t, would not be broken. We
also pledge ourselves to you, that we should give, even to those
unhappy persons, an hearty support in effectuating the peace of the
empire, and every opposition in an attempt to cast it again into
disorder.

When that happy hour shall arrive, let us in all affection, recommend to
you the wisdom of continuing, as in former times, or even in a more
ample measure, the support of your government, and even to give to your
administration some degree of reciprocal interest in your freedom. We
earnestly wish you not to furnish your enemies, here or elsewhere, with
any sort of pretexts for reviving quarrels by too reserved and severe or
penurious an exercise of those sacred rights which no pretended abuse in
the exercise ought to impair, nor, by overstraining the principles of
freedom, to make them less compatible with those haughty sentiments in
others which the very same principles may be apt to breed in minds not
tempered with the utmost equity and justice.

The well-wishers of the liberty and union of this empire salute you, and
recommend you most heartily to the Divine protection.

A

LETTER

TO

THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND S. PERY

SPEAKER OF THE IRISH HOUSE OF COMMONS,

IN RELATION TO

A BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF IRELAND.

JULY 18, 1778.

NOTE.

This Letter is addressed to Mr. Pery, (afterwards Lord Pery,)
then Speaker of the House of Commons of Ireland. It appears,
there had been much correspondence between that gentleman and
Mr. Burke, on the subject of Heads of a bill (which had
passed the Irish House of Commons in the summer of the year
1778, and had been transmitted by the Irish Privy Council of
[to?] England) for the relief of his Majesty's Roman Catholic
subjects in Ireland. The bill contained a clause for
exempting the Protestant Dissenters of Ireland from the
sacramental test, which created a strong objection to the
whole measure on the part of the English government. Mr.
Burke employed his most strenuous efforts to remove the
prejudice which the king's ministers entertained against the
clause, but the bill was ultimately returned without it, and
in that shape passed the Irish Parliament. (17th and 18th
Geo. III cap. 49.) In the subsequent session, however, a
separate act was passed for the relief of the Protestant
Dissenters of Ireland.

LETTER.

My Dear Sir,--I recei