tion of contradictory
distresses, is a thing at once so dreadful and ridiculous, that no
malice short of diabolical would wish to continue any human creatures in
such a situation. But honest men will not forget either their merit or
their sufferings. There are men (and many, I trust, there are) who, out
of love to their country and their kind, would torture their invention
to find excuses for the mistakes of their brethren, and who, to stifle
dissension, would construe even doubtful appearances with the utmost
favor: such men will never persuade themselves to be ingenious and
refined in discovering disaffection and treason in the manifest,
palpable signs of suffering loyalty. Persecution is so unnatural to
them, that they gladly snatch the very first opportunity of laying aside
all the tricks and devices of penal politics, and of returning home,
after all their irksome and vexatious wanderings, to our natural family
mansion, to the grand social principle that unites all men, in all
descriptions, under the shadow of an equal and impartial justice.

Men of another sort, I mean the bigoted enemies to liberty, may,
perhaps, in their politics, make no account of the good or ill affection
of the Catholics of England, who are but an handful of people, (enough
to torment, but not enough to fear,) perhaps not so many, of both sexes
and of all ages, as fifty thousand. But, Gentlemen, it is possible you
may not know that the people of that persuasion in Ireland amount at
least to sixteen or seventeen hundred thousand souls. I do not at all
exaggerate the number. A _nation_ to be persecuted! Whilst we were
masters of the sea, embodied with America, and in alliance with half the
powers of the Continent, we might, perhaps, in that remote corner of
Europe, afford to tyrannize with impunity. But there is a revolution in
our affairs, which makes it prudent to be just. In our late awkward
contest with Ireland about trade, had religion been thrown in, to
ferment and embitter the mass of discontents, the consequences might
have been truly dreadful. But, very happily, that cause of quarrel was
previously quieted by the wisdom of the acts I am commending.

Even in England, where I admit the danger from the discontent of that
persuasion to be less than in Ireland, yet even here, had we listened to
the counsels of fanaticism and folly, we might have wounded ourselves
very deeply, and wounded ourselves in a very tender part. You are
apprised t