yourself as if the other member of your proposition, namely, that "they
ought not to be a _part_ of the state," were necessarily included in the
first,--whereas I conceive it to be as different as a part is from the
whole, that is, just as different as possible. I know, indeed, that it
is common with those who talk very differently from you, that is, with
heat and animosity, to confound those things, and to argue the admission
of the Catholics into any, however minute and subordinate, parts of the
state, as a surrender into their hands of the whole government of the
kingdom. To them I have nothing at all to say.

Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very
serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the
principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an
understanding so little comprehensive as
mine.--"State,"--"Protestant,"--"Revolution." These are terms which, if
not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word _State_ I
conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify
_the whole commonwealth_, comprehending all its orders, with the several
privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only _the higher
and ruling part_ of the commonwealth, which we commonly call _the
Government_. In the first sense, to be under the state, but not the
state itself, _nor any part of it_, that is, to be nothing at all in the
commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,--but to those who
fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a
state of _civil servitude_, by the very force of the definition.
_Servorum non est respublica_ is a very old and a very true maxim. This
servitude, which makes men _subject_ to a state without being
_citizens_, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but
these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of
the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their
dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of
the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the
Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly
is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever.

In the other sense of the word _State_, by which is understood the
_Supreme Government_ only, I must observe this upon the question: that
to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this _part_ of gover