Images de page
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"The Reformation, and all that is connected with it, is now established by law; and, never have a

vanquished people more completely submitted to "the conquerors, have conducted themselves with "greater propriety, or received alleviation of their "condition with greater gratitude than the Ro"man Catholics have done. NONE of his Ma" jesty's subjects are more attached to his govern"ment. When we think of our past grievances,

[ocr errors]

we bless the hands which have relieved so many " of them: an angry feeling seldom rises, except "when we feel our religion traduced, and our ancestors vilified in such a manner, that we " should deservedly be thought more or less than

66

[ocr errors]

men, if we did not exert ourselves to repel the

" unmerited aggression."

L

LETTER XVI.

THE GUNPOWDER CONSPIRACY.

Mr. Townsend's Assertion of the Extensiveness of the Gunpowder Plot.

You begin Your criminations of us in this Your letter upon the reign of James I, (p. 240), by controverting my assertion in "the Historical Me"moirs," of "the fair words and promises" given by James to the Roman Catholics. The evidence which I have produced of them, appears to me abundantly sufficient to satisfy any impartial person of the truth of my assertion; and, in addition to it we now have, what You have seen in the State Paper Office, the explicit testimony of the Earl of Northumberland. As to James's own denial, his acknowledged prevarications renders it of

account.

66

66

no

On the characters of the conspirators You tell me, (p. 257), that " I quote with approbation a contemporary writer, who declares, that the conspirators were 'a few wicked and desperate "wretches;" You then show that some of them were respectably born and filled respectable situations. But this does not prove that they were not wicked or desperate; and I was so far from concealing their respectable births or situations, that I have cited * the expression of Father More, that

[ocr errors]

they were of noble family and high rank." You dilate on the extensiveness of the conspiracy: Hume informs us,† that "with all their attendants, they

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

never exceeded the number of eighty persons." Doctor Southey calls them "a few bigots." ↑ James himself speaks of the conspiracy as a " tragicomedy; a tragedy to the traitors, but a comedy to the king and all his new subjects." You, I believe, are the first person who has asserted that a large portion of the Catholic body was engaged in it.

66

XVI. 2.

Mr. Townsend's Assertion, that the Catholics have uniformly refused, even in our own age, the security of loyalty to their Temporal Sovereign.

I must express my surprise, on reading in Your present letter, (page 244), that "the Catholics " refused, as they have uniformly done, even in

[ocr errors]

our own age, the security of loyalty to our Tem" poral Sovereign."

Without reverting to their conduct in former times, which I have already sufficiently noticed, I beg leave to refer You to the oaths of allegiance universally taken by the English, Irish, and Scotch

* Hist. Mem. Vol. II. p. 108.

+ Ch. XLVI.

‡ Vol. II. 330.

§ King James's Works. Discourse of the Powder Treason,

p. 223.

Catholics, in 1778, and even since that time; and I call upon You to state explicitly," what security " for loyalty," to use Your own words, " has been " refused by them in the present age, to their temporal sovereign." - I KNOW OF NONE.

[ocr errors]

XVI. 3.

Cecil's Privity to the Conspiracy.

You begin this part of Your present letter, (page 247), by addressing me in the following lines :

"In your History of the Catholics of England, " &c. You quote, with seeming approbation, various " obscure writers, who have attempted to prove " that the Gunpowder Plot was the invention of "Lord Salisbury. You candidly acknowledge, " indeed, that no single fact has been discovered, " which could lead you to this conclusion; but you

66

seem unwilling that the reluctant conviction "of Your own mind should influence Your "reader."

If the imputation conveyed by these lines be just, I deserve the charge of the most shameful disingenuousness.

I must be desirous of repelling it: to do this, I shall transcribe the section to which You refer, and without note or comment leave it to the judgment of my readers.*

66

"No circumstance, which has come to the knowledge of the writer in the course of his

* Hist. Memoirs, Vol. II. Ch. XLVI. p. 172.

[ocr errors]

investigation of this interesting part of his sub"ject, has led him to the discovery of a single fact, which can render Cecil justly suspected " of having been privy to the plot, previously to a " short time preceding its discovery. That in his disposition he was extremely unfavourable to the Catholics, and that he would rejoice in any

66

66

[ocr errors]

any event that was likely to render them objects " of public odium, may be conceded; but, while "this affords ground for suspicion, it extends no higher; and thus, so far as it stands single, proves nothing.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

" It is said, that some Protestant writers, as Osborne, Higgins, and the author of 'The Pro"testant's Plea,' and 'The Politician's Cate"chism,' accuse Cecil of fomenting the plot, and

[ocr errors]

reaping its fruits: but not one of these writers " mention a single fact which supports the accu"sation. Now where there is not evidence, there " cannot be proof.

66

" It is observable, that the expression of Osborne is misquoted. He is cited for having called " called the plot a neat device of the secretary;'

66

now he applies this expression, not to the plot " but to the letter, which was sent to Lord Mont

66

eagle; which letter he terms ' a neat device of "the secretary, to fetch him, into whose nature " and person, if not to both, he had a quarrel," " -a loose intimation, and entitled to no regard. Higgins wrote at the distance of more than a century after the event took place; what he says

66.

66

« PrécédentContinuer »