Chapter III: Part 3

To apply a sure Test to the Propriety, or Impropriety, of my Apprehensions, at the Period when I wrote the _Farmer’s Letters_, let us suppose that no one of the Penal Laws, which were instituted during the Reign of her Majesty Queen _Anne_, had yet passed into Form, but that Matters had remained in the same Situation, in which the _Monarch_, of _humane_, as well as _glorious Memory_, had left this unhappy People. Well, what would have been the Consequence? Would _Papists_, in that Case, have been less amenable to the Government, by which they had been favoured, supported, and cherished? Would they have been the forwarder to bring Damage and Destruction on a Country, because their own Interest was connected therewith, and the Fortunes of their Posterity deposited therein? Would they have been the readier to attempt the Overthrow of our beneficent Constitution, because they enjoyed the Privileges and Advantages thereof? No, Sir, no. The Absurdity of the Supposition is inclusive of the Answer. Had this been the Case, the _Farmer’s Letters_ would not have existed to have caused the Renewal of our Acquaintance.

I have read and noted many Instances, in free States and Commonwealths, where _Liberty_, when fermented into _Licentiousness_, hath occasioned many partial Struggles for Power, many Broils and Factions, and much Disturbance to the Community. But very few are the Instances of the Insurrection of any People, who have not been goaded thereto by Severity and Oppression. The inoffensive Stag grows formidable when _at __ Bay_. The Worm turneth not, till it receiveth a Crush.

I forget the Book, though I remember the Passage, where a Prince demanded of his favourite Minister, what he should do with a Number of the Commons and Nobility, whom he had suppressed and taken Captive in the Act of Rebellion? The Minister answered, _Put them, and their Adherents, instantly to Death_. No, replied the Prince, that were an Act of such Bloodshed and Barbarity, as neither Fear nor Revenge shall persuade me to perpetrate. _Then, grant them all free Pardon_, rejoined the Minister. How! said the Prince, must Rebellion go altogether unpunished? There is no Medium that can assure your Safety, answered the Minister; you must either pull this Party wholly up by the Root, so as to leave no Fibre from whence future Enmity may grow; or else, you must change that Enmity into Friendship, by binding their Gratitude to your Person and Interest, with the kindliest of all Connections, that of your Goodness and Favour. _A partial Punishment will be too little for your Safety; a partial Pardon will not be enough._ You must either wholly annihilate their Power, by their _Death_; or derive Strength to yourself, from that Power, by their _Friendship_.

By disarming our Enemies, the utmost we can hope, is, to render them impotent. The Diminution of _their_ Power adds nothing to our _own_. Repentance is never so permanent or sincere, as when preceded by Pardon; and Favour is, as the polar Attraction, to Inclination. Is there a Man whose Love and Gratitude you desire to engage? Common Sense will direct you to do him a Benefit. Would you bind him to your Service with Hoops of Steel? You must make it his Interest, as well as his Duty, to befriend you.

It is, by no means, my Intention to arraign either the Wisdom or good Policy of our Forefathers. But all Men are, in some Degree, fallible, as well in the congregate, as in the individual; and the Shrewd may err as much, by over-reaching their Aim, as the Ignorant, by falling short, or deviating from it.

But, had a hundred _Pitts_, and a hundred _Cecils_, composed the Senate of our Ancestors, at the Time that those _Penal Laws_ were enacted; had those Laws been ever so wise and so just, so wholesome and necessary, and well suited to the Season; is that a Reason that they should _continue so_ to the End of Time? 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_.

About six Generations have now passed away, according to the Rates of Purchase and Estimate of the Life of Man, since these People have offended in Word or in Deed. No Riotings have been heard in their Houses, no Complainings in their Streets; they have been silent and harmless as Sheep before their Sheerers. Our Parties, Factions, and Insurrections, as they are merrily stiled in _England_, have been all among ourselves; this People were neither Actors nor Partakers therein. They have offered themselves to our Fleets, and to our Armies; to tend our Persons, to till our Grounds, to hew our Wood, and to draw our Water. Where we admit them to fight for us, they have ever proved valiant; where we admit them to serve us, they are found loving, observant, and faithful. Temptations have come to their Doors and called them forth; the Contagion of Rebellion hath broken out among their Neighbours; they have yet remained quiet, and continued untainted; still loyal to their Sovereign, amenable to Government, and submissive to Law, through a long and trying Succession of about seventy Years, they have scarce appeared to repine in the midst of their Calamities.

When I look back on the querulous and restless Nature of Man: When I trace the human Propensities through the Records of Ages and Nations: In all the Histories of those States who had least Cause of Complaint: Throughout the Commonwealths of _Asia Minor_, the _Archipelago_, the _Grecian Continent_, _Italy_, the Islands of the _Mediterranean_, &c. where the RIGHTS OF NATURE, under Forms of various Institution, were ASSERTED BY LIBERTY AND GUARDED BY LAW: Where the ASSURANCE OF PROPERTY gave most REASON FOR CONTENT: I can find but few Instances of any People who, through such a Length of Time, have continued firm and unshaken, in an uninterrupted Loyalty and Submission to Government.

What then, do we look for further? What Proofs do ye yet require, of Peacefulness and Attachment at the Hands of these our Brethren? Is no Period to be put to their State of Probation? Must they _for ever_ keep out upon _Quarantine_, without Harbour or Hopes of Rest or Reconciliation? That were hard, indeed.

If it is Revenge that we seek, they have, already, suffered enough, not for their own Faults, but for the Hostility of their Forefathers. If we seek our Safety, alone; let us chace _them, at once, from Country and Community_; or put an _End to our domestic Fears_, by giving them Cause to defend us.

Indeed, Sir, neither common Sense, nor Sense of any Kind, can possibly suppose, That Acts of Kindness which have been, from the Beginning of the World, the Cement of Friendship to all other People, should prove the reverse to these People alone.

Had they been to us, as the Swallow, in Autumn, who forsakes all Connections on the Approach of Inclemency, I should never have pleaded for any Confidence in them. But a People, who, through a Winter of seventy Years Continuance, have never failed, or forsaken, or given us Cause of Offence, surely merit some Consideration, some grateful and chearing Ray to warm them to a Sense that _Protestants_ are not, by Choice, of a cruel, unforgiving, and malevolent Nature.

Lastly, Sir, as I know you to be a Gentleman of a communicative Disposition, and that you were, formerly, fond of exhibiting the Sentiments of some of your Friends; should you impart this Letter to any of your popish Acquaintance, I doubt they might be apt to give me more Thanks than I am conscious I deserve. It is, therefore, but commonly honest, to advertise you, and them, that while I write in the Favour of _Papists_, the Interest of _Protestants_ is never out of my Eye.

When I thought your Favourites most formidable, I shewed I did not fear them; and now, that I think them impotent, let them not think I flatter.

What I have hitherto hinted is but a narrow opening to the Concerns and Interests of an unhappy Country, whereof I have the Misfortune to be a helpless, though loving, Member. To promote the Advantage of _Ireland_, in any respect, would be, to me, the cardinal Point of the whole Compass of my Ambition; and a subsequent Letter may shew how far my Observations relate to the Decline, or Prosperity, of my Country, whenever you confer the Pleasure of an Answer on,

_Dear_ SIR, _Your truly affectionate_, &c.

FOOTNOTES

_ 1 Dublin_, 1753, _M. Reilly_, Editor.

2 This _Mac Con More Macnamara_, Duke of _Klan Cullane_, founded,
erected, and amply endowed the beautiful Abbey of _Quin_; as did
other Chieftains of his Name and Family, several Parochial Churches,
with a great Number of magnificent Castles.

_ 3 Seasonable Thoughts_, &c. published by _George Faulkner_; _the Case
of the Roman Catholics_, and _the Principles of the Roman
Catholics_, the two last published by _P. Lord_, in _Cook-street,
Dublin_.

4 To all the above Productions of _Ireland_, may be justly added, our
inestimable Fisheries, and plentiful Mines, which, under due
national Encouragement, would raise immense Treasures.