nd though not at
present prepared to separate, they will gradually fall off. But what
avail the inward sentiments of men if they are convinced that by acting
upon them they will forfeit their outward dignity and power? As long as
the political influence which the priests now exercise shall endure, or
anything like it, the great proprietors will be obliged to dissemble,
and to conform in their action to the demands of that power. Such will
be the conduct of the great Roman Catholic proprietors; nay, farther, I
agree with those who deem it probable that, through a natural and
reasonable desire to have their property duly represented, many
landholders who are now Protestant will be tempted to go over to Papacy.
This may be thought a poor compliment to Protestantism, since religious
scruples, it is said, are all that keep the Papists out; but is not the
desire to be in, pushing them on almost to rebellion at this moment? We
are taking, I own, a melancholy view of both sides; but human nature, be
it what it may, must by legislators be looked at as it is.

In the treatment of this question we hear perpetually of wrong; but the
wrong is all on one side. If the political power of Ireland is to be a
transfer from those who are of the State religion of the country to
those who are not, there is nothing gained on the score of justice. We
hear also much of STIGMA; but this is not to be done away unless all
offices, the Privy Council and the Chancellorship, be open to them; that
is, unless we allow a man to be eligible to keep the King's conscience
who has not his own in his keeping; unless we open the throne itself to
men of this soul-degrading faith.

The condition of Ireland is indeed, and long has been, wretched.
Lamentable is it to acknowledge, that the mass of the people are so
grossly uninformed, and from that cause subject to such delusions and
passions, that they would destroy each other were it not for restraints
put upon them by a power out of themselves. This power it is that
protracts their existence in a state for which otherwise the course of
nature would provide a remedy by reducing their numbers through mutual
destruction; so that English civilisation may fairly be said to have
been the shield of Irish barbarism. And now these swarms of degraded
people, which could not have existed but through the neglect and
misdirected power of the sister island, are by a withdrawing of that
power to have their own way, and to be