The National Register.
London, England, 1808-06-13 00:00:00

870 -

• THE

ATI

the reigning Ist-hay : but the persecution was not to lat
tamely suftered. The peasants were hunted and murdered
their meetings: in revenge, the military force was per-
petually thinned by the ambuscades of the exasperated
people. As complete a civil war was carried on in Scot-
land, as lately raged among the Irish and in all proba-
bility Inc Scotch would not at this day be the subjects of
the Luglish King, if the revolution had not restored the
anew:loco of the oppressed, by removing their grievances.
It has been argued that the Catholic Religion is dangerous
in its principle, and we shall presently speak of that ques-
tion : hut in the mean time we assert, that there is not
more veticutence or plausibility in the arguments of those
who maintain the danger of the Catholic spirit, than there
wa; formerly in the arguments of the people who opposed
Ca: cia:ras of the Presbyterians, as a class of men.
thnt its every tenet, iorm, and proceeding, had
fuld proved itself evidently hostile to monarchy. But
what has been the result I The Presbyterians were no
sooner delivered from peisecutions and disabilities, than
they became the most loyal subjects of the island. The
army and navy are filled with staunch Presbyterians: the
descendants of men who struggled against-an oppressive
government are the warmest defenders of that government
now that it has ceased to oppress : and to this day the most
devoted adherents of the Court Party arc certainly found
amonglhe icotch. Surely this example is most thorougly
analo!ous : and after reasoniag abstractedly on the neces-
sity of relief to the Catholics, and enforcing our reasonings
.by an instance so directly in point, We shall expect to have
some very very strong proof of the dangers to be appre-
hended from the eonct won of such relief.

Among the foremost of these proofs are the ecclesiasti-
cal decrees that Catholic Councils used to pass, two, or
three, or four centuries ago. We should not have believed
that any body would have used such an argument, if we
had not heard it with our own ears : for what connection
there can be between the despotism of a Catholic Esta-
blishment three hundred years ago, and the Emancipation
of Catholics dissenting from the establishment of the pre-
sent day, it is difficult to form a conjecture. Are we to be
told again about fires in. Smithfie:d Will men be sacri-
ficed to religion in these times, as they were when religion
was only another word for superstition ? Is there any re-
serublaaee between the dispositions of the people in the
two periods of which we speak I Is there any resemblance
in the customs of society ? If there be any argument that
for a mo:nent can make one think the renewal of religious
martyrdoms a probable event., that argument is certainly
the bigott'.d barbarity with which the Catholics of Ire-
land have been treated. We, we, the Protestants, are the
olive-Nora : r:e are the upholders of intolerance : we are
the frieeds of persecution, and the perpetrators of ani-
mosity If the Catholics cannot be trusted as allies, they
Cannot be trusted as subjects : why do we allow, in the
heart of our country, the existence of a body, whom we
believe, from the inherent vices of their religious faith, to
be persons toacife amid plenty itself, and ungrateful
even in the fullness of indulgence ? Why do we not
at once exterminate a race of beings so dangerous to our
roperties, our liberties, and our lives ? Because we
know that they are dangerous, not from nature but from
circumstance : we know that the Catholics, when their
grievances shall be redressaal, can no longer ha%e a motive
for hating us. Whea we have given them what they ask,
and placed them on a level with ourselves, where is the
furher !auger I Thry will see nothing more to fight
against us tor. If they were governed by a Catholic
King, C:ey coo;c1 but procure the ways of power and
honour ro be ;aid ellen to them, and if those ways are
laid open by 'is, a Catholic succession is no longer a mat-
ter to be coveted by them. For as to the other idle notion
that .iee ciao) hear, a notion that the Catholics wiah to
mordee ati the Protestants in the li:ng's dominions,
by way of ;aettiriz their property, we should be glad to
kiwi, bow their Enuit.cipation would ticilitatq sit& a