rosecutors, have all their respective, though
certainly not equal shares. Witnesses, of such a character as not to
deserve credit in the most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial facts,
gave evidence so incredible, or, to speak more properly, so impossible to
be true, that it ought not to have been believed if it had come from the
mouth of Cato: and, upon such evidence, from such witnesses, were innocent
men condemned to death and executed. Prosecutors, whether attornies and
solicitors-general, or managers of impeachment, acted with the fury which,
in such circumstances, might be expected; juries partook, naturally enough,
of the national ferment; and judges, whose duty it was to guard them
against such impressions, were scandalously active in confirming them in
their prejudices, and inflaming their passions. The king, who is supposed
to have disbelieved the whole plot, never once exercised his glorious
prerogative of mercy. It is said he dared not. His throne, perhaps his
life, was at stake."--History of James II, by the right honourable Charles
James Fox, page 33.

[20] Fox's History of James II, page 40.

[21] I was unwilling to interrupt the reader at the last quotation from Mr.
Fox, but I beg leave here to say a few words relative to the insinuated
calumny on the catholic priests of Ireland, to which I then alluded. As I
have before observed, it is easy to see, that this attack, under cover of
assailing the Jesuits, is aimed at catholics in general. The priests in
Ireland are charged, in the pamphlet, with great venality and corruption of
morals, and this, the writer says, may be affirmed without the fear of
contradiction. To notice this slander is allowing myself to be led from my
particular subject into the general one; I will not, therefore, dwell upon
it, but, referring the reader to a volume of indisputable authority, though
written by a catholic (Dr. Milner's Inquiry into certain vulgar Opinions,
Letter xviii), for an interesting account of the Irish clergy and of the
Irish poor, I will content myself with extracting a note, or rather
reference, from page 182 of the book. "If, gentlemen, you are not under the
influence of very gross prejudice, you will, in receiving representations
of the necessitous state of Ireland, maturely weigh the allegations of men,
who have stigmatized, and still stigmatize as the last of mankind, some of
the most deserving and useful men in the community. There are among them
pre