m at a loss to know how to apply
them as objections to the case now before us. When I find that _the
General Committee_ which acts for the Roman Catholics in Dublin prefers
the association proposed in the written draught you have sent me to a
respectful application in Parliament, I shall think the persons who sign
such a paper to be unworthy of any privilege which may be thought fit to
be granted, and that such men ought, _by name_, to be excepted from any
benefit under the Constitution to which they offer this violence. But I
do not find that this form of a seditious league has been signed by any
person whatsoever, either on the part of the supposed projectors, or on
the part of those whom it is calculated to seduce. I do not find, on
inquiry, that such a thing was mentioned, or even remotely alluded to,
in the general meeting of the Catholics from which so much violence was
apprehended. I have considered the other publications, signed by
individuals on the part of certain societies,--I may mistake, for I have
not the honor of knowing them personally, but I take Mr. Butler and Mr.
Tandy not to be Catholics, but members of the Established Church. Not
_one_ that I recollect of these publications, which you and I equally
dislike, appears to be written by persons of that persuasion. Now, if,
whilst a man is dutifully soliciting a favor from Parliament, any person
should choose in an improper manner to show his inclination towards the
cause depending, and if that _must_ destroy the cause of the petitioner,
then, not only the petitioner, but the legislature itself, is in the
power of any weak friend or artful enemy that the supplicant or that the
Parliament may have. A man must be judged by his own actions only.
Certain Protestant Dissenters make seditious propositions to the
Catholics, which it does not appear that they have yet accepted. It
would be strange that the tempter should escape all punishment, and that
he who, under circumstances full of seduction and full of provocation,
has resisted the temptation should incur the penalty. You know, that,
with regard to the Dissenters, who are _stated_ to be the chief movers
in this vile scheme of altering the principles of election to a right of
voting by the head, you are not able (if you ought even to wish such a
thing) to deprive them of any part of the franchises and privileges
which they hold on a footing of perfect equality with yourselves. _They_
may do what they please w