my opinion freely about repealing the Sacramental Test; only whereas you
desire my thoughts as a friend, and not as I am a member of parliament,
I must assure you they are exactly the same in both capacities.

I must begin by telling you, we are generally surprised at your
wonderful kindness to us on this occasion, it being so very industrious
to teach us to see our interest in a point where we are so unable to see
it ourselves. This hath given us some suspicion; and though in my own
particular, I am hugely bent to believe, that whenever you concern
yourselves in our affairs, it is certainly for our good, yet I have the
misfortune to be something singular in this belief, and therefore I
never attempt to justify it, but content myself to possess my own
opinion in private, for fear of encountering men of more wit or words
than I have to spare.

We at this distance, who see nothing of the spring of actions, are
forced by mere conjecture to assign two reasons for your desiring us to
repeal the Sacramental Test: One is, because you are said to imagine it
will be one step towards the like good work in England: The other more
immediate, that it will open a way for rewarding several persons who
have well deserved upon a great occasion, but who are now unqualified
through that impediment.

I do not frequently quote poets, especially English, but I remember
there is in some of Mr. Cowley's love verses, a strain that I thought
extraordinary at fifteen, and have often since imagined it to be spoken
by Ireland:

"Forbid it Heaven my life should be
Weigh'd with her least conveniency:"