I cannot speak of the catholic priests in Ireland from my own knowledge, but the information I have received, from friends well acquainted with the subject, fully corroborates this character of them. With such a character, already drawn before the public with genuine marks of candour, is it possible that any writer to the public should, in calumniating it, say, that there was no fear of his being contradicted? Was he not contradicted, if I may use the expression, by anticipation? But uncongenial records are useless things, like _stern lights_. [22] Rapin's History of England, vol. ii, page 344. [23] Hume says, that Campion was put to the rack, and, confessing his guilt, was publicly executed. The confession of guilt is not so clearly proved as the putting to the rack. In the life of Campion the confession is denied; and what Hume himself says immediately before is strong against the imputed guilt, that he and Parsons were sent to explain the bull of Pius, and to teach that the subjects of Elizabeth were not bound by it to rebel against her.--See vol. v, chap. xli, page 238. [24] Page 327, edition 1615. [25] Hume's History of England, vol. viii, chap. lxvii, page 110. [26] Hume's History of England, vol. v, chap. xxxviii, page 22, &c. [27] Hume. [28] Tom. ii, p. 375. [29] Bayle, article Loyola. [30] Dupleix's History of France. [31] An assembly of the clergy was held at Poissy, in 1561, where James Laynez, then general of the Jesuits, refuted the impieties of Beza, in the presence of the French court. [32] Filles Dieu. [33] See the Substance of a Speech of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, Bart., &c. [34] Sir John informs us (ibid. page 37), that "there is evidence fully on record" to show, that Frederic III, of Prussia, acted, with respect to the Jesuits, upon the "same principles which influenced the measures of the empress Catherine." According to the principles I have thought myself bound to ascribe to her, this concurrence is not unlikely; but, it is very unlikely, that he preserved them in his dominions through the sad ambition of showing a power of managing them. He had declared, that he retained them, in order to furnish _the good seed_ to catholic princes, who might one day wish to recover the plant.