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business as usual, and be free from all groundless appréhensions. Work for those who employ you; for it is against the laws of war to molest or hurt any, but such as oppose the enemy, sword in hand: and the world must allow that the French are not strangers to the laws of war, or the rules of military discipline. The soldier himself, in the rage of slaughter, feels the impulse of humanity. He is bound to spare the supplicant who cries out for quarter, and to protect the town or city that surrenders for want of power to resist. Secure your lives, which run the risk of being lost by the sword in fighting for the foe, or by the rope if you chanced to escape the danger of the field: but above all, save your souls, which would be lost without resource: for among the crimes that exclude from the kingdom of heaven, St. Paul reckons sedition: and what greater sedition than to rise up against your king and country, and to defile your hands with the blood of your fellow-subjects?

Should the king and parliament adopt the policy of France, that rewards the soldier's value, and leaves his religion to God-should they enter on the liberal plan of the Protestant Powers of the continent, who level the fences, and make no distinction between religious parties-should the Catholic gentry, descended in a long line from warlike chieftains, and animated with the same courage and magnanimity that crowned with laurels their relations and namesakes on the banks of the Rhine, the walls of Cremona, in the fields of Germany, and the plains of Fontenoy, where hands disqualified from using a gun in defence of their native country, have conquered cities and provinces for foreign kings-should the Catholic gentry, I say, be empowered by parliament to join their Protestant neighbours, and press to the standard of their country, at the head of a spirited and active race of men, preserved by labour from the weakness of indolence, inured by habit to the rigours of manly exercise, and, like the Spartan youth, already half disciplined from the ture of their sports and diversions-then join the banners of your country; fight in support of the common cause. you die, you die with honour and a pure conscience: the death of a plunderer and rebel is infamy and reprobation.

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I repeat it; you have nothing to expect from the French. Ireland they will never keep; or if they keep it, is it a reason that you should forfeit soul and conscience by plunder, treachery, and rebellion? St. Paul lays it down for a rule, that the damnation of those is just, who do evil that good 'may come.'* What must not be the damnation of those who do evil for the sake of mischief? And Christ declares, that it availeth a man nothing, if he gain the whole world and lose his soul.'

But by the coming of the French, your gain would fall short of your expectations, if any amongst you would be mad enough to entertain any expectations of the kind.When the French take a Roman Catholic Captain, do they ever return him back to his ship or restore him his liberty, in compliment to his religion? Are we to expect more from them by land, than by sea? If then in compliment to the Catholic religion, they would not return a fishing boat to our distressed families, who would imagine they would give us all the estates in the kingdom? Or is it be-. cause these estates belonged in remote times to our ancestors, that we could in conscience dispossess the present owners, were it even in our power? The remains of. old castles, formerly the seats of hospitality; and the ter ritories which still bear our names; may remind us of our origin, and inspire us with spirited sentiments, to which the lower class of people in other countries are entire strangers, and which a wise government could improve to the advantage of the state. Yet these memorials of ancient grandeur and family importance, entitle us to no other, pretensions than that of scorning to do any thing base, vile, or treacherous.

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We must imitate that descendant of the Sidonian kings, who, from extreme poverty, worked in a garden: being asked by Alexander the Great, How he supported poverty? Better,' replied he, than I could support gran. 'deur. My hands supply my wants: and I want nothing, 'when I desire nothing.' Pity, my brethren, that this man. was not a Christian! Or pity, that the Christians do not resemble this Heathen! The most flourishing empires have

* Romans, chap. iii.

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fallen with time the world is in a continual change and the Roman Catholics must share the same fate with the rest of mankind.

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There is no reviving old claims in this or any other coun try. Or perhaps, if we revived them, they could not stand the test of severe justice. Our ancestors have they ever encroached on their neighbours? On their first landing in this kingdom, have not they taken these estates from the Carthaginians, Firblogs, and others who were settled here before them? If then the Protestants, who are now in possession, gave them up, to whom would they give them? If they have no right to them, because they belonged to our ancestors-our ancestors had no right to them, because they belonged to others. French general sounded a trumpet, and desired us to take our lands, would there not be a thousand pretenders to every estate? Would not every one be eager for the best spot? And would not this spot fall to the share of the strongest, who would kill or overpower the weakest? I am ashamed, my brethren, at your reading such trifles in this paper. I should never have mentioned them, had not I read such a nonsensical charge in the writings of some paltry şeribblers, who, in order to keep our Protestant neighbours in perpetual dread of inoffensive fellow-subjects, do not blush at an insult offered to common sense, and to the rights of mankind.

For, where property is once settled, secured by the laws of any realm, and confirmed by a long possession, there is no disturbing the proprietor. It is the general consent of nations, and the universal voice of mankind. By the Roman laws, thirty years possession secures the possessor in the enjoyment of his property. Even in Scripture we read, that, when a king of the Ammonites had challenged some lands which the Israelites had taken from his ancestors, Jephtah, the ruler of God's people, amongst other reasons, pleads a long possession: While Israel dwelt in Heshbon, why therefore did 'ye not recover them within that time?'* Thus from the first establishment of civil society, a long possession annihilates all claims. And by the same principles, every Protestant gentleman in Ireland has as good a right to his estate, as any Judges, chap. fi.

Milesian had before him. For this I appeal to your consciences: as you are to appear before God, if you cut corn in the field of a Protestant, or stole his hay, would not your confessor compel you to restitution? What right then should you have to the land where you would scruple to take the growth of it? Far then from giving you estates, the French could not, by the laws of war and the principles of conquest, universally agreed on by civilized nations, take a foot of ground from any person in the kingdom, for their own use; much less for yours. If the nation should be unable to make head against them, and that the chief men of the kingdom, and the representatives of the people, should prefer preservation to death, (as doubtless they will, if they have not superior forces to oppose them)-they neither will nor can require any more than the allegiance of the inhabitants, the same rates, taxes, and government support, that were granted to the king of England. The natives will be secured in the free exercise of their religion, the full enjoyment of their property, their laws and privileges. This is always done: the reverse would be an open violation of the laws of nations, which are binding on the very conquerors; and which, according to the present system, they strictly observe.

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Thus, the common people are never interested in the change of government. They may change their masters : but they will not change their burden. The rich will be still rich. The poor will be poor. In France, they have poor of all trades and professions: it will be the same here. But will tell me, you that at least you will have the free exercise of your religion.' Pray, my brethren, do not your Protestant neighbours grant you the free exercise of your religion? Would they not esteem you more, in proportion as you would live up to its maxims? Even the worthy, learned, and charitable Dr. Mann, the Protestant Bishop, at the head of an assembly of his clergy, recommended benevolence and moderation towards the Roman Catholics. The same doctrine has been preached not long ago from the Protestant pulpit. Thus, it is the glory of our days, to see the unhappy spirit of persecution dying away, and christian charity succeeding the intemperate zeal and

unchristian superstition which, for many years, had disgraced religion, and dishonoured humanity.

Bells, steeples, and churches richly ornamented, contritribute to the outward pomp and solemnity of worship: but an upright heart and pure conscience are the temples in which the Divinity delights. We would fain worship God our own way. Doubtless. But are we to worship him against his will? In lighting up the sacred fire, are we to burn the house of God? Saul, king of Israel, intended to worship God, in offering up a sacrifice. The Lord rejected him, because he offered it up against the law. His intention was good; but the action criminal. Thus, the Lord would reject you, if, under pretence of a more free worship, you flocked to the standard of an enemy; rose up in rebellion against lawful authority; plundered your neighbour; and imbrued your hands in the blood of your fellowsubjects.

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Let none then say, We will have a Catholic King.'-Subjects are little concerned in the religion of governors. Thousands of Catholics lose their souls in France and Italy, after leading a loose and dissolute life: thousands of them work their salvation in the Protestant States of Holland and Germany. It is then equal to man, what religion his neighbour or king be of, provided his own conscience be pure, and his life upright.

The Prussian, Dutch, and Hanoverian Catholics live under Protestant governments, and join their sovereigns against Catholic Powers. Their religion is the same with yours. And this religion enforces obedience to the king and magistrates under whom we live. Christ commanded tribute to be paid to an heathen prince, and acknowledged the temporal power of an heathen magistrate, who pronounced sentence of death against him.

Nero, sovereign of the world, rips open his mother's womb, and begins the first bloody persecution against the Christians; seventeen thousand of whom were slaughtered in one month; and their bodies, daubed over with pitch and tar, hung up to give light to the city. St. Paul, dreading that such horrid usage would force them to overturn the state, and join the enemies of the empire, writes to them in

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