XVIII. 5.

Oates's Plot.

You call, what you term the popish plot, an infamous affair :--thus Hume, thus Mr. Fox, thus every other person of honour and talent, describes it; then, why are the oaths to which it gave rise, and under which so many roman-catholics actually suffer, still kept in force?

I beg leave to transcribe Mr. Fox's observations upon it." Although," these are that great man's words, " upon a review of this truly shocking "transaction, we may be fairly justified in adopt

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ing the milder alternative, and in imputing to "the greater part of those concerned in it, rather "an extraordinary degree of blind credulity, than "the deliberate wickedness of planning and assist

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ing in the perpetration of legal murder; yet the "proceedings on the popish plot must always be con"sidered as an indelible disgrace upon the English "nation, in which king, parliament, judges, juries, "witnesses, prosecutors, have all their respective,

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though certainly not equal, shares. Witnesses, of "such a character as not to deserve credit in the "most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial facts, 66 gave evidence so incredible, or,-to speak more "properly, so impossible to be true, that it ought "not to have been believed if it had come from the "mouth of Cato; and upon such evidence, from "such witnesses, were innocent men condemned to "death and executed. Prosecutors, whether attor

Z

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"nies and solicitors-general, or managers of impeachment, acted with the fury which, in such "circumstances, might be expected; juries partook, naturally enough, of the national ferment; and 'judges, whose duty it was to guard them against "such impressions, were scandalously active in confirming them in their prejudices, and inflaming "their passions."-" Lord chief justice Scroggs," doctor Milner justly observes, "took in with the side, and ranted for the plot; hewing down popery, "as Scanderberg did the Turks. The attorneygeneral used to say on the trials for murder, "the man be a papist, then he is guilty, because it "is the interest of papists to murder us all’*.”

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--

if

I am aware, that the number of the sufferers for Oates's plot falls very short of the number of those whom you term the Marian martyrs: but permit me to ask you, which, in your cool deliberate judgment, was the worst spirit, that which consigned the victims of Oates's subornations to the gibbet, or that which consigned the Marian martyrs to the flames? Surely, if we should be called upon to strike a balance between Mary's persecutions and the legal murders for Oates's plot, we must confess that the latter is by far the greater disgrace to the English nation t.

* North's Examen, p. 130; Doctor Milner's Seventh Letter to Doctor Sturges, p. 304, 7th edit.

+ In 1680, while the memory of this transaction was still recent, an argumentative and eloquent vindication of the sufferers was published, under the title of "The Papists' "Plea." It was afterwards printed among lord Somers's tracts. --A still more powerful defence of the catholics is, the "Apo

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I must add, that you must not estimate the sufferings of the roman-catholics for Oates's plot, by the number of those who perished for it on the scaffold. All the laws against them were, from the time of the first mention of the plot, till the end of the reign of Charles II, executed upon the catholics with the most horrid severity. Individuals are still living, whose fathers have told them what their fathers used to relate of the wretchedness and misery of the general body, whilst the delusion lasted. Even at that distance of time, few could speak of it without evident agitation and horror: they appeared to shrink even from the recollection of it.

For their supposed part in the plot, ten laymen and seven priests, (one of whom was seventy, and another eighty years old), were executed. Eight other priests were hanged and embowelled in the reign of Charles II, for the mere exercise of their functions, without any reference to the plot.

With the reign of Charles II. the sanguinary

"logie pour les Catholiques, contre les. Faussetés et les "Calomnies d'un Livre, intitulé, La Politique du Clergé de "Françe, fait premièrement en Françé, et puis traduit en "Flamand;-à Liège, 1681, 2 vols. 8vo." The celebrated Arnaud was the author of this work: it has seldom been equalled, either in powerful reasoning or splendid eloquence. But the fullest and best account of the plot is to be found in, "An historical Narrative of the horrid Plot and Conspiracy "of Titus Oates, called the Popish Plot, in its various branches "and progress, selected from the most authentic Protestant "historians; in which are added, some cursory Observations "on the TEST ACT, by Mr. William Eusebius Andrews, 1818, 1 vol. 8vo."

part of the penal code, against the roman-catholics, finally closed.

The whole number of those who have suffered death in England for their exercise of the romancatholic religion, since the Reformation, is as follows:

In the reign of Henry VIII.

of queen Elizabeth

59 204

I am confident that this number is not exaggerated: every research which I have made respecting the sufferings of the English roman-catholics, until the accession of his late majesty, has convinced me that the extent of them is not known.

These are unpleasing topics. May "the Book "of the Church" be the last work which renders the mention of them necessary. "May,"-permit me to exclaim with Fénélon," the kingdom of "truth, where there is no error, no scandal, no 66 division,-where God will communicate to us, "universal peace,―soon arrive!"

XVIII. 6.

JAMES THE SECOND.

Bill of Rights-Acts of Settlement.

IN the "Historical Memoirs of the English, "Irish and Scottish Catholics," I have expressed my sentiments upon the conduct of James II :-my opinion is, that, in theory, his project for effecting a general religious toleration, was entitled to praise ; but that, as the public mind was not disposed to receive it favourably, it was unwise; and that the means which he adopted for carrying it into execution were unconstitutional. I shall now only add, that none disapproved of his measures more than the catholics: "All judicious persons of the catho"lic communion," says Hume, "were disgusted: "with them, and foresaw their consequences. Lord "Arundell, lord Powis, and lord Bellasyse, remon"strated against them, and suggested more mode"rate councils. When lord Tyrconnel disclosed "James's plan for catholicizing Ireland, lord Bellasyse declared, his majesty was a fool and a "madman enough to ruin ten kingdoms.""

To the Bill of Rights, and the Acts of Settlement, no portion of his majesty's subjects more constitutionally submits, than the roman-catholics: they only suggest, that no construction of the Bill of Rights, and no inferences from it, should be adopted to their prejudice, unless they are warranted by a fair construction of the words of the acts. They protest against any interpretation of them that amounts