dice, with no domestick affection, to admire, and
to hold out to the admiration of mankind the con-
stitution of England ! And shall we Englishmen re-
voke to such a suit ? Shall we, when so much more
than he has produced, remains still to be understood
and admired, instead of keeping ourselves in the
schools of real science, choose for our teachers
men incapable of being taught, whose only claim
to know is, that they have never doubted ; from
whom we can learn nothing but their own indo-
cility ; who would teach us to scorn what in the
silence of our hearts we ought to adore ?

Different from them are all the great criticks.

They



TO THE OLD WHIGS. 265

They have taught us one essential rule. I think
the excellent and philosophick artist, a true judge,
as well as a perfect follower of nature, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, has somewhere applied it, or something
like it, in his own profession. It is this, that if
ever we should find ourselves disposed not to ad-
mire those writers or artists, Livy and Virgil for
instance, Raphael or Michael Angelo, whom all the
learned had admired, not to follow our own fan-
cies, but to study them until we know how and
what we ought to admire ; and if we cannot ar-
rive at this combination of admiration with know-
ledge, rather to believe that we are dull, than that
the rest of the world has been imposed on. It is
as good a rule, at least, with regard to this ad-
mired constitution. We ought to understand it
according to our measure ; and to venerate where
we are not able presently to comprehend.

Such admirers were our fathers, to whom we
owe this splendid inheritance. Let us improve it
with zeal, but with fear. Let us follow our an-
cestors, men not without a rational, though with-
out an exclusive confidence in themselves ; who,
by respecting the reason of others, who, by look-
ing backward as well as forward, by the modesty
as well as by the energy of their minds, went on,
insensibly drawing this constitution nearer and
nearer to its perfection, by never departing from
its fundamental principles, nor introducing any

amendment



266 APPEAL FROM THE NEW

amendment which had not a subsisting root in the
laws, constitution, and usages of the kingdom. Let
those who have the trust of political or of natural
authority ever keep watch against the desperate
enterprises of innovation : let even their benevo-
lence be fortified and armed. They have before
their eyes the example of a monarch, insulted, de-
graded, confined, deposed ; his family dispersed,
scattered, imprisoned ; his wife insulted to his face
like the vilest of the sex, by the vilest of all popu-
lace ; himself three times dragged by these wretches
in an infamous triumph ; his children torn from
him, in violation of the first right of nature, and
given into the tuition of the most desperate and
impious of the leaders of desperate and impious
clubs ; his revenues dilapidated and plundered ;
his magistrates murdered ; his clergy proscribed,
persecuted, famished ; his nobility degraded in
their rank, undone in their fortunes, fugitives in
their persons ; his armies corrupted and ruined ;
his whole people impoverished, disunited, dissolv-
ed ; whilst through the bars of his prison, and
amidst the bayonets of his keepers, he hears the
tumult of two conflicting factions, equally wicked
and abandoned, who agree in principles, in dispo-
sitions, and in objects, but who tear each other to
pieces about the most effectual means of obtaining
their common end ; the one contending to pre-
serve for a while his name, and his person, the

more



TO THE OLD WHIGS. 267

more easily to destroy the royal authority the
other clamouring to cut off the name, the person,
and the monarchy together, by one sacrilegious
execution. All this accumulation of calamity, the
greatest that ever fell upon one man, has fallen
upon his head, because he had left his virtues un-
guarded by caution ; because he was not taught
that, where power is concerned, he who will con-
fer benefits must take security against ingratitude.

I have stated the calamities which have fallen
upon a great prince and nation, because they were
not alarmed at the approach of danger, and be-
cause, what commonly happens to men surprised,
they lost all resource when they were caught in it.
When I speak of danger, I certainly mean to ad-
dress myself to those who consider the prevalence
of the new whig doctrines as an evil.

The whigs of this day have before them, in this
Appeal, their constitutional ancestors ; they have
the doctors of the modern school. They will choose
for themselves. The author of the Reflections has
chosen for himself. If a new order is coming on,
and all the political opinions must pass away as
dreams, which our ancestors have worshipped as
revelations, I say for him, that he would rather be
the last (as certainly he is the least) of that race of
men, than the first and greatest of those who have
coined to themselves whig principles from a French
die, unknown to the impress of our fathers in the
constitution.



A LETTER

TO

A PEER OF IRELAND,

ON

THE PENAL LAWS

AGAINST

IRISH CATHOLICKS;

PREVIOUS TO THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF.

IN THE

SESSION OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT,

HELD A.D. 1782.



LETTER,

S;c. fa.

Charles-street, London, Feb. 21, 1782.
MY LORD,

I AM obliged to your lordship for your commu-
nication of the heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill.
I had received it, in an earlier stage of its progress,
from Mr. Braughall ; and I am still in that gentle-
man's debt, as I have not made him the proper re-
turn for the favour he has done me. Business, to
which I was more immediately called, and in which
my sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied
me every moment since I received his letter. This
first morning, which I can call my own, I give with
great cheerfulness to the subject on which your
lordship has done me the honour of desiring my
opinion. I have read the heads of the bill, with
the amendments. Your lordship is too well ac-
quainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine
that any true judgment can be formed on the va-
lue of a great measure of policy from the perusal
of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the
dark with regard to the state of the country, which

the



272 ON THE PENAL LAWS

the intended law is to be applied to*. It is not
easy for me to determine whether or no it was
wise (for the sake of expunging the black letter
of laws, which, menacing as they were in the lan-
guage, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
to re-affirm the principles, and to re-enact the pro-
visions, of a code of statutes, by which you are
totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest,
from the most material of the civil professions, from
the army, and even from education, where alone
education is to be had.

Whether this scheme of indulgence, grounded
at once on contempt and jealousy, has a tendency
gradually to produce something better and more
liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual
map of the country. If this should be the case, it
was right in you to accept it, such as it is. But if
this should be one of the experiments, which have
sometimes been made before the temper of the na-
tion was ripe for a real reformation, I think it may
possibly have ill effects, by disposing the penal mat-
ter in a more systematick order, and thereby fix-
ing a permanent bar against any relief that is truly
substantial. The whole merit or demerit of the

* The sketch of the bill sent to Mr. Burke, along with the
repeal of some acts, re-affirmed many others in the penal code.
It was altered afterwards, and the clauses re-affirming the in-
capacities left out ; but they all still exist, and are in full force

measure



AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICKS. 273

measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of
those by whom the act was made, concurring with
the general temper of the Protestants of Ireland,
and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
of that equality, without which you never can be
FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all this I am wholly igno-
rant. All my correspondence with men of publick
importance in Ireland has for some time totally
ceased. On the first bill for the relief of the RO-
MAN CATHOLICKS of Ireland, I was, without any
call of mine, consulted both on your side of the
water and on this. On the present occasion, I have
not heard a word from any man in office ; and
know as little of the intentions of the British
government, as I know of the temper of the Irish
parliament. I do not find that any opposition was
made by the principal persons of the minority in
the house of commons, or that any is apprehended
from them in the house of lords. The whole of
the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
in government, under whose protection this bill is
supposed to be brought in. This violent opposi-
tion and cordial support, coming from one and the
same quarter, appears to me something mysteri-
ous, and hinders me from being able to make any
clear judgment of the merit of the present mea-
sure, as compared with the actual state of the
country, and the general views of government,
without which one can say nothing that may not
be very erroneous.

VOL. vi. T To



274- ON THE PENAL LAWS

To look at the bill, in the abstract, it is neither
more nor less than a renewed act of UNIVERSAL,

UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS

DISQUALIFICATION.

One would imagine, that a bill, inflicting such a
multitude of incapacities, had followed on the heels
of a conquest, made by a very fierce enemy, under
the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he
was reading an act of amnesty and indulgence,
following a recital of the good behaviour of those
who are the objects of it : which recital stood at
the head of the bill, as it was first introduced : but,
I suppose for its incongruity with the body of the
piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
memory. It however still recites the oath, and that
Catholicks ought to be considered as good and
loyal subjects to his majesty, his crown and go-
vernment. Then follows an universal exclusion
of those GOOD and LOYAL subjects from every
(even the lowest) office of trust and profit ; from
any vote at an election ; from any privilege in a
town corporate ; from being even a freeman of such
a corporation ; from serving on grand juries ; from
a vote at a vestry ; from having a gun in his house ;
from being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &c.
&c. &c.

This has surely much more the air of a table of
proscription, than an act of grace. What must we
suppose the laws concerning those good subjects to

have



AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICKS. 2J5

have been, of which this is a relaxation ? I know
well that there is a cant language current, about
the difference between an exclusion from employ-
ments even to the most rigorous extent, and an
exclusion from the natural benefits arising from a
man's own industry. I allow, that under some
circumstances, the difference is very material in
point of justice, and that there are considerations
which may render it advisable for a wise govern-
ment to keep the leading parts of every branch of
civil and military administration in hands of the
best trust; but a total exclusion from the com-
monwealth is a very different thing. When a go-
vernment subsists (as governments formerly did) on
an estate of its own, with but few and inconsider-
able revenues drawn from the subject, then the few
officers which existed in such establishments were
naturally at the disposal of that government, which
paid the salaries out of its own coffers ; there an
exclusive preference could hardly merit the name
of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a
man's industry at that time remained in his own
purse to maintain his family. But times alter, and
the whole estate of government is from private
contribution. When a very great portion of the
labour of individuals goes to the state, and is by the
state again refunded to individuals, through the
medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress
from the private to the publick, and from the

T 2 publick



276 ON THE PENAL LAWS

publick again to the private fund, the families from
whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
equitable balance between the government and the
subject is established. But if a great body of the
people, who contribute to this state "lottery, are
excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the cir-
culation with regard to them may be a most cruel
hardship, amounting in effect to being double and
treble taxed ; and it will be felt as such to the
very quick by all the families high and low of
those hundreds of thousands, who are denied their
chance in the returned fruits of their own indus-
try. This is the thing meant by those who look
upon the public revenue only as a spoil; and will
naturally wish to have as few as possible con-
cerned in the division of the booty. If a state
should be so unhappy as to think it cannot subsist
without such a barbarous proscription, the persons
so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the re-
mission of a large part of their taxes, by an im-
munity from the offices of publick burden, and by
an exemption from being pressed into any military
or naval service.

Common sense and common justice dictate this
at least, as some sort of compensation to a people
for their slavery. How many families are inca-
pable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue,
and little military commissions are denied them !
To deny them at home, and to make the happi-
ness



AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICKS. 277

ness of acquiring some of them somewhere else,
felony, or high treason, is a piece of cruelty, in
which, till very lately, I did not suppose this age
capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
religion made a sort of country for a man in some
quarter or other. A refugee for religion was a pro-
tected character. Now, the reception is cold in-
deed ; and therefore as the asylum abroad is de-
stroyed, the hardship at home is doubled. This
hardship is the more intolerable, because the pro-
fessions are shut up. The church is so of course.
Much is to be said on that subject, in regard to
them, and to the protestant dissenters. But that
is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to that
church, and think its ministers among the very
best citizens of your country. However, such as
it is, a great walk in life is forbidden ground to
seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of
Ireland. Why are they excluded from the law ?
Do not they expend money in their suits ? Why
may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting,
in the persons of some, for the losses incurred by
others ? Why may not they have persons of confi-
dence, whom they may, if they please, employ in
the agency of their affairs ? The exclusion from
the law, from grand juries, from sheriff-ships, and
under-sheriff-ships, as well as from freedom in any
corporation, may subject them to dreadful hard-
ships, as it may exclude them wholly from all that
T 3 is



278 ON THE PENAL LAWS

is beneficial, and expose them to all that is mis-
chievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly
within my own observation, for I was three times
in Ireland from the year 1760 to the year 1767,
where I had sufficient means of information, con-
cerning the inhuman proceedings (among which
were many cruel murders, besides an infinity of
outrages and oppressions, unknown before in a
civilized age) which prevailed during that period
in consequence of a pretended conspiracy among
Roman Catholicks against the king's government.
I could dilate upon the mischief that may happen,
from those which have happened, upon this head
of disqualification, if it were at all necessary.

The head of exclusion from votes for members
of parliament is closely connected with the former.
When you cast your eye on the statute book, you
will see that no Catholick, even in the ferocious
acts of queen Anne, was disabled from voting on
account of his religion. The only conditions re-
quired for that privilege, were the oaths of allegi-
ance and abjuration both oaths relative to a civil
concern. Parliament has since added another
oath of the same kind : and yet a house of com-
mons adding to the securities of government, in
proportion as its danger is confessedly lessened,
and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
effect takes away the privilege left by an act full
of jealousy, and professing persecution.

The



AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICKS. 279

The taking away of a vote is the taking away
the shield which the subject has, not only against
the oppression of power, but that worst of all op-
pressions, the persecution of private society, and
private manners. No candidate for parliamentary
influence is obliged to the least attention towards
them, either in cities or counties. On the con-
trary, if they should become obnoxious to any
bigotted or malignant people amongst whom they
live, it will become the interest of those who court
popular favor, to use the numberless means which
always reside in magistracy and influence to op-
press them. The proceedings in a certain county
in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have
mentioned, read a strong lecture on the cruelty of
depriving men of that shield, on account of their
speculative opinions. The protestants of Ireland
feel well and naturally on the hardship of being
bound by laws in the enacting of which they do
not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in
theory, and perhaps they have been pushed too
far. But how they can avoid the necessary appli-
cation of the principles they .use in their disputes
with others, to their disputes with their fellow-
citizens, I know not.

It is true, the words of this act do not create a
disability ; but they clearly and evidently suppose
it. There are few Catholick freeholders to take the

T 4 benefit



280 ON THE PENAL LAWS

benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to
partake it : but the manner in which this very
right in freeholders at large is defended, is not on
the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
represent the people; but that all people being
capable of obtaining freeholds, all those, who, by
their industry and sobriety merit this privilege,
have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same
with the corporations.

The laws against foreign education are clearly
the very worst part of the old code. Besides your
laity, you have the succession of about 4000 cler-
gymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative
objects in prospect, are taken very much out of the
lower orders of the people. At home, they have
no means whatsoever provided for their attaining
a clerical education, or indeed any education at
all. When I was in Paris, about seven years ago,
I looked at every thing, and lived with every kind
of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw
there the Irish college of the Lombard, which
seemed to me a very good place of education, un-
der excellent orders and regulations, and under
the government of a very prudent and learned
man (the late Dr. KELLY). This college was pos-
sessed of an annual fixed revenue of more than a
thousand pounds a year; the greatest part of which
had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
persons educated in that college, and who had

obtained



AGAINST IRISH CATIIOLICKS. 281

obtained promotions in France, from the emolument
of which promotions they made this grateful re-
turn. One in particular I remember, to the amount
often thousand livres, annually, as it is recorded
on the donor's monument in their chapel.

It has been the custom of poor persons in Ire-
land, to pick up such knowledge of the Latin
tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able
to acquire ; and receiving orders at home, were
sent abroad to obtain a clerical education. By of-
ficiating in petty chaplainships, and performing,
now and then, certainly offices of religion for small
gratuities, they received the means of maintain-
ing themselves, until they were able to complete
their education. Through such difficulties arid dis-
couragements, many of them have arrived at a
very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked
and distinguished abroad. These persons after-
wards, by being sunk in the most abject poverty,
despised and ill treated by the high orders among
protestants, and not much better esteemed or treat-
ed, even by the few persons of fortune of their
own persuasion ; and contracting the habits and
ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated,
among whom they were obliged to live, in a few
years retained little or no traces of the talents and
acquirements, which distinguished them in the

early



ON THE PENAL LAWS

early periods of their lives. Can we, with justice,
cut them off from the use of places of education,
founded, for the greater part, from the economy
of poverty and exile, without providing something
that is equivalent at home ?

Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestick
education was part of a horrible and impious sys-
tem of servitude, the members were well fitted to
the body. To render men patient, under a de-
privation of all the rights of human nature, every
thing which could give them a knowledge or feel-
ing of those rights was rationally forbidden. To
render humanity fit to be insulted, it was fit that
it should be degraded. But when we profess to
restore men to the capacity for property, it is
equally irrational and unjust to deny them the
power of improving their minds as well as their
fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the pro-
hibition of the means of improving our rational
nature, to be the worst species of tyranny that the
insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared
to exercise. This goes to all men, in all situa-
tions, to whom education can be denied.

Your lordship mentions a proposal which came
from my friend the provost, whose benevolence
and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced of;
which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizerships
in the college, for the education (I suppose) of

Roman



AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICKS. 283

Roman Catholick clergymen*. He certainly meant
it well ; but, coming from such a man as he is, it
is a strong instance of the danger of suffering any
description of men to fall into entire contempt
The charities intended for them are not perceived
to be fresh insults ; and the true nature of their
wants and necessities being unknown, remedies,
wholly unsuitable to the nature of their complaint
are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo
with beef broth, and to foment his wounds with
brandy. If the other parts of the university were
open to them, as well on the foundation as other-
wise, the offering of sizerships would be a propor-
tioned part of a general kindness. But when every
thing liberal is withheld, and only that which is
servile is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon
what footing they must be in such a place.

Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and
honour I have for him ; and he cannot think my
dissenting from him in this particular arises from
a disregard of his opinion : it only shews that I
think he has lived in Ireland. To have any re-
spect for the character and person of a popish priest

there oh ! 'tis an uphill work indeed. But until

we come to respect what stands in a respectable
light with others, we are very deficient in the

* It appears that Mr. Hutchinson meant this only as one of
the means for their relief in point of education.

temper



ON THE PENAL LAWS.

temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
regulations about them. It even disqualifies us
from being charitable to them with any effect or
judgment.

When we are to provide for the education of
any body of men, we ought seriously to consider
the particular functions they are to perform in
life. A Roman Catholick clergyman is the minis-
ter of a very ritual religion : and by his profes-
sion subject to many restraints. His life is a life
full of strict observances, and his duties are of a
laborious nature towards himself, and of the high-
est possible trust towards others. The duty of con-
fession alone is sufficient to set in the strongest light
the necessity of his having an appropriated mode
of education. The theological opinions and pecu-
liar rights of one religion never can be properly