AN ARGUMENT AGAINST EXTERMINATION: OCCASIONED BY DOCTOR DUIGENAN'S "REPRESENTATION BY A CATHOLIC AND BURKIST. In the groves of their academy, at the end of every visto, you see nothing but the gallows! Are ye not afhamed, Burke's Reflections • With this immodeft clamorous outrage And you my Lords, - Methinks you do not well To bear with their perverfe objections. ift Part Henry 6th. Dublin: PRINTED BY H. FITZPATRICK, NO, 2, UT. ORMOND QUAY, 1800. AN ARGUMENT, &c. &c. THOSE who have had experience of Doctor Duigenan's literary labours, will hear without aftonishment, that his work, a crouded volume of 253 pages, has lain for fome weeks unopened before me. A ftudied mifreprefentation of facts, and an habitual coarfenefs of manner, do not invite by the promife of entertainment or inftruction. Such has been the character of this gentleman's former performances, and the prefent proves his habits to be too inveterate for amendment. With diftafte and reluctance, I changed my accustomed ftudies for this book. I have at length accomplished my toilfome journey, over a dull, dreary and barren wafte; where no ray enlightens the gloom, except a tranfient and occafional glare,' when my author afpires to the praise of jocular malignity. Curiofity, unmixed indeed with reverential feelings, has impelled me, as it probably has many others, equally removed beyond the attractions of Doctor Duigenan's reputation. One is folicitous to know, by what means a man, who might have declined in years with refpect, or at leaft with decency, fhould prefs forward unbidden, to court the hatred of his fellow-citizens; why he, on whom fortune fmiles, fhould look around him with ma lignity; of what materials the foul is formed, which a long course of profperity has not warmed into benevolence. I have been induced to read this author's work, celebrated perhaps, amidst the fanguinary orgies of the diminutive faction, among whom it is his miferable vanity to be efteemed a leader; defpifed by the Proteftants of Ireland, whom he would alarm into approbation; hated by the Catholics whom he afperfes; if hatred be not a fentiment of too much dignity, to exprefs the difapprobation entertained for a man, who has defcribed the measure of his acquirements, and fought the level of his talents, when he minifters to the worft propenfities of the meaneft faction in the univerfe. From a difgufting perufal, I pafs to an indignant controverfy. Shall a people be flandered, and the calumniator pafs without rebuke? Shall the vileft policy that ever difgraced civilized fociety be juftified? Shall the ceffation of that rule be lamented, and an impious hope be exprcffed for the revival of it, without disguise or ambiguity? In a folemn appeal to that people, whofe good repute it ought to be the pride of all mankind to cultivate, fhall facts be falfified and distorted? Shall brutality be foftened and palliated, and rendered plaufible, and however clumfy the difguife, put forward in the garb of wisdom? Shall the illuftrious nobleman be traduced, whofe military achievements are only celipfed by the triumph of humanity in which he leads a proftrate people to peace and order, and good Government; who will hand the laurel of India to his pofterity, entwined with the Irish olive, and both luxuriant, for the bleffings of a grateful people, have been poured on them? Shall Lord Cornwallis had ample teftimony of this, in his tour te the South laft fummer. Shall the hallowed duft of Burke be irreverently moved, and fhall not every man, how ever humble his rank, however limited his powers, fly from his repofe to chace the obfcene profaner? Not fo: In retorting the obloquies of Doctor Duigenan, there is no laurel to be gained. His learning is what no man of fenfe would wish to retain. His facts, both ancient and modern, are detailed with a profligate difregard to truth.-His inferences are the feeble operations of a mind, either naturally narrow, or pretending blindness from diffimulation.Where he attempts to fport in farcafm, his wit, like the playfulnefs of a fea-monffer, even to perfons beyond its gripe, creates an impreffion of horror. His wifdom is the wafteful cunning of a favage, or the jealous precaution of a tyrant. Is greatnefs to be criticised, in the true fpirit of obfequioufnefs, he cringes with aukward apologies for diffenting; whilft he ftruts forward against leffer men, with arrogant intemperance. Such is the adverfary, with whom I am impelled to grapple, in vindication of a people,more finned againft than finning," in whofe ranks, nature and education have affigned to me an humble ftation. I cannot challenge merit in the conflict, or praife in the victory; and if, in the fervour of debate, I imitate my an tagonist, by a harfhnefs of expreffion, from which, on any other occafion, my fenfe of decorum would recoil, let it be recollected, that when a beaft of the ferocious claffes breaks in on focial life, you are not bound by the sportsman's ordinary rules, in driving him back to his faftnefs. Etfi nullum memorabile nomen. In poena eft, nec habet victoria laudem Extinxifle nefas tamen, et fumfiffe merentis Laudabor poenas: animumque expleffe juvabit Ultricis flamine, et cinères fatiaffe meorum. * And *Was not Virgil a defperate, bold, audacious, traitorous Irish Romanit. Note by the Editor. |