vitude under Montesqu: they are easily checked: they die with him, at CHAP. II. last, and never ripen into the awful magnitude Miseries of ser of a permanent system. But, where the masters many masters. are many in number, each having a separate personal interest distinct from that of the public, sufficient to excite him towards his own aggrandizement, but not to restrain him by a due soli- Esp: des Loix citude for the general welfare or national character---there, indeed, the fate and prospects of the enslaved class are gloomy and distressing in the extreme. They can expect but little protection or justice from their masters, of whatsoever denomination. 2. Before we enter upon the sad enumeration of hardships, which will be unfolded in the ensuing chapters, we are anxious to obviate misconception of our motives and feelings. Lib. 15. ch.12. This Statement, extorted from our sufferings, may possibly be termed an invective against our Protestant fellow-subjects. Far be such an intention from our thoughts. We so- imputation lemnly disclaim it---We know the benignity. of nature, the generous and enlightened feelings, which belong to our estimable fellow-countrymen. We impute to them no innate hostility, no injustice, no oppression, no illiberal principles. But we complain of the Anti-Catholic Code of Laws, Disavowal of against the Protestants. CHAP. II. which necessarily produces a hostile disposition. We complain only of the injustice and oppression which those intolerant laws continually create and prolong-Laws, which invest the ruling class in Laws and Sys- Ireland with a monopoly of power, not to be complained of trusted with safety to any body of men what The intolerant tem are alone soever-Laws, which taint the early thought, SECTION II. This exclusion originated in 1691. 3 Will. and Mary, ch. 2. Engl. How the Catholics are excluded from the Legislature. 1. UNTIL the year 1691, the Catholics were admissible by law into both the Houses of Legislature, in Ireland. Their exclusion was effected by an English Statute of this year. The English Parliament, exercising in those days the jurisdiction of binding the people of Ireland by laws expressly naming Ireland, passed an Act declaring, that the provisions of a former CHAP. II. English Act, (namely the 30 Cha. 2, stat. 1.) should extend to Ireland. 2, ch. Statute of 30 Cha. 2: English: extending to It was thereby enacted, "That no person, Ireland. "who shall be a Peer of the realm, or member "of the House of Peers, shall vote or make his EnglishStatute proxy in the House of Peers of Ireland, or "sit there during any debate in the said House "of Peers: And that no person, who shall be of 1692. "a member of the House of Commons in Ire 66 Excluding all land, shall vote in the House of Commons, or "sit there during any debate after the speaker Catholics from " is chosen. "Unless he shall first take the Oaths of Al"legiance and Supremacy; and make and sub"scribe the Declaration in the said Act men"tioned, against Transubstantiation, the sacrifice "of the Mass, Idolatry of the Church of Rome, "invocation of the Virgin Mary or of the "Saints, &c. "If any Peer or Commoner offend against this "Act, he becomes subject to a Penalty of 500!. "recoverable by any common Informer, and to "all the punishments of a Popish recusant "convict : "To a disability of holding any office or place "of trust under the Crown, civil or military: "of suing or defending himself in any Action Parliament. CHAP. 11." or suit at Law or in Equity of being Ex"ecutor or Guardian, or taking any Legacy or "Deed of Gift, &c. &c. Adopted by the Irish Par liament. Will. 3. ch. 3. Sect. 2. This exclusion Whether this assumed power of binding Ireland by an English Statute ought to have been submitted to, or not, we need not stop here to inquire-It suffices to know, that it was submitted to: and that a Catholic Peer or Commoner was not likely to question it with success, or perhaps with safety. That the Irish Parliament acquiesced in it, is pretty evident from a Statute passed by them in 1697, whereby a Promarrying a Catholic was disabled "from sitting or voting in either House of "Parliament." This Act would have placed the Protestant, so married to a Catholic, in a worse situation than that of a Catholic Peer or Commoner, if the latter had not been deemed already excluded by the English statute of 1692. "testant 2. The authority of this Statute then being uniformly recognized, the doors of Parliament have ever since remained closed against the Catholics. Moreover, care has been taken to remove all doubt in this respect. In 1782, upon the general renunciation of this again confirm- assumed power on the part of the English Par ed, in 1782, by the Irish Parliament, and the restoration of legislative inde liament. retrospective exclusion. pendence to Ireland, the friends of the Protestant CHAP. II. Ascendancy became alarmed, lest, in the national History of this enthusiasm for freedom, the chains of the suffering Catholic might be loosened, It was apprehended, that this renunciation might, by a operation, defeat the policy of the English Sta- Confirmed in tute of 1692, amongst many others and that the Catholic might thus chance to re-enter the sanctuary of the Legislature. As a barrier against Catholic hope, it was therefore enacted, "That "all clauses in English Statutes, relating to the 66 1782: 21 & 22 Geo/3. taking of oaths or making or subscribing any "declaration or affirmation in Ireland, or to pe- c. 48. Sect. 3: "nalties or disabilities in cases of omission, "shall be in force in Ireland, according to their " present tenor;" The Irish Parliament, having thus confirmed this exclusion of Catholics, thought proper to renew their vigilance in 1793. rê-enacted in 1793 by the Irish Parlia The Statute of 1793, professing to be "An This exclusion "Act for the further relief of the Catholics of "Ireland," has expressly reserved and re-enacted a great number of the most grievous privations, disabilities, and incapacities, which, however obsolete, still existed in the Statute Book. This dormant prohibition against the admission of Catholics into either House of Parliament was |