title requisite to commence a prescription, viz. the consent of the greatest and wisest part of a nation, the acquiescence of the whole community-the peace of the public, disturbed by factions and civil wars, ever and always attendant on changes in government-the general good of mankind; inconsistent with the revival of old claims--in fine, the dispensation of a just God, who visited on Saul's posterity, their father's cruel treatment of the Gibeonites; and who positively declares, that he wrests the sceptre from one family, to lodge it in the hands of another, in punishment of former 'crimes. Transfert sceptrum de regno et de gente, ad populum alterum. When the political law has obliged a family to • renounce the succession,' says the president Montesquieu, it is absurd to insist on the restitutions 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 same 'maxims on which we should determine the right of a gutter 'between individuals.'* 6 Further, king James the Second's quitting England, without even appointing a regent, and his subsequent behaviour at the Boyne, is an abdication of the throne, or else there never has been a resignation of royalty. Fear! He was intrepid enough before his son-in-law became his competitor; and though prince William wanted neither courage nor wisdom, yet his prowess was not so famed in the history of the times, as to strike terror into a tolerable general, much less into the heart of a king, whom an exalted rank, the love of his subjects, and paternal authority, should have animated with courage and resolution. Old captain O'Regan was not afraid when he desired king William's officers to change generals, and fight the battle over again.' ་ In times of invasion, thrones cannot be secured without bloodshed. If the fear of a ball cannot dispense subjects with fighting for their prince, the prince is bound to share the danger, or at least to remain in some part of the kingdom to watch and direct their operations. If the safety of the people be the supreme law, salus populi suprema esto, and that kings are appointed guardians of the property and lives of their subjects, who in the beginning could have instituted a *Montesquien's Spirit of Laws, Vol. II. page 193. republican as well as a regal government, the king who prefers his personal safety to that of his subjects, flies into a foreign country, and abandons them a prey to the first occupant, forfeits all right to their allegiance. The law forbids. the use of two weights and two measures, and there is no justice without equality. you To the Irish, then, king William with propriety might have applied Curio's speech to Domitius's soldiers: • But • did desert Domitius, or Domitius his soldiers? Were 'you not ready to endure the last extremities, whilst he privately endeavoured to escape? And how can the oath any longer oblige you, when he to whom you swore, having thrown aside all marks of consular dignity, became ' a private person, and a captive to another ?** 6 Several generations have decayed and succeeded since James the Second has abdicated the throne. Time expunges the impressions of the nearest and dearest connections. We cheerfully 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 steel, it could not endure to the present generation. But after having expatiated so long on the claims of a family, commencing in our misfortune, and concluding in our ruin, let us attribute to a superior cause the revolutions of kingdoms, and in the very sport of human passions trace the footsteps of divine Providence. "That long concatenation of particular causes, which make and unmake em'pires, depends upon the secret orders of divine Providence,' says the bishop of Meaux. God from the highest Heavens holds the reigns of all the kingdoms of the earth: he hath 'all hearts in his hands: sometimes he gives a loose to 'them; and thereby moveth all mankind. He it is who prepares effects in their remotest causes, and he it is who 'strikes those great strokes, the counter-stroke whereof is ⚫ of such extensive consequence. Let us talk no more of chance, or of fortune. What is chance in regard to our ⚫ uncertain counsels, is a concerted design in a higher counsel. Thereby is verified the saying of the apostle, that God is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, 6 6 Cæsar de Bell. Civ. 1 2. c. 13. ' and Lord of lords, who causes all revolutions by an immutable counsel; 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 shew, that they all have it only borrowed, and that it is he alone in whom it 'naturally resides ?** Let us then talk no more of the Stuarts, but bid them an eternal farewell. ART. IV. 'And I do swear that I do reject and detest as unchristian ' and impious to believe, that it is lawful to murder or destroy any person or persons whatsoever: for or under 'pretence of their being heretics, and also that unchris'tian and impious principle, that no faith is to be kept 'with heretics.' 6 Any attempt to prove this article would be an idle task, whereas we are sure never to convince, when we attempt to prove things too clear. In a word to buy a piece of cloth, and instead of paying to murder the draper, for or under 'pretence of his being a heretic,' is a doctrine unknown to the most relaxed of our casuists We appeal to the gentlemen of different persuasions, to whom restitutions are daily made, through the hands of the Catholic clergy, and to such of them as have been stopt on the high road, whether the robber has enquired into their religion? Murder is against the fifth commandment; injustice and fraud against the seventh. To suppose then that it is a principle of Roman Catholics to murder or cheat any person or persons 'whatsoever, for or under the pretence of their being heretics,' is to suppose them ignorant of the commandments of God. 6 Since the time of the emperor Theodosius, laws have been enacted concerning heresy. Lawyers and divines of both.communions have been divided in their opinions: Geneva and London, Calvinist magistrates, and Protestant kings, have concurred with the Spanish inquisitors in blazing the fagot, and forestalling the rigour of eternal justice. The writ De Hæretico Comburendo (of committing heretics to the flames) was in force down to the reign of Charles the Second, and has met with ↑ Bossuett's Histoire Universelle, Vol. 2. p. 403. a learned apologist in Calvin. By the statute and common laws of England, some punishments are still in force against heretics; but how far these and severer punishments inflicted by the civil and imperial laws, are impious and unchristian, kings, not subjects, are interested to determine. In every Christian country, the Christian religion is a part of the national laws; on the other hand, heresy, in its loosest latitude comprehends errors subversive not only of revealed religion, but moreover of morality, and justice; such as the error of the Priscillianists, authorizing false oaths; and the errors of those who give loose to private and public vices, by denying all rewards and punishments beyond the grave. Should then the supreme magistrate, to whom the right of the sword is reserved, determine the degree of punishment, and instead of imprisonment, banishment, &c. make it capital, let his conscience condemn or acquit him. Every subject should still reject and detest, as unchristian and impious to 'believe, that it is lawful to murder or destroy any person "or persons whatsoever, for or under the pretence of their 'being heretics.' We are never to arrogate to ourselves the power of life and death, which God has entrusted to the legislators, and to them alone. To Catholic and Protestant magistrates let us, however, venture to propose the advice of St. Bernard: Hæretici 'capiantur non armis, sed argumentis ;'* Let heretics be 'convinced not with blows, but arguments;' and the opinion of St. Augustine, in his letter to Count Marcellin: 'No doc'trine should strike a deeper horror in the human heart, than that which teacheth that it is lawful to kill any person 'or persons under pretence of heresy, and under the mask of religion, spread the dismal seeds of the greatest evils in the 'Christian world, murders, dissentions, wars.' In fine, the opinion of a learned Protestant Bishop: 'Among all the he'heresies this age has spawned, there is not one more contrary to the whole design of religion, and more destructive ́of mankind, than is that bloody opinion of defending religion by arms, and of forcible resistance upon the colour of religion.'t * Bernard, in Cant. Serm. 62. + Bishop of Sarum, Preface to the Vindication of the Church and State of Scotland, However upon closer inspection into those persecutions which have changed Europe into a scene of Gothic barbarity, we shall find a combination of various causes, amongst which religion was a pretext, passion and policy the main springs. Examine all your former wars, (commonly stiled wars of 'religion)' says the most famous writer of the age, 'you will 'see the first sparks of them kindled in the dark recesses of 'the court, or in the ambitious breasts of the grandees.'Matters were first embroiled and entangled by the intrigues and debates of the cabinet; and afterwards the leading men 'raised the people in the name of God.' In effect, Sir, under the empire of grace, our passions retain a fatal liberty, and even uniformity of belief does not always preclude factious divisions. Whigs and Tories, Guelphes and Gibelines,* may repeat the same creed, and be still divided. The Sicilians and French went to the same churches to sing the hallelujahs upon an Easter Sunday, when soon after the air began to resound with the groans of bleeding victims, and the harmonious sounds of chiming bells. Had the sufferers been of a different persuasion from that of their aggressors, religion would appear as the chief character in the tragedy, when represented by some of our English historians, especially Sir John Temple, who spreads the wild theatre of imaginary massacres, abuses the public faith, and blends the mendacity of heathen Greece into the history of Christians. Et quidquid, Græcia 'mendax peccat in historia.'+ To clear religion from those bloody imputations, let us contrast the present with the past times; the Huguenots, formerly victims to the policy of Catharine de Medicis, live now in peace and opulence, and enjoy their rich estates in Poitou, Lower Normandy, &c. The order of military merit is instituted to reward the valour of their officers: and in France no man's religion is a bar to his promotion in the career of military honours, whereas nothing is more common than to see the French legions commanded by Protestant Generals. Here in Ireland, the Catholics, formerly driven by thousands into woods and caverns, and their clergy hunted like wild * Two formidable factions in Italy. |