But the truth is, at this period, and during some of the preceding and following ages, the most powerful minds, carried away by the popular enthusiasm of the times, scarcely allowed themselves, in their entercourse with religious opponents, to be regulated by those principles of sound policy, of equity, and benevolence, and charity, which on other occasions they avowed, and which generally had a predominating influence on their conduct. Recently awakened from the benumbing stupor of superstition, and having thrown off the yoke of false philosophy, and ecclesiastical tyranny, they exulted, with all the fondness which novelty inspires, in that liberty with which their own bold efforts had made them free; proudly indignant against that complicated hierarchy whose power and policy kept the world so long in bondage. The execution of penal laws against Roman Catholics appeared to them just, and to superficial thinkers his always appeared plausible. They justified the severity of their conduct towards them, not by

* By this remark I am far from wishing to insinuate that all those who oppose the claims of the Catholics are superficial thinkers. Such an insinuation would discover consummate ignorance and presumption. I only mean to say that the reasoning by which Milton, the friend of liberty, and others justified the execution of the penal laws, is prima facie extremely plausible, and to those who always dwell on the surface of things, very satisfactory.

vindicating the propriety of religious intolerance, but by considering them as a political faction, whose principles are radically inimical to civil liberty, as well as to the nobler freedom of the mind, and whose political existence, therefore, was dangerous to the interests of any state with which they happened to be connected. This reasoning, since in some instances it may be well founded, seems rather imposing, and was sufficient to satisfy the consciences of philosophers and legislators. Its force, not merely as it regards the Catholics, but as a directing principle of conduct in any case, will be considered afterwards.

In the mean time, let us attend to the forlorn and depressed condition of the native Irish. Their chieftains are forced into exile; their lands are forfeited; and their hopes of restoring the lost honours of their nation are buried in the dust. It was during this period, when despair seems to have taken possession of every mind, that a code of penal laws was enacted against the Catholics, breathing a spirit inimical to the pure precepts of christianity, and calculated to perpetuate and aggravate that poverty and wretchedness, which already were almost insupportable. I can scarcely allow myself to trace the pernicious influence of this code on the happiness and morals of the Irish, and on the agriculture and commerce

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of Ireland, especially after what has been written by Parnel and Newenham on the subject: but for the sake of those who have not seen the writings of these gentlemen, it may be necessary to make a few cursory remarks.

The penal code has had a much greater influence on the moral and political state of Ireland than most people are willing to allow. At the period in which it was framed the inhabitants of this country were certainly semi-barbarous: it has appeared in the course of this volume that their connection with England from the very beginning was little calculated to meliorate their condition, or to afford them the blessings of civilization; nor was it possible for this condition to be improved by the restrictions of the penal statutes.

These statutes, in the first place, had a manifest tendency to increase and perpetuate poverty and wretchedness. From the state in which Ireland was placed at the revolution, and from the rapid increase it has made since, in population, it is evident that nothing could raise it from its low condition, but mild and fostering laws, which would encourage agriculture and manufactures, and improve and elevate the taste of the people for all the comforts and decencies of life. But the penal code directly tended to prevent the acquisitions of this taste, since it deprived of every rational motive to exertion; of

every stimulus to industry as it regards the cultivation of the soil; of the rewards of an elevated and well directed ambition. Besides, it should be remarked, that restrictive laws, such as those in question, though improper and injurious in every possible instance in which they can be applied, are in certain circumstances more pernicious than in others. In a country such as England, where the people are accustomed to excellent food, to comfort and cleanliness, where great progress has been made in civilization, and where the very lowest of the people have something to lose, poverty and wretchedness will inevitably be produced, but not nearly to the same extent as in a nation where the reverse of all this is the case :- Where the inhabitants are not yet elevated from barbarism, possessing neither cleanliness nor great comfort, and are contented with the low gratifications, and scanty enjoyments of savage life. In the former instance, the habits which are already formed, will continue to influence the national feeling and happiness, and to retard the progress of deterioration in opposition to any enactment of the legislature; whereas in the latter, those very circumstances in which society are placed, when combined with political arrangements that are hostile to the general good, and with laws which depress the public mind, which discourage industry and improvement, and which give life and

vigour to the seeds of discord, will increase and perpetuate the universal calamity.

In Ireland, where the Catholics were ex tremely poor, there were some circumstances which still continue their operation, that encouraged and facilitated the increase of population to a prodigious extent, and which consequently augmented the sum of national misery and vice. These people, like the Israelites, multiplied when suffering under the yoke of bondage; and supposed, that by early marriages among themselves, they added to the number of the faithful, and to the strength and permanent support of the proscribed church. The customs transmitted to them from their fathers confirmed them in the same practice. But above all, that general poverty which made them contented with the potatoe as their only food, rapidly accelerated the progress of a superabundant population. * By the cultivation of

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* The following passage which I have read after writing the above, appears to me so strikingly just, that I cannot help transcribing it. "Universally it will be found, that political degradation is accompanied by excessive poverty; and that the opposite state of society is the most efficient cause of the general spread of comforts among the lower classes. We have little doubt, that the political degradation of the Irish poor powerfully contributed to make them adopt potatoes as their principal food; and in the curious question whether, at a future period, the greater part of the population of Europe will be supported on potatoes? much will depend