robability of much good
arising from great evil.

"Jakke Carter pryes yowe alle that ye make a gode _ende_ of that ye hane
begunnen, and doth wele and ay bettur and bettur: for at the even men
heryth the day. _For if the ende be wele, than is alle wele._ Lat Peres
the Plowman my brother duelle at home and dygt us corne, and I will go
with yowe and helpe that y may to dygte youre mete and youre drynke,
that ye none fayle: lokke that Hobbe robbyoure be wele chastysed for
lesyng of youre grace: for ye have gret nede to take God with yowe in
alle yours dedes. For nowe is tyme to be war."

[24] See the wise remark on this subject in the Defence of Rights of
Man, circulated by the societies.

[25] The primary assemblies.

A

LETTER

TO

A PEER OF IRELAND

ON THE

PENAL LAWS AGAINST IRISH CATHOLICS,

PREVIOUS TO

THE LATE REPEAL OF A PART THEREOF IN THE SESSION OF THE IRISH
PARLIAMENT, HELD A.D. 1782.

CHARLES STREET, LONDON, Feb. 21, 1782

My Lord,--I am obliged to your Lordship for your communication of the
heads of Mr. Gardiner's bill. I had received it, in an earlier stage of
its progress, from Mr. Braughall; and I am still in that gentleman's
debt, as I have not made him the proper return for the favor he has done
me. Business, to which I was more immediately called, and in which my
sentiments had the weight of one vote, occupied me every moment since I
received his letter. This first morning which I can call my own I give
with great cheerfulness to the subject on which your Lordship has done
me the honor of desiring my opinion.

I have read the heads of the bill, with the amendments. Your Lordship is
too well acquainted with men, and with affairs, to imagine that any true
judgment can be formed on the value of a great measure of policy from
the perusal of a piece of paper. At present I am much in the dark with
regard to the state of the country which the intended law is to be
applied to. It is not easy for me to determine whether or no it was wise
(for the sake of expunging the black letter of laws which, menacing as
they were in the language, were every day fading into disuse) solemnly
to reaffirm the principles and to reenact the provisions of a code of
statutes by which you are totally excluded from THE PRIVILEGES OF THE
COMMONWEALTH, from the highest to the lowest, from the most material of
the civil professions, from the army, and even from education, where
alone education is to be had