ART. IH. The Cafe of Ireland Re-confidered. In Anfwer to a Pamphlet entitled "Arguments for and against an Union Confidered." 8vo. Price 4s.

8vo. Price 4s.

Delfcett.

ART. IV. Confiderations upon the State of Public Affairs in the Year 1799. Ireland. 8vo. Price 2s. Rivington's. London. 1769.

W

VE had occafion, in the very firft Number of our work, to pay a tribute of juftice to Dr. Duigenan, for his masterly defence of the established inftitutions of the country, against the alarming, and we will add, moft profligate, attacks of Mr. Grattan, a gentleman who inceffantly declaims against the unjuft rigour and severity of thofe laws, to the extreme lenity and forbearance of which he is, perhaps, more indebted than any other perfon in his Majefty's dominions. To demonftrate the juftice of this obfervation, it will fuffice to extract two paffages from publications of a very different nature, which, that they may be confidered in one point of view, we fhall here place in oppofite columns:-.

Extract from the Report of the Committee of Secrecy, of the Houfe of Lords, in IrelandApril 30, 1798.

Extract from the fourth Vlume of Blackflone's Commentaries:

MISPRISON of TREASON confifts in the bure knowledge and concealment of Treafon, without any degree of affent thereto; for any affent makes the party a prin

John Hughes, examined. Q. You have faid that you were introduced to Mr. Grattan, by Samuel Neilfon, (an united Irishman) at his houfe at Tincipal Traitor; as indeed the connehinch, in April laft.-Recollect yourself, and fay, whether you can fpeak with certainty as to that fact? A. I certainly can.About the 28th of April laft, I went to Mr. Grattan's at Tinne hinch, with Samuel Neilfon; on going into the house, we were introduced into the library.

Neilfon introduced me to Mr. Grattan, and I soon after walked out, I left them alone full half an hour. I faw a printed Conftitution of the United Irishmen in

the room.

NO. XIX. VOL. v.

cealment, which was conftrued aiding and abetting, did at the common-law: But it is now enacted by the ftatute i and 2. Ph. and Mar. c. 1o. that a bare concetlment of Treafon fhall be only held a mifprifion. This concealment becomes criminal, if the party apprized of treafon does not, as foon as conveniently may be, reveal it to fome judge of affize, or justice of the peace. But if there be any probable circumftances of affent, as if one goes to a treafonable meeting, knowing beforeband that a confpiracy is intended

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Q. "Can you fay whether Mr. Grattan knew it to be the Conftitution of the United Irishmen. A. I can; for he asked me fome questions about it. He afked me alfo a variety of Questions respecting the North. When we were going away I heard Mr. Grattan tell Neilfon that he would be in town on or before the Tuesday following."

Samuel Neilfon, in his examination admitted, that he

"Either fhewed Mr. Grattan the last Conftitution of the United Irishmen, or explained it to him, and preffed him to come forward."

against the King; or, being in fuch company once by accident, and having heard fuch treasonable confpiracy, meets the fame company again, and hears more of it, but conceals it; this is an implied affent in law, and makes the con cealer guilty of principal bigh treason."

The book before us is equally entitled to praife with the Doctor's former publication. Indeed, Doctor Duigenan is one of the very few writers, who, actuated exclufively by a defire to promote the establishment of truth, uninfluenced by any private or perfonal motives, pursue their object with unvaried fteadiness, and expofe, with undaunted firmnefs, the abettors of error, whatever be their rank, fituation, or character. These chofen few should be cherished by every virtuous mind; and the government that entertains a proper fenfe of its own dignity or even of its own intereft, though fometimes destined to feel the just severity of their lash, will not fail to prefer them to those despicable parafites of power, who, deftitute of all fixed principles, acknowledging no motive to action, but the low, grovelling, paltry motive of selfishness ; without fenfe to difcriminate or honefty to diffent, create difguft by the fulfomenefs of their adulation, 'and pollute the very objects of their worship by the thick vapours of their impure incenfe.

The matter of this book is fo multifarious that an attempt at analysis would lead us far beyond our neceffary limits; we fhall therefore confine our attention to fome of its leading objects. The author of the first pamphlet, noticed by Dr. D.fadvances these two broad pofitions, 1." that men fincerely attached to the whole Romish creed may be as good and faithful fubjects of the British empire as Proteftants," 2. and "that property, by the British conftitution, entitles the poffeffors to

political

political power in proportion to the property, and that it is therefore unconftitutional to exclude Romanifts from a fhare of political power in the state proportioned to their property." These two pofitions are completely diffected by the doctor, who, in the course of this operation of critical anatomy, exhibits an uncommon portion of skill and ability. There is one argument, in particular, which he brings forward to prove the falsehood of the firft pofition, which, we confefs, appears to us decifive and unanfwerable. He gives an extract from the 3d chapter of the fourth of council Lateran, held in 1215, which contains an injunction to all fecular powers, to exterminate heretics, and then proceeds thus

"But if any temporal Lord neglect to purge his dominions of fuch heretical corruption, after being required and admonished by the Church, by his Metropolitans and his other provincial Bishops fo to do, let him be immediately bound in the chains of excommunication ; and if he fhall contumaciously refufe to make fatisfaction and submit himfelf to the Church within the year, let this be fignified to the Pope, who shall thereupon declare his fubjects abfolved from their allegiance, and proclaim his territories open to the juft feizure and occupation of Catholic Powers, who, after they have exterminated the heretics, fhall poffefs them without control, and preferve them in the parity of the faith, ftill preferving the title of the principal Lord, provided he fhall give them no interruption, or oppofe any impediment to their proceedings; and let the fame rule be obferved with respect to thofe who have no principal lords, i. e. republics,

"We decree, that not only those who profefs heretical tenets, but all receivers, protectors, and favourers of heretics, are ipfo facto ex communicated; and we ftrictly ordain and command, that after any fuch fhall be publicly branded with excommunication, if they fhall refufe to make fatisfaction and fubmit themselves to the Church within a year, they fhall be infamous, nor fhall they be admitted to any public office or council, nor to elect any perfons to fuch, nor to give teftimony in any caufe; neither fhall they be capable of making wills, nor of fucceffion, as heirs or reprefentatives, to any eftate: they fhall be incapable of fuing in any court, but may themfelves be fued: if any fuch perfon fhall happen to be a judge of any court, his fentence fhall "be null and void, nor shall any caufe be profecuted before him if he fhall happen to be an advocate, he fhall not be admitted to practife; if a notary, inftruments drawn up, prepared, witnessed, or executed by him, fhall alfo be void and of no effect, but condemned with their guilty framer and we command that the fame rule be obferved in all fimilar cafes. But if he be a clergyman, let him be depofed both ab officio et beneficio, that as his crime is the greater, fo the greater may be his punishment.”

He next gives the oath of a Romish Bishop at his confecration, by which he binds himself not only to preferve and defend, but

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alfo

allo to augment and promote the Papal power; and farther fays, "hereticks, fchifmatics, and rebels to our holy father and his fucceffors, I fhall refift and perfecute to my power."

This is followed by the quotation of a paffage from "A Paftoral Letter" of Dr. Troy, the Romish Archbishop of Dublin, published in 1793, in order to prove, ift. The nature of the Papal fupremacy; and, 2d. The binding authority of General Councils over all Roman Catholics.

It is a fundamental article of the Roman Catholic faith, that the Pope or Bishop of Rome is fucceffor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apoftles, in that See; he enjoys by divine right a fpiritual and ecclefiaftical primacy, not only of honour and rank, but of real jurifdiction and authority, in the univerfal church. Roman Catholics conceive this point as clearly established in the scriptures, and by the conftant tradition of the Fathers in every age, as it is by the exprefs decifions of their General Councils, which they confider as infallible authority in points of do&rine.”

Now it appears to us to be a duty incumbent on all Roman Catholics who affert their right to a participation of pqlitical power, not merely to make general profeffions of loyalty and attachment to the Conftitution, but explicitly to disclaim the authority of this Council of Lateran; for if that be deemed binding, as Dr. Troy maintains the decifions of all General Councils to be, to affert that no danger can accrue to a Proteftant Government from the admiflion of their claims to an equality of political power, is to offer an infult to the common fenfe of the nation. On this fubject we certainly speak without prejudice; far from being hoftile to the Catholics, we have been reproached by certain fanatics for the favourable difpofition which we have evinced towards them. Many of them, as individuals, we know and efteem; and happy fhould we be to fee them in poffeffion of every privilege compatible with the fafety of the establishment. But when we confider them as a body, as fuch a powerful body too as they conftitute in Ireland; when we fee their prelates bound by their oath to the refiftance and perfecution of all the members of the established church; and all of them fubjected to a foreign authority claiming the right of abfolving fubjects from their oaths of allegiance; we must cordially join the worthy and learned author of this Tract in his forcible conclufions, in his folemn protest against the admiffion of claims which, under thefe circumftances, we cannot but regard as totally incompatible with the fafety of our Conftitution in Church and State. We formerly fuggefted (P. 304. Vol. III.) that the coronation oath fupplied

an

an effectual bar to any scheme which would have the effect of endangering the established religion of the country, "fo long as we have the happiness to poffefs fuch a Monarch as now fways the fceptre of thefe realms." The Doctor feels the fame fecurity, he fays, (P. 36.)" His Majefty, a truly pious prince, will never be induced to concur in fo fatal a measure, but will conceive that his concurrence would be a violation of his coronation oath, inasmuch as it would directly tend to the overthrow of that religious establishment which he has folemnly fworn to maintain and defend." And (in P. 101) he farther convinces his readers that he entertains very just ideas respecting the nature of that oath,

I once heard it roundly afferted, that, if the Houfes of Lords and Commons should agree on a bill for fubverting the Protestant Establishment in Ireland, his Majefty, notwithstanding his coronation. oath, would be bound to give it the Royal affent, and thereby efta. blifh it as a law, because his coronation oath in all particulars is fo to be conftrued, that it is not binding against the opinion of the two Houses. I never can agree with fuch reafoning...I cannot find any fuch faving in the coronation oath it is an abfolute oath; and I never can allow that the two Houfes of Parliament have any fuch power, as that of difpenfing with the obligations of pofitive oaths: I believe and hope, that the Parliament never will affume the power of abfolving from the obfervance of oaths: it would thereby affume the power arrogated by the Pope, which is fo much and fo juftly reprobated by all good Chriftians, And as his Majefty is bound by his coronation oath inviolably to maintain the Proteftant religion as it is now established in Ireland, fo is he bound to refift all conceffions of privileges to any clafs of his fubjects, which would impair or weaken that establishment; though perhaps they would not be at first attended, or immediately followed, by its total fubverfion,"

One very strong fact advanced by the Doctor, in oppofition to fome of his adverfary's arguments refpecting property, is that no less than forty-nine parts out of fifty of the landed property of Ireland are vefted in Proteftants; and he corrects his grofs mifreprefentation refpecting relative numbers of Catholics and Proteftants, by fhewing that the former are only in the proportion of two to one to the latter. Yet the Monthly Reviewers who reviewed this Pamphlet here diffected, entitled "The Cafe of Ireland re-confidered," in their Number for March 1799, (P. 337), and who devoted to it a greater portion of their Number than they fometimes affign to a quarto volume of important matter, do not fcruple to adopt the mittatement of the writer, refpecting both the population and property of the Irish Proteftants; their poffeffion of even nine-tenths of the property (though

Dr.