6

says again, the Roman Catholics were trained from their infancy in an hereditary hatred and abhorrence of the English name.' Dr. M'Nevin says, that the Roman Catholic committee were immoveable republicans;' and that when the delegates were asked their mind, they all said, 'they were for a republican government and separation from England.' And it may further be remarked of the members of this committee, what Mr. Wolfe Tone informs us, that every one of them was engaged in treason; that Mr. Keogh, though from his greater art he escaped detection, was privy to and concerned in all Wolfe Tone's designs; and that with, I believe, his single exception, they all either mounted the scaffold, or, to escape it, committed suicide, or were banished, or fled from the country.

"Now, it was with this Roman Catholic committee that Drs. Troy and O'Reilly were in confidential communication. Of this, however, and of their designs, Mr. Pitt's government knew nothing; all they knew was the professions of the Roman Catholics and the assurances of Drs. Troy and O'Reilly; and on the faith of these they founded the College of Maynooth, in the year 1795. They supposed that they had gained the Roman Catholic bishops, and had secured to England the affections of the priesthood. Now we turn to the journal of Mr. Wolfe Tone, and we find there, that, whilst the Roman Catholic

bishops were making these professions to Mr. Pitt, in 1793, they became in that very year members of that very Roman Catholic committee, joint-conspirators in that conspiracy of treason which was then organising. Mr. Tone says, speaking of the priests, whatever might have been at first their doubts and diffidence, when they saw the great body of the laity come forward, they cast away all reserve, and declared their determination to rise and fall with their flocks a wise and patriotic resolution, which was signified to the General Committee by Drs. Troy and Moylan, who assisted at the meeting, and signed the petition in the name of the great body of the Catholic clergy of Ireland;' so that at the very time when they were openly. urging Mr. Pitt to draw them out of the popular influence, and attach them to government, by Declarations founding the College of Maynooth, they were secretly giving in their adhesions to this association of treason. At the same time, in the same year, 1793, came forward all the Roman Catholic bishops with a voluntary declaration of loyalty, and in the same year Drs. Troy and O'Reilly, with three other bishops, issued an admonition to the Roman Catholics, recommending allegiance to the king; thus blinding the English government with professions of attachment, and covering their conspiracy with these perfidious publications. And it may be laid down as a fact, which the history of Ireland, in the pages,

of loyalty.

not of a Protestant, but of the Roman Catholic historian, Plowden, will establish, that the Roman Catholic bishops never issued a manifesto of loyalty, except when they had some political end to compass, or when they wished to cover some secret treason against England, which was not ripe for explosion."

to

and effect of

tions.

"The object of these declarations and mani- The object festoes is now apparent enough. They were in- these declaratended to propitiate the government of the day, and hoodwink Mr. Pitt with regard to the unconstitutional and dangerous character of the boon they were requiring at his hand throw him off his guard, and, by impressing him with a notion of the loyalty of Papists, and the facility with which they might be attached to the crown and government of England, nullify any objections, and induce him to accede to their proposal. There can be no question as to the reception which ought to have been given to it: a proposition so detestable ought undoubtedly to have been met with the scorn and execration it merited. Pitt was a real lover of his country; every fibre of his noble heart glowed with the purest patriotism; he would have laid down his life for his country, -ay, a thousand, if he had them; and his motives on this occasion were, doubtless, patriotic. He unfortunately knew but little of the real genius of popery, and still less of the wretched principles of baseness and villany it imposes upon

1

The Act for founding the college.

Preamble.

the consciences of its votaries, under the guise of religious sentiments, moral requirements, and spiritual obligations; and he yielded to the specious arguments of popish sophistry, believed the hollow professions of the priestly cringers, and endowed the Royal College of Maynooth.'

The Act rendering it lawful to endow one college or seminary for the education exclusively of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, was passed in the year 1795 †, and is as follows:

:

An Act for the better Education of Persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic Religion.

I. Whereas by the laws now in force in this kingdom, it is not lawful to endow any college or seminary for the education exclusively of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, and it is now become expedient that a seminary should be established for that purpose; be it therefore enacted, by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Persons here- authority of the same, That the Right Honourable John Viscount Fitzgibbon, Lord Chancellor establishing, of Ireland; the Right Honourable John Earl of

in named

shall be

trustees for

endowing,

and main

taining an academy for the education of Roman

Catholics.

p. 27.

Church of England Quarterly Review, July 1839,

† 35 Geo. III. cap. xxi. Irish Stat. vol. xvii. p. 511.

Clonmell, Chief Justice of His Majesty's Court of King's Bench in Ireland; the Right Honourable Hugh Lord Carleton, Chief Justice of His Majesty's Court of Common Pleas in Ireland; and the Right Honourable Baron Yelverton, Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland; and the Chancellor or Lord Keeper, Chief Justices, and Chief Barons of the said Courts for the time being; together with Arthur James Plunkett, commonly called Earl of Fingall; Jenico Preston, commonly called Viscount Gormanstwon,baronet; Sir Thomas Browne, baronet, commonly called Viscount Kenmare; Sir Edward Bellew, baronet; Richard Strange, of the city of Dublin, esquire ; Sir Thomas French, baronet; the Reverend Richard O'Reilly, of Drogheda, doctor in divinity; the Reverend John Thomas Troy, of the city of Dublin, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Thomas Bray, of Thurles, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Boetius Egar, of Tuam, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Patrick Joseph Plunkett, of Navan, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Philip Mac Davett, of Strabane, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Francis Moylan, of Cork, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Gerald Tehan, of Killarney, doctor in divinity; the Reverend Daniel Delany, of Tullow, doctor in divinity, the Reverend Edmond French, of Athlone, doctor in divinity; and the Reverend Thomas Hussey, of the city of Dublin, doctor in divinity; and the persons to be hereafter elected as by this Act is