Spectres, forcerers, devils, while we have not the power to fly from them. In the heat of a fever, we dream that we are perishing with thirst, that we tra verfe immenfe regions in fearch of fountains, without finding any; and that when we have found one, we apply our parched lips to it, but the water flies back, and all our efforts to allay our thirst are in vain fo that, like Tantalus, we pe rish through want amidst the appearance of the greatest abundance. : In dreams we think much, feel more, and reflect little: the fenfations and ima ges fucceed each other with rapidity, but the foul neither compares not remembers them. Though in general the foul reflects but very little during fleep, the degree of reflexion is not the fame in every indivi dual. The ideas, which trongly affect us while awake, are retraced in the mind during fleep, and we continue to combine them. Thus geometricians form and combine figures, poets make verles, and philofophers reafon. When the body has been refreshed with reft, the organs of fenfe infenfibly resume their functions, the pulse graduallyquickens, and by degrees all thofe vain images, enchanting regions, and ideal objects difappear. In short, man opens his eyes, and becomes confcious where he is. The Speech delivered by Robert Jephfon, Efq; on the 11th of February, 1774; in the Debate on the committing Heads. of a Bill, for "The better Encouragement of Perfons profeffing the Popith Religion to become Proteftants, and for the further Improvement of the Kingdom. John Fofter, Efq; in the Chair. Mr. FOSTER, HE prefent before of the utmost magnitude.-The arguments which have been offered in favour of the Bill, as an expedient for effecting the defirable purpose held forth in its title, and in the contemplation of my worthy friend who introduced it, have been fufficient to convince me, that, there is no danger of prejudice to the established interest of Ireland by our paffing it into a law: efpecially, when there are fuch prudent regu. lations in regard to the power of devife: therefore, Sir, I fhall not take up your time by a repitition of reafons which you have heard already, with much greater weight to the fame point, from other gentlemen; but I beg your indulgence, while I deliver my fentiments on this fubject in a more comprehensive view than it will admit of, if contracted to the narrow battom of the first fimple confideration. As I intend to give my vote in favour of the Bill, 'tis a great fatisfaction to me, to find it admitted on all fides, that, the laws of Ireland against Popery are in many refpects inconfiftent with true religion and rectitude, not to be juftified in feveral inftances on fpiritual or moral principles, but as they firft fprung from neceffity, can best be fupported by the predominancy of that plea only. There is, Sir, no principle of natural justice more clear, no precept of moral policy more evident, than, that the rigour of penal statutes ought not to extend beyond the bounds abfolutely neceffary for the maintenance and good order of focie ty; when they tranfgrefs fuch limits, every foundation of reliance between the legiflature and the people, is fhaken : fuch laws become the terror, not the protection of the fubject; he walks under them, not as under the friendly roof which is to fhelter him from the furious: ftorm of wild unbridled outrage, but, like the tottering wall that every moment may crush him by its cafual ruin; accident, not Tmay be confidered in two lights, juftice, is his deliverer; nor can he boast, either as a scheme for inducing Papists to contribute to the population and improve ment of corporate towns, by allowing them to take lots for building; or, to the cultivation of the country in general, by permitting them to have small portions of land, with a more advantageous tenure in their leafes than they were before entitled to, from the circumfcriptions they labour under, in confequence of the feveral fta tutes in force against them: or, the Bill may be confidered as one ftep towards the partial repeal of a body of laws, which have been efteemed by fome, as one of the principal barriers of our civil and religi ous conftitutions. In the first view, 'tis certainly an objea of fome confequence; in the fecond, that committing no offence, he feared no punishment; his miserable confolation is, that, with innocence at his fide, he had the good fortune to efcape it.-As natural justice is the principle, common benefit is the end of ftate penalties. Let the dreary tracts of defolate and uncultivated territory, in every province of your kingdom, proclaim how this end has been defeated by your penal ftatutes against Popery; the husbandman will not turn up the earth, nor the fower put down the grain, when they know another is to reap the fruits of their toil and industry.-Blessed, Sir, as this inland is by fertility of foil and tempe * Herculus Langrishe, Efqs rature rature of climate, we have often endeavoured to investigate the caufes of its partial barrennefs and depopulation. Sometimes we complain, that our relative and dependent fituation on a too powerful neighbour, has dried up the fprings of induftry; fometimes we fay, the rigorous exactions of our landlords damp all vigour and exertion in the inferior claffes of our peafantry; and fometimes, with liftless defpondency, we fupinely acquiesce under the lazy reproach of national foth and inactivity: but, we carefully avert our eyes from these acts of our forefathers, more prohibitory than the jealous and illiberal policy of a filter country, more fraught with oppreffion than the unfeeling rapacity of our many-acred landholders, more productive of inertnefs than the unmerited character of national indolence. We muit fpeak with deference of thefe laws, while they are yet in being; but, were they once annulled, humanity would exult over their abrogation: it would fay, they were unlike all other legal promul gations; not the bridle, but the fpur to wickedness; tempting, not restraining the moft dangerous paffions; encouraging, not chaftifing the worft tranfgreffions. The jurifprudence of other civilized governments knows them not; the univerfal inftinft of nature difclaims them. Can the partial code of any community, or of the greatest nation, drown the univerfal voice of nature; or can volumes of parchment confront her ordinances? Divine and natural precepts fay, "Honour him who gave you being :" the popery laws of Ireland fay, "Betray and beggar him." To knit more clofely the endearing ties of private faith and of domestic security, has been the favourite aim of every polished legillature: this angry code makes them the objects of ferutiny, and the prey of the informer: it ranfacks the economy of families, excites the intereft of the fon against his filial duty, converts the brother into a spy; nay, the marriage bed (that laft affylum of repose and tenderness) it difturbs with perpetual apprehenfions of difcovery and separation, It is a maxim, Sir, and a found one, that the strict execution of every unrepealed law, is the part of clemency and wifdom. How is this confiftent with our policy? The pledge of our fecurity, we are told, is, that thefe laws may be always put in execution; the boast of our humanity, is, that they are feldom executed. For my part, Sir, I know little difference between the dread and the existence of a danger. The work of every evil is the fear. I would rather be run through, at once, to the heart, than have the fword of the ty rant for ever fufpended over me. There is alfo, Sir, another maxim, equally incontrovertible with the former. That, clemency ought rather to refide in a body of laws, than in the private feeling of any individual. Our penal fyftem against Popery is harsh and reftrictive to the utmost extent of unfanguinary rigour. It rifes ftatute after ftatute, and claufe after claufe, to the confummation of legislative feverity, The unhappy objects of this code are fometimes obliged to the inadvertency, fometimes to the indolence, often to the humanity of their orthodox brethren; but the letter and spirit of the edict are their deadly enemies, and under this fanction, intereft or revenge, caprice, or malignity may gorge and riot to the fating of every appetite. It is true, Sir, our market places don't as formerly blaze with the fire of martyrdom, fcaffolds do not reek with noble blood, nor are gibbets loaded with human carcaffes; and as the bloody fpirit of former times is gone, fo is the enthusiastic. Bigotry, the difeafe of weak minds, and fuperftition, the disgrace of true religion, are now rarely to be found, even in convents or in cloysters, though they abound in the annals of former ages, but not in our experience, nor amongst our cotemporaries. What is the complaint of churchmen all over Europe? not that the laity are wedded to particular tenets and doctrines, and are ready with unshaken conftancy to commute the world for corfcience, but that religion has lost its strong hold on the minds of all men, and that decency, or custom at beft, are become its lukewarm fubstitutes. The reason, Sir, is obvious. The great glare and pageantry of the Romih ritual were well calculated for the ages of ignorance and darkness, when it had the greatest afcendency. Captivated by gawdy proceffions, and allured by the enchantments of harmony, the deJufion of the fenfes was often mistaken for the conviction of the understanding; and as it anfwered every defign of an ambitious hierarchy, was long fubftituted for, and made the test of devotion. But thefe facred farces have been too often exhibited, the very external of refpect to these devout mummeries are now enforced by the fecular authority; nor can the imagined prefence of the Deity, that most exalted mysl ery of their holy profanation, extort a genuflexion, till the fixed bayonet of the foldier commands the unwilling reverence.-I myself have feen it. The amenability of our fellow subjects, of a different communion, has been often urged in their favour, and has as often been overturned by the fteady perfeverance of their determined opponents. Against a demeanour, on their fide loyal, fubmiffive, and and dutiful, for now near an hundred years, are produced a few meagre examples of petulance and contumacy among the very refuse of them. Against a known maxim of humanity and national policy, are ftarted a remote fear and poffible inconvenience, and we are inftructed to conclude, that, as terror, not conviction, has wrought their fubmiffion and our fafety, it would be a fpecies of virtual fuicide to relax any thing of our former severity; nay, we fhould rather fwell the maffy volume of premunires, amercements, comminations and interdicts. But in my judgment, Sir, we frustrate all hopes of uniformity, by miftaking the means of converfion.-The mild genius of toleration every day makes profelytes, it heaps coals of fire on refiftance and prejudice, and melts them down to acquiefcence and conformity. Perfecution animates difobedience, and multiplies the refractory. Is the spirit or popery weak and timorous? Subdue it not with pains, nor frighten it by penalties. Is it acrimonious, persevering, vindictive?Give not rancour the eternal food of galling statutes, and ignomini ous circumfcriptions, Take a link or two from the heavy iron load of thefe legal fetters, and bind your fellow fubjects by the gentler ties of gratitude and affection.In what iftory of any country has it been found, that perfecution rooted out religious herefies, or terrified men into the pale of eftablishment. In none that I have read or heard of. Nonconformists mingle peacea bly and amicably with other members of whatever ftate they live in, till the blast of intolerance drives them together. Then they separate from the state, then felf-prefervation fet them on contrivance, then they grow difcontented and unhappy; no wonder they should become desperate and dangerous. But, after all, fir, 'tis not the mode of faith, 'tis not the ceremonial of worship, 'tis not the point of controverfy, 'tis the point of honour that refifts your confifcation, pains, and penalties. 'Tis not the difciple of Calvin, nor the worshipper of faints and idols; tis not the religionist, but the Man, who kindles against menaces and dangers. but by their afflictions, and with a contemptuous retrofpect to his baffled projects for royalty. Our Monarch gives laws to Europe; kingly diadems have received ftipends and fubfidies from his bounty and his opulence, while the houfe of Stewart can hardly obtain a fubfiftance from their charity. What could not be effected when thefe principles were in their bloom and vigour, when intereft, revenge, capacity, and power united in the quarrel, and ranked under the fame banners; will it now be attempted, when fuch claims are antiquated and fuch diftinctions forgotten? When the body of Jacobitifm has long been laid quietly in the duft, fhall the wifdom of Parliament realize the fears of childhood and tremble at its apparition ? No man, Sir, is more inclined than I am to pay all due deference to the wifdom of our fore-fathers, and to the fanctity of prefcription; but never were laws of this nature framed without fome tincture of the times they paffed in. Subfequent experience matures and mellows what was crude and undigested in earlier determinations. We furely, Sir, miftake our duty, and relinquish one of the most valuable rights of Parliament, if we fuppofe any antecedent law is too facred for modern touch, and that thefe efpecially, like old medals, will loofe their value, if the venerable rust of antiquity is rubbed off by the handling. Can it, Sir, be a dangerous innovation, to at tempt the mitigation of laws, which have had already all the effect and operation they were intended to produce? Laws, of which the acrimony only remains while the fpirit is evaporated. Is it an instance of shortfighted policy to attach three-fourths of the community to the prefervation of the whole? When we have failed to induce them by principles, to try what can be effected by interest ? -To make the country they inhabit dear to our fellow fubjects, by fome more rational tye than the fortuitous circumftance of its being the place of their nativity. It is an unconftitutional endeavour to diffuse the bleffings of a mild and beneficent government to every order and distinction of the people? A govern ment, the immunities of which become every day more precious in this country, from the excellent character of that incomparable person into whose hands is delegated its executive authority. Is it rash and unadvised, to convert difcontent into fatisfac Our ancestors passed such laws, becaufe they were neceffary. Their times required them. That neceffity is over, thofe times are altered. The Royal Succeffion and the religion of thefe countries is established beyond the power of fubverfion. Our Soveton, poverty into opulence, floth into inreign reigns in the interefts and in the hearts of his people, while the deftitute pretender to his rights wanders from court to court, the burden of every petty ftate, and the outcast of every powerful. The former adherents to his line, wretched themselves and friendlets, fcarce remember his name, duftry, and indifference to the commonwealth into zeal for the general profperity ? This bill, and every one of a fimilar tendency, are fo many feps to fuch defirable purposes: as fuch, I hope, we shall advance to meet it. This bill does not give to Papifts the poffeffion or the ufe of arms, which may Memoirs of the Reign of Edward I. and II. with an elegant Reprefentation of his Cradle in Wood. Having been favoured with a curious Drawing of the Cradle in which Edward the Second was rocked at Caernorvan-Castle, we have taken the earliest opportunity to prefent it to our Readers. As he was the first fon of an English fovereign who bore the Title of Prince of Wales, we apprehend, that fome account of that memorable Period, which we re ' ceived from the fame Hand, will not be unacceptable to our Readers. T HE reign of Edward I. was replete with remarkable events. He was before he returned to England to take poffeffion of the throne at his father's death, in 1273, wounded by a poisoned dagger, by an affaffin, the venom of which was extracted by his queen, who, by fucking it, effected a cure not to be procured by any medicine; fo fovereign a remedy is a wife's tongue, when applied with the virtue of affection. He arrived in England and was crowned in 1274 In 1275 he reduced the power of the clergy, and deprived several monasteries and other religious foundations of their privileges; and procured from his parliament the firft ftatute of Mortmain in 1278. The year following he relinquished all claim to Normandy. The Welsh, having in vain endeavoured to procure redrefs for feveral grievances, took up arms against Edward, but were reduced to obedience, and their prince Llewellyn flain, his head truck off, crowned with ivy, and placed on the tower of London, in ridicule to a prophecy of Merlin. David, the brother of Llewellyn, by the order of Edward, was hanged, drawn, and quartered: which is the first inftance in hiftory of this manner of execution on traitors, as David was deemed, though without reafon. The fole motive indeed was that of his being the last male heir of that family. No former act of David could countenance this treatment; and on no pretence founded on juftice could Edward require a fovereign prince to relinquith his independency, and make a facrifice of his rights and privileges, handed down to him by a noble train of ancestors, and enflave a brave and virtuous people, over whom he was born to rule. Edward having fecured the fovereignty of Wales, built Aberconway and Caernorvan Caftles, and having fettled the civil government of the principality, annexed it to the crown of England, but with the marks of an union more than a conquest. Edward's fatisfaction at his fuccefs was damped by the death of his eldest fon Alphonfo, who died at twelve years of age, in December, 1283, and was the third fon he loft in the space of three years. In the beginning of April, 1284, Edward made a progrefs into Glamorganshire, when he celebrated a feftival in honour of that British hero, king Arthur, and in order to conciliate the affections of the Welsh, had Arthur's corpfe removed with great folemnity to a new tomb; but the fole motive that induced Edward to this action, was to convince the Welsh, that the death of that hero was real and not imaginary, and by that removed a falfe notion that had given Edward much annoyance. Such was the refined policy of Edward. Thefe hardy Britons, not readily fubmitting to the government of their governors, who acted with defpotic fway, were ready for a revolt, when Edward paid them a vifit, taking with him his queen, then great with child, and who during his refidence at Caernorvan Castle, on April 25, 1284, was delivered of a Prince, when Edward fummonfed the chiefs of Wales together, and promising them a prince born in their country, and unable to speak a word of English, he ordered this young prince to be produced, whom he name, Edward, conftituting him prince of Wales; fince when, every eldest fon of the English fovereign has generally bore the title; and to him the Welsh nobility swore fealty. In November, 1290, to his inexpreffible grief, he loft his queen Eleanor, to whom, as a grateful return for her affection in the cure of his poifoned wound, he bestowed one of the most pompous funerals that history records, and erected feveral magnificent croffes, at different places where the corpfe refted in its journey from Lincolnshire to Weftminster Abbey, where it was depofit. ed under a noble monument. ID 1291 Edward claimed the fuperiority of Scotland, and determined a difpute of the competitors to the crown, by declaring John Baliol king; and the year following fummoned him before him at Westminster, to answer a complaint, which Baliol complied with, and pleaded his own cause with fuccefs. In 1296 a war commenced with Scotland, when the important event of the conqueft of that kingdom began, which was compleated in 1299, by Edward, who took poffeffion of Edinburgh, and the king, being his prifoner, refigned his crown to Edward, who received the homage of the Scotch nobility; and foon after he brought to England the Scotch regalia, with their coronation chair, now in Weftminster Abbey, which venerable relic had been preserved with great care, being efteemed at a great rate, and its lofs look. ed on as an indubitable proof of the extinction of their monarchy. The stone underneath it had been depofited at Scone in 823, as a monument of a victory obtained over the Picts. From 1293, there is a regular feries of parliamentary rolls down to Edward, as an addition to Magna Charta, the prefent time; and by a law granted by it was enacted that no tax fhould be levied by the king without confent of parliament. The year 1299 had three very remarkable events, viz. the defeat of the ed and only 100 English! The palace and Scotch army, when 12,000 Scots were killWestminster deftroyed by fire; and the king's treafury robbed by the Monks of Weftminster, and above 100,000l. carried off. In 1307, Edward, being on a journey to Scotland, died at Burgh upon the fands in Cumberland, on the 7th of July, the fixty-eighth of his age and was fuc in the thirty-fourth year of his reign, and ceeded by his fon Edward II. of Caernar von, who began his reign, by several unGaveston, his Ganymede, from banishment, popular acts, particularly that of recalling and lavishly conferring dignities and riches on him, particularly 32,300l. which his father Edward had left for a pious ufe; which foon alienated the affections of his fubjects, and occafioned a defection; and he was obliged to delegate his power to feveral |