er: for, so late as the
reign of Edward the Fourth, the following short, but very explicit, act
of Parliament was passed:--

IV. ED. Cap. 3.

"An act, whereby letters patent of pardon from the king to
those that sue to Rome for certain benefices is void. Rot.
Parl.

"Item, At the request of the commons, it is ordeyned and
established, by authority of the said Parliament, that all
maner letters patents of the king, of pardons or pardon
granted by the king, or hereafter to be granted, to any
provisor that claim any title by the bulls of the Pope to any
maner benefices, where, at the time of the impetrating of the
said bulls of provision, the benefice is full of an
incumbent, that then the said letters patents of pardon or
pardons be void in law and of none effect."

When, by every expedient of force and policy, by a war of some
centuries, by extirpating a number of the old, and by bringing in a
number of new people full of those opinions and intending to propagate
them, they had fully compassed their object, they suddenly took another
turn,--commenced an opposite persecution, made heavy laws, carried on
mighty wars, inflicted and suffered the worst evils, extirpated the mass
of the old, brought in new inhabitants; and they continue at this day an
oppressive system, and may for four hundred years to come, to eradicate
opinions which by the same violent means they had been four hundred
years endeavoring by every means to establish. They compelled the people
to submit, by the forfeiture of all their civil rights, to the Pope's
authority, in its most extravagant and unbounded sense, as a giver of
kingdoms; and now they refuse even to tolerate them in the most moderate
and chastised sentiments concerning it. No country, I believe, since
the world began, has suffered so much on account of religion, or has
been so variously harassed both for Popery and for Protestantism.

It will now be seen, that, even if these laws could be supposed
agreeable to those of Nature in these particulars, on another and almost
as strong a principle they are yet unjust, as being contrary to positive
compact, and the public faith most solemnly plighted. On the surrender
of Limerick, and some other Irish garrisons, in the war of the
Revolution, the Lords Justices of Ireland and the commander-in-chief of
the king's forces signed a capitulation with the Irish, which was
afterwards ratified by the