BX 890

045

1781

ERRORS OF THE PRESS.

Dedication, page vi. for ulcer'd, read ulcerated.

Ib. p. ix. for compofition of Kings, read competition of Kings. P. 34, for dentified, read identified.

P. 50, for the weakness, and neceffity of reveal'd religion, read the weakness of reafon, and the neceffity of reveal'd religion.

P. 115, for the refpective legions of the two Kingdoms, read the refpective religions of the two Kingdoms.

P. 129, for, but they are the most justifiable, read but are they the more juftifiable, &c.

P. 134, for bad Italian, read bad Latin.

P. 139, for arbiters to their quarrels, read arbiters of their quarrels.

P. 164, for caval about words, read cavil about words.

P. 324, for decree of punishment, read degree of punishment.

Ib. for Cardinal's rope, read Cardinal's robe.

P. 386, for Omnipotence which can neither create, or annihilate, read Omnipotence which can either create, or annihilate.

The above Errata to be pafted to the back of the Title Page, facing the Dedication.

Reverend Fathers, and illustrious Brethren,

THE HE purport of the work which I have the honour to dedicate to your order, is to cement the bands of society; to fecure the fafety of our country, by union and mutual confidence; to render the fubject's allegiance firm, and at the fame time reasonable, by establishing it on its proper grounds; to difpel the mists of long-reigning prejudice; after difarming Infidelity, which ftrikes at the foundation of religion, and the dignity of our nature, to induce the Chriftians of every denomination to lay aside the deftructive weapons which frenzy has fo often put into their hands; and, under their peculiar modes of worship, to inspire them A 3

with

* A fociety of Nobles and Gentlemen, composed of the greatest orators and writers in Ireland; who, unfolicited, have done the author the honour of adopting him as one of their members.

with that benevolence and charity enforced by the first principles of the Law of Nature, and confirmed by the facred Oracles which they all revere.

In my fugitive pieces, to which the circumftances of the times have given rife, you discovered the fincerity of my defigns, in attempting to diffufe to the community at large, the influence of benignity. My feeble efforts have attracted your attention, and procured me the honour of your efteem. With regard to the rights of fociety, and protection due to the man who does not forfeit them by his mifconduct, the learned, the virtuous, the liberal-minded of all denominations, make no diftinction; but, with every refpect due to religion, leave fanaticism, the noxious vermin that neftles in its wool, to prey upon the ulcerousheads of the bigots. Hence, neither my character of a Catholic Clergyman, which, in these Kingdoms, the prepoffeffion of ignorance has rendered fo odious, nor the difcountenance of the laws, which doom me to transportation, with the common malefactor, nor the disagreeable circumftances

of

of a profeffion ftill exposed to the wanton lash of every religious perfecutor, were deemed a fufficient plea for exclufion from a fociety compofed of so many great and shining men.

Robertfon's religion has proved no obftacle to his admiffion among the Spanish academicians. You, my brethren, have fet the brilliant example of philanthropy in this kingdom; and foared far above the fphere of contracted minds. Happy for the world had the gentle voice of Nature been always liftened to, and his religion forgotten in the man!

The calamities, of which a contrary conduct has been productive, are flightly glanced at in my treatife on toleration. In the two neighbouring kingdoms, the fcenes which have been exhibited laft year, are melancholy proofs, that a tolerating fpirit, the fair offspring of candour and benevolence, confers happiness on individuals, and gives nations a bloom and vigour which intolerance blasts and enervates. In confequence of the happy change in the difpofitions of

the

the people, Ireland has seen her peaceful natives employed in the useful labours of life; her citizens, confident in each other, improving trade and commerce, under a variety of difficulties; her judges refpected on their tribunals; and the pleafing scenes of harmony and union fpread through every province. Such the refult of benevolence! Such the fruits of toleration! Such was our fituation, when in Great-Britain nothing could be seen but the course of public juftice sufpended, and martial law proclaimed; the law and the legislature trampled in their awful fanctuary; the torn canonicals of bishops, the lacerated robes of temporal peers, the ftreets enfanguined with the ftreaming blood of deluded victims; fumptuous edifices changed into blazing piles; the conflagration of Rome renewed by the torch of religious frenzy; the houses of inoffenfive citizens chalked out for deftruction; a city given up to plunder; affaffins and malefactors let loofe from their chains, and invited, by the hollow voice of fanaticism, to fhare the spoils; a king on the verge of deftruction;