refpect to the lords juftices at the castle of Dublin, by Lord Delvin and other perfons of the first quality among them; but fo little notice was then taken either of their addrefs or themselves, that it is not yet known whether it was ever tranfmitted to be laid before his majesty, as it was humbly defired it fhould be; or whether even an answer was returned by their excellencies that it fhould be fo tranfmitted.

Penal laws enforced in the reign of King George II.

IN the year 1734 application having been made to his

majefty, for the reverfion of fome outlawries, incurred by the infurrections of 1641, the former of which, particularly, as we have already obferved, had been moft iniquitoufly obtained, and had actually reduced some of the most ancient, noble and opulent Roman catholic families of the kingdom, with their numerous defcendants, to abfolute beggary. The commons then fitting, and juftly apprehending from his majefty's known equity and commiferation, that fuch application might meet with fome fuccefs; refolved upon a petition, wherein among other things, they tell his majefty plainly, and even with a kind of menace, " that nothing could enable them to defend his right and title to his crown fo effectually as the enjoyment of thofe eftates, which have been the forfeitures of the rebellious Irifh, and were then in the poffeffion of his proteftant fubjects; and therefore, that they were fully affured, that he would difcourage all applications or attempts that fhould be made in favour of fuch traitors or their defcendants, fo dangerous to the protestant intereft of this kingdom." This petition produced the wifhed for effect. The king in his answer affured the commons, "that he would for the future difcourage all fuch applications and attempts."

But the commons not content with this affurance, and still fearing, that thofe popish folicitors, who had

been

been employed by the catholics in their late unsuccessful attempt, might prevail upon their clients to renew their application at another more favourable juncture, brought in a bill, aufolutely difqualifying all Roman catholics from practifing as folicitors, the only branch in the law profeffion which they were then permitted to practise.

While this bill, which was afterwards paffed into a law, was under debate in the house of commons, certain Roman catholics of Dublin and Cork, not imagining that their making legal oppofition to it, would give the least offence to government, began to fet on foot a collection among thofe of their perfuafion refiding in these two cities, in order to enable them to defray the neceffary expences attending on fuch oppofition. In this business fome of their clergy in Munfter happened to be engaged; among whom, one Hennefy, a parish priest in that province, having, for his notoriously fcandalous behaviour, been lately fufpended by his fuperior, fought revenge, by giving in examinations against him, importing that the money which had been thus collected by him and others, in different parts of the kingdom, was intended for no other fervice, but the bringing in of popery and the pretender. Upon which thefe gentlemens papers were feized, and submitted to the infpection of a certain knight, who laid them before the house of commons, where they underwent the ftricteft fcrutiny for many weeks; that venal and versatile commoner, but conftant brawler against popery, exerting all his boisterous eloquence to perfuade the house, from the fole evidence of these papers, though obviously harmlefs and infignificant in themselves, that a deep and dangerous popish plot was actually carrying on for the before-mentioned wicked purposes. And yet it appears after all, by the committee's printed report on this occafion, that the fum collected to accomplish this mighty defign of bringing in popery and the pretender, did not amount in the whole to full five pounds.

The committee, however, refolved,' that it appeared VOL. II.

S

Com. Jour. vol. vi. f. 352.

to

to them, that under colour of oppofing heads of bills, great fums of money had been collected and raised, and a fund established by the popish inhabitants of the kingdom, through the influence of their clergy, highly detrimental to the protestant intereft, and of imminent danger to the present happy establishment;" and therefore refolved further, "that an humble address should be presented to his grace the lord lieutenant, to iffue his proclamation to all magiftrates, to put the laws against popery in execution." In confequence of this addrefs, the proclamation was iffued by his grace, and the laws against popery were ftrictly executed by the magistrates in every part of the kingdom.*

These frequent refolutions of the commons, aided by inflammatory anniversary fermons, and equally inflammatory pamphlets, occafionally preached and published, diffufed fuch a fpirit of rancour and animofity against catholics, among their proteftant neighbours, as made the generality of them believe that the words popery, rebellion and maffacre, really fignified the fame thing, and thereby excited fuch real terrors in these latter, as often brought the liberties and sometimes the lives of the former into imminent danger. The moft fhocking circumstances of the Irish insurrection in 1641, and of the English gun-powder treason in 1605, were ftudiously revived and aggravated in these fermons, and pamphlets, with a degree of virulence and exaggeration, which, as it furpaffed the most extravagant fictions of romance or poetry, fo it poffeffed their uninformed, though often well-meaning, hearers and readers with lafting and general abhorrence of these people. The crimes, real or fuppofed, of catholics dead more than a century before, were imputed, intentionally, to all thofe

On the 9th of March, 1731, "Resolved unanimously, that it is the indispensable duty of all magiftrates, and officers, to put the laws made to prevent the further growth of popery in Ireland, in due execution." It was alfo at the fame time refolved, nem. con. (being the end of the feffion)" that the members of that house, in their respective countries, and ftations, would use their utmost endeavours, to put the feveral laws against popery in due execution." Com. Jour. vol. vi. f. 183.

those who furvived them, however innocent, of the fame religious perfuafion. By these means, an antient nobleman and privy-counsellor, of great power and influence, was fo enthusiastically incensed against them, that, in the year 1743, on the threatened invafion of England by the French, under the command of Marefchal Saxe, he openly declared in council," that as the papists had began the maffacre on them, about an hundred years before, fo he thought it both reafonable and lawful, on their parts, to prevent them, at that dangerous juncture, by firft falling upon them.” And although the barbarity of that fuggeftion was quickly over-ruled in that honourable affembly; yet fo entirely were fome of the lower northern diffenters poffeffed and influenced, by this prevailing prepoffeffion and rancour against catholics, that in the fame year, and for the fame declared purpose of prevention, a confpiracy was actually formed by fome of the inhabitants of Lurgan, to rife in the night-time and destroy all their neighbours of that denomination in their beds." But this inhuman purpose was also fruftrated, by an information of the honeft proteftant publican, in whose house the confpirators had met to fettle the execution of their scheme, fworn before the Rev. Mr. Ford, a justice of the peace in that district, who received it with horror, and with difficulty put a stop to the intended maffacre.

This atrocious defign was known and attested by several of the inhabitants of Lurgan; and an account of it was transmitted to Dublin by a confiderable linen-merchant, then at Lurgan on his private mercantile affairs,

CHAP. XI.

The conduct of the catholics of Ireland in the time of the rebellion in Scotland, 1745.

a

ON account of the Scottish rebellion in 1745 in favour of the pretender, in which it will presently appear that not a fingle Irifh catholic, lay or clerical, was any way engaged, the minds of the proteftants all over the kingdom were fo much irritated by the inflammatory means before-mentioned, together with the additional incentives of paftoral letters, of the like evil tendency, from all the bishops of the kingdom to their respective diocefans, that dreadful confequences, with regard to these inoffenfive people, were juftly apprehended; and probably would have enfued, had not the great wifdom and lenity of their then chief governor, frequently and earnestly interpofed. That nobleman, though preffed from all quarters by their powerful enemies, on a pretended knowledge of their difaffection, but really from the malignity of prejudice, to put the laws in force against them, always eluded their importunities, either by his own uncommon fagacity and refolution, or by fome happy turn of pleafantry, which never failed to expofe the folly of their apprehenfions; for he quickly discovered, that they had neither the power nor the inclination to give the government any disturbance. And he even affured both houses of parliament, "that France, which alone encouraged and fupported the rafh adventurer, had made use of him only as the occafional tool of their politics, and not as the real object of their care. That although Great Britain had, in the courfe of this century, been often molested by infurrections at home and invafions from abroad, Ireland had happily and defervedly enjoyed uninterrupted tranquillity." And in fhort, that this attempt to fhake his majesty's throne, would

a Earl of Chesterfield.