However, I acknowledge that time alone, without fome concurrent caufe, cannot legalize a prescription. But in regard to kings and the allegiance due from their fubjects, a great number of reasons supply the deficiency of the original title requifite to commencé a prescription, viz. the confent of the greatest and wifeft part of a nation, the acquiefcence of the whole community, the peace of the public, difturbed by factions and civil wars, ever and always attendant on changes in government, the general good of mankind, inconfiftent with the revival of old claims,-in fine, the difpenfation of a just God, who vifited on Saul's pofterity, their father's cruel treatment of the Gibeonites, and who pcfitively declares, that he wrefts the fceptre 'from one family, to lodge it in the hands of another, in punishment of former crimes.' "Transfert fceptrum de regno et de gente, ad 66 populum alterum.” "When the political "law has obliged a family to renounce the fuc"ceffion," fays the prefident Montefquieu, "it "is abfurd to infift on the reftitutions drawn "from the civil law. It is ridiculous to pretend "to decide the rights of kingdoms, of nations, "and of the whole globe, by the fame maxims "on which we should determine the right of ६ "gutter between individuals." *

Montefquieu's Spirit of Laws, Vol. I. page 193.

Further,

Further. King James the Second's quitting England, without even appointing a regent, and his fubfequent behaviour at the Boyne, is an abdication of the throne, or else there never has been a refignation of royalty. Fear! He was intrepid enough before his fon-in-law became his competitor; and tho' prince William wanted neither courage nor wisdom, yet his prowefs was not fo famed in the history of the times, as to ftrike terror into a tolerable general, much less into the heart of a king, whom an exalted rank, the love of his fubjects, and paternal authority, fhould have animated with courage and refolution. Old captain O'Regan was not afraid when he defired king William's officers "to change generals, and fight the battle over again.*

In times of invafion thrones cannot be fecured without bloodshed. If the fear of a ball cannot dispense fubjects with fighting for their prince, the prince is bound to fhare the danger, or at least to remain in fome part of the kingdom to watch and direct their operations. If the fafety of the people be the fupreme law, falus populi fuprema efto, and that kings are appointed guardians of the property and lives of their fubjects, who in the beginning could have inftituted a republican as well as a regal go

*Hift. of Eng. in a feries of letters, &c.

vernment,

vernment, the king who prefers his perfonal fafety to that of his fubjects, flies into a foreign country, and abandons them a prey to the first occupant, forfeits all right to their allegiance. The law forbids the ufe of two weights and two measures, and there is no juftice without equality.

To the Irish, then, king William with propriety might have applied. Curio's fpeech to Domitius's foldiers. "But did you desert Do"mitius, or Domitius his foldiers? Were you "not ready to endure the laft extremities, "whilft he privately endeavoured to escape? "And how can the oath any longer oblige

you, when he to whom you fwore, having "thrown afide all marks of confular dignity, "became a private perfon, and a captive to "another?"*

Several generations have decayed and fucceeded fince James the fecond has abdicated the throne. Time expunges the impreffions of the nearest and deareft connections. We chearfully converse in walking over the graves of friends, for whom we formerly cried. Had then our attachment to the Stuarts been formed of links of fteel, it could not endure to the prefent generation.

But after having expatiated fo long on the claims of a family, commencing in our mis* Cæfar de Bell. Civ. 1. 2. c. 13. fortune

66

fortune and concluding in our ruin, let us attribute to a fuperior cause the revolutions of kingdoms, and in the very sport of human paffions trace the footsteps of divine Providence. "That long concatenation of parti"cular caufes, which make and unmake em'pires, depends upon the fecret orders of di"vine Providence," fays the bishop of Meaux. "God from the higheft Heavens holds the "reigns of all the kingdoms of the earth: he "hath all hearts in his hands: fometimes he 66 gives a loose to them; and thereby moveth "all mankind. He it is who prepares effects "in their remoteft caufes, and he it is who "ftrikes those great ftrokes, the counter-ftroke "whereof is of fuch extenfive confequence. "Let us talk no more of chance, or of fortune. "What is chance in regard to our uncertain "counfels, is a concerted design in a higher "counfel. Thereby is verified the faying of "the apostle, that God is the bleffed and only "Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of "lords, who caufes all revolutions by an im"mutable counfel: who gives and takes away

power, who transfers it from one man to "another, from one house to another, from "one people to another, to fhew, that they all "have it only borrowed, and that it is he alone “in whom it naturally refides.*" Let us then

*Boffuet, Hiftoire Univerfelle, Vol. 2. p. 403.

talk

talk no more of the Stuarts, but bid them an eternal farewel.

ART. IV.

"And I do fwear that I do reject and deteft as “unchristian and impious to believe, that it " is lawful to murder or deftroy any perfon "or perfons whatsoever, for or under pre"tence of their being heretics, and also that "unchriftian and impious principle, that no "faith is to be kept with heretics."

Any attempt to prove this article would be an idle talk, whereas we are fure never to convince, when we attempt to prove things too clear. In a word to buy a piece of cloth, and inftead of paying to murder the draper, "for

or under pretence of his being an heretic," is a doctrine unknown to the most relaxed of our cafuifts. We appeal to the gentlemen of different perfuafions, to whom reftitutions are daily made, through the hands of the Catholic clergy, and to fuch of them as have been stopt on the high road, whether the robber has enquired into their religion? Murder is against the fifth commandment, injuftice and fraud against the seventh. To suppose then that it is a principle of Roman Catholics to murder or

cheat