2115.

mass of the community. Literature, Aiming still at size, rather than inrinsic value, partakes much more of the nature of a monopoly, and exclusive manufacture, than of that elemental usefulness, which was designed by provideuce to warm the whole world with its rays, and to thear it with their effulgence. Benja, min Franklin did infinitely more good to others, and even to eternizing his own name, by coudensing know ledge into nut-shells, and throwing It in a cheap and easy form, among the populace, than those voluminous men of letters, who expand their globales of genius, into such an extent of surface, and illustrate the asJonishing divisibility of mind, as well as matter.

"It is this miserable trick of overrating the importance of all our conceptions, (say the Edinburgh Reviewers, who, by the bye, do not fall short in the faculty of ingenious amplification,) that has made our recent literature so intolerably diffuse and voluminous. No man, for example, has now the forbearance to write essays as short as Hume's. even if he had talents to make them as good; nor will any one be contented with stating his views and arguments in a popular and concise manner, and leaving them to their fate, but we must have long speculative introductions, illustrations, and digressions, objections anticipated, and answered, verbose apologies, at once fulsome and modest, practical inferences, historical deductions, and predictions as to the effect of our doctrines, or the neglect of them, or the fate of men, and of the universe, in all time coming."

Society with us, is not perhaps divided into casts, separated by such insurmountable boundaries as they are in Indostan, where the Brahmins alone are permitted to read and explain, the Katry tribe suffer.

ed to hear, but even the listening to others who read, is deemed too great a privilege for the degraded race of Soderas. Yet without any such nominal distinction, there is, in reality, a sort of literary cast in these countries also, (without naming any of the other casts), through which, what inay be called literary intellect circulates, as in a corner. This corner however large it may appear to the literati themselves, occupies but a small space in the edifice of society, and this class of people, highly self-opinionated as they are, and labouring, as they affect to say, and perhaps believe, under the incumbent pressure of the whole world, bear, however, but a small proportion in numbers to the fest of the mass, and in intrinsic importance, a still inferior proportion. In the republic of letters there is an aristocracy of authorship, which dedicates all its talents and acquirements, to what may be called the privileged class of readers, who are able to pay for the operose and splendid manufacture of mind, and thus amply remunerate the cost of publication.

By this partial dedication of themselves, the literary cast becomes more careless and indifferent about the public, in the largest sense of that momentous word. In that sense, the public is not their patron. It only can afford time to read news-papers, and magazines, and surely no one can suppose that they could humihate themselves to appear in such receptacles. They are apt to say, with Chamfort, the public!-the public!-how many fools go to make a public-and in reality the literary class, since it descended from its appropriate place, the attic story, to parade personally in the antichambers of the great, and, in their productions, to repose in state on the shelves of magnificent libraries, have forgotten their more

sublime, we may call it, divine destination. What is that destination? what is that laurel crown which surrounds the temples with its neverfading verdure? what is that etermat lamp which irradiates the sepulchre, and guides posterity to pay due reverence to its august inhabitant? It is, plainly and concisely, it is, by the powers of the pen, unprostituted, and the powers of the press, unrestrained, in its public and political exercise and energies, to assist and accelerate THE SPREAD OF INTELLECT throughout the living mass of humanity, and in doing so, not to slight too contemptuously, the most easy and popular means of accomplishing a good and generous purpose.

RELIGION was once, and still, alas! continues among a large proportion of mankind, to be a mystery or craft in the possession of a priesthood, and used for the emolument and exaltation of their cast, above their fellow-creatures. Then, KNOWLEDGE Was made a monoply, and truth was to be a secret among a few philosophers, who, in the fumes of their arrogant self-opinion, despised and drove away

the profane vulgar," and instead of "encouraging the progress of human improvement, with their ipse dixit, proclaimed, thus far shail these go-but no further. Then LIBERTY was to be hoarded up as an exciusive property, and it is much to be feared that the literary cast has, of late, become accessary to this felony on the human race. Windham is their orator, and Mitford their historian. Blessed be the memory of Benjamin Franklin. He published Poor Richard for the use and improvement of the populace. He wrote little almanacks, of dense intelligence, for the vulgar; subIme, yet lowly. By his philanthropy he became a benefactor 10 mankind. by his patriotisun he Le came gloriously instrumental in es

tablishing the freedom of his cour try, and by his philosophy he drew the lightning from heaven, and ru ed, with a rod of iron, its thunder!

DOCUMENTS.

COUNTY DOWN CATHOLIC MEETING.

At a Meeting of the Roman Catholic Gentlemen and Freeholders of the county of Down, convened by public advertisement,

at the Sessions-house, in the town of Newry, 25th March, 1811, C. G. Cossleit, of Nutgrove, esq. in the chair.

The Petition prepared for presentation to Parliament, in the name and in bel half of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and the address to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, as voted by the aggregate meeting held in Dublin on the 8th inst. being read;

Resolved-That we entirely approve d said petition and address, and adopt them -confidently relying on the wisdom of the legislature for the removal of those disqua lifications of which we justly complain; and cordially participating in the expression of affectionate attachment to the person and character of his Royal Highness, and in lamenting the severe affliction with which our gracious Sovereign has been vi sited.

Resolved-That we regard as a mot flagrant abuse of authority, the late a tempt to impede the exercise of the right to petition, in his Majesty's faithful subjects, the Roman Catholics of Ireland. And we offer to the noblemen and gentleme who compose the Catholic committee, and to the aggregate meeting, held in Dublin on the 8th inst. the tribute of our entire approbation and most grateful acknowledgements, for the ability and zeal with which they have conducted our cause, and for their manly and dignified assertion of our rights.

Resolved-That the Yeomanry associa tions, as established in this county and province, are founded in the most unwise and mischievous policy. That where Ro man Catholics constitute a very large proportion of the population, and in many places are a decided majority, they are almost universally excluded from the Yeo manry corps. In this province we believe no Roman Catholic gentleman holds a mi litary commission. In a country where divi sions have been hitherto, and we fear ar yet, fostered, this distinction has the mos malignant influence, in perpetuating a spi rit of hostile domination on one hand, and

be stimulated by a wise and dignified, be @ause an important distribution of reward and favor-that patriotism in its purest and most genuine meaning, would be identified with power, and that the only medium by which the people of these realms could view the supreme magistrate of the state, would be through the irradiations diffused around him from acts of benig nity and munificence. Fain would we have been to forbear clouding the dawn of our intercourse with your Royal Highness by a glance even at the name of grievances, manifold, weighty, and pernicious, as those are to which we more particularly apply ourselves, but the duty we owe to our So vereign and our country-the reverence we owe to the memory and example of our forefathers, and the justice that is claimed toward our posterity-the fame, the happiness and the safety of the empire-all, with irresistable force, forbid us to disguise our thoughts or smother our feelings.

We see with a mixed contemplation of shame and sorrow, the political unity of a great people hazarded. We see Ireland, the most esssential bulwark of the British name and glory, paralyzed in her exertionsdegraded in her character-her valor checked by unworthy suspicion-her emu. lation expressed by servile and unwarrantable distinctions-her people divided without meaning, and her strength and her integrity depreciated by imputations that at once she disclaims and detests-and laying before your Royal Highness the common sentiments of a loval, generous, and ardent people of all religious persuations, we do most humbly implore your Royal Highness' early and earnest attention to the situation of the Irish Catholics.

By the present system of laws, the Catholic of Ireland is mocked and tantalized, by having laid open to him every avenue (that to the church alone excepted) which leads to wealth, and power, and dignity; and thus he may drudge and labour in the dull and discouraging pursuits of Science that are divested of all those lures to activity, by which every other description of men are incited to great exertion; or he may fight and fall in the field, under a sense of duty abstracted from all the noblest and most inspiring incentives to glory. In either case he is so circum stanced, that the zeal, which in others animates study or invigorates labour, and the heroism that inspires to deeds of valour, are damped and chilled in him, by the heart-rending reflection, that however nobly or meritoriously he may struggle for the final advantage, he can never

attain it-that however he may be permitted to waste his life in pursuing the path to fame and power, the entrance, when he arrives at it, is shut for ever against him.

By this system of laws, and the system of government consequently acting upon them, the remaining restrictions operat ing against the Roman Catholics, exhibit the appearance of a blind infatuation confer ring upon French and other foreign Roman Catholic officers, what it offensively refu ses to native Irish; filling the hearts of Irish millions with indignation and resentment, and laying them open to the influence of passions, which cannot be contemplated without horror.

In beseeching your Royal Highness" far vourable attention to our common suppii cation, we approach your Royal Highness with the greater degree of confidence, beCause we cannot but hope, that when the two great classes of Protestants and Catholics, for mutual preservation, shall make common cause, in pursuit of an object that we all think indispensable, the few hut odious remaining restrictions upon the Catholic body, smitten by the united rays of the law, the constitution, the na tion and the throne, must, like a noxious exhalation, melt and disappear.

We do therefore humbly entreat, that your Royal Higness may be graciously pleased to recommend to the imperial Par liament, the immediate consideration of the state of the Irish Catholics, and the ur gent necessity of restoring them to the full participation of all the advantages and blessings of our glorious Constitution→→→→ blessings and advantages to which we humbly subrait that they are now highly and justly entitled, to a still more ample extent than what was assured to that Body under the solemn treaty of Limerick, signed by King William, to the security of which, they have in much more than a proportionate degree contributed by their treasure and their lives; to the enjoyment of which under your Royal Highness and every branch of your illustrious family thus have eminently entitled themselves by an unabated loyalty toward the House of Brunswick, and by their uniform, ardent, and steady attachment for six hundred and fifty years to their natural alliance with Great Britain. In support of which every battle that has been fought, and every victory that has been gained, from the earli est periods of our history, under the Bri tish banners, by sea or land, in every cli mate of the earth, has been highly at tributable to Irish valour and Irish loyal

ty bleeding and dying for British glory and sealing with the best blood of Ireland the bond of British connexion.

With these views, may it please your Royal Highness, we trust that it will appear but a claim of common justice on behalf of this numerous, opulent, and loyal majority of the Irish people, that they should at once he freed from every species of restriction and disability, and be placed on a full and fair footing of perfect equality with the most favored of his majesty's most loyal subjects.

On thus approaching your Royal Highness with our sincere congratulations, we bave attempted to discharge an honest duty, at once to your Royal Highness and the people of the empire, in humbly suggesting a measure, by the recommendation and accomplishment of which, your Roy al Highness will ensure the gratitude, and combine the strength of this vast portion of the empire, and entail upon your name and character the love, admiration and blessings of the time in which you live, and the reverence of ages yet to come.

thy of confidence, and proscribes them

as aliens in their native land.

Thus disuniting the people, thus prolonging needless dissensions, and alienating the great majority of the Irish population from the State, this code is the certain source of national weakness, and imminent public danger. Without the zealous co-operation of the Catholic community, that right arm of Ireland, no reflecting man can confidently reckon upon an effectual resistance to the common foe, in the trying hour of peril; and it is but natural to presume, that such co-operation will be best ensured by augmenting their interest in the maintenance of the constitution, by extending to them its full benefits, without reserve or restriction; by acts of substantial justice, and even of marked kindness, towards this faithful and well-deserving people, from whom, perhaps, within a very short period, the most arduous services, and of inestimable value, will be necessarily and anxiously demanded.

liam nt assembled.

The Humble Petition of the undersigned Gentlemen, Freeholders, and Inhabitants of the county of Tipperary, com prising persons professing various religious persuasions,

SHEWETH,

That we, your petitioners, being actuated by sentiments of attachment to the true principles of the constitution, and sincerely desirous to promote the internal concord and general prosperity of our country, by every measure of conciliation, good will, and justice towards all classes and descriptions of our fellow subjects, beg leave to represent to this honourable house, that we view with particular regret and disapprobation, the existing code of penal and disabling statutes, which aggrieve and degrade the Roman Catholics of these realms, adhering to the faith of their forefathers.

This obnoxious code, at all times unjust in its principle, and violating an ancient and solemn treaty, appears to us, at this critical period of national exigency, to be peculiarly ill-timed and unadvised.

Besides infringing the sacred rights of private conscience, and violating the first principles of legislation, it insults and depresses every individual of the Catholic community, stigmatises them as unwor

Justice, no less than sound policy, demands the immediate adoption of this measure. Liberty of conscience, and the unfettered exercise of private judgment in the choice of religion, are the inalienable birth-right of every man, and cannot be invaded by human power, without disrespect to that merciful Deity, who to lerates all religions; and graciously accepts from all men the genuine worship of the heart, in whatsoever language, and under every form.

The experience of nations has also shewn, that intolerance can never be prac ticed with impuuity; in its gloomy train are ever to be found national discord, disgrace, decay, and finally, desolation of the most disastrous nature. May the Almighty avert such dire calamities from this empire.

As members of various religious communities, Protestants as well as Catholics, we disclaim all coercive laws concerning religious subjects.

We solemnly protest against the prolongation of a code, founded in such coercion; and however different our respective modes of faith, yet we cordially concur in earnestly praying, as the first and choicest blessing to Ireland, that those