from their dominions, and give their power to any other. Let us now fee what ufe the popes have made of thefe decrees, and we fhall find that the right rev. prelate was miftaken, when he said the laws against roman catholics were not laws of neceffity, but of wanton choice. Every one knows that Henry VIII. lived and died a papist; that though he pretended to be a proteftant, he never attempted to fuppress popěry in his realm, but merely fuffered the ftate to become proteftant; yet for this pope Paul IV. excommunicated him, and releafed his fubjects from their oath of allegiance, and commanded all christian princes to make war upon him. As to the reign of queen Mary, in charity to the roman catholic church, and because he would not aggravate its crimes, the archbishop wifhed it might be for ever forgotten. During the first ten years of Elizabeth, no act of feverity whatever was paffed againft roman catholics, he was a true proteftant herfelf, fhe loved her religion for its truth, and fhe endeavoured to inculcate it into her people by reafon and perfuafion; for this pope Pius V. excommunicated her, abfolved her fubjects from allegiance, and gave her dominions to any chriftian prince who would take the trouble of conquering them. Soon after this followed the Irish rebellion, and then the Spanifh invafion, both inftigated and both bleffed by the pope, and after this are we now to be told that the law againft men paying a blind and unlimited obedience to the fee of Rome, were laws of wanton choice, arifing from religious bigotry and a fpirit of perfecution, but not from neceffity; as to James the It's time, he mentioned a fact admitted by every hiftorian :—Garnet the 2 the Jefuit, when at the place of execution, and juft going to leave the world, declared," that there was a band of catholics who were "bound together by an oath, never to ceafe or "abate in their exertions till they had extirpated every heretic from the nation." 466 For what concerned the Irifh maffacre in the reign of Charles the I. he quoted Hume, an author generally fuppofed not unfavourable to popery. The Irifh every where intermingled with the English, needed but an hint from their leaders and priests to begin hoftilities against a people whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for their riches and profperity-the houses, cattle, and goods of the unwary English were firft feized; thofe who heard of the commotion in their neighbourhood, inftead of deferting their habitations, and affembling together for their mutual protection, remained at home in hopes of defending their property, and fell thus feparately into the hands of their enemies. After rapacity had fully exerted itself, cruelty, the moft barbarous that ever in any nation was, known or heard of, began its operations, an univerfal maffacre commenced of the English, now defencelefs and paffively refigned to their inhuman foes,-no age, no fex, no condition was fpared! The wife weeping for her butchered husband, and embracing her helpless children, was pierced with them, and perished by the fame ftroke, the old, the young, the vigorous, the infirm underwent a like fate and were confounded in one common ruin. In vain did flight fave from the firft affault, deftruction was every where let loofe, and met the hunted victims at every turn; in vain was recourfe had to relations, to companions, to friends, all connection was diffolved, and death was was dealt by that hand from which protection was implored, without provocation, without oppofition; the astonished English living in profound peace and full fecurity, were maffacred by their neareft neighbours, with whom they had long upheld a continued intercourfe of kindnefs and good offi ces. And now, refumed his grace, my lords, I call upon you to know whether this will not vindicate our ancestors, and fhew that they were through hard neceffity compelled to defend themselves by laws against roman catholics, and not through wanton choice, or perfecuting bigotry. The noble lord on the woolfack, who has gone fo fully and fo ably into this fubject; who has left fcarcely any thing unobferved or flightly handled, has juft, mentioned Fitton-a man who once difgraced that feat, to which the virtues and abilities of the noble lord add dignity and fplendor. Let me give you the character of Fitton: He was a man of the moft infamous and profligate life; he had been twice convicted of perjury, once at Weftminster and once at Chefter; but he was a bigoted popish priest, and this was a fufficient recommendation to James the fecond to make him the keeper of his confcience; and if ever the day comes, which God forbid! that you fhall confent to let papifts into the efficient powers of the ftate you may happen to meet with another Fitton. Your ancestors ftruggled hard to maintain the proteftant conftitution, which has been traduced in a moft wanton manner; your lordships, I trust, will never defert it, but tranfinit it unimpaired to your pofterity. My lords, there is no man entertains a more perfect good will to every roman catholic in the world than I do ;-if his religion is dangerous to the ftate, it is his religion and not the man that I attack; but where men profefs a religion hoftile to the ftate, the efficient powers of the government fhould never be furrendered into their hands. His grace having apologized for taking up fo much time on a fubject to which he had no idea of speaking when he entered the houfe, faid there was one circumftance to which he begged their lordships attention. About the year 1774, fome benevolent gentlemen, members of the other house, (particularly the late Mr. French) wishing to put the roman catholics on a better footing than they then were, confulted with the principal perfons of that perfuafion, and an oath was framed, by taking which they declared themselves ready to teftify their fidelity and allegiance. This oath was fent into England and France, and into Spain, where being approved of, the roman catholics expreffed great impatience to have it inferted in an act of parliament; accordingly it was inferted in an act of the 13th and 14th of the King:-See the effect of it, in four long years, notwithstanding the impatience of thefe gentlemen, of three millions of loyal fubjects, but 1531 were found to take the oath. Did the proteftants reproach them for this? No; the proteftants were not perfecutors; on the contrary, in 1778 the work of indulgence began, and ceafed not till in almoft every point relative to property, they were put on a footing exactly equal with proteftants. These advantages were all granted on condition of their taking the oath of the 13th and 14th of the King; yet in 1792, fourteen years from the time, no more than 12,073 had done fo; altho' in the purchase and demife of lands they were put upon an equal footing with proteftants, and although the oath was their Own. 3 C His His grace proceeded to remark on a paffage of Dr. Troy's pamphlet-and other writings in which there were thefe doctrines-" that there was falvation for" no man who died out of the church." "That the "people are enslaved when the fovereign declares" himself the head of the church.” He hoped that the roman catholics held no fuch doctrines, nor would he have spoken of them if he did not think that they attacked, unprovoked, ly, the conftitution in church and state. In committee he should not fay a fingle word on the bill, further than declaring that there was no civil right which he was not as willing to give to papists as to any other clafs of subjects, provi, ded that it could be done with fafety to the state. He would give them the free poffeffion and exercife of their religion which they enjoyed-and he would do the fame thing with the Turk, the Jew, and the Mahometan-for there was no reafon why a man of any religion fhould not be tolerated, if he was a good fubject in the ftate. He repeated that in the point of civil rights, acquifition and fecurity of property, and liberal education, he would go as far for the roman catholics, as any man in the nation.-But he never would give political power to men who might use it to dangerous purpofes-Let me perish in fupport of this opinion, fays his grace, like a good prieftand not as their church would infinuate, like a brute beaft. The Bishop of Killala replied to fome matters which had been thrown out in the preceding part of the debate. As to tranfubftantion he,never could difcern that it rendered the perfon who believed in it abad fubject, a lefs courageous foldier or a worfe neighbour. With respect to infallibility, for his part, he could never afcertain where it lay. Whether it lay in the pope, in a general council, |