notion may be formed of the spirit of those times, from an order of +the House of Commons, "that the Sergeant-at-Arms should take into +custody all Papists that should presume to come into THE GALLERY!" +(Commons' Journal, vol. iii., fol. 976.) During this reign the +English Parliament legislated as absolutely for Ireland as they do +now for Rutlandshire, an evil not to be complained of, if they had +done it as justly. In the reign of George I., the horses of Papists +were seized for the militia, and rode by Protestants; towards which +the Catholics paid double, and were compelled to find Protestant +substitutes. They were prohibited from voting at vestries, or being +high or petty constables. An act of the English Parliament in this +reign opens as follows: --"Whereas attempts have been lately made to +shake off the subjection of Ireland to the Imperial Crown of these +realms, be it enacted," etc. etc. In the reign of George II. four- +sixths of the population were cut off from the right of voting at +elections by the necessity under which they were placed of taking +the oath of supremacy. Barristers and solicitors marrying Catholics +are exposed to all the penalties of Catholics. Persons robbed by +privateers during a war with a Catholic State are to be indemnified +by a levy on the Catholic inhabitants of the neighbourhood. All +marriages between Catholics and Protestants are annulled. All +Popish priests celebrating them are to be hanged. "This system" +(says Arthur Young) "has no other tendency than that of driving out +of the kingdom all the personal wealth of the Catholics, and +extinguishing their industry within it; and the face of the country, +every object which presents itself to travellers, tells him how +effectually this has been done."--Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. ii., +p. 48. + + +Such is the history of Ireland--for we are now at our own times; and +the only remaining question is, whether the system of improvement +and conciliation begun in the reign of George III. shall be pursued, +and the remaining incapacities of the Catholics removed, or all +these concessions be made insignificant by an adherence to that +spirit of proscription which they professed to abolish? Looking to +the sense and reason of the thing, and to the ordinary working of +humanity and justice, when assisted, as they are here, by self- +interest and worldly policy, it might seem absurd to doubt of the +result. But looking to the facts and the persons by which we are +now surrounded, we are constrained to say that we greatly fear that +these incapacities never will be removed till they are removed by +fear. What else, indeed, can we expect when we see them opposed by +such enlightened men as Mr. Peel--faintly assisted by men of such +admirable genius as Mr. Canning--when Royal Dukes consider it as a +compliment to the memory of their father to continue this miserable +system of bigotry and exclusion, when men act ignominiously and +contemptibly on this question, who do so on no other question, when +almost the only persons zealously opposed to this general baseness +and fatuity are a few Whigs and Reviewers, or here and there a +virtuous poet like Mr. Moore? We repeat again, that the measure +never will be effected but by fear. In the midst of one of our just +and necessary wars, the Irish Catholics will compel this country to +grant them a great deal more than they at present require or even +contemplate. We regret most severely the protraction of the +disease, and the danger of the remedy; but in this way it is that +human affairs are carried on! + +We are sorry we have nothing for which to praise Administration on +the subject of the Catholic question, but it is but justice to say, +that they have been very zealous and active in detecting fiscal +abuses in Ireland, in improving mercantile regulations, and in +detecting Irish jobs. The commission on which Mr. Wallace presided +has been of the greatest possible utility, and does infinite credit +to the Government. The name of Mr. Wallace in any commission has +now become a pledge to the public that there is a real intention to +investigate and correct abuse. He stands in the singular +predicament of being equally trusted by the rulers and the ruled. +It is a new era in Government when such men are called into action; +and if there were not proclaimed and fatal limits to that +ministerial liberality, which, so far as it goes, we welcome without +a grudge and praise without a sneer, we might yet hope that, for the +sake of mere consistency, they might be led to falsify our +forebodings. But alas! there are motives more immediate, and +therefore irresistible; and the time is not yet come when it will be +believed easier to govern Ireland by the love of the many than by +the power of the few, when the paltry and dangerous machinery of +bigoted faction and prostituted patronage may be dispensed with, and +the vessel of the State be propelled by the natural current of +popular interests and the breath of popular applause. In the +meantime, we cannot resist the temptation of gracing our conclusion +with the following beautiful passage, in which the author alludes to +the hopes that were raised at another great era of partial +concession and liberality, that of the revolution of 1782, when, +also, benefits were conferred which proved abortive because they +were incomplete, and balm poured into the wound, where the envenomed +shaft was yet left to rankle. + + +"And here," says the gallant Captain Rock, "as the free confession +of weakness constitutes the chief charm and use of biography, I will +candidly own that the dawn of prosperity and concord which I now saw +breaking over the fortunes of my country, so dazzled and deceived my +youthful eyes, and so unsettled every hereditary notion of what I +owed to my name and family, that--shall I confess it--I even hailed +with pleasure the prospects of peace and freedom that seemed opening +around me; nay, was ready, in the boyish enthusiasm of the moment, +to sacrifice all my own personal interest in all future riots and +rebellions to the one bright, seducing object of my country's +liberty and repose. + +"When I contemplated such a man as the venerable Charlemont, whose +nobility was to the people like a fort over a valley, elevated above +them solely for their defence; who introduced the polish of the +courtier into the camp of the freeman, and served his country with +all that pure Platonic devotion which a true knight in the time of +chivalry proffered to his mistress; when I listened to the eloquence +of Grattan, the very music of freedom, her first fresh matin song, +after a long night of slavery, degradation, and sorrow; when I saw +the bright offerings which he brought to the shrine of his country-- +wisdom, genius, courage, and patience, invigorated and embellished +by all those social and domestic virtues, without which the loftiest +talents stand isolated in the moral waste around them, like the +pillars of Palmyra towering in a wilderness!--when I reflected on +all this, it not only disheartened me for the mission of discord +which I had undertaken, but made me secretly hope that it might be +rendered unnecessary; and that a country which could produce such +men and achieve such a revolution, might yet--in spite of the joint +efforts of the Government and my family--take her rank in the scale +of nations, and be happy! + +"My father, however, who saw the momentary dazzle by which I was +affected, soon drew me out of this false light of hope in which I +lay basking, and set the truth before me in a way but too convincing +and ominous. 'Be not deceived, boy,' he would say, 'by the +fallacious appearances before you. Eminently great and good as is +the man to whom Ireland owes this short era of glory, OUR work, +believe me, will last longer than his. We have a power on our side +that "will not willingly let us die;" and, long after Grattan shall +have disappeared from earth like that arrow shot into the clouds by +Alcestes, effecting nothing, but leaving a long train of light +behind him, the family of the ROCKS will continue to flourish in all +their native glory, upheld by the ever-watchful care of the +Legislature, and fostered by that "nursing-mother of Liberty," the +Church.'" + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg eText Peter Plymley's Letters etc. + diff --git a/old/ptpml10.zip b/old/ptpml10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..611f914 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ptpml10.zip |