“Most High, Most Excellent, and Most Potent Prince, our dear and well-beloved Brother and Cousin! At the same Time that we have been told of your Majesty’s great Goodness towards your Subjects, and the Precedent you have given of an extraordinary Clemency, in granting them your general Amnesty (some few only excepted, of those whom the Blood of their King, and that of his People, cry aloud to Heaven for Revenge against). We could not but let your Majesty know, that we were extremely surprized to hear, that the _Catholicks_ of _Ireland_ were _excluded_ from that Act of Oblivion, and, by that Means, put into the Number of the _most criminal_! This News has so much the more excited our Compassion towards them, that we have been informed, that, in _all the Changes_ which have hitherto happened in your Dominions, and in the almost general _Defection of_ your Subjects, _none_ stood _more constant_ to their lawful Sovereign, even in the greatest Streights, than the _Catholicks_: So that, if they are now branded for their Religion, it may be said, for their Honour, that, in Times past, none could be found _readier_, or more _cheerfully disposed_, than _they_, to serve and assist their Prince; and that with so much _Ardour_, that their Zeal then for the Royal Family was reckoned a certain Mark of their true Religion. It is for that Reason that we now become their Intercessors to you: For, otherwise, had they _failed_ in the Fidelity they owe you, instead of interceding for them, we would join with you in using them with all imaginable Rigour; and it would never come into our Thoughts to concern ourselves, as we do, for the _Catholicks_ of _Ireland_; though we _were obliged to it_, by the last Treaty of Peace made with the Marquess of _Ormond_, and which was granted them by our Mediation. And, as we are well assured, that, since the Conclusion of that Peace, they have done Nothing which can be called a _Failure of their Duty to you_, we find ourselves under so much the greater Obligation to conjure you, to make good that Treaty to them, in that they _religiously_ observed it on _their_ Side, in all its Parts: And to beseech you not to suffer, that either the Hatred, which an immoderate Zeal swells some bigotted Sectaries with, nor the unlucky Spoils of these poor People, render criminal or miserable the _most faithful_ of your Subjects; to whom their lawful King, as you are, is not _the less dear_, nor _less respected_, because of a _different Belief_ from _theirs_. We propose Nothing to ourselves in this, nor ask any Thing, but what we daily _practise_ (as you may know) towards those of our Subjects who are of the _reformed Religion_. And, as we have commanded the Sieur Marquis _de Rouvigny_ to explain our Sentiments more amply on this Subject to you, be pleased to give