ate view must have prompted this wantonness of
slander. But {320} supposing for an instant, that all and each of your
random accusations of ancient Jesuits were as true, as all and each are
undeniably false; allowing that your columns in the Times could arrest a
reader, unacquainted with continental history, in a state of hesitation and
doubt; yet he must at least say: "These bad men, like the ancient giants,
have been exterminated, they have long since disappeared, we have survived
their criminal practices, why is the alarm bell sounded in the present
times?"--"But," cries Laicus, "there once was a body of English Jesuits,
and, during the whole term of their existence, 'our fathers spent restless
nights and uneasy days. Dr. Sherlocke, living under dread of popery and
arbitrary power, could enjoy no repose, when every morning threatened to
usher in the last dawn of England's liberty.' I trust this quotation will
not be without its use[117]." "Yes, these English Jesuits laid upon us '_a
yoke, which was too heavy for {321} our fathers to bear_,' and the pope is
again trying to fasten it upon our shoulders." &c.[118]

I allow it, Sir; there formerly existed a body of English Jesuits. It was
violently crushed and annihilated more than forty years ago. I look in vain
for the yoke, which they imposed upon our fathers: I have read something of
the yoke, which they themselves bore. It is described in letters of blood,
in the penal statutes of Elizabeth and the first James. During a full
century, half the gibbets of England witnessed the unrelenting severity of
persecution, which these injured men quietly and meekly endured. They were
a body of catholic priests, always esteemed and cherished by English
catholics; and, at every period of their existence, they counted in their
society many members of the best and most ancient families among the
British gentry. They risked their lives by treading on their native soil.
They devoted themselves to {322} administer the comforts of religion in
secret to their suffering brethren; and they then slunk back to their
hiding holes in the hollows of walls and roofs of houses. They never
possessed a single house, school, or chapel, in which they could recommend
themselves to their countrymen, by the peaceable functions of their
profession: they were never otherwise known to the British public than
when, surprised by priest-catchers, they were dragged to jail, and from
jail to the gallows. Thus li