Irish Catholics.
The Times, 1824-12-08T00:00:00

TO TuE EDITOK OF THE. TiES. - - - Sfr,-- solicit permission to notice your hostile observations of this day utpon the Irish Catbolic'Astociation, and the claims and objects of thait body, wvhich you connect,. mlost properly, withl the wishcsof the Catholics-ofircland generally. If you were an open avowed enemy to Catholic emancipation, the public opinion would know how to deal with your positions and ar- guments; but when your enmity operates under the usak of friend- ship, it assumes a form-deserving more close uttention. What can be conceived more illiberal Or ungenerous th.an the course you adopt ? You profess to approve tho measure of Catholic emancipa- tion, and at the sime time-vou suggestthe most unwa'rruted mo. tives of op?ositIon to it. You say to your Protestant coantrymen- "Grant freedom to your Catholic fellow-subjects, but I tell yoLt that they are not qualified to enjoy it: admit thermi to the participation of the constitution, but be assured they seek to destroy it: ea- courage the diffusion of education amongst them, but beware lest theV may abuse it : tolerate their religion, but hang their priests, or they will subvert the established faith." In te same manner while you profess, as you may with, per'ect justice, to be unaffecteX lay alasms, you give circulationi to every mis- chievous fabrication that yoa can call from the columns of the most intolerant plortino of the press. You must know, that in Ireland, Christmag is the.season for plots as well as fo 'pies. go it was in 1821, when the avenues to the ciFy of Dublin were put in a slate of military defence, for no other reason that could be surmized, than to get a job for an Orange carpenter. So it was in 1822, wlvern the police magistrates, of Dublin, were summoned -to attend the Castle witbout a moment's delay, to heat a rigmarol story of the advance of 833,000 insurgents,who were to enter the city In 16,600) detachments of five each, in orcler to avoid discovery; and it was so arranged by the official tnanufacturer of the plot, that a man should have been nctuaUy taken into custoe'y upon the banks of the canal, with some gunpowper and bullets in his. pocket, at the very time, I believe, when the magistrates were assembled. So it is, it seems, in 124; f'or within these few days I heard one of your nervous gentlefolk gravely assert, that accounts had reached the t3overminent of a risig of two miuiols: of asci in the county Carlow. I consoled the alarmist by a reference to tle official cen'sus of the population of that county, which woald infbrm hi:n that the whale of it does not amnutto the 1-24th part of the number of his insurgents; Similar arts are practised to impose upon the British1 publIle the most barefaced misrepresentations about the coiiduct of the Catholic clergy and laity, at the meetings held in lreland respecting the in- discriminate' circulation of the sacred Scdptures; wbereas, on the contrary, there never was malifested more patient forbear. ance than that withi which theyendured the most viruleit and offensive calumnies against th*nselves and their religion. It is not, perhaps, to be vondered at that tie trained anti-Catbolic emissa- ries on those occasiois, smarting under the sense of being defeated in argument and, surpassed In eloquence, by men utterly inexperi- enced in public discussions, shlould feel somewhat sere, and express their feelings with bitterness;, bat the same indulgence cannot be conceded to others wlho wcre not engaged in the conflicts. It is most unfair to excite the hatred of the British people against their Irish Catholic fellow-sui.jects, who, so far from dcMiring to injure or offend them, cheerfully and grateflully acknowledge the generoslty in which they are indebted to them; and merely seek to establish the just and raitonalprinciple, In which every dissentep from the establisbed church Is equally Interested,-that, as they pay the Same taxes, and contribute tho same support to the State as their brethrenm of the established church, they may also be identified with them not as Catllolics, but Rs fellow-subjects, in all politieal interests ana ob- jects. This is the single aimple scope of all the labours of the Ca- tholic Association of Ireland. This, and this alone, constitutes the emancipation that tbey desire to ostamn. Yet, because they venture to profesas such desires, they are daily and hourly assailed by the most discreditable and dlsgusting vulgar scurrility. The Catholic Association does not seek to interfere with the religious opinions of any otlier communion. Nevertheless, their religion is reviled withoutany regard to truth, justice, or geod man- ners. It is admitted on their behalf, that they will not sacrifice their religious principles, In order to obtain temporal advantages; but Ro honest man will condtemn them on that account. A moment's re- flection must satisfy any Briton, worthy of the name, that there is not a nation upon the earth less interested than his own in counte- nancing this clarnour about the " destruction of all traces of Catho- licity (or Popery) In England." Never did there exist any outery more inconsiderate or inconsistent. In order to " destroy all traces of Popery In England," you must raze to the ground the most venerated temples that ernbellish your land, togetlher with yout legislative and judicial halls-the monunments of piety, of wisdom, and of civilization. All your churches must renounce their titles of dedication; you must suppress both your universities; your churchmen must abolish their hierarchy, their creed, their liturgy, their canonical ce4e, their Bible, and, thougl last, perhaps not last in estimation, their tithes; your lawyEers must extinguisb those learn.ed lights w7hich in their early studies they approached with respect, and on mote matured acquaint- ance they cherish with affccdonate esteem, and must consign to the same common ruin all their forensic forms and in6titutions- your senators must cancel that hallowed guarantee of British liberties your great cliarter; your soldiers must expunge from their annals the names of Uressy and of Agincourt; your cavaliers must de- face their emblazoned banners, and erase from the rolls of heraldry the niost esteemed lionours and rewards of chivalroua fame; your barons must demolish their towerydoisi * your citizens must aban- don their best ceharters, abolish tlheir proudest guilds, and prostrate their Guildhall ; your KingA nnust repudiate the Alfreds, the Edwards, and the Henrys, in whose successioni they were wont to exult; your boasted constitution must be annihilated. The very namne of England must be blotted out: nay, all those appaUing sacrifices will not suffice ; you must do more-you must invite to your shores the axe andt the torci of some new invader ; and when he shall have cloven do-rn every successor to the most bappy and most honoured ages of your ancestry, and laid wa.ste the land of your birth then, indeedl,but nottill then, will the inglorious desire, be accomplished, and" all traces of Popery be destroyed"in England. Forbear, then, I beseech you, in this acrinionious course; and, instead of suggesting mutual criminations, rather assure your fellow- subjects, both Protestant anl Catholic, that there i8 nothing in the relgion of either that should prevent the most comnplete identity in social fellowshin and virtiomimm ln,'.levt. hIw t hn.,,m.' ,,s.h .<,- kINEAS AIACDONNELI. Dec. C. I2RISIt CATIOLrCS.