Distinction of the Catholic Nobility and Gentry from the Catholic People of Ireland:-the former take the Oath of Allegiance, in defiance of the Court of Rome; but twenty-four Priests who influenced Bishops aided by the Court of Rome.. 110 16..The present Oath of Allegiance worse than nugatory until foreign influenced notions of Spiritual Power are corrected and restrained..... Illegal taxations to be controuled... Expensive Law-suits carried on by foreign influenced Agents at Rome down to our own times...... Quere-Can the present Warden of Galway state in verbo Sacerdotis what that suit cost, which the town of Foreigners appointed to Irish Bishopricks........ The Policy of England in rejecting the Petitions of 18..That there were not wanting, even in the worst of times, good Irish Bishops, who joined the second order of the Priesthood in decrying these abuses... 140 Characters of the Bishops who joined the Nuncio in persecuting Truth and Loyalty... Characters of the few who opposed them-Dease, Rooth, Comerford, Kirwan, De Burgo, Darcy, Perjuries of the foreign influenced Bishops..... 205 20..Ormond compelled by them to surrender to the Mr. Plowden's misrepresentation of the D. of Or- mond's Character, and his shameful ignorance of 21..Genuine character of Ormond..... 22..He endeavours in vain to conciliate the foreign influ- The reader is requested to correct the 9th line of note p. 49, and to read it thus-Ormond therefore made the above proposal to the Puritans, but not in violation of the public faith, as asserted by the Ultramon- tanists, for he had not yet finally agreed to that Cessation-though he had signed it conditional y, and proposed to sign it finally, if the leaders would not furnish him with money for the war. He is also requested to read Third Letter for Second, in the notes, p. 63 HISTORICAL ADDRESS, &c. 1. § I. Flattery and prejudices how dangerous. He who loses sight either of those events E which mask, or of those which mark, the views, and distinguish the principles, of contending sects, and overlooks their influence on the feelings and the interests of society, wanders from the true object of History. He may compile facts as an Annalist, or he may inflame the angry passions as an Agitator, or he may substitute the results of human actions for their motives, holding out consequences which never were intended for the intentions themselves; but he cannot write History. 2. Much of this superficial and declamatory jargon offends the judgment of impartial readers, B in the ill-digested compilations of some who have, within these latter years, obtruded on the public as Tourists and Historians of our native country; but upon this subject it is invidious to dwell; and therefore I confine myself for the present to a protest against implicit confidence in any Party Historians, until the whole truth is fairly canvassed, and original documents are unreservedly obtained.—I am far from despising popular opinions, and it would ill become me to treat with disrespect those of my own country. But breathes there an Irishman, possessed of an Irish heart, who can help feeling indignant, when he sees the generous spirit of the Gentry and Clergy of Ireland abused by a breach of confidence; the people misled by a cry of Religion, which is destructive of Religion; the Liberties of the Gallican Church denied to Ireland by her own Bishops; exclusive right of discussing, and adopting, or rejecting all matters touching faith and discipline, claimed by twenty-six self-appointing arbiters for four millions of people; our dioceses disposed of by testamentary bequests, or by private intrigues; and all this styled "the holy independence of our Hierarchy," and attempted to be imposed upon us as Catholic by the intrigues of the artful, and the flattery of the designing? Can the Irish nation expect to find honest writers if she will hear those only who flatter her passions, or pander for her approbation Will she not consider that that man's courage must be honest, who dares to forfeit the favour of his friends? that he who writes for his country must divest himself of its prejudices; that he must consider right and wrong in their invariable state, content himself with the slow progress of his name, and commit his conscious virtue to the justice of posterity. Arguing very consequentially from a supposed stubborn disposition on the part of the Irish. to shut their ears and eyes to all reasoning and to all facts, the B- of Castabala assures me in a late Pamphlet, which might better be intitled any thing than an Elucidation of the Veto, p. 11, that "my book "(meaning Columbanus ad Hibernos) will do little harm in Ireland, because it will be little read there."-It might be supposed from the confidence of this assertion, that he is sufficiently acquainted with the character of the Irish people. But though he has travelled from Dublin to Cork and back again; I find him a Stranger to Ireland, for my book, as he calls it, whatever harm it may have caused to his Ultramontanism, has had in Ireland a rapid sale. |