The Church of Rome exceeded all other Hierarchies in extent of Dominion, of Power, and of Influence; its exertions, therefore, against all assailants would be proportionably vigorous, its persecutions proportionably extensive:—these assertions are not advanced with the view of vindicating Persecution, they are meant merely to account, in some measure, for its origin;—convinced that the God of Mercy can delight only in Virtue and Integrity, every reflecting mind must abhor and condemn the mistaken zeal of those, who think they promote the service of the Divinity, by torturing and afflicting his creatures:—but have the members of the Protestant Establishment entirely abstained from the exercise of this instrument, to establish or confirm their Power? Are they, altogether, innocent of resorting to this object of their reprehension? For a solution of these questions we may recur to our own domestic annals. Has not the bulk of the Irish Nation been subject to the will and caprice of a few individuals (in comparison with its population) and this, for adhering to the religion of their forefathers?—Have not the ministers of this religion (after being compelled to seek their education in some foreign country) been debarred from the exercise of their sacred functions except by stealth or privacy?—Have not the adherents to this Religion been shackled in every effort to better their condition?—Have they not been rendered incapable of acquiring real property?—If possessed of such property, have they not been subject to its entire forfeiture by information or discovery?—Were not such forfeitures intended to act as allurements for children to inform, even, against their own parents?—Was not every father of a family liable to punishment for educating his children, in that religious persuasion, which he esteemed the only true one?—Were not Catholics ineligible to any office of power or trust?—Were not these Acts in force for nearly a century?—Many other grievances, equally oppressive in addition to these, were inflicted on them in direct violation of the Treaty of Limerick, in which it was stipulated, that the Irish should be admissible to all the Privileges of subjects, upon taking the oath of Allegiance, without being bound to take the oath of Supremacy:—our domestic annals, then, afford a strong presumption that the Protestant Establishment has been no less culpable, in the exercise of persecution, as an instrument to support its power, than the Romish Hierarchy so much inveighed against; whilst its present conduct, in still withholding from the Catholics a full participation in the privileges to which its Protestant Subjects are admitted, is a convincing proof that it continues actuated by a spirit of intolerance;—not to particularize the absurd calumnies, the foul misrepresentations, so vehemently urged against them, and of which some of its ministers (we regret to observe) are too intemperate in the application;—strange inconsistency that there