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3. If there had been no popular sycophants in France, there would have been no massacres. The Royal Family, the Nobility, and the Gentry had sufficiently evinced their disposition to submit to a very extensive Reform of the abuses which had prevailed in the State. But we well know that the many-headed tyrant, when once indulged in the possession of power, can never be appeased; and this being my thorough conviction, knowing, as I do, from experience, that anarchy is ever the consequence of popular interference, and seeing that the consequence of anarchy is despotism, you may judge how heartily I reprobate the conduct of sycophants, who seek popularity by gratifying the passions of the multitude at the expence of truth; offering up the incense of fulsome servility to vulgar caprice; and sacrificing the evidence and the simplicity of plain reason to the most dishonest as well as the most absurd, idle, and puerile declamation. *

One instance out of many occurs in the B. of Castabala's Elucidation, pag. 15, where the Catholics of Ireland are introduced ranting in the following words." Our Independent "Spiritual Hierarchy, seated in the highest heavens, and in the

4. I have too good an opinion of the sagacity, and discernment of my countrymen,

"Secret of our Consciences, cannot be touched by your parch"ments or offensive weapons."-Irishmen beware!-Take heed that this Secret Hierarchy of invisible conscience, may not fly away to the highest heavens with the substantial independence of your visible Hierarchy on earth; and that whilst you are eager for the preservation of a phantom, you may not lose the reality. This Secret invisible Hierarchy of conscience holds Secret Synods, shuts the doors of those Synods against the second order of the Clergy, votes away the Gallican Liberties, sends Secret Addresses to the Castle, betrays in these Addresses the prescriptive rights of the Priesthood, makes war upon Canonical Elections, which are prescribed by General Councils, bequeaths our Dioceses to favourites, decides even in temporals for the second order of the Clergy, without consulting them, and, in short, is a very blessed and Independent Hierarchy for itself.-Irishmen beware.

The following passage from Hudibras, relates to a species of Independent Church which existed in the reign of Charles I. As wind i' th' hypochondres pent, Is but a blast, if downward sent; But if it upward chance to fly, Becomes new Light and Prophecy; So when our Speculations tend Above their just and useful end, Altho' they promise strange and great Discoveries of things far fet;

They are but idle dreams and fancies,

And savour strongly of the ganzas !

to think that they can be flattered or cajoled for any length of time, without detecting the imposition. I will therefore dare to write with inflexible candour; I will dare to characterize the present race of Englishmen a magnanimous and most interesting people; I will dare to say that England is the only seat of rational liberty now existing on the face of the globe; that it excells in arts, sciences, and arms; and, what is still better, that there is more honour, more punctuality, more fair dealing, more equality of law, more facility of redress of grievances, for the poor against the rich, in England, than in any other country under the Sun!--I disdain that narrowness of mind, which, confining itself to a party, forgets the whole empire-forgets the universe.

§ II. A Leading Feature in Irish History. 1. One of the most leading features in the tragical history of our country, from the inva

alvum.

"Sic hypocondriacis inclusa meatibus aura,
"Desinet in crepitum si fertur prona per
"Sed si summa petat, mentisque ferierit arcem,
"Divinus furor est, et conscia flamma futuri.

sion of Henry II. to the accession of the House of Stuart, one of those which is most intimately connected with the Catholic question, and one which we ought never to lose sight of, because it is a source of prejudice which ought to make us somewhat suspicious of our own proceedings, is hatred to the English name and nation; hatred, deep, gloomy, inveterate; provoked, no doubt, by unprovoked aggression, aggravated by repeated insults, by the plunder, the massacres, and above all by the barbarizing of our countrymen, and then by the infamous laws for shooting them, because they were barbarized!

All these provocations on the part of England are candidly acknowledged. They are acknowledged even with indignation by all the great and all the good men of the Empire. What then. Are the crimes of the preceding centuries to be imputed to this? Are we, by whining over the faults of our ancestors, to multiply our own? Are we to attribute to the present race of Englishmen the wickedness of that English Pope, who issued a Crusade against us to gratify the ambition of Henry II,

and to establish the temporal usurpations of the Roman See? As well might we attribute to the present Church of England the corruptions of the English Bible, which are noticed by Ward, and corrected in the genuine edition of that Bible, as read in English Churches by Act of Parliament! *-The generosity and the good sense of the English of our times, makes ample allowances in favour of the Irish, when they contemplate the unprovoked hostility of their own ancestors, who were confessedly aggressors, invading us with Pope Adrian's Bull

How wise it was to revive ancient heats, long consigned to oblivion, by reprinting Ward, I will leave to the Secret Hierarchy of invisible conscience to determine. Was it that the Church of England should correct its Bible?-Certainly not. Was it to upbraid the Independents, who beheaded Charles I, with having corrupted the sacred text?-Most undoubtedly not. Was it to fire the Irish Catholic against the English Heretick?-That would be too uncharitable: I will not suppose it. And yet I recollect that when the Earl of Corke was on his travels at Parma, an officer of that court informed him, that some very sanctified men, who frequented it, were good Catholics, but bad Christians, who, in the name of God, had no charity for each other, and no religion. “Nous "sommes tous des bons Catholiques, mais pour la religion nous "n'en avons point." Letters from Italy, Lond. 1773, p. 61,

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