CHAP. II. found amongst others, and was renewed. The History of this clause runs thus:

exclusion.

33 Geo. 3,

"Provided always, that nothing herein con

ch. 22. Sect. 9. "tained shall extend, or be construed to extend, "to enable any person to sit or vote in either "House of Parliament [or to hold any of the situations here enumerated, and comprizing almost every thing desirable in the state] "un"less he shall first have taken, made, and sub"scribed the oaths and declaration, and per"formed the several requisites, which by any "law heretefore made and now of force are "required, to enable any person to sit or vote as aforesaid."

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3. Such is the system of regulations, which, (thro' the medium of Test oaths and declarations of a purely religious nature) denies to the Catholic all share in the right of Legislation. Need we argue, that no Catholic can concan take the scientiously take the oaths, or subscribe the Describe the declaration, required by the English Parliament of

No Catholic

oaths, or sub

elaration required.

the 17th century? We hope not. To declare (and to invoke the Almighty to attest the declaration) that the King is the " Caput Ec"clesiæ;" that no foreign power hath, or ought to have, any pre-eminence, ecclesiastical or spi

can assent to

Declaration.

ritual: or, in other words, that the consecrations CHAP. H, of Catholic Bishops are, and ought to be, in- No Catholic valid, even though they claim only the pre- the Oaths or cedence due to Orders, not to jurisdiction: that the sacrifice of the Mass, the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and the religious usages of his family and friends, are idolatrous and superstitious to declare all this, contrary to his sacred belief, or even with a doubting conscience, would be, not merely a base and shameless act of sacrilegious hypocrisy, unworthy of any man, who pretends to common feeling, shame or integrity, but a public and unpardonable mockery of the All-seeing Deity, practised under the cheating semblance of Religious conformity,

SECTION IIĻ

Operation of this Exclusion, as to the House of Peers.

1. HAVING stated this article of Extent and operation of

Exclusion, according to the letter of the Law, we this exclusion, shall next advert to its extent and operation in Ireland.

1. As to the House of Peers.

2, As to the House of Commons.

Its powers and privileges.

CHAP. II. 1. The Honors of the Peerage, the profitable House of Peers rank and effective power attached to it, the personal benefits derived from that rank and power, not only to the individual Peer, but also to the wide circle of his family and connections, are objects deservedly high in the estimation of all, who are gifted with superior minds, or capable of noble exertions. They are valuable in the eyes of any person, who looks around him, and observes, even cursorily, the present state of society.

Nearly 500 peerages, bestowed within fifty years.

2. Let us take a short view of the extent, to which these honors and privileges are now enjoyed,

The Lords Temporal, who sit and vote in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, exceed 340 in number. Taking only the period of his present Majesty's reign, comprising about fifty years, we find 250 creations to Peerages in England, and nearly an equal number in Ireland; forming a total, not far short of 500. Of these, however, several are extinct.

The Books of Peerage will satisfy any reader, how very large a proportion of these 500 Personages have raised themselves from the rank of Commoners, perhaps from a mere equality

with their Catholic

these last thirty years. indebted to accidental

neighbours, even within CHAP. II. Some few may have been House of Peers causes for their elevation;

limited.

many to the display of eminent virtues, talents, or other splendid qualifications: all, however, may have had cause to feel, that the Laws afforded exclusive encouragement to their services and claims, and ready rewards for their The Honors comparative merits. Nor do we presume to insinuate any diminution of those merits, when we offer the observation, naturally growing out of this subject that these 500 personages have been thus selected and distinguished, not from amongst the people of these realms at large, but from amongst the members of a favoured religious community, who, in Ireland, do not amount to one Tenth part of the popu lation,

If, therefore, these honors honors be great, the competition for them must be recollected to have been necessarily very limited, and especially in Ireland.

some Natural claim

of Irish Catho

to lics to a share

in these honors

Now it will scarcely be denied, that portion of talent, virtue, or other claims honorary distinction must naturally have been dis- and rewards, pensed by Providence to the Catholics of Ireland, during the period we have taken. So large a

number of Christians as Four Millions, dwelling

CHAP. II. in the immediate vicinity of enlightened nations, House of Peers cannot in the ordinary course of affairs have been so utterly abandoned by nature, so long uncultivated and sunk in stupid torpor, as to have remained altogether destitute of individuals,

Natural claims

of the Catholics whose merits might have laid claim to a par

to participa

tion.

Their talents and virtues discouraged.

ticipation of those rewards. Perhaps many brave Captains, many upright statesmen, many useful legislators, might have arisen amongst the Catholics of Ireland, if the Laws had not frowned upon their early hopes, and paralyzed their exertions. Who will affirm, that there might not have appeared amongst them a Rodney or a Nelson, a Hutchinson, a Moira, or a Moore, to swell the triumphs, and spread the renown of his Country, if the grand incentives, public Reward, Respect, and Rank, had been permitted to dawn · upon his youthful prospects? How many, at this moment, bereft of hope and of emulation, are the withering votaries of inglorious indolence! How many desponding Catholics now stagnate in obscurity, or pine in wasting chagrin, who could reflect ample honor upon their country, if they might hope for honour in return! But, without chance of reward, without an objec worthy of exertion, they now languish unnoticed anduseless.

1

Virtutem quis amplectitur ipsam,

Præmia si tollas ?