well the usurper, William the third of glorious memory, and other kings, your majesty's predecessors, and the conquerors of Ireland, made bold to lay before your majesty the true state of their several and respective grievances, a burden now become almost too heavy to bear.

And your memorialist was rather induced to lay this memorial at your august majesty's feet, as it was on good presumption surmised, that all access to your royal ear was shut up, and your liege subjects debarred the liberty of complaining, a right ever allowed to your majesty's liege subjects of what degree or condition soever.

That no notice being taken of several remonstrances heretofore made by your majesty's liege subjects, it was humbly presumed, that such remonstrances had been stopped, and debarred in their progress to your royal ear.

That your memorialist, at the request of several thousands of your liege subjects, as well the nobles as the clergy, the gentry, and commonalty of the kingdom, has ventured on this bold step, for which he humbly craves your majesty's pardon, as nothing but the distress of his countrymen, your most loyal subjects, could have drawn him to this presumption.

That in general the face of your royal kingdom of Ireland wears discontent, a discontent not coloured from caprice or faction, but purely founded on ministerial misapplication.

That though several persons, particularly N. G. was called to account for the public money, which he had drawn out of the treasury, and deposited

in the banks, yet this inquisition came to nothing by the mediation of party, and the interposition of power.

That the duke of Dorset's son lord George, though in high and lucrative employments already, not satisfied therewith, has restlessly grasped at power, insatiable in his acquisitions.

That the primate, who is now on the pinnacle of honour, connected with the said noble lord, has made use of influence to invest himself of temporal power, and like a greedy churchman, affects to be a second Wolsey in the senate.

That influences being so predominant, corruption so formidable, and elections so controlled by the mighty power of those two statesmen, your loyal kingdom of Ireland feels the sad effects of it, and dreads this duumvirate as much as England did that of the Earl of Stafford and Archbishop Laud.

That your other ministers, officers, subjects, and servants, being cut out of dignity and power by this formidable monopoly, can scarce perform the proper functions of their ministry, as all measures are determined by fatal and influenced majorities in the houses.

That the citizens of Dublin have for a long time laboured under an unprecedented slavery in subjection to the bankers of administration, who act in a despotic manner, raising and disposing the public revenues of the city, just as to them seems fitting.

That your majesty's interest in the hearts of your loyal subjects is likely to be affected by

is

those arbitrary measures, as the landed interest very much injured thereby, and as few care to represent their country in parliament, where a junto of two or three men disconcert every measure taken for the good of the subject, or the cause of common liberty.

That your memorialist has nothing to ask of your majesty, neither place, civil or military, neither employment or preferment for himself or friends, and that nothing but his duty to your majesty, and natural hatred to such detestable monopoly, could have induced your memorialist to this presumption, who is, in all respects, your most loyal and dutiful subject, J. Fitzgerald.

While the Roman catholic body, languishing under pains and disqualifications, left the political interests of the country to the discussion and management of their protestant countrymen, they received from the duke of Bedford, appointed lord lieutenant the 25th of September, 1757, a kind intimation of an intention to alleviate some of their sufferings; which, from whatever motive, whether to disgust and divide the protestant patriots, as yet generally unripe for toleration, or to baffle the French threats of invasion, was speedily circulated; and produced a grateful acknowledgment from the catholic clergy, in the following exhortation to their flocks.

It is now time, christians, that you return your most grateful thanks to the Almighty God, who, after visiting you with a scarcity, which approached near unto a famine, has been graciously pleased, like a merciful father, to hear your pray,

ers, and feed you with a plentiful harvest; nor ought you to forget those kind benefactors, who, in the severest times, mindful only of the public good, generously bestowed, without any distinction of persons, those large charities by which thousands were preserved, who otherwise must have miserably perished the victims of hunger and poverty. We ought especially to be most earnest in our thanks to the chief governors and magistrates of the kingdom, and of this city in particular, who, on this occasion, proved the fathers and saviours of the nation.

But as we have not a more effectual method of shewing our acknowledgments to our temporal governors, than by an humble, peaceful, and obedient behaviour; as hitherto, we earnestly exhort you to continue in the same happy and christian dispositions; and thus, by degrees, you will entirely efface in their minds those evil impressions, which have been conceived so much to our prejudice, and industriously propagated by our enemies. A series of more than sixty years, spent, with a pious resignation, under the hardships of very severe penal laws, and with the greatest thankfulness for the lenity and moderation with which they were executed, ever since the accession of the present royal family, is certainly a fact which must outweigh, in the minds of all unbiassed persons, any misconceived opinions of the doctrine and tenets of our holy church.

You know that it has always been our constant practice, as ministers of Jesus Christ, to inspire you with the greatest horror for thefts, frauds,

murders, and the like abominable crimes; as being contrary to the laws of God and nature, destructive of civil society, condemned by our most holy church; which, so far from justifying them on the score of religion, or any other pretext whatsoever, delivers the unrepenting authors of such criminal practices over to Satan.

We are no less zealous than ever in exhorting you to abstain from cursing, swearing, and blaspheming; detestable vices, to which the poorer sort of our people are most unhappily addicted, and which must at one time or other bring down the vengeance of heaven upon you in some visible punishment, unless you absolutely refrain from them. It is probable that, from hence, some people have taken occasion to brand us with this infamous calumny, that we need not fear to take false oaths, and, consequently, to perjure ourselves; as if we believed that any power upon earth could authorise such damnable practices, or grant dispensations for this purpose. How unjust and cruel this charge is, you know by our instructions to you, both in public and private, in which we have ever condemned such doctrines, as false and impious. Others, likewise, may easily know it from the constant behaviour of numbers of Roman catholics, who have given the strongest proofs of their abhorrence to those tenets, by refusing to take oaths, which, however conducive to their temporal interest, appeared to them utterly repugnant to the principles of their religion.

We must now entreat you, dear christians, to offer up your most fervent prayers to the Almighty