granting their claims. The account of the Roman Catholic population given by Clericus Dromorensis does not favour this argument. After stating the whole population of Ireland to be 5,521,177, and that of this number two millions are Protestants, he adds, "I am therefore borne out by facts in saying, that, taking together numbers, property, and station, the great causes of influence or ascendency, the Protestants of Ireland are at least equal to the Roman Catholics, who have emphatically been styled "the People of Ireland." Though for the sake of meeting the Roman Catholics in Ireland, their strong hold, this view of their comparative strength with the Protestants has been taken, yet that is not the fair ground, on which the question is to be debated. Ireland, since the Union, forms now in reality (what it was before virtually considered to do) an integral part of the empire, and as such, absolutely inseparable from it; therefore the Roman Catholics must not be viewed, as the majority in Ireland, but as the minority in the British empire; seen in this light they do not constitute quite a sixth of the imperial population; for, as by the late returns given into Parliament the population of Great Britain is found to exceed twelve millions, and the population of Ireland, is here proved to exceed five millions, the total will be near eighteen millions, of which the Roman Catholics will be found as only a sixth of the whole." An Essay on the comparative number of Protestants and Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom. Dublin, 1812. Page 217.-Note.] The Address is given in No. VI. of the Appendix to DETECTOR's Refutation of the Second Part of the Statement of the Penal Laws. The reader will find in the Protestant Advocate for January, page 205, some very seasonable and interesting remarks on the Address. Page 217.-Religion is very deeply concerned.] So thought the Commons in their remonstrance to James I. in which they state the probable progress of Popery from connivance, through the different stages of concession, to the subversion of true religion. The natural effects and tendency of the Roman Catholic religion are very forcibly and luminously described in the remonstrance. I. "The Popish religion is incompatible with ours, in respect of their positions. II. "It draweth with it an inviolable dependency on foreign power. III. "It openeth too wide the gap for popularity to any, who shall draw too great a party. IV." It hath a restless spirit, and will strive by these gradations: If it once get a connivance, it will press for a toleration; if that should be obtained, they must have an equality; from thence they will aspire to superiority, and will never rest, till they get a subversion of the true religion." Firth's Letter to the Bishop of Norwich, page 85., and Rights of the Church, attested by historical documents, p. 67, 68. Page 219.-In Mr. Lemesurier's Plain Statement (pages 65-68.) the reader will find two unanswerable retorts, or argumenta ad homines, in proof of the absolute inadmissibility of Papists to the higher functions of the State, or to any office in any way connected with the support of the Protestant interests. (1.) The Popish Bishops reject the interference of an uncatholic king, in the slightest degree, in their spiritual concerns; yet they require to be admitted to the controul and management of ours. (2.) They assert the impossibility of a Papist's concurring in any act, however indifferent, for the maintenance of the Protestant religion; yet they demand admission to offices, of which it is a special duty to uphold the Protestant Constitution in Church and State. We have here another answer to the question, What harm could a few Roman Catholic members do in either House of Parliament? (1.) They are disqualified by their own confession. They have no right to interfere in the spiritual concerns of Protestants. (2.) It is contrary to every principle of honour, justice, and policy, to admit any one to an office, the duties of which he cannot in conscience execute. |
