for anything, the coronation oath ought to reject, at such a moment,
every tendency to conciliation, and to bind Ireland for ever to the
crown of France.

I found in your letter the usual remarks about fire, fagot, and
bloody Mary. Are you aware, my dear Priest, that there were as many
persons put to death for religious opinions under the mild Elizabeth
as under the bloody Mary? The reign of the former was, to be sure,
ten times as long; but I only mention the fact, merely to show you
that something depends upon the age in which men live, as well as on
their religious opinions. Three hundred years ago men burnt and
hanged each other for these opinions. Time has softened Catholic as
well as Protestant: they both required it; though each perceives
only his own improvement, and is blind to that of the other. We are
all the creatures of circumstances. I know not a kinder and better
man than yourself; but you, if you had lived in those times, would
certainly have roasted your Catholic: and I promise you, if the
first exciter of this religious mob had been as powerful then as he
is now, you would soon have been elevated to the mitre. I do not go
the length of saying that the world has suffered as much from
Protestant as from Catholic persecution; far from it: but you
should remember the Catholics had all the power, when the idea first
started up in the world that there could be two modes of faith; and
that it was much more natural they should attempt to crush this
diversity of opinion by great and cruel efforts, than that the
Protestants should rage against those who differed from them, when
the very basis of their system was complete freedom in all spiritual
matters.

I cannot extend my letter any further at present, but you shall soon