The Sun.
London, England, 1817-08-07 00:00:00

IRISH csmoLics.

FOR THE SUN.

MR. a former "letter T proved
at Protestants under a Roman Catholic State,

may with the utmost safety to it be permitted to
enjoy civil privileges anti pnlitical power, to the
utmost extent ; but that the reverse did not fol-
low, because the fundamental principles of.Po-
pery ate radically subversive of every state, and
hostile to all persons that are not within the, pale
of the Romisit Church. I shall now prove, that

for various concurrent reasons, the Irish Roman
Catholics harbour a stronger spirit of disaffection
to the State, and a. more envenomed hatred to

Protestants, than those of any other country,
and therefore that they are sui generis. 'As-•the
natives of Ifeland, in the 12th century, were very
barbarous, being ignorant of those laws and in-
sti•nt'ions which are necessary to promote social
happiness, they should have regarded the arrival
among them of so civilized- a nation as the !Bri-
tish, as a peculiar'fay.our of heaven ; nor did the
wiser part seem insensible to it. Matthew Paris

tells ns, that at a Council held at Lismere', in
1172, Henry 1.1. granted the laws of England to
the Irish, by -whom -they were gratefUlly receiy,
ed (1), and that all `persons present took oaths of
allegiance As soon as Henry returned, they re-

jeered the laws, violated their allegiance, and ran
into rebellion; they were therefore excluded from
the benefit of them, and were no longer consider-
ed as subjects. Sir John Davis observes; on the
arrival of king John, " The Irish Lords, for the
most part, submitted.-themselves to him, as they
had done to his father, which was but a mere
mockery and impostnre; for his back was no
sooner, turned, but they relapsed in rebellion;
and yet this was reputed a conquest." Attached
to their own barbarous manner orli-ving, and in-
dulged 'by tbeir lit-Ws in licen-
tiousness of every kind, theyf;iund the salutary
restraint of English regimen so, irksome and gall-
ing, that by perpetual' insurrections they eride-
vciured to shake it off; anti in the reign of Henry

111. A. D. 1230, they collected such a force as
to form a hope• of being able totally to expel
the EUglish (2), (onisne genus,Anglornm Hibernia:

finisbus penitiis extur bane)', says Matt. Paris;
. ,
and accordingly Gisaldur Cambrensis tells us.
that ormies fete .kriglici •ab Hibernia tuthehantur.
Many septs of the Irish, sensible how much

superior the English .laws were to their own bar-
barous municipal customs, petitioned the Britid►
\lonarcl►s for charters of denization, and obtain-
ed. them ; but they were commonly-opposed by
the• Irish Lords and Chieftains; as they would
check their tyranny and rapacity over their te-
nants and vassals. Sir John Davis, p. 75, tells
us, that the Ostmen or Danes, who settled at
Waterford in the 9th century, and, who wished
for such laws as would tend to promote the ad-
vantages of civil life, solicited and obtained from
Henry 11. a Charter of denization, which was
afterwards confirmed by Edward I. in the same
page, he gives extracts from some Charters
granted to the native Irish by Edward I. and 'Ed-
ward IV.

The disaffected have made a constant, practice
of libelling the British Government, by asserting
that they did 'not desire to impart English laws
to the Irish, but wished to keep .them in a state
of ignorance and barbarism. That excellent
writer, Sir John Davis, observes on this gross,
falsehood; in his disco Very of the true causes why.
Ireland was never subdued, " Upon considera-
tion of the conduct And passage of affairs in for-
mer times, I find the state of England ought to
be cleared of an imputation which a vulgar error
bath cast upon it, namely. that Ireland might long
since have been subduzd and reduced to civility,
if some statesmen, in policy, had not thought it
inure fit to continue that realm in barbarism.
Doubtless this vulgar opinion) bath no grounds,
but did first arise either out of ignorance, or out
of Malice ; for it will appear by this discourse,.
that ever since our nation had any footing in this
land, the State of England did earnestly desire
and did accordingly endeavour, from time to time,
to perfect the conquest of this kingdom; but that iii
evv-ry age there were found such impediments and
defects in both realms, as caused an almost lin-
possibility that things should be otherwise than
they were." He then proceeds to give a minute
statement of the reasons why the British Mo-
narchs front Henry 11. to Queen Elizabeth were
prevented from conquering.and civilizing Ireland'.
Sir John Davis tells us, " that King Jolita in the
12th year of his reign, did establish the English
laws and customs in Ireland, as we find recorded
among the patent rolls in the Tower, 2, Hen. 111.
M. 3i" and that " King Henry 111, did grant
and tranSmit the like charter of liberties to his
subjects of Ireland, as himself and his father had
granted to the subjects of Englund, as appears
by' another record in • the Tower, 1: Hen. PI:
•M. 13," that afterwards, " by a special writ,
he comaranded_the Lords Justice of Ireland to
Convene the Archbishops, .131 shops; Earls, and