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City and County of Londonderry.

SUMMER ASSIZES, 1792.

Whereas a paper has been circulated through this county, signed EDWARD BYRNE," purporting to come from a body of men, styling themselves "The Sub-committee of the Catholics of Ireland."

We, the Grand Jury of the city and county of Londonderry, assembled at an assizes held at Londonderry, on the 30th day of July, 1792, feel it our indispensable duty to express our most decided disapprobation of such a proceeding, and to declare our sentiments thereof by the following resolutions :

Resolved, That, in our apprehension, the Constitution of this Kingdom is unacquainted with any such body of men, as "The Sub-committee of the Catholics of Ireland."

Resolved, That the meetings and delegations recommended by such Sub-committee, in the abovementioned paper, if adopted, would tend to produce discontent and disorder, more especially as they presume to say, That, by a general union of the Catholics of Ireland, the objects they are looking for MUST be accomplished, as expressed in their letter," WE SHALL receive it ;" and further, that "We have the first authority for asserting, this application will have infinite weight with our gra"cious Sovereign, and with Parliament, if our friends are qual"ified to declare, That it is the universal wish of every Catholic in the nation."

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Resolved, That the system of union between the clergy and laity, recommended to the people of the Catholic persuasion in the abovementioned paper, insidiously conveys the idea of an hierarchy, which would eventually destroy the Protestant ascendency, the freedom of elective franchise, and the established Constitution of the country. And that we are determined to support, with our lives and fortunes, that happy Constitution, as established at the Revolution of 1688, and to maintain the Protestant ascendency in this Kingdom, against every attempt made to lessen or interfere with it by any body of men, let their union or numbers be what they may.

Resolved, That we love and highly respect our Catholic brethren of this Kingdom, and recommend, that if they mean to VOL. I-48

look forward for further favors, it may not be through the medium of committees, or such publications, but from a continuation of the same well-regulated conduct, which has already excited the attention of the legislature in their behalf.

To the Grand Jury of the City and County of Londonderry, for the Summer Assizes, 1792.

GENTLEMEN: I have just seen your manifesto against three millions of your countrymen; a composition which does equal honor to your heads and your hearts, and proves you alike acquainted with the principles of liberty and of language. You are legislators, and you are critics, and, in my judgment, just as excellent in one capacity as the other.

You set out with resolving what I, for one, do not mean to controvert, that, "in your apprehension, the Constitution of this Kingdom is unacquainted with any such body of men as the Sab-committee of the Catholics of Ireland." It is very true; but have you, gentlemen, never heard of bodies of men, unknown and unacknowledged by the Constitution of this Kingdom, to whom, notwithstanding, this Kingdom is indebted for her eman. cipation? I have heard the volunteers of Ireland spoken of, by infamous tools of an infamous Government, in the very terms which you apply to the Sub-committee of the Catholics, and with much more appearance of reason: yet many of yourselves were volunteers, and sent your delegates, armed, to the capital, to dictate measures to the existing Government of the country, and you did right; you know that there is a degree of oppres

sion that, while it compels, justifies a transgression of established forms; that degree must justify the Catholics in forming their committees. You will not allow them any share in the framing of the laws, by which their lives and properties are to be influenced; you would put them out of the pale of the constitution, and make them outlaws in their native land; it is their business to obtain their liberty if they can, and how are they attempting this? Not by sending armed men to dictate to the legislature, as you rightly, and, like men eager for freedom, did. No: far otherwise. It is by the formation of a body equally unknown as the volunteers of Ireland, to the principles of the constitution, but with whom they will feel it no dishonor to be associated in that hackneyed censure; and for what purpose? Dutifully, humbly, and constitutionally to petition their Sovereign and the Legislature, to be restored to the rank of men, and to the common protection which the law should hold out to all peaceable citizens; to be rescued from contempt and slavery, and the cruel necessity of being obliged to listen, and in silence, to such productions as the manifesto of the Grand Jury of the county of Derry. But, though their committee be unacknowledged by the Constitution, in your apprehension, I hope they are as legal an association as the committee in England for procuring the abolition of the slave trade. Edward Byrne is as good a signature as Granville Sharpe-their motives, their line of conduct, every thing is the same; with this difference, that the friends of the Africans meet the applause of all mankind; the friends of the more miserable Irish slaves have drawn down upon themselves the heavy censure and anathema of the Grand Jury of the county of Derry.

I hope, gentlemen, in your apprehension, that, as men, you will admit it is allowed to the unhappy to complain; and, as politicians, that it is the privilege of the subject, when aggrieved, to petition. The Catholics of Ireland, degraded as they are, are still men, and what is more, they are subjects: three millions of them cannot assemble and state their grievances; they must, therefore, act by substitution; hence arises their committee; certainly no legal corporation, but as certainly no unlawful assembly. They cannot sue or be sued, but they may, and what is more, they will, petition the Parliament of Ireland, and they will not be bullied out of that determination by your pom

pous offers of "your lives and fortunes," on the one hand, no more than they will be duped out of it by your mean and pitiful profession of "love and high respect," on the other.

I have done with your first resolution; I come to your second, when you take the ferula into your hands, and, like good grammarians, as you are, teach the unlettered Catholics at once law and language, the spirit of our constitution and the freedom of our particles.

You say first, that "the meetings recommended by the Subcommittee, will produce discontent;" the contrary is the fact, for the discontent has produced the meetings; as metaphysicians, therefore, you have confounded cause and effect; see now how you will come off with your grammar. You charge the committee with presuming to say, that, "by a general union of the Catholics of Ireland, the objects they are looking for MUST be accomplished;" and adding, as expressed in their letter, “we shall receive it."

The learned Bishop of London, in a book, which, perhaps, you, gentlemen, have never seen, but which is, notwithstanding, of some authority, has the following passage: "Will, in the first person, singular and plural, promises or threatens; in the second and third person, only foretells; shall, on the contrary, in the first person, simply foretells; now, gentlemen, it may be necessary to acquaint you, that we, is the first person plural; consequently, the passage in the letter of the committee, which has so piqued your pride, or alarmed your fears, conveys not the meaning which you have extracted from it, but the reverse; it is no menace, it is a simple prophecy. Your criticism reminds me of my countryman, who fell one day into the Thames, and after floundering for some time, as you have done, began to roar out lustily murder! murder! I will, I will be drowned, and nobody SHALL help me!" he, however, was extricated by a waterman. I know not, nor do I care, who may come to the relief of the Grand Jury of the county of Derry.

In your next resolution you have shewed as much knowledge in etymology, as you have already of other sciences: you talk of an union between clergy and laity," insidiously conveying the idea of an hierarchy, which is to overthrow the Protestant ascendency-AN HIERARCHY OF LAITY! Good God, gentleamong three-and-twenty of you, was there not one that

men!

had Greek enough to keep you out of this gross blunder? It is a figure of speech that would do honor to Mrs. Malaprop herself, who would never meddle with simony, fluxions, paradoxes, nor such inflammatory branches of learning." Perhaps all this may be Greek to you, gentlemen of the jury!

I pray you, let your sons turn over their Lexicons before you next meet to draw up manifestoes against the liberty of man. When you talk of their ignorance being a plea for keeping the Catholics in slavery, I presume you speak from the superabundance of your own literary endowments. If, however, liberty is to be measured by learning, I know not whereabouts in the scale we are to look out for the station of the Grand Jury of the county of Derry.

Having established this curious Lay Hierarchy, which is, for your comfort, all one in the Greek, you express your fears that it may destroy, not only the Protestant ascendency, but, also, thefreedom of the elective franchise." THE FREEDOM OF A FRANCHISE!-'Fore Heaven! as Cassio says, this is a more excellent song than the other, and beats the Lay Hierarchy all to nothing! Why, gentlemen, you are the very kings of the dictionary! Our language sinks beneath you; I really do not know whether most to admire, the justice and liberality of your sentiments, or the variegated and beautiful diction in which you have clothed them. With regard to the trash of lives and fortunes, and our happy Constitution, I shall not condescend to notice it: but I confess I am ashamed of the contemptible meanness of your last paragraph, wherein you say, "you love and highly respect your Catholic brethren." Gentlemen, you know it is not true that you love them; it cannot be, you cannot deceive yourselves, you cannot deceive the Catholics. Men who framed such resolutions as yours, the offspring of puzzled heads and contracted hearts, are incapable of feeling a true or genuine affection for their countrymen. It were more for your honor to have been uniform and decided enemies to the Catholics, and to have openly confessed it, than to have attempted to throw over your animosity this pitiful, equivocating, profession of regard. It is an abortive deception, which can excite no emotion, but contempt.

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