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actors in it: You coolly tell us, that," if the gun"powder plot had not been planned, Oates's plot "would never have been believed."-This shows the enormous guilt of those, who, without any evidence, fabricated the calumny that the gunpowder plot was planned by the Roman Catholics. In this enormous guilt, all participate who perpetuate this slander of them.

Even,-if the gunpowder plot had been planned in the very manner asserted by these calumniators, it would not have justified the legal murders perpetrated during the period of Oates's plot. But the gunpowder plot was not so planned: the body of the Roman Catholics had no concern in it: they reprobated it at the time, they reprobate now, as much as Protestants.

10. We reach, (page 298), the reign of James II:-It contains your last charge,—and last misrepresentation.

"What credit," You exclaim, "can be given "to the advocates of your communion, when they "read in the pages of the most candid and ".accomplished of their number, the declara"tion of his opinion, that the measures of James may be denominated a project for effecting a general religious toleration."

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My language is as follows:-" In my Histo"rical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish "Catholics, I have expressed my sentiments upon

"the conduct of James II. My opinion is, that in

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theory, his project for effecting a general reli"gious toleration, was entitled to praise; but as "the public mind was not disposed to receive it "favourably, it was unwise, and the measures "which he adopted for carrying it into execution, were unconstitutional."

In the exposition which you give of this passage, there are both great misrepresentation and great concealment.

1st.—You make me say, that " the measures of "James might be denominated a project for ef"fecting a general religious toleration." I neither say, nor believe that they may be so denominated.

One, of James's projects was to effect a general religious toleration; but he had other projects in contemplation, particularly the introduction of arbitrary power. To describe them all by the words you cite, would be great inaccuracy, and I have not been guilty of it. I have only mentioned his "project for effecting a general religious tole"ration." and said nothing of the others.

2dly. In this passage, You-(although you had inserted them in the preceding page)-omit altogether the important words, " in theory."

3dly.

You wholly conceal my explicit assertion of the folly and unconstitutionality of James's

measures.

4thly.-In my

"Historical Memoirs," * I have

* Vol. IV.

inserted a long note, to expose the futility of the arguments used by the advocates of James, in favour of the dispensing power which he claimed. -This, too, You conceal.

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5thly. Finally, You also conceal my statements in my letter to Dr. Southey, that "None disapproved of James's measures more than the Catholics;" and my quotation from Hume, "that "all judicious persons of the Catholic communion, were disgusted with them, and foresaw their consequences;" that " Lord Arundell, Lord Fowis, " and Lord Bellaryse, remonstrated against them, " and suggested more moderate councils ;" and that, "when Lord Tyrconnel disclosed James's

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plan for catholicising Ireland, Lord Bellaryse "declared his majesty was a fool and a madman, enough to ruin ten kingdoms."

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11. To the Bill of Rights and the Act of Settlement, no portion of his Majesty's subjects, more constitutionally submit than the Roman Catholics : they only suggest, that no construction of the Bill of Rights, and no inferences from it, should be adopted to their prejudice, unless they are warranted by a fair construction of the WORDS of the Act. THEY PROTEST AGAINST ANY INTERPRETATION OF THEM, THAT AMOUNT TO LEGISLATION.

I beg leave to add, that, so far from wishing to conceal the illaudable conduct of any Catholic,

during the period in question, I have inserted, in my Historical Memoirs,* a fuller and clearer account of the very reprehensible practices of, what I term, the Spanish faction, than is to be found in any writer, Protestant or Catholic.

I have the honour to be,

with the greatest respect,

Your most obedient servant,
CHARLES BUTLER.

Lincoln's-Inn,

4th November 1825.

P. S. SINCE the former sheets were printed, I have recollected a fact which strongly confirms what I have said in the third and ninth of the preceding letters. I transcribe the relation of it, from a Pastoral Instructiou, published in 1793, by Doctor Troy, the Roman Catholic archbishop in Dublin:†

"The Roman Catholic archbishops of Ireland, at "their meeting in Dublin, in 1791, addressed a letter "to the Pope, wherein they described the misrepre"sentations that had been recently published of

* Ch. XXXVI. & LI. Vol. III. p. 14 & 223.

+ Printed by Coghlan, in Duke-street, and inserted by the late Sir John Hippisley, in 66 The Substance of a Speech "intended to be delivered in the House of Commons, on the "10th May 1805."-Keating and Brown, Duke-street.

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"their consecration oath, and the great injury to the "Catholic body arising from them :-they expressed "their fullest conviction, that the oath, obliging "them only to canonical obedience to his Holiness, "and communion with the centre of unity, was perfectly reconcileable with their loyalty as subjects, "and the allegiance they had sworn to their gra"cious sovereign King George III. :-they pro"fessed a determination to observe both oaths, ❝ and to preserve their communion with the Holy "See inviolate. Reflecting, however, on the igno

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rance of most Protestants respecting the oath, "with which they seemed only acquainted from "the calumnious publications against it, the pre❝lates above-mentioned suggested to the Pope, "that some declaration or explanation of the oath, "and particularly of the words-Hæreticos per

sequar et impugnabo, from himself, or by his 66 authority, would probably remove the alarms of "well meaning Protestants, and confound the "prejudiced, who, by their misrepresentations of "the oath, endeavoured to blast the prospects and "expectations of Catholics to obtain an emancipation from the penal code; which they had

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reason to hope for, from the clemency of his

Majesty, and the wisdom of the legislature.

"After due deliberation at Rome, the congregation of cardinals, appointed to superintend "the ecclesiastical affairs of these kingdoms, re"turned an answer, (of which the following is an

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