asserting for truth what he knows to be false, and that of him who asserts what he does not know to be true; and, having read almost every thing on the subject of the Irish Catholics, from 1640 to 1648, that exists in print and manuscript, in the Cotton, in the Bodleian, and in the Stowe Libraries, I feel not the least hesitation in saying, that no people ever were sincere, not even the Martyrs in spilling their blood, if the Irish Gentry and Clergy were not sincere in their Cessation, and subsequent peace with the D. of Ormond. Whatever our religious professions are, let us at least be honest. Let us not animadvert with wanton malice upon the conduct of others, as long as we feel something within us, which kindles into fury upon the least reflection on our own conduct or prejudices, and is exasperated by calumny to the utmost severities of revenge.

* Carte, who often betrays his prejudices against the Catholic Confederates, owns, that even the vile conduct of the Puritans did not suppress the desires which the R. Catholic Nobility "and Gentry in arms had of putting an end to the war, "though it put them on other methods of application, than to "the Lords Justices." Orm. vol. 1, p. 390.

X. Religious Cry raised against the Cessation by the Pope's Nuncios.

1. Here then we have the Royal Faith solemnly pledged to the Catholics on one side, and the Catholic Faith equally and heartily pledged to the King on the other and now a great question forces itself upon us, and I call upon my Countrymen not to flinch from it, but to meet it in their usual way, front to front.

By whose intrigues, by whose interference, by what fatality were these auspicious commencements of happiness destroyed, and the Curse of Cromwell entailed upon the Irish Nation?

Irishmen fear not the ordeal of inquiry.→→→ These are matters not of Religion but of History. The passions have vibrated and gone by. Their angry sounds die upon our ears; and their unhallowed grating can produce no other emotion than that of pity or contempt.

But the lesson is awful, the example tremendous, and the spirit that sighs amid the ruins of violated Sanctuaries, broken arches, and con

secrated Shrines, warns us to turn that lesson to serious and substantial account!

the

Who were they who in 1644, every where, both at home and abroad, calumniated as heretical and schismatical the Cessation concluded with Ormond in 1643, misrepresenting the Nobility, the Gentry, and the Clergy, who had agreed to that Cessation, as betrayers of the Religion of their Ancestors, and of the interests of their Country?-Who were they who in 1646, compelled the whole body of the Catholic Confederates, so perfidiously to violate peace concluded with Ormond on the 28th of March, 1645, excommunicating the peacemakers and their adherents?-Who were they who, under colour of religion, so violently opposed the second peace, concluded in 1648, till it was too late either to retrieve the mischief occasioned by their holy interference, or to abide by the Conditions, to which all the Contracting parties had so solemnly agreed ?-For what purpose was Pope Urban VIIIth's Envoy Scarumpi sent from Rome to Kilkenny in 1643, and Rinucini afterwards in 1645?

Touch not that, says Castabala, it is mine, and not your's, to judge in these matters.

2. Let those exclusive Doctors enjoy their imaginary pre-eminence of wit.-Be it our's to inquire, how it happened that, immediately after Scarampi's arrival, the Irish Bishops began to pare off from the Irish Gentry; to halloo on the Rabble; to condemn the Cessation as impious; to calumniate as Hereticks those who had contributed to forward it; and to throw new difficulties every day in the way of conciliation and peace? How came it to pass that when Scarampi went, in quality of Nuncio, to Limerick, attended by some twenty horse, the Catholic Magistrates, so noted for hospitality to strangers, were yet so inhospitable that "they ordered "the gates to be shut against him, sending him

a message that they were sorry he had under

"taken so long a journey, at so unseasonable a "time, when they were employed in applotting "their first payment of the thirty thousand

pounds, with which, upon the Cessation, they "had agreed to supply his Majesty's army in "Ireland?" and how happened it that when the

holy man heard this message, he had the humility to reply that "if they were not at leisure to "receive him at his time, neither would he attend their leisure at their time, and so saying "he went off."*

Let us unravel this mystery, and exhibit its fatal results, in order that the spirit of a nation famed for sincerity of heart, may never more be imposed upon by the canting of hypocrisy, or by principles of an exclusive jurisdiction, repugnant to the faith and discipline of the Chritian Church, and to the practice of our ancestors, and similar to that of the Druids, despotical in its dark debates, and arrogant in its decrees.

* Clanrickard's Letter to Ormond, Mem. Engl. ed. and Carte's Orm. vol. 3.- —Lord Orrery, in his answer to Walsh, cites Pope Urban's Bull on this occasion, dated May 15, 1643, exciting the Confederate Catholics to continue the war against the King. Poor Walsh endeavours to fence off this objection to the Papal influence, by denying its authenticity; and so the Irish always denied the authenticity of the Bulls of Adrian IV, and of Alexander III, which handed them up to the AngloNorman Invaders.-But facts do not depend on the wishes, or the tempers of men. This Bull is referred to by Orm. vol. 1, p. 447.

+ See Columbanus's second letter to Owen O'Conor Esq. Delegate from the C. of Roscommon, to the general Committee of the Catholics of Ireland. Buckingham, and London 1810.