me? In a World where nothing is permanent; where Modes,
Manners, Principles, and Practice are at a Flux; where Life is uncertain,
and all it contains changeable; Nature and Reason will conform to
Situation and Circumstance; and where _Causes_ have ceased, in any Degree,
the _Consequences_ ought to cease in the same Proportion.

It is not now with _Rome_ as it was in the Days when Princes held her
Steed, and Emperors her Stirrup. The Kings of the Earth have, pretty
clearly, resumed her Usurpations and Acquisitions of temporal Dominion. It
is not now, as it was when she cried Peace! and it became Peace; or when
the Breath of her Mandate kindled the Nations to Battle. Even his
_Holiness_ is, now, but a poor limited Prince, pent up within his little
_Italian_ Demesne. If some few still acknowledge to hold of his Authority,
it is a Homage of Words, and not of Facts; they will not acknowledge to
hold of his Power. He is restored to the quiet and unenvied Possession of
all the Lordship and Interest he can acquire in Heaven. But the Sceptre,
even of his spiritual Dominion upon Earth, is, of late, as I take it, most
wonderfully shortened.

Matters are much altered with the ecclesiastical World, even since I wrote
the Letters that have roused your Spleen. Whether it be through a Decline
of the _Romish_ Religion, in particular; or, possibly, through a Decline
of all Religion, in general; the pontifical and episcopal Dictatorship and
Authority are wofully fallen, from the Chair of Infallibility, where they
had been seated by Opinion. The Sons of the most bigotted Ancestors do now
perceive, that Piety and Immorality are not rightly consistent. And even
the vulgar and ignorant, among the _Roman_ Laity, would grumble at
departing from an Inch of their Property, though the Priest should advise,
and the Pope, himself, should enjoin it.

But, Sir, if the Change of Times, and Principles, Situation, and
Circumstances; if the Change of every Cause that produced those penal
Laws, have not availed for a Change of _Consequences_; for some Mitigation
or Abatement of their Rigour, toward these my unhappy Brethren, the _Roman
Catholics of Ireland_: If no Argument, I say, that is taken from Changes,
may avail for the Purpose, I will take one from Permanence and Duration
itself, that shall strike Light and Conviction to the Eye of every
Beholder; that Power may _gainsay_, but cannot _refute_; that Malevolence
may _dispute_, but never can _answer_.