A LETTER TO THE

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penal sword, while the Papal stiletto is still in the hands of Catholics : —it is follyto expect, and insult to ash it! — The subjection of your church to the Pope wasthe consequence of your political misfortunes; and, even granting that the conti-nuance of this yoke is consistent with the freedom which you ask for (a positionwhich you yourselves have, in all times and countries, denied), yet, by unneces-sarily preserv ing such a memorial of your former alienation, you perpetuate the re-membrance of times which it is the interest of all parties to forget — you withholdthat reciprocity of sacrifice, which alone makes reconcilement satisfactory; and youtake all its grace from the gift of liberty, by ungenerously declaring that you dis-trust the giver. In short, it shows an ignorance of the commonest feelings of hu-man nature, to suppose that the present possessors of the state Would willinglyadmit you to a share upon such very unequal terms, or that as long as you clingclose to the Court of Home, you can be cordially embraced by the British Con-stitution.

Again, therefore, I appeal to that love of liberty, which is native to you asIrishmen , and avowed by you as Catholics , 1 and I ask whether you can think,without shame and indignation, that, for a long period, you have been the onlypeople in Europe (w ith the exception of a few petty States in the neighbourhood olthe Pope ) who have sunk so low in ecclesiastical vassalage, as to place their wholehierarchy at the disposal of the Roman Court? Can you patiently reflect, that thehumiliating doctrine of Caietanus, “ servant esse ecelesiam,” which the divines ofFrance so boldly and successfully combated, 2 has been admitted and acted upon inIreland alone? and that the title, under which Pope Adrian | affected to trans-fer this kingdom to Henry II ., 3 though treated by your ancestors with thecontempt which it deserved , 4 has been almost justified by the voluntary sub-mission with which you have since surrendered the only rights that were leftyou to his successors? — If you felt, upon these reflections, as lovers of li-berty ought, you would rejoice in the opportunity, which now so brightly presentsitself, of regaining, at the same moment, your political {and ecclesiastical freedom— of proving to your fellow-countrymen that the yoke, which you assumed asCa-tholics, was but a kind of counterbalance to the fetter which hung upon you as ci-tizens ; and that the same emancipating touch, which bursts the links of the latter,Will for ever release you from the degradation of the former.

Let me add, too, that, as revenge was naturally among the motives whichsweetened your alliance with a Prince whom your persecutors feared and detested,it becomes you to beware, lest those, whom you now ask to confide in you, shouldsuspect that a wilful perseverance in this connexion is actuated by some remains ofthat vindictive spirit, under whose embittering influence it first was formed. TheGreeks had the feeling and good taste to exclude from the architecture of theirtemples those figures of female slaves called Caryatides, because (as it is well ex-pressed by a writer upon the art) they would be “ monuments of vengeance in anasylum ofmercy” 5 * —how much more importantly then are you called upon to imi-tate this tasteful generosity of the Greeks, and to shrink from profaning, with theleast trace of revengeful feeling, that free sanctuary of reconcilement to which youare invited!

I shall be told, of course, that, in the instances which I have adduced, ofFance , 5and of the early times of England 7 and Ireland , the religion of the State was

1 Among many examples which might be adduced to prove that a warm zeal for theRoman Catholic religion is consistent with the best feelings and principles of political liberty,we may mention the very interesting instance of the Dalecarlians, who, thotigh they chiefly as-sisted Gustavus to shake olf the tyranny of the Danes, were among the first to oppose his re-formation of their ancient religion. — See Sheridax’s Revolution of Sweden page 110, wherewe may trace a strong similarity to the Irish character, through the description which he givesof the turbulent, but generous nature of these hardy mountaineers.

2 See particularly Latjnoi’s Letters .

3 This title might be sent after the famous deed of gift from Constantine to Pope Silvester ,w-lnch Ariosto tells us is to be found in the moon.

Questo era il dono (se perh dir lice )

Che Constantino al buon Silvestro fece.

I am aware, that to certain lay controversialists, 1 shall not appear quite orthodox hi quotingAriosto, whom their great annalist, Baronius , has styled “vulgaris poeta ille,“ in his indigna-tion against the bard, for having borrowed from the'Legends his curious story of Isabella andthe Moor.— See La Cerda, upon the 7th book of the Aeneid . — “ita scilicet patet secta plagia-rioruin,“ etc.

4 In the same maimer, Paul IV. in the time of Mary, took upon him to erect Ireland intoa kingdom, with pompous references, for his authority, to the Saints, etc.; upon which Arch-bishop Usher says. “Paul need not make all that noise, and trouble the whole court of Heavenwith the matter. a

5 “Vindictae mouumenta in asylo misericordiae. a Aliirich’s Architecture. _

(1 The famous declaration of the liberties of the Gallican church, contained in the four pro-positions of the Bishops, in Iti82, which the learned Bossnet was the most active in promoting,and which (as a Roman Catholic divine of these countries tells us) went so far as_“to pronouncethe Sovereign Pastor fallible even in his dogmatic decisions of faith” (Reeve’s Christian Church),jias been lately revived, in its full extent, by that greatest of all statesmen and warriors, Buo-naparte . ..

7 Doctor Bramhall thus states the liberties of the Roman Catholic Church of England: