of their security. They who carried on this
system looked to the irresistible force of Great
Britain for their support in their acts of power.
They were quite certain, that no complaints of the
VOL. vi. Z natives
338 A LETTER TO
natives would be heard on this side of the water,
with any other sentiments than those of contempt
and indignation. Their cries served only to
augment their torture. Machines which could
answer their purposes so well must be of an excel-
lent contrivance. Indeed, in England, the double
name of the complainant, Irish and Papists, (it
would be hard to say, which singly was the most
odious) shut up the hearts of every one against
them. Whilst that temper prevailed, and it
prevailed in all its force to a time within our
memory, every measure was pleasing and popular,
just in proportion as it tended to harass and ruin
a set of people who were looked upon as enemies
to God and man ; and, indeed, as a race of bigoted
savages who were a disgrace to human nature
itself.
However, as the English in Ireland began to be
domiciliated, they began also to recollect that they
had a country. The English interest, at first by
faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length
openly and avowedly, became an independent Irish
interest ; full as independent as it could ever have
been, if it had continued in the persons of the na-
tive Irish ; and it was maintained with more skill,
and more consistency, than probably it would have
been in theirs. With their views, the Anglo-Irish
changed their maxims it was necessary to demon-
strate to the whole people, that there was something,
at
SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, M. P. 339
at least, of a common interest, combined with the
independency, which was to become the object of
common exertions. The mildness of government
produced the first relaxation towards the Irish ;
the necessities, and, in part too, the temper that
predominated at this great change, produced the
second and the most important of these relaxations.
English government, and Irish legislature, felt
jointly the propriety of this measure. The Irish
parliament and nation became independent.
The true revolution to you, that which most in-
trinsically and substantially resembled the English
Revolution of 1688, was the Irish Revolution of
1782. The Irish parliament of 1782, bore little
resemblance to that which sat in that kingdom,
after the period of the first of these revolutions.
It bore a much nearer resemblance to that which
sat under king James. The change of the parlia-
ment in 1782 from the character of the parliament
which, as a token of its indignation, had burned
all the journals indiscriminately of the former par-
liament in the council chamber, was very visible.
The address of king William's parliament, the
parliament which assembled after the Revolution,
amongst other causes of complaint (many of them
sufficiently just) complains of the repeal by their
predecessors of Poyning's law ; no absolute idol
with the parliament of 1782.
Great Britain, finding the Anglo-Irish highly
z 2 animated
340 A LETTER TO
animated with a spirit, which had indeed shewn
itself before, though with little energy, and many
interruptions, and therefore suffered a multitude
of uniform precedents to be established against it,
acted, in my opinion, with the greatest temperance
and wisdom. She saw that the disposition of the
leading part of the nation would not permit them
to act any longer the part of a garrison. She saw,
that true policy did not require that they ever
should have appeared in that character ; or if it
had done so formerly, the reasons had now ceased
to operate. She saw that the Irish of her race
were resolved to build their constitution and their
politicks upon another bottom. With those things
under her view, she instantly complied with the
whole of your demands, without any reservation
whatsoever. She surrendered that boundless su-
periority, for the preservation of which, and the
acquisition, she had supported the English colonies
in Ireland for so long a time, and so vast an ex-
pence (according to the standard of those ages)
of her blood and treasure.
When we bring before us the matter which
history affords for our selection, it is not improper
to examine the spirit of theseveral precedents, which
are candidates for our choice. Midht it not be as
O
well for your statesmen, on the other side of the
water, to take an example from this latter, and
surely more conciliatory revolution, as a pattern
for
Sill HERCULES LANGUISHE, M. 1>.
for your conduct towards your own fellow-citi-
zens, than from that of 1688, when a paramount
sovereignty over both you and them was more
loftily claimed, and more sternly exerted, than at
any former, or at any subsequent period? Great
Britain, in 1782, rose above the vulgar ideas of
policy, the ordinary jealousies of state, and all the
sentiments of national pride and national ambi-
tion. If she had been more disposed than, I thank
God for it, she was, to listen to the suggestions
of passion, than to the dictates of prudence ; she
might have urged, the principles, the maxims^
the policy, the practice of the Revolution, against
the demands of the leading description in Ireland,
with full as much plausibility, and full as good a
grace, as any amongst them can possibly do,
against the supplications of so vast and extensive
a description of their own people.
A good deal too, if the spirit of domination and
exclusion had prevailed in England, might have
been excepted against some of the means then em-
ployed in Ireland, whilst her claims were in agita-
tion. They were, at least, as much out of ordinary
course, as those which are now objected against
admitting your people to any of the benefits of an
English constitution. Most certainly, neither with
you, nor here, was any one ignorant of what was
at that time said, written, and done. But on all
sides we separated the means from the end : and
z 3 we
342 A LETTER TO
we separated the cause of the moderate and ra-
tional, from the ill-intentioned and seditious ;
which on such occasions are so frequently apt to
march together. At that time, on your part, you
were not afraid to review what was done at the
Revolution of 1688 ; and what had been continued
during the subsequent, flourishing period of the
British empire. The change then made was a great
and fundamental alteration. In the execution, it
was an operose business on both sides of the water.
It required the repeal of several laws ; the modifi-
cation of many, and a new course to be given to
an infinite number of legislative, judicial, and of-
ficial practices and usages in both kingdoms. This
did not frighten any of us. You are now asked
to give, in some moderate measure, to your fellow-
citizens, what Great Britain gave to you, with-
out any measure at all. Yet, notwithstanding all
the difficulties at the time, and the apprehensions
which some very well-meaning people entertained,
through the admirable temper in which this revo-
lution (or restoration in the nature of a revolu-
tion) was conducted in both kingdoms, it has hi-
thereto produced no inconveience to either ; and
I trust, with the continuance of the same temper,
that it never will. I think that this small, incon-
siderable change (relative to an exclusive statute
not made at the Revolution) for restoring the
people to the benefits, from which the green
soreness
Sill HERCULES LANORISHE, M. P. 34,3
soreness of a civil war had not excluded them, will
be productive of no sort of mischief whatsoever.
Compare what was done in 1782, with what is
wished in 1792 ; consider the spirit of what has
been done at the several periods of reformation ;
and weigh maturely, whether it be exactly true
that conciliatory concessions are of good policy only
in discussions between nations ; but that among
descriptions in the same nation, they must always
be irrational and dangerous. What have you
suffered in your peace, your prosperity, or, in what
ought ever to be dear to a nation, your glory, by
the last act by which you took the property of
that people under the protection of the laws?
What reasons have you to dread the consequences
of admitting the people possessing that property to
some share in the protection of the constitution ?
I do not mean to trouble you with any thing to
remove the objections, I will not call them argu-
ments, against this measure, taken from a fero-
cious hatred to all that numerous description of
Christians. It would be to pay a poor compliment
to your understanding or your heart. Neither your
religion, nor your politicks, consists " in odd perverse
" antipathies." You are not resolved to persevere
in proscribing from the constitution so many mil-
lions of your countrymen, because, in contradic-
tion to experience and to common sense, you think
proper to imagine, that their principles are
z 4 subversive
344 A LETTER TO
subversive of common human society. To that I
shall only say, that whosoever has a temper which
can be gratified by indulging himself in these good-
natured fancies ought to do a great deal more.
For an exclusion from the privileges of British
subjects is not a cure for so terrible a distemper
of the human mind, as they are pleased to suppose
in their countrymen. I rather conceive a par-
ticipation in those privileges to be itself a remedy
for some mental disorders.
As little shall I detain you with matters that can
as little obtain admission into a mind like yours ;
such as the fear, or pretence of fear, that, in spite
of your own power, and the trifling power of
Great Britain, you may be conquered by the pope ;
or that this commodious bugbear (who is of in-
finitely more use to those who pretend to fear,
than to those who love him) will absolve His Ma-
jesty's subjects from their allegiance, and send over
the cardinal of York to rule you as his viceroy ;
or that, by the plenitude of his power, he will take
that fierce' tyrant, the king of the French, out of
his jail, and arm that nation (which on all occa-
sions treats his holiness so very politely) with his
bulls and pardons, to invade poor old Ireland, to
reduce you to popery and slavery, and to force
the free-born, naked feet of your people into the
wooden shoes of that arbitrary monarch. I do not
believe that discourses of this kind are held, OF
that
Silt HERCULES LANGHISHE, M. P. 345
that any thing like them will be held, by any who
walk about without a keeper. Yet, I confess, that,
on occasions of this nature, I am the most afraid of
the weakest reasonings ; because they discover the
strongest passions. These things will never be
brought out in definite propositions. They would
not prevent pity towards any persons; they would
only cause it for those who were capable of talk-
ing in such a strain. But I know, and am sure,
that such ideas as no man will distinctly produce
to another, or hardly venture to bring in any plain
shape to his own mind he will utter in obscure,
ill-explained doubts, jealousies, surmises, fears,
and apprehensions ; and, that, in such a fog, they
will appear to have a good deal of size, and will
make an impression ; when, if they were clearly
brought forth and defined, they would meet with
nothing but scorn and derision.
There is another way of taking an objection to
this concession, which I admit to be something
more plausible, and worthy of a more attentive
examination. It is, that this numerous class of
people is mutinous, disorderly, prone to sedition,
and easy to be wrought upon by the insidious arts
of wicked and designing men ; that, conscious of
this, the sober, rational and wealthy part of that
body, who are totally of another character, do by
no means desire any participation for themselves,
or for any one else of their description, in the fran-
chises of the British constitution.
I have
346 A LETTER TO
I have great doubt of the exactness of any part
of this observation. But let us admit that the body
of the catholicks are prone to sedition (of which,
as I have said, I entertain much doubt) is it pos-
sible that any fair observer, or fair reasoner, can
think of confining this description to them only ;
I believe it to be possible for men to be mutinous
and seditious who feel no grievance : but I believe
no man will assert seriously, that, when people are
of a turbulent spirit, the best way to keep them
in order, is to furnish them with something sub-
stantial to complain of.
You separate very properly the sober, rational,
and substantial part of their description from the
rest. You give, as you ought to do, weight only
to the former. What I have always thought of
the matter is this that the most poor, illiterate,
and uninformed creatures upon earth are judges
of a practical oppression. It is a matter of feeling ;
and as such persons generally have felt most of it,
and are not of an over-lively sensibility, they are
the best judges of it. But for the real cause, or the
appropriate remedy, they ought never to be called
into council about the one or the other. They
ought to be totally shut out ; because their rea-
son is weak ; because, when once roused, their
passions are ungoverned ; because they want in-
formation ; because the smallness of the property,
which individually they possess, renders them less
attentive
SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, M. P. 347
attentive to the consequence of the measures they
adopt in affairs of moment. When I find a great
cry amongst the people who speculate little, I think
myself called seriously to examine into it, and to
separate the real cause from the ill effects of the
passion it may excite ; and the bad use which art-
ful men may make of an irritation of the popular
mind. Here we must be aided by persons of a con-
trary character ; we must not listen to the despe-
rate or the furious ; but it is therefore necessary
for us to distinguish who are the really indigent,
and the really intemperate. As to the persons who
desire this part in the constitution, I have no rea-
son to imagine that they are men who have no-
thing to lose and much to look for in publick con-
fusion. The popular meeting, from which appre-
hensions have been entertained, has assembled. I
have accidentally had conversation with two friends
of mine, who know something of the gentleman
who was put into the chair upon that occasion;
one of them has had money transactions with him ;
the other, from curiosity, has been to see his con-
cerns ; they both tell me he is a man of some pro-
perty ; but you must be the best judge of this, who
by your office are likely to know his transactions.
Many of the others are certainly persons of for-
tune ; and all, or most, fathers of families, men
in respectable ways of life, and some of them far
from contemptible, either for their information,
or
A LETTER TO
or for the abilities which they have shewn in the
discussion of their interests. What such men think
it for their advantage to acquire, ought not, prima
facie, to be considered as rash or heady, or incom-
patible with the publick safety or welfare.
I admit, that men of the best fortunes and re-
putations, and of the best talents and education
too, may, by accident, shew themselves furious
and intemperate in their desires. This is a great
misfortune when it happens ; for the first presump-
tions are undoubtedly in their favour. We have
two standards of judging in this case of the sanity
and sobriety of any proceedings ; of unequal cer-
tainty indeed, but neither of them to be neglect-
ed : the first is by the value of the object sought,
the next is by the means through which it is pur-
sued.
The object pursued by the Catholicks is, I un-
derstand, and have all along reasoned as if it were
so, in some degree or measure to be again admitted
to the franchises of the constitution. Men are con-
sidered as under some derangement of their intel-
lects, when they see good and evil in a different
light from other men ; when they choose nauseous
and unwholesome food ; and reject such as to the
rest of the world seems pleasant, and is known to
be nutritive. I have always considered the British-
constitution, not to be a thing in itself so vitious r
as that none but men of deranged understanding,.
and
Sill HKRCULKS LANGRISHE, M. P. 349
and turbulent tempers, could desire a share in it :
on the contrary, I should think very indifferently
of the understanding and temper of any body of
men, who did not wish to partake of this great
and acknowledged benefit. I cannot think quite
so favourably either of the sense or temper of those,
if any such there are, who would voluntarily per-
suade their brethren that the object is not fit for
them, or they for the object. Whatever may be
my thoughts concerning them, I am quite sure,
that they who hold such language must forfeit all
credit with the rest. This is infallible If they con-
ceive any opinion of their judgment, they cannot
possibly think them their friends. There is, indeed,
one supposition, which would reconcile the con-
duct of such gentlemen to sound reason, and to the
purest affection towards their fellow-sufferers ; it
is, that they act under the impression of a well-
grounded fear for the general interest. If they
should be told, and should believe the story, that
if they dare attempt to make their condition bet-
ter, they will infallibly make it worse that if they
aim at obtaining liberty, they will have their sla-
very doubled that their endeavour to put them-
selves upon any thing which approaches towards
an equitable footing with their fellow-subjects will
be considered as an indication of a seditious and
rebellious disposition such a view of things ought
perfectly to restore the gentlemen, who so anxiously
dissuade
350 A LETTER TO
dissuade their countrymen from wishing a par-
ticipation with the privileged part of the people,
to the good opinion of their fellows. But what is
to them a very full justification, is not quite so ho-
nourable to that power from whose maxims and
temper so good a ground of rational terrour is fur-
nished. I think arguments of this kind will never
be used by the friends of a government which I
greatly respect ; or by any of the leaders of an
opposition whom I have the honour to know, and
the sense to admire. I remember Polybius tells us,
that, during his captivity in Italy as a Peloponnesian
hostage he solicited old Cato to intercede with the
senate for his release, and that of his countrymen :
this old politician told him that he had better con-
tinue in his present condition, however irksome,
than apply again to that formidable authority for
their relief; that he ought to imitate the wisdom
of his countryman Ulysses, who, when he was
once out of the den of the Cyclops, had too much
sense to venture again into the same cavern. But I
conceive too high an opinion of the Irish legisla-
ture to think that they are to their fellow-citizens,
what the grand oppressors of mankind were to a
people whom the fortune of war had subjected to
their power. For though Cato could use such a
parallel with regard to his senate, I should really
think it nothing short of impious, to compare an
Irish parliament to a den of Cyclops. I hope the
people,
SIU HEUCULES LANGUISHE, M. P. 351
people, both here and with you, will always apply
to the house of commons with becoming modesty;
but at the same time with minds unembarrassed
with any sort of terrour.
As to the means which the Catholicks employ
to obtain this object, so worthy of sober and ra-
tional minds : I do admit that such means may be
used in the pursuit of it, as may make it proper
for the legislature, in this case, to defer their com-
pliance until the demandants are brought to a
proper sense of their duty. A concession in which the
governing power of our country loses its dignity,
is dearly bought even by him who obtains his ob-
ject. All the people have a deep interest in the
dignity of parliament. But as the refusal of fran-
chises which are drawn out of the first vital sta-
mina of the British constitution is a very serious
thing, we ought to be very sure, that the manner
and spirit of the application is offensive and dan-
gerous indeed, before we ultimately reject all ap-
plications of this nature. The mode of applica-
tion, I hear, is by petition. It is the manner in
which all the sovereign powers in the world are
approached ; and I never heard (except in the case
of James the Second) that any prince considered
this manner of supplication to be contrary to the
humility of a subject, or to the respect due to the
person or authority of the sovereign. This rule,
and a correspondent practice, are observed, from
the
A LETTER TO
the grand Seignior, down to the most petty prince
or republick in Europe.
You have sent me several papers, some in print,
some in manuscript. I think I had seen all of them,
except the formula of association. I confess they
appear to me to contain matter mischievous, and
capable of giving alarm, if the spirit in which they
are written should be found to make any consider-
able progress. But I am at a loss to know how to
apply them, as objections to the case now before
us. When I find that the general committee, which
acts for the Roman Catholicks in Dublin, prefers
the association proposed in the written draft you
have sent me, to a respectful application in parlia-
ment, I shall think the persons who sign such a
paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may
be thought fit to be granted ; and that such men
ought, by name, to be excepted from any benefit
under the constitution to which they offer this
violence. But I do not find that this form of a
seditious league has been signed by any person
whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed pro-
jectors, or on the part of those whom it is calcu-
lated to seduce. I do not find, on inquiry, that
such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely al-
luded to, in the general meeting of the Catholicks,
from which so much violence was apprehended.
I have considered the other publications, signed by
individuals, on the part of certain societies I may
mistake,
SIR HEKCULES LA XGRI SHE, M. P. 353
mistake, for I have not the honour of knowing
7 O
them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
Tandy not to be catholicks, but members of the
established church. Notow? that I recollect of these
publications which you and I equally dislike ap-
pears to be written by persons of that persuasion.
Now, if, whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a fa-
vour from parliament, any person should choose,
in an improper manner, to shew his inclination
towards the cause depending ; and if that must
destroy the cause of the petitioner ; then, not only
the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
power of any weak friend or artful enemy, that
the supplicant, or that the parliament may have.
A man must be judged by his own actions only.
Certain protestant dissenters make seditious pro-
positions to the Catholicks, which it does not ap-
pear that they have yet accepted. It would be
strange that the tempter should escape all punish-
ment, and that he, who, under circumstances full
of seduction and full of provocation, has resisted
the temptation, should incur the penalty. You
know, that, with regard to the dissenters, who are
stated to be the chief movers in this vile scheme of
altering the principles of election to a right of vot-
ing by the head, you are not able (if you ought
even to wish such a thing) to deprive them of
any part of the franchises and privileges whieh
they hold on a footing of perfect equality with
VOL. vi. A a yourselves.
354 A LETTER TO
yourselves. They may do what they please with
constitutional impunity ; but the others cannot
even listen with civility to an invitation from them
to an ill-judged scheme of liberty, without forfeit-
ing, for ever, all hopes of any of those liberties
which we admit to be sober and rational.
It is known, I believe, that the greater, as well
as the sounder part of our excluded countrymen
have not adopted the wild ideas, and wilder en-
gagements, which have been held out to them ;
but have rather chbsen to hope small and safe con-
cessions from the legal power, than boundless ob-
jects from trouble and confusion. This mode of
action seems to me to mark men of sobriety, and
to distinguish them from those who are intempe-
rate, from circumstance or from nature. But why
do they not instantly disclaim and disavow those
who make such advances to them ? In this too, in