fered by the Irish People under its baneful influence. The truth of this observation, every well-informed Catho ic has had ample occasion to observe and deplore. But these misapprehensions cease to excite surprise, when we consider, not merely the uncommon variety and multitude of these Penal enactments, which render an enumeration difficult, but also the heavy discouragements which have hitherto prevented any publication of the Case of the Catholics of Ireland, under the " existing Laws." For he who would unfold, without reserve, the various grievances of this injured people, or publicly recommend their Case to the justice and good sense of their fellow su'jects, undertakes but a cheerless and hazardous the zeal of friends, nor allay the vengeance of exulting Intolerance: 4 Such, partly, are he obstacles to a free and faithful Publication of this nature;―These may sufficiently account for the obscurity in which this subject has hitherto remained. Fully aware, however, as we are of the extent and variety of the Discouragements to which we have thus briefly adverted, we shall proceed to the performance of this useful and important work. We are impelled to do so by a deep conviction of its necessity, and by an over-ruling sense of the duty which we owe to our Country, and to the age in which we live. If the Difficulties to be encountered are formidable, if prepossessions against the Catholic People are strong and various, it behoves us the more carnestly to deprecate unfair criticism-to disclaim all forced interpretation of our Language -so often the asperities of well-meaning opponents to sue for the indulgence of the candid and considerate, and to invite the liberal and patriotic aid of all, in the discharge of this public duty. All this we do in the sincerity of our hearts. The expectation of being useful to our Country is our sole support and incitement. But we are not altogether without some hope for the sake of Ireland and of human nature, that an attempt of this kind, prompted by upright and benevolent motives, and guided, as we trust, by truth and temperance, may possibly experience a candid reception from the public at large, and ultimately obtain the approbation and effectual support of the honest, the generous, and the well-educated of all persuasions task. Not only no praise, or gratitude, or reward of any kind, awaits his performance, however arduous or correct; not only is the door of advancement closed, and the paths of honourable ambition interdicted to his hopes; but he becomes instantly exposed to that jealous irritability of power, and that unrelenting personal proscription, which necessarily flow from the very temper and inherent nature of this Penal Code. Such has been the experience of many years in Ireland. An unguarded phrase may be transplanted into the defamatory pages of some hireling or expectant Pamphle. teer: an accidental ambiguity of expression may be wrested or misquoted, so as to make the "better Sense appear the worse." It may be garbled and tortured into constructive disaffection, sedition, or even Treason; and his very proscribers and persecutors may become, directly or mediately, the Judges of their own perverse constructions. In such a country as Ireland is, under present circumstances, Utility and reasonableness of this the iron arm of Power, if once uplifted against such a writer, must speedily and effectually crush him. A barren popularity may attend the victim; but te transient sound will neither rouse throughout the Empire. Section II. Statement. been long a public desideratum to literary men of every class. The Lawyer, however diligent and erudite, is at present destitute of the means of ready reference upon a branch of his Science, which must frequently fall within his consideration; involving, as it necessarily does, the Rights and Liberties, Properties and Lives, of the Catholic Population. The Philosopher, contemplating the nature of this unexampled servitude, its causes, principles, and present enormous extent, will discover a bound. less range of instructive occupation for the human mind. He will see new instances of the abuse of Power, the force of Prejudice, the folly of Religious Intolerance, the honourable constancy of a suffering People; but he may hesitate to admit, that the Age, in which four Milhous of Irish Catholics are doomed to the horrors of Religious Exclusion, can be justly deemed an Enlightened Age." More especially the Legislator or the Statesman will find, in the moral and political tendency of this Anti-Catholic Code, abundant matter of profound study, of pressing importance to the general weal, and of peculiarly urgent claim upon his strenuous exertions in the discharge of his public duty. Nay, he is bound, by every obligation to his Country and to Society, to bestow his serious attention upon this subject-His Decision will be frequently appealed to. For it is but reasonable to presume, from the immense numbers of the Catholics, their bold and unbroken spirit, their increasing intelligence, natural resources, and interesting position, and, above all, from the intrinsic and undoubted Just ce of their Cause, that they will not submit, in ignoble silence, to a continuance of their Degrauation, On the contrary, their condition and their complaints mast continually come before the Legilture; and, until fully redressed, must produce renewed, axious, and selemn discussions. To the Adversary, then, not lesa than to the Advocate, of Catholic freedom, a correct view of this Penal ↑ Code must prove useful. Without it no argument upon the subject can te forcibly applied, or effectually repelled: and every discussion must exhibit, as heretofore, numerous instances of ar gument without efficacy, and of asser tion without proef. But, surely, if Freedom is eventually to be restored to the Catholics, the provident Legislator ought to be apprized, distinctly and accurately, of all the restraints and penalties now in force against them; what Laws ought to be abrogated, and what Laws enacted, in order to rder that Freedom effectual and permanently secure. If, on the other hand, Freedom is to be still witheld from the Catholics, if they are doomed to drag on the burden of their chains for some inde finite period of years, to submit to bondage as their permanent Desting, and to look for Redemption only in the visions of a gloomy futurity; evea in this supposed alternative, no wellinstructed Protestant should remin imperfectly acquainted with so valuable a portion of the Laws, as that which defines and ascertains his personal ascedancy, privileges, and powers over the milions of his Catholic fellow countrymen. It may afford the means, as well of satisfying a natural curiosity touching the fate of his Vas sal Neighbours, as of learning the enormous powers entrusted to his use and exercise over them. Doubtless, too. it ray awaken his compassion, and picad some excuse for occasional Irregularities, which bad Laws inva riably provoke. Whether he desire the Abolition or the maintenance of this Anti-Catholic Code, it cannot be deemed improper to submit to his im partial consideration a Summary of its Enactments, extent, and operation 10 Ireland. HisJudgment and feelings may pronounce upon them, but las d thority and privileges remain untouched. To To the Catholic, also, it may prove a salutary though a sad consolation, to be enabled to fix the precise limit of his Hopes, and the landmark of his justifiable ambition, under the Laws and Constitution of these realms. He may thus svoid the chagrin of disappointed projects, and reconcile his mind and those of his children, betimes, to the humiliating arrangements and the settled exclusions, which the Laws ordain. Shielded by such salutary warning against the delusive hope of Religions Liberty, he and his family may creep through Life with due submission, and meekly bow their heads to the dust, before the established dominion of those more fortunate Christians, who profess to the Protestant faith. X. Of the general Mischiefs of this Code, as incnicating sentiments of aversion towards the Catholics, stigmatizing them as disloyal, faithless, and superstitions; unworthy of Power or Trust, as an inferior race and exposing them to insult and injury, in the spirit of scorn, aad the hope of impunity. Of each of these Articles we shall treat separately; and I. As they respectively appear on the face of the Statute Book, by express enactment. II. As they are enforced, to the injury of the Catho ics, directly or indirectly, in their spirit and constant efficacy throughout Ireland. It would be impossible to render a work of this nature satisfactory, were we merely to present a naked enumeration of the several Anti-Catholic Statutes, Clauses aud Provisions, which remain in force. Such a compilation, however copious and accurate fail of its professed purpose, unless accompanied by a corresponding Statement of its actual application to the Catholics of Ireland, in their various situations of life-their history-habits must numbers--respective pursuits, and local Customs, as well as their relative proportion to the professors of the Established Faith. It, therefore appears to be indispensably necessary to annex, to the Letter of these Laws, a temperate Statement of their Operation, spirit, and construction, in order to form a just estimate of the pecuber condition of the Catholics in their native Country. This shall be done under each of the foregoing Ten Heads of this Code, as they follow in Luer If the Swedish law were enacted here against all non-abjuring priests that did not quit the kingdom by a prefixed time, and it were made high treason for any of them to return; or any popish priest to come into this kingdom, or be ordained; and that every one that should bring, enter tam, or conceal them, should be liable to the same punishment. If all the Irish were obliged to learn and speak the English tongue by a prefixed time, under a severe penalty; as of forfeiture of all goods they shall offer to sell in their own language, and by depriving them of recovering any debt, till they did comply with the law, which would qualify them to embrace our holy religion. If charity schools were erected by law through the kingdom, as some charitable persons in Connaught have already done at their own expence. If the act obliging our ministers to keep an English school in each of their parishes, were revised and a. mended. If every militia footman of Irelard, was armed with a firelock and bayonet; and dragoon with firelock and sword, and a loose red coat given to each man at the publick cost, ne ver to be worn but on days of ex. ercise, or wheu they were commanded to do duty. If a law was enacted regulating the militia, and obliging them under a pe nalty to obey their proper officers, and to take care of their arms and coat, and meet once a month, (the day to be appointed by Parliament) to be exercised. And if a fund can be raised by way of capitation, or some more proper method that the papists may pay their share, to give every dragoon a shilling, and every footman six pence each day, when they to exercise or to do duty. If one of the half pay subalterns, was appointed as adjutant to each militia regiment in the kingdom to dicipline it, till the King has further business for those officers. If all buyers of corn were obliged to measure by the commou standard, which, notwithstanding the act, they neglect to do, to the great injury of the subject. If a stop was put to the extensive planting of potatoes, that no one person should plant ten or twenty a cres, as many do, to the great discou ragement of sowing corn. if the minister's tythes, and money raised at vestry's were made recovet. able by common law, and not by pro cess and excommunication as they are. If the breaches of Bandon walls, were ordered to be repaired by the papists of the County of Corke, who pull'd them down in the last rebellion, for their early declaring for King William, of glorious memory, and the Protestant interest; that that town, may be a refuge for the Pro testant women and children of the adjacent country, in case the Irish shou'd run into another rebellion, ac cording to former custom. ?་་ If the unhappy distinguishing titles of Whig and Tory, amongst Protei tants in this kingdom were made penal, as Butlerabo and Cromabo. : This gentleman made a long affidavit before Judge Day, on the 23d of January, for the purpose of obtaining an order from the Court of King's Bench, for a criminal information against Messrs Gilbert, and Hodges, Booksellers for a libel published in a book entitled "Sketches of History, Politics and Manners, taken in Dublin, and the North of Ireland, in the Autumn of 1810." The offensive passage is as follows, "Mr. Plunket the late Attorney General of Ireland, is an admirable Public Speaker, either at the Bar, or in Parliament. This gentleman, however, was severely reprobated, for his conduct on the trial of Mr. Emmet, for high treason, about seven years ago.-Mr. Plunket, who was then only King's Counsel, conducted the prosecution against this unfortunate young man, with a rancour and virulence, which shocked and surprised every person, acquainted with his obligations to his father and family. Mr. Plunket's reasons for this conduct have never been made known, though, it injured him very much in public estimation. Crown Lawyers have always been of the blood-hound tribe -they seldom lose scent of their prey, either from consideration of gratitude, or humanity. We have an instance of this, in the prosecuting of Lord Essex, on whom the celebrated Bacon, then Attorney General, exhausted every opprobrious term in the English language, though, this amiable nobleman had been his greatest benefactor and friend." Mr. Plunket in his affidavit, utterly denies even being under any obligation to any of Mr. Emmet's family, he says, he never had any intimacy with Doctor Emmet, never dined in his house or in his company but once, never had any personal knowlege of Robert Emmet, until he saw him in the dock. The affidavit is as strong and explicit as language could make it; we will not give any opinion on its merits until we hear will Mr. Thomas Addis Emmet, descend to take notice of it; for we say, it would be descending from the rank which his virtues, endowments, and illustrious name bold, in the political and moral world, to enter into any intercourse with Mr. Plunket, ornamented as his many names are. Mr. Emmets distinguished character and manly abhorrence, for tyrants and minions will be remembered in the history of Europe, as it is worshipped by his suffering countrymen, who waft their grateful blessings from among the ruins of their temples, from among the barracks, prisons and dangeous, that cover their prostrate country, across the wide Atlantic; invoking the god of liberty, to shield those happy countries, where Emmet lives, admired and protected. Mr. Plunket concludes his affidavit, "Deponent feels that he owes it to his own character, to take this public method of disproving on oath, the base. and unworthy conduct which have been attributed to him, and which Deponent believes, is calculated to lower him in the estimation of those who are not acquainted with his character, and sentiments, and habits of life." We are glad to hear, this gentleman |