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Parliament, and to sit in Parliament. Even the laws which were in force against the Catholics, when the treaty took place, ought, ac cording to the first article, to have been repealed; because their Majesties engaged, by this article, to obtain for the Catholics such further security, in respect to the exercise of their religion, as might preserve them from any disturbance on account of that religion. It is impossible for any other fair construction to be given to this article, than that which is here given. It would be beneath the dignity, and wholly inconsistent with that character for good faith, of which it has always been the pride of England to boast, to attempt to apply any other meaning to it. No doubt there are those who would wish to act, on all occasions, towards the Catholics, according to that system of pert.rted morality which the powerful always impose on the weak; but, so long as the true principles of justice shall have their due influence, the majority of mankind can never consider this first article of the treaty of Limerick in any other light, than as a complete and perpetual exemption of the Irish Catholics from all political and religious disqualification on account of their religion. This treaty has been very accurately described as the great charter of the civil and religious liberty of the Catholics; and though not hitherto observed as such by the English govern ment, the Catholics have a right (which time cannot efface, nor perfidy destroy) to recur to its stipulations.'

Yet what is the conduct of England on this occasion? She is guilty of as flagrant a violation of her solemn engagements as is to be found in history. Let us take Mr. Parnell's concise and correct account of the matter:

Though William had bound himself by this treaty to call a Parliament as soon as his affairs would admit, and to obtain from it the ratification of the treaty, he dissolved the first Parliament of his reign, which had met on the 5th of October, 1692, in Sept. 1693, without proposing to them any such measure. He was further guilty of a want of attention to his engagement, by not summoning another Parliament till the 27th April, 1695; and, when this Parliament did meet, he seems to have entirely forgotten that his own faith, and the faith of the English nation, was plighted ta the Catholics by a solemn treaty; for, instead of recommending to them, in the speech of his Lord Deputy, to proceed to confirm the articles of Limerick, he told them that he was intent upon the great work of a firm settlement of Ireland upon a Protestant interest. The Parliament were not backward in promoting his object. They first of all passed an act to deprive the Catholics of the means of educating their children either at home or abroad, and of the privi lege of being guardians either of their own or of any other person's children. Then they passed an act to disarm the Catholics, another to banish their priests, and, strange as it may appear, they then thought proper in the year 1697, to pass an act to confirm the Articles of Limerick.

Of this act it is to be observed, in the first place, that the very title of it is a proof of its injustice; for it is styled "an act for the confirmation

confirmation of articles," and not, as it ought to be, "of the articles" made at the surrender of Limerick."

The preamble affords further evidence of the intention of the framers of it to evade its proper object. It runs thus: "That the said articles, or so much of them as may consist with the safety and welfare of your Majesty's subjects of this kingdom may be confirmed," &c.

But the whole act goes to convict the Parliament, and (as this Parliament was completely under the controut of the Lord Deputy,} even William himself, of gross injustice towards the Catholics. For the first article of the treaty is wholly omitted, which guarantees to the Catholics the free exercise of their religion, and an exemption from all disturbance on account of it; and each clause of the act has the effect of limiting the terms of the other articles, and depriving the Catholics of the benefit of them, instead of ratifying and confirming them.'

In short this act, under the name of conferring favours on the Catholics, really placed them in a worse condition than that in which they were before it passed into a law.'

Having enumerated the various acts which passed in this reign against the Catholics. Mr. P. asks:

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How it is possible to defend William and his ministers from the charge of having acted, with perfidy towards the Catholics, it is not easy to discover. That they were guilty of violating the treaty no one can deny. The excuse that has been made for William, that he was obliged to submit to the power of the anti-catholic party, is not sufficient. Why did he not refuse his consent to these laws, on the ground of their being contrary to his solemn engagements to the Catholics? He had exercised this prerogative in the case of one Scotch, and of one English bill. But even this extremity might have been avoided, because the law of Poynings required that every bill should be approved by the King and Council of England, before it could pass the House of Commons; and, if a bill was exceptionable, by witholding their approbation, a very common proceeding, it fell of course to the ground.

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But if William and his ministers were guilty of perfidy towards the Catholics, his successor far outstripped him. Nor has any succeeding prince been free from the blame of having been an accessary to his crime, in proportion as he has neglected or refused to repeal those penal laws, which are so many glaring violations of the treaty of Limerick, which are a scandal to the boasted good faith of the English nation, and a mockery of that equitable religion, whose precepts are founded upon the purest principles of justice and humanity.'

William, it must be admitted, is not altogether invulaerable to the censure which is here passed on him: but we apprehend that it must be greatly softened down if we bear in mind his situation, the precarious tenure of his throne, and the inveteracy of the party supporting him against the Catholics. Indeed, that this treatment of that body was not congenial to William's sentiments and wishes, we have the

most

most abundant evidence. That Prince, it is well known, cherished much more liberal and enlarged notions of toleration, than any of his whig supporters.

Our limits do not permit us to follow Mr. Parnell through the subsequent reigns; in his details respecting which, the same accuracy and correctness, and the same aversion to the persecuting spirit of the times, are throughout perceptible. The nature of the pledge given to the Catholics at the Union is stated with great precision and nicety, and accompanied by spirited exhortations to England to retrieve by its redemption her sullied honour and her violated faith.

MONTHLY

Art. 10.

CATALOGUE,

For JUNE, 1808.

NOVELS.

George the Third. 12mo. 3 Vols. 138. 6d. Boards.
Carpenter. 1807.

HA
AVING derived some entertainment from these volumes, we gladly
recommend them to the notice of readers in this line, as con-
taining (what we almost despair of finding in novels of the present
day) some good sense and originality of thinking. We do not,
however, altogether applaud the writer's manner, nor his maxims :
respecting the former, his silly notices at the head of each chapter
must be censured; and as to the latter, we cannot quite agree
with him that there is just as much physical and moral health
to be had in Holborn, as in the valleys in Glocestershire, or any
other valleys in England :'-no-never can we allow this, as long
as we recollect the intimate connection of our old friend Holborn
with Leather-lane, and Dyott Street, Broad St. Giles's.

Art. 11.

Helen, or Domestic Occurrences. A Tale. Izmo. 2 Vols. Ics. 6d. Boards. Bent.

As being the first literary production of a female, we readily allow this work the encomium which is claimed for it,-that of being the inoffensive history of domestic occurrences.' We farther congratulate the writer on the respectable list of subscribers wiruse are prefixed: a token, we imagine, of her own domestic virtues. We understand that Hirst is the name of Helen's biographer.

names

MEDICINE, &C.

Art. 12. Observations on the excessive Indulgence of Children, particularly intended to show its injurious Effects on their Health, and the Difficulties it occasions in their Treatment during SickBy James Parkinson, Hoxton. 8vo. 13. Symonds.

ness.

1807.

The

The observations which are contained in this pamphlet are such as must have often suggested themselves to the mind of the medical practitioner, and have caused him to lament the obstacles which the ill-judged kindness of parents oppose to the real welfare of their children. The points, on which Mr. Parkinson especially insists, are the injurious effects produced on children by indulging them in the use of improper food; and the inconveniences arising in those cases in which the passions have not been kept under proper restraint, and the parent has not. acquired the necessary control over the actions of the child. Mr. P. briefly enumerates the different diseases in which these circumstances are productive of the worst consequeaces, both by immediately aggravating the complaint, and by not permitting the practitioner to adopt the proper means for relieving it.His remarks are in themselves judicious; and they are conveyed in an easy style, divested of all technical phrases, so as to render them fully intelligible to every class of readers. As a specimen, we shall quote his observations on the inflammation of the eye:

The termination of this disease, in children, will frequently depend on the degree of docility with which the little sufferer is endued. When he is unhappily of an untoward disposition, a distressful termination may be apprehended. The inflamed eye, from which every stimulus should be abstracted as carefully as possible, is by fretting kept continually suffused with briny tears. To be convinced how much injury this must occasion, it is only necessary to recollect, that redness and tenderness of the eyes and eye lids are effects which always succeed to this mode of expressing distress. Children who are not under due restraint, will also always considerably aggravate the evils under which they suffer, by constantly rubbing the inflamed eye with their hands; a practice which children of this description generally have recourse to, expecting thereby to remove the pain and inconvenience they suffer. In addition to these circumstances it is to be considered, that in children of the description of which we are speaking, the greatest difficulty exists in obtaining the employment of the necessary means of cure. Not only is the surgeon perhaps prevented from administering proper internal remedies; but he is also most certainly precluded, from having the external applications duly employed.

These are impediments to the cure of this malady, in children of a violent and petulent temper, which every surgeon must have had reason repeatedly to lament. Indeed, I doubt not but that all those who have had the opportunities of observation, will concur with me in thinking, that blindness is in these cases, not unfrequently the consequence of parents losing, by their mismanagement, the necessary sway over the minds of their children.'

We are farther tempted to copy some of the concluding observations, in hopes that, from these specimens, the reader may be induced to peruse the whole :

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From what has been said above, it is hoped that parents will plainly perceive that the ease, the health, and even the life of their children, must frequently depend on the due regulation of their pas sions and temper, in even their infantile days,-in other words, that

the obtaining of such a degree of influence over the mind of a child as may procure its prompt submission to the will of its parents, either in yielding up that which may be injurious, or in acceding to that which, though not pleasant, may be absolutely necessary, will greatly contribute to the present, as well as the future comfort and tranquil. lity, both of the parent and the child. The fond parent cannot, even with a little attention, avoid discovering, that the object of his affection will, when thus educated, be the less likely to fall the victim of disease; that by having been rendered thus manageable, when disease does unavoidably occur, he will not deprive himself of the chance of recovery, by obstinately opposing the efforts of art; and that, should even a fatal termination take place, his mourning relatives will not have to accuse themselves with having occasioned his death, by having, in fact excited that opposition which the lamented object has made to every rational endeavour for his recovery.' Art. 13. Dialogues in Chemistry, intended for the Instruction and Entertainment of young People: in which the first Principles of that Science are fully explained. To which are added Questions and other Exercises for the Examination of Pupils. By the Rev. J. Joyce, author of Scientific Dialogues. 2. Vols. 12mo. 75. Boards. Johnson. 1807. These little volumes may be advantageously employed by those who are desirous of imparting to young persons the first principles of chemical science. They may be classed with the numerous productions of the present age, in which people of information have not considered themselves as degraded by contributing to the stock of the juvenile library. Mr. Joyce seems to be well acquainted with the fundamental doctrines of chemistry; and he possesses the art of communicating his knowlege in perspicuous language, and in an easy train of reasoning. We think, however, that he has paid too much deference to the speculative opinions of Dr. Thomson, whose peculiar arrangements he sometimes adopts; because, whatever be their merit, at present they can only be regarded in the light of hypotheses. We have also noticed a few inaccuracies in the perusal of this work but they are of so trifling a nature as not materially to detract from its general merit. At the end, is a set of queries, referring to the subjects of the respective dialogues; and a few neat plates of chemical apparatus are added.

Art. 14. Observations on Medical Reform; illustrating the present Condition of Medical Science, Education, and Practice, throughout Great Britain and Ireland; and proposing such Alterations therein, as appear most likely to succeed in remedying the several Evils which abound in this Profession, and which have, at length, become Subjects of universal Complaint. 8vo. 38. 6d. Printed at Dublin, and sold in London by Longman and Co.

Medical reform is a subject which has lately engaged a considerable share of public attention, and has already come before us in our critical capacity. Though many of the remarks in this treatise apply more immediately to the abuses existing in the city which gave it birth, it contains a number of judicious observations on the condi

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