THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE DEMANDS OF THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS FULLY EXPLAINED; IN OBSERVATIONS AND STRICTURES ON A FAMPHLET, ENTITLED, A HISTORY OF THE PENAL LAWS AGAINST THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS, BY PATRICK DUIGENAN, LL. D. M. P. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. J. STOCKDALE, No. 41, PALL MALL. THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE DEMANDS OF THE IRISH ROMAN CATHOLICS. In this age of innovation, the renowned Constitution of the British empire bas, hitherto, resisted the rude attacks of foreign enemies, and the treacherous attempts of domestic foes, preserving its great barriers yet entire and unimpaired. There can be no doubt of its sufficiency to repel external assault; its durability and security can be only hazarded and shaken by its own ungrateful subjects, and the plots and intrigues of restless faction in its very bowels.-Jacobinism, the bane of the rest of Europe, has been able to insinuate its baleful influence, in some degree, into this empire; and, a short time since, boldly attempted the subversion of that constitution, the result of the wisdom of ages, and the admiration of all the civilised world, by open force. The aggression was met by the energy of the nation, and defeated; the blaze was extinguished, but the fire remained in the embers, ready to be communicated to every inflammable material which it could be by any means wafted to. In every popular government, faction, in some degree, must exist; it is a disorder to which such governments are liable, and in such a government as that of the British empire, it is as it were the price which the subjects pay for the inestimable benefits it confers on them. The discontented may be reduced among persons of any rank or influence, to two classes; one is actuated by disappointed ambition and avarice, and this The other class is infinitely the most numerous. class is composed of Jacobins, the avowed enemies of all religion, disciples of Voltaire, Rousseau, &c.; they style themselves philosophers, and are perpetual projectors of new forms of government, in which, however, each has his own peculiar whimsical system; and they can agree in nothing save in their enmity to the establishment in church and state, and in their indefatigable exertions to subvert it. These two classes solicit the favour of the populace with the utmost assiduity, and submit to the most servile cultivation of popular prejudices. The object of the one is the acquisition of political power and riches, by procuring to itself the great offices of state, and the emoluments belonging to them; the ob |