and often secures victory by convincing him who contends that he
must submit to injustice if he submits to defeat. Open every rank
in the army and the navy to the Catholic; let him purchase at the
same price as the Protestant (if either Catholic or Protestant can
purchase such refined pleasures) the privilege of hearing Lord
Castlereagh speak for three hours; keep his clergy from starving,
soften some of the most odious powers of the tithing-man, and you
will for ever lay this formidable question to rest. But if I am
wrong, and you must quarrel at last, quarrel upon just rather than
unjust grounds; divide the Catholic and unite the Protestant; be
just, and your own exertions will be more formidable and their
exertions less formidable; be just, and you will take away from
their party all the best and wisest understandings of both
persuasions, and knit them firmly to your own cause. "Thrice is he
armed who has his quarrel just;" and ten times as much may he be
taxed. In the beginning of any war, however destitute of common
sense, every mob will roar, and every Lord of the Bedchamber
address; but if you are engaged in a war that is to last for years,
and to require important sacrifices, take care to make the justice
of your case so clear and so obvious that it cannot be mistaken by
the most illiterate country gentleman who rides the earth. Nothing,
in fact, can be so grossly absurd as the argument which says I will
deny justice to you now, because I suspect future injustice from
you. At this rate, you may lock a man up in your stable, and refuse
to let him out, because you suspect that he has an intention, at
some future period, of robbing your hen-roost. You may horsewhip
him at Lady Day, because you believe he will affront you at
Midsummer. You may commit a greater evil, to guard against a less
which is merely contingent, and may never happen. You may do what
you have done a century ago in Ireland, make the Catholics worse