part re-established, it ought to be religiously fulfilled. They have been ruled with tyranny; it is not enough that the tyranny should be relaxed, it should cease altogether. They have been driven from the pale of the constitution: it is not enough that they should be allowed to pass its barriers, they should range free and uncontrouled through all its rights.

That this system of slow political torture, was not warranted by any alleged delinquency on their part is notorious, for it was devised and perfected in times of profound tranquillity. That they were not deserving even of the suspicion of being disloyal subjects, is proved by their signal forbearance, which has preserved the empire from the calamitous consequences of such flagitious misgovernment; and that, on the contrary, they fully merited the confidence and protection of the legis lature, no fair and candid mind can deny, when it gives to their conduct, in strictly adhering to the stipulations of the treaty of Limerick, and to their allegiance to the house of Brunswick, the just value to which it is entitled.

Having now reached the utmost point to which the penal statutes extended, which seems to be as far as human invention, quickened by mixed feelings of alarm, of bigotry, and of pride, could go, we should not be excusable on general grounds, if we neglect to record its effects.

But there is even a nearer interest in this examination. At a period when the state of Ireland so much occupies the attention of the legislature and of the public; when it is admitted on all sides, that the prosperity and security of England herself must rise or fall with the prosperity and security of Ire

land; and when the events of each succeeding day prove the absolute necessity of some measures to ameliorate her condition, and show that things cannot go on, as they are, without the inevitable destruction of the British empire; it will be of great importance to be able to form an accurate opinion upon the effects which were the result of the penal

statutes.

;

It appears from unquestionable authority, that, during the interval that elapsed between the surrender of Limerick, and the total infraction of the treaty in 1704, by the act to prevent the further growth of Popery, the toleration which the Catholics experienced by virtue of that treaty, produced its natural consequences. The security they enjoyed restored industry and plenty of all things: useful arts were introduced; the land cultivated and a fine island, reduced to a desert by the late war, soon assumed a new face. In fact, Ireland was never happier than during this interval of religious toleration.* Of the effects of the penal laws in entirely reversing this order of things, Lord Taffe, in his valuable tract on Irish affairs, gives the following description. "Those penalties and inter"dicts (by the laws of Anne) had their natural "effects in the dispeopling greatly the three fine provinces, wherein the bulk of Catholics reside. "They took their effect in putting a stop to the "cultivation began in King William's reign. No "sooner were the Catholics excluded from durable "and profitable tenures, than they commenced "graziers, and laid aside agriculture: they ceased "from draining and enclosing their farms, and "building good houses, as occupations unsuited to

* Observations on the Affairs of Ireland, by Lord Taffe, p. 4.

"the new part assigned them in our national economy. They fell to wasting the lands they "were virtually forbid to cultivate, the business of "pasturage being compatible with such a conduct, "and requiring also little industry and less labour "in the management." * ""*

In the year 1723, the wretchedness of the people of Ireland was so great, that the Duke of Grafton, in a speech from the throne, recommended parliament to take measures for relieving them. The distress, however, continued; and in a petition presented to the House of Commons, in the same year, by the woollen manufacturers, they say, "that "the woollen manufacture of this kingdom, which "is confined to our own consumption, has of late "been so considerably lessened, that several thou"sand families have been forced to beg alms, and "charity of good christians; and that a collection "had lately been made throughout the whole city "to relieve them."+

Primate Boulter, in a letter of the 25th of March, 1732, to the Duke of Newcastle, bears testimony to this wretched state of Ireland; he says, "Since I "came here in the year 1725, there was almost a "famine amongst the poor; last year the dearness "of corn was such, that thousands of families

quitted their habitations, to seek bread else"where, and many hundreds perished." Again on the 23d of November, 1728, he says, in writing to the Duke, "I am sorry I am obliged to give your Grace so melancholy an account of the state " of the kingdom, as I shall in this letter."

But one of the most pernicious effects of these

* Observations on the Affairs of Ireland, by Lord Taffe, p. 11. † Com. Jour. v. iii. p. 24. Letters, p. 226.

penal laws was the emigration of the principal Catholic families to the continent. They carried with them what would otherwise have been the materials of the civilization, tranquillity, and prosperity of their own country; they left the mass of the Catholic population, without the influence of men of education and property, to direct and controul their conduct; and in the place of serving their own native land, they filled with the highest credit to themselves the situation of statesmen and generals, in those nations which were hostile to the interests of Great Britain.

*

Of the visible effect these laws had produced in their avowed objects of propagating the Protestant religion, and promoting the national prosperity, it is impossible to give a more able or a more accurate description than the following, by Mr. Arthur Young, who was in Ireland at the period we now treat of: "While property lay exposed to the "practices of power, the great body of the people, "who had been stripped of their all, were more "enraged than converted: they adhered to the "persuasion of their forefathers, with the steadiest " and most determined zeal; while the priests "actuated by the spirit of a thousand induce"ments, made proselytes among the common Pro"testants, in defiance of every danger. And the "great glaring fact yet remains, and is even ad"mitted by the warmest advocates for the laws of discovery, that the established religion has not "gained upon the Catholic in point of numbers; "on the contrary, that the latter has been rather "on the increase. Public lists have been returned "from the several diocesses, which confirm this

* 1778.

"fact; and the intelligence I received on my journey spoke the same language.

"As it is the great body of the common people "that forms the strength of a country, when willing subjects, and its weakness when ill-affected, "this fact is a decision of the question: after se"venty years undisturbed operation, the system adopted in Queen Anne's reign has failed in this "great aim, and meets at this day with a more nu"merous and equally determined body of Catholics, "than it had to oppose when first promulgated. "Has not the experience of every age and every "nation, proved that the effect is invariable and uni"versal? Let a religion be what it may, and under "whatever circumstances, no system of persecu"tion ever yet had any other effect, than to con"firm its professors in their tenets, and spread their "doctrines, instead of restraining them. The great "plea of the Roman Catholic priests, and their “merit with their congregations, are the dangers they hazard, and the persecutions they suffer for "the sake of their faith; arguments that have, and "ever will have weight, while human nature con❝tinues formed of its present materials.

66

66

"But if these exertions of a succession of igno"rant legislators have failed continually in propagating the religion of government, much more "have they failed in the great object of natural "prosperity. The only considerable manufacture "in Ireland, which carries in all parts the appear"ance of industry, is the linen, and it ought never "to be forgotten that this is solely confined to the "Protestant parts of the kingdom. The poor Ca

tholics in the south of Ireland spin wool gene"rally, but the purchaser of their labour, and the "whole worsted trade, is in the hands of the Quakers