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propriety w the cfc ^ should proceed in with regard to Ireland . But the Government , Parliament , and all the reflecting portion of both countries agree in thinking , that the state of Ireland is intolerable , and that a material change must be effected in her condition . How this
change can be produced , no man is prepared to say with confidence ; but the apparent impossibility of discovering an adequate remedy for the inveterate and almost incurable diseases under which we labour , may in the end be the cause of applying to us the most , if not the only effectual cure .
One of the principal Secretaries of State has said in his place in Parliament , that every means of tranquillizing Ireland had been tried , Catholic Emancipation alone excepted , and to that measure he was not then prepared to yield his assent . The head
of the Government , m the Upper House , has deliberately declared , that in his opinion , the admission of the Roman Catholics to the privileges of the Constitution would only aggravate the evils of the country . These personages are manifestly at a loss how to conduct the interests of Ireland .
They must be aware that the whole body of the Catholics are impatient , that their pride and interests are wounded , that disaffection must be working- within them , if they be men born and nurtured in a free state , and
yet enslaved . These Ministers of the Crown must know , that the mind of a nation fettered and exasperated will struggle and bound , and when a chasm is opened will escape by it in a torrent like lava from the crater of a
volcano . They must see the rising greatness of France , and of the United States ; the growing empires in South America ; the character of those wars which are approaching , as well as the dispositions of six millions of the
King ' s subjects 5 and they must have their misgivings as to whether they will be able to weather the coming storm . They are themselves preparing fuel for the flame in Ireland ; they are educating the people Without providing for their distress , and thus putting the sharpest weapons into the hands of men , who , as they learn to read , will also learn to calculate their strength and to device and meditate
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bn schemes of retaliation and rfevenge * * They will not pacify the country , or induce the absentees to return , or the resident gentry to abide here in peace ; by and bye there will be no link of connexion between the Government and a zealous , if not a disaffected
people . The ministers of the Establishment , as it exists at present , are and will be detested by . those who differ from them in religion ; and the more their residence is enforced , and their number multiplied , the more odious they will become . This may seem a paradox in England , but
whosoever is acquainted with the oppression arising from tithes and church rates , and with the excessive religious zeal which has always characterized the Irish , will freely assent to this truth , however strange it may appear : I doubt as little of it as of any other I have stated .
The Minister of England cannot look to the exertions of the Catholic priesthood ; they have been ill treated , and they may yield for a moment to the influence of nature , though it be opposed to grace . This clergy , with few exceptions , are from the ranks
of the people 3 they inherit their feelings : they are not , as formerly , brought up under despotic governments ; and they have imbibed the doctrines of Locke andPaley , more deeply than those of Beilarmin , or
even of Bosquet on the divine right of kings ; they know much more of the principles of the Constitution than they do of passive obedience . If a rebellion were raging from Carrigfergus to Cape Clear , no sentence of excommunication would ever be
fulminated by a Catholic Prelate , or if fulminated , it would fall , as Grattan once said of British Supremacy , like a spent thunder-bolt , " some gazed at it , the people were fond to touch it . " The Catholics possessed of property in Ireland either cannot or will not
render any'efficient * services to the Government , should eventful times arrive . The number of the ancient proprietors of land amongst the Catholics has of late years rather
diminished than increased , and those who remain of them have at present less influence than at any former period tof our history . The system of clanship is entirely dissolved in Ireland ;
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386 Letter from Dr * Doyle , on the State of Ireland and the Irish Church .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 386, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/2/
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