that he mentioned the names of those only who had come to his personal knowledge; many of them died in prison, and some under sentence of death.

But, what language can describe the individual misery and mental agony of the general body of the Roman Catholics during this long period of woe? "Out of every pulpit, press, or stationer's shop," say Mr. Charles Eyston,* a spectator of it, such invectives, slanders, infamies, untruths, "and lies, were cast upon priests as seditious, and upon Catholics as impious and wicked, as were " without measure or remedy.-Their houses were daily searched aud rifled; their altars, chalices, "books, church stuff, beads, &c. were taken from "them and turned to common uses; the name of "Catholic was denied them; the common law

making for them was inverted and turned against "them: and, for the queen of Scots and their sakes, "the name of Rome was maliced; the Pope vilified and liared; the Catholic emperors, kings and

princes were traduced: and the Catholics them"selves became the trampling-stones of all pursui

vants, informers, promoters, and other hungry, "needy and merciless people, for the covetous

ness of their goods, for the confiscation of their "lands, and for the begging of their estates, in such "sort as was both outrageous and insatiable. To "conclude: the Catholics,-some of them from "5,000l. yearly, some from 2,000l., and others

* Hist. Mem. Vol. II. c. XL.

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"from 1,000l. 500 l. 100l. 50l. more or less yearly revenues, fell to extreme misery, could no ways "please the statists but in being miserable. Whereupon they endured such ravenings, pillagings, and "pollings, such exiles, imprisonments, and tortures, "such enslaving of their persons, and such effu"sion of their innocent blood, as came not short "of the Arian persecution itself: even such, as "neither eye has seen, or ear heard of in any "Christian commonwealth."

All this too, so far as it was sanctioned by the laws, or was the necessary and unavoidable consequence of them, was, You think, very right.Our ancestors, You say, who passed these laws were men of wisdom, and had sufficient reason to pass them.

I differ from You.-I confidently assert, that no principle of justice or morality authorises one-third part, or to speak more properly, one-sixth part of a nation, for the followers of Elizabeth's episcopalian religion, did not exceed that proportion of it, -to establish either their government or their creed by such sanguinary, degrading, impoverishing and exterminating laws, as hers.

Your accusations of us have made these statements and reflections necessary; most unwillingly have I brought them forward, or argued upon them;-but what necesssity requires, necessity excuses. Permit me to conclude my letter with the words which I have addressed to Dr. Southey, in my twelfth letter to that gentleman.

"The Reformation, and all that is connected with

it, is now established by law; and, never have a vanquished people more completely submitted to "the conquerors, have conducted themselves with

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greater propriety, or received alleviation of their "condition with greater gratitude than the Ro"man Catholics have done. NONE of his Majesty's subjects are more attached to his govern"ment. When we think of our past grievances, we bless the hands which have relieved so many "of them: an angry feeling seldom rises, except "when we feel our religion traduced, and our "ancestors vilified in such a manner, that we "should deservedly be thought more or less than men, if we did not exert ourselves to repel the " unmerited aggression."

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L

LETTER XVI.

THE GUNPOWDER CONSPIRACY.

Mr. Townsend's Assertion of the Extensiveness of the Gunpowder Plot.

You begin Your criminations of us in this Your letter upon the reign of James I, (p. 240), by controverting my assertion in "the Historical Me

moirs," of "the fair words and promises" given by James to the Roman Catholics. The evidence which I have produced of them, appears to me abundantly sufficient to satisfy any impartial person of the truth of my assertion; and, in addition to it we now have, what You have seen in the State Paper Office, the explicit testimony of the Earl of Northumberland. As to James's own denial, his acknowledged prevarications renders it of no

account.

On the characters of the conspirators You tell me, (p. 257), that " I quote with approbation a contemporary writer, who declares, that the "conspirators were a few wicked and desperate "wretches;"" You then show that some of them were respectably born and filled respectable situations. But this does not prove that they were not wicked or desperate; and I was so far from concealing their respectable births or situations, that

I have cited the expression of Father More, that they were of noble family and high rank." You dilate on the extensiveness of the conspiracy: Hume informs us, that "with all their attendants, they

never exceeded the number of eighty persons. Doctor Southey calls them "a few bigots." James himself speaks of the conspiracy as a "tragi"comedy; a tragedy to the traitors, but a comedy "to the king and all his new subjects." You, I believe, are the first person who has asserted that a large portion of the Catholic body was engaged in it.

XVI. 2.

Mr. Townsend's Assertion, that the Catholics have uniformly refused, even in our own age, the security of loyalty to their Temporal Sovereign.

I must express my surprise, on reading in Your present letter, (page 244), that "the Catholics

refused, as they have uniformly done, even in our own age, the security of loyalty to our Temporal Sovereign."

Without reverting to their conduct in former times, which I have already sufficiently noticed, I beg leave to refer You to the oaths of allegiance universally taken by the English, Irish, and Scotch

* Hist. Mem. Vol. II. p. 108.

+ Ch. XLVI.

↑ Vol. II. 330.

§ King James's Works. Discourse of the Powder Treason, p. 223.