the Protestants, which they unremittingly did from the year 1793 to the year 1798, inclufive, what dreadful confequences may not be expected to arife from granting them a right to fit in parliament: they will violate every law to re urn reprefentatives of their own religion. "The Popish multitude in the country will be organized as WhiteBoys, Right-Boys, or Defenders, and will hunt the Proteftants as they have heretofore done from the country, that they may become exclu fively the terre-tenants and voters; at prefent this island is finking under the weight of an expenfive military establishment, to preferve focial order, and the neceffity of it is evident, from the difcoveries conftantly made of treasonable combinations, and of nocturnal meetings of the people, in confequence of which the civil magiftrates are obliged to be conftantly on the alert, and prifoners are frequently brought to the castle. 66 I will venture to affert, that double the army which now exifts in Ireland must be maintained in it, fhould this privilege be granted, and it will not in the finalleft degree meliorate the condition of the merchants, the farmers, or the mechanics. it. I shall now advert to other confequences which will refult from "In process of time Popish reprefentatives for countries will be returned, and fome Irish gentlemen who are nominally Proteftants, but are in fact Deifts, will openly profefs Popery to fecure their elections, and to prevent the trouble and expence of a conteft.” "The elections in corporations will be completely Jacobinical ; for as the multitude will claim, and have a right to the elective franchise, by birth, fervitude, marriage, or length of refidence, the reprefentatives will be returned by a popish mob, and the power of the priest in his confeffion-box will fuperfede and overturn the falutary influence of the crown, without which the conftitution would be completely republican." P. 33. "This measure (Catholic emancipation) will completely jacobinize Ireland, and will ultimately terminate in irremediable anarchy and turbulence. "In a few years the Irish Romanists will return eighty members* to parliament, and I am well affured by perfons well informed on the fubject, that the English will return from fifteen to twenty. But fuppofe that the whole amounted to but fifty; they will act as a compact body in concert, for the advancement of their religion, and they will give the most unremitting attendance in parliament, which in general is but thinly attended. If we except the fix great Proteftant counties of the north, the University of Dublin, and fix or eight claje boroughs, the majority of freeholders and electors will be Catholics; they are now the majority in the counties, and will be immediately fo in the corporations, if the oaths of fupremacy and abjuration are repealed. Rev. F BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXV. JAN. 1805. "This "This body, by attaching itself to the oppofition, which it will most certainly do, will harrafs and distress a minister so much, that he will not be able to maintain his fituation, unless he yields implicitly to their wishes; and, as ambition feldom fails to make every other confideration fubordinate to its own gratification, the Proteftant ftate will be overthrown in procefs of time. "This meafure will weaken the aristocracy of England, and will give additional weight to the republican faction, which exifts there at this time, and which has aimed at the fubversion of the conftitution fome years paft. Roman Catholics have been conftantly Republicans under a Proteftant ftate, particularly in Ireland. That axiom, that no perfon should fubmit to the civil inflitutions of any fate unless he has directly given his confent to them, was first invented by popish schoolmen, for the purpose of railing the papal power above that of Kings; as, by degrading the latter below that of the people, over whom the Romish clergy have an unbounded afcendancy, the court of Rome established a complete tyranny over both." P. 36. This writer next proves, from "hiftory and experience, the only fure guides to flatefmen", the verfatility of the poli tical principles of the Roman Catholics; and that they can crouch to a democracy, when they think it will ferve their purposes, as readily as they yield apparent fubmiffion to a monarchy, when they have not ftrength or opportunity to refift, or to manifeft their real fentiments. In fupport of his pofition that they can crouch to a commonwealth, he inftances the two addreffes which the Irifh Catholics prefented to the Rump Parliament, in 1652, 1653, in which the following paragraph is to be found; "that they did really fubject, and put their confcience, lives, and fortunes, as in a fanctuary, under the protection of their commonwealth; having ever fince walked peaceably, and in due conformity to the government, without the leaft defection therein."* But we need not refer to the feventeenth century for proofs of the versatility of their principles. In our own times, their political affociates, M'Nevin, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and Arthur O'Connor, have crouched to French regicides, and negociated for affiftance from the monfter Robefpierret; yet why fhould we be furprised at fuch proceedings, after having *The reader should recollect, that they had rebelled against the King's government, and maffacred his Proteftant fubjects. + Exempli gratia: M'Nevin's memoir, prefented to the Directory of France; Lord E. Fitzgerald's conference with Gen. Hoche, on the borders of Switzerland; and Mr. A. O'Connor's intended trip to France, just before his arreft and trial at Maidstone; the miffion of Mr. Lewins to Paris, &c. &c. &c. Rev. been been affured, from high authority, that their religion is fuited to a democracy as well as a monarchy? We perfectly agree with the able writer of this excellent pamphlet, that "The following incident tends to make Popery peculiarly dangerous at this time. The order of the Jefuits was abolished many years ago, by all the Roman Catholic princes in Europe; becaufe, by their ambition, and factious spirit of intrigue, they not only disturbed their ftates, but formed affaffination plots against their lives, wherever they opposed that universal dominion to which the Pope afpired.” "The courts of Paris, Madrid, Naples, and Lisbon made repeated and ftrenuous folicitations to Pope Ganganelli to abolith the order of Jefuits in his dominions, as they had done in theirs; but he hesitated, alledging that it had been authentically confirmed by the council of Trent." "Thefe fovereigns, dreading a renovation of the evils occafioned by thofe malignant incendiaries, if any veftige of them remained in Europe, threatened to deprive the Pope of his territories, to the very gates of Rome, if he did not entirely abolish that order; and, in the year 1773, he was obliged to comply. Though the prefent Pope has reftored the order of the Jefuits, not only in his own dominions, but in the kingdom of Naples, whofe fovereign had before peremptorily infifted on its abolition, not a single prince in Europe has ventured to exprefs his difapprobation of it, and for this obvious reason, that they are afraid of incurring Buonaparte's difpleasure. As the Pope is now become an humble and paffive inftrument in his hands, we may fairly conclude, that he would not venture to revive the order of the Jefuits, unless he had the fanction of the French ufurper for fo doing; and, as it is more than probable that in future they will be his Janiffaries, and not those of his Holiness, he will be more formidable to the fafety of fovereign prinees through their agency, than by his armies." "As the Romanists have obtained not only a full toleration of their religion, but have been allowed to erect feminaries for the education of popish priests, both in England and Ireland, Buonaparte will be able, under their fanction, to maintain as spies a great number of thefe defperate incendiaries in both iflands; and, as they have been eftablished under the Council of Trent, which strictly enjoins the votaries of the holy fee unremittingly proftrate herefy as a religious duty, the reader may conceive what will be the probable confequence." Pp. 26-40. With refpect to the Oath of Supremacy, which, fince the Irish Catholic Bill of 1793, is the only impediment which now exifts to prevent a Roman Catholic from fitting in Parliament, and filling the higheft offices in the ftate, this most forcible writer observes: "This, in fact, is but an oath of allegiance, denying and renouncing the jurifdiction of any foreign prince, which every fubject fhould be required to take before he is permitted to enjoy any places of power or confidence under the government." The Diffenters of the empire are, we conceive, as effe&tually excluded from political power by the Teft and Corporation Laws, as the Catholics are by the Oath of Supremacy, which is in fact nothing more than the Teft, which the flate requires from them; and the Diffenters have juft as much reason to require a repeal of the former, as the Catholics have to. infift upon a difpenfation from the latter, which is all that now remains for the legislature to grant them. We cannot here help remarking, how cautioully the Roman Catholics have avoided defining what they mean by their emancipation; they know the value of a long-founding, ambiguous, popular term, and probably laugh at their Proteftant advocates, who clamour for their emancipation without knowing what they (the Catholics) mean by it, or what are the ultimate objects at which they aim. The Catholics feem (if we may use fuch an expreffion) to have taken a lease of lives, renewable for ever, of In 1778, when long leafes, a right to purchafe lands, and the abolition of the moft rigorous penal flatutes, were conceded, they obtained their emancipation. In a few years more, the remaining penal ftatutes were abolished, and they were then again emancipated. In 1793, all the barriers which our ancellors had erected to defend the conflitution were, with the exception of the Oath of Supremacy, thrown down, that they might be admitted within its pale. We then thought, that we had. made three millions of people in Ireland free, happy, and grateful, and had extinguifhed the term. We were, alas! miftaken-they h are to be emancipated. We muft now, forfooth, repeal this Oath of Supremacy, which their fqueamish confciences cannot digeft; and, when the emancipation of Ireland from Great Britain is accomplished, the term will then perhaps be extinét. this term. "As the peace and profperity of Ireland", obferves the admirable writer of this pamphlet, "have been mot materially injured, by experiments and innovations made in thefe twenty-five years paft, I would recommend to the confideration of government the following obfervations of Lord Bacon. Mr. Plowden, in his History of Ireland, fays, "that every man attaches his own ideas to the phrafe"; if fo, may not fome expect that the Roman Catholic Areabhops and Bishops fhall fit in the House of Lords; and furely they have just as much right to their feat there as the temporal Catholic Lords can have. It is good alfo not to try experiments in ftates, except the neceffity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware, that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the defire of change that preten feth the reformation; and, laftly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a fufpect; and, as the Scripture faith, that we mak a ftand upon the ancient way, and then lok about us, and diserver what is the right and straight way, and fo to walk in it.' P. 48. With refpect to Mr. Miles's pamphlet, as that gentleman is but a newly converted advocate of the Roman Catholics, and as his noftrums are nearly the fame as Mr. Tighe's, this writer thinks it a ufelefs repetition to anfwer his arguments; and contents himself with expofing his political tergiverfation; and referring in to the chapters and fections of Irish Acts of Parliaments, and to the various reports of the Houses of Parliament in England and Ireland, for information upon the fubject he has attempted to difcufs. In fine. we cannot too ftrongly recommend the arguments contained in this able pamphlet to the confideration of the members of the legislature, as well as to the public; and, as fo many fhallow declaimers (not to mention befides certain periodical and daily publications) inceffantly make a clamour upon the fubject of the claims of the Roman Catholics, which they either do not understand, or upon which they with to miflead the public, we hope to fee the confequences of Catholic emancipation, as it is called, further elucidated by the pen of this writer. The fubject is of the utmolt importance to the conftitution, in church and flate; it fhould be confidered and reconsidered in all its bearings and relations; and we know not any writer more fully mafter of the fubject, than the author of this very excellent tract has fhown himfelf, by his arguments upon it. BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 11. The Swifs Exile, a Poem. By Shirly Palmer. 4to. 13 pp. Lichfield, printed; fold by Longman and Co. London. 1804. In fubjects of impaffioned animation, the measure which has been called the English trochaic, in ftanzas of four lines, with alternate rhymes, has fometimes been employed with good effe&t. This is the measure chofen by the young poet now before us, who, as his Pre face |