CHAPTER II.

Father O'Leary's celebrated Essay, "Loyalty Asserted”—Continued Sketch of the Penal Laws-The Test Oath-The Opposition it met with-Its Defence by O'Leary-Extracts from the Essay.

O'LEARY, once before the public as an author, began to acquire that confidence which is generated by literary success, and to perceive how beneficially his efforts might be employed through the press for the good of religion, and the promotion of temporal happiness and prosperity amongst his fellow-countrymen. His next essay, published in the year 1777, was entitled, "Loyalty Asserted; or, the test oath vindicated and proved by the principles of the canon and civil laws, and the authority of the most eminent writers; with an inquiry into the Pope's deposing power and the groundless claims of the Stuarts: in a letter to a Protestant gentleman." That the reader may understand the circumstances which called forth this pamphlet, and appreciate its utility and importance at the time of publication, it will be necessary to resume, at the point where we left off, the consideration of the condition of the Catholics of Ireland in relation to the laws, and to trace the slow degrees by which they rose, from a state of political nonexistence, into the enjoyment of the long-denied blessings of loyal and inoffensive subjects.

It was not in human nature that the penal laws should have been administered with severity, without inducing many to abandon those religious professions which exposed them to so many temporal privations. Accordingly, while the vast majority of the people adhered to the faith of their fathers, despite the terrors of persecu

tion, we find instances of many who yielded to the allurements held out for conversion, and simulated a belief in the doctrines of the established religion. Defections of this kind took place almost exclusively amongst the Catholic nobility; and yet it is worthy of remark, that several of them who adopted the external practices of Protestant worship, privately retained Catholic priests in their mansions, who performed the office of chaplains to their families, and, in the security of disguise, instructed their children in the dogmas of the national faith. To such an extent was this system carried out, that it, at length, attracted the attention of the Primate Boulter, who was not slow in providing for it a remedy in the shape of a fresh penal enactment. This dignitary, an Englishman by birth and education, had been appointed Archbishop of Armagh, and was sent over here to manage "the English interest," as it was called, that is, to make everything in Ireland subserve the interests of England. So important a functionary was he, that, during the twenty years he held his see, the Viceroy was only second to him in all matters of administration; nothing was done without the advice and sanction of the Primate. And well did he "manage" the English interest. If divide et impera was not his motto, it was his practice. In one of his despatches to the English Government, he declares that the general dislike to Wood's halfpence would have a most unhappy effect on the nation, by uniting it!—by bringing on intimacies between Papists and Jacobites on the one hand, and Whigs on the other, who, before, had cherished towards each other no feelings of friendship or good-will. Intent on the success of his proselytising schemes, he prepared the heads of a bill purporting to subject to the penalties of the penal code, all converts who should be convicted of bringing up their children Papists. The measure passed without opposition, while

both Houses of Parliament presented a vote of thanks to his Majesty," for having returned the bill as a happiness peculiar to that session." Hitherto Catholics had had the privilege of voting at elections, on taking the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, but, in the year 1727, a bill was brought into the Irish Parliament which deprived them of this last vestige of constitutional rights. It was entitled "A bill for further regulating the election of members of Parliament," and was brought forward at the suggestion of Primate Boulter, to defeat the expectations of converts who did not scruple to take the oaths notwithstanding their internal adhesion to the cause of Catholicity. The motion was brought forward as if it were nothing new, but intended for a still more stringent enforcement of a statute already existing. Insidiously, however, without notice, without debate or cause assigned, the anti-Papistical clause was introduced and passed into law: "that no Papist, though not convict, should be entitled to vote at the election of any member to serve in Parliament, or of any magistrate for any city or town corporate." The Primate next busied himself in the establishment of the Protestant Charter Schools, those well-known seats of proselytism, those nurseries of bigotry and vice, the object of which their most reverend founder made, indeed, no effort to conceal. "The great number of Papists in this kingdom," he writes to the Bishop of London, " and the obstinacy with which they adhere to their own religion, occasions our trying what may be done with their children to bring them over to our church." And, further on, he continues: "I can assure you the Papists are here so numerous, that it highly concerns us in point of interest, as well as out of concern for the salvation of these poor creatures, who are our fellow-subjects, to try all possible means to bring them and theirs over to the knowledge of the true religion. And one of the most likely

methods we can think of is, if possible, instructing and converting the young generations; for, instead of converting those who are adult, we are daily losing several of our meaner people, who go off to Popery."*

On the accession of George II. to the throne, the Catholics of Ireland deemed it prudent to present to his Majesty an address expressive of their loyalty, with a hope that some favourable change of legislation might take place in their regard. This act of homage they had been accused of wilfully omitting towards Queen Anne, on a similar occasion; and to its neglect had been, by some, ascribed the severe enactment of the penal laws. On the death of Anne, they resolved to mend their error by presenting an address to her successor; but it so happened that, at that precise time, the attempt of the Pretender, in which he had been abetted by many in Scotland and England, called forth so violent a clamour against all the Catholics of the kingdom-though it was afterwards proved and admitted that not even one Irishman had taken part in the rebellion that they deemed it more advisable to abstain from expressions of congratulation to his Majesty, which were sure to be repelled with scorn and indignation. When George II., however, ascended the throne, it appeared to them that a favourable opportunity had, at length, arrived for a display of their loyalty and attachment to the crown. An address to the King was accordingly prepared. It was presented with all respect to the Lords Justices, at the Castle of Dublin, by Lord Delvin and other distinguished personages; but so little notice was taken of it, that it has never been ascertained whether it was transmitted to the King, or whether even an answer was returned that it should be so transmitted.

* Boulter's Letters, vol. ii. pp. 10, 11, 12.

In the seventh year of George's reign, an application was made to his Majesty, begging of him to procure the reversion of certain outlawries, by which, in the year 1641, the properties of many Catholics had been sequestrated, and they and their posterity had been reduced to a condition of absolute poverty. The Irish Commons, trembling for the success of this just demand, petitioned the King against it, representing how detrimental such a measure would prove to his Majesty's “right and title to the crown," as well as "to the Protestant interest of the kingdom;" and so well did their petition fare, that his gracious Majesty, in reply, assured his faithful Commons that "he would for the future discourage all such applications and attempts." But the faithful Commons, determined that no means should thereafter exist by which such applications or attempts could be renewed, brought in a bill for disqualifying Catholics from practising as solicitors, thus shutting up the only avenue by which, in course of law, the outlawed and dispossessed could seek the restitution of their rights. In order to thwart the progress of this bill, a collection was set on foot amongst the Catholics through the country, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of legal opposition; but here again their enemies were at work to defeat their claims to constitutional protection. A parish priest, named Hennessy, from some part of the province of Munster, gave information to the Government that the collection which was being made, though ostensibly got up for the object set forth, was really intended to support the cause of the Pretender, and thus to bring about the re-establishment of Popery in the kingdom. Hennessy had been suspended by his bishop, doubtless not without cause; but neither his flagitious character, nor the evident spirit of revenge that prompted the lie, could or would dispel from the minds of the Commons the apprehension that the charge