jealousy, has a tendency gradually to produce something better and more
liberal, I cannot tell, for want of having the actual map of the
country. If this should be the case, it was right in you to accept it,
such as it is. But if this should be one of the experiments which have
sometimes been made before the temper of the nation was ripe for a real
reformation, I think it may possibly have ill effects, by disposing the
penal matter in a more systematic order, and thereby fixing a permanent
bar against any relief that is truly substantial. The whole merit or
demerit of the measure depends upon the plans and dispositions of those
by whom the act was made, concurring with the general temper of the
Protestants of Ireland, and their aptitude to admit in time of some part
of that equality without which you never can be FELLOW-CITIZENS. Of all
this I am wholly ignorant. All my correspondence with men of public
importance in Ireland has for some time totally ceased. On the first
bill for the relief of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland, I was, without
any call of mine, consulted both on your side of the water and on this.
On the present occasion, I have not heard a word from any man in office,
and know as little of the intentions of the British government as I
know of the temper of the Irish Parliament. I do not find that any
opposition was made by the principal persons of the minority in the
House of Commons, or that any is apprehended from them in the House of
Lords. The whole of the difficulty seems to lie with the principal men
in government, under whose protection this bill is supposed to be
brought in. This violent opposition and cordial support, coming from one
and the same quarter, appears to me something mysterious, and hinders me
from being able to make any clear judgment of the merit of the present
measure, as compared with the actual state of the country and the
general views of government, without which one can say nothing that may
not be very erroneous.
To look at the bill in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a
renewed act of UNIVERSAL, UNMITIGATED, INDISPENSABLE, EXCEPTIONLESS
DISQUALIFICATION.
One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of
incapacities had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very
fierce enemy, under the impression of recent animosity and resentment.
No man, on reading that bill, could imagine he was reading an act of
amnesty and indulgence, following a recital of the good behavior of
those who are the objects of it,--which recital stood at the head of the
bill, as it was first introduced, but, I suppose for its incongruity
with the body of the piece, was afterwards omitted. This I say on
memory. It, however, still recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to
be considered as good and loyal subjects to his Majesty, his crown and
government. Then follows an universal exclusion of those GOOD and LOYAL
subjects from every (even the lowest) office of trust and profit,--from
any vote at an election,--from any privilege in a town corporate,--from
being even a freeman of such a corporation,--from serving on grand
juries,--from a vote at a vestry,--from having a gun in his house,--from
being a barrister, attorney, or solicitor, &c., &c., &c.
This has surely much more the air of a table of proscription than an act
of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those _good_ subjects
to have been, of which this is a relaxation? I know well that there is a
cant language current, about the difference between an exclusion from
employments, even to the most rigorous extent, and an exclusion from the
natural benefits arising from a man's own industry. I allow, that, under
some circumstances, the difference is very material in point of justice,
and that there are considerations which may render it advisable for a
wise government to keep the leading parts of every branch of civil and
military administration in hands of the best trust; but a total
exclusion from the commonwealth is a very different thing. When a
government subsists (as governments formerly did) on an estate of its
own, with but few and inconsiderable revenues drawn from the subject,
then the few officers which existed in such establishments were
naturally at the disposal of that government, which paid the salaries
out of its own coffers: there an exclusive preference could hardly merit
the name of proscription. Almost the whole produce of a man's industry
at that time remained in his own purse to maintain his family. But times
alter, and the _whole_ estate of government is from private
contribution. When a very great portion of the labor of individuals
goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals,
through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the
private to the public, and from the public again to the private fund,
the families from whom the revenue is taken are indemnified, and an
equitable balance between the government and the subject is established.
But if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery
are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with
regard to them may be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to
being double and treble taxed; and it will be felt as such to the very
quick, by all the families, high and low, of those hundreds of thousands
who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of their own
industry. This is the thing meant by those who look upon the public
revenue only as a spoil, and will naturally wish to have as few as
possible concerned in the division of the booty. If a state should be so
unhappy as to think it cannot subsist without such a barbarous
proscription, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the
remission of a large part of their taxes, by an immunity from the
offices of public burden, and by an exemption from being pressed into
any military or naval service.
Common sense and common justice dictate this at least, as some sort of
compensation to a people for their slavery. How many families are
incapable of existing, if the little offices of the revenue and little
military commissions are denied them! To deny them at home, and to make
the happiness of acquiring some of them somewhere else felony or high
treason, is a piece of cruelty, in which, till very lately, I did not
suppose this age capable of persisting. Formerly a similarity of
religion made a sort of country for a man in some quarter or other. A
refugee for religion was a protected character. Now the reception is
cold indeed; and therefore, as the asylum abroad is destroyed, the
hardship at home is doubled. This hardship is the more intolerable
because the professions are shut up. The Church is so of course. Much is
to be said on that subject, in regard to them, and to the Protestant
Dissenters. But that is a chapter by itself. I am sure I wish well to
that Church, and think its ministers among the very best citizens of
your country. However, such as it is, a great walk in life is forbidden
ground to seventeen hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland. Why
are they excluded from the law? Do not they expend money in their suits?
Why may not they indemnify themselves, by profiting, in the persons of
some, for the losses incurred by others? Why may not they have persons
of confidence, whom they may, if they please, employ in the agency of
their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from
sheriffships and under-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any
corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude
them wholly from all that is beneficial and expose them to all that is
mischievous in a trial by jury. This was manifestly within my own
observation, for I was three times in Ireland from the year 1760 to the
year 1767, where I had sufficient means of information concerning the
inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an
infinity of outrages and oppressions unknown before in a civilized age)
which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pretended
conspiracy among _Roman Catholics_ against the king's government. I
could dilate upon the mischiefs that may happen, from those which have
happened, upon this head of disqualification, if it were at all
necessary.
The head of exclusion from votes for members of Parliament is closely
connected with the former. When you cast your eye on the statute-book,
you will see that no _Catholic_, even in the ferocious acts of Queen
Anne, was disabled from voting on account of his religion. The only
conditions required for that privilege were the oaths of allegiance and
abjuration,--both oaths relative to a civil concern. Parliament has
since added another oath of the same kind; and yet a House of Commons,
adding to the securities of government in proportion as its danger is
confessedly lessened, and professing both confidence and indulgence, in
effect takes away the privilege left by an act full of jealousy and
professing persecution.
The taking away of a vote is the taking away the shield which the
subject has, not only against the oppression of power, but that worst of
all oppressions, the persecution of private society and private manners.
No candidate for Parliamentary influence is obliged to the least
attention towards them, either in cities or counties. On the contrary,
if they should become obnoxious to any bigoted or malignant people
amongst whom they live, it will become the interest of those who court
popular favor to use the numberless means which always reside in
magistracy and influence to oppress them. The proceedings in a certain
county in Munster, during the unfortunate period I have mentioned, read
a strong lecture on the cruelty of depriving men of that shield on
account of their speculative opinions. The Protestants of Ireland feel
well and naturally on the hardship of being bound by laws in the
enacting of which they do not directly or indirectly vote. The bounds of
these matters are nice, and hard to be settled in theory, and perhaps
they have been pushed too far. But how they can avoid the necessary
application of the principles they use in their disputes with others to
their disputes with their fellow-citizens, I know not.
It is true, the words of this act do not create a disability; but they
clearly and evidently suppose it. There are few _Catholic_ freeholders
to take the benefit of the privilege, if they were permitted to partake
it; but the manner in which this very right in freeholders at large is
defended is not on the idea that the freeholders do really and truly
represent the people, but that, all people being capable of obtaining
freeholds, all those who by their industry and sobriety merit this
privilege have the means of arriving at votes. It is the same with the
corporations.
The laws against foreign education are clearly the very worst part of
the old code. Besides your laity, you have the succession of about four
thousand clergymen to provide for. These, having no lucrative objects in
prospect, are taken very much out of the lower orders of the people. At
home they have no means whatsoever provided for their attaining a
clerical education, or indeed any education at all. When I was in Paris,
about seven years ago, I looked at everything, and lived with every kind
of people, as well as my time admitted. I saw there the Irish college of
the Lombard, which seemed to me a very good place of education, under
excellent orders and regulations, and under the government of a very
prudent and learned man (the late Dr. Kelly). This college was possessed
of an annual fixed revenue of more than a thousand pound a year, the
greatest part of which had arisen from the legacies and benefactions of
persons educated in that college, and who had obtained promotions in
France, from the emolument of which promotions they made this grateful
return. One in particular I remember, to the amount of ten thousand
livres annually, as it is recorded on the donor's monument in their
chapel.
It has been the custom of poor persons in Ireland to pick up such
knowledge of the Latin tongue as, under the general discouragements, and
occasional pursuits of magistracy, they were able to acquire; and
receiving orders at home, were sent abroad to obtain a clerical
education. By officiating in petty chaplainships, and performing now and
then certain offices of religion for small gratuities, they received the
means of maintaining themselves until they were able to complete their
education. Through such difficulties and discouragements, many of them
have arrived at a very considerable proficiency, so as to be marked and
distinguished abroad. These persons afterwards, by being sunk in the
most abject poverty, despised and ill-treated by the higher orders among
Protestants, and not much better esteemed or treated even by the few
persons of fortune of their own persuasion, and contracting the habits
and ways of thinking of the poor and uneducated, among whom they were
obliged to live, in a few years retained little or no traces of the
talents and acquirements which distinguished them in the early periods
of their lives. Can we with justice cut them off from the use of places
of education founded for the greater part from the economy of poverty
and exile, without providing something that is equivalent at home?
Whilst this restraint of foreign and domestic education was part of an
horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted
to the body. To render men patient under a deprivation of all the rights
of human nature, everything which could give them a knowledge or feeling
of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity fit to be
insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. But when we profess to
restore men to the capacity for property, it is equally irrational and
unjust to deny them the power of improving their minds as well as their
fortunes. Indeed, I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of
improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that
the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. This
goes to all men, in all situations, to whom education can be denied.
Your Lordship mentions a proposal which came from my friend, the
Provost, whose benevolence and enlarged spirit I am perfectly convinced
of,--which is, the proposal of erecting a few sizarships in the college,
for the education (I suppose) of Roman Catholic clergymen.[27] He
certainly meant it well; but, coming from such a man as he is, it is a
strong instance of the danger of suffering any description of men to
fall into entire contempt. The charities intended for them are not
perceived to be fresh insults; and the true nature of their wants and
necessities being unknown, remedies wholly unsuitable to the nature of
their complaint are provided for them. It is to feed a sick Gentoo with
beef broth, and to foment his wounds with brandy. If the other parts of
the university were open to them, as well on the foundation as
otherwise, the offering of sizarships would be a proportioned part of a
_general_ kindness. But when everything _liberal_ is withheld, and only
that which is _servile_ is permitted, it is easy to conceive upon what
footing they must be in such a place.
Mr. Hutchinson must well know the regard and honor I have for him; and
he cannot think my dissenting from him in this particular arises from a
disregard of his opinion: it only shows that I think he has lived in
Ireland. To have any respect for the character and person of a Popish
priest there--oh, 'tis an uphill work indeed! But until we come to
respect what stands in a respectable light with others, we are very
deficient in the temper which qualifies us to make any laws and
regulations about them: it even disqualifies us from being charitable to
them with any effect or judgment.
When we are to provide for the education of any body of men, we ought
seriously to consider the particular functions they are to perform in
life. A Roman Catholic clergyman is the minister of a very ritual
religion, and by his profession subject to many restraints. His life is
a life full of strict observances; and his duties are of a laborious
nature towards himself, and of the highest possible trust towards
others. The duty of confession alone is sufficient to set in the
strongest light the necessity of his having an appropriated mode of
education. The theological opinions and peculiar rites of one religion
never can be properly taught in universities founded for the purposes
and on the principles of another which in many points are directly
opposite. If a Roman Catholic clergyman, intended for celibacy and the
function of confession, is not strictly bred in a seminary where these
things are respected, inculcated, and enforced, as sacred, and not made
the subject of derision and obloquy, he will be ill fitted for the
former, and the latter will be indeed in his hands a terrible
instrument.
There is a great resemblance between, the whole frame and constitution
of the Greek and Latin Churches. The secular clergy in the former, by
being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them _Papas_, their
true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
civility always call them _Hieromonachi_. In consequence of this
disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
great member of the Christian Church.
It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
communion, both at home and abroad.
The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.
The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
them in some considerable degree to accomplish.
This learning, which I believe to be pretty general, together with an
higher situation, and more chastened by the opinion of mankind, forms a
sufficient security for the morals of the established clergy, and for
their sustaining their clerical character with dignity. It is not
necessary to observe, that all these things are, however, collateral to
their function, and that, except in preaching, which may be and is
supplied, and often best supplied, out of printed books, little else is
necessary for a Protestant minister than to be able to read the English
language,--I mean for the exercise of his function, not to the
qualification of his admission to it. But a Popish parson in Ireland may
do very well without any considerable classical erudition, or any
proficiency in pure or mixed mathematics, or any knowledge of civil
history. Even if the Catholic clergy should possess those acquisitions,
as at first many of them do, they soon lose them in the painful course
of professional and parochial duties: but they must have all the
knowledge, and, what is to them more important than the knowledge, the
discipline, necessary to those duties. All modes of education conducted
by those whose minds are cast in another mould, as I may say, and whose
original ways of thinking are formed upon the reverse pattern, must be
to them not only useless, but mischievous. Just as I should suppose the
education in a Popish ecclesiastical seminary would be ill fitted for a
Protestant clergyman. To educate a Catholic priest in a Protestant
seminary would be much worse. The Protestant educated amongst Catholics
has only something to reject: what he keeps may be useful. But a
Catholic parish priest learns little for his peculiar purpose and duty
in a Protestant college.
All this, my Lord, I know very well, will pass for nothing with those
who wish that the Popish clergy should be illiterate, and in a situation
to produce contempt and detestation. Their minds are wholly taken up
with party squabbles, and I have neither leisure nor inclination to
apply any part of what I have to say to those who never think of
religion or of the commonwealth in any other light than as they tend to
the prevalence of some faction in either. I speak on a supposition that
there is a disposition _to take the state in the condition in which it
is found_, and to improve it _in that state_ to the best advantage.
Hitherto the plan for the government of Ireland has been to sacrifice
the civil prosperity of the nation to its religious improvement. But if
people in power there are at length come to entertain other ideas, they
will consider the good order, decorum, virtue, and morality of every
description of men among them as of infinitely greater importance than
the struggle (for it is nothing better) to change those descriptions by
means which put to hazard objects which, in my poor opinion, are of more
importance to religion and to the state than all the polemical matter
which has been agitated among men from the beginning of the world to
this hour.
On this idea, an education fitted _to each order and division of men,
such as they are found_, will be thought an affair rather to be
encouraged than discountenanced; and until institutions at home,
suitable to the occasions and necessities of the people, are
established, and which are armed, as they are abroad, with authority to
coerce the young men to be formed in them by a strict and severe
discipline, the means they have at present of a cheap and effectual
education in other countries should not continue to be prohibited by
penalties and modes of inquisition not fit to be mentioned to ears that
are organized to the chaste sounds of equity and justice.
Before I had written thus far, I heard of a scheme of giving to the
Castle the patronage of the presiding members of the Catholic clergy. At
first I could scarcely credit it; for I believe it is the first time
that the presentation to other people's alms has been desired in any
country. If the state provides a suitable maintenance and temporality
for the governing members of the Irish Roman Catholic Church, and for
the clergy under them, I should think the project, however improper in
other respects, to be by no means unjust. But to deprive a poor people,
who maintain a second set of clergy, out of the miserable remains of
what is left after taxing and tithing, to deprive them of the
disposition of their own charities among their own communion, would, in
my opinion, be an intolerable hardship. Never were the members of one
religious sect fit to appoint the pastors to another. Those who have no
regard for their welfare, reputation, or internal quiet will not appoint
such as are proper. The seraglio of Constantinople is as equitable as we
are, whether Catholics or Protestants,--and where their own sect is
concerned, full as religious. But the sport which they make of the
miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the little factions of the
harem to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which
they expose and reëxpose the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all
the inferior orders of the clergy, is (for I have had particular means
of being acquainted with it) nearly equal to all the other oppressions
together, exercised by Mussulmen over the unhappy members of the
Oriental Church. It is a great deal to suppose that even the present
Castle would nominate bishops for the Roman Church of Ireland with a
religious regard for its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps they dare
not do it.