Wishing to proceed with a deliberative spirit and temper in so very serious a question, I shall attempt to analyze, as well as I can, the principles you lay down, in order to fit them for the grasp of an understanding so little comprehensive as mine.--"State,"--"Protestant,"--"Revolution." These are terms which, if not well explained, may lead us into many errors. In the word _State_ I conceive there is much ambiguity. The state is sometimes used to signify _the whole commonwealth_, comprehending all its orders, with the several privileges belonging to each. Sometimes it signifies only _the higher and ruling part_ of the commonwealth, which we commonly call _the Government_. In the first sense, to be under the state, but not the state itself, _nor any part of it_, that is, to be nothing at all in the commonwealth, is a situation perfectly intelligible,--but to those who fill that situation, not very pleasant, when it is understood. It is a state of _civil servitude_, by the very force of the definition. _Servorum non est respublica_ is a very old and a very true maxim. This servitude, which makes men _subject_ to a state without being _citizens_, may be more or less tolerable from many circumstances; but these circumstances, more or less favorable, do not alter the nature of the thing. The mildness by which absolute masters exercise their dominion leaves them masters still. We may talk a little presently of the manner in which the majority of the people of Ireland (the Catholics) are affected by this situation, which at present undoubtedly is theirs, and which you are of opinion ought so to continue forever. In the other sense of the word _State_, by which is understood the _Supreme Government_ only, I must observe this upon the question: that to exclude whole classes of men entirely from this _part_ of government cannot be considered as _absolute slavery_. It only implies a lower and degraded state of citizenship: such is (with more or less strictness) the condition of all countries in which an hereditary nobility possess the exclusive rule. This may be no bad mode of government,--provided that the personal authority of individual nobles be kept in due bounds, that their cabals and factions are guarded against with a severe vigilance, and that the people (who have no share in granting their own money) are subjected to but light impositions, and are otherwise treated with attention, and with indulgence to their humors and prejudices.