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"SIXPENCE DAMAGES, NOR TO Grace. It is all assassination; all to "ANY COSTS OF SUIT.

put down assassination; when the fact "Clause 36. enacts that nothing in clearly is, that the measure is intended "this act shall be construed to to cause the payment of tithes. I do "ABRIDGE' the acknowledged prero- not say, that there are no midnight 66 6 gative of his Majesty to resort to murders and robberies, but I say, that "the exercise of martial-law against they all spring out of the existence of 666 open ENEMIES or TRAITORS, or any the Protestant hierarchy; and so I have 66 6 powers of law vested in the Lord- always said, ever since I understood the "Lieutenant of Ireland, or of any subject. While the Catholic Emanci"other person or persons whomso-pation Bill was under discussion, and "ever, to suppress insurrection and while WELLINGTON and PEEL were as66 6 disturbance, or treason and re"bellion."

serting that it would render the Protestant hierarchy more secure than it then was, I kept telling them that they must remove that hierarchy, or that Ireland would be plunged into rebellion by the Emancipation Bill. Not content with telling them of this in the Register, Commons, in April, 1829, by the hands I presented a petition to the House of of Mr. DENISON, member for the county of Surrey, praying for a total abolition of the Protestant church in Ireland, and fully stating the reasons for that prayer. This petition I now insert below. I beg that it may be read attentively, and particularly the last two paragraphs of it; and then the reader will see, that, if my advice had been followed, there would not now have been any necessity

Upon these provisions I shall offer no opinion at present; and probably it will never be necessary for me to do it in this manner. My readers of England and Scotland will be able to form their own judgment of the matter; but, in order to form a just judgment, let every man in England and Scotland make the case his own. Let him suppose such an act passed for England and Scotland; let him consider what his own situation then would be; and then let him say, after having consulted his pillow and his conscience upon the subject, whether such an act ought to be passed with for court-martials to try people in Ire- ́ regard to Ireland. Let him bear in land. Late as it now is, the country mind, too, that this act, if passed, will may be now saved by following the adbe passed for the purpose of enforcing vice which I then gave. What are to the payment of tithes, which, we were be the effects of the contrary course, told last year, were to be extinguished God only knows, and to his decrees we in Ireland. This is denied by the parti- must submit. We are at best but shortsans of the measure; that is to say, it sighted creatures that which we most is denied that this bill is to enforce the anxiously wish for, time convinces us payment of tithes. It is said, that it is would have been for our harm. Perto put down midnight robbers and as-haps, in order that our final deliverance sassins. Why, then, prevent public may be effected, great and terrible premeetings in the open day to petition? sent inflictions may be necessary. But Why try libellers by a court-martial? we must take things as we find them; These are not midnight robbers and we must act according to present apassassins. Every castigation of any sort pearances; and must not do wrong, is called assassination now: routing a nor assent to the doing of wrong, on tithe-proctor, or sending a parson a the chance of ultimate good being the threatening letter, is called assassination! consequence. This petition is long; This is the exaggerating style of the French. "Ah! Jesu Christ! On m'assassine! On m'assassine!" cried an old bawd, whom I saw the constable tickling at a whipping-post at Havre de

but it is of vast importance at this moment: it tells the sad tale of Ireland; and it points out the only remedy that can possibly put a stop to the present evils.

To the Honourable the Commons of starve; but that, such was the abhorthe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. The petition of William Cobbett, Most humbly showeth,

rence which the Irish people entertained at the thought of apostatizing from their religion, that they shunned as they would have shunned deposits of deadly pestilence those churches, to That your petitioner prays your ho- which they had before resorted with nourable House, that the Protestant punctuality and zeal surpassed by the Church of Ireland, as by law established, people of no nation on the earth; and may be, by law, repealed and utterly that, still clinging to their faithful pas abrogated and abolished; and that this tors, they secretly sought in houses, in prayer he founds on the facts which he, barns, in woods, in caves, amongst with the greatest respect, will now pro-rocks, or in fastnesses of some sort, the ceed to submit to your honourable comforts of that communion to which House. they no longer dared to resort in open

That, until the year 1547, the Catho-day. lic religion was the only religion known The Government, irritated at this in Ireland that, after the Protestant contumacy, as it was called, but fidelity, religion was introduced into England, it as it ought to have been called, resorted was by law made to be the religion to means the most tyrannical, the most taught in the churches in Ireland; that cruel, and even the most ferocious, in a Protestant clergy was made to sup-in order to subdue this pious fidelity; plant the clergy of the ancient religion; that the latter were turned out of the livings and the churches; that the altars were pulled down and the mass abolished, and the Protestant Table and Common Prayer forcibly introduced in their stead.

that it inflicted fine, imprisonment, torture, or death, and sometimes two or three of these all upon the same person; that it confiscated not only innumerable estates belonging to Catholics, but whole counties at once, on the 'plea that this was necessary in order to plant the Protestant religion; that the lands thus confiscated were given to Protestants; and that, in reality, the former owners were extirpated, or made little better than slaves to the intruders.

That the people of Ireland saw with great indignation this attempt to force upon them a new and strange religion, and to compel them to abandon and become apostates to that religion in which they had been born and bred, That, however, in spite of acts of tythat religion which had been the reli-ranny, at the thought of which Nero and gion of their fathers for many centuries, and the truth, purity, and wisdom of which were so clearly proved by its happy effects.

That, therefore, the people rejected this new religion, of the origin of which, or of the authority by which it was imposed on them, they had, and could have, no idea; but that the Government of England persisted in compelling the Irish to submit to an abandonment of the ancient and to an adoption of the new religion.

Caligula would have startled with horror, which acts continued to be enforced with unabated rigour for more than 200 years; that in spite of these acts of fining, confiscating, plundering, racking, and killing, all having in view one single object, that of compelling the people to conform to the church as by law established; that in spite of all these atrocious acts, these matchless barbarities of two hundred years, the people of Ireland, though their country was frequently almost literally That, in order to effect this purpose, strewed with mangled bodies, and made clergymen to officiate in the churches of red with blood, adhered with unshaken Ireland were sent from England, and fidelity to the religion of their and of that to these the tithes and other our fathers; that in spite of death conchurch revenues were all transferred, tinually looking them in the face; in leaving the Catholic clergy to beg or spite of prisons, racks, halters, axes, and

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the bowel-ripping knife; in spite of all these, their faithful priests have never deserted them; and that the priests now in Ireland are the successors of thousands of heroic martyrs, many of whom were actually ripped up and cut into quarters.

estimate, amount to three millions of pounds sterling a year; that several of the Irish bishops have, of late years, left, at their death, personal property exceeding, for each, two hundred thousand pounds; that the deaneries and prebends, and other benefices in the That, nevertheless, the new church, church of Ireland, as by law established, by law established, got safely into are of great value; and that your her possession all the property that humble petitioner is sure that your hohad belonged to the ancient church; nourable House will not deem him preand that she took all the tithes, all the sumptuous, if he take it for granted, parsonage-houses, all the glebes, all that your honourable House will allow, the landed estates, which in Ireland that it is impossible that any Governare of immense extent and value: so ment in its senses, that any but tyrants, that Ireland, for nearly three hundred and mad tyrants, too, would have given years, continued to exhibit, and still these immense revenues to the Protestexhibits, the strange sight of an enor-ant clergy, unless with a view, and in mously rich established church nearly the confident expectation, of seeing the without flocks, and on the other hand, an almost mendicant priesthood with flocks comprising the main part of the people; it exhibits a religious system, which takes the use of the churches from the millions, and gives it to the thousands; that takes churches from that religion by the followers of which they were founded and endowed, and gives them to that religion the followers of which protest against the faith of the founders and endowers, and brand their religion as idolatrous and damnable.

That your petitioner can form an idea of no being short of a fiend, in point of malignity and cruelty, capable of viewing such a scene without feelings of horror; and, therefore he is confident, that your honourable House, still, as he hopes, animated with the benevolent spirit which led to the recent enactment in favour of the persecuted Catholics, will hasten to put an end to a scene so disgraceful, and to injustice so flagrantly outrageous.

people, or a large part of them at any rate, converted to the Protestant faith, and joining in the Protestant communion; for, that, otherwise, it must have been evident, that those immense revenues could only serve to create division, and to perpetuate all the passions hostile to the peace and prosperity of a country.

That, however, at the end of two hundred and seventy-six years, there are, in Ireland, even a less number of church Protestants than, as your humble petitioner finds good historical reason for believing there were a hundred and eighty years ago; and that it is a fact generally admitted, that the church Protestants in that country have long been, and still are, decreasing in number, compared with that of the Catholics, and also compared with that of those Protestant sects who stand aloof from her Common Prayer and Communion; that it is an undoubted fact, that, in many parishes, there are scarcely any Protestants at all; that in some paThat it must be manifest to every rishes there is not one; that throughone, that there could be, for giving the out the whole country, there is not, on vast revenues of the church of Ireland an average, more than one church Proto a Protestant clergy, no ground other testant to every six Catholics or Disthan that those revenues might be ap-senters; and that, while the Catholics plied in such manner as to cause the main body of the people to become and remain Protestants, and that, too, of the communion established by law: that those revenues, on the most moderate

are shut out of the churches founded and endowed by their forefathers of the same faith, and while these churches are empty, or at best echo to the soli tary voice of the stipendiary agent of

venues.

the opulent and luxurious non-residing That though this must, as your petiincumbent, the Catholics are compelled tioner presumes your honourable House either to abandon the public practice of will believe, be a great evil, it is attheir worship, to build chapels at their tended with evils still greater than itown expense, or, which they are fre- self; that to expect, in such a state of quently compelled to do, kneel down things, a willing payment of tithes and on the ground and in the open air. clerical dues, would be next to a trait That, if your honourable House will of madness; that the tithes are often hardly be able to refrain from express-collected by the aid of a military force, ing deep indignation at the thought of and that bloodshed is not unfrequently a scene like this (existing, apparently, a circumstance in the enterprise; that with your approbation), it would be it is manifest that, if there were no mipresumption, indeed, in your humble litary force kept up, there could be no petitioner, to attempt to estimate the tithes collected; and that, therefore, to feelings with which you must contem- the evil of the present application of plate the present state of the Irish the Irish church revenues, is to be church, as by law established, and the added the cost and all the other evils present application of its prodigious re- arising from the keeping up of a great standing army in Ireland; that, besides That there are in Ireland 3,403 pa- this army, there is kept on foot an rishes; that these are moulded into 515 armed, and som times, mounted police livings, and that therefore each parson establishment, costing an immense sum has on an average the tithes and glebes annually; that it is clear that neither of more than nine parishes; that this army nor police would be wanted in is not the worst, however, for that many | Ireland, were it not for the existence of of the livings are united, and that the church establishment, which the the whole 3,403 parishes are divided Catholics and Dissenters, who form six amongst less than 350 parsons; that parts o it of seven of the people, must of the 3,403 parishes there are only 139 naturaily, and notoriously do, detest and that have parsonage-houses, so that abhor; that therefore, while the Irish there is now remaining only one par-church, as by law established, appears sonage-house to every 24 parishes, and to your humble petitioner to be kept up only 465 that have any churches, or one as a source for supplying Government church to seven parishes; and that even with the means of bestowing largesses in these, residence of the incumbent, or on the aristocracy, the army and police even a curate, seldom takes place for appear to him to be required solely for any length of time; that the church, the purpose of giving efficiency and peras by law established, would seem to be manence to that supply. merely the means of making out of the public resources, provision for certain families and persons; that of the four archbishops and eighteen bishops of the Irish church, as by law established, there are, as your petitioner believes, fourteen who are, by blood or marriage, related to peers; that a similar prin- That, when the Reformation laid its ciple appears to your humble petitioner merciless hand on Ireland, that country, to prevail in the filling of the other blessed with a soil and climate as good dignities and the livings; and that as any in the world, had 649 monastherefore the Irish church, as by law teries and other foundations of that established, really does seem to your nature; that it had a church in every humble petitioner to exist for no pur-parish, instead of having, as now, one pose other than that of furnishing the church, on an average, to seven paGovernment with the means of bestow-rishes; that it had then a priest in ing largesses on the aristocracy.. every parish, who relieved the poor

That, hence arise, as your humble petitioner firmly believes, all the discontents, all the troubles, all the po verty, nakedness, hunger, all the human degradation in Ireland; and this belief he founds upon facts which are undeniable.

and repaired the church out of the impose upon anybody. I beg my friends tithes; that it had, in the monasteries in the country not to trouble themselves and in the bishops' palaces, so many to write to me letters of thanks for my points whence the poor, the widow, the exertions. orphan, and the stranger, received relief; and that it had (greater than all the rest) unity of faith, glory to God with one voice, peace on earth, and good will towards men.

I know that I have their thanks: I know, that their gratitude always exceeds the good that is done for them, or attempted to be done for them. If persons have any interesting facts to communicate, that are likely to be useful to me in the performance of my duty, that is another matter. I have received several petitions; but I shall not now present any until Wednes

That, alas! your humble petitioner need not tell your honourable House, that these bave all, yea all, been swept away by the means made use of to introduce, establish, and uphold the Pro-day next, when the petition-senate is to testant hierarchy; that these means are still in practice, and are, in productiveness of turmoil and misery, as active and efficient as ever; and that, as long as this hierarchy shall continue to exist, these same means must, your petitioner is convinced, be employed constantly and with unabated vigour.

That, therefore, your humble petitioner prays that your honourable House, proceeding upon the clear precedents set by former Parliaments, will be pleased to pass a law to repeal, abrogate, abolish, and render utterly frustrate and of no effect, the Protestant church now established by law in Ireland; that you will be pleased to cause a just distribution, in future, of the tithes and other revenues now received by that church; that in this distribution, you will be pleased to cause to be made effectual provision for the relief of the poor; and that you will be pleased to adopt, relative to the premises, such other measures as, in your wisdom, you shall deem to be meet. And your petitioner will ever pray, April 20, 1829. WM. COBBETT.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

hold their first sittings. This PETITIONSENATE will be an entirely new thing. Several correspondents ask me, if I think the house and window-tax will be taken off. I see no disposition to do any such a thing; but it is impossible to say how far the hearts of the Ministers may be softened by the prayers and supplications of the people.

BURDETT'S HOMILIES. CIRCUMSTANCES, which I need not here particularly mention, render these "HOMILIES" very valuable just at this time. I have a great many of them safely down in print; and I shall republish them for the benefit of the young men of this age, many of whom were not born, when the homily-writer put forth these pious effusions of his political zeal.

" Sir Francis Burdett's Address to the "Freeholders of the County of Mid"dlesex. -Nov. 1806.

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"Whenever the leaders of contending parties and factions in a state unite, "the history of the world bears evi"dence, that it never is in favour, but I HAVE before noticed that I will re'always at the expense of the people; ceive no twopenny post letters not post- "whose renewed and augmented pilage paid; and I repeat the notice here." lage pays the scandalous price of the Nothing is so easy as to drop a piece of" reconciliation. Under these circumpaper into a post-shop. Nothing is so "stances you are called, prematurely easy as to tax a man in this way; but" and suddenly, to a fresh election of this is a tax that I will not pay; and it" your representatives, if they can be is a tax that I take special care never to "called such. And a double imposture

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