Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/353

Rh to the archbishop; who having sent for the clergyman, and severely reprimanded him, the minister had no better an answer, than by confessing the fact; adding, that all the parish were drunkards; that he desired to reclaim them from one vice, before he would begin upon another; and since they still continued to be as great drunkards as before, he resolved to go on, except his grace would please to forbid him.

We are very sensible how heavy an accusation lies upon the catholicks of Ireland; that some year's before king Charles II was restored, when theirs and the king's forces were entirely reduced, and the kingdom declared by the rump to be settled; after all his majesty's generals were forced to fly to France, or other countries, the heads of the said catholicks, who remained here in an enslaved condition, joined to send an invitation to the duke of Lorrain; engaging, upon his appearing here with his forces, to deliver up the whole island to his power, and declare him their sovereign; which, after the restoration, was proved against them by dean Boyle, since primate, who produced the very original instrument at the board. The catholicks freely acknowledge the fact to be true; and at the same time appeal to all the world, whether a wiser, a better, a more honourable, or a more justifiable project could have been thought of. They were then reduced to slavery and beggary by the English rebels, many thousands of them murdered, the rest deprived of their estates, and driven to live on a small pittance in the wilds of Connaught; at a time when either the rump, or Cromwell, absolutely governed the three kingdoms. And the question will turn upon this, whether the catholicks,