But this was not the Case. The _French_ Invasion of _Great Britain_ was headed by a Person who was, by Birth, Education, Principle, and Interest, an Enemy to the Freedom and Rights of a Constitution that was established on the Dispossession of his Ancestors; and he was, consequently, an Enemy to the general Change of Privilege and Property, that ensued on the said Establishment. The said Change, as we all know, was to the Disadvantage of _Roman Catholics_. Had the Invader prevailed, a Change would again have ensued, in their Favour. Men naturally with Success to an Event from whence they propose Benefit; and it is as natural for them to act conformable to those Wishes. Had _Roman Catholics_ been possessed of an unrestrained Property, along with the other Liberties, Blessings, and Enjoyments, which they derived, in common with us, from the Establishment at the Revolution, no spiritual or temporal Power on Earth could have tempted them to permit, much less to wish, a Change of a Constitution whose Equal they could not find upon Earth. But as this was very far from being the Fact, I feared that _Interest_ might prove an Incentive to _Desire_; and Desire equally prove an Incentive to _Action_; and, I am not ashamed to confess, that my Expectations were greatly, though happily, disappointed, by the Steadiness of their peaceful and loyal Demeanour on that trying Occasion. Believe me, my Friend, at the Time that I wrote those Papers, which have given you so much Offence, I looked upon the _Papists_ of this Kingdom, by the Patronage of _France_ and _Spain_, by their Numbers, by their Wealth, and by their Union with each other, to be vastly superior to _Irish Protestants_, in Power; and my Spirit of Opposition rose, in Proportion to my Idea of their Ability. But neither then, before, nor since, did I ever mean to excite any Action, or Intention, against the Weak, or the Oppressed, the Fallen, or the Afflicted. When _Brutus_ unsheathed the reluctant Sword of Freedom against his Friend, Humanity must suppose that his Heart was wrung with Compunction, while his Country enjoined and impelled the Blow. But further, Sir, there is a very wide Difference between a _Popish Regency_ and a _Popish People_. The whole Intent and Virulence, as you call it, of my Papers, is pointed and levelled against the _One_, but not a Syllable uttered, from End to End, against the _Other_. A _Popish Regency_, in Temporals alike as in Spirituals, I held to be, by Principle, an arbitrary and oppressive Government; but I held a _Popish People_ to be, of all People, the most amenable and submissive to Rulers, whatever the Form or Nature of that State may be, under which they shall happen to be subjected. And, on this very Account, I dreaded them the more, should they become passive Instruments in the Hand of a Papal Dictator.