end,
whom I feared you had long forgotten. But I confess, at the same Time,
that the Pleasure of hearing from you, after a Silence of Several Years,
is, in some Measure, damped by the Censure that seems to constitute the
chief Intent of your Letter.

You tell me that you lately happened upon some Papers that were entitled
The FARMER's LETTERS, _&c._ which were imputed to me as the Author. And,
after some Compliments on Spirit, and Genius, and so forth, in order to
palliate, as I suppose, what you purpose to administer, you charge me, by
Implication, with Crimes, whose smallest Tendency I should abhor in
myself, as in any Man breathing.

You say, favourably enough for your own Disposition, that you have long
looked on the _Roman-Catholics_ of these Kingdoms as a discountenanced and
pitiable People. That you would choose to allow to others the same
Latitude of Conscience that you like for yourself. That it is not a Part
of Humanity to break a Reed already bruised. That such a Treatment would
be blameable respecting any Individual; how much more so, in Prejudice of
a whole People. That those Papers are pointed with a Keenness of Enmity,
for which the Talents, which you are pleased to ascribe, cannot
sufficiently apologize. And, that you did not think me capable of
exasperating Government and Power against a Set of Men who were already
under the Displeasure and Depression of the Law.

These, my dear Friend, are home and heavy Accusations, however tempered by
Expressions of Kindness and Affection from the Man whom I sincerely love
and respect.

But, if I know any-thing of myself, the Quality, called Ill-nature, is not
my Characteristic. I would not exchange one Grain of Good-heart for all
the Wit of a _C----d_ or Comprehension of a _P--tt_, independent of their
Virtue. And I may say, with great Truth, that an Excess of Humanity hath
occasioned all the Misfortunes and Distresses of my Life.

I most solemnly assure you, that when I wrote those Letters I was in
perfect Love and Charity with every _Roman Catholic_ in the Kingdom of
_Ireland_. I knew that they were a depressed People. I had long pitied
them as such. I was sensible that the Laws, under which they suffered, had
been enacted by our Ancestors, when the Impressions of Hostility were
fresh and warm, and when Passion, if I may venture to say so, co-operated,
in some Measure, with Utility and Reason. I will go a Step further. I
thought those Laws not severe enough t