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(^^j^po^y>i^xyc<.i^.j^M^^^ 
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE AND WITINGS 
 
 C^Cx^ 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REY. ARTHUR O'LEARY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 EEV. M. B. BUCKLEY, 
 
 BOMAN CATHOLIC CURATE, SS. PETER AND PAUL's, CORK. 
 
 'Homo stun,— Htunani aihil a me alienom pnto." 
 
 — Tkbkkce. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 JAMES DUFFY, 15, WELLINGTON-QUAY; 
 
 AKD 
 
 22, PATERNOSTER-ROW, UNDON. 
 18G8. 
 
ThA^xLuK^*^ (Afr^-J^^-^-^r^ 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 
 Irinttb bg |. gl. ©'®oolc « Son, 
 
 GT. BRXJNSWICK-STEEKT, DUBLIN. 
 
05 88 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It has passed into a proverb, that discord among her chil- 
 dren has been the bane of Ireland from the beginning of 
 her history. The Anglo-Saxon invaders, so far from curing 
 the national disease, only intensified its virulence, by intro- 
 ducing, in their own persons, a new element of dissension. 
 The breach was widened, first, by the difference of religion 
 consequent on the Reformation ; subsequently, by the 
 establishment of English settlers in Ulster after its confis- 
 cation under James the First ; and still further, by a fresh 
 importation of the dominant race into Munster under 
 Cromwell. But the chasm yawned to its utmost under 
 Anne, when, by the Penal Laws, the whole population was 
 divided into Protestants basking in the full sunshine of 
 freedom and temporal prosperity ; and Papists, as they 
 were called, crouching under the lash of a Draconian 
 code, and left merely to "vegetate and rot." Catholic 
 Emancipation contracted the limits of separation, and 
 soothed, in some measure, the bitterness of religious ani- 
 mosity ; but Protestant Ascendancy still remains, and the 
 ranks of Irishmen stand, as ever, serried against each other 
 in hostile array. The Orangeman of the north and the 
 Catholic of the south represent the extremes of national 
 disunion and antipathy. 
 
 He who would throw oil on these troubled waters, blend 
 
 ivi525661 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 the discordant elements, and direct the mingled mind of the 
 WHOLE PEOPLE to one grand scheme of national im- 
 provement, would attempt the noblest task of the patriot, 
 achieve the proudest triumph of philanthropy, and fulfil the 
 highest duty of a Christian. He who would only contribute 
 to the attainment of such an end may lack the success, 
 perhaps the genius, of a hero ; but he surely deserves the 
 laurels of a good and valiant soldier. 
 
 Such an attempt was made eighty years ago, or there- 
 abouts, by one of Ireland's greatest men, but one whose 
 efforts in her cause are amongst those least commemorated 
 by Ireland's gratitude or love. It was made by one of the 
 persecuted race ; by a minister of the proscribed religion ; 
 by one who joined the ranks of the Irish priesthood in the 
 hour of its darkest danger, when the words applied to the 
 lawgivers of the fated land were, alas ! too true : — 
 
 "They bribed tlie flock, they bribed the son, 
 To sell the priest, and rob the sire ; 
 Their dogs were taught alike to run 
 Upon the scent of wolf and friar." 
 
 That man was — Arthur O'Leary. His writings are stamped 
 with a manliness of style and sentiment, a spirit of cosmo- 
 politan benevolence, a depth of Christian feeling, a loyalty 
 to constituted authority, a breadth of religious toleration, and 
 a wholesome love of country, that should render them for 
 ever sacred in the archives of the literature of Ireland. 
 It is marvellous how his merits could have been hitherto so 
 slightly appreciated, seeing that, by the ceaseless and power- 
 ful efforts of his pen, he really was the grand precursor of 
 0' Council in the mission of Catholic Emancipation. He 
 did more than any Irishman ever did to remove the pre- 
 judices, and to dispel the ignorance on which those pre- 
 judices were founded, that had so long checked the repeal 
 
Preface. v 
 
 of iniquitous and barbarous legislation, and kept asunder, on 
 account of religion, a people whose common Christianity 
 taught them that fraternal love was not merely an advantage, 
 but a duty. 
 
 From the obscurity of his social position, his genius and 
 virtue raised him to the highest ranks of popularity and 
 favour. He was loved and sought after by the greatest men 
 of his time, both in Ireland and England; by the most 
 illustrious noblemen, including George, Prince of Wales ; 
 and by the still more exalted aristocracy of intellect, of 
 whom Grattan, Curran, and Burke were not the least 
 shining representatives. He enjoyed a pension from the 
 crown for the sendees he had rendered his country; in this 
 hard, up-hill struggle of life illustrating, by his success, the 
 dictum of the Roman historian : " Ipsa virtus pervincit, ne 
 in ullo gemre hominum inhonorata sit." (Liv. lib. x.) 
 
 The times in which he lived were strikingly analogous to 
 the present. An American war had been just concluded 
 then, as another has now. Ireland then looked to America 
 for support in her difficulties — so does she look now. Dis- 
 affection prevailed amongst the people, the country was 
 disturbed by Whiteboys ; Ireland was never, perhaps, so 
 discontented as she is at the present moment. Whiteboyism 
 in 1786 was limited to a portion of the island ; Fenianism 
 in 1868 has spread itself through the length and breadth 
 of the land. 
 
 To repress national folly displayed in fruitless insur- 
 rection, was one of O'Leary's grandest aims, and cer- 
 tainly one of his most successful achievements. If the 
 reproduction of such portions of his writings as treat on 
 this subject produce a similar result to-day; if, while 
 painting in their true colours the grievances to which Ire- 
 land has been victimized for centuries, those writings succeed 
 in demonstrating the only legitimate and effectual means of 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 securing national amelioration, and in inculcating patience 
 and moderation under the lash of persecution — the tran- 
 scriber will be amply requited for his pains. If they fail to 
 do so, it will not be for want of sober truth, logical force, 
 political sagacity, Christian feeling, and eloquent persuasion, 
 for which they are distinguished. 
 
 Then, also, as now, the fundamental truths of Christianity 
 were assailed — the divinity of Christ and the immortality 
 of the soul. With the weapons of O'Leary, the ranks of 
 modern sophists and sceptics may be routed, as he routed 
 the injfidel disciples of Voltaire in his day. The calumnies 
 against Catholicity which he refuted, are needed to-day in 
 the eternal interests of truth; the toleration which he 
 preached may worthily find an echo after an interval of 
 three generations, for generations quickly perish, but pre- 
 judices are slow to be extinguished. 
 
 Under the banners, then, of Truth, Peace, Eeligious Tole- 
 ration, and Love of Country, we publish "The Life and 
 Writings of the Eeverend Arthur O'Leary," the gist of 
 whose constant exhortation to mankind was that noble 
 sentiment, so admirably expressed, and so cherished in the 
 memories of the thousands of Irishmen to whom his name 
 is familiar : *' Let not religion, the sacred name of re- 
 ligion, which, even in the face of an enemy, discovers a 
 brother, be any longer a wall of separation to keep us 
 asunder." 
 
 While we thus, however, propose for admiration the 
 writings of Arthur O'Leary, candour obliges us to confess 
 that in them are found enunciated many sentiments of a 
 theological nature, which, if they do not transgress the 
 bounds of orthodoxy, are nevertheless characterized by a 
 boldness of assertion and looseness of reasoning sufficient 
 to awaken a feeling of nervous uneasiness in the mind of a 
 Catholic reader. It would have been possible for us to 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 indicate the precise passages in which these inaccuracies are 
 noticeable ; but we fancied that a review of O'Leary's writ- 
 ings theologically considered, as it was not our scope, would 
 ha^ very little interest for the general reader. Besides, 
 our apprehensions on this subject are excited not so much 
 by any particular passages in the writings of O'Leary, as 
 by their whole tone and tenor. Theological truth is, in 
 the mind of a Roman Catholic, so unerring a line, that 
 the slightest deflection at either side startles and affrights 
 him. 
 
 Father O'Leary's faith was as unswerving as that of his 
 renowned papal contemporary, Ganganelli ; but, yet, his 
 eager desire to mitigate the sufferings of his fellow-country- 
 men caused by religious bigotry, seduced him into un- 
 warrantable theological concessions — forced him to make 
 rash admissions — to indulge in a freedom of expression 
 unwise as it was unnecessary — and thus expose himself 
 unconsciously to the danger of heterodoxical teaching. 
 
 It may be said that by this vague criticism we mar the 
 general effect of Father O'Leary's writings, inasmuch as the 
 reader is not forewarned of the several points which we 
 regard as hurtful to theological truth. We reply, that, ac- 
 cording to our lights, nothing exactly contrary to faith in 
 the strict sense is discernible in these -wiitings, while their 
 tone is such as to make us apprehend danger where danger 
 is not broadly visible. There are many shades of opinion 
 between what is called, in the language of the schools, 
 " temerarious," and what " heretical." We merely wish 
 to guard ourselves against being supposed as unqualifiedly 
 adopting all Father O'Leary's views. These remarks we 
 think fit to make at the instance of more than one good 
 theological critic. 
 
 But of the general soundness of O'Leary's views there 
 can be little doubt. No passage of his writings, as such, 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 has ever been condemned by ecclesiastical authority ; 
 while they breathe a magnanimity of sentiment, a high 
 religious feeling, and a love of the human race, worthy of 
 the most refined and exalted nature. 
 
 SS. Peter and Paul's Parish, Cork. 
 September 9th, 1868. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 His Birth — Anecdote of his Childhood — Denied Education at 
 Home, he seeks it Abroad — Sketch of the Penal Laws, as 
 background of the picture— O'Leary at St. Maloe's— His 
 Probity Tested and Triumphant — Returns to Cork — Builds 
 the " Little Friary " — His Controversy with Blair, . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Father O'Leary's celebrated Essay, "Loyalty Asserted" — 
 Continued Sketch of the Penal Laws — The Test Oath — 
 The Opposition it met with— Its Defence by O'Leary — 
 Extracts from the Essay, 40 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Father O'Leary's Address to the Common People of Ireland of 
 the Roman Catholic Religion, concerning the apprehended 
 French Invasion, 98 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 O'Leary's Controversy with John Wesley— Their Subsequent 
 Meeting at the House of a Mutual Friend— Wesley's Esti- 
 mate of his Antagonist, 113 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Enay on Toleration— Tending to prove that a Man's Specula- 
 tive Opinion ought not to deprive him of the Rights of 
 Civil Society— Prefatory Remarks of the Author, . .140 
 
 a 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sensation produced by Father O'Leary's Essay on Toleration- 
 He is elected to the "Monks of the Screw" — Account of 
 that Society— The English Catholic Committee print his 
 Essay and distribute it — Complimentary Letters from Eng- 
 lish Noblemen — He is elected Chaplain to the Irish (Volun- 
 teer) Brigade — His Reception at the National Convention — 
 His Passage through Kilkenny — His Probity again Tested 
 and again Triumphant— He is solicited to write a History 
 of the Gordon Riots, but declines — His Reasons for decli- 
 ning — Threatened Abolition of Religious Orders in Ireland 
 — Father O'Leary comes to the Rescue — Father Laurence 
 Callanan — Eulogies jjassed on O'Leary in Parliament — 
 Handsome Presentation to him at Cork — His "Review of 
 the Controversy between the Rev. Dr. Carroll and the Rev. 
 Messrs. Wharton and Hawkins " — He becomes the Friend 
 of Howard, the Philanthropist 197 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Account of the Whiteboys — Father O'Leary's Address to them — 
 Pamphlet of " Theophilus "— Who "Theophilus" was— 
 Pamphlet of Dr. Woodward, Protestant Bishop of Cloyne 
 — O'Leary's Celebrated Reply to "Theophilus" and the 
 Bishop — Extracts therefrom — Opinions of the Public on 
 the Controversy — Eulogies on O'Leary by Moore, Hay 
 (Irish Rebellion), Lord Kenmare, Curran, Woodward him- 
 self — Captain Rock's Description of Father O'Leary — The 
 Bishop of Cloyne's Altered Views, 224 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Character of Father O'Leary— His Personal Appearance— Anec- 
 dote of O'Leary and Lord Avonmore — Novel method of 
 finding out where one is to dine— O'Leary at Lady Mor- 
 gan's Christening — Her Ladyship's opinion of him — Curious 
 Issue of a Religious Controversy — O'Leary's Charities — 
 Young Murphy (afterwards Bishop of Cork) reads the Bible 
 for him— Anecdotes— St. Patrick's New Coat— The Quaker 
 and the Guinea — Sir Jonah Barrington's Accoimt of O'Leary 
 — A String of Anecdotes— O'Leary and Michael Kelly, the 
 Composer — O'Leary and Curran — Amusing Introduction to 
 Dr. Johnson— The Irish Language— O'Leary's Tendency to 
 Fits of Gloom — Apprehensions of his Future, . . • 284 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 father O'Leary takes up his Eesidence in London— He be- 
 comes Chaplain to the Spanish Embassy— Account of Dr. 
 Hussey, his Fellow-Chaplain— Dr. Hussey afterwards Bi- 
 shop of "Waterford— His celebrated Pastoral— O'Leary and 
 Edmund Burke- O'Leary and George, Prince of Wales— 
 The Pavilion at Brighton— O'Leary a Guest at the Pavi- 
 lion—Anecdotes of him — Contrast between him and Tho- 
 mas Lewis O'Beime 304 
 
 CHAPTER X, 
 
 Father O'Leary visits Daniel Danser— Amusing Interview of 
 the Priest and Miser— John O'Keefe's Anecdotes of O'Leary 
 —The ** Glorious Boys "—Father O'Leary " out of order " 
 — The English Catholic Committee— O'Leary and the 
 English Catholics— His Letter to Bishop Moylan— He is 
 accused of Apostasy— Able Letter rebutting the Charge- 
 Lord Dunboyne, the Apostate Bishop of Cork— The Apos- 
 tate Kirwan— St. Patrick's Church, Soho-square— Effects 
 of Father O'Leary's Preaching, 319 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Father O'Leary's Hidden Life— Effect of the French Revolution 
 on his Mind — He assists the French Refugees— His great 
 Sermon on their behalf — Extracts from it — He ridicules the 
 Predictions of the Expiring Papacy— Pius the Sixth — An- 
 nouncement of the Pontiff's Death in London— Father 
 O'Leary preaches his Paneg)'ric — Magnificent Audience — 
 Extracts from the Sermon— Opinions of the Press on it, . 337 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Father O'Leary Pensioned by the Government — "Was it ** Hush- 
 Ikloney " ?— Plowden's Opinion on the Subject— The Ques- 
 tion examined — England's Account of it — What was the 
 Secret Condition ?— Brought to light at last— Pitt's Part in 
 the TransactioD 350 
 
 CHAPTER Xni. 
 
 Father O'Leary the Guest of Colonel O'Kelly, owner of 
 "Eclipse"— Sketch of O'KeUy— Turf MonOity— The 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prince of "Wales and Chifney, the Jockey — O'Leary im- 
 contaminated by his Associations — Contrasted with the 
 celebrated Dr. Alexander Geddes — Sketch of Geddes — His 
 "Modest Apology" — O'Leary is requested by Lord Petre 
 to review it — Which he does — Lord Petre's severe Letter 
 to O'Leary in Reply — His Lordship's subsequent Change of 
 Opinion — Lord Moira the Friend of O'Leary, . . . 359 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 O'Leary's "Address to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of 
 the Parliament of Great Britain ; to which is added, an 
 Account of Sir Henry Mildmay's Bill relative to Nuns" — 
 Extracts from the Address — His Hopes of what the Union 
 would Effect for Ireland — Two Dangerous Papists — Two 
 Thousand Servant-maids Converted in London by French 
 Priests in one Year !— Father O'Leary cannot Convert One 
 — He is Attacked by Sir Richard Musgrave — Collects 
 Materials for a History of all the Irish Rebellions — His 
 Health Fails— His Part in Plowden's " Historical Review," 371 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Father O'Leary's Health declines still more — He proceeds to 
 France for Change of Air — Shocked by the Changes re- 
 sulting from the Revolution, he returns — The Ship driven 
 to Ramsgate— He proceeds to London — His Death — His 
 Obsequies and Interment — Eulogies of him in the Press — 
 The Author's visit to St. Pancras' Chnrchyard— Account 
 of the Present State of Father O'Leary's Tomb— The "Sham 
 Squire's" Legacy to O'Leary — O'Leary's "Tracts" — 
 Conclusion, , 386 
 
 Appendix, 396 
 
LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 IIEV. ARTHUR O'LEARY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 His Birth— Anecdote of his Childhood — Denied Education at Home, 
 he seeks it Abroad— Sketch of the Penal Laws, as background of 
 the Picture — O'Leary at St. Maloe's— His Probity Tested and 
 Triumphant— Returns to Cork— Builds the "Little Friary"— His 
 Controversy with Blair. 
 
 Arthur O'Leary was born in the year 1729, of 
 obscure parents, at a place called Acres, a townland in 
 the parish of Fanlobbus, near Dunmanway, in the 
 county of Cork. It has been stated that his birth-place 
 was Iveleary, a picturesque district in the western part 
 of the county. But this is not so. The error may have 
 arisen from the fact, that a considerable portion of his 
 early life was spent amongst his friends and relatives in 
 that parish. Iveleary (Ibh-Laoghaire), when interpre- 
 ted, means the country or territory of the O'Learies, once 
 a powerful Irish sept ; and humble as was the birth of 
 the subject of these memoirs, it is an uncontested fact 
 that his ancestors were the veritable chieftains, who, 
 in days of yore, gave laws and a name to this wild and 
 romantic region.* Of the history of his childhood, docu- 
 ment or tradition has scarcely preserved a trace ; and 
 
 ♦ "O'Laoghaire or O'Leary— chiefs of Hy-Laoghaire or Iveleary, 
 poneaied in ancient %me8 the city of Ross-carbery and it« environs ; 
 and, according to Smith and Windele, Iveleary or O'Leary's country 
 lay between Macroom and Inchegoelah, where they had several 
 
 B 
 
2 Life and Writings of 
 
 even if they had, we may easily imagine it would have 
 very little interest for the reader ; for what charm could 
 possibly attach to the history of a peasant lad, roving 
 wild among his native mountains, sequestered from all 
 society, and forced, by the very exigency of his positiou, 
 to aid in the unromantic offices of an humble farmer's 
 household. O'Leary himself was wont, in convivial 
 moments, to descant with playful humour on many 
 scenes of his early boyhood ; but amongst the records 
 of such narrations, even if they existed, his biographer 
 would search in vain for reliable information, for such 
 was the exuberance of the friar's wit, and such the general 
 brilliance of his conversation, that it was frequently im- 
 possible for his hearers to define the exact boundaries of 
 fact and fiction — to distinguish the lineaments of truth 
 amid the rich and various adornments of fancy. 
 
 One anecdote, however, has been preserved, which 
 indicates in a striking manner the bent of his mind in 
 childhood as well as in after years. A poor woman, 
 living in a cabin on the road-side, eked out a wretched 
 livelihood by huckstering small wares, such as bread, 
 butter, tobacco, snuff, and other petty articles of mer- 
 chandize. Owing to certain peculiarities of manner, 
 probably because she was what is commonly described 
 as " an old fret," she became a butt for all the boyish 
 
 castles, viz., Carrigafooka, Carriganeelah, Carrigiiacurra, Dundarirk, 
 and Drumcurragh. " — Note, Annals of the Four Masters, p. 177. 
 
 "The O'Learies are of the Ithian race, and despite all the wars and 
 revolutions of which this family were the repeated victims, its lineal 
 representative, the 0' Leary, until lately, supported the antique style 
 of profuse hospitality within the district of his fathers. The name 
 is still frequent here amongst the peasantry, but a sod of the fee-simple 
 property belongs not to one of the clan. The governor and company 
 for making hollow sword-blades in England, long since disposed of 
 that. Fame, however, has been more partial to individuals of this 
 race, and Ireland claims amongst her most eminent worthies the 
 name of the pious, the enlightened, and facetious Father Arthur 
 O'Leary." — See Bolsters' Magazine, Cork, Art. " Gougane Barra," 
 vol. ii. No. 7. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 3 
 
 mirth of the neighbourhood, and young O'Leary was 
 amongst the ringleaders in sports designed for her 
 annoyance. On one occasion, after some transgression 
 of rare enormity, the old lady complained of our young 
 hero to his mother, who administered due correction for 
 his fault. Arthur was determined to have his revenge, 
 and his mode of gratifying that strong passion evinced 
 his ingenuity of mind as well as his capacity for mischief. 
 He gathered into an old cloth all the snails and worms 
 he could find, one dewy evening ; and just before the 
 venerable dame had retired to rest, deposited his slimy 
 burden inside her door. Devious and intricate was the 
 silent wandering of the cabin-guests that night, and when 
 morning dawned, great was the horror of the poor 
 woman to discover herself and her house given over to 
 a host of such loathsome intruders. The snails were 
 everywhere — crawling over her bed-clothes, entangled 
 in her hair, climbing up her three-legged stool, and 
 tortuously twisting through her bread-rolls and butter- 
 pats. Young O'Leary had his eye through a chink in 
 the door, and exulted in the triumph of his vengeance. 
 But he had nearly killed his poor victim. She screamed 
 and roared with true womanly vigour, and at length went 
 ofif in hysterics, the invariable culmination of feminine 
 fright. She recovered, but with difficulty, from the 
 shock, and lived in health to a great old age. But the 
 heart of her young torturer had grown contrite, and he 
 resolved, if it should ever be in his power, to compensate 
 her for the injury he had inflicted. And faithfully he 
 kept his resolution ; for, from the first moment he came 
 U) possess money, until the day of the old beldam's 
 death, he allowed her a pension of £5 a year, as a solace 
 to the feelings he had so wantonly and cruelly wounded.* 
 
 • This anecdote I had from the Very Reverend Canon O'Brien, 
 P.P., Bandon, a grand-nephew of Arthur O'Leary, who states that it 
 has been a tradition in his family for the last hundred years. To Canon 
 O'Brien I am also indebted for the truth as to O'Leary's birth-place. 
 
4 Life and Writings of 
 
 One thing may be assumed as certain, namely, that 
 the wild beauty of the region of his birth, and of the 
 scenes of his early visitings, was not lost on a boy 
 like O'Leary, but that his mind, "expanded by the 
 genius of the spot, grew colossal," and that it is to 
 his early association with spectacles of such surpass- 
 ing grandeur, that we must, in some measure, attri- 
 bute the loftiness of conception and splendour of ima- 
 gery that mark the productions of his pen. Indeed, 
 it would be impossible for a youth like him — for, if 
 the boy be the father of the man, O'Leary was no 
 ordinary boy — to gaze without profitable emotion on 
 those scenes so familiar to modern tourists — to view, 
 without a throb of poetic rapture, the sinuous Lee, 
 expanding beneath the hills into a series of broad 
 and placid lakes — or to behold unmoved the terrible 
 majesty of Kemineigh, and the awe-inspiring lone- 
 liness of Gougane Barra. 
 
 But, alas ! at the period of his birth, and long after, 
 nature was the only tutoress of Irish Catholic youth ; 
 for a narrow-minded bigotry, fostered by long indul- 
 gence, and rendered furious because so persistently 
 thwarted, guided the councils of our rulers, and cul- 
 minated in an atrocity of hatred and persecution, 
 unparalleled by any development of barbarism re- 
 corded in the darkest page of history. 
 
 The penal laws, which were in full force at the time 
 of O'Leary's boyhood, rendered it impossible for him to 
 receive any education whatever, except at the hands of 
 a Protestant teacher; but as he aspired to the clerical 
 profession, to a propagation rather than a renunciation 
 of his religion, he was obliged to be content with such 
 crumbs of learning as could be doled out by the hedge 
 schoolmaster, or the itinerant priest, who plied their 
 teaching craft with stealthy zeal, despite the rigor of 
 the law. In the eighteenth year of his age, he pro- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 5 
 
 ceeded to the Capuchin Convent of St. Maloe's, in 
 Brittany, where he completed his education, took holy 
 orders, and remained attached to the brotherhood of 
 the convent until he was forty- two years old. We 
 hear little of him during this long period of his life; 
 bi^t when we consider the vigor of mind, the deep and 
 varied knowledge, the powerful style of writing, the 
 caustic wit for which he was subsequently distinguished, 
 we are surely justified in believing that those years 
 Were not passed in the indolence which bigoted writers 
 attribute to the members of conventual institutions, 
 but that they were rather spent in the pursuit of that 
 learning, sacred and profane, the judicious employment 
 of which won for him the admiration of all men, and 
 the grateful recognition of the state; and that they 
 were still more earnestly devoted to the perfection of 
 that high moral character, and to the cultivation of 
 those exalted virtues, for which he was no less remark- 
 able, and without which all human learning is worthless 
 in the sight of God. 
 
 Before proceeding further, it will be absolutely ne- 
 cessary, for a proper uriderstanding of the part O'Leary 
 played in public life, to take a retrospective glance at 
 the state of Ireland as it was at the period of his birth, 
 and as it continued to be to a period that reached far 
 into his manhood. 
 
 It is needless here — for it is a tale, alas ! too fami- 
 liar — to recapitulate the cruelties with which successive 
 English rulers visited the Celtic population of Ireland, 
 from the period of the Conquest down to the reign of 
 Henry VIII. The element of religious discord, which had 
 been wanting for those four hundred years, was then in- 
 fused into the cup, and intensified the bitterness of perse- 
 cution on the one side, and rancorous hatred on the other. 
 The Second Henry invaded the liberties of the people; the 
 
6 Life and Writings of 
 
 Eighth Henry laid siege to their consciences : the Plan- 
 tagenet would control the bodies ; the Tudor would 
 fetter the souls of his subjects. How savage and disas- 
 trous was the tyranny of the latter sovereign over this 
 unhappy country, it is heartrending even to remember ; 
 how he rifled the monasteries of their sacred treasures, 
 and turned their devoted tenants — the ministers of a 
 nation's charity — naked on the world ; how he put down 
 the Lord's anointed from their consecrated thrones, and 
 set up in their stead manufactured prelates of his own ; 
 how he sowed in the breasts of a long posterity the 
 seeds of that hatred to his country and creed, which 
 made the name of Sassenach the detested synonym of 
 Protestant and Saxon. The depredations which Henry 
 had confined to the sanctuary, his daughter Elizabeth 
 — true to her instincts — extended to the broad acres, to 
 the fruitful plains and smiling pasture -lands of the 
 hated Irishry. The too faithful agents of her tyranny, 
 indeed, laid the axe to the root ; the unhappy Papists 
 were exterminated with fire and sword, their dwellings 
 razed to the ground, their lands laid waste and confis- 
 cated, until "the queen was assured," says Leland, "that 
 he (Lord Leonard de Grey, one of the arch-tyrants of 
 her reign) tyrannized with such barbarity, that little was 
 left in Ireland for her majesty to reign over, but ashes 
 and dead carcasses." Hundreds of thousands of acres 
 were parcelled out amongst her minions, the first-fruits 
 of an unhallowed spoliation, which was to be continued 
 in subsequent reigns with hands more unsparing, and 
 with hearts more seared against pity even than hers. 
 The pedant James found time, in the midst of his 
 metaphysical disquisitions, to evolve, in his relation to 
 this country, the mean, selfish, narrow qualities of mind, 
 characteristic, not only of himself, but of all the Stuarts. 
 He forbade to the Catholics the practice of their religion, 
 banished their priests, and committed other acts of injus- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^i/. 7 
 
 tice and intolerance, which aggravate, in the souls of their 
 posterity, the detestation his character would, on other 
 grounds, have evoked. The confiscations and cruelties 
 which James and Elizabeth had perpetrated, were like 
 acts of mercy in comparison to the rapine and ruin 
 wrought in the land by the Puritan Cromwell. Extirpa- 
 tion, wide and radical, was the policy of Oliver. To slay 
 all the Irish, however desirable, would have been impos- 
 sible ; and he, therefore, passed the Act of Settlement, by 
 which all the Papists in Ireland were obliged to take 
 refuge in Connaught under penalty of death. Seven 
 millions, eight hundred thousands of acres were thus set 
 out to a motley crew of English adventurers, civil and 
 military, nearly to the total exclusion of the old inhabi- 
 tants of the island, many of whom, notwithstanding 
 their innocence, lost their inheritance. A new colony 
 of settlers, composed of all the various sects that then 
 infested England, — Independents, Anabaptists, Seceders, 
 Brownists, Socinians, Millenarians, and Dissenters of 
 every kind, poured into Ireland, and were put " by law " 
 into possession of the ancient inheritance of the inhabi- 
 tants. Lord Macaulay informs us* that, " strange to 
 say, under that iron rule, the conquered country began 
 to wear an outward appearance of prosperity." That 
 outward face of prosperity must have been very tran- 
 sient indeed, or, at least, it must have been confined to 
 the English settlers ; for, according to the same writer,-f 
 immediately before the Revolution, " the aboriginal pea- 
 santry were in an almost savage state. They never 
 worked till they felt the sting of hunger. They were 
 content with accommodation inferior to that which, in 
 happier countries, is provided for domestic cattle. 
 Already the potato — a root which can be cultivated with 
 scarcely dny art, industry, or capital, and wliich cannot 
 
 • IJietory of England, vol. L chap, i, t lb. chap. vi. 
 
8 Life and Writings of 
 
 be long stored — ^had become the food of the common 
 people. From a people so fed, diligence and forethought 
 were not to be expected. Even within a few miles of 
 Dublin, the traveller, in a soil the richest and most 
 verdant in all the world, saw with disgust the miserable 
 burrows out of which squalid and half-naked barbarians 
 stared wildly at him as he passed." 
 
 The accession of James II. resuscitated the last ex- 
 piring hopes in the breasts of the Irish, and the tolera- 
 tion extended by him to all religions, won, from a people 
 naturally grateful, the liveliest acknowledgment with 
 which loyalty recognizes the beneficence of kings. In 
 the year 1689 an act was passed by him repealing 
 the Act of Settlement, and many despoiled and exiled 
 Irish landowners returned to the homesteads and pro- 
 perties which they had looked upon as lost to them for 
 ever. Hence, when James was forced, in the hour of 
 adversity, to appeal to Irishmen for assistance in the 
 attempt to recover his lost crown, the response which he 
 received was the most practical and cordial a monarch 
 could desire. Thousands eagerly flew to his standard, 
 and the bloody conflicts of the Boyne, Aughrim, and 
 Limerick, attested the valor and fidelity with which the 
 Irish upheld his cause. His disgraceful flight from the 
 Boyne did not check the ardour of their loyalty ; and 
 when the contest was over, they obtained, by their 
 dogged resistance to his enemies, as honorable a capi- 
 tulation at Limerick, as has ever been recorded in the 
 annals of warfare. 
 
 Never has it fallen to the lot of a historian to con- 
 template a picture of national misery and degradation 
 like that to which the people of Ireland were reduced 
 after this their final subjugation. With the stalwart 
 soldiery who left for France, under Sarsfield, d'Usson, 
 and Tess^, departed the bone and sinew of the land. 
 Those who remained, no longer capable of resistance. 
 
Rev. Arthur 0*Leary, 9 
 
 could only lie do^vn, in all the impotence of despair, to 
 be trampled on, like bruised reeds, at the caprice of 
 their perfidious conquerors. The forfeitures of pro- 
 perty which, under Cromwell and preceding despoilers, 
 had been, one would think, sufficient to gratify the 
 rapacity of the most unscrupulous, were, in the reign of 
 William, multiplied to such an extent, that nineteen- 
 twentieths of the kingdom changed hands from Catholic 
 to Protestant. So entire an overthrow and change of 
 landed possessions within so short a period of time, has 
 not been witnessed from the beginning in any country 
 in the world. In other countries suffering from a simi- 
 lar disaster, the original proprietors have been usually 
 got rid of by death or expatriation, but this was im- 
 possible in Ireland, for the system of clanship prevailed 
 there so extensively, that the lineal claimants to the 
 confiscated property were always known, and there 
 have been instances where, after a generation or two, 
 such claimants transmitted by testamentary deed the 
 memorial of their right to those estates which once 
 belonged to their families. Hence it was that the in- 
 heritance of religion and property, transmitted from 
 sire to son, caused the questions of both to be so in- 
 timately connected ; hence it was that the Catholic 
 religion became, as it were, "racy of the soil." 
 
 But the spoliation of land, however it might have 
 derived a show of justification from the rebellious con- 
 duct of the proprietors, whose rebellion consisted only 
 in upholding, with a too fatal loyalty, the cause of him 
 whom they considered their king de jure, was a small 
 grievance in comparison to the brutal, the diabolical 
 scourge of the penal laws, passed against the unfortu- 
 nate Irish in the reigns of William and Anne. Some 
 historians endeavour to shield the former sovereign 
 from the imputation of cruelty and perfidy implied in 
 the enactment of those abominaV)le statutes ; but " how 
 
10 Life and Writings of 
 
 is it possible," asks Sir Henry Pamell, "to defend 
 William and his ministers from the charge of having 
 acted with perfidy towards the Catholics ? That they 
 were guilty of violating the treaty (of Limerick) no one 
 can deny. The excuse that has been made for William, 
 that he was obliged to submit to the power of the anti- 
 Catholic party, may easily be proved to be a pretext." 
 Everything demonstrates William's want of faith ; and 
 soon after, we find his parliament passing acts to pre- 
 vent Catholics from sitting in parliament — preventing 
 them from educating their children at home or abroad 
 — preventing them from being guardians to their own 
 children or the children of others — preventing Catholic 
 schoolmasters from teaching, and preventing Catholic 
 priests from residing in Ireland. 
 
 , The spirit of persecution in Ireland seemed, like the 
 upas tree, at first of tender growth, to enjoy a preca- 
 rious beginning of existence, until, strengthening with 
 years, and fostered by skilful care, it gradually spread 
 its roots through every inch of the social soil, and cast, 
 by its umbrageous foliage — the growth of centuries — a 
 deadly gloom, and chill, and infection, over the land. 
 It reached its highest perfection in the reign of Anne, 
 simply because it was not possible for human cunning 
 or inhuman malice to develop its vitality any further. 
 The details of the horrible code it would be sickening 
 to recite ; besides, they are familiar to us all. Suffice it 
 to say, that the " ferocious " acts, as they were called by 
 Edmund Burke, passed in the years 1703 and 1709, "to 
 prevent the further growth of Popery," left no means 
 untried to deprive the Catholics of Ireland of all the 
 rights and privileges of subjects. There was in the 
 details of these enactments a pettiness of particula- 
 rization — a minute specification of crimes and punish- 
 ments — which, but for their melancholy tenor, would 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 11 
 
 be sufficient to raise a smile on the face of the 
 reader."* 
 
 This cruel legislation no doubt sprang in a great 
 measure from a deeply-rooted hatred of the Irish race 
 and of their religion, and a strong desire to confirm the 
 titles of the new proprietors of forfeited estates ; but 
 while we deplore the wickedness that created such a 
 code, it is some solace to think that the chief reason for 
 its concoction in the reign of Queen Anne, had its 
 foundation in the jealousy of her ministers, rather than 
 in a positive desire to act in a spirit of oppression. 
 This fact is well evolved in the following passage 
 selected from the writings of Arthur O'Leary. " In addi- 
 tion to our losses," he says, " under the usurpation of 
 Cromwell, and subsequent ones of the Revolution, our 
 most invaluable privileges were swept away, at a politi- 
 cal game of hazard, played by Whigs and Tories, under 
 the last of the Stuarts, without the slightest provoca- 
 tion on our parts ; for the laws framed in Queen Anne's 
 reign against the Catholics of Ireland, are of so horrible 
 a complexion that it was never the intention of those 
 who devised them to have them enacted. Their very 
 cruelty was the only motive for inventing them. 
 
 " Queen Anne, whose father had been a mendicant, 
 supported by the generosity of a foreign king, was sus- 
 pected of wishing that her brother, a Catholic prince, 
 should succeed her. The party to whom her ministers 
 were obnoxious, intended to draw on them the odium of 
 
 ••'It ia really shameful," observes Dr. Curry (Hist. Review, p. 
 630), "to see what mean, malicious, and frivolous complaints against 
 Papists were received under the notions of grievances by that parlia- 
 ment. Thus, * a petition of one Edward Sprag and others, in behalf 
 of themselves and other Protestant porters in and about the city of 
 Duldin, comi)laining that one Darby Ryan, a Papist, had employed 
 porters of his own persuasion, having been received and read, wag 
 referred to the Committee of Grievances, that they should report 
 thereon to the house. '"—C07/1. Joum. vol. il s. 699. 
 
12 Life and Writings of 
 
 purposing to place the Pretender on the throne. With 
 this view they framed a code c '^ laws, authorizing the 
 neighbour to plunder the neighbour — the brother to 
 supplant the brother — and the profligate son to strip 
 the father of his estate, and to make him tenant for life 
 only, by taking an oath of abjuration, with a variety of 
 penal clauses equally cruel and unjust. The very 
 severity of laws clashing with those of God and Nature, 
 gave them every room to believe that they would be 
 opposed by the court party from principles of humanity 
 and justice ; and thus they flattered themselves with 
 the success of an expedient calculated to expose their 
 opponents to the hatred entertained at the time against 
 those who were deemed the friends of the Pope and 
 the Pretender. The shrewd courtiers, aware of the 
 design of their antagonists, and either willing to sacri- 
 fice justice and humanity to their personal interests, or 
 flattering themselves that the laws would be of short 
 duration in the event of the success of their plan, 
 unexpectedly gave into the measure, to remove the 
 suspicion of their design. It was too late for the other 
 party to recede ; and thus, in time of profound peace, 
 in violation of a solemn compact sanctioned by the laws 
 of nations, the Catholics of Ireland, like balls in a 
 tennis-court, struck with the rackets of both parties, 
 were thrown over the walls of the constitution of their 
 country, against the original intention of the state 
 gamesters." 
 
 The penal laws, having for their object the utter ex- 
 
 (tirpation of Catholicity in Ireland, seemed to aim at 
 their end by three special means : first, by destroying 
 the public profession and practice of the Catholic reli- 
 / gion ; secondly, by indoctrinating youth in principles 
 ' antagonistic to Catholicity ; and thirdly, by denying to 
 Papists, as such, all civil rights. Thus, the clergy of 
 the " Romish " religion were banished the kingdom, and 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^. 13 
 
 forbidden to return under the penalty of death — large 
 rewards were offered for their discovery — so much for 
 a bishop, so much for a secular, so much for a regular. 
 Premiums were ofifered on their conversion to Protes- 
 tantism — special penalties were exacted on the perfor- 
 mance of their priestly functions. Papists keeping 
 schools were to be prosecuted as convicts — all persons 
 were obliged under a fine to attend Protestant service 
 on Sundays — imprisonment for a year was the penalty 
 annexed to a violation of the statute which obliged all 
 Papists over eighteen years of age to disclose to two 
 justices, empowered for the purpose, every particular 
 which came to their knowledge respecting Popish 
 priests, the celebration of Mass, and Popish schools — 
 ten pounds reward were offered for the conviction of an 
 usher to a Catholic teacher. No Papist could possess 
 a horse worth five pounds — nor live in Galway or 
 Limerick — nor hold any oflSce, civil or military — nor 
 inherit property — nor vote at elections — nor serve as 
 grand jurors — nor be a barrister, or solicitor, or high or 
 low constable, or gamekeeper, or watchman. Why go 
 farther ? " We have no instance," says Dr. Johnson, 
 " in the ten persecutions, of anything so cruel as that 
 inflicted on the Irish Catholics by the Protestants." 
 Speaking of the penal code, " it was," says Burke, " a 
 machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well 
 fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degrada- 
 tion of a people, and the debasement in them of human 
 nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted in- 
 genuity of man." Nor was this code a dead letter ; but 
 it was enforced with every refinement of cruelty that 
 fanaticism or national antipathy could suggest. What 
 a state of society did such legislation entail ! Bribes 
 were offered for informers who would put the agents of 
 the law on the track of its violaters, and thus was a 
 temptation presented by the state for a disruption of 
 
14 Life and Writings of 
 
 all the dearest and most sacred ties that biud humanity 
 together. The son was offered a premium for treachery 
 to his father — the guest was solicited to deliver up his 
 host to the vengeance of the law — friendship was 
 banished from society by the constant apprehension of 
 treason — mutual confidence might prove fatal — child- 
 hood was nurtured in ignorance, and manhood grew 
 vigorous in barbarism — in a word, Ireland had become 
 the most wretched country on the face of the earth. 
 Unsupportable as these grievances were, and unsettled 
 as the state of society which they produced, the victims 
 on whom they pressed dared not complain. Murmur 
 was construed into the bodinsfs of rebelKon, and lurkinof 
 treason was detected in the silence of despondency. 
 
 The sad consequences of unjust legislation were 
 unhappily too visible throughout the land. So early 
 as 1705, Sir Eichard Cox, the anti-Irish author of 
 the Hihernia Anglicana, sta,tes that " five out of six 
 of the Irish are poor, insignificant slaves, fit for nothing 
 but to hew wood and draw water." Swift was in the 
 habit of saying that the Irish Papists were " altogether 
 as inconsiderable as the women and children." Things 
 continued thus, even up to the year 1779, when 
 we find the following harrowing picture of the Irish 
 peasantry, drawn by that most candid observer of Irish 
 affairs, Arthur Young : — * 
 
 " A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an order 
 which a servant, labourer, or cottar dares to refuse 
 to execute. Nothing satisfies him but an unlimited 
 submission. Disrespect, or anything tending towards 
 sauciness, he may punish with his cane or his horse- 
 whip with the most perfect security — a poor man would 
 have his bones broke if he offered to lift his hand in 
 his own defence. Knocking down is spoken of in the 
 
 * Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. ii, pp. 40, 41. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 15 
 
 country in a manner that makes an Englishman stare. 
 Landlords of consequence have assured me that many 
 of their cottars would think themselves honoured by 
 having their wives and daughters sent for to the bed of 
 their master — a mark of slavery that proves the oppres- 
 sion under which such people must live. Nay, I have 
 heard anecdotes of the lives of the people having been 
 made free with without any apprehension of the justice 
 of a jury. But let it not be imagined that this is 
 common ; forraevly it hapjpened every day, but the 
 law gains ground. It must strike the most careless 
 traveller to see whole strings of carts whipt into a 
 ditch by a gentleman's footman, to make way for his 
 carriage; if they are overturned or broken in pieces, 
 no matter, it is taken in patience ; were they to com- 
 plain, they would, perhaps, be horsewhipped. The execu- 
 tion of the law lies very much in the hands of justices 
 of the peace, many of whom are drawn from the most 
 illiberal class in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges a 
 complaint against a gentleman, or any animal that 
 chooses to call himself a gentleman, and the justice 
 issues out a summons for his appearance, it is a fixed 
 affront, and he will infallibly be called out. Where 
 MANNERS are in a conspiracy against law, to whom are 
 the oppressed people to have recourse ? It is a fact 
 that a poor man, having a contest with a gentleman, 
 must — but I am talking nonsense ; they know their 
 situation too well to think of it; they can have no 
 defence but by. means of protection from one gentleman 
 against another, who, probably, protects his vassal as he 
 would the sheep he intends to eat" 
 
 The English House of Lords, in the year 1719, were 
 80 indignant, because, in the celebrated case of Sherlock 
 and Annesley, a judgment given by them in favor of 
 the respondent was reversed by the Irish peers, that 
 they passed an act by which the Irish parliament 
 
16 Life and WHtings of 
 
 underwent a degrading humiliation. It was enacted 
 and declared that the House of Lords of Ireland have 
 not, nor of right ought to have, any jurisdiction to judge 
 of, affirm, or reverse any judgment made in any court 
 of the kingdom of Great Britain. The Irish parlia- 
 ment, though thus reduced to a "mere grovelling 
 colony, regulated by the avarice or fears of a stranger,"* 
 in which state it continued until the year 1782, yet 
 abated nothing of its hatred and hostility to the 
 " common enemy." Nay, all the previous atrocities 
 of penal legislation were dwarfed into insignificance by 
 a savage clause introduced by them into a bill in the 
 year 1723, for the purpose of still more effectually 
 preventing the further growth of Popery in Ireland. 
 What that clause was, our pen refuses to describe ; but, 
 despite its barbarity, it was unanimously agreed to 
 after a short debate, and was ordered to be laid before 
 the Lord Lieutenant, with a prayer that he "would 
 recommend it in the most effectual manner to his 
 majesty." The Irish clergy, horrified at the anticipa- 
 tion of this bill passing into law, deputed the Right 
 Reverend Doctor Lloyd, Bishop of Waterford, to wait 
 on the Duke of Orleans, then Regent of France, and 
 solicit his interference with the King of England on 
 the subject. The relation between England and France 
 at the time was so critical, that the government were 
 only too anxious to concihate the Duke. The bill 
 accordingly was, at his remonstrance, doomed to the 
 fate it deserved ; it never obtained the royal assent. 
 
 This was the period when the clergy of Ireland 
 
 underwent that ordeal of suffering, which justly entitles 
 
 them to the fame of martyrs for the faith, and to the 
 
 everlasting gratitude and admiration of the Irish race. 
 
 Hunted by human bloodhounds, they hid in caves 
 
 * Wyse's History of the Catholic Association, p. 28. 
 
• Rev. Arthur O'Leary, 17 
 
 and dens, the victims of cold, and hunger, and fear, yet 
 ever faithful to their sacred trust. With the prison, or 
 exile, or the scaffold before their eyes, they celebrated 
 the divine mysteries for their cowering flocks in the 
 lonely mountain gorge, or in the wild sequestered glen ; 
 and were frequently dragged from the very altar, ex- 
 posed, as their Master was, in their vestments, the types 
 of His garments of humiliation, to the derision of a 
 brutal soldiery, re-enacting the Ecce Homo scene in the 
 last terrible drama of redemption, and then doomed, as 
 He was, to the fatal sentence of the law.* Surely there 
 was little temporal inducement then, as there ever has 
 been little, to enter the ranks of the Irish priesthood. 
 
 Yet the old religion flourished, for young and brave 
 men crossed the seas, and gathered the treasures of 
 learning denied them at home. Undaunted by persecu* 
 tion, by the cell or the gibbet, they brought home from 
 many a sacred continental shrine the diploma of 
 apostlehood ; they cast the fire of their faith upon the 
 land, and it has not been extinguished. 
 
 Arthur O'Leary pursued his studies and entered the 
 sacred order of the priesthood at St. Maloe's, where he 
 remained for a period of twenty-four years. It is now 
 impossible to pierce the veil that hides the history of 
 his life during that period. One fact only has come to 
 light. In the course of the so-called " seven years' war " 
 between the French and English, many British prisoners 
 were confined at St. Maloe's ; and as by far the greater 
 number of them were Irish and Catholic, the appoint- 
 ment of a chaplain became a matter of necessity. 
 O'Leary was, with the approbation of his superiors, 
 appointed to the chaplaincy of the prisons ; and such 
 were the zeal and humanity with which he discharged 
 his sacred functions, that in after life, in his native 
 
 • See Plowden'* HUt. of Ireland , vol. ii. p. 72. 
 
 C 
 
18 Life and Writings of 
 
 country, a handsome acknowledgment of gratitude was 
 made to him by some officers of rank, who had been, 
 on that occasion, the recipients of his charity and kind- 
 ness. The mode in w^hich that acknowledgment was 
 made shall be recorded in its proper place. In his 
 position of chaplain, O'Leary's integrity of character was 
 put to a very severe test. The Prime Minister of the 
 day, the Due de Choiseul, a man not overburthened 
 with conscientious scrupulosity, conceived the idea 
 that, if proper influence were used, many of the Irish 
 who were confined in French prisons, and who were 
 traditionally partial to the interests of the Stuarts, 
 some of whom were still in France, might be induced 
 to join the French standard, and take up arms against 
 England, their hereditary foe. O'Leary was solicited 
 by the minister to undertake the work of persuasion, 
 and no inconsiderable premium was offered for the 
 success of his negotiations. But the humble chaplain 
 manfully and indignantly spurned the proposal. "I 
 thought it," says he, in his reply to Wesley, " a crime to 
 engage the King of England's soldiers and sailors in the 
 service of a Catholic monarch against the Protestant 
 sovereign. I resisted the solicitations, and ran the risk 
 of incurring the displeasure, of a minister of state, and 
 losing my pension ; and my conduct was approved of by 
 the divines of a monastery to which I then belonged, 
 who unanimously declared that in conscience I could 
 not have acted otherwise." And on the same subject, 
 in another part of his works,* he writes as follows. 
 Vindicating his loyalty to the British crown, he says : 
 " Nor was my loyalty the effect of imperious necessity 
 or time-serving policy ; for in France, where, in conse- 
 quence of barbarous and Gothic laws, I was forced in 
 
 * Address to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of tlie Parliament 
 of Great Britain, &c. &c. June 30th, 1800. 
 
Rev. Arthur QLeary. 19 
 
 my early days to seek for a small portion of tlie edu- 
 cation which I was refused in the land of my fathers, 
 where the youth of Europe had been instructed gratis 
 in the time of Ireland's splendour — in France, where 
 the Catholics of Ireland had seminaries and convents, 
 with full admission to all the degrees and honours of 
 her universities — I resisted every solicitation to enlist 
 any of the subjects of these kingdoms in the French 
 king's service, though I had then every opportunity of 
 doing so, being appointed to superintend prisons and 
 hospitals during the wars of fifty-seven, &c., until about 
 the arrival of the then Duke of Bedford in Paris. It 
 was my interest to recommend myself to the favor of 
 the people in power, and consequently my interest to 
 become a courtier rather than a moralist. St. Paul 
 calls God to witness when he asserts the truth. I can 
 do the same when I assert that conscience was the rule 
 of my conduct; and whatever the uninformed may think 
 of my creed, I would not perjure myself for all the 
 crowns and sceptres on earth." 
 
 The office of chaplain ceased with the termination of 
 the war, which took place in 1763, on the arrival of the 
 Duke of Bedford in Paris ; and we hear no more of 
 O'Leary until his appearance in Cork, in the year 1771, 
 when he was forty-two years old. 
 
 The first fact which we learn in connexion with 
 Arthur O'Leary, after his settlement in Cork, is that he 
 contributed to the erection of a church in that city, 
 where the clergymen of his order might perform their 
 professional duties for the benefit of the Catholic 
 public. This church was remarkable for its dwarfish 
 dimensions, its utter want of architectural grace, and 
 its perfect seclusion from the public gaze. The priests 
 and people of those days were only too glad to Jiave 
 any kind of decent edifice, where they could perform 
 their devotions without exposure to the elements or 
 
20 Life and Writings of 
 
 the more harassing vexations of the law. They were 
 not very fastidious in the matter of church accom- 
 modation, much less church ornament; for any place 
 was better than the tumble-down lofts and broken- 
 roofed attics to which fear had driven them for the 
 performance of public worship. The "Little Friary" 
 of the Cork Capuchins was indeed a very rudimentary 
 attempt at ecclesiastical building. It was not much 
 bigger than a respectable barn, and but for the galleries 
 might have passed for one. Yet it served its purpose ; 
 it had its day, and was not unknown to fame. For 
 half a century it was celebrated far and near as " Father 
 O'Leary's Chapel ;" and for a subsequent generation it 
 enjoyed, if not a better merited, at least a more wide- 
 spread notoriety, as the church to which the world- 
 renowned " Apostle of Temperance " was attached, and 
 where, with that simple, natural, unembellished elo- 
 quence for which he was remarkable, he moved to tears 
 and won to the love of God and the practice of virtue, 
 the crowds who flocked to hear him. The Little Friary 
 is associated with the earliest recollections of our boy- 
 hood — its deep-toned importunate bell worthy of a 
 cathedral spire, still rings in our ears, — we have still in 
 our mind's eye the thronging crowds, in Sabbath costume, 
 pouring down the narrow lanes that lead to the humble 
 temple — we take our place in one of the galleries, from 
 which we might almost shake hands with the occupants 
 of the one opposite — the little organ, from an elevated 
 loft, where it is scarcely seen through a wooden railing, 
 sends forth its mellow music, while a band of vigorous 
 choristers sing in concert; and when the chanting 
 ceases in the intervals of Mass, and the multitude are 
 rapt in the solemn silence of worship, there is about the 
 whole scene a quiet homeliness, a close mingling of 
 aspirations, that suggests the idea of a family group 
 assembled in domestic prayer, rather than a congrega- 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 21 
 
 tion kneeling before a public altar. And then the 
 " Apostle," with that noble face and stately form which 
 were so peculiarly his own, ascends the pulpit, while the 
 hundreds pack themselves closely around it, every eye 
 fixed on the white-robed minister of the Gospel, every 
 heart receiving into its profoundest depths the words of 
 reproach and correction, the words of encouragement 
 and hope, the words of peace and comfort that flow 
 from his lips with an earnestness and fervour bidding 
 defiance to all the rules of rhetoricians, but effecting 
 more than the most studied severity of rhetorical art 
 could accomplish for purposes of persuasion. Years since 
 then have rolled away — many and chequered ; and 
 many a loved actor has passed from the stage of public 
 life ; the Little Friary, too, is no more ; it has become a 
 carpenter's workshop, and the clatter of the hammer 
 and the grating of the saw are now the sounds most 
 frequently heard within those walls, which once echoed 
 to the thunders of O'Leary, and the impassioned elo- 
 quence of Mathew. 
 
 The Little Friary, little known in the dawn of its 
 existence, soon burst from its obscurity by the magic of 
 O'Leary 's name. His sermons became the topic of the 
 day, and attracted listeners of every religious denomina- 
 tion. Controversial discourses were much in vogue in 
 those days, and O'Leary was a controversialist of the 
 first order. But his mind was cast in an ample mould ; 
 and arrogance, and self-sufficiency, and blind bigotry, the 
 traditional stumbling-blocks of controversialists, were 
 no features of his character. He argued honestly and 
 unsophistically, with good temper, a kindness of nature, 
 and a broad spirit of toleration — qualities which, if 
 they did not always bring conviction to the minds of 
 bis opponents, at least conciliated their good-will, and 
 won their unaffected admiration. The penal code was 
 yet unrepealed, and this public, though very pardonable 
 
22 Life and Writings of 
 
 violation of the law on the part of the worthy friar, no 
 longer a secret to the authorities, could have been 
 punished with all legal severity ; but such was the re- 
 spectability of his character, and such the esteem in 
 which he was held by men of all classes of the com- 
 munity, that he was permitted, without molestation, to 
 proceed in the discharge of his clerical functions. The 
 dawn of more enlightened times was gradually opening 
 on Ireland — the futility of religious persecution was 
 at length becoming apparent; and candid observers 
 were forced to confess, that men like O'Leary, however 
 strongly they might smell of the Pope, while advocating 
 principles of pure religion, concord amongst them- 
 selves, peace to all men, and loyalty to the constitution, 
 effected more good by their teachings than could pos- 
 sibly be obtained by their ostracism from society. A 
 trifling occasion soon gave rise to a series of publica- 
 tions, by which Father Arthur O'Leary established his 
 fame as a powerful advocate in the sacred cause of re- 
 ligion and Christian peace, and which ena,bled his fellow- 
 citizens to appreciate, at their just value, the virtues 
 and abilities of the humble follower of St. Francis. 
 
 A Scotch physician, named Blair, had been for some 
 years residing in Cork, and by his talents, industry, and 
 shrewdness had accumulated a handsome fortune, and 
 attracted a good share of public attention and respect. 
 The most striking memorial of his importance that 
 remains to us of the present day, is the remarkable and 
 eccentric structure called "Blair's Castle," built by 
 him, which tops the hill at Sunday's Well, one of 
 the prettiest and most picturesque environs of the 
 city. It would have been well for Blair, and the 
 victims of his wrongheadedness, if he had been mind- 
 ful of the ne sutor ultra crepidam of Horace, and 
 devoted more of his time to the study of Galen than of 
 Voltaire. But the philosophy of Ferney had become 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 23 
 
 the fashion of the day, like periwigs and ruffles ; and 
 few scholars deemed themselves thoroughly equipped 
 in literary costume, unless their conversation and 
 writings were turned according to the most approved 
 mode of the prevailing scepticism. The Scotch phy- 
 sician appeared upon the scene as the champion of 
 religious free-thinking. He produced a pamphlet, 
 entitled " Thoughts on Nature and Religion," in which, 
 under the pretext of vindicating the conduct of Ser- 
 ve tus in his controversy with Calvin, he attacked 
 several articles of the Christian creed, with impudent 
 boldness of assertion, a cunning insinuation of infidel 
 principles, and a tissue of the grossest blasphemy. 
 The work was, unhappily, recommended by its singular 
 ability, great attractiveness, and not a little comicality. 
 Readers can be always found who will peruse with 
 delight works which, by diminishing the apprehensions 
 of divine judgment, smoothen the pathway to pleasure. 
 The fool saith in his heart there is no God, and he 
 grasps with eagerness at straws that show the current of 
 such Comfortable unbelief -So it was with the pam- 
 phlet of Blair. It had a wide circulation and a disas- 
 trous influence. The middle classes devoured it ; the 
 young and gay cits of the day saw in it a confirmation 
 by argument of the pet theories of their theology; 
 while old sinners sneered a more satirical sneer of 
 guilty self-complacency, and shrugged their shoulders 
 with a-shrug more than usually sceptic. Cork was not 
 then the Athens of Ireland. There were in the " beauti- 
 ful citie" little literary ability, and a good deal of re- 
 ligious indifference. Blair's book stood long without a 
 refutation. A scurrilous rhymster, said to be a clergy- 
 man of the Established Church, rushed at it with the 
 comic valour of Quixote, but could not pierce the rhino- 
 ceros cuticle of the pamphleteer. A minister of an 
 Anabaptist congregation undertook the task, but his 
 
24 Life and WHtings of 
 
 production was even more sceptical than that which 
 he pretended to answer. 
 
 Meanwhile, O'Leary's friends were urging him to 
 come forward in the cause of religion, and by the 
 vigor of his reasoning, and the depth of his knowledge, 
 to expose the wretched sophistry that was working so 
 much mischief in their midst. But as, in the state of 
 the laws already described, a Catholic clergyman was 
 only tolerated rather than warranted to live in the 
 country, he deemed it injudicious to make so public 
 a manifestation of his presence, at least without re- 
 ceiving some assurance that his doing so would not 
 involve him in any personal danger. To put this point 
 beyond dispute, he waited on the Protestant bishop of 
 the diocese, the Right Reverend Doctor Mann, and 
 solicited his lordship's permission to enter the lists 
 with the obnoxious vindicator of Servetus. The inter- 
 view of the two ecclesiastics is described as memorable. 
 O'Leary, with his tall, awkward, coarse figure, his 
 graceless attire, but exhaustless store of wit, and 
 unremitting vivacity of fancy — the bishop, a blunt, 
 homely man, with the humility of a curate, and the 
 honhoiminie of a philanthropist — both, apparently, sur- 
 prised, that men who agreed on so much, could differ 
 on anything. The permission solicited by O'Leary was 
 cordially granted ; and a few weeks after appeared the 
 first of a series ^ letters, the productions of his pen, 
 by which it was universally acknowledged, the blunder- 
 ing sophistry of Blair was unmasked, his phantasies 
 dispelled, his atheism exposed ; while the wit, and logic, 
 and literary merit of O'Leary, as well as his broad, 
 honest spirit of toleration, commended him to the 
 esteem, admiration, and gratitude of the citizens of 
 Cork, and the general reading public of Ireland. 
 
 The first letter opens with the following magnificent 
 exordium : — 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^. 25 
 
 " Sir, — Your long expected performance has at length 
 made its appearance. If the work tended to promote 
 the happiness of society; to animate our hopes ; to subdue 
 our passions ; to instruct man in the happy science of 
 purifying the polluted recesses of a vitiated heart ; to 
 confirm him in his exalted notion of the dignity of his 
 nature, and thereby to inspire him with sentiments 
 averse to whatever may debase the excellence of his 
 origin, the public would be indebted to you ; your name 
 would be recorded amongst the asserters of morality 
 and religion ; and I myself, though brought up in a 
 different persuasion from yours, would be the first to 
 offer my incense at the shrine of merit. But the ten- 
 dency of your performance is to deny the divinity of 
 Christ and the immortality of the soul. In denying the 
 first, you sap the foundations of religion ; you cut off 
 at one blow the merit of our faith, the comfort of our 
 hope, and the motives of our charity. In denying the 
 immortality of the soul, you degrade human nature, and 
 confound man with the vile and perishable insect. In 
 denying both, you overturn the whole system of religion, 
 whether natural or revealed ; and in denying religion, 
 you deprive the poor of the only comfort which sup- 
 ports them under their distresses and afflictions ; you 
 wrest from the hands of the powerful and rich the 
 only bridle to their injustices and passions, and pluck 
 from the hearts of the guilty the greatest check to 
 their crimes — I mean this remorse of conscience, which 
 can never be the result of a handful of organized 
 matter; this interior monitor, which makes us blush 
 in the morning at the disorders of the foregoing 
 night; which erects in the breast of the tyrant a 
 tribunal superior to his power; and whose importu- 
 nate voice upbraids a Cain in the wilderness with 
 the murder of his brother, and a Nero in his palace 
 with that of his mother. Such are the consequences 
 
26 Life and Writings of 
 
 naturally resulting from the principles laid down in 
 your writings." 
 
 He deplores the folly of him who " works himself 
 into a conviction that his soul is no more than a subtile 
 vapour, which, in death, is to be breathed out into the 
 air, to mix confusedly with its kindred element, and 
 thereto perish;" and asserts that the upholder of so 
 monstrous a creed " would do well to conceal his horrid 
 belief with more secrecy than the Bruids concealed 
 their mysteries." "In doing otherwise," he continues, "the 
 infidel only brings disgrace on himself; for the notion 
 of religion is so deeply impressed on our minds, that 
 the bold champions who would fain destroy it, are con- 
 sidered by the generality of mankind as public pests, 
 spreading disorder and mortality wherever they appear ; 
 and in our feelings we discover the delusions of cheat- 
 ing philosophy, which can never introduce a religion 
 more pure than that of the Christian, nor confer a 
 more glorious privilege on man than that of an immortal 
 soul. In a word, if it be a crime to have no religion, it 
 is a folly to boast of the want of it." 
 
 Some notion may be formed of Blair's style of reason- 
 ing from the fact, that he regards the whole narration 
 in Genesis of man's creation, situation, and fall, as purely 
 allegorical. Thus writes the doctor : — " ' God planted a 
 garden eastward in Eden,' says the inspired writer. 
 What is called a garden I take to be the human mind. 
 By the river which watered the garden, and afterwards 
 divided into four branches, is meant innocence, divided 
 into the four cardinal virtues." 
 
 " A warm fancy," writes O'Leary, " in a paroxysm of 
 zeal, may indulge its boundless excursions in the path 
 of allegory, when obscure passages and mystical expres- 
 sions open a field for interpretations and allusions. 
 Mead, Whiston, Wesley, and the Doctor himself, may 
 discover the Pope in the beast with ten horns, and 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 27 
 
 Kome in the great city built on seven hills. The 
 Jewish rabbins, after obtaining permission from the 
 Prince of Orange to build a synagogue, applied to their 
 benefactor this famous passage of Isaiah : * On that day 
 seven women will take hold of one man/ alluding to the 
 Seven United Provinces that had elected him stadt- 
 holder ; and I myself, if I were in humour, could, in a 
 long-winded discourse, enlarge upon the seven sacra- 
 ments, or the three theological and four cardinal virtues, 
 and compare them to the seven golden candlesticks 
 mentioned in the Revelations of St. John. But, in an 
 historical narration, giving an account of the origin of 
 the world, of a garden planted with trees, watered with 
 four rivers, with their names, the countries through 
 which they flow, the precious stones, mines, and minerals 
 to be found in those countries, &c., the introduction of 
 an allegory is the subversion of reason." 
 
 But human vanity betrays its victim into the most 
 absurd excesses of unreason. "We would fain," he 
 concludes, "sound the unfathomable ocean of the 
 Christian religion, and arraign its mysteries at the tri- 
 bunal of a glimmering reason — while the small atom 
 that swims on the surface baffles our severest scrutiny." 
 Those who doubt the inspiration of Moses, and the 
 original perfection of human nature, he thus confutes : — 
 " Examine the character of Moses, and confess your 
 folly. Besides his divine mission, in what historian 
 does truth shine more conspicuous ? He relates his 
 personal defects, as well as the extraordinary powers 
 with which the Lord invested him ; deduces a long chain 
 of patriarchs from the first man down to his days; 
 traces a genealogy in which every chief is distinguished 
 by his peculiar character. In quitting Egypt, the 
 nursery of fiction, did it comport with the dignity of the 
 legidator, and commander of a chosen people, to write 
 romances? In the space of five hundred years, from 
 
28 Life and Writings of 
 
 Noah's death to Moses' time, could the fall of man, and 
 his expulsion from paradise, be forgotten ? And as he 
 had enemies, would they not have charged him with 
 imposture ? Or was he the only person amongst the 
 Jews who was instructed by his father ? In a word, it 
 was out of his power to deceive the Jews ; much less 
 was it his inclination or interest. All, then, is cohe- 
 rent in Moses; and to his genuine narrative we are in- 
 debted for the knowledge of ourselves, for without the aid 
 of revelation man would ever be an inexplicable mystery. 
 " In believing my descent from a father created in a 
 state of perfection, from whence he fell — a father on 
 whose obedience or disobedience my happiness or misery 
 depended — I can account for the corruption of my 
 nature, and all the train of evils which have descended 
 to Adam's children. Without this clue to direct me, I 
 must be for ever entangled in a labyrinth of perplexities. 
 Let philosophy glory in levelling man with the brute, 
 and say that there never was any difference in his 
 state — that he was always the same, destined to gratif}^ 
 his appetites and to die — I am really persuaded that I 
 must renounce common sense, if I believe that man is 
 now the same that he was when he came from his 
 Maker's hands. The opposition between our passions 
 and reason is too palpable to believe that we were 
 created in such an excess of contradictions. Reason 
 dictates to be temperate, just, and equitable ; to deal 
 with others as I would fain be dealt by ; not to infringe 
 the order of society ; to pity and relieve the afflicted. 
 My passions, those tyrants so cruel, prompt me to raise 
 myself on the ruin of others ; to tread in the criminal 
 paths of flowery pleasures ; and to sacrifice my enemy to 
 my resentment. If God, then, be the author of reason, 
 and it be granted to man to regulate and curb his in- 
 clinations, misery and corruption were not our primi- 
 tive state. 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. 29 
 
 " Philosophers, in a strain of irony, may deride our 
 Bible and Catechism, and laugh at our folly for believing 
 that an apple could entail such miseries on mortals ; 
 but let them seriously consider the multitude and great- 
 ness of the evils that oppress us ; and how full of vanity, 
 of illusions, of sufferings, are the first years of our lives ; 
 when we are grown up, how we are seduced by error, 
 weakened by pain, inflamed by lust, cast down by 
 sorrow, elated with pride — and ask themselves whether 
 the cause of those dreadful evils be the injustice of God 
 or the original sin of man. 
 
 "The evidence of those miseries forced the pagan 
 philosophers to say that we were born only to suffer the 
 punishments we had deserved for crimes committed in 
 a life before this. They, doubtless, were deceived as to 
 the origin and cause of our miseries ; but still some 
 glimmering of reason did not permit them to consider 
 those calamities as the natural state of man. But 
 religion reforms the error, and points out that this 
 heavy yoke, which the sons of Adam are forced to bear 
 from the time their bodies are taken from their mother's 
 womb, to the day they return to the womb of their 
 common mother, the earth, would not have been laid 
 upon them if they had not deserved it by the guilt they 
 contract from their origin. 
 
 The province of reason in religion is well defined. 
 "Is man to be debarred the use of his reason, or 
 has he anything to dread for not believing, mysteries 
 he cannot comprehend ? Make full use of your reason, 
 not with a design to fall into scepticism, but with 
 a sincere desire to come at the knowledge of the 
 truth. Reason is never better employed than in dis- 
 covering the will of its Author; and when once we 
 discover that it is His will we should believe, reason 
 itself suggests that it is our duty to submit, other- 
 wise we are guilty of rebellion against the first of 
 
30 Life and Writings of 
 
 sovereigns, wlio has full power to punish the disobe- 
 dience of His creatures." 
 
 " This important inquiry," he continues, " should be 
 attended with a pure heart and fervent prayer, how- 
 ever a philosopher may laugh at the hint. It was after 
 a fervent prayer Solomon received his wisdom ; after a 
 fervent prayer, Cornelius the centurion obtained the 
 privilege of becoming the first convert from amongst 
 the Gentiles. Even the heathen Democritus, who 
 figured so much amongst the literati of his time, con- 
 stantly prayed of the gods to send him good images. 
 Religion would not seem to be so absurd, the number 
 of free-thinkers would not be so great, if we made it our 
 business to purify the heart, and earnestly beg of the 
 Divinity to enlighten our understanding. For the pas- 
 sions of the heart, and too much confidence in our- 
 selves, pave the way for the errors of the mind. Solo- 
 mon became dissolute and voluptuous before he fell 
 into idolatry. We ever and always lose our innocence 
 before we laugh at our catechism." 
 
 It would be superfluous labour to follow O'Leary 
 through his proofs of the divinity of Christ. This 
 book, we trust, shall fall into the hands of few who 
 deny that great truth. Those who want arguments on 
 the subject, can find an abundance of them in works 
 professedly theological. From the minuteness with 
 which he enters into the question, it would appear 
 that the reading public of his day had not much access 
 to popular theological essays. The scholastic style of 
 his argumentation has too much stiffness for our more 
 modern taste ; whereas the work, no doubt, was admi- 
 rably suited for the time in which it was written, when 
 books were few, and he was deemed the lion of conver- 
 sation Avho had best studied the publication of the hour, 
 and could best retail at the club or social board the 
 subject of debate, and the arguments employed. The 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 31 
 
 following passage, however, commands our admira- 
 tion : — 
 
 " All other figures or allegories are explained in some 
 part of Scripture, or wrapped up in mysterious clouds, 
 to be dispelled by the brightness of eternal day, after 
 exercising our belief; but, with regard to the divinity 
 of Christ, if it be a figure, it is a metaphor, continued 
 through a long chain of prophecies and oracles, without 
 the least explication to unfold its mysterious sense, 
 repeated almost in every page of the New Testament, 
 and sealed with the blood of Christ, His apostles and 
 martyrs. When He appeared on earth, to convert the 
 Jews and Gentiles, and destroy idolatry, which blind- 
 folded mankind, could He have taken more opposite steps 
 to His mission than to raise the dead, and change the 
 course of nature in proof of a doctrine insinuating His 
 divinity, if He had no real claim to the title ? At a 
 time when the credulous multitude were apt to enrol 
 extraordinary men in the number of their gods ; when 
 they worshipped the earth that nourished them — the air 
 that refreshed them — the sun that enlightened them — 
 the moon that directed their steps in the obscurity of 
 night — the fire that warmed them — the heroes that 
 cleared the woods and forests of lions and serpents that 
 annoyed them — the conquerors who delivered them 
 from their enemies — the wise and generous princes 
 who rendered their subjects happy, and the memory 
 of their reign immortal ; at a time when altars were 
 raised at Athens to the Unknown God — when the priests 
 of Salamis raised the sacrificial knife to offer victims 
 in honour of Paul, whom they took for Mercury, on 
 account of his eloquence and the novelty of his doc- 
 trine ; and in honour of Barnabas, whom they revered 
 as Jupiter, on account of his venerable aspect — and 
 when the sortileges of Simon the magician procured 
 him the honour of a temple at Rome, and the appel- 
 
32 Life and WHtings of 
 
 lation of the ' Great God ' — at such a critical period, 
 when gratitude deified benefactors, and extraordinary- 
 powers laid the foundation of temples, and swelled the 
 catalogue of false gods, it was a dangerous and ill-timed 
 doctrine to preach that He was equal to God ; that He 
 was the Son of God ; that eternal life consisted in the 
 knowledge of Himself and of His Father ; to command 
 His followers to lay down their lives sooner than deny 
 Him; and to confirm the doctrine by silencing the winds 
 that subsided at His nod ; by calming the stormy seas ; 
 changing the nature of the elements ; restoring sight to 
 the blind, and the use of their limbs to the lame ; 
 forcing death to surrender his spoils, and all nature to 
 acknowledge His power and empire. Shall a Paul and 
 Barnabas tear their garments in being taken for some- 
 thing more than mortal man ; and shall Jesus Christ, if 
 He be not God, in a calm and deliberate manner rob 
 the Creator of all things of His glory, and the worship 
 due to Him, in affirming that Himself and the God of 
 heaven are one — in applauding the faith of the apostle, 
 who said he was the Son of the living God, and in not 
 checking the disciple who, after thrusting his hand into 
 His side, exclaimed, ' My Lord and my God ' ?" 
 
 Blair had the audacity to deny the immortality of the 
 human soul. "I conclude," he says, "that the soul dies 
 with the body — it is an opinion conformable to reason, 
 observation, and the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ 
 and His apostles." Whatever arguments he might have 
 drawn from observation, as O'Leary remarks, he should 
 have passed over the authority of Christ and His 
 apostles, authorities never adduced before in support of 
 a doctrine which, in every page, they condemn. " Or, 
 at least," he adds, " you should have first a Bible of your 
 own, and forced it on the world, as handed to you by 
 the angel Gabriel." The functions, passions, and powers 
 of the soul, clearly indicate that " it is something more 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 33 
 
 than a little subtilized mud." Matter could never pro- 
 duce the effects of that interior principle, whose presence 
 we all acknowledge : matter, with all its mutations, and 
 refinements, discloses no quality compatible with those 
 manifestations of an inward agent ; in it we perceive 
 nothiug but extension, divisibility, figure, and motion ; 
 " it cannot reveal the sacred mysteries of faith — the 
 holy rules of equity — the ideas of piety, order, and jus- 
 tice." "To spin out the subject in metaphysical argu- 
 ments, were loss of time. Suffice it to say, that we 
 would contradict our reason, and belie our hearts, in 
 supposing that the troubles, agitations, and importunate 
 remorses we feel after the commission of some horrid 
 crime, the secret reproaches of a guilty conscience, and 
 such interior punishments that tread on the heels of 
 guilt, were no more than an assemblage of little atoms 
 with rough surfaces — in supposing that patience and 
 resignation in our afflictions, from an expectation of im- 
 mortality and the spiritual joys of future bliss, the 
 distant reward of our trials, are the result of smooth 
 atoms gliding through the brain ; or that the horrors 
 which haunt the guilty, proceed from the same cause 
 which produces a pain in the head, back, or stomach. 
 
 " Further, under the dispensation of a just and power- 
 ful God, crimes must be punished, and virtue rewarded. 
 What notion can we form of a God, who makes no dis- 
 tinction between the wretch who strangles his father in 
 order to take possession of his estate, and the just man 
 who is disposed to prefer death to iniquity from an 
 apprehension of offending his Maker. 
 
 " Yet, the world has seen the greatest sinners elated 
 with prosperity ; arrayed with crimes as with a raiment 
 of glory ; swimming in an ocean of pleasures, which the 
 fountains of extortion and injustice supply ; strangers 
 to those miseries which, in this world, seem to be the 
 inheritance of the righteous. How. many illustrious 
 
34! Life and WHtings of 
 
 culprits, whose power and credit silence the authority 
 of the laws ; whilst the innocent victim is suspended 
 on a tree, upon the deposition of a perjurer, or from the 
 corruption of a judge ! The world has seen a Herod on 
 the throne after murdering the Innocents, and a John 
 the Baptist beheaded in prison for exclaiming against 
 incest ; a Nero swaying the sceptre of the world after 
 ripping open his mother's womb, and a Paul bound 
 with chains for preaching justice, judgment, and charity. 
 
 " Virtue, then, being oppressed in this life, and vice 
 unpunished, the silence of a just and all-powerful God 
 points out a future state, where justice shall resume her 
 rights, and reward each according to his works. And 
 if divine justice points out a future state, the soul must 
 survive the body." 
 
 Once that a man starts a new theory, he is bound to 
 support it by legitimate argument. Should the theory 
 be conformable to truth, the whole process of evolution 
 is natural and pleasing ; but should it be otherwise, the 
 shifts of the propounder are unnatural and ludicrous in 
 the highest degree. Blair, either apprehensive that his 
 denial of the soul's immortality would bring down on 
 him the indignation of the public, or loth to part for 
 ever with himself at the hour of death, started a very 
 strange theory indeed — that " God will change our 
 bodies into spirits at the last day, when the world will 
 perish for want of vegetable food, on account of the 
 mould of the earth being wasted into the sea, so that 
 nothing will remain but the bare rocks." Nervous 
 about the success of this new doctrine, he apologized 
 for it by saying that he regarded it as the best confuta- 
 tion of that " fond and absurd opinion, purgatory." 
 O'Leary, for his part, was unwilling to " blend with the 
 general defence of Christianity, any particular contro- 
 verted point between Christians ;" he knew full well 
 that " the Scripture says if the tree fall to the north or 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. 35 
 
 to the south, there it shall lie," though he did not under- 
 take to interpret that passage in any fixed sense. 
 Whatever wrangles divines may have about a text of 
 Scripture, they should not indulge their warmth to such 
 a degree as not to listen to cool reason. It is not con- 
 trary to religion or reason to believe that alms and 
 prayers for our deceased friends can do them no harm. 
 In the very uncertainty of alms and prayers being useful 
 to the dead, they are not useless to those who offer 
 them from a principle of charity ; for a good intention 
 gives merit to an action which in itself is harmless and 
 inoffensive. Sir Isaac Newton may describe the course 
 of the heavenly bodies which swim in the planetary 
 region, our mariners may sail round the world, and our 
 divines, in a paroxysm of zeal against Popery, may be 
 wafted down the stream of allegory in explaining the 
 preacher's tree that falleth to the north or to the south ; 
 I shall never acknowledge them so well versed in the 
 geography of the other world, as to be able to persuade 
 me that there are only two places in it, until they 
 remain there for some time, and after making their 
 observations and remarks, return with a well-authenti- 
 cated map of that ' unknown country, from whose 
 bourne no traveller returns.* " 
 
 The doctrines, indeed, put forward by Blair, are so 
 silly as to excite our wonder that any man with preten- 
 sions to sanity could have ventilated them in a Christian 
 community. Thus, he held that the soul of the brute 
 was of the very same nature with the soul of man — 
 God, who was all-powerful, being able to impart to the 
 latter, though material, the power of thought, which He 
 did, thus imparting to the human soul a higher degree 
 of perfection than that attained by the souls of beasts. 
 He concludes that both souls, human and brutal, being 
 of the same nature, perish ahke. He is so confident of 
 the truth of this doctrine, that he affirms " Solomon and 
 
36 Life and Writings of 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton to be no more than the production of 
 what their fathers ate," and deplores our blindness for 
 having been deceived by the schoolmen, whose cunning 
 first introduced this notion of immortality. 
 
 " We shall not dwell long," writes O'Leary, in a strain 
 of quiet humour, " upon the nature of Solomon and Sir 
 Isaac's souls, which certainly must have been made of 
 the most refined and sublimated particles of matter. 
 Old Scriblerus seems to have entertained the same notion 
 with the Doctor, for he would not permit his child 
 Martinus' nurse to eat any roast beef or heavy aliments, 
 lest his son should become too dull and heavy. Hence 
 his choice of Attic and Roman dishes, in order that 
 their juices should impregnate his son with the valor 
 and elegance of the ancients. The Doctor would oblige 
 us if he informed the public of the quantity and quality 
 of food used by King David. We should soon have 
 numbers of Solomons — manifold would be the advan- 
 tages accruing to society from such a discovery. In- 
 stead of losing most of our time in colleges, the outlines 
 of the plan of education suitable to the clergyman, the 
 statesman, the lawyer, could be sketched in the kitchen, 
 and completed at table. The beau and belle should 
 feed on butterflies : calfsfoot jellies would qualify the 
 courtier, and _pe^i^ maitre for making a flexible and 
 graceful bow. I believe that the harshness and acrimony 
 of religious disputes, controversial writings, and anni- 
 versary sermons, proceed from the great quantity of 
 black pudding and mustard which our polemical divines 
 eat at their breakfasts. And if we knew the spoon- 
 meat with which the Doctor was fed, we should know 
 the olio requisite to make a philosopher who unravels 
 the secrets of nature and religion." 
 
 " As to the brutes," he continues, further on, " who 
 have become of late the subjects of philosophical 
 panegyric, that raises them to an equality with man, 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 37 
 
 we like them for the service or diversion they afford 
 us ; but less virtuous than our philosophers, we have not 
 the humility to wish to be on a level with them. Pity 
 our pride and ignorance, great oracles, who revile the 
 Christians, and extol the cunning of the fox, the imita- 
 tive powers of the ape, the architecture of the beaver, 
 and the provident foresight of the ant. 
 
 "Since you believe them to be of the same nature with 
 yourselves, why do you not arraign the cruelty of the 
 magistrates, under whose eyes so many murders are 
 daily committed on your brethren ? For, if man and 
 the brute be of the same nature, why should beasts be 
 killed with impunity, whilst the assassin is doomed to 
 the gibbet ? The questions may seem childish ; yet your 
 refined philosophy is humbly requested to give a solid 
 answer. Your catechism can illustrate the subject." 
 He then proceeds to give what he calls " The Free- 
 thinker's Catechism, faithfully collected from some of 
 the most celebrated Free-thinkers of this age, viz. : — 
 Who made man ? Nothing. How did he come into 
 the world ? He sprung out of the earth spontaneously, 
 as a mushroom.* The souls of men and brutes — are 
 they of the same nature ? Yes.-f- What difference, 
 then, is there between man and the brute ? Man is a 
 more multiplied animal, with hands and flexible fingers; 
 the paws and feet of other animals are covered at the 
 extremities with a homy substance, or terminate in 
 claws or talons.| Our superiority over the brute crea- 
 tion, in arts, sciences, modesty, civilization, is, then, 
 owing to our hands and fingers, not to any innate prin- 
 ciple of reason ? Doubtless. But the apes, whose paws 
 are much like ours, why have they not made some pro- 
 gress ? Apes live on fruits ; and being, like children, in 
 
 • Voltaire, On the Population of America, 
 
 t Servetus, of Cork. 
 
 t Helvetius, Livre de V Esprit, p. 233. 
 
38 Life and Writings of 
 
 perpetual motion, they are not susceptible of that ennui 
 or wearisomeness to which we are liable.* Is there any 
 virtue in worshipping God, in loving our father, in 
 serving our country, or in relieving the distressed ? No. 
 In what light, then, are we to consider virtue ? Cry out 
 with Brutus: '0 vertu, tu n'es qu'unvain nom.' — Virtue, 
 thou art but an empty sound.-]- Lo ! the refined system 
 introduced by these great oracles of human wisdom ! 
 If the cannibals, who eat their aged parents, ever learn 
 to read, they will find their justification in your Cate- 
 chism." O'Leary, pursuing his adversary through every 
 sophistry, concludes with a paragraph worthy of a 
 Chrysostom : — 
 
 " When, to deny propitiatory sacrifices, you say that 
 ' God cannot be bribed or flattered,' I agree with you : 
 but you would not control His power, nor contest His 
 authority, to impose laws and obligations on creatures ; 
 to annex to the observance and infraction of these laws 
 rewards and punishments ; to require their submission 
 by visible symbols in the victim stretched and bound 
 on the altar, to remind them of the chains of sin, and 
 of their state under their Creator's hand, who each in- 
 stant can deprive them of their lives ; in the sable 
 smoke rolling from the blazing holocaust, to make them 
 perceive a ray of hope, directing their eyes to a distant 
 Victim, the effusion of whose blood was to quench, one 
 day, more active flames, and to change this scene of car- 
 nage and misery into means of expiation, not, indeed,, 
 by the virtue and efficacy of the sacrifices in themselves, 
 but inasmuch as they t3^pified the immolation of ' the 
 Lamb that is slain from the foundation of the v/orld,' 
 in the observance of whose law, and in the love and 
 knowledge of whose person, consists eternal life. A^Q, 
 
 * Helvetius, Livre de V Esprit, p. 3. 
 + Ibid. p. 397. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 8^ 
 
 a variety of accidents, and the uncertainty of the hour 
 of death, press our return to a merciful Kedeemer. It 
 is too late to dispute with Jesus Christ His divinity, or 
 with the soul its immortality, when the spirit is ar- 
 raigned at the awful tribunal of the Judge of the living 
 and the dead." 
 
 Father O'Leary's triumph over his adversary, on this 
 occasion, was admitted on all hands. Blair did not at- 
 tempt to reply ; and his death, which occurred soon 
 after, was commonly attributed to the chagrin caused by 
 his discomfiture. 
 
40 Life and Writings of 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 Father O'Leary's celebrated Essay, " Loyalty Asserted"— Continued 
 Sketch of the Penal Laws — The Test Oath — The Opposition it met 
 with — Its Defence by O'Leary — Extracts from the Essay. 
 
 O'Leary, once before the public as an author, began 
 to acquire that confidence which is generated by lite- 
 rary success, and to perceive how beneficially his efforts 
 might be employed through the press for the good of 
 religion, and the promotion of temporal happiness and 
 prosperity amongst his fellow-countrymen. His next 
 essay, published in the year 1777, was entitled, " Loyalty 
 Asserted ; or, the test oath vindicated and proved by the 
 principles of the canon and civil laws, and the authority 
 of the most eminent writers ; with an inquiry into 
 the Pope's deposing power and the groundless claims of 
 the Stuarts: in a letter to a Protestant gentleman." 
 That the reader may understand the circumstances 
 which called forth this pamphlet, and appreciate its 
 utility and importance at the time of publication, it 
 will be necessary to resume, at the point where we left 
 off, the consideration of the condition of the Catholics 
 of Ireland in relation to the laws, and to trace the slow 
 degrees by which they rose, from a state of political non- 
 existence, into the enjoyment of the long-denied bless- 
 ings of loyal and inoffensive subjects. 
 
 It was not in human nature that the penal laws should 
 have been administered with severity, without inducing 
 many to abandon those religious professions which 
 exposed them to so many temporal privations. Accord- 
 ingly, while the vast majority of the people adhered to 
 the faith of their fathers, despite the terrors of persecu- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 41 
 
 tion, we find instances of many who yielded to the 
 allurements held out for conversion, and simulated a 
 belief in the doctrines of the established religion. De- 
 fections of this kind took place almost exclusively 
 amongst the Catholic nobility ; and yet it is worthy of 
 remark, that several of them who adopted the external 
 practices of Protestant worship, privately retained 
 Catholic priests in their mansions, who performed the 
 office of chaplains to their families, and, in the security 
 of disguise, instructed their children in the dogmas of 
 the national faith. To such an extent was this system 
 carried out, that it, at length, attracted the attention of 
 the Primate Boulter, who was not slow in providing for 
 it a remedy in the shape of a fresh penal enactment. 
 This dignitary, an Englishman by birth and education, 
 had been appointed Archbishop of Armagh, and was 
 sent over here to manage " the English interest," as 
 it was called, that is, to make everything in Ireland 
 subserve the interests of England. So important a 
 functionary was he, that, during the twenty years he 
 held his see, the Viceroy was only second to him in all 
 matters of administration ; nothing was done without 
 the advice and sanction of the Primate. And well did 
 be " manage " the English interest. If divide et im- 
 pera was not his motto, it was his practice. In one of 
 his despatches to the English Government, he declares 
 that the general dislike to Wood's halfpence would have 
 a most unhappy effect on the nation, by uniting it ! — by 
 bringing on intimacies between Papists and Jacobites on 
 the one hand, and Whigs on the other, who, before, had 
 cherished towards each other no feelings of friendship 
 or good-will. Intent on the success of his proselytising 
 schemes, he prepared the heads of a bill purporting to 
 subject to the penalties of the penal code, all converts 
 who should be convicted of bringing up their children 
 Papists. The measure passed without opposition, while 
 
42 Life and Writings of 
 
 both Houses of Parliament presented a vote of thanks 
 to his Majesty, " for having returned the bill as a happi- 
 ness peculiar to that session." Hitherto Catholics had 
 had the privilege of voting at elections, on taking the 
 oaths of allegiance and abjuration, but, in the year 1727, 
 a bill was brought into the Irish Parliament which de- 
 prived them of this last vestige of constitutional rights. 
 It was entitled "A bill for further regulating the elec- 
 tion of members of Parliament," and was brought for- 
 ward at the suggestion of Primate Boulter, to defeat the 
 expectations of converts who did not scruple to take 
 the oaths notwithstanding their internal adhesion to the 
 cause of Catholicity. The motion was brought forward 
 as if it were nothing new, but intended for a still more 
 stringent enforcement of a statute already existing. 
 Insidiously, however, without notice, without debate or 
 cause assigned, the anti-Papistical clause was introduced 
 and passed into law : " that no Papist, though not con- 
 vict, should be entitled to vote at the election of any 
 member to serve in Parliament, or of any magistrate for 
 any city or town corporate." The Primate next busied 
 himself in the establishment of the Protestant Charter 
 Schools, those well-known seats of proselytism, those 
 nurseries of bigotry and vice, the object of which their 
 most reverend founder made, indeed, no effort to con- 
 ceal. " The great number of Papists in this kingdom," 
 he writes to the Bishop of London, " and the obstinacy 
 with which they adhere to their own religion, occasions 
 our trying what may be done with their children to 
 bring them over to our church." And, further on, he 
 continues : " I can assure you the Papists are here so 
 numerous, that it highly concerns us iu point of interest, 
 as well as out of concern for the salvation of these poor 
 creatures, who are our fellow-subjects, to try all possible 
 means to bring them and theirs over to the knowledge 
 of the true religion. And one of the most likely 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^j. 4& 
 
 methods we can think of is, if possible, instructing and 
 converting the young generations; for, instead of convert- 
 ing those who are adult, we are daily losing several of 
 our meaner people, who go off to Popery." * 
 
 On the accession of George II. to the throne, the 
 Catholics of Ireland deemed it prudent to present to 
 his Majesty an address expressive of their loyalty, with 
 a hope that some favourable change of legislation might 
 take place in their regard. This act of homage they 
 had been accused of wilfully omitting towards Queen 
 Anne, on a similar occasion; and to its neglect had 
 been, by some, ascribed the severe enactment of the 
 penal laws. On the death of Anne, they resolved to 
 mend their error by presenting an address to her suc- 
 cessor ; but it so happened that, at that precise time, the 
 attempt of the Pretender, in which he had been abetted 
 by many in Scotland and England, called forth so 
 violent a clamour against all the Catholics of the king- 
 dom — though it was afterwards proved and admitted 
 that not even one Irishman had taken part in the re- 
 bellion — that they deemed it more advisable to abstain 
 from expressions of congratulation to his Majesty, which 
 were sure to be repelled with scorn and indignation. 
 When George II., however, ascended the throne, it ap- 
 peared to them that a favourable opportunity had, at 
 length, arrived for a display of their loyalty and attach- 
 ment to the crown. An address to the King was 
 accordingly prepared. It was presented with all re- 
 spect to the Lords Justices, at the Castle of Dublin, by 
 Lord Delvin and other distinguished personages ; but so 
 little notice was taken of it, that it has never been 
 ascertained whether it was transmitted to the King, or 
 whether even an answer was returned that it should be 
 80 transmitted. 
 
 • Boulter's Lettert, vol. if. pp. 10, 11, 12. 
 
44 Life and Writings of 
 
 In the seventh year of George's reign, an application 
 was made to his Majesty, begging of him to procure the 
 reversion of certain outlawries, by which, in the year 
 1641, the properties of many Catholics had been seques- 
 trated, and they and their posterity had been reduced 
 to a condition of absolute poverty. The Irish Com- 
 mons, trembling for the success of this just demand, 
 petitioned the King against it, representing how detri- 
 mental such a measure would prove to his Majesty's 
 " right and title to the crown," as well as " to the Pro- 
 testant interest of the kingdom ;" and so well did their 
 petition fare, that his gracious Majesty, in reply, assured 
 his faithful Commons that " he would for the future 
 discourage all such applications and attempts." But 
 the faithful Commons, determined that no means should 
 thereafter exist by which such^applications or attempts 
 could be renewed, brought in 'a bill for disqualifying 
 Catholics from practising as solicitors, thus shutting up 
 the only avenue by which, in course of law, the out- 
 lawed and dispossessed could seek the restitution of 
 their rights. In order to thwart the progress of this 
 bill, a collection was set on foot amongst the Catholics 
 through the country, for the purpose of defraying the 
 expenses of legal opposition ; but here again their ene- 
 mies were at work to defeat their claims to constitutional 
 protection. A parish priest, named Hennessy, from 
 some part of the province of Munster, gave information 
 to the Government that the collection which was being 
 made, though ostensibly got up for the object set forth, 
 was really intended to support the cause of the Pre- 
 tender, and thus to bring about the re-establishment of 
 Popery in the kingdom. Hennessy had been suspended 
 by his bishop, doubtless not without cause ; but neither 
 his flagitious character, nor the evident spirit of revenge 
 that prompted the lie, could or would dispel from the 
 minds of the Commons the apprehension that the charge 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 45 
 
 was well founded. They seized the papers of those who 
 bad made the collection, and subjected them to the 
 inspection of a committee ; and although several weeks 
 were spent in investigating the case, and although the 
 whole sum collected did not exceed five pounds, yet the 
 committee considered it prudent to present an address 
 to the Lord Lieutenant, declaring that gy^eat sums had 
 been collected amongst the Popish inhabitants, by their 
 clergy ; that the Protestant interest was in danger, and 
 " the present happy establishment ;" and that it was 
 essentially necessary, for the peace of the kingdom, that 
 the laws against Popery should be strictly enforced. 
 The pliant Viceroy heard the appeal : he issued a pro- 
 clamation in accordance with the views of the petition- 
 ers : and the laws against Popery were very strictly 
 enforced indeed. 
 
 These constantly recurring complaints about Papists, 
 and the ever- reviving vigor of the laws administered 
 against them, kept up in the breasts of the Protestants 
 an intense hatred for their unfortunate fellow-country- 
 men, which was still further inflamed by publications, 
 and even sermons, in which Popery was ^represented as 
 synonymous with murddr and massacre, and an utter 
 disregard of the dictate§f of natural religion. All the 
 atrocities ascribed to Caiholics in rebellions long passed 
 and almost forgotten, were raked up and described with 
 every artifice of rhetoric, in language exaggerated, 
 virulent, and lying until many well-meaning readers 
 and hearers began to believe that what every one said 
 must be true, and that those Papists were in truth the 
 unscrupulous monsters 'they were represented to be. 
 Several fresh means were suggested for the extirpation 
 of the obnoxious religion, of which the most summary 
 and effective was that thro^vn out by a noble privy 
 counsellor. In the year 1743, on the apprehended in- 
 vasion of England by the French under Mareschal Saxe, 
 
46 Life and Writings of 
 
 this functionary openly declared in council, " that as the 
 Papists had begun the massacre on them, about a 
 hundred years before, so he thought it both reasonable 
 and lawful on their part to prevent them at that 
 dangerous juncture, by first falling on them." Had this 
 project of universal bloodshed been carried out, it must 
 be admitted, even by the most ardent admirers of 
 Catholicity, that the religion would be extiuguished in 
 this country beyond the hope of revival. The proposal, 
 however, so palatable to the sanguinary privy- counsel- 
 lor, was too highly spiced for his colegislators, and 
 was accordingly rejected. It, nevertheless, ■ met with 
 approval amongst many dissenters in the North, where 
 had-been sown for some time the seeds that afterwards 
 budded into Orangeism ; and a conspiracy was actually 
 formed in Lurgan for the object of rising on a given 
 night, and murdering in their beds all the Papists 
 that could be disposed of between sunset and dawn. 
 This atrocious design was made known by sworn in- 
 formation to a magistrate, a Rev. Mr. Ford, who had 
 great difficulty in preventing it from coming to an 
 issue; but we do not hear that a single conspirator 
 was ever brought to justice before his or any other 
 tribunal.* 
 
 Thus, ground down by an ever-vigilant government 
 and a crushing code of laws, the Catholics of Ireland 
 bent in patience to the blow, and sought, in the secret 
 exercise of their religious devotions, the only vestige of 
 happiness which it was possible for them to preserve. 
 Their priests were chased like wolves ; a price was set 
 upon their heads : they sought the refuge of the rock 
 and cave, and dark, back room ; but to those retreats 
 their flocks followed them, and received at their hands 
 the sacraments of the Church and the consolations of 
 
 * Vide Curry's Stale of Ireland, p. 259. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 47 
 
 religion. We shall not dwell upon this painful subject. 
 It is sufficient to say that the laws were strained to 
 their utmost rigor to crush the clergy and the people, 
 for remaining steadfast to the faith of their fathers, 
 until, at length, a casual circumstance opened the eyes 
 of the Government to the utter futility of their pains 
 and penalties, and brought about a relaxation of the 
 laws, which it was vain as it was iniquitous any longer 
 to postpone. A priest, named John Fitzgerald, of the 
 diocese of Meath, was celebrating mass in a house 
 situate in Cook-street, Dublin. Just as the sacrifice was 
 about to be concluded, and before he had time to give 
 the blessing, the floor gave way, and he, and nine of 
 his congregation, were crushed to death in the ruins, 
 while many more were seriously or mortally wounded. 
 A feeling of self-reproach seemed, for the first time, to 
 be awakened in the breast of the Government, by this 
 appalling accident, and the laws against the persecuted 
 Papists began to be administered with a lenity accep- 
 table as it was unprecedented. On the 17th of March, 
 1744, the chapels of Dublin were freely thrown open for 
 Catholic worship ; and soon after, by an order of the 
 Viceroy, the bland and conciliatory Earl of Chesterfield, 
 a similar indulgence was extended to the whole king- 
 dom. But the policy of Chesterfield was marked by 
 the astuteness that distinguished his private character 
 — it was specious, but selfish — it was attractive, but 
 hollow — it had nothing of gold but the glitter. While 
 extending to all the Catholics of the kingdom the 
 privilege of free worship, he established through the 
 country a system of espionage, by which their designs 
 for political combination should be detected and frus- 
 trated ; while, at the same time, he employed pam- 
 phleteers to disseminate amongst the public the views 
 which appeared to him most conducive to the sustainment 
 of that splendid principle, for which so much legislation 
 
48 Life and Writings of 
 
 had been created, namely, the " Protestant interest " 
 of the kingdom. The people of this country, ever ready 
 to acknowledge kindness in their governors, willingly 
 responded to the appeal of the noble earl for military 
 assistance to suppress the rebellion in Scotland. He 
 was enabled to send four battalions to the assistance of 
 the Duke of Cumberland : but the victory of Culloden 
 crushed the insurrection, and extinguished the last 
 hopes of the Stuarts ; all apprehension of future danger 
 from Popery, whether in Scotland or Ireland, was set at 
 rest for ever. In the latter country there was no longer 
 need for a policy of conciliation, and, accordingly, the 
 polished Chesterfield was ordered home, while the ad- 
 ministration of affairs was entrusted to Archbishop 
 Hoadley, Lord Chancellor Newport, and Mr. Boyle, as 
 Chief Justices. 
 
 The lenity displayed by the Government in the exe- 
 cution of the penal laws, was confined to the practice of 
 Catholic worship; but in the matter of Catholic property, 
 these laws were carried out with the most stringent 
 severity. Great numbers of " Papists," seeing that it 
 was impossible to reap the benefits of their industry or 
 talents at home, or to invest their money in the pur- 
 chase of houses or lands, fled the country ; while the 
 supporters of the Protestant interest regarded their 
 departure in the light of a national blessing, as one 
 might regard the extinction of noxious vermin in an 
 infested district. But, to the more prudent politicians 
 of the day, it was too apparent that the ruin of the 
 country would be the result of a dwindling population 
 and commercial inactivity; and some plan was, there- 
 fore, necessary to be devised, by which such disastrous 
 consequences might be averted from Ireland. The double 
 want appeared to be most happily supplied by the vast 
 number of Jews, who then swarmed through Europe, 
 and who, houseless and friendless, only looked for some 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 49 
 
 place of refuge where they might sow, in the fertile soil 
 of trade, the boundless wealth at their disposal. A bill 
 for naturalizing persons professing the Jewish religion, 
 passed through the Irish House of Commons, and was 
 presented to the Lord Lieutenant for transmission to the 
 English Parliament. It miscarried, however, somehow ; 
 and England was thus saved from another disgrace 
 in her maladministration of this country. " How aptly, 
 indeed," writes Curry,* " might the promoters of this 
 hopeful bill, for strengthening the * Protestant interest ' 
 in Ireland, have exclaimed in the words of the poet : — 
 
 * Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.' " 
 
 After the death of Queen Anne, a class of men 
 started up in Ireland, who, by an earnest vindication of 
 Irish rights, won for themselves the flattering designa- 
 tion of " patriots." Embracing no political section, 
 neither Whigs nor Tories, they ran in direct opposition to 
 both. The leader of this new phalanx on the arena of 
 public life, was Dr. Jonathan Swift, the celebrated Dean 
 of St. Patrick's. He, by his writings, averted many 
 evils from this country, and is so far entitled to the 
 gratitude of Irishmen ; yet neither he, nor those who 
 followed in his patriotic footsteps, ever considered the 
 native population worthy of their mediation with the 
 ruling powers. With the lower orders of the people 
 they had nothing in common — they were for the most 
 pan aliens in birth, in language, and religion — their 
 eflforts were employed in favor of the Protestant sec- 
 tion of the community, or the well-to-do Catholics ; but 
 for the aboriginal population they had a supreme con- 
 tempt, and an absolute disregard.-|- "The Protestant 
 
 • State of Ireland^ chap. xiL 
 
 t '• I may observe," says Lord Macaulay, "that, to the best of my 
 belief, Swift never, in anything that he wrote, used the word Irishman 
 to denote a person of Anglo-Saxon race born in Ireland. He no more 
 
 £ 
 
50 Life and Writings of 
 
 masters of Ireland,"* writes Lord Macaulay, " while 
 ostentatiously professing the political doctrines of Locke 
 and Sidney, held that a people who spoke the Celtic 
 tongue and heard Mass could have no concern in those 
 doctrines. Molyneux questioned the supremacy of the 
 English Legislature. Swift assailed, with the keenest 
 ridicule and invective, every part of the system of 
 government. Lucas disquieted the administration of 
 Lord Harrington. Boyle overthrew the administration 
 of the Duke of Dorset. But neither Molyneux nor 
 Swift, neither Lucas nor Boyle, ever thought of appeal- 
 ing to the native population. They would as soon have 
 thought of appealing to the swine." Very different 
 were the patriotic sentiments and conduct of that dis- 
 tinguished trio, who, in the reign of George II., exerted 
 themselves, despite an overwhelming and dispiriting 
 opposition, to promote the interests of their fellow- 
 countrymen, and not without a success which was the 
 precursor of many subsequent blessings of disenthral- 
 ment. I allude to Dr. John Curry, author of the " His- 
 torical and Critical Keview of the Civil Wars in Ireland ;" 
 Charles O'Connor of Belanagar, the eminent Irish anti- 
 quary ; and Mr. Wyse, a Catholic gentleman of Water- 
 ford. These truly patriotic men, distinguished not only 
 for their love of country, but for talents of the first 
 order, as well as a spirit of indomitable courage and 
 perseverance, gradually formed the nucleus of an asso- 
 ciation for the promotion of Catholic interests in Ireland. 
 They held their meetings at the Globe tavern, Essex- 
 street — meetings at first and for a long time remarkable 
 only for the smallness of their numbers, and the unim- 
 portance of their proceedings. They appealed by 
 
 considered himself as an Irishman than an Englishman born at Cal- 
 cutta considers himself a Hindoo."— ^i«<. of England, vol. vi. p. 119, 
 note. 
 * Ibid- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 51 
 
 circular to the nobility for aristocratic names to swell 
 the catalogue of their members; but the Catholic 
 nobility preferred the contentment of repose to the tur- 
 moil of agitation, and turned a deaf ear to the circular. 
 The little corps of patriots next sought the support and 
 adhesion of the clergy ; but the clergy had the terrible 
 history of the past before their eyes, and courted the 
 privacy which they deemed still necessary until the 
 dawning of a brighter day. It only remained for them 
 to try the commercial men, principally of the metropolis. 
 These displayed no tardiness, but answered at once to 
 the call. For some years previous, the Catholic merchants 
 of Dublin had risen, by slow degrees, to great opulence 
 and considerable social importance. Prevented by the 
 laws from investing their money in landed property, 
 they had amassed wealth in the silent progress of com- 
 mercial speculation, and had thus acquired immense 
 influence in the State. Confiding in their support, the 
 " patriots " went, like men, to their work. 
 
 In September, 1757, John Russell, Duke of Bedford, 
 became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His Grace was a 
 Whig, and the Whigs had been hitherto the worst ene- 
 mies of Ireland. He has been described as a man " per- 
 sonally possessed of much quickness of parts, real good- 
 ness of disposition, great warmth and great facility of 
 temper, which rendered him accessible to some who 
 were totally unworthy of his confidence."* It was not 
 at all encouraging to the Catholic patriots of the day to 
 learn that the Lords, in their first address to the Duke, 
 assured his Grace " that his Majesty's loyal subjects of 
 Ireland had long wished to see the government of the 
 kingdom delegated to the heir and descendant of the 
 great person (Lord Russell), who paved the way for the 
 late glorious revolution." And there were in the coun- 
 
 • Hardy '■ L\fe qf Charlemont, 4to, p. 64. 
 
52 Life and Writings of 
 
 try many besides the Lords who congratulated them- 
 selves on the accession to power of a nobleman, who, 
 they hoped, would prove true to the anti-Catholic 
 instincts which, at the instigation of Lord Shaftesbury, 
 had manifested themselves so signally in the conduct of 
 his great progenitor. The Catholic party, however, were 
 determined, despite these unpromising antecedents of 
 his Grace, to present him with a dutiful address, in the 
 hope that their loyal professions might receive at length 
 some token of royal recognition. The address was pre- 
 pared by Charles O'Connor, and received four hundred 
 signatures, chiefly those of Catholic merchants. Many 
 who remembered the failure of a similar attempt on the 
 accession of the King, did not take the trouble to sign 
 the document — the nobility and clergy, as we have seen, 
 refused to have any connexion with it. So degraded 
 was the position of the Catholics at the time, that they 
 dared not present the address in person, but consigned 
 it to the charge of Mr. Ponsonby, the Speaker of the 
 Irish House of Commons, with a request that he would 
 present it to the Viceroy. A long time elapsed before 
 an answer was received ; and those who had withheld 
 their signatures, began to congratulate themselves on 
 their superior sagacity and prudence. At length, how- 
 ever, the address appeared in the Gazette, with a 
 gracious reply, in which the Catholics were told that the 
 zeal and attachment which they professed could never 
 be more seasonably manifested than in the present con- 
 juncture ; and that as long as they conducted themselves 
 with duty and affection, they could not fail to receive 
 his Majesty's protection. Great was the surprise of all 
 parties at the tone of his reply, and no words could 
 describe the joy it infused into the breasts of the 
 Catholics, who now heard words of kindness addressed 
 to them by the representatives of English power, for the 
 first time since James the Second lost his throne. The 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 53 
 
 conjuncture alluded to by his Grace, had reference to 
 certain riotous proceedings which had just taken place, 
 in consequence of an apprehension which existed at the 
 time, that a legislative union was then contemplated 
 between this country and England, and that the efforts 
 to promote it had received his Grace's sanction and co- 
 operation. These tumults, though really caused by 
 Protestant mobs, were falsely ascribed to the Catholics ; 
 and to this imputation some speciousness was given by 
 the fact, that war was then being waged between Eng- 
 land and France ; for, on such occasions, the loyalty of 
 the " Papists " was more than usually suspected. The 
 Duke, however, was not to be so easily hoodwinked; and 
 to testify publicly his unbelief in the charges preferred 
 against the Catholics, he caused the Speaker to read 
 from his chair, before the assembled Commons, that por- 
 tion of his reply to their address, in which he assured 
 them of his full approbation of their past conduct, and 
 of his future favor and protection. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, the Catholics of Ireland 
 poured in addresses from all quarters, expressive of their 
 loyalty ; but it is much to be regretted that, in their de- 
 precation of any collusion with France for purposes of 
 rebellion, they suffered themselves to be betrayed into 
 an ungrateful depreciation of the French people, so 
 base and hypocritical, as to disgust the leading patriots, 
 and to show, at the same time, to what a depth of degra- 
 dation, and to what a forgetfulness of every honorable 
 feeling, the persecutions of the past had reduced the 
 public mind. 
 
 George the Third ascended the throne in 1760, and 
 had the good taste and political tact to employ, in his 
 opening address to the Commons, expressions calculated 
 to infuse hope and confidence into the breasts of the 
 people of Ireland. He declared himself " the friend of 
 religious toleration, and the guardian of the civil and 
 
54 Life and Writings of 
 
 religious rights of his subjects." The Committee of the 
 Catholic' body thought this a most favorable oppor- 
 tunity for offering to his Majesty an assurance of their 
 loyalty, and of begging at his hands a mild administra- 
 tion of the laws. An address was accordingly prepared, 
 and six hundred names were attached to it. But, un- 
 happily, divisions, the perennial source of national 
 calamities in this country, thwarted the councils of the 
 Catholics, and well-nigh prevented this timely and 
 proper manifestation of popular feeling to the King. 
 The clergy and nobility met at Trim, and prepared 
 a separate address, having declined to co-operate with 
 the Catholic Committee. The latter, to make matters 
 smooth, ventured to lay before the throne a " remon- 
 strance" — a statement of their grievances; and this 
 altered aspect of the intended address, won over many 
 adherents from the dissentient party. Divisions, how- 
 ever, again set in, led on by Lord Trimbleston, a man 
 of haughty manners and violent temper, who left the 
 council in a fit of ill-humour, and was followed by many. 
 Lord Taaffe, however, a Catholic nobleman of con- 
 siderable influence, remained firm, and gave great 
 weight to the views of the Committee. The address 
 was at length re-modelled to the satisfaction of all 
 parties, and presented in due course. It was subse- 
 quently inserted in the London Gazette, and, no doubt, 
 had great influence on the growing lenity of the laws. 
 
 The next concession we hear of made in favor of 
 the Catholics of Ireland, was that granted, in the year 
 1771, during the viceroyalty of Lord Townshend. Par- 
 liament passed an act to enable a Catholic to take 
 a long lease of fifty acres of bog, to which, if the bog 
 was too deep for a foundation, half an acre of arable 
 land might be added for a house ; but this holding 
 should not be within a mile of any city or town, and if 
 half the bog were not reclaimed in twenty-one years, 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 55 
 
 the lease was forfeited. By what slow degrees the per- 
 secuted "Papists" were permitted to rise from the depths 
 of misery ! And as if the donor of every cheering draught 
 grudged it to the thirsting victim of oppression, and 
 took care to dash it with a sprinkling of vinegar and 
 gall, the Lord Lieutenant had £10 a year added to the 
 pension of £30 already offered to " any Popish priest 
 converted to the Protestant religion." These seducing 
 infusions into the chalice of temptation, were called 
 by the wits of the day " Townshend's golden drops." 
 
 Three years passed away, and no step was taken by 
 the legislature for the promotion of Catholic interests 
 in this country ; until at length, in the year 1774, an 
 act was passed by which Catholics were permitted to 
 certify their allegiance to the King. How this happy 
 consummation was effected it now becomes our duty to 
 relate. 
 
 One of the most distinj^uished noblemen that fiojured 
 at this period in the history of Ireland, was Frederick, 
 Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Descended from 
 a family remarkable as well for talent as for eccen- 
 tricity, while inheriting a large share of intellectual 
 endowments, he seemed to have become the sole re- 
 pository of all the singularities of his ancestors. Mag- 
 nificence in all things was his own peculiar foible- 
 " In one thing," writes the biographer of Charlemont,* 
 "he was not unlike Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. 
 * Everything by starts and nothing long.' Generous, 
 but uncertain ; splendid, but fantastical ; an admirer of 
 the fine arts, without any just selection ; engaging, 
 often licentious in conversation ; extremely polite, ex- 
 tremely violent ; — it is indubitably true, that, amidst 
 all his erratic course, his bounty was often directed 
 to the most proper and deserving objects. His dis- 
 
 • Hardy's L\fe of Cluxrlemtmi, 4to, p. 262. 
 
56 Life and Writings of 
 
 tribution of church livings, chiefly amongst the elder 
 and respectable clergy in his own diocese, must always 
 be mentioned with that warm approbation which it is 
 entitled to. It is said (how truly I know not) that 
 he applied for the bishopric of Durham, afterwards for 
 the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland ; was refused both, 
 and, liinc illce lacrymce, hence his opposition. Spend- 
 ing most of his time in Italy, he scarcely ever attended 
 Parliament;" but when he did, it was in no ordinary 
 style — " his progress from his diocese to the metropolis, 
 and his entrance into it, were perfectly correspondent 
 with the rest of his conduct. Through every town on 
 the road he seemed to court, and was received with, all 
 warlike honors ; and I remember seeing him pass by 
 the Parliament House in Dublin (Lords and Commons 
 were then both sitting), escorted by a body of dra- 
 goons, full of spirits and talk, apparently enjoying the 
 eager gaze of the surrounding multitude, and display- 
 ing altogether the self-complacency of the favorite 
 marshal of France on his way to Versailles, rather than 
 the grave deportment of a prelate of the Church of 
 England." This splendid and right reverend nobleman, 
 on one occasion, while travelling through France, paid 
 a visit ■ to the Irish College of Toulouse ; and with 
 urbanity and condescension, which were, no doubt, 
 characteristic, accepted an invitation to dine with the 
 professors. In the course of the evening, the conversa- 
 tion naturally turned on the condition of Ireland, when 
 the prelate deplored the necessity under which Irish- 
 men labored of seeking in a foreign land that educa- 
 tion so cruelly denied them at home ; " still he could 
 not see," he added, " why they refused to their native 
 sovereign that allegiance and fidelity which distinguished 
 their conduct towards the continental monarchs in whose 
 dominions the Irish colleges were situated. For his 
 part, he wished the Catholics to enjoy freedom of 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 57 
 
 conscience ; but until they were found to renounce the 
 opinions generally entertained by them — opinions which 
 militated against the lives of those whom they termed 
 heretics, the safety of the throne, and the obligations of 
 an oath — he could not so far forget what he owed to 
 the peace and security of the country, as to show them 
 any countenance there." It is needless to say that the 
 hosts of the noble Earl repudiated in the strongest 
 language the sentiments attributed to them in this 
 sweeping censure ; they assured him that the lives of 
 " those whom they termed heretics," were as sacred 
 in their eyes as those of their most ardent coreligionists ; 
 that there was nothing in their religious professions 
 calculated to weaken the bond of allegiance and fidelity 
 to the throne ; and finally, that they regarded with the 
 most solemn reverence the awful obligations of an oath. 
 The prelate was surprised and gratified beyond measure, 
 on finding how unfounded were his prejudices, and 
 promised to use his influence for a relaxation of laws 
 which were based on so groundless an assumption. 
 Accordingly, on his return to Ireland, he put himself 
 into communication with some of the leading members 
 of the administration, and endeavoured to make them 
 sharers of his altered feelings on this important subject. 
 The representatives of the Catholic Committee regarded 
 this as a most favorable juncture for the development 
 of their patriotic attempts. Messrs. Curry, O'Con- 
 nor, Wyse, and M'Dermot having consulted with the 
 Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, drew up a form of an 
 oath, which they expressed their willingness and anxiety 
 to take, as an evidence of their loyalty to the throne, 
 and their undivided temporal allegiance to the King. 
 Leave was at length granted, in the House of Commons, 
 on the 5th of March, 1774, to bring in the heads of a 
 bill " to enable his Majesty's subjects, of whatever per- 
 suasion, to testify their allegiance to him ;" and it was 
 
58 Life and WHtings of 
 
 at the same time resolved, " that Mr. Robert French 
 and Sir Lucius O'Brien do prepare the same." 
 
 These gentlemen, on the 15th of March, reported the 
 heads of a bill agreeably to the leave given ; and it re- 
 ceived the royal assent on the 2nd of June following. 
 The oath, as given in the act of parliament, is as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " I, A. B., do take Almighty God and His only Son 
 Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, to witness, that I will be 
 faithful and bear true allegiance to our most gracious 
 sovereign lord George the Third, and him will defend 
 to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and at- 
 tempts whatever that shall be made against his person, 
 crown, and dignity ; and I will do my utmost endeavour 
 to disclose and make knov/n to his Majesty and his heirs 
 all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which may be 
 formed against him or them ; and I do faithfully pro- 
 mise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of 
 my power, the succession of the crowti in his Majesty's 
 family, against any person or persons whatever ; hereby 
 utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience or alle- 
 giance unto the person taking upon himself the style 
 and title of the Prince of Wales in the lifetime of his 
 father, and who, since his death, is said to have 
 assumed the style and title of King of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, by the name of Charles the Third, 
 and to any other person claiming or pretending a 
 right to the crown of these realms. And I do swear 
 that I reject and detest, as unchristian and impious 
 to believe, that it is lawful to murder or destroy 
 any person or persons whatsoever, for or under the 
 pretence of their being heretics; and also that un- 
 christian and impious principle, that no faith is to be 
 kept with heretics. I further declare that it is no ar- 
 ticle of my faith, and that I do renounce, reject, and 
 abjure the opinion, that princes excommunicated by the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 59 
 
 Pope and council, or by any authority of the See of 
 Rome, or by any authority whatsoever, may be deposed 
 or murdered by their subjects, or by any person what- 
 ever ; and I do promise that I will not hold, maintain, 
 or abet any such opinion, or any other opinion contrary 
 to what is expressed in this declaration ; and I do de- 
 clare that I do not believe that the Pope of Rome or 
 any other foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, 
 hath or ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, 
 power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indi- 
 rectly, within this realm. And I do solemnly, in the 
 presence of God and of His only Son Jesus Christ, my 
 Redeemer, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make 
 this declaration in the plain and ordinary sense of the 
 words, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental 
 reservation whatever, and without any dispensation 
 already granted by the Pope, or any authority of the 
 See of Rome, or any person whatever, and without 
 thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or 
 man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, 
 although the Pope or any other person or persons or 
 authority whatsoever shall dispense with or annul the 
 same, or declare that it was null and void from the be- 
 ginning. So help me God." 
 
 The subsequent history of events that took place in 
 connexion with the test oath, is so well described by the 
 Rev. Mr. England, in his " Life of the Rev. Arthur 
 O'Leary,"* that we cannot do better than extract it 
 here : — 
 
 " However favorable this opportunity appeared for 
 a gradual opening of the way for the Catholics to the 
 further attentions of Parliament, obstacles of a nature 
 that could not well have been foreseen, somewhat re- 
 tarded the designs of the framers of the oath. The 
 
 • Pp. 58, ei mq. 
 
60 Life and Writings of 
 
 name, occupation or profession, and place of residence 
 of the Catholics who testified their allegiance, were re- 
 quired by the law to be recorded in the Sessions' Court 
 of each town or county, and to be by the presiding 
 magistrates transmitted forthwith to Dublin. The 
 clergy were still objects of legal hatred ; and the laws 
 against them existed in all their native and unmitigated 
 severity. A difficulty was therefore started : how safe it 
 was for them, anxious as they were to manifest their 
 allegiance, to take the oath under these circumstances. 
 The magistrate, by the acknowledgment of their pro- 
 fession and place of abode, acquired a legal cognizance 
 of their existence in the country ; and he was required, 
 as well by various acts as by frequent resolutions of the 
 houses of Parliament, to carry the laws against priests 
 into immediate effect. With some reason, therefore, 
 was reference had to the Government on the subject, by 
 whose explanation these fears were quieted, and vast 
 numbers of the clergy and people freely took the oath. 
 
 " As soon as these fears were put to rest, obstacles of 
 a more serious nature, and which were not so easily 
 overcome, began to manifest themselves in another 
 quarter. The test oath had, before its adoption in Par- 
 liament, been assented to by the Catholic Committee in 
 Dublin ; there appeared in its detail nothing except 
 what related to the temporal allegiance which subjects 
 owe to their constituted rulers in every state ; and in the 
 parts where it in any way alluded to spiritual matters, 
 it was as guarded as the most scrupulous theologian 
 could require. Notwithstanding all this, to the friends 
 of toleration it appeared unaccountable, that tardiness 
 and hesitation in taking the oath, marked the conduct 
 of many Catholics, who, before the passing of the act of 
 parliament, were apparently sanguine in their support 
 of the measure. Those among the Catholics who kept 
 back from taking the test, stated as their reason for so 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 61 
 
 doing, certain theological objections against clauses in 
 the oath, which had been pointed out to them by some 
 respectable friars, and the public condemnation of a 
 former oath, of exactly a like nature, by the Right 
 Reverend Doctor Burke, in his book entitled Hibemia 
 Dominicana. 
 
 "Besides some political expressions of an offensive 
 nature contained in the work itself. Dr. Burke had 
 occasion in the supplement to notice the form of an 
 oath, similar in many particulars to that required by 
 the bill of 1774 ; and these clauses were by him unre- 
 servedly and clamorously reprobated. For the more 
 effectual circulation of his sentiments on this important 
 and delicate subject, he had copies of the work and 
 supplement presented in his name to some of the Pro- 
 testant bishops of the kingdom, and to the University 
 of Dublin, at that time extremely hostile to the exten- 
 sion of any favor or protection to the Roman Catholic 
 body. The effects of these ill-judged and injurious 
 measures were deeply regretted by the prelates and 
 clergy of the kingdom, and particularly by the bishops 
 of the province of Munster, — a body then and always 
 looked up to with respect, as well by the Holy See, as 
 by their brother bishops in Ireland and England.* 
 
 * The disastrous nature of this proceeding was greatly enhanced by 
 the fact that the author was a bishop (Ossory) of great learning and 
 piety, and, therefore, considered a fair representative of Catholic opi- 
 nion. The work, though bearing on the title-page the name of Cologne 
 as the place of publication, was really published at Kilkenny. In its 
 relation of the suflferings endured by the Irish Church since the period 
 of the Reformation, it seems to have exceeded the bounds of truth, and, 
 in consequence, excited the indignation and acrimonious censure of 
 Protestant readers, who raised against it a violent outcry, which 
 threatened to perpetuate, at a period when it would be more desirable 
 to allay, the feelings of mutual hostility that subsisted between the 
 professors of the two religions. For the welfare of their subjects, 
 the Catholic bishops of the province deemed it prudent to convoke a 
 council, to be held at Kilkenny, to take into consideration how far 
 the book required emendation and correction. But Kilkenny, being 
 
62 Life and Writings of 
 
 " To remedy this evil as far as lay in their power, 
 and to express, at the same time, their judgment of the 
 test oath, a provincial synod of the Munster prelates 
 was held near Cork, on the 15th of July, 1775, where 
 the following declaration was unanimously agreed to : — 
 
 " ' We, the chiefs of the Roman Catholic clergy of the 
 province of Munster, having met together near Cork, 
 have unanimously agreed that the oath of allegiance, 
 proposed by act of parliament, anno regni decimo 
 tertio et quarto Oeorgii tertii regis, contains nothing 
 contrary to the principles of the Roman Catholic 
 religion. 
 
 + James Butler. 
 * + Daniel O'Kearney. 
 
 + John Butler. 
 
 + Michael Peter M'Mahon. 
 
 -(- Mathew M'Kenna. 
 
 + William Egan. 
 
 H- F. Moylan.' 
 
 " Not satisfied with this declaration of their opinions 
 on the oath itself, they entered, on the 28th of July, 
 into an unanimous resolution, marking, in the strongest 
 terms, their entire dissent from the doctrines put for- 
 ward on the oath of allegiance, by Dr. Burke, in his 
 Hibernia Dominicana, and, at the same time, express- 
 ing ' their firm and unshaken loyalty and gratitude to 
 his Majesty King George the Third.' The declaration 
 of the prelates was transmitted by Dr. Butler, the 
 Archbishop of Cashel, to his agent at Rome, the late 
 
 the head-quarters of Doctor Burke's see, was unhappily selected as 
 the place of convocation. He resisted the appointment of a meeting 
 without his consent to be held within the precincts of his diocese, and 
 denounced it as a gross infringement on his canonical rights. The 
 project was, therefore, abandoned. But the prelates of Munster met 
 soon after, at Thurles, and expunged a small portion of the work. 
 See Bremian's Ecclesiastkal History of Ireland, vol. iL p. 346. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 63 
 
 Bishop Bellew, by whom the substance of the act of 
 parliament, and an exact translation of the oath, were 
 laid before the Pope. The Holy Father read them 
 with much attention, and expressed his ardent hope 
 * that the kindness of the legislature would shortly be 
 further extended to his suffering children.' Notwith- 
 standing these expressions of his Holiness, and the 
 conviction, which must have existed in the mind of any 
 enlightened theologian, that there was nothing con- 
 tained in the oath in any degree adverse to the doctrines 
 of the Catholic Church ; still, the bishops had much to 
 contend with from the narrow designs of a party in 
 Rome, who sought to procure, by every means in their 
 power, a censure of the oath, and, consequently, of the 
 approvers of it in Ireland. Those persons fbund, for a 
 while, a willing agent in Dr. Carpenter, the Catholic 
 Arcljbishop of Dublin. He agreed with his friends at 
 Rome, that, although he held as his fixed opinion that 
 the Pope had no temporal power or authority, direct or 
 indirect, in the kingdom, the denial upon oath of such 
 a power, inasmuch as it was at former periods claimed 
 for the Pope by theologians of celebrity, was harsh and 
 presumptuous. His opposition to the sentiments of 
 the other prelates was to them a subject of pain and 
 regret ; but, with principle for their guide, they finally 
 secured the approbation of Rome, and had also the gra- 
 tification of seeing Dr. Carpenter himself yield to rea- 
 son, and take the oath of allegiance. The Congregation 
 De Propagcmda Fide, a tribunal always eminent for 
 the prudence, wisdom, and justice which govern its 
 councils, intimated to the Munster prelates, that, though 
 the oath was by the Congregation considered unobjec- 
 tionable, still the cardinals could not forbear expressing 
 their opinion that the conduct of the approvers of the 
 test in Ireland was blameable : first, because they had 
 not, before expressing their opinion of the test, con- 
 
64 Life and WHtings of 
 
 suited Rome ; secondly, that they were the authors and 
 framers of the oath, and might, therefore, have drawn it 
 up in a form less liable to misconstruction ; and, thirdly, 
 that there did not appear to have been any pressing ne- 
 cessity for the framing of such an oath at all. The vin- 
 dication of the prelates was not a task of much difficulty. 
 Archbishop Butler replied in their name by a memoir 
 (sic) of some length, in which the history of the oath 
 is given, the objections to it ably refuted, and its sup- 
 porters justified and defended.* 
 
 " This statement was favorably received at Rome ; 
 the oath was generally taken by the clergy and people 
 of Ireland ; and thus was the way opened to the amelio- 
 ration of a class of persons who suffered more for con- 
 science sake than history records of any other people, 
 and whose inflexible loyalty, at moments of extreme 
 danger, was the best criterion of the principles that 
 governed their religious and political conduct. The 
 persons most conspicuous in producing these happy 
 results, were Dr. Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. 
 Egan, Bishop of Waterford, and Dr. Moylan, Bishop of 
 Cork. 
 
 " To join in the efforts made by these valuable and 
 patriotic men in favor of the test oafch, was the 
 object O'Leary had in view in the publication of 
 ' Loyalty Asserted.' He alone appeared, amongst the 
 body to whom he belonged, a privileged writer. The 
 oath had found some of its most strenuous opponents, 
 both in Ireland and at Rome, amongst the friars ; and 
 he, therefore, felt himself called upon to utter his 
 opinions freely and with energy. The work was widely 
 circulated, and called forth as well the acknowledgments 
 of the friends of the Government to the writer, as the 
 warm gratitude of his Catholic fellow-countrymen." 
 
 * This document is found at full length in Father England's work, 
 Appendix B. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 65 
 
 In this treatise, O'Leary takes up the oath sentence 
 by sentence, and shows its conformity to Catholic teach- 
 ing in every particular, by a reasoning remarkable for 
 logical precision, profound knowledge of his subject, 
 and a candour rarely discernible in a work, to all in- 
 tents and purposes, controversial. Political circum- 
 stances have so much changed since then, that there is 
 no longer need to enforce conviction on most of the 
 truths herein set down. Ignorance, and consequent 
 prejudice, on many Catholic doctrines, have been dis- 
 pelled by the genius of education, and the growth of 
 liberal opinions. Few, if any, persons, for example, are 
 silly enough to think any one will attempt to upset 
 the succession of the throne in the House of Hanover ; 
 no one is likely to put forward the claims of a Stuart 
 Pretender : those who think that Catholics believe that 
 it is lawful to murder a person on the pretence of his 
 being a heretic, are scarcely worth the trouble of re- 
 futation. We may, therefore, spare ourselves the 
 labor of quoting arguments on these subjects, which are 
 only curious, as showing what opinions were at one 
 time entertained of " Papists " in these countries. 
 Whatever Catholics, in their individual capacity, may 
 think, say, or do in violation of the allegiance they owe 
 to the powers that be, the teaching of the Church is 
 clear and decisive, and of its doctrines O'Leary is a just 
 exponent. " Although," he says, " I should never swear 
 any allegiance in form, yet there is an original and 
 natural allegiance from subject to king; a debt that 
 forbids all conspiracies and treasonable practices against 
 * his person, crown, and dignity.' At my birth, I was 
 under his protection; and, in tender infancy, when I 
 could not protect myself, I wjis shielded by his name. 
 His tribunals are still open to secure my life and 
 liberty ; and, as there is an implied contract between 
 king and subject, my oath does not change the nature 
 
 I' 
 
66 Life and Writings of 
 
 of my obligations. It only strengthens the civil bond 
 by the tie of religion, and superadds to treason the 
 guilt of perjury in the transgressors." He shows how 
 little reason Ireland had to be grateful to the Stuarts, 
 by briefly recapitulating all they did for the welfare of 
 that country, and, therefore, concludes that their resto- 
 ration could not be desired by Irishmen, unless they 
 adopted the unreasonable whim of the poet : — 
 
 *' Amo te, Zabede, sed nescio dicere qiiare." 
 
 "VVe merely glance at the subject for its historical inte- 
 rest. " James the First signalized his generosity in our 
 favour, by giving, under the finesse of laws, six counties 
 in Ulster to Scotch planters. Hume attempts to justify 
 his countryman by the following shift — ' He gave them 
 arts and manufactures in exchange.' The cruel Achab 
 was more generous — he offered real money for Naboth's 
 vineyard. 
 
 " Charles the First ran the same course with his 
 father. There was no end of seizures, inquisitions, and 
 regal plunder. Shamed at last into desistance by the 
 Irish parliament, an artful stratagem is devised, equally 
 calculated to answer the ends of rapacity, and exculpate 
 the monarch. The Earl of Strafford is named vicegerent, 
 and takes the blame upon himself — the King thanks 
 him for his seasonable advice ; and Ireland sees Tiberius 
 and Sejanus revived in the persons of Charles and his 
 
 favorite Charles the Second, who, according to 
 
 Lord Lyttleton, could have become as despotic a prince 
 as any in Europe, sets up a sham Court of Claims, to save 
 the appearance of justice. He confirms Cromwell's 
 grants to the adventurers who followed the banners of 
 this regicide, tinctured with the blood of the royal 
 martyr; obliges his enemies by the sacrifice of his de- 
 fenders; consents to the special exception of Irish 
 Catholics from the general act of indemnity ; refuses the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 67 
 
 least assistance to Lord Rocliford, who sold his estate to 
 support him during his exile ; and gives his sanction to 
 a ridiculous law, declaring it high treason to call the 
 king a Papist, of which law he was himself the most 
 signal transgressor, having been confessed and anointed 
 
 by a Benedictine monk To this long train of 
 
 Stuart hostilities, James the Second is the only excep- 
 tion — he removed all penal restraints. . . . But does his 
 conduct stand the test ? ... In the vicinity of an army 
 of 30,000 men, master of the strongholds and garrisons 
 of his realms, at the first report of the Prince of Orange's 
 arrival in England, with the apathy of a stoic, or the 
 timidity of an old woman, he throws the royal seals 
 into the Thames, disappears, leaves three kingdoms in 
 the utmost anarchy and confusion, the reins of govern- 
 ment without a hand to manage them, and his subjects 
 uncertain to whom they should transfer their allegiance. 
 Instances of the kind are scarcely to be met with in the 
 chronicles of kings — a hand that would not unsheathe a 
 sword in defence of three realms, is better calculated for 
 a muff than a sceptre. Queen Elizabeth, almost in 
 sight of an army of 50,000 Spaniards, reviews her troops, 
 rides through the ranks, animates her men — * Behold 
 your Queen ! Victorious, I shall reward you ; defeated, 
 1 shall die with you.' But Buchanan's contrast of James 
 the First to Queen Elizabeth is equally applicable to 
 James the Second : 
 
 *• • Rex fuit Elizabeth, nunc vero regina Jacobus 
 Error naturae par in utroque fuit. " 
 
 " Recalled by Tyrconnel from France to Ireland, our 
 Alexander lays siege to Londonderry, from whence he 
 is expelled by a Protestant minister, at the head of a 
 handful of men half-famished — a glorious contest be- 
 tween a king and a priest — the sword and the gown. 
 Cedant arma togce. The banks of the Boyne are quite 
 
68 Life and WHtings of 
 
 as inauspicious to his laurels. . . . ' Spare, oh, spare my 
 Euglish subjects ! ' Lo, the most beloved King of the 
 Stuart race, pious and tender-hearted ! he would not 
 have scrupled to repossess himself of the throne at the 
 expense of Irish blood, but the purchase would have 
 been too dear when regained with the loss of English 
 subjects. 
 
 " It was the duty of the Irish to fight for their king. 
 But when they perceived that he preferred his son-in- 
 law's life to their security and his own interest, doubt- 
 less they were acquitted of their allegiance. His 
 daughter Mary, during her husband's absence, ordered 
 all Papists, and reputed Papists, to depart ten miles 
 from London. . . . But their total destruction was com- 
 pleted by Anne, the last sovereign of the Stuart line." 
 (We have already alluded to the persecutions of Anne.) 
 *' Hitherto," continues O'Leary, " we have a retrospective 
 view of our obligations to those our royal benefactors ; 
 let us now look forward to the agreeable scene, and 
 enchanting prospect, of riches and blessings we expect 
 from their restoration." 
 
 He then enters into the question, "whether we can 
 in conscience renounce all allegiance to the grandson 
 of James the Second, whose abdication of the throne 
 has been the effect of fear and compulsion ?" I repeat, 
 we shall not follow him through this argument, as all 
 interest in it has perished with the extinction of the 
 Stuarts, and no one but a madman could entertain an 
 idea of upsetting the present dynasty for the substitu- 
 tion of another. We cannot help, however, transcribing 
 the following passage, for the political clearsightedness 
 and wisdom it displays : — 
 
 " In reality, sir, a dear-bought experience has broken 
 this charm that bewitched our ancestors in favor of 
 the Stuarts. Whilst they were our kings, we exerted 
 oLirselves to support them on the throne, more from 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 69 
 
 principle than from faction ; and had other monarchs 
 swayed the sceptre, we would have done the same. In a 
 word, we fell with our kings ; and the very offspring of 
 those kings have chained us closer to the ground. Now 
 the tide of those fatal commotions has subsided. This 
 tumult that distracted the nation in the Stuarts' reign, 
 is allayed. Are we to quit the reality in pursuit of a 
 shadow ? What would we have gained had the Pre- 
 tender been crowned at Westminster? An aggravation 
 of our yoke, and new calamities. The penal laws, 
 relaxed in their execution by the clemency of govern- 
 ment, would have been revived with new vigor. The 
 edge of persecution, blunted by the humanity of our 
 fellow-subjects, would have been new tempered and 
 sharpened. 
 
 " You will answer, perhaps, that such usage could not 
 be expected from a Catholic prince. Folly! Pardon 
 the expression. You know that the throne is the most 
 dazzling object of human ambition. Though a great 
 distance from its steps, and the impossibility of obtain- 
 ing it renders the most part of mortals insensible to its 
 charms, yet, in regard to those who are entitled to it by 
 their birth, it is a magnet that attracts their hearts, the 
 great idol to which they would sacrifice their very 
 blood ; the water of Lethe, erasing, by its oblivious 
 qualities, all impressions of friendship, gratitude, and 
 even religion. Of this, history, sacred and profane, 
 affords several instances. Athalia murdered the princes 
 of the royal house of Judah. Tullia drove her chariot 
 over her father's body, and dyed its wheels in his 
 blood, from an eagerness to be saluted queen. In the 
 time of the Crusades, a Catholic prince was found in 
 the number of the slain, with the marks of circumci- 
 sion on his body. He expected the kingdom of Jeru- 
 salem from Saladin ; and this fervent Christian, who a 
 few years before would have spilt his blood in defence 
 
70 Life and WHtings of 
 
 of Christ's sepulchre, sold Christ Himself for the 
 dominion of a city in which He had been crucified. 
 
 "I do not mean that any of our regal candidates 
 would turn Turks for the sake of a crown; but certain I 
 am, that the transition is easy from Popery to Pro- 
 testantism, and from Protestantism to Popery, when a 
 diadem is the reward of conversion. In my humble 
 opinion, Charles the Third would have removed Pope 
 and Popery, if necessary, out of the way to his throne. 
 To clear himself from the suspicion of a Popish cancer, 
 the oppression of Papists would have been the blessed 
 detersive — a catholicon very familiar to the Stuarts." 
 
 The Pope and Popery had been for many centuries, 
 and are to the present day, the objects of the coarsest 
 vituperation, and most unmitigated hatred, in many 
 parts of Europe, but nowhere to such a degree as in 
 England. This feeling of hostility to the Papacy, trans- 
 mitted from generation to generation, and fostered by 
 the vilest calumnies and most glaring misrepresenta- 
 tions, has been the source of a deep-seated prejudice, 
 unworthy of a people who pride themselves on their 
 candour, honor, and fair-play; while it has driven them 
 into excesses of persecution against the Catholic portion 
 of the community, especially in Ireland, more suited to 
 " the meridian of Barbary,"* than to the boasted land 
 of liberty and civilization. And why is this ? Would 
 England extinguish Catholicity in the world ? Would 
 she force all to participate in the so-called blessings of 
 the Reformation ? Will she assert that Catholics have 
 no right to exist as a society in France, Austria, 
 Belgium, Spain, America, in every region of the world? 
 If she will deny this right, she will set her opinion 
 against that of the vast preponderance of civilized 
 mankind — if she admit that Catholics have a right to 
 
 * Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Lea^'y. 71 
 
 league .themselves in fraternal bonds all over the 
 world, why will she refuse to them one legislator, 
 judge, arbitrator, counsellor, and chief? But she will 
 grant this one supreme head, and yet deny him tem- 
 poral power. Why deny him what is his by the justest 
 of titles ? England does not belong to Queen Victoria 
 by a title stronger than that by which Rome, and lately 
 the Papal States, belonged to Pope Pius the Ninth. 
 The former was acquired by conquest, the latter by 
 concession. Those who say that the Papal territories 
 were the growth of gradual usurpations, do not under- 
 stand history ; the asseveration is not a mis-statement, 
 it is an anachronism. The power of the Popes was 
 strengthened and extended at a time when no other 
 power was really constituted. In the agglomeration of 
 races, the confusion of ideas, traditions, manners, re- 
 ligions prevailing in European society, after the irrup- 
 tions of the barbarians, and their interblending with 
 the native peoples, some element was wanting to restore 
 order, t^ assimilate feelings, to throw oil on the 
 troubled waters, to raise one great edifice from out 
 the scattered ruins. That element was Christianity — its 
 representative was the successor of St. Peter. As the 
 Gentiles bowed before the fishermen of Galilee, and 
 accepted their creed with the docility of children, so did 
 the barbarous hordes of Europe submissively yield to 
 the benign influence of their successors; thus paying 
 that homage which ignorance pays to wisdom, in- 
 capacity to genius, and the human heart to the sublime 
 spirit of religion. This was the beginning of temporal 
 power in the Church. The Pope was the head of the 
 Church — the head of the concentrated wisdom of the 
 world — the fountain of legislation — the possessor of 
 the archives of literature — the sun round which society 
 revolved — the only power acting with order, concert, 
 and regularity — the only sure guarantee for stability 
 
72 Life and Writings of 
 
 and permanence. All things changed; but religion 
 still maintained her place, the Church was ever in 
 the midst of men, the Pope still reigned at Rome — 
 his power was not usurped, for power, before it is 
 usurped, must exist somewhere. It did not exist with 
 kings ; for kings were the sport, and frequently the 
 victims, of haughty barons. It did not exist with the 
 barons, nor with the people, it was rather scrambled for 
 by those three elements of society, the monarch, the 
 feudal lords, and the people who were little better than 
 slaves, working out the ambition, and gratifying the cor- 
 rupt passions of their masters. Why view by-gone ages 
 with a light suited to the contemplation of to-day ? 
 Why apply to the crude • infancy of society, a standard 
 that only applies to grown up and matured civilization ? 
 This would be to seek order in chaos, to invest the ten- 
 der sapling with the giant strength of the forest oak. 
 Now that society is formed, civilized, enlightened, why 
 should the power that raised it from the depths be 
 spurned and banished out of sight ? This woiJd be the 
 young man, in the insolence of his strength, turning out 
 of doors the tender and loving mother who watched him 
 with fondest care through the perils of infancy, and bore 
 him safely o^er the shoals and quicksands to which err- 
 ing boyhood is exposed. Some Popes have, it is said, 
 misused their power. Be it so. This is not the place 
 to enter into an inquiry of this kind. If they have done 
 so, their imprudence or ambition has not received the 
 sanction of the Church — they have erred as individuals. 
 Why condemn the institution for the fault of its head ? 
 — why visit on a whole series of monarchs, the misdeeds 
 of a dynast ? Why colour, and distort, and exaggerate 
 the faults of such individuals to prejudice the weak and 
 blind the vulgar, to stir up the passions of the ignorant, 
 to mar the power of truth by the wilful dissemination 
 of error ? No monarchs ever displayed so paternal a 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 73 
 
 spirit in their government as the Popes — none, "with such 
 gigantic power, ever evinced so little tendency to ambi- 
 tioD, and so little disposition to territorial aggrandize- 
 ment. " It is," says a great writer,* " a very remark- 
 able circumstance, but either disregarded or not suffi- 
 ciently attended to, that the Popes have never taken 
 advantage of the great power in their possession for the 
 aggrandizement of their States. What could have been 
 more natural, for instance, or more tempting to human 
 nature, than to reserve a portion of the provinces con- 
 quered from the Saracens, and which they gave up to 
 the first occupant, to repel the Turkish ascendancy 
 always on the increase ? But this, however, they never 
 did, not even with regard to the adjacent countries, as in 
 the instance of the Two Sicilies, to which they had incon- 
 testable rights, at least according to the ideas then pre- 
 vailing, and over which they were, nevertheless, contented 
 with an empty sovereignty, which soon ended in the 
 haqueneh, a slight tribute, and merely nominal, which 
 the bad taste of the age still disputes with them. The 
 Popes may have had too much at the time of this uni- 
 versal sovereignty, which an opinion equally universal 
 allowed them. They may have exacted homage ; nay, 
 indeed, if you will, have too arbitrarily imposed taxes. 
 I do not wish to enter into these points here, but it still 
 remains certain that they have never sought to increase 
 their dominions at the expense of justice, whilst all other 
 governments fell under their anathema ; and, at the 
 present time even, with all our philosophy, our civiliza- 
 tion, and our fine books, there is not, perhaps, one of 
 the European powers in a condition to justify all its pos- 
 sessions before God and reason." 
 
 But let us hear O'Leary on this subject. The fifth 
 article of the oath of allegiance ran as follows : — " I 
 further declare that it is no article of my faith, and that 
 • Count de Maiatre, Du Pape, book ii cb»p. 6. 
 
74 Life and Writings of 
 
 I do renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that princes 
 excommunicated by the Pope and Council, or by any 
 authority of the See of Rome, or by any authority 
 whatsoever, may be deposed or murdered by their sub- 
 jects, or by any person whatsoever; and I do promise 
 that I will not hold, maintain, or abet any such opinion, 
 or any other opinion contrary to what is expressed in 
 this declaration." 
 
 " This article," writes O'Leary, " requires a peculiar 
 discussion; as the Pope's deposing poAver has caused 
 such confusion in Europe, during the great struggles 
 between the priesthood and empire, and is often an 
 engine employed in Parliament to defeat the good in- 
 tentions *of the members, who, from principles of 
 humanity and zeal for the prosperity of the kingdom, 
 endeavour to remove the heavy yoke of penal restraints. 
 The question is — Whether the deposing power be an 
 article of the Catholic faith ? For my heart startles, 
 and my hand recoils at the words, ' murdered by their 
 subjects.!' As if the principles of any sect of Christians 
 authorized a gloomy ruffian to plunge the dagger in the 
 royal breast. To determine the question, let us inquire, 
 first, into the doctrine of the Church concerning the 
 deposing power ; secondly, into its origin. 
 
 "Resistance to princes has been an early charge against 
 the Church ; and from her infancy down to this day, her 
 pastors and doctors have repelled the calumny. An im- 
 puted doctrine, then, yet still disclaimed, can never be 
 an article of her faith. 
 
 " It is true that the concessions of princes to the 
 Apostolic See — an excessive veneration for the first pas- 
 tors of the Church — flattery in some — rash zeal in others 
 — have raised up Bellarmin and some other champions 
 for the deposing power, beyond the Alps. But the devia- 
 tions of some individuals should be considered as spots 
 in the sun, or the misconduct of a citizen whose fault 
 should not be charged upon a large community. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 75 
 
 " The apologists of the deposing power (now grown 
 obsolete) are few ; and their doctrine must either stand 
 or fall with the evidence or inevidence of their argu- 
 ments, unsupported by authority and contradicted by 
 the practice and doctrine of all ages and nations. 
 
 "In the Apostles' time, the Jews began to revolt and 
 sow the seeds of that rebellion which assembled the" 
 Roman eagles round their walls, and involved their nation 
 in final destruction. The great pretence was — the seem- 
 ing impropriety of the subjection of God's chosen 
 people to a heathen dominion ; and as the first converts 
 sprang from the Jews, the heathens confounded to- 
 gether Jews and Christians, and charged them alike 
 with the doctrine of resistance to subordination and 
 government. The great St. Paul vindicates the Chris- 
 tians, and lays down for a general rule that * every soul 
 must be subject to higher powers ; and that there is no 
 power but from God, and that those who resist receive 
 damnation unto themselves.'* Should any one reply 
 that the Church has more power over Christian kings, 
 as by baptism they become her children, it can be easily 
 answered that dominions and »temporal power are 
 founded in free-will and the laws of nations, but not 
 conferred nor taken away by a spiritual regeneration ; 
 and Bellarmin himself is forced to acknowledge, that 
 * the Gospel deprives no man of his right and dominion, 
 but gets him a new right to an eternal kingdom.'-f 
 
 "The apostolical constitutions, whether genuine or 
 spurious, are certainly of an ancient date, and give us 
 great insight into the discipline of primitive times. 
 They command * to fear the king as God's institution 
 and ordinance. 'J * The Christians worship God only,' 
 says Justin the Martyr ; * they are subject to the 
 
 * Romans, xiiL 
 
 t Bellarmin, de Rom, Pontif. lib. v. c. 3. 
 
 1 Lib. vii 
 
76 Life and Writings of 
 
 emperors in all things else.'* 'By whose command men 
 are born/ says St. Irenaeus ; 'by His command also are 
 kings ordained, as suits the circumstances of those over 
 whom they are set: some for the amendment and 
 benefit of their subjects ; and some for fear and punish- 
 ment, for reproof and contempt, as the people shall 
 have deserved — the just judgment of God reaching 
 equally to all.' Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Optatus, Milevitanus, in fine, all 
 the Fathers declare, that ' kings have none above them 
 but God alone, who made them kings ; that God bestows 
 the heavenly felicity on the godly only, but the king- 
 doms of the earth on both godly and ungodly ; and that 
 to him alone the cruel Marius, and the gracious Caesar, 
 Augustus, the best of princes, Nero, one of the worst, 
 Constantine the Christian, and Julian the Apostate, are 
 equally indebted for their authority and power.' 
 
 "If, from the Fathers you continue the long chain of 
 venerable antiquity through the successive reigns of the 
 Roman pontiffs, you will find the deposing power as- 
 sumed by few ; the pre-eminence of kings, and their 
 dependence on God alone, asserted by the mildest and 
 most learned, and those by far the greatest number. ' 
 
 " St. Gregory the Great, not only disclaims any tem- 
 poral power over kings, but even acknowledges himself 
 their subject. The Emperor insists on the publication 
 of a law. The Pope writes to him : — ' I, being subject 
 to your command, have caused the law to be sent into 
 several parts ; and because the law agrees not with God 
 omnipotent, I have by letter informed my serene lord. 
 Wherefore, I have in both done what I ought — obeyed 
 the Emperor, and not concealed what I thought for 
 God.' Eleutherius, Anastasius II., Gelasius, Symmachus, 
 Gregory II., Leo IV., Nicholas II., Adrian I., Nicholas III, 
 
 * Apolog. 2. 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 77 
 
 John VIII., and Celestine III, call the king * God's 
 vicar on earth :' * forbid the priest to usurp the regal 
 dignity/ and confine the power of the Church to the 
 dispensation of divine, that of the prince to the ad- 
 ministration of temporal, things. 
 
 " If you consult the cardinals who have heightened 
 the glory of their purple by their learning and piety, 
 you will meet with numerous and steady asserters of 
 regal independence. ' I presuppose what is known 
 even to the vulgar,' says Cardinal Cusanus, ' that the 
 imperial celsitude is independent of the sacerdotal 
 power, having an immediate dependence upon God.'* 
 * Between the kingdom and priesthood, the proper 
 offices of each are distinct ; that the king may make 
 use of the arms of the world, and the priest be girt with 
 the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,' says 
 Cardinal Damianus.-t* In answer to some objections 
 drawn from the conduct of a Pope, regular and exem- 
 plary in other respects, but too ready to interfere in 
 temporal concerns, this great man replies : — 'I say what 
 I think, that neither Peter obtained the apostolical 
 principality, because he denied Christ; nor David 
 deserved the oracle of prophecy, because he defiled 
 another man's bed.' As much as to say that this Pope 
 committed a fault, which he afterwards cancelled by 
 repentance. 
 
 " If you still fear that the long-famed British throne 
 should be overturned by syllogisms, or that th§ jars of 
 schoolmen may silence the English cannon (for you 
 have nothing more to apprehend from the Pope), I can 
 march to your aid a formidable army of scholastic 
 divines, armed cap-a-jne, in support of regal pre-emi- 
 nence — Navar, Durandus, Joan, Paris, Almain, Gerson, 
 Victoria, Thorn. Wald. Anton, de Roselli, ^gidius 
 
 • Cu«. 1. 3. Con. c. 5. t Lib. iv. Epist 9. 
 
78 Life and Writings of 
 
 Rom. Ambros. Catharinus, &c., &c., some of whom 
 qualify the deposing power with the epithets of horrible 
 and seditious ; and others style it downright madness.^ 
 Add to the foregoing authorities, the Council of Con- 
 stance, held in the year 1415 ; the declaration of the 
 provincial congregations of the Jesuits, at Ghent, in the 
 year 1681, and that of clergy of France, in 1682 ; who 
 declare that ' kings and princes, by God's ordinance, 
 are not subject in temporals to any ecclesiastical power, 
 and that they cannot be deposed, directly or indirectly, 
 by the authority of the keys of the Church ; neither 
 can their subjects be freed from fealty and obedience, 
 nor absolved from their oath of allegiance.' 'Reofes 
 ergo et principes in temporalibus nulli ecclesiasticse 
 potestati Dei ordinatione subjici, neque auctoritate 
 clavium ecclesi^fi directe vel indirecte deponi, aut 
 illorum subditos eximi a fide atque obedientia, ac prae- 
 stito fidelitatis sacramento solvi posse : eamque senten- 
 tiam, ut verbo Dei, patrum traditioni, et sanctorum 
 exemplis consonam, omnino retinendam."f Even in 
 the canon law it is declared that ' kings acknowledge 
 no superior in temporals ; ' and that ' appeals concern- 
 ing temporals should not be brought to the Pope's 
 tribunal. 'J 
 
 " In fine, the deposing power was . so unknown in 
 primitive times, that Bellarmin, who has ransacked the 
 works of the Fathers, and enriched himself with their 
 spoils, in defending the doctrine of the Church, could 
 cite none but St. Bernard, in support of the novel 
 doctrine of deposition ; and yet this Father, who main- 
 tains two swordsm the Church, only means that, in the 
 Church are Christian princes invested with the right of 
 the sword ; for, in writing to Pope Eugenius, the saint 
 
 * Ambros. Catharinus, in 13 Rom. Roseli de Pot. Pap. 
 t Declaratio Cleri Gallicani, anno 1682. 
 X Cap. Si duobus, extra de appel. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 79 
 
 uses these remarkable words : — * Earthly kingdoms 
 have their judges, princes, kings. Why do you thrust 
 your sickle into another man's harvest ? St. Peter could 
 not give what he had not : did he give dominion ? It 
 is the saying of the Lord in the Gospel — " the kings of 
 the /jrentiles have dominion over them; but you not so." 
 It is plain, dominion is forbid to the Apostles. Go, now, 
 and dare usurp either dominion with the apostleship, 
 or the apostleship with dominion. You are plainly forbid 
 the one. If you will have both, you will lose both : you 
 will be of the number of those of whom God complains 
 — they have been princes, and I knew them not.'* 
 
 "Bellarmin's misapplication of St. Bernard's text 
 was not the only mistake his antagonists have cen- 
 sured. His wild conjecture that ' the Christians would 
 have deposed Nero and Julian the Apostate, and the 
 like, had they had the power to do so/ raised the indig- 
 nation of the Catholic universities — ' Quodsi Christiani 
 olim non deposuerunt Neronem, et Julianum Aposta- 
 tam, et similes, id fuit quia defuerunt vires temporales 
 Christianis.'*!- The decision was considered by the 
 Catholic divines as more becoming the scarlet robe of 
 the stem Brutus, who beheaded his children for siding 
 with the king, than the purple of the Christian cardinal. 
 It was revised by the University of Paris ; corrected by 
 the hangman with a blazing fagot, and contradicted by 
 the unexceptionable testimony of TertuUian and St. 
 Augustine. * Are the Moors and Marcomans and Par- 
 thians, or any other nation of one place and confined to 
 their own limits more than those of the whole world ? 
 We are but of yesterday, and yet have filled all the 
 places you have — your cities, islands, and castles, 
 boroughs, councils, and camp itself, your tribes, the 
 courts, the senate, and the market. We have left you 
 
 • St Bernard, lib. 2, de Cormd. 
 , t Bellarmin, de Rom. Pontif. lib. v. c. 7. 
 
80 Life and Writings of 
 
 only the temples. For what war are we not fit and 
 ready, even though we are inferior in number, who en- 
 dure death so willingly, if in this discipline it were as 
 lawful to kill as to be killed ?'* 'They could, at their 
 pleasure, have deposed Julian,' says St. Augustine, "but 
 would not, because they were subject for necessity, not 
 only to avoid anger, but for conscience and love, and 
 because our Lord so commanded. '-(• In effect, sir, laying 
 aside the truth of history, had Peter and Paul been as 
 willing to depose kings for the glory of God, and the 
 propagation of religion, as some of our modern zealots 
 of all communions, how could Nero have withstood 
 those Apostles, whose word alone was to Ananias and 
 Saphira a messenger of death, struck the magicians 
 blind, and raised the dead to life ? 
 
 "I say of all communions ; for in many communions 
 there are men of deposing principles, which their reli- 
 gion disclaims. 'Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra.' 
 Doleman, Buchanan, Milton, Sam. Johnson, Hobbes, 
 Hoadley, Locke, and several other advocates of republi- 
 can principles and sticklers for popular rights, are more 
 dangerous than Bellarmin, who disowns the deposing 
 power, except in the case of a prince forcing his 
 subjects to change their religion. ' Si enim tales prin- 
 cipes non conentur fideles a fide avertere, non existimo 
 posse eos privari suo dominio.'J A salvo which I hope 
 will remove all umbrage and suspicion from the minds 
 of our governors, as they do not reckon persecution in 
 the number of cardinal virtues ; even if they did, resis- 
 tance is not a principle of the Catholic religion. 
 
 " But, I am clearly of opinion, that had Mr. Locke — 
 the wisest and most moderate of those English writers 
 — been an officer in Julian's army, he would have 
 
 * Tert. Apol. c. 37. t In Psal. cxxiv. 
 
 X Bellarmin de Rom. Pontif. L v. c. 7- 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 81 
 
 reasoned the soldiers into open rebellion. He that 
 compares subjects, who would brook the violence and 
 oppression of their supreme ruler, to fools, ' who take 
 care to avoid what mischief maybe done them by polecats 
 or foxes, but are content, nay, think it safety to be de- 
 voured by lions,'* and illustrates this doctrine with the 
 following example : — ' He that hath authority to seize 
 my person in the street, may be opposed as a thief and 
 a robber, if he endeavours to break into my house to 
 execute a writ, notwithstanding that I knew he has 
 such a warrant, and such a legal authority, as will 
 empower him to arrest me abroad. And why this should 
 not hold in the highest as well as in the most inferior 
 magistrate, I would gladly be informed.'t 
 
 " Here you see a philosophical freedom breaking the 
 shackles of restraint and ceremony, and under the 
 pretence of redressing imaginary grievances, introducing 
 real mischief and a state of nature, wherein the most 
 factious and daring adventurers would take the lead. 
 * For this devolution of power to the people at large, 
 includes in it a dissolution of the whole form of govern- 
 ment established by that people,' says Judge Blackstone, 
 'reduces all the members to their original state of 
 equality, and, by annihilating the sovereign power, 
 repeals all positive laws whatsoever before enacted. No 
 human laws will, therefore, suppose a case which at once 
 must destroy all law.'| * Woe to all the princes upon 
 earth/ says a Protestant archbishop ; * if this doctrine 
 (of resistance) be true and becometh popular — if the 
 multitude believe this, the prince not armed with the 
 scales of the leviathan, can never be safe from the spears 
 and barbed irons which ambition, presumed interest, 
 and malice, will sharpen, and passionate violence will 
 
 • Locko on Government, page 253. j Ibid. p. 343. 
 
 X Blackstone's Comrn. b. l p. 162. 
 
 O 
 
82 Life and Writings of 
 
 throw against him. If the beast we speak of but knows 
 its own strength, it will never be managed.'* 
 
 " 'But the same equality of justice and freedom that 
 obliged me to lay open this/ says the Bishop of Sarum, 
 'ties me to tax all those who pretend a great heat 
 against Rome, and value themselves in their abhorring 
 all the doctrines and practices of that Church, and yet 
 have carried along with them one of their most pesti- 
 ferous opinions,-|- pretending reformation when they 
 would bring all under confusion ; and vouching the case 
 and work of God, when they were destroying the autho- 
 rity He had [set up, and opposing those empowered 
 by Him ; and the more piety and devotion such daring 
 pretensions put on, it still brings the greater stain 
 and imputation on religion, as if it gave a patronacy 
 to these practices it so plainly condemns.';]: The bor- 
 ders of the Thames and Tweed afford their advocates 
 for the deposing power, as well as the banks of the 
 Tiber and the Po. 
 
 "On the banks of the Tiber a bigoted divine vests in 
 the Pope an indirect power over wicked kings. On the 
 banks of the Thames an enthusiastic Englishman vests 
 in the subject a direct power over his sovereign. Re- 
 ligion points out an intermediate course without giving 
 a patronacy to reveries, and mankind shall always find 
 their account better in mediums than in extremes. 
 The doctrine of the Italian has fattened the German 
 soil with dead bodies, and induced a Pope§ to attempt 
 placing his flesh and blood on the throne of the Caesars. 
 The doctrine of the Englishman has placed draymen 
 and cobblers in the seats of British peers ; and, by an 
 extraordinary vicissitude, in bringing a king to the 
 
 * Creed of Mr. Hobbes examined by the Arcbbishop of Canterbury. 
 f The bishop's heat against Rome often mistakes or disguises his 
 real opinions. 
 
 X Sermon on Subjection. § Alexander VI. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Lcary, 83 
 
 block in England, raised a tailor to the throne in Ger- 
 many.* 
 
 "Such are the fruits of those two systems, equally 
 pernicious to the safety of kings and the peace of so- 
 ciety. Their respective authors, in striking from the 
 plain road of the Christian doctrine, ' let every soul be 
 subject to higher powers,' into the airy paths of specu- 
 lation, have busied themselves in pursuit of a plan the 
 most alarming to mankind. Kings were beheaded, 
 and others deposed, before some of those authors had 
 published their works, it is true ; but are they the more 
 justifiable in publishing a doctrine which may tincture 
 the scaffold a second time? The difference between 
 them is, that the Englishman, in terse and popular 
 language, engages the imagination ; adorns his subjects 
 by a long chain of deduction ; makes truth bend to 
 arguments, reality to appearance ; and is read by all. 
 In this great arsenal every common reader can find 
 arms to reduce his king to reason : the shipwright and car- 
 penter are enabled, by the rules of political logic, to trim 
 the vessel of state, and steer it through the unbounded 
 ocean of constitutional liberty. But the ultramontane 
 divine, bristling with barbarous Latin, is not read by one 
 in three millions. Powdered with dust, and stretched on 
 the shelf of a college library, he sleeps as sound as 
 Endymion in his cave, and more is the pity : for his 
 doctrine of the deposing power is founded on as solid 
 proofs as the history of the Spaniard who made a voy- 
 age to the moon, and displayed in a style not inferior 
 to that of Valentine and Orson. Of his style and argu- 
 ments I send you the following sample : — 
 
 " * Probatur per similitudinem ad artem froenifac- 
 toriamf et equestrem, ut enim duae illae artes sunt 
 
 • John of Leydcn, a tailor, made King of Munster. 
 
 t New coined Latin, much of the same date with the deposing power. 
 
84 Life and Writings of 
 
 inter se diversse, quia distincta habent objecta, et sub- 
 jecta, et actiones ; et tamen quia finis unius ordinatur 
 ad finem alterius, ideo una alteri praeest, et leges ei 
 prsescribit : ita videntur potestas ecclesiastica et politica, 
 distinctae potestates esse : et tamen una alteri subor- 
 dinata, quoniam finis unius ad finem alterius natura 
 sua refertur.' — ' That the Pope has an indirect power in 
 temporals, is proved by the example of the art of 
 making bridles, and the art of riding : for, as these two 
 arts are different, because they have different objects, 
 and subjects, and actions ; and, notwithstanding, because 
 the end of one is appointed for the end of the other, 
 therefore one presides over the other, and prescribes 
 laws to it : in like manner, the ecclesiastical and poli- 
 tical powers seem to be distinct powers, and the one 
 nevertheless subordinate to the other, because the end 
 of one is, by its own nature, referred to the end of the 
 other.' 
 
 "There, sir, is learned gibberish, saddling the Pope on 
 the backs of kings, by Aristotle's Metaphysics, the ob- 
 ject, subject, action, and relation and end of bridle - 
 making ! 
 
 "Another advocate of the deposing power disapproves 
 the simile, ' because,' says he very gravely, ' if the art 
 of riding were taken away, bridles would be useless ; 
 but the political power can subsist without the eccle- 
 siastical.' — ' Si enim non sit ars equestris, supervacanea 
 est ars froenorum faciendorum.'* An attempt to rectify 
 the lameness of the comparison by one quite as lame ! 
 If I had not the authority of a cardinal to apologize for 
 an absurdity, I should not mention it for fear of being 
 censured ; but I expect that, with his Eminence's pass- 
 port, it will be received by the public. He compares 
 the Pope to a shepherd, and the king to a ram : — 
 
 * Bellannin, de Rom. PontiJ. lib. v. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 86 
 
 * Pastori est potestas triplex : una circa lupos, altera 
 circa arietes, tertia circa oves; unde debet arietem 
 furiosum depellere.'* 
 
 " You have in these two similes as solid arguments in 
 favor of the deposing power as Albertus Phigius and 
 Bellarmin have ever advanced in support of their 
 hypothesis ; and to them and their authors I grant the 
 same passport the satirist granted Hannibal in crossing 
 the Alps : — 
 
 *' ' T, demens, et soevas curre per Alpes, 
 Ut pueris placeas, et declamatio fias.'f 
 
 You are to expect some Scripture in like manner ; 
 for there never has been an error, how monstrous 
 soever, but Scripture was quoted to give it some color. 
 Arians, Eutychians, Nestorians, have wrested the sacred 
 writings to a wrong sense. 
 
 The advocates for the deposing power have done the 
 same. They quote St. Paul, who blames the Corin- 
 thians for pleading before heathen magistrates. This 
 proves that you and I could depose a king, because he 
 would advise our neighbour to avoid troublesome and 
 scandalous law-suits, and leave the decision to the arbi- 
 tration of two honest neighbours. " Joiada, the high- 
 priest, ordered Queen Athalia to be slain."| Ergo, the 
 Pope has an indirect power over bad kings. 
 
 This proves a direct power, not only to depose, but to 
 murder them ; a power which neither Bellarmin nor any 
 Catholic divine has ever vouched. Secondly, Athalia, 
 who had murdered all the princes of the royal house of 
 Juda, except Joas, was no longer queen when the sen- 
 tence was executed on her ; for the young prince was 
 crowned in the temple, and recognized by his subjects. 
 
 • BcllarmiD, d« Rom. Pontif. lib, v. f Juvenal, Sat. x. 
 
 X Fourth book of Kings. 
 
86 Life and Writings of • 
 
 His minority could not have deprived him of the right 
 of the sword; and Joiada acted as minister of state, 
 not in his pontifical character. This evinces Bel- 
 larmin's blunder, in confounding together the queen and 
 subject, the pontiff and counsellor. Thirdly, during the 
 six years she swayed the sceptre, none of her subjects 
 revolted against her, much less did the pious pontiff 
 absolve them from their allegiance, though she re-estab- 
 lished Baal's worship, and maintained his priests in the 
 temple of the true God. A circumstance which Bellar- 
 min should have attended to, had he a mind to read his 
 condemnation. Solomon deposed Abiathar, the high- 
 priest ; will Bellarmin grant me the liberty to infer from 
 this fact, that kings can depose popes ? 
 
 " Such are the ridiculous shifts to which the patrons 
 of a bad cause are inevitably reduced ! Wild and un- 
 natural similes, or facts that prove too much, and can be 
 justly retorted on themselves. Am I accountable for 
 their folly ? or must an Irish Catholic starve because an 
 Italian wrote nonsense in bad Latin, two hundred years 
 ago? 
 
 " Had he not slackened the reins of an enthusiastic 
 imagination, and let it loose to its random flights, he 
 could have spared himself the trouble of soaring to hea- 
 ven, in pursuit of this offspring of human ambition, or 
 the zeal of earthly kings. For, that the deposing power 
 originated either in privileges granted by pious zeal, or 
 covenants entered into and sealed by ambition, history 
 leaves no room to doubt, and religion forbids to believe 
 otherwise. 
 
 "Let us begin at home. Inas, King of the West 
 Saxons, renders his kingdom tributary to the Holy See. 
 This concession paves the way to future claims. Henry 
 the Second solicits and obtains a buU from Pope Adrian, 
 in order to invade Ireland. The Pope grants it ; but in 
 blessing this new dish that is to be served on the Eng- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 87 
 
 lish monarcli's table, he carves his own portion. And 
 why not ? The one had as good a right to it as the 
 other. It is inserted in the bull, that * the annual pen- 
 sion of one penny from every house should be saved to 
 St. Peter.* If the Holy Father and his 'dear and 
 illustrious son/ as he styles him, had afterwards quar- 
 relled about the spoils, the religion of the subject could 
 not be concerned in the dispute. King John, in his 
 contestations with Philip Augustus of France, appeals 
 to the Pope, and renders him the arbiter of rights that 
 should be decided by the sword. The French monarch 
 lays in his exceptions to the Pope's tribunal, as incom- 
 petent in such a case. The Englishman chooses a mas- 
 ter. Lo, the gradual progression of the Pope's temporal 
 power in Great Britain ! It takes its first rise from the 
 piety — acquires additional degrees of strength by ambi- 
 tion — and is confirmed by the weakness of English 
 monarchs. Hence, Queen Elizabeth's excommunication, 
 and the absolution of her subjects from their allegiance 
 by Pope Sixtus, was owing more to Peter's 'pence than 
 to Peters keys. The noise of the thunder of the Vatican 
 did not reach Sweden or Denmark, because the effluvia 
 of their mines, and the filings of their gold, were never 
 carried by royal stipulations into the regions of the 
 Italian atmosphere, to kindle into flames, and cause an 
 explosion. But Queen Elizabeth could not have pleaded 
 a hundred years' prescription against the court of Rome. 
 *Pope Paul IV.,' says^ Burnet, *was surprised at her 
 boldness, in assuming the crown, a fief, without the con- 
 sent of the Holy See.' Remark in the word fief a 
 temporal claim, but no divine title. 
 
 " If, from Great Britain, we pass into Germany, we can 
 trace the rise and progress of the deposing power, in 
 the grants of crowned heads, in pacts and stipulations, 
 and in mutual favors and offices of friendship. 
 
 " In the eighth century, when the citizens of Rome 
 
88 Life and Writings of 
 
 were harassed by the Lombards, and slighted by the 
 Greeks, their lawful masters, Charlemagne marches to 
 their assistance, defeats the Lombards, is crowned by 
 Pope Leo III., and saluted emperor by the senate and 
 people of Rome. Nicephorus, who afterwards usurped 
 the throne of Constantinople, sends ambassadors to the 
 new emperor, and consents to the dismembering of an 
 empire, sinking under its own weight, and exposed to 
 the first soldier of fortune who had address to form a 
 faction, and courage to plunge the dagger into the breast 
 of the tyrant who filled the throne. What Leo III. has 
 done proves no right (if it proves any) but that of the 
 law of nature, which authorizes a man beset by his 
 enemies to call for assistance to the first who is willing 
 to lend it, and, in the effusions of gratitude, to thank his 
 deliverer. Bellarmin, then, has lost his labor in writing 
 a book to prove that the Pope has transferred the em- 
 pire from the Greeks to the Germans, the better to give 
 some color to the 'baseless fabric' of the deposing 
 power ; for Leo III. did not deprive the eastern princes 
 of a foot of ground. 
 
 "The Empress Irene, afterwards deposed by Nice- 
 phorus, retained her dominions after the coronation of 
 Charles, who acquired nothing by the title of emperor but 
 a sounding compliment. All subsequent accessions were 
 either by right of conquest, the tacit or express con- 
 sent of the Greeks, or the choice of the senate and 
 Roman people, who preferred %, powerful and useful 
 stranger to a weak and useless master. The compli- 
 ment, however, laid the foundations of a power, 
 strengthened by the emperor's will, sent to Rome for 
 the Pope's approbation, and raised to the highest 
 altitude, by Charles the Bold's purchasing the imperial 
 crown for a sum of money from John VIII. Hence, 
 federal transactions, promises confirmed by oath, pacts 
 and stipulations between popes and emperors, who used 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 89 
 
 to swear on St. Peter's tomb, and subscribe the con- 
 ditions imposed on them. In the great struggles 
 between the two powers, the popes grounded their 
 claims on customs and oaths, as may be seen in several 
 passages of the Canon Law. Jus divinum, divine right, 
 or a plentitude of apostolic power, was out of the 
 question. 
 
 "In effect, sir, before the tenth century there have 
 been as bad kings and good popes as ever since. The 
 cause of religion was. equally interesting, and religion 
 itself more violently persecuted. The Roman pontiffs 
 had the same spiritual authority — the promotion of 
 faith and piety equally at heart — and in the great 
 number, some were influenced by different passions 
 and views ; for, in this mortal life, w^e all retain some 
 impressions of the frailty of our origin. 
 
 " Yet, neither piety nor ambition, the propagation of 
 faith, nor the reformation of morals, ever induced them 
 to attempt the deposing of kings, or arrogating to 
 themselves a power disclaimed by the Saviour of the 
 world, convicted of falsehood by His Apostles, and un- 
 heard of in the Church for the space of ten ages. Why 
 have some of the succeeding pontiff's deviated from the 
 primitive path ? I say some, because it would be 
 unjust to charge them all alike. They are distinct 
 individuals, succeeding one another in the same throne, 
 and one is as much to be blamed for the faults of 
 his predecessor as George III. is accountable for the 
 licentiousness of Charles II. 
 
 " Why have some of them deviated from the primitive 
 path? It is that they had prescription and privilege to 
 plead, oaths and treaties to support their claims ; in 
 the conduct of kings choosing them for arbiters of their 
 quarrels, covers to their usurpations, and liege lords of 
 their territories, and the breach of prerogative. A 
 repetition of the same acts introduced custom, custom 
 
90 Life and Writings of 
 
 obtained the power of the law, the law bound the 
 parties concerned, and the violation of the law has been 
 attended with penalties. Hence, the deposition of an 
 emperor was more owing to the code and pandects 
 of Justinian, than to the Gospel of Christ. The Popes, 
 who stretched their prerogative beyond the bounds of 
 moderation, were blamed by the Catholics themselves, 
 whose religion was in no wise concerned in the quarrels 
 of their superiors ; and the few enthusiastic flatterers 
 who have attempted to lodge Paul's sword and Peter's 
 keys in the same hand, and to make an universal 
 monarch of the vicar of a crucified God, who acknow- 
 ledged the power of a heathen magistrate, have injured 
 religion, and betrayed either their madness or igno- 
 rance. They have confounded fact with right, the un- 
 alterable dogmas of faith with the flux and changeable 
 customs of men, and built a Chalcedon, though they 
 had a Byzantium before their eyes. 
 
 " They should have considered that the Church pleads 
 antiquity, and that her criterion of truth and test of 
 sound doctrine is that golden rule of Vincentius Leri- 
 nensis : ' Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omni- 
 bus.' — ' What has been held ever, and everywhere, and 
 by all.' The deposing power was never heard of for 
 the space of one thousand and eighty-seven years, from 
 St. Peter to Gregory YII. : a great chasm this ! And 
 the chain of tradition must be very short, when you 
 take off a thousand and eighty-seven links. 
 
 "The Apostles and their successors preached the 
 Christian doctrine in all its rigor. They taught kings to 
 cherish the cross in their hearts before it was displayed 
 in their banners, and to prefer a heavenly before an 
 earthly throne. Had they thought (and who could 
 know better ?) that the power to depose them, and to 
 absolve their subjects from their allegiance, were con- 
 ducive to the glory of God and the honor of religion, 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 91 
 
 they never would have concealed it, much less would 
 they have commanded to obey them. 
 
 "'Everywhere, and by all.' The deposing power, 
 though grounded, as I remarked before, on temporal 
 claims, has been opposed by the Catholics from its 
 birth. In Germany, by open force and bloody wars ; in 
 Ireland, whose kings and prelates paid no attention 
 to the famous bull of Pope Adrian ; in England, by 
 a solemn declaration, 16 Rich. II. Even under Eliza- 
 beth, a Protestant queen, the English Catholics joined 
 their sovereign, and paid a greater regard to the com- 
 mand of St. Paul, obey the pi^nce, than to the dispensa- 
 tion of Sixtus Quintus, or the expectation of being 
 relieved by a Catholic king ; which made the Spanish 
 admiral say, that 'if he had landed, he would have 
 made no distinction between a Catholic and a Protes- 
 tant, save what distinction the point of his sword would 
 have made between their flesh.' I believe it ; for a 
 conqueror's sword is an undistinguishing weapon, were 
 even a crucifix tied to the hilt of it. In invading 
 England, it is the enemy of Spain, not the enemy 
 of the mass the Spaniards would attack; were they 
 here this instant, they would not deprive a Protestant 
 of his estate, because it belonged three hundred years 
 ago to some old Milesian, whose posterity is now at the 
 plough. It would not be their interest; the laws of 
 conquest and conscience forbid it ; and the rivals of 
 England will always find their interest in the poverty 
 and defenceless situation of her subjects. 
 
 " In fine, the Pope's temporal power has been baffled 
 by the Venetians in their contests with Paul V. ; and in 
 France, whoever would argue in its favor would be con- 
 futed with a halter or a galley chain. 
 
 According to the Canon Law, a hundred years' pre- 
 scription in temporals can be pleaded against the 
 Church of Rome. — ' Contra ecclesiam Romanam valet 
 
92 Life and Writings of 
 
 praescriptio centum annorum.' A hundred years and 
 more have elapsed since a pope has attempted to dis- 
 pose of kingdoms or absolve subjects from their allegi- 
 ance, though armies have been poured into the pope's 
 territories, and his cities taken by Catholic princes. 
 Out of his own states his temporal prerogative is con- 
 fined to a palfrey he receives from the King of Naples 
 every year as a customary homage. The two late popes 
 have disclaimed any temporal power over kings. Thus, 
 things have returned back into the former channel of 
 primitive simplicity : God has his own, and Caesar his 
 due ; and the two powers of the altar, which men had 
 confounded, and blended into one Delphian sword, 
 equally adapted to the ministry and profane uses, are 
 again divided. 
 
 " In tracing thus the temporal power, we have chosen 
 a medium between the enthusiasm of sane Italians 
 and the prejudices of their antagonists. The picture 
 drawn by these different painters is all light or shadow. 
 In resolving it into the grants of kings and civil con- 
 tracts, prescription and a colorable title, as its first prin- 
 ciples, we prefer the middle tints ; and in measuring 
 the portrait by this rule, we give it its due dimen- 
 sions." 
 
 We shall close our chapter on this subject by quoting 
 the concluding passage of O'Leary's essay on the test 
 oath, in which he shows, with characteristic ability, 
 that, had Catholics the disregard for an oath so univer- 
 sally attributed to them, they would have freely bound 
 themselves by any obligation, no matter how sacred, 
 even against their consciences, rather than endure the 
 miseries to which they had been subjected by religious 
 persecution. 
 
 " We groan," he writes, " under the yoke of misery and 
 oppression, throughout the long and trying periods of 
 six successive reigns. We suffer for crimes we have 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 93 
 
 never committed. The punishment, which, according 
 to all laws, should finish with the delinquent, is entailed 
 on the innocent posterity to the fourth and fifth gene- 
 rations, by a religious severity similar to that of those 
 Tuscan princes who used to fasten living men to dead 
 bodies. The laws which, in other countries, are the re- 
 source and protection of the errant pilgrim, are here 
 the mortal enemies of the settled natives. These 
 abortives of the Stuart race reign uncontrolled a long 
 time after the death of their inauspicious progenitors. 
 On every part they spread penal bitterness, with an 
 unwearied hand ; deal out transportation to the clergy, 
 poverty and distress to the laity. They continually 
 hang, as so many swords, over our heads. The lenity 
 of the magistrates, with the humanity of our Protestant 
 neighbours, are the only clouds that intercept the 
 scorching influence of those blazing comets, kindled in 
 times of turbulence and confusion. Were it a principle 
 of our religion to pay no regard to the dictates of con- 
 science — were our pastors and clergy such as they are 
 described, * people who dispense with every law of God 
 and man, who sanctify rebellion and murder, and even 
 change the very essential differences of vice and 
 virtue ;'* were we people of this kind, the penal re- 
 straints would be soon removed. One verbal recanta- 
 tion of Popery, backed with a false oath, would break 
 our chains. In three weeks you would see all the Ca- 
 tholics at church, and the clergy along with them. 
 Licensed guilt would soon kick in wantonness, where 
 starving innocence shivers "without a covering. A 
 remedy neglected from motives of conscience, is a proof 
 of the patient's integrity. Our sufferings and perse- 
 verance plead aloud in favor of our abhorrence and 
 detestation of perjury; and, though our Protestant 
 
 * Leland, book ▼. chap. 3. 
 
94 Life and Writings of 
 
 neighbours may laugh at the seeming errors of our 
 minds, they will, at least, do justice to the integrity of 
 our hearts. 
 
 " Now, as in the primitive ages of the Church, it is our 
 principle and duty to pray for our kings, ' that God 
 would be pleased to grant them a long life, and a quiet 
 reign, that their family may be safe, and their forces 
 valiant ; their senate lawful ; their people orderly and 
 virtuous ; that they may rule in peace, and have all the 
 blessings they can desire as men and as princes.'" 
 
 Doubtless, there are many Irishmen who will conceive 
 no very warm admiration of Father O'Leary's loyal 
 sentiments to the British crown, as put forth in this 
 able essay. They will say : whence this obligation of 
 allegiance to a power which has for centuries oppressed 
 us ; which has banned our religion, confisca.ted our pro- 
 perty, denied us the blessings of education, ignored our 
 civil rights, " steeped us in poverty to the very lips," 
 and treated us in every respect as if we were beasts of 
 the field, and not Christian men ? Why is a minister of 
 the proscribed religion, who should keep alive in the 
 memories of the people the wrongs they endured, and 
 their title to redress, the first, the only one, to come 
 forward as the champion of obedience to British 
 power, and the recognition of British rule, on the part 
 of a people whose boast is that their country has never 
 yet been conquered ? Why this zeal for loyalty ? Is it 
 not the crouching humility, and the slavish affection of 
 the hound licking the foot that trampled it to the 
 earth ? Others again will say that this is no wonder, 
 for the Catholic Church has ever been conservative in 
 its principles ; it is averse to change — uniformity being 
 essential to itself, it seeks uniformity in all other in- 
 stitutions — it favors despotism — it preaches unreason- 
 ing, unhesitating obedience to constituted authority. 
 Let us see how far these censures and allegations are 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary, 95 
 
 justifiable. The doctrine of St. Thomas of Aquin on 
 this subject, in his Treatise upon Laws, is that adopted 
 and approved of by all the theologians of the Catholic 
 Church, without exception. Into an explication of that 
 doctrine we shall not enter at any length — it would be 
 superfluous and irrelevant. We shall only examine 
 what he teaches on the subject of obedience to unjust 
 laws. 
 
 According to this great doctor, whenever laws are un- 
 just, (and he specifies many ways in which they can be 
 so,) they are not binding on the conscience of the 
 subject, unless for fear of creating scandal, or causing 
 greater evils ; that is to say, that, in certain cases, an 
 unjust law may become obligatory, not by virtue of any 
 duty it imposes, but from motives of prudence. His 
 words are as follow, and are worthy of particular atten- 
 tion : — " Laws are unjust in two ways ; either because 
 they are opposed to the common weal, or on account of 
 their aim, as is the case when a government imposes 
 upon its subjects onerous laws, not for the good of the 
 common weal, but for the sake of self-interest or am- 
 bition ; or on account of their author, as when any one 
 makes a law without being invested with proper facul- 
 ties. Again, they may be unjust in form, as when the 
 taxes are divided unequally among the multitude, 
 although, in other respects, tending to the public good. 
 Such laws are rather outrages than laws, since, as St. 
 Augustine observes, (lib. i. de Lib. Arh. cap. 5,) — * An 
 unjust law does not appear to be a law.' Such laws, 
 therefore, are not binding in conscience, unless perhaps 
 for the avoiding of scandal and trouble — a motive 
 which ought to induce man to give up his right, as St. 
 Matthew observes — * And whosoever shall force thee to 
 go one mile, go with him other two ; and, if any man 
 will go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let 
 him have thy cloak also.' Laws may be also unjust in 
 
96 Life and Writings of 
 
 another point of view, when they are contrary to the 
 will of God ; as the laws of tyrants enforcing idolatry, 
 or anything else contrary to divine law. With respect 
 to such laws, it is not allowable, under any circumstances, 
 to obey them ; for, as it is said in the Acts of the Apos- 
 tles — ' We must obey God rather than man/ "* 
 
 Surely no one will say that this doctrine is inimical 
 to liberty — that there is here any pandering to the civil 
 power — any favoring of despotism. On the contrary, 
 in these few words are distinctly pointed out the limits 
 which the civil power must not transgress without 
 having its laws denounced as outrages, and, therefore, 
 not to be obeyed unless for the avoiding of scandal and 
 trouble. Any mal-legislation, therefore, of the State, 
 so far from justifying itself by the obedience shown to 
 its dictates, must rather vindicate itself by the morality 
 of the robber, who, on a highway, demands from the 
 helpless traveller his coat, who, for peace sake, gives 
 him his cloak also. 
 
 Such was the loyalty felt and preached by Father 
 O'Leary and the clergy of his time : they denounced the 
 injustice of the laws — such as required a violation of 
 conscience they disregarded — such as required no such 
 violation they obeyed, to avoid scandal, and to prevent 
 any further enactments hurtful to the welfare of the 
 people amongst whom they ministered. 
 
 But there was another reason why the clergy of those 
 times preached loyalty to the throne, and preached it 
 with so much earnestness and zeal ; and it was this : 
 They were, almost all, the students of French colleges ; 
 full of French ideas, in love with French institutions, 
 seeing their country and its people through a French 
 medium. The monarchy of France, ancient, despotic, 
 magnificent, and to all appearances imperishable, was, 
 
 * D. Th. de Legibus, 1. 2, quaest. 90, art. i. 
 
Hev. Arthur O'Leary. 97 
 
 at that time, regarded by the French people as the most 
 splendid structure ever presented to human admiration. 
 It spread its fostering protection over the whole coun- 
 try, and the greatest and least institutions of the land 
 rose and flourished beneath its all-embracing care. The 
 Church of France, and its innumerable communities, 
 found shelter beneath the monarchy, and the clergy 
 naturally upheld, by their preaching and general inculca- 
 tion, respect and attachment to monarchical glory and 
 power. We cannot say how far the observation of Sir 
 Jonah Barrington* is correct, that " the Irish student, 
 early imbibing those monastic principles, was taught at 
 Saint Omer the advantages of undefined power in a 
 king, and of passive obedience in a subject," or whether 
 he " was there instructed to worship a throne, and to 
 mingle his devotion to heaven and to monarchy." But 
 we may be satisfied that the bias of the French-Irish 
 clergyman was strongly in favor of monarchy, and that, 
 when, on his return to his native land, he found himself 
 in a relation similar to that he had abandoned, his feel- 
 ings as a subject underwent no change, and he regarded 
 aUegiance to the sovereign, imder all circumstances, as 
 a sacred obligation, which it would be a political blas- 
 phemy to denounce, and a political suicide to reject. 
 
 These observations, we trust, will rescue Father 
 O'Leary from the suspicion of preaching loyalty with 
 unnecessary zeal, at a time when extreme persecution 
 seemed to nullify the duty of allegiance. 
 
 • Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, chap. ii. 
 
 B 
 
98 Life and Writings of 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Father O'Leary's Address to the Common People of the Roman 
 Catholic Religion, concerning the apprehended French Invasion, 
 
 O'Leary's next appearance before the public was as 
 the author of an address to the common people of Ire- 
 land of the Roman Catholic religion, concerning the 
 apprehended French invasion. This address was pub- 
 lished on the 14th of August, 1779, and had its origin 
 in the following circumstances. England was at this 
 period in a position of peculiar difficulty. She was at 
 war with America, and on no friendly relations with 
 France and Spain. The immense drain of soldiery from 
 this country left it so utterly defenceless, that the inhabi- 
 tants were, for their own protection, obhged to establish 
 the celebrated and justly admired Volunteer Corps, the 
 source of so many blessings, alas ! too transient, to Ire- 
 land. A French invasion was every moment appre- 
 hended, and, in point of fact, the French and Spanish 
 fleets rode menacingly in St. George's Channel. The 
 fears of the Government were much increased by con- 
 sideration of the fact already alluded to, that many of 
 the Catholic party in Ireland had, by commercial suc- 
 cess, arrived at a pitch of importance and influence in 
 the country, which, if they did not prove loyal, would 
 aggravate the difficulty exceedingly. These men had 
 large and extensive continental connexions, which would 
 greatly facilitate schemes of conspiracy ; and it was well 
 known that, in her hour of trouble, Ireland had always 
 looked to France and Spain for consolation and support. 
 Thus, to the English Government, matters looked very 
 unpleasant on the political horizon. The Irish, how- 
 
Rev. Arthur OLeary. • 99 
 
 ever, gave, by their faithful adhesion to the cause of the 
 constitution, one other proof of that loyalty for which, 
 in England's difficulties, they had been ever distinguished. 
 The French invasion did not take place, but it is the 
 unanimous conviction of all those who have ever be- 
 stowed a thought on the subject, that, had it taken 
 place, it would have received no practical sympathy from 
 the bulk of the nation. On this occasion, to stimulate 
 still further the loyalty of the people, Father O'Leary 
 published his address, which had immense influence in 
 preserving them from any outbreak of disaffection, and 
 from riveting once more the chains they would have 
 essayed but in vain to break. We give the address in 
 full :— 
 
 "An Address to the Common People of the Roman 
 Catholic Religion, concerning the apprehended 
 French Invasion. 
 
 " Brethren, Countrymen, and Fellow-citizens, — Reli- 
 gion has always considered war as one of the scourges 
 of heaven, and the source of numberless scourges and 
 crimes. Men may arm their hands in defence of life 
 and property, but their hearts shudder at the thoughts 
 of a field of battle, which can scarce afford graves to the 
 armies that dispute it, covered with the mangled bodies 
 and scattered limbs of thousands of Christians, who 
 never saw nor provoked each other before ; and whose 
 only fault was obedience to their princes — which obe- 
 dience cannot be imputed to the soldier as a crime. The 
 peaceful cottage deserted, at the sight of an approach- 
 ing army ! Famine and distress closing the scene, and 
 filling up the measure of calamities ! Such are the mis- 
 fortunes inseparable from war — misfortunes which 
 induced the great St. Paul to exhort the Christians in 
 the following manner : — ' I exhort, therefore, that, first 
 
100 Life and Writings of 
 
 of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions be made for 
 all men, for kings, and all that are in authority, that we 
 may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and 
 honesty.'* And such should be the constant prayer of 
 a Christian. 
 
 " But, what, my brethren, if the enemy's sword glit- 
 tered in our streets, and that to the licentiousness of a 
 foreign foe we added domestic dissensions ! — if the 
 sound of the enemy's trumpet should be drowned in the 
 cries and shrieks of the injured neighbour, whom we our- 
 selves would be the first to oppress ! Would not war 
 itself lose its terrors, when compared to such outrages ? 
 And the calamities we would bring on ourselves, would 
 they not surpass those which would pour in upon us 
 from foreign nations ? Such, nevertheless, are the fears 
 that haunt us. Both Protestants and Catholics declare, 
 that, in case of an invasion, the common people are the 
 greatest cause of their alarms, not from dread of your 
 superior power, but from the sad necessity they would 
 be under, of punishing those whom they are willing to 
 protect, and the general confusion that would disturb 
 the peace and tranquillity of the rich, and draw down 
 inevitable destruction on the poor. For, in such an 
 unfortunate juncture, every Catholic possessed of a 
 feather bed and commodious habitation, would join his 
 Protestant neighbour in their mutual defence. The 
 aggregate body of them would not be a match for re- 
 gular forces, yet they would be an overmatch for you. 
 They would unite in one common cause ; you would be 
 divided amongst yourselves, exposed to each other's 
 encroachments, and overpowered by all parties. 
 
 " Such, my brethren, would be your situation, should 
 you be unhappy enough to strike from the path of 
 a peaceable and Christian conduct. Forbid it, heaven, 
 
 * 1 Tim. ii. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 101 
 
 that it should ever be your case! I conceive better 
 hopes of you. Your unshaken loyalty under the most 
 trying circumstances ; the calm and quietness that 
 reigned in your peaceful huts, scattered up and down 
 the extensive counties of Cork and Kerry, where the 
 Catholics are poor and numerous ; whilst other parts of 
 the kingdom were infested with Houghers, Whitehoys, 
 Hearts of Oak and Steely and alarmed at the continual 
 sight of judges, chains, and gibbets; the quiet and 
 peaceful manner in which you behaved on a late occa- 
 sion, when you imagined the enemy at your doors ; all 
 these circumstances are pledges of your loyalty and 
 good conduct, and happy omens of your steady perseve- 
 rance in the same line. 
 
 " Your bishops and clergy have preached the doctrine 
 of peace, subordination, and loyalty from the sacred 
 altars, where the least lie would be a sacrilege and 
 crime of the first magnitude. The Catholic gentle- 
 men have set forth the example to you. Both have 
 bound themselves to King and Government by the most 
 sacred ties. They have souls to be saved, and would be 
 sorry to lose them by wilful perjury ; they would be on 
 a level with their Protestant neighbours, if they took 
 but the qualification oath against the conviction of 
 their consciences. 
 
 " But the doctrine and example of the learned, pru- 
 dent, and better sort of your profession, should be 
 the only rule of your conduct; for, in all countries, 
 the generality of the common people are ill- qualified to 
 judge or determine for themselves. They are easily 
 governed by the senses, hurried by their passions, and 
 misled by a wild and extravagant fancy, that intrudes 
 itself into the province of reason. 
 
 " Far be it from me to suspect you for any design to 
 avail yourselves of the calamities of your nation, or 
 to commit, in time of war, a robbery which you would 
 
102 Life and Writings of 
 
 detest in time of peace. Is the crime less heinous 
 because it is committed against a neighbour, who is 
 doubly miserable from the terrors of a foreign foe, 
 and the outrageous assaults of a treacherous fellow- 
 subject ? 
 
 " When the soldiers asked St. John the Baptist what 
 they should do, he desired them to * do violence to no 
 man, not to accuse any one falsely, and be content with 
 their wages.'* Hence, all divines agree that, the 
 empire of justice is so extensive, that war itself must 
 acknowledge its authority. Kings, in declaring war, 
 make a solemn appeal to the tribunal of heaven for the 
 justice of their cause. The soldier cannot in con- 
 science plunder or oppress the merchant or husband- 
 man in his enemy's country; he must strictly abide 
 by the orders of his commander. If justice, then, 
 in certain circumstances, must sheathe the enemy's 
 sword, how much more forcibly must it not restrain the 
 citizen's hand from invading what he cannot enjoy 
 without guilt here, and punishment hereafter ! — a 
 punishment the more to be dreaded, as, perhaps, there 
 w^ould be no time for restitution or repentance ; in- 
 dispensable obligations to which every robber is liable, 
 and without which he has no mercy to expect. But, if 
 a robbery committed on a private man deserve death 
 and damnation, what must be the guilt of those who 
 would flock to the enemy's standard, to the total over- 
 throw and destruction of an entire kingdom ? It would 
 be vain to plead the hardships you suffer, the prospect 
 of being reinstated in the lands of which your ancestors 
 have been deprived in times of general confusion, a 
 more free and unlimited exercise of your religion; in 
 fine, the last argument of a desperate man — ' If they 
 come, I have nothing to lose.' Those reasons I have 
 
 * St. Luke, iii. 14. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 103 
 
 not heard from yourselves. I have read them, with 
 surprise, in speeches and essays against the repeal of 
 the penal laws; and I hope in God that your conduct 
 will ever contradict them. 
 
 "When an enemy lands in a country, every person 
 has something to lose. The laborer who refreshes 
 his weary limbs with balmy sleep, and for whose soft 
 slumbers the gouty, sick man would exchange his 
 bed of down, would lose his rest from continual fears 
 and apprehensions. When public works would be dis- 
 continued, and tradesmen dismissed by their employers, 
 carpenters, masons, slaters, etc., would lose their hire. 
 It would not be with a view to feed a hungry Irishman, 
 that a number of French dragoons would make excur- 
 sions from their camp ; it would be with a design to 
 carry off his pig or his calf, and to kill himself if he re- 
 sisted. Whatever distinction the laws of this unhappy 
 kingdom may make between Protestant and Papist, 
 a conqueror's sword makes none. War levels and con- 
 founds all religions, where their professors are subjects 
 of a monarch whose kingdom is invaded. 
 
 "When the French joined the Americans, it was 
 not from love for the Presbyterian religion. If they 
 landed here, it would not be with a design to pro- 
 mote the Catholic cause. When Oliver Cromwell 
 beheaded Charles the First, brother-in-law to the King 
 of France, and issued a bloody decree, whereby all 
 the English Catholics were commanded to quit the 
 kingdom in the space of two months, the French, far 
 from resisting the injury offered to the blood-royal, and 
 to the Catholic religion, sided with Cromwell against 
 Spain, and ordered the Duchess of Saxony to pro- 
 mote and protect her Protestant subjects, whilst the 
 English Catholics were smarting under the scourge of 
 persecution, and threatened with total extermination. 
 
 " Thus, all religions are alike to a political people 
 
104« Life and Writings of 
 
 whose only aim is interest and conquest. Hence, in 
 France, Protestants of all denominations are promoted 
 in the army ; Protestant generals command her forces ; 
 the order of military merit is instituted for Protestant 
 officers ; it is equal to them whether a soldier prays or 
 curses, whether he handles a bead or a prayer-book, pro- 
 vided he can manage a sword or a gun. And if thirty 
 thousand men, under the denomination of French 
 troops, landed in Ireland, fifteen thousand Protestants, 
 from France, Germany, Switzerland, etc., would make 
 up half the number. 
 
 " Neither are you to confide in their promises of 
 protection. The history of their own nation informs us, 
 that a French king banished his mother at the request 
 of the English. The most part of yourselves can re- 
 member, that, in the war of 1745, they prevailed on the 
 Pretender to invade Scotland. This adventurer, after 
 suffering more hardships than any hero of romance we 
 read of, no sooner returned from this chimerical ex- 
 pedition to Paris, than, at the solicitation of the English 
 ambassador, he was forced to leave the kingdom of 
 France, He died about two months since, without 
 issue ; and, by his death, has rid the kingdom of all 
 fears arising from the pretensions of a family that com- 
 menced our destruction, and completed our ruin. Of 
 this I think fit to inform you, as, in all likelihood, 
 if the French landed here, some might give out that he 
 might be in our camp, in order to deceive you by an 
 imposture that would end in your destruction ; for, all 
 those who would join the French, would be strung 
 up after the war, and give occasion of charging the 
 whole body of the Roman Catholics with the treachery 
 of some of its rotten members; or, what protection 
 could you expect from people who would sacrifice 
 the ties of kindred and friendship for the good of their 
 State ? 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 105 
 
 " Expect, then, nothing from the French on the score 
 of religion, but remain peaceably in your cottages. 
 Mind your business as usual, and be free from all 
 groundless apprehensions. Work for those who employ 
 you ; for it is against the laws of war to molest or hurt 
 any but such as oppose the enemy sword in hand ; and 
 the w^orld must allow, that the French are no strangers 
 to the laws of war, or the rules of military discipline. 
 The soldier himself, in the rage of slaughter, feels 
 the impulse of humanity. He is bound to spare the 
 supplicant who cries for quarter, and to protect the 
 town or city that surrenders for want of power to 
 resist. Secure your lives, which run the risk of being 
 lost by the sword, in fighting for the foe, or by the rope, 
 if you chanced to escape the dangers of the field ; but, 
 above all, save your souls, which would be lost without 
 resource ; for, among the crimes that exclude from the 
 kingdom of heaven, St. Paul reckons sedition; and 
 what greater sedition than to rise up against your king 
 and country, and to defile your hands with the blood of 
 your fellow-subjects ? 
 
 " Should the king and parliaiiient adopt the policy of 
 France, which rewards the soldier's valor, and leaves 
 his religion to God — should they enter on the liberal 
 plan of the Protestant powers of Europe, who level the 
 fences, and make no distinction between religious 
 parties — should the Catholic gentry, descended in a 
 long line from warlike chieftains, and animated with 
 the same courage and magnanimity that crowned with 
 laurels their relations and namesakes on the banks 
 of the Rhine and the walls of Cremona, in the fields of 
 Germany and the plains of Fontenoy, where hands, 
 disqualified from using a gun in defence of their 
 native country, have conquered cities and provinces 
 for foreign kings — should those Catholic gentry be 
 empowered by parliament to join their Protestant 
 
106 Life and WHtings of 
 
 neighbours, and press to the standard of their country, 
 at the head of a spirited and active race of men, pre- 
 served by labor from the weakness of indolence, 
 inured by habit to the rigors of manly exercise, and, 
 like the Spartan youth, already half disciplined from 
 the nature of their sports and diversions, — then, join 
 the banners of your country ; fight in support of the 
 common cause. If you die, you die with honor and a 
 pure conscience ; the death of a plunderer and rebel is 
 infamy and reprobation. 
 
 " I repeat it — ^you have nothing to expect from the 
 French. Ireland they will never keep ; or, if they keep 
 it, is it a reason that you should forfeit soul and con- 
 science by plunder, treachery, and rebellion ? St. Paul 
 lays it down as a rule, that ' the damnation of those is 
 just who do evil that good may come.' (Rom. iii. 8.) 
 What must be the damnation of those who do evil for 
 the sake of mischief? — and Christ declares that 'it 
 availeth a man nothing to gain the whole world if he 
 lose his own soul.' 
 
 " But, by the coming of the French, your gain would 
 fall short of your expectations, if any amongst you would 
 be mad enough to entertain any expectations of the 
 kind. When the French take a Roman Catholic cap- 
 tain, do they ever return him back to his ship, or restore 
 him to his liberty, in compliment to his religion ? Are 
 we to expect more from them by land than by sea ? If, 
 then, in compliment to the Catholic religion, they would 
 not return a fishing-boat to our distressed families, who 
 would imagine that they would give us all the estates 
 in the kingdom ? Or, is it because these estates belonged 
 in remote times to our ancestors, that we could in con- 
 science dispossess the present owners, were it even in 
 our power ? The remains of old castles, formerly the 
 seats of hospitality, and the territories which still bear 
 our names, may remind us of our origin, and inspire us 
 
JRev. Arthur O'Leary. 107 
 
 with spirited sentiments, to which the lower class of people 
 in other countries are entire strangers, and which a wise 
 government could improve to the advantage of the 
 State. Yet these memorials of ancient grandeur and 
 family importance, entitle us to no other pretension 
 than that of scorning to do anything base, vile, or trea- 
 cherous. 
 
 " We must imitate that descendant of the Sidonian 
 kings, who, from extreme poverty, worked in a garden, 
 and being asked by Alexander the Great how he 
 supported his poverty, replied, 'Better than I could 
 support grandeur ! My hands supply my wants : and 
 I want nothing, when I desire nothing.' Pity, my 
 brethren, that this man was not a Christian ! Or, 
 pity that the Christians do not resemble this heathen ! 
 The most flourishing empires have fallen with time: 
 the world is in a continual change ; and the Roman 
 Catholics must share the same fate with the rest of 
 mankind. 
 
 " There is no reviving old claims in this or any other 
 country ; or, perhaps if we revived them, they could not 
 stand the test of severe justice. Have our ancestors 
 ever encroached on their neighbours ? On their first 
 landing in this kingdom, did they not take these 
 estates from the Carthaginians, Firbolgs, and others, 
 who were settled here before them ? If, then, the Pro- 
 testants who are now in possession gave them up, to 
 whom would they be given ? If they have no right 
 to them because they belonged to our ancestors, our 
 ancestors had no right to them because they belonged 
 to others. If a French general sounded a trumpet, 
 and desired us to take our lands, would there not be a 
 thousand pretenders to every estate ? Would not every 
 one be eager for the best spot ? And would not this 
 spot fall to the share of the strongest, who would kill 
 or overpower the weakest ? I am ashamed, my brethren, 
 
108 Life and Writings of 
 
 that you should read such trifles in this paper. I 
 should never have mentioned them, had I not read 
 such a nonsensical charge in the writings of some paltry- 
 scribblers, who, in order to keep our Protestant neigh- 
 bours in perpetual dread of inoffensive fellow-subjects, 
 do not blush at an insult offered to common sense, and 
 to the rights of mankind. 
 
 " For, where property is once settled, secured by the 
 laws of any realm, and confirmed by a long posses- 
 sion, there is no disturbing the proprietor. It is the 
 general consent of nations, and the universal voice of 
 mankind. By the Roman laws, thirty years' possession 
 secures the possessor in the enjoyment of his property. 
 Even in Scripture we read that, when the King of 
 the Ammonites had challenged some lands which the 
 Israelites had taken from his ancestors, Jephte, the 
 ruler of God's people, amongst other reasons, pleaded 
 a long possession : — " While Israel dwelt in Hesebon, 
 why, therefore, did j'-ou not recover them within that 
 time ?" (Judges, xi.) Thus, from the first establish- 
 ment of civil society, a long possession annihilates all 
 claims. And, by the same principles, every Protestant 
 gentleman in Ireland has as good a right to his estate 
 as any Milesian had before him. For this, I appeal to 
 your consciences, — as you are to appear before God, if 
 you cut corn in the field of a Protestant, or stole his 
 hay, would not your confessor compel you to make res- 
 titution ? What right, then, should you have to the 
 land, where you would scruple to take the growth of it ? 
 Far, then, from giving you estates, the French could 
 not, by the laws of war, and the principles of conquest, 
 universally agreed on by civilized nations, take a foot 
 of ground from any person in the kingdom ; and the 
 representatives of the people should prefer preservation 
 to death (as doubtless they will, if they have not 
 superior forces to oppose them) — they neither will nor 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 109 
 
 can require any more than the allegiance of the inhabi- 
 tants, the same rates, taxes, and government support, 
 that were granted to the kings of England. The natives 
 will be secured in the free exercise of their religion, 
 the full enjoyment of their property, their laws and 
 privileges. This is always done ; the reverse would be 
 an open violation of the laws of nations, which are 
 binding on the very conquerors, and which, according 
 to the present system, they strictly observe. 
 
 " Thus, the common people are never interested in a 
 change of government. They may change, their masters, 
 but they will not change their burden. The rich will 
 be still rich. The poor will be poor. In France they have 
 poor of all trades and professions. It will be the same 
 here. But you will tell me that at least you will have 
 the free exercise of your religion. Pray, my brethren, 
 do not your Protestant neighbours grant you the free 
 exercise of your religion ? Would they not esteem you 
 more, in proportion as you would live up to its maxims ? 
 Even the worthy, learned, and charitable Dr. Mann, 
 the Protestant bishop, at the head of an assembly of 
 his clergy, recommended benevolence and moderation 
 towards the Roman Catholics. The same doctrine has 
 been recently preached from the Protestant pulpit. 
 Thus, it is the glory of our days to see the unhappy 
 spirit of persecution dying away, and Christian charity 
 succeeding the intemperate zeal, and unchristian super- 
 stition which, for many years, had disgraced religion 
 and dishonored humanity. 
 
 " Bells, steeples, and churches richly ornamented, con- 
 tribute to the outward pomp and solemnity of worship ; 
 but an upright heart and pure conscience are the 
 temples in which the Divinity delights. We would 
 fain worship God our own way. Doubtless. But are 
 we to worship Him against His will ? In lighting up 
 the sacred fire, are we to burn the house of God ? 
 
110 Life and Writings of 
 
 Saul, King of Israel, intended to worship God in offering 
 up a sacrifice. The Lord rejected him, because he 
 offered it up against the law. His intention was good, 
 but the action was criminal. Thus, the Lord would 
 reject you, if, under pretence of a more free worship, 
 you flocked to the standard of an enemy, rose up in 
 rebellion against lawful authority, plundered your 
 neighbour, and imbrued your hands in the blood of 
 your fellow-subjects. 
 
 "Let none then say — ' We will have a Catholic king.' 
 Subjects are little concerned in the religion of their go- 
 vernors. Thousands of Catholics lose their souls in 
 Italy and France, after leading a loose and dissolute life ; 
 thousands of them work their salvation in the Protestant 
 states of Holland 'and Germany. It is then equal to 
 man what religion his neighbour or king be of, pro- 
 vided his own conscience be pure, and his life upright. 
 
 " The Prussian, Dutch, and Hanoverian Catholics live 
 under Protestantgovernments, and join their sovereigns 
 against Catholic powers. Their religion is the same 
 with yours ; and this religion enforces obedience to the 
 king and magistrates under whom we live. Christ 
 commanded tribute to be paid to a heathen prince, and 
 acknowledged the temporal power of a heathen magis- 
 trate, who pronounced sentence of death against Him. 
 
 " Nero, sovereign of the world, rips open his mother's 
 w^omb, and begins the first bloody persecution against 
 the Christians, of whom seventeen thousand were 
 slaughtered in one month, and their bodies, daubed over 
 with pitch and tar, hung up to give light to the 
 city. St. Paul, dreading that such horrid usage would 
 force them to overturn the State, and join the enemies 
 of the empire, writes to them in the following manner : 
 ' Let every man be subject to the higher powers ; and 
 they that resist receive unto themselves damnation.' 
 (Rom. xiii.) A strong conviction, then, that, in obeying 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. Ill 
 
 our rulers, we obey God (who leaves no virtue unre- 
 warded, as He leaves no vice unpunished), sweetens the 
 thoughts of subjection, and, under the hardest master, 
 obedience is no longer a hardship to the true Christian. 
 
 " So great was the impression made by this doctrine 
 on the minds of the primitive Christians — so great was 
 their love for public order, that, although they filled 
 the whole empire and all the armies, they never once 
 flew out into any disorder. Under all the cruelties 
 that the rage of persecutors could invent — amidst so 
 many seditions and civil wars — amidst so many con- 
 spiracies against the persons of emperors, not a sedi- 
 tious Christian could be found. 
 
 " We have the same motives to animate our conduct ; 
 the same incentive to piety, godliness, and honesty; 
 the same expectations that raise us above all earthly 
 things, and put us beyond the reach of mortality. ' For 
 here on earth,' says St. Paul, 'we have not a lasting 
 city, but expect a better.' Let not public calamities, 
 bloody wars, the scourges of heaven, and the judgments 
 of God, be incentives to vice, plunder, rebellion, and 
 murder, but rather the occasions of the reformation of 
 our morals and spurs to repentance. Let religion, 
 which, by patience, had triumphed over the Caesars, 
 and displayed the cross in the banners of kings, without 
 sowing disprders in their realms, support itself without 
 the accursed aid of insurrection and crimes. Far from 
 expecting to enrich ourselves at the expense of justice 
 and under the fatal shelter of clouds of confusion and 
 troubles, let us seriously reflect that death will soon 
 level the poor and the rich in the dust of the grave ; 
 that we are all to appear naked before the awful tri- 
 bunal of Jesus Christ, to account for our actions ; and 
 that it is, by millions of times, more preferable to par- 
 take of the happiness of Lazarus, who was conveyed 
 to Abraham's bosom, after a life of holiness and poverty. 
 
112 Life and Writings of 
 
 than to be rich and wicked, and to share the fate of 
 that unhappy man, who, dressed in purple, and after a 
 life of opulence and ease, was refused a drop of water 
 to allay his burning thirst. In expectation that you 
 will comply with the instructions of your bishop and 
 clergy, not only from dread of the laws, but, moreover, 
 from the love and fear of God, 
 
 "I remain, my dear brethren, 
 
 "Your affectionate servant, 
 
 "Arthur O'Leary. 
 
 " Cork, August 14th, 1779." 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 113 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 O'Leary's Controversy with John "Wesley — Their Subsequent Meeting 
 at the House of a Mutual Friend— Wesley's Estimate of his 
 Antagonist. 
 
 Few men have ever displayed a more absorbing en- 
 thusiasm in the cause of religion, than the celebrated 
 John Wesley. To that cause his whole life and labors 
 were warmly and unreservedly devoted. He began in 
 himself the culture of that piety which he would infuse 
 into his followers. Such were his sincerity and energy 
 and zeal, (unless, indeed, he was the profoundest of hypo- 
 crites,) that, had he belonged to the Catholic communion, 
 it is the opinion of a great writer and profound thinker,* 
 that he would have rivalled the Loyolas of that Church 
 in the practices of piety and the veneration of the faith- 
 ful. But it is our opinion that had he belonged to the 
 Catholic Church, he would have learned to bear a milder 
 and more charitable spirit than he is known to have 
 manifested, towards the professors of a different religion 
 from his own. True charity excludes arrogance and 
 self-sufficiency, and coarse vituperation of those who 
 refuse to coincide with one*s peculiar views. In the his- 
 tory of our divine Redeemer, we find that He was never 
 betrayed ivto the language of objurgation against any, 
 save the hypocritical Pharisees. We should strive to 
 win by gentleness rather than by coercion. The least 
 
 • "Place Ignatius Loyola at Oxford He is certain to become the 
 ' --ad of a formidable secession. Place John Wesley at Rome. He is 
 -rtain to be the first general of a new society, devoted to the inter- 
 ests and honor of the Church." — Lord Macaulay's review of Ranke's 
 Lives of the topts. 
 
 I 
 
114 Life and Writings of 
 
 convincing argument is abuse. To those maxims the 
 conduct of Wesley was opposed. He allowed to him- 
 self the privilege, nay, he claimed for himself the con- 
 scientious obligation to depart from the fold of the 
 Anglican Church ; and yet, he could see no reason why 
 his Catholic fellow-countrymen should refuse to belong 
 to it. But reformers have ever been most intolerant of 
 established opinions, and Wesley was no exception to 
 the rule. The doctrines of the Catholic Church were 
 beginning at this time to attract a greater share of at- 
 tention than they had enjoyed since the Reformation. 
 The growing mildness of legislation, and the relaxation 
 of the penal laws, gave vent to the long pent-up influ- 
 ence of Catholic truth, and the friends of the Establish- 
 ment began to fear for the results which that influence 
 might exercise on their cherished institution. Far more 
 just would have been their apprehensions of the wily 
 devices and the stealthy inroads of Wesley ; and, indeed, 
 the effects of his moral invasion on the Anglican Church 
 can be traced to the present day. Like an able general, 
 he wished to divert popular attention from his secret 
 projects, and to fix it on the manoeuvres of a body whom 
 the Anglicans and he regarded as a common enemy. 
 There existed at this time in England a " Protestant 
 Association," whose avowed object was, by all possible 
 means, to deter the English Parliament from extending 
 relief to the Roman Catholics. To promote their ends, 
 they omitted no means that hatred or bigotry could 
 suggest. They gathered to their assemblages the most 
 violent fanatics of the day. Their cause had a most 
 vociferous exponent in Parliament, in the person of the 
 crack-brained Lord George Gordon. Strong in numbers 
 only, they sadly needed some literary defence against 
 able and learned antagonists, and the man who came 
 forward to supply this want was no other than John 
 Wesley. He published, in January, 1786, "A Letter 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary, 115 
 
 containing the Civil Principles of Roman Catholics ; also 
 a Defence of the Protestant Association." In these 
 publications he maintained that, setting altogether aside 
 the question of religion, " no government, not Roman 
 Catholic, ought to tolerate men of the Roman Catholic 
 persuasion." This proposition he undertook to prove 
 by what he calls " a plain argument," which proves to 
 be a series of syllogisms. Thus : " No Roman Catholic 
 does or can give security for his allegiance or peaceable 
 behaviour, I prove thus : it is a Roman Catholic maxim, 
 established not by private men, but by a public council, 
 that * no faith is to be kept with heretics.' This has 
 been openly avowed by the Council of Constance, but 
 it was never openly disclaimed. Whether private per- 
 sons avow or disavow it, it is a fixed maxim of the 
 Church of Rome ; but as long as it is so, nothing can be 
 more plain than that the members of that Church can 
 give no reasonable security to any government of their 
 allegiance or peaceable behaviour : therefore they ought 
 not to be tolerated by any government — Protestant, 
 Mahometan, or pagan." 
 
 "You may say," he continues, " ' nay, but you will take 
 an oath of allegiance.* True, five hundred oaths ; but 
 the maxim, * No faith is to be kept with heretics,' sweeps 
 them all away, as a spider's web ; so that still no gover- 
 nors, that are not Roman Catholics, can give any se- 
 curity of their allegiance. 
 
 " Again, those who acknowledge the spiritual power 
 of the Pope, can give no security of their allegiance to 
 any government ; but all Roman Catholics acknowledge 
 this : therefore they can give no security for their alle- 
 giance. 
 
 " The power of granting pardons for all sins, past, 
 present, and to come, is, and has been for many cen- 
 turies, one branch of his spiritual power ; but those who 
 acknowledge him to have this spiritual power can give 
 
116 Life and Writings of 
 
 no security for their allegiance, since they believe the 
 Pope can pardon rebellions, high treasons, and all 
 other sins whatsoever. 
 
 " The power of dispensing with any promise, oath, or 
 vow, is another branch of the spiritual power of the 
 Pope; and all who acknowledge his spiritual power 
 must acknowledge this ; but whoever acknowledges the 
 dispensing pov/er of the Pope, can give no security of 
 his allegiance to any government. 
 
 "Oaths and promises are none — they are light as 
 air — a dispensation makes them all null and void. 
 
 " Nay, not only the Pope, but even a priest has power 
 to pardon sins ! This is an essential doctrine of the 
 Church of Rome. But they that acknowledge this 
 cannot possibly give any security for their allegiance to 
 any government. Oaths are no security at all, for the 
 priest can pardon both perjury and high treason." 
 
 " But it might be objected," suggests Wesley, " ' no- 
 thing dangerous to English liberty is to be apprehended 
 from them.' I am not so certain of that," he replies. 
 " Some time since a Romish priest came to one I know, 
 and after talking with her largely, broke out, ' You are 
 no heretic ; you have the experience of a real Christian.' 
 ' And would you,' she asked, ' burn me alive ?' He 
 said, ' God forbid ! unless it were for the good of the 
 Church.'" 
 
 " Now, what security," asks Wesley, " could we have 
 for her life, if it had depended on that man ? The good 
 of the Church could have burst all the ties of truth, 
 justice, and mercy — especially when seconded by the 
 absolution of a priest, or, if need were, a papal pardon." 
 
 Such was the reasoning of honest John Wesley. 
 
 To this letter was appended, as has been already 
 stated, another, entitled, " A Defence of the Protestant 
 Association," the purport of which was that, as "Popery" 
 was every day gaining strength in these kingdoms, and 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 117 
 
 as its progress was conducive to " misery and slavery," 
 it was the duty of men who took an interest in the 
 welfare of the country to combine for its extinction. 
 " It was the opinion," he writes, " of our brave, wise, 
 circumspect, and cautious ancestors, that an open tole- 
 ration of the Popish religion is inconsistent with the 
 safety of a free people and a Protestant government. 
 It was thought by them that every convert to Popery 
 was, by principle, an enemy to the constitution of this 
 country; and as it was supposed that the Roman 
 Catholic religion promoted rebellion against the State, 
 there was a very severe law made to prevent the propa- 
 gation of it. Such was the state of things in the reign 
 of the great Elizabeth; and Popery having, notwith- 
 standing such restriction, gained ground in the reign of 
 James II., though the encouragement it then received 
 from the State was not equal to what it has now ob- 
 tained, the nation was alarmed, and the noble and re- 
 solute stand which the Protestants then made against 
 the advances of Popery produced the Revolution." The 
 letter abounded in that bigoted cant, which, owing to 
 the growth of enlightenment, has since been banished 
 from the mouths and writings of all honest Protestants, 
 and which finds favor only amongst the fanatical fre- 
 quenters of Exeter Hall. " Several Protestants," he 
 says, "are of opinion that the repeal of the penal 
 laws will act as an open toleration of the Popish reli- 
 gion, which fills them with the most painful apprehen- 
 sions ; they think that liberty, which they value more 
 than their lives, and which they would piously transmit 
 to their children, to be in danger ; they are full of the 
 most alarming fears that chains are forging at the anvil 
 of Rome for the rising generation ; they fear that the 
 Papists are undermining our happy constitution ; they 
 see the purple power of Rome advancing by hasty 
 strides to overspread this once happy nation; they 
 
118 Life and Writings of 
 
 shudder at the thought of darkness and ignorance, 
 misery and slavery, spreading their sable wings over 
 this highly favored isle ; their souls are pained for 
 their rights and liberties as men, and their hearts 
 tremble for the ark of God." It behoves all Protestants, 
 therefore, to combine for the purpose of stopping " the 
 progress of that soul-deceiving and all -enslaving super- 
 stition." Have they "forgot the reign of the bloody 
 Queen Mary ? Have they forgot the fires in Smith- 
 field, and can they behold without emotion the place 
 where their fathers died ? Will it be believed that 
 Englishmen are so far degenerated from the noble 
 spirit of their ancestors, as tamely to bow the neck to 
 the yoke of Rome ? ' Tell it not in Gath, publish it 
 not in Ascalon.' " 
 
 Father O'Leary, who happened to be in Dublin at 
 the time those inflammatory productions appeared, im- 
 mediately replied, in a letter addressed to the Freeman's 
 Journal ; and, with the genuine candor of a lover of 
 truth, prefixed to his own letter a copy of the two of 
 his antagonist, that the reading public might judge for 
 themselves on the whole subject in dispute. Wesley 
 had, towards the end of his former epistle, given warn- 
 ing that he Avould reply to no anonymous response, and, 
 accordingly, Father O'Leary appended his name to his 
 publication. And, lest any doubt of his identity should 
 still cling to the mind of his opponent, he writes : — 
 
 " Mr. Wesley may consider me a fictitious character ; 
 but, should he follow his precursor (I mean his letter 
 wafted to us over the British Channel), and, on his mis- 
 sion from Dublin to Bandon, make Cork his way, 
 Dr. Berkeley, parish minister, near Middleton, Cap- 
 tains Stanner, French, and others, who were prisoners 
 of war in a Catholic country, where I was chaplain of 
 prisons, can fully satisfy him as to the reality of my ex- 
 istence ; and convince him that in the beard which I then 
 
Rev. AHhur 0' heavy. 119 
 
 wore, and which, like that of Sir Thomas More, never 
 committed any treason, I never concealed either poison 
 or dagger to destroy my Protestant neighbour, though 
 it was long enough to set all Scotland in a blaze, and to 
 deprive Lord George Gordon of his senses." 
 
 The clap-trap about " burning heretics " and " bloody 
 Queen Mary," O'Leary disposes of with characteristic 
 humour : — 
 
 " Should any of the Scotch missionaries attend Mr. 
 Wesley into this kingdom, and bring with them any of 
 the stumps of the fagots with which Henry VIII., his 
 daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and the learned James 
 L, roasted the heretics of their times in Smithfield, or 
 some of the fagots with which the Scotch saints, of 
 whose proceedings Mr. Wesley is become the apologist, 
 have burnt the houses of their inoffensive Catholic 
 neighbours, we will convert them to their proper use. 
 In Ireland the revolution of the great Platonic year is 
 almost completed. Things are re-instated in their pri- 
 mitive order. And the fagot which, without any mission 
 from Christ, preached the Gospel by orders of Catholic 
 and Protestant kings, is confined to the kitchen. Thus, 
 what formerly roasted the man at the stake, now helps 
 to feed him ; and nothing but the severity of winter, 
 and the coldness of the climate in Scotland, could justify 
 Mr. Wesley in urging the rabble to light it. This is a 
 bad time to introduce it amongst us, when we begin to 
 be formidable to our foes, and united amongst ourselves. 
 And to the glory of Ireland, be it said, we never con- 
 demned but murderers and perpetrators of unnatural 
 crimes to the fagot." 
 
 Father O'Leary deplores the fatal policy, which, for 
 centuries, divided and distracted the people of this 
 country ; and instances the ridiculous enactment of 
 Henry the Sixth, by which every Englishman of the 
 Pale was bound to shave his upper lip, or clip his 
 
120 Life and Writings of 
 
 whiskers, in order to distinguish himself from an Irish- 
 man. In his opinion, " it had tended more to their 
 mutual interest, and the glory of that monarch's reign, 
 not to go to the nicety of splitting a hair, but encou- 
 rage the growth of their fleeces, and inspire them with 
 such mutual love for each other, as to induce them to 
 kiss one another's beards, as brothers salute each other 
 at Constantinople, after a few days' absence. I am like- 
 wise of opinion," he continues, "that Mr. Wesley, who 
 prefaces his letter with ' the interest of the Protestant 
 religion,' would reflect more honor on his ministry in 
 promoting the happiness of the people, by preaching 
 love and union, than in widening the breach, and in- 
 creasing their calamities by division. The English and 
 Irish were, at that time, of the same religion, but, divided 
 in their affections, were miserable. Though divided in 
 speculative opinions, if united in sentiment, we would 
 be happy. The English settlers breathed the vital 
 air in England, before they inhaled the soft breezes of 
 our temperate climate. The present generation can 
 say, ' our fathers and grandfathers have been born, bred, 
 and buried here. We are Irishmen, as the descendants 
 of the Normans who have been born in England are 
 Englishmen.' 
 
 " Thus, born in an island in which the ancients might 
 have placed their Hesperian gardens and golden apples, 
 the temperature of the climate, and the quality of the 
 soil inimical to poisonous insects, have cleansed our 
 veins from the sour and acid blood of the Scythians 
 and Saxons. We begin to open our eyes, and to learn 
 wisdom from the experience of ages. We are tender- 
 hearted ; we are good-natured ; we have feelings. We 
 shed tears on the urns of the dead ; deplore the loss of 
 hecatombs of victims slaughtered on the gloomy altars 
 of religious bigotry ; cry on seeing the ruins of cities over 
 which fanaticism has displayed the funeral torch ; and 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 121 
 
 sincerely pity the blind zeal of our Scotch and English 
 neighbours, whose constant character is to pity none, 
 for erecting the banners of persecution, at a time when 
 the Inquisition is abolished in Spain and Milan, and 
 the Protestant gentry are caressed at Rome, and live 
 unmolested in the luxuriant plains of France and 
 Italy. 
 
 " The statute of Henry VI. is now grown obsolete. 
 The razor of calamity has shaved our lower and upper 
 lips, and given us smooth faces. Our land is unculti- 
 vated ; our country a desert ; our natives are forced into 
 the service of foreign kings, storming towns, and in the 
 very heat of slaughter tempering Irish courage with 
 Irish mercy. All our misfortunes flow from long-reigning 
 intolerance, and the storms which, gathering first in the 
 Scotch and English atmosphere, never failed to burst 
 over our heads. 
 
 "We are too wise to quarrel about religion. The 
 Roman Catholics sing their psalms in Latin, with a few 
 inflections of the voice. Our Protestant neighbours 
 sing the same psalms in English, on a larger scale of 
 musical notes. We never quarrel with our honest and 
 worthy neighbours the Quakers for not singing at all ; 
 nor shall we ever quarrel with Mr. Wesley for raising 
 his voice to heaven, and warbling forth his canticles on 
 whatever tune he pleases, whether it be the tune of 
 * Guardian Angels ' or * Langolee.' We love social har- 
 mony, and in civil music hate discordance. Thus, when 
 we go to the shambles, we never inquire into the 
 butcher's religion, but into the quality of his meat. 
 We care not whether the ox was fed in the Pope's ter- 
 ritories, or on the mountains of Scotland, provided the 
 joint be good ; for though there be many heresies in old 
 books, we discover neither heresy nor superstition in 
 beef and claret. We divide them cheerfully with one 
 another ; and though of different religions, we sit over 
 
122 Life and Writings of 
 
 the bowl with as much cordiality as if we were at a 
 love-feast. 
 
 " The Protestant associations of Scotland and Eng- 
 land may pity us ; but we feel more comfort than if we 
 were scorching one another with fire and fagot. In- 
 stead of singing, ' Peace on earth to men of good will,' 
 does Mr. Wesley intend to sound the fury Alecto's 
 horn, or the war-shell of the Mexicans ? The Irish, who 
 have no resource but in their union, does he mean to 
 arm them against each other ? One massacre, to which 
 the fanaticism of the Scotch and English regicides gave 
 rise, is more than enough ; Mr. "Wesley should not sow 
 the seeds of a second. When he felt the first-fruits and 
 illapses of the spirit — when his zeal, too extensive to 
 be confined within the majestic temples of the Church 
 of England, or the edifying meeting-houses of the other 
 Christians, prompted him to travel most parts of Europe 
 and America, and to establish a religion and houses of 
 worship of his own, what opposition has he not met 
 with from the civil magistrates ! with what insults from 
 the rabble ! broken benches, dead cats, and pools of 
 water, bear witness ! Was he then the trumpeter of 
 persecution? Was his pulpit changed into Hudibras's 
 ' drum ecclesiastic ' ? Did he abet banishment and pro- 
 scription on the score of conscience? Now that his 
 tabernacle is established in peace, after the clouds hav- 
 ing borne testimony to his mission,* he complains in 
 his second letter, wherein he promises to continue the 
 fire which he has already kindled in England, that 
 people of exalted rank in Church and State have refused 
 entering into a mean confederacy against the laws of 
 nature, and the rights of mankind. In his first letter, 
 he disclaims persecution on the score of religion, and, 
 
 * "See an abridgment of "Wesley's journal, wherein he says that, 
 in preaching one day at Kinsale, a cloud pitched over him." 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 123 
 
 in the same breath, strikes out a creed of his own for 
 the Roman Catholics, and says that they * should not 
 be tolerated even amongst the Turks.' Thus the satyr 
 in the fable breathes hot and cold in the same blast; 
 and a lamb of peace is turned inquisitor ! But is not 
 that creed mentioned by Mr. Wesley the creed of the 
 Roman Catholics? By right it should be theirs; as it 
 is so often bestowed on them, and as, according to civil 
 law, a free gift becomes the property of the person on 
 whom it is bestowed, if there be no legal disqualification 
 on either side. But the misfortune is that the Catho- 
 lics and the framers of the fictitious creed, so often 
 refuted and still forced on them, resemble the French- 
 man and the blunderer in the comedy ; one forces into 
 the other's mouth a food which he cannot relish, and 
 against which his stomach revolts." 
 
 It is quite unnecessary to follow our Catholic apolo- 
 gist through his successive refutations of Mr. Wesley's 
 charges. SuflBce it to say, that no Catholic holds the 
 opinions attributed to him by Mr. Wesley, but rather 
 deprecates them as horrible and unchristian. It will 
 conduce more to our interest and advantage to read 
 those passages extracted from Father O'Leary's reply, 
 in which, with genuine wit, vigorous thought, and 
 striking force of expression, he develops those principles 
 of universal charity of which he was the distinguished 
 champion ; and shows that, however men may differ on 
 speculative views of religion, the duty as well as the 
 interest of all Christians is to maintain towards each 
 other feelings of forbearance, sympathy, and love. To 
 the point in Wesley's letter concerning a conversation 
 between a " Romish " priest and a woman, he replies : — 
 
 " A priest then said to a woman whom Mr. Wesley 
 knows, ' I see you are no heretic ; you have the ex- 
 perience or a real Christian.' 'And would you burn 
 me V says she. * God forbid !' replied the priest, * ex- 
 
124 Life and WHtings of 
 
 cept for the good of the Church ! ' Now, this priest 
 must be descended from some of those who attempted 
 to blow up a river with gunpowder, in order to drown 
 a city.* Or he must have taken her for a witch, whereas, 
 by his own confession she ' was no heretic' A gentle- 
 man whom / know declared to me, upon his honour, 
 that he heard Mr. Wesley repeat, in a sermon preached 
 by him in the city of Cork, the following words : * A 
 little bird cried out in Hebrew, O Eternity ! Eternity ! 
 who can tell the length of Eternity V I am, then, of 
 opinion that a little Hebrew bird gave Mr. Wesley the 
 important information about the priest and the woman. 
 One story is as interesting as the other, and both are 
 equally alarming to the Protestant interest." 
 
 He deplores the folly and fatuity of those who write 
 on religious subjects in a tone and manner only calcu- 
 lated to promote discord, instead of peace and union 
 amongst men. " Like Boileau's heroes, in the Battle of 
 the Books, we ransack old councils ; we disturb the 
 bones of old divines, who, wrapped up in their parch- 
 ment blankets, sleep at their ease on the shelves of 
 libraries, where they would snore for ever, if the noise 
 of the gunpowder on an anniversary day, or the restless 
 hands of pamphlet writers, industrious in inflaming the 
 rabble, did not rouse them from their slumbers. Peace 
 to their manes ! The charity sermon preached in Dublin 
 by Dr. Campbell — the anniversary sermon preached in 
 Cork, last November, by Dr. la Malliere — and the dis- 
 course to the Echlinville Volunteers by Mr. Dickson, 
 have done more good in one day, either by procuring 
 relief for the distressed, or by promoting benevolence, 
 peace, and harmony amongst fellow-subjects of all de- 
 
 * " Amongst other plots attributed to Roman Catholics in the reign 
 of Charles the First, this extraordinary one was thrown upon them. 
 See Hume." 
 
 % 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 125 
 
 nominations, than the folios written on Pope Joan have 
 done in the space of two hundred years." 
 
 Expressively and forcibly O'Leary paints the scene in 
 which the fanatical actors of the day performed their 
 part in this anti-popery drama. He shows them " ex- 
 posing their parchments in meeting-houses and vestries, 
 begging the signature of every peasant and mendicant, 
 who comes to hear the gospel, ' Wrong no man,' ' He 
 that loves his neighbour, fulfils the law,' &c. ; and these 
 pious souls ' pained and trembling for the ark of God,* 
 running with the fagot to kindle the flames of sedition, 
 and to oppress their neighbours. Remark, in seventeen 
 hundred and eighty, a lord, with his hair cropped, a Bible 
 in his hand, turned elder and high-priest at the age of 
 twenty-three, and fainting for the ark of Israel ! 
 
 " In the foreground of this extraordinary picture, re- 
 mark a missionary who has reformed the very Reforma- 
 tion. Separated from all the Protestant churches, and 
 trimming the vessel of religion, which hp has brought 
 into a new dock, he has suffered as much for the sake of 
 conscience as Ludowick Muggleton or James Nailer 
 could register in their martyrology. Remark that same 
 gentleman inflaming the rabble, dividing his Majesty's 
 subjects, propagating black slander, and throwing down 
 the gauntlet to people who never provoked him. Is 
 not fanaticism, the mother of cruelty and the daughter 
 of folly, the first character in this religious masquerade ? 
 Is it not the first spring that gives motion to those ex- 
 traordinary figures, so corresponsive to Hogarth's ' En- 
 raged Musician' ? And, in fencing with folly, have not 
 the gravest authors handled the foils of ridicule ? To 
 the modem Footes and Molieres, or to the young stu- 
 dent in rhetoric, who employs irony in enlarging on his 
 theme, should I for ever leave the * pained souls and 
 trembling hearts ' of the Scotch Jonathan and the Eng- 
 lish Samuel, with their squadrons of Israelites fighting 
 
/ 
 
 126 Life and WHtings of 
 
 for ' the ark of the Lord/ if what they style in England 
 the Gordonian Associations had not voted their thanks 
 to Mr. Wesley, for what they call his ' excellent letter/ 
 Such a performance is worthy the approbation of such 
 censors ; and in their holy shrines the sacred relic should 
 be deposited. 
 
 " It is to the sentiments implanted in the human 
 breast, and to the conduct of man, not to the rubbish of 
 the schools, Mr. Wesley should have made application, 
 when he undertook to solve the interesting problem, 
 whether the Koman Catholics should be tolerated or 
 persecuted. But inspired writers partake of the spirit 
 of the seers, and copy, as much as possible, after the 
 prophets. The prophet Ezechiel breathed on a pile of 
 bones, and, lo ! a formidable army starting from the 
 earth, and ranging itself in battle array. Mr. Wesley 
 blows the dust off an old book, and lo ! squadrons of re- 
 ligious warriors engaged in a crusade for the extirpation 
 of the infidels ! The loyalty, the conduct, the virtues 
 common to all, the natural attachment of man to his 
 interest and country, the peaceable behaviour of the 
 Roman Catholics, have no weight in the scale of can- 
 dor and justice. An old council, held four hundred 
 years ago, is ransacked and misconstrued ; a Roman 
 Catholic is unworthy of being tolerated amongst the 
 Turks, because Mr. Wesley puts on his spectacles to 
 read old Latin." 
 
 So blindly bigoted are some enemies of Catholicity, 
 that no disclaimer on the part of Catholics of the 
 horrible doctrines imputed to them, no matter how 
 vehement or sincere, could save them from the imputa- 
 tion. " If a general council," writes O'Leary, " were 
 held, in order to disclaim the ridiculous and abominable 
 creed imputed to Roman Catholics, the sceptic, who 
 gives no credit to their doctors and universities, to 
 the oaths and declarations of millions, would give no 
 
Eev. Aii,hur O'Leary. 127 
 
 credit to a convention of bishops with the pope at their 
 heaSi. 
 
 " Let the appeal be made, not to stubborn sceptics, 
 but to those who listen to the voice of reason, and con- 
 sult the heart. This interior monitor, when passion 
 and prejudice are hushed into silence, is seldom con- 
 sulted in vain. Let us not travel to Catholic States, 
 where perjury is punished with death, and every argu- 
 ment tending to prove that the pope can absolve sub- 
 jects from oaths, and grant a dispensation to commit all 
 kinds of crimes, is confuted with a halter. Let us look 
 nearer home, and compare what we see on one hand, 
 with what is supposed on another. 
 
 " We see a million and a-half of Roman Catholics 
 smarting under the most oppressive laws that the 
 human heart could ever devise. When they were 
 enacted, our ancestors had the lands of their fathers and 
 the religion of their education. If perjury had been 
 an article of their belief, they could have secured their 
 inheritance by taking an oath of abjuration. If papal 
 dispensations were, in their opinion, lenitives to an ulce- 
 rated conscience, when or where could they have been 
 more seasonably applied than at that time and place, 
 where the properties of millions depended on the ap- 
 plication ?" 
 
 The limits of the pope's power are justly defined 
 by O'Leary : — " Catholic subjects know that if God must 
 have his own, Caesar must have his due. In his quality 
 of pontiff, they are ready to kiss the pope's feet ; but if 
 he assumes the title of conqueror, they are ready to 
 bind his hands. The very ecclesiastical benefices, which 
 are more in the spiritual line, are not at his disposal. 
 When England had more to dread from him than now, 
 a Catholic parliament passed the statute of prcemunire : 
 the bishops and mitred abbots preferred their own tem- 
 poral interest to that of the pope, and reserved the 
 
128 Life and Writings of 
 
 benefices to themselves and the clergy under their 
 jurisdiction. Charity begins at home; and I do not 
 believe any Catholic so divested of it as to prefer fifty 
 pounds a year under the pope's government, to an 
 hundred pounds a year under that of a Protestant king. 
 Queen Mary, so devoted to the pope's cause, both on 
 account of her religion and the justice done to her 
 mother, by the inflexible resolution of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, still would not concede her temporal rights, nor 
 those of her subjects, in compliment to his spiritual 
 power. After the reconciliation of her kingdom to the 
 Apostolic See, a statute was passed enacting that the 
 pope's bulls, briefs, &c., should be merely confined to 
 spirituals, without interfering with the independence of 
 her kingdom, or the rights of her subjects. The history 
 of Europe proclaims aloud, that the Roman Catholics 
 are not passive engines in the hands of popes, and that 
 they confine his power within the narrow limits of his 
 spiritual province. They have often taken his cities, 
 and opposed Paul's sword to Peter's keys, and silenced 
 the thunders of the Vatican with the noise of the can- 
 non. They know that Peter was a fisherman when 
 kings swayed the sceptre, and that the subsequent 
 grandeur of his successors could never authorize them 
 to alter the primitive institution that commands sub- 
 jects to obey their rulers and give Caesar his due. 
 
 " With regard to his spiritual power, you will be sur- 
 prised when I tell you, that, from Ludowick Muggleton 
 down to John Wesley, those who have instituted new 
 sects amongst the Christians have more power than the 
 pope dare to assume over Catholics. 
 
 " They may add or diminish ; but, with regard to the 
 pope, the landmarks are erected, and we should never 
 permit him to remove them. If he attempted to preach 
 up five sacraments instead of seven, we should imme- 
 diately depose him. Mr. Wesley may alter his faith as 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 129 
 
 often as he pleases, and prevail on others to do the 
 same ; but the pope can never alter ours ; we acknow- 
 ledge him, indeed, as the head of the Church, for every 
 -ociety must have a link of union, to guard against con- 
 iusion and anarchy; but in acknowledging him as the 
 first pilot to steer the vessel, we acknowledge a com- 
 pass by which he is to direct his course. He is to pre- 
 serve the vessel, but never to expose it to shipwreck. 
 Any deviation from the laws of God, the rights of nature, 
 or the faith of our fathers, would be the fatal rock on 
 which the pope himself would split. In a word, the 
 pope is our first pastor ; he may feed, but he cannot 
 poison us ; we acknowledge no power in him either to 
 alter our faith, or to corrupt our morals." 
 
 Now and then O'Leary fires off his wit at his oppo- 
 nent. He tells us, in a note, to " see Wesley's Journal, 
 where he declares that, on his visitation, he met so 
 many sanctified, so many justified, and so many con- 
 firmed in love, — Qui potest capere capiat. I cannot 
 comprehend this mystical divinity. By confirmation 
 in love, he must mean that whoever believes him- 
 self once arrived at that happy state, can sin no more. 
 I am glad to see a fellow-creature confirmed in the love 
 of God : but I am sorry to find some so ill-confirmed in 
 the love of their neighbour, as to tell half Europe to 
 their faces that they are perjurers, and to apologize for 
 a rabble who set fire to their neighbours' houses.* This 
 is what we call an ardent or burning love." 
 
 Again : — " In the beginning of the American war, 
 Mr. Wesley published his * Calm Address,* in order to 
 unite the colonies to the mother country. The * balm 
 of Gilead ' proving inefiectual beyond the Atlantic, he 
 now has recourse to caugtics at home. Three years ago 
 he intended to unite us ; now he intends to divide us. 
 
 * An allusion to the Gordon Riots. 
 
130 Life and Writings of 
 
 Thus we find Penelope's web in his religious looms — 
 what he wove three years ago, he now unravels." 
 
 Pleading for religious toleration he says : — " Men's 
 opinions change with the times, as in different stages 
 of life we change our thoughts, and settle at the age of 
 forty the roving imagination of sixteen. Custom and 
 mutual intercourse amongst fellow-subjects of every 
 denomination, would soon quench the remaining sparks 
 of religious feuds if distinctive laws were abolished. 
 But, unfortunately for the society in which we live, the 
 laws, whose aim should be to unite the inhabitants, are 
 calculated to divide them. My neighbour distrusts me, 
 because the penal laws held me forth as a reprobate 
 before I was born, and, during my life, encourage him 
 to seize my horse, or drag me before a magistrate for 
 saying my prayers, which reduces me to the sad neces- 
 sity of hating him, or considering him as an enemy, if, 
 in the great struggle between nature and grace, religion 
 does not triumph. Before Louis XIV. and George I. 
 repealed the laws against witches, every disfigured old 
 woman was in danger of her life, and considered as a 
 sorceress. Since the witch-making laws have been re- 
 pealed, there is not a witch in the land, and the dairy- 
 maid is not under the necessity of using counter-charms 
 to hinder the milk from being enchanted from her pail. 
 Thus, if the penal laws, which, by a kind of omnipo- 
 tence, create an original sin, making rogues of Catholics 
 before they reach their hands to the tempting fruit, 
 were once repealed, they would be as honest as their 
 neighbours, and the objects of their love and con- 
 fidence." 
 
 From an " Appeal to the People of Great Britain," 
 published just at this time by the Protestant Associa- 
 tion, O'Leary makes an extract. He says : — " After 
 deploring the ^ loss of millions of common people, who 
 are prohibited from reading the Scriptures,' (though it 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 131 
 
 were charity to teach them first how to spell,) ' and who 
 have souls as infinite, in value and duration, as the 
 proudest prelates, or highest monarchs on earth,' they 
 go on — * to tolerate Popery, is to be instrumental to the 
 perdition of immortal souls now existing, and of mil- 
 lions of spirits that at present have no existence but 
 in the prescience of God, and is the direct way to pro- 
 voke the vengeance of a holy and jealous God, to bring 
 down destruction on our fleets and armies.' I really 
 imasrined that the Protestant Association was not so 
 cruel as to refuse me mercy, and exclude me from the 
 kingdom of heaven, if I lead an honest, sober, and 
 virtuous life. I am convinced that several of Admiral 
 Rodney's sailors are Roman Catholics, and that the 
 bullets, which told so well in mauling poor Langara, 
 were fired by hands that crossed a Popish forehead. 
 Oliver Cromwell, seeking the Lord, and preaching upon 
 the Sabbath day, in a leather breeches and buff waist- 
 coat, with his trusty sabre by his side, did not scruple 
 to enter into a confederacy with Cardinal Mazarin 
 against the Spaniards ; it was equal to England which 
 of the two was foremost in the breach, the French 
 dragoon, with his whiskers, after saying ' Hail Mary,' or 
 the Roundhead, with his leather cap, after groaning in 
 the spirit Spain lost Dunkirk, and England triumphed. 
 King William had six thousand Roman Catholics in 
 his army when he fought the battle of the Boyne ; and 
 the Catholics and Protestants of Switzerland maintain 
 their independence against all the powers of the Con- 
 tinent, in consequence of their union. But the Pro- 
 testant Association, like Ezechiel, have swallowed a book 
 in which are written ' verses,' and ' lamentations,' and 
 * woes.' Already their luminous souls, enlightened by 
 the prophetic spirit, see future times unlocking their 
 distant gates, and pouring forth millions of monsters ; 
 and, from a desire to procure the salvation of Adam's 
 
132 Life and Writings of 
 
 children, it is to be dreaded that, at the long run, they 
 will imitate the holy fanatic of Denmark, who, in 
 order to procure heaven for young infants, after being 
 baptized used to slaughter them in their cradles." 
 
 In the course of O'Leary's "Remarks" on Wesley's 
 letter, he introduces what he styles " An Humble Re- 
 monstrance to the Scotch and English Inquisitors, 
 by way of an Apostrophe." It is an admirable piece of 
 argument and eloquence. We can extract only a few 
 short passages : " If you glor}^," he says, " in the purity 
 of your religion, and in treading in the steps of its 
 Author, treat us as Christ Himself would treat us, if 
 He were on earth. He deprived no man of his pro- 
 perty, nor of the indulgence and protection of the laws. 
 If you glory in the purity of the Christian religion, 
 call to mind that it suggests humility, and deference 
 to people of superior power and judgment. Your 
 king, your peers, and your commons, are deemed the 
 first in dignity and wisdom ; but I forget that you are 
 well versed in the Bible, which says, ' he that is first 
 amongst you, let him be the last.' The Scripture 
 must be fulfilled : take, then, the lead, and force them 
 to trample on their own laws, and to banish their 
 subjects. 
 
 " Mention no longer ' violation of faith with heretics.' 
 YoQ violate all the laws of civil society ; in dissolving 
 the ties of friendship,' and pointing out your fellow- 
 subjects as the victims of legal severity, you split and 
 rend the nation ; you weaken its power, and trespass 
 upon the respect due to your rulers, when, instead 
 of being the fathers of their people, you would fain 
 force them to become the heads of factions. You violate 
 the sacred rights of nature : her bountiful Author de- 
 clares, that He makes His ' sun shine upon the good 
 and bad.' The light of the sun, the brilliancy of the 
 stars, the sweetness of the fruits, the balsamic effluvia 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 133 
 
 of flowers, are dispensed with a liberal haDd to the 
 heathen and idolater. Will you deprive your neigh- 
 bours of gifts common to all Adam's children, because 
 they stick to a religion which all your forefathers pro- 
 fessed, and which, if wrong, can hurt no man but 
 themselves ? In vain do you attempt to impose upon 
 the public with extracts and spurious canons, obsolete 
 decrees, patches of councils, and legends of massacres, 
 in order to fix a creed on us. The world knows that 
 Roman Catholics sway the sceptre of authority in 
 kingdoms and republics. The very nature, then, of 
 civil society, is a manifest contradiction to the creed 
 you impute to us ; for, if we were no more than 
 maehines, veering at the breath of popes and priests, 
 whom neither conscience, religion, the sacred ties of an 
 oath, nor the fear of God's judgment can restrain, 
 patentees of guilt and of impurity, we could not 
 form a society for the space of one year ; for, in such a 
 society, the notions of vice and virtue would be con- 
 founded; the blackest crimes and the purest virtue 
 reduced to the same level; the discipline of morals de- 
 stroyed, the harmony of the body politic dissolved, the 
 brother armed against the brother ; and if, by a kind 
 of miracle, in such a cursed number of men, a second 
 Abel could be found, the earth would soon groan with 
 the cries of his blood. If divines have attempted to 
 demonstrate the existence of God from the nature of 
 civil society, the very nature of civil society demonstrates 
 the falsehood of the creed with which you compliment 
 us. And, if the gloomy plan of such a horrid republic 
 pleases your imaginations, go and lay the foundations, 
 of it in some remote region of the earth. Be yourselves 
 its members and governors, for no Christians could live 
 there. When the delicate pencils of the Gibbons, 
 Reynoldses, and Maimontcls will paint the political 
 scenery of the eighteenth century — when, on the 
 
134 Life and WHtvngs of 
 
 extensive canvas they will represent the gloom of long- 
 reigning prejudice scattering as the clouds of night, at 
 the approach of the rising sun — when they will paint 
 the poniard, drenched in human blood, snatched from 
 the hand of stern persecution — the French praying in 
 concert with the American — the American invited into 
 Russia — the order of Military Merit established in favor 
 of Protestants, in the palace of a Catholic king — Ireland 
 rising from the sea, covered with her Fabii "and Scipios, 
 pointing their spears to distant shores, and holding forth 
 the olive and sheaf of corn to their neighbours of all 
 denominations — when they will contrast the present 
 to former times — show the happy result of a change 
 of system, and prove that the world is refined — 
 you, painted in as frightful attitudes as the gi'oup of 
 figures in Raphael's Judgment, with stern fanaticism 
 in your countenances, a Bible in one hand and a fagot 
 in the other, will be an exception to the general rule ; 
 the world will read with surprise that, in seventeen 
 hundred and eighty, there have been fanatics in Eng- 
 land and Scotland that gave birth to so many illus- 
 trious writers. Your transactions shall be recorded in 
 the appendix to the history of Jack Straw and Wat 
 Tyler ; and your chaplains and apologists shall be ranked 
 with James Nailer* and Hugh Peters." 
 
 The concluding sentences of O'Leary's "Remarks," 
 are very characteristic of the man. With a happy blend- 
 ing of humor and seriousness, and with a power of 
 irresistible eloquence, he puts forth his views of uni- 
 versal philanthropy, and preaches harmony amongst all 
 
 * James Nailer, after fighting against Papists and malignants in 
 Cromwell's army, turned prophet and rode into Bristol, mounted on 
 an ass, on a Palm Sunday, attended by numbers of women, spreading 
 their aprons before him, and making the air re-echo to loud hosannas : 
 "Holy, holy, holy, hosanna to James Nailer! Blessed is James 
 Nailer, who comes in the name of the Lord !" 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 135 
 
 mankind, be they ever so divided on questions of re- 
 ligion. 
 
 " We have obtained/' he says, " of late the privilege 
 of planting tobacco in Ireland, and tobacconists want 
 paper. Let Mr. Wesley then come with me, as the 
 curate and barber went to shave and bless the library 
 of Don Quixote. All the old books, old canons, sermons, 
 and so forth, tending to kindle feuds, or promote ran- 
 cour, let us fling out at the windows. Society will lose 
 nothing : the tobacconists will benefit by the spoils of 
 antiquity. And if, upon mature deliberation, we de- 
 cree that Mr. Wesley's * Journal,' and his apology for the 
 Association's ' Appeal,' should share the same fate with 
 the old buckrams, we will procure them a gentle fall. 
 After having rocked ourselves in the large and hospi- 
 table cradle of the Free Press, where the peer and the 
 commoner, the priest and the alderman, the friar and 
 the swaddler, can stretch themselves at full length, pro- 
 vided they be not too churlish, let us laugh at those 
 who breed useless quarrels, and set to the world the 
 bright example of toleration and benevolence. A peace- 
 able life and happy death to all Adam's children ! May 
 the ministers of religion of every denomination, whether 
 they pray at the head of their congregations in em- 
 broidered vestments or black gowns, short coats, grey 
 locks, powdered wigs, or black curls, instead of inflaming 
 the rabble, and inspiring their hearers with hatred and 
 animosity to their fellow -creatures, recommend love, 
 peace, and harmony." 
 
 Father O'Leary's reply to Wesley produced quite a 
 sensation in this country and in England. Catholics 
 were delighted to find that, in the hour of their greatest 
 need, in the darkest era of their fortunes, they had one 
 champion bold enough, and, what was still better, 
 talented enough, to vindicate their religion from ca- 
 lumny, and themselves from insult For three-quarters 
 
136 Life and WHtings of 
 
 of a century, no such gladiator had dared to appear in 
 the arena of public life ; and now that the clouds and 
 mists of persecution were being dispelled by the genial 
 breathings of public opinion, it was to the victims of 
 oppression a source of pride and pleasure to behold 
 standing forth, with the light of heaven on his brow, 
 that valiant priest, the spokesman of a misgoverned 
 people, the defender of a calumniated creed, the preacher 
 of a despised philanthropy. 
 
 But Wesley was not so easily silenced. With the 
 true bull-dog spirit of an Englishman, he made another 
 dash at his opponent, and while, with that candor 
 which is also characteristic of his race, he admitted 
 Father O'Leary's Reriiarlcs to be " an arch and lively 
 production," he sought to assail it by new arguments, 
 which, in reality, were only a rechauffe of the old, and 
 were, like them, founded on a thorough misconception 
 of the Catholic creed, and a misinterpretation of cano- 
 nical decrees. Whatever could be said to the credit of 
 the Catholic religion, was altogether kept in the back- 
 ground, but whatever dirt could be flung was profusely 
 dealt about. An extract from Locke's letter on " Tole- 
 ration," together with Wesley's reply, was sent to O'Leary 
 with a request to answer it, if in his power. He was 
 not long in complying with so modest a demand, and, 
 after a few days, produced his " Eejoinder to Mr. 
 Wesley's Reply." Having no desire to indulge our- 
 selves or foster in others a taste for controversy, we 
 refrain from making any quotations from this "Re- 
 joinder," and shall only extract that paragraph which 
 takes up the gist of the whole correspondence, and shows 
 that Mr. Wesley's views on the subject were one-sided 
 and partial : — 
 
 " It was in the sixteenth century, when interested 
 men fomented divisions between Catholics and Protes- 
 tants, that the hand of calumny wrote false commen- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leaiy. 137 
 
 taries on the text of the canon of the Council of Con- 
 stance, and handed it down as a theme to religious 
 declaimers whom the test of orthodoxy proposed by the 
 very council will ever stare in the face. 
 
 " Here is the test inserted in a bull published with 
 the approbation of a general council — not by the Pope 
 in his personal capacity, but sac7'o approhante concilio. 
 ' Let the person suspected be asked whether he or she 
 does not think that all wilful perjury, committed upon 
 any occasion whatsoever, for the preservation of one's 
 life, or another man's, or even for the sake of the faith, 
 is a mortal sin V 
 
 "I have read," writes O'Leary, "nearly a thousand 
 religious declamations against Popery ; not one of the 
 authors of these invectives has candor or honor to 
 produce that test in favor of Catholics — which shows 
 the spirit that actuates them. They should at least 
 imitate the limner who first painted Pope's * Essay on 
 Man,' and contracted on the same canvas the blooming 
 cheek with the frightful skeleton, linked together in 
 the same group. No, they will paint the Catholic 
 religion in profile, and fix a Saracen's cheek into the 
 face of the Christian. The declaration of a general 
 council, which can afford the least occasion for cavil, will 
 be eternally held forth, whilst the decrees of the same 
 council liable to no misconstruction — where fraud and 
 perjury, even for the sake of religion, are condemned — 
 will be overlooked. Bellarmin, Becanus, and those other 
 Knoxes and Buchanans of the Catholic religion, whose 
 works were burned by the hands of the executioner in 
 Catholic countries, are dragged from their shelves, 
 whilst the decisions of the most learned universities in 
 the world, that condemned the false doctrine of those 
 incendiaries, are buried in silence. The bee alights on 
 flowers ; but the beetle falls on nuisances." 
 
 Wesley did not reply to the " Rejoinder," and so the 
 
138 Life and Writings of 
 
 coDtroversy ended. His letters were soon forgotten, 
 while the sentiments so eloquently expressed by his 
 antagonist were long remembered in the public mind. 
 The Protestant Association lost by the contest much of 
 its importance and activity ; its premises being so de- 
 structively assailed, its conclusions became lame and im- 
 potent. On a petition being presented in parliament 
 from the townspeople of Rochester, in April, 1780, for 
 the repeal of Sir George Saville's bill in favor of the 
 Catholics, Lord George Gordon rose, and declaimed 
 with more than usual violence against the encroach- 
 ments of the Papists, and " in order to elucidate his 
 argument, pulled out an Irish newspaper, and read two 
 extracts from Father O'Leary's letter against the prin- 
 ciples of Wesley. He afterwards read some passages from 
 Wesley's reply, and contended that another massacre of 
 the Protestants, like to that in Ireland, was to be 
 dreaded, if something was not done conformably to the 
 wishes of those of the Established Church. He said 
 such as came to him as a member of parliament had 
 told him that they already considered themselves ab- 
 solved from allegiance to his Majesty; they had not 
 yet determined to murder the King ; they only con- 
 sidered they were absolved from their allegiance."* 
 
 Some time after the appearance of the correspon- 
 dence between Father O'Leary and John Wesley, the 
 two disputants met at the social board of a mutual 
 friend, and it was interesting to observe how they, who 
 had so lately been engaged in the "keen encounter" of 
 polemical controversy, blended like congenial spirits in 
 the harmony of convivial enjoyment. The sombre de- 
 fender of the Protestant Association brightened beneath 
 the radiant wit of the " arch and lively" priest, and a 
 splendid instance was afforded of the peace and happi- 
 
 * Gobbet's Parliamentary History, vol. xxi. p. 387. 
 
Mev. Arthur O'Leary. 13.9 
 
 ness that men of opinioDS diametrically opposed might 
 enjoy, if, in their social relations, they suffered them- 
 selves to be influenced solely by the golden maxim of 
 our common Christianity, that we " love one another."* 
 Mr. Southey, in his "Life of Wesley ,"-|- contends that 
 his hero had the best of the controversy with O'Leary, 
 and that the only injury he suffered was owing to his 
 defence of the Protestant Association, and the unhappy 
 events that followed in London, which O'Leary adroitly 
 turned against him. What Mr. Southey may have 
 thought on the subject is a matter of very trifling im- 
 portance; the controversy is before the world — let 
 men judge for themselves. Whatever be the judgments 
 of various readers, let us close this chapter with a smile 
 of pleasure, as we behold the curtain falling on John 
 Wesley and Arthur O'Leary hand in hand. 
 
 • (( 
 
 May 12th, 1787.— A gentleman invited me to breakfast with my 
 old antagonist, Father O'Leary. I was not at all displeased at being 
 disappointed. He is not the stiflf, queer man that I expected, but of 
 *n easy, genteel carriage, and seems not to be wanting either in sense 
 or learning." — Extract from Wesley^ g Journal. 
 t Vol. ii. p. 546, 2nd ed., London, 1820. 
 
140 Life and Writings of 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Essay on Toleration — Tending to prove that a Man's Speculative 
 Opinion ought not to deprive him of the Rights of Civil Society — 
 Prefatory Remarks of the Author. 
 
 Christianity is a religion of love — it deprecates hatred 
 and cruelty, seeking to win proselytes by gentle persua- 
 sion rather than by coercion ; believing that a change of 
 religion is a conversion of mind, and that no amount of 
 physical force can convince the intellect or bend the 
 v^ill. The great Author of Christianity despised the 
 sword, and yet His creed has triumphed — He counts His 
 worshippers from the rising to the setting of the sun — 
 from pole to pole — through every age of human history. 
 If Christian rulers ever sought to gain converts to the 
 faith by terror, their zeal for religion was the enthusi- 
 asm of fanatics, rather than the well-regulated earnest- 
 ness of sober men. To hate our neighbour, because he 
 will not conform to our religious views, is surely to do a 
 most unchristian thing — to torture and persecute him 
 for his nonconformity, is to bring to the aid of religion 
 means of disciple-making which the God of religion dis- 
 owns and repudiates. 
 
 The two greatest blessings which his Creator has con- 
 ferred upon man, are Religion and Liberty; and yet 
 none have been more sadly perverted and abused than 
 they. Under the mask of the one, bigotry and fanati- 
 cism have deluged the world, with blood ; under the 
 guise of the other, anarchy and misrule have perpetrated 
 crimes that reveal hidden depths of degradation to 
 which humanity was deemed incapable of descending. 
 And, yet, man is not convinced by the experience of 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 141 
 
 afi^es that his efforts to alter the convictions of his fellow- 
 
 o 
 
 men by fire and sword have proved utterly unavailing. 
 Rulers are as ready to-day to enforce conviction by 
 cruelty, as they were in the times when rack and stake 
 and sword were the arguments of religious truth. The 
 crimes that have been committed in the name of liberty, 
 are constantly re-enacted under the eyes of men. But 
 the persecuted of this age are as well prepared as were 
 their forefathers, to face the wrath of tyrants, and bend 
 their necks unflinching to the blow, which, while in- 
 flicting death, adds to the brows of the victim a martyr's 
 cro\vn, and the halo of an imperishable remembrance. 
 History repeats itself, and persecution for religion 
 would, in this century, have the same effect that it had 
 in the darkest hour of the past — it would only confirm 
 the convictions it would seek to remove, and add to the 
 principle of religious fidelity a new principle of honor, 
 which would stimulate, to an invincible resolution, the 
 votaries against whom its tortures would be directed. 
 It would be said of them as was said of their ances- 
 tors: — 
 
 '* Proud of persecution's rage, 
 Some in fire, and some in field, 
 Their belief with blood have sealed, 
 Dying, as their fathers died, 
 For the God their foes denied. " 
 
 The persecutions against the Irish on the score of 
 religion, find no parallel for atrocity in the history of 
 mankind. How men could so hate their neighbours 
 for the love of God, would be a paradox none might 
 venture to solve. But the truth is, they did not hate 
 their neighbours for God's sake, but for their own selfish 
 purposes. It was against the property of the Irish that 
 the penal laws were levelled — religion was only a pre- 
 text for persecution. Confiscation and suppression of 
 manufactures enriched the conquerors — the conquered 
 
142 Life and Writings of 
 
 were told that they should never have been so punished 
 but for their foolish adherence to an impious creed. 
 Had the whole Irish race become Protestant, some other 
 ground of persecution and rapine would have been in- 
 vented. A highwayman attacks a defenceless traveller. 
 "My good man," he cries, "you are an unfortunate 
 Papist, you are going straight to damnation — change 
 your religion this moment — swear to the thirty-nine 
 articles of the Anglican creed, or I will filch from you 
 the last shilling of your wealth !" The traveller is a 
 timid man : he replies, " My friend, I cannot afford to 
 lose my wealth, I accept your alternative — I swear to 
 the articles of your creed." Are we justified in sup- 
 posing that the scrupulous Turpin will not invent some 
 new condition which his victim cannot possibly fulfil, 
 and which will necessitate the sacrifice of his purse ? 
 
 In this enlightened age, when the human mind seems 
 nearly to have exhausted its researches after truth, and 
 to begin acting on the stored-up experience of the past, 
 it is but natural to think that statutes of persecution 
 for creed's sake would be obsolete or entirely abolished, 
 and that men, at length, would see the advantage of 
 living in peace and harmony together, regardless of 
 private feelings on the subject of religion. One would 
 imagine that the Christians of the nineteenth century 
 could scarcely learn a lesson of charity from the Romans 
 who lived before the birth of Christ. And yet, we find 
 the Romans worshipping, each family in its respective 
 home, their own penates, while the citizens joined in 
 common in offering sacrifices to the tutelary deities 
 of the State. Would it were so with us, and that each 
 religious sect or community might worship according to 
 choice, without grudge or sneer, while Christians of 
 every denomination would combine in upholding before 
 the world the love and respect which all claim for the 
 Creator, whom all alike acknowledge ! 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 143 
 
 In the days of Arthur O'Leary, the Catholic religion, 
 as we have seen, was not tolerated by law in Ireland ; 
 the professors of it were treated with a spirit of con- 
 tempt, hatred, and contumely, degrading to human 
 nature. The friends of the country, perceiving the in- 
 fluence he had gradually acquired by his writings, 
 deemed it a favorable opportunity for the display 
 of his talents in the cause of religious toleration. He 
 was appealed to on the subject by many, and, at 
 length, yielded to their solicitations. He produced the 
 essay which we subjoin, and which would be much 
 injured in the estimation of the reader by compression 
 or curtailment. We give it in full, in the hope that 
 the arguments it contains may exercise in the minds 
 of the intolerant of this day, an influence similar to 
 that it produced on its first appearance — an influence 
 which dissipated the clouds of prejudice and error con- 
 cerning the religion of the Irishman, and opened for 
 him the way to the enjoyment of those civil rights from 
 which he had been so long and so unjustly excluded. 
 
 It would be treating the memory of Arthur O'Leary 
 with cruel injustice, if we were to deny that this re- 
 markable essay was largely instrumental in the favor- 
 able change which, at that time, took place in the 
 P^nglish estimation of the Irish " Papists," and in the 
 sudden lenity that marked the enactment and adminis- 
 tration of the laws in their favor. Before he wrote, 
 things had come to a pass which puts our credulity 
 to the severest test. A Catholic scarcely ventured to 
 address a Protestant with his hat on ; a Catholic, as he 
 walked the street, was immediately recognizable by his 
 abject air and appearance. A remarkable anecdote 
 illustrative of these facts, is given by Wyse, in 
 his "Historical Sketch of the Catholic Association." 
 " The pastor," he writes, " of one of the largest parishes 
 in one of the principal towns of Ireland, had never been 
 
144 Life and Writings of 
 
 seen in tlie public promenade. For forty years he had 
 lived in utmost seclusion from Protestant eyes, shield- 
 ing himself from persecution under his silence and 
 obscurity. But, the influence of the persecution re- 
 mained after the persecution itself had passed away. 
 After the concessions of 1793, a friend induced him, for 
 the first time, to visit the rest of the town. He ap- 
 peared amongst his fellow-citizens as an intruder, and 
 shrunk back to his retreat the moment he was allowed. 
 It was with difficulty, and on the most urgent occa- 
 sions only, that he could be prevailed upon to quit it. 
 Seldom did he appear on the walk afterwards, and it 
 was always with the averted eyes and faltering step of 
 a slave." 
 
 Things, indeed, have changed since then ; but a great 
 deal yet remains to be done. There are yet civil dis- 
 abilities to which Catholics are unjustly subject ; there 
 are offices in the State which they are not permitted to 
 fill ; there are inequitable legal provisions affecting the 
 disposal of their property. Everything that is holiest 
 and most sacred in their religion, is constantly sneered 
 at and ridiculed in the Protestant press, and on Protes- 
 tant platforms. Ignorance and bigotry and fanaticism 
 are still permitted to insult and deride the mysteries in 
 defence of which the Irish Catholic would shed the last 
 drop of his blood. Is this toleration, ample and honor- 
 able ? Is it a toleration worthy of Christian men to- 
 wards their fellow-Christians ? Every candid reader will 
 answer. No. The time is come when full and impartial 
 justice should be done to Irishmen, and when the outcry 
 against their religion should be hushed for ever. Many 
 of the injustices to which they were subjected in by- 
 gone times, had their origin in the calumnies by which 
 the national religion was misrepresented in the eyes of 
 Englishmen, who learned to see in " Popery " a system 
 of sanctifying the most abominable crimes. But Eng- 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 145 
 
 lish minds are open to reason, and English candour has 
 become proverbial. Statements like those of O'Leary 
 dispelled the doubts and shadows that marred the light 
 of truth ; and Englishmen began to see that " Popery " 
 was not the terrible bugbear, the diabolical monstrosity 
 they had supposed it to be. The penal laws were re- 
 laxed — Irishmen were admitted to the rights of sub- 
 jects ; and freedom, after a long night, began to dawn on 
 the isle of destiny. The sun of liberty is yet far from 
 the meridian ; for the mists of bigotry, and ignorance, 
 and intolerance, are not yet quite dissipated. There 
 are many who have lagged behind in the march of en- 
 lightenment — many who would revive the laws which 
 others seek to repeal. To such we recommend a care- 
 ful perusal of Arthur O'Leary 's Essay on Toleration, 
 where, in language bold, nervous, and expressive, they 
 shall discover a forcible, and yet not intemperate enun- 
 ciation of the grand principles of benevolence and truth, 
 and an indignant repudiation of injustice and oppres- 
 sion. Those who, after its perusal, still remain in the 
 shackles of bigotry, should have lived in the congenial 
 era of the Tudors and Philip of Spain, for surely they 
 are out of place in an age when religious equality is 
 pronounced by statesmen and philosophers to be 
 amongst the noblest boons of lawgivers, and the richest 
 blessings of a nation. 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 My design in the following sheets is, to throw open 
 the gates of civil toleration for all Adam's children 
 whose principles are not inconsistent with the peace of 
 civil society, or subversive of the rules of morality ; to 
 wrench, as far as in my power lies, the poniard, so often 
 
 L 
 
146 Life and Writings of 
 
 tinged with human blood, from the hand of persecution ; 
 to sheathe the sword which misguided zeal has drawn 
 in defence of a Gospel which recommends peace and 
 love ; to restore to man the indelible charter of his tem- 
 poral rights, which no earthly power has ever been com- 
 missioned by heaven to deprive him of on account of 
 his mental errors ; to re-establish the empire of peace 
 overthrown so often by religious feuds ; and to cement 
 all mortals, especially Christians, in the ties of social 
 harmony, by establishing toleration on its proper 
 ground. 
 
 The history of the calamities occasioned by difference 
 in religious opinions, is a sufficient plea for undertaking 
 the task. But time does not allow me to enter into a 
 detail of those melancholy scenes which misconstrued 
 religion has displayed. The effects are well known ; it 
 is high time to remove the cause. 
 
 The mind shrinks back at the thoughts of cruelties 
 exercised against the Christians by heathen emperors 
 for the space of three hundred years. Scarce did the 
 Christians begin to breathe under the first princes who 
 embraced their religion, than they fell out amongst 
 themselves about the mysteries of the Scriptures. 
 Arianism, protected by powerful sovereigns, raised 
 against the defenders of the Trinity persecutions as 
 violent as those raised formerly by the heathens. Since 
 that time, at different intervals, error, backed by power, 
 persecuted truth ; and the partisans of truth, forgetful 
 of the moderation which reason and religion prescribe, 
 committed the sam'e excesses with which they upbraided 
 their oppressors. Sovereigns, blinded by dangerous zeal 
 — or guided by barbarous policy — or seduced by odious 
 counsels — became the executioners of their subjects who 
 adopted religious systems different from those of their 
 rulers, or persevered in ancient systems from which 
 their sovereigns had receded. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 147 
 
 Had these horrors been confined to one sect of Chris- 
 tians only, infidels would not have been so successful in 
 their attacks on the system at large, though religion 
 disclaims the odious imputation. Bat all sects exe- 
 crated and attempted to extirpate one another. Europe 
 became one wild altar, on which every religious sect 
 oflfered up human victims to its creed. 
 
 The ministers of a religion that had triumphed over 
 the Caesars, not by resistance, but by suffering, became 
 the apologists of calamities that swept from the face of 
 the earth, or oppress to this day, God's noblest images 
 — upright, virtuous, and dauntless men. Like the war- 
 rior in the Scriptures, they stepped into the sanctuary, to 
 grasp the barbarian's sword wrapt up in the ephod. The 
 code of temporal laws, teeming with sanctions against 
 robbers and murderers, was swelled, to the surprise and 
 destruction of mankind, with additional decrees against 
 heretics and Papists. The inoffensive citizen, from an 
 apprehension of offending the Deity by acting against 
 bis conscience, was confined in the same dungeon, or 
 doomed to the fagot or axe, with the parricide who laid 
 aside every restraint of moral obligation : and the Scrip- 
 tures were adduced in justification of the sanguinary 
 confusion. The wreath and the rod have been held 
 forth, not to crown the worthy and punish the perni- 
 cious, but to scourge to conformity candid and steady 
 virtue. The priest gave the sanction of heaven to the 
 bloody mandates of the civil magistrate ; and the civil 
 magistrate unsheathed the sword to vindicate the cause 
 of the God of heaven, who reserves to Himself the punish- 
 ment of man's conscience. No person has a greater 
 respect for the clerical order of every denomination 
 than I have. I am of the number, and feel myself 
 wounded through their sides, when the Deist and free- 
 thinker, who hold them all in equal contempt, contend 
 " that in all ages, and in all countries, the clergy are the 
 
148 Life and Writings of 
 
 main props of persecution. That had they been as solici- 
 tous to heal and conciliate men's hearts, as they have 
 been to inflame and divide them, the world would by this 
 time bear a different aspect. That they should have 
 left the laity in peaceable possession of good neighbour- 
 hood, mutual charity, and friendly confidence. That 
 instead of enforcing the great principles of religion, the 
 very basis whereof is charity, peace, and love, they are 
 ever and always the first oppressors of those who differ 
 from them in opinion, and the active and impelling 
 spring that gives force and elasticity to the destructive 
 weapons of the civil power." In corroboration of the 
 charge, the freethinker will unfold the page of history, 
 and open those enormous volumes made up of religious 
 . declamations. He will prove from both that if " popes 
 and their apologists have scattered the firebrand, their 
 spiritual brethren have faithfully copied their example 
 in succeeding times, wherever their power and influence 
 prevailed." 
 
 "Though the Protestant divines," says Hume, "had 
 ventured to renounce opinions deemed certain for so 
 many ages, they regarded in their turn the new system 
 so certain, that they could bear no contradiction with 
 regard to it ; and they were ready to burn in the same 
 flames from which they themselves had so narrowly 
 escaped, every one that had the assurance to oppose 
 them."* Hence the scaffolds reeking in Holland with 
 . the blood of many illustrious men, who, after opposing 
 Philip the Second's efforts to introduce conformity by 
 Are and sword, fell themselves by the hand of the exe- 
 cutioner for denying Gomar's predestination. Hence 
 hecatombs of victims, offered upon the gloomy altar of 
 the Scotch League and Covenant, and peopling the 
 regions of the dead, for differing in opinion. " Out of 
 
 * Hume's Hist, of Eng. vol. iv. p. 16. 
 
Itev. Arthur O'Leaty. 149 
 
 every contested verse," says the satirical Voltaire, " there 
 issued a fury armed with a quibble and a poniard, who 
 inspired mankind at once with folly and cruelty." 
 
 The same demon that poured the poisonous cup over 
 the kingdoms and provinces of Europe, took his flight 
 over the Atlantic, and spread his baneful influence 
 amonorst colonists who had themselves fled from the 
 scourge. Their new-built cities, like so many Jerusalems, 
 were purified from idolatry. There no Popish priest 
 dared to bend his knee to " his idols, or transfer to stock 
 or stone the worship due to the God of Israel." There 
 the Quaker-woman's silent groans were raised to the 
 high key of loud shrieks, when the Lord's deputy 
 ordered her profane breasts to be whipped oflf by the 
 Gospel scourge, that whipped the profaners out of the 
 temple. There the Quaker was seen suspended by the 
 neck on high, for daring to pollute the sacred streets 
 with his profane feet moved by BaaVs spirit The holy 
 city* thus purged from the Jebuseans and Pheriseans, 
 was split soon after into two factions. The two famous 
 covenants, the covenant of grace and covenant of works, 
 soon divided the spiritual militants. The jarring of 
 divinity caused such dissensions, that in the presence of 
 sixty thousand savages, headed by their warriors, giving 
 the signal for scaling the walls to bury the contending 
 parties under their ruins, grace would not permit works 
 to lend the least assistance for repelling the common foe. 
 It became victorious over the Indians and Christians. 
 It drove the first from its walls, and banished the latter 
 from the city into savannahs and deserts to procure them- 
 selves subsistence by the work of their hands. 
 
 In a word, persecution on the score of our conscience 
 has thinned the world of fifty millions of human beings 
 by fire and sword. Thousands who have escaped the 
 
 * See the IlUlory of Massachtuetts' Bay or Boston. 
 
150 Life and Writings of 
 
 sword and fagot, have perished, and are daily perishing 
 with hunger and want for their mode of worship. The 
 London riots, occasioned by a pretext of religion, have 
 added about four hundred more, deluded by religious 
 frenzy, to the enormous number. And although they 
 suffered as plunderers and incendiaries, yet religious in- 
 tolerance in their leaders occasioned the deluded people's 
 destruction. 
 
 The history of the calamities occasioned by the 
 Gospel of peace could be concluded with the poet's 
 Epiphonema, Tantum religio potuit suadere malo- 
 rum — " Such devilish acts religion could persuade."* 
 
 The Quakers, to their eternal credit, and to the honor 
 of humanity, are the only persons who have exhibited a 
 meekness and forbearance, worthy the imitation of those 
 who have entered into a covenant of mercy by their 
 baptism. William Penn, the great legislator of that 
 people, had the success of a conqueror in establishing 
 and defending his colony amongst savage tribes, without 
 ever drawing the sword ; the goodness of the most 
 benevolent rulers in treating his subjects as his own 
 children ; and the tenderness of a universal father, who 
 opened his arms to all mankind without distinction of 
 sect or party. In his republic, it was not the religious 
 creed but personal merit that entitled every member of 
 society to the protection aud emoluments of the State. 
 Rise from your grave, great man ! and teach those 
 sovereigns who make their subjects miserable on ac- 
 count of their catechisms, the method of making them 
 happy! They whose dominions resemble enormous 
 prisons, where one part of the creation are distressed 
 captives, and the other their unpitying keepers. 
 
 I shall examine the charter which is pleaded in jus- 
 tification of restraints on the score of conscience. The 
 
 * Creech's Lucretius. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 151 
 
 Protestant and Catholic are equally concerned in the 
 discussion. Each would plead for toleration in his turn, 
 and the honor of religion should be vindicated from 
 the imputation of enormities which should be trans- 
 ferred to their real principles — I mean the passions of 
 men, or their ignorance of the limits which religion 
 itself prescribes to their power. I know the difficulty 
 there lies in encountering prejudices which have a long 
 prescription to plead. I shall be asked whether I am 
 ignorant of the rescripts of the popes, inserting in the 
 directory of the Inquisition the imperial constitutions 
 dooming heretics to the flames ; the authority of Pro- 
 testant and Catholic canonists, divines, and civilians, 
 Calvin, Bellarmin, Gomar, benches of Protestant bishops, 
 who gave their votes for enacting the law that doomed 
 myself to transportation and to death if ever I return 
 to my country, though I am conscious of no crime 
 against the State but the crime of a legal creation, viz. : 
 saying my prayers while others are cursing ! Am I 
 ignorant of the practice of ages, which has given a 
 sanction of fines, forfeitures, imprisonments, and death 
 itself, on the score of religion ? — a practice supported 
 by the most learned writers of every denomination, and 
 legible in bloody characters in the annals of Protestant 
 States as well as in the registers of the Inquisition ? I 
 answer that I am not ignorant of the sanguinary rubric 
 that first taught the manner of preparing a human 
 victim for the altar of religion in honor of a God, who, 
 instead of requiring such a sacrifice, died on the cross 
 for His creatures, and with expanded arms prayed for 
 His enemies. Neither am I ignorant of the gloomy 
 ritual substituted in certain kingdoms in place of the 
 fagot, and which prescribes the manner of stripping a 
 man in honor of a Gospel which commands to clothe the 
 naked. They must both come under the same descrip- 
 tioD. For, if religion authorize to deprive a man of the 
 
152 Life and WHtings of 
 
 means of supporting life and providing for the educa- 
 tion of his children and the maintenance of his family, 
 the same religion authorizes to deprive him of life itself 
 Religion is alleged on both sides, and as the degree of 
 punishment is arbitrary, and lies at the discretion of 
 the legislator, he can extend or reduce it to what com- 
 pass he thinks fit, and it is well known that a speedy 
 death is preferable to a tedious agony. 
 
 But what if I oppose practice to practice ; pope to 
 pope ; doctor to doctor ? Without a cardinal's robe or 
 a bishop's rochet, what if my arguments in favor of 
 the rights of mankind should outweigh the reasoning of 
 the purpled or mitred apologists of its oppressors ? 
 What if my authorities should prove more numerous 
 and illustrious than theirs ? What if I should happen 
 to demonstrate that when they allege religion as a 
 sufficient motive for the exertion of oppressive power in 
 such an age or in such a country, it must be the religion 
 of time or place, but not the religion of the Gospel. 
 Fides teTnporuTYi non evangelioruTn. Cartesius, in a 
 stove, by remarking the motion of the smoke that rolled 
 from his pipe, gave the first shock to Aristotle's bar- 
 barous philosophy, that kept the world in ignorance for 
 so many ages ; succeeding geniuses improved upon the 
 new plan ; until at last Sir Isaac Newton dispelled the 
 mist, and made the light shine forth in its full lustre. 
 I, in my cell, reflecting on the revolutions that religion 
 has occasioned, not for the good but for the destruction 
 of mankind — revolutions in their morals, by inspiring 
 them with mutual hatred and aversion, by making them 
 believe that they had dispensed with the unchangeable 
 laws of love and humanity, and deluding them into a 
 persuasion that the death or oppression of a fellow- 
 creature on account of his error was an agreeable sacri- 
 fice to the Divinity — I, also, by a feeble attempt to 
 overthrow the altar of an idol that has put Jesus Christ 
 
Bev. Arthur O^Leary. 153 
 
 on a level with Moloch, and whose false oracles per- 
 suaded mankind that the ears of a God of compassion 
 and tenderness were pleased with the groans of victims 
 tied to the stake, or famishing in dungeons or hovels — 
 may induce others to list under the banner of benevo- 
 lence, and pave the way for abler hands to raise the 
 structure of human happiness on the ruins of religious 
 frenzy. 
 
 Locke has handled the subject as a profound philoso- 
 pher ; Voltaire as a partial satirist, in a declamatory 
 style, more with a view to censure the Scripture than 
 to establish it on its proper grounds. I am confined to 
 the province of a divine, and in that quality shall 
 arraign at the bar of religion itself the calamities to 
 which the mistakes or the passions of men have given 
 rise under pretence of vindicating the Deity. The 
 bigot will consider me as a latitudinarian, to whom all 
 religions are indifferent, and as one who writes in such 
 a manner as dispenses men from the obligation of sub- 
 mitting to the Church. He is mistaken ; I am not an 
 architect who would build the edifice of my faith on 
 different plans, nor an ambassador who would sign two 
 contradictory treaties in my legation. Every person is 
 bound to enquire after the truth, and when he finds it 
 to embrace its dictates. If he neglect it, let the blame 
 lie at his own door. Let charity and zeal induce his 
 neighbour to instruct and persuade him when there is 
 a probability of reclaiming him from error; but let 
 not violence, oppression, and wanton insults, be used in 
 order to compel him. God has given him free will and 
 liberty of choosing either fire or water. The sanguinary 
 divines who think it lawful in the supreme magistrate 
 to inflict a capital punishment on misguided religionists 
 (for they do not allow one individual to kill or oppress 
 another on account of difference of religion), acknow- 
 ledge that heretical and idolatrous kings should not be 
 
154 Life and WHtings of 
 
 deposed or killed by their Christian or orthodox sub- 
 jects, because, say they, " dominion is not founded in 
 grace, ' but in free will' " 
 
 I would fain know by what right Christian, idola- 
 trous, or orthodox kings, can deprive their heathen. 
 Christian, heretical, or orthodox subjects of their lives 
 or properties, on account of their mental errors ? But 
 the Scripture commancts to obey kings in what is 
 lawful; and where does it command kings to kill or 
 oppress their subjects ? When it recommends justice 
 and mercy to the rulers of the earth, does it make any 
 distinction between their heathen, heretical, or ortho- 
 dox subjects ? The Church disclaims the right of the 
 sword, and the use of fines and confiscations, to promote 
 her spiritual ends. The civil powers are not com- 
 petent judges of speculative errors. How come people, 
 then, to be oppressed between the civil powers and the 
 established church in any State ? If it be answered, 
 that the established church in any State can exercise 
 the right of the sword, not by herself, but by her 
 magistrate, then the death of the criminal must entirely 
 lie at the hangman's door, and the judge who passed a 
 final doom on him has no share in the execution. 
 Away, then, for ever with the odious and fallacious 
 distinction ! 
 
 Are the Catholic and Protestant princes of Germany, 
 who have granted a free exercise of their religion 
 to all their subjects, worse Christians than the Catholic 
 and Protestant princes of barbarous times, who were 
 their subjects' executioners ? The Catholics and Pro- 
 testants who say their prayers in the same church in 
 that tolerating country, are they worse Christians than 
 the Catholics and Protestants whom Henry the Eighth 
 used to couple together on the same hurdle, and order 
 to the place of execution ? 
 
 Or is the Church that sees her children receive the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 155 
 
 sacraments at the rails of the sanctuary wherein the 
 Protestant minister and the Catholic priest officiate by 
 turns, less enlightened and less tenacious of her doc- 
 trine than she was in the time of Pope Innocent the 
 Third ? Death, fines, and confiscations, then, on the 
 score of conscience, when the religionist behaves as 
 a peaceable subject, are the ungraceful offspring of 
 lawless rule. Tyranny begot it, ignorance fostered it, 
 and barbarous divines have clothed it with the stolen 
 garments of religion. 
 
 STATE OF THE CASE, 
 
 Has the supreme power in any State a right to 
 vindicate the Deity by fines, forfeitures, confiscations, 
 oppression, or the death of men, whose only crime is an 
 erroneous religion which does not disturb the peace 
 of society, whether they be Jews, Mahometans, Chris- 
 tians, heretics, or Catholics, provided they believe a 
 Supreme Being, and rewards and punishments in a 
 future state ? For all people exclude from civil tolera- 
 tion those who confound vice and virtue in the horrors 
 of the grave ; because the links of society are dissolved 
 when vice loses its horror, and virtue its attractions; 
 when the heart is steeled against the fear of an in- 
 visible Judge, and the conscience is unshackled from 
 its bonds. 
 
 Answered in the negative. For life, liberty, and the 
 power to accumulate a fortune by honest means, &c., 
 are rights founded in nature ; and the rights of nature 
 are not reversed by the religion founded by Him, who 
 declares that He came not to destroy but to save. 
 Much less can they be reversed by civil rulers, who are 
 born like other men, and who would not be dis- 
 tinguished above the crowd, were it not for the social 
 compact by which they bound themselves to protect 
 those rights and preserve them inviolate. If they do 
 
156 Life and Writings of 
 
 otherwise, as often they have done, and do to this 
 very day, it is by a stretch of power, not by the rule of 
 right, and their only plea is that mentioned in Tacitus, 
 "Id enim est cequius quod est fortius." 
 
 From the earliest ages, the boundaries of religion 
 and the concerns of the civil magistrate were kept dis- 
 tinct. If, in the Jewish theocracy alone, they happened 
 to be interwoven, and that a secession from the estab- 
 lished religion was made capital, it was by a special 
 commission from God, which Jesus Christ repealed in 
 the New Law, as we shall hereafter prove. Scattered 
 tribes, before they subjected themselves to civil institu- 
 tions, believed in God, at whose hands they expected 
 the rewards of their virtues, and dreaded the punish- 
 ment of their misdeeds. 
 
 Religion, and conscience, its immediate interpreter, 
 were anterior to society, and altars reeked with the 
 gore of victims before the block was dyed with the 
 blood of malefactors spilled by the sword of the stern 
 magistrate. 
 
 For his security and defence, man, on entering into 
 society, gave up part of his liberty to dispose of his 
 actions, his acquisitions, his time, which, in the state 
 of nature, were at his own disposal ; but he could never 
 give up his way of thinking, or submit the dictates of 
 his conscience to the magistrate's control. It is an in- 
 terior monitor, whose voice cannot be silenced by 
 human laws, and which our very passions, our inclina- 
 tions, our temporal interests can seldom bribe, how 
 prone soever we may be to the collusive compact. 
 Hear this, O ye rulers of the earth ! Usurp no autho- 
 rity over God's inheritance. He alone can water and 
 fertilize it with His grace, or, from a hidden judgment 
 not cognizable by an earthly tribunal, strike it with 
 barrenness and sterility. In this life you have power 
 to kill or to save the body, but leave the soul of man to 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 157 
 
 the God who gave it. Call to mind that you must be 
 regulated by justice. Illustrious culprits, whose autho- 
 rity screens you from the rigor of human laws, if you 
 violate the sacred rules of order, you also are to be 
 judged. The splendour that surrounds you made the 
 prophet cry out, "Ye are gods and sons of the Most 
 High ;" but he afterwards eclipses this splendour with 
 the veil of death — " you also must die." Let not bleed- 
 ing victims and famished objects, foi the sake of re- 
 ligion, which the rulers of this earth are the last to 
 observe in their morals, be presented to you by your 
 judge, who will call for your commission, and confront 
 you with the works of your hands. The authority with 
 which you are invested is delegated by the people, and 
 while you enjoy it you claim the sanction of heaven. 
 But neither heaven nor man has granted you a power 
 to punish any but malefactors; and no man is less 
 liable to the imputation than one who follows the dic- 
 tates of his conscience. To him it is the oracle of the 
 Divinity. In abiding by its dictates, he imagines to 
 please his Creator. An intention to please God is no 
 crime. Mistaken he may be, but every mistaken man 
 is not a malefactor or cheat. 
 
 If, in a wanton fit of cruelty, you imitated those 
 African kings, who, leaping into their saddles, cut off 
 their squires' heads with one blow, to display their dex- 
 terity, or that Turkish emperor, who, to show the 
 limner his mistake in painting the decollation of John 
 the Baptist, called for a slave, and striking off his head, 
 compared it with the picture, saying to the painter, 
 ** You see by this head that the veins in that picture are 
 not sufficiently shrivelled," — would your power screen 
 you from the guilt of murder ? If I am doomed to the 
 stake or deprived of my horse for not swearing to what 
 I do not believe, the laws will justify the informer and 
 executioner, who will say, " The laws of your governors 
 
158 Life and Writings of 
 
 have so decreed." It is, then, incumbent on governors 
 to examine how far God will justify themselves. Nor 
 is it a sufficient plea that such laws were made by 
 others, when it is by their own authority they are put 
 in execution ; it is equal to the individual who is de- 
 prived of life or his property, whether it be by the 
 highwayman or the officer of justice, when life or 
 property falls a sacrifice to the integrity of his con- 
 science. 
 
 God rejects a homage which the heart belies, and 
 yoe to the conscience liable to the magistrate's control ! 
 It would be no longer the impregnable fortress that 
 should never surrender but on conviction that such is 
 the will of its Master ; it would be the ductile wax on 
 which every new impression would erase the former, and 
 resume it by turns. It would believe the real presence 
 in Rome and Upsal. It would deny it in Geneva and 
 Edinburgh. In Paris it would hope for an empyreal 
 heaven, and joys spiritual and unspeakable, through 
 the merits of Christ, in a future state: an earthly 
 paradise and a seraglio of women amongst never-fading 
 bowers, if it worshipped the great Alia, and Mahomet 
 his prophet, in Constantinople. It would worship a 
 living man in Tartary, and evil genii in Africa. An 
 evident proof that God has never granted any control 
 to kings or governors over the conscience of man, and 
 that it must be left to itself and to the grace of Him 
 who gave it. 
 
 For, in every kingdom and government, the magis- 
 trates would claim the same power. Every one of them 
 believes himself in the right. I am still in the wrong 
 when I act against my own conscience ; instead of mak- 
 ing a sincere convert, they will only make a perjured 
 impostor of me. Hence, the wise Theodoric and other 
 monarchs would never confer any extraordinary privi- 
 leges on those who conformed to their religion. When 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 159 
 
 one of his courtiers embraced Arianism (that king's 
 religion), " How could you have me trust you," said the 
 monarch, " you who betray your conscience and Christ 
 whom you have worshipped from your early days ?" He 
 preferred steady virtue, blended with what he deemed 
 error, to deceitful hypocrisy assuming the mask of truth, 
 and never considered a man's religion as a sufficient 
 plea for excluding him from the rights of a subject. 
 
 Must, then, a magistrate be quite indifferent about 
 his religion ? Must he see it insulted ? Must he see 
 error spread, and stand by, a neutral spectator ? 
 
 By no means ; if he be convinced of the truth of his 
 religion, far from being indifferent about it, his duty is 
 to practise it. And no religion established by the laws 
 of any State, be it ever so false, is to be insulted. It 
 would be equally indecent and ridiculous in a Chris- 
 tian missionary, to cry out in the streets of Constanti- 
 nople — " Mahomet is a devilish impostor." He would 
 not succeed so well as that Scotchman who went to Rome 
 to convert Pope Ganganelli. To all appearances, he had 
 studied the Revelations well, and found out the number 
 of the beast, as well as the year of his downfall. Ac- 
 coutred with his Bible and sure of success, he sets off 
 for Rome, and meeting the pope in St. Peter's Church, 
 cries out with a loud voice : " Rome is the scarlet whore, 
 and you are the Antichrist : Gang awa for Scotland 
 and become a member of the Kirk."* The pope's 
 attendants requested he would get him confined. 
 " God forbid," replied the pope, " that I would punish 
 an honest man, who has gone through so many hard- 
 ships for what he thought the good of my soul." He 
 made him some presents, and gave him full liberty to 
 be guided by his Revelations. 
 
 With regard to the magistrate's duty in preventing 
 
 * Moore's Travel*. 
 
160 Life and Writings of 
 
 error from spreading, error may be considered in its 
 different stages, either in its rise or progress. Montes- 
 quieu is of opinion that when there is but one religion 
 established in a State, it lies at the magistrate's discre- 
 tion to reject a new doctrine ; but, when many religions 
 have got a footing in the State, they are to be tolerated. 
 The first part of this maxim is observed in Spain and 
 Portugal; the second, to the happiness of mankind, and 
 the honor of religion, is practised all over Germany, 
 Switzerland, Holland, &c. 
 
 It is true the first beginning of a controversy may 
 be checked by a steady severity; and a new doctrine 
 may, perhaps, be eradicated with the death of its 
 authors, without leaving any seeds of future innovations. 
 But still the difficulty recurs, whether the misguided 
 religionist, whose opinions do not interfere with the 
 peace of society, the property of individuals, and the 
 rights of magistracy, and which are less subjected to 
 the criterion of human understanding, being of the 
 speculative kind, is punishable by the magistrate's 
 sword ? Reason combines with religion to inform us 
 that he is not, and the experience of ages evinces the 
 impotence of such attempts. " The melancholy with 
 which the fear of death, torture and persecution, inspires 
 the sectaries," says Mr. Hume, " is the proper disposi- 
 tion for softening religious zeal. The prospect of eter- 
 nal rewards, when brought near, overpowers the dread 
 of temporary punishments ; the glory of martyrdom 
 stimulates all the more furious zealots. "Where a violent 
 animosity is excited by oppression, men pass naturally 
 from hating the persons of their tyrants, to a more vio- 
 lent abhorrence of their doctrine ; and the spectators, 
 moved with pity towards the supposed martyrs, are 
 naturally seduced to embrace those principles which can 
 inspire men with a constancy almost supernatural." 
 At all events, whatever may be said in favor of 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary, 161 
 
 suppressing by persecution the first beginnings of error, 
 no solid argument can be alleged for extending severity 
 to multitudes. Or, if persecution of any kind be allowed, 
 the most violent is the most effectual. Imprisonments, 
 fines, and confiscations, are heavier torments than the 
 stake, wheel, or gibbet. For the man is tormented, but 
 the error is not suppressed. 
 
 What is to be done, then, in the first stage of the 
 error ? Let the spiritual society to whom the religionist 
 belongs, when he attempts to alter her doctrine, correct, 
 admonish, and exhort him. If he continues to be ob- 
 stinate, let her refuse him her sacraments, the partici- 
 pation of her spiritual communion, the communication 
 of her spiritual worship — to this alone her power is 
 confined : she may caution her members against the 
 contagion of his errors. Life, limb, the enjoyment of 
 his estate, the authority of a husband, are founded in 
 nature, and cannot be alienated by any spiritual juris- 
 diction, much less by the civil magistrate, who is not a 
 competent judge of error, and whose sword may pierce 
 the body, but can never control the mind. 
 
 But if the laws of God and the rights of mankind do 
 not permit to oppress an individual for his mental 
 errors, what are we to say when numbers of sects get 
 footing in a State ? Let the door of toleration be thrown 
 open to them all, and not one of them be exposed as a 
 butt to all the rest. Mutual hatred will relax, and the 
 common occupations and pleasures of life will succeed 
 to the acrimony of religious disputations. 
 
 In vain do Calvin, Bellarmin, and other apologists of 
 persecution, arm the magistrate with texts of the Old 
 Law, which commands to stone the false prophets to 
 death ; to put idolatrous cities to the sword ; and " to 
 slay Agag before the Lord." The Jewish polity is quite 
 different from modem political institutions. God Him- 
 self was the immediate governor of society, who worded 
 
 M 
 
162 Life and Writings of 
 
 by Himself their laws and ceremonies — who blended 
 together their civil and religious institutions — and who 
 had an immediate power to deprive sinful man of the 
 life of which He Himself was the author. Neither was 
 it every false prophet He ordered to be stoned, nor 
 every city He ordered to be pat to the sword ; but such 
 prophets as sprang up amongst the Jews themselves, 
 and such cities as belonged to the Jewish theocracy — 
 I mean cities inhabited by Jews who had been in- 
 structed in His laws and ceremonies. " If a false prophet 
 rise up amongst you in those days." " The city which 
 shall worship gods unknown there before," &c. 
 
 This was rebellion against the State which He had 
 taken under His immediate protection, and which was 
 of so peculiar a frame, as to be entirely dissolved by the 
 introduction of idolatry. As if a set of preachers got 
 up now, and instilled into the minds of the people a 
 doctrine that would overthrow the three powers of the 
 State in those kingdoms, to introduce a democracy ; or 
 monarchy into Holland, on the ruins of a republican 
 government — they certainly would suffer in both places, 
 not for religion, but for treason, in attempting to over- 
 throw the respective governments. 
 
 Hence, the neighbouring cities plunged in idolatry, 
 which were not under the laws of the Jewish theocracy, 
 were not destroyed on account of their false worship, 
 but on account of crimes committed against the laws of 
 nature, which had filled the measure of their iniquities. 
 And Agag, a name so familiar in the mouths of fana- 
 tical preachers in the time of Charles the First — and 
 which, to the scandal of that age, and the discredit* of 
 the English peers a,nd cavaliers, was couched in their 
 address to Queen Elizabeth, requesting the death of 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, as " Samuel slew Agag " — Agag, 
 I say, was not put to death for worshipping his false 
 gods, but for his cruelty and violation of the laws of 
 
Bev. AHhur O'Leary. 163 
 
 nations. " As thy sword," says the prophet, " has made 
 many women childless, so your mother shall be a widow 
 this day." 
 
 Sensible rewards and sensible punishments were re- 
 quisite for the Jewish people. It was requisite to raise 
 a wall of separation between them and neighbouring 
 nations, to prevent the fatal effects of their inclination 
 to idolatry. Their religious worship required to be 
 inseparably interwoven with their civil polity, and con- 
 sidered the infringers of the law of God as rebels to the 
 State, and enemies of their country. Their worship was 
 an instrument in the hands of God to exterminate 
 people polluted with the most abominable crimes : 
 hence afflictive punishments, and death itself, decreed 
 by the law of Moses against Jews fallen into idolatry, 
 or into any other crime contrary to the law. 
 
 Those institutions were to have an end ; the new 
 alliance, promised in the old, has levelled the barrier 
 that separated Jew and Gentile, uniting both in the 
 profession of the same faith. It proposes more sublime 
 and exalted motives than those proposed by the Mosaic 
 law. In the room of temporal rewards and temporal 
 punishments, it has substituted those of an invisible 
 and eternal nature. It acknowledges no strangers, it 
 knows no enemy, it opens a door of mercy to all, and 
 an entrance into its mysteries without terror or com- 
 pulsion. It is a delicious fruit, that attracts the eyes 
 of those who choose to view it, but never forces the 
 hand to pluck it. Jesus Christ never said : " Whoever 
 does not follow me shall be miserable in this world; 
 shall be considered as a rebel to the State in which he 
 lives, unprotected by the laws, doomed to the fagot, or 
 stripped of his property." He leaves it to every one's 
 choice, either to follow or renounce Him — " If any one 
 chooses to come after me " — siquis vult. When His 
 very disciples intended to quit Him, he does not re- 
 
164 Life and Writings of 
 
 tain them by compulsion, but says, in a gentle manner, 
 " Are you also willing to quit me ?" And it is in vain to 
 boast of Gospel liberty when people are dragged, by 
 confiscations, forfeitures, and death itself, as so many 
 forced victims, into the sanctuary of religion. 
 
 It is an abominable palliative to say, that, though the 
 fathers are bad proselytes, yet, the children or grand- 
 children may be good Protestants or good Catholics. 
 As if the son should be put in the way of salvation by 
 the perjury and hypocrisy of the father, religion pro- 
 pagated by crimes, and evil committed in consideration 
 of the good which may arise from it, in express oppo- 
 sition to the tenets of that religion which forbids it. 
 The religion of Jesus Christ is proposed to all, and the 
 more universal it is, the less it employs terrors and 
 constraints to enforce obedience to its injunctions. It 
 stamps the sentiments of humanity, dictated by the 
 law of nature, with a peculiar character of sweetness 
 and charity. 
 
 Scarce had its Founder assembled a few disciples, 
 when two of them, storming with rage for being refused 
 the rights of hospitality, requested permission to bring 
 down the fire of heaven on the inhabitants. They 
 imagined themselves in the time of Elias, when God 
 punished with visible chastisements the insults offered 
 to His prophets. Jesus Christ undeceives them : — "You 
 know not to what spirit you belong ; the Son of Man is 
 not come to kill but to save." As if He said, both to 
 them and their successors, " It is no longer the time for 
 menaces and torments. You live under a law whose 
 spirit is not the spirit of error, but the spirit of con- 
 fidence and love. The Master whom you serve does 
 not thirst after the blood of His enemies ; He does not 
 choose to see them at His feet in rage and despair. 
 Forced homages are odious in His eyes, thunder and 
 the exterminating sword are not His arms; He is only 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 165 
 
 come to convert and save souls, but not to destroy or 
 famish the bodies of men." 
 
 Hence, He has not given to those whom He 
 charged with the commission of extending and propa- 
 gating His religion any instructions but that of imita- 
 ting] His zeal. His patience, and His charity towards 
 mankind. He has furnished them with no other 
 means of making proselytes to His religion, but per- 
 suasion, prayer, and good example. The theocratical 
 government is no longer confounded and interwoven with 
 civil and political institutions. The kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ is not of this world. He leaves the rulers of the 
 earth the full enjoyment of their prerogatives, whether 
 they know Him, or whether they blaspheme His name ; 
 and He leaves their subjects in full possession of their 
 rights as men. 
 
 Jesus Christ does not choose for subjects but such 
 as freely list in His service. Those who are rebellious 
 to His voice He terrifies with the punishment of a 
 future state, and has not commissioned any power 
 on earth to enlarge by force the boundaries of His 
 kingdom. However His creatures may be divided 
 in opinion about speculative points. He has left them 
 one law, which is liable to no private interpretation, 
 • but must ever be interpreted in the literal sense, " Love 
 one another, and do not to others what you would not 
 have others do unto you." 
 
 Calvin and Bellarmin's remaining arguments consist 
 in similes and some misconstrued passages of the 
 Fathers, who, in their homilies, inveigh against errors 
 in faith, as against adultery, forgery, &c., on account of 
 the divorce which a breach of divine faith causes 
 between God and the Christian soul, and the enormity 
 of forging or counterfeiting the divine credentials with 
 the ha/nd of error. But the disparity is obvious. 
 Adultery, forgery, and similar crimes, fall immediately 
 
166 Life and Writings of 
 
 under the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate, on account 
 of the injury offered to society, by invading the pro- 
 perty of individuals committed to his care. The man 
 who is in error hurts none but himself If others be 
 misled by him, it is their own choice, and the result of 
 their free will, over which the civil power has no con- 
 trol ; nor the ecclesiastical power, but as far as it can 
 refuse such persons the sacraments and the other reli- 
 gious symbols of her communion, which no other church 
 will give those out of her pale, and which no person out 
 of her pale will require. 
 
 But in every State is not blasphemy punished, though 
 of a spiritual nature ? 
 
 Blasphemy is punished, because it is an open irreve- 
 rence to the Deity, the knowledge of whose attributes, 
 and the dread of whose justice, is the very basis of civil 
 society. But an erroneous opinion in religion can sub- 
 sist with the respect due to the Deity. 
 
 A man, engaged in error, proposes to himself to serve 
 God in the manner he thinks most pleasing to the 
 Sovereign Being. Though he mistakes the right road, 
 yet his intention is sincere. Moreover, blasphemy in- 
 volves a breach of manners, which has a natural ten- 
 dency to disturb the peace of society. A friend takes 
 offence if his friend is abused in his presence ; a brother, 
 if his brother is used in an indecent manner. 
 
 A Jewish rabbin may preach in his synagogue that 
 the Messiah is not yet come, and extricate himself, as 
 well as he can, by doing away the weeks and days of 
 the prophet Daniel. No Christian can blame him, for 
 we all know that it is the man's belief, and that he is 
 sincere, though in error at the same time. But this 
 Jew, convinced that Christ is respected by the Chris- 
 tians, and worshipped by them as their God, would 
 expose himself to the rigor of the magistrate if he 
 openly called Christ an impostor, because he insults the 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 167 
 
 magistrate more than if he gave this denomination to 
 his father or brother. 
 
 The most monstrous absurdity, then, that ever met 
 with apologists in Church or State, is the misdirected 
 zeal that punishes the body for the sincerity of an 
 erroneous conscience, — whereas, no person deserves 
 more the severity of human laws than the impostor who 
 betrays it. The divines themselves, whose forced in- 
 terpretations of Scripture and theological disputes have 
 armed sovereigns against their subjects, agree that no 
 person, can act against the immediate dictates of an 
 erroneous conscience. Hence, the Jew, who is under a 
 conviction that Christ is not God, would be guilty of 
 gross idolatry, if, from motives of worldly interest, he 
 worshipped Him with the Christians. In punishing 
 him for not worshipping Christ, you punish the candor, 
 sincerity, and uprightness of a deluded man, who is 
 afraid to offend his Creator. The same can be said of 
 all others who dissent from any established religion. 
 
 But I will be told that, in reasoning thus, I renounce 
 my own creed, whereas the rescripts of popes, the 
 establishment of the Inquisition, and numberless texts 
 of the canon law relating to heretics, show what a 
 Catholic clergyman ought to believe. 
 
 I have already declared, and sufficiently proved, that 
 the rescripts of all the popes that ever sat in Peter's 
 chair, or ever will, can never make an article of faith 
 for Roman Catholics, any more than a king of England's 
 proclamation can make an article of faith for English 
 Protestants, though he is head of their Church. 
 
 Positive laws and human establishments, temporary 
 sanctions and local regulations, are no creeds nor articles 
 of religion : and happy for the honor of the Protestant 
 religion in these realms that they are not. No Catholic 
 divine ever attributed such power to a general council 
 as Sir William Blackstone attributes to the British 
 
168 Life and Writings of 
 
 Parliament. " It can change," says he, " the religion 
 of the land, and do everything, under heaven, that is 
 possible." If all its 'acts were to be considered as 
 articles of faith, (as some paltry scribblers would fain 
 obtrude on the public the texts of the canon law, and 
 the rescripts of popes, as articles of Catholic belief,) the 
 world had never seen such a religious creed. 
 
 The reader would see, in Gothic characters, imprison- 
 ment and death decreed against the priest for saying 
 his prayers ; to jpervert or he perverted to the See of 
 Rome, punished as high treason ; a second refusal to 
 take the old oath of supremacy, liable to a similar 
 punishment. He would see the neighbour authorized 
 to take the neighbour's horse; the son authorized to 
 strip the father of his property ; the articles of Lime- 
 rick, under the solemn faith of a capitulation, violated 
 without the least provocation on the part of the inhabi- 
 tants. From those he would pass to others of less im- 
 portance. He would see a solemn act of the legislature 
 commanding women to declare their own shame, and 
 making it high treason in them to marry the king if 
 they were not virgins.* 
 
 The Catholic orator, who would fain be on equal 
 terms with his Protestant brother, either in the pulpit 
 or in print, would amplify his theme, enumerate the cir- 
 cumstances, and, in a long strain of invective, hold forth 
 that it is a principle of the Protestant religion to per- 
 secute to death those of a different religion ; to encou- 
 rage disobedience and rebellion in children to their 
 parents ; to rob a man of his property ; to violate the 
 law of nations ; to be so incredulous as not to believe 
 their own eyes, and to administer to the passions and 
 lust of their kings ; then to produce extracts of their 
 statutes in corroboration of the charge, and to cast those 
 horrors on all the Protestants in the world ! 
 
 * See the monstrous Acts of Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 169 
 
 The candid, impartial man, would be more nice than 
 to confound the actions of men and their positive laws 
 with the principles of the Protestant religion. And 
 candor should induce the ministers of the Gospel not 
 to revile the body of Catholics, by extending local 
 regulations, exaggerating facts, and erecting the mis- 
 takes and prejudices of a few into a religious creed, and 
 a symbol of orthodoxy for the whole. Those laws, then, 
 that doom heretics to death, as well as the establish- 
 ment of the Inquisition, are no parts of a Catholic 
 creed, no more than the fore-mentioned acts of par- 
 liament are part of the Church of England's creed. 
 The true religion should be preserved and perpetuated 
 by the same means that established it — by preaching 
 the Word of God, attended with prudence and discre- 
 tion, the practice of all Christian virtues, boundless 
 peace and charity. 
 
 Machiavel is of opinion, that " disarmed prophets 
 never made any conquests." Whatever respect is due 
 to him on account of his skill in sanguinary politics 
 and literature, in this maxim he betrays equal igno- 
 rance and impiety. No prophet ever appeared more 
 destitute of arms than Jesus Christ ; no prophet ever 
 made such rapid and extensive conquests — I mean 
 conquests such as He intended to make — by winning 
 the hearts, changing the interior dispositions of men, 
 and, from bad and wicked, making them good and 
 virtuous. 
 
 The Christian religion gained ground under the 
 heathen emperors, in the midst of the most violent 
 persecutions during three centuries. 
 
 The reverend gentlemen, who thought it lawful for 
 kings to handle the sword in vindication of the Deity, 
 should have recollected that all the Fathers, during 
 five centuries, took this famous saying of TertuUian 
 for their motto, " Non est religionis, religionem 
 
170 Life and Writings of 
 
 cogere." — It is not the province of religion to force 
 religion. It is needless to crowd my page with them. 
 St. Gregory the Great, who lived in the sixth century, 
 and knew the obligations of religion as well as any 
 of his successors, writes to a bishop who had beaten 
 one of his clergy for heresy, that it is an unheard-of 
 and novel method of preaching the gospel, to enforce 
 faith with the cudgel — " Nova et inaudita prcedicatio, 
 quce haculo adigit fidem." No heretics were more 
 dangerous in a State than the Priscillianists, whose 
 maxim was to swear and forswear themselves sooner 
 than betray their secrets. Their doctrine was con- 
 demned in a council in Spain, but their persons left at 
 liberty. Two Spanish bishops, Ithacius and Ursatius, 
 solicited the tyrant Maximus to put Priscillian to death. 
 ^ Hence, St. Martin of Tours, an d all the bishops of Gaul 
 and Spain, would never communicate with those san- 
 guinary prelates, who were afterwards banished. Even 
 a council that was held, w^ould not admit any bishop 
 who would communicate with one Felix, who con- 
 curred in the accusation of Priscillian, and whom the 
 Fathers call " a murderer of heretics." 
 
 The Council of Toledo forbids the use of violence to 
 enforce belief; "because," add the fathers, "God shows 
 mercy to whom He thinks fit, and hardens whom He 
 pleases." " Prcecipit sancta synodus nemini dein- 
 ceps ad credendum vim i/nferre. Gui eniTn Deus 
 wilt miseretur, et quern vult indurat."* And the 
 Council of Lateran, under Pope Alexander III, acknow- 
 ledges that the Church regrets bloody executions on the 
 score of religion. Which proves to demonstration that 
 the canon charged to the fourth Council of Lateran, 
 under Innocent the Third, in which canon "the secular 
 powers are addressed to make an oath to exterminate 
 all heretics out of their territories; and in case of 
 
 * Cap. de Judaeis, dist. 43. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 171 
 
 refusal, to have their subjects absolved from their alle- 
 giance, and the lands of the heretics to be seized by the 
 Catholics," &c., is spurious. Collier, the Protestant 
 historian, in his fifth volume of eccloisiastical history, 
 acknowledges that it is not found in any copy coeval 
 with the council. Some hundred years after the council 
 it was produced to light by a German : and we know 
 full well, that at that time several spurious pieces were 
 produced to serve the purposes of rancour. 
 
 Were even such a decree, or others of a similar na- 
 ture, genuine, the Catholics would reject them, without 
 any breach of faith ; because the Church has no power 
 over life, limb, the rights of sovereigns, the property of 
 individuals, or any temporal concern whatsoever. Her 
 bishops, then, whether separately or in a collective body, 
 cannot graft any such power into their spiritual com- 
 mission. They would act in an extrajudicial manner, 
 and beyond the limits of their sphere. This I have 
 proved in my " Remarks " on Mr. Wesley's letters, and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 " Far from countenancing cruelty, death, and oppres- 
 sion, the spirit of the Church was in such a manner 
 the spirit of meekness and charity, that she prevented, 
 as much as in her power, the death of criminals, and 
 even of her most cruel enemies," says Fleury. " You 
 have seen how the lives of the murderers of the martyrs 
 of Aunania were saved, and St. Austin's efforts to pre- 
 serve the Donatists, (who had exercised such cruelties 
 against the Catholics,) from the rigor of the imperial 
 laws. You have seen how much the Church detested 
 the indiscreet zeal of those bishops, who persecuted the 
 heresiarch Priscillian to death. In general, the Church 
 saved the lives of all criminals, as far as she had power. 
 St Augustine accounts for this conduct, in his letter to 
 Macedonius, where we read, that the Church wished 
 there were no pains in this life, but of the healing kind, 
 
172 Life and Writings of 
 
 to destroy not man but sin, and to preserve the sinner 
 from eternal torments."* 
 
 If, in after ages, some popes and bishops deviated 
 from this plan of meekness and moderation, their con- 
 duct should not involve a consequence injurious to the 
 principles of the Catholic Church, which condemns such 
 proceedings. The religion of Catholics and Protestants 
 condemns frauds, fornications, drunkenness, revenge, 
 duelling, perjury, &c. Some of their relaxed and im- 
 pious writers have even attempted, not only to palliate, 
 but even to apologise for such disorders. The children 
 of the Christian religion daily practise them: is the 
 Christian religion accountable for the breach of her own 
 laws? 
 
 We prefer, then, the primitive Fathers of the Church 
 to Sylvester a Prieris and some other canonists ; and 
 we suppose as much knowledge and zeal for the Catholic 
 religion in Gregory the Great and his predecessors, as 
 in any of his successors in ages less refined. 
 
 The opposition given in Catholic countries to the 
 establishment of the Inquisition — the death of the in- 
 quisitors by the hands of the people — and the general 
 odium it raised — prove that sparks of the moderation 
 and meekness recommended in the Gospel, and prac- 
 tised in the primitive times with regard to people of a 
 different persuasion, were not quite extinct even in the 
 ages of darkness and barbarism. Popes themselves 
 opposed its introduction into Venice, and whether from 
 polity or piety I shall not take on me to determine. 
 
 But Berkley remarks, that "if policy induced a pope to 
 oppose its introduction in a certain State, policy might 
 have induced another pope to introduce it into his 
 own."-|* I am convinced he was not mistaken in his 
 conjectures. 
 
 * Fleury, Discours 2, No. 9. t Minute Phihaopher. 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 17S 
 
 The pope was in possession of a city which formerly 
 gave birth to so many heroes, besides a good territory 
 bestowed on him by several sovereigns. He thought 
 it high time to look about him when all Europe was in 
 one general blaze. The liberty of the Gospel preached 
 by Muncer and several other enthusiasts, threw all 
 Germany into a flame, and armed boors against their 
 sovereigns. As he was a temporal prince, he dreaded 
 for his sovereignty, as well as other crowned heads in 
 his neighbourhood, and the more so as his soldiers were 
 better skilled in saying their beads than handling the 
 musket. 
 
 Great events, the downfall of empires, and the rise or 
 destruction of extraordinary characters, are commonly 
 foretold in oracles, both sacred and profane. She found 
 herself in the same dubious and critical situation with 
 Montezuma, when the Spaniards landed in America : — 
 
 •' Old prophecies foretell our fall at hand, 
 When bearded men in floating castles land. "* 
 
 Long before the Reformation, the dimensions of his 
 dty were taken, the line was extended over its walls, 
 and it was discovered that it was the " great city, built 
 on seven hills, the harlot that had made the kings of 
 the earth drunk with her cup," and that her sovereign 
 "was Antichrist, the man of sin," mentioned by St. 
 Paul in bis epistle to the Thessalonians. Wicklitf, Huss, 
 and Jerome of Prague, had laid down a rule many years 
 before, that " popes, princes, and bishops in the state of 
 mortal sin have no power ;" and a state of grace was, 
 doubtless, incompatible with the character of Antichrist. 
 Jerome of Prague, who was burned afterwards at Con- 
 stance, to show that Rome was the harlot of the Reve- 
 lations, after beating one monk and drowning another^ 
 dressed one day a prostitute in a pope's attire, with the 
 
 • Dryden's Indian Queen. 
 
174 Life and Writings of 
 
 three-crowned cap made of paper as her head-dress, 
 without being so careful of the rest of her body ; leads 
 the female pontiff, half naked, in procession through 
 the streets of Prague, in derision of a religion professed 
 by the magistrates. 
 
 Some well-bred divines there are, who justify such 
 proceedings, on the principal that it was requisite at 
 that time "to cry aloud, and use a strong wedge to 
 break the knotty block of Popery." I do not believe 
 there is a well-bred Protestant living, who would ap- 
 plaud either martyr or divine who would exhibit 
 such a merry spectacle in the streets of Dublin or 
 London ; or who would shed a tear for his loss, if, 
 after exhibiting such a show in Rome or in Paris, he 
 fell into the hands of the Inquisition, or were sent to 
 the galleys. The Gospel truth is no enemy to decency. 
 
 St. Paul, in pleading his cause before Festus, did not 
 inveigh against his vestal virgins, the adulteries of their 
 gods, or the wickedness of his emperors. Let a religion 
 of State be ever so false, the magistrate who professes 
 it will feel himself insulted when it is attacked in a 
 gross, injurious manner ; and if apologies can be made 
 for indecencies and seditious doctrines, under pretence 
 of overthrowing idolatry, some allowance must be made 
 for men who think themselves insulted by such attacks. 
 
 The pope, then, as a sovereign prince, had everything 
 to dread, when the thrones of the German princes be- 
 gan to totter from the shocks of inspiration ; but what 
 still increased his alarms was, the unfolding of the Re- 
 velations, which held him up to all Europe as the Anti- 
 christ, the general enemy of Christians, who should be 
 destroyed. Lest any one should miss his aim, it was 
 proved from the Revelations that he was the beast with 
 ten horns ; and in bearing down such a game, the world 
 was to be renewed, and the peaceful reign of the Millen- 
 nium, during which Christ was to reign with the saints 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 175 
 
 on earth, was to begin. The time was approaching — old 
 John Fox, the martyrologist, says, that "after long 
 study an d prayers, God had cast suddenly into his mind, 
 by divine inspiration, that the forty-two months must 
 be referred to the Church's persecution from the time of 
 John the Baptist." This calculation was to bring on 
 the pope's destruction about the year 1600. Bright- 
 man was more precise, and foretold the final doAvnfall 
 of the pope in the year 1546, others in 1556, and others 
 in 1559. Luther came closer to the famous era, and 
 published his prophecy, in which it was revealed to him 
 that the Pope and the Turk would be destroyed in two 
 years after the date of his oracle. This certainly was 
 a close attack on the pope, who, in all appearance, did 
 not like to die so soon, even of a natural death. He 
 apprehended the accomplishment of the oracles the 
 more, as at that time almost every one was inspired, 
 and ready to do anything for the destruction of Anti- 
 christ ! 
 
 Alexander Ross, in his " View of Religions," describes 
 Dambers of those prophets, and among the rest one 
 Hermannus Sutor, a cobbler of Optzant, who professed 
 himself a true prophet and the Messiah, Son of God — 
 a very dangerous neighbour for Antichrist ! This man, 
 to receive the prophetic inspiration, stretched himself 
 naked in bed, and after ordering a hogshead of strong 
 beer to be brought close to him, began to drink in the /* 
 source of inspiration, and to receive the spirit hy in- 
 fusion, when, on a sudden, " he," to use the words of 
 Alexander Ross, " with a Stentor's voice and a horrid 
 howling, among other things, often repeated this: * Kill, 
 cut throats without any quarter, of all these monks, all 
 these popes ! Repent, repent, for your deliverance is 
 at hand ! ' "* However extraordinary such a character 
 
 • Bom's View o/BeUgiotu. In the appendix, p. 31. 
 
176 Life and Writings of 
 
 would appear now, yet, at that time, inspiration was so 
 frequent, that one would imagine all Germany was a 
 nation of prophets ; and Hermannus, who was after- 
 wards put to death by Charles, Lord of Guelderland, had 
 credit enough to make proselytes. 
 
 The pope, thus aimed at as an object of destruction 
 from all quarters, and seeing almost in every nation in 
 Europe a nursery of prophets foretelling his ruin, and 
 animating the candidates for sanctity to undertake the 
 pious task, began to tremble not only for his territories, 
 but moreover for his personal safety. He knew that 
 the imaginations of his Italian subjects were naturally 
 warm, and that, if but one of them caught the prophetic 
 flame, the stiletto would soon be darted into Antichrist. 
 He found imperial laws already enacted ; and as he was 
 a temporal prince, whose person was more exposed than 
 any highwayman in Europe, he copied these laws into 
 his directory, and erected the Inquisition as a barrier 
 between himself and the formidable foes, who not only 
 foretold his downfall, but encouraged their followers to 
 fulfil the prediction. 
 
 The impartial reader, in tracing this formidable 
 tribunal, will discover a political establishment and a 
 temporal safeguard. None can infer from its institu- 
 tion that it is lawful, by the principles of religion, to 
 deprive a man of his life precisely on account of his 
 worship ; and every one must acknowledge, that if ever 
 a prince, whose life and territories were in danger, was 
 authorized to take the severest precautions to secure 
 both, no mortal could plead for greater indulgence in 
 having recourse to rigorous measures, than one who 
 united in his person the dignity of a prince, which at 
 that time was both an object of envy and detestation 
 to people who considered sovereignty as subversive of 
 Christian liberty, and the character of a sovereign pon- 
 tiff, which made him pass for an outlaw and the great 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 177 
 
 enemy of Christ, in whose destruction the world was so 
 deeply concerned. Let any person put himself in his 
 case, and judge for himself. 
 
 It is, then, to those authors who disgraced themselves, 
 and exposed the oracles of the Christian religion to the 
 derision of infidels, with their fanatical calculations, 
 their beasts, horns, and strained allegories of seven 
 hills — it is to the rage of people who could not take 
 more effectual steps to get him stabbed in his church 
 or his palace, and to the terrors of a man who thought 
 himself justifiable in providing for his personal safety, 
 that the world is indebted for the Inquisition in Rome. 
 Its fires are daily extinguishing in proportion as pro- 
 phecy is diminishing ; and the liberty of a refined age 
 discovers no horns on the head of a Ganganelli, or 
 Benedict the Fourteenth, who united in their persons 
 the grandeur of kings, the discretion of bishops, the 
 elegance of courtiers, and the learning of philosophers. 
 
 The two last prophets I have read, who have brought 
 the pope's destruction nearer our own times, are 
 Whiston and Burroughs. The first foretold that the 
 pope's destruction would happen in 1724; and the 
 second, finding Mr. Whiston's prophecy contradicted by 
 time, began himself to prophesy that this great event 
 was to happen in 1760. Yet, since these two prophets 
 "have been gathered unto their fathers," the air of 
 Rome has not been embalmed with the effluvia of the 
 smoking blood of a Jew ; and in Spain and Portugal we 
 hear no longer of human victims being offered up as 
 " a sacrifice of agreeable odour to the Lord." 
 
 lo those two kingdoms the Inquisition owes its origin 
 to causes much similar to those which gave it rise at 
 Rome ; but causes, however, which did not so imme- 
 diately affect the sovereign, who was blended with the 
 common mass of monarchs, without any peculiar dis- 
 tinction to expose him to the hatred of mankind, or to 
 
 N 
 
178 Life and Writings of 
 
 afford an assassin a plea of impunity, by alleging that 
 he was the deliverer of the world, by ridding it of the 
 enemy of the Son of God, described in the prophecies 
 of Daniel, pointed out in the Revelations, and whose 
 downfall was foretold at such a time by the most cele- 
 brated interpreters of Scripture. 
 
 The Spaniards, struggling for a long time with 
 Mahomet's followers, who had invaded their country, 
 and reduced them not only to the most abject slavery, 
 but moreover forced them to supply the fire of their 
 lusts with continued fuel, by sending an annual tribute 
 of Christian virgins to their seraglios, made at last that 
 great effort so memorable in history. 
 
 It is well known that before the defeat of the Moors, 
 a.nd their total expulsion from the Spanish dominions, 
 they were preparing underhand for war, and had their 
 leaders already chosen. Banished for ever from a king- 
 dom where they had trampled on the laws which all 
 Christians, and even heathen fathers, deem most sacred, 
 a barrier to their return was erected ; and as by their 
 own laws every Christian who had any connexion with 
 a Mahometan woman is to pass through the fire, the 
 tables were turned on themselves, and the expectants 
 of an earthly paradise were threatened with the fagot 
 if they returned to initiate the children of Christians in 
 their mysteries. 
 
 The most effectual way to remove prejudices is — to 
 put one's self in other people's situation. And if the 
 establishment of the Inquisition seems severe and un- 
 reasonable, it must be acknowledged that the love of 
 life and the abhorrence of oppression are passions that 
 very often overpower reason itself. No man would 
 choose to be considered as an outlaw on whose head 
 a price was set, and to whose destruction thousands were 
 animated under the sanction of Scripture. Neither is 
 it in the nature of Christian kings, who often destroy ' 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 179 
 
 their own relations when they suspect them of aspiring 
 to their throne, to suffer the sworn enemies of the 
 Gospel, and the corrupters of the morals it enforces, in 
 the possession of their provinces and palaces, when they 
 can recover what they deem their right. It was, then 
 dread of danger, a love of liberty, a deep sense of in- 
 juries, and a pro visionary caution against death and 
 oppression, not a principle of religion, that gave rise to 
 the Inquisition in Rome, Spain, and Portugal. It is 
 not from the Church it can derive any power ; and if it 
 has any other motive in view than to secure the peace 
 of society by temporal means, it exceeds the limits of 
 its authority. For, error in faith is not a crime, but 
 relatively to a supernatural order, which does not come 
 within the verge of civil jurisdiction ; and the last re- 
 source of the Church is only a canonical censure. Those 
 censures she never denounces but against her own 
 rebellious children, reared up in her bosom ; and with 
 regard even to those she is bound to use the greatest 
 precaution. 
 
 Her spiritual weapons should not be drawn but 
 against the enormities of individuals; nor against those, 
 when they are powerful enough to raise a faction or 
 party ; nor against any one, when it is probable they 
 will not obtain the end proposed — I mean the correc- 
 tion of the sinner. " With regard to the multitude, 
 censures are never employed," says St. Austin. Exhor- 
 tations, not commands — instructions, not menaces, are, 
 then, her only weapons. And when any of her popes 
 or bishops adopted any other plan, they consulted more 
 their power and the rigor of the law than the rules of 
 prudence. They behaved like those hot-headed princes 
 who, finding a great number of their subjects guilty of 
 insurrection, would put them all to the sword, at the 
 hazard of seeing their kingdoms depopulated. 
 
 Whence, then, came those rigorous laws on the 
 
180 Life and Writings of 
 
 score of religion to be introduced ? If speculative 
 errors, unconnected with principles subversive of sub- 
 ordination and morality, have been the only motives, 
 it must be acknowledged that they originated in an 
 abuse of power, and an error of fact as well as right, 
 which made princes believe that, as they were the 
 arbiters of life and death, they could punish all kinds of 
 crimes, whether against God or the peace of civil 
 society. In matters more immediately within the reach 
 of the civil magistrate, the laws of all nations afford 
 instances of power extending beyond the limits of 
 reason, and confounding the sacred rules of equity, 
 which proportion the punishment to the offence. Thus, 
 in Holland, a subject forfeits his life if he kill a stork, 
 when a few dollars would be a sufficient penalty, 
 especially for a Dutchman. In England, the cutting 
 down a cherry-tree in an orchard is a capital offence ; 
 and in Ireland, I have seen two men put to death — the 
 one because a sheep was found in his hawn, which the 
 real thief had left there, and the other for a miserable 
 calfskin, which he bought on the high road from the 
 man who stole it, and who, doubtless, did not inform 
 the purchaser of the manner in which he had acquired 
 it, — when the laws dictated by God Himself decreed no 
 more than the restitution of an ass against the thief 
 who had stolen one from his neighbour, and a fourfold 
 restitution against the man who stole an ox. 
 
 If princes and other rulers, then, magnify objects 
 in such a manner as to make trifles capital, in con- 
 sequence of their power, to which they imagine no 
 bounds should be prescribed, let us not be surprised if 
 monarchs, who thought themselves the delegates of 
 heaven, and answerable for any crime against the 
 Divinity which they would countenance in their State, 
 have enacted laws which torture the body for the errors 
 of the mind. 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leai^j. 181 
 
 It was with difficulty that King Edward the Sixth 
 was prevailed on not to commit his sister Mary to the 
 flames ; for he could not reconcile his conscience to 
 permit his sister to live in idolatry, when it was in 
 his power to check the progress of such a disorder. 
 
 We see by the different edicts against heretics in the 
 Theodosian code, that the first Christian emperors did not, 
 however, consider religious error as a sufficient cause for 
 capital punishment. Constantine grants a free tolera- 
 tion to all Christians in one of his edicts ; in another, he 
 restrains this indulgence to Catholics alone. In one 
 edict, he orders the churches to be taken from the 
 Donatists ; in another, he moderates the rigor of this 
 edict, by permitting them to return to their country, 
 and to live there quietly, " reserving to God the punish- 
 ment of their crime." Remarkable words ! We have 
 seen before how the primitive Fathers opposed sangui- 
 nary executions, and pleaded for liberty of conscience. St. 
 Hilary earnestly requests the Emperor Constantius to 
 grant his subjects liberty of conscience, whether they 
 be Arians or not. 
 
 If, then, in an age enlightened by the works of the 
 Fathers, and after the example set by Constantine, the 
 Emperor Theodosius condemned Manicheans to the^ 
 fire, it must be more owing to abominable practices 
 than to speculative errors; and, if succeeding empe- 
 rors continued the same rigor, it is that sedition or 
 immorality, or both, kept pace, and were incorporated 
 with speculative deviations. Scarce an age since Theo- 
 dosius's time, until of late years, but brooded some 
 immoral or seditious doctrine, which armed the magis- 
 trate's hand with the exterminating sword. Great part 
 of St Austin's time was taken up in pleading for 
 mercy with the African governors, in favor of the 
 Donatists and Crescellians, who continually exercised 
 the greatest cruelties. 
 
182 Life and Writings of 
 
 Another age gave rise to the Patarini, who, amongst 
 other errors, maintained that no mortal sin could be com- 
 mitted by the lower part of the body. The theory was 
 reduced to practice, and, doubtless, the magistrate was 
 roused to severity. 
 
 The Albigenses said that God had two wives. Mar- 
 riage, however, was condemned, without considering 
 chastity as a virtue. In detestation of the sacrament 
 of the altar, churches were turned into receptacles for 
 the unhappy votaries of Yenus ; and in the sanctuary, 
 where the magistrate was accustomed to see the minis- 
 ter of religion officiate, nothing could be seen but 
 offerings to Cloacina. In 1230, the Stadings of Ger- 
 many honored Lucifer, inveighed against God for con- 
 demning that rebel-angel to darkness, and held that 
 one day he should be re-established, and they should be 
 saved with him ; whereupon they taught that until that 
 time it was not requisite to serve God, but quite the 
 contrary, and reduced their theory to practice. 
 
 To write the history of all the sects which" gave rise 
 to the severe sanctions of kings, from the time of the 
 Emperor Theodosius down to the sixteenth or seven- 
 teenth century, would be to attempt writing a history 
 of all the horrors and abominations of which abandoned 
 man is capable. In this long space of time, the sects 
 most free from any mixture of immorality, gave um- 
 brage to the civil power, by their seditious tenets and 
 insurrections. 
 
 Huss's doctrine in Bohemia sowed the seeds of civil 
 wars. WicklifTs doctrine in England was productive of 
 similar fruits. The fagot did not blaze in England 
 until the Lollards began to overturn the State. In the 
 sixteenth century, what wars, what commotions in 
 Germany, in consequence of fanatical delusion ! The 
 most moderate Protestant divines of that age, complain 
 in their writings of the confusion introduced by sec- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 183 
 
 taries. Heylin, in his " Cosmography," talks of some 
 of them as "begotten in rebellion, born in sedition, 
 and nursed by faction." And Dr. Walton, in the pre- 
 face to his " Polyglot," says, that " Aristarchus, hereto- 
 fore, could scarce find seven wise men in Greece ; but 
 that, in his time, so many idiots were not to be found, 
 for all were divinely learned." Hence," continues the 
 Doctor, "the bottomless pit seems to have been set 
 open, and locusts are come out with stings — a numerous 
 race of sectaries, who have renewed all the ancient here- 
 sies,and invented manymonstrous opinions of their own." 
 In examining, then, the laws enacted against heretics, 
 and tracing them up to their origin — in taking a review 
 of the times and circumstances in which they were 
 enacted, and the tenets of the persons against whom 
 they were levelled — in weighing the Emperor Constan- 
 tine's words, already quoted, and observing the instabi- 
 lity of his opinion in the change of his laws, we can, 
 with every reason, presume that error in doctrine was 
 never deemed a sufficient title to deprive a man of his 
 life or property, by the most pious and enlightened 
 Christian legislators. 
 
 Immorality or sedition, mingling with the speculative 
 opinion unpunishable in itself by any civil tribunal, 
 drew the vengeance of the laws upon the entire system 
 and its abettors, as the circulation of bad coin is pu- 
 nished by the magistrate, not on account of the particles 
 of gold or silver, but on account of the base metal 
 which predominates and debases it. If time, civiliza- 
 tion, commerce, a more extensive knowledge of man- 
 kind and the rights of so'ciety, helped the mind to work 
 off the feculence of pernicious opinions, as rough wines 
 work off their tartar ; freedom of thought, its inalien- 
 able prerogative, was at last reconciled amongst most 
 men with the principles of morality and the peace of 
 society. Men have changed, but long habit and the 
 
184 Life and Writings of 
 
 power of rule have still, in many places, kept up laws 
 which confound mistaken notions of a spiritual nature 
 with practical principles which disturb the order of 
 society. Heresy is of too indeterminate a signification 
 to become the object of legal vengeance ; and to punish 
 a man for Popery, is to punish him because another 
 pronounces a word of three syllables. Let the heretic 
 and papist who rob, steal, murder, preach up sedition, 
 rebellion, and immorality, suffer like all other felons. 
 But the magistrate who punishes an honest, peaceable 
 man, for following the religion of his education and the 
 dictates of his conscience, and the legislators who autho- 
 rize him to do so, both forget themselves and the rights 
 of mankind. 
 
 The heathen magistrates punished none for worship- 
 ping many gods. But we read of a city whose inhabi- 
 tants were all drowned, for adopting the impiety of 
 Diagoras, who was a declared Atheist. 
 
 The Christian magistrate will not punish a man who 
 has no religion, because the versatile conscience of such 
 a man will mould itself into any frame. But the up- 
 right man, who, from fear of offending God, will not re- 
 sign his way of thinking but upon a thorough conviction 
 that he is in error, is deemed unworthy the protection 
 of the laws. His conscience, which it would be a crime 
 to betray, is made a crime by positive institutions. 
 
 The laws of God command me not to act against the 
 immediate dictates of my conscience. The laws of man 
 make this conformity to the dictates of my conscience 
 a crime, and I am accordingly punished. 
 
 Towards people confirmed in the prejudices of their 
 education and the religion of their fathers, no severity, 
 tending to deprive them of the rights to which nature 
 entitles them, should be used. It is the unanimous 
 opinion of the Fathers, and a large volume could be 
 composed of passages extracted from the works of 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 185 
 
 modem writers of every denomination in support of the 
 assertion : — " We know that faith may yield to persua- 
 sion, but it never will be controlled."* " Remember, 
 that the diseases of the soul are not to be cured by 
 restraint and violence."-|* " Indulge every one with civil 
 toleration/'J 
 
 If to the spirit of the Gospel, the authority of Fathers, 
 councils, the practice of the primitive times, and the 
 opinions of the most learned of the modern writers, we 
 add arguments drawn from the sources of Divinity, 
 we expect to disarm the magistrate, and to prevail on 
 him to sheathe the sword which God never commanded 
 him to wield against the professors of peaceable errors. 
 
 Faith is a gift of God, which it is not in the power of 
 the State either to give or take away. It depends 
 chiefly on the change of the heart, the interior disposi- 
 tions of the mind, and the grace of the Almighty, which 
 it is in His power alone to give in greater or lesser 
 abundance to His creatures. We do not pretend to open 
 the gate to error, or to lull mortals asleep in an indiffer- 
 ence to the truth. We only beseech the powers of the 
 earth not to add to the calamities of Adam's children, 
 by fines, confiscations, poverty, restraints, or death, for 
 abstruse and speculative matters beyond the reach of 
 human control. We know that God, being everywhere 
 present to call His creatures to His service, to support 
 them in their hope, to confirm them in' His love, to help 
 their endeavours, and to hear their prayers, it is their 
 own fault if they perish. To some He gives the know- 
 ledge of His law, but they reject it ; others He inspires 
 with the spirit of prayer, but they neglect it. He speaks 
 to the hearts of all, but few listen to His voice. Some 
 He converts by an effectual grace, who plunge them- 
 
 * Flechi^r, Biahop of Niames. t Cardinal Camus. 
 
 X Fenelon to the Duke of Burgundy. 
 
186 Life and Writings of 
 
 selves a second time into their disorders. Some He 
 strengthens and fortifies in the constant love of order 
 and justice to the last moment of their lives, and others 
 He gives up to their blindness and corruption. He per- 
 mitted the first man to sin, and thus to involve us in all 
 miseries, when it was in His power to prevent sin, with- 
 out thus destroying His liberty. And this will ever be 
 an insoluble difficulty to man. 
 
 Faith, then, depending entirely on the interior dis- 
 positions of the mind, the quantity of grace, and the 
 measure of spiritual science which it is in the power of 
 God either to increase, or, from a just, but hidden 
 judgment, to diminish, the want of it cannot be 
 punished by any earthly tribunal ; because the magis- 
 trate's power extends only to outward crimes that dis- 
 turb the temporal peace of society, but not to the 
 hidden judgments of God, nor to the interior disposi- 
 tions of the mind, nor to the disbelief of divine truths — 
 the necessary result of both. Death, restraints, and 
 confiscations, then, on the score of religion, are murders 
 and robberies, under the sanction of mandatory. 
 
 " We were of opinion," says St. Austin, writing to 
 the Manicheans, " that other methods were to be made 
 choice of; and that to recover you from your errors, 
 we ought not to persecute you with injuries and in- 
 vectives, or any ill-treatment, but endeavour to procure 
 your intention by soft words and exhortations, which 
 would show the tenderness we have for you, according 
 to that passage of Holy Writ : The servant of the Lord 
 ought not to love strife and quarrels, but to be gentle, 
 affable, and patient towards all mankind ; and to re- 
 prove with modesty those who differ from him in opinion. 
 Let them only treat you with rigor, v/ho know not how 
 rare and painful a work it is calmly to dissipate the 
 carnal phantoms that disturb even a pious mind. 
 Let those treat you with rigor, who are ignorant of 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 187 
 
 the extreme difficulty that there is to purify the eye 
 of the inward man, to render him capable of seeing 
 the truth, which is the sun and light of the soul. 
 Let those treat you with rigor, who have never felt 
 the sighs and groans that a soul must heave before 
 it can have any knowledge of the Divine Being. To 
 conclude, let those treat you with rigor, who never 
 have been seduced into errors near akin to those you 
 are engaged in. 
 
 " I pass over in silence that pure wisdom, to which 
 but a few spiritual men attain in this life ; so that, 
 though they know but in part, because they are men, 
 yet, nevertheless, they know what they do know with 
 certainty ; for in the Catholic Church it is not pene- 
 tration of mind, nor profound knowledge, but simplicity 
 of faith, which puts men in a state of safety." 
 
 To such an illustrious authority we shall add another. 
 Salvianus, Bishop of Marseilles, discoursing on the 
 Arian Vandals, speaks as follows : — " They are ignorant 
 of what is commonly known among other men, and 
 only know what their doctors have taught them,* and 
 follow what they have heard them say. Men so igno- 
 rant as these find themselves under a necessity of 
 learning the mysteries of the Gospel, rather by the 
 instructions that are given them than by books. The 
 tradition of their doctors, and the received doctrines, 
 are the only rules they follow, because they know 
 nothing but what they have taught them. They are, 
 then, heretics, but they know it not. They are so 
 in our account, but they believe it not; and think 
 themselves such good Catholics, that they treat us 
 as heretics, judging of us as we do of them. We are 
 persuaded that they believe amiss concerning the 
 divine generation, when they maintain the Son inferior 
 to the Father; and they imagine that we rob the 
 Father of His glory, who believe them both to be 
 
188 Life and Writings of 
 
 equal. We have the truth on our side, and they pre- 
 tend it on theirs. We give God His honor, and they 
 think they honor Him better. They fail in their duty, 
 but they imagine they perform it well, and they 
 make true piety consist in what we call impious. 
 They are in a mistake, but with| a great deal of sin- 
 cerity ; and it is so far from being an effect of their 
 hatred, that it is a mark of their love of God, since, by 
 what they do, they show the greatest respect for the 
 Lord, and zeal for His glory. Therefore, though they 
 have not true faith, they, nevertheless, look upon that 
 as a perfect love of God. It belongs only to the Judge 
 of the universe to know how those men will be punished 
 for their errors at the last day." 
 
 "As to what is concealed from the knowledge of 
 mortals," says St. Chrysostom, "let the Searcher of 
 hearts determine, who alone knows the measure of 
 knowledge and the quantity of faith, whose judgments 
 are inscrutable and ways unsearchable."* 
 
 Religion, then, recoils at the thoughts of stripping 
 the victim for his mode of worship. We should make 
 allowance for the weakness of our fellow-creatures, and 
 reflect that few persons view objects in the same 
 light. What makes a deep impression on me, makes 
 but a slight impression on another. Universal ortho- 
 doxy has never been established since Cain built the 
 first city, and separated from the children of God, nor 
 ever will to the end of time. 
 
 Amidst the dark and doubtful images of things, the 
 sport of the passions, the prejudices of education, the 
 disputes of the learned, and the clouds that hang over 
 weak and fluctuating reason, it is hard to separate 
 the clear from the obscure, truth from error, and to 
 assign them their proper situations in light and shade. 
 Add to this what I remarked before, that faith is a 
 
 * Homilia contra anathematizantes. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 189 
 
 gift of God, to which the heart must be disposed by 
 the operations of an interior grace, which God alone 
 can give, and which is obtained more by prayer than 
 by disputing. If we take a survey of nature itself, 
 which God has given up to the disputes of men, the 
 smallest insect baffles our severest scrutiny. From the 
 ant up to the elephant, and from the germination of a 
 blade of grass to the immense bodies that swim in the 
 yielding ether above — everything is an inexplicable 
 mystery. The very soul, with whose nature we should 
 be better acquainted, and from whose active powers 
 we derive our faculties and judgment, is a torch with 
 whicb we are enabled to view the universe, and yet our 
 philosophy knows not where it shines. Some assign 
 the brain for the seat of this immortal spirit, others 
 the blood, others the pineal gland, and others, unable 
 to comprehend how matter and spirit can be so closely 
 interwoven as to form one compound called man, 
 assert that the soul abides at a distance from the body, 
 and influences it as the sun influences certain planets 
 that turn round and humour its motion. 
 
 What an immense library could be made up of all 
 the books on this immortal spark that animates us! 
 Whether it existed before its union with the body — 
 whether it undergoes the same fate of extinction — if it 
 survives, whether it goes to the silent shades of the 
 dead, naked, or clothed in a thin pellicle imperceptible 
 to the anatomist's eye, but qualifying it in the other 
 world for feeling the smarting sensations excited by 
 tormenting fire, which otherwise could not affect a 
 pure spirit without having recourse to an extrordinary 
 power, the miraculous exertion whereof is spared by 
 this coat of imperceptible skins cut for the spirit in a 
 philosopher's brain — the soul's state and residence in 
 the long interval between death and the final consum- 
 mation of all things. 
 
190 Life and WHtings of 
 
 Burnet, the learned author of the " Theory of the 
 Earth," laughs at the purgatory of the Catholics, but 
 strikes into a path in which few Protestant divines 
 would choose to take him for their guide. He admits 
 none to the clear light of God until after the resurrec- 
 tion, heaps up testimonies to vindicate prayers for the 
 dead, establishes hades, a receptacle for souls, and 
 a middle state, where they expect the coming of Christ 
 and the sound of the last trumpet* 
 
 If from ourselves, and nature that surrounds us, we 
 make an excursion into the region of mysteries, with 
 what darkness has not God overspread "the face of 
 the deep ! " What disputes between Catholic and 
 Protestant writers on one side, and the Arians and 
 Socinians on the other, about the divine generation of 
 the Son of God ! What a deluge of blood spilt on that 
 occasion, when the Arians were supported by powerful 
 emperors, who drew the sword to decide the con- 
 troversy ! 
 
 Should one of the Bramins come amongst us, and, 
 after studying our language, sit down to read the 
 Scriptures, to consult our writers, and to determine 
 upon the choice of a religion, what a laborious task ! 
 From the time of Pelagius down to our days, what 
 disputes about original sin ! How could it be pro- 
 pagated to a child, whose body could not sin — whose 
 soul came pure from its Creator's hands — whose father 
 and mother were purified themselves from original 
 stain, and guiltless in complying with the institutions 
 of God and nature. Let this Bramin read the works 
 of the divines of the Church of England in favor of 
 infant baptism, he will regret his not having been 
 consecrated to God before the use of his reason. 
 When he reads the Anabaptist divines against infant 
 
 * In his book De Statu Mortuorum et Eesurgentium. 
 
Bev. AHhur O'Leary. 191 
 
 baptism, be will rejoice tbat he did not enter too soon 
 into a covenant, whereof he did not know the con- 
 ditions and terms. 
 
 When Barclay published his "Apology" for the Quakers, 
 he cut out a good task for the divines of the Church of 
 England, who were obliged to display their erudition 
 in order to refute him. If from baptism we pass to the 
 Lord's supper, what difficulties to encounter ! what 
 arguments against the real presence by Zuinglius, 
 Calvin, De Moulins, Claude, Tillotson ! And what 
 formidable opponents have not these writers to engage 
 in the persons of Luther and the Lutheran divines, 
 Bossuet, Amauld, and the numerous tribe of Catholic 
 divines ! Text for text — reason for reason ! Assailants 
 and defendants take their weapons from the same 
 arsenal, and handle them with surprising address and 
 skill. 
 
 If the Church of England be consulted on the im- 
 portant mystery, her answer only puzzles and perplexes. 
 " What is the inward part of the sacrament ?" " The 
 body and blood of Christ, verily and indeed received 
 by the faithful." For, as Dr. Burnet remarks, the 
 divines who composed the Liturgy had orders to leave 
 it as a speculative point, not determined, in which every 
 person was left to the freedom of his own choice.* If 
 the divines, after searching the Scriptures and Fathers, 
 call philosophy to their assistance, Mr. Locke, one of 
 its oracles, will tell them that the idea of body and the 
 idea of place are so closely connected, that it is im- 
 possible to conceive one body in two different places at 
 the same time. Cartesius, who was the first that dis- 
 possessed Aristotle of his throne — Gassendi, that famous 
 priest, who revived and improved Epicurus's system of 
 atoms — Cassini, and thousands besides, were as well 
 
 • Hitt. of the Reformation, b. iii. 
 
192 Life and Writings of 
 
 acquainted as Locke with the nature of place and 
 bodies, and doubtless his superiors in knowledge of the 
 mathematics, yet they could discover no contradiction 
 in the same body being in different places at the same 
 time, when once they supposed the interposition of 
 infinite power, and the pliancy of space and matter, to 
 the irresistible will of Omnipotence, which can either 
 create or annihilate them. 
 
 Thus, after a laborious excursion into the provinces 
 of philosophy and theology, the philosophical divine 
 must return back to the first elements of logic and 
 grammar that treat of the modes of speech, and, from 
 the combination of time, place, and circumstances, the 
 nature of the testament, or last will of a man on the 
 eve of his death, (but a man who united in the same 
 person the sinless weakness of humanity, with the 
 power and nature of the Godhead,) determine whether 
 he spoke in a literal or figurative sense. For place and 
 body, matter and space, are incomprehensible riddles, 
 which the greatest philosophers are at a loss how to 
 unravel. The sensations of cold, hunger, thirst, pain, 
 and pleasure, convince us sufficiently that we have 
 bodies whose daily decay we are continiially repairing 
 with sleep and aliment. We are in like manner con- 
 vinced that there is such a thing as place, when we 
 remove from the fireside to bed — where, locked up in 
 the close arms of sleep, we are for a while in an inter- 
 mediate state between life and death, dreaming some- 
 times that we are sovereigns swaying the sceptre of 
 authority, and at other times trembling under the hands 
 of the executioner, who has the axe in his hand to sever 
 the head from the body, or the rope to strangle us — 
 alternately enjoying the grandeur of kings, and under- 
 going the punishment of criminals, without the reality 
 of either. The different impressions we receive from 
 the sun, moon, and stars, scorching flames, and refresh- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 193 
 
 ing springs, make us believe that there are other bodies 
 in nature besides those frail machines we carry about us. 
 
 In a word, sensations from within, and impressions 
 from without, concur to convince us that there are 
 places and bodies. The arguments of divines, and the 
 severity of human laws in support of those arguments, 
 consigning those bodies to prison, death, banishment, 
 or hunger, are collateral proofs that we have those 
 bodies, and that we feel their existence by means of 
 painful sensations. Yet the immortal Berkley, Bishop 
 of Cloyne, has proved by arguments hitherto unanswer- 
 able, that there is no demonstration for the existence 
 of one single body in nature. He has reconciled the 
 Protestant and Catholic philosophers and divines about 
 the real presence, by cutting off at one blow both body 
 and place. 
 
 Our whole life, according to this system adopted by 
 several learned men, is but one continual scene of de- 
 lusion. Objects we never saw during the daytime 
 are present to us in our sleep, and make a deep and 
 lasting impression. Who knows, then, but all the actions 
 we perform, when we imagine ourselves awake, are real 
 dreams ? We are spirits created millions of years be- 
 fore the Mosaic account. 
 
 In that pre-existent state we gloried too much in our 
 knowledge, and, as a just punishment, we are given up 
 for a short time to dreams and deceptions, not on earth, 
 or in corruptible bodies, for there are no such things, 
 and whoever says there are such things can never prove 
 his assertion ; but the great theatre on which we play 
 the sportive farce, is nothing else but God's immensity, 
 which can never fall within the reach of corporeal 
 organs, eyes, ears, hands, &c., for the existence of such 
 organs is a mere delusion. 
 
 Origen, the most learned of the Fathers, who wrote 
 six thousand books, and was complimented by Porph3rry, 
 
194 Life and Writings of 
 
 the heathen philosopher, was of opinion that the souls 
 of men were angels, who, in the great conflict between 
 the good and bad spirits, observed a strict neutrality, 
 and were doomed to corruptible bodies, in order to try 
 their sincerity. Had Origen been as well versed in 
 philosophy as our modern writers, he would have con- 
 fined himself to spirits, and granted bodies no existence 
 in the class of beings. 
 
 Happy for millions were the philosopher's system 
 founded in reality, and that we had no bodies ! For 
 the disputes of theologians have destroyed and famished 
 a good part of the creation. We have every respect 
 for the Christian r.eligion and its ministers of all deno- 
 minations, and, without any doubt, for that system in 
 which we have had the happiness of being reared up ; 
 but we are extremely sorry that religion has ever been 
 made a pretext for persecution and oppression. 
 
 We have taken the liberty, in the course of this 
 treatise, to glance at some religious as well as philoso- 
 phical systems, to show the weakness of reason and the 
 impossibility of establishing universal orthodoxy. 
 
 Should this treatise fall into the hands of any of our 
 legislators, in whose power it is to ease the necks of 
 their inoffensive subjects from the galling yoke of op- 
 pression, we expect from their wisdom and feelings, that 
 they will no longer consider difference in religion as a 
 sufficient reason for hindering the young gentleman 
 from purchasing a pair of colors and fighting the 
 battles of his king and country ; the industrious citizen 
 from realizing the fruits of his labor, in getting 
 landed security for his money, and purchasing an estate 
 descendible to his children ; the physician, the opulent 
 farmer, the man of property, from carrying a gun, a 
 sword, a case of pistols, for their defence against the 
 attacks of the midnight assassin or highwayman ; the 
 clergyman, who instils the principles of good morals 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 195 
 
 into the minds of the ignorant, who would follow the 
 fierce instinct of savage and uncultivated nature if they 
 were deprived of their pastors, from the protection of 
 the laws, which now leave them exposed to the caprice 
 and fury of every ruffian, in whose power it is to shut 
 up their chapels and get them transported ; when it 
 is obvious that such restraints arise from speculative 
 points, disputed on a narrow ridge by the greatest men 
 the world ever produced — when philosophers themselves 
 are bewildered in their notions — and when the learned 
 are at variance about matters far beyond the reach of 
 the bulk of mankind. 
 
 Should it be said that these laws are seldom put in 
 force, it can be answered that the liberty of the subject, 
 which is the birthright of man, should not depend on 
 the capricious benevolence of his neighbour. The law 
 should be the common mother, whose arms should be 
 open to all ; and the ghost of intolerance, more destruc- 
 tive than Attila's sword, should vanish on the approach 
 of the rays of benevolence, which are now blazing all 
 over the Continent. Attila's sword destroyed but such 
 as it met in its way, but the rage of religious feuds has 
 thinned the world of fifty millions of human beings, 
 and is still trampling in these kingdoms on compassion, 
 on equity, on national interest. 
 
 In Ireland, where such scandalous scenes have not 
 been exhibited, as last year in Scotland and England, 
 the ghosts of those legislators who enacted the penal 
 code are still looking, with a clouded, malevolent joy, 
 over the long wastes and desolate pastures they have 
 made in a fruitful country, and supplying the want of 
 sword and fagot with a more lasting and tedious tor- 
 ment — I mean the hunger and distress of thousands. 
 They have renewed and perpetuated the torments in- 
 vented by the former princes of Tuscany. They make 
 the living expire in the arms of the dead 
 
196 Life and Writings of 
 
 The liberality of the times, the interest of the king- 
 dom, the wisdom and humanity of our rulers, every- 
 thing cries aloud for the repeal of the laws enacted on 
 the score of conscience. 
 
 The Author of nature intended men for society, and 
 entitles every man to the advantages of that condition, 
 who is free from all principles and practices injurious 
 to the civil good of society. The great Giver alone can 
 repeal the universal charter. He has not done it, and 
 I hope that I have sufficiently proved that He has not 
 delegated that power to any of His creatures. 
 
 The rulers of the earth, whether Catholics or Pro- 
 testants, owe all social benefits to their loyal subjects of 
 every aenomination. If one of those powers withhold 
 their people's native rights, it is no excuse for the other 
 that their conduct is countenanced by their neighbour's 
 example. Honor, humanity, and the rights of man- 
 kind, should suggest to modern legislators to repair the 
 losses caused by their predecessors' misguided zeal. 
 And as the clergy of all denominations consider them- 
 selves the delegates of heaven, and invested with the 
 commission to prescribe a mode of worship to man, let 
 them propose it in a manner that may secure its tri- 
 umph over the heart, brighten it up with the genial 
 rays of humanity, benevolence, and love, and not cloud 
 it with the sullen gloom of severity, oppression, and 
 distress. For, Christ, who is the Creator of all, has not 
 declared in His Gospel that one should be excluded 
 from the protection of the laws, and persecuted for his 
 worship, and the other authorized to famish, starve, and 
 insult the weakness of a fellow-creature. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^. 197 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Sensation produced by Father O'Leary's Essay on Toleration— He is 
 elected to the " Monks of the Screw "—Account of that Society — 
 The English Catholic Committee print his Essay and distribute 
 it — Complimentary Letters from English Noblemen — He is elected 
 Chaplain to the Irish (Volunteer) Brigade — His Eeception at the 
 National Convention — His Passage through Kilkenny — His Probity 
 again Tested and again Triumphant — He is solicited to write a 
 History of the Gordon Riots, but declines— His Reasons for decli- 
 ning — Threatened Abolition of Religious Orders in Ireland — Father 
 O'Leary comes to the Rescue — Father Laurence Call.; ran — Eulo- 
 gies passed on O'Leary in Parliament— Handsome Presentation to 
 him at Cork — His " Review of the Controversy between the Rev. 
 Dr. Carroll and the Rev. Messrs. Wharton and Hawkins " — He be- 
 comes the Friend of Howard, the Philanthropist. 
 
 Father O'Leaey's Essay on Toleration had an im- 
 mense circulation both in England and Ireland, and 
 enhanced to an extraordinary degree the popularity of 
 the writer. In recognition of his scholarly acquire- 
 ments, his patriotism and philanthropy, he was elected 
 an honorary member of a society just then established 
 in Dublin, under the name of "The Monks of St 
 Patrick." This association was founded by Barry Yel- 
 verton, afterwards Lord Avonmore ; it was composed of 
 men of all classes and creeds, of peers and commoners ; 
 and comprised among its members some of the most 
 distinguished scholars and purest patriots of the day. 
 Indeed, the object of its formation was to promote, by 
 the combined action of the picked men of the country, 
 its best and truest interests. Notwithstanding their 
 monastic appellation, the society, on occasions of meet- 
 ing, did not observe very rigidly the abstemiousness 
 which such an appellation would imply ; on the con- 
 trary, truth obliges us to say that, on these occasions, a 
 
198 Life and Writings of 
 
 spirit of conviviality prevailed, which, if it ever charac- 
 terized a religious order, must have done so at a time 
 when the rule was very mildly enforced. Their fre- 
 quent recourse to the bottle, no doubt, suggested to 
 Curran the idea of the " Monks of the Screw," by which 
 name the society was better known, and under which 
 title he composed their charter-song, sketching with 
 fidelity the proclivities which were encouraged at the 
 social board : — 
 
 "When St. Patrick our order invented, 
 
 And called us the * Monks of the Screw,' 
 Good rules he revealed to our abbot, 
 
 To guide us in what we should do. 
 But first he replenished our fountain, 
 
 With liquor the best in the sky, 
 And he swore on the word of the saint, 
 
 That the fountain should never run dry." 
 
 The remaining stanzas of this effusion do not enun- 
 ciate principles of a high moral tone, and some squea- 
 mish critics are hard on Father O'Leary for associating 
 himself with men of such loose ethics as the Monks of 
 the Screw. But while we can find no excuse for even 
 a convivial and jocose entrenchment on the doctrines of 
 morality, it must be remembered that Father O'Leary 
 was but an honorary member of the order,* and never 
 joined in the orgies with which they celebrated their re- 
 unions. Dr. Hudson, himself a member of this dis- 
 tinguished body, gives us an account of its inner work- 
 ing, thus: — " This celebrated society was partly politi- 
 cal and partly convivial ; it consisted of two parts, pro- 
 fessed and lay brothers. As the latter had no privileges 
 except that of commons in the refectory, they are un- 
 noticed here. The professed (by the constitution) con- 
 sisted of members of either House of Parliament, and 
 
 * The only other honorary member was James Barry, the painter, 
 also a Cork man. 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 199 
 
 barristers, with the addition from other learned profes- 
 sions of any number not exceeding one -third of the 
 whole. They assembled every Saturday in convent, 
 during term-time, in a large house in Kevin-street, the 
 property of the late Lord Tracton, and since converted 
 into a seneschal's court, and commonly held a chapter 
 before commons, at which the abbot (Mr. Doyle) pre- 
 sided, or in his (very rare) absence, the prior or senior 
 of the officers present. Upon such occasions, all the 
 members appeared in the habit of the order — a black 
 tabinet domino. A short Latin grace, ' Benedictus 
 benedicat/ and ' Benedicto henedicatur,' was regularly 
 and gravely pronounced by the precentor or chaplain, 
 before and after commons. There were amongst their 
 number many learned men, and men of genius ; and it 
 may be safely said that few productions, either in pam- 
 phlets or periodical publications of any celebrity during 
 the arduous struggle for Irish Emancipation, appeared 
 which did not proceed from the pen of one of the 
 brethren. Nor did they forego their labors, till by their 
 pi-ayers and exertions they obtained emancipation for 
 their country. The sad change which has taken place 
 since their dispersion need not be related." The reader 
 may judge of the character of the society, and the 
 hours of delightful intercourse their meetings m.ust 
 have afforded, when he hears that, conspicuous among 
 its members, were such men as Flood, Grattan, Curran, 
 Lord Charlemont, Judges Day, Chamberlain e, and 
 Metge, Bowes Daly, George Ogle, Hardy, Lord Avon- 
 more, and others of the same stamp. The society 
 dwindled away towards the end of 1785. 
 
 In acknowledgment of the high honor conferred on 
 Father O'Leary, by electing him as a member of so 
 distinguished an association, he brought out an edition 
 of all the works he had already published, and dedicated 
 it to the Monks of St. Patrick. This was in the year 
 
200 Life and Writings of 
 
 1781. The opening words of the dedication well set 
 forth the end and aim of the learned Father's writings. 
 " The purport," he says, "of the work which I have 
 the honor to dedicate to your order, is to cement the 
 bands of society — to secure the safety of our country, 
 by union and mutual confidence — to render the sub- 
 ject's allegiance firm, and at the same time reasonable, 
 by establishing it on its proper grounds — to dispel the 
 mists of long-reigning prejudice — after disarming infi- 
 delity, which strikes at the foundation of religion, and 
 the dignity of our nature, to induce Christians of every 
 denomination to lay aside the destructive weapons which 
 frenzy has so often put into their hands ; and under 
 their peculiar modes of worship, to inspire them with 
 that benevolence and charity enforced by the first prin- 
 ciples of the law of nature, and confirmed by the 
 sacred oracles which they all revere." It is in this 
 dedication also we find those remarkable words, which 
 are ever associated in our minds with the memory of 
 O'Leary — which aptly portray the warm philanthropy 
 of his character, and which should be the adopted 
 motto of all liberal-minded men : — " Let not religion, 
 the sacred name of religion, which even in the face of 
 an enemy discovers a brother, be any longer a wall of 
 separation to keep us asunder." 
 
 In order to diffuse, as widely as possible, the senti- 
 ments of toleration advocated in Father O'Leary's wri- 
 tings, the English Catholic Committee published, at 
 their own expense, a hundred copies of the work, and 
 had them presented gratis, in the name of O'Leary, to 
 several of the most distinguished men of the day. It 
 will be interesting to read the subjoined copies of two 
 letters, which we select from many, written to Father 
 O'Leary in acknowledgment of the receipt of his 
 work : — 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 201 
 
 Frrnn the Bight Honorable Welboi'e EUiSy afterwards Lord 
 
 " Reverend Sir, — A person has left at my door a 
 volume of your tracts, accompanied by an obliging card, 
 explaining the great object and end to which these 
 tracts are to lead. When wit, learning, and benevo- 
 lence, who do not always travel in company, do me the 
 favor to come to my door, if I did not receive such 
 guests with satisfaction and respect, I should little de- 
 serve a dwelling among a learned and civilized people. 
 I beg therefore to trouble you with my best acknow- 
 ledgments for this obliging mark of your notice, and 
 to assure you that I feel as I ought this instance 'of 
 your favor towards me. I should be very glad, when 
 your occasions call you to this part of the world, to 
 make these acknowledgments in person, which I now do 
 by letter ; and to repeat to you the sentiments of gra- 
 titude and esteem with which I have the honor to be, 
 " Reverend Sir, 
 "Your most obedient and humble servant, 
 "W. Ellis. 
 
 *' London, May 30th, 1782." 
 
 From Lord Beauchamp, late Marquis of Hertford. 
 
 " Reverend Sir, — I received a few days ago the pre- 
 sent of your works, which you have been so obliging as 
 to send me ; and am very happy at the opportunity it 
 procures me of expressing my sincere esteem for the 
 author. I most ardently wish that the principles of tole- 
 ration which your heart dictates, and your pen enables 
 
 * Mr. Ellia was a not unfrequent victim of castigation at the un- 
 sparing hands of Junius. He was a man of diminutive size, and was 
 dnbbed by his anonymous persecutor at one time — "little manikin 
 Ellis," at another, "Grildrig," by a Iu/ms a non lucendo, Grildrig being 
 the name Gulliver gave the gigantic inhabitants of Brobdignag. 
 
202 Life and Writings of 
 
 you to express with so much eloquence, may have a 
 proper effect oa the minds of our countrymen ; as I am 
 satisfied that Popery laws have operated as much to the 
 prejudice of Ireland as the restraints imposed by the 
 jealousy of this kingdom on its trade. I have at last seen 
 the downfall of the latter system with infinite satisfac- 
 tion ; but I shall despair of seeing Ireland what I wish 
 her to be — an opulent and happy country — until the 
 bulk of the people are raised from that abasement into 
 which it has been the mistaken policy of former reigns 
 to throw them, by the foundation of a better system. I 
 heard with pleasure of Mr. Gardiner's bill; but I re- 
 gretted much, on reading the provisions of the act, to 
 find it so inadequate to the great purpose I before 
 alluded to, and to the expectations we had formed of it. 
 But I am insensibly getting into an argument, when my 
 only purpose in troubling you is to assure you of the 
 respect with which I remain. Sir, 
 
 " Your very faithful and humble servant, 
 
 " Beauchamp." 
 
 O'Leary's name had now spread far and wide as the 
 champion of religious toleration, and therefore, con- 
 sidering the circumstances of the times, the best friend 
 of the country. All true patriots, whatever may have 
 been their aversion to Catholicity, sought to do him 
 honor ; for in him they recognized the apostle of a just 
 and long-needed national regeneration. 
 
 The Volunteers of '82 could not pass over with in- 
 difference services which so ably seconded their own in 
 the effort to ameliorate the condition of a persecuted 
 people ; and although they still lacked the justice of 
 extending the elective franchise to their Catholic fellow- 
 subjects, they were unable to resist the claims to per- 
 sonal honor and esteem established by the great priestly 
 vindicator of Catholic rights. A distinguished corps of 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 208 
 
 the Volunteers, the Irish Brigade, conferred on him the 
 honorary dignity of chaplain; and we are assured that 
 many of the measures submitted for consideration at the 
 great national convention held in Dublin, on the 11th of 
 November, 1783, had been previously placed before him 
 for his opinion as to their prudence and utility. On 
 that memorable day, when the delegates of a hundred 
 thousand men met in the Rotundo, with all the pomp 
 and power that an armed nation could concentrate for 
 a great national purpose, it was gratifying to the assem- 
 bled masses of spectators to behold Father O'Leary, as 
 he entered the building, received at the door by the 
 entire guard of Volunteers with a full salute of rested 
 anns. He marched up the hall amidst the deafening 
 cheers of the surrounding delegates, and, in the debate 
 which followed, his name was frequently mentioned with 
 honor and applause. On his journey from Cork, for 
 the purpose of attending this meeting, his arrival at 
 Kilkenny became suddenly known through that city, 
 and during the short time that he stayed there, the 
 house in which he dined was thronged with people of 
 every rank and creed, all anxious to testify their respect 
 for the great and good man ; and it was with much diffi- 
 culty that, after an unusually long delay, the coach that 
 bore him was suffered to proceed. 
 
 During Father O'Leary's' visit to Dublin on this oc- 
 casion, he was waited on by a gentleman who was well 
 known to be on very close and friendly relations with 
 the government of the day. The visit appeared, for 
 some time, to be mierely one of ceremony, and the 
 visitor paid many handsome compliments to the Father 
 on the style of his writings and their good effect on 
 the public mind. Soon, however, it was easy to see 
 that diplomacy had more to do with the visit than 
 etiquette, for the gentleman, in courteous language, 
 intimated that if Father O'Leary would use his pen in 
 
204 Life and Writings of 
 
 extolling certain measures just then brought forward 
 by the administration, his services would be handsomely 
 requited. O'Leary was displeased and indignant at the 
 proposal to barter his patriotism for a bribe, and con- 
 veyed his feelings in no measured phrase. The request 
 was therefore softened down into an entreaty that he 
 would at least abstain from writing on those measures in 
 terms of condemnation. But the minion of the govern- 
 ment knew not with what manner of man he had to deal. 
 " I will never be silent," warmly exclaimed O'Leary, 
 " whilst my exertions can be of the least service to my 
 religion or my country." The checkmated applicant, 
 on the part of the government, begged of Father O'Leary 
 to accept a pension of £150 from the crown, in acknow- 
 ledgment of his services to the State already conferred,, 
 and promised that the grant should not be hampered 
 by any condition whatsoever. To an endowment 
 coming in this form, even Father O'Leary could not 
 object ; but a change of ministry soon after took place, 
 and the promised pension was not awarded. 
 
 At this time O'Leary was warmly entreated by his 
 friends, and by numerous correspondents, to write a his- 
 tory of the Gordon E-iots in England. In compliance 
 with a request so general and earnest, he was about to 
 proceed with the work, and had gathered abundant ma- 
 terials for the purpose, when he suddenly altered his 
 resolution, and accounted to the public, for his change of 
 mind, in the following statement : — " Several persons 
 requested that I would give a history of the Gordon Riots : 
 I promised to undertake the task, and, in consequence, 
 began to digest my materials. I afterwards reflected that 
 the duty of the historian bound him to arraign, at the im- 
 partial tribunal of truth, both men and actions ; to un- 
 mask the leading characters; examine into their motives; 
 lay open the hidden springs of proceedings, whether 
 worthy of applause, or deserving to be doomed to censure; 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^. 205 
 
 to embellish his narrative with suitable reflections ; and 
 by spreading the wide theatre, without respect of time or 
 persons, to inform the living, and become monitor of the 
 unborn. I afterwards considered my own state exposed, 
 in consequence of the penal laws, to the insult of every 
 ruffian, and comparing the defenceless situation of the 
 priest with the duty of the historian, I dropped the 
 attempt. 
 
 " No person is obliged to write a history ; but when 
 he writes it, he must tell the truth ; and when he tells 
 the truth in talking of the living, it is hard to avoid 
 giving offence. 
 
 "If my correspondents be not satisfied with this 
 apology, let them point out a method whereby I can 
 remove the difficulty, and I shall publish a history of 
 the riots in London itself, with my name to it, for I 
 disclaim anonymous productions." 
 
 The hatred of religious orders which had charac- 
 terized the government of Ireland, had scarcely re- 
 ceived any abatement from the days of the Reformation. 
 Whatever relaxation the laws against the clergy had 
 undergone, was not supposed to extend to them ; they 
 were regarded as the worst foes of the Constitution ; 
 and when, in the early years of Queen Anne's reign, it 
 was decreed by Act of Parliament that, as a measure 
 of State precaution, a registry should be kept of the 
 Irish clergy, and security be given for their good 
 behaviour as an earnest of State protection, the 
 regular clergy, commonly called " friars," were de- 
 signedly excluded from the privilege of enrolment. And 
 yet, to all appearances, there was nothing to appre- 
 hend from them. They lived in poverty and obscurity, 
 devoted entirely to the discharge of their sacred func- 
 tions, coarsely clad and sparely fed. Perfectly unam- 
 bitious of worldly aggrandizement, they encroached 
 not on their neighbour ; they seemed only anxious to 
 
206 Life and Writings of 
 
 be let alone, as they let the world alone. For all this, 
 however, they were hated. Their very silence and 
 obscurity were construed into the scheming retirement 
 of conspirators. They were not, like the secular clergy, 
 subject, at least in many instances, to local episcopal 
 jurisdiction, but were permitted by the Holy See to 
 have superiors of their own, who were all, in their dif- 
 ferent degrees of superiority, dependent on a foreign 
 supreme head. Moreover, their vow of obedience was 
 urged as an argument that they were subject to 
 foreign influence, and their unwillingness to take the 
 oath of allegiance under the championship of Dr. 
 Burke one of their order, seemed to imply that their 
 allegiance to the pope was considered to be incom- 
 patible with allegiance to their sovereign. To those 
 who viewed the question in its true light, these ob- 
 jections were utterly groundless ; for, by obedience to 
 a foreign power, they owed only a submission in " spiri- 
 tual affairs, in matters of conventual discipline" and 
 soforth, which was by no means incompatible with 
 their duties to the State — with that " obedience to the 
 higher powers," commanded by St. Paul. And if they 
 objected to the test oath, it was only for a time — 
 until the fears which agitated their consciences were 
 allayed by arguments of sound theology. Nay, this 
 very scrupulosity should be rather regarded as an 
 evidence of their respect for the sacred obligation of an 
 oath. The ablest vindicator of the oath was one of 
 their own body. Father Arthur O'Leary ; and when 
 their scruples were finally overcome, they not only took 
 it themselves freely, but used every argument in their 
 power to induce others to follow their example. 
 
 Nevertheless, even in that age of boasted progress 
 and enlightenment, there seemed to be growing a 
 desire stronger than ever that the religious orders 
 should be summarily extinguished in Ireland. A plan 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai-y. 207 
 
 was in course of preparation for their destruction, and 
 parliament was to be invoked on an earl}' day, to use 
 its supreme power in co-operating in the work. The 
 intelligence soon leaked out, and the shadow of coming 
 events fell on the unhappy friars like a thunder-cloud. 
 At the time, their existence in the country was not 
 recognized by law; yet they were tolerated, and strove, 
 by their unobtrusiveness, to avoid giving offence. But 
 when they discovered symptoms which indicated that 
 the law was to be no longer inoperative in their regard, 
 but that it was about to be employed as an engine 
 of destruction against them, their dismay was very 
 great indeed. Living in retirement, they had no 
 firiends amongst the great, by whose interposition the 
 blow might be averted — they could only bow in patience 
 to the decrees of fate. But, in the hour of danger, 
 they turned to their " brother," the now famous and 
 highly-honored Arthur O'Leary. Him they entreated 
 to employ his talents, his virtues, his familiarity with 
 the statesmen of the day, to ward off the impending 
 danger. He obeyed. He proceeded to Dublin on his 
 mission ; and, by the success of his negotiations, was 
 mainly instrumental in preserving the religious orders 
 of Ireland from ruin, and in perpetuating the blessings 
 that flow to society from their arduous and disinte- 
 rested efforts in the cause of learning and religion. A 
 private letter which he wrote at this time to a brother 
 friar, the Reverend Lawrence Callanan of Cork,* well 
 
 • The Reverend Lawrence Callanan, a native of Cork, bom 1739, 
 was, for many years before his death, prior of the Franciscan order 
 in that city. He was the intimate friend of Father O'Leary, and 
 with him contributed much to the pacification of the country, during 
 the frequent outbursts of Whiteboyism. By his advice, and under 
 the patronage of Bishop Moylan, Miss Nano Nagle founded the 
 *• Pre*entation Order" of nuns in the city of Cork. Father Callanan 
 it was who compiled the rule by which the convent was to be 
 governed, and that rule received the full and unqualified sanction of 
 
208 Life and Writings of 
 
 conveys his views on the question, and is, for many- 
 reasons, worthy of perusal : — 
 
 To the Reverend Laurence Callanan, Broad-lane, Cork 
 
 " Sir, — I am in no great humor to write to Cork after 
 the gross insult which has been offered me. A sheepish 
 modesty and ill-timed delicacy wrested out of my hands 
 the arms of retaliation, which long ere now would have 
 been turned against their proper objects, if the honor of 
 religion did not suppress in my breast those emotions so 
 natural to an injured man. Another cause of my past 
 silence and present discontent, is the deep stab given to 
 my character, in proclaiming that I came hither to re- 
 nounce a religion for which I am ready to spill my 
 blood, and which I always vindicated from the foul 
 aspersions of its enemies, whilst others were enjoying 
 the emoluments annexed to the ministry.* If a poor 
 
 the Holy See. He is described by tbose who have preserved the 
 memory of him, as a man of the most singularly exalted character 
 as a clergyman. Endowed with talents of the first order, which he 
 had cultivated with extreme care in the convent of St. Anthony at 
 Louvain, his theological attainments were only second in rank to his 
 many virtues ; to which were added an amiable sweetness and sim- 
 plicity of character, that exacted the love and veneration of all those 
 who enjoyed the privilege of his acquaintance. His life illustrates the 
 well-known truth, that the benefactors of the human race are ap- 
 plauded less than their destroyers. He has left behind him no 
 visible monument of the work to which his long life was devoted ; for 
 the growth of morality, fostered by teaching and example, and pro- 
 ducing fruit in succeeding generations, is not subject to vision, and 
 frequently passes without notice ; but he was one of those few men, 
 by excellence named " just," whose noblest earthly reward is to be 
 enshrined in the hearts and affections of posterity, while thousands 
 of their contemporaries pass from the arena of life, and leave not a 
 memory behind. In memorid cuternd erit Justus. Father Callanan 
 died in Cork, on the 29th of January, 1818, in the 80th year of his 
 age. 
 
 * The report that Father O'Leary had conformed to the Protestant 
 religion, with a view to marriage, had gained such wide-spread circu- 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 209 
 
 friar, buried between salt-houses and stables, and poring 
 over his books in the city of Cork, has been, on his ar- 
 rival in the metropolis of the kingdom, caressed by all 
 ranks of people, and admitted into the intimate society 
 of reverend Protestant doctors, and the most eminent 
 characters who shine in the senate, what evil could arise 
 therefrom to his religion or its professors ? Such, not- 
 withstanding, is the rumour that prevailed in your city as 
 well as in Waterford, if I am not misinformed by gen- 
 tlemen who spent some time in both places, and who 
 were surprised to see me bless myself at table in Dublin. 
 But let the din of calumny die away with the tongues 
 that sounded it, and let us pass to a point of more im- 
 portance than the injured character of an individual. 
 
 " The storm that is ready to burst over the heads of 
 the regular clergy has been gathering those two years 
 past ; and let the blame lie at your own doors if you 
 resemble a Jonas plunged in his slumbers, while the lot 
 is casting to throw him overboard. It is to be presumed 
 that the Catholic gentlemen of your part of the world 
 have too much candor, and too great a regard for the 
 honor of religion, to blame a part of their ministers for 
 using every precaution that prudence can suggest, in 
 order to avert the danger with which they are threa- 
 tened. It reflects no honor on their religion, nor on 
 us, to have the characters of ecclesiastics lacerated and 
 torn by virulent declamations in a Protestant senate, 
 and painted in the high colorings of rebels to the State, 
 
 lation that he felt it his duty to rebut the charge in a letter addressed 
 to the public papers. " Having," he says, in conclusion, " from my 
 early days accustomed myself to get the mastery over ambition and 
 love, the two passions which, in every age, have enslaved the greatest 
 heroes, your correspondent may rest assured that I am not of the trio 
 mentioned in his letter." This letter was dated June 5, 1790, and it 
 would, therefore, appear from the letter in the text that the imputa- 
 tion of apofta^ WM also made against him so early as ten years 
 before. 
 
 J* 1 
 
210 Life and Writings of 
 
 nuisances to the public, and papal spies ; which will be 
 the language used when debates will ensue on the pro- 
 priety or impropriety of banishing the regular clergy, 
 or dissolving their institutions, by transferring their 
 obedience from their own superiors to others, and de- 
 creeing that, after the decease of the present generation, 
 no more of them shall be admitted into the kingdom, 
 which is the purport of the bill — the more dangerous, 
 as the roughness of its features is softened by the air of 
 lenity shown to the secular clergy — the more dangerous, 
 as the person who is to introduce the bill will not lay it 
 before the committee of the Catholic laity, nor even 
 before that of the bishops. 
 
 " It will take its rise in the House of Lords. The 
 mine is already worked ; but we cannot yet discover the 
 hand that is to give it vent. It may possibly take its 
 origin in the Commons ; but in whichever of the two 
 the scene is to be exhibited, the play will be the more 
 disagreeable to us, as the characters hav^e it in rehearsal 
 this long time past, and really imagine that they wiU 
 speak the sentiments of the majority of the Catholics 
 in giving full scope to their own prejudice against per- 
 sons, whom, from the principles of their religion, they 
 were taught to view in inverted attitudes. 
 
 " Some of the members themselves make no secret of 
 what you have heretofore deemed a phantom ; and Mr. 
 Dillon, a sanguine advocate for the Roman Catholics, 
 told me the whole affair last Easter Sunday, in presence 
 of Robert Caldwell, Esq., father of the two young ladies 
 in the Louth nunnery. He was kind enough to tell me 
 that, as for my part, I had nothing to fear ; that I had 
 gained the affection of the head Protestants in the king- 
 dom, &c., &c. ; but that the friars were an obnoxious set 
 of men, who must be either removed, or put under the 
 control of the bishops during the lives of the present 
 generation, with absolute prohibition to admit any more 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 511 
 
 of them. What astonished me most was this gentle- 
 man's eagerness to promote the welfare of the Catholics 
 in general, his particular friendship for me, but still his 
 unshaken resolution to co-operate in the plan for the 
 destruction of the religious orders. I thanked him for his 
 civility towards me ;.but declared that I would either 
 stand or fall with my brethren, who must have been 
 misrepresented to him. I pointed out to him the ex- 
 ample of Great Britain and the Protestant powers of 
 the Continent, who extend the protection of the laws to 
 the regulars as well as the seculars. I told him that we 
 were of use to the people, without being any incum- 
 brance to the public ; whereas we live upon little, and 
 that this little is got without compulsion ; that Protes- 
 tant magistrates have no room to complain of us ; they 
 do not contribute to our support, nor even Catholics, as 
 it lies at their option either to give or refuse ; that a 
 vow of leading a poorer life should never expose a 
 clergyman to the censure or animadversion of the laws, 
 as the clergy are never more exposed to the censure of 
 their flocks than when they seek to lead a pampered 
 life, and to accumulate riches ; and that, in extending 
 his views to future times, and, prohibiting any more 
 regulars, he only fabricated chains for religious liberty, 
 and hindered man from serving God in the manner he 
 would think most acceptable to Him. I argued without 
 persuading, and retired without convincing him. 
 
 " Two of the members in whom I could repose an 
 entire confidence were consulted as to the plan we 
 should adopt. They advised, 1st, that immediate appli- 
 catioD be made to all the Catholic bishops for their 
 signatures in favor of our usefulness to the public — the 
 same application to be made to the most respectable of 
 the Catholic laity wherever we have establishments. 
 2ndly, That a short memorial be printed, and copies of 
 it given to every member in both houses, in order to 
 
212 Life and Writings of 
 
 prevent the bill from being introduced, if possible ; or 
 if it be introduced, to point out the ground on which 
 our friends (if any should speak in our favor) may go. 
 These resolutions have been adopted in a meeting of 
 the regular superiors in Dublin, and I am ordered to 
 forward them to you, and the other superiors in your 
 city, as they are forwarded to all other cities where we 
 have convents. You are, then, immediately to convene 
 the regular superiors of Cork, who are to send two, or 
 as many as they think fit in their names, to Dr. Butler, 
 for his signature to the following attestation : — 
 
 " ' We certify that the regular clergy are useful to the 
 public by their instructions, and by instilling the prin- 
 ciples of good morals : and therefore think them worthy 
 of being protected in their own institutions.' 
 
 " You are to transmit the same to the Bishops of 
 Cloyne and Kerry, and get two gentlemen to procure 
 the signatures of the laity. Let the application be 
 made to the bishops, whether they sign or not, for 
 reasons too obvious to mention. I waited yesterday 
 morning on Lord Kenmare, who approves of the plan 
 suggested by the two gentlemen above alluded to. To- 
 morrow the superiors are to wait on Dr. Carpenter. 
 
 " I repeat it again — no bill relative to the regulars is 
 before any of the committees ; therefore be not lulled 
 asleep, but proceed immediately, and let the signatures 
 of the citizens of Cork be on a fine skin of parchment, 
 and your answer immediately addressed to us. — Yours, 
 &c., 
 
 "Arthur O'Leary. 
 
 "A private hint. — Sir Lucius O'Brien waited two 
 days ago on Dr. Carpenter with the joyous tidings that 
 the friars were to be expelled. He had not the charity 
 to give us the information. It is needless that Mr. 
 Barry should write to Mr. Yelverton, to whom I ex- 
 plained the whole affair yesterday at his house where 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 213 
 
 I dined. Lord Kenniare promised to introduce me to 
 the Speaker when he returns from England. The 
 Protestant Archbishop of Cashel, after reading the 
 ' Remarks on Wesley's Letter/ notified to Dr. Jebb his 
 desire of seeing me. * It is not,' said he, ' that he is a 
 priest or friar ; but I like his benevolent and philoso- 
 phical turn.' Lord Kenmare desired me to get myself 
 introduced to him, and to cultivate his acquaintance. 
 Dr. Campbell and I met several times lately, when I 
 expostulated with him on the injury done by his 
 writings to the regulars. He told me he got the in- 
 formation from the parish-priest of Clogher." 
 
 The danger to the regular clergy was greatly in- 
 creased by the fact that a feeling far from cordial had 
 sprung up between them and the secular clergy, owing 
 to differences of opinion regarding the test oath, to 
 which we have before alluded. The bishops of Munster, 
 headed by Dr. Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, as we have 
 seen, met at Cork, and signed a declaration that the oath 
 "contained nothing contrary to the principles of the 
 Roman Catholic religion." They thus implied that 
 an oath may be lawfully taken which contains nothing 
 contrary to the principles of the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion. Such, however, is not the fact. An oath may 
 be perfectly inoffensive to those sacred principles, and 
 yet be, as the oath in question no doubt was, highly 
 " irreverent to the head of the Church, and insulting to 
 the faithful, for whom its framers could find no more 
 respectful name than Papists and followers of the 
 Popish religion."* 
 
 The oath was objectionable on many other grounds, 
 but the anxiety of the bishops to adopt some tangible 
 means for redressing the grievances of the people 
 
 • See OoUeetiom an Irish Church History, compiled by the late 
 Dr. Renehan, President of Maynooth Ck>llege, p. 328. 
 
214 Life and WHtings of 
 
 blinded them to those apparently trifling difficulties. 
 The papal nuncio (Ghilini) at Brussels had warned 
 them of the grave objections that could be raised against 
 the oath, or one very like it. Prudence should have 
 prompted the Archbishop of Cashel, if not to accept the 
 nuncio's remonstrance, at least to take time and consult 
 a higher tribunal. But he was irritated with what he 
 considered the officiousness of the papal representative, 
 and denounced it in no measured terms. At an assembly 
 of the bishops, held at Thurles, the Hihernia Domini- 
 cana, in which the nuncio's letter had been reproduced, 
 was rashly condemned. Dr. Butler accused Dr. Car- 
 penter, Archbishop of Dublin, of having unfairly stated 
 the nature and circumstances of the oath at Eome. 
 The charge was unfounded, and sowed the seeds of 
 dissension between that latter prelate and the bishops 
 of Munster. To justify his conduct, Dr. Butler ad- 
 dressed, as already stated, a remonstrance to the Car- 
 dinal Protector (Castelli), a very able document, but 
 which, unfortunately, contained expressions calculated 
 to excite the bitterest feelings between the secular and 
 regular bodies of the Irish clergy. A rumour was 
 spread that the bishops of Munster fully approved of 
 the measure about to be brought before parliament for 
 the expulsion of the friars. The news reached Father 
 O'Leary, who was startled at the announcement, and 
 immediately took measures for ascertaining the truth. 
 He drew up the resolution referred to in the letter to 
 the Bev. Mr. Callanan, just quoted, viz. : — " We certify 
 that the regular clergy are useful to the public by their 
 instructions, and by instilling the principles of good 
 morals : and therefore think them worthy of being pro- 
 tected in their institutions." The injustice of the alle- 
 gation, that the bishops desired the extinction of the 
 religious orders, was soon made manifest, as the follow- 
 ing letter from Father O'Leary will prove : — 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. 215 
 
 To the Bight Bevei-end Dr. Patnck Joseph Plunket, Bishop of 
 Meath. 
 
 " My Lord, — It is time for me to return your lord- 
 ship thanks for the civil reception I met with when I 
 had the honor to pay you my respects. I am ordered, 
 in like manner, to return your lordship the thanks of 
 my brethren. The superiors here have waited on Dr. 
 Carpenter, who exhibited no reluctance in signing the 
 certificate. I had the honor of a conference with Dr. 
 Butler, of Cashel, in his passage through this town. I 
 informed him that the false report of the religious hav- 
 ing aspersed the Munster bishops at Rome, had been 
 contradicted by an authentic lettel- from that city, signed 
 by the agents of the secular and regular clergy. Your 
 lordship must have seen a copy of it before now. If 
 not, it shall be imparted to you. His grace told me, in 
 producing the certificate, that he would consult his pro- 
 vincial bishops, who, he was sure, would sign. I told 
 him that in case some would be averse to us, it was no 
 apology for the rest ; that it was incumbent on us to 
 distinguish between our friends and our enemies ; and 
 that, at all events, if no person signed in our favor, honor 
 and our own preservation will induce us to take every 
 step against our destruction ; and that, if the bill of our 
 expulsion or secularization, which is no more than ex- 
 pulsion in disguise, should pass both houses, still, before 
 it would pass into Jaw, that we are determined to plead 
 it at the bar of both houses, whereas w^e are as well en- 
 titled to the rights of mankind and liberty of conscience 
 as any other set of men. He declared to me that when 
 application was made to him and Dr. Egan, relative to 
 the matter, by a leading member, both pleaded our 
 cause. I received this instant an obliging letter from 
 him, dated at Thurles, with his signature to the certifi- 
 cate, and a promise of the signatures of the provincial 
 bishops. It makes me doubly happy in having his pro- 
 
216 Life and Writings of 
 
 tection on the one hand, and having an opportunity of 
 removing my suspicions on the other ; though, in fact, 
 my opinion of him was such, that he was not the prin- 
 cipal person I ever suspected of entering into a shame- 
 ful confederacy with a party averse to our religion 
 against its ministers, if a confederacy of the kind has 
 ever been in agitation. In a kingdom where a different 
 religion is on the throne, our clergy are but servants 
 liable to be ejected at the will of their landlords. In a 
 kingdom where many religions, backed by the power of 
 the State, will ever be at variance with one, our existence 
 is insecure. Our tenure is precarious, and we are not 
 to weaken our forces, where the collective body have 
 means enough to maintain their ground, especially as 
 fanaticism and faction may repeal at a future period 
 what moderation and liberality may grant now. — I have 
 the honor to be your lordship's most obliged and humble 
 servant, 
 
 "Arthur O'Leary. 
 
 "DubHn, April 26th."* 
 
 The danger to the religious orders in Ireland which 
 w^as thus so unmistakeably imminent, and which was 
 averted only by the character and exertions of O'Leary, 
 returned in full force two years afterwards, and seemed 
 to defy even him to stave it off any longer. A clause 
 was introduced into the Catholic bill of 1782, in which 
 it was regulated that the friars of the country should be 
 entitled to the protection of the law provided they took 
 the oath of allegiance within a specified time, but no 
 further succession of regulars would be tolerated. On 
 this occasion, also, the friars were indebted to the exalted 
 
 * There is no year mentioned, but it must have been 1778. The 
 original of this letter is in possession of the Rev. Dr. M'Carthy, Pro- 
 fessor of Theology, Maynooth College, who kindly permitted me to 
 copy it. (Dr. Plunket signed the memorial at once.) 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 217 
 
 character of Father O'Leary, for the defeat of a mea- 
 sure which aimed at their extinction. From the follow- 
 ing extracts of the speeches delivered during the debate 
 on the question, it will at once be manifest what was 
 the high estimation in which Father O'Leary was held 
 throughout the country, and to what a large extent he 
 was instrumental in the defeat of a measure so justly 
 obnoxious to his brethren in the ministry : — 
 
 Sir Lucius O'Brien said — " He did not approve of the 
 regulars, though his candour must acknowledge that 
 many men amongst them have displayed great abilities. 
 Granganelli (Clement XIV.) and the Reverend Dr. 
 Arthur O'Leary are distinguished among the Francis- 
 cans ; and many great men have been produced in the 
 Benedictine order. He saw no temptation that regu- 
 lars had for coming here, if it was not to abandon cer- 
 tain competence where they were, for certain poverty 
 in this kingdom." 
 
 Mr. Grattan said — "He could not hear the name 
 of Father O'Leary mentioned without paying him 
 that tribute of acknowledgment so justly due to his 
 merit. At the time that this very man lay under the 
 censure of a law, which, in his own country, made him 
 subject to transportation or death from religious dis- 
 tinctions, and at a time that a prince of his own reli- 
 gion threatened this country with an invasion, this 
 respectable character took up his pen, and unsolicited, 
 and without a motive but that of real patriotism, to 
 urge his own communion to a disposition of peace, and 
 to support the law which had sentenced him to trans- 
 portation. A man of learning — a philosopher — a Fran- 
 ciscan — did the most eminent service to his country in 
 the hour of its greatest danger. He brought out a 
 publication that would do honor to the most celebrated 
 name. The whole kingdom must bear witness to its 
 effect, by the reception they gave it. Poor in every- 
 
218 Life and Writings of 
 
 thing but genius and philosophy, he had no property 
 at stake, no family to fear for ; but, descending from the 
 contemplation of wisdom, and abandoning the orna- 
 ments of fancy, he humanely undertook the task of con- 
 veying duty and instruction to the lowest class of the 
 people. If I did not know him to be a Christian 
 clergyman, I should suppose him by his works to be a 
 philosopher of the Augustan age. The regulars are a 
 harmless body of men, and should not be disturbed." 
 
 Mr. St. George declared — " Notwithstanding his de- 
 termined opposition to the regulars, he would, for the 
 sake of one exalted character of their body, be tolerant 
 to the rest ; but he would, at the same time, uniformly 
 oppose the tolerating of any more regular clergy than 
 what were at present in the kingdom." 
 
 Mr. Yelverton said that— ^" He was proud to call such 
 a man as Dr. O'Leary his particular friend. His works 
 might be placed on a footing with those of the finest 
 writers of the age. They originated from the urbanity 
 of the heart ; because, unattached to the world's affairs, 
 he could have none but the purest motives of rendering 
 service to the cause of morality and his country. Had 
 he not imbibed every sentiment of toleration before he 
 knew Father O'Leary, he should be proud to adopt sen- 
 timents of toleration from him. He should yield 
 to the sense of the committee in respect to the limi- 
 tation of regulars, because he believed no invitation 
 which could be held out would bring over another 
 O'Leary." 
 
 At a subsequent stage of the debate, the eulogistic 
 language which Mr. Grattan had used in reference to 
 Father O'Leary, afforded Flood an occasion for a display 
 of that bitterness which he frequently vented on his 
 rival. " I am not," said he, " the missionary of a reli- 
 gion which I do not profess ; nor do I speak eulogies 
 on characters whom I will not imitate," But Grattan 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 219 
 
 was not the man to forego a challenge, no matter whence 
 or how it came. In the concluding portion of his 
 speech in reply, he said : " Now one word respecting 
 Dr. O'Leary" — to whom it was well understood Mr. 
 Flood had referred — " something has been said about 
 eulogies pronounced, and missionaries of religion. I am 
 not ashamed of the part which I took in that gentle- 
 man's panegyric ; nor shall I ever think it a disgrace 
 to pay the tribute of praise to the philosopher and the 
 virtuous man." The bill against the friars fell through, 
 and was not afterwards brought before the House. 
 
 The next event in the life of Father O'Leary with 
 which we are acquainted, was a compliment paid him 
 in the city of his adoption, by a highly respectable body 
 of his fellow-citizens. The growth of liberal opinions, 
 at this period, gave birth to many societies throughout 
 the country, by which those opinions were fostered and 
 promoted. Amongst them was one in Cork, called the 
 ** Cork Amicable Society," composed of gentlemen be- 
 longing to the first rank in the social scale, and differing 
 through every variety of religious belief The object of 
 their association was to promote, by every means in their 
 power, sentiments of liberality and toleration amongst 
 men, no matter of what creed or profession. A society 
 of this description could not well overlook the services 
 afforded so signally to their cause by the writings and 
 preachings of O'Leary; and they accordingly availed 
 themselves of a suitable opportunity to pay him that 
 mark of respect which they deemed he had deserved 
 at their hands. 
 
 They presented him with a gold medal of great value 
 and superior workmanship, on which he was represented 
 in the habit of his order, crushing with his foot the 
 hydra of religious persecution, while with one hand he 
 flung open the gates of the temple of Concord, and with 
 the other invited his feUow-countrymen (symbolically 
 
220 ^ Life and Writings of 
 
 represented by a harp) to enter the sacred edifice. The 
 figure of Erin stood beside him, presenting him with 
 two wreaths, one of science and the other of victory, 
 with one legend over his head, " Utrdque dignus," and 
 another round the edge of the medal, " Diram qui con- 
 tadit hydram." On the reverse was the following 
 inscription : — " To the Reverend A. O'Leary, who taught 
 Irishmen that, however they may be divided in specu- 
 lative points of religion, Christian charity and generous 
 friendship should be borne by all to all, the Cork Ami- 
 cable Society presented this medal, A.D. 1784."* 
 
 Father O'Leary's pen, scarcely ever inactive, was 
 again called into play in the year 1786, when he pub- 
 lished a pamphlet entitled a "Review of the Important 
 Controversy between Doctor Carroll and the Rev. 
 Messrs. Wharton and Hawkins ; including a Defence of 
 the Conduct of Pope Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) in sup- 
 pressing a late Religious Order. By the Rev. Arthur 
 O'Leary." The Rev. Messrs. Wharton and Hawkins 
 were two English Roman Catholic priests, who had 
 apostatized from their Church, and joined that of Eng- 
 land. One had incurred the displeasure of his superiors, 
 either by disobedience or misconduct ; the other had 
 evinced a disregard for the vow of celibacy incompatible 
 with the public profession of the priesthood. Soon 
 after their defection from the Church, probably to justify 
 their change of religion, they published a pamphlet, in 
 which they launched forth, with great severity, against 
 the doctrines and practices of the Church they had 
 abandoned, and treated the public to tales of immorality 
 dressed out to suit the taste of scandal, and attested 
 strongly enough to bear a striking resemblance to the 
 truth. A reply to their Apology was soon published, 
 
 * The medal here mentioned is in the possession of Mr. Charles 
 Mathew, of Lehenagh, near Cork, brother to the celebrated Father 
 Mathew, 
 
Rev. Arthur OLeary. 221 
 
 bearing the signature of a distinguished Jesuit, the 
 Rev. Dr. Carroll, subsequently the first Catholic bishop 
 of America * A friend of O'Leary's sent him a copy of 
 the controversy, and expressed a desire to have his 
 opinion upon it. Thereupon, the energetic friar pro- 
 duced his " Review," which was published in London, 
 displaying all the characteristics of style and erudition 
 for which his writings had now become famous, and 
 enjoying that popularity to which they were so justly 
 entitled. 
 
 In the course of the controversy, allusions had been 
 made on both sides to one of the most remarkable 
 events of that day, — the expulsion of the Jesuits from 
 Rome, and the suppression of that order by Pope 
 Clement XIV., the reigning pontiff. Dr. Carroll was a 
 Jesuit, and was naturally warm on the indignity to 
 which his order had been subjected. In his vindica- 
 tion, however, he proceeded beyond the bounds of mode- 
 ration, and employed language, in reference to the pope, 
 which could only be excused by the over-zeal in defence 
 of his party, which prompted it. The epithets " artful " 
 and " designing " were rather too strong to be applied 
 to one of the mildest and saintliest pontiffs that ever 
 filled the Chair of Peter. Clement was a Franciscan ; 
 80 was O'Leary. The friar came to the rescue of the 
 prince of friars — how, indeed, could he be silent when 
 the suppression of the Jesuits was attributed to " sinister 
 views " on the part of the pontiff, although the charge 
 came from a brother priest ? Truth's claims were para- 
 mount. O'Leary refuted the charge, and his refutation 
 evoked the gratitude of an impartial and discerning 
 public. 
 
 The true causes of the suppression of that great reli- 
 gious order are briefly stated by him : " The dissolution 
 
 • See Mr. Magoire's Iriah in America^ page 355, for an interesting 
 aoootmt of Dr. Carroll. 
 
222 Life and Writings of 
 
 of the Jesuits," he says, " was owing to their influence, 
 which rendered them objects of envy to artful ministers 
 of State, whose ambitious projects they often controlled, 
 as directors of monarchs, and members of their spiritual 
 councils. It was owing to the expectation of immense 
 wealth, with which kings themselves were flattered, by 
 the abolition of the order. Again, contrary to the 
 ordinary course of things, what was most likely to give 
 permanency to the order, was the very cause of the 
 downfall of the Jesuits, viz., their great credit, power, 
 and authority. They have literally verified the remark 
 of Tacitus, Sinistra erga eminentes interpretation nee 
 minus periculum ex magna famd quam ex maid." 
 
 The order of the Jesuits was restored by Pope 
 Pius VII., and now has spread its branches all over 
 Europe, while its missionaries penetrate into every dis- 
 covered region of the globe. The greatness and influ- 
 ence to which they owed their fall, are now recognized, 
 by every candid observer, as the strongest claims to re- 
 spect and admiration. What they ever have been, they 
 are to-day, the most indefatigable pioneers of religion, 
 the ablest promoters and brightest ornaments of litera- 
 ture, sacred and profane, all over the world ; fitted for 
 the highest, and ready to partake in the humblest 
 duties of mankind- — content if, by the oblation of their 
 very lives, they help in giving " glory to God, and peace 
 on earth to men of good will." 
 
 In the " Review" to which we have called attention, 
 O'Leary paints with striking fidelity the course fre- 
 quently pursued by apostate priests in attempting to 
 justify their secession from the Church. " In the be- 
 ginning of their apologies or justifications, they affect 
 the serious solemnity of a tragic writer, by painting in 
 sable colors the miseries that attend our subjection to 
 authority — the misfortunes of the noble soul shackled 
 in the fetters of obedience to pastors, 'like a fair 
 
Eev. Aiilmr O'Leai-y. 223 
 
 Zenobia in the chains of a tyrant.' Our uncharitable- 
 ness is arraigned, in excluding from eternal bliss and 
 consigning to perdition Christians of every description, 
 except ourselves. These are serious themes, and of so 
 affecting a nature as to enable a poet of moderate 
 genius to work up a tolerable religious tragedy, were it 
 now the custom as in the fourteenth century to exhibit 
 such pieces on the stage, if, at the unravelling of the 
 plot, they had not effects of comedy in exciting the 
 laughter of the audience, when they come to know that 
 all this solemn bustle is about — a wife!' 
 
 The celebrated John Howard, the philanthropist, was 
 wont to boast of his friendship with O'Leary. That 
 great and good man, in his peregrinations on behalf of 
 suffering humanity, came to Cork, where it gave him 
 pleasure to find in existence a society " for the relief 
 and discharge from prison of persons confined for small 
 debts." Of this association, which had been/ounded by 
 Henry Sheares, Esq., the father of the unhappy brothers 
 who fell victims to their ill-judged patriotic attempts in 
 1798, Father O'Leary was a conspicuous and most 
 active member. He was introduced to Howard by 
 their common friend. Archdeacon Austin ; and it is easy 
 to conceive that two men of views so congenial on the 
 great questions involving the happiness of the human 
 race, became the greatest friends, and emulated each 
 other in mutual admiration and esteem. 
 
224 Life and Writinga of 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Account of the Whiteboys — Father O'Leary's Address to them — 
 Pamphlet of *' Theophilus "—Who " Theophilus" was— Pamphlet of 
 Dr. Woodward, Protestant Bishop of Cloyne— O'Leary's Celebrated 
 Reply to "Theophilus" and the Bishop— Extracts therefrom — 
 Opinions of the Public on the Controversy — Eulogies on O'Leary 
 by Moore, Hay (Irish Pebellion), Lord Kenmare, Curran, Wood- 
 ward himself — Captain Rock's Description of Father O'Leary — 
 The Bishop of Cloyne's Altered Views. 
 
 The relation of landlord and tenant in Ireland, as re- 
 cognized by law, has been for more than one hun- 
 dred years the fruitful source of popular discontent, 
 and the occasion of frequent outbreaks amongst the 
 peasantry of a violent and vindictive character. The 
 first of these tumultuous risings took place about the 
 year 1760, and the rioters received the name of White- 
 boys, because they wore white shirts over their clothes 
 while engaged in their lawless proceedings. Though 
 nothing could justify, yet there was much to palliate 
 those unhappy manifestations of hatred and revenge. 
 The wretched peasants, goaded into fury by a legalized 
 persecution, of which the agents were numerous and 
 unsparing, should have lost the last vestige of human 
 feeling ; the very instinct of the crushed worm should 
 have been extinguished in their souls, if they did not 
 turn upon the iron heel of oppression by which they 
 were trampled. Like the timid hare exposed to the 
 multiform dangers of greyhound, gin, gun, club, weasel, 
 and eagle, the Irish peasant no sooner escaped the pur- 
 suit of the landlord, than he had to contend with the 
 still more formidable middleman who had scarcely 
 bled him beyond revival, when his entrails were 
 plucked out by the vulture-beak of the tithe-proctor. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 225 
 
 In the year 1760, these calamities were increased and 
 intensified by others theretofore unfelt. A fatal disease 
 swept off great quantities of cattle, and provisions be- 
 came unusually dear. There was a scarcity of corn, and 
 the House of Commons, in an address to the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, proclaimed the necessity of promoting tillage as 
 far as possible through the country. And yet this was 
 the moment availed of by the landlords for the imposi- 
 tion of a new grievance on their unfortunate tenantry. 
 Up to this period farmers had been allowed the free use 
 of considerable tracts of land in the vicinity of their 
 holdings, where their cattle might graze at large. These 
 commons were suddenly enclosed by the landlords, and 
 converted into pasturages for their own use. The 
 tenants who, even with the advantage of the commons, 
 only dragged out a miserable existence, beheld them- 
 selves at one blow reduced to inevitable destruction. 
 The result was a series of insurrectionary tumults, during 
 which all kinds of atrocities were perpetrated that the 
 savage instincts of human nature, stimulated by the 
 madness of despair, could suggest. A vast and wide- 
 spread conspiracy was formed, nightly meetings were 
 held, and fearful oaths administered — large bodies of 
 rioters proceeded by night to the houses of the ob- 
 noxious, which they burnt to the ground, often causing 
 the death of the inmates — individual victims were 
 assassinated on the high road, while those who were 
 not deemed worthy of the last punishment of death, 
 had to undergo an amount of insult and torture to 
 which, in many instances, death itself was preferable. 
 
 These outrages were repeated with circumstances of 
 more or less aggravation during the six following years, 
 until at length the superior vengeance of the law crushed 
 the conspiracy, and restored peace without removing the 
 causes of disaffection. The public mind was appalled 
 by the daily contemplation of numerous hangings and 
 
 Q 
 
226 Life and Writings of 
 
 quarterings, the invariable panacea administered in this 
 country to the sufferings of the people by the succeed- 
 ing governments of centuries. So terrible was the 
 vigor of the law, and so ingrained became the appre- 
 hension of its judgments, that to sympathise even by 
 word with the victims of oppression, was to have one's 
 loyalty called in question, and to expose one's life to 
 peril the most imminent. 
 
 Twenty years after, the smouldering ashes of White- 
 boyism burst forth once more into a flame. The riots 
 were on this occasion confined to the county of Cork, 
 where they were conducted under the guidance of an 
 individual with the assumed name of Captain Right. 
 Who this bold leader was, has, I believe, never been 
 ascertained. After the suppression of the riots, we do 
 not learn that he was brought to justice, nor can we 
 discover how he ended his adventurous life. The pre- 
 text of the "risings" was the excessive cruelty con- 
 nected with the exaction of tithes ; but the rioters soon 
 enlarged the programme of their grievances. They com- 
 plained of excessive rents, and of the severity of taxa- 
 tion ; and drew up a scale of charges to which, and to 
 which only, they would submit, for the support of the 
 clergy, whether of their own or of the Established 
 Church. The conspiracy assumed the form and re- 
 sorted to the practices which had distinguished it in its 
 inception — the nightly meetings v*?ere held again — oaths 
 were administered — houses and property were burned 
 or otherwise destroyed — individuals were waylaid, and 
 subjected to ignominy or death, according to the 
 amount of hatred they had incurred — the county, in a 
 word, was delivered over for a time to the lawless con- 
 trol of an infuriated and unscrupulous, because perse- 
 cuted peasantry. 
 
 In this juncture, the friends of law and order natu- 
 rally sought some means by which the passions of the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 227 
 
 people might be soothed down, and peace be restored 
 once more to the country. They remembered how 
 efifectual the appeal of Father O'Leary to his misguided 
 fellow-countrymen had been in the year 1779, when a 
 French invasion was apprehended, and Irishmen had 
 displayed a too vigorous ardor to swell the ranks of the 
 acofressors. The tumults were confined for the most 
 part to the diocese of Cloyne, and it was but just to 
 suppose that the Catholic prelate of the day would haye 
 exercised his pastoral influence to check the violence of 
 his flock. But Dr. M'Kenna was old and feeble, and 
 altogether inadequate to so difficult a task. Nor was 
 there amongst his clergy one sufficiently popular, or, 
 perhaps, of tact sufficient for the undertaking. Every 
 eye then turned to Father O'Leary, and he was earnestly 
 solicited to employ his pen once more in the Christian 
 work of making peace amongst his distracted fellow- 
 countrymen. He was not deaf to the entreaty, for in 
 a short time be produced three addresses to the White- 
 boys, in which he employed every argument calculated 
 to restore order which theological research could supply, 
 or the ability as well as the scholarly attainments and 
 unblemished character of so distinguished a divine could 
 enforce. 
 
 Though Father O'Leary 's character and sentiments 
 were now widely known and respected through the 
 country, yet he could not escape the misconstruction 
 and misrepresentation to which writers, even the most 
 j)ure-minded as well as the most cautious, are exposed, 
 especially in a society whose elements are essentially 
 discordant No sooner had his addresses to the White- 
 l»oy8 appeared, in which it would be easy to show that 
 there was nothing unbecoming the Christian minister 
 or the loyal subject, than they were attacked in an un- 
 scrupulous pamphlet, which pretended to show that they 
 were designed for the promotion of the cause which 
 
228 Life and Writings of 
 
 they only affected to denounce. This publication was 
 signed " Theophilus," but was well known to be the 
 production of Dr. Patrick Duigenan, a Catholic who 
 had " conformed " to the established religion, and whose 
 writings, if remarkable for nothing else, were at least 
 distinguished for that extreme virulence which is ever 
 characteristic of the renegade, when inveighing against 
 the cause whose standard he has forsaken. The scur- 
 rilous writer assailed Father O'Leary's motives, and 
 severely criticized his conduct through the whole of the 
 riots, pretending to demonstrate that the good Father's 
 feelings, as well as those of the Catholic clergy in gene- 
 ral, rather sympathized with anarchy and rebellion ; and 
 that every apparent attempt on their part to crush dis- 
 loyal outbursts of feeling, was insidiously contrived to 
 foment disaffection and violence. The coarse vulgarity 
 and wanton defamation that pervaded this pamphlet, 
 would have caused it to die a natural death, had not a 
 more respectable pen dragged it again into light, and 
 imparted to it a new vitality. Every one could afford 
 to despise a scribbler of low degree, utterly unprincipled, 
 flippant, and vindictive, who only rose to a respectable 
 position by the sacrifice of honor and religion, and by 
 attributing to others the baseness congenial to himself; 
 but none could pass by in silence charges emanating 
 even from such a source, when re-asserted and backed 
 up by one of the worthiest and most able Protestant 
 prelates of the day. Shortly after the publication of 
 " Theophilus," appeared the celebrated pamphlet of the 
 Right Reverend Doctor Woodward, Bishop of Cloyne, 
 entitled " The Present State of the Church of Ireland." 
 But before we enter on the consideration of Dr. 
 Woodward's pamphlet, it will be interesting to learn 
 what was the real character of the man whose calum- 
 nies he adopted; and whether the writer of those 
 calumnies possessed the qualities of head or of heart 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary, 229 
 
 which should entitle them to such distinguished patron- 
 age. As Father O'Leary's response to those infamous 
 charges, to which we shall come by-and-bye, obliged 
 him to make frequent reference to " Theophilus," — to 
 this Duigenan — disguised under so very self-eulogistic 
 a TiOTri de plume, it is necessary to present the latter 
 combatant in his true colors before the reader, that 
 a just verdict may be pronounced upon the merits of 
 the contest in which he and O'Leary were engaged. Sir 
 Jonah Barrington saves us the trouble of description : — 
 " Patrick Duigenan," says Sir Jonah, "was a man 
 whose name must survive as long as the feuds of 
 Ireland are remembered. On many points the con- 
 duct of this man was so irregular, inconsistent, and 
 singular, that even now it is impossible to decide with 
 certainty as to his genuine principles — if such he 
 possessed — upon any one subject, religious or poli- 
 tical. His father was parish-clerk of St. Werburgh's 
 Church, Dublin ; and, as he was bom on St. Patrick's 
 day, he was christened Patrick, in honor of the Apostle. 
 In whatever station he might have been placed, or 
 whatever profession he might have adopted, he could 
 not fail to become a conspicuous character. The 
 activity and vigor of his intellect would not allow 
 him to pass through life as an unsignalized spectator ; 
 and, if he had not at an early period enlisted as a 
 champion of Protestantism, it is more than probable he 
 would, with equal zeal and courage, have borne aloft the 
 standard of St. Peter. Incapable of moderation upon 
 any subject, his hot, rough, courageous, and stubborn 
 mind, strengthened by a memory of extraordinary re- 
 tention and very considerable erudition, contributed 
 their attributes equally to the speeches he pronounced 
 and the essays he penned. He considered invective 
 the primary quality of a public orator, detail as the 
 second, and decorum as th^ third and least necessary. 
 
230 Life and WHtings of 
 
 A partisan in his very nature, every act of his life was 
 influenced by invincible prepossessions ; a strong guard 
 of inveterate prejudices were sure^ on all subjects, to 
 keep moderation at a distance, and occasionally pre- 
 vented even common reason from obtruding on his 
 dogmas or interrupting his speeches. A mingled strain 
 of erudition and vulgarity, rhapsody and reasoning, 
 unlimited assertion and boisterous invective, were 
 blended in inextricable confusion in the turbid current 
 of his writings and orations. His mode of composi- 
 tion was peculiar : he folded a sheet of paper into four 
 parts, and wrote rapidly on each side; and so soon 
 as the sheet was filled with close writing, sent it off to 
 the press for publication, without ever reading one word, 
 or correcting a single syllable. He early resolved, he 
 said, to print always what came uppermost, which was 
 generally the best, and certainly the most natural. 
 The only alteration he ever made in any of his works, 
 was in the ' Lachrymce Academicce,' a satire on Tri- 
 nity College, in which he inserted the following after- 
 thought : ' The source of Sir John Blaquiere, like that 
 of the Nile, has never yet been discovered.' He per- 
 suaded himself that he was a true fanatic ; but, though 
 the world gave him credit for his practical intolerance, 
 there were many exceptions to the consistency of his 
 professions, and many persons doubted his theoretic 
 sincerity. His intolerance was too outrageous to be 
 honest, and too unreasonable to be sincere. With 
 a spirit naturally open and zealous, he was often an 
 ardent and sincere friend ; and though publicly harsh, 
 he was privately charitable, yet seemed almost ashamed 
 of doing anything that could be called benevolent. 
 His tongue and his actions were constantly at variance. 
 He was surly, and yet hospitable — beneficent, and 
 yet gruff — prejudiced, and yet liberal— friendly, and 
 yet brutal His bad qualities he exposed, without 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 231 
 
 reserve, to the public ; his good ones he husbanded for 
 private intercourse. Many of the former were fictitious, 
 all the latter were natural." 
 
 In his " Anecdotes of the Union," Sir Jonah Bar- 
 rington again alludes to Duigenan : — " He had an 
 honest heart, a perverted judgment, and an outrage- 
 ous temper; and, as if he conceived that right was 
 wrong, he surlily endeavoured to cloak his benevolence 
 under the rough garb of a rude misanthropy. In pri- 
 vate society he was often genial and convivial; and 
 when his memory, his classic reading, and miscella- 
 neous information, were converted to the purposes of 
 humour and entertainment, they gave his conversation 
 a quaint, joyous, eccentric cast, highly entertaining to 
 strangers, and still more pleasing to those accustomed 
 to the display of his versatilities." Dr. Duigenan was 
 married twice : his first wife, Miss Cusack, was the 
 sister of a lady who resided with the Doctor, and who 
 had been a nun in France up to the time of the Ke- 
 volution. A Roman Catholic clergyman also lived in 
 the house, who performed the office of chaplain to 
 the two ladies, and frequently did the honors of the 
 Doctor's table. All the Doctor's servants were Catho- 
 lics — so were the great majority of his guests, to whom 
 his hospitality, and frequently his donations in favor of 
 charity, were some compensation for the virulence with 
 which he publicly assailed the Church of their affec- 
 tions. His second wife, also a Catholic, was the relic 
 of a Mr. Hepenstall, brother of Lieutenant Hepenstall, 
 known asthe " Walking Gallows." This singular soubri- 
 quet the gallant officer received from the fact, that, 
 during the rebellion of '98, in accordance with the 
 licence allowed to the military at that time, wherever 
 he met a peasant who could not account for himself 
 satisfactorily, he knocked him down with a blow of 
 his fist, tied a rope round his neck, and hoisted him 
 
232 Life and Writings of 
 
 on his back, where the wretched victim kicked and 
 writhed till he expired. A happy epitaph was sug- 
 gested for this Hepenstall, who died in 1800, of the 
 morhus pedicularis : — 
 
 ** Here lie the bones of Hepenstall, 
 Judge, jury, gallows, rope, and all." 
 
 Duigenan was raised to the dignity of privy-coun- 
 sellor by the Duke of Richmond, when Lord Lieutenant, 
 to the indignation and disgust of all the Catholics 
 of Ireland. Alluding to this selection, O'Connell said 
 that " bigotry had covered itself with eternal ridicule in 
 the person of its chosen apostle." But the Duke of 
 Richmond was very indifferent to the national feeling on 
 that or any other subject. His sole mission in Ireland 
 appears to have been a mission to set the best example 
 of habitual drunkenness that was ever exhibited even 
 in the viceregal chair in those hard-drinking times. 
 Duigenan commemorated his noble patron's weakness 
 in appropriate verses : — 
 
 " If your Grace has a mind to be gay, 
 
 And we know you're the devil at that, 
 You'll come, take a drop of sweet pea* 
 
 With your own privy-counsellor, Pat, 
 Faith, its so tempting, whate'er you may think of it, 
 Claret's but sour, and champagne is but ropish, — 
 
 Besides, troth, I've neither to give you, asthore ; 
 But whisky's the thing, be it ever so popish, 
 
 To lay a right noble duke flat on the floor." 
 
 So much for Dr. Patrick Duigenan, the author of the 
 publication signed " Theophilus." It is time that we 
 return to the pamphlet of the Bishop of Cloyne. 
 
 This treatise went to prove, that a conspiracy existed 
 in Ireland for the overthrow of the Established Church, 
 and that the conspirators were no other than Catholics 
 and Dissenters. A rare combination, indeed ! " The 
 
 * Whisky. 
 
Itev. Arthur O'Leary. 233 
 
 Dissenters," his lordship said, "were anxious to pull 
 down all establishments, and the Catholics wished 
 to set up their own." " The Irish Presbyterians," he 
 said, " differ essentially from their brethren of Geneva, 
 Switzerland, and Holland, Germany and Scotland, 
 as they (the Irish) reject the idea of any national 
 church." " They are Independents," he adds, " in a 
 rival view — they are Presbyterians as to ecclesiastical 
 discipline. Their principles do not, like those of the 
 Roman Catholics, tend to set up, but merely to pull 
 down an ecclesiastical establishment." In inveighing, 
 however, against the Catholic portion of this alleged 
 conspiracy, his lordship's language was by no means 
 remarkable for that truthfulness or gentleness that 
 distinguished his personal character. He raked up 
 all the old and long-since refuted arguments usually 
 brought against Catholics in their capacity of subjects ; 
 they were essentially hostile to Protestant govern- 
 ment — oaths could not bind them — it was lawful to 
 depose and murder princes excommunicated by the 
 pope — no faith was to be kept with heretics — with all 
 the rest of this exploded rubbish. The good bishop 
 knew that, ten years before this date, the Catholics had 
 by oath disclaimed these atrocious charges; but his 
 lordship, no doubt, believed that their oaths could be as 
 easily removed as imposed, by the omnipotence of 
 papal dispensation. In the heat of his hatred, he was 
 betrayed into the approval of some of the coarsest and 
 most calumnious diatribes of " Theophilus," especially 
 that in which the latter described the Whiteboys as 
 a " popish banditti, spirited up by agitating friars and 
 Romish missionaries, sent hither on purpose to sow sedi- 
 tion." It was not, however, without some misgiving that 
 the bishop echoed the vulgar language of the venom- 
 ous pamphleteer. " His terms as well as reasoning," 
 says his lordship, "I leave to Theophilus to defend, 
 
234 Life and Writings of 
 
 observing only that a strong conviction of the truth of 
 apprehensions for the safety of religion will naturally 
 excite a warmth, from which indifference is a sure ex- 
 emption ; and I leave it, likewise, to him to make good 
 the assertion that agitating friars and Romish mission- 
 aries have been sent here for the purpose of sowing 
 sedition. But though I do not know on what authority 
 Theophilus speaks, I can very well conceive that he 
 may think the letters of Mr. O'Leary calculated to sow 
 sedition. I do not say that the reverend author in- 
 tends, much less that he is sent hither for the purpose ; 
 but, in my poor opinion, which has, moreover, the sanc- 
 tion of every rational man with whom I conversed 
 on the subject, his publications tend, and if such 
 WERE his designs, are most artfully contrived, to pro- 
 duce that effect." 
 
 Dr. Woodward's pamphlet caused great commotion 
 amongst all classes of people through the country — 
 amongst the Protestants, who feared that the Church 
 was really in danger — amongst the Catholic clergy, who 
 were described as urging their flocks to rebellion — 
 amongst the Catholic laity, who had reason to apprehend 
 further legal repression, to be justified by the bishop's 
 warning to thegovernment — and amongst the Dissenters, 
 to whom were attributed principles no less seditious 
 than those ascribed to the masses of their fellow- 
 countrymen. The first to take the alarm were the 
 Catholics, and naturally, because the charges brought 
 against them were the most numerous and insulting. 
 The clergy saw with bitterly painful feelings that every 
 attempt which they had been making for years to 
 promote peace, and establish obedience to the law 
 amongst their people, was only rewarded with vulgar 
 abuse and malicious insinuations. They observed with 
 regret, that theological tenets, inconsistent with the 
 duties of subjects, which had been so frequently imputed 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 235 
 
 to them, and had been as frequently rebutted with 
 indignation and contempt, were again and again flung 
 in their faces ; that their truth and honor were sus- 
 pected; and that they were only believed to wear a mask 
 of loyalty which concealed a visage of disaffection. Dr. 
 James Butler, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of 
 Cashel, deemed it his duty to take the initiative in 
 redeeming the people of the province wherein he held 
 80 exalted a position, from the foul aspersions which had 
 been cast upon them. He addressed a letter to the 
 Bishop of Cloyne, in which he complained of the 
 " unjust and uncharitable reflections cast by his lord- 
 ship upon the whole body of the Roman Catholic 
 prelates." " Being held out, (from . the rank he held 
 among the Roman Catholic prelates of Munster,) as the 
 chief ringleader in the deep-laid plot, which his lordship 
 had discovered against the Protestant interest in this 
 kingdom, he felt himself personally called upon to tell Dr. 
 Woodward, that the facts on which he rested the whole 
 of his attack upon the Catholic prelacy of Ireland, had 
 been either most falsely understood, or strangely mis- 
 represented by his lordship." He had felt himself 
 bound to lay the case as it stood before the metropolitan 
 of the Bishop of Cloyne, and could not help regretting 
 that he had been called upon, during his interview with 
 that dignitary, " to state certain facts which could not 
 but depreciate in his eyes a character, which he, (Dr. 
 Butler,) was once willing to believe was the very pattern 
 of benevolence and true Christian charity." In reply 
 to this letter, Dr. Woodward stated that he had 
 reviewed the pamphlet attentively, but could not find 
 a single passage which conveyed the most distant 
 reflection on the Roman Catholic prelates; and that 
 nothing was farther from bis intentions than to use 
 language, which, even by remote implication, could be 
 construed to bear such a meaning. Dr. Butler replied, 
 
236 Life and Writings of 
 
 accepting Dr. Woodward's explanation, but submitting 
 grounds why such explanation was necessary ; and the 
 correspondence closed with a rejoinder from the Bishop 
 of Cloyne, in which his lordship disclaimed any intention 
 of using a single expression in his pamphlet, levelled 
 against the sincerity of the allegiance of the Catholic 
 prelates. His lordship, however, weakly defends him- 
 self against the charge of undervaluing the Catholic's 
 respect for an oath. " My reasoning," he says, " pro- 
 ceeds on the supposition of any future oath, to secure 
 the perpetual establishment of the Protestant Church 
 in this kingdom." Shortly after the publication of this 
 correspondence, an interview was arranged in Dublin 
 by Lord Kenmare, between Dr. Butler and the Chief 
 Secretary, Mr. Orde ; on which occasion the archbishop 
 sought to vindicate himself and his fellow-prelates from 
 the imputations cast upon their loyalty by the Bishop 
 of Cloyne. The account of this interview is given in a 
 private letter, addressed by Lord Kenmare to the Right 
 Reverend Doctor Moylan, Bishop of Cork, in which we 
 also find allusion to Father O'Leary's intention of 
 replying by pamphlet to the charges brought against 
 himself personally. "I would have answered your 
 letter sooner," says Lord Kenmare, "but I waited to 
 give you an account of an interview I had fixed for this 
 morning, between Mr. Secretary Orde and the Arch- 
 bishop of Cash el, (Dr. Butler,) who came here three 
 days ago. The archbishop complained of the insult 
 offered to him, you, and us all, by the Bishop of Cloyne's 
 pamphlet. He stated the anxiety and pains he had 
 been at in promoting the test act ; his correspondence 
 in consequence with the see of Rome ; the approbation 
 of it and his and your conduct ; the condemnation and 
 censure of the HiherniaBominicana, and the nuncio's 
 letter of 1776 ; your condemnation and efforts against 
 the riots and oaths last May ; and finally, the peaceful, 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. 237 
 
 unimpeachable, and loyal conduct of the Catholic pre- 
 lacy and clergy under every vicissitude of persecution 
 or indulgence, for the entire of the last century. Mr. 
 Orde assured him then that the Bishop of Cloyne had 
 not consulted him or government on the publication of 
 his book ; that he wished it had never taken place, as 
 it gave Dr. Butler and his worthy brethren so much 
 uneasiness, and had lit up a paper war, which the 
 interests of the booksellers would prevent from speedily 
 stopping. He added, that he thought Dr. Butler 
 would do well to publish the vouchers and documents 
 he had read to him, which must convince every candid 
 mind of his laudable line of conduct, and the futility of 
 the charges brought against us. 
 
 " Our little friend is quite on fire about this business. 
 I think with Mr. Orde, that the vouchers and documents 
 alone would sufficiently clear up this matter ; but he 
 seems intent upon a much larger scale, attacking their 
 Charter School Catechism, (which neither argument nor 
 reason will make them alter,) and refuting every late 
 calumny. I want him to leave most of these to O'Leary, 
 because much may come from him who has been wan- 
 tonly attacked both as an author and a man, that could 
 not become an archbishop to meddle in. O'Leary 's 
 book will be large, and I will endeavour to find an op- 
 portunity of sending it to you." 
 
 Shortly after these transactions, the Archbishop of 
 Cashel issued a pamphlet, entitled "A Justification of the 
 Tenets of the Roman Catholic Religion, and a Refutation 
 of the Charges brought against its Clergy by the Right 
 Reverend the Lord Bishop of Cloyne. By Dr. James 
 Butler." In our days, points of polemical controversy 
 are discussed in the newspapers, and there seems never 
 to be an end of the discussion. In the alternations of 
 victory, the reader is bewildered, and knows not to 
 whom the prize for truth should be awarded. During 
 
238 Life and Writings of 
 
 the last century, when newspapers were few and of 
 small compass, the only safety-valve for political or 
 polemical over- warmth was the pamphlet ; and no sooner 
 did one appear on the arena, than it was followed by 
 numberless others, until what in the beo^inninor was a 
 hand-to-hand conflict, degenerated into a melee of in- 
 discriminate combatants, where the spectator's vision 
 was distracted, and the issue of the battle was no longer 
 a matter of interest. So it was with the pamphlet of 
 the archbishop's. It was followed by a host of others 
 on the opposite side, in many of which Father O'Leary's 
 name was mentioned in terms by no means flattering, 
 and in which his writings and his conduct were criticized 
 with unsparing severity. He, however, was all this 
 while watching the progress of the contest, and await- 
 ing the suitable moment to appear upon the stage, and 
 decide the fortunes of the day. The public were eagerly 
 looking forward for his appearance ; and the general ex- 
 pectation was more than repaid when a bulky pamphlet 
 issued from the press, with the following long title (for 
 long titles were the custom of the day) — "A Defence 
 of the Conduct and Writings of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary, 
 during the Late Disturbances in the Province of Muns- 
 ter ; with a Full Justification of the Irish Catholics ; and 
 an Account of the E-isings of the Whiteboys. Written by 
 Himself, in answer to the False Accusations of Theo- 
 philus, and the Ill-grounded Insinuations of the Right 
 Reverend Doctor Woodward, Lord Bishop of Cloyne." 
 
 It is not my intention to make large quotations from 
 this work, (although the whole might be read with plea- 
 sure,) because, at this distance of time, the events re- 
 ferred to therein could not possess much interest for the 
 reader. Such passages, however, as bear upon the per- 
 sonal history of Father O'Leary, or indicate the quality 
 of his mind, I shall put forward ; such, also, as show 
 strong powers of reasoning, or rise into loftiness of 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 239 
 
 expression, shall be produced. O'Leary's writings afford 
 a remarkable illustration of the style peculiar to the 
 day, the chief features of which were, a stilted and 
 pompous phraseology, an abundance of classical allusions 
 and quotations, and a humour which, in many instances, 
 would amuse, if it were not so patently elaborate. At 
 the same time, this particular publication of O'Leary's, 
 as a whole, is easy and agreeable, and keeps the reader's 
 interest fully awake to the end — it is replete with hu- 
 mour, and bristles with argument ; and while the author 
 never indulges in vulgar abuse of his right reverend 
 opponent, he employs throughout against him a quiet 
 satire, which, if not so violent, is at least an equally 
 crushing engine of destruction. A more complete vin- 
 dication of a man's character was never, placed before 
 the public than this; and its appearance, which was 
 hailed with the warmest greetings of the public, was 
 followed by a ring of such approbation through the 
 country, as the writers of that day seldom had the satis- 
 faction to receive, and the echoes of which did not cease 
 until many years had elapsed after the distinguished 
 writer had passed for ever from the stage of life. 
 
 The tendency of Dr. Woodward's pamphlet was 
 to show that a Popish plot existed in the south of 
 Ireland for the subversion of the Established Church, 
 and that Whiteboyism was a manifestation of that 
 insidious feeling. He fastened upon one word used by 
 Father O'Leary in his addresses to the Whiteboys, to 
 prove that that gentleman's writings, if not seditious, 
 were, at least, well-calculated to soiv sedition. Father 
 O'Leary had told the insurgents, that if they had 
 " grievances " to complain of, the legislature alone wa^ 
 competent to redress them. The word " grievances " 
 was enough — what grievances had the people ? or if 
 they had grievances, why remind them of it ? Such 
 language smelt strongly of sedition — Father O'Leary 
 
240 Life and Writings of 
 
 was a rebel, and the Church was in danger ! How was 
 the " agitating friar " to defend himself against this 
 serious charge ? In the first place, he shows that he 
 could have no interest in a rebellion, whose most 
 wished-for success should culminate in wresting the 
 tithes from the Church; for, he says: "I have re- 
 nounced every claim to tithes by sacred vows. The 
 Lord Bishop of Cloyne, then, may rest satisfied that I 
 never intended to sow sedition from a rapacious view 
 to his ecclesiastical revenues ; and that I can frankly 
 say with Parson Adams to his brother Trulliber, in 
 Fielding's ' Joseph Andrews/ — ' Nil haheo cum porcis 
 — I have no call to your tithe-pigs.' " Again, what 
 interest could he have in fomenting riots and disorders ? 
 On the contrary, " common sense and prudence must 
 acknowledge that a person in his situation could not 
 with propriety stand ' by as an indifferent spectator of 
 tumults and disorders which threatened the peace of 
 the community, and which he well foresaw would be con- 
 strued by malevolence into a Popish confederacy against 
 the State, as Theophilus had subsequently construed 
 it." Father O'Leary goes on to show how he could not 
 conscientiously remain silent, while events were pass- 
 ing before his eyes detrimental to the peace of society, 
 and to the religion of which he was a minister. " From 
 one parish in the diocese of Cloyne, the disturbances 
 began to spread to another ; and, as bad example 
 seldom ends where it first began, the contagion at last 
 reached the borders of the diocese of Cork ; and as a 
 gangrene that eats its way from the extremities of the 
 body to the very vitals. Captain Right's proclamations 
 made their way to the very heart of the city, about 
 five months after they had been published in the 
 diocese of Cloyne. On a Sunday morning, a seditious 
 notice was posted (and breathing nothing but a down- 
 right disrespect to the clergy) on the gates of the parish 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 241 
 
 chapel, inviting such as found themselves oppressed by 
 pampered theologians, whose God was their belly, and 
 vjhose religion was a hogshead of wine (the very words 
 of the notice), to meet at an appointed hour, to regu- 
 late their pittance according to the Gospel rule. That 
 very day I was going on business to the country, when, 
 to my surprise, I met with numbers of common people 
 reading a similar notice, posted up against the gate of 
 my own chapel. Was it meddling with the politics of the 
 Protestant country, as the Bishop of Cloyne's favorite 
 Theophilus upbraids me, to make war upon disorder and 
 licentiousness ? Or is it because the Bishop of Cloyne 
 was silent and passive during the tumults which had 
 changed his diocese into a scene of disorder and anarchy, 
 that I should be silenced by the clamor of sedition, sound- 
 ing the trumpet at the threshold of my own chapel ? 
 I deferred my excursion, and at every congregation, 
 from eight to one o'clock, I enlarged upon the scandal 
 and impropriety of such proceedings, pointed out to 
 the common people the danger to which they exposed 
 themselves, the confusion in which they were involving 
 the community, and made use of the most persuasive 
 arguments in my power to reclaim them to their duty. 
 If I deserved to be compared to any illustrious cha- 
 racter, it was not to Mark Antony working on the 
 passions of the people, in order to, arm them against 
 Brutus and his confederates, that the Bishop of 
 Cloyne should have compared me. If he intended a 
 compliment, and wished to tempt my vanity, he should 
 have compared me rather to Junius Blesus appeasing 
 the Pannouian legions, who had been urged to revolt 
 against their officers by a common soldier named Per- 
 sennius, the Captain Right of his day. I thought it 
 my duty, both as a loyal subject, a clergyman, and 
 member of civil society, to contribute to the pre- 
 servation of public order, and to guard deluded mul- 
 
242 Life and Writings of 
 
 titudes against destruction to the utmost of my 
 power." 
 
 The interest and honor of the Catholic body, often 
 misrepresented, and become the theme of scurrilous or 
 fanatical writers, were further incentives to the zeal of 
 Father O'Leary. He knew the low ebb at which the 
 popular religion had fallen in the country, and how 
 dangerous to its interests would be any fresh pretext 
 for oppressive legislation : he knew how sedulously the 
 ascendant party kept up, for their own wise ends, the 
 cry of Popery, and all its plots and schemes against the 
 public peace. " In that county (Cork)," he writes, 
 " Machiavelli's maxim, divide ei impera, has been fol- 
 lowed for many years, and the plan for changing the 
 pretended dangers of Popery into so many steps of the 
 political ladder, whereby to ascend to power and conse- 
 quence, had been for many years invariably pursued. 
 The Catholics, excluded from the senate and councils 
 of the nation, could not be known to every English 
 nobleman who came here to manage the reins of ad- 
 ministration during a temporary residence. Chance 
 may bring him acquainted with some individuals, but 
 he must be a stranger to the real state and principles 
 of the body at large. The Catholics, then, could not 
 be known to government but in the colors in w^hich 
 these people painted them. And from such political 
 limners, a just resemblance between the picture and 
 the original could not be expected. Hence, in the 
 county of Cork, scarce could Catholics breathe until 
 the administration of the Earl of Halifax and Lord 
 Townshend, who, upon a closer investigation into their 
 case, removed the film with which the misrepresenta- 
 tion of interested men had overspread the eyes of 
 former rulers. I had then just grounds to apprehend 
 that the disorders of a motley group of insurgents 
 would be made out a Popish confederacy ; and I knew 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 243 
 
 that the silence of a man who stood for his country, 
 in the sight, I may say, of the enemy, and who lias as 
 much influence as any individual in his station, would 
 ffive a colorable sanction to the accusation." More- 
 
 o 
 
 over, Father O'Leary had before his eyes the fate of the 
 unfortunate Rev. Nicholas Sheehy, of Clogheen, an 
 innocent man, who had been literally " done to death " 
 some years before by human bloodhounds, and whose 
 terrible destiny should warn him that the semblance of 
 guilt was fatal where innocence itself was no protection. 
 " Under the impressions which such singular events 
 must make on the mind, and in the delicacy of the 
 clerical situation, who could suspect that any Catholic 
 clergyman would blow the trumpet of sedition in the 
 ears of a deluded peasantry ?" 
 
 He continues to give an account of the Whiteboy 
 proceedings, with a view to showing the part he acted 
 on the occasion. " The associations were now extend- 
 ing, and a 'notice posted up against the gates of the 
 parish churches and chapels, was a kind of standard to 
 which all parties, without distinction of religion, flocked, 
 and entered into a general confederacy. . . . The 
 notice alluded to is to the following import : ' You are 
 hereby cautioned not to pay ministers' tithes, only in 
 the followii^g manner, viz. : potatoes, 4s. per acre ; wheat 
 and barley, Is. 6d. per acre ; oats and meadows. Is. per 
 acre. Roman Catholic clergy to receive for marriage, 
 08. ; for baptism, Is. 6d. ; for anointing and visiting 
 the sick, Is. ; for mass, Is. ; for confession, 6d. You 
 are hereby warned not to pay parish-priests clerk's- 
 money, nor any other dues concerning marriages. Be 
 all sure not to go to any expenses at your confession 
 terms, but let them partake of your own fare.'* 
 
 • To many reftden the last sentence of this notice would l>e unintel- 
 ligible without AD explanation. It la uaual for priests in the country 
 to hold what are called *' ttationa " amongst the people, twice a-year, 
 
244 Life and WHtings of 
 
 Father O'Leary goes on to show how, although this 
 notice was very censurable, its offers of payment to the 
 clergy of either church were rather moderate consider- 
 ing the real distresses of the poor. In vain did the 
 Bishop of Cloyne attempt to justify proctors, tithe- 
 canters, tithe-jobbers, &c., by declaring them to be 
 agents to the clergy, equally necessary as receivers to 
 lay gentlemen. These " ecclesiastical agents," of whom 
 the bishop becomes the apologist, " are so many locusts 
 that eat up the peasant's green herbage, without feed- 
 ing the wind that wafts them. Several instances could 
 be procured to prove that they gain more than their 
 employers, whilst they distress the cottager. When the 
 potato stalk begins to shoot to a certain distance above 
 the surface of the earth, the sharp-eyed lynx surveys it 
 in the name of God and our holy Mother the Church. 
 On the spot where the stalks crowd together thick and 
 threefold, in order to discriminate the ranks and to 
 avoid confusion, the proctor's hand rears a landmark. 
 
 at Christinas and at Easter. A station is held in every towuland of the 
 parish, that is to say, the priest and his curate, if he have one, pre- 
 sent themselves in the morning at the house of a farmer whose name 
 and place of residence have been published the previous Sunday from 
 the altar, and there hear the confessions of such of the people of that 
 townland as apply for the reception of the sacraments. When all 
 the confessions have been heard, Mass is celebrated in the house, at 
 which the people assist, and receive the sacrament of the Eucharist, 
 The priest usually, on such occasions, delivers an exhortation to those 
 who are present, inveighs against local abuses, corrects scandals, and, 
 in a word, enforces, in the strongest language, the precepts and obliga- 
 tions of religion. After Mass, the people pay the priests their re- 
 spective dues for the half-year, and retire. The farmer in whose 
 house the "station" has been held, then entertains the priests to 
 breakfast, the meal being generally " furnished forth " with that taste 
 and costliness which may aptly express the esteem in which the host 
 regards his reverend guests. The stations, then, are the " confession 
 terms " alluded to in the notice, and the injunction that the priests be 
 made to partake of the people's " own fare," forbids any expense that 
 may be incurred in procuring a breakfast more recherche than that 
 which may suit the palate of a peasant. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 245 
 
 The hungry peasant, whose teeth water for the vege- 
 table he had sown and reared up from its infant state, 
 wishes to try its quality ; but if he approach within a 
 certain distance of the fatal landmark, he must share 
 the fate of the benighted mariner, who is shipwrecked 
 on the rock whereon a light was held out to decoy him. 
 The bishop's court is the strand on which the ptoctor 
 gathers the spoils." 
 
 Whiteboyism was not confined to the Catholics ; nor 
 was it an insurrection merely against the exactions of 
 the Established Church. The demands of the Catholic 
 clergy also, as we have seen, formed no small gravamen 
 of their complaints. Tithes, proctors, and priests were 
 classed in the same category of oppression, and were 
 visited with equal odium by the lower classes of the 
 people. Captain Right's proclamations inveighed with 
 impartial vehemence against priests and parsons. See 
 the result: — "The common people," says Father 
 O'Leary, " who, in time of persecution, used to follow 
 their clergy into the recesses of forests, to hear their 
 prayers and instructions, nailed up chapels in some 
 places against their pastors in the very blaze of tolera- 
 tion. The disorders which would arise from such a 
 proceeding were easily foreseen, and it was requisite 
 that some persons should step forth to stem the torrent. 
 Doctor Mann, the Protestant Bishop of Cork, was* 
 absent for the benefit of his health ; the Catholic bishop 
 of the same diocese, the present Lord Dunboyne, had 
 been under the necessity of going to Dublin, on the death 
 of the young Lord Dunboyne, his nephew, before the dis- 
 turbances broke out in the diocese of Cork. The titular 
 Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. M'Kenna, was sinking under the 
 weight of years, and ignorant of what happened in his 
 district And Dr. Woodward, who had the administration 
 ofthe two dioceses, was taken up with rummaging ponti- 
 ficals and other old books, in order to collect materials for 
 
246 Life and Writings of 
 
 his pampWet, whilst the Catholic peasantry were flock- 
 ing to his churches, and the lower orders of the Pro- 
 testants going on Sundays to meet the Catholic congre- 
 gations in his diocese, in order to swear the people, and 
 give solidity to the confederacy, in support of the regula- 
 tions of Captain Right. The head pastor being either 
 absent, or infirm, or inactive, and the flocks daily mad- 
 dening, who was to be applied to ? Will the Bishop of 
 Cloyne controvert that in danger every person is a soldier? 
 The Catholic gentlemen, instead of thinking of a con- 
 federacy against either Church or State, with the assist- 
 ance of a ' foreign power,' which so often haunts the 
 bishop's imagination, dreaded that it was rather a confe- 
 deracy against themselves, by affording such politicians 
 as are hostile to their interest, an opportunity of mis- 
 representing them to the government. In consequence, 
 after writing to Lord Dunboyne, pressing his return as 
 soon as possible, they deputed five or six gentlemen to the 
 Catholic Bishop of Cloyne, earnestly requesting of him to 
 inquire into the complaints alleged by some parishes in 
 his diocese, to use his efforts with the people of his per- 
 suasion in order to reclaim them to their duty, and to 
 remove every pretext for aspersing the Catholic body, 
 as far as his influence could extend. 
 
 " Unable from age and infirmity to go in person, he 
 requested of me to make an excursion into the discon- 
 tented parishes. I set off, in order to allay the tumults 
 in the diocese of Cloyne, the first in the county where 
 they broke out. Here an extraordinary sight was 
 exhibited: the common people, deluded into the be- 
 lief that by going to church for a few Sundays they 
 would be less liable to punishment, if not entirely ex- 
 empt from it ; and, authorized to carry arms in con- 
 junction with the lower classes of Protestants, to whom 
 proctors, tithe-jobbers, and tithes themselves, had 
 become equally obnoxious, they flocked in several 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leai^. 247 
 
 places to the churches; and as they had not David's 
 Psalms in metre, they chose the old ballad of ' Patrick's 
 Day in the Morning' for an anthem, and got a piper to 
 play it as a voluntary on his favorite organ, as a pre- 
 paration for divine service, in approaching the house of 
 worship. The marriage of Figaro, represented on the 
 French stagre, did not raise more humour, nor attract 
 more spectators, than did this extraordinary marriage 
 of the paddereen* and the Common Prayer Book in 
 the diocese of Cloyne. Irish wives are remarkably 
 attached to their husbands, and follow them wherever 
 they go. Upon this occasion they gave signal proofs 
 of the constancy of their attachment. Joan followed 
 Darby, and Judy followed Paddy to church, where the 
 gay and unthinking were highly diverted with the 
 novel spectacle of hands thrust into the baptismal font 
 in order to sprinkle about the holy water, and beads 
 drawn out near the communion-table to reckon the 
 Ave Marias. To the gay and thoughtless it was like 
 an afterpiece, which creates humour in order to re- 
 lieve the mind from the 'impression of terror and pity 
 which it had received during the representation of some 
 serious drama. To me it appeared as a prelude to 
 a tragedy. It struck the serious and sensible gentle- 
 men of both religions in the same light. 
 
 " I was happy in an extensive acquaintance, and still 
 more happy that the Protestant gentlemen were con- 
 vinced of the uprightness of my intentions. My situa- 
 tion was delicate, and without their concurrence my 
 endeavours would have proved abortive. 
 
 "They had previous notice of my arrival in their 
 respective districts through which I intended to pass, 
 and I was happy in the full assurance of their co- 
 operation. On a Sunday I arrived in a parish in Dr. 
 Woodward's diocese. The parish chapel was quite 
 
 ♦ A Rosary. 
 
248 Life and Writings of 
 
 deserted. The priest was abandoned by his flock, and 
 the deluded multitude, lulled into a false security, had 
 crowded to the Protestant church as to an asylum of 
 impunity. Thus, in former times, when the privilege 
 of sanctuary was pleaded, malefactors flocked to the 
 temples as a shelter against the pursuit of violated 
 justice. I considered a crowd of peasants, actuated by 
 resentment, brooding over some wild scheme, pre- 
 paring for nightly excursions, yet saying their beads 
 up near the communion-table, as the ' abomination 
 of desolation in the holy place,' as mentioned by the 
 prophet Daniel. In every bead I figured to myself 
 the war-whoop of the Mexican, ready to sound the 
 nocturnal charge, or the massive club of an Indian, 
 soon to be ornamented with a proctor's scalp. 
 
 " I must do this justice to the Protestant clergy, in 
 whose churches this religious farce was carried on, that 
 they did not favor such a proceeding. They could, 
 indeed, have said > with the Psalmist : ' Multiplicasti 
 gentem, sed non magnificasti Isetitiam.' — ' Thou hast 
 multiplied the people, but Thou hast not increased 
 our joy.' But what could they have done ? They 
 had no directions from Dr. Woodward to shut the 
 doors of the churches against people who had shaken 
 off every subordination to their own pastors. But, in 
 my poor opinion, that was the time for the bishop him- 
 self to appear — (and such was ' the opinion of every 
 rational man with whom I conversed on the subject,' 
 and such will be the opinion of every rational man 
 who shall read this narrative) — he should have pub- 
 lished a pastoral letter upon the occasion, and re- 
 commended to his clergy not to permit their houses of 
 worship to be changed into the upper galleries, crowded 
 with a mob assembled for the purpose of making a 
 farce of religion. 
 
 " Had I been in his situation at the time, I would 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 249 
 
 have thought it no dishonor to stand at the door of the 
 church, and to harangue the deluded multitude in the 
 following manner : — 
 
 " * My good people, — I am a Protestant bishop, and 
 you, it appears, are Roman Catholics. It should be my 
 glory, my comfort, and my joy, to bring all strayed sheep 
 into my fold, to enlighten them with the rays of the 
 Gospel, to dispel the clouds of error, and to enlarge the 
 kingdom of truth. It is my wish, and my sincere 
 wish — it is the wish of every honest man who thinks 
 himself in the right way, that his fellow-creature en- 
 joyed the same happiness. It was the wish of St. Paul 
 that his hearers were not " almost Christians, but alto- 
 gether Christians ;" and it is my wish that you were not 
 almost Protestants of the High Church, but altogether 
 Protestants of the High Church. It is the wish of 
 charity — and if charity were banished from the hearts 
 of all other mortals, it should find its last retreat in the 
 heart of a bishop. Were I then convinced of the sin- 
 cerity of your motives, I would be not only the first to 
 unlock the gates of this church to give you admittance, 
 but I would be the first to go to meet you at a distance. 
 A bad motive, however, pollutes the best of actions ; and 
 as it is not from conviction of truth, nor a desire to 
 aspire to a higher degree of perfection, that you crowd 
 about my house of worship, but from a sinister design 
 to seek impunity for licentiousness, and, under the 
 cloak of a religion in which you do not believe, to con- 
 ceal the outrages you are intent on committing ; I can- 
 not, in consequence, profane the house of God by the 
 admission of persons who, perhaps to-morrow night, 
 will be disturbing the peace of the public, and eluding 
 laws in the dark, which, in all likelihood, will hereafter 
 punish them in the open day, and remind them when 
 too late of the admonition which I now give them from 
 the best of intentions. It is not the chime of my bells, 
 
250 Life and Writings of 
 
 but the sound of Captain Right's horn, that has kindled 
 in your breasts this flame of extraordinary devotion, 
 which, perhaps, hereafter may be extinguished with 
 your blood. Will you have me change the house of 
 God into a barrack of sedition ? I see in that crowd 
 an old man with a set of beads in his hands ! My good 
 man, where are you bringing your beads ? Do you in- 
 tend to expose yourself and me, religion and its temples, 
 to the derision of the public ? If you come, come from 
 conviction, and leave your beads at home, or bestow 
 them on another. It reminds me of a history that I 
 read in the Scriptures. Assyrian colonists were trans- 
 planted to Samaria ; they worshipped their idols and 
 the God of Israel by turns in the same temple. It is 
 not, then, a house of worship, but a good life that will 
 sanctify you. Instil this truth into the minds of the 
 young people in your neighbourhood, and caution them 
 against the practices of those who may engage them in 
 outrages. If you are not submissive to your own pas- 
 tors, but obstinate to their advice, what good can I ex- 
 pect from you ? You are, I believe, now too old to 
 learn, and the generality of you all are not much in- 
 clined to alter your creeds. I give you, then, the advice 
 suggested by an amiable Protestant prelate, my bro- 
 ther-bishop of Glonfert, in his letter on Sunday- 
 schools: — "I cannot expect to make good Protestants of 
 you, therefore I advise you> to be good Catholics." If 
 you have any complaints against your own clergy, your 
 bishops will redress them ; but I cannot, nor will I per- 
 mit you to come to my churches, to erect the standard 
 of sedition, when I have every reason to believe that 
 you have no other motive in view. Nor can yourselves 
 reap any benefit from a conduct which, in the eyes of 
 God, is a prevarication — that God who unfolds the 
 recesses of the soul, who rejects a spotted victim, and 
 accepts of no sacrifice but such as a sincere, honest, 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 251 
 
 and pure heart offers upon His altars. Nor would my 
 churches grant you any security against the rigor of 
 the laws. The hand of justice stretches into the inmost 
 part of the sanctuary. In vain did Joab, a mighty 
 man, grasp the corner of the altar ; he was slain by the 
 sword of justice. And, much more, in vain would you 
 seek for impunity in my house of worship, for the sanc- 
 tuary itself is no sanction or shelter for crimes. Follow 
 the advice of Mr. O'Leary, who is here on my left hand, 
 as you followed his advice when you imagined that you 
 had more to expect, and were convinced that you had 
 less to lose. 
 
 " ' And you, my dearly-beloved brethren of my own 
 communion, how am I to address you ? I address you 
 with that confidence which my zeal for the peace of 
 society, the preservation of good order, and the purity 
 of good morals should inspire. Recollect the maxim of 
 the heathen sage, a maxim to which the Blessed Paul 
 has given his sanction, " Evil communications corrupt 
 good morals." These poor people are wild olive branches, 
 going to ingraft themselves on the stock of the Pro- 
 testant religion, in appearance. But, alas! as they 
 intend to use it only as a cloak for temporary outrages, 
 they will be soon disjoined, without taking sufficient 
 time to be cicurated and mellowed by the sap or vital 
 juice which circulates from the stock through the newly- 
 inserted branches. You may judge of their inventions 
 by those of some of your own. Has my diocese ever 
 exhibited such a spectacle as was seen in the parish of 
 Clonakilty last Sunday ? Protestants going to a Popish 
 congregation, to swear the people to Captain Right's 
 regulations ! Was it to become Catholics ? No, 
 neither do these people intend to become Protestants ; 
 religious distinctions are often lost in the idea of 
 common oppression — I acknowledge it. And would to 
 God they were for ever lost ! The vices and virtues of 
 
252 Life and Writings of 
 
 all men flow in the same channels. Their hearts are 
 the same, though their opinions be different ; and for 
 those opinions to God alone are they accountable. I 
 wish to see all the subjects of every description in my 
 diocese well united. Such a union is the strength of 
 the State, and should be the glory of a prelate. But I 
 foresee that. those mutual visits will consolidate a 
 confederacy which the sword of the laws will cut asunder, 
 to the indiscriminate ruin of the associations. For the 
 edge of that sword has no eyes in it, and justice that 
 handles : it is painted blind. You all complain of 
 proctors, canters, and tithes. I shall do what lies in 
 my power to remove every complaint you may have 
 against the two first — no more can be expected. 
 But, as to tithes, they are established by law ; the 
 legislature alone can modify them or substitute an 
 equivalent in their room. Wait with patience for its 
 decision, and guard against proceedings which must 
 hurt your temporal interest, and injure your consciences. 
 Or, if any of you are already engaged in the confederacy 
 of disorder, break the engagement of iniquity, whose 
 ties cannot bind the conscience. The peace of God be 
 with you all." 
 
 " One pastoral letter or sermon such as this in '85, 
 would have been worth a thousand pamphlets in '87; 
 and few persons are so Well qualified for such a part of 
 the pastoral charge 'as the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, had 
 he been as intent on the discharge of that office which 
 St. Paul enjoins on pastors, 'Preach the word — be in- 
 stant in season,' as his lordship was intent on writing 
 
 a pamphlet ' out of season.' " 
 
 ■jf * * * . * 
 
 " Convinced that the Protestant gentlemen, who were 
 acquainted with the uprightness of my intentions, were 
 willing to co-operate with my endeavours, which had 
 no object but the preservation of public tranquillity, 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 253 
 
 when divine service was over I conferred with them, 
 and presuming with reason that their resemblance of 
 religious conformity was but a mask to cover features 
 which, when exposed to view, would not exhibit an 
 inviting aspect, we agreed to tear it off, and expose the 
 wearers to their neighbours and themselves. I exhorted 
 them to my utmost, in the most impressive manner 
 adapted to the circumstances. The magistrates ex- 
 plained the laws with proper comments. The people 
 recovered from their delusion, returned to their duty, 
 fully determined to desist from those dangerous and 
 romantic enterprises, which had proved equally de- 
 structive to themselves and the peace of the community, 
 had not the law of God, which Mr. O'Leary explained, 
 and the law of the land, explained by the civil magis- 
 trate, checked them in their pernicious career. 
 
 " Thus, with the concurrence of the Protestant gentle- 
 men and magistrates, did I begin my mission in the 
 diocese of Cloyne. Sedition, with which mad malevo- 
 lence has upbraided me, fled as a routed enemy before 
 me, while peace, like a man's inseparable companion, 
 framed by nature, and disciplined by habit to cast its 
 shadow on every side, trod in my steps and humoured 
 my motions. It embraced me so close that the meri- 
 dian sun could not discover us asunder. I challenire* 
 Dr. Woodward, or that infamous libeller, Theophilus, 
 to disprove this assertion." 
 
 Sufficient extracts have been made to show how fully 
 Father O'Leary was able to vindicate his character from 
 the imputation of a desire to sow sedition amongst his 
 fellow-countrjrmen. Passing over a great many pages, 
 which must have been read with great interest at the 
 period when they appeared, and when the events to 
 which they relate monopolized the attention of the 
 public, we come to a passage the subject of which can 
 never fail to awaken the warmest emotions in the 
 
254 Life and Writings of 
 
 breasts of Irishmen — that is, the unshaken loyalty they 
 have ever manifested to the British crown, even at 
 times when its supremacy was exposed to the greatest 
 dangers. Those sentiments of loyalty might have 
 sprung from love rather than duty, had the rulers of 
 the country ever displayed a correlative affection for 
 the people of the " sister isle." But let the Irish, at all 
 events, get credit for what they have done. If they 
 loved those who loved them, they merit praise ; if they 
 loved and supported those who hated and crushed them, 
 not only should they escape the venom of calumnious 
 tongues, but their fidelity and loyalty to the crown 
 under which they lived, should win that applause, at 
 least, which is awarded to the exalted virtue of Chris- 
 tian forgiveness. 
 
 " Can any person," asks Father O'Leary, " in his 
 senses, presume that the Catholics of Ireland, after the 
 late indulgence extended to them by the reigning 
 powers, would be so divested of gratitude and common 
 sense, as to expose their necks to the chain with which 
 rigorous laws had bound them for so many years ? 
 When their ancestors signed the capitulation of 
 Limerick, and submitted to the son-in-law of their 
 former fugitive and cowardly king, sooner than violate 
 the laws of nations, afterwards so basely violated by the 
 last of the Stuarts, they declined availing themselves of 
 the succour sent by Louis the Fourteenth. When 
 Alberoni sent the son of James the Second to Scot- 
 land, the Irish Catholics remained quiet and peaceful, 
 though they had every reason to expect the assistance 
 of Spain, if they joined the son of their former king ; 
 when the present family was not sufficiently settled on 
 a throne threatened by foreign foes, and an aspiring 
 candidate who had his father's title to plead, and num- 
 bers of his partisans, each ready to join him in support 
 of his pretensions ; when the plains of Fontenoy were 
 
Eev, Arthur O'Leary. 255 
 
 dyed with English blood, and George the Second 
 threatened with expulsion from the British dominions 
 by a young pretender marching to the seat of empire, 
 where was any commotion among the Catholics of 
 Ireland ? When Thurot landed at Carrickfergus, where 
 were the Catholics who flocked to his banners in the 
 north ? where were the Catholics who caused a diversion 
 in his favor in the south ? When England was sur- 
 rounded by a warring world — one of her stiongest limbs 
 torn from her body by the loss of America — her fleets 
 pursued by a victorious enemy, displaying their flag on 
 her coasts — and Ireland, destitute of any assistance but 
 the loyalty and courage of her sons, who forgot their 
 unhappy and fatal dissensions in the common danger, 
 did the Irish Catholics stand by as neutral spectators in 
 expectation of the event ? Did they not flock to the 
 standard of their Protestant neighbours, and march at 
 the signal, either to defend their common country, or to 
 mingle their blood in the same trenches with their 
 fellow-subjects ? Are these the men whose loyalty 
 should be suspected, and whose character traduced ?"* 
 
 O'Leary, with consummate tact, lays hold of the offen- 
 sive language used by the Bishop of Cloyne in reference 
 to the Dissenters, whom he makes to remonstrate with 
 their accuser in the following spirited rejoinder, in 
 which, by the way, we discover that famous witticism 
 on the subject of purgatory, which is remembered and 
 laughed over by all those who ever heard of Father 
 O'Leary 's name. 
 
 " We (the Dissenters) will support the State, not in 
 
 • This vigorous excerpt will, no doubt, recall to the minds of many 
 the equally iwwerful, but far more brilliant passage of llichard Lalor 
 Shiel's speech, delivered in the British House of Commons, February 
 22, 1837* on the Irish Municipal Bill, when he replied to the taunt of 
 Lord L}mdhar8t, who had stated that the Irish were nut entitled to 
 the tame privileges as Englishmen, because they were to them " aliens 
 in race, aliens in coantry, and aliens in religion." 
 
256 Life and Writings of 
 
 compliance with your lordship's charitable admonition, 
 but because it is our duty and our interest. But we 
 will not make war upon our neighbours for tithes and 
 mitres ; we shall not efface from the panels of the Lord 
 Bishop of Cloyne's carriage that emblem of ecclesiasti- 
 cal pre-eminence which he has borrowed from the 
 Church of Eome, and which he is now exposing to 
 public detestation ; nor shall we diminish the number 
 of his dishes which the Catholic clergy dressed for him 
 ages before they imagined that bishops, instead of pray- 
 ing for them and their successors, w^ould disturb the 
 dead in their graves by attributing to them doctrines 
 they never taught, and exciting the jealousy and resent- 
 ment of the reigning powers against the living by cast- 
 ing at their threshold artifices of redress which they 
 disclaim. We shall not engage my Lord Bishop of 
 Cloyne in a crusade to make war upon infidels who are 
 not in possession of your Holy Land. 
 
 " It is extraordinary in you to alarm the public with 
 the dangers of Popery, when you retain the most op- 
 pressive part of a religion from which you are sprung — 
 tithes, that are oppressive to the poor, and pre-eminence, 
 which, in all ages, has not been relished by the rich. 
 We cannot in reason hate a Catholic for his specula- 
 tive creed — his belief in the real presence affects us no 
 more than if he believed Berenice's tresses were changed 
 into a comet ; nor are we much concerned whether, in 
 that immensity beyond the grave, there may be an 
 intermediate place between the two extremes of com- 
 plete happiness and complete misery — a place where the 
 soul atones for venial lapses, and pays off a part of the 
 debts it has contracted here. It is equal to us where a 
 man pays his debts, whether here or in purgatory, pro- 
 vided he pays ourselves what he owes us ; and however 
 clamorous a mitred divine may be about a Popish pur- 
 gatory, HE MAY GO FARTHEK AND SPEED WORSE ! 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 257 
 
 " The proctor's pound where the cottager's cow or 
 calf is imprisoned, is a greater nuisance to the living 
 than thousands of subterraneous caverns beyond the 
 grave. Good sense and the general good of society are 
 restoring to unhappy mortals the inalienable charter 
 which school divinity had usurped — the choice of the 
 religion they think best, and the privilege of being 
 accountable to God alone for their speculative tenets. 
 We look upon any person who would preach or prac- 
 tise a contrary doctrine as an agitator indeed ; and an 
 agitating bishop is as obnoxious a character to us as 
 any agitating priest or friar." 
 
 The following extracts speak for themselves : — 
 " The ministry of a clergyman is a ministry of chariijy 
 and compassion. When I see, then, heroes bred in camps, 
 and trained up amidst the clash of arms, sheathe upon 
 several occasions the sword, and hold out the olive- 
 branch ; when in the cure of wounds lenitives are pre- 
 ferred to caustics, — I am not ashamed for -having 
 addi-essed a discontented and oppressed people in the 
 style of sympathy and tenderness. But when I see a 
 prelate, whose very robes are by their institution emble- 
 matical of extensive charity, exhibit symptoms of joy 
 in the expectation that the poor will not be relieved by 
 their rulers, I should be more inclined to curse the priest- 
 hood than to revere it, if I were so blind as to confound 
 the unfeelingness and other defects of the ministers of 
 religion, with the holiness and other duties of their 
 ministry. 
 
 " I recommended patience, which softens the afflic- 
 tions of sufferers, to the distressed, after informing them 
 that the legislative powers alone are competent to re- 
 dress a general grievance, and that a disorderly conduct 
 was a bad recommendation to their humanity." 
 
 " Here are the comments of the Lord Bishop of Cloyue 
 upon the above text : — ' To what do these lectures of 
 
 S 
 
258 Life and Writings of 
 
 Mr. O'Leary tend ? To tell the insurgents that though 
 he knows that they are more oppressed than any sect 
 of men in the world ; though he is convinced that they 
 had a right to expect redress from the humanity of the 
 legislature, yet the legislature show no compassion for 
 them — they must remain in their misery : they have no 
 remedy but that of patience, which softens the afflictions 
 of sufferers' 
 
 " I am not ashamed of the admonitions, but I blush at 
 the censure! I prefer the charitable Samaritan, who 
 did not offer up sacrifices in Solomon's temple, yet re- 
 lieved the bleeding man on the road from Jerusalem to 
 Jericho — T prefer him to the unfeeling priest and Levite 
 who passed by unconcerned, without pitying a man 
 whom they saw weltering in his blood. I shall ever 
 pity the poor, and shall ever recommend them to their 
 rulers. If this be a crime, may it be the only crime 
 of which I am found guilty. 
 
 " I recommend them to their rulers. It would have 
 been more becoming in the Lord Bishop of Cloyne to 
 have done the same, than to censure me for the feelings 
 of pity. I still indulge the hope that the legislators of 
 Ireland will redress the grievances of the wretched, at 
 the period which their wisdom will appoint. And I am 
 very confident that they will glory in feelings congenial 
 to those of Francis the First, who, on hearing that a 
 nobleman had killed a peasant, dressed himself in 
 mourning, bound up his arm in a scarf, and sent for the 
 murderer, to whom he said — 'Rebel, you have wounded 
 your king in the right arm, in depriving him of one of 
 the props of the State. For without the peasantry, who 
 will feed my armies, or supply my treasury ?' 
 
 " The plough, the spade, and reaping-hook, handled by 
 vigorous, healthy and well-fed peasants, are of more 
 benefit to the State than a thousand goose-quills bran- 
 dished by so^many controversialists, puzzling the minds 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 259 
 
 and dividing the hearts of men and citizens, who, in the 
 interests of society and the feelings of humanity, would 
 soon extinguish the flames of discord, if the sacred fire 
 were not continually fed by the very hands that should 
 preserve the temple of peace from conflagration. * It is 
 the peasant's labor, and not his catechism, that should 
 be the subject of legislative attention,' says Yoltaire." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " If the Irish Catholics profess the religion of the 
 greatest monarchs, and the creed of flourishing univer- 
 sities, one would imagine that their faith should not 
 make them objects of contempt. They introduced no 
 new religion into the State, nor encroached upon any 
 man's property. They had the lands of their fathers, 
 and the religion of their education, ages before their 
 sovereigns thought fit to change their creeds. Their 
 blood flows in the veins of the Protestant nobility and 
 gentry of Ireland, whose pedigree is proclaimed the more 
 illustrious, in proportion as they trace it back to Catho- 
 lic times. Their loyalty at home and their valor 
 abroad, when disqualifying laws and the thirst of glory 
 urged them to dispute the laurel under the banners of 
 foreign kings, cannot disgrace the kindred of affinity 
 the Catholic noblemen and gentlemen may claim to the 
 Protestant nobility and gentry of the land. Had the 
 island been even subdued by the sword of the conqueror, 
 conquest itself has its limits circumscribed by justice. 
 Transfer of allegiance, and the tribute paid to the 
 fonner sovereign, is all that the conqueror is entitled to. 
 Locke would grant him no more, but would secure, in 
 the unchangeable profession of their consciences and 
 inheritance, the subjects who had changed their mas- 
 ters. They had the prescription of ages to plead for 
 their religion and properties, when the wrecks of both 
 were secured to them by the laws of nations, under the 
 walls of Limerick. This capitulation, which it was in 
 
2G0 Life and Writings of 
 
 their power to break forty-eight hours after the inter- 
 change of the articles, they adhered to invariably. It 
 was shamefully broken by the daughter of the very 
 king to whom they had sworn allegiance, though, from 
 the day on which it was signed until this very hour, not 
 a pistol was fired or a sword drawn by a Catholic in 
 this kingdom against the State. Such being the case, 
 which no man can contradict, what must not be the in- 
 dignation of every man of feeling, when he sees about 
 two millions of Irish subjects treated with as little 
 ceremony as if they were a set of negro slaves upon a 
 West India plantation ; compared to a pack of hounds 
 impatient at the view of game ; and ' to a set of 
 treacherous, insidious, faithless. Popish rebels, to be cut 
 off by his Majesty's sword.* Could mortals foresee that, 
 in the year '87, a clause could be introduced into the 
 Irish House of Commons, for the purpose of pulling 
 down, levelling, and prostrating Roman Catholic chapels, 
 if one witness swore before two magistrates that an 
 unlawful oath was taken in said chapel, or in any place 
 adjoining thereto ! It would be more honorable to 
 banish the whole Catholic body out of the kingdom, after 
 giving them sufficient time and notice for selling their 
 properties, than to offer them the insult of proposing, on 
 the evidence of a single witness, the destruction of their 
 houses of worship, in the course of the same session 
 when a member of Parliament talked of heads of a bill 
 to prevent the stealing of dogs. We read of two philo- 
 sophers in antiquity, the one continually laughing, and 
 the other continually crying, at the scenes of human 
 life. This contrast would unite them both. Christian 
 houses of worship to be demolished, and the kennels of 
 dogs to be protected by law !" 
 
 * This was the recommendation of Theophilus, " an able writer," 
 says the Bishop of Cloyne, '* against whom it is hard to prove a nega- 
 tive." 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 201 
 
 O'Leary rebuts the bishop's accusation, that "agi- 
 tating friars and Romish missionaries may be sent here 
 to sow sedition." His lordship hinted that Theophilus 
 miorht have some information of such. "Let Theo- 
 
 o 
 
 philus appear," writes O'Leaiy, " and he shall be branded 
 as a lying witness. Tarn extremely sorry that his lord- 
 ship should mention such a slanderer in his pamphlet. 
 As for my part, my landlord, Mr. Augustus Warren, a 
 member of Parliament, and a gentleman who, at the 
 very beginning of the disorders, took an active and 
 honorable part in suppressing them, is now in town ; he 
 would not honor me with his friendship, nor give me 
 free access to his house and library whenever I choose to 
 retire from the bustle of cities, if he discovered in me 
 a seditious tenant. The regular clergy of this kingdom 
 are a part of the Catholic body whom they instruct and 
 edify under the directions of the Catholic prelates. 
 
 " Does the Lord Bishop of Cloyne intend to raise a 
 persecution against them, and thus through their sides 
 to wound the Catholics at large, with whom they are so 
 closely connected by the ties of blood, and the mutual 
 interchange of good oflSces ? They have not those fine 
 gardens and rich monasteries which excite the Lord 
 Bishop of Cloyne's jealousy ; and which the Emperor of 
 Germany would sell to increase his treasury, as he has 
 curtailed the revenues of such bishops as are not foreign 
 princes. The stricter their vow, the less cumbersome 
 they are to society, as they are literally content with 
 what satisfied St. Paul, * food and raiment ;' many of 
 them have left good fortunes to their younger brothers ; 
 all have renounced their share of the inheritance ; and 
 such of them as had but a small dividend to share, made 
 a generous sacrifice when they renounced all earthly 
 prospects. Should the contempt of the vanities of the 
 world, and a disinterested heart, be deemed objects of 
 censure in ecclesiastics, they should not be held in such 
 
262 Life and Writings of 
 
 a view by a bishop who finds them recommended in the 
 Scriptures. Neither will they ever be deemed such by 
 the laity, who will esteem the clergy the more as they 
 practise what they preach. I write here of the regular 
 clergy of Ireland, who run the same career with the 
 rest of the Catholic clergy of the kingdom, and whose 
 common ancestors fell prostrate in the promiscuous 
 ruin occasioned by forfeitures and confiscation. If a 
 revival of claims so often mentioned in the senate, and 
 bandied about in flying pamphlets, can tend to render 
 them obnoxious, there is no doubt but that they should be 
 objects of jealousy with the rest of the Catholics, should 
 these claims be ever asserted. For the Catholic clergy, 
 both secular and regular, are descended from the same 
 stock with the Catholic laity, and from ancestors who, 
 in their days, were neither hewers of wood nor drawers 
 of water. But those claims I have done away by Scrip- 
 ture, canon and civil law, and reason, in my address to 
 the common people, when the combined fleets were on our 
 coasts, and a revival was most likely to ensue. For, at 
 that time, the unprotected Catholics had nothing to lose, 
 and on each Catholic clergyman's head hung the naked 
 sword of proscription. I had some time before confirmed 
 the throne in his Majesty's family against the claims of 
 Stuarts, BourboDS, and the House of Sardinia. This I 
 did in my ' Loyalty Asserted,' as far as a writer pos- 
 sessed of abilities which have nothing to recommend 
 them but the sincerity of the author, could confirm the 
 throne of a prince, whose Catholic subjects are compared 
 to a 'pack of hounds impatient to run down the royal 
 game.' 
 
 " The only reward I expect for my labor, is not to 
 be insulted by an oblique insinuation, that I am sent 
 here to sow sedition. The Lord Bishop of Cloyne 
 softens the inuendo in these words : ' I do not say that 
 Mr. O'Leary is sent here to sow sedition; but,' &c. If 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 263 
 
 he did not say it, why mention my name as a dessert, 
 after having regaled his reader with so many courses ? 
 Sent here ! I imagined that Saint Paul recommends 
 hospitality to bishops, and that a prelate would be more 
 generous than to envy an Irishman the privilege of 
 breathing his native air. If Swift were alive, he w^ould 
 not be very thankful to the Lord Bishop of Cloyne ; but 
 Swift would be at liberty to indulge his thoughts in 
 their full latitude. I must be cautious under the 
 heaviest provocation. God knows, it is hard for me. I 
 was not sent here. I came here, after having been 
 forced in my early days into foreign countries for a small 
 portion of education, which was refused me in the land 
 of my fathers, because I could not couple Tully's Orations 
 with a Charter-School Catechism. 
 
 " I was not * sent here to sow sedition.' I returned 
 here, not as a felon from transportation, but as an 
 honorable exile, who returns to his native land, after 
 having preferred a voluntary banishment to ignorance 
 and the abjuration of the creed of his fathers. 
 
 " I appeal to Richard Longfield, Esq., member of 
 Parliament, whether, at the very beginhing of the dis- 
 turbances in the diocese of Cloyne, I did not give the 
 sincerest proof of the most unfeigned determination to 
 co-operate in the restoration of peace and tranquillity. 
 That gentleman soon suppressed the tumults in his 
 own district, because the humanity of the landlord 
 gave an additional weight of respect and love to the 
 authority of the magistrate. I say it not from flattery, 
 to which I am an utter stranger : had all the gentlemen 
 of consequence in the county of Cork exerted them- 
 selves as Mr. Richard Longfield and Mr. Augustus 
 Warren have done ; had they, in imitation of these 
 gentlemen, rendered their authority as amiable from 
 benevolence to their tenants, as it was formidable from 
 the powers invested in them by the laws, the disturb- 
 
264* Life and Writings of 
 
 ances would not have outlived the space of six weeks. 
 Wherever the landlords were active and generous, and 
 advised the people, either no disorders appeared, or 
 were soon suppressed; and had the Lord Bishop of 
 Cloyne been as active in visiting his diocese, and pub- 
 lishing pastoral letters, as he was intent upon collect- 
 ing materials for a pamphlet to surprise the public on 
 the eve of the meeting of Parliament, he would have 
 contributed lo the prevention or suppression of the 
 tumults, in concurrence with Mr. O'Leary. 
 
 " But the Lord Bishop of Cloyne was secure in the 
 protection of the State ; the peace of society was left to 
 the other guardians ; the people were wretched, miser- 
 able, mad ; several gentlemen were not much concerned 
 for the injuries offered to the clergy of either religion; 
 policy, which often expects benefits from popular commo- 
 tions, so destructive to the simple, might have induced 
 others to remain silent and inactive, in the prospect of 
 . providing for their adherents under the extension of a 
 general police bill — a bill which was then expected in con- 
 sequence of popular tumults, which adepts in political 
 wisdom were more active in magnifying than prevent- 
 ing. It was reported in the city of Cork, that a certain 
 reverend gentleman in the diocese of Cloyne used to go 
 in the night time, with armed men, to sound a horn 
 near a cluster of cabins, in order to make prisoners of 
 such as would appear to gratify their curiosity — an ex- 
 pedient well becoming a minister of the Gospel ! But 
 with some persons every expedient is justifiable when 
 Popish plots are to be contrived to give it a sanction." 
 
 " The regular clergy have no interest distinct from 
 the general weal. They are as much interested in the 
 preservation of the State, from which they have got 
 their lands and monasteries, as the Lord Bishop of 
 Cloyne is interested in the preservation of Ireland, 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. 265 
 
 where he has very good livings. He would have, I 
 suppose, the regular clergy of the Church of Rome to 
 shoulder a firelock, sound horns, and shoot Whiteboys. 
 In every age since their institution, they have been 
 engaged in a more glorious warfare — civilizing barbarous 
 nations ; diffusing the light of the Gospel into remote 
 redons, whither the Alexanders and Caesars had never 
 carried their arms ; contributing extensively to the cul- 
 tivation of the sciences, and swelling thedeepand majestic 
 rivers of European literature with their tribute of the 
 knowledge of the histories, laws, customs, and manners 
 of the most remote and distant nations. I do not talk 
 here of the Jesuits alone, who, in the very centre of 
 barbarism, amongst cannibals feeding on each other's 
 flesh, realize the sublime ideas of a Plato, a Sir Thomas 
 More, or a Fenelon. These great men only dreamed of 
 those political institutions under which man can live 
 happy, without the canker of envy or the stings of 
 poverty. A branch of the regular clergy of the Church 
 of Rome raised the fabric which procured them the 
 compliments of Montesquieu and the admiration of the 
 world. Civilized and Christian Paraguay, from a nation 
 of cannibals, became the only spot on earth where vice 
 and want were equally unknown. 
 
 " To this very day the Catholic religion is maintained 
 in Turkey, Abyssinia, and the remotest regions, by the 
 labors of men whom their vows, and a generous con- 
 tempt of the pleasures of this world, naturalize to every 
 nation and climate. Their method is quite different 
 from that prescribed by the Lord Bishop of Cloyne for 
 the propagation of the Gospel — a method which exposes 
 religion to the derision of infidels, and renders the pro- 
 poser vulnerable to every arrow that can be taken from 
 the quivers of the learned. His lordship informs us 
 gravely that bis religion will extend in, j^'^opoHion to 
 agriculture! Bravo! this is literally planting the 
 
206 Life and Writings of 
 
 Gospel, and making it the religion of the land, in every 
 sense of the word. St. Paul says godliness is a great 
 gain — the Lord Bishop of Cloyne writes as if gain were 
 great godliness : he sanctifies the soil before he sanctifies 
 the soul. Pity that crows and pigeons have not the use of 
 speech as they had in ^sop's time ! his clergy would 
 have a great number of fellow-laborers in the Lord's 
 vineyard. The feathered tribe would cry out to the 
 peasant : ' My good man, sow the corn, and I will be 
 with you next year to reclaim you from the errors of 
 Popery.' " 
 
 But no stinted measure of praise would satisfy 
 O'Leary's admiration of the regular clergy to which he 
 belonged. They had been accused of blind obedience 
 to foreign powers. He repudiates the charge. "Whether 
 here or elsewhere," he continues, "the regular clergy 
 owe no subjection to a foreign power ; they live as 
 corporal societies under their peculiar institutions, 
 confirmed by Church and State ; the boundaries are 
 kept distinct ; they give God what belongs to God, and 
 to Caesar his due. Whilst they live as a corporate society 
 they will plead their charter. Hence, the pope himself 
 cannot, in an arbitrary manner, either elect or depose 
 their superiors, or interfere in their religious policy. He 
 may annul their charter, but whilst they live as cor- 
 porate societies, they will maintain their institutions, 
 which contain nothing obnoxious either to Church or 
 State : otherwise neither would give them a sanction. 
 When they make their vows, it is not to become vassals 
 to the pope ; it is to gratify their own devotion under 
 regulations, which, at a competent age, they have 
 twelve months' probation either to adopt or reject. 
 
 " They avow no subjection to a foreign power ; and I 
 call upon the Lord Bishop of Cloyne to prove his 
 assertion. They are subjects of the State, swear 
 allegiance to their prince, and are as faithful as any 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 267 
 
 other subjects. Trapolo, a regular, defended the privi- 
 leges of his country against Pope Paul the Fifth, and 
 immortalized his name. Ximenes, a regular, raised the 
 power of the Spanish monarchy, and paved the way for 
 the splendid conquest of Charles the Fifth. Father 
 Joseph de la Tremblay, after quitting the bar, and 
 becominof a regular, was forced from his cloister to 
 direct the councils of Louis the Thirteenth. He 
 planned those measures, in the execution of which 
 Richelieu appeared as the ostensible agent ; and which, 
 by humbling the House of Austria, and lopping off 
 the heavy branches which made the tree of the French 
 monarchy bend too much, gave it that direct posture 
 and firmness which ever since have been proof against so 
 many storms. In Ireland, during the unhappy commo- 
 tions which distracted the kingdom in the reign of 
 Charles I., who could have exerted himself with more 
 constancy than Father Peter Walsh, mentioned with 
 honor in the continuation of Sir James Ware ? Did he 
 not oppose Rinuccini, the pope's legate, who afterwards 
 excommunicated him at Brussels ? Under his excom- 
 munication, he remained unshaken in his loyalty. Or 
 what is there in a regular clergyman's frame so hostile 
 to his country, as to induce the Lord Bishop of Cloyne 
 to hcdd him forth as avowing subjection to a foreign 
 power ? Is not a man's oath to be believed ? And 
 when the regular clergy swear allegiance to their king, 
 is not their oath to be relied on ? " 
 
 Bi.shop Woodward, in his pamphlet, had urged on 
 the government the necessity of bringing the Irish 
 language into disrepute, and using every means for its 
 extinction, that the established clergy might be saved 
 the trouble of learning it, and that the conversion 
 of the people might be facilitated by a uniformity of 
 tongue. O'Leary's comments on this proposal are of 
 the most trencbant character. 
 
2G8 Life and Writings of 
 
 " This metliod," he writes, alluding to the suggested 
 abolition of the native language, "is an insult to the 
 people, and cannot come with any propriety from a 
 prelate, who (if I be well-informed) is indebted for his 
 promotion to the descendaut of Irish princes, in whose 
 hospitable halls the tuneful lyre was strung to Irish 
 melody, so varied and harmonious that the lying 
 Giraldus Cambrensis was forced to speak of it with 
 rapture and ecstasy. But now, at the awful summons 
 of an English prelate, the Irish harp must be sus- 
 pended on the branch of some weeping willow, as the 
 Israelites hung up their musical instruments on the 
 willow-trees that grew by the rivers of Babylon. 
 ' How can we sing (cried they) the canticles of the 
 Lord in a strange land ? ' And the Irishman can say : 
 ' How can I speak the language of my fathers in the 
 land of my nativity V His language must be abolished 
 at the recommendation of the Eight Reverend Dr. 
 Woodward ; this language, the study of which the 
 learned Leibnitz and Lhuyd so warmly recommended 
 to the curious inquirers into the monuments of anti- 
 quity; this language, studied by a learned stranger, 
 (Colonel Yallancey,) who has reconciled Mars with 
 Minerva, in uniting the sword with the pen, military 
 skill with literary powers ; and by his learned labors 
 has rescued from obscurity the history of a misrepre- 
 sented nation, formerly the Athens of Western Europe. 
 Thus, Csesar studied astronomy in the camp, while the 
 priest of Apollo snored in the temple. A military 
 gentleman studies the Irish language, to increase the 
 store of the literary public. The prelate, whose func- 
 tion it is to sanctify the souls of the natives, recom- 
 mends the growth of their grain for the food of the 
 clergyman's body, and the abolition of their language 
 for the good of their souls. 
 
 " Thus, the Irish peasant must work double tides to 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 269 
 
 sail for heaven : he must grow corn for an English pas- 
 tor's body, and study this English parson's language for 
 the good of his own soul, lest a pair of brogues should 
 be too uncourtly a dress to appear in the antechamber 
 of heaven. Badinage apart — such a recommendation 
 for the abolition of languages, should rather come 
 from a leader of Goths and Vandals, whose glory it 
 was to destroy monuments of literature, than from the 
 bishop of a large diocese, in a philosophical age, when 
 curiosity is on the wing, and the mind active in the 
 pursuit of knowledge. The Lord Bishop's method, 
 then, of propagating the Gospel, is the most extra- 
 ordinary I ever read of: to sow com and extend 
 agriculture for the convenience of the clergyman; and 
 to oblige the peasant, after the toils of the day, to 
 learn the clergyman's language, in order to know the 
 way to heaven, which the clergyman would not take 
 the pains of telling him in Irish. A true repetition 
 of Erasmus' echo, Quid est sacerdotium ? Echo, 
 OliuTn ! 
 
 " I have read of a Saracen emperor who, from hatred 
 to literature, burnt the Alexandrian Library; but I 
 never read of a Christian prelate intent on the conver- 
 sion of people by whom he was fed, who, instead of 
 learning their language, recommended its disuse, until 
 I read the pamphlet of the Lord Bishop of Cloyne. 
 The present Bishop of Llandaff could not speak a word 
 of Welsh when he came to Wales. Instead of recom- 
 mending to the English government to abolish the 
 Welsh language, he made the knowledge of it his 
 peculiar stud}'. But it is the unhappy and singular 
 state of the Catholics of Ireland to see their names held 
 up as barbarous * their creed misrepresented, and the 
 
 * Theophilas, in bis pampUet, had alluded to Father O'Leary as 
 the friar with the barbarous samamc.' 
 
270 Life and Writ'mgs of 
 
 language of their ancestors threatened with entire dis- 
 use for the gratification of a foreign prelate, who pro- 
 poses, as the means of their sanctification, commodious 
 houses and cultivated spots for the ease and convenience 
 of persons whom his lordship dispenses from the trouble 
 of even learning the language of the people who support 
 them. 
 
 "This was not the manner in which the reofular 
 clergy of the Church of Eome planted religion in all the 
 nations on earth where they preached the Gospel. 
 Neither was it the method which those who separated 
 from the Church of England adopted to establish their 
 own doctrine, and formed separate communions. They 
 learned the language of the people, and brought them 
 over to their way of thinking, before they insisted on 
 commodious houses and glebe lands. Hence they be- 
 came ministers of the word ; whereas, according to the 
 Lord Bishop of Cloyne's plan, making religion and 
 agriculture keep pace with each other, he gives his 
 readers to understand that the minister of religion is 
 more the minister of the soil than of the soul ; and that 
 the old adage, which has become so current, to the dis- 
 grace of the priesthood, is verified — no penny, no pater- 
 noster." 
 
 Further on, in allusion to the bishop's proposal for 
 abolishing the Irish language, Father OXeary writes : — 
 
 '' If his lordship be so zealous for the salvation of the 
 people, why not learn their language ? The Catholic 
 missionaries who penetrated into the vast empire of 
 China learned the Chinese, though there are eight 
 hundred letters in the alphabet, aud each letter stands 
 for a word. They converted millions of the people, 
 translated the writings of their philosophers, and brought 
 Europe acquainted with the laws, customs, and morals 
 of that singular country. His lordship is not under the 
 necessity of travelling far to learn the language ; it is 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 271 
 
 at his door; and an English pastor may as \7ell learn 
 the Irish, as Colonel Valiancy, an English officer, did. 
 His lordship will excuse this freedom — it is as a writer 
 who called me forth that I address him throughout ; 
 my respect for a bishop's character is a restraint which 
 I would shake off, if a person of an inferior rank called 
 on government to bring into disuse the language of a 
 country. It is what even conquerors seldom have done. 
 The polished Frenchman has never attempted to abolish 
 the low dialect of the Breton ; the grave Spaniard leaves 
 the Biscayan to the use of his speech ; and the English 
 have not abolished the Welsh or Erse — the Irish must 
 have the badge of scorn." 
 
 O'Leary points out the proper sphere for the employ- 
 ment of the bishop's talents, and the most fitting object 
 of his zeal : — 
 
 " The Lord Bishop of Cloyne believes two sacraments 
 necessary to salvation. If he could gain over to the 
 Established Church all the inhabitants of Ireland who 
 believe that neither is necessary to salvation, it would 
 be a great acquisition to the established religion. 
 Could he but kindle the flames of piety and fervor in 
 the breasts of such people, it would be of infinite ad- 
 vantage. And if he could keep within the pale of the 
 Established Church such as are willing to form modes 
 of worship for themselves, or reclaim such as have 
 quitted it within those many years without becoming 
 Catholics, he would leave no room to complain of the 
 majority of Dissenters. What a field is open here for 
 pastoral zeal ! It is a herculean task indeed, and worthy 
 of a prelate of distinguished abilities ! But want of 
 baptism, Deism, separation from the Established Church, 
 and altar against altar, cannot draw forth the pen of 
 the Lord Bishop of Cloyne. The stability of tithes and 
 the downfall of Popery are his only themes." 
 
 He compares the bishop's approval of Theophilus's 
 
272 Life and Writings of 
 
 ranting to the applause awarded to "the wag on the 
 stage, who, on being asked his religion, answered that 
 he loved a pot of porter, and hated Popery 1" He finds 
 fault with the bishop for "his address and ingenuity in 
 so often laying a stress upon the word heretics I' as if the 
 Catholics alone designate by that name such as have 
 revolted from their Church. "Does the Church of 
 England acknowledge that there are no heretics ? Have 
 not her bishops pronounced them such after a canonical 
 trial ? Has not the civil magistrate, nursed in her 
 bosom, doomed them to the fagot ? . . . . Dr. 
 Godolphin, a Protestant canonist, calls heresy a leprosy 
 of the soul, and describes no less than one hundred and 
 thirty-seven heresies. Were he living now he could 
 add many more. Human victims marched to the stake 
 with fagots on their backs, to purge in the flames the 
 pollution of heresy, under a Protestant Elizabeth and a 
 Protestant James, as under a half-Catholic Henry and 
 a Catholic Mary. Those strange and erroneous doc- 
 trines which the Lord Bishop of Cloyne promises, by 
 his consecration oath, to banish and drive away, ba- 
 nished and drove away effectually Dissenters and Catho- 
 lics into the wilds of America in the reign of that 
 James whom the Lord Bishop of Cloyne applauds for 
 his wise saying — no bishop, no king. Those strange 
 and erroneous doctrines banished the Catholic Lord 
 Baltimore into Maryland, and the great Penn into 
 Pennsylvania, both of whom, however, forgetful of their 
 religious differences, planted their colonies, where they 
 granted free toleration to all mortals, and where man 
 is now restored to the indelible charter which the free- 
 bom mind is entitled to plead." 
 
 " The recollection," he continues, " of such mielancholy 
 scenes, induces me to applaud my Lord Bishop of 
 Cloyne for declaring, in his introduction, that it is not 
 his object to enter into the defence of ecclesiastical 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 273 
 
 establishments in general. It would be a heavy task, 
 indeed ! Since the beginning of ecclesiastical establish- 
 ments, until of late, sovereigns, seduced by the counsels 
 of the clergy, became the executioners of their sub- 
 jects. The ministers of a religion, one of whose prin- 
 cipal laws is a law of eternal love, became the apolo- 
 gists of calamities that swept from the face of the earth, 
 or oppress to this very day, God's noblest images — 
 upright, virtuous, and dauntless men. Like the warrior 
 in the Scriptures, they stepped into the sanctuary 
 to grasp the barbarian's sword wrapt up in the ephod. 
 The code of temporal laws, teeming with sanctions 
 against robbers and murderers, was swelled, to the sur- 
 prise and destruction of mankind, with additional de- 
 crees against heretics and papists. The inoffensive 
 citizen, who, from an apprehension of offending the 
 Deity by acting against his conscience, was confined in 
 the same dungeon, or doomed to the fagot or axe, with 
 the parricide, who laid aside every restraint of moral 
 obligation. The Scriptures were adduced in justifica- 
 tion of the sanguinary confusion. Out of every con- 
 tested verse there issued a fury armed with a quibble 
 and a poniard, which inspired mankind at once with 
 folly and cruelty, and Europe became one wild altar, on 
 which every religious sect offered up hupaan victims to 
 its creed. Such are the effects of ecclesiastical establish- 
 ments in a long succession of ages. The effects ascribed 
 to them by the right reverend author, as infusing 
 morality as a collateral aid to the law, would have been 
 produced in a more heavenly manner by religion un- 
 controlled by the terror of penal sanctions ; and its rays 
 never shone brighter than when its ministers had no 
 other sword to enforce it but the two-edged sword of 
 the peaceful doctrine of its Author. It is not, then, to 
 the lenity of ecclesiastical establishments that men are 
 indebted for the freedom they enjoy, but to the lenity 
 
 T 
 
274 Life and Writings of 
 
 of the State, and to the exalted souls and enlarged 
 minds of the illustrious senators, who have cast off the 
 sable weeds of priestly bigotry, to put on the radiant 
 livery of enlightened reason, which religion enlarges 
 into an extensive asylum, instead of contracting it into 
 a narrow and favourite spot, which it is penal (but for 
 a few) to look at. The gloom which the Lord Bishop of 
 Cloyne's pamphlet has spread on every countenance, 
 and the mutual distrust and jealousy which have suc- 
 ceeded the strictest sincerity and amity, since the pub- 
 lication of his performance, are no mighty recommenda- 
 tions of ecclesiastical establishments ; the blood of fifty 
 millions of men, cut off by the sword of persecution 
 since the State unsheathed it in defence of ecclesiasti- 
 cal establishments — the oppression, imprisonment, and 
 banishment of many more, start up before our horrified 
 vision ! The blood of the slain cries under the altar to 
 the powers of the earth : ' Leave your subjects free — 
 let the priests pray — do not draw the sword in defence 
 of their prayers, for they will never pray alike.' " 
 
 Father O'Leary concludes by observing that he would 
 not have obtruded himself on public notice, on this 
 occasion, but for an amount of provocation which it 
 was not in human nature to withstand. It would ap- 
 pear from these concluding words that Theophilus had 
 written a second pamphlet immediately subsequent to 
 that of the Bishop of Cloyne. 
 
 " I wish," he says, " the bishop had called me forth in 
 more favorable circumstances, and in a general cause ; 
 but he calls me forth under the heaviest provocations, 
 after having declared himself the apologist of a Theo- 
 philus, who exhausts the glossary of Billingsgate in 
 personal abuse : * Whoever reads his lordship's pam- 
 phlet must consider the Catholic prelates as perjurers — 
 the laity as enemies to the constitution, from a view to 
 the revenues of the Church, with the assistance of a 
 
Rev. Arthur O'heary. 275 
 
 foreign power — and Mr. O'Leary seditious with a train 
 of agitating friars and Romish missionaries.' If there 
 be a plurality of worlds, I must have been born in the 
 planet of Saturn, if I did not feel a certain warmth 
 after such a provocation !" 
 
 It was very generally believed at the period when 
 this controversy took place, that Dr. Woodward had 
 written his pamphlet at the instigation of the govern- 
 ment, who deemed it prudent then, as at other times, to 
 sustain and perpetuate the feelings of hostility, on the 
 ground of different race and religion, that had so long 
 existed in Ireland. But they must have been sorely 
 disappointed by the result; for not only had the 
 bishop's arguments been fully and ably refuted by his 
 talented and facetious opponent, but the bitterness 
 with which the right reverend pamphleteer had in- 
 veighed against Catholics and Dissenters alike, united 
 them in a common bond of self-defence against all 
 comers, and created exactly the union which . the 
 government so heartily deprecated and deplored. Of 
 late years, the public mind had undergone a very 
 remarkable change in its estimate of the Catholic 
 population of Ireland : the stern and bitter animosity 
 of the past was gradually yielding before the march of 
 liberal sentiments. In the Irish Parliament, the voices 
 of Protestants, whose eloquence has become proverbial, 
 had been already raised in favor of the Catholics ; we 
 have seen the Protestant Bishop of Derry presenting 
 himself on the field as their most fearless champion, 
 exclaiming that "tyranny is not government, and 
 allegiance is due only to protection." ^The Presbjrterians 
 of the north, during the Volunteer movement, sacri- 
 ficed all sectarian prejudice on the altar of national 
 union and freedom. The Volunteers of Belfast had 
 given instructions to their delegates in the conven- 
 tion, to support, as one of the essential ingredients of 
 
276 Life and Writings of 
 
 reform, the free admission of Catholics to all the rights 
 of freemen. Hence, we can understand how much 
 Father O'Leary was instrumental in bringing about the 
 thorough union which soon subsisted between the 
 Catholics and Dissenters, as described by Thomas 
 Moore, in his " Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald."* 
 
 " This growing coalition," he says, " between the Ca- 
 tholics and Dissenters, to which the one party brought 
 intelligence and republican spirit, and the other deep- 
 rooted discontent and numerical force, had for its 
 chief cement a feeling common to both, of impatience 
 under the exactions of the Established Church; and 
 a demonstration, among many others, of their joint 
 arras against this vulnerable point occurred in the year 
 1787, when the celebrated Father O'Leary found him- 
 self seconded by Dr. Campbell and other Presbyterian 
 ministers, in his well-known and amusing controversy 
 with the Bishop of Cloyne." 
 
 This controversy did, in truth, create a very great 
 sensation throughout the country; and the public 
 mind expressed in various ways its satisfaction at the 
 bishop's defeat, and its congratulation on the triumph 
 of O'Leary. Not the least significant style of public 
 comment on these transactions, were the caricatures 
 in the windows of picture-shops, one of which repre- 
 sented Father O'Leary hand in hand with Dr. Camp- 
 bell, the celebrated Presbyterian divine, alluded to by 
 Moore in the extract just quoted ; while, in another 
 he was painted as pressing on a lever, which a Dis- 
 senter had just placed under a church; while the 
 Bishop of Cloyne, with a countenance of fear and 
 alarm suitable to the circumstances, was represented 
 clutching the spire, and alarming the country with 
 the cries of " the Church is in danger ! " 
 
 * Vol. i. p. 109. 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 277 
 
 " I read," says Lord Kenmare, in a letter dated 
 October 2nd, 1787, "with the greatest pleasure, the 
 Critical Review you sent me on the Cloyne contro- 
 versy. It is the best performance that has yet ap- 
 peared on the subject, in which opinion I am con- 
 firmed by Mr. Grattan and Dick Herbert. Pray, who 
 is the writer 1 Grattan is violent against the Bishop 
 of Cloyne for his publication, and thinks, with the 
 reviewer, that government is at the bottom of it." 
 
 " These, and such like productions," says Hay, in his 
 history of the Irish rebellion of '98, alluding to the 
 pamphlets of Theophilus and the Bishop of Cloyne,* 
 "dictated by the spirit of discord, were refuted by several 
 able pens of the day, but particularly convicted by the 
 irresistible force of the benevolent O'Leary's dignified 
 ridicule. This divine, professing the true spirit of the 
 Gospel, excited by the purest motives of patriotism and 
 Christian charity, steps forward, and, by his exhortations 
 and example, contributed more efiectually to quiet the 
 minds of the people and appease the tempest, by 
 bringing them back to a sense of their religion; and 
 without the loss of a life, effected more than a host 
 prompted by prejudiced coercion or a formidable 
 army." 
 
 In a debate which took place in the Irish House of 
 Commons in 1787, on Mr. Grattan's motion for a com- 
 mutation of tithes, Mr. Toler (afterwards Lord Norbury) 
 spoke of O'Leary's " defence," as he designated it, with 
 a bitterness and bad temper for which he was particu- 
 larly distinguished when speaking of the Catholic clergy. 
 But John Philpot Curran,himse]f a Protestant, yet one of 
 the most pure-minded patriots of whom Ireland canboAst, 
 could not permit the character of a friend, and a man of 
 sentiments congenial with his own, to be thus grossly 
 
 * Duffy' $ Library of Irelaixd, Ed. p. 48. 
 
278 Life and 'Writings of 
 
 slandered. He rose to reply. He said: "He thought 
 it incumbent on the house to show themselves untainted 
 . by the intolerant principles of certain publications. In 
 so doing he was certain they would perfectly concur 
 with the respected author of one of them" (the Bishop of 
 Cloyne). " He " (Mr. Curran) " was satisfied that godly 
 and pious man had long since regretted the precipitate 
 publication of those hasty sentiments, and rejoiced that 
 their natural tendency had been happily frustrated by 
 the good sense of the public ; but he saw no reason for 
 introducing the name of his adversary as a subject of 
 censure in that house. Mr. O'Leary was, to his know- 
 ledge, a man of the most innocent and amiable simpli- 
 city of manners in private life. The reflection of twenty 
 years in a cloister had severely regulated his passions, 
 and deeply informed his understanding. As to his 
 talents, they were public; and he believed his right 
 reverend antagonist had found himself overmatched in 
 him as a controversialist. In this instance it was just 
 that he should feel his superiority ; — it was the su- 
 periority, not of genius only, but of truth — of the merits 
 of the respective causes. It was the superiority of 
 defence over aggression. It was the victory of a man 
 seeing the miseries of his country like a philosopher and 
 a tolerating Christian, and lamenting them like a fellow- 
 subject, obtained over an adversary, who was unfortu- 
 nately led away from his natural gentleness and candour, 
 to see these same miseries through a dark and fallacious 
 medium." 
 
 Doctor Woodward himself was forced to pay his 
 tribute of admiration to the genius of his adversary, as 
 di^|)layed in the famous reply to his lordship's pamphlet; 
 for he acknowledged in a subsequent publication that 
 Mr. O'Leary "represents matters strongly and eloquently, 
 and that, Shakspeare-like, he is well acquainted with the 
 avenues to the human heart." When we couple this 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 279 
 
 candid confession with the observation of John "Wesley, 
 that O'Leary was " an arch and lively writer," we may 
 form a fair estimate of the " wit, argument, and delicate 
 irony " for which his writings were distinguished. One 
 of the most remarkable circumstances connected with 
 Father O'Leary's reply to Doctor Woodward, is that, 
 notwithstanding its length, and compact argumentative 
 force, it was written in the space of eight hours — not, 
 however, I would surmise, by the author himself, who 
 always employed an amanuensis, the latter writing with 
 all possible speed, while the reverend dictator walked 
 up and down the room, uttering his sentences with a 
 declamatory air and tone, like a player preparing his 
 part for the stage. 
 
 In the course of the reply we have seen how the 
 reverend author alludes to his having presented himself 
 at some country chapels, where he harangued the people, 
 during the Whiteboy disturbances, and brought them 
 over to peace and subordination. I cannot resist the 
 temptation to introduce here a vivid description of the 
 scene at one of those chapels, when Father O'Leary 
 made his appearance amongst the discontented congre- 
 gation, of whom the most hardened were subdued by an 
 eloquence that none could resist. The passage occurs, 
 to be sure, in the " Private Memoirs of Captain Rock,"* 
 which are the memoirs of a myth ; but any one who is 
 acquainted with the character of that work, will know 
 with what fidelity it sketches truth, where it is mani- 
 fest truth is the aim. Be it observed that the narrator 
 is an outlaw. 
 
 " The appearance of Father Arthur at our little chapel 
 was quite unexpected. We had heard, indeed, that he 
 was proceeding through distant parts of the country, 
 but we had no idea that he would pay us a visit. The 
 
 • No. 61, April 29, 1826. 
 
280 Life and Writings of 
 
 mind of man k a strange compound of opposite passions. 
 I had everything to apprehend from the poor friar's 
 preaching ; yet, strange as it may appear, I was almost 
 willing to have all my bright schemes overturned, pro- 
 vided I could have the pleasure to see and hear the 
 celebrated Father O'Leary. He opposed our designs, 
 disapproved of our motives, and censured our intentions; 
 yet without having ever seen him, we loved — almost 
 adored him. Fame had wafted his name even to 
 Rockglen ; and how could we but venerate a man who 
 had exalted the character of Irishmen, vindicated our 
 oppressed country, and obtained from the ranks of Pro- 
 testantism friends for our insulted creed. 
 
 " Besides, he was peculiarly adapted to our taste. He 
 made the world laugh at the foibles of our enemies, and 
 put us in good humour with ourselves. It was not, 
 therefore, without some slight satisfaction that we were 
 informed from the altar that the good friar meant to 
 address us on our manifold transgressions. Never did 
 men manifest such eagerness to receive reproof. At the 
 sound of his name, there was a general rush towards the 
 altar. The old women, for the first time in their lives, 
 ceased coughing, and the old men desisted from spitting. 
 The short people were elevated on their toes, and the 
 tall people suffered their hats (felt ones) to be crushed 
 as flat as pancakes, sooner than incommode their neigh- 
 bours — a degree of politeness seldom practised in more 
 polished assemblies. All breathed short and thick ; and 
 much as we venerated our good priest, we fancied he 
 was particularly tedious in the lecture he thought fit to 
 read us on our neglecting to go to confession, and on 
 our dilatoriness in paying the last Easter dues. At 
 length he concluded by announcing Father O'Leary. 
 
 "The venerable friar made his appearance — looked 
 calmly but inquisitively on the congregation, and after 
 a pause blessed himself. His words were solemn and 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 281 
 
 affecting, and as he proceeded he seemed to glow with 
 a pious fervor. Our hearts were irresistibly yielded up 
 to him when he described the afflictions which had 
 befallen our poor country ; but when he adverted to our 
 recent outrages, characterized our proceedings, and 
 painted our folly in expecting a remedy from illegal 
 means, the whole congregation seemed abashed, the 
 people looked as if they were all guilty, and one indivi- 
 dual afterwards said to me : 'I know I was never very 
 good ; but until I heard Father O'Leary, I had no idea 
 that I was such a wicked reprobate.' 
 
 " When the preacher had sho^vn the enormity of our 
 offences, he * begat a calmness,' proceeded to persuasion, 
 and concluded by calling upon us, if we loved our 
 country, and believed in the truths of our holy religion, 
 to listen to the advice of one who had our interests at 
 heart — who had come amongst us only to save us from 
 destruction, and who would leave us with regret if we 
 did not promise before the altar of our God to amend 
 our lives. 
 
 " There is no resisting eloquence from the lips of a 
 beloved preacher. The tears of the congregation con- 
 vinced Father Arthur that he had not spoken in vain, 
 and when the sermon was over, nearly every man pre- 
 sent came forward, one after another, to promise that he 
 would surrender up his arms." 
 
 It is interesting to learn that the sentiments enter- 
 tained by the Bishop of Cloyne on the character and 
 influence of the Catholic clergy of Ireland, subsequently 
 to this controversy, underwent a change, which does 
 equal credit to his honesty and judgment, and vindi- 
 cates for him the title to wisdom, established by the 
 dictum of Cicero, who has said, " aapientis est mutare 
 comsilvum" In a charge delivered by his lordship to 
 his clergy, on the 3rd of July, 1793, we read with 
 pleasure the following words : — " It is incumbent on 
 
282 Life and Writings of 
 
 you (the clergy of his diocese) to keep up the most 
 cordial intercourse with the Roman Catholic clergy 
 of your respective parishes, the better to effect the 
 great object which you have in common — the promotion 
 of piety, good morals, and public order and charity ; and 
 by that example to lead your parishioners to meet their 
 Roman Catholic neighbours, in the various departments 
 into which the}^ are now introduced, without discontent 
 or jealousy, for the better execution of the several 
 branches of our internal policy. You should exhort 
 them to do credit to their profession by liberality of 
 mind, allowing to the votaries of the Romish Church 
 the same privilege of private judgment which the 
 founders of Protestantism asserted for themselves when 
 they separated from that communion. You should 
 exhort them to contend with the Roman Catholics, not 
 for enmity, but emulation ; to aim at superiority, not 
 by reviling or undervaluing, but by excelling them, by 
 being better citizens and better Christians. In this 
 glorious contest, they who are thus contending for the 
 prize, will not only improve themselves, but learn to love 
 and esteem each other." 
 
 Dr. Woodward died in the year 1794. A mural 
 monument in the Cloyne Cathedral commemorates the 
 event, on which it is also recorded that deceased had 
 been, during life, in his place in the House of Peers, 
 *' a warm advocate for Catholic emancipation." 
 
 The champions of this famous controversy are now 
 no more ; but, unhappily, the battle they fought has 
 not yet terminated, though eighty long years have 
 passed since the date of their encounter. During those 
 eighty years, the Whiteboys have risen more than once 
 — rebellion has broken out periodically, like a virus in 
 the constitution — tenants and landlords are on the 
 same terms of antagonism as of old— Orangeism in the 
 north, and Catholicism in the south, typify our pro- 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 283 
 
 verbial national discord — the Protestant ascendancy- 
 banner still flaunts from the pinnacle of the Established 
 Church. When will those evils cease ? God only 
 knows. But their final destruction will, no doubt, be 
 accelerated by the clergy at least, of all religions, acting 
 in accordance with the spirit that prompted the Bishop 
 of Cloyne when he exhorted the ministers of his diocese 
 to " keep up a most cordial intercourse with the Ro- 
 man Catholic clergy, the better to effect the great 
 object they have in common with them — the promotion 
 of piety, good morals, public order, and charity." 
 
284 Life and Writings of 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Character of Father O'Leary — His Personal Appearance — Anecdote of 
 O'Leary and Lord Avonmore — Novel method of finding out where 
 one is to dine — O'Leary at Lady Morgan's Christening — Her 
 Ladyship's opinion of him — Curious issue of a Religious Controversy 
 — O'Leary's Charities — Young Murphy (afterwards Bishop of Cork) 
 reads the Bible for him — Anecdotes— St. Patrick's New Coat — The 
 Quaker and the Guinea — Sir Jonah Barrington's Account of O'Leary 
 — A string of Anecdotes — O'Leary and Michael Kelly, the Com- 
 poser — O'Leary and Curran — Amusing Introduction to Dr. John- 
 son — The Irish Language— O'Leary's Tendency to Fits of Gloom — 
 Apprehensions of his Future. 
 
 Heeetofoee we have viewed Father O'Leary only in 
 his character of a public man, as a priest and a citizen, 
 enforcing, in this double capacity, the principles of re- 
 ligion, morality, loyalty, and social order; it is time 
 that we should see what manner of man he was in pri- 
 vate life. And, first, with regard to his personal style 
 and appearance, a contemporary writer,* who knew him 
 well, and esteemed him even to enthusiasm, tells us 
 that " he was nearly six feet high — a perfect perpendicu- 
 lar, with a kind of rigor in his muscles that seemed to 
 suffer from bending — there was a formality in his bows, 
 which, in some measure, extended to his address. He 
 discovered the cloister in his dress and deportment, 
 not that he exhibited his gown of coarse serge, his cord, 
 or his rosary, but that his out-of-fashion suit of sables 
 hung upon him somewhat monastically, and was stately 
 and inflexible enough to have characterized a fellow of 
 one of our colleges. An original vein of humour and 
 quaint jocularity rendered him gay with the sprightly, 
 
 * Pratt, the author of a novel entitled Family Secrets. 
 
Rev. Arthur OLeary. 285 
 
 as his more solid powers made Hm sedate with the 
 grave. It was scarcely possible to meet w^th a person 
 so universally acceptable to all ranks of people ; his 
 society was sought and appreciated by men and women 
 of all persuasions, and his life, in all its changes, from 
 the monk in his cell to the man of the world — from the 
 social friend to the solitary recluse, had been so un- 
 spotted and blameless, that to boast an acquaintance 
 with him was an honor, and to possess that honor with- 
 out love and veneration, impossible." 
 
 Whenever Father O'Leary visited Dublin, his society 
 was courted by men of all creeds and classes. The 
 most eminent members of the bar, and the brightest 
 ornaments of the bench, vied with each other in their 
 efforts to secure his company at their tables. His large 
 views and expansive affections, his brilliant conversa- 
 tion, his happy vein of humour, the love of country for 
 which he was so justly distinguished, and which won for 
 him the esteem of the great and the worthy of his day, 
 his well-known spirit of universal religious toleration, 
 and his successful efforts to preseiVe in the breasts of 
 his fellow-countrymen a well-regulated spirit of loyalty 
 to the throne, and a consequent continuance of peace — 
 all these qualities recommended him to the admiration, 
 respect, and love of those to whom honor, patriotism, 
 virtue, and genius were dear. It is much to be regretted 
 that a faithful record has not been preserved of the 
 anecdotes interwoven by tradition with his history — it 
 would be so interesting now, after the lapse of almost a 
 century, to hear once more those witticisms that won 
 for him the soubriquet of the " facetious," and by which 
 he so often " set the table in a roar." Very few of these 
 anecdotes have been preserved, though many float un- 
 gathered in the mouths of the public ; such, however, 
 as I have been able to glean, and for whose authenti- 
 city I can vouch, shall be here set down. It has been 
 
286 Life and Writings of 
 
 already stated that Father O'Leary, though an honorary 
 member of the " Monks of St. Patrick," never partici- 
 pated in the gay revelries of that association ; but at 
 the tables of its leading members he was a frequent 
 and most welcome guest. One of his warmest admirers 
 and most steadfast friends was Lord Avonmore, pre- 
 viously Barry Yelverton, one of the most distinguished 
 judges on the Irish Bench. This nobleman, whose 
 talents as a senator had been of the very first order, is 
 described as one of the most amiable of men, of a very 
 innocent disposition, ignorant of the world, and unprac- 
 ticed in the arts of deceit. He was so extremely cre- 
 dulous, that he believed in the truth of every statement 
 made to him, and could scarcely discern when the nar- 
 rator spoke in jest or earnest. Phillips, in his life of 
 Curran, informs us that he was once telling that distin- 
 guished lawyer, how, when a boy, coming home from 
 school one day he called into the courthouse, and saw 
 Lord Avonmore on the bench, and how, in the innocence 
 of his young soul, he fancied for the moment that he 
 was just as great a person as the judge. " And you 
 may be sure," said Curran, "that the judge felt all the 
 innocence of a schoolboy." Such a man must have 
 been a cordial friend, and a friend rightly appreciated 
 by the keen discrimination of a man like O'Leary. On 
 one occasion. Lord Avonmore and his reverend friend 
 were enjoying in each other's society the delights of 
 Killarney scenery, when they had the rare good fortune 
 to witness a stag-hunt, a treat which, in our days, was 
 denied to her Majesty Queen Victoria, though " with 
 all appliances and means to boot." The hunted stag 
 ran towards the very spot where Father O'Leary 
 and his noble friend (who was then only Attorney- 
 General) stood. "Ah I" cried Father O'Leary, with 
 genuine wit, "how naturally instinct leads him to 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 287 
 
 come to you, that you may deliver him by a nolle 
 prosequi /"* 
 
 On another occasion, Father O'Leary happening one 
 evening to be in Dublin, strolled into the House of 
 Commons, where he was sure to meet some friends, and 
 spend an agreeable hour or two in their society. On 
 the lobby he encountered Lord Avonmore, then Barry 
 Yelverton, who was engaged conversing with two other 
 members of Parliament, to whom O'Leary was very 
 well known. The courtesies of conversation usual on 
 a casual meeting having been got over, a contest arose 
 between the three gentlemen, as to which of them 
 should enjoy the honor on the following day of extend- 
 ing to the distinguished priest the hospitality which 
 particularly reigned in the metropolis during the ses- 
 sions of Parliament. Each being equally solicitous as 
 the other of the honor, it was at length decided that the 
 matter should be determined by lot. The fortunate 
 winner was congratulated on his success, while those 
 who lost consoled themselves with the reflection that 
 they should meet at dinner the guest whom each ambi- 
 tioned for his own. Next day, when the hour for din- 
 ner arrived. Father O'Leary having been sorely puzzled 
 by the spectacle of the previous evening's lottery, quite 
 forgot which of the three gentlemen was to be his host 
 In this dilenmia, what was to be done ? He luckily 
 remembered that all three lived in the same Square, 
 and, accordingly, he despatched his servant with orders 
 to inquire at the house of each, whether Father O'Leary 
 had yet come. The servant went with all speed, and 
 inquired at the first and second houses whether 
 Father O'Leary was there. He was answered in the 
 negative, but on asking at the third, the response was : 
 
 • Thia anecdote is recorded in Lord John Russell's ' ' Memoirs of 
 ThomM Moore," voL iv. p. 112. 
 
288 Life and Writings of 
 
 "No, but lie is expected every moment — dinner has 
 been kept waiting for him." It is needless to say that 
 Father O'Leary, who was all the while hard on the heels 
 of his valet, soon made his appearance at the right 
 house, which proved to be Mr. Yelverton's, and that he 
 narrated the cause of his delay, which created much 
 laughter, and aptly inaugurated an evening of pleasure 
 and amusement. 
 
 Lady Morgan tells us, in her Memoirs,* that Father 
 O'Leary was at her christening, and in enumerating the 
 guests who enjoyed that (no doubt in her ladyship's 
 opinion) very distinguished honor, she gives him the 
 first place. When her ladyship arrived at the use of 
 reason, and long after, she had many opportunities of 
 knowing and admiring the great man, and it must be 
 confessed that she is not sparing in her praise of him. 
 She tells us that " Father John, (the chaplain of the 
 Prince of Coolavin, in her ' Wild Irish Girl,') was 
 modelled on the character of the Dean of Sligo, Dr. 
 Flynn, one of those learned, liberal, and accomplished 
 gentlemen of the Irish Catholic hierarchy of that day, 
 whom foreign travel and education, and consequent in- 
 tercourse with European society a,nd opinions, sent back 
 to Ireland for its advantage and illustration, thus turn- 
 ing the penalties of its shallow and jealous government 
 into a national benefit. At the head of this distin- 
 guished order stood the illustrious Father O'Leary, the 
 Catholic Dean Swift of his time, the champion of Ire- 
 land, the advocate of peace, and the eloquent preacher 
 of Christian charity. His noble works live to attest 
 his fitness to counsel his country for her good, while his 
 brilliant wit kept up her reputation for that splendid 
 gift which penal statutes can neither give nor take 
 away."-|* 
 
 * Vol. I. p. 2. t Appendix to Wild Irish Girl. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 289 
 
 Ardent and thorough-going as O'Leary was in his 
 devotion to the religion of which he was a minister, no 
 man was more averse than he was to entering, either 
 in company or in his writings, on subjects likely to pro- 
 voke controversial disputation. He knew the acrimony 
 with which such contests are, for the most part, con- 
 ducted, and how the combatants are invariably prepared 
 " though convinced to argue still." But there are times 
 when a conflict of the kind cannot be shirked. Thus, 
 when a man of one religious creed honestly seeks infor- 
 mation from another of a different persuasion, on some 
 subject of a theological nature ; when he suggests his 
 doubts, and shows the grounds for their inherence in 
 his mind, and displays a sincere desire to be enlight- 
 ened, it is the duty of him who is questioned to supply 
 the information required, and solve his interrogator's 
 doubts to the best of his ability. A contingency of this 
 precise description obliged Father O'Leary, for once, to 
 enter into the arena of controversy, despite the aversion 
 with which he naturally regarded such an encounter. 
 
 One day he received, in Cork, a letter bearing the 
 Cork postmark, from an anonymous correspondent, who 
 informed him that he was a clergyman of the Estab- 
 lished Church, and that, having perchance heard a ser- 
 mon preached by Father O'Leary, doubts of the truth 
 of his own religion had arisen in his mind, which, sorely 
 perplexed him, and whose solution alone could restore 
 him to happiness. He stated that his love of truth was 
 intense, and there was no sacrifice which he would not 
 make in defence of it — that, unhappily, his professional 
 education had been too scanty to enable him to wrestle 
 with these doubts, and he trusted that Father O'Leary 
 would, with that kindness for which he was remarkable, 
 afford him the means of satisfying his mind by remov- 
 ing the difficulties that disturbed him. The writer 
 added that, fo** certain reasons, he was unwilling to give 
 
 u 
 
290 Life and Writings of 
 
 his name for the present, but that he was confident the 
 " good father " would not, on that account, be deterred 
 from complying with his request. 
 
 The " good father " replied, stating his readiness at 
 once to grant his correspondent all the information he 
 would require ; and, thereupon, some eight or ten letters 
 on each side were exchanged, in which almost all the 
 disputed points between CathoHcs and Protestants were 
 urged on both sides with a force and precision which 
 none but the most practised and enhghtened disputants 
 could display. 
 
 The Protestant clergyman, however, in each succeed- 
 ing letter evinced a gradual leaning to Catholic views, 
 and at length conveyed his entire conviction, accom- 
 panied by a desire to be at once received into the bosom 
 of the Catholic Church. During the controversy, Father 
 O'Leary, who, through fear of the law, as well as other 
 prudential motives, had observed a perfect reticence on 
 the subject, could now no longer contain himself, and 
 imparted to his bosom-friend, Father Laurence Cal- 
 lanan, already alluded to in these pages, and a few 
 others, his delight at the distinguished conversion he 
 had succeeded in making. A day and hour and place 
 had been appointed where the grateful convert was to 
 reveal himself to his benefactor, and solicit at his hands 
 the last favor of formal reconciliation. Donning his 
 "suit of sables," and fixing with becoming grace his 
 orthodox wig, the padre sallied forth to meet his van- 
 quished opponent, about whom so much romance had 
 hung. On arriving at the house he knocked, and was 
 ushered into a chamber, where he was requested to wait 
 for a few moments. Soon after it was announced to 
 him that a clergyman in the adjoining room wished to 
 see him. O'Leary entered, and found seated at a table, 
 with the entire correspondence before him, " the friend 
 of his bosom, the man he loved" — his brother-fiiar, 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 291 
 
 Laurence Callanan I The joke had been carried too 
 far — O'Leary's indignation was very great; and it was 
 only by a sacrifice of the whole correspondence that a 
 reconciliation was effected. Any subsequent allusion 
 to the affair was regarded as offensive ; and it is doubt- 
 ful whether Father Callanan ever regained the place 
 he had lost in the affections of his friend and brother. 
 
 Father O'Leary's private benevolence was bounded 
 only by the deficiency of the means to practise it. 
 His biographer, the Rev. Mr. England, assures us 
 that he was informed by Dr. Murphy, late Bishop of 
 Cork, that when he (the bishop) was a young man, he 
 was frequently made Father O'Leary's almoner, and 
 that a number of reduced roomkeepers and trades- 
 men were on every Monday morning relieved by the 
 good friar. " The general average of his weekly 
 charity amounted to two, sometimes three pounds. 
 The unostentatious exercise of benevolence is one of 
 its most interesting traits ; and when it is recollected 
 that the poor Capuchin had no income, except what 
 was derived from the contributions of those who fre- 
 quented his chapel, the charitable disposition of his 
 heart and mind will be duly appreciated." 
 
 We thus perceive that, when Bishop Murphy was 
 a mere youth. Father O'Leary was much attached to 
 him. The sonorous voice and clear enunciation for 
 which the prelate was afterwards famous, (he was a 
 very popular preacher,) had made themselves observ- 
 able at that early period of his life ; and it was one of 
 Father O'Leary's choicest delights to summon 'the lad 
 to his room, and make him recite aloud whole chapters 
 of the Bible, to which the worthy friar listened with the 
 devout and rapt attention of one who fully understood 
 and appreciated the sublimity of God's holy Word, and 
 felt that it was delivered with rare and truly apt felici- 
 tousnesd of elocution. 
 
292 Life and Writings of 
 
 " There was a time, however," says Mr. Maguire, in 
 his admirable Life of Father Mathew, " when the 
 resources of the good priest were not so flourishing, as 
 the following incident will prove." The biographer 
 of the Apostle of Temperance tells the story so well, 
 that I prefer giving it in his own words : — " Father 
 O'Leary had many Protestant friends who admired 
 his ability, and sympathized with his opinions, so full 
 of liberality and Christian charity. One in particular, 
 Mr. Joseph Bennet, a well-known lawyer of the day, 
 was most intimate with the distinguished friar, and 
 frequently visited the little chapel to enjoy the plea- 
 sure of hearing his friend preach. On a certain St. 
 Patrick's Day, Mr. Bennet was in his accustomed 
 place, listening with delight to a noble discourse on the 
 life and labors of the national saint. The preacher 
 and his Protestant admirer dined together the same 
 day. During dinner the latter remarked : ' Father 
 O'Leary, that was a splendid sermon of yours on 
 St. Patrick.' ' Didn't I give him a beautiful new coat 
 to-day?' said the preacher, in his usual jocular 
 tone. 'Indeed you did,' replied his friend. 'And how 
 much do you think I got for my work?' 'I can't 
 tell ; I've no notion — only I know it deserved more 
 than it got.' ' Well, let us see,' said Father O'Leary ; 
 ' there is the box on the chair near you ; turn it up 
 and count its contents.' The box was turned up, audits 
 contents were counted. ' Eighteen pence halfpenny I* 
 exclaimed Mr. Bennet, in disgust. 'Well, my dear 
 child,' said the priest, with a smile, ' that's what St. 
 Patrick gave me for his grand new coat.'" 
 
 Father O'Leary 's sermon on St. Patrick, were we to 
 judge of its merit by its reward, was not at all to be 
 compared with a certain joke by which he betrayed a 
 member of the Society of Friends into an act of extraor- 
 dinary munificence. One day, going his rounds through 
 
Eev. Atihur O'Leary. 293 
 
 the city collecting money for the support of his little 
 church, he entered the shop of the Quaker, and solicited 
 a contribution, which was coldly and peremptorily re- 
 fused. " Then," said Father O'Leary, leaving the shop, 
 "I know for whom it will be worse!" The poor Quaker 
 now became a quaker indeed. Either his superstition 
 was aroused by the apprehension of some impending 
 misfortune implied in the mysterious words of the friar, 
 or, what is more likely, he dreaded that a man of so 
 much influence with the public would diminish the 
 number of his customers by narrating the circumstance 
 of the refusal. Whatever his feelings were, he rushed 
 out after Father O'Leary, and stopped him in the street. 
 "Friend," he cried, "what didst thou mean by saying 
 that thou knowest for whom it will be worse — tell me, 
 and here is a guinea for thy chapel." " Why," said 
 O'Leary, pocketing the coin, " of course, it would be 
 worse /or me if I did not get this guinea." The discon- 
 certed, but amused Quaker returned smiling to his shop. 
 
 A remarkably witty observation was that made by 
 O'Leary to a Protestant rector, who was, on a certain 
 occasion, conducting him through the parish church, 
 a building of great architectural beauty. While the 
 admiring priest surveyed the lofty walls and massive 
 pillars, the rector surmised that he was contrasting 
 their nakedness with the embellishments so profuse in 
 the churches of Roman Catholics. " You perceive, Mr. 
 O'Leary," he remarked, " that, different from you, we 
 are very sparing of ornaments in our churches ; we have 
 neither paintings nor statuary to attract the worship- 
 per's attention." " Ah !" replied O'Leary, with a smile, 
 " you are young housekeepers, you know." 
 
 Many anecdotes of this kind, short but piquant, are 
 told of this remarkable man. Thus, one day, some one 
 said to him, "Father O'Leary, have you heard the news?" 
 " No, what news ?" " Why," said his friend, who was a 
 
294? Life and Writings of 
 
 Protestant, " the bottom has fallen out of purgatory, and 
 all the Papists have been precipitated into hell." "Lord 
 save us !" cried O'Leary, " -what a crushing the Protes- 
 tants must have got !" 
 
 Again, while walking in the suburbs of the city (Cork) 
 he met two of his most intimate friends sauntering- 
 along together. These were the Rev. Mr. Flack a Pro- 
 testant clergyman, and Mr. Solomons a Jew and jeweller. 
 A dog, that of the Eev. Mr. Flack, was trotting on before 
 them. " Good morrow, friends," cried O'Leary. "Well, 
 what interesting topic engages your attention now?" 
 " To be candid with you," replied the parson, "we were 
 just conjecturing what religion this dog of mine would be 
 likely to embrace, if it were possible for him to choose." 
 " Strange subject indeed," said O'Leary; "but were I to 
 offer an opinion, I would venture to say he would 
 become a Protestant !" " How," asked parson and Jew, 
 with one voice. " Why," replied the friar, with the 
 usual merry twinkle in his eye, "he would not be a Jew, 
 for he certainly would retain his passion for pork — he 
 would not become a Catholic, for I am sure he would 
 eat meat on a Friday. What else, then, could he be 
 but a Protestant ?" 
 
 On another occasion, Father O'Leary was conversing 
 with some gentlemen, each of whom represented a 
 different religious persuasion, one being a Protestant, 
 another a Methodist, a third a Quaker, and so on. 
 "Friend O'Leary," said Mr. Lecky, the Quaker, " why is 
 it that the Church of Rome has been called the Scarlet 
 Woman of Babylon ?" " My dear friend," replied 
 O'Leary, " for an obvious reason — because she had the 
 misfortune to give birth to a spurious brood, such as you, 
 and the rest of you." 
 
 Again, a clergyman of his acquaintance having just 
 returned home after the honeymoon, met Father O'Leary 
 sauntering one evening, after dinner, near his house. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 295 
 
 The clergyman was accompanied by his wife, who, we 
 are bound to suppose, was young and interesting. The 
 priest welcomed the young couple home, and wished 
 them every happiness. " Now, Father O'Leary," said 
 the reverend Benedict, " you see what an advantage I 
 enjoy over you. Here is my pretty little wife to 
 keep me company, and make my life sweet and 
 pleasant ; while you, unhappy Coelebs, must jog on 
 through the world solitary and discontented." "My 
 friend," replied O'Leary, "you forget that I too am 
 married. The Catholic Church, young, spotless, and 
 unwrinkled for ever, is my wedded wife." " What 1" 
 retorted the bridegroom, " why, if you go to that, I am 
 still better off than you, for the Church is my wife also 
 as well as yours." " Eh !" said the priest, with his usual 
 arch expression, " then you have got two wives ! If so,. I 
 know a very uncomplimentary name that must belong 
 to some one of the two." " Surely, it does not apply to 
 me," cried the lady. " Then, madam," said O'Leary, 
 "God help the Church!" 
 
 Sir Jonah Barrington, in his " Personal Sketches," 
 does not omit to present to us a picture of Arthur 
 O'Leary : — * 
 
 " I frequently had an opportunity," he writes, " of 
 meeting at my father-in-law Mr. Grogan's, where he 
 often dined, a most worthy priest, Father O'Leary, and 
 have listened frequently, with great zest, to anecdotes 
 which he used to tell with a quaint yet spirited humour, 
 quite unique. His manner, his air, his countenance, all 
 bespoke wit, talent, and a good heart. I liked his com- 
 pany excessively, and have often regretted I did not 
 cultivate his acquaintance more, or recollect his witti- 
 cisms better. It was singular, but it was a fact, that 
 even before Father O'Leary opened his lips, a stranger 
 
 * VoL ii. pp. 130 et seq. 
 
296 Life and Writings of 
 
 would say, ' That is an Irishman/ and, at the same time, 
 guess him to be a priest. 
 
 " One anecdote in particular I remember. Coming 
 from St. Omers, he told us, he stopped a few days to 
 visit a brother-priest in the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. 
 Here he heard of a great curiosity, which all the people 
 v/ere running to see — a curious bear that some fisher- 
 men had taken at sea out of a wreck ; it had sense, and 
 attempted to utter a sort of lingo, which they called 
 patois, but which nobody understood. 
 
 " O'Learygave his six sous to see the wonder, which was 
 shown at the port by candlelight, and was a very odd 
 kind of animal, no doubt. The bear had been taught a 
 hundred tricks, all to be performed at the keeper's word 
 of command. It was late in the evening when O'Leary 
 saw him, and the bear seemed sulky ; the keeper, how- 
 ever, with a short spike fixed at the end of a pole, made 
 him move about briskly. He marked on sand what 
 o'clock it was, with his paw ; and distinguished the men 
 and women in a very comical way : in fact, our priest 
 was quite diverted. The beast at length grew tired — 
 the keeper hit him with the pole — he stirred a little, 
 but continued quite sullen; his master coaxed him — 
 no ! he would not work ! At length, the brute of a 
 keeper gave him two or three sharp pricks with the 
 goad, when he roared out most tremendously, and rising 
 on his hind-legs, swore at his tormentors in very good 
 native Irish." (N.B. The " Irish " must have been the 
 Pat-ois alluded to above.) " O'Leary waited no longer, 
 but went immediately to the mayor, whom he informed 
 that the blackguard fishermen had sewed up a poor 
 Irishman in a bear's-skin, and were showing him about 
 for six sous ! This civic dignitary, who had himself 
 seen the bear, would not believe our friend. At last, 
 O'Leary prevailed on him to accompany him to the 
 room. On their arrival, the bear was still on duty, and 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 297 
 
 O'Leary stepping up to him, says : — ' Cianos tka'n thu, 
 a Phculhi-uig V (' How d ye do, Pat V) ' Slan, go raimh 
 math agut F ('Pretty well, thank you,') says the bear. 
 The people were surprised to ^ hear how plainly he 
 spoke — but the mayor ordered him directly to be ripped 
 up ; and after some opposition, and a good deal of 
 difficulty, Pat stepped forth stark naked out of the 
 bears-skin wherein he had been fourteen or fifteen 
 days most cleverly stitched. The women made off — 
 the men stood astonished — and the mayor ordered his 
 keepers to be put in gaol unless they satisfied him ; but 
 that was presently done. The bear afterwards told 
 O'Leary that he was very well fed, and did not care 
 much about the clothing; only they worked him too 
 hard : the fishermen had found him at sea on a hen- 
 coop, which had saved him from going to the bottom, 
 with a ship wherein he had a little venture of dried cod 
 from Dungarvan, and which was bound from Waterford 
 to Bilboa. He could not speak a word of any language 
 but Irish, and had never been at sea before : the fisher- 
 men had brought him in, fed him well, and endeavoured 
 to repay themselves by showing him as a curiosity, 
 
 "O'Leary's mode of telling this story was quite 
 admirable. I never heard any anecdote (and I believe 
 this one to be true) related with such genuine drollery, 
 which was enhanced by his not changing a muscle him- 
 self, while every one of his hearers was in a paroxysm 
 of laughter. 
 
 " Another anecdote he used to tell with incomparable 
 dramatic humour. By the bye, all his stories were 
 somehow national; and this gives me occasion to 
 remark, that I think Ireland is, at this moment, as 
 little known in many parts of the Continent as it seems 
 to have been then. I have myself heard it more than 
 once spoken of as an English town. At Nancy, where 
 Father O'Leary was travelling, his native country hap- 
 
298 Life and Writings of 
 
 pened to be mentioned, when one of the SocieU, a qniet 
 French farmer of Burgundy, asked, in an unassuming 
 tone, 'If Ireland stood encore?' 'Encore,' said an as- 
 tonished John Bull, a courier coming from Germany — 
 ' encore ! to be sure she does ; we have her yet, I 
 assure you, monsieur.' * Though neither very safe, nor 
 very sound,' interposed an officer of the Irish Brigade, 
 who happened to be present, looking very significantly 
 at O'Leary, and not very complacently at the courier. 
 'And pray, monsieur,' rejoined John Bull, to the 
 Frenchman, ' why encore T ' Pardon, monsieur' re- 
 plied the Frenchman, ' I heard it had been worn out 
 {fatigu4) long ago, by the great number of people that 
 were living in it.' The fact is, the Frenchman had been 
 told, and really understood, that Ireland was a large 
 house, where the English were wont to send their idle 
 vagabonds, and from whence they were drawn out again, 
 as they were wanted, to fill the ranks of the army." 
 
 Michael Kelly, the celebrated singer and musical 
 composer, makes very complimentary allusion to the 
 wit and general conversational powers of O'Leary in 
 his " Beminiscences."* 
 
 " I had the pleasure," he says, " to be introduced to 
 my worthy countryman, the Beverend Father O'Leary, 
 the well-known Boman Catholic priest ; he was a man 
 of infinite wit, of instructive and amusing conversation. 
 I felt bighly honored by the notice of this pillar of the 
 Boman Church ; (Kelly was himself a Protestant ;) our 
 tastes were congenial, for his reverence was mighty fond 
 of whisky-punch, and so was I ; and many a jug of St. 
 Patrick's eye-water, night after night, did his reverence 
 and myself enjoy, chatting over that exhilarating and 
 national beverage. He sometimes favored me with his 
 company at dinner ; when he did, I always had a corned 
 
 * Vol. i. pp. 298 et seq. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 299 
 
 shoulder of miitton for him, for he, like some others of 
 his countrymen who shall be nameless, was marvellously 
 fond of that dish." This is the first and only evidence 
 we have that our worthy friar "was fond of whisky- 
 punch," as it is also the only evidence we have that he 
 was fond of " a corned shoulder of mutton." We should 
 be sorry to defend him against either imputation, hav- 
 ing a double penchant of the same kind ourselves ; but 
 we would guard the rash-judging against concluding 
 that because a man was partial to whisky or mutton, 
 he indulged in the use of either to excess. 
 
 "One day," continues the out-spoken Kelly, "the 
 facetious John Philpot Curran, who was also very par- 
 tial to the said corned mutton, did me the honor to 
 meet him. To enjoy the society of such men was an 
 intellectual treat. They were great friends, and seemed 
 to have a mutual respect for each other's talents, and, 
 as it may be easily imagined, O'Leary versus Curran 
 was no bad match. 
 
 " One day, after dinner, Curran said to him, ' Reve- 
 rend father, I wish you were St. Peter.' 
 
 " * And why, counsellor, would you wish that I were 
 St. Peter ?' asked O'Leary. 
 
 " * Because, reverend father, in that case,' said Cur- 
 ran, ' you would have the keys of heaven, and you could 
 let me in.* 
 
 " * By my honor and conscience, counsellor,' replied 
 the divine, * it would be better for you if I had the keys 
 of the other place, for then I could let you out.' Cur- 
 ran enjoyed the joke, which, he admitted, had a good 
 deal of justice in it. 
 
 " O'Leary told us of the whimsical triumph which he 
 once enjoyed over the celebrated Dr. Johnson. O'Leary 
 was very anxious to be introduced to that learned man, 
 and Mr. Arthur Murphy took him one morning to the 
 doctor's lodgings. On his entering the room, the 
 
300 Life and Writings of 
 
 doctor viewed him from top to toe, without taking any 
 notice of him ; and, at length, darting one of his sourest 
 looks at him, he spoke to him in the Hebrew language, 
 to which O'Leary made no reply. Upon which the 
 doctor said to him, ' Why do you not answer me, sir V 
 'Faith, sir,' said O'Leary, 'because I don't understand 
 the language in which you are addressing me.' Upon 
 this, the doctor, with a contemptuous sneer, said to 
 Murphy, ' Why, sir, this is a pretty fellow you have 
 brought hither. Sir, he does not comprehend the 
 primitive language.' O'Leary immediately bowed very 
 low, and complimented the doctor with a long speech 
 in Irish, to which the doctor, not understanding a word, 
 made no reply, but looked at Murphy. O'Leary, see- 
 ing the doctor was puzzled at hearing a language of 
 which he was ignorant, said to Murphy, pointing to the 
 doctor, 'This is a pretty fellow to whom you have 
 brought me. Sir, he does not understand the language 
 of the sister kingdom.' The reverend padre then made 
 another low bow, and quitted the room." 
 
 Father O'Leary was thoroughly versed in the Irish 
 language, as, indeed, was almost ever}'- Irishman of his 
 time, and, indeed, as were most Irishmen up to a very 
 recent period of our history. To us, in those latter 
 days, who hear it so seldom spoken, it will be surprising 
 to learn that, in the year 1829 — the year of Catho- 
 lic Emancipation — the old language of Erin was the 
 common tongue of above half her population. Mr. 
 Anderson, a Scotch writer, and very minute inquirer on 
 this point, in his " Historical Sketches of the Ancient 
 Native Irish and their Descendants," published in the 
 year 1828, says, that of 6,801,827 in 1821, but 3,061,610 
 spoke English and 3,740,217 Irish. He adds, indeed, 
 that by further information or returns, the inhabitants 
 of Ireland would then be more than the above total, or 
 "upwards of 7,000,000." He subsequently, however, 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 301 
 
 in the year 1828, when he wrote, estimated, that, of the 
 Irish people, 7,500,000 in round numbers, nearly 
 4,000,000 daily used the* Irish tongue. In other words, 
 or, as an English author notes in 1812, " only a minority 
 of the people speak our language." On the other hand, 
 according to the Irish Census Report in 1861, there 
 were but 1,105,536 speakers of Irish, of whom 942,261 
 could converse in English as well as Irish, and but 
 163,275 in Irish only ! It is melancholy to think that 
 80 splendid a language should expire beyond the hope 
 of revival, as no doubt it must — but this is one of the 
 most signal blessings of National Education ! 
 
 It is singular how exactly all those who have por- 
 trayed the character of Father O'Leary, concur in their 
 estimate of him. Thus, Mr. Butler, in his " Historical 
 Memoirs of English Catholics," describes his person 
 and mode of argument exactly as we have seen them 
 sketched by other hands. " The appearance of Father 
 O'Leary, " he says, " was simple. In his countenance 
 there was a mixture of goodness, solemnity, and drol- 
 lery, which fixed every eye that beheld it. No one 
 was more generally loved or revered; no one less 
 assuming or more pleasing in his manner. Seeing his 
 external simplicity, persons with whom he was arguing, 
 were sometimes tempted to treat him cavalierly ; but, 
 then, the solemnity with which he would mystify his 
 adversary, and ultimately lead him into the most dis- 
 tressing absurdity — was one of the most delightful 
 scenes that conversation ever exhibited." 
 
 And yet, with all this hilarity of manner — this free 
 enjoyment of the social hour, few men suffered more 
 than O'Leary from fits of mental gloom and depression. 
 It is the lot — the miserable lot of thoughtful minds ; 
 for the serious thinker must often reaUze to himself 
 the mysterious future, and the yet uncertain part 
 which he must play in the eternal drama. If the 
 
302 Life and Writings of 
 
 sensitiveness of his conscience be quickened by fre- 
 quent religious reflection, he cannot help deploring 
 the delinquencies — the omissions of the past — the 
 days and nights frittered away in frivolous amuse- 
 ments, while the vast plains of intellect with which 
 God has gifted him for industrious cultivation, that 
 they might bear fruit a thousandfold for his fellow- 
 men, have been permitted to run wild and barren. 
 I do not say that O'Leary was guilty of this neglect ; 
 but it is usual for men of large minds to fancy they 
 could do more than they have done ; and it is the 
 wont of conscientious men to upbraid themselves with 
 neglect, where they should rather accuse themselves 
 of over-zeal. O'Leary frequently reviewed his life 
 through this gloomy medium, and feared that he had 
 squandered or misapplied the talents he had received; 
 and the future of his earthly life had for him its terrors, 
 as well as the past. Swift and others were haunted by 
 the apprehension that they should end their days 
 in an extinguished intellect and hideous imbecility. 
 O'Leary's dread was that his grey hairs should descend in 
 want and wretchedness to the grave. Not that he had a 
 scintilla of the miser in his composition; but that his too 
 vivid imagination peopled the evening of his days with 
 threatening spectres, which, like the illusions conjured 
 up by a diseased stomach, reason may banish from the 
 domain of intellect, but whose grim and ghastly outlines 
 will not be dispelled from the eyes of the soul. The 
 soothings of friendship often sought to dissipate these 
 shadowy bodings, but they as often returned ; and, as 
 he expressed himself to an acquaintance in whom he 
 much confided, " they poisoned his hours of innocent 
 amusement." 
 
 It is precisely men of this gloomy temperament who, 
 for the most part, in social life, rise to the highest 
 flights of convivial enjoyment. Association with the 
 
Rev. Arthur OLeary. 303 
 
 jovial, the leaxned, and the witty, invites them to gaiety, 
 and provokes to the joyous encounter of an intellectual 
 tournament. In O'Leary's time, the clashing of wit and 
 anecdote and repartee, was esteemed the choicest occu- 
 pation of the social hour, and history and tradition have 
 faithfully handed down to us, with approving comments, 
 specimens of jocular conversation in which the celebri- 
 ties of the day were wont to indulge their genius. But 
 our respect for the wit of our ancestors is grievously 
 marred by the posthumous discovery of many of their 
 prepared impromptus ; and when we read or hear of any 
 new bon-mots of theirs, our admiration halts through 
 fear that what purports to have been said at the din- 
 ner-table may have been carefully conned in the study. 
 We do not say that Arthur O'Leary ever sailed under 
 these false colors — the witticisms preserved of him ap- 
 pear to have been genuine and prompt — they are few ; 
 there are many we could insert, but that we doubt their 
 authenticity, and they do not rise above mediocrity. 
 That he gave ample grounds, however, for being 
 esteemed a wit, amongst the first of his day, there is 
 not room to doubt. In any case, a character for saying 
 smart things is compatible with great deficiency of in- 
 tellect in other matters. By chance, at dinner-parties, 
 we have heard better things said than have ever been 
 published, and there was no doubt of their unprepared- 
 uess. Seeing which, we discover no reason why the 
 witticisms of remarkable men should be made subjects 
 of special commemoration, and should be always re- 
 garded with wonder and delight. 
 
 Yielding, however, to the common prejudice, we have 
 recorded some jokes of O'Leary's — let the reader judge 
 how far they entitle him to the reputation of a wit ; 
 and how far his general reputation would suffer if he 
 had never perpetrated one of them. 
 
304 Life and WHtings of 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Father O'Leary takes up his Residence in London— He becomes 
 Chaplain to the Spanish Embassy— Account of Doctor Hussey, his 
 Fellow-Chaplain— Dr. Hussey afterwards Bishop of Waterford — 
 His celebrated Pastoral— O'Leary and Edmund Burke— O'Leary 
 and George, Prince of Wales— The Pavilion at Brighton— O'Leary 
 a Guest at the Pavilion — Anecdotes of him — Contrast between him 
 and Thomas Lewis O'Beime. 
 
 Soon after the controversy between Father O'Leary and 
 the Bishop of Cloyne, the former, disgusted with the 
 condition of his country, and hopeless of doing any- 
 thing by which it could be improved, resolved on quit- 
 ting it altogether, and living in the free atmosphere of 
 England, so congenial to a bounding and manly tempera- 
 ment like his. He had done a great deal for the good 
 of the people, and had done it unsolicited and in a spirit 
 of perfect disinterestedness. He had displayed the vigor 
 of an intellectual giant in preaching the blessings of 
 philanthropy — he had employed his voice and his pen 
 in exhorting mankind to lay aside religious distinctions, 
 " since," to quote a panegyrist of his, " it was indiffe- 
 rent to the Israelite released from bondage, whether his 
 temple was built by Solomon or Cyrus, provided he had 
 liberty to pray unmolested, and to sleep under his own 
 vine " — he had pleaded for the Protestant in France, and 
 for the Jew in Lisbon, as well as for the Catholic in Ire- 
 land — and yet his motives were misconstrued, and his 
 words tortured into a meaning the very opposite of what 
 they were intended to convey — the stern advocate of 
 loyalty to the crown, was accused of " artfully contriving 
 to sew sedition." What honest man, conscious of 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^. 305 
 
 rectitude, and sensitive to the least sting of calumny, 
 could bear these attacks of wanton malevolence, and who, 
 against such odds, would persevere in throwing seed on 
 a barren soil, where it was crushed by the heel of every 
 petty, puny-minded wayfarer ? In the year 1789, Ar- 
 thur O'Leary left Ireland for ever, and took up his 
 residence in London as one of the chaplains to the 
 Spanish Embassy. In this capacity he was the asso- 
 ciate of one of the most celebrated ecclesiastics of his 
 day, the Rev. Dr. Hussey, afterwards Bishop of Water- 
 ford, whom it would be impossible to pass by without 
 presenting more fully to the reader. 
 
 Thomas Hussey was an Irishman. In his early youth 
 he pursued his studies at the College of Salamanca, 
 from whence, under strong religious impulse, he with- 
 drew, and buried himself in the obscurity of a Trappist 
 convent, resolved to abide there till death. But the 
 professors of Salamanca, who had seen and admired the 
 wondrous talents of the student, regretted that they 
 should be for ever entombed with the monk, and era- 
 ployed their influence with the higher powers to have 
 the stem votary of religion brought once more into the 
 world, where he might work, not only for his own good, 
 but for the benefit of mankind. Their representations 
 were successful A papal mandate obliged the novice 
 to lay aside the cowl ; he was soon promoted to the 
 priesthood, and for many years was first chaplain of the 
 Spanish Embassy in London. He was a preacher of 
 rare power, and attained a popularity commensurate 
 with his deserts. "A man," says Mr. Butler, the historian 
 of English Catholics, " of great genius, of enlightened 
 piety, with manners at once imposing and elegant, and 
 of enchanting conversation, he did not come in contact 
 with many whom he did not subdue ; the highest rank 
 often sunk before him," There was no society in his 
 day however exalted, where he was not a favorite as 
 
 X 
 
306 Life and Writings of 
 
 well as an ornament. He enjoyed the friendship of the 
 king and of his ministers — was the welcome associate 
 of the great literary men who at that time reflected 
 such lustre on England — was admitted a Fellow of the 
 Royal Society of London — and was the bosom friend of 
 the great old Samuel Johnson, as we are assured by the 
 faithful Boswell, who commends Dr. Hussey for his 
 powerful eloquence as a preacher, and for his various 
 abilities and acquirements. At the special request of 
 George the Third, Dr. Hussey accompanied Mr. Cum- 
 berland on a secret embassy to Madrid during the pro- 
 gress of the American war. 
 
 It was mainly to the endeavours of Dr. Hussey acting 
 in conjunction with Archbishop Troy of Dublin and the 
 Right Rev. Dr. Moylan of Cork, that the Catholics of 
 Ireland are indebted for the establishment of the Col- 
 lege of Maynooth. He was the first President of that in- 
 stitution. So distinguished a man could not remain in 
 the ranks of the priesthood, while higher honors were 
 attainable. Accordingly, in the year 1797 we find him 
 elevated to the dignity of the episcopate, as bishop of 
 the united dioceses of Waterford and Lismore. The 
 efforts of the English government were not wanting in 
 securing for him this exalted position ; but one act of 
 his, performed in the conscientious discharge of his 
 sacred duties, not only alienated their affections from 
 him, but elicited on their part an amount of enmity 
 which, at this distance of time, appears monstrously 
 disproportionate with the circumstance that provoked 
 it. Bishop Hussey had scarcely assumed the control of 
 his diocese, when he issued a pastoral charge, which, read 
 at the present day, appears to be one of the most dig- 
 nified, liberal, loyal, christian, and, in every sense, praise- 
 worthy documents that ever proceeded from the pen of 
 a prelate. And yet this pastoral was the teterrima 
 causa belli ! that converted his friends into foes, and 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 307 
 
 brought down upon his head a storm of indignation, of 
 •which none but a prophet could have forewarned him. 
 He begins by deploring his un worthiness to assume the 
 reins of a diocese, but expresses his consolation at being 
 aided in the discharge of his arduous functions by a 
 clergy of whose piety, zeal, and loyalty he is assured. 
 He exhorts his priests to stand by the poor, and thus 
 pay back that debt of gratitude which was due to them, 
 for their stern and unflinching adherence to the faith at 
 all times, by which a succession of spiritual pastors was 
 preserved throughout the kingdom. Warning them 
 against all "political interferences," as unworthy of 
 ministers of Him whose kingdom is not of this world, 
 he calls upon them to resist all attempts that may be 
 made to withdraw any of their flocks from the belief 
 and practice of the Catholic religion. So far we can 
 see nothing that the most censorious could reprehend. 
 Perhaps what follows was the gravamen. " If," he says, 
 " in any of your districts, the Catholic military frequent 
 Protestant places of worship, it is your duty to expostu- 
 late with them, and to teach them how contrary to the 
 principles of the Catholic faith it is, exteriorly to profess 
 
 one faith, and interiorly to believe another In all 
 
 things regarding the service of the king, their officers 
 are competent to command them, and they are bound 
 to obey ; but in matters regarding the service of the 
 King of kings, their officers have no authority over 
 i\\vA\i .... In all temporal matters, they are subject 
 to their temporal rulers — in all spiritual matters, they 
 are subject to their spiritual rulers. These two authori- 
 ties, like parallel lines in mathematics, can never touch 
 each other. By the smallest declination they lose even 
 their name. Guard them from being deluded by the 
 hacknied phrase of liberality of sentiment. Surely, 
 liberality of sentiment does not consist in holdiug all 
 creeds and all forms of worship to be equal. He who 
 
308 Life and Writings of 
 
 expresses himself thus is a latitudinarian, who despises 
 all creeds — all forms of worship! The man of true 
 liberality is he who conscientiously believes, and 
 scrupulously follows that creed and form of worship 
 which is conformable to his conscience, yet lives in 
 charity, in concord, in amity with all others of every 
 religious persuasion. The man of true liberality is he 
 who employs his conscience as the helm with which he 
 steers, leaving others to steer theirs by a similar guide. 
 The man of true liberality is he with whom a difference 
 in religious opinions makes no difference in social life — 
 living in equal harmony with all, and frequently be- 
 stowing more kindness and more bounty upon those 
 who differ from him in religious opinions, when they 
 want it, more than upon those of his own communion. 
 The man of true liberality is he who, when raised above 
 the rest to govern a great people, scorns to attend to 
 the paltry distinctions of sect or party ; spurns from 
 his presence those interested advisers of a dangerous 
 faction, who would dishonor him and abuse the sacred 
 name of majesty, to enrich themselves ; but, like a true 
 patriot, raises to power and influence those whom, in 
 his conscience, he thinks of most ability and integrity, 
 to serve his king and his country. To sum up the 
 whole, the truly liberal man is he who makes his 
 religion the guide for his own personal and private 
 conduct, and not a rule to guide, to govern, or to 
 compel others to act against their conscience and their 
 religion." Could the following words have excited the 
 wrath of the writer's former friends ? Praising the un- 
 varying loyalty of the Irish people, to which history 
 bears ample testimony, he says : — " If their conduct has 
 been always loyal and peaceable even in the worst 
 of times ; if, even when religious penalties made them 
 total strangers to their uative land ; if, when the ruling 
 party, with insolence in their looks, and oppression 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 309 
 
 in their hands, ground them down ; when some of the 
 most powerful men in the nation declared in the senate, 
 that they hoped to see the day when no Catholic would 
 dare speak to a Protestant with his hat on ; when even 
 the course of justice was perverted, and the channels 
 of it dried up, according to the prejudices and party 
 views of the judges who sat upon the bench, and were 
 paid for the impartial administration of it by taxes 
 levied upon the oppressed sufferers ; yet, even in these 
 provoking times, if the body of the Catholics remained 
 inflexibly attached to their religion and to their king, 
 what have you to dread from their proceedings, when 
 not only the judges are equitable and humane, but also 
 a great part of these impolitic religious penalties are 
 removed, and the rest of them in such a state of 
 progress to be totally removed ? That, however a 
 junto, for their own interested or other sinister views, 
 may raise mobs to try to throw obstacles against the 
 total repeal of them, yet all their efforts must be 
 useless." The pastoral concludes with a general 
 exhortation to fidelity in upholding the national 
 religion. 
 
 The torture of mind which Dr. Hussey must have 
 suffered in consequence of the unexpected effect of his 
 " Charge," was greatly soothed by the counsels and con- 
 solations of his best and dearest friend, the great 
 Edmund Burke. That statesman addressed to his lord- 
 ship a long letter, expressing his disgust at the feeling 
 of hostility the document had evoked, and applauding 
 the bishop for the stand he had taken, despite the 
 obloquy to which it exposed him. " From the moment," 
 said he, " that the government who employed you 
 betrayed you, they determined at the same time to 
 destroy you. They are not a people to stop short in 
 their course ; you have come to an open issue with them. 
 On your part, what you have done has been perfectly 
 
310 Life and Writings of 
 
 agreeable to your duty as a Catholic bishop, and a man 
 of honor and spirit." 
 
 Dr. Hussey had the melancholy satisfaction of follow- 
 ing to the grave the remains of his distinguished friend; 
 and that sad occasion was availed of by an eminent 
 statesman, formerly a most intimate friend of the 
 bishop's, to show the feelings of indignation and hostility 
 which the pastoral had awakened in his breast, if, indeed, 
 those feelings were genuine, and not assumed. The 
 Duke of Portland studiously avoided meeting him ; but 
 having by accident caught his eye, he braved the glance, 
 and passed on without opening his lips. The Lord Chan- 
 cellor (Loughborough) happening to cross his path, asked 
 " what news from Ireland ?" But Dr. Hussey proceed- 
 ing to recount some instances of despotic and san- 
 guinary oppression which had come under his lordship's 
 observation in that country, the offended genius of the 
 woolsack turned aside in unaffected disgust, without 
 waiting for the conclusion. The press teemed with lan- 
 guage of the bitterest objurgation on his lordship's 
 unhappy pastoral, and in one periodical, entitled the 
 " Pursuit of Literature," he was denounced as a rebel 
 to his country, and a most unmitigated enemy of the 
 Church Establishment in Ireland. Things have, indeed, 
 changed since then. But, the Bishop of Waterford was 
 high in the esteem of those whose regards he valued 
 more than the " sweet aspect " of the worldly-great. He 
 was amongst those entrusted by the Holy See, in 1802, 
 with drawing up the details of the Concordat between 
 the Pope and the First Napoleon ; in which delicate 
 mission he won the applause of His Holiness Pius the 
 Seventh, and elicited the special and enthusiastic admi- 
 ration of the discerning Buonaparte. He died in the 
 year 1803, closing a long and useful life, much loved 
 and much respected — 
 
 "Witli a sigh, to find 
 The base ingratitude of low mankind." 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 311 
 
 Such was the distinguished associate of Father O'Leary 
 in his professional labors in London — two great men — 
 doing what lay in them for the amelioration of their 
 unhappy country, yet encountering, in consequence, the 
 calumny and hatred of those who should only have been 
 glad to discover the means of bringing about a national 
 reform for the good of a long-oppressed, yet loyal people. 
 But they were just, and feared not. They had, not- 
 withstanding, many contemporary admirers, and pos- 
 terity, that dispassionate arbiter of the past, supplements 
 to them that praise of which the prejudiced verdict of 
 their own day deprived them. 
 
 O'Leary was not long in London when his society 
 was courted by the great and the learned of the day. 
 His fame had gone before him, and all were anxious to 
 make the acquaintance of a man who had emerged from 
 the obscurity which then overhung the Irish priesthood, 
 to a height of popularity sufficient to gratify the ambi- 
 tion of the most aspiring. Like his collaborator, he was 
 a special favorite of the great Edmund Burke, who 
 never omitted an occasion of eulogising him for the 
 services he had rendered in promoting the social and 
 religious condition of his fellow-countrymen. By that 
 celebrated man he was introduced to the Duke of York, 
 and to other members of the royal family, who received 
 him with marked urbanity and condescension, and who 
 evinced in their treatment of him the effect of that spell 
 which O'Leary *8 conversation and general manner never 
 failed to cast around those who came in contact with 
 him. 
 
 George the Fourth, when Prince of Wales, "patronized" 
 Father O'Leary to such an extent, that popular rumour 
 has whispered, even down to our own time, that it was 
 by him the marriage ceremony was performed between 
 the Prince and Mrs. Fitzherbert. There is, I beUeve, 
 no foundation for this statement He was, however, 
 
314 Life and Writings of 
 
 of O'Leary is dictated by candour, half-complimentary 
 though it is. To what extent the hospitality of the 
 Prince was owing to O'Leary 's political influence, we 
 shall see further on. 
 
 " An officer," continues Croly, " of remarkable sta- 
 ture, was complaining at the Prince's table of the 
 neglect of some memorial at the Horse Guards. O'Leary 
 consoled him by observing, that no gentleman stood 
 higher in the opinion of his friends, and no man could 
 look down on him at the Horse Guards or elsewhere. 
 
 "Sheridan said that he considered claret the true 
 parliamentary wine for the peerage ; for it might make 
 a man sleepy or sick, but it never warmed his heart, or 
 stirred up his brains. Port, generous port, was for 
 the Commons — it was for the business of life — it 
 quickened the circulation and fancy together. For his 
 part, he never felt that he spoke as he liked, until 
 after a couple of bottles. O'Leary observed, that this 
 was like a jporter ; he never could go steady without a 
 load on his head." 
 
 One of the most remarkable amongst the Prince's 
 guests at the Pavilion was Thomas Lewis O'Beirne, 
 a brief sketch of whose career, as given by Dr. Croly, 
 we cannot refrain from appending, as it furnishes a 
 striking contrast to the character and conduct of 
 O'Leary ; and, at the same time, forcibly illustrates the 
 difficulties with which Catholic talents had at this 
 period to contend, and the allurements held out to 
 clever young Irishmen for the renunciation of a reli- 
 gion, which so effectually retarded their progress in the 
 world. 
 
 " Another Irishman, introduced at this period to the 
 Prince, was a memorable instance of the power of 
 accident. This was O'Beirne, afterwards Bishop of 
 Meath, in Ireland. He had been educated at St. 
 Omers for the Roman Catholic priesthood. Returning 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 315 
 
 to his college from a visit to his friends in Ireland, 
 he happened to stop at the inn of some English village, 
 so humble that its whole stock of provisions was but 
 one shoulder of mutton, which he immediately ordered 
 for dinner. While it was preparing, a post-chaise, 
 with two gentlemen, stopped to change horses ; the 
 roasting shoulder of mutton attracted their appetites ; 
 they had travelled some distance, were weary, and 
 they agreed that the next half-hour could not be better 
 spent than in dining on what they could get. 
 
 " But a new difficulty arose on their being told that 
 the only dinner in the house belonged to a 'young 
 Irish gentleman above stairs.' The travellers were 
 at first perplexed, but, after a little consultation, agreed 
 with the landlady's idea that the shoulder should be 
 theirs, but that, to save the credit of her house, the 
 young Irishman should be invited to partake of it. She 
 was despatched as ambassadress, but returned after 
 an ineflfectual attempt at persuasion, announcing that 
 ' the young gentleman was not to be softened, but, on 
 the contrary, protested that no two travellers, nor any 
 ten on earth, should deprive him of his dinner.' This 
 ' menacing message, however, was followed by the ap- 
 pearance of O'Beirne himself, good humouredly saying, 
 that though he could not relinquish the shoulder of 
 mutton to any one, yet, * if they would partake of it 
 with him, he would be happy to have their company at 
 dinner.* 
 
 " The proposal was pleasantly made, and pleasantly 
 accepted. The party sat down — the bottle went round 
 — none of the three was deficient in topics, and before 
 the evening closed, the travellers were so much struck 
 vrith the appearance and manners of their entertainer — 
 then a very handsome young man, and always a very 
 quick, anecdotical, and intelligent one — that they asked 
 him * what he meant to do with himself in the world.* 
 
316 Life and Writings of 
 
 His destination for the Irish priesthood was imme- 
 diately set down as altogether inferior to the prospects 
 which might lie before his abilities in English life. 
 On parting, the travellers gave him their cards, and 
 desired him to call upon them on his arrival in London. 
 We may judge of his surprise, when he found that his 
 guests were no less personages than Charles Fox and 
 the Duke of Portland. 
 
 " Such an invitation was not likely to be declined. 
 His two distinguished friends kept their promise honor- 
 ably ; and in a short period, O'Beirne enjoyed all the 
 advantages of the first society of the empire. What 
 his graceful appearance and manners gained in the first 
 instance, was kept by his literary acquirements and the 
 usefulness of his services. He was, for a considerable 
 period, on a confidential footing in the Duke of Port- 
 land's household, and much employed in the party 
 negotiations of the time. Among his lighter labors 
 were two dramas from the French, which he assisted the 
 Duchess of Devonshire in translating and adapting for 
 the stage ; and of whose failure — for they seem to have 
 been blown away by a tornado of criticism — the assistant 
 gallantly bore the blame. But O'Beirne had now * 
 securely fastened himself on prosperity, and 'neither 
 domestic treason nor foreign levy,' neither the check of 
 a negotiation nor the overthrow of a drama, could up- 
 root him. On Howe's conciliatory mission to America, 
 O'Beirne was sent with him as chaplain, and in some 
 measure as secretary. The mission was flung into utter 
 scorn by the Americans, as every one predicted that 
 it would be ; but the chaplain preached a famous sermon 
 at New York, and brought home the only laurels of the 
 embassy. 
 
 " On Lord Fitzwilliam's fatal appointment to the 
 viceroyalty of Ireland, O'Beirne accompanied him as 
 chaplain and private secretary, and with the usual 
 
♦ Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 317 
 
 promise of the first diocese. The viceroyalty lasted but 
 six months ; yet, six months which were long enough 
 to lay the foundation of the rebellion. The alternate 
 feebleness and violence of this brief government, of 
 whose results the noble viceroy was probably as uncon- 
 scious as the babe unborn, made the change one of im- 
 perious necessity. Yet O'Beirne escaped from the 
 wreck ; floated where all was going down around him ; 
 and had scarcely reappeared in London, when he was 
 raised to the peerage, and the opulent bishopric of 
 Meath, valued at £8,000 a year. 
 
 " Whether this accession of rank and wealth added 
 equally to his happiness, is a graver question. It may 
 well be presumed that they were not gained without 
 envy, nor, at such a time, held without attack. His 
 change of religion, though at an early period of life, 
 and on conviction, was not forgotten by his fellow-stu- 
 dents at St. Omers, who were now scattered through 
 Ireland as priests. His political connexions were at an 
 end ; their debt had been paid ; and except a solitary 
 letter from the Duke of Portland, his English inter- 
 course was closed. The party fiercenesses of Ireland 
 are always bitter in the degree of their unimportance ; 
 their patriotism tears the country with the passion and 
 the impotence of children. And to this worthless and 
 nameless strife was a man relegated, who had spent the 
 flower of his days in the first society of England, among 
 women, the 'cynosures* of elegance and fashion; in 
 constant intercourse with men of first-rate ability and 
 national influence ; and in the centre and living glare 
 of those great transactions which moved all Europe, and 
 which will shape its history for ages to come. 
 
 " The restlessness natural to such a life, rather than 
 the necessity for reform, urged him to a hasty reform 
 in his diocese. But there is no operation more delicate, 
 under any circumstances ; and no. reliance on the value 
 
318 Life and Writings of 
 
 of Lis intentions could shield their practice from long 
 and bitter animadversion. He died a few years ago,* 
 after a career which might have made an instructive 
 and curious biography, and no bad manual of ' the art 
 of rising in the world.' " 
 
 Of all the arts of rising in the world, surely that is 
 the least to be commended which necessitates the sacri- 
 fice of one's religious professions. We are informed by 
 the reverend biographer of George the Fourth, that 
 O'Beirne's change of religion was the result of convic- 
 tion ; but the facts, as recorded by him, afford a strong 
 presumption that the " young Irishman's " perceptions 
 of the truth were very much quickened by the antici- 
 pated honors and emoluments insured to him through the 
 patronage of the great. " The destination for the Irish 
 priesthood " was, no doubt, " altogether inferior to the 
 prospects that lay before him in English life," speaking 
 in a worldly sense. These prospects our reverend bio- 
 grapher describes as " the society of women, the ' cyno- 
 sures ' of elegance and fashion ; and constant inter- 
 coarse with men of first-rate ability and national im- 
 portance." Nevertheless, what different aspects the two 
 men present in the eyes of posterity — O'Leary and 
 O'Beirne ! The one, a stern adherent to the faith of his 
 fathers, an uncorj promising champion of the Church in 
 whose bosom he was born and nurtured, the vindicator 
 of a nation's rights ; the other, bartering his faith, his 
 talents, his good-name, for the applause of men, the 
 admiration of women, the glitter of gold, and the 
 pageant of a title ! 
 
 * Feb. 15, 1823. He had a brother who studied at St. Omers with 
 him for the priesthood, but remained steadfast to his calling. In 
 after years, it was curious enough to witness one brother as Protes- 
 tant bishop of a diocese, in which the other discharged the functions 
 of a Catholic priest. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 319 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Father O'Leary visits Daniel Danser— Amusing Interview of the 
 - Priest and the Miser — John O'Keefe's Anecdotes of O'Leary— The 
 " Glorious Boys "—Father O'Leary "out of order"— The Euglish 
 Catholic Committee— O'Leary and the English Catholics— His Let- 
 ter to Bishop Moylan— He is accused of Apostasy — Able Letter 
 rebutting the Charge — Lord Dunboyne, the Apostate Bishop of 
 Cork— The Apostate Kirwan — St. Patrick's Church, Soho-square — 
 Effects of Father O'Leary's Preaching. 
 
 But O'Leary's acquaintance was not confined to the 
 ranks of the great and the learned. We find the guest 
 of the Prince of Wales proffered the hospitality of the 
 prince of misers. The famous Daniel Danser, whose 
 name is so familiar to our ears as the possessor of im- 
 mense wealth, and the victim of the most sordid avarice, 
 was a contemporary of his, and resided like him in 
 London. O'Leary was very anxious to see with his 
 own eyes this living t3rpe of penury, but found access 
 to him very difficult, for in every visitor the miser no 
 doubt saw either a burglar or a guest who should prove 
 painfully expensive. At length the inventive friar 
 found the proper key to the miser's heart. He sent a 
 message to the effect that he had just returned from the 
 Indies, where he had made the acquaintance of a man 
 named Danser, who was very wealthy, and had died in- 
 testate, and he had no doubt that deceased was a near 
 relative of Daniel's. The miser's door was opened, and 
 the reverend visitor entered into the presence of avarice 
 personified. What a spectacle ! The pale, ghostly, soli- 
 tary man, breathing amid a filthy mass of disordered 
 furniture, and dust-covered heaps of nameless things 
 
820 Life and Writings of 
 
 which might once have had their use and their value, 
 and which were preserved because their owner could 
 not have the heart to throw anything away. O'Leary 
 sat down as best he could ; and when he had dissipated 
 the fond dreams of Daniel on the expected wealth of 
 his intestate kinsman, he entered into an elaborate his- 
 torical narrative of the Danser genealogy, tracing the 
 family from David the founder, who danced before the 
 Israelites, down to the Welsh jumpers, the eccentric 
 religious sectaries of their own day. Daniel was moved 
 — whatever chords of his soul had been wont in early 
 days to respond to wit and humour, now vibrated with 
 mirth as heartily as ever ; and his visitor and himself 
 were soon on the very best of terms. He insisted on 
 sending out for a glass of wine — one glass, to show his 
 gratitude and admiration ; but O'Leary would not per- 
 mit it. Daniel then shook his friend's hand with genuine 
 warmth, begged the favor of another visit, and, wonder- 
 ful to say, for once so far forgot his treasures as to 
 accompany his guest even to the door. 
 
 " In 1775," says John O'Keefe,* a distinguished pain- 
 ter of the last century, " I was in company with Father 
 O'Leary at the house of Flynn, the printer, in Cork. 
 O'Leary had a fine smooth brogue ; his learning was 
 extensive, and his wit brilliant. He was tall and thin, 
 with a long, pale, and pleasant visage, smiling and ex- 
 pressive. His dress was an entire suit of brown, of the 
 old shape ; a narrow stock, tight about his neck ; his 
 wig amply powdered, with a high, poking foretop. In 
 the year 1791, my son Tottenham and I met him in St. 
 James's Park, (London,) at the narrow entrance near 
 Spring Gardens. A few minutes after, we were joined 
 accidentally by Jemmy Wilder, well known in Dublin 
 — once the famous Macheath, in Smock-alley — a worthy 
 
 * Recollections of John O'Keefe^ vol. i. p. 244. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 321 
 
 and respectable character, of a fine, bold, athletic figure, 
 but violent and extravagant in his mode of acting. He 
 had quitted the stage and commenced picture-dealer ; 
 and when we met him in the Park, was running after 
 a man, who, he said, had bought a picture of Rubens 
 for three shillings and sixpence at a broker's stall in 
 Drury-lane, and which was to make his (Wilder's) for- 
 tune. Our loud laughing at O'Leary's jokes, and his 
 Irish brogue, and our stopping up the pathway, which 
 is here very narrow, brought a crowd about us. O'Leary 
 was very fond of the drama, and delighted in the com- 
 pany of the " Glorious Boys," as he called the actors — 
 particularly that of Johnny Johnstone, for his fine sing- 
 ing in a room." 
 
 Indeed, O'Leary's love of humour never left him. On 
 one occasion in London, at a meeting of the Catholic 
 Board, Lord Petre in the chair, our good friar, while 
 speaking, launched into topics which the noble presi- 
 dent deemed remote from the precise subject in hand, 
 when, in the discharge of his duty as chairman, his 
 lordship interposed, and said : " Mr. O'Leary, I regret 
 very much to see that you are oid of order." The 
 reverend speaker thereupon feigned great surprise, and 
 addressing the chairman, replied : " My lord, I thank 
 you very much for your concern, but I assure you / was 
 never in better health in my life." The adroit rejoinder 
 excited great merriment, especially when those who 
 heard it had the additional stimulant to laughter, of 
 observing the roguish twinkle in the eye of him who 
 made it. 
 
 The proceedings of the Enghsh Catholics in their 
 efforts to procure emancipation, at that time, engaged 
 Father O'Leary's most serious attention and co-opera- 
 tion. " We expect," he writes, in a letter, dated June 16, 
 1789, " that our bill will come on to-day, though we much 
 doubt its success. The general opinion is, that as our 
 
 Y 
 
322 Life and WHtings of 
 
 demands are confined to an equality with the other 
 Dissenters, who are disqualified from holding any 
 offices, civil or military, the chance is in our favor. 
 Should it succeed, it will be but a small return for the 
 humiliating steps that have been taken in order to 
 obtain it. The petitioners call themselves Catholic 
 Dissenters ; and to gratify the framers of their absurd 
 protestation, become the implied accusers of all the 
 Catholics upon the earth, in the following words : 
 ' We are not answerable for any wicked doctrine w^hich 
 may be held by other Catholics.' Their maxim is not 
 to quarrel about words." 
 
 The Catholic cause, at this time, suffered much at 
 the hands of those who had its best interests at heart. 
 The Catholic Committee, composed of noblemen and 
 gentlemen of the highest respectability, conducted their 
 proceedings with an amount of discord and acrimony, 
 very much to be deplored amongst men fighting under 
 the banner of religion. The oath which it was neces- 
 sary to take as a condition of relief, was canvassed 
 over and over again, and its orthodoxy disputed in 
 speeches and pamphlets, until the extern friends of the 
 Catholics saw little reason for interfering in their 
 behalf, while they were so divided amongst themselves. 
 The result we find described in the following letter 
 from O'Leary to his friend, the Right Reverend Dr. 
 Moylan, Catholic Bishop of Cork : — 
 
 "London, July 12th, 1791. 
 
 * My Lord, — The fluctuating state of affairs here, 
 and the uncertainty of the fate of the bill in favor 
 of the English Catholics, have prevented me hitherto 
 from writing anything with certainty. Now, at last, 
 the die is cast ; and while the other nations of Europe 
 enjoy the sunshine of toleration, England remains 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 323 
 
 clouded with the darkness of fanaticism and intolerance. 
 The little share a religious spirit has in these pro- 
 ceedings is manifest (the clamour against Popery ex- 
 cepted) from their general heedlessness of pure religion 
 or morality. The efforts of the Catholics were directed 
 •wards obtaining the moderate privilege of being 
 classed with the numerous sectaries who differ from 
 the religion of the State. In the midst of their 
 expectations of success, and when the business was 
 brought to a crisis, Mr. Pitt declared that he would 
 give no support whatever to any bill in their favor 
 during the present session, * whatever he 7)iight do in 
 ilie next.' 
 
 " The opportunity, however, was favorable ; as at 
 the same time a bill passed in favor of the Scotch 
 Episcopalians, who were in the same predicament with 
 the Catholics. Even the nation had not, as on all 
 former occasions, taken the alarm, nor were pamphlets 
 and lying essays against Popery scattered abroad, ac- 
 cording to the old system. 
 
 " As for Earl Stanhope, from whom the Catholics 
 expected so much, he is an enthusiast, who was reared 
 in Geneva. He imagines that an English Catholic 
 and a Papist are beings diametrically opposite. He 
 is so averse t6 the latter, that in his famous heads of 
 a bill for exonerating his Majesty's subjects from the 
 fines and penalties decreed by the statutes of Elizabeth 
 against such as eat flesh on fish -days, he excludes the 
 Papists, who alone, by this bill, if they eat flesh on the 
 forbidden days, must pay the fine. 
 
 " I know your lordship to be such a lover of discipline, 
 that however unsociable Earl Stanhope may be to a 
 Papist, yet I suspect that you would be glad to have a 
 dozen justices of the peace or bailiffs of his stamp in 
 your diocese. They would keep your Popish beefsteak- 
 
324 Life and Writings of 
 
 eaters on Fridays and Saturdays under greater control 
 
 than if you had twelve vicars-general. 
 
 * ***** 
 
 " With respect and veneration, 
 
 " Your lordship's humble servant, 
 
 "Arthur O'Leary." 
 
 Whenever an ecclesiastic of any religion associates 
 very much with the respectable professors of a creed 
 different from his own, the lower orders of the public 
 generally believe and give out that he will soon shake 
 off his own faith and subscribe to that of his adopted 
 friends ; as if it were not possible for men of the most 
 opposite religious persuasions to mix in each other's 
 society without attaining a uniformity of religious sen- 
 timent. And the more learned and exalted the person- 
 age is, the more prevalent and credible becomes the 
 rumour of his conversion. So it was with Father 
 Arthur O'Leary. He was not one year in London when 
 it was stated all through Ireland that he had become a 
 Protestant, no doubt because he mixed in the very best 
 Protestant society, and because he had, all through his 
 life, displayed a broad and philanthropic charity, in the 
 exercise of which he utterly ignored the distinctions of 
 Protestant and Catholic, Dissenter, Heretic, and Papist. 
 The rumour got into the papers, and was for some time 
 in circulation before it reached his own ears. As soon 
 as it did, however, he felt it his duty to contradict it, 
 which he did in the following admirable and very cha- 
 racteristic letter, addressed to a London newspaper : — 
 
 "London, June 5, 1790. 
 " Sir, — A confusion of names gave rise, some months 
 ago, to a mistake, copied from the Dublin Evening 
 Post into the Bath Chronicle^ and other papers in this 
 
Itev. Arthur O'Leary. 325 
 
 kingdom, viz., that ' I had read my recantation in St. 
 Werburgh's church in Dublin.' Thus a mistake has 
 changed me into a conformist, though I never changed 
 my creed. 
 
 *' If in reality the tenets of my Church were such as 
 prejudice and ignorance proclaim them ; — if they taught 
 me that a papal dispensation could sanctify guilt, sanc- 
 tion conspiracies, murders, the extirpation of my fellow- 
 creatures on account of difference in religious opinions, 
 perjury to promote the Catholic cause, by pious breaches 
 of allegiance to Protestant kings, or rebellion against 
 their government ; — if it were an article of my belief 
 that a priestly absolution without sorrow for my sins, or 
 a resolution of amendment, had the power of a charm 
 to reclaim me to the state of unoffending infancy, and 
 enable me, like Milton's devil, to leap from the gulf of 
 sin into paradise without purifying my heart or chang- 
 ing my affections ; — if it were an article of my faith that 
 the grace of an indulgence could give me the extraor- 
 dinary privilege of sinning without guilt or offending 
 without punishment; — if it inculcated any maxim 
 evasive of moral rectitude : — in a word, if the features 
 of my religion corresponded with the pictures drawn of 
 it in flying pamphlets and anniversary declamations, I 
 would consider myself and the rest of my fraternity as 
 downright idiots, wickedly stupid, to remain one hour 
 in a state which deprives us of our rights as citizens, 
 whereas such an accommodating scheme would make 
 them not only attainable, but certain. 
 
 "Your correspondent does me the honor to rank me 
 with Lord Dunboyne, formerly titular Bishop of Cork, 
 and with Mr. Kirwan. If they have changed their 
 religion from a thorough conviction of its falsehood, 
 they have done well It is the duty of every sincere 
 inquirer after truth to comply with the immediate dic- 
 tates of his conscience, in embracing that religion which 
 
326 Life and Writings of 
 
 he believes most acceptable to God. Deplorable, indeed, 
 mast be the state of the man who lives in wilful error. 
 For, however an all- wise God may hereafter dispose of 
 those who err in their honesty, and whose error is in- 
 voluntary and invincible, surely no road can be right 
 to the wretch who walks in it against conviction. A 
 thorough conviction, then, that I am in the right road 
 to eternal life, if my moral conduct corresponds with 
 my speculative belief, keeps me within the pale of my 
 Church in direct opposition to my temporal interest ; 
 and no Protestant nobleman or gentleman of my ac- 
 quaintance esteems me the less for adhering to my 
 creed, knowing that a Catholic and an honest man 
 are not contradictory terms. 
 
 " I do not consider Lord Dunboyne as a model after 
 whom I should copy. With his silver locks, and at an age 
 when persons who had devoted themselves to the service 
 of the altar in their early days, should, like the Emperor 
 Charles V., rather think of their coffins than the nuptial 
 couch, that prelate married a young woman. Whether 
 the glowing love of truth or Hymen's torch induced him 
 to change the Roman Pontifical for the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and the psalms he and I often sang together for 
 a bridal hymn, his own conscience is the most compe- 
 tent to determine : certain, however, it is, that, if the 
 charms of the fair sex can captivate an old bishop to 
 such a degree as to induce him to renounce his Breviary, 
 similar motives, and the prospect of aggrandizement, 
 may induce a young ecclesiastic to change his cassock. 
 
 " Having from my early days accustomed myself to get 
 the mastery over ambition and love — the two passions 
 that in every age have enslaved the greatest heroes — 
 your correspondent may rest assured that I am not one 
 of the trio mentioned in his letter. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c., 
 
 "Arthur O'Leary." 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 327 
 
 Some special notice of the two remarkable men 
 alluded to in this letter as having apostatized from 
 the Roman Catholic faith, cannot but be inte- 
 resting. 
 
 John Butler, the twelfth Lord Dunboyne, had for 
 twenty-three years filled the Roman Catholic see of 
 Cork, when he renounced his creed and mitre — thus 
 affording the first instance on record of an Irish 
 Catholic bishop changing his religion, with the excep- 
 tion, perhaps, of Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, who, in 
 the reign of Elizabeth, took the oath of supremacy to 
 her, and signed the Book of Common Prayer. Lord 
 Dunboyne, at a very advanced age, inherited the title 
 and estates of his family by the death of his nephew, 
 Pierce Edmund Butler, an infant ; and, professing a 
 desire to .perpetuate his lineage, sought from the Holy 
 See a dispensation to marry. The reply of the Supreme 
 Pontiff was of course a refusal, and was marked by the 
 strongest expressions of astonishment and disgust at 
 the unprecedented proposal. The bishop, however, 
 took his case into his own hands, and espoused a 
 blooming girl in her teens, a relative of his own, the 
 daughter of Theobald Butler, Esquire, of Wilford, in 
 the county of Tipperary. He never officiated in a 
 Protestant church, though invited to do so ; nor did he 
 frequent Protestant services with that regularity or 
 devotion that would imply a sincere conversion. Dr. 
 Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, already alluded to in 
 these pages, availed himself of his near relationship by 
 blood, as well as by ecclesiastical superiority, to wait on 
 his unhappy suffragan, with the hope of deterring him 
 from taking the final step, before it was yet made. His 
 lordship's remonstrance was vain. He produced the 
 pope's reply to Lord Dunboyne's request for a dispen- 
 sation to marry, which had been addressed to him. 
 The result he commumcates in a letter to a friend. 
 
328 Life and Writings of 
 
 "I have been this day," (Aug. 11th, 1787,) "with Lord 
 Danboyne. The interview was, by his own appoint- 
 ment, at Dr. Fogarty's ; and we were alone. He read 
 the brief with great attention, and appeared somewhat, 
 I cannot say much, affected by it. He promised me an 
 answer for his Holiness after the assizes. He still 
 thinks that a dispensation may be obtained ; and that 
 it is cruel to refuse it to one circumstanced as he is. I 
 said a great deal to him, but in a perfect spirit of 
 fraternal charity, gentleness, and mildness — not to 
 * extinguish the smoking flax.' " In spite of the remon- 
 strances of his friends, the unfortunate prelate persisted 
 for many years in his affected apostasy; until the 
 "great teacher. Death," warned him of the eternal 
 danger to which he was exposed, and the Church won 
 him back at the eleventh hour. 
 
 Of Dean Kirwan we gather some interesting facts 
 from Mr. Fitzpatrick's work entitled "Ireland before 
 the Union." That clever author informs us that this 
 celebrated apostate was grand-nephew to Anthony 
 Blake, successively Eoman Catholic Warden of Galway, 
 Bishop of Ardagh, and subsequently Primate of all 
 Ireland. Walter Blake Kirwan was educated at 
 Louvain, where, at the termination of his college course, 
 he was ordained priest, and elected to the chair of 
 natural and moral philosophy. His uncle the primate 
 displayed none of those qualities that should charac- 
 terize' a successor of Ireland's Patron Saint. On the 
 contrary, while his moral character was stainless, he 
 evinced a disposition more becoming a man of the 
 world than the Lord's anointed. His hospitality was 
 boundless, and was extended to the most convivial of 
 the nobility and squires of the day, who emulated each 
 other in feats of hard drinking that excite our modern 
 incredulity. He resided altogether in Galway, whence 
 he drQve twice a year to visit his diocese of Armagh, in 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 329 
 
 all the pomp of a splendid equipage and liveried 
 lackies. He was also wont to treat his priests with 
 a degree of hauteur disgusting in one holding so high 
 an ecclesiastical office. The clergy of his diocese, pained 
 and scandalized by the conduct of their prelate, de- 
 spatched two representatives to Rome to complain of 
 the manner in which they were treated, and of the 
 neglect religion was suffering amongst them. The 
 issue was that the primate was suspended, and the 
 Rev. Richard O'Reilly, parish-priest of Kilcock, near 
 Maynooth, was appointed in his place. Dr. Blake 
 retired to Gal way, where, in 1786, he died, to the great 
 regret of the surrounding gentry, whose orgies were so 
 rudely thwarted by the event. Before his death he 
 heard the news of his nephew's change of religion, 
 when, it is said, to the lady who made the announce- 
 ment he replied : " Tut, woman ! the coxcomb had no 
 religion to change ; I wish he had never been made a 
 priest." Kirwan's change was not, as O'Leary insinu- 
 ates, attributable to the influence of Cupid or Hymen, 
 for several years elapsed after his apostasy before he 
 married. His wife was a Miss Richards, sister to the 
 celebrated surgeon of that name. That his adoption of 
 another faith was from motives of conviction is ex- 
 tremely questionable. Shortly after he had conformed, 
 his mother asked him whether he would advise her also 
 to become a Protestant, when he replied : " Remain as 
 you are, mother, and never again speak to me on the 
 subject of religion." The Orange Corporation of Dublin 
 presented him a congratulatory address for having 
 renounced the errors of Popery, and accompanied the 
 tribute by the presentation of a gold box, in which was 
 a document conferring on him the freedom of the city. 
 On that occasion, however, he had the manliness to 
 say : "I am not aware that the Church of Rome has 
 greater blemishes than other churches." The late 
 
330 Life and Writings of 
 
 Dean of Limerick was the son of Dr. Kirwan, and had 
 this gold box in his possession. 
 
 A volume of Kirwan's sermons was published by his 
 widow in 1814, from which one remarkable discourse 
 was omitted more through prudence than candour. It 
 was a " Discourse on Religious Innovations," delivered 
 by him previous to his apostasy — indeed, strange to say, 
 considering the subject, a very short time previous to 
 it — in the Neapolitan Ambassador's chapel, London, 
 March 20th, 1786. The sudden defection from the 
 Church of a man who had so ably decried religious 
 innovations, heightened the scandal occasioned by his 
 fall, and, no doubt, caused the exclusion from his 
 published collection of sermons of this too forcible 
 reminder of his backsliding. "His family had no 
 reason to be solicitous for its publicity — bis fall must, 
 to them, have been a subject of grief and humiliation ; 
 and they felt poignantly that it could not exalt his 
 memory, since the talents and impressive truths it 
 displays are not more conspicuous than that deplorable 
 frailty which so often afterwards induced himself to 
 become a striking example of what he had therein so 
 wisely and eloquently deprecated."* 
 
 Take a passage or two from this admirable discourse, 
 and think how was it possible for the speaker to act so 
 diametrically opposite to his teachings : behold another 
 of those mysteries that hang round our corrupt and 
 perverse human nature. "In what terms," he cries, 
 " of sufficient indignation shall I speak of that profane- 
 ness which has branded her (the Church's) ceremonies 
 and discipline with the foul and opprobrious epithets of 
 pageantry and abuse ? I believe, nay, I am confident, 
 when I assert that such ill-founded and scandalous 
 
 * Extract from the Laity's Directory for 1822, published at 
 New York, and alluded to in Mr. Maguire's Irish in Avierica. 
 
Rev. A'iikur O'Leary, 331 
 
 reflections are received, even by those who dissent from 
 us — by the thinking and informed part of the Church 
 of England, with the utmost \ contempt for the person 
 who utters them, with a perfect detestation of his 
 perfidy/' 
 
 Again, referring to a point in the service of the 
 Catholic Church — the constant and universal use of the 
 Latin tongue, which has been so great a stumbling- 
 block to many within the fold and without it, he says : 
 "The service is performed in Latin because natural 
 languages are subject to decay and corruption, and in 
 the space of a century may have undergone a total 
 change as to the meaning and acceptation of words and 
 phrases; the consequence must be that error and 
 obscurity might insensibly steal into the liturgy." 
 " Because," he adds, " in the same kingdom, for instance 
 in this island, which is but a speck upon the expanse of 
 Europe, public service would be read in three different 
 tongues — English, Welsh, and Erse. Hence, what con- 
 fusion would arise even in the liturgy of this nation ; 
 insomuch that were one of you to be present at the Mass 
 in Wales, or in some part of Scotland, not to speak 
 of Ireland, you might as well hear it in the language 
 of Hindostan." " The liturgy of the Western Church," 
 he says, " has always been in Latin. The Church was 
 planted in the West whilst subject to the laws and 
 arms of the Roman Empire. The language of that 
 empire survived its fall, and is to this day the most 
 universally understood through all Europe. There is 
 no individual of decent education ignorant of it, and in 
 many parts of the Continent it is familiar even to the 
 peasantry, such as Hungary, Bohemia, Holland, &c. 
 Yet, as the case is not general, to obviate that incon- 
 venience, the liturgy is literally translated into every 
 modem language; and those who cannot read are 
 carefully instructed by their ministers as to the purport 
 
332 Life and Writings of 
 
 and import of divine service. I conceive the present 
 practice to be conformable to the sense of antiquity ; 
 nor can I induce myself to believe that the alteration 
 so wisely recommended would be a salutary amend- 
 ment." 
 
 Further on he says : " In whatever point of view I 
 consider this matter, I am persuaded that to alter the 
 present practice would be an unwise and dangerous 
 reform. That such a measure might have been de- 
 manded in too insolent a manner, may, perhaps, be 
 true; but that it has not been acceded to because 
 we are irritated by petulant reflections, or not disposed 
 to pray in the language of a Luther, a Calvin, or an 
 Elizabeth, is not the case, but because the Church 
 judges it expedient to preserve uniformity in her ser- 
 vice, and secure it from change, corruption, and con- 
 fusion." 
 
 He concludes thus : " May you continue to be pene- 
 trated with a due submission and humble acquiescence 
 to the doctrines and practices of our holy Church; 
 may the divine Spirit, which has promised to be with 
 her until the consummation of time, give you grace to 
 revere her decisions, obey her precepts, and imbibe 
 her councils. Let them sink deep into your hearts; 
 they will conduct you to immortality : in the name 
 of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Mr. Fitzpatrick quotes a letter from Dean Kir wan, 
 in which he gives an account of his change of religion 
 to a friend: — " Ere-yesterday," he writes, (the letter 
 is dated June 19th, 1787,) "formed an era in my life — 
 it gave me to the Established Church. I went through 
 the usual ceremonies in the hands of the Eev. Dr. 
 Hastings, Archdeacon of Dublin, a gentleman of dis- 
 tinguished worth and integrity, and to whom I am 
 indebted peculiarly for every mark of politeness. On 
 Sunday next I am to preach at St. Peter's, and for the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 333 
 
 first time in a Protestant place of worship. But, 
 though I have changed the sphere of my exertions, they 
 shall still be invariably directed to the same object — 
 to improve the human heart, to enlarge and enlighten 
 the understanding of men, banish religious prejudice, 
 and diffuse through society the great blessings of peace, 
 order, and mutual affection. Such I conceive to be the 
 duty of every Christian teacher." 
 
 On the occasion of his first sermon, a vast concourse 
 of hearers assembled, fully expecting that he would 
 launch forth into a tirade of abuse against the Church 
 he had abandoned, but they were disappointed ; he 
 never indulged in controversy — there was little of 
 acrimony in his nature, and too much honesty to vilify 
 an institution of which he inwardly thought so well. 
 
 Kirwan was, undoubtedly, one of the greatest pulpit 
 orators Ireland ever produced. The language of 
 eulogy in which Mr. Phillips, in his " Curran and his 
 Contemporaries," speaks of his eloquence, appears ex- 
 travagant in the highest degree ; but he assures us the 
 picture is not overdrawn. Mr. Phillips heard him 
 preach, and describes the effect produced as absolutely 
 miraculous. He was a consummate actor, and some- 
 times had recourse to arts which, so far from opening, 
 would rather shut up the sources of charity at the pre- 
 sent day. For example, on one occasion, while preaching 
 for the Female Orphan Asylum to a vast and closely 
 packed audience, he either felt or feigned an illness, 
 which expressed itself in the external pallor of 
 his coimtenance, and a violent tremour of his whole 
 person. Suddenly he buried his face in his hand- 
 kerchief before he had well begun : turning with tears 
 in his eyes to the little children, who were congregated 
 in a gallery near him, he exclaimed, " My children, 
 I cannot plead for you!" and then left the pulpit. 
 The effect was magical — an enormous collection was 
 
334 Life and Writings of 
 
 realized, much more than the grandest oratorical effort 
 could have extracted. 
 
 Indeed, his philanthropy was no less wonderful than 
 his eloquence — overzeal in advocating the cause of 
 the poor hastened his end ; or, as Grattan, speaking of 
 him, beautifully observed : " In feeding the lamp of 
 charity, he exhausted the lamp of life." He died on 
 October 27, 1805, in the Protestant faith. There is an 
 anecdote which claims for him the desire, on his death- 
 bed, to receive the services of a priest, but it is 
 not sufficiently authentic. Similar stories are told of 
 several persons who have left the Catholic Church, of 
 which many, no doubt, are true ; the facts, however, 
 must be well established before they become entitled 
 to belief But to return to O'Leary. 
 
 He was not long in London when he found that the 
 Catholics of the metropolis stood very much in need of 
 churches where they might, with ease and decency, 
 perform their public religious devotions. He determined 
 to build a church for the wants of those amongst whom 
 he was to minister. Saint Patrick's Chapel, Sutton- 
 street, Soho-square, was for many of the latter years of 
 his life his place of residence, and the theatre of his 
 exertions in the cause of religion and morality. This 
 church was not, as some suppose, built by him — a pre- 
 vious edifice was rather converted by him into the 
 present building. In his time the Catholic places of 
 worship in London were very few and insignificant, 
 (there has been some improvement since that time, but 
 scarcely commensurate with the vast increase of Catho- 
 licity in the metropolis,) and it was deemed advisable 
 by some leading members of that communion to procure 
 a church of suitable dimensions and general respecta- 
 bility, where they might offer their devotions with that 
 ease and decorum conformable to the decencies of reli- 
 gion. In Sutton-street there was a large hall, which 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 335 
 
 was used for fashionable purposes, for balls, concerts, 
 lectures, and general gay and fanciful exhibitions. The 
 idea occurred to a Mr. Olivier, a highly-respectable 
 Catholic gentleman, that, with comparatively little ex- 
 pense, this hall could be converted into a church for 
 public worship. He communicated his thoughts on the 
 subject to Mr. Keating, the publisher, with whom 
 Father O'Leary then lived. After some deliberation on 
 the subject, it was agreed that O'Leary should draw up 
 an address to the public, soliciting their assistance in 
 forwarding the project. It was taken up by Bishop 
 Douglas, who lent it all the weight of his position and 
 influence ; and it was advocated from the pulpit by the 
 Rev. Mr. Archer, one of the ablest and most popular 
 preachers of the day. The work went on — the expense 
 increased ; but the money came in.\ At length the 
 change was effected ; and what was on'<^ a temple of 
 folly, the scene of the gay frivolities of thoughtless 
 worldlings, the theatre of vice, and its countless train of 
 evil deeds, became a consecrated sanctuary, dedicated to 
 the service of the Most High, where prayer ascended 
 as incense before His throne in heaven, and His bless- 
 ing was invoked upon His children on earth. The 
 new church was for many years after, like its fellow- 
 church in Old Friary-lane, Cork, known to the world as 
 "Father O'Leary's Chapel" — apt monuments for a 
 minister of God. 
 
 The admirable labors of the great priest in this 
 church, and their glorious results, are well portrayed in 
 the splendid panegyric preached over his remains by 
 the Rev. Morgan D'Arcy, which will be found in the 
 appendix of this work. It is a remarkable fact, that the 
 moment an Irish Roman Catholic of the humbler class 
 leaves his native country, and settles in England or 
 America, withdrawn from the salutary influence of his 
 clergy, he evinces a strong tendency to an utter neglect 
 
336 Life and Writings of 
 
 of all his religious duties ; but once that he is again 
 subjected to the sacred spell, he returns to the paths 
 of virtue with an earnestness all the more devoted 
 because intensified by the bitterest repentance for past 
 misconduct. We are assured by the eloquent panegy- 
 rist of O'Leary, that while hundreds of Irish, men and 
 women, ran riot in the streets of London, freed from all 
 pastoral control, the burdens and terrors of society, no 
 sooner were they brought within the sphere of their 
 reverend fellow-countryman's influence, no sooner did 
 they hear his powerful preaching, and witness his 
 astounding zeal, than they sought, through him, the 
 blessing of reconciliation with the offended Deity, and 
 became models of good conduct, self-respecting and 
 respected, sober, industrious, and orderly. To those 
 who know the character of the Celtic Irishman this will 
 be perfectly intelligible. The religious element seems 
 blended with his very nature, as we find it interwoven 
 with his history — we can scarcely think of him without 
 thinking also of his creed. Under peculiar circumstances 
 he may become the victim of indifference, the slave of 
 immorality; but the faith he never loses. Let him persist 
 in crime, he is never insensible to the pangs of remorse ; 
 let him but hear the familiar voice of a native clergy- 
 man, and he becomes thoroughly reformed, bowing with 
 a marvellous submissiveness to the most humiliating 
 yoke religion can impose — brought within the magic 
 circle of priestly care, (so much abused by those who 
 understand it not,) he displays the genuine qualities of 
 a heart naturally disposed to virtue, where the sacred 
 flame, obscured for a season, but never quite extin- 
 guished, blazes forth as of old in a congenial sanctuary. 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 337 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Father O'Leary's Hidden Life — Efifect of the French Revolution on his 
 Mind — He assists the Frencli Refugees— His great Sermon on their 
 behalf— Extracts from it — He ridicules the Predictions of the Ex- 
 piring Papacy — Pius the Sixth — Announcement of the Pontiff's 
 Death in London— Father O'Leary preaches his Panegyric — Magni- 
 ficent Audience — Extracts from the Sermon — Opinions of the Press 
 on it. 
 
 Father O'Leary's sermons attracted large and eager 
 audiences ; nor were his hearers confined to persons of 
 his own persuasion, but every sect supplied its contribu- 
 tion. For his discourses were, for the most part, of that 
 description, which, while vindicating the truths of what 
 has been called "our common Christianity," did not 
 hurt the peculiar religious susceptibilities of any one. 
 And, while defending the doctrines of the Catholic 
 religion, he delivered himself with such fairness and 
 candour, and his manner was so destitute of heat, so 
 free, apparently as in fact, from wilful, unreasoning 
 prepossession, that while, perhaps, no stranger to the 
 fold was convinced just then, all listened with pleasure, 
 and took away food for serious afterthought. He had 
 the grand qualities of the preacher enumerated by the 
 pious Cowper : he was 
 
 "simple, grave, sincere : 
 In doctrine, imcorrupt ; in language, plain, 
 And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste, 
 And natural in gesture ; much impressed 
 Himself, aa conscious of his awful charge, 
 And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
 May feel it too ; aflFectionato in look, 
 And tender in address, as well becomes 
 A messenger of grace to guilty men." 
 
336 Life and Writings of 
 
 of all his religious duties ; but once that he is again 
 subjected to the sacred spell, he returns to the paths 
 of virtue with an earnestness all the more devoted 
 because intensified by the bitterest repentance for past 
 misconduct. We are assured by the eloquent panegy- 
 rist of O'Leary, that while hundreds of Irish, men and 
 women, ran riot in the streets of London, freed from all 
 pastoral control, the burdens and terrors of society, no 
 sooner were they brought within the sphere of their 
 reverend fellow-countryman's influence, no sooner did 
 they hear his powerful preaching, and witness his 
 astounding zeal, than they sought, through him, the 
 blessing of reconciliation with the offended Deity, and 
 became models of good conduct, self-respecting and 
 respected, sober, industrious, and orderly. To those 
 who know the character of the Celtic Irishman this will 
 be perfectly intelligible. The religious element seems 
 blended with his very nature, as we find it interwoven 
 with his history — we can scarcely think of him without 
 thinking also of his creed. Under peculiar circumstances 
 he may become the victim of indifference, the slave of 
 immorality ; but the faith he never loses. Let him persist 
 in crime, he is never insensible to the pangs of remorse ; 
 let him but hear the familiar voice of a native clergy- 
 man, and he becomes thoroughly reformed, bowing with 
 a marvellous submissiveness to the most humiliating 
 yoke religion can impose — brought within the magic 
 circle of priestly care, (so much abused by those who 
 understand it not,) he displays the genuine qualities of 
 a heart naturally disposed to virtue, where the sacred 
 flame, obscured for a season, but never quite extin- 
 guished, blazes forth as of old in a congenial sanctuary. 
 
Bev. Atihur O'Leary. 337 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Father O'Leary's Hidden Life — EflFect of the French Revolution on his 
 Mind — He assists the French Refugees— His great Sermon on their 
 behalf— Extracts from it — He ridicules the Predictions of the Ex- 
 piring Papacy — Pius the Sixth — Announcement of the Pontiff's 
 Death in London— Father O'Leary preaches his Panegyric— Magni- 
 ficent Audience — Extracts from the Sermon— Opinions of the Press 
 on it 
 
 Father O'Leary's sermons attracted large and eager 
 audiences ; nor were his hearers confined to persons of 
 his own persuasion, but every sect supplied its contribu- 
 tion. For his discourses were, for the most part, of that 
 description, which, while vindicating the truths of what 
 has been called "our common Christianity," did not 
 hurt the peculiar religious susceptibilities of any one. 
 And, while defending the doctrines of the Catholic 
 religion, he delivered himself with such fairness and 
 candour, and his manner was so destitute of heat, so 
 free, apparently as in fact, from wilful, unreasoning 
 prepossession, that while, perhaps, no stranger to the 
 fold was convinced just then, all listened with pleasure, 
 and took away food for serious afterthought. He had 
 the grand qualities of the preacher enumerated by the 
 pious Cowper : he was 
 
 ''simple, grave, sincere : 
 In doctrine, uncorrupt ; in langiiage, plain, 
 And plain in manner ; decent, solemn, chaste, 
 And natural in gesture ; much impressed 
 Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, 
 And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds 
 May feel it too ; aflfectionate in look, 
 And tender in address, as well becomes 
 A messenger of grace to guilty men." 
 
 Z 
 
338 Life and Writings of 
 
 His life was as incorrupt as his doctrine ; we can find 
 no blemish in the purity of his character. To himself 
 he was a stern disciplinarian, save when the exigencies 
 of the society in which he mixed necessitated a mode- 
 rate indulgence, lest he might seem to parade with un- 
 becoming ostentation that self-denial which he prac- 
 tised in private, and which was thoroughly congenial to 
 his own taste. Witty and gay, " brilliant and bright " 
 as the wine that circled round the board, no man loved 
 solitude more than he, or sought the charms of it more 
 eagerly. His early conventual training had given him 
 this taste for seclusion, and had fashioned his mind to 
 the art of contemplation. He did cherish, at a late 
 period of his existence, the hope to end his life in soli- 
 tude, that he might the better prepare his soul for eter- 
 nity; but it remained a hope. However, in his own 
 chambers, he sought a frequent retreat from the world, 
 which he always turned to good account. He read and 
 wrote, and, no doubt, prayed ; thus presenting to man- 
 kind a glorious model to admire or copy — an upright 
 Christian man working for the good of the whole hu- 
 man family ; a Christian minister of spotless reputation 
 working until death in the cause of his Master. 
 
 While Arthur O'Leary was thus toiling on in the 
 great cause of religion, events were passing in France 
 which saddened and etnbittered his mind, devoted as 
 that large mind was to the best and truest interests of 
 all mankind. It was the period of the great Revolution, 
 the very memory of whose horrors, after the lapse of 
 three-quarters of a century, still shocks the world — the 
 period when infidelity slew the souls of its thousands 
 and tens of thousands, and when the lust for blood dis- 
 covered in the inhabitants of a civilized country a depth 
 of savage brutality theretofore unknown in the constitu- 
 tion of the human race. O'Leary, brought up from his 
 youth in that great country, imbued with its learn- 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 839 
 
 ing, polished by its manners, admiring its institutions, 
 and venerating its ancient nobility, could not realize 
 France in any other light than that of a nation cha- 
 racterized from the earliest days of its civilization as 
 the land where honor, and chivalry, and religion, found 
 their most sacred home — the land of learning, of elo- 
 quence, of the arts and sciences, of military glory. 
 Alas ! how changed ! Monarchy dethroned — the aristoc- 
 racy murdered, butchered, annihilated — religion sup- 
 planted by reason — the hand of the assassin raised 
 against the helplessness of age, the innocence of child- 
 hood, the weakness and purity of womanhood ; men 
 revelling like demons on blood to-day, and their own 
 shed for new revellers to-morrow ; the whole country 
 delivered over to uncontrolled human passions, sacrificed 
 to crime, dishonor, poverty, bankruptcy, and ruin. 
 
 O'Leary felt intensely for the miseries to which the 
 country he loved so well had become a victim, and con- 
 tinued so to feel to the very end of his life. Naturally 
 a lover of religion and social order, he here, to his hor- 
 ror, beheld the most abominable subversion of both. 
 But there was no help for it — the ordeal should be gone 
 through. He could only show the depth of his sym- 
 pathy in the cause of suffering France, by extending 
 to the thousands of emigrants who flocked from her 
 shores to England, all that kindness which it was pos- 
 sible for him to bestow. He called public attention to 
 their desperate condition, by frequent and vigorous ap- 
 peals through the press. He went about seeking for 
 them occupation and employment, and with many he 
 shared the hospitality of his table and the contents of 
 his purse. His sermons, at this time, were strenuously 
 directed to the suppression of that infidel growth of 
 opinion, which, springing from France, appeared likely 
 to spread its baleful shadow over the whole face of 
 Europe. On the 8th of March, 1797, a day of solemn 
 
340 Life and Writings of 
 
 fast and humiliation, he delivered a powerful discourse 
 in St. Patrick's Chapel, which, at the desire of the 
 congregation, was subsequently printed.* In this ser- 
 mon there are some fine bursts of eloquent indignation 
 against the authors of the French Revolution, and many- 
 able arguments against adopting their example either 
 in politics or religion. " By their decree," says he, " the 
 French declare that they are willing to give assistance 
 to all who wish to procure liberty. By this decree, the 
 desperate, the licentious, the dissolute of all nations, 
 who would wish the overthrow of their respective coun- 
 tries, in order to enrich themselves with the spoils of 
 the peaceable and virtuous, were sure to find allies and 
 confederates. And yet those allies have not" enriched 
 the malcontents or disaffected of any State subdued by 
 their arms. The spoils of towns and cities were appro- 
 priated to themselves, or sent to Paris ; and the bles- 
 sings conferred by such conquerors are visible in all 
 those provinces where former scenes of peace and plenty 
 are changed into deserts, and the prospect of smoking 
 ruins can alone distinguish the solitudes of nature from 
 the desolation of the Vandal. 
 
 " Our hardships are temporary, and to be borne with 
 as other calamities with which God in His justice some- 
 times visits mortals, either for the punishment of their 
 sins, or the amendment of their lives, or the trial of 
 their patience. Let an all-ruling Providence, by a 
 change of times and circumstances — by the energy and 
 wisdom of rulers, and means best known to Him who 
 
 * A discourse "well adapted," says the Montldy Review, (vol. 
 xxiii. 1797, p. 119,) "to a Catholic congregation, and to keep alive 
 a high degree of good, warm, Christian hatred of the French, on 
 whom the preacher is very severe — with now and then a stroke of 
 j)leasantry, sarcasm, and rough wit, happily fitted to fortify the 
 audience against any attacks of drowsiness, which might happen dur- 
 ing the delivery of a long discourse. The abilities and peculiar turn 
 of Mr. O'Leary are sufficiently known." 
 
Bev. AiiJiur O'Leary. 341 
 
 protects, sets up, or pulls down kingdoms and empires, 
 remedy the evils of which peoples may complain. But 
 to attempt to remove them by deeds of darkness — by 
 opposition to lawful authority — by the assistance of men 
 abandoned to irreligion and licentiousness, is to plunge 
 into the gulf of destruction." 
 
 In a subsequent part of this sermon, O'Leary ridicules 
 the absurd predictions and anticipations, then for the 
 thousandth time expressed, of the approaching dissolu- 
 tion of the Papacy. The misfortunes of Pope Pius the 
 Sixth, deprived of his realms, and a prisoner in the 
 hands of Buonaparte, afforded grounds for these pro- 
 phetic announcements, as the reverses to which Pius 
 the Ninth has been subjected in our own day, have 
 evoked similar fore warnings of his expiring monarchy. 
 The extremities to which the former pontiff was reduced 
 were the theme of pulpit and platform orators all 
 through England ; and every preacher and declaimer 
 who did not sympathize with Rome, pointed with 
 triumph to the early day, when the figures in the Book 
 of Revelations being fulfilled, the boasted line of popes 
 should be broken, and the Rock of Peter be riven for 
 ever. 
 
 " I know," says O'Leary, " that the unexpected suc- 
 cess of licentious infidels, who have destroyed religion 
 in the unhappy land that gave them birth, seems to 
 shake the faith of the unsteady, and to increase, with 
 additional shades, the darkness of fanaticism, prophesy- 
 ing the impending destruction of the Catholic Church, 
 and the final close of the succession of her pastors 
 in the person of the present pope. 
 
 "Such foretellings are proved by time to be the 
 deliriums of an imagination bewildered by the pre- 
 judices of education, or overheated by enthusiasm, 
 or they are the artifices of impostors who sport with 
 
342 Life and Writings of 
 
 the weaknesses of the ignorant and credulous, to render 
 them subservient to their designs. 
 
 " Luther prophesied that in the space of two years 
 after his revelation, there would be no more popes. 
 The number of popes who have appeared since his 
 time, are proofs of the credit such prophets deserve. 
 Who could take a review of the motley group of 
 prophets, who have started up since: some of them 
 divines, some mathematicians and astronomers, and 
 a greater number mechanics, all prophesying, and with 
 equal authority, the speedy end of the pope and the 
 Catholic religion ? 
 
 " Volumes may be written, and libraries filled with 
 books against Popery — fanatics may prophesy — modern 
 Goths and Yandals may desolate provinces, and bury 
 cities in ruins — the temporal sovereignty of Rome, 
 originally the gift of temporal princes, may be de- 
 stroyed, and Rome herself undergo the fate of Carthage, 
 and be known only in history — the pope's head may be 
 carried on a pole, and the Turkish Solyman's threat, 
 that he would feed his horse with oats on St. Peter s 
 altar, may be carried into execution ; but the spiritual 
 supremacy of Rome, and the succession of the lawful 
 pastors, with whom Christ promises to be to the end of 
 time, can never be destroyed by all the powers of 
 the earth. It is not riches, or opulence, or temporal 
 power, or grandeur, that their Master has promised 
 them. Should one pastor be beheaded, another, with 
 the same spiritual power and title to the chair of 
 unity, will be elected, either on the brink of a lake, 
 where Peter received a commission to feed Christ's 
 flock, or in some subterraneous vault in times of per- 
 secution, (if such should happen,) as well as in the 
 magnificent palace of the Vatican." 
 
 Never, indeed, before did the fortunes of the Papacy 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 343 
 
 present to human eyes so irretrievably hopeless an 
 aspect, as under the reign of Pope Pius the Sixth. 
 Few pontiffs reigned longer than he ; and there were 
 few whose reign was so distinguished for adversity and 
 disaster. In his pontificate, the adage was truly veri- 
 fied. Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit It had 
 its gleams of glory, but they were snatches of sunshine 
 shed by the beneficent rule, the enlightened improve- 
 ments, the vast and successful undertakings, and the 
 marvellous equanimity of the pontiff in the darkest 
 hour of misfortune as in the calmest interval of repose. 
 He repressed numerous abuses ; he greatly enlarged 
 the noble museum of the Vatican, by adding to it 
 a vast collection of vases, medals, statues, and monu- 
 ments ; made considerable additions to the Church of 
 St. Peter ; embellished Rome with new palaces, foun- 
 tains, and monuments, and founded hospitals for the 
 relief of the sick and the indigent. He showed his 
 regard for the interests of commerce by repairing the 
 port of Ancona, and erecting there a magnificent light- 
 house, an ornament to the city, and a welcome guide 
 through the dangers of the Adriatic. But his greatest 
 undertaking was the draining of the Pontine Marshes, 
 with a view to removing the cause of their pestilential 
 vapours : this gigantic work he was not able to com- 
 plete. His mildness was unparalleled — his hospitality 
 was the theme of universal admiration. He viewed 
 with horror the atrocities of the French Revolution, 
 and received with open arms the banished priests of 
 France who sought his protection. This drew upon 
 him the vengeance of the French rulers, who directed 
 Buonaparte to attack the Roman States in satisfaction, 
 which that unscrupulous general did with the vigor 
 and success that distinguished his martial enterprises 
 at that period. Having taken Urbino, Ancona, Bo- 
 logna, and other towns, he offered peace to Pius on 
 
344) Life and Writings of 
 
 condition that the pontiff would pay a large sum of 
 money, and send to Paris some of the choicest speci- 
 mens of painting and sculpture that adorned the 
 Eternal City. 
 
 Peace ensued, but it was shortly broken. The Roman 
 people in their indignation assassinated the French 
 ambassador, and the Papal States were again invaded. 
 Rome was taken by order of Buonaparte, and Pius VI. 
 was conveyed as a prisoner by the French soldiery, first 
 to Sienna, and then across the Alps to France. The 
 insults and cruelties to which he was subjected by his 
 ferocious captors were discreditable to humanity ; but at 
 least on one remarkable occasion, (at Brian9on, in Dau- 
 phine,) by his mildness and sweetness, when an enraged 
 multitude threatened his life, he brought them on their 
 knees to do him reverence, and implore his forgiveness. 
 From Brian9on he was removed to Grenoble, and from 
 Grenoble to Valence, from whence he was subsequently 
 transferred by the Directory to Dijon. But his extreme 
 age, and the fatigue of this constant travelling, termi- 
 nated his life, on the 20th August, 1799, in the eighty- 
 second year of his age, and the twenty-fifth of his 
 pontificate. His murder — for it can be called by no 
 other name — was portentous to the destinies of Europe. 
 In his sacred person were united the monarch and the 
 pontiff; and he was therefore a suitable victim for the 
 vengeance of men leagued together for the destruction 
 of the throne and the altar. The ferocity of his tyrants 
 excited mingled sentiments of pity and alarm in every 
 thoughtful breast ; and all over Christendom his virtues 
 were proclaimed, and his fate deplored, with a unanimity 
 at once honorable to his memory, and valuable to the 
 cause of religion and humanity. 
 
 On the announcement in London of the pope's death, 
 his auditor, Monsignor (afterwards Cardinal) Erskine, 
 happened to be in the metropolis, and at his request, or 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 345 
 
 rather under his direction, a solemn Requiem High 
 Mass was celebrated for the eternal repose of the deceased 
 pontiff, in St. Patrick's Chapel, on the 16th of Novem- 
 ber, 1799. The ceremonial of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, magnificent and imposing as it is, supplies no 
 grander or more solemn spectacle than a High Mass for 
 the dead ; and majestic and sublime as is the music in 
 -which her liturgy is oftentimes chanted, her repertoire 
 supplies nothing to surpass the deep-sounding, soul- 
 thrilling, awe-inspiring melody in which her ministers 
 swell the anthems of supplication for the departed 
 faithful. Those who have once heard the solemn 
 cadences of the Dies Irce will realize what we say on 
 this subject — the impressions produced by that wondrous 
 dirge cannot be easily effaced. On the occasion to which 
 we refer, the whole church was hung with black, the 
 drapery of funereal sorrow, and other internal arrange- 
 ments were made calculated to excite emotions suitable 
 to the solemnity of the ceremony, and the cultivated 
 taste of the enlightened audience who assisted at it. 
 Amongst those present were Cardinal Erskine, Dillon, 
 Archbishop of Narbonne, the Bishop of St. Paul de Leon, 
 and a number of other prelates ; the foreign ambassa- 
 dors ; several of the most distinguished English nobility, 
 including the celebrated Duchess of Devonshire, as well 
 as a large sprinkling of the exiled French aristocracy. 
 At the conclusion of High Mass, Father O'Leary 
 ascended the pulpit, and pronounced the funeral oration 
 on the deceased pontiff, in a strain of eloquence rising 
 to the grandeur of the subject, and awakening in the 
 breasts of all who heard him a sympathy responsive to 
 the sufferings of so exalted a victim, and to the triumph 
 of a patience worthy of the Vicar of Christ. The pane- 
 gyrist's text was wonderfully appropriate — it was chosen 
 from the 102nd Psalm; "Thou hast lifted me up 
 and cast me down. My days are like a shadow that 
 
346 Life and Writings of 
 
 declineth, and I am withered like grass ; but thou, 
 Lord, shalt endure for ever." 
 
 The religious character of Pius YI., as sketched by 
 the preacher, was worthy of so holy a pontiff ; but as he 
 was anxious to exhibit the pope under the guidance "of 
 a wisdom that could accommodate itself to a variety of 
 conjunctures without deviating from the path of virtue, 
 and which could reconcile the maxims of the Gospel to 
 the engagements and duties of sovereignty," he dwells 
 with peculiar emphasis on the temporal rule of the Holy 
 Father. " Of his love and encouragement of the arts," 
 says the preacher, "the Musoeum Pio Clementinum 
 was one of the noblest monuments this or any other 
 age could boast. But it was not by the encouragement 
 of the sciences alone that Pius YI. signalized his pon- 
 tificate. Under his fostering hand, the arts and manu- 
 factures raised their drooping heads ; commerce was 
 extended ; coasts infested by pirates were protected ; 
 harbours fortified ; roads cut through marshes and de- 
 serts before impassable; communications formed between 
 distant places; new asylums opened to helpless indi- 
 gence ; and plenty reigned in those places which had 
 before been barren. There was no calamity in his States 
 to which he did not administer relief, when it came to 
 his knowledge ; nor was there any calamity unknown to 
 him, but such as eluded the inquiries of the most atten- 
 tive vigilance." Having described the energy and 
 anxiety manifested by the pontiff in draining the Pon- 
 tine Marshes, the panegyrist proceeds : "Europe admired 
 a pontiff and prince, in the decline of life, adequate to 
 such undertakings. Emperors, kings, and princes flocked 
 to Rome to see something greater than Rome itself — a 
 pontiff uniting in his person the experience of age with 
 the vigor of mind and the enterprising genius of youth — 
 the outward charms of the most fascinating figure, with 
 the improvements of the most cultivated mind — and the 
 
Rev. Atihur OLeary. 347 
 
 magnanimity and magnificence of a temporal prince, 
 •with all the meekness and piety of an apostle." 
 
 It would have been impossible to preach the pane- 
 gyric of Pope Pius VI. without denouncing the French 
 " philosophy," as it was called, but French infidelity as 
 it was, which caused his ruin, in the hope that it would 
 eventuate in the ruin of the Christian religion, and the 
 triumph of Reason, so desirable for the gratification of 
 human passions. "It was this philosophy," says O'Leary, 
 " whose insatiable thirst for blood could not be satisfied 
 with hecatombs of human victims ; amongst whom 
 kings, queens, princesses, aged and venerable prelates, 
 priests and levites, were offered on its polluted altars, 
 until it chained to its triumphal car and sprinkled for the 
 sacrifice a high priest and prince, before whose majestic 
 countenance and silver locks a victorious Alexander 
 would have fallen prostrate, as that conqueror did when 
 he met Jaddeus the high priest, clad in his pontifical 
 robes, with the prophecies in his hand, at the gates of 
 Jerusalem. The other victims were slaughtered near 
 their habitations, or at a small distance on the high 
 roads, where they were met by their executioners ; but 
 him they led to the sacrifice far from St. Peter's shrine, 
 where he requested to be permitted to die, and where 
 he wished for the crown of martyrdom.* 
 
 "The 'staff of old age' is always mentioned with 
 veneration ; and when propping the drooping body of a 
 hoary sage, it ever was considered, by savage as well as 
 civilized nations, as the sceptre of reverence. It com- 
 mands respect under the hand of a grey-haired Indian 
 addressing his savage warriors. But without any 
 regard to the propriety which nature itself suggests 
 to the uncultivated savage, his enemies deprived 
 
 • The remains of Pius VI. were interred in Valence by order of 
 Buonaparte ; but in 1802 they were removed to Rome, and were 
 there deposited with great funeral pomp in the Church of St. Peter's. 
 
348 Life and Writings of 
 
 Pius yi., bending under the weight of years, of the 
 support of his tremulous steps, and sent his cane, as a 
 trophy, to the French Directory, in whose hall it is 
 exposed, as the poles on which the sacred ark was 
 carried in procession were put up in the temple of 
 Dagon, in the unhallowed land of the Philistines !" 
 The catastrophe of this tragic history is well portrayed 
 by the eloquent preacher. " The member died as the 
 Head — the servant as the Master — the vicegerent as the 
 King who had delegated the power. He died, as Christ 
 died on the cross, and Saint Stephen on his knees ; he 
 died, praying for peace to the world, and forgiveness to 
 his enemies. The tear starts in the eye of pity at the 
 recital of the unmerited sufferings of fallen greatness, 
 and the wanton persecutions raised against unoffending 
 innocence. Yet, weep not for him who died a death 
 which kings themselves might envy. He died the death 
 of the righteous ; and may our last end be like to his." 
 
 This discourse was subsequently published, and ex- 
 cited great admiration in the minds of the public. 
 The following opinion of the press will serve to show 
 how favorably it was received. 
 
 "Effect being much studied," says the Monthly 
 Review* " in all the ceremonials of the Eomish Church, 
 it was to be presumed that, on so solemn an occasion as 
 that to which this pamphlet relates, every preparation 
 would be made with sable drapery, dirges and pro- 
 cessions, with a decorated cenotaph, artificial darkness, 
 and wax tapers, to impress the mind. Such, it appears, 
 were the ceremonies observed previously to the delivery 
 of this funeral oration on the late pope; which, as 
 might be expected, is composed in a strain of panegyiic. 
 The virtues of the unfortuuate Pius VI. were indeed 
 entitled to praise ; and one of his own clergy is surely 
 
 * Vol, xxxii. 1800, page 97. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 349 
 
 to be pardoned if, at a moment when his obsequies 
 were solemnized, he should paint those virtues with all 
 the warmth of coloring derived from eloquence, ani- 
 mated by affection and the most pious veneration. 
 Posterity will not seek for the true and discriminating 
 character of the late pope in Mr. O'Leary's oration ; but 
 as a composition it is a proof of talents. Mr. O'Leary 
 often alludes to the ' Memoirs of the Life of Pius VI.,' 
 lately published, as not doing justice to his memory. 
 He lived certainly in a very critical period ; and the 
 enemy and the friend will differ considerably in their 
 representations of him. The unfeeling behaviour mani- 
 fested towards him by the French, is here deservedly 
 reprobated." 
 
350 Life and Writings of 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Father O'Leary Pensioned by the Government— Was it "Hush- 
 money"? — Plowden's Opinion on the Subject— The Question ex- 
 amined — England's Account of it — What was the Secret Condition ? 
 — Brought to light at last — Pitt's Part in the Transaction. 
 
 During the latter years of Father O'Leary's life, he 
 enjoyed a pension from the Irish government ; and 
 as the conditions on which this pension was supposed 
 to have been awarded have formed a subject of con- 
 troversy, seriously involving the integrity of Father 
 O'Leary's character, it becomes the duty of his bio- 
 grapher to set the case fairly and candidly before 
 the public, that, by a strict investigation of the truth, 
 he may receive the praise or blame to which he is 
 entitled. 
 
 It has been said that the pension was granted on the 
 secret condition, that O'Leary should live for the rest of 
 his life in London, and abstain from any political writ- 
 ing that might reflect on the conduct of the government 
 in their management of Irish affairs. If this be true, 
 it is a very serious imputation indeed, and forms another 
 sad illustration of the influence of the auri sacra 
 fames; it adds to the black catalogue another victim 
 of seductive pelf, principally British. Mr. Francis 
 Plowden, O'Leary's particular friend, speaks very plainly 
 on the subject, in the Introduction to his " History of 
 Ireland." He tells us that O'Leary's writings were so 
 successful in establishing concord amongst all classes of 
 Irishmen, that his silence was purchased by the govern- 
 ment, who, for the furtherance of their malign policy, 
 deprecated concord amongst Irishmen above all things. 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 351 
 
 But let Mr. Plowden speak for himself. " His (O'Leary's) 
 writiogs became popular even with Protestants, and 
 produced so much toleration and cordiality between 
 them and the Catholics, that created a serious alarm in 
 those who studied to perpetuate their division and 
 consequent weakness. With much art, they endea- 
 voured to stop the progress of this terrifying liberality 
 and harmony amongst Irishmen of different religious 
 professions. The E-ev. Arthur O'Leary was thanked 
 by the British minister for the services he had ren- 
 dered to the State, by frightening away the bugbear of 
 Jacobitism, and securing the allegiance of the whole 
 Catholic body to the illustrious House of Hanover. A 
 pension of £200 was granted to him for his life in the 
 name of a trustee ; hut upon the secret conditions that 
 he should for the future withhold his pen, and reside 
 no more in Ireland: in such dread was holden an 
 evangelizer of tolerance and brotherhood in the country. 
 Two or three payments of this hush-money were made. 
 Afterwards an arbitrary refusal for many years threw 
 the reverend pensioner upon the voluntary support of his 
 friends for subsistence. After a lapse of many years, 
 by importunity and solicitation, and repeated proofs of 
 his having complied with the secret conditions, he 
 received a large arrear ; and in order to make himself 
 independent for the rest of his days, he purchased 
 with it an annuity for his life from a public office, and 
 died before the first quarter became due." 
 
 Now, from what we have already seen of Father 
 O'Leary's character, it is highly improbable that he 
 bartered for gold his talents and his patriotism, as 
 here described. We have seen how, at an earlier period 
 of his career, when overtures of the same kind were 
 made to him in Ireland, after the publication (5f his 
 celebrated papers on Loyalty and Toleration, he spumed 
 with indignation the attempt to win him to taciturnity 
 
352 Life and Writings of 
 
 or to gain him over to the ranks of the pro-government 
 party. . We recall with admiration his reply — " I 
 shall never be silent whilst my exertions can be of 
 the least service to my country or my religion." The 
 leopard does not so easily change its spots, and O'Leary 
 at sixty was not likely to think differently from O'Leary 
 at fifty. Again, he was not an avaricious man ; on the 
 contrary, as has been shown, benevolence, charity, phi- 
 lanthropy, hospitality, were synonymous with the name 
 of O'Leary. The pensioo he no doubt received, and 
 few men deserved it better ; but we cannot believe that 
 his acceptance of it was hampered with conditions in- 
 volving a sacrifice of those great principles to the up- 
 holding of which his life and labors were devoted. But 
 let us see. Mr. England, the first biographer of O'Leary, 
 who lived nearer to his time, who must have spoken 
 with many of his contemporaries, and thus acquired 
 accurate knowledge on the remarkable events of his 
 life, gives the following history of the pension : — 
 
 " Soon after he (O'Leary) had fixed his residence per- 
 manently in London, one day whilst dining with his 
 attached and valuable friend, Mr. Keating, the book- 
 seller, he was informed that Lord Sydney's secretary 
 was in the adjoining parlour, and had a communication 
 to make to him. He immediately left the table ; and 
 when, in a short time, he returned he related the sub- 
 stance of the interview. The secretary stated to him 
 that government had observed with much satisfaction 
 the good effects which Mr. O'Leary's writings had pro- 
 duced in Ireland — peace, good order, and unanimity, 
 amongst all classes of his countrymen, had been pro- 
 moted and advanced by his exertions ; and that, in con- 
 sideration of the services thus rendered to the empire, 
 it was determined to manifest the approbation of such 
 conduct by offering him a pension suitable to his cir- 
 cumstances, and worthy of his acceptance — that, with 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 353 
 
 a delicacy arising from the ignorance of his means of 
 subsistence, they had as yet hesitated fixing on any 
 specific sum, choosing rather to learn from himself what 
 would answer his expectations, than to determine on 
 what might be insufficient for his claims. The secretary 
 took the liberty of asking a question to which at the 
 same time he did not insist on receiving an answer : 
 whether in the event of any popular commotion in Ire- 
 land, as it was dreaded would be the case from the dif- 
 fusion of American republican notions, O'Leary would 
 advocate, as formerly, principles of loyalty and alle- 
 giance ? To this latter question an unhesitating reply 
 was given, confirmatory of the known inflexibility of 
 O'Leary's political conduct ; with regard to the pension, 
 he never had sought for one, though, at a former period 
 of his life, something of the kind had been hinted to 
 him ; in the present instance he was grateful to the 
 government for the recollection of him, and suggested 
 that the utmost of his claims would be answered by 
 £100 a year. He was afterwards officially informed, 
 that his presence in Ireland was necessary for the pur- 
 pose of having the pension placed on the list of that 
 country. He repaired thither, and, after the necessary 
 formalities were gone through, he became entitled to 
 £200 per annum. It has been slated that a secret con- 
 dition was annexed to this grant, binding O'Leary to 
 reside in England, and preventing him from further 
 interference in the political concerns of the empire. 
 The fact, however, is that O'Leary had made previous 
 arrangements for a permanent residence in London, not 
 only as being more favorable to his health, which gene- 
 rally suffered by his visits to Dublin, but from a 
 rational conviction that the great seat of influence and 
 power was tlie proper sphere of his benevolent exer- 
 tions ; and so far was he from resigning any right to his 
 freedom of opinion as an author, that one of the last 
 
 2a 
 
354 Life and Writings of 
 
 subjects which employed his care before his death-sick- 
 ness, was a general refutation, which he intended to 
 publish, of all the calumnies against his religion and 
 country which grew out of the political distractions 
 of the year 1798. True it is, that for some unexplained 
 cause, his pension was, after one or two years, arbitra- 
 rily withheld ; and it was only shortly before his death 
 that, by the kind interference of his friend, Mr. Francis 
 Plowden, the arrear was paid to him : then, in order to 
 make himself independent for the rest of his days, he 
 purchased with it an annuity for his life, from a public 
 office ; but he died before the first quarter became due." 
 
 So far Mr. England. From the panegyric pronounced 
 over the remains of Father O'Leary, to which we have 
 already referred,* it will be seen, on the authority of the 
 preacher, one of the great man's most attached friends, 
 that while O'Leary was in Dublin proceeding through 
 the form which was necessary for the obtainment of the 
 pension, a large additional annuity was offered to him, 
 if he would become the supporter of an important 
 newspaper, then and long after, probably still, published 
 in Dublin, which was the " foul vehicle of misrepresen- 
 tation, slander, and calumny, on the Irish people." He 
 rejected the proposal with indignation and contempt, 
 though certain by the refusal to incur the displeasure 
 of the so-called " great," and to apprehend a discon- 
 tinuance of his pension. This was not the conduct of a 
 man who would sell his honor for gold. 
 
 But was there a secret condition ? There v/as ; and 
 the reader must judge how far the acceptance of it was 
 prejudicial or favorable to the good name of Father 
 O'Leary. What that condition was I shall for the first 
 time produce before the public. I procured the infor- 
 mation from a gentleman of great respectability resi- 
 
 , * See Appendix. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 855 
 
 diDg near London, whose name I do not publish, because 
 I have not solicited his permission to do so. Neither 
 shall I, for the same reason, give the names of the gen- 
 tlemen mentioned in his letter, though I am confident 
 I might do so without incurring their displeasure or 
 disapprobation. Knowing that the gentleman in ques- 
 tion was a relative of Father O'Leary's, I wrote to him 
 acquainting him of my intention to publish O'Leary's 
 life and writings, and begging for any information it 
 was in his power to bestow. With an urbanity for 
 which I hereby tender my gratitude, he replied imme- 
 diately as follows : — 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I have received your letter ; and 
 as particulars of note touching the life of O'Leary must 
 be based on good authority, I feel I can only give you 
 from one good autJiority, but now dead, the one idea 
 which haunted him, on account of the part he took, 
 by the advice of Pitt, in the union of the Irish Par- 
 liament with the Imperial. Pitt promised the emanci- 
 pation of Catholics and repeal of the penal laws, if 
 he (O'Leary) would acquiesce, &c. He did ; and so 
 silence was deemed consent. Pitt obtained the Union ; 
 then resigned his office; and, tricky enough, said he 
 could not keep his promise, &c. &c. 
 
 " The memory of this disaster weighed upon his 
 mind, so that, dying, he exclaimed often : * Alas ! I 
 liave betrayed my poor country ! ' I had this of 
 
 Mr. T , of Weybridge, Surrey, who was with him in 
 
 iii.s last illness, and at his death. Had he written one 
 of liis stirring popular appeals, he would have foiled 
 Pitt's measure. His mind failed much in his last 
 
 illness. Mr. T 's son is alive still, and remembers 
 
 him. The father, who is dead, often told me the above 
 fact" 
 
556 Life and Writings of 
 
 Here, tlien, was the secret condition : Arthur O'Leary 
 accepted from the British government a pension of 
 £200 a-year for life, stipulating that Mr. Pitt should 
 keep his word as a man of honor, promising that he 
 would bring about the emancipation of the Catholics and 
 the repeal of the penal laws, in case O'Leary consented 
 to write nothing against the union of the Irish with 
 the Imperial Parliament ! It is for the world to judge 
 how far such a bargain damages his character as a 
 patriot, and redeems him from the imputation of vena- 
 lity. For our part we mast say, that there are even at 
 the present day many pure-minded patriots who would 
 regard a union with England on terms of perfect 
 equality, as the greatest boon Ireland could ehjoy; 
 and it is, therefore, easy to conceive how such a bles- 
 sing would be regarded by a man so essentially loyal 
 as O'Leary was. At his time, an}^ concession made by 
 England was accepted by Ireland with the gratitude 
 of a Lazarus for the crumbs of a Dives : how joyfully, 
 then, would the patriot stake his all for the promise of 
 a minister that Lazarus should be admitted to the 
 rich man s table, and participate in the luxuries of his 
 palace, not as a guest, but as a member of his house- 
 hold ! But O'Leary was not acquainted with the 
 proverbial perfidy of statesmen; and the man least 
 likely in his eyes to reduce to practice the policy of a 
 Machiavelli, was the minister whose genius and in- 
 tegrity seemed superior to every " tricky" device, and 
 equal to the obligations of every honorable compact. 
 We see that O'Leary's pension was withheld for a few 
 years : what the reason for this withholding was it is 
 not easy to ascertain ; but, from an observation in the 
 " Life of Henry Grattan," by his son, we surmise that 
 it must have been because O'Leary refused to comply 
 with a request made by the minister, that he would 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 357 
 
 write in suppoH of the Union. " Colonel Kelly," (of 
 whom more anon,) says Mr. Grattan, " related that, at 
 the period of the Union, Mr. Pitt offered a considerable 
 pension to O'Leary, provided he would exert himself 
 among his Roman Catholic countrymen, and write in 
 support of the Union, but every application was in vain : 
 O'Leary steadfastly resisted Mr. Pitt's 'solicitations, 
 and, though poor, he rejected the offers of the minis- 
 ter, and could not be seduced from allegiance to his 
 country." 
 
 It may be said in defence of Pitt, that he honestly 
 meant to keep his promise made to O'Leary ; and 
 there is little doubt that it was his intention, imme- 
 diately after the Union had been effected, to propose 
 to the United Parliament the emancipation of the 
 Catholics, and the repeal of the penal laws. But from 
 the performance of this duty he was deterred by a 
 weakness as discreditable as a broken promise. When 
 the subject was mentioned to George IIL, he positively 
 went mad. Here was the time for Pitt to stand up 
 and say that he would hold the premiership on no 
 conditions incompatible with those of his honest con- 
 viction and his plighted word; but no; he resigned 
 the office to Addington, and did not resume it for 
 three years. He feared the loss of royal favor, though 
 it was the favor of royalty gone mad with religious 
 bigotry.* And yet it is but just to say, that had 
 he brought forward the measure just then, it is ques- 
 tionable whether it would have passed into law, as 
 
 • Mr. Elliott, -writing to Lord Castlereagh, in November, 1798, says : 
 *• I cannot be easily })er8uade(l that if more tirmness had been dis- 
 played here at first, a union might have been accomidished, in- 
 cluding the admission of the Catholic claims ; but Mr. Pitt has, with 
 a lamentable facility, yielded this point to prejudice, without, I sus- 
 pect, acquiring a support in any degree equivalent to the sacritice." — 
 asUerea gJCa Correspondence, voL ii. p. 29. 
 
358 Life and Writings of 
 
 he had to encounter the opposition of some members of 
 the cabinet, and to defy the No-Popery cry which still 
 rang through the length and breadth of England, with 
 all the acrimony and vigor of the past. 
 
 Such, then, is O'Leary's case. Let him stand or fall 
 by the verdict of an impartial world. 
 
Hev. Arthur O'Leary. 359 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Father O'Leary the Guest of Colonel O'Kelly, owner of " Eclipse" — 
 Sketch of O'Kelly— Turf Morality— The Prince of Wales and 
 Chifney, the Jockey — O'Leary uncontaminated by his associations — 
 Contrasted with the celebrated Dr. Alexander Geddes — Sketch of 
 Geddes — His "Modest Apology" — O'Leary is requested by Lord 
 Petre to review it — Which he does — Lord Pefcre's severe Letter to 
 O'Leary in Reply — His Lordship's subsequent Change of Opinion — 
 Lord Moira the Friend of O'Leary. 
 
 Father O'Leary lived for some years in London with 
 Colonel O'Kelly, already mentioned. The colonel was 
 known to the world, and his name will be remembered 
 for ever by the sporting fraternity, as the owner of the 
 celebrated horse " Eclipse," that won the Derby in 1782. 
 How our worthy friar contracted so close an intimacy 
 with a man of tastes and habits apparently so little 
 congenial to his own, we are left to conjecture. Mr. 
 Fitzpatrick, in his work entitled " Ireland before the 
 Union,"* suspects that O'Kelly's attention to O'Leary 
 was rather an act of political design than an impulse of 
 private generosity or friendship. " O'Kelly," he adds, 
 " was the prince's confidant ; and Croly, in his ' Life 
 of George IV.,' tells us that intimate relations were 
 maintained with O'Leary because ' he was no unskilful 
 medium of intercourse between his Church and the 
 Whigs, and contributed in no slight degree to the 
 popularity of the Prince in Ireland.' " 
 
 Colonel O'Kelly, though enjoying the character of a 
 highly-bred gentleman, of manners "courtly and im- 
 posing," unhappily presents to posterity a few blemishes, 
 
 • Page 106. 
 
860 Life and Writings of 
 
 which, however they may be reconciled to the morality 
 of the turf, can scarcely stand the test of stricter ethics. 
 With the assistance of Mr. Fitzpatrick,* we shall place 
 an outline sketch of him before the reader. He was 
 immensely rich — " Eclipse " having won, altogether, as 
 was supposed, £124,000. He was not the original 
 owner of the horse, but inherited it from his uncle 
 Denis, the colonel's own name being Denis Andrew. 
 He was distinguished for " pluck." On one occasion, 
 while walking on Usher 's-quay, Dublin, he jostled 
 against a military officer, who kicked and insulted him 
 in return. O'Kelly, strong as a lion, caught the offender 
 by the nape of the neck, and pitched him, as if he were 
 literally a puppy, over the quay into the river. The 
 unfortunate officer, cooled by his ducking, was picked 
 up into a ferry-boat which happened by good luck to 
 be near. O'Kelly soon after went to London, where 
 fortune, with her proverbial caprice, first imprisoned 
 him in the Fleet, and next introduced him to the 
 coterie of the Prince of Wales, then a " fast young 
 man." The gay prince found in the Irishman, a con- 
 genial spirit — he gave him a commission in the West 
 Middlesex Militia, and soon after had him promoted to 
 a colonelcy. The prince used O'Kelly on one occasion 
 in a manner equally discreditable to his Highness and 
 his Highness's colonel. But Mr. Fitzpatrick must tell 
 the tale in his own language, which I here subjoin : — 
 
 " The Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Fourth, 
 won the Derby in 1788, and, crowned by other 
 triumphs on the turf, he soon obtained the reputation 
 of being lucky. According to a statement recently 
 made to us by a gentleman officially entitled to know 
 the facts, it seemed to have suited the Prince's ' book,' 
 on some subsequent occasions, to bet against his own 
 
 * Ireland before the Union, pp. 211 et seq. 
 
Rev, Arthur O'Leary. 3G1 
 
 horse, although bestrode by the greatest jockey of the 
 day, Chifney. Enormous bettings were made on the 
 prince's horse, and his Royal Highness, on the other 
 hand, backed opposition horses with still higher sums. 
 With that deplorable unscrupulosity which charac- 
 terized the time, the prince deputed his friend O'Kelly 
 to negociate with Chifney for the purpose of inducing 
 him to lose the race^ designedly. The great jockey, we 
 beheve, at first, recoiled with indignation from the pro- 
 posal ; but ' saint-seducing gold ' at last did its work, 
 and Chifney consented to Idse the race in consideration 
 of £300 a year for life being settled on him, with a 
 reversion to his son, aged six years, as compensation for 
 any loss of professional character and income he might 
 sustain. Colonel O'Kelly, having acquainted the prince 
 with Chifney 's terms, he replied : * It is impossible that 
 my name can appear, but do you execute a deed to 
 Chifney for the annuity, and of course I shall fully re- 
 imburse you,' 
 
 " The deed was perfected accordingly, and the astute 
 attorney who drew it up was, we believe, the Sham 
 Squire. The race was run under the eyes of all Eng- 
 land, and the prince's horse, as designed, lost. How 
 little was it dreamt by the thousands who, with palpi- 
 tating hearts and straining eyes, intently watched the 
 progress and issue of that seemingly fair and noble 
 emulative struggle, that so dark a fraud lay crouched 
 within its shadow ! Some experienced turfmen seemed 
 to have suspected the cheat; but the great body of 
 betters who thronged round the course remained in 
 ignorance. Year after year O'Kelly paid the annuity ; 
 but the prince, when reminded of his obligation, in- 
 variably turned the conversation with a pleasant laugh. 
 O'Kelly died, and his representatives found the property 
 eDCumbered with the charge of £300 a year to Chifney." 
 
 The younger Chifney lived up to a few years ago, the 
 
362 Life and Writings of 
 
 aunuity being paid to him by the successors of Colonel 
 O'Kelly to the day of his death. O'Kelly himself died 
 about forty years ago, having never married. His 
 house in London was situated in Half Moon-street, 
 Piccadilly. 
 
 It is needless to say that O'Kelly's reverend guest 
 was altogether ignorant of those betting transactions, at 
 least such of them as involved dishonesty like that just 
 described. O'Leary clearly saw in his host, a rich, jovial, 
 genial fellow-countryman, the nucleus of fashionable 
 society, a devoted friend, a gentleman of " courtly and 
 imposing" manners. Who amongst us would refuse 
 the hospitality of such a man ? If the secret sins of 
 hosts were to be laid bare before their guests as the 
 dishes were uncovered, how little mirth would prevail 
 around the festive board, and how soon would that great 
 element of social harmony and good-fellowship — the 
 dinner-party — cease to exist altogether ! 
 
 However Father O'Leary may have mixed with the 
 wealthy — in what atmosphere soever of scepticism, 
 infidelity, or irreligion he may have been forced to 
 breathe — ^how many times soever he may have been 
 exposed to temptations threatening his faith, his 
 virtue, his purity of purpose or morality, it is a 
 proud thing for his biographer to say that he passed 
 through the ordeal unscathed ; and that the chevalier 
 of old never won by worthier title than did this great 
 champion of Christian rights, the magnificent epithet of 
 sans peur et sans reproche. We have already con- 
 trasted him with ecclesiastics of his own Church, 
 whose religious valor broke down before the assaults 
 of worldly wealth, honor, and fame; while he stood 
 within the lists, defiant of all comers, prepared for 
 every encounter. It now becomes our duty to place 
 beside him one recreant still, in rebutting whose attacks 
 on his faith and doctrine he incurred the risk of losing 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. 363 
 
 a friendship which any man might covet, and none but 
 the rash or foolish would despise. The recreant was 
 the celebrated Dr. Alexander Geddes — the friend was 
 the Lord Petre of the day. 
 
 Alexander Geddes was born of Catholic parents, in 
 1737, at Ruthven, in Banffshire. Having studied in his 
 boyhood at the Catholic seminary of Scalan, he repaired 
 in his twenty-first year to the Scotch College of Paris, 
 where, besides other literary attainments, he acquired a 
 knowledge of the French, Italian, Spanish, German, and 
 Hebrew languages. To produce a correct translation of 
 the Bible became the ambition of his life. Returning 
 to Scotland in 1764, he was ordained priest, and became 
 private chaplain to Lord Traquiar, in which position he 
 had abundant leisure for the promotion of his great work. 
 But a lady-relative of Lord Traquiar, residing in the 
 house, excited in his bosom the tender emotions so hos- 
 tile to literary pursuits, and so fatal to the purity of the 
 priesthood. To his honor be it said, in the struggle 
 between passion and duty, he found refuge in flight. 
 Having spent some months in Paris, he returned once 
 more to Scotland in 1769, when he officiated as pastor 
 in his native parish of Auchinhalrig, and won by his 
 charity and zeal the warmest attachment of his flock. 
 In the efforts to complete the parish church he fell into 
 debt, from which, however, he was released by the muni- 
 ficence of the Duke of Norfolk. Soon after, with that 
 quick succession of fancies that so often distinguishes 
 genius, he abandoned the care of his parish, having 
 purchased a farm, with a view to living in solitude and 
 pursuing uninterruptedly the darling studies of his 
 heart. But ignorance of agriculture, or perhaps neglect 
 more than ignorance, involved him still deeper than 
 before in debt, from which he again emerged by pub- 
 lishing a rhythmical translation of the Satires of 
 Horace. This publication, so foreign to the duties of a 
 
364 Life and Writings of 
 
 priest, excited the indignation of his bishop, Dr. Hay, 
 who made several ineffectual attempts to recall him to 
 his duty, but, failing, at length suspended him. Geddes 
 next becomes Doctor of Laws of the University of Aber- 
 deen, being the first Catholic that ever received that 
 dignity since the time of the Reformation. He repairs 
 to London, where he has the good fortune to win the 
 friendship of Lord Petre, one of the greatest patrons of 
 literature of his time. His lordship, deeply interested 
 for the welfare of the Catholic religion, to which he 
 belonged, gave Geddes an annuity, and assisted him 
 with books for his translation of the Bible. The pro- 
 spectus of this work appeared in 1782, but the first 
 volume of the work itself did not appear until ten years 
 after, when it startled, with a more tremendous shock 
 than the famous production of the modern Colenso, the 
 Catholics and rigid Protestants of the day. With un- 
 paralleled boldness, the translator denied the inspiration 
 of the Scriptures and the divine legation of Moses, 
 whose account of the creation he pronounced " a most 
 beautiful mythos, a philosophical fiction, contrived with 
 great wisdom, and dressed up in the garb of real his- 
 tory." Moses he ranked as a great legislator, with 
 Numa and Lycurgus ; and accounted for his miracles by 
 saying that the Hebrews were so ignorant, that Moses 
 cleverly convinced them that several natural results 
 which he produced were really miraculous. This was 
 turning the great author of the Pentateuch into a com- 
 mon juggler. Geddes was denounced by all professors 
 of Christianity as assailing the very foundations of 
 religion. So he was. He was only ventilating in 
 Eng^land the sentiments he imbibed amono^st the Ger- 
 man Rationalists, of whom Paulus and Eichhorn were 
 his particular friends. It is needless to say that he was 
 denounced by the Catholic clergy and hierarchy of Eng- 
 land as an infidel, and that he was again suspended from 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 3G5 
 
 the exercise of all priestly fuDctions. He published an 
 " Address," however, in which he proclaimed himself a 
 " sincere though unworthy disciple of Christ," and de- 
 nounced those as the real enemies of the Church who 
 " sought to support her by rotten props, which moulder 
 away at the first touch of reason, and leave the fabric 
 in the dust." He soon after issued another publication, 
 known as his " Modest Apology," in which, while he 
 strove to uphold the dignity of the Church, he frittered 
 away Christianity to a system of theism or arbitrary 
 latitudinarianism, at once repugnant to the doctrines of 
 the Catholic Church, and opposed to the best interests 
 of revealed religion in general. This work was de- 
 nounced by the Catholic authorities with the same vigor 
 they had shown in repudiating his former productions. 
 Dr. Geddes, though attaching himself to the Catholic 
 communion, had virtually withdrawn himself from it ; 
 while professing these doctrines he was no more a 
 Catholic than if he were a disciple of Mahomet. The 
 Catholic Church is essentially conservative — she runs 
 in a straight line ; and he who diverges an iota from 
 that line ceases to be of her. Lord Petre, the friend 
 and patron of Geddes and O'Leary alike, although a 
 stern Roman Catholic, yet seems to have felt a desire 
 common in his day, that the Catholic Church should 
 bate something of its unflinching adherence to old 
 objectionable doctrines, and, as one would say, " go half- 
 way" to meet Protestant prejudice, and thus bring 
 about a happy blending in a common Christianity. He 
 did not realize the temper of the Church — he had not 
 correctly studied her charter. He sent a copy of the 
 " Modest Apology " to O'Leary, with a desire to learn 
 his opinion of its merits. O'Leary well knew the critique 
 that would please, but he preferred the critique that 
 would bear the stamp of truth. He condemned the 
 doctrines of Geddes as wholly at variance with the 
 
366 Life and Writings of 
 
 teachings of the Church, and quite untenable by any- 
 one professing the Roman Catholic religion. Lord 
 Petre, however, was not convinced ; and in a letter, which 
 we subjoin, conveyed his feelings on the subject with a 
 warmth of which there is reason to suppose he after- 
 wards repented : — 
 
 " To the Rev: Arthur O'Leary. 
 
 " Rev. Sir, — I am sorry to find by your letter, which I 
 received a little while ago, that the ' Modest Apology,' 
 written by Dr. Geddes, did not meet with your approba- 
 tion. I imagine you have not read it with the same 
 view with which it was written ; but, considering this 
 apology as a controversial work, you seem to have lost 
 sight of the political effect it was intended to produce. 
 
 " This excellent work for the purpose it was in-- 
 tended, has already, to my certain knowledge, reconciled 
 some great and eminent characters to the safety of 
 permitting the professors of the Roman Catholic re- 
 ligion to be placed on the same footing with Pro- 
 testants. This great object of the ' Modest Apology' is, 
 at present, the only point of view in which the work 
 ought to be considered. Having noticed generally the 
 object of the book, I cannot remain totally silent on the 
 points contained in your letter, in which I profess I do 
 not agree with you in a single instance. The historical 
 applications mentioned in your letter are forced and 
 irrelevant to the subject; and equally unconnected with 
 the present question, as all you have introduced rela- 
 tive to John Knox and the Gordonian Association. 
 
 " With regard to the author bewildering himself 
 and his readers, few writers can vie in clearness and 
 perspicuity with Dr. Geddes; and, I believe, I shall 
 only join the universal opinion if I say, that in point of 
 writing, clearness, simplicity of diction, and facility of 
 comprehension, no work of the kind scarcely ever 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 367 
 
 surpassed the ' Modest Apology.' All the religious part 
 of your criticism on Dr. Geddes' orthodoxy is foreign to 
 the object of his work ; and wherever his own opinions 
 seem to differ with those generally received by Catho- 
 lics, he distinctly takes the responsibility upon himself, 
 where we will leave him to make his defence whenever 
 he thinks proper. 
 
 " With respect to our Church ceremonies and other 
 pious practices, I am free to say, that Dr. Geddes has 
 treated them with full as much respect as could be 
 expected, when he was endeavouring to keep up a 
 strong distinction between what are ceremonies and 
 points of discipline, and what are fundamental articles 
 and tenets of the Roman Catholic religion. 
 
 " As to the celibacy of the clergy, so far from censu- 
 ring severely that point of discipline, he seems rather 
 to adopt the idea, that some imperfection is connected 
 with the holy state of matrimony incompatible with 
 the priestly duties, and, therefore, recommending those 
 priests who marry to retire from officiating at the 
 altar. 
 
 " After all, I do not perceive that your objections to 
 Dr. Geddes' work, go much further than to the dis- 
 respectful style in which he appears to you to treat 
 our religious discipline and many of our pious prac- 
 tices. This manner of writing may shock some Catholic 
 ears ; but the candidly acknowledging and not de- 
 fending our ecclesiastical discipline on all occasions, 
 are the only effectual methods of reconciling Protes- 
 tants to our religion, and of doing away not only any 
 real objection to our religious tenets, but to the wilful 
 misrepresentation of the first Reformers. For that pur- 
 pose, the ' Modest Apology ' is admirably calculated. 
 Viewing it in that light, I cannot perceive, after the 
 fullest consideration, the least ground for censuring 
 the work ; but, on the contrary, I have the strongest 
 
8G8 Life and Writings of 
 
 reasons, as well as my own judgment, to induce me 
 to believe that the work has already gone, and will 
 go greater lengths in doing away the political pre- 
 judices against what Protestants call Popery, than 
 any work written or any steps taken since the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 " I hope no mistaken zeal for polemical disputation, 
 will attempt to weaken the general political effect 
 to be expected from the ' Modest Apology.' 
 
 " I remain, Rev. Sir, 
 
 " Your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 " Petre. 
 " Thornden, Aug. 18, 1800." 
 
 We do not find that O'Leary replied to this letter. 
 Such a task, indeed, would have demanded abilities 
 little above those of a mere school-boy. It is wonder- 
 ful how Lord Petre should have regarded Dr. Geddes 
 in any light as the apologist of Roman Catholics 
 eight years after that theologian had rejected the 
 inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures. " With respect to 
 our Church ceremonies and other pious practices," they 
 have been respectfully performed by the universal 
 faithful for centuries, established by the consummate 
 wisdom of our founders, and approved by a succession 
 of the holiest and sagest ministers of religion the world 
 ever saw. Why, then, should they not " be defended 
 on all occasions," even though the "not defending" 
 them be "the only (?) effectual means of reconciling 
 Protestants to our religion, and of doing away any real 
 objection to our religious tenets" ? Are we to set our- 
 selves up against the wisdom of the Church, asserted 
 and confirmed by the experience of nineteen hun- 
 dred years ? If Protestants are to be reconciled to the 
 Church, they must take her as they find her. The 
 " political prejudices" against Pofjery cannot injure the 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary. 369 
 
 Church ; they are like the wave that dashes against 
 the rock, and finds itself driven back, shattered into 
 countless drops of spray. Magna est Veritas et prceva- 
 lehit. Lord Petre, before he died, did atoning homage 
 at the shrine of truth, having joined his voice to the 
 entire body of English Catholics in their denunciation 
 of Geddes, as an exponent of their political conform- 
 ableness, or of their religious creed. 
 
 There was another nobleman of this day, Lord 
 Moira, who, though a Protestant, was a warm friend 
 and intense admirer of Father Arthur O'Leary. The 
 Irish people have just reason to respect the memory of 
 that worthy man ; for, at a period when most men 
 regarded this country, and the miseries which beset it, 
 with indifference or disdain, his voice was lifted, both 
 in the Irish and English parliaments, to assert the 
 rights of humanity in our favor, and to declaim against 
 the tyranny that ground us. 
 
 During the rebellion of '98, the cruelties exercised 
 by the Executive at Dublin Castle, and the minions of 
 that high office, were degrading to human nature ; 
 but, by the terror which they inspired, they were effec- 
 tual in repressing all attempts at national reclama- 
 tion or complaint. In England, however, one man was 
 found courageous and honest enough to raise his voice 
 in defence of his barbarously persecuted fellow-country- 
 men — that man was Lord Moira. Besides his rare 
 talents, his amiable character, and social respectability, 
 he had one other quality, which, in that corrupt age, 
 most strongly recommended to favor its fortunate pos- 
 sessor — he was a most intimate friend of the heir- 
 apparent to the throne. 
 
 In March and November, 1797, he brought the state 
 of Ireland before the English House with great earnest- 
 ness. 
 
 " My Lords," he said " in such a contest as we are^ 
 
 2b 
 
370 Life and Writings of 
 
 engaged in, I am astonished that any portion of the 
 kingdom should be suffered to hang like a dead weight 
 upon the rest. I will not, on the present occasion, 
 discuss the heart-burnings which have reduced Ireland 
 to her present calamitous condition. I may discuss 
 them elsewhere ; but, in lamenting them, I will state 
 that, to my conviction, these discontents arose from a 
 mistaken application of severities. I have myself been 
 a witness in Ireland to cases of the most absurd and 
 the most disgusting tyranny." He was answered by 
 Lord Grenville and outvoted. In the February of the 
 following year, he brought the subject before the Irish 
 House of Lords, in a truly spirited and patriotic speech. 
 He had, since his previous reference to the subject in 
 England, been heartily abused by letters and speeches, 
 on platforms and press, and had been upbraided with 
 giving a factious and disaffected opposition to the 
 government. His reply was as crushing as it was 
 eloquent : — 
 
 " Slander," he said, " is like the mephitic vapors 
 of the Grotto del Cane at Naples — it suffocates the 
 animal that grovels, but cannot reach the man that 
 stands upright." 
 
 He then drew a touching picture of the series of cruel 
 disappointments to which the hopes of the Irish had 
 been for fifteen years subjected, and pointed to reform 
 of parliament, and concessions to the Catholics, as the 
 political measures that should express to the people a 
 change in the sentiments of the government of England 
 towards them.* 
 
 * See the Life of Lord Plunket, by Hs Grandson, vol. i. p. 84. 
 
Bev. Arthur O'Leary. 371 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 O'Leary'a "Address to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the 
 Parliament of Great Britain ; to which is added, an Account of Sir 
 Henry Mildmay's Bill relative to Nuns " — Extracts from the Ad- 
 dress—His Hopes of what the Union would Effect for Ireland — 
 Two Dangerous Papists — Two Thousand Servant-maids Converted 
 in London by French Priests in one Year ! — Father O'Leary cannot 
 Convert One — He is Attacked by Sir Richard Musgrave— Collects 
 Materials for a History of all the Irish Rebellions — His Health 
 Fails— His Part in Plowden's '* Historical Review." 
 
 On the 30th of June, 1800, there appeared from the 
 pen of O'Leary his last literary production, which equals, 
 if it does not surpass, all that went before it for vigor 
 and effect. It was entitled " The Reverend Arthur 
 O'Leary 's Address to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 
 of the Parliament of Great Britain ; to which is added, 
 an Account of Sir Henry Mildmay's Bill relative to 
 Nuns." The chief ground for issuing this publica- 
 tion, was the appearance, shortly before, of a scurrilous 
 pamphlet, bearing the name of a " very considerable 
 person," in which the Catholic clergy of Ireland were 
 assailed with a violence worthy of a pot-house politician. 
 Enumerating the advantages likely to accrue from the 
 legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland, the 
 author had said: "It will entice the clergy (Protestant) 
 to more constant residence, by which means the per- 
 nicious influence of the vagrant Catholic priest, who 
 goes about selling absolution for felonies, and all sorts 
 of crimes, even murder itself, would be lessened, and in 
 a great measure done away." "If our lineaments," 
 writes O'Leary, " bear even the slightest resemblance to 
 the portrait he has drawn, we ought to be swept from 
 
372 Li^e and Writings of 
 
 society, as serpents horrid to tLe sight, and pests 
 deadly to human nature." 
 
 From the following extract we wall learn the advan- 
 tages, to the enjoyment of which O'Leary, and politi- 
 cians of his stamp, looked forward as necessarily result- 
 ing from the Union as it was proposed to them, — we 
 will see a thorough justification for his conduct in 
 accepting the condition before alluded to, imposed on 
 his receipt of a government pension, — we will have pre- 
 sented to us a striking specimen of the perfidy that 
 characterized the statesmen who brought about the Act 
 of Union ; and, if I am not mistaken, w^e will conclude, 
 that, were O'Leary alive to-day, to witness the results 
 of that nefariously-concocted measure, he would outdo 
 the most strenuous efforts of the O'Connell agitation in 
 favor of the cause of Eepeal ! 
 
 " I am," he writes, " as great a friend to the Union, 
 and have reconciled, I believe, as many to it as the 
 person to whom this publication is attributed. I am a 
 friend of it from, as I imagine, a well-founded expecta- 
 tion that it will close the tumultuary scenes which 
 have distracted my ill-fated country for ages, and make 
 the natives, of every religious description, happy — a 
 people united, not in league against Great Britain, but 
 united with her and amongst themselves in interest, 
 prosperity, and power, by a free and equal participation 
 of all benefits and advantages arising in the State, 
 and by the removal of those jealousies which ever sub- 
 sist between kingdoms or states standing in the same 
 relation to each other as Enofland has stood hitherto in 
 respect to Ireland — the one subordinate to the other, 
 and governed hy viceroys, and both hut half united* 
 Divisions, jealousies, and their concomitant evils must 
 be the natural consequence. Such was the state of 
 
 * The italics are ours. O'Leary clearly never contemplated a con- 
 tinuance of the viceroyalty. 
 
Rev. Arthur OLeary. 373 
 
 Norway with regard to Denmark, until united. Such 
 was the state of Portugal with regard to Spain, and 
 of Flanders with regard to Austria, until separated. 
 And such would be the state of Ireland with regard 
 to England, until wedded together in the bands of a 
 close and intimate union, or divorced from each other 
 hy a solemn irrevocable deed of separation." 
 
 "For," he continues, "the calamities of Ireland are 
 not originally and radically owing to difference in re- 
 ligious opinions. The kingdoms and states above men- 
 tioned professed the same creed. There is nothing un- 
 sociable in the character of Irishmen any more than in 
 the character of the Germans, amongst whom, in some 
 places, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics perform 
 their respective worship on Sundays in the same 
 church. Amidst such a multiplicity of penal laws, 
 some of which persecuted the dead body to the grave, 
 in forbidding, under certain penalties, to bury any 
 Catholic in the ruins of an old abbey, though built 
 ages before by his ancestors ; a Catholic could scarcely 
 have breathed outside the bars of a jail, had it not 
 been for the liberality of our Protestant neighbours, 
 who were too generous to enforce them. All the 
 liberal-minded Protestants in Ireland are for the Eman- 
 cipation of the Catholics to this very day. And such 
 as are under any bias now, would soon give up their 
 prejudice, or rather would never have indulged any, 
 if the law had made no distinction. 
 
 "Long before the magic sound of Protestant and 
 Papist, like the Trojan trumpet, had given the signal 
 to marshal them as hostile armies a^cainst each other 
 on account of their creeds, an insidious and destructive 
 policy was at a loss how to divide the natives of Ireland, 
 after they had sheathed the sword, and coalesced into 
 one extensive and friendly family. It had not then 
 the plea of difiference of religion, for their religion 
 
S74 Life and Writings of 
 
 was the same, nor the plea of interest, for it is the 
 interest of the inhabitants of the same land to live 
 in peace and harmony. At last, it compassed, by 
 playing on the passions, what it could not have effected 
 by religion or interest." O'Leary refers to the Glib 
 Act, passed in the twenty-eighth year of the reign 
 of Henry YIII., by which Irish noblemen, whether of 
 English or Norman descent, were to forfeit the privi- 
 leges of their original country if they did not shave the 
 upper lip. Thus, those warlike fools renewed their 
 bloody contests "for the splitting of a hair I" " And I," 
 says O'Leary, " consider such of the Protestants and 
 Catholics of Ireland full as great fanatics and fools 
 as the former, if their creed be the cause of their 
 quarrel ; not that I am such a latitudinarian as to 
 believe all religions alike. But true religion, instead 
 of inspiring rancour and hatred, commands us to love 
 and pity those who are in error. 
 
 " The fleecy beard and the glib or smooth lip were 
 both forgotten a few years after the Reformation, in the 
 appellation of Protestant and Papist: and thus the 
 same sanguinary system has been continued, with few 
 interruptions, for too long a time, to the destruction of 
 a kingdom, which, from its happy situation, the com- 
 modiousness of its harbours, the temperature of its 
 climate, the fertility of its soil, the manly and generous 
 disposition of its inhabitants, would realize whatever 
 poets have feigned concerning Fortunate Islands and 
 Hesperian Gardens. To do away the jealousy which 
 may hereafter operate to the same destructive effect, by 
 playing off the natives against each other, to their 
 mutual provocation and obstruction to the happiness 
 and prosperity of their common country, was the chief 
 motive which influenced my mind in recommending the 
 Union as the only effectual preventive. 
 
 " As to the happy effect of the Union, by making the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 375 
 
 residence of the clergy a check on the pernicious influence 
 of the vagrant Catholic priest, who sells his absolution 
 for all sorts of crimes, it is fancifully imagined, as it is 
 delicately expressed. The parson hereby assumes the 
 office of an exciseman to seize the contraband absolu- 
 tions of the priest, who becomes a smuggler — a well- 
 conceived plan for increasing the revenues of Ireland, 
 and refining the manners of her inhabitants. The 
 Protestant and Catholic clergy of Ireland have lived 
 together, for years, in the habits of freedom and friend- 
 ship ; when, by the laws of the country, the latter were 
 doomed to transportation for performing their religious 
 functions, the clergy of the Established Church never 
 turned informers, nor applied to members of Parliament 
 for the purpose of swelling with new laws, the enormous 
 penal code, on account of literary disputes ; it is not 
 from each other they have anything to fear ; but both 
 have everything to dread from the disciples of the New 
 Philosophy, which has made a rapid progress, amongst 
 their respective flocks. At the root of this system, and 
 not against any branch of the Christian religion which 
 professes obedience to the laws, the axe of power should 
 be laid; and nothing cherishes the growth of infidelity 
 more than publications which tend to expose the pastors 
 to the derision and contempt of those who were accus- 
 tomed, and whose duty it is, to respect them. 
 
 " It is needless to have recourse to France, where the 
 priest's cassock began to be considered by the higher 
 orders as an antiquated dress ; and the lower classes, 
 who afterwards burned the castle, and shed the blood of 
 the nobles, learned disrespect for their teachers from 
 those teachers* example. Ireland has of late afforded 
 but too melancholy an instance of the truth of this 
 remark. The habit of respect and submission to their 
 clergy was in such a manner an earnest pledge of the 
 obedience of the common people to the State, that, 
 
876 Life and Writings of 
 
 amidst so many wars and rebellions, since the Revo- 
 lution, until the destruction of monarchy in Frauce, 
 Ireland was not, one single hour, tainted with 
 the spirit of rebellion. Lord Chesterfield, on his 
 return from his viceroyship, informed George II. that 
 he had met in Ireland but two dangerous Papists, of 
 whom his Majesty should be aware — two ladies of the 
 name of Devereux, who had danced at the Castle on 
 the King's birthnight. All the viceroys of Ireland, 
 from Lord Chesterfield to Earl Camden, could have made 
 much a similar answer, if interrogated concerning what 
 is called the danger of Popery. 
 
 " If a number of the common people, in some coun- 
 tries, were seduced from the peaceable line of conduct 
 which they had hitherto pursued, the chief cause will, 
 as it ought to, be ascribed to their disobedience to their 
 pastors ; in consequence of the industrious propagation 
 of Tom Paine's pernicious principles, and the artifices of 
 people in power and consequence — of a religion, if any 
 they had, different from the Catholic persuasion. Other 
 collateral causes can be assigned, which it is the province 
 of the impartial historian to detail, when he lays open 
 the hidden springs of public transactions. But means 
 were used to weaken the confidence of the people in 
 their pastors, by representing them as so many impos- 
 tors, leagued with government for their oppression.* 
 
 * "This is so true, that the United Irishmen universally execrated 
 the Catholic clergy, as concurring both to disunite and prevent any 
 accession of strength, by their sermons and pastoral instructions ; and 
 impute partly the frustration of their plans to those very priests so 
 cruelly libelled by others from whom more candour and justice might 
 be expected. In all appearance, had the rebellion succeeded, there 
 would be none but constitutional priests and ministers, as immoral as 
 their Republican flocks. " — O'Leary. 
 
 How aptly does all O'Leary says here, wheth r in note or text, 
 apply to the circumstances of the present day in Ireland. The priests 
 are by many as foully traduced as ever. It is by decrying their au- 
 thority, and by that means only, success is supposed to attend revo- 
 
Rev. AHhur O'Leary. 877 
 
 " In the American war, when the combined fleets of 
 France and Spain were riding triumphant in the British 
 Channel, almost all the English forces engaged beyond 
 the Atlantic, and Ireland destitute of any regular de- 
 fence, except a few dismounted dragoons — the loyal and 
 peaceable conduct of the common people, attentive to 
 the instructions of their pastors, could be equalled only 
 by the union and exertions of the higher orders for the 
 protection of the kingdom. 
 
 " Many instances could I adduce, in which the peace- 
 ful voice of the priest was more effectual to quell riots 
 and disturbances, than the thunder of the cannon could 
 have been. In proportion as this influence is weakened 
 in a kingdom situated as Ireland is, the spirit of in- 
 fidelity and insubordination will strengthen. Remove 
 the restraints of religion from men of strong passions, 
 irritable dispositions, and desperate courage — let the 
 influence of their priests be destroyed, they will become 
 infidels. The kingdom will then be chiefly divided 
 between the infidels of the south, who will have no 
 religion, and the Dissenters of the north, whose religion 
 breathes freedom and independence from hierarchical 
 government. 
 
 "The maxim laid down by Dr. Law, a Protestant 
 bishop equally eminent for learning and liberality, is, 
 by far, more consistent with Christianity and sound 
 policy. * By far the greatest part of my diocesans,' said 
 the illustrious prelate, 'are of the Roman Catholic 
 persuasion. I cannot make good Protestants of them. 
 
 lAtion. Fenians is another name for United Irishmen— the cause is 
 the same ; the way by which their ends are to be attained are similar ; 
 m6delity is as rampant in Europe, in the world, as it was in the age 
 of Paine or the French Revolution ; an American war is concluded ; 
 an Iriwh republic ia the dream of the revolutionists. Would to God 
 the English government would, even at the eleventh hour, by just 
 legislation, dispel the clouds that lower more darkly than ever on 
 the pathway of Ireland. 
 
378 Life and Writings of 
 
 I wish to make them good Catholics ; and with this 
 intention I put into their hands the works of Doctor 
 Gother, an eminent Catholic divine.' 
 
 " If Doctor Law's maxim be followed, — if, instead of 
 having the people eternally harassed on the score of 
 religion, every one rests in peace under his own vine 
 and fig-tree, a Catholic priest, respected by his flock, 
 will be a safer guard to a Protestant clergyman, than a 
 regiment of the best disciplined soldiers. 
 
 " ' Let us uncatholicize France,' said Mirabeau, ' other- 
 wise we can never establish a Republican government.' 
 It is then much safer for the State to continue the 
 Catholic Catechism in the hands of the common people, 
 who are accustomed to it, than to expose them to the 
 danger of having Tom Paine's ' Age of Reason ' substi- 
 tuted in its room. And his Majesty will be more secure 
 on his throne, when a Catholic clergyman recommends 
 him and the Royal Family to God from the altar, than 
 when a Fifth Monarchy Man after reading in his Bible, 
 Thou shalt hind their kings in chains, and their nobles 
 in fetters of iron, acknowledges no king but King 
 Jesus ; when regicides inscribe on the muzzles of their 
 guns. Lord, thou shalt open 7)iy lips, and my mouth 
 shall announce thy praise. The history of England 
 affords but too many melancholy proofs of it. 
 
 "As to the blessings of civilization which are to be 
 extended to Ireland by the Union, any insinuation that 
 the Irish stand in need of it more than their neighbours 
 must hurt their pride. 
 
 " I suppose he means the lower orders of the Irish 
 people. All philosophical and unprejudiced travellers, 
 who have observed with attention their customs and 
 manners, acknowledge that they surpass the lower 
 orders of any other country in generosity, wit, vivacity, 
 manliness, and activity. It is not at St. Giles's or 
 Wapping, where their manners are vitiated by the 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 379 
 
 contagion of example, that the character of the lower 
 orders of the Irish is to be known. It is in the inland 
 and mountainous parts of Ireland, where barefooted 
 boys study the classics ; and where the civility of the 
 common people to strangers, and to each other, dis- 
 tins^uishes them as much from Dutch boors, and the 
 rustics of other countries, as education distinguishes a 
 well-bred man from a clown. It is not civilization but 
 bread and employment they stand in need of; and if it 
 be true that language and music were the first civilizers 
 that softened the savage manners of unpolished man, 
 it seems, from the inharmonious style of the author of 
 a publication which identifies, by a grammatical opposi- 
 tion, a Catholic priest and a vagrant, that he has not 
 such a stock of civilization to spare as to be enabled to 
 divide it with others without impoverishing himself, 
 though his rank in life entitles him to range in those 
 circles, one of whose first rules is that of good-breeding, 
 if the name which the editor has prefixed to the publi- 
 cation be not fictitious. 
 
 *'The Catholic clergy of Ireland, my lords, are not 
 vagrants ; they claim their descent from the most ancient 
 and noble families in that kingdom ; and, though pride 
 of birth attaches no consequence either to their persons 
 or profession, in the eyes of the patrons of liberty and 
 equality, yet it must have weight with your lordships. 
 For, in monarchies, where, according to Montesquieu, 
 there must be gradations of rank, and nobles, like your 
 lordships, whose titles and privileges are descendible 
 to their posterity, a certain regard must be paid to 
 lineage and pedigree : and if the day should ever come 
 (which Heaven avert !) when the gentleman should be 
 confounded with the clown, and the priest with the 
 vagrant, away with the coronet and the armorial 
 bearings. * My name is JSqvxility' said the late Duke 
 of Orleans, — the unhappy man prophesied. His head 
 
380 Life and Writings of 
 
 fell with equal honor, from the edge of the guillotine, 
 into the same basket with the head of the sans-culotte. 
 If, then, the author of the worse than illiberal publication 
 alluded to in this address, be that man of consequence 
 whose name the editor prefixed to it, he forgets himself, 
 and the regard due to the dignity of rank, and the rules 
 of common decency, when he treats gentlemen of family, 
 and of a liberal education, such as the clergy of Ireland, 
 with a million times less ceremony than it would be in 
 his power to treat a pilfering crew of strolling gipsies. 
 
 " The ancestors, my lords, of the Catholic clergy of 
 Ireland, had the religion which the Christian world 
 professed, and the estates and castles of their fathers, 
 ages before Tudors and Stuarts had ascended the 
 British throne. From the contemporary historians of 
 their own and other nations, and ancient monuments 
 daily rescued from ruins and watery wastes, their charac- 
 ter must be drawn; notfromHume,andsimilar historians, 
 as unfaithful in their narratives with regard to 
 Ireland, as they are infidels with regard to Revelation. 
 
 "Amidst the various changes that happened in 
 Europe, the descendants of those Catholics preserved 
 their religion, which persecution contributed to rivet 
 deeper into their minds ; as the more the wind at- 
 tempted to strip the traveller of his cloak, the closer he 
 held it. But their estates and castles they lost, rather 
 than renounce their duty to God, and their allegiance 
 to their kings ; one of whom had the base ingratitude to 
 confirm to Cromwell's soldiers, tinged with his royal 
 father's blood, the lands of the nobility and gentry who 
 had fought his father's battles and his own." 
 
 He goes on to trace the progress of penal persecution 
 under Queen Anne in words which we have quoted 
 elsewhere,* and warns " those to whom the destinies 
 
 * See Page 11. 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 381 
 
 have been more propitious/' against aggravating our 
 calamities, by loading us with gross slander, and worse 
 than degrading epithets, especially as " this is not an 
 age for the triumph of overbearing contempt towards 
 the descendants of the victims of the revolutions of 
 former times, when Europe is threatened with a more 
 extraordinary revolution than that which has reduced 
 the Catholics of Ireland to their present situation." 
 
 " Solomon," he continues, " said in his time, there's 
 nothing new under the sun. About a century and a 
 half ago, England's king was brought to the scaflfold ; 
 her princes and nobles and other loyalists, emigrants in 
 France and other countries, where they were hospitably 
 received as the emigrants of those countries are now in 
 their turn generously received in England; and, in 
 derision of the peerage, draymen were placed by an 
 usurper in that very house where your lordships shine 
 with such lustre. 
 
 " Little was it expected about a century ago, when a 
 Prince of the House of Orange was seated on the British 
 throne, after having placed a guard over James the 
 Second, his father-in-law, in the palace 'of Hampton 
 Court, that his successor in the Stadtholdership of Hol- 
 land, dethroned by his rebellious subjects, would be un- 
 der the necessity of taking up his residence in the very 
 same palace where a king of England had been a kind of 
 prisoner before. An awful instance of the vicissitudes of 
 human afifairs, which should inspire princes themselves 
 with humanity and compassion for the oppressed, when 
 they not only know that they are doomed to die as other 
 mortals, but are, moreover, exposed, from the inconstancy 
 of fortune, to survive their power. 'Go,' said Marius, once 
 the master of Rome, and conqueror of the Cimbri, * go 
 and tell the Governor of Africa, that you have seen 
 Marius perishing with hunger on the ruins of Carthage:* 
 alluding to the instability of human grandeur, in the 
 
382 • Life and Writings of 
 
 downfall of sucli a State, and the change of his own 
 fortune. 
 
 " When we see kingdoms and empires fall, as it were, 
 one upon another — when we see kings and queens, a 
 few years back the idols of their subjects, eclipsing in 
 splendor the pomp and magnificence of oriental gran- 
 deur — when we see them bleeding on scaffolds, and 
 their bodies deprived of those funeral rites which 
 decency owes to humanity, we are convinced that 
 uncertainty, inconstancy, and agitation are the proper 
 portions of all sublunary affairs ; and that the greatest 
 abuse of power is to triumph and insult over oppressed 
 innocence. 
 
 " The Catholic clergy of Ireland, then, should not be 
 singled out as objects of defamation and invective for 
 having fallen victims to those reverses of fortune to 
 which crowned heads, princes, and nobles are exposed — 
 in their poverty they have birth and honor which nei- 
 ther revolutions nor penal laws can affect ; no immoral 
 man is ever allowed to officiate at their altars ; when 
 their prelates, who are ever watchful over the inferior 
 clergy, discover any who depart from the line of duty 
 required by the sanction of their profession, they sus- 
 pend or excommunicate them, and thus cut them off 
 from the communion of the Catholic Church." 
 
 Such are the general style and reasoning of this address, 
 the force of which must be evident to the most casual 
 reader ; and such was the mode of argumentation by 
 which this remarkable man removed prejudices, and 
 smoothed the way for tolerant legislation. Appended 
 to the address is a strong denunciation of the principle 
 involved in a motion brought before the House of Com- 
 mons by Sir Harry Mildmay for the suppression of 
 monastic institutions in England. This worthy baronet 
 would seem, like some well-meaning but strongly- 
 biased senators of our own day, to have got into his 
 
Rev. Aiihur O'Leary. ' 383 
 
 head that monks and nuns dream of little else than 
 laying toils for the capture of Protestant children, whom 
 they, by some mysterious process, convert, chiefly under 
 threats of imprisonment in underground cellars, and 
 gradual starvation in those " deep solitudes and awful 
 cells." All kinds of stories, no matter how monstrous 
 and absurd, were related about those conversions, and 
 swallowed by a credulous public. "Two thousand of 
 the common people," it was said, " chiefly servant maids, 
 were converted by the French clergy in one part of 
 London in the space of two years." " That is to say," 
 says O'Leary, "more than all the Catholic clergy of 
 England have converted since the reign of Elizabeth." 
 
 "The French clergy," he continues, "mostly half- 
 starved and half-naked poor people, in spite of the 
 generosity of the government, on account of the small- 
 ness of their allowance, and the dearth of provisions, are 
 ill-qualified for making converts. They sleep five or 
 six, or by trios, in poor places that cannot afford to have 
 servant maids — they do not know English ; servant 
 maids don't know French. These poor priests make 
 their own beds, and cook their own soup and vegetables. 
 I have preached in the chapels in London near twelve 
 years, and I have not reconciled one single servant maid 
 to the Catholic Church. More of them are ruined in 
 London in one month, than will be converted in ten 
 thousand years. It were much better they were con- 
 verted than cast on the town ; and little would the state 
 suffer if a London cinder-woman embraced the religion 
 of 80 many empresses and queens." 
 
 It is unnecessary to follow him in his treatment of 
 this subject. The eyes of honest English and Irish 
 Protestants, have long since been opened to the absurd 
 lies and puerile inventions with which it has been sought 
 to vilify mona.stic and conventual institutions. All 
 candid men, whatever be their religious predilections, 
 
384 Life and WHtings of 
 
 acknowledge that those who shut themselves up in 
 monasteries do so to promote, in the manner they think 
 best, their own spiritual welfare, and the welfare of their 
 neighbours, as far as their rule permits; and that there 
 are few institutions in the world that present to huma- 
 nity a spectacle more sublime than those convents 
 where ladies of birth and fortune reside, teaching the 
 children of the poor the way of salvation — rescuing the 
 youthful of their sex from miseries worse than death — 
 throwing the shield of their protection around the 
 houseless orphan, and the drifting outcast of the streets; 
 and never quitting their enclosure, save to assist at the 
 bed-side of the sick and the dying, to cherish if possible 
 the flickering spark of life, and, when all hope fails, to 
 attune the last sigh into a note of penitential sorrow, 
 and an aspiration for mercy at the throne of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 We have alluded to the insurrection of '98. The 
 excesses that took place in Ireland during that event- 
 ful year filled O'Leary's mind with intense sorrow. An 
 attempt was made then, as often before and since, 
 to give a religious complexion to the contest — to show 
 that it was a war of Catholics against Protestants, 
 instead of the spirited uprising of an oppressed people 
 against tyranny and exaction. Well-known as O'Leary's 
 feelings were for years on the subject of loyalty to the 
 ruling powers, his name was maliciously calumniated 
 by at least one writer, as a fomenter of rebellion — a 
 proof that the very purest character is not safe from 
 a malignant tongue. Sir Richard Musgrave, in his 
 libellous compilation of the Irish rebellions, introduced 
 his name most wantonly and insultingly, and in such 
 a manner as to demand a direct and comprehensive 
 reply. To the work of self-vindication O'Leary pro- 
 ceeded with all the fire and elasticity of earlier years. 
 He collected materials for a full historical account of 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leai^y. 385 
 
 all the rebellions that had taken place in Ireland since 
 the Conquest, and was about weaving them into a volu- 
 minous narrative, when the near approach of his last hour 
 warned him to desist, and turn his thous^hts to hisfher 
 speculations. His labors, however, were not vain ; for 
 his friend, Mr. Francis Plowden, who was engaged just 
 then in preparing, at the request of Mr. Pitt, his " His- 
 torical Review of the State of Ireland," was glad to 
 avail himself of O'Leary's notes, which were copious 
 and authentic, and to interweave them with his own — 
 thus producing one of the best and fullest treatises on 
 the political history of Ireland that ever issued from 
 the press. O'Leary did not live to enjoy the satis- 
 faction which the pubhcation of so important a work 
 was calculated to give him; but it is well posterity 
 should know how far the author was indebted to his 
 co-operation. 
 
 2 c 
 
386 Life and Writings of 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 Father O'Leary's Health declines still more— He proceeds to France 
 for Change of Air — Shocked by the Changes resulting from the 
 Revolution, he returns — The Ship driven to Ramsgate — He pro- 
 ceeds to London — His Death — His Obsequies and Interment — 
 Eulogies of him in the Press — ^The Author's visit to St. Pancras' 
 Churchyard — Account of the Present State of Father O'Leary's 
 Tomb — The " Sham Squire's " Legacy to O'Leary — O'Leary's 
 " Tracts "—Conclusion. 
 
 We approach the last scene of O'Leary's busy and use- 
 ful life. Disease and increasing age were beginning to 
 produce their inevitable effect. The gloom that in 
 former years overshadowed his mind only intermit- 
 tingly, now became permanent. To most men the final 
 hour comes darkly and excites no fears, because a failing 
 mind cannot behold its terrors in all their formidable 
 proportions ; but O'Leary's intellect was clear and vigor- 
 ous to the last, and his keen religious perceptions invested 
 death with all its tremendous realities ; not that he 
 feared to die, through a cowardly apprehension of pain 
 in the act or thereafter, but that he felt, as all good men 
 will feel, that he must be pure indeed who can stand 
 without trembling before the all-just God. Earthly 
 considerations, too, intensified this gloom. He had had, 
 during life, to contend with bad men, — disgusted with 
 the perfidy of statesmen, he had, perhaps, regretted not 
 having taken a higher standard of honor and self- 
 respect for his guidance in the acceptance of govern- 
 ment liberality and royal patronage — he had witnessed 
 the selfishness of mankind, and the instability of human 
 friendship, and " the vain pomp and glory of the 
 world ;" and yet, he had led a life of which any man 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 387 
 
 might be proud — on his fair name there was no blot — 
 he was a thorough churchman, and yet a citizen of the 
 world — he scourged vice, and exhorted to virtue — he 
 was a patriot to the heart's core ; no monarch ever had 
 a more loyal subject, and mankind never so devoted a 
 friend. The epitaph ambitioned by a more modern and 
 not less patriotic Irishman, Thomas Davis, might well 
 be inscribed on the tomb of O'Leary : — 
 
 *' His name was writ on his country's mind, 
 He loved his country, and served his kind." 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1801, his health had 
 declined so perceptibly, that his physicians recom- 
 mended him to winter in the south of France, and he 
 proceeded to follow their instructions. Accompanied 
 by Dr. Magrath, a medical friend, he crossed the Chan- 
 nel. He did not go far into France, but he went far 
 enough to be shocked by the deplorable contrast which 
 the country presented with its condition in the ex- 
 perience of his youthful years. The whole aspect of 
 society was now changed — democracy was rampant — 
 passion had wrought ruin, and piled monuments of 
 the dehna it had made. O'Leary was disgusted. "There 
 is not now," be cried, " a gentleman in all France !" 
 He could not regain his health in a country which he 
 loved so much, and could not bear to see so sadly de- 
 faced. He returned to England, not with the ease and 
 rapidity so agreeable to the valetudinarian of our day, but 
 tempest- tossed and tediously. The vessel which made 
 for Dover, was driven to Ramsgate. There he landed, 
 and drove to London, where he arrived on the 7th of 
 January, 1802. The extreme fatigue and sea-sickness 
 he had endured aggravated his sufferings, and it was 
 now manifest to his friends that the fatal hour was 
 nigh. He died^the foUowing'day, at 45, Great Portland- 
 street. His demise was almost sudden. Only that a 
 
388 Life and Writings of 
 
 friend, Mr. John Murphy, of Howland-street, chanced 
 to enter his room, he would have expired without 
 receiving the rites of the Church. Mr. Murphy seeing 
 his dangerous condition, procured the attendance of the 
 Rev. Mr. Gaffy, who administered extreme unction to 
 his dying friend, and in whose presence he breathed 
 forth the sigh of dissokition. 
 
 From the newspapers of the day, we gather a full and 
 accurate account of Father O'Leary's obsequies. On 
 the evening of Wednesday, January the 13th, his 
 remains were removed from Portland-street to St. 
 Patrick's Chapel, the place founded by his zeal and 
 consecrated by his talents and virtues. The chapel 
 was hung with black, and on the pall spread over the 
 coffin were seen the emblems of the Catholic faith, with 
 the cap and other insignia of the order to which the 
 deceased had belonged. High Mass was celebrated 
 with becoming solemnity, and the " Grand Dirge " (as 
 the chroniclers of the event call it) was performed in 
 the most sublime style of sacred music ; Mr. Webb, a 
 very distinguished musician, presiding at the organ, 
 accompanied by an orchestra, filled with the first vocal 
 performers of the day in London. But, however 
 impressive the sacred music was, and though every 
 heart strongly vibrated to the plaintive notes, yet the 
 triumph of eloquence came last, and forced from every 
 eye the gushing testimony of real sorrow. The Rev. 
 Morgan D'Arcy ascended the pulpit, and delivered a 
 magnificent funeral oration. He enlarged on the 
 memorable events of a life devoted to the cause of 
 religion and humanity, to national services and private 
 beneficence. The strong emotions of the speaker were 
 felt by the whole audience. He alternately melted 
 them into tears for the dead, and elevated their souls 
 to heaven.* 
 
 * See Saundera's Newa-Letter of Jan. 20th, 1802. 
 
Eev. Arthur O'Leary.: 389 
 
 A congrefration of nearly two thousand real mourners, 
 including a vast number of Catholic clergy, and gentry 
 of all persuasions, concurred in this tribute of regret for 
 the loss of so great and so good a man — the funeral 
 was attended to the place of interment, at St. Pancras', 
 by four mourning coaches and a vast concourse of 
 people. 
 
 In the Dublin Evening Post of January the 26th, 
 1802, we find the following : — " The Reverend Doctor 
 O'Leary's* body, after having been interred at St. 
 Pancras', in England, a few days ago, was taken 
 from the grave at the desire of his particular friend, 
 Lord Petre, who insisted that he should be interred 
 in his lordship's family vault, at Thornden, in 
 Essex." 
 
 Whether this be true or not, certain it is that Father 
 O'Leary's body lies in the Old St. Pancras' churchyard, 
 London, where a monument was erected to his memory, 
 by his faithful and admiring friend, Lord Moira. It is 
 remarkable that, for many years, by some strange 
 oversight, the words Requiescat in pace, usually in- 
 scribed on the tombs of Roman Catholics, was omitted 
 on O'Leary's monument — it was subsequently supplied 
 by a friend, who could scarcely find room for it, and, 
 consequently, had it inserted in a part of the monument 
 where it seems strangely out of place. 
 
 A monument was also erected to the memory of 
 O'Leary in St. Patrick's Chapel, which may be seen 
 by the visitor, inserted in the wall on the right 
 hand side, on entering. It bears the following 
 inscription : — 
 
 • It may be here remarked that Father O'Leary was entitled 
 " Doctor" by many who have spoken and written of him. There in 
 no evidence to show that he had any claim to the appellation except 
 intriiuic merit, and the courtesy of his friends. 
 
390 Life and Writings of 
 
 SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE 
 
 KEVEREND ARTHUR O'LEARY, O.S.F., 
 
 WHOSE USEFUL LABORS IN THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD, 
 IN FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND IRELAND HIS NATIVE COUNTRY, 
 
 DURING THE SPACE OF FORTY-FOUR YEARS, 
 AND THE GREAT IMPROVEMENT OF THE MORALS OF THE POOR, 
 
 WHEREVER HE PREACHED THE GOSPEL, 
 BEAR TESTIMONY OF HIS FERVID PIETY, DISCREET ZEAL, 
 
 AND STEADY LOYALTY. 
 HE DIED IN LONDON, THE EIGHTH DAY OF JANUARY, MDCCCII. 
 AGED 72. 
 REQUIESCAT IN PACE. 
 
 The journals of the day bore high testimony to the 
 character, talents, and influence of O'Leary. Had he 
 been a distinguished minister of state, they could not 
 have referred to his death in terms of more profound 
 regret, or lauded him in language more eulogistic. 
 Ah uno disce omnes. We copy the following from the 
 Dublin Evening Post of January 14, 1802 : — 
 
 " Friday last departed this life, at one o'clock, at his 
 residence, Great Portland-street, London, the Reverend 
 Arthur O'Leary, a Roman Catholic clergyman of singular 
 endowments and the most distinguished urbanity of 
 manners. His literary talents had long acquired for 
 him the esteem of the man of learning, the accomplished, 
 classical, and literary scholar. Conversant in all the 
 languages, deeply read in philosophy, and perfectly 
 acquainted with the belles lettres, his correspondence 
 was sought throughout Europe ; and whether he lolled 
 in the easy chair of Cervantes, or employed his pen in 
 the polemics with those who differed from him on topics 
 of religious toleration, yet a happy vein of humour enli- 
 
Rev. Arthur OLeatnj. 891 
 
 vened his writings without staining his pages with 
 anything approaching to licentiousness or grossness of 
 diction. In his manner he was bold, energetic, and 
 luminous. He disdained the turgid style of the phleg- 
 matic monk, and while his reasoning was close and 
 convincing, a happy playfulness decorated his style and 
 rendered topics of a nature the most dull and gloomy 
 both pleasant and interesting to the reader. In the 
 pulpit, though he spoke the broad provincial dialect, he 
 was still followed by an English auditory, who admired 
 the moral doctrines which he inculcated, and esteemed 
 him as a pastor who, in enforcing a system of general 
 morality, never disturbed the faith of others. Such was 
 Doctor O'Leary, whose writings and tracts procured for 
 him the esteem and veneration of the first characters. 
 On his removing to the British metropolis, he displayed 
 the most unceasing exertions for indulgence of religious 
 worship to his flock, and succeeded in erecting the 
 Chapel of St. Patrick, where he was frequently a most 
 powerful advocate imploring relief for those in want. He 
 was more than a faithful trustee, as he seldom had in 
 his possession a second shilling, and perhaps little of 
 wearing apparel but what he bestowed on the distressed, 
 who in numbers thronged around him, assured of relief. 
 His company was sought by the most fashionable ranks 
 of society, as his conversation and simplicity of manners 
 endeared him to that extended circle which must ever 
 remember him with a tear of regret, and who can never 
 forget him but with the termination of their existence." 
 
 Sixty-six years have passed since the body of O'Leary 
 wa« deposited in the earth, and it may be interesting to 
 know in what condition is his tomb at the present day. 
 I shall satisfy the reader's curiosity on that subject. 
 
 On Sunday, the 7th of July, 1867, accompanied by a 
 friend, I paid a visit to the churchyard of Old St. Pancras, 
 in order that I might see with my own eyes the spot 
 
.392 Life and Writings of 
 
 where lay the remains of the great and good Arthur 
 O'Leary. I fancied that we should experience little diffi- 
 culty in discovering the tomb, but it was only after a long 
 and careful search, and when we had almost given up 
 the task in despair, that we chanced to fall in its way. 
 Service was going on in the church at the time, other- 
 wise we would have solicited the assistance of the 
 sexton ; but as the day was fine, and we were naturally 
 curious to inspect the whole churchyard, we preferred 
 making the search unaided. For some reason or other — 
 it is said because the rector of the church was the last 
 to yield to the change established at the Protestant 
 Reformation — the churchyard attached to the old 
 Church of St. Pancras was, prior to the closing of 
 London graveyards, the favorite burial-place of 
 the Catholic Irish, and here some of the most dis- 
 tinguished clergymen and laymen were interred. 
 During- the French Eevolution, the French Catholic 
 refugees who died in London were also buried here, 
 and one sees in the place tombs to some of the most 
 illustrious of the French noblesse. So holy is the 
 cemetery deemed, that it is understood that, even to 
 this day, prayers are periodically offered up at St. 
 Peter's at Rome, for the souls of those whose bodies 
 are mouldering there. The ground, being overcrowded, 
 was closed years ago, and thus passed under the protec- 
 tion of the government. Unfortunately for the sacred 
 quiet of the spot, the Midland Railway, in its advance 
 into London, found this churchyard in its way. Forth- 
 with the Midland Railway Company and the trustees 
 of the burial-ground meet and agree, and an act is 
 quietly got from Parliament to allow the railway to 
 pass over the pauper end of the ground on a high 
 pillared elevation. This was bad enough, but finding 
 that not sufficient, the Railway Company got another 
 act, in the same silent way, which empowered them to 
 
Rev. Arthur CLeat^. 393 
 
 tunnel under the graves at not less than twelve feet 
 from the surface. 
 
 In the process of tunneling, many coffins and re- 
 mains fell through, which were transferred to another 
 portion of the graveyard with their respective tomb- 
 stones. Between the two lines of railway, lies the 
 body of Father O'Leary, or at least as much of it as 
 time has spared, and over it is a fine square monu- 
 ment, in very good condition, but which stands so close 
 to one railway line that the grave narrowly escaped 
 desecration. The original monument, which was 
 erected by Earl Moira, was repaired by public sub- 
 scription in 1851. The inscription is less remarkable 
 for its glowing panegyric, than for its bad English — 
 " Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary, 
 O.S.F., a man eminently gifted by nature and learning ; 
 he employed those talents in promoting the glory of 
 God, and the good of any fellow-creature without dis- 
 tinction. He prayed, wept, and felt for all : of whom 
 it may be truly said, that his life was the best comment 
 of his writings, as the benevolence they breathe was 
 enlivened and recommended by his example even in 
 the moment when he was called to receive the reward 
 of both. Obiit 8 Jan., 1802. ^Etat 72." On the other 
 side of the tomb are these words — "This monument 
 was erected at the sole expense of the Right Hon. 
 Earl Moira, as a token of respect from him to the 
 virtues and talents of the late Venerable Father 
 O'Leary, O.3.F." 
 
 I have been informed that a Cork gentleman of con- 
 siderable influence, residing in London, conceived, a 
 few years ago, the idea of setting on foot a movement 
 to have Father O'Leary 's remains brought over to 
 Cork, where he lived and labored so long, and where 
 his name is cherished as a household word. Certainly, 
 now that the resting-place of so many distinguished 
 
394 Life and Writings of 
 
 men and women has been so much encroached upon by 
 public highways, as to become almost a common, it 
 were well that the remains of at least one great man 
 should find a fitter repository than St. Pancras' church- 
 yard ; and surely no more suitable spot could be selected 
 for their re-interment than the Botanic Cemetery, opened 
 for public use by the great Apostle of Temperance, the 
 brother in religion and distinguished successor of 
 O'Leary in that city, to which, though strangers, they 
 both providentially converged, and which they honored 
 by the most exalted virtues, and which they have graced 
 by the most hallowed memories. 
 
 From a copy of the last will and testament of Francis 
 Higgins, the " Sham Squire," kindly placed at our dis- 
 posal by Mr. Fitzpatrick, we find that that worthy left 
 the sum of one hundred pounds to the Reverend Arthur 
 O'Leary, whom he styles, in odd language enough, his 
 " long and faithful friend." The grounds of this strange 
 friendship we are at a loss to discover — but the " Sham 
 Squire" had many respectable acquaintances, and by his 
 clever hypocrisy succeeded in concealing from public 
 gaze the deformities of his character, which have been 
 only recently exposed to public view by a too candid 
 biographer. O'Leary, however, never touched a penny 
 of the " Sham's " money, inasmuch as they both died 
 within a few days of each other. To Colonel Andrew 
 D. O'Kelly, also O'Leary's friend already alluded to in 
 these pages, the " Sham Squire" left the sum of £300, 
 adding, in testimony of his extreme regard for that 
 gentleman, that if he did not know him to be in great 
 affluence, he would have freely granted him all his pro- 
 perty. 
 
 Father O'Leary's " Tracts " were first published in a 
 collected form in the year 1781, and his subsequent 
 publications were added in new editions. A volume 
 of his sermons also passed through the press. From 
 
Rev. Arthur O'Leary. 395 
 
 those admirable discourses, many excellent extracts 
 could be made ; but our main object in the present 
 work has been to place this remarkable personage 
 before the world, not as the mere priest or preacher, 
 but as the great advocate of man's social rights, and the 
 expounder of man's social duties — the apostle, by ex- 
 cellence, of religious toleration — the just delineator of 
 the reciprocal obligations of loyalty and legislation. We 
 now bid him farewell. Ireland may be justly proud of 
 him. He had all the qualities of a genuine son of Erin — 
 the name, the accent, the quick wit, the true humour, 
 the keen intellect, the indifference to wealth, the warm 
 friendship, and the indiscriminate hospitality, but, above 
 all, the steadfast adherence to the " old faith," in the 
 cause of which he displayed the valor of a hero, and 
 the love of country which was second only to the love 
 of his Creator. Would that this faint echo of his words, 
 and this dim reflection of his example, might tend, in 
 some measure, to bring about amongst Irishmen of all 
 creeds and classes that union which is strength, that 
 mutual charity and forbearance which is the golden 
 rule of our common Christianity. In the words, then, 
 of Arthur O'Leary, let us address all the world, and par- 
 ticularly Irishmen : " Let not religion, the sacred name 
 of religion, which, even in the face of an enemy, dis- 
 covers a brother, be any longer a wall of separation to 
 keep us asunder." 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A Funeral Oration on the late Rev. Arthur O^Leary, O.S.F,, 
 pronounced at St. Patrick's CJiapel, Sutton-street, Soho- 
 square, Jan. 14th, 1802, by the Rev. Morgan UArcy, late 
 R. C. Curate of St. Mary's Parish, Dublin, now a Chaplain 
 of St. Patrick's Chapel, London.* 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. 
 
 The author of the following discourse thinks it incumbent on 
 him to submit a short statement as an apology for presenting 
 the public with so unfinished a production. 
 
 The venerable and regretted subject of the discourse having 
 departed this life on Friday, the 8th instant, the solicitous ap- 
 prehensions of some of his friends had determined them to have 
 his remains interred on the Tuesday following. But as the 
 Solemn Dirge was appointed for the following Thursday, and 
 many having expressed a wish that the poor of that quarter, to 
 whose spiritual advantage he had so long devoted his labors, 
 might be gratified with even a sight of his remains, it was 
 resolved they should be removed, for that day, to St. Patrick's 
 Chapel, thence to be conveyed to the place of interment. It 
 was not until late on the evening of the intermediate Sunday 
 that the author had the honor of a note from the Eight Rev. 
 Dr. Douglass, Bishop of Centurise, intimating a wish that some- 
 thing might be said from the pulpit on the approaching melan- 
 choly occasion. Unexpected as was the request, and arduous 
 as must have appeared the attempt, to a person unsettled from 
 a very recent arrival in London, and unprovided with docu- 
 ments which could assist in the undertaking ; still, a respect for 
 the venerable prelate, and affection for the memory of his 
 departed friend, were imperative in determining him to arrange 
 
 * We give the Oration from a printed copy in our possession, pub- 
 lished in London by Keating, Brown, and Keating, 37, Duke-street, 
 Grosvenor-square, and bearing date 1802. 
 
Appendix. 397 
 
 in his mind the following ideas, which the shortness of the time 
 did not then permit him to commit to paper. Notwithstanding 
 these disadvantages, the discourse, it seems, gave general satis- 
 faction, and it was not long before many and reiterated appli- 
 cations were made to him, from different and respectable 
 quarters, to give it to the public. To the solicitations of his 
 friends he has reluctantly yielded ; and though conscious of 
 having no claim whatever to public indulgence himself, he pre- 
 sumes to hope that the errors which may be found in the course 
 of this publication, like spots on the sun's disc, will be lost in 
 the lustre of those virtues that emblazon the name of the vene- 
 rable O'Leary. 
 Bateman's Buildings, Jan*. 30th, 1802. 
 
 *' I have fought a good fight, I have iinished my coarse, I have kept 
 the faith."— 2 Tim. iv. 2. 
 
 How consoling for the minister of religion, after having, 
 with conscientious regularity, discharged the arduous and 
 painful duties of a long and laborious ministry, to be thus able, 
 towards life's close, to express those heaven-cheering dictates of 
 a self-approving conscience ! Such was the language of the 
 great Apostle of Nations, at the eve of his mortal dissolution, 
 to his beloved disciple, Timothy ; and such, with justice, after 
 a useful and honorable career of upwards of seventy years, might 
 have lately been the language of the great and good man to 
 whose revered memory we are now assembled to pay the last 
 Bad and sacred honors, the zealous minister of a Saviour-God, 
 and ever attentive to the salutary admonitions of the same 
 Apostle, " he preached the word, he reproved, rebuked, and 
 exhorted, with all long-suffering and doctrine ; he fought the 
 good fight, he finished his course, he preserved the faith." 
 . To shed a tear on the tomb of departed worth, to recall to 
 our mindis and propose to our imitation the generous exertions, 
 the noble struggles, and heroic virtues of those distinguished 
 friends and benefactors of mankind who have finished their 
 '•urse, and disappeiured from off this world's busy theatre, must 
 ■ '<: grateful to our feelings, and is, doubtless, highly befitting 
 our ministry. Gratefiil, however, as is the task to the best 
 
398 Appendix. 
 
 feelings of my heart, unfavorably circumstanced as I am, and 
 intimately convinced of my inability, I should have shrunk 
 from it with becoming diffidence, nor should I have presumed 
 to come forward the panegyrist of a man, to do justice to whose 
 character no less than the abilities of an O'Leary would be ne- 
 cessary, had not an intimation of the will of my illustrious and 
 venerable prelate rendered my compliance a sacred duty. I 
 shall offer, then, a few words on the melancholy occasion as a 
 tribute of obedience to his respected authority ; I shall offer 
 them, brethren, to your consolation, I shaU consecrate them to 
 virtue, to religion, to the honored dead. 
 
 Arthur O'Leary, descended from an ancient and illustrious 
 family of the province of Munster, was bom in the county of 
 Cork, of pious and respectable parents, who, with a tender soli- 
 citude, sowed in his infant mind those seeds of virtue and reli- 
 gion which afterwards produced so fair and abundant a crop. 
 He was trained up, from his infancy, in the way he should go, 
 nor did he depart from it in his old age. 
 
 At an early period he was added to the long list of honor- 
 able exiles who were obliged to seek in foreign countries that 
 education which was denied them in the land of their fathers. 
 Having finished the ordinary course of academical studies in 
 the college of St. Malo, in Brittany, he embraced the austerities 
 of the monastic life in the most mortified branch of the Fran- 
 ciscan Order. Here it was, in the silence and solitude of the 
 cloister, sequestered from the allurements and dangers of a vain 
 and deceitful world, that he acquired that swmy over his passions 
 which he ever after so uninterruptedly maintained through hf e, 
 and here it was that he enriched his capacious mind with those 
 treasures of sacred and profane science, that he sedulously im- 
 proved those virtues, and cultivated those talents which have 
 procured for him an undisputed place among the best bene- 
 factors and brightest ornaments of his country. Nothing as 
 yet appears to have occurred capable of disturbing the peaceful 
 tenor of his way in the conscientious observance of the rule of 
 his order, until after an interval of some years, when we find 
 him called from his retirement to a more active discharge of 
 the duties of his ministry, being entrusted, by his ecclesi- 
 astical superiors, with the spiritual conduct and consolation 
 of those of his country and communion whom the fortune 
 of war had then crowded into the prisons of Brittany. And 
 here let us not pass over in silence an occurrence which, 
 while it exhibits to our view the manly and enlightened 
 
Appendix. 899 
 
 inflexibility of his principles, furnishes us at the same time 
 with a proof of that love of his country, and unshaken 
 loyalty to his sovereign, which ever through life marked his 
 conduct. Repeated overtures had been made to the Catholic 
 soldiers and sailors, then prisoners, to abandon the cause of 
 their rightful sovereign, and enlist under the banners of the 
 French monarch ; nor can it be a matter of much wonder, if, 
 among men of that description, many of whom are too often 
 found but ill-instructed in the true principles of religion, and 
 smarting under the accumulated miseries inseparable from their 
 calamitous situation, some were found ready to purchase liberty 
 by the sacrifice of principle, and rally round the standard of a 
 prince of their own communion ; but no sooner had their 
 enlightened chaplain received intimation of these proceedings, 
 than, soaring above aU human and selfish considerations, as a 
 true evangelical descendant of St. Patrick, who, most assuredly, 
 did not announce to .the Irish people a gospel different from 
 that which St. Paul had before preached to the Romans, even 
 under a Nero, he, without hesitation, explains to them their 
 duty as men and Chri.stians, pointing out to them, in his own 
 energetic manner, the incompatibility of the conduct proposed 
 with the eternal principles of the Christian religion, and the 
 invariable doctrine of the Catholic Church. Forgetful of the dis- 
 qualifications and penalties that awaited him in the land of his 
 nativity, and unbiassed by the many obligations he felt himself 
 under to the government and country which afforded him an 
 a.sylum in his exile, and threw open to him the radiance of 
 mental day — ever deeply impressed with the doctrine and ex- 
 ample of his divine Master, and convinced that while God was 
 to be faithfully served, Caesar was also to have his due, he 
 reclaimed the determined, he confirmed the wavering, he en- 
 lightened all ; and thus preserving those brave veterans for the 
 service of their country and king, he sent them back in due 
 time to fight again, and perhaps to die in those very ranks 
 where not only the profession, but even the mere suspicion of 
 Catholic principles exposed them at that time to the severity of 
 military chastisement ; he sent them back to rally once more 
 round the standard of that beneficent and much revered mo- 
 narch, the chief glory of whose auspicious reign has been to 
 have graciously stretched forth the fostering hand of alleviation 
 to a long-oppressed, prostrate, and grateful people, which will 
 form a brighter page in his history than all those unprecedented 
 victories and brilliant achievements that disconcerted the 
 
400 Appendix. 
 
 ambitious projects of a hostile and conciliated the veneration of 
 an admiring world. 
 
 Thus do we see, in our own days, realized, nay, surpassed, by 
 this humble son of St. Francis, that rigid virtue which we so 
 much admire in the Aristides and KeguU of ancient Greece and 
 Kome ; and thus did O'Leary labor to promote his country's 
 good and sovereign's glory, by an undeviating adherence to those 
 very principles which had rendered him an alien in that same 
 loved country, a dereliction of which opened an easy passage to 
 worldly honors and emoluments, and would, perhaps, with talents 
 like his, have sent him to legislate for the empire, among those 
 illustrious personages whom he lately addressed in a style of 
 evangelical freedom and manly fortitude, tempered at the same 
 time with Christian moderation and respect for the constituted 
 authorities, not unworthy the Tertullians or Justins of Christian 
 antiquity. 
 
 The happy termination of the " seven years' war," which took 
 place some time after, terminated also the labors of his mis- 
 sion in France, and restored him once more to his native 
 country. And here it may not be unworthy to remark, that soon 
 after this period, social harmony began to succeed to that 
 mutual hatred and foul distrust which had too long divided 
 Irishman from Irishman, brother from brother, and discovered 
 an enemy in the face of every man who ventured to worship the 
 Supreme Being according to the creed of his ancestors or the 
 dictates of his conscience ; after a long and tempestuous night 
 of religious intolerance and civil disfranchisement, the day- 
 spring of toleration and benevolence began about this time 
 to brighten our horizon, and beam in upon our long-benighted 
 country ; and to his honor be it remembered, that the con- 
 ciliating manners of O'Leary, the happy turn of his wit and 
 humour, like the Eoman satirist, laughing* his countrymen of 
 every sect out of their iU-grounded and absurd prejudices, and 
 into good-humour with each other, tended more to promote 
 those salutary effects than the combined exertions of all who 
 had preceded him for more than a century ; he effectually con- 
 tributed by his admirable writings to enlighten the uninformed 
 of his own communion, and to dispel from before the eyes of his 
 dissenting brethren of every description, the medium of misre- 
 presentation and calumny through which they had been but 
 too long accustomed to view their Catholic feUow-countrymen, 
 
 * " Omne vitium, ridenti, Flaccus amico. Tangit."— Perseus, Sat. 1. 
 
Appendix. 401 
 
 and to use his own words, with the zeal of a true Christian 
 philosopher, and the steady perseverance of an enlightened 
 patriot, he labored to throw open the gates of civil "toleration 
 for all Adam's children, whose principles were not inconsistent 
 with the peace of society, or subversive of the rules of morality ; 
 to wrench from the hand of persecution the poniard so often 
 tinged with human blood ; to sheathe the sword which mis- 
 guided zeal had drawn in defence of a Gospel which recom- 
 mends peace and love ; to restore to man the indelible charter 
 of his temporal rights, which no earthly power has ever been 
 commissioned by heaven to deprive him of on account of his 
 mental errors ; to re-establish the empire of peace, so often 
 overthrown by religious feuds, and to cement all Christians in 
 the ties of social harmony."* 
 
 " Neither his character of Catholic priest, which the prepos- 
 session of ignorance had rendered so odious ; nor the discounte- 
 nance of the laws, which doomed him to transportation with 
 the common malefactor ; nor the circumstance of a profession 
 exposed to the lash of every religious persecutor," was able to 
 exclude him from the honor of the society and esteem of that 
 constellation of illustrious patriots and enlightened statesmen 
 who then adorned Ireland,t (fit associates for an O'Leary,) in 
 concert with whom he prepared the way for that mutual con- 
 fidence and, alas ! too short-lived social harmony — for that 
 religious toleration and civil immunity, which, in the short space 
 of little more than twenty yfears, had raised his country to a 
 pitch of civilization, wealth, and prosperity, unexampled, for 
 the time, in the annals of the world. 
 
 The first years which had elapsed after his return to Ireland, 
 appear to have been principally devoted to the arduous duties 
 of the ministry in the city of Cork, where the salutary effects 
 of his evangelical labors soon became conspicuous in the happy 
 change of morals which was observed to have taken place 
 among many of the lower classes of society in that city ; and 
 A here he consecrated, by his indefatigable exertions, a house 
 uf worship to the Sovereign God, which is still known by the 
 name of " Father O'Leary's ChapeL" 
 
 It was not long, however, before an occasion presented itself 
 for a more conspicuous display of his splendid talents, in his 
 Answer to a deistical and blajsphemoiis work, which at that 
 
 • Introduction to the Essay on Toleration, vid. antea, p. 145. 
 t The political society of the Monks of St. Patrick. 
 
 2 D 
 
402 Appendix. 
 
 time made its appearance, under the specious title of "Thoughts 
 on Nature and Religion." Zealous as he had ever been to 
 contribute to the happiness of his fellow-men, by pointing out 
 to them the consoling motives of the Christian religion, and 
 directing their views beyond the limits of this world of woe, to 
 the cheering prospects of a more happy state of existence in a 
 world of immortality, he was roused to a holy indignation by a 
 work, which, by denying the Divinity of Christ,icut off the 
 merit of faith, the comfort of hope, and the motives of charity ; 
 and, by denying the immortality of the soul, degraded human 
 nature, and confounded man, the noblest image of the Creator, 
 with the beast that perisheth ; and thus, by tending to sap the 
 whole system of natural and revealed religion, tended, at the 
 same time, to deprive wretched man of the only comfort that 
 supports him under the manifold distresses and afflictions of 
 this life. 
 
 This inimitable production, wherein the zeal of an Athana- 
 sius seems to be united with the erudition of a Hilary, proved 
 an effectual antidote against the virus that flowed from the 
 envenomed pen of the modern Servetus, and recommended the 
 author to the notice and intimacy of some of the most enlight- 
 ened and liberal characters of the country. 
 
 Soon after appeared his "Remarks on the Letter of John 
 Wesley," &c., that celebrated patriarch of Methodistical enthu- 
 siasm, whose writings evidently tended to rekindle in Ireland 
 the torch of civil discord and religious fanaticism, which had 
 been but just happily extinguished in this country, and in this 
 metropolis, where its pernicious effects were legible in broad 
 characters of conflagration and blood. 
 
 But the sound argument, delicate irony, and strong point of 
 animadversion which pervaded the "Remarks" of our Irish 
 Ganganelli, so confounded his adversary, and disconcerted .the 
 flagitious projects of a faction, covering itself under the borrowed 
 and sacred name of religion, and whose principles and practices 
 the enlightened and liberal professors of that religion held in 
 the utmost abhorrence, in common with all true friends of the 
 country, and weU-wishers to the peace and prosperity of the 
 country at large, that it was then fondly hoped that the demon 
 of religious animosity, which had so long deformed the fair 
 face of my country — the destructive effects of whose malign 
 influence on that country we had since but too much reason to 
 deplore — would for ever be banished from Ireland's happy 
 coast. 
 
Appendix. 403 
 
 His other literary productions, which, to use the elegant 
 terms of an accomplished and learned lord, " flowed from the 
 urbanity of the heart," are too numerous to admit of, and too 
 well-known to need, a particular enumeration ; sufiice it to say, 
 that their general tendency was to unite his countrymen and 
 fellow-citizens, of every communion, in the happy ties of 
 social harmony and mutual benevolence (and may all his 
 Majesty's subjects— may all mankind— profit by the salutary 
 lesson !), to obliterate every recollection of former feuds and 
 old animosities, and to persuade all Christians, like the Good 
 Samaritan, to forget his religion in the man. Ever manifesting 
 an unshaken attachment to the religion of his preference, he 
 cautiously avoided the two dangerous extremes — of an over- 
 strained and intemperate zeal on the one hand, and of a weak 
 pliancy, or dastardly accommodation of principle, on the other, 
 which, in the language of this enlightened age, is expressed by 
 the abused terms of " liberality of sentiment," and which fre- 
 quently means no more or less than a total abandonment of all 
 principle ; whilst the true spirit of conciliation and Christian 
 charity, which breathed even throughout his polemical writings, 
 and that genuine Attic salt with which they were so judiciously 
 seasoned, rendered them palatable even to those very adversa- 
 ries whose doctrines and opinions he cbrabatted, and whose 
 systems he so effectually endeavoured to everthrow. 
 
 But, alas ! how fleeting and uncertain are the transitory 
 days of man ! " He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut 
 down ; he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not." (Jb6, xiv. 2.) 
 All our golden dreams of worldly happiness, all our airy pro- 
 jects, terminate but in the obscurity and horror of the grave, 
 from which nor genius, nor virtue itself, can rescue ! And we 
 have here to lament, that death, by depriving us of him, has 
 deprived us of another valuable production of his patriotic 
 mind, in a projected work, which would, no doubt, have effec- 
 tually dissected and exposed to merited contempt and abhor- 
 rence, the false assertions and unfounded calumnies contained 
 in the stupid legend of the modem Sir John Temple. 
 
 It was surely high time, then, that the strong tide of pre- 
 possession, which had so long and so impetuously flowed 
 against his profession and communion, should at length retire 
 before the talents of CVLeary, when displayed for such laudable 
 and salutary purposes ; and hence those honorable testimonies 
 of applause of his exertions, and esteem for his person, given 
 by men whose approbation alone would be enough to immor- 
 
404 Appendix. 
 
 talize him ; hence those unprecedented and truly flattering 
 eulogiums bestowed on his virtues and talents by those match- 
 less orators and enlightened legislators who then graced the 
 Irish Senate — immortal men ! who, for talent, patriotism, and 
 integrity, could not be surpassed, could scarcely be equalled, 
 in any age or any nation. 
 
 Justly, then, has he been compared to the immortal Ganga- 
 nelli — that enlightened Pontiff and benevolent successor of St. 
 Peter ; nor can we be surprised if, when the legislature of the 
 country had taken the abolition of the Irish regulars into 
 serious discussion, his name alone, like an impenetrable aegis 
 spreading its saving influence over them, protected them from 
 the mortal stroke of legal proscription. 
 
 But it is not his zeal for religion alone, and the merit of his 
 literary productions, that have ensured him the approbation of 
 heaven, and the esteem and veneration of men ; the love of his 
 country — that sacred, endearing name ! — that more exalted 
 and generous species of self-love, which animates and warms 
 every well-born mind conscious of having a country, and 
 which national calamity and misfortune only serve to cherish 
 and fortify — that generous flame glowed with unabating ardour 
 in his heart, and animated him to those patriotic exertions 
 which have rendered him dear to his country, and must trans- 
 mit his name in benediction to posterity : " Beloved of God 
 and men ; whose memory is in benediction." {Eccles. xlv. 1.) 
 
 This generous passion appeared eminently conspicuous at 
 that period of general consternation and dismay, when the 
 wretched and misguided peasantry of the south of Ireland, 
 maddened by causes which, as it is not my duty, neither is it 
 my wish, to investigate, and breaking loose from the salutary 
 restraints of religion, had obliged several of their own pastors 
 to fly for safety — ^had threatened to destroy the ripening labors 
 of the year, and spread devastation over the fertile province of 
 Munster. The government, justly exasperated at such disor- 
 derly and unwarrantable proceedings, had already despatched a 
 general officer, at the head of a formidable army, to restrain 
 those violent ebullitions of popular fury, and, if necessary, to 
 reduce the deluded insurgents to order by the desperate expe- 
 dient of military execution. 
 
 But the man of peace appears. This humble minister of a 
 God of meekness, who appeases the storm, and calms the 
 raging of the agitated billows, like another Leo, presents him- 
 self before the general. The language of respectful persuasion 
 
Appendix. -^05 
 
 flows from his lips ; he disarms the stem warrior ; he takes 
 upon himself the weighty and dread responsibility ; and, borne 
 upon the wings of patriotism and Christian charity, he flies 
 from hamlet to hamlet, from parish to parish, and from 
 barony to barony ; and in a short time he effectually succeeds 
 in appeasing that moral tempest which threatened to desolate 
 the whole island ; he reclaims the headstrong and unruly mul- 
 titude from insurrection and outrage to a sense of subordina- 
 tion and social duty ; and he restores them to their homes, 
 their country, and their king, without the loss of a life, or the 
 effusion of a single drop of human blood. 
 
 Thus, while with one hand he ably defended the sacred 
 cause of God and religion, he was ever ready to lend another 
 to support the tottering edifice of civil society ; and thus did 
 he singly effectuate, by the evangelical and merciful weapons 
 of conciliation, what was since, with difficulty, accomplished 
 by the whole armed force of the countiy, and that only by 
 sacrificing the lives and properties of thousands. 
 
 Venerable Man ! how did that genial flame warm your 
 bosom and melt your feeling heart, when lately I beheld 
 the sympathetic tear of patriotic grief flow down your manly 
 cheek, at the recollection of the murderous wounds inflicted on 
 your bleeding country ! It was this which inspired you, in the 
 decline of life, with the generous resolution (from which the 
 united entreaties of your numerous friends were scarce able to 
 divert you) of returning to that much-loved country, in the 
 moment of her wUdest distraction, and, if necessary, of preci- 
 pitating yourself, Curtius-like, into that chasm, which threatened 
 to close for ever on her happiness and prosperity ! 
 
 But why thus remind you, my brethren, of those ever-to-be- 
 lamented disorders, which should be obliterated from our 
 memory, and, if possible, for ever expunged from the page of 
 Irish history ] Let us consign them, then, to eternal oblivion ; 
 and, taking advantage of the salutary lesson which he ever 
 inculcated, both by word and example — whilst we bow down 
 with reverential awe under the dispensations of that Omni- 
 scient and Adorable Being, who humbles or exalts the nations 
 of the earth according to His good pleasure, let us prove to 
 the world that Catholics yield to none in due respect for con- 
 stituted authorities and the "powers that be," in subordina- 
 nation to the laws, and affectionate attachment to that august 
 FAMILY, to whom alone we should gratefully acknowledge our- 
 selves indebted for an exemption from many humiliating dis- 
 
406 Appendix. 
 
 qualifications and galling penalties, that sorely affected both 
 our ancestors and ourselves. 
 
 The well-timed and effectual exertions of this extraordinary- 
 man, could not fail to attract the notice of government, and, 
 consequently, were not suffered to remain unrewarded by his 
 gracious and beneficent sovereign ; but though he received 
 with all becoming gratitude this unsoHcited and well-earned 
 mark of royal remuneration, yet such was his disinterestedness, 
 and the noble independence of his spirit, that when, soon 
 after, a very considerable annuity had been offered him to 
 become the supporter of a periodical publication, which then 
 was, and still continues to be, the foul vehicle of misrepresen- 
 tation, slander, and calumny, on the Irish people ; indignant 
 at the insulting proposal, he rejects it with becoming con- 
 tempt, though by his refusal he was sure to incur the displea- 
 sure of a certain description of men, and through their influence 
 might apprehend a discontinuance of his pension ; yet, desti- 
 tute as he was of all earthly property beside, and to use the 
 emphatic words of his honorable and eloquent friend,* " poor 
 in everything but genius and philosophy," sooner than pros- 
 titute his heaven-sent talents, he leaves his native country and 
 repairs to this metropolis, to enjoy the boasted and enviable 
 blessings of British protection and British liberty. 
 
 Here a new field soon presented itself for the display of his 
 indefatigable zeal, and the display of his active charity. 
 
 Numbers of the most ignorant and indigent of his country- 
 men, impelled by want at home, had flocked to this metropolis, 
 where, unenlightened as too many of them were by religion, 
 and unhappily unrestrained by the mild influence or moral 
 instruction of any particular pastor who could watch over 
 their conduct, they became not unfrequently the burdens and 
 terrors of society, and sometimes fell sad victims to the violated 
 and avenging laws of the country. To rescue these children of 
 misery from infamy and vice, and gain them over to moraUty 
 and social order, was a task that would have discouraged any 
 but himself, and required all the zeal and fortitude of an 
 apostle. The task was not merely to instruct and humanize 
 the natural man in a state of savage simplicity : a clumsy imi- 
 tation of refined vice added a dark feature of more hideous 
 malignity to the natural complexion of human depravity, and 
 rendered the undertaking doubly difficult. All this, however, 
 
 * Mr. Grattan. 
 
Appendix. 407 
 
 does not discourage or divert him from the arduous work of 
 mercy. He enters upon it with determined resolution. He 
 instructs, he rebukes, he pathetically exhorts, with all suffering 
 and sound doctrine ; and God was mercifully pleased to re- 
 quite the labors of His servant by uncommon success in his 
 glorious enterprise. He had the consolation to see grow up, 
 under his judicious culture, a fair and plentiful crop of sobriety, 
 industry, and social order— the happy fruits of morality and 
 religion — where only the noxious weeds of intoxication, riot, 
 and all the other numerous offspring of ignorance, had before 
 choked the uncultivated soil. 
 
 How he exerted himself to promote the happiness of the poor 
 of St. Giles's, you, my brethren, best can tell, for many of you 
 have witnessed his godlike labors. You can tell how, conde- 
 scending from the contemplation of wisdom, and abandoning 
 the ornaments of fancy, he became all to all, in order the more 
 effectually to convey duty and instruction to the most ignorant 
 and indigent classes of society, and thereby gain all to their 
 country and their God ; and to him may be well applied the 
 beautifully characteristic verse of his celebrated fellow-coun- 
 tryman : — 
 
 "He tried each art, rebuked each dull delay, 
 Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way." 
 
 The great Work, however, was, as yet, scarce half completed. 
 He knew that the road of virtue and religion, to most people, 
 seems steep and difficult of ascent ; and that mankind, like the 
 fabled stone of ancient mythology, would roll down the hill, 
 and relapse into vice and disorder, without the never-ceasing 
 exertions of succeeding teachers and moralists : hence he felt 
 the necessity of a house of worship, where the poor of this 
 quarter might conveniently and frequently assemble to re- 
 ceive the light and consolation of the Christian doctrine — 
 where they might be instructed in their duty as Christians and 
 members of civil society — and where, in fine, they might acquire 
 that most sublime and necessary of all sciences, the science of 
 salvation, and learn to be happy here, even in poverty, by 
 laboring effectually to be happy hereafter. 
 
 To this great and desirable object were directed his unceasing 
 exertions—" More bent to raise the wretched than to rise ;" and, 
 spuming every thought of promoting his own individual inte- 
 rest, to the accomplishment of this grand object were princi- 
 pally devoted his thoughts, his labors, and his powerful influ- 
 
408 Appendix. 
 
 ence with many of the higher orders of society ; and when, at 
 length, he saw his labors crowned with success, and beheld this 
 chapel solemnly consecrated to the worship of the true and 
 living God, under the invocation of the Patron Saint of his 
 native country — transported with joy and gratitude to the 
 Father of lights, from whom descend all good gifts, he ex- 
 claimed, with holy Simeon : " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy ser- 
 vant depart in peace : for mine eyes have at length seen the 
 happy means of the sanctification and salvation of Thy people." 
 
 And you, my poor dear brethren and countrymen, who have 
 been the peculiar objects of his tender care and solicitude, and 
 whom I perceive so justly afflicted at the irreparable loss you 
 sustain by the death of your father and your friend — do you, I 
 say, take care, that while the tear of religious gratitude starts 
 from your eyes, the salutary lesson which he so often taught 
 you may be deeply engraven on your hearts ! Take care, lest 
 by replunging into that vice and misery from which he has re- 
 claimed and rescued you, you may not force him, instead of 
 being your friend and advocate, to become your loudest accuser 
 at the bar of divine justice, on the alarming day of general re- 
 tribution. Oh, forbid it, gracious heaven ! No, my brethren ; 
 whilst you cherish in grateful recollection his revered memory — 
 whilst you teach your infant children to lisp in benediction the 
 honored name of '" O'Leary," fail not to impress upon their 
 waxen minds those principles and maxims which he so often 
 inculcated from the chair of truth, whence I now with grief 
 address you : let them descend as a precious inheritance to your 
 posterity, and let their blessed influence, like his great and 
 expansive mind, extending into futurity, and beyond the con- 
 tracted sphere of this transitory world, communicate comfort 
 and happiness to thousands yet unborn. 
 
 Shall, then, the costly mausoleum be raised to the memory of 
 the rich vulgar, who only " vegetate and rot "1 Shall the sculp- 
 tured monument transmit to posterity the hated names of those 
 scourges of mankind, who, with baleful aspect and malign 
 influence, dazzle, alarm, and vanish, and, like flashes that issue 
 from the thunder-cloud, terrify and blast, and quickly disappear 
 in the bosom of the storm ; while not a stone shall inform the 
 inquisitive passenger where his sacred ashes repose, whose benign 
 passage through life was like the refreshing dew or vernal sun, 
 cheering and cherishing every object within his system ? But, 
 though no sculptured brass or storied urn shall recount to after 
 ages his actions or his virtues, he has erected in the hearts of a 
 
Appendix. 409 
 
 reformed and grateful people, a monument more durable than 
 marble or bronze, wliicli shall stand unimpaired when the stately 
 monuments of human pride and woridly grandeur shall crumble 
 into dust. 
 
 Such, my brethren, is the rude sketch which, on the spur of 
 the occasion, I have been able to lay before you, of the useful 
 and edifying life of my venerable departed friend. Yes, dear, 
 lamented friend ! too late, alas ! too late did I know you — too 
 late have I been able to address you by that endearing name ! 
 Go, then, in peace, thou friend of the oppressed, thou consoler 
 of the afflicted, " thou good and faithful servant, enter into the 
 joy of thy Lord." " Depart out of this world, in the name of 
 the Father Almighty, who created thee ; in the name of Jesus 
 CSirist, the Son of the living God, who suffered for thee ; in 
 the name of the Holy Ghost, who sanctified thee. May thy 
 place be this day in peace, and thy abode in holy Sion." But, 
 as for my part, however Providence may dispose of me, or for 
 whatever further trials I may be reserved, I shall ever consider 
 it as one of the chief honors of my humble life, that you noticed 
 my insignificance, and considered me worthy to co-operate* 
 with you- 
 
 But why thus indulge an unavailing sorrow 1 We have a well- 
 founded hope that this bright luminary has set only to rise 
 again beyond the grave with new refulgence, in a world of light 
 and immortality. We are assured by faith that his better part 
 shall never die, and that even those mortal remains shall not 
 be for ever abandoned to corruption ; but that the Redeemer 
 who liveth in heaven, after commingling them for a time with 
 their kindred clay, shall one day clothe them with the resplen- 
 dent garment of immortality ; when those very eyes that are now 
 closed in death, once more opening to inextinguishable light, 
 shall behold Him in all the splendour of His glory : " For I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise 
 out of earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in 
 my flesh I shall see my God." (Job, idx. 25, 26.) 
 
 But, my brethren, as it is God alone, that Searcher of hearts, 
 who can truly appreciate the merits of His elect ; as it belongs 
 only to the Holy Catholic Church, that " pillar and ground of 
 
 * It waa chiefly through the solicitations of Father O'Leary, with 
 whom the author had the honor to corresiwnd for some months previous 
 to his death, that he was prevailed on to resign his curacy in Dublin 
 in order to enter on the London mission. 
 
 2£ 
 
410 Appendix. 
 
 truth," to canonize them ; as we know that nothing impure can 
 enter heaven, and that Moses himself, that great legislator and 
 peculiar favorite of heaven, was not entirely spotless in the dis- 
 charge of his ministry, nor exempt from temporal punishment 
 at his death — ^let us no longer interrupt the awful mysteries and 
 impressive ceremonies of religion, but uniting and, as it were, 
 embodying our prayers and fervent supplications, let us offer a 
 holy violence to heaven : while we mingle our tears with the 
 precious blood of the spotless Victim offered in sacrifice on our 
 hallowed altar, let us implore the Father of mercy, through the 
 merits and passion of His adorable Son, our merciful Eedeemer, 
 to purify this His minister, and admit him to a participation of 
 the never-ending joys of the heavenly Jerusalem. May he rest 
 in peace ! Amen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by J. M. O'Toolb & Son, 6 dc 7, Great Brunswick-street, Dublin. 
 
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