with sect, party, or profession, Protestant or Popish. But
it would not suit the interests of the Irish Tory press, to
exhibit Protestantism to their readers in these aspects; for
that would look like a course of pleading against tithes, and
to plead against tithes and the princely revenues of the
bishops (in a paradise where they stand upon such a proud
pedestal,) would be to offend their patrons, and to bid fare-
well to their emoluments. Neither would it work favour-
ably for their interests to talk too much about the growth of
Methodism in England, and the high respectability of the
ministers of the Dissenting congregations, without any other
aid from the secular power than that of its mere toleration ;
because facts of this kind, frequently put forward, would
finally convince all Protestants that the wealth and splendour
of a gorgeous church are not necessary to the maintenance
of true religion ; and that all which has been taken, m et
armis, from the poor and from the public, for this purpose,
was deeply detrimental to the country, to the state, and to
the church itself; and the sooner these abuses are got rid
of, the better for the king and for the people. On the other
hand, the Freeman, the Register, and other papers of that
stamp, pursue exactly the same policy in the opposite direc-
tion. Their priests, (like Hannah More's ministers,*) are

* Vide Miss More's Religious Tracts. But we could tell Hannah a story
about one of her clergy in Liverpool that would shock her feelings. This
gentleman entered the house (we think of a Mrs. Simon, where a sick stranger
was lodging) in a furious passion for having been twice called upon to read the
office of the sick for the stranger just noticed. The latter, after attentively
viewing the sort of character that had come to visit him (and who had entered
his sick room with a charge of impertinence for the trouble that had been given
him,) took the candle and candle-stick from his table, and walking in his night-
cap and sick clothing to his chamber door, opened it, and with a stern look
of disapprobation, desired the minister (who was dressed in his canonicals)
to withdraw, as he would not receive assistance from such a clergyman, even
in the article of death. The clergyman, evidently astonished, (and the land-
lady, if possible, still more so) retreated quickly from the scene of his impro-



102 IRELAND,

all marvellously pious men ; God bless the mark. Their
bishops are all " My Lords and your Grace " ! (we say
nothing here about St. Paul's " Lords over God's heritage.")
The revenues of their clergy (which Davy M'Cleery says are
equal to those of the Established Church,) are nothing to
the poor, and could not be commuted for an income from
the state, without compromising the purity of the Rosary,
the litany of St. Joseph, or the mysteries of St. Mary of
Mt. Cannel ! ! ! The lay leaders of their party press are all
good men and true, in proportion to the weight and solidity
of the arguments which they produce to the literary rogues
who write for them ; in proportion to the power and influence
which they wield over the public mind through the public
prejudices ; in proportion as they play well upon the strings
of national feeling ; in proportion as they are able to render
lies venerable, and to throw every man into the shade
whose spirit kindles with honest indignation at this vile
traffic, and who has the manliness to avow his contempt of
that popularity which is procured by inflammatory appeals
to the prejudices and passions of a generous and warm-
hearted people ! But this is the corrupt element in which
the press of Dublin thrives and prospers ; and it is therefore
not surprising that you so seldom find impartial truth in it,
and that the labours of the most upright men for the eman-
cipation of their country from prejudice and oppression, and
for the promotion of all the real interests of Ireland, have
been sometimes either totally overlooked, or so grossly mis-
represented, as to produce an impression upon the reader's
mind, diametrically opposite to that which the facts of the
case would justify in the hands of an honest and impartial
writer.

It was to such writers as these, that Cobbett was indebted
for the unjust and illiberal contempt with which they passed

priety, with, we hope, a useful conviction of the error of his conduct; but
we are bound to say, to the honour of the clergy of the establishment in our
own unfortunate country, that we never saw such an instance of flagrant
impropriety as this in the whole course of our experience.



THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 103

over divers of his works that have contributed to the diffusion
of useful knowledge in Great Britain and her colonies (his
grammar, political sermons, and agricultural treatises for
instance ;) and this evidently prejudicial proceeding was ren-
dered the more remarkable by a generous devotion of their
columns to works of inferior utility, at the lime when Cob-
bett's books made their appearance in England, and put in
a strong claim to the notice of the English and Scotch Re-
viewers, from the importance of the topics which formed the
subject matter of these his useful practical productions. This
tribute of condemnation, upon the one hand, and of appro-
bation on the other, is due to justice, and is therefore freely
paid; although, in reference to this celebrated writer and
his works, we must say, (since we have made a momentary
plunge into the English press,) that of all his productions
which we have seen, his History of the Protestant Reforma-
tion is the most unjust and partial. Into the arguments for
or against the doctrines of the Reformation, or the service
which it rendered to the cause of liberty, by breaking the
despotic chains of Rome, the numbers of Mr. Cobbett's work
that we saw did not once enter ; it was prickly ground for
the interests of Rome (from which the work drew its prin-
cipal support,) and on that account was perhaps carefully
avoided in the few first numbers of the Reformation that we
saw. If in the succeeding numbers, Mr. Cobbett did indeed
become a theologian, it was a design of which we could
derive no just presumption from the numbers which we
read ; and as to the arguments which he drew forth against
the Reformation, from the crimes or errors of the Reformers,
from the corruption of English law, or the abuses of church
property, from the distresses of the English people, under
the sway of a Protestant church and government ; or from
the peace and plenty of Catholic England in former times,
upon which he emphatically dwelt. These arguments, we
say, if indeed they deserve the name, (though seized with
avidity by a blind and prejudiced population, as containing
a disgraceful portrait of the Reformation from the pen of a



104 IRELAND,

popular Protestant writer !) had just as much to do with the
civil reasons for the Reformation, or with the religious doc-
trines which it held forth, or with those which it impugned
and resisted, as the crimes of the popes, the despotism of
their government, and the hardships endured by the Italians
(who have recently risen in arms to resist their oppressions)
have to do with the doctrine of the Trinity which they teach,
(although their nearer relation to the fires of purgatory, of
which they are a more sensible and impressive figure, we
shall not deny.) And even if it could be proved that the
sufferings of these Italians were the natural and necessary
result of the despotic character of their religion and govern-
ment (which would not be very far from the mark,) this, instead
of being an argument against the Reformation, would be a
strong one for it, as it would prove the necessity that existed
for the formation of a powerful coalition to lay prostrate an
authority, which under holy pretences (the worst pretences
in the world,) was calculated to oppress mankind, and to rob
them of their just and natural rights.*

* Nothing can furnish a more convincing practical proof of the transcen-
dant moral excellence of the Reformation, than the perfect civil and religious
liberty into which it has conducted England. And of this perfect civil and
religious liberty there can be no more conclusive evidence than that with
which Mr. Cobbett himself furnishes the English public. Instead of suffer-
ing in his person, property, liberty, or civil interests in any way, by abusing
the Reformation, the Protestant religion, and (inferentially) the laws and
government of England, which profess and maintain them, he has, it may be
fairly presumed, made a very handsome addition to his income by this holy
traffic ! And if he only consider what his fate would be, were he to make
a similar experiment upon Popery (and oh what noble space he would find
for his literary excursions in that field,) at the fountain head of government
in any of the Catholic states of Italy, Portugal, or Spain If he only con-
sider, we say, the kind of compliment which the Pope, or any of the princes
of these states would pay him upon this change of circumstances, it is pro-
bable he would not have much occasion to glory in the honour of knighthood
with which the Pope is said to have crowned him upon reading his famous
book against the Protestant Reformation ! We may probably be told that
England is not indebted to the Reformation for the liberty she enjoys ; for
that English Catholics had wrested Magna Charta from King John long
before Protestantism was known there ; but if the reader will turn to the
chapter on Fermanagh, in this work, he will find this and other arguments



THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES.

If Mr. Cobbett can establish his hypothesis against the
Reformation from the crimes and errors of the Reformers ;
from the plenty of Catholic England, and her mode of pro-
viding for her poor ; from the plunder of the Catholic Church
by Harry VIII. ; from the present or late distresses of the
working classes in Protestant England ; or from any other
arguments having no more relation to the matter at issue
between the two churches than these have ; why then the
crimes of the Popes, their despotic government, and the
distresses of their people, rising in rebellion against them,
must be conclusive evidence against the Catholic religion.
And not only so, but the crimes of the Jews also, (and by
their own accounts there were no more criminal people)
must go to prove, that their recovery from idolatry (to which
they had a strong propensity,) to the worship of the one true
God, was a great evil. We shall place this latter illustration
in the form of a proposition, thus

The Jews had plenty of food and clothing when they
practised idolatry in Egypt.

But they suffered great hardships when they renounced
it, and returned to the worship of the one true God.

Therefore that worship was a great evil !

Let the reader apply this proposition to England and the
Reformation, and he has the full force of Mr. Cobbett's
argument, which has not even the merit of ingenuity, as it
deceives no one except those who are wilfully blind, or deeply
ignorant j or who live upon the poison of prejudice, and whose

that have been put forward in support of the liberal genius of the Catholic
religion, freely answered. We wish England may profit by Mr. Cobbett's
exposure (and every other exposure) of her errors ; for we know by sorrowful
experience that there is much room for improvement in her policy. But
however erroneous she has been in some parts of her policy and practice,
she has (through the Reformation as the first cause,) arrived at the enjoy-
ment of that civil and religious liberty, which are her chief glory ; and while
we presume to point out her faults, we feel pleasure in doing justice to her
virtues, and should be sorry to see her travelling back to the iron age of
religious intolerance, in order to render those virtues more bright and
burning.



10(5 IRELAND,

food being deception, they ignorantly rejoice at the victory
which they suppose their champion has obtained for them !
He has indeed obtained a victory for himself, but it was at
tlieir expence, (for it implies the strongest contempt of their
understandings,) while they vainly imagined it was at the
expeuce of the Reformation, that he gulled them ; although
all the world know that religious liberty would be unknown
in Europe but for that happy Reformation, which has shorn
Popery of its most dangerous fangs.

Mr. Cobbett's arguments, if they were worth any thing,
would go to prove that the ancient despotism of France was
a better form of government than the liberal one which she
now enjoys, because the people of Catholic France might
have had plenty of food and clothing under the old regime,
and the people of Lyons and other places have recently trod
on the verge of famine, from a depression in their trade, and
a consequent absence of profitable employment.

The inconsistency of such arguments as these, either for
or against any system of religion, is self-evident ; and yet
these were the chords of prejudice which the English musi-
cian touched, and to some purpose ; if it be true, as we
heard, that his work took well in all Catholic countries;
that the Pope read and extolled it to the skies (to be sure he
would ;) and that 30,00 Ocopies of the work were sold by one
Catholic bookseller in the city of Dublin ! Now, although
we are as much opposed as Mr. Cobbett, or any other man,
to English abuses ; and have no more taste for the crimes
of Harry VIII. than for those of Pope Alexander, who
lay with his mother.* And although we are absolutely
dependant upon the patronage of the public (under the pro-
tection of our God.) for the means of existence ; yet we
never did stoop, and trust we never shall, to a flagrant vio-
lation of our own professed principles, or to the public com-
mendation of a system, whose principles we condemn, for

* Alexander VI., who, with his son Ca?sar Borgio, perished by the poison
which they had prepared for seven cardinals who had opposed their ambitious
pretensions. See Encyclopedia Kribmnica, under the head of Caesar Borgio.



THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 107

the poor perishing rewards of popularity or profit, however
we may value these benefits, as a voluntary offering at the
shrine of virtue. No, in a trial of this nature (where prin-
ciple and profit are at issue) we would rather imitate the
example of the noble Milton. " You, my dear," said he to
his wife (in answer to her remonstrances against his rejection
of the Latin secretaryship, generously offered to be restored
to him by Charles II., whose father he had contributed to
dethrone,) " You, my dear," said he, " like all other women,
would wish to ride in your coach ; but I wish to die as I
have lived, an honest man ! " Noble Milton ! wrong
perhaps in thy judgment, but right in the integrity of thy
purpose. Milton's conscientious objection to monarchy,
might have been ill founded (and, in our opinion, as it
relates to England, a maritime state, was a dangerous pre-
judice.) Still, however we may prefer the British constitu-
tion of three estates (when purified from the abuses which
corrupt it,) to any form of government in the world, we
cannot but reverence the honest consistency and virtuous
independence of the English poet, and would say to our
own heart, as to that of any other man, " Imitate the virtue
of the heart of Milton, but reject the error of his under-
standing;" which, if universally received, would go to
impair the power, and might finally betray the liberties, of
that country, whose glory and happiness it was the object
of the virtuous but mistaken Milton to promote.

Having now closed our plunge into the English press, we
hope the reader will have no objection to our coming back
to Ireland, and playing a stave or two (begging his pardon
for the vulgar tune we are about to introduce to him) of
Paddy O'Rafferty, upon that divine and immaculate instru-
ment of Irish harmony, the Dublin Press.

It is a well known fact in all human history, that from
apparently trifling causes, have proceeded some of the most
remarkable events that have opened to the view of mankind
the sources of human corruption, and set in motion the
springs of justice appointed to correct them. Thus when



108 IRELAND,

Rome was polluted with the crimes of the Tarquins, the
slumbering talent of Junius Brutus was made the instrument
of arousing the energies of his country, and of avenging its
insulted justice. In like manner that great religious and
political event, which divided Europe (happily for liberty)
into two great parties, had its origin in a quarrel between
two obscure friars ; and to this quarrel Protestants are now
indebted for liberty to worship God according to their con-
sciences, and to speak and write their sentiments freely upon
all subjects, without fear of the Bastile or the Inquisition,
the fires of Smithfield, the act of Praemunire, or the dun-
geons of the prison house. If zealous for their principles
if distinguished for their hatred of oppression and imposture,
they may expect that snares will be laid for their downfall in
divers conclaves; but they have nothing to fear from the
LAWS of the enlightened states of England and France
in this age of reason, nor yet from the public acts of the
magistrates appointed to administer those laws. The
penalties which they have to incur, are such as must be
encountered by every Reformer, until the laws of Nations
are so far purified, as that human corruption must bend its
neck to the yoke of justice; and it is for the achievement of
this end that the Reformation was originated by a special
providence, and that a handful of the Puritans and Quakers,
who, in the reigns of the English Charles's were treated worse
than the beasts of the field, were made the instruments of
laying the foundations of liberty and moral order in the new
world. Nor is it the least remarkable event in the history
of retributive justice, that the children of those persecuted
men, wrested from the mother country those American colo-
nies which she had peopled by her penal laws ; in the same
manner as Protestant liberty was established, and kingdoms
rescued from the arbitrary grasp of Rome, by a violent
reaction upon the abuses of the Papal power. Thus also, in
Ireland our native land, where a system of penal persecution
had long prevailed, a Catholic lawyer, without title or dis-
tinction, was made the instrument of arousing the energies



THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES.

of his country, and of procuring, by legal and constitutional
exertion, the commencement of a course of justice, that we
trust will lead to a purification of our laws, and to a union
of the two countries upon the only base that can sustain it,
a just and equal participation in all the benefits and bur-
thens of that common Empire, to which they equally belong.
Having thus shown that great and mighty revolutions in
favour of human liberty have had their origin in small
beginnings (like a river issuing from the crevice of a rock,
which finally bears upon its mighty tide the most majestic
vessels to the bosom of the ocean), let not the reader despise
this first movement of an humble individual, in that great
and important work, so essential to the civil and moral
improvement of a fine country; namely, a reform of the
public press ; nor treat with contempt the few and insigni-
cant proofs of the corrupt constitution of the press of Dublin,
with which it is possible for an individual to charge his
memoiy, who is so often absent from that city, and so
heavily incumbered with his professional pursuits, that he
could not possibly command time to collect into a heap,
those mountain masses of lies, misrepresentations, equivoca-
tions, mean jealousies, malicious oversights, purchased pane-
gyrics, and factious conspiracies of that press, that in a single
year would raise a pile as lofty as that of Babel ; and which,
in its veerings, vacillations, and contradictory croakings (as
the wind of interest or prejudice may chance to blow) bears
a strong resemblance to that confusion of languages, into
which the building of that Babel led. Rather let the reader
rejoice that the hint thus furnished to men of leisure
and fortune, who have some reverence for truth, may lead
to the establishment of a newspaper review in Dublin, that
shall drag from the literary manufactories of that city, the
deceitful gauze by which the hidden springs of their bigotry
and corruption are concealed from the public eye ; that shall
exhibit the principle of these springs, their mode of working,
and the end and object of their operations, to the view of the
deluded; that shall expose their factious and fraudulent



110 IRELAND,

dealing with public subjects and public men, to the common
sense and common honesty of the whole country ; and thus
disabusing- the ignorant and deluded parties, from whose
passions and prejudices this corrupt press draws its oil and
wine, the success that will attend the honest and able ope-
rations of this review, may lead to the establishment of
similar reviews in other cities; and thus a check may be
placed upon the lies, false colourings, prejudices, and various
acts of public and personal injustice, by which the press of
Dublin has been too frequently and deeply disgraced ; and in
time this press will be compelled to deal more fairly and
impartially with public subjects and public men ; or by the
aid of impartial newspaper reviews, it will be brought into
such general contempt, that none will read it but the slaves
and impostors for whose purposes it is written, and by whom
alone, in an age of enlightened reason, it would be studied
and maintained.

Here is the object that we contemplate, in the discharge
of our duty, as the pioneer of a company armed with suffici-
ent powers to bring a Park of Artillery to bear upon those
silky sleeve laughing impostors, -who under the patronage of
a wealthy high church, upon the one hand, and of learned
and practised Jesuits, upon the other, unite to force honest
and unsophisticated Truth out of the market, and to keep
the Irish populace in a state of ignorance and abject sub-
mission to their leaders, as machines to be set in motion,
whenever these leaders have a corruption to protect, or an
end of ambition to be answered.

During the progress of an humble attempt to unmask these
abominable impostures in Ireland, through a work published
in Dublin in a succession of numbers, under the title of
"the Moon" (with seven stars originally placed as body
guards around the planet, to protect her from danger while
sailing through the hells of Dublin, at the top of her title page.)
During this time we had many opportunities of perceiving the
precise nature of the springs, by which Plot, Plunder, and
Priestcraft (three brothers of the same parent stock) cany



THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. Ill

on their operations against the deluded people of our country .
The result of our first observation was, a discovery of the
family relationship existing between these three popular
leaders of the parties, whose family connexion is totally un-
known to the people of Ireland upon whom they make their
experiments ; because in the opposite and hostile positions
to each other which these impostors have politically placed
themselves, they are not even suspected by the people of the
country to be members of the same family ; a mystery which
can only be discovered by those who have studied deeply the
science of political astrology, and who carry on a secret and
confidential correspondence with the heavenly bodies. The
marks however of this family relationship are sufficiently
plain to prove the truth of their connexion, even to those
who have been the victims of their delusion ; that is, when
the eyes of those victims have been purified by intellectual
light from the last remains of those green and yellow fluids
which it is the whole business of these sorcerers to plant,
preserve, and propagate, in the organ of vision, by their
unique and yet diversified enchantments. The eye being
thus purified, it is then in a capacity of seeing the Irish parties
and their operations through a new and a true medium.
Exercising this newly received power of seeing things
exactly as they are, the enlightened eye of the spectator will
discover that between the two great contending parties of
his country, (both having conscious corruptions to conceal)
a private agreement, or tacit understanding, has been entered
into, that the Irish market of religious and political disputa-
tion shall be preserved (as a valuable monopoly) exclusively