Sir J. Gray deserves great credit for the force and learning with which he has brought the question of obnoxious oaths before the public. Every one is aware that for nearly three centuries the Catholics of Ireland were reduced to a state of thraldom by the operation of such oaths; for unless they consented to renounce upon oath some of the most sacred doctrines of religion, they were excluded from all the rights of citizens. This was the system adopted to propagate and uphold Protestantism, which still pretended to leave to every individual the right of judging for himself. The anti-Catholic oaths have latterly been set aside; but Catholics are still required to take useless oaths, apparently introduced for the purposes of annoyance and insult, before they can occupy any public office. Such useless and offensive swearing ought to be put an end to. The oaths still taken by Protestants are most insulting to Catholics, and must be the occasion of great remorse to every delicate conscience. The Lord Lieutenant, on arriving in Ireland, is obliged to perform the disagreeable task of insulting those whom he is come to govern, by swearing what he cannot know--that some Catholic doctrines are idolatrous and superstitious, and, moreover, swearing what everybody knows to be false--that the Pope has not any authority in Ireland, where every day he exercises a most extensive spiritual jurisdiction. Other officials of the state and of the establishment take similar oaths, insulting to the Catholics of the whole world, and certainly hurtful to the consciences of those who take them. Every Protestant, when swearing that the Pope has no power in Ireland, must feel that he swears to what is in opposition to the known truth. It is time that such a system of perjury should be done away with. Sir J. Gray deserves well of the country for having placed this question in its true light. * * * * * FOOTNOTES. [Footnote 1: See _Record_, vol. i. part i. p. 194.]