Page:An address to the Roman Catholics of Ireland.djvu/7

5 and is it possible you can be duped into acquiescence or neutrality, upon which a measure which is specifically recommended to your enemies, upon the exclusive merits of silencing your pretensions for ever. Read the work of the ministerial advocate for an Union, that work which introduced this subject to the nation, and observe his account of the state of claims at this moment; observe him seeking to terrify your Protestant brethren by the pertinacity of your expectations, and observe in their unanimous indignation, that your Protestant brethren arc not terrified by him.

"Whilst Ireland continues a separate kingdom, the Catholics will not drop their claims, nor the argument of numbers in their favour. So far from dropping their claims, they have already renewed them; and the Catholics of Waterford, in an address to the Lord Lieutenant, have repeated their demand for political equality, and advanced it on a plea of merit. They have still, and will ever have, electioneering partizans in parliament. and speculative advocates in England, to feed their hopes, and they will be supported by every open opposer and secret ill-wisher to the government." You may take the word of the Author—his position is too obvious and plain to be authority, and it is true, though he has said it. An Union must be the extinction of your hopes—Until that political death overshadows you, your pretensions as they did before, may work