TRANQUILLITY UNDER MR. O'CONNELL, MY LORD MULGRAVE, AND THE ROMISH PRIESTHOOD. BY ANTHONY MEYLER, M.D. M.R.I.A.. DUBLIN: WM. CARSON, GRAFTON STREET, LONDON, GROOMBRIDGE. MDCCCXXXVIII, 422. PREFACE. THE following pages have been written chiefly with the view of placing before the English people, Radicals as well as Tories, the political condition of Ireland, the real objects of those who now agitate and disturb it, and the consequences that must result, unless prompt and energetic measures of security are immediately adopted. The excitement, now so industriously and so fear. fully kept up in Ireland, is not caused by any political feeling in the orderly and more respectable classes of society; there is no principle whatsoever of civil liberty mixed up with it-it is not even a contest between the Tory and the Liberal-it is a warfare against Protestantism and the connexion with England, carried on by the peasant at the instigation of the priest. The Popish clergy are the real and the only exciters of the rebellious and lawless feelings now so prevalent, the people if left to themselves would be tranquil, and would remain deaf to the voice of the agitator, if it were not re-echoed by the voice of the priests. They are the only effective agitators, and their power is obtained by the agency of superstition. They openly denounce tithes from their altars, and not only advise the people not to pay them; but in all their letters, and in all their speeches, either at aggregate meetings, or from the rostrums of their mass-houses, they excite the people to hatred against England and her religion. They are unceasing in their efforts to establish the dominion of their mode of worship-nothing but the full possession of the privileges and emoluments of the Established Church will satisfy them, and they must be temporal as well as spiritual despots also. They habitually assume those temporal titles which the Crown alone has the privilege of bestowing-one of them even has already usurped the title of the Archbishop of Tuam, and doubtless the example will be followed when it is found that this encroachment on the privileges of the Established Church has been made with impunity. The country totters on the brink of a fearful abyssmoderation is scoffed at-the .Protestant minister is thrown into the back ground, whilst the Popish priest stands out in full and prominent relief, and a weak and faithless government, instead of ruling the country with an equal hand, and giving to the different parties in the state their due consideration, have entered into an unnatural and an unholy compact with radicals and priests-a Protestant government and a Popish priesthood have leagued against the Protestant gentry, and Ireland is now governed by the agency of a Popish faction. Nearly all the respectable Protestants, with the exception of a few officials, have deserted the Castle in disgust, and the Viceroy enacts royalty, to a new and to a totally different audience. A tremendous crisis is approaching, and we are on the eve of a struggle between the peasantry, goaded on by their priests, and the Protestant Church and its members. Ireland is the field where the battle of religious freedom and the constitution may again be fought; and unless the Protestants awake to a sense of their danger, and take the necessary measures of security, the priests will be the rulers of the country, and the reign of Popery will again be dominant in Ireland. Every Protestant, therefore, who values his religion and the connexion with England, and who now sides with the priest, should seriously consider the game he is playing, under the miscalled name of liberty, and every honest and independent man is called on to declare his opinion, and the part he is prepared to take in the approaching conflict. Fortunately, it is not yet too late to save the country, and England had never a more glorious opportu nity of cementing her union with Ireland than she has at present. All the orderly portion of society are with her all the respectable classes of the Roman Catholics are adverse to radicalism and priestly dominion-they have ceased to be disloyal, and are now, I would almost say, to a man, attached to the constitution and to the connexion with England; they are not hostile, politically speaking, to the Established Church, and they do not subscribe to the intolerant and subversive principles of the Church which they follow. They are also most desirous to associate in friendly and social intercourse with the Protestants of their own rank and station in society. It is from the priesthood of the Church of Rome that danger is alone to be apprehended, but formidable as that danger is, it is not yet too late to counteract it: "The brave and active conquer difficulties, By labouring to surmount them, Cowardice and sloth sink under them |